Giving right-wingers free rein will backfire, analysts warn Umno

by Melissa Chi

The Malay Mail Online

January 14, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 ― Umno’s continued silence as the voices of Malay right-wing groups grow louder by the day could end up being misconstrued as Putrajaya’s endorsement of extremism and racism, analysts have warned.

By staying passive to appease its supporters in Malay-Muslim Malaysia, Umno also risks having its own grip on power weakened in the event such groups later decide to enter the political arena as opponents, the analysts added.

Director of independent pollster Merdeka Center Ibrahim Suffian acknowledged the strategy, saying the easiest, tried and tested way to shore up support from a particular group, is to use emotive issues.

“Certainly by not curbing this, by not doing anything, (it) actually condones these kinds of statements.

“It also has a counter-reaction, not only espousing more extreme and conservative views by allowing more leeway for them to do whatever they want, but it might also increase the politicising among religious groups, the Christians for example, could be more politicised and resort to being extreme as well,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted.

“One of BN’s (Barisan Nasional) strength is the party’s ability to maintain political stability and peace; if overtime they let this behaviour unchecked, it will also undermine its strength”.

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) chief executive officer Wan Saiful Wan Jan stressed the need for Umno’s top leaders, especially Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, to drown out the voices of right-leaning groups like Perkasa and Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) before the brewing racial and religious tension spiral out of control.

“Umno is the one who has to say they distance themselves from these voices and then it will really isolate the far right voices from anybody else,” he said, warning that it would otherwise be lumped in with the group.

Isma has been at the forefront of attempts to discredit the Coalition of Malaysian NGOs in the Universal Periodic Review Process (Comango), which has come under fire from other Muslim activists who claim the group’s human rights recommendations to the United Nations ran counter to the “true” teachings of Islam and the sovereignty of the Federal Constitution.

On Wednesday, the Home Ministry declared Comango as an “unlawful organisation” and accused it of promoting anti-Islamic values here.

Protests by the Youth wing of the Malay rights group Perkasa also forced Putrajaya Corporation to abandon plans for a Hard Rock Cafe in the administrative capital, after the group claimed it was inappropriate to serve alcohol and have “wild entertainment” in the city is said was modelled after the Muslim holy city Medina.

Centre for Policy Initiatives director Dr Lim Teck Ghee said it was difficult to understand Umno’s silence so far, saying it dented the moderate Muslim image Malaysia has cultivated.

“Externally, the country’s moderate image — besides that of the PM’s — has taken a beating which will impact on business, tourism and other spheres of activity,” he told The Malay Mail Online via e-mail.

Wan Saiful pointed out that most of those who are promoting the far right ideas are Umno supporters.

“I think the reason why they are continually behaving like this is because the weak leadership in Umno is unable to stand up against the far right voices.

“They are pushing the country towards a more right-wing agenda, even in the realm of public policy. If it is only rhetoric, it’s fine, but when it comes to public policy, it’s dangerous,” he said.

Agreeing, Lim said keeping silent on the growing voice of extremism is a betrayal to Malaysians who voted for the ruling coalition and their liberal, moderate agenda.

“Voters did not vote for a government that is wishy-washy and is intent on playing up to the Malay and Islamic gallery. The payback will surely come at the next elections,” he said.

Ibrahim also agreed that Najib’s moderate stance and efforts to promote moderation may seem less convincing than his predecessor Tun Abdullah Badawi because of the former’s lack of Islamic background.

This, he noted, has resulted in a gap that has been increasingly filled by the conservatives working within his bureaucracy like those in the Selangor Religious Department (Jais), the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim), or religious scholars.

“I think there is a vacuum in terms of leaders that can utilise Islam as a mobilising force,” he said.

But Ibrahim pointed out that with the Sarawak elections coming in two years’ time, the Najib administration would need to communicate that it was not an administration that only catered to the Malay-Muslim community.

Unlike in the peninsula where the Malay-Muslims are the majority, the group only accounted for a quarter of the votes in the state considered a vote bank for the ruling coalition, he pointed out.

Sarawak’s last state poll was held in April 2011 at the height of the controversy over the seizure of a consignment of the Alkitab bibles, which contained the word “Allah”.

It was in the run-up to the polls when the Najib Cabinet mooted the 10-point solution to resolve the longstanding dispute and ordered the release of the impounded books, besides pledging never to seize them again, according to a media report.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 January 2014, 9:55 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Lee Kuan Yew

Mariam Mokhtar

Malaysiakini

Jan 13, 2014

The rivalry between former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and current PM Najib Abdul Razak has assumed ludicrous proportions. With a legacy to protect, a son to manoeuvre into position, his cronies to look after, and a country to run, Mahathir is in overdrive. He may be approaching 90, but he retains much of his vigour to annoy.

 Yesterday, a former minister, Zainuddin Maidin, urged Mahathir to return to Putrajaya. Having Mahathir back in Putrajaya would be as bad as having a hole in the head.

Much to Najib’s annoyance, Mahathir refuses to shut up, but Najib has only himself to blame. Najib is busy clocking-up air-miles in his new jets. Mahathir says in one sitting, what Najib mumbles in one month.

 The current ‘Allah’ side-show is meant to trick ignorant Malays, and weak-willed Muslims, into believing that Umno Baru is the only party that will protect their race and religion.

 The real issue is the economy of Malaysia. Umno Baru, Najib and Mahathir are trying to mask this fact behind the ‘Allah’ charade. The rakyat is being out-manoeuvred by Umno Baru.

 Last August, Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew launched his book, ‘One Man’s View of the World’, in which he described Malaysia as an underperforming nation disadvantaged by its pro-Malay economic policies.

… but he knew whom to blame

 That slur rankled Mahathir, but he knew whom to blame. So, he sat, he observed and he plotted. By the end of 2013, with disastrous GE13 results and the shock defeat of his son in the Umno Baru internal elections, Mahathir was furious.

By the year’s end, the Malaysian economy was deteriorating fast and Mahathir knew he had to take control, again. Mahathir is in his own estimation, a dictator who loves to micro-manage.

 Lee and Mahathir could well have been born twins, with one being given up for adoption, soon after birth. Their mutual dislike is probably because they are so similar.

 One similarity is their liberal use of draconian laws like the Internal Security Act (ISA) to silence their critics. The reaction of the authorities, in the aftermath of the riots by foreign workers in Singapore, was not to improve living and social conditions, but to increase the restrictions on these workers.

 With the Malaysian rakyat protesting against price increases and a rise in cost of living, Mahathir’s prompt was to say that the ISA should be re-introduced. Both are quick to accuse pro-communist elements for causing trouble.

 Both Lee and Mahathir will do anything to increase their support base. Chinese workers from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are encouraged to work in Singapore, to increase the Chinese stock of Singaporeans, to the detriment of the Singaporeans who loathe the Chinese from the PRC, whom they consider loud and uncouth, and with whom they have little in common.

 Mahathir imported hordes of Filipinos and Indonesians, of Muslim stock, to replenish his party’s declining support among the Muslim population.

 Only the naïve would say there is no corruption in Singapore. Lee encouraged meritocracy and competition but he was prepared to punish severely those involved in corruption. His core group of advisers are mainly economists whereas Mahathir surrounds himself with businessmen.

Fiercely protective of his cronies

 Lee has successfully installed his son as prime minister of Singapore, but Mahathir’s son is still “king in the kampung”. Lee built a thriving nation from an island with few natural resources, whereas Mahathir has wasted the potential of a large country that has a cornucopia of highly valuable commodities.

 Mahathir is allegedly known as the Father of Cronyism, Corruption and Nepotism (FoCCaN). FoCCaN Mahathir does not favour competition but prefers to blame others. To his credit, he is fiercely protective of his cronies, and goes out of his way to assist them, unlike Najib, who is not loyal to his cronies, once their usefulness is finished.

With the economy in decline, an increasing national debt and a noticeably absent and silent PM, observers may have noticed the intensity of the attacks which Mahathir has launched against Najib recently.

 Time is running out for Mahathir and with 2020 approaching fast, our nation is far from developed. Mahathir said Malaysia needed investment in high-tech industries, as higher qualified Malaysians could work in these fields. He said that there were many well-qualified Malaysians, but each vacancy in the government would attract over a thousand applications.

 People are attracted to jobs in the civil service because they are “jobs for life”. People in the private sector claim that many Malaysian graduates have poor language skills and a bad attitude to work.

 Mahathir should hear what the various government agencies tell Malaysian students overseas, trying to entice them to return. If anecdotal evidence is to be believed, Malays are allegedly told that there is discrimination in the private sector and that Malay students should return to set up businesses, to increase Malay participation in private enterprise.

 The truth is probably that there are no real jobs in the government service for these government scholars.

 When he was in power, Mahathir had a problem with all his deputies, whom he failed to nurture to lead the country. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Achilles heel was his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin. Mahathir thought he could depend on Najib, but he did not take into account the ambitious Rosmah Mansor, who has probably surrounded Najib with her choice of advisers.

 Mahathir blames Najib for wasting money on skyscrapers, ignoring that he was once responsible for wasteful mega-projects. Mahathir said, “For Malaysia to become a developed nation, we need to diversify. The shiny new buildings and skyscrapers do not mean Malaysia is a developed nation….”

So now, we come to the crux of the matter – Mahathir’s ego. With the Warisan Merdeka tower project under way, Mahathir does not want his 88-storey Twin Towers to be dwarfed by Najib’s symbolic 118-storey Warisan Merdeka.

 Mahathir says that shiny skyscrapers are wasteful. Najib should take heed. Save money and just rename the Petronas Twin Towers the Tun Razak Towers.

MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO).

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 January 2014, 8:55 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Najib Faces Party, Public Protest

Written by Our Correspondent

Asia Sentinel

13 JANUARY 2014

Subsidy cuts play into UMNO rebellion

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak enters 2014 beset by growing hostility from both the public and within his own political party, the United Malays National Organization, characterized by a deluge of New Year messages across cyberspace celebrating the “year of barang naik,” Malay language for rising prices of items.

That is a play on the initials BN, for Barisan Nasional, the national ruling coalition. It has become an opposition battle cry to the point where Najib mentioned it himself in a recent speech

Najib is making an astute move now, after national and intraparty elections have been completed, taking on the necessary but unappetizing task of dismantling decades of subsidies that have driven government debt close to the statutory limit of 55 percent of gross domestic product. In the wake of both sets of elections, he is temporarily invulnerable to both opposition and intraparty assaults.

However, electricity tariffs have risen by 15 percent, sugar subsidies have been cut. Last September, Petronas, the national energy company, cut fuel subsidies in a move that it said would save the government RMB1 billion annually. Public anger at the cutting of the subsidies is substantial and growing

In addition, many in the party rank and file are still furious over widespread spending to keep the current leadership in place in the September intraparty elections.

That has brought the prime minister under unprecedented attack from bloggers aligned with the wing of the party controlled by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who are delivering an extraordinary onslaught on his lifestyle and that of his wife, even going so far as an unprecedented call for attention to corruption within UMNO itself. The attacks had been expected from the time Najib blocked Mahathir’s son, Mukhriz, from becoming one of the party’s three vice presidents in the September polls.

Najib has sought to deflect criticism, saying the price hikes have been caused by factors such as the global economy and extreme weather that cut into the fish catch and drove up the price of vegetables. The government has also sought to spread the pain by cutting government ministers’ allowances by 10 percent, banning civil servants from business class flights, restricting expenses on official government functions. However, that hasn’t mollified voters, who staged public protests over New Year’s.

Najib also enraged voters by leaving for most of the holidays, going to Las Vegas and other watering holes with his wife, Rosmah Mansor, whose free-spending ways have alienated large swaths of the conservative Malay Muslim community. He is being called “Mr Nowhere” because of his absences from the country.

“A putsch is in the air, definitely, as the frustration with Najib’s free spending and extravagant lifestyle increases,” a Malay businessman told Asia Sentinel. “Najib is in the weakest position any prime minister in Malaysia has ever seen.”

Calls have been rising to have Mohamad come back to the government administrative center of Putra Jaya as an “adviser” to right the ship, something that appears highly unlikely. Mahathir himself made light of the idea.

In the meantime, bloggers who have been described as aligned with Mahathir have been raising their game, making broadly based attacks on Najib and even other UMNO officials, calling attention to what appears to be corruption in the award of highway contracts.

Kadir Jasin, a former New Straits Times editor and close longtime Mahathir ally, wrote recently that “To many UMNO leaders, the measure of the party’s success is big cars, big houses and expensive watches whose names they can’t even mention.”  In particular, Rosmah has been criticized repeatedly for her taste in vastly expensive watches.

Kadir also called attention to “people with no formal appointments and duties (who) are known to use government on pretext of serving the country,” an apparent reference to Rosmah’s November commandeering of an official government jet to fly to Qatar to attend an international forum.

“Do they know that even the Queen (of England) uses trains and charters planes when travelling overseas? They should because many like the PM studied in the UK. Air transport for the British Royal Family and the government of the UK is provided, depending on circumstances and availability, by a variety of military and civilian operators. But most often they fly using scheduled commercial flights, normally the British Airways.”

“We are complaining about the wrong things he is doing in accommodating the wishes of his wife,” Kadir wrote. “We are asking the government to be accountable. The PM should answer these allegations. The way he bragged about his wife in public, he was in fact saying that his wife has more influence than him with foreign leaders.”

“Outsyedthebox” suggested that Najib, who had never finished his economics degree, actually “imbibed from the “Proton school of management” (the money-losing national car) “where it is a good thing to buy something high and sell it low.  Or buy something high and then sell it even higher to people who have few options.:

“Mahathir’s and (former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin’s) hands are all over the place but the point is that Najib and his wife are providing all the ammo,” a source said. “Without the ammo, Mahathir would be hard pressed to rally his troops against Najib.”

Everything “down to the price of ice has increased in a manner of two weeks,” said another UMNO loyalist. “Everything in Malaysia shot up in one month without notice. The government keeps the ringgit so weak against the US dollar, the cost of living keeps bouncing, salary increases are nothing. Crime is up, corruption is up. People are getting really upset.”

During the waning days of the premiership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, as the rank and file sought to push him out, “similar contempt was restricted to some segments of UMNO and the ruling elite,” a source told Asia Sentinel. “With Mahathir, it was disgust and contempt from intellectuals and rights groups. But with Najib – it’s across the board and it extends to his wife and friends.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 January 2014, 10:34 pm and is filed under
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Moderates in  Malaysia, Unite  as patriots to save the country from the conspiracy of reactionaries and anti-democratic forces out to turn the clock back to the discredited policies of the past

I call on moderates in Malaysia to unite as patriots to save the country from the conspiracy of reactionaries and anti-democratic forces out to turn the clock back to the discredited policies of the past.

The axis of reactionary and anti-democratic forces in government, politics and media (printed and social) have been flexing their muscles in the past eight months for the restoration of Mahathirish policies and hankering for the return of Mahathir to the helm of Putrajaya, whether as Prime Minister or de facto Prime Minister.

It has reached the stage where one of Mahathir’s top propaganda minions, Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin, has surfaced publicly to test the waters with the outrageous suggestion on Sunday for the return of Mahathir to Putrajaya to help the Barisan Nasional federal government “tackle raging racial, religious and economic issues”.

Zainuddin went public two days after Mahathir floated the idea of the restoration of the Internal Security Act, which immediately received a troika of support from the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar;  UMNO (not necessarily Najib’s) mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia and the Umno “savior”, Perkasa – which represented a triple slap-on-the-face for the Prime Minister and UMNO President, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

For the past eight months, the country has been plunged into the worst racial, religious and national polarization to create the conditions and perceptions of unrest and instability to justify a putsch by the reactionary and anti-democratic conspirators.

Such recent destabilising events include the “fairy tale” by IGP of a plot to “topple the government” at Dataran Merdeka on New Year’s Eve;  the illegal and unconstitutional Jais raid on the Bible of Malaysia Society and seizure of Malay and Iban Bibles; the banning of Comano – a coalition of 52 civil society groups for the United Nation’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process and the police double standards in the discriminatory and selective investigation of Father Lawrence Andrews, editor of the Herald proposing that he be charged with sedition but no similar action taken against the Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria although the latter had  clearly committed  sedition in his remark that it is permissible to spill the blood of those who protested in the New Year Eve’s anti-price hike.

But it is not all bleak, dark and hopeless despair in this gathering storm as evident from the following developments:

–	Flower-bearing progressive Muslims who took a stand outside the Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Klang two Sundays ago as mass was in session to send a clear message that Islam is a religion of peace and to show solidarity and defend fellow  Christian Malaysians  from a conservative Muslim group threatening protest;

–	Former Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, Tun Musa Hitam’s rejection of Mahathir’s call for the revival of the infamous ISA, warning that the revival of ISA would have “negative implications” on the present government such as the government not having the confidence to defend its decision made previously.

–	Support by former UMNO Deputy Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah for the removal of the Election Commission members, especially its chief, Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Yusof to restore public confidence in the Election Commission’s independence, impartiality and professionalism.

–	The refusal by Comango and the 52 participating civil society groups  to be bowed and intimidated by the Home Ministry’s decision to outlaw it, with Comango representatives, like Chew Swee Yoke, a founding member ofr the Women’s Lawyers Association, daring the authorities to arrest her for participating in Comango activities;

–	The revelation by Council of Churches secretary-general Herman Shastri yesterday that the Church had, over the years, engaged with several prime ministers over the fears that  the use of the word ‘Allah’ by Christians in the Malay language Bible could confuse Muslims, but the three Prime Ministers, Tun Mahathir, Tun Abdullah and Najib had all failed to uphold the formula  worked out with them – the latest being the 10-Point Solution to resolve the Bible controversy endorsed by the Federal Cabinet in April 2011;

–	Shastri’s reaffirmation that the Christian community is committed to peaceful negotiations and solution because of the sensitivity of the matter; and

–	The statement by Tan Sri Razali Ismail, the Chairman of Global Movement of Moderates Foundation (GMMF) that Malaysians should reject the “extreme position” taken by the “minority factions” in the country opposing Christians’ use of the word ‘Allah’.

The Cabinet, as its first meeting of the year last Wednesday, was expected to resolve the ‘Allah’ controversy and the Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr. S. Subramaniam said after the Cabinet meeting that the Prime Minister will announce the Cabinet decision on the issue of non-Muslims using the word of ‘Allah”.

But it has turned out to be the Cabinet farce of the decade, as the Cabinet apparently decided not to have a decision, and this is the reason why after a week, the Prime Minister has not said anything on the subject to bring the controversial and divisive issue to a close.

All eyes are turned on Najib and the Cabinet on its second meeting of the year tomorrow, and it should not continue to act in an irresponsible, cowardly and craven manner and avoiding the issue.

Instead, it should have the responsibility and courage of leadership in a plural society by fully endorsing and implementing the 10-Point Solution endorsed by the Cabinet in 2011.

Are there no moderates and patriots left in the Cabinet?

As for Mahathir, he should explain why he had failed uphold the formula he reached with the Christian Churches to resolve the ‘Allah’ issue, and instead, is aiding and abetting the “minority factions” mentioned by Razali to agitate public disaffection and stoke religious tensions in the country over the issue.

These are very difficult and challenging times for Malaysia.

Moderates in  Malaysia, regardless of their political hue or religious creed, whether in Cabinet or outside, must unite  as patriots to save the country from the conspiracy of reactionaries and anti-democratic forces out to turn the clock back to the discredited policies of the past.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 January 2014, 2:12 pm and is filed under
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Remembering my father, Tun Razak

by Nazir Razak

The Malaysian Insider

January 14, 2014

Thirty-eight years ago today, on January 14, 1976, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein passed away in London from complications wreaked by leukaemia.

Malaysia lost its prime minister. I lost my father. Malaysia was 19. I was nine.

The days immediately after were shrouded in personal sorrow and national mourning.

My four brothers and I sought to comfort our mother, while the public and heartfelt outpouring of grief throughout the country served as a resounding reminder that we were not alone in our time of tragedy.

I must confess that given my age and my father’s hectic schedule, I sometimes lament the fact that he gave so much to the country, leaving too little for his family.

However, I have never wavered from being enormously proud of his selfless dedication to our young nation.

I did not get the time to know him. But imprinted in me are the values he imparted, the integrity that he insisted upon, above all. Yes, above all, including his family.

I recall the time when my brothers and I approached him one evening and asked that a swimming pool be built at Seri Taman, the prime minister’s residence where we lived.

The lawyer that he was, he insisted that we make our case with logical and rational arguments. We did so, and thought we had presented the argument pretty well, until we noticed his face had started to darken, and the eyes flashed with annoyance.

My father made it abundantly clear that while Seri Taman may be our home, the house belonged to the government and, hence, to the people.

Anything spent on it would have to come from public funds, and there was no way he was going to allow the state coffers to be depleted on something as frivolous as a swimming pool.

“What will the people think?” he thundered.

In my years of growing up, I actively sought to hear from people who knew my father well, including those who had worked with him in government, politics, the Merdeka movement and so on as well as his personal friends.

It was my only way of getting to know him. What stood out for me was that in almost every conversation I had about him, the qualities they always referenced were his values.

As the custodian of the nation’s coffers, his frugality was legendary.

“You had to account for every cent, or he would be on your back,” one former minister told me.

Well, I knew that already. Not just from the swimming pool episode, but many anecdotes.

My elder brothers often talk about one of the rare opportunities they had to accompany him on an official trip to Switzerland.

He made sure he paid their expenses himself, he was so careful with the cost of the trip to the government that he moved his whole entourage to a cheaper hotel than originally booked, and they dined over and over again at the cheapest restaurant in the vicinity of the hotel.

And then there was his final trip to Europe in October 1975 for medical treatment. He must have known that it could well be his last trip, yet he did not allow my mother to accompany him to save his own money; probably concerned about her financial situation after his passing.

She only managed to join him weeks later on the insistence of the cabinet and with a specially approved government budget for her travel.

His integrity was another trait that came up often in conversations. He was guided by what now seems a somewhat quaint and old-fashioned concept of public service; that a public servant is first and foremost a servant of the people whose trust must never be betrayed.

The other point that kept being repeated was his stamina.

Many were later astonished to learn he had been suffering from leukaemia, given that when in office, he was constantly on the move, attending to official duties, immersing himself in the minutiae of policy and, of course, his famous surprise visits to constituencies around the country that allowed him to hear directly from the people about what was happening on the ground.

Of course, few people forget to recount Tun Razak’s dedication to rural development. He was “People First”, long before the sound bite.

But above all, what they unanimously emphasised was Tun Razak’s commitment to national unity – towards building a nation where every single one of its citizens could find a place under the Malaysian sun.

That vision was encapsulated in the two initiatives that my father spearheaded in the wake of the May 13, 1969 tragedy – the formulation of the Rukunegara in 1970 and the New Economic Policy in 1971.

The Rukunegara reconciled indigenous cultural traditions and heritage with the demands of a modern, secular state.

The NEP’s goal, as outlined in the policy announcement, was the promotion of national unity to be undertaken via a massive experiment in socio-economic engineering through the twin thrusts of eradication of poverty irrespective of race and economic restructuring to eliminate identification of economic function with ethnicity.

The debate on the NEP rages on today. I myself have publicly remarked that something has gone awry in its implementation.

The fixation on quotas and the seemingly easy route to unimaginable wealth for a select few have created an intra-ethnic divide in class and status, while fuelling inter-ethnic tensions. Both these developments serve to undermine, if not completely negate, the overarching goal of Tun Razak’s NEP, strengthening national unity.

What went wrong? Some have argued that the fault was affirmative action itself.  For me, it was because its implementation was skewed by the focus on the tactical approach rather than the commitment to the strategic goal.

The NEP has certainly helped eradicate poverty and reduced economic imbalances by spawning a Malay middle class.

However, in terms of the larger vision, the best that can be said about the NEP is that it initially helped blunt the edges of racial conflict in the aftermath of May 13.

Thanks in part to the NEP, Malaysia did not follow Sri Lanka, which became embroiled in decades of strife between the immigrant Tamils and the indigenous Sinhalese.

That is no small achievement. But the NEP promise of strengthening national unity has not been realised.

In fact, there are signs that inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic tensions are once again approaching worrying levels.

What can be done? There is a Malay proverb: “Sesat di Hujung Jalan, Balik ke-Pangkal Jalan.” Loosely translated, it means “When one has lost one’s way, one should return to the beginning.”

And “the beginning” here, in my view, is the values, commitment, vision and inclusiveness demonstrated and embodied by Tun Razak.

I have mentioned earlier the remarks about his integrity, commitment to the concept of public service and his vision of a progressive, prosperous and united Malaysia. But let me close here by emphasising two other highlights of his legacy.

One, he was a true democrat. Two years after running the country as head of the National Operations Council, he disbanded the committee and restored democratic rule.

He held virtually dictatorial power as the NOC chief, but his worldview and values rested on a foundation of democratic rule, not dictatorship. His decision-making style exemplified this as well: he brought in all who needed to be involved and engaged in a consultative discussion before any major decision was adopted.

He never excluded those with contrarian views, he encouraged multiplicity of opinions in order to have the best chance of making a right final decision.

Two, while he was committed to helping improve the material quality of life for the majority Bumiputeras to avert another “May 13”, he viewed this as a national prerogative rather than a racial one. That, to me, explains his determination to involve Malaysia’s best and brightest in this quest, regardless of their racial or ethnic origin.

Just check out those who served him and his administration back then. They were and are, Malaysians all, united in their determination to rebuild this nation from the ashes of May 13.

That was Tun Razak’s legacy to Malaysia. We can best honour it by returning to “Pangkal Jalan”. – January 14, 2014.

* Datuk Seri Mohd Nazir Razak is the son of the second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak, and a brother of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. He is managing director and chief executive of the CIMB group.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 January 2014, 4:21 pm and is filed under
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Show courage in ‘Allah’ row, Zaid tells Pakatan

The Malay Mail Online

January 14, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 14 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) must stand firm in its support of non-Muslims’ use of “Allah” and not allow itself to be cowed by fears of a backlash from the Muslim community, former minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim said today.

The former PKR member said the pact should have shown the courage to support the proposal of three Selangor DAP assemblymen to amend the state law at the centre of the current religious row, instead of criticising them for their “hastiness”.

“Pakatan can only lead the country if it is brave enough to offer solutions to the difficult religious and ethnic issues that Umno seems adept at creating.

“Pakatan can only be stronger if they can take on Umno on these issues by presenting comprehensive solutions and not shying away as they are prone to do,” he wrote on his blog today.

Saying that rather than taking leadership in the issue that has so far been allowed to deteriorate by their rivals in Barisan Nasional (BN), PR was instead recoiling under the pressure of Umno’s “religious propaganda”

The former law minister in the Abdullah administration pointed out that the federal opposition pact has already stated its stand on the issue, and all that remained was to be consistent.

“In other words, the hard decision has already been made. If Pakatan really believes in its own decision and is willing to hold to it, then it’s only logical that it supports the repeal of the Enactment,” he added.

He further said that there existed sufficient evidence, both historical and present, to support the pact’s stance on the issue, as well as a moderate Muslims such as former Perlis Mufti Datuk Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin who are capable of arguing the position.

The opposition pact can no longer afford to focus on gaining electoral support, Zaid said, but must begin to show that it has the credentials to govern the country.

“Pakatan as a coalition that earns votes will no longer suffice. Pakatan’s strategy of withholding on the sensitive issues and dealing with them later, when power comes their way, will not work,” Zaid continued.

After the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) raided the Bible Society of Malaysia and carted away over 300 copies of Malay- and Iban-language bibles on January 3, DAP representatives Yeo Bee Yin (Damansara Utama), Lau Weng San (Kampung Tunku, and Rajiv Rishyakaran (Bukit Gasing) proposed amending the state law that was used for the enforcement.

The Selangor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation Among Muslims) Enactment 1988, passed by the then BN state government, prohibits non-Muslims in Selangor from using 35 Arabic words and phrases in their faith, including “Allah”, “Nabi” (prophet), “Injil” (gospel) and “Insya’Allah” (God willing).

The three assemblymen had suggested changing the law to be in line with Article 11 of the Federal Constitution that guarantees the freedom of religion.

But the proposal was criticised by Opposition Leader and PKR de facto chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who said the three had acted with “hastiness” in making the call.

PAS subsequently sided with Anwar in saying the DAP lawmakers were premature with their call.

Tempers continue to simmer in the worsening row over the Arabic word that has now spilled beyond the legal case between the government and the Catholic Church over its right to use “Allah” in its weekly newspaper the Herald.

The ongoing legal dispute is still pending before the Federal Court, which is set to hear arguments from both sides on February 24 before deciding on whether it will hear an appeal by the Catholic Church.

Christians make up close to 10 per cent of the Malaysian population, or 2.6 million. Almost two-thirds of them are Bumiputera and are largely based in Sabah and Sarawak, where they routinely use Bahasa Malaysia and indigenous languages in their religious practices, including describing God as “Allah” in their prayers and holy book.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 January 2014, 10:02 pm and is filed under
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The tragedy and farce that is the PKFZ

COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

January 13, 2014

This is a fact of Malaysian political life: apart from the government’s favourite target Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, all other ministers or former ministers have never seen the inside of a jail.

There will be a few near misses here – one that comes to mind is the 1982 murder of an Umno politician – and there but no one pays the ultimate price for whatever they did while in office.

Today, former MCA deputy president and retired minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy joined the long list of former ministers who were spared incarceration when prosecutors dropped three cheating charges against him in connection with the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project.

The project was initially tagged at RM1.1 billion when it was first mooted in 1997, but more than quadrupled to RM4.6 billion by 2007. The final cost to taxpayers has been estimated at RM12.5 billion.

No one has yet been punished for the scandal.

An independent investigation of the PKFZ farce showed that the former MCA president was among a few who had committed serious breaches that had ballooned the project’s cost and led to billions of dollars in losses.

The PricewaterhouseCoopers report in 2009 had singled out Chan, Madam O.C. Phang, the former general manager of the Port Klang Authority and board directors of the port agency for not carrying out their duties with adequate care.

But perhaps the case had to have an abrupt ending.

Otherwise it could have been embarrassing for Tun Abdullah Badawi, the then prime minister who would have had to explain why certain decisions were made by his government; why his signature was on certain agreements and whether his cabinet colleagues were even in the loop when  some critical decisions on the PKFZ were made.

In short, Chan would not have been the only one on trial.

Abdullah, his Cabinet colleagues and a few politicians, including one from East Malaysia who was recently given a plum assignment by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, would have also had to answer a clutch of questions.

Like, how land bought in the 1990s for RM96 million or roughly RM3 per sq ft was later sold in 2002 for RM1 billion, or roughly RM25 per sq ft.

And why the vendor was given sole rights to develop the free trade zone without an open tender.

And how it managed to raise funds through the issuing of bonds that were backed by so-called “letters of comfort” from Malaysia’s Transport Ministry.

But the prosecutors have come to save the day. And another person in the PKFZ scandal walks away free. No one is left holding the baby except Malaysians – who will see their tax money being poured down another black hole.

Karl Marx was right. History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce. That really sums up the PKFZ scandal. – January 13, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 January 2014, 8:59 am and is filed under
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#BBCtrending: Be careful what you say about spinach

BBC Trending

What’s popular and why

14 January 2014

Hundreds of joke images are being shared on social media in Malaysia

Malaysia’s prime minister is being widely lampooned on social media for a comment he made about the price of kangkung, or water spinach.

Food is a faux pas minefield for politicians, especially when it’s perceived as being used in a get-down-with-the-people kind of way – think of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s pasty moment or Chancellor George Osborne’s “posh burger” tweet. The almost inevitable response seems to be ridicule. That’s where the Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak finds himself right now. With the government under fire because of price hikes in basics like fuel and electricity, he choose to push back by highlighting a reduction in the cost of the leafy green vegetable kangkung.

Kangkung – also known as water spinach, morning glory and Chinese spinach – is widely eaten in Malaysia, and is cooked as a stir-fry with a little garlic or chilli paste. But it’s cheap, grows wild alongside streams, paddy fields and drains, and is not considered a staple. Moments after a video of the prime minister was posted making the comments, the sarcasm and jokes began to trend on social media in Malaysia. There have been hundreds of thousands of tweets, a Facebook page set up – with 10,000 followers already – a YouTube re-mix of his comments, the lyrics to popular and traditional folk songs have been re-worked, and “Keep calm and eat kangkung” T-shirts have been made and rushed to market.

“Kangkung-gate”, as it’s been dubbed by some, has hit a nerve because many people are struggling with the rising cost of living, and are resentful of what they regard as corruption, and lavish spending by the government. Unsurprisingly many opposition politicians – including Anwar Ibrahim – have seized on the opportunity to join in the collective fun-poking. The story has been so big on social media that many have complained of their timelines being clogged up. “This kangkung obsession is fast becoming a laughing stalk,” tweeted comedian Kuah Jenhan. “Lettuce get to the root of the problem. We have mushroom for improvement.”

Reporting by Cordelia Hebblethwaite

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 11:43 am and is filed under
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Between God and Allah

Wall Street Journal

Jan 14, 2014

Malaysia tries to stop Christians using the Bahasa word for God.

For nearly 200 years non-Muslim residents of present-day Malaysia used the Arabic and Bahasa word “Allah” to refer to God. Seven years ago, the government began an unnecessary and provocative push to ban them from doing so in print. Now Malaysian police are accusing a Catholic priest of sedition after he announced that churches in the state of Selangor would continue using the A word in their local-language services.

At the heart of the dispute is prominent Catholic priest Lawrence Andrew. In 2007, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar banned Father Lawrence Andrew’s church newspaper from printing “Allah.” Father Andrew fought the ban in the courts and eventually lost in the Court of Appeal last October. In November, the sultan of Selangor took the campaign a step further and extended the ban to Bahasa-language Bibles and churches. Now Father Andrew is being investigated for violating the edict under the draconian Sedition Act.

Meantime, the dispute has galvanized extremist groups. Last week, in an unprecedented raid on a Christian organization, Islamic authorities in Selangor seized 320 Bibles from the Malaysian Bible Society and detained two Society leaders. Members of the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) have intimidated moderate Muslims and threatened violence against churches that dare continue using “Allah” in services.

Such threats are irresponsible anywhere but particularly so in multiethnic Malaysia, where similar tensions have boiled over in the past. In 2010, after a High Court briefly reversed the ban on “Allah,” mobs attacked churches, temples and even a convent school.

UMNO is fanning religious tensions for political gain. Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has defended anti-Christian protesters in Selangor, saying “what they are doing is carrying out the Sultan’s decree. They are not doing anything against the law.” Prime Minister Najib Razak also weighed in on the side of the Allah crackdown.

Touting such views is a convenient way for UMNO to steer public discourse away from corruption and clean elections. These concerns helped the opposition coalition win the popular vote last year for the first time since independence. Even the Islamist wing of the opposition, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), has focused on good governance rather than using the Allah controversy to score political points. It insists that minority religions’ use of “Allah” is their constitutional right.

UMNO has previously sought to curry favor with its Malay-Muslim base by flaunting its Islamist credentials. But that strategy may no longer appeal to the country’s increasingly urban electorate. According to a recent poll by the independent Merdeka Center, the drop in UMNO’s overall public approval to 38% from 50% in June 2013 was steepest among ethnic Malays. Only 52% of the Malay majority approve of the government, down from 67% in August.

Malaysia’s leaders would be wise to note this shift and drop the investigation of Father Andrew. Depriving religious minorities of their rights isn’t in the long-term interest of Malaysia or UMNO.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 9:54 pm and is filed under
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Call for bi-partisan support in March/April Parliament for a RCI into RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal or  Malaysia will be  international laughing stock as “land of mega-scandals without criminals”

Anyone game for a bet –  whether the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) “mother of all scandals” had ever been raised or discussed at the Cabinet meeting today?

I am not privy to what happened in Cabinet today or any other information covered by the Official Secrets Act (OSA) but I would not hesitate betting that the subject of PKFZ scandal never cropped up in today’s Cabinet meeting – although two days ago, a second former Cabinet Minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy walked free from High Court when the Attorney-General withdrew all charges against him in connection with the PKFZ scandal.

The acquittal of Chan, following the acquittal last October of Chan’s predecessor as former Transport Minister Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik of three charges of cheating the government in relation to the PKFZ scandal, should be urgent and weighty subjects for today’s Cabinet meeting – that is if the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is serious about the wanting to make corruption part of Malaysia’s past not its future, or the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department on governance and integrity, Datuk Paul Low is making a difference in Cabinet and government not just a cipher and the post-13GE Najib Cabinet is a Transformation Cabinet with anti-corruption as one of its top priority agendas and not the worst “half-past six Cabinet” in history.

I would imagine that the Cabinet Ministers and the top Umno/Barisan Nasional leaders must have sighed with relief at the double acquittal of the two former Transport Ministers marking their success to keep the “mother of all scandals” under wraps and the last thing anyone of them  wants to do is to “stir the hornets’ nest” and  give the demands for accountability a  fresh lease of life.

But the double acquittal of the two former Transport Ministers who were former No. 1 and No. 2 MCA leader in a space of less than three months have caused great disappointment, frustration,  pain  and despair to Malaysians who had hoped in the recovery and restoration of the credibility, integrity and professionalism of  the many world-class Malaysian institutions and system badly undermined,  damaged and even destroyed in the past three decades starting with the 22-year Mahathir premiership.

This has even led the former Port Klang Authority (PKA) chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng to suggest in despair that the Attorney-General might as well withdraw all prosecutions connected to the multibillion-ringgit PKFZ scandal – to save more money, spare witnesses as well as not to cause injustices to the “small fries” who are left to take the rap for the scandal.

I don’t think we should give way to despair and accept that the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal is, to revisit Tun Dr. Mahathir’s infamous RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) in the early eighties, “a heinous crime without criminals”.

If Najib wants to make corruption part of Malaysia’s past and not its future, then his administration must re-strategise to consider how to bring the culprits responsible for the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal to book, not just the “small fries” but also the “sharks” whether  in government or politics.

What has Paul Low,  the Minister for governance and integrity, to offer in terms of bringing the culprits for the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal to justice – or must the Malaysians taxpayers continue to be the final and only suckers in having to pay the price of this latest of Barisan Nasional financial scandals?

If the Prime Minister, the Minister for governance and integrity (I do not expect the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is capable or dare to make  any contribution in this regard), have come to the end of road and are entirely hopeless and helpless, then there is the one last resort left – which is the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal.

I would call for bi-partisan support when Parliament reconvenes on March 10 for a 20-day meeting till April 10  for the establishment of  a Royal Commission of Inquiry into RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal or  Malaysia will be  international laughing stock as “land of mega-scandals without criminals”.

Will Najib, Pau Low, the Cabinet and Barisan Nasional MPs support such a bi-partisan motion in Parliament to prove the world wrong that Malaysia is a land of mega-financial scandals without criminals?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 3:36 pm and is filed under
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In Nazir’s paean to dad, a call to action for all Malaysians

NEWS ANALYSIS BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

January 14, 2014

It happens all the time. Whenever someone writes or talks about the golden generation of Malaysian leaders, it is a bittersweet experience for citizens of this blessed country.

There is pride that individuals such as Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Tan Siew Sin, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman once charted the fortunes of Malaysia.

And there is deep longing for such men of integrity, principle and fairness.

Yet, there is also numbing sadness that such men no longer exists in government, replaced long time ago by inept individuals with a ravenous appetite for self.

Make no mistake, Razak and friends were flawed men, at times drive by political interests of their parties. But they loved this land above everything else. Above enriching their family members. Above nurturing crony capitalism.

On this day 38 years ago, Razak died in London.

His youngest son, Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, penned an opinion piece on the legacy of the second prime minister and it offers a road map for anyone interested in pulling back this country from the brink of implosion and a permanent place among the mediocre.

One cannot imagine Tan Siew Sin or Tun Dr Ismail allowing any of these blatant cost overruns or turning a blind eye to any form of thievery.

Here are some lessons for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and others who have designs on occupying the top position in Putrajaya.

1) Every ringgit you spend belongs to the rakyat.

Therefore, there is no justification to spend millions renovating Sri Perdana every time there is a new PM.

There is no justification to have a cavalier attitude towards ballooning costs of privatisation projects.

For example, the klia2 project will cost taxpayers RM5 billion, more than double what it was expected to cost. Is Najib concerned? No. Is there likely to be a serious probe on the fiasco? No.

The high speed train will cost taxpayers RM30 billion at least. One cannot imagine Tan Siew Sin or Tun Dr Ismail allowing any of these blatant cost overruns or turning a blind eye to any form of thievery.

2)  Limit the involvement of family in the business of running the country.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim stood up proudly in Parliament and defended Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor’s use of the government jet to attend some function in the Middle East.

He said she was an asset to Malaysia. Guess what? Malaysia has a fully-staffed foreign ministry and a travel-happy foreign minister for the purpose of furthering the country’s interest.

The involvement of family and friends in policy or business decisions often leads to skewed policies and decisions about contracts and projects.

Worse yet, it often leads to classified and sensitive information being passed to individuals who have no business having such information.

Just think about the number of spouses, siblings and children of ministers who have become extremely rich on the back of privatisation contracts handed out by the ministers.

To be fair, it was also a disease when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi were prime ministers.

3) Commitment to building a nation where every single citizen could find a place under the Malaysian sun.

Now there is a commitment to clinging on to power even if it means putting the country on the fast track to destruction.

Conventional thinking in Umno is that Malaysia is going through this unstable period in race relations because Abdullah Badawi allowed too much debate on sensitive subjects. That is a half-truth.

With the dawn of the Internet era, Abdullah had little choice but to loosen controls. What followed was robust exchanges on everything from the lifestyle of the rich to too much information on sex bloggers.

But the sense of drift in this country has little to do with a better flow of information but the unwillingness by national leaders to defend the commitment that Malaysia belongs to all, even supporters of the opposition.

If as Nazir writes that “inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic tensions” are reaching worrying levels, it is because national leaders have withdrawn from the main stage and allowed peripheral politicians to dictate government thinking on race and religion.

The bottom line is this: the Umno politician still believes that everybody else does not own a part of this country. That is why he or she still tells Chinese or Indians to go balik India or when the latter complain about policies or decisions of the government.

Nazir must have thought long and hard about writing this piece about his father’s legacy, knowing that it would lead people to conclude that he was giving a tutorial to his brother on how to save this country.

His critics may assail for saying too little too late and pro-Umno bloggers may jump on him with their usual gibberish and threats.

Perhaps in this article is a lesson for all Malaysians: the time for staying on the fence has long gone by. It is time to come to the fore to protect and pull this country back from the brink. – January 14, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 7:26 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia’s kangkung index

– Sakmongkol AK47

The Malaysian Insider

January 15, 2014

Ungku Aziz had his sarong index. To those not old enough to remember, Ungku Aziz was once the vice-chancellor of Universiti Malaya and is the father of the present governor of Bank Negara. He has always been a keen social and political observer and his views can be rapier sharp as they are acerbic. To the establishment that is.

On the recent Kagkung-gate faux pas committed by an insensitive PM, Ungku Aziz penned down the following verses:

Pucuknya angkuh memanjat bukit,

 tak sedar akar terendam air parit,

 rakyat mengeluh lelah dan sakit,

 sedikit diberi banyak diungkit..

Pucuknya angkuh memanjat bukit,

 Tak sedar akar diair parit,

 Bagaikan melepas anjing tersepit,

 Dah jadi pemimpin , rakyat digigit.

When researching into the issue of poverty, Ungku Aziz came up with sarong index – a measure of the level of poverty. The level of poverty can be measured by the number of sarongs a person has. When Ungku Aziz did his poverty study in Kuala Kemaman many years ago, many people there had only one sarong. People were very poor.

Najib, the man who some alleged did not complete his degree at Nottingham has his “kangkung” index. As long as a family can still afford 1 kilo of kangkung (water spinach) they are not poor. Maybe now, we can have kangkung as the medium of exchange. I kg of kangkung for 5 kg of rice. 2 kg of Kangkung to pay toll at Duke.

If people are poor, they can always shop at Kedai 1Malaysia. They can use roads with no tolls. They can eat less sugar. If meat is expensive, eat fish. And if fish is expensive, insects are now gourmet food. If they are still not happy, they can migrate elsewhere.

But where can the 3.4 million Umno members migrate to? Azeez Raheem, Rizal Merican and KJ may qualify to go back to India. The Chinese can go back to China. The Malays can go back to Sumatra or Java. The Orang Asli? Where will they go?

Where is the leadership in this country? We have a leader who has no courage to lead. We have no doubt, the PM and his ministers all have physical courage. They are always surrounded by a phalanx of bodyguards.

Even with bodyguards, one’s physical wellbeing is not guaranteed. The bodyguard who failed to protect Kamalanathan should be sacked for failing in his duty. Kamalanathan should now realise, he is in the company of manic people in Umno.

 Our leader has no moral courage. I was told after delivering his speech at the recent Umno general assembly, Najib patted himself on the back and said, that was a good speech. He told that to a former Umno deputy president who responded by feigning agreement. Of course it was a good speech because Najib did not have balls to go against the current.

He was just being a bigger sounding board to the manic urges of the Umno crowd- kill, everyone opposing Umno in sight. He was speaking in a hall packed with his devoted fans and the ladies are “orgasm-ing” at the sight of his red lips. He was playing to the gallery and this is a clear indication of a lack of leadership courage.

Lee Iacocca some time ago wrote a book titled “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” We might as well ask the same question. We all must be outraged at the bunch of clueless bozos in Putrajaya who are taking this country over the cliff. Najib thinks we are sailing in a Star Cruise ship – asking us to stay the course. This is our country he is talking about, not a cruise ship owned and operated by the gambling behemoth in which his grandfather had interests in.

On courage, Iacocca said:

“A leader must have COURAGE. I’m talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn’t courage. Tough talk isn’t courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, my gun is bigger than your gun.

“Courage in the twenty-first century doesn’t mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk. If you’re a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can’t even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.”

We have our own George Bush junior in Putrajaya.

This is the courage to take a different position in the face of popular mood and perception. It is the courage to persevere in the face of shame and personal scandal. Winston Churchill said, without courage all other virtuous personal traits are gone.

Najib has none of that. Instead he chose to insult and mock the people by pointing out the price of kangkung has gone down. So that Najib knows, that a long time ago in Indonesia, a close cousin of the water spinach known as genjer was a symbol of abject poverty. In Malaysia so that he knows, kangkung was once the vegetable consumed by poor people.

Because Najib has not showed leadership we have acute racial tensions stirred up by Umno zealots, religious schisms also stirred by Umno and dire economic problems also the result of the government’s incompetence and its cronies rapacious greed. Like my colleague Charles Santiago rightly pointed out, these issues are the answer to Umno’s survival. These are the rehashed issues of the 4R’s: race, religion, rulers and riots. All designed to instil fear in the hearts and minds of our citizens. A leader, who allows these to build up unmitigated, is a useless leader.

Many people are now hurling curses at Najib. Remember when he ‘haram jadah’ Felda settlers who opposed his policies but came to take the RM15,000 windfall? The same term is being used against him now. What goes around, comes around. The chickens have come back to roost. – sakmongkol.blogspot.com, January 15, 2014.

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

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 9:19 am and is filed under
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The ‘Allah’ Issue in Perspective — Part 1

By Kee Thuan Chye

news.Malaysia.msn.com

Jan 13 2014

As the ‘Allah’ issue rages on, particularly after the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) raided the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) and seized 300-plus copies of the Bible in Malay and Iban on January 2, let’s take a moment and look at it in perspective.

How did it start?

Not, as falsely claimed by former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, because Malaysia has become more liberal and Malaysians are testing the limits of their “new-found freedom”. Not, as he says, because some groups “purposely come up with something to annoy people” or that they want to run down other religions.

That is the usual kind of poppycock for which he has of late been fond of spinning.

The whole mess started in 2009 with Syed Hamid Albar, who was home minister then, banning the Catholic weekly The Herald from using the word ‘Allah’ in its Bahasa Malaysia section. Prior to that, there had been no issue. Christians in Sabah and Sarawak had been using it for ages, long before they joined the Federation of Malaysia. No one had raised a hue and cry.

Yes, at the time there was already a ministerial order, issued by the home ministry in 1986, which banned all non-Muslim publications from using the word ‘Allah’, along with three other words – ‘solat’, ‘Kaabah’ and ‘Baitullah’. But it obviously ignored the fact that ‘Allah’ was in the lexicon of the East Malaysian Christians, and it appeared to have been issued without considering their sensitivities.

Yes, there was also the Control and Restriction Enactment on the propagation of non-Islamic religions among Muslims, which had been passed into law by 10 states in Peninsular Malaysia since 1988, and it prohibits non-Muslims from using a number of Arabic terms, including the word ‘Allah’ and, strangely enough, even ‘fatwa’, ‘sheikh’ and ‘imam’. But this was promulgated for the specific purpose of preventing Muslims from being converted to other religions.

According to former Cabinet minister Zaid Ibrahim, there was “a real concern” then that some Christian evangelists were aggressively converting Muslims, so the enactment came about. But, he adds, in dealing with this concern, the Government “took the easy and lazy way out”. It thought that by merely gazetting a few regulations banning the use of some words, the problem would be solved. It wasn’t.

It created the further problem of restricting the use of these words even on occasions when they were not being used by non-Muslims to propagate to Muslims. In senior lawyer Roger Tan’s reading of the law, such a restriction contravenes Articles 3(1), 10, 11(1), 11(3), 11(4) and 12(3) of the Federal Constitution.

He explains that “a state law can only be enacted to proscribe a Christian from delivering a Bible which contains the word ‘Allah’ to a Muslim and not if the former uses the same Bible for his own personal belief”. It therefore follows that certain aspects of the enactment are unconstitutional.

In fact, in 2010, the PAS MP for Shah Alam, Khalid Samad, spearheaded a working committee to review those aspects for the state of Selangor, in particular the ban against non-Muslims using the Arabic terms. He said, “As a follower of Islam, I do not find this acceptable. It makes our religion seem so unfriendly and so segregated from the rest of mankind.”

But what has been the outcome of that review?

Nothing, it would seem. Because Jais was invoking this same enactment when it raided BSM’s premises on January 2. (Numerous lawyers, including Roger Tan and Bar Council President Christopher Leong, Syahredzan Johan, Eric Paulsen, Firdaus Husni, Andrew Khoo, Amer Hamzah Arshad, Edmund Bon, Fahri Azzat and Nizam Bashir have since pointed out that the raid was illegal.)

Still, the question needs to be asked: Why did Syed Hamid take the action against The Herald in 2009 and, in the words of Sarawak Land Development Minister James Masing, “stir up the Allah issue”?

“Nobody talked about it before this, and the people in Sabah and Sarawak of all religions had no problem with the use of ‘Allah’ in Christian Bibles,” says Masing. “Did Syed Hamid politicise the issue?”

Syed Hamid says he didn’t. He claims “it was the right thing to do to prevent confusion” among Muslims.

But then again, why would it confuse Muslims when ‘Allah’ was used only within the church, among Christians? And when it pertained to The Herald, the publication had to state on its masthead that it was for Christians only?

Furthermore, Syed Hamid himself had initially agreed to letting The Herald continue to use ‘Allah’ as long as it observed this condition. He himself signed the order granting that, and it was even gazetted on February 16, 2009. But 12 days later, he reneged on it and banned The Herald from using the word. Why the sudden change?

Was it because the Umno elections were coming up in March and Syed Hamid was vying for a senior position in the party, and he was thus prompted to use the issue to win the favour of the voting delegates?

Whatever it was, The Herald challenged the ban in the High Court, and in December that year, the court ruled that the use of the word ‘Allah’ by Christians was protected by the Federal Constitution as long as it was not used to proselytize Muslims.

Looking at it from the point of law, we should think the judgement made sense. We should think that Syed Hamid erred in imposing the ban on The Herald. After all, Articles 3(1) and 11(1) guarantee the fundamental right of every non-Muslim to profess and practise their own religion in peace and harmony. And every religious group is assured the right to manage its own religious affairs. But the Government didn’t think so, and it decided to appeal the decision – in January 2010.

Meanwhile, a fresh controversy broke out in January 2011 when the home ministry seized 35,000 copies of the Malay-language Bible (Al-Kitab) bound for the Sarawak Christian market. The ministry reasoned that the books were impounded because they referred to God as ‘Allah’ and the ‘Allah’ case was under appeal. But the Christian community protested strongly because the seizure infringed on their constitutional right. As pressure mounted and the Sarawak state elections scheduled for April drew near, Najib realised BN could lose the Christian votes it needed, and was thus forced to act.

Using his minister Idris Jala, a Sarawak Christian, as the intermediary, he proposed a 10-point solution. It called for the impounded Bibles to be released, lifted all restrictions against the local printing and importation of Bibles in Malay and indigenous languages, gave special dispensation to Sabah and Sarawak, and promised to work with Christian groups to address inter-religious issues. It all looked very good on paper.

But Bishop Ng Moon Hing, Chairman of the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), called it a “one-policy, two-countries” approach that was “confusing and unacceptable”. It set different standards for Pensinsular Malaysia and East Malaysia. It forbade the use of ‘Allah’ in the former but allowed it in Sabah and Sarawak. The aptness of his statement has since been reinforced by subsequent developments.

On October 2013, more than three-and-a-half years after the appeal was filed, the Court of Appeal ruled that “the usage of ‘Allah’ is not an integral part of the Christian faith” and therefore overturned the High Court’s decision.

This came to be interpreted by some quarters as meaning that ‘Allah’ was exclusive to Muslims. In which case, it should not be used by the Christians of East Malaysia as well. And therefore Najib’s 10-point solution was not valid. But government ministers and the Attorney-General were quick to point out that the verdict was concerned only with The Herald and had no bearing on the Al-Kitab.

Others disagreed. Constitutional lawyer Fahri Azzat argued that the Court of Appeal’s stand on ‘Allah’ being not an integral part of Christianity “clearly meant that the word was the monopoly of Muslims and the Islamic faith in this country”. As such, he added, “non-Muslims cannot use the word in any publication, including in the Al-Kitab.”

Veteran lawyer Karpal Singh said the Attorney-General “cannot misconstrue the ruling in a narrow manner to hold the view that only The Herald was banned from using the word … it is crystal clear that the judges have decided that non-Muslims have no right to use the word in any form whatsoever”. He also said the decision rendered “null and void” the 10-point solution.

There was even confusion among government ministers. Joseph Kurup said East Malaysian Christians residing in the peninsula could use ‘Allah’ in their worship, but Nazri Aziz rebutted and said no. Meanwhile, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said The Herald could not use the word even in East Malaysia, but Idris Jala insisted the 10-point solution was still in force.

So, what gives? Whom do we listen to?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 7:09 am and is filed under
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The ‘Allah’ Issue in Perspective – Part 2

By Kee Thuan Chye

news.malaysia.msn.com

14 Jan 2014

Yesterday, I looked at the ‘Allah’ issue from the time it started to what it has become today, and how we are now trapped in a web of confusion spun from diverse interpretations of the Court of Appeal’s decision on the use of the word ‘Allah’ by The Herald, as well as the “one-policy, two-countries” implication arising from Prime Minister Najib Razak’s 10-point solution.

In the midst of such confusion, how do we judge who is right – those who claim that ‘Allah’ is exclusive to Muslims or those who insist that it is their constitutional right to practise their religion the way they have been doing it for ages, including referring to God as ‘Allah’?

How do we deal with the rising fervour on both sides, Muslim and Christian, as they seek to defend what they think is right? With Father Lawrence Andrew, the editor of The Herald, who said on December 27 that Christians would continue to use ‘Allah’ in all Selangor churches, and with the Solidariti Umat Islam Klang members who protested in public against his statement?

How do we deal with Perak Mufti Harussani Zakaria’s demand for the arrest of the Malays who turned up at a church in Klang to show solidarity with Christians?

What about Perkasa Vice-President Zulkifli Noordin’s insistence that even the Malay-language Bible (Al-Kitab) must not contain the word ‘Allah’, and that churches in Sabah and Sarawak must heed the Court of Appeal’s verdict, in spite of the 10-point solution?

How do we deal with the call, escalated by the ‘Allah’ issue, made by Borneo’s Plight in Malaysia Foundation (Bopim) for Sabah and Sarawak to secede? Or the similarly worded warning by both Bolly Lapok, the Bishop of Kuching, and Bishop Thomas Tsen, President of the Sabah Council of Churches: “Proscribing the use of the word ‘Allah’ would instantly turn native Bumiputeras into law-breakers in the very land of which they are sons of the soil. This is not only abhorrent but wholly unacceptable.”?

What will all this fervour lead to? Should it be allowed to simmer indefinitely? What is the solution to the problem?

Former Attorney-General Abu Talib Othman proposes one. He suggests that the 1986 ministerial order – which bans all non-Muslim publications from using the words ‘solat’, ‘Kaabah’, ‘Baitullah’ and ‘Allah’ – be revoked. If this is done, the banning of the use of ‘Allah’ by The Herald will not be an issue any more. Following from that, one supposes, the Court of Appeal’s verdict will also become academic.

This sounds good, but the current home minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, has already come out to assert that the order will not be revoked. He has also insisted that The Herald cannot use the word ‘Allah’ even in East Malaysia. And going by the reactionary stance he has been adopting since taking over the ministry, he is not likely to budge. But even if by some miracle he does agree, the problem would be solved only for Sabah and Sarawak. What about Peninsular Malaysia?

In that regard, Abu Talib says “the use of the word must now be extended to the peninsula” so “we can live in a happy Malaysia”. But the prime minister has to be the one to make that happen. The question is: Would he dare? As it is, with so much tension building up over the issue, all Najib has done is maintain a deafening silence.

Besides, last November, in his Maal Hijrah address, he vowed that he would fight for the word ‘Allah’ to be exclusive to Muslims. Even though this contradicts his own 10-point solution. It proved that Najib is more interested in playing politics with the issue. He clearly presented the 10-point solution in 2011 out of political expediency, out of wanting to appease East Malaysians because he needs their votes. But as a result, the country is now caught in a tangle. And yet he has not come up with a plan to undo the tangle.

James Masing is right in blaming the leaders in the federal government for not daring to decide on a single set of laws that will be applied nationwide. He is also right in accusing them of making religious policies out of political expediency instead of religious principles.

To be sure, we can’t have two different sets of laws for the ‘Allah’ issue. As Masing says, “Malaysian leaders must decide once and for all which set of religious laws Malaysians must abide by. This way, Malaysians will have a clear choice on what to do. The law should be applicable to all, whether they live in Lubok Antu (in Sarawak), Pulau Penyu (Sabah) or Kuala Perlis.”

Former Cabinet minister Zaid Ibrahim offers another solution. He calls on Najib to “make an honest finding” as to whether the Christians consider the use of ‘Allah’ to be integral to their faith. If they do, he should convene a special meeting with the Malay Rulers at which they must discuss “with detachment and clarity” what brought about the state enactments made from 1988, which forbid the use of ‘Allah’ and more than 30 other Arabic words for the purpose of preventing the proselytization of Muslims.

Zaid is certain that the fear of Christians converting Muslims is at the root of it all, and that being so, “I don’t think [Christians] will mind if the Government were to set up a special task force to look into conversions”.

With this agreed to, Najib and the Malay Rulers “can make this point to Muslims: that in exchange for the use of the word ‘Allah’ by the Christians in their prayers, publications and the Malay Bible, Christians in turn will support the enactment of special laws and enforcement mechanisms to protect the Muslims from any conversion”.

At the same time, Najib and other authorities must urge Muslims to respect the beliefs of Christians. “If Christians say ‘Allah’ is integral to their Scriptures and their faith, then let’s accept that and move on.”

This proposal also sounds good, but will Muslims find it to be too much to take? Will it be acceptable to people like Ulama Muda Umno’s young ustaz Fathul Bari Mat Jayaha, who recently said “we wouldn’t want any calls saying that all religions are equal, in 50 years or 100 years to come.”?

Of course, no religion should try to be more equal than any other, even if its followers form the majority of the population. If it does, it’s not about religion any more. It becomes politics. And Heaven knows (notice that I don’t say God or Allah) that politics has already interfered too much with religion in Malaysia.

It’s clear, for instance, that the ‘Allah’ issue stems more from politics than anything else. It stems from the politics of opportunism, of divisiveness, of expediency. So now, how about letting religion speak for itself instead?

On this note, let me reproduce what my good friend Azmi Sharom, a law lecturer, wrote in
The Star
 on January 8:

I am loath to tell anyone what to think, but here I would like to humbly ask the Muslims reading this … to please look at the Quran. There is no theological basis for banning anyone from using the word ‘Allah’. Nowhere in the holy book does it say that ‘Allah’ is exclusive to Muslims.

In fact, Surah 22:40 (Al-Hajj) states that the name Allah is used in all sorts of houses of worship: mosques, churches, monasteries and synagogues.

… Is [Islam] a religion that is so small in its worldview that it can approve of one community claiming the term for God for itself? Is Islam so lacking in common decency and compassion?

I don’t think it is, and I will not be accepting any opinion that says otherwise, for a religion without the decency to respect other faiths, without the compassion to not attack other faiths, would be in my view a very poor thing indeed.

Well said, Azmi. Perhaps it’s time for the people who matter to be magnanimous and make the necessary changes for the sake of peace and harmony. Time to put politics aside for the sake of national reconciliation. Starting, of course, with the home ministry. And Najib.

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

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 7:36 am and is filed under
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What’s next with Dr M’s fans baying for Najib’s head to roll

BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER

January 15, 2014

Nostalgia for better times has dominated this week with one Umno veteran openly calling for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to return to helm the country while the prime minister’s brother harked back to the integrity of their own prime minister father.

But the better times was when Umno was dominant and the Internal Security Act (ISA) was used to silence dissent, something which Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin alluded to when calling for Dr Mahathir’s return to lead the nation.

He is the latest Mahathirist to say the obvious in not so many words that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak must step down.

Several bloggers aligned to Dr Mahathir have called for the same in the weeks after the last Umno elections where Najib’s camp won handsomely.

These were among the same people who also agitated against Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who resigned as prime minister and Umno president in April 2009, a year after the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) suffered historic losses in the 2008 elections.

But Umno then had Najib, the son of second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein and the man who was virtually groomed for the job after his father died 38 years ago yesterday.

And Dr Mahathir approved the choice that he rejoined Umno the day after Najib became party president.

That was five years ago and Najib took power with the promise that the days of government knows best were over, to relax security laws and liberalise the economy, transforming Malaysia into a high-income nation by 2020, to the chagrin of the Mahathirists.

In the past year after BN lost even further in the general election of 2013, Putrajaya has rolled back some of the freedom and have again prioritised the Bumiputera economic agenda.

Yet, the Mahathirists are not happy and now want a change.

So, Najib has to go and Malaysia must return to the Mahathir years when growth was high and dissenters stayed in Kamunting, which just saw the last of the ISA detainees leave its front gates.

But that suggestion just won’t do.

The Mahathir years created fat cats who made money through crony deals and policemen who relied on the ISA as a crutch to keep peace instead of real detective work.

It is no wonder that some people want to return to that era, to keep money and power for themselves in an increasingly level economic playing field and a shrinking global economy.

But who can they replace Najib from among the parliamentary bench from Umno? The Mahathirists have named no one, save Dr Mahathir himself leading a council of elders to chart Malaysia’s future.

That would say much about Umno’s internal talent pool after Dr Mahathir’s time in power.

And show the kind of guided democracy to which Umno professes.

For Mahathirists, only the good doctor can save the nation and return it to the glory years of the 1980s when Malaysia was an Asian tiger cub economy with Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

And no one else.

Unlike Datuk Seri Mohd Nazir Razak’s ode to his father, who was seen as a man of integrity, a democrat and a nationalist fighting for the country more than for his race or his own family.

Both the Mahathirists and Nazir are sentimental for a better time, one for a man and another for a man’s legacy – something which Najib appears to fall short of either way.

Yet, Najib has a mandate for at least the next three years, barring a party putsch. But he has to decide, either to pander to the few Mahathirists and quit or be a prime minister like his father was.

And he has to decide soon or nostalgia will keep him and the country deeper in a rut.  – January 15, 2014.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 10:57 pm and is filed under
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Who is the leader?

By Wan Saiful Wan Jan

Free Malaysia Today

January 15, 2014

How is it that Umno, a party that has been in power for so long, has suddenly become subservient to these relatively young entities?

COMMENT

Even if you disagree with groups like Perkasa and Isma, I think they really deserve an applause. These two groups have been very effective in their campaigns, to the extent that they cannot be simply dismissed in today’s public discourse.

Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkasa was set up by Ibrahim Ali soon after the 2008 general election. I don’t think I need to explain who Perkasa is because many readers already know them. Their campaign is centred around defending the rights of the ethnic Malays.

Isma stands for Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia. Those who are familiar with the history of Muslim groups in Malaysia will know that, up to a few yeas ago, the rivalry between the various Malaysian Muslim groups was fierce. And, the contested history is that Isma started off as a splinter from another group, the Jamaah Islah Malaysia (now known as Ikram).

It will take too long to explain the long and convoluted history of Isma properly. But suffice to say that Isma is one of the many Muslim groups that exist in Malaysia today that was inspired by another global movement called the Muslim Brotherhood.

The backgrounds of these two organisations are rather different. But, if we look at their work, they have become potent pressure groups in Malaysia today.

Politically, both organisations claim that they are not answerable to any political party in power. For now, I believe this claim.

Even though many of my friends accuse these groups as being linked to Umno, I personally have not seen any hard evidence to prove an official linkage.

Nevertheless, I find it hard to believe that members of these two groups would vote for anybody else but Umno. In Barisan Nasional, the agenda of these two groups resonate only with Umno.

Obviously neither supports any of the Pakatan Rakyat parties. So, as far as political parties are concerned, the only possibility for both groups is Umno.

Despite the absence of official links, both these groups seem to have quite a strong grip on Umno.

I personally feel that these groups have a divisive agenda. But for the purpose of this article, it does not matter whether you agree with their agenda or not.

My point here is, their strategy has been so brilliant, to the extent that their influence on Umno is palpable.

They have been at the forefront of many issues too. Their voices were heard in many major issues, such as PPSMI, the New Economic Model, Malaysian Education Blueprint, Allah debacle, Bible seizure, Syiah in Malaysia, reintroduction of ISA, and many more.

And in many of these, their voices became something that policy-makers cannot ignore.

Weak leadership

Malaysian civil society has a lot to learn from the strategies deployed by Perkasa and Isma in influencing public policy. Theirs is an enviable position to be in.

They literally have a governing party delivering their agenda through government.

Nevertheless, the question that has been haunting me is this. How is it that Umno, a party that has been in power for so long, has suddenly become subservient to these relatively young entities?

I have been thinking about this question for some time. And I am afraid my current guess is not a very pleasant one.

I think the rise of these rather unpleasant voices is caused by weak leadership in Umno itself.

Over the last few months alone, we saw so many incidents that threaten to destroy the very fabric of ethnic relations in our country. But the silence of Umno’s top leadership is deafening.

It is as if Umno is scared to say anything that would upset the pressure groups. Worse, even if an Umno leader does say something, usually it was to justify the provocations.

This is a time when we need every person, especially Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his cabinet colleagues, to collectively and publicly denounce actions that could contribute to ethnic strife.

In fact, I will be more specific than that. Since the aggressive stance comes mostly from those who are perceived to be from the wider Umno “family”, a big chunk of the responsibility falls on the shoulders of Umno top leaders.

They must publicly denounce these provocations and they must distance the party from these groups too.

Unfortunately, so far, there is utter silence at the top. It would be embarrassing if people start thinking that Malaysia’s real “Number One” today is Ibrahim Ali. Najib needs to rediscover leadership to prevent this from happening.

I am baffled why Najib has not said anything substantive to denounce all the aggression. His 1Malaysia slogan is one that calls for greater unity. He clearly has the right vision. So I do not believe he agrees with the divisive agenda.

That leads to the only other possibility, namely, Najib does not enjoy full support for his national unity agenda.

In other words, it is possible that he is in a weak position and there are others actively undermining him from within. If this is the case, then Malaysia has a very bleak future.

Wan Saiful Wan Jan is chief executive of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (www.ideas.org.my)

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 January 2014, 12:05 pm and is filed under
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Bagaimana mitos tentang DAP bermula (Bahagian 1)

Oleh Mahdzir Ibrahim | JANUARY 15, 2014

Roketkini
 | The Malaysian Insider

Saya tidak pasti akan dapat memberi jawapan yang jelas sebagaimana soalan tersebut kerana adakalanya jawapan tu hanya dapat digambarkan saja. Justeru, pembaca berhak menyimpulkan sendiri jawapan yang saya tulis ini, dalam keadaan sedar diri dan waras.

Sedar bahawa siapa saya, budaya saya dan keinginan saya.

Antara penolakan yang paling popular oleh DAP ke atas dasar kerajaan Umno adalah hal yang berkaitan tentang Dasar Ekonomi Baru (DEB). Yang nyata, DAP menolak pada kaedah atau mekanisme pelaksanaannya, bukan menolak tujuan dan matlamat DEB.

Jawapan yang sangat objektif ini rupa-rupanya belum cukup buat orang Melayu faham, bukan kerana orang Melayu bodoh tetapi kerana pendirian DAP ini diputar belit oleh Umno menerusi propaganda perkauman yang sangat licik.

Maka, jawapan tersebut perlu lagi dijelaskan dengan lebih mendalam, moga kepalsuan dapat dijinakkan menerusi kempen-kempen kesedaran atau kempen ‘pembetulan’, dan rencana ini adalah sebahagian daripada kempen tersebut.

Sebagai permulaan, kita perlu menyorot kembali kepada sejarah lampau untuk memahami skeleton mitos DAP anti Melayu dengan hujah DAP menolak DEB kerana faktor perkauman.

Semuanya bermula selepas peristiwa hitam 13 Mei 1969. Zaman ini belum ada internet, belum ada telefon  bimbit malah, populasi kita hanya sekitar 10.8 juta orang sahaja, termasuk kaum Cina, India dan Sabah serta Sarawak.

Kira-kira setahun selepas peristiwa 13 Mei, Kongres Kebudayaan Kebangsaan (KKK) kali kedua diadakan di Universiti Malaya pada 1970, mungkin ia berlaku secara kebetulan dan tiada kaitan dengan tragedi 13 Mei itu.

KKK ke-2 ini diadakan untuk mencari, merumus dan jika dapat, untuk mengabsahkan identiti bangsa Malaysia. Rasional pengabsahan identiti bangsa Malaysia ini diyakini oleh mereka (kerajaan Umno – Perikatan) akan dapat membantu menstruktur, menginstitusi atau melembagakan identiti kita rakyat Malaysia menjadi satu bentuk rigid yang dapat dipegang, dilihat dan dihormati. Maka ia lengkap sempurna menjadi identiti politik Malaysia.

Hasil daripada DKK, satu dasar dibentuk, dan inti dasar ini ‘budaya Melayu’, diangkat sebagai teras budaya kebangsaan (nasional). Budaya kaum lain, diterima seadanya, sekadar untuk melengkapkan pakej budaya nasional, itu sahaja.

Untuk membangunkan sebuah negara bangsa daripada puing-puing kehampaan, imaginasi baru harus dibentuk terlebih dahulu, ini juga biasa terjadi dalam mana-mana negara yang masih muda remaja. Dan, jangan kita lupa, imaginasi juga selalu dikaitkan dengan ilusi.

Memahami DKK

Dalam DKK, budaya daripada satu kaum iaitu Melayu, diangkat menjadi teras budaya dan identiti nasional (kebangsaan), sebagai ‘Malaysia’. Hakikat ini tidak ada salah dan silapnya selagi ia diterima oleh mana-mana bangsa pada ketika itu.

Apa yang pasti, pengabsahan identiti budaya nasional yang termeterai ini, secara tidak langsung seakan-akan menjadi kontrak sosial (mutual understanding) antara kaum. Maka, apa pula masalah kontrak sosial ini?

Mitos

Daripada rentetan sejarah dan sebahagian dapatan dokumen DKK ini, mitos Ketuanan Melayu semakin kuat dijadikan slogan, di zaman inilah bermulanya budaya politik perkauman yang terus berjalan secara sistematik oleh kerajaan Umno hingga ke hari ini.

Ahli politik Umno mula berpolitik atas nama bangsa atau kaum.

Hujah kaum digunakan untuk menjustifikasikan tindak-tanduk politik mereka. Cabar-mencabar atas nama ketuanan Melayu hingar-bingar. Atas nama kaum jugalah ia digunakan untuk ‘menghalalkan’ kerja rasuah dan salah guna kuasa elit politik Umno dan rakan kroninya.

Jika ia dipertikaikan oleh oposisi seperti DAP, silap berdebat kita dikatakan anti Melayu. Bagi ahli Melayu parti oposisi akan dicop sebagai pengkhianat bangsa, Melayu murtad, Melayu lima puluh sen dan sebagainya. Dan hari ini, itulah yang benar-benar terjadi.

Mitos ketuanan Melayu ini menjadi ‘ajaran’ yang membenam dalam ke dalam otak, menjadi peta pemikiran segelintir golongan ultra Melayu iaitu kroni Umno. Inilah slogan, inilah hagemoni yang wujud hasil daripada roh yang ditanam dalam DKK.

Jangan kita lupa kata-kata Nelson Mandela, “ Tiada orang yang lahir dengan membenci orang lain kerana warna kulit, latar belakang atau agamanya. Manusia belajar membenci, dan jika mereka boleh belajar membenci, mereka juga boleh diajar untuk menyayangi, kasih sayang akan datang ke hati manusia secara semula jadi berbanding sebaliknya”

Maka, mitos Ketuanan Melayu inilah yang membentuk satu mitos politik baru iaitu DAP anti Melayu, hanya kerana DAP mempertikaikan tindak tanduk elit politik Umno yang menyalahgunakan kuasanya dan memecahbelahkan rakyat perlbagai kaum.

Tanpa memahami latar ini, kita tidak akan faham malah akan percaya dengan mitos perkauman ke atas DAP dengan menyangka DAP itu parti cauvinis Cina.

Hakikatnya tidak begitu, dan sebagai rujukan, kita petik salah satu perenggan daripada Deklarasi Setapak 1967, ia dibacakan setahun selepas parti DAP diabsahkan oleh RoS (RoS yang dahulu, bukan RoS yang sekarang), iaitu ;

“Jika kami hendak memperbetulkan prinsip pembangunan negara di sebuah masyarakat berbilang kaum, maka perkara utama yang perlu dilakukan adalah untuk mengelakkan daripada berlