Just as 13GE ended Johore as BN “fixed deposit” state, PR must end Sabah and Sarawak as “fixed deposit” states to reach Putrajaya in 14GE

One of the highlights of the 13th General Elections was to transform Johore, one of the three “fixed deposit” states of Barisan Nasional with Sabah and Sarawak, into a Pakatan Rakyat front-line state.

During the last general elections, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir not only led the campaign to ask the people of Johore to ensure that Gelang Patah become my “kubur”, Barisan Nasional leaders talking about making Johore into an “zero-opposition” state.

In the event, Johore achieved the greatest  political breakthrough for Pakatan Rakyat in the 13GE, increasing from one parliamentary to five parliamentary seats (500% increase) and six State Assembly seats to 18 State Assembly seats (300% increase). In popular votes, Pakatan Rakyat achieved the biggest increase of 10.3% from 34.7% in the 12GE in 2008 to 45% in the 13GE – transforming Johore from a BN “fixed deposit” state into a PR “front-line” state.

NEGERI

PR% 2013

PR% 2008

PR Change (+/-)

PERLIS

44.3%

39.9%

4.4%

KEDAH

48.5%

53.2%

-4.7%

KELANTAN

53.7%

55.0%

-1.3%

TERENGGANU

48.5%

44.7%

3.7%

PULAU PINANG

67.8%

63.0%

4.8%

PERAK

54.7%

53.3%

1.4%

PAHANG

44.4%

40.5%

3.8%

SELANGOR

59.4%

55.4%

4.0%

W.P. KL & PUTRAJAYA

63.9%

61.6%

2.4%

NEGERI SEMBILAN

47.3%

45.1%

2.2%

MELAKA

46.2%

42.6%

3.6%

JOHOR

45.0%

34.7%

10.3%

SABAH

35.9%

32.5%

3.4%

SARAWAK

37.3%

28.3%

8.9%

TOTAL MSIA

50.9%

47.6%

3.2%

The table above shows that apart from Johore, which registered a 10.3% increase of voter support for PR, Sarawak is the second state with the largest increase of  voter support of 8.9% for Pakatan Rakyat in the 13GE as compared to 12GE.

The five states where Pakatan Rakyat retained majority popular voter support in the 13GE are Penang (67.8%), Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (63.9%), Selangor (59.4%), Perak (54.7%) and Kelantan (53.7%).

Just as 13GE ended Johore as BN “fixed deposit” state and transformed it into a “front-line” state, PR must end Sabah and Sarawak as “fixed deposit” states to reach Putrajaya in 14GE.

I have said that bnased on present redelineation, the Battle for Putrajaya in the 14GE will depend on the outcome in  80 marginal seats – 51 presently held by  Barisan Nasional and 29 from Pakatan Rakyat.

Taking more than 55 per cent vote secured in the 13GE as a “safe” seat, BN has 82 safe seats while Pakatan Rakyat has 60 safe seats.

In the 13GE, Pakatan Rakyat won the popular vote but robbed of Putrajaya as Barisan Nasional is the federal government with  the majority of seats – 89 for Pakatan Rakyat as against BN’s 133 seats.

If Pakatan Rakyat had won another 23 seats in the 13GE, PR would have the simple majority of 112 out of 222 seats.

In the 14GE, apart from retaining all our 89 parliamentary seats, Pakatan Rakyat should not just aim at winning 23 of the 51 BN marginal seats, but should aim to double this target to win over 46 out of the 51 BN marginal seats so that the Pakatan Rakyat can win a total of 135 out of 222 parliamentary seats with a parliamentary majority of 48 – with the seats evenly distributed among the three Pakatan Rakyat parties, i.e. PKR, PAS and DAP each having 45 parliamentary seats.

At present, DAP has 38, PKR 30 and PAS 21 MPs. This means DAP has to  win another seven parliamentary seats, PKR another 15 and PAS another 24.

I call on all DAP veterans and supporters to help, NOW and not until the 14GE whether in 2016, 2017 or 2018, Pakatan Rakyat to achieve the goal of winning not only majority popular vote but majority parliamentary seats in the next general elections, with the target of  45-45-45 seats each for DAP, PKR and PAS as everyone’s individual patriotic mission.

(Speech 2 by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Gelang Patah Lim Kit Siang at the DAP Veterans Club Fourth Congress in Butterworth on Sunday, 17th November 2013at 10 am)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 17 November 2013, 1:55 pm and is filed under
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Keep faith with the Malaysian Dream – the ration d’etre of the DAP for 47 years

Nearly half a century ago, a band of Malaysians came together and despite considerable difficulties and obstacles, succeeded on March 18, 1966 to register the Democratic Action Party (DAP) as a new political party to rally and mobilise Malaysians behind our call for a Malaysian Malaysia.

Transcending ethnic, religious and socio-economic differences, this band of idealistic Malaysians, regardless of whether Malays, Chinese or Indians, shared a common vision and Malaysian Dream – a Malaysia for all Malaysians regardless of race, religion, class or region where democracy, good governance and  socio-economic justice could  flourish to allow every Malaysian to achieve his or her fullest potential for the collective good and greatness of the nation.

In the past 47 years, DAP had traversed a long political road, with many DAP leaders and stalwarts tested to the limits of their convictions undergoing many trials and tribulations.

While many had fallen by the wayside, the party had kept faith and stayed true of our founding principles of freedom, justice, solidarity, integrity and  good governance.

We became the first Pan-Malaysian political party in the country, active not only in Peninsular Malaysia, but also represented at both the Parliamentary and State Assembly levels in Sabah and Sarawak.

We have now 38 elected MPs, two Senators and 106 State Assembly representatives in the country.

DAP had contested in 10 general elections, but it is only in the last two general elections – the 12GE in 2008 and 13GE in 2013 – that  the impossible seemed possible as with PKR and PAS in the Pakatan Rakyat, Malaysians are within reach of effecting a political transformation not only at the state level, as in Penang, Selangor and Kelantan, but also at the federal level in Putrajaya.

In fact, based on popular vote in the 13GE, Pakatan Rakyat should form the national government of the day.

The road to Putrajaya, although no more impossible, still requires great commitment, loyalty to principles, integrity and sense of purpose to accomplish.

My message to DAP veterans is: Keep faith with the Malaysian Dream – the ration d’etre of the DAP for 47 years.

The greatest challenge to DAP veterans is how to help the DAP to accomplish this journey to Putrajaya in the campaign –  Putrajaya in 14th GE.

(Speech by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Gelang Patah Lim Kit Siang at the DAP Veterans Club Fourth Congress in Butterworth on Sunday, 17th November 2013at 10 am)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 17 November 2013, 1:51 pm and is filed under
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After the Good Start, Let’s Do it Right

By Kee Thuan Chye

Penang Monthly (November)

Two months ago, I wrote in this column about the issue of English and asked whether our government would give the language the importance it deserves and get our students to learn it wholeheartedly. Since then, we’ve heard the good news that the Government has decided to make English a must-pass subject at the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examinations from 2016.

This is a good start. At the very least, it sends out the message to students to take the language seriously when at present many of them don’t. The official sanction should also get things rolling and prompt education planners to prepare for the 2016 target. It may be only three years away, but a short deadline can sometimes be as effective as a longer one, if not more so. It’s all about having the will to do it. And speaking of will, students are more likely to find the will to improve their English when they are pushed to do it than when they are led to believe that English is irrelevant to their daily lives or even harmful to their own culture and identity.

Even so, supporters of English are sceptical, and understandably so.

Uppermost on their minds is whether standards might not be compromised to ensure that the percentage of students who fail is kept to a minimum. We have heard stories of the passing mark for difficult subjects like Additional Mathematics being pushed down to as low as 15 or so; would this not be done for English as well? And if it were, what would be the point of the must-pass exercise then?

“If too many students fail, the Malaysian Examinations Board lowers the passing mark as a matter of course,” my friend, a retired English-language teacher, assures me. “Our SPM certificate is now not worth the paper it is printed on.”

She says if we were to look at a sample of the SPM English paper, we would realise that a pass counts for less than nothing by international standards. “That is why candidates with distinctions in English who turn up for job interviews cannot answer simple questions in English.”

Another friend attributes the malaise to what he calls the “rottenness” of our education system. He says it has become rotten because it has been made subservient to political agendas.

“The entire Education Ministry is filled with ‘yes men’ who merely implement policy,” he explains. “One day, I was at a meeting in the ministry and it was suddenly called off because the officers and heads of department had to put in place the machinery to implement a policy that they had read in the morning papers being announced by the minister.

“They were learning about it for the first time and already they had to work out the policy’s implementation! No research, no study, no academic rigour goes into it. No statistics, no projections did they quote to support this latest move. Zero. That’s how things work in our country!”

He fears this may be the modus operandi for implementing the English must-pass policy.

Yet another educator-friend feels the Government is rushing things to start the policy in 2016. He thinks everyone will not be ready by then because many teachers are not equipped to teach English – and certainly not properly. This is simply because they themselves are not proficient in the language. Many who graduated with a Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) degree can’t even get the basics of the language right.

Last month, a parent complained to me that her son spelt the word “heavy” correctly but his English-language teacher marked it wrong and insisted it should be spelt “h-e-a-v-e”!

When I was editing the page ‘Mind Our English’ for the newspaper The Star, one of the most unforgettably hilarious – and most depressing – letters I received was from a parent telling about an English-language teacher saying to the class, “Chindilella very pooth thing.” Try and figure out what that teacher meant, and think of the scary prospect of having someone like that teach your children English. If your children don’t know better, they are likely to end up with half-past-six English.

Of course English-language teachers need to be well selected. But for a long while now, it seems that many people do not want to study to become English-language teachers. Most people mark other fields of study in their applications for university entrance; it is mainly those who can’t get into courses of their choice who end up studying TESL.

At one time, our universities were accepting TESL candidates who obtained as low as Band 3 (signifying a modest grade) for their Malaysian Universities English Test (MUET). The highest is Band 6. One would think that TESL candidates should get no lower than Band 5. In fact, this should be the measure for applicants from now on to ensure that standards are maintained. We cannot simply accept students for TESL because they don’t know what else to study or are unable to get into other courses.

I think part of the problem with our current generation’s lack of proficiency in English is due to the emphasis being given to teaching English primarily for communication, as opposed to the traditional method of teaching grammar and vocabulary. This has been going on for at least three decades, and it has produced learners who don’t know the basic building blocks of the language. Without such knowledge, they often can’t string correct sentences together.

At a writing workshop I conducted recently, I was appalled, although not surprised, to discover that Malaysians in their forties and younger were not sure what an adjective or an adverb was. Don’t ask them what a phrasal verb is; they didn’t even know the basic sentence structure comprising subject, verb and object.

I admit that learning grammar may be dry and boring to some, but there is no substitute for learning the language well. How else would they be able to understand, say, the confounding, confounded past perfect tense?

My Canadian friend disagrees, however. “In a perfect world, teaching grammar may be the right thing to do,” she says. “But in this country, at this time, with these people in power, with these demographics, I believe that the communication skills needed in most workplaces today – clarity, organisation of thought, collaborative problem-solving, clarification-seeking, concise e-mail writing, etc – are not as dependent on grammar and rich vocabulary as many believe. Confidence and a sense of the language as a mere tool to be used are much, much more valuable.”

And how would they gain this confidence?

“When they are exposed to and motivated by the power of what language is supposed to be: a vehicle to exchange important, interesting and useful ideas,” she says.

I suppose if this is to be accomplished, the Education Ministry must think of innovative and creative ways of immersing our students in English. It will certainly take more than the number of classroom hours allotted to the subject. It should also include promoting the habit of reading English texts. And what better than texts culled from the rich storehouses of literature written in English – not just from England but also from other parts of the world, including Malaysia?

When I was in lower secondary school, my classmates and I were introduced to literary works in English. I recall reading, as part of our syllabus, abridged texts of novels and poems from the anthology entitled Poems for Pleasure. Many of us derived pleasure indeed from reading these, and I for one improved my English while doing so.

Much, then, has to be done to improve Malaysians’ standard of English proficiency, and that does not stop with just passing the subject at SPM. But I still maintain that we’re on to a good start by making that compulsory. It’s important for the Government to finally show that it recognises the importance of English, because in a society like ours which is feudalistic, such recognition must come from the top before the minions will accept it.

Now comes the hard work of implementing it right.

* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the new book The Elections Bullshit, now available in bookstores.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 18 November 2013, 10:54 pm and is filed under
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Masanya sudah tiba untuk kita berusaha bersama demi merealisasikan Impian Malaysia, dan menyelamatkan rakyat daripada ‘Mimpi Ngeri Malaysia’ yang panjang ini

Masanya sudah tiba untuk kita berusaha bersama demi merealisasikan Impian Malaysia, dan menyelamatkan rakyat daripada ‘Mimpi Ngeri Malaysia’ yang panjang ini

Saya bangun untuk mengambil bahagian dalam perbahasan peringkat Jawatankuasa Bajet 2014 mengenai Jabatan Perdana Menteri dan Jabatan-jabatan yang lain termasuk Majlis Keselamatan Negera (MKN), Jabatan Perpaduan Negara dan Integrasi Nasional (JPNIN), Biro Tatanegara, Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM), Jabatan Peguam Negara, Pejabat-pejabat Setiausaha Persekutuan, Sabah dan Sarawak.

Pertama sekali, saya ingin merakamkan ucapan takziah kepada keluarga Allahyarham Mohd Raffli Abdul Malik yang mati ditembak di Kuantan, Pahang; keluarga Allahyarham Norazita Abu Talib, yang menjadi mangsa rompakan Ambank tempoh hari; serta Allahyarham Hussain Ahmad Najadi, yang turut menjadi mangsa tembakan beberapa lama dahulu.

Kesemua mangsa jenayah ini adalah korban-korban tidak berdosa akibat daripada kelalaian dan kerakusan pihak yang berkenaaan mengejar kuasa dan jawatan, sehingga mengabaikan persoalan integriti, tanggungjawab kepada negara dan impian besar rakyat Malaysia.

Saya juga ingin merakamkan ucapan takziah kepada keluarga mangsa warga Taiwan dalam tragedi pembunuhan dan penculikan di Pulau Pum-Pum beberapa hari sudah. Ternyata Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) tidaklah efektif dalam menjaga keselamatan negara sungguhpun ia ditubuhkan sebagai tindakbalas terhadap peristiwa pencerobohan di Lahad Datu. Walaupun Ketua Polis Negara dan Menteri Dalam Negeri menyifatkan ini sebagai kejadian terpencil, nyawa yang hilang pasti tidak dapat diganti. Keyakinan rakyat terhadap kesungguhan pihak berkuasa dalam melaksanakan tugas menjaga keselamatan negara dan rakyat jelata sekali lagi berkecai.

Tuan Pengerusi,

Rakyat Malaysia mengimpikan negara yang aman sentosa; tanpa perlu risau dirompak atau dibunuh. Namun hakikatnya hari ini kita dapat lihat bahawa rakyat ramai hidup dalam ketakutan. Ketakutan ini tidak boleh dinafi dan disembunyikan sepertimana grafiti dan seni mural yang menampilkan kritik sosial yang benar, boleh disorok dengan selapis cat putih seperti yang bibuat pihak berkuasa tempatan di Johor.

Karya Ernest Zacharevic di sebuah dinding di Johor Bahru adalah satu peringatan buat kita semua bahawa rakyat yang memberi amanah kepada kerajaan untuk menjaga keamanan, tetapi kini harta dan jiwa mereka berada dalam keadaan diancam ketakutan dan mimpi ngeri, suatu hakikat benar yang tidak dapat dicat-putihkan.

Adalah merupakan tanggungjawab kerajaan untuk menjaga sekurang-kurangnya tiga perkara. Hartanya, jiwanya dan maruah rakyat seluruhnya. Seandainya pemimpin lalai dalam melaksanakan tugasnya, maka pemimpin itu wajar ditolak.

Dalam kes pembunuhan pegawai bank, Norazita Abu Talib; saya ingin mengucapkan tahniah kepada pihak Polis kerana telah berjaya menangkap suspek yang disyaki terlibat. Saya harap pihak yang bertanggungjawab akan dihadapkan ke muka pengadilan dan menerima hukuman setimpal.

Namun apa yang lebih merunsingkan ialah apabila suspek ini yang dilaporkan merupakan seorang warga asing dari Sulawesi, telah berjaya memintas sistem keselamatan negara dan lantas meletakkan kedaulatan negara dalam keadaan berisiko tinggi.

Bagaimana orang ini boleh mendapat MyKad, dan kalaupun MyKad itu palsu, bagaimana orang ini boleh membuka akaun bank, menerima gaji setiap bulan, malah boleh diberikan lesen senjata api oleh pihak Kementerian Dalam Negeri? Adakah orang ini turut mengundi dalam PRU ke 13 yang lalu? Adakah kerana tuan punya syarikat keselamatan itu merupakan kroni parti pemerintah maka Kementerian boleh pejam sebelah mata? Berapa ramai lagi warga asing yang mendapat kelebihan yang sama, memiliki senjata api dan boleh mengancam keselamatan rakyat pada bila-bila masa? Sampai ke hari ini, kita tidak mendapat sebarang jawapan yang memuaskan dari Menteri yang berkenaan.

Sistem yang ada inilah yang membuatkan negeri berdaulat seperti Sabah dan Sarawak semakin hilang kedaulatannya, apabila warga asing senang-senang mendapat MyKad dan mengambil alih ekonomi rakyat dan secara langsung menggugat kestabilan dan keselamatan negara. Sistem ini lah yang mencabuli hak rakyat Sabah, yang hidup dalam negeri yang sangat kaya, tetapi warganya sangat miskin; malah dilayan dengan amat berbeza sekali oleh Kerajaan Persekutuan.

Semua rakyat Malaysia termasuk di Sabah dan Sarawak mengharapkan supaya dapat hidup bebas daripada belenggu mimpi ngeri yang terbentuk hasil daripada kegagalan UMNO dan Barisan Nasional selama ini.

Pihak kerajaan dan Perdana Menteri seharusnya lebih serius dalam menghormati aspirasi rakyat, contohnya dalam kes Perjanjian 20 Perkara dengan Sabah dan Perjanjian 18 Perkara dengan Sarawak, yang nampaknya semakin tidak dipedulikan; sehingga Menteri Pembangunan Tanah Sarawak, Tan Sri Dr James Masing sendiri pun sudah melenting. Katanya:

“When they(UMNO) talk to us, they make themselves feel as if they are superior while we in Sarawak, are their coolies. Personally, I get irritated with those leaders who do not treat us from Sarawak as equal partners in the administration of this federation. We in Sarawak and Sabah seemed to be like an appendix to West Malaysia.”

(translation) “Apabila mereka (UMNO) bercakap dengan kami, mereka buat diri mereka rasa mereka lebih hebat sementara kami di Sarawak, adalah kuli mereka. Secara peribadi, saya menyampah dengan pemimipin yang tidak melayan kami dari Sarawak sebagai rakan kongsi saksama dalam pentadbiran Persekutuan ini. Kami di Sarawak dan Sabah seolah-olah sekadar apendiks terhadap Semenanjung Malaysia.”

Pernah saya bangkitkan di Dewan yang mulia ini, dan sekali lagi saya membangkitkan di sini, supaya satu Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja dibentuk sempena ulang tahun ke-50 pertubuhan Malaysia, untuk menkaji dan meniasat samada janji-janji yang tertera dalam Perjanjian 20 Perkara dengan Sabah dan Perjanjian 18 Perkara dengan Sarawak telah ditunaikan ataupun telah dikhianati oleh kerajaan Barisan Nasional yang selama ini menganggap kedua-dua Sabah dan Sarawak sebagai akaun simpanan tetap mereka.

Tuan Pengerusi,

Penyakit kewangan negara yang disebabkan oleh gejala rasuah yang berleluasa akhirnya dibebankan kepada rakyat berpendapatan rendah dan sederhana. Walhal, mereka yang sebenarnya patut menanggung beban kesalahan sendiri akhirnya terlepas. Lihat sahaja bagaimana Jabatan Peguam Negara langsung tidak merayu keputusan mahkamah yang membebaskan Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik daripada tuduhan rasuah skandal PKFZ. Adakah kerana Peguam Negara sebenarnya tahu bahawa caj yang didrafnya terhadap Tun Dr Ling itu smemangnya tidak akan menyebakan beliau disabit kesalahan, malah  keseluruh proses pendakwaan itu adalah satu wayang yang dipermainkan sebelum pilihnraya umum ke-13 untuk memberikan harapan kosong kepada rakyat jelata bahawa kerajaan memang berhajat menangani rasuah di peringkat tinggi.

Saya juga hairan bagaimana dengan keadaan bilangan anggota polis yang begitu ramai ini, rakyat masih rasa tidak selamat. Barangkali kerana dilaporkan juga bahawa senjata api anggota polis boleh diberi sewa kepada penjenayah, selain boleh hilang dicuri ketika tidur di dalam kereta, mahupun ketika pergi ke tandas.

Dalam keadaan itu pun, ada cadangan daripada pihak-pihak tertentu untuk memberi senjata api kepada penguatkuasa jabatan agama pula, dengan alasan supaya mereka dapat mempertahankan diri. Adakah selepas ini, jika ada wartawan yang mati ditembak, wartawan juga mahu diberi senjata api?

Dalam keadaan lanskap politik negara yang begitu rumit dengan permainan sentimen perkauman, penipuan dan kebencian yang kian meningkat; sehinggakan saya terus difitnah sebagai mempunyai kaitan dengan Illuminati dan komunis; Pejabat Perdana Menteri nampaknya masih gagal manangani masalah kesepaduan kaum mahupun mengawal puak pelampau yang menggugat usaha-usaha bersama ke arah negara yang lebih aman.

Ini semua adalah sebahagian daripada ‘Mimpi Ngeri Malaysia’ yang ditabur oleh pemerintahan UMNO-Barisan Nasional, yang cuba diperbetulkan oleh DAP dan Pakatan Rakyat melalui usaha ke arah merealisasikan ‘Impian Malaysia’ memandangkan usaha perpaduan negara melalui kempen 1Malaysia kelihatan makin tidak bermaya malah hampir sahaja gagal sama sekali.

Tuan Pengerusi,

Akar kepada permasalahan besar ini ialah ekonomi yang semakin memburuk dan akar kepada masalah ekonomi semasa, tidak lain adalah kerana urustadbir pemerintahan UMNO-Barisan Nasional yang tidak berintegriti, korup, tidak amanah serta mudah sekali membazirkan wang rakyat termasuk merompak kekayaan negara demi mengisi perut masing-masing. Sehingga kini pihak SPRM tidak berani menyentuh Ketua Menteri Sarawak, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud walaupun banyak aduan telah dibuat dan bukti telah didedahkan.

Inilah dia penyakit yang membarah di Malaysia sekarang ini. Barah ini perlu dibuang sebelum negara boleh dibina semula dengan nilai-nilai demokrasi, keadilan sosial, integriti, demi membentuk sebuah bangsa dan negara yang menolak ekstremisme perkauman, agama dan politik.

Usaha membina generasi akan datang maju dari aspek ekonomi, sosial dan budaya pastinya akan terbantut, jika wujud pihak-pihak seperti Biro Tata Negara di bawah Jabatan Perdana Menteri yang terus menyemai mentaliti kebencian dan ketakutan terhadap kaum-kaum di Malaysia. Usaha perpaduan dan rekonsiliasi nasional juga akan gagal seandainya kita membiarkan wujudnya pihak-pihak pelampau kaum yang sentiasa berusaha untuk mewujudkan ketegangan dalam masyarakat Malaysia yang pelbagai kaum.

Saya masih berharap untuk melihat komitmen sebenar Perdana Menteri dan Jabatannya yang mempunyai dana yang begitu besar setiap tahun ntuk betul-betul melaksanakan usaha perpaduan nasional, dan bukan sekadar membuat slogan demi meraih sokongan politik.

Kekecohan di Dewan yang mulia ini pada hari Khamis lalu sepatutnya boleh dielakkan. Rakyat turut hairan dengan tingkah laku kerajaan di Parlimen yang tanpa segan silu mencadangkan sebuah usul yang sangat tidak adil terhadap seorang wakil rakyat Pakatan Rakyat. Adakah Dewan ini tidak ada kerja lain yang lebih penting? Bukankah masa sepatutunya diluangkan di Dewan ini untuk membincangkan soal siaran langsung prosiding Jawatankuasa Kira-kira Wang Negara (PAC) yang bakal berlangsung dua hari lagi dan lebih mempunyai kepentingan umum? Bukankah itu jauh lebih penting daripada tindakan membalas dendam terhadap seorang wakil rakyat yang cuba berjuang membela nasib rakyat dan menegakkan perlembagaan negara?

Masanya sudah tiba untuk kita berusaha bersama demi merealisasikan Impian Malaysia, dan menyelamatkan rakyat daripada ‘Mimpi Ngeri Malaysia’ yang panjang ini.

[
Ucapan Ketua Parlimen DAP dan Ahli Parlimen kawasan Gelang Patah, YB Lim Kit Siang, semasa menyertai perbahasan Bajet 2014 Peringkat Jawatankuasa (Jabatan Perdana Menteri) pada 18 November 2013 di Dewan Rakyat
]

                This entry was posted on Monday, 18 November 2013, 12:38 pm and is filed under
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Racism and inequality

Sakmongkol AK47
| NOVEMBER 17, 2013

The Malaysian Insider

Government leaders preach inclusiveness and togetherness. At the very least they pretend to want that. The idea of togetherness and inclusiveness can be summed up in the powerful idea of unity.

Something of that nature cannot be sold like an advertising product and commoditised- it must be secured by living out that experience. It must be practised as an everyday life experience.

Something of that nature too must be formed on the basis of earning and giving trust. The government has neither earned our trust and they have never trusted the people.

PM Najib paid a lot of money to consulting firms to come up with slogans to reflect the idea. He has actually paid RM7.2 billion to a number of consultants since 2009. Over a 5 year period, the fee is like RM3.945 million a day.

We won’t know how much PM Najib paid consultants who came out with slogans and follow through plans of 1Malaysia and now Endless Possibilities. What seems truly endless is the rapacious appetite to gobble up taxpayers’ money.

Judging by Najib’s addiction to top market branding, the fees must have run into billions too.

After 5 years, it appears that a slogan such as 1Malaysia is actually an advertisement product. We have all been suckered and our brains drugged. We have been intravenously injected with hallucinating ideas by marketing consulting firms.

Najib is the 1Malaysia Junkie. For Najib to get high and knocked off means nothing because he does it with taxpayers money. Since it has not worked out, another political advertisement product is introduced into the market. It is called endless possibilities.

That’s an even screwier one since whatever possible outcome can never be defined or finite.

It all now appears that these two ideas are just products ingeniously created by a marketing consulting firm or firms. Instead of selling definite products, they are selling an incorporeal idea. Which is even bloodier expensive. They all have a finite life span.

With so much money and hype as all great advertisements got and create; we expect the outcome desired to have been achieved. In the conduct of business, government leaders who must first believe in their own hype would have all preached and practised a life of inclusiveness and togetherness.

In reality, this government is utterly irresponsible, racist and divisive. One can be a racialist in the sense one can’t separate one’s ethnicity. We can be hostile towards one another because of a given construct. But the hostility ceases when we interact and play down our natural differences and operate on similarities and cultivated trust. The natural given can be moderated by awareness and understanding and trust.

But being a racist suggests the presence of overwhelming hatefulness towards the others not belonging to one’s race. The hatred is reflected in a variety of forms- attributing blameworthiness, presupposing guilt, or simply suspecting the other being the cause of one’s shortcomings and failings.

This is what Najib and his government is doing. Blaming others for his government’s failings and shortcomings serves a self-serving political purpose- blaming others deflects blame that ought to go to them. Blaming others shields those in power. So it must be done even at the expense of civility, inclusiveness and togetherness and moving forward as one nation one Malaysian race equal before the law.

Look at the 2012 Household Income Survey. I am not producing the data here. These are government figures.

Since 1970 to 2012, the top 20% of the population has always cornered on average, 52% of the country’s income. The bottom feeders- the bottom 40% has always shared on the average about 12.5% of the income.

The bottom feeders are members of the Sad Class- 80% of whom are Malays. Why is that?  Why this consistent inequality?

Let me ask you some simple questions – the members of the administration, the leadership of the civil service, the leaders of industry, the professionals, the top flight bankers and lawyers – which category do they belong? They belong as you rightly answer to the top 20%. Now who makes the policies that supports the current version of the market system in Malaysia? The same people in the top 20% group.

The point is this. Much of the inequality that has persisted over almost 50 years is the result of this government’s policies. The inequality exists because of government policy. Because the government has the power to move money from the top to the middle and to the bottom. It has the power to make sure money, the bulk of it stays among the top 20%, move a little in the middle 40% and move even littler in the bottom 40%.

Now, look at the figures in the table below. All data are from the same 2012 Household Income Survey.

Race

2002

2012

x

Bumi

2376

4457

1.87

Chinese

4279

6366

1.48

Indian

3044

5233

1.72

Others

2165

3843

1.77

The most improved lot among the races in terms of household per capita income appears to be the Malays whose mean monthly income has increased 1.87 times. This was the same figure used by Najib Razak to gloriously announce when launching his Bumiputera Economic Empowerment Plan.

Here is the strike. If Malay income has improved best, don’t the BN leaders especially UMNO leaders have no shame blaming others especially Chinese for this achievement? Or are they concealing something and blaming others for their own shortcomings and failings?

Things like the Malay member of the top 20% earns an average monthly income of RM 10,666 while the Malay member of the sad class earns an average monthly income of less than RM1200? –
sakmongkol.blogspot.com
, November 17, 2013.

*
Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de guerre of Datuk Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz who is the Raub MP.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 18 November 2013, 11:28 am and is filed under
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Johor MB Khaled should advise MBJB to end its “wild goose chase” and stop harassing tenants and landowners over cut-outs of Zacharevic wall graffiti which gives “vandalism” a good name

Johore Mentri Besar Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin said on Sunday that things might have turned out differently about street artist Lithuanian-born Ernest Zacharevic’s “high crime” street mural in Johor Baru if he had been asked the question by the press earlier, but  the issue had become academic as the mural had been wiped out by the Johor Baru local authority.

This is a most extraordinary statement, considering that Zacharevic’s street mural had dominated not only Johor but national headlines for almost a week, and even hitting international coverage, before it was “white-washed” by JB city council workers.

Khaled must be the only potentate in Johor State  blissfully unaware of the boiling controversy over Zacharevic’s “high crime” street mural in Johor Baru  in the week before it was  white-washed by JB council workers.

Could this be true, when DAP State Assemblywoman for Johor Jaya, Liow Cai Tong had even spoken on the subject in the Johor State Assembly during her debate on the 2014 Johor state budget and even tried to move an emergency debate on Zacha’s wall graffiti before it was “white-washed” by the JB council workers?

The people of Johor Baru and Malaysia today received another shock in the long-running saga over Zachas’ street graffiti when they learn from the media that the Johor Baru City Council (MBJB) had given tenants and landowners one week to remove the paper cut-outs of Zacha’s street mural pasted on the walls outside their buildings or risk being slapped with a compound fine of RM500, allegedly for committing vandalism.

JB Mayor Ismail Karim said notices were issued to tenants in Taman Molek a few days ago where the cut-outs of Zacha’s street mural were seen on the walls and that notices would also be issued to owners of premises where similar cut-outs have appeared, such as on the walls outside the Chinese cultural museum on Jalan Tan Hiok Nee and in an alley on Jalan Maju.

Tenants or shopowners who fail to remove the cut-outs within one week will be fined a compound of RM500 and if they refuse to pay, they will be brought to court.

Khaled cannot now claim ignorance of the latest twist in the controversy over  Zacha’s “high crime” street mural, and he should advise the MBJB to “let matters be”, end the “wild goose’s chase”, stop harassing tenants and landowners over cut-outs of Zacharevic wall graffiti, allegedly on grounds of vandalism.

The MBJB is in fact giving “vandalism” a good name as the majority of the people in Johor Baru would support such “vandalism”.

Only a handful of those in authority would regard Zacharevic’s street mural as an act of “vandalism”, and I commend the Johor Baru MP, Shahrir Samad for being enlightened and open-minded in describing the MBJB’s action in white-washing Zacharevic’s grafitti as “an over-reaction and misinterpretation”.

I have no doubt that if the views of the people of Johor Baru are sought, the overwhelming majority would support the retention of Zacha’s wall grafitti, even regarding it as a social and national service in highlighting the need for greater effectiveness in reducing crime in Johor Baru so as to eradicate its reputation as the capital of crime in Malaysia as well as its power to draw instead of scaring away tourists.

Is Khaled prepared to ask MBJB to end its unhealthy obsession with Zacha’s wall graffiti and the cut-outs and instead, use the opportunity to provide the leadership to rally all stakeholders in Johor Baru to make the Johore capital a safe and secure city with low crime rate?

This should be the focus of the MBJB and even the Johor State Government, instead of going on a wild goose’ chase to wipe out Zacha’s street mural and the cut-outs.

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/11/20/mb-johor-perlu-menasihatkan-mbjb-untuk-berhenti-melakukan-serkap-jarang-dan-berhenti-mengganggu-para-penyewa-dan-pemilik-yang-mempamerkan-keratan-gambar-grafiti-zacharevic/

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 19 November 2013, 4:29 pm and is filed under
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Kit Siang questions how Ambank guard got MyKad

Hemananthani Sivanandam

The Sun Daily

18 November 2013

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 18, 2013): Gelang Patah DAP MP Lim Kit Siang today questioned how the security guard in the AmBank officer murder case received a MyKad which enabled him to work in the bank.

Lim said it is rather disturbing on how the suspect, who is a Sulawesi native, managed to circumvent the country’s security system in securing a MyKad.

“How can this person get a MyKad, and even if the MyKad is fake, how can he be allowed to open up a bank account, receive monthly salary and in fact be given a firearm license by the Home Ministry?

“Did this person also vote in the 13th General Election? Is it because the owner of the security firm is a crony of the ruling party?

“How many foreigners have enjoyed these privileges?” he questioned during his speech at the committee stage of the Budget 2014 debate in Parliament today.

The DAP stalwart also said such system has caused states such as Sabah and Sarawak to lose its sovereignty as it seems so easy for foreigners to obtain a MyKad and take over the economy.

“This directly effects the stability and the nation’s security. This also infringes the rights of the people of Sabah who live in such a rich state but are still poor,” said Lim.

Lim also congratulated the police for arresting the suspect and hopes that justice will be served.

It was reported that the main suspect in the AmBank officer murder case, who was detained on Nov 10 in Kampung Belungkor, Kota Tinggi, Johor, will be charged in court soon.

In the October 23 incident, Norazita Abu Talib, 37, was shot dead by a security guard as she was opening a safe in the bank’s vault, before he escaped with RM450,000 in cash.

On November 11, police found a pump gun believed to be the murder weapon in a drain at Jalan Subang 2, Subang Industrial Park, not far from the bank.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 19 November 2013, 8:53 am and is filed under
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For New Straits Times to Be Truly Repentant …

By Kee Thuan Chye

msn.com

20.11.13

Last Friday, the New Straits Times ate humble pie and apologised to four NGOs for having defamed them in a front-page report it published last year that carried no substance and offered no evidence whatsoever to support its accusation that they were involved in a plot to destabilise the Government.

The newspaper now acknowledges that the report, written by Farrah Naz Karim, was “groundless” and “false”, and that it “should not have been published”.

When it came out on September 21, 2012, I was appalled by its blatant disregard of journalistic ethics – in fact, of any kind of ethics. I thought it pathetic that the newspaper had sunk so low. This was the worst transgression the paper had committed perhaps since 1998, when it carried on its front page a couple of stories that were editorials rather than news reports aimed at assassinating the character of Anwar Ibrahim after he was sacked by then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad for accusing the latter of paranoia and resisting the need to weed out corruption and cronyism.

For those who may not remember the contents of the 2012 story, which carried the headline ‘Plot to destabilise govt’, let me provide an analysis here. I know it well because I have since used it in my workshops on writing for the media to promote the need for ethics in journalism.

The story was well played up because it was the front-page main story of the newspaper. Its first paragraph, or lead, read:

Investigators probing into the financial background of several non-governmental organisations have uncovered attempts by foreign hands to destabilise the government.

This was a lead given to sensationalising. The accusation it made was serious. The reader would be prompted to ask what the evidence was and to find it in the next paragraph, but this was all that NST offered:

Sources revealed that from 2005 to 2011, almost RM20 million, courtesy of the Washington-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) had allegedly been channelled to:

*Suaram (RM1.6 million);

*National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) (RM4.6 million);

*Mkini Dotcom Sdn Bhd (RM298,000);

*and others (RM13.3 million).

It also claimed:

From last year, several other set-ups, namely Bersih, Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research, Lawyers for Liberty, Liberal Banter Sdn Bhd as well as the International Republican Institute, began receiving funds from NED, an organisation that had been claimed to have “played a significant role in attempting to destabilise legitimate governments and replace them with client proxies”.

Who were the sources? Are they reliable? Is the mere claim about NED’s role in “attempting to destabilise legitimate governments” enough for the report to stand on?

Without substantiating anything, the report then proceeded to demonise Suaram, the human rights NGO that had angered the Government for bringing the Scorpene submarine issue to the French courts:

Sources also revealed that Suaram, which is under several investigations, including for allegedly raising funds while operating as an unregistered society as well as for serious violations of at least five sections of the Companies Act … had four known foreign funders.

The targeting of Suaram went on for several paragraphs. As for its four foreign funders, there was nothing said about their having enlisted Suaram’s help in destabilising the Government, merely that they gave Suaram money. Any intelligent reader by now would have begun to doubt the credibility of the report and realised that the newspaper was actually doing a hatchet job on Suaram. As Kua Kia Soong, Director of Suaram, recently put it, NST was behaving like “the ruling party’s media assassin”.

Kua is also right in remarking, “And a poor assassin at that!” Because NST did a poor job that actually made it look stupid. If you wanted to shoot down anyone, you should at least have the ammunition to do so. NST was shooting blanks. And they were flying about without any direction.

NST thought its report could gain legitimacy by quoting an academic, but of course that was wrong thinking. Even worse, it had to pick Chandra Muzaffar, who had already come to be regarded as a ruling party abettor, not only because he was also Chairman of 1Malaysia Foundation:

In an interview with Berita Harian last night, International Movement for a Just World (JUST) president Professor Dr Chandra Muzaffar said NED had been known to lend substantial financial support to NGOs in particular countries like Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria.

He claimed it had been uncovered that such efforts had been going on aggressively over the past five years in the name of democratic freedom with the objective of making people rise up against leaders who were allegedly deemed to be cruel.

Chandra made numerous claims about NED’s activities in the Arab world, Russia, South and Central America. He also said “the credibility of such an organisation which claims to support institutions of freedom and democracy was questionable as it could threaten global security”. Why and how is supporting freedom and democracy a threat to global security?

His claims were sweeping and bore no direct relation to the Malaysian situation. Even if NED were indeed as heinous as he said it was, did he have any proof that it was using Malaysian NGOs to destabilise the Malaysian government? How were these NGOs destabilising the Government? What means were they using? It was surprising that this so-called intellectual had not thought of that himself.

The report ended with:

He added that those behind the body included Zionist groups which maintain good relations with the Jewish government.

Was that relevant at all?

Clearly, the entire report was characterised by a lack of understanding of what it was actually trying to do and of how it could be effectively done.

It did not even get the other side of the story, i.e. interview Suaram, Malaysiakini, Bersih or any of the other NGOs it named as being in cahoots with NED. This was journalism that was neither fair nor balanced.

Lawyers for Liberty advisor Eric Paulsen was prompted to ask, “If NST had been a proper media organisation with integrity, why didn’t they ask Chandra Muzaffar about his track record or from where he receives funding?”

“I cannot understand the stupidity this country can sink to,” said Masjaliza Hamzah, Executive Officer at the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ).

What befuddled me then, as it still does now, is why the experienced journalists of NST didn’t realise at the time that a report like this could not hold water because it lacked evidence, made sweeping statements, was unconvincing about its so-called sources and failed to represent the views of the groups it accused. Why did they proceed to publish – on the newspaper’s front page, no less – such a sensationalised, ‘nothing’ story?

Even if they were doing it to serve their political master and major owner, Umno, and knew they were being unprofessional, they must surely have realised that they needed to be intelligent about it and do it right?

Well, in the end, some justice has prevailed. To get out of the defamation suit filed against it by Bersih, Suaram, CIJ and Merdeka Centre, NST has apologised and agreed to pay the four NGOs RM120,000. The amount is of course minuscule, considering that the NGOs have suffered significant damage to their reputation because of that reprehensible report.

One important question remains, however. What action will be taken by NST itself against the staff members responsible for the publication of something that was “false” and “should not have been published”?

I ask this for the sake of accountability for a transgression that is highly serious. I ask this because we don’t seem to have been upholding it in this country.

With Ling Liong Sik having been acquitted of cheating the Government and the Attorney-General not appealing the verdict, who is to be held accountable for the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) multi-billion-ringgit fiasco?

With the rakyat’s money being misspent by government departments year after year, as exposed by the Auditor-General, who have been held accountable and brought to book so that it doesn’t happen again?

With the Serdang Hospital having experienced ceiling collapses at four areas within it in the last three years – the latest being the one last week in the intensive care unit for newborn babies – why hasn’t anyone been held accountable? Do we wait till there are fatalities?

With Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Mohamad Hasan having transferred RM10 million out of the country illegally in 2008, why was he cleared of wrongdoing whereas the moneychanger involved in the transaction got fined and lost his licence? Why wasn’t Hasan held accountable?

Accountability should be seen to be upheld not only in the public sector but also in the private sector. So the people responsible for the NST’s dastardly report have to be punished. If they are still working there.

This is what I propose. In degrees of accountability starting with the lowest – which should determine the severity of the punishment – the people to be held accountable are 1) the reporter; 2) the news editor who gave the reporter the assignment; 3) the editor-in-chief who must assume full responsibility for everything the editorial department of the newspaper does.

There may be others in the editorial decision-making process who were involved, like senior editorial executives. They should also be punished.

Only when this is done, can it be said that NST has realised its grave mistake and truly repented.

It will also set the standard for professionalism, and renounce the practice of gutter journalism.

* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the new book The Elections Bullshit, now available in bookstores.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 November 2013, 6:47 pm and is filed under
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MB Johor perlu menasihatkan MBJB untuk berhenti melakukan serkap jarang dan berhenti mengganggu para penyewa dan pemilik yang mempamerkan keratan gambar grafiti Zacharevic

Menteri Besar Johor Datuk Mohamed Khaled Nordin pada hari Ahad lalu menyebut bahawa jika wartawan bertanya lebih awal kepada beliau, nasib mural “jenayah tinggi” seniman kelahiran Lithuania Ernest Zacharevic di Johor Baru mungkin berbeza, kerana tiada guna bercakap tentang mural tersebut sekarang memandangkan ia telah dipadamkan oleh pihak berkuasa tempatan Johor Baru.

Kenyataan itu amat menghairankan, memandangkan mural jalanan Zacharevic telah menjadi bahan berita dalam negara selama hampir seminggu dan malah mendapat liputan media antarabangsa sebelum ia dipadamkan oleh para pekerja majlis bandaraya JB.

Khaled mungkin satu-satunya pegawai kerajaan dalam Johor yang tidak menyedari adanya kontroversi tentang mural jalanan “jenayah tinggi” Zacharevic di Johor Baru selama seminggu sebelum ia dipadamkan oleh para pekerja majlis bandaraya JB.

Apakah ini mungkin, memandangkan Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri DAP bagi Johor Jaya Lio Cai Tong telah menyentuh tentang isu mural tersebut dalam Dewan Undangan Negeri Johor sewaktu beliau membahaskan belanjawan negeri Johor 2014 dan beliau malah telah mengusulkan supaya perbahasan dibuat tentang grafiti Zacha itu sebelum ia dipadamkan oleh para pekerja majlis bandaraya JB?

Hari ini Johor Baru dan Malaysia menerima satu lagi berita mengejutkan berkaitan dengan grafiti Zacha apabila media melaporkan bahawa Majlis Bandaraya Johor Baru (MBJB) telah memberikan tempoh seminggu kepada para penyewa dan pemilik untuk membuang keratan gambar mural jalanan Zacha yang dilekatkan pada dinding luar bangunan mereka atau akan dikenakan denda sebanyak RM500 kerana melakukan vandalisme.

Datuk Bandar JB Ismail Karim memberitahu notis telah disampaikan kepada penduduk Taman Molek beberapa hari lalu setelah keratan gambar mural Zacha dilihat telah dilekatkan di beberapa dinding di sana dan notis yang sama telah disampaikan kepada para pemilik premis di mana keratan tersebut dilekatkan, misalnya pada dinding di luar muzium kebudayaan Cina di Jalan Tan Hiok Nee dan di sebuah lorong di Jalan Maju.

Para penyewa dan pemilik kedai yang gagal menanggalkan keratan gambar berkenaan dalam tempoh seminggu akan dikenakan denda RM500 atau diheret ke mahkamah jika gagal membayar denda.

Sudah tentu Khaled mengetahui tentang perkembangan terbaru yang berkaitan dengan kontroversi mural Zacha ini dan beliau sepatutnya menasihatkan MBJB untuk berhenti melakukan serkap jarang dan mengganggu para penyewa dan pemilik berikutan kemunculan keratan gambar mural Zacharevic atas alasan vandalisme.

Tindakan MBJB itu sebaliknya hanya akan memberi nama baik kepada “vandalisme” kerana majoriti penduduk Johor Baru menyokong “vandalisme” sedemikian.

Hanya segelintir pegawai dalam badan berwajib yang menganggap mural jalanan Zacharevic sebagai “vandalisme”. Saya memuji Ahli Parlimen JB, Shahrir Samad, kerana bersikap terbuka dengan menggambarkan tindakan MBJB memadamkan grafiti Zacharevic sebagai “reaksi berlebihan dan salah tafsir”.

Saya yakin jika ditanya, sebahagian besar penduduk Johor Baru akan menyokong supaya grafiti Zacha itu dikekalkan dan mereka malah akan menganggapnya sebagai satu khidmat sosial yang mengingatkan tentang keperluan untuk meningkatkan keberkesanan dalam usaha membasmi jenayah di Johor Baru, menghapuskan reputasinya sebagai pusat jenayah Malaysia serta atas kemampuannya untuk menarik minat pelancong terhadap bandaraya itu.

Apakah Khaled sanggup untuk meminta MBJB menghentikan kegilaan mereka terhadap grafiti serta keratan gambar grafiti Zacha dan sebaliknya menggunakan peluang ini untuk memimpin semua pihak berkepentingan di Johor Baru ke arah menjadikan bandaraya itu sebagai bandaraya selamat dan rendah kadar jenayah?

Sepatutnya perkara ini yang menjadi tumpuan MBJB dan Kerajaan Negeri Johor, bukannya menghabiskan tenaga melakukan serkap jarang dan memadamkan mural Zacha serta menghapuskan keratan gambar mural tersebut.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/11/19/johor-mb-khaled-should-advise-mbjb-to-end-its-wild-goose-chase-and-stop-harassing-tenants-and-landowners-over-cut-outs-of-zacharevic-wall-graffiti-which-gives-vandalism/

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 November 2013, 2:30 pm and is filed under
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Mural “jenayah tinggi” Zachas patut dikekalkan sebagai cabaran untuk pihak berkuasa menjadikan JB bandar rendah jenayah dan sebagai testimoni bahawa kadar jenayah yang tinggi di JB “hanya tinggal dalam lipatan sejarah”

Sejak beberapa hari lalu, pihak berkuasa di Johor Bahru, termasuk Majlis Bandaraya Johor Bahru, Polis, dan kerajaan negeri Johor terganggu dengan salah satu dari tiga mural yang dibuat oleh seniman jalanan bertaraf antarabangsa kelahiran Ernest Zacharevic yang menonjolkan isu kadar jenayah yang tinggi dalam bandaraya tersebut.

Bandaraya Johor Bahru dan penduduknya akan meraih faedah lebih besar jika tenaga yang mereka gunakan untuk berdebat tentang apa yang perlu dilakukan terhadap mural jenayah tinggi di JB disalurkan ke arah mengurangkan kadar jenayah dalam ibu bandar Johor itu.

Mural “jenayah tinggi” Zachas tidak perlu dihapuskan, sebaliknya ia patut dikekalkan sebagai cabaran untuk pihak berkuasa menjadikan JB bandar rendah jenayah dan sebagai testimoni bahawa kadar jenayah yang tinggi di JB “hanya tinggal dalam lipatan sejarah”.

Satu-satunya cara untuk menghilangkan ‘sengatan’ mural jenayah tinggi Zachas itu ialah dengan menghapuskan reputasi JB sebagai pusat jenayah negara sehingga mural Zachas itu boleh dianggap sebagai tanda kejayaan transformasi Johor Bahru menjadi sebuah bandaraya selamat.

Gambaran yang terdapat pada mural Zachas tidak akan menyengat jika kadar jenayah di bandaraya itu tidak tinggi.

Mural Zachas menonjolkan keadaan sebenar yang tidak menyenangkan dan mencerminkan keadaan semasa yag menyedihkan tentang kadar jenayah yang tinggi di bandaraya itu.

Apakah pihak berkuasa berkenaan mampu untuk menanggapi komentar tentang kadar jenayah yang tinggi itu sebagai satu cabaran dan inspirasi untuk menggembeleng usaha semua pihak, dengan sokongan penduduk Johor Bahru, untuk menurunkan kadar jenayah JB dan sebagai bahawa kadar jenayah yang tinggi di JB “hanya tinggal dalam lipatan sejarah”.

Langkah tersebut akan menjadi respons yang lebih kreatif dan positif terhadap mural “jenayah tinggi” Zachas dan akan membuatkan Johor Bahru lebih terkenal berbanding jika ia mengekalkan dua rekod – pertama, mural “jenayah tinggi” Zachas dan, kedua, mural yang dipadamkan oleh pihak berkuasa dalam keadaan kadar jenayah masih tinggi atau meningkat lebih tinggi sehingga menghantui penduduk.

Rakyat Malaysia yang waras akan bersetuju dengan Zacharevic – “Seni tidak mencemarkan citra sesebuah kota, yang mencemarkannya adalah jenayah.”

Semoga mural ini diterima sebagai cabaran oleh pihak berkuasa berkenaan, termasuk Menteri Besar Johor, Ahli Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri, Ketua Polis Johor, Datuk Bandar JB, dan ahli-ahli majlis kerajaan tempatan JB untuk mereka bangkit dan menggunakan mural itu untuk mengubah JB menjadi sebuah bandaraya rendah kadar jenayah demi kepentingan penduduk, pelancong dan pelabur.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/11/12/instead-of-removing-zachas-high-crime-mural-it-should-be-allowed-to-remain-as-a-challenge-to-all-relevant-authorities-to-make-jb-low-crime-and-a-standing-testimony-that-hi/

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 November 2013, 11:33 am and is filed under
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Najib perlu memberi kenyataan kementerian di Parlimen pada hari Isnin ini tentang kelonggaran kawalan keselamatan Esscom sehingga menyebabkan seorang pelancong dari Taiwan ditembak mati dan isterinya diculik oleh kumpulan yang disyaki sebagai pengganas Abu Sayyaf di pulau Pom Pom berhampiran Semporna

Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak perlu memberi kenyataan kementerian di Parlimen pada hari Isnin ini tentang kelonggaran kawalan keselamatan Esscom sehingga menyebabkan seorang pelancong Cina ditembak mati dan isterinya diculik oleh kumpulan yang disyaki sebagai pengganas Abu Sayyaf di pulau Pom Pom berhampiran Semporna awal pagi ini.

Najib perlu memaklumkan kepada Parlimen tindakan apa yang akan diambil oleh Esscom untuk mengetatkan kawalan keselamatan supaya kejadian pembunuhan dan penculikan oleh para pengganas Filipina tidak akan berulang lagi di Sabah.

Laporan awal menyatakan bahawa sekumpulan lelaki lengkap bersenjata telah tiba di pusat peranginan Mandur Pom Pom dan menyerbu restoran di pusat peranginan tersebut yang ketika itu hanya dilanggani oleh pasangan dari Taiwan terbabit dan lalu melepaskan beberapa tembakan.

Mangsa tembakan Lim Min Hsu, 57, telah ditembak dua kali pada bahagian dada dan rusuk. Beliau meninggal di tempat kejadian. Isterinya, Lim Min Hsu, 57, dilarikan oleh kumpulan bersenjata tersebut dengan sebuah bot kecil ke arah Filipina selatan.

Ketua Polis Negara Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar telah mengesahkan kejadian tersebut berlaku sekitar jam 1 pagi.

Pembunuhan dan penculikan di pulau Pom Pom itu memberikan tamparan hebat kepada usaha untuk memulihkan keyakinan pelancong dan orang ramai terhadap kawalan keselamatan di Sabah selepas pencorobohan pengganas Sulu ke atas Lahad Datu pada bulan Februari lalu.

Sewaktu pelancaran Kawalan Keselamatan Khas Pantai Timur Sabah (Esscom) bulan April tahun ini, Najib telah menggariskan empat strategi dan pendekatan teknikal yang akan diambil oleh Esscom untuk memelihara keamanan dan keselamatan di sepanjang 1,400 km kawasan pinggir laut bahagian timur Sabah, iaitu:

Peningkatan kemampuan perisikan;

Kawalan perairan yang berkesan 24 jam sehari;

Peningkatan keupayaan negara untuk memintas ancaman dari laut; dan

Penguatkuasaan undang-undang secara ketat, termasuk dengan mengambil tindakan segera sebaik saja penceroboh mendarat

Peristiwa tragik di pulau Pom Pom pagi ini yang membawa kepada pembunuhan seorang pelancong dan penculikan pasangannya menunjukkan bahawa keempat-empat strategi tersebut telah terjejas.

Pembentukan dan peruntukan besar kepada Esscom belum menghasilkan keamanan dan keselamatan di Pantai Timur Sabah, manakala tiga matlamat Esscom yang ditetapkan oleh Perdana Menteri, iaitu untuk “menjamin sepenuhnya keselamatan,” “memulihkan keyakinan orang rami untuk kembali hidup seperti biasa” dan “memulihkan keyakinan pelancong” selepas pencerobohan pengganas Sulu ke atas Lahad Datu, masih terlalu jauh untuk dicapai!

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/11/15/najib-should-give-ministerial-statement-in-parliament-on-monday-on-the-esscom-security-lapses-resulting-in-a-taiwanese-tourist-shot-dead-and-his-wife-abducted-by-suspected-abu-sayyaf-terrorists-on-p/

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 November 2013, 2:18 pm and is filed under
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Parlimen Malaysia terpalit noda – semuanya kerana Ahli Parlimen BN

Dua kejadian di Dewan Rakyat pada hari Khamis, 14 November 2013, yang lalu membuatkan Parlimen Malaysia terpalit noda – semuanya kerana Ahli Parlimen Barisan Nasional.

Kejadian pertama berlaku dalam sesi pagi apabila Barisan Nasional dengan tidak mempedulikan Peraturan Mesyuarat dan kelaziman telah menggunakan kelebihan kerusinya di Parlimen untuk meluluskan usul luar biasa, tidak wajar, dan “haram” untuk menggantung Ahli Parlimen Padang Serai N. Surendran selama enam bulan kerana memperjuangkan kuil Sri Muneswarar Kaliyamman di Kuala Lumpur yang telah berusia 101 tahun.

Usul untuk menggantung Surendran itu melanggar Peraturan Mesyuarat dan kelaziman Parlimen sekurang-kurangnya menurut empat asas.

Peraturan Mesyuarat 27 (3) menyebut: “Kecuali sebagaimana yang disyaratkan dalam Peraturan Mesyuarat 43 dan perenggan (5) dalam Peraturan Mesyuarat 86 dan 26(1), apa-apa usul hendaklah dikeluarkan pemberitahu tidak kurang daripada empat belas hari terlebih dahulu tetapi jika usul itu dengan nama Menteri, maka memadailah dengan dikeluarkan pemberitahu tujuh hari sahaja terlebih dahulu, dan pula jika Tuan Yang di-Pertua puas hati setelah diterangkan kepadanya oleh seseorang Menteri iaitu bagi faedah orang ramai sesuatu usul itu mustahak dibahaskan dengan seberapa segeranya maka memadailah dikeluarkan pemberitahu itu satu hari sahaja terlebih dahulu.”

Memandangkan kekecualian yang disebutkan dalam Peraturan Mesyuarat 43, 86, dan 26 terpakai untuk kes ini, usul menteri untuk menggantung Surendran memerlukan “tujuh hari sahaja terlebih dahulu, dan pula jika Tuan Yang di-Pertua puas hati setelah diterangkan kepadanya oleh seseorang Menteri iaitu bagi faedah orang ramai sesuatu usul itu mustahak dibahaskan dengan seberapa segeranya maka memadailah dikeluarkan pemberitahu itu satu hari sahaja terlebih dahulu.”

Penggantungan Surendran selama enam bulan itu bertentangan dengan Peraturan Mesyuarat dan kelaziman parlimen menurut empat asas berikut:

Ia tidak mematuhi peraturan yang menetapkan “pemberitahu satu hari” untuk usul menteri, kerana jika “satu hari” ditafsirkan sebagai “24 jam” maka usul terbabit hanya boleh dibahaskan selepas jam 6 petang hari Khamis, memandangkan notis telah diberikan kepada Ahli-ahli Parlimen selepas jam 6 petang hari Rabu.

Tiada “kepentingan umum” yang mengharuskan usul itu dibahaskan selepas notis satu hari diberikan dan bukannya selepas notis tujuh hari. Malah, sehingga sekarang tiada menteri mampu menjelaskan “faedah orang ramai” yang bagaimana memestikan perbahasan dan keputusan dibuat dengan segera tanpa mematuhi peraturan berkenaan “pemberitahu tujuh hari” – apatahlagi untuk memutuskannya tanpa mematuhi notis satu hari.

Pertembungan kepentingan yang jelas kerana Tuan Yang di Pertua yang telah membenarkan usul menteri berkenaan dibahaskan tanpa notis tujuh hari terbabit dalam persoalan yang dipertikaikan, memandangkan usul tersebut mendakwa Surendran “menghina” Speaker.

Prosedur yang sepatutnya diikuti dalam kes ini ialah merujuk Surendran kepada Jawatankuasa Hak dan Keistimewaan kerana ia membabitkan “kuasa serta hak dan keistimewaan Dewan”, dan Jawatankuasa Hak dan Keistimewaan perlu menyiasat dan mengemukakan laporan kepada Dewan berkenaan dakwaan yang dibuat terhadap Surendran.

Kenyataan oleh Pengerusi bahawa mana-mana Ahli Parlimen yang tidak berpuas hati dengan perintah Speaker boleh menggunakan Peraturan Mesyuarat 43 untuk mengusulkan supaya keputusan terbabit disemak semula menerusi notis tidak lebih dua hari sama sekali tidak bermakna kerana dalam sejarah Parlimen Malaysia usul sedemikian tidak pernah dibenarkan untuk dibahaskan dalam Dewan. Peraturan tersebut tidak lebih seperti “abjad-abjad mati” yang tidak lagi diamalkan.

Kerana itulah tiada seorang pun Ahli Parlimen Pakatan Rakyat peduli untuk memanfaatkan Peraturan Mesyuarat 43 ketika di waktu pagi hari berkenaan Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia secara tidak benar telah mengarahkan Surendran untuk keluar dari Dewan atas alasan beliau masih digantung.

Ini bertentangan dengan Peraturan Mesyuarat 44 (2) yang dengan jelas menyebut bahawa apabila Speaker belum menentukan tempoh penggantungan seseorang Ahli Parlimen, “tempoh tersebut hendaklah disifatkan sebagai selama dua hari termasuk hari kejadian berkenaan.”

Penggantungan Surendran dibuat pada pagi Selasa, 12 November 2013, dan Speaker tidak menyebut tempoh penggantungan, maka tempoh penggantungannya adalah selama dua hari bermula pada hari Selasa – iaitu “hari kejadian berkenaan” – dan Rabu serta tidak lagi berkuatkuasa pada hari Khamis itu! Bermakna, tindakan Speaker mengusir Surendran keluar dewan pada pagi Khamis itu adalah salah dan bertentangan dengan Peraturan Mesyuarat.

Sebuah akhbar (New Straits Times) mendakwa Ahli Parlimen DAP/PR bagi Puchong, Gobind Singh Deo, dan saya telah menghalau Pandikar Amin dari Dewan kerana kami telah turut menuntut penjelasan atas tindakan mengarahkan Surendran keluar dari Dewan pada pagi itu.

Laporan itu sama sekali tidak berasas dan tidak lebih daripada khayalan wartawan terbabit, dan ia menunjukkan betapa rendahnya piawaian profesional dalam negara ini dalam pelbagai bidang kerjaya – termasuk media massa – walaupun telah lebih setengah kurun negara kita merdeka.

Saya bersama-sama beberapa pemimpin PR yang lain – termasuk Azmin Ali (PKR/PR Gombak) dan Mahfuz Omar (PAS/PR Pokok Sena) telah menyarankan  kepada Timbalan Speaker Datuk Ronald Kiandee agar menangguhkan persidangan untuk membolehkan kedua-dua pihak mencari penyelesaian yang saksama bagi merungkai kebuntuan dan mententeramkan Dewan, sama ada dalam bentuk pemberian notis tujuh hari untuk usul terbabit, atau merujuk Surendran kepada Jawatankuasa Hak dan Keistimewaan, atau membenarkan usul menurut Peraturan Mesyuarat 43 untuk menyemak semula keputusan Pengerusi dibahaskan .

Tetapi berlawanan dengan kelaziman parlimen, Timbalan Speaker telah enggan menangguhkan persidangan untuk memberikan “tempoh bertenang” bagi membolehkan kesepakatan dibuat oleh kedua-dua pihak dalam Dewan bagi mengatasi kebuntuan.

Sebaliknya Dewan dan negara telah disajikan dengan adegan lawak jenaka apabila Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri Nancy Shukry telah membacakan ucapan usul terbabit walaupun tiada siapa dapat mendengar walau pun sepatah kata daripada beliau, memandangkan ucapannya telah tenggelam sepenuhnya dalam kegamatan Dewan.

Adegan itu disambung dengan sesi undian yang juga merupakan lawak jenaka kerana tiada Ahli Parlimen, sama ada dari BN atau PR, dapat mendengar apa yang telah diusulkan oleh menteri itu.

Kerana itulah Ahli-ahli Parlimen PR enggan mengambil bahagian dalam pengundian, kerana bagi mereka usul tersebut bukan saja luar biasa dan tidak wajar, malah ia juga adalah “usul haram”.

Dalam keadaan keadilan telah dinafikan serta prosedur dan kelaziman parlimen telah diabaikan inilah beberapa Ahli Parlimen PR telah melepaskan rasa marah dan kecewa mereka secara beremosi dengan mengoyakkan kertas usul berwarna hijau itu.

Pimpinan PR di Parlimen tidak menyetujui tindakan mengoyak kertas usul itu kerana ia berlaku secara mendadak justeru Ahli-ahli Parlimen PR merasa kecewa apabila keadilan dinafikan serta peraturan mesyuarat dan kelaziman parlimen pula diabaikan dalam meluluskan usul untuk menggantung Surendran selama enam bulan. Cara penggantungan ini dibuat menjadikan Parlimen Malaysia sebagai mahkamah kanggaru dan bahan jenaka dunia.

Kejadian kedua yang memalit noda pada Parlimen Malaysia berlaku pada tengahari Khamis apabila persidangan parlimen disabotaj menerusi tindakan membalas dendam berikutan apa yang terjadi di pagi itu. Tindakan balas ini tiada kena mengena dengan keadilan, integriti prosedur parlimen atau hak rakyat.

Ahli-ahli Parlimen BN, diketuai oleh Ahli Parlimen Kinabatangan Bung Mokhtar Radin, telah menjalankan konspirasi untuk menimbulkan kekecohan, membawa kepada perbuatan mengoyak usul Ahli Parlimen PKR/PR Kuantan Fuziah Salleh untuk memotong gaji lima penasihat khas Jabatan Perdana Menteri, iaitu Rais Yatim, Noh Omar, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Johari Baharom, dan Hasbi Habibollah, kerana mereka mendakwa usul beliau adalah “usul haram” berikutan satu kesilapan fakta dalam ucapan beliau.

Jika Ahli Parlimen BN menganggap usul Fuziah adalah “usul haram”, mereka sepatutnya mencontohi tindakan Ahli-ahli Parlimen PR di sebelah pagi yang telah menolak untuk mengambil bahagian dalam pengundian – dan membenarkan Ahli-ahli Parlimen PR menyokong usul itu.

Tetapi tujuan mereka berlainan, iaitu untuk mensabotaj persidangan parlimen dengan tidak membenarkan usul Fuziah dibahaskan.

Atas sebab itulah Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim selepas waktu makan tengahari telah mengemukakan usul supaya Dewan bersurai lebih awal, iaitu sebaik saja usul Fuziah diketepikan, dan bukannya pada jam 5.30 petang seperti kebiasaan – ini adalah bukti jelas bahawa Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri itu telah mengetahui dan membenarkan tindakan sabotaj ke atas usul Fuziah.

Dua kejadian yang berpunca daripada Ahli-ahli Parlimen BN dalam Parlimen Malaysia ini menunjukkan sikap kebudak-budakan mereka yang sanggup mengambil tindakan kasar untuk membalas dendam terhadap Ahli-ahli Parlimen PR tanpa mempedulikan soal salah atau benar sesuatu isu dan tanpa memikirkan kepentingan rakyat dan negara.

Jelas bahawa ini bukan langkah ke arah membentuk sebuah Parlimen bertaraf dunia!

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/11/16/a-double-blot-of-shame-for-malaysian-parliament-all-thanks-to-bn-mps/

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 November 2013, 2:23 pm and is filed under
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Registration Department staff from Putrajaya nabbed in police bust on IC syndicate in Miri

by Desmond Davidson

The Malaysian Insider

November 18, 2013

A National Registration Department (NRD) assistant officer was among dozens arrested by police in Miri as authorities smashed the state’s biggest syndicate behind the falsifying of MyKads and birth certificates.

The 57-year-old officer, attached to the NRD office in Putrajaya, is one of the key players in the syndicate, said Sarawak police commissioner Datuk Wira Mohammad Sabtu Osman.

Mohammad said there could be more arrests as police investigation widens.

“We will be hunting members of the syndicate that have escaped arrests,” Mohammad told a press conference today.

Mohammad said police made the arrests on November 16 after a week of surveillance at a residential estate in Desa Pujut in the Kuala Baram district.

He said police found 34 people in the house at a residential estate in Desa Pujut in Kuala Baram – about 12km from Miri town – but detained 23 of them and seized two fake MyKads, 30 copies of “birth certificates”, 69 copies of photostated certificates, an “official receipt” and three Sabah “birth certificates”.

Police also seized RM3,100 in cash, four USB thumb-drives, three stamp-pads, 10 rubber stamps of various government departments in Sabah, a laptop and a desktop computer.

Of those arrested, most were from Sarawak, while the rest comprised two Bajaus from Sabah; six from Peninsular Malaysia, including the NRD officer; and seven men and three women from the Philippines.

The two Bajaus were arrested for being in possession of fake MyKads while the 10 Filipinos were held to verify the NRD-issued travel documents they held in their possession.

Mohammad said the NRD officer was on leave and he was allegedly overseeing the operation when he was busted.

“The arrest of the Sabahans and foreigners showed that the syndicate had spread its wing to Miri from Sabah.”

 Mohammad also said police are now trying to find if there is a link between the break-in of the NRD office in Bakong, about 50km from Miri, last week and the busted syndicate.

In the break-in, Mohammad said 35 MyKads awaiting collection and other documents were stolen. – November 18, 2013.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 November 2013, 7:15 am and is filed under
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‘Something rotten in Najib’s best democracy’

Malaysiakini

Nov 19, 2013

The state of the media in Malaysia indicates that the nation is not as democratic as it is made out to be, said a university-based researcher.

This is because most of the “mainstream Malaysian news media… is actually more akin to a BN party organ”, Nottingham University Media and Communications associate professor Tessa Houghton said.

“When the only media functioning as anything like professional news journalism organisations are in Mandarin or are online, it’s safe to say that something is seriously rotten in what aspires to be the best democracy in the world,” she said.

Houghton was responding to arguments against her media monitoring findings conducted in the lead-up to and during the 13th general election.

In particular, she was responding to crticism that she had chosen not to monitor party organs such as PAS mouthpiece Harakah and PKR organ Suara Keadilan.

In her article posted on Sunday in the Australian National University portal, the New Mandala, Houghton said: “Party organs and news media perform different roles, and the former cannot substitute for the latter.

“News media should facilitate informed political participation and hopefully, understanding of (if not agreement with) our socio-political community; party organs are for the express purpose of party advocacy, and are intended to ‘preach to the choir’.”

Houghton, who teaches at Nottingham University’s Malaysian campus in Semenyih, also countered those who argued that the bias in print media was balanced by social media.

She argued that about 35 percent of Malaysians – mainly older, poorer and more rural groups – do not have access to the Internet and that this is reflective of the voting trends.

“These populations have and continue to consume primarily BN propaganda masquerading as news, whereas wealthier, younger, urban populations are constantly bombarded with and socialised into consuming a multitude of competing and critical perspectives,” she said.

Beware ‘cyberbalkanisation’

As for social media, Houghton warned that continued reliance on social-media mediated political debate would lead to “cyberbalkanisation” – further polarisation based on political support.

“The media are key to the democratic and electoral integrity of any political system …

“Malaysian citizens who relied on English and Bahasa Malaysia newspapers and/or television as their media source during the GE13 campaign … were not provided with fair and accurate information with which to construct informed voting preferences.”

Presented earlier this year, Houghton’s research, done in collaboration with the Centre for Independent Journalism, found that news portals Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider and the Chinese press were more balanced in their election coverage.

On the flip side, national news agency Bernama was found to be biased in favour of the BN, as were English and Bahasa Malaysia newspapers and television channels.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 20 November 2013, 6:50 am and is filed under
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A new battlefield for PAS: The campaign

By
Bridget Welsh
 | 12:40PM Nov 21, 2013

Malaysiakini

As party elections go, PAS’ are usually among the most civil. In Umno, the mode has been behind the scene attacks, reminiscent of traditional court politics.

In PKR, the style is direct attacks, as personality politics is brought into the open. In DAP it is the more of a cold war, with limited discussion of differences but they persist, nevertheless.

Over the last decade, PAS’ party politics have changed too. The elections are no longer an internal affair, as they are analysed, assessed and scrutinised.

And in this party electoral campaign, the entire nature of the campaigning and choices have transformed. In fact, rather than a contest, it has become war.

As we try to understand the results of the polls in the next few days, it is useful to assess how the nature of campaigning in PAS has shifted and why.

New three Ms – medium, messaging, mobilisation

The most obvious difference in this campaign is the use of the social media. When the campaign started – arguably even before GE13, after the party’s 2011 election where the Erdogans won key leadership positions – the medium of choice has been Facebook.

Here there are blatant endorsements and the modern form of poison-pen postings. Bloggers have fallen into the background as people use their social capital to reinforce their positions.

Another tool of choice has been WhatsApp, with its instantaneous messaging, and similar groups that allow the quick spread of information, many of which is unverified and emotive.

These tools are compounded by Instagram and Twitter, making the election process an “instant” affair. This new medium of sharing ideas has had an impact, adding intensity to the campaign process and moving the mode of discussion from more reflective person-to-person exchanges to a shallower dynamic.

While there have also been a record number of fora, including intensive debates over issues such as Pakatan Rakyat and hudud, the messaging has also taken on a new form.

Now more than ever, in many cases in violation of the party’s code of conduct, we see personal attacks. Unfortunately, many of the attacks are blatant lies, from the issue of Shiite to derogatory remarks on character.

The attacks have become almost Umno-like in their viciousness in the all-out smear campaigns. In this type of messaging, principles of integrity and decency have gone by the wayside to be replaced by tactics that do not reflect well on PAS. The enemy appears to have come from within as comrades-in-struggle are now focused on bringing down each other.

While the sense of fairness and honesty has provoked a counter-reaction, with those under attack receiving support and sympathy, the results will be a test of how these principles are actually practiced in the party.

Attack messaging has been accompanied by a different pattern of mobilisation. As a national party, PAS is expanding and with it factionalism is deepening. There has always been cliques, but now there are camps, organised with long “menus” of preferred candidates.

These ‘chai tan’ groupings, often accompanied with endorsements (sometimes illegitimate), fundamentally aim to take away the choice of specific individuals from the delegates and put in place a team.

This creates more uncertainty in the outcome as ally relationships, rather than assessments of individual performance, are at work. The increase in camp mobilisation is tied to the intensity of the campaign that effectively began with what was perceived as the victories by the Erdogans in 2011.

The conservative ulama were shocked by the results and have been working intensely to both reverse this and put in place a new generation of “pro-ulama” leaders.

In the history of the party, this is the first systematic organised campaign on the part of the “pro-ulama” who in the past supported just a handful of candidates. This time round it is a full slate in all the contests. They want to not only swing the pendulum in their direction, but to take full control over the party leadership.

The reasons have to do with the ideological differences outlined in my article yesterday, as they feel the need to impose their conservative, exclusionary vision before Umno does to protect how they envision PAS and ultimately their position in the party.

Major structural shifts

The campaign itself is also being transformed by pressures for change within the party. While the focus has been on the ideological divisions and personality differences, the synergy between developments in national politics and the party are at play.

Perhaps the most powerful of this is the generational change that is taking place, as a new crop of young turks is rising and contesting for positions. Many of these individuals were elected in GE13 such as Nik Mohamad Abduh Nik Abdul Aziz and Nasrudin Hassan.

This group however is less inclined toward Turkey aka Erdogans, as they entered politics post-reformasi, after 2001, when conservatism was on the rise in PAS and they were largely socialised in religious schools in the east coast or the Middle East.

A generational shift is also taking place in the Youth wing as fresh blood is competing for positions. While the pro-ulama faction is dominant, the ideological divisions are also present.

The pro-ulama youth leadership have yet to evoke confidence as national leaders. PAS, when compared to other opposition parties, has less prominent young national leaders, especially on political issues.

While Nasrudin (left) gave one of the stronger speeches on issues facing the youth at the Pemuda opening, highlighting economic issues and broad youth engagement, there still is considerable way for him to go to woo over young voters.

Beyond bringing in new voices, the presence of talented young leaders and new ideas will be essential for the party to connect with the young electorate, who will soon make up the majority of voters. The Youth delegates comprise nearly a third of the voters in PAS and will be decisive in shaping the final results in the party polls.

A second shift has been the creation of political families within PAS. The issue of political elites is now well-established in parties across the political spectrum, but what made PAS more distinct was the less pervasive family control. In fact, PAS has traditionally been a party that has allowed people to rise from non-elite backgrounds, a powerful democratising force. This seems to be waning, along with a strengthening of nepotism.

The family name, rather than the credentials of candidates, are giving party hopefuls an advantage, from the son of PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat to both the son and son-in-law of party president Abdul Hadi Awang – Khalil Abdul Hadi and Zaharuddin Muhammad respectively. The latter candidates are controversial not only for their family connections, but because they are seen to parachute into positions.

While nepotism may be narrowing choices for PAS delegates, the candidate slate reveals considerable national breadth among those contesting. A few years ago, I wrote about the challenges of becoming a national party for PAS. What is happening now is the product of this geographic dispersion of representation.

While candidates from Sarawak, Malacca and Johor are underdogs, they are in the contest. This expansion represents the reality that PAS has become national in scope, with more pressures to represent different states.

In close contests, state dynamics will affect the results with swing states such as Sabah and Sarawak making a difference. PAS, like Umno, bases it delegate representation on parliamentary constituencies, although they are more weighted by the number of branches.

Women’s influence

PAS has also brought in more women into the decision-making. While the number is still the lowest among the opposition parties, it has significantly increased in the last decade. PAS slated a record number of 25 women candidates with eight winning in GE13.

In fact, a woman, Siti Mariah Mahmud (right) of Kota Raja parliament seat, had the distinction of winning with the largest majority for PAS.

Women now have a larger share of the delegates, although this number reaches only an estimated 15 percent. There are more women running for the party’s powerful central committee as well, considerably more than Umno. Support from women in the electorate, especially Malay women, remains a weakness for the party electorally.

This said, there are changes taking place, albeit very slow. As with the geographic dispersion, this will shape the party contests. Democratisation inside the party only makes the contests more competitive and brings in more interests that need to be accommodated, even in a religious-based party.

The length and intensity of this party campaign will leave an imprint on the party, irrespective of the outcomes. Whoever wins, there will be scars from the party battle, with the new battlefield adding greater intensity and uncertainty. No question, there will be injuries too.

PAS’ polls have come into the limelight like never before, ironically in large part as a result of changes internally connected with its national expansion and the new dynamics of the campaign.

Many are putting their faith in the wisdom of the delegates, as they have put faith in PAS itself.

Others, however, are more wary, distrusting PAS and suspicious of its conservative Islamist forces that may hinder religious freedom and good governance.

The results will show whether this faith was misplaced, and whether PAS will move from fighting itself to a national battle in expanding democracy.

The battle inside PAS – the issues

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DR BRIDGET WELSH is associate professor of political science at Singapore Management University. She can be reached at
[email protected]
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                This entry was posted on Thursday, 21 November 2013, 2:35 pm and is filed under
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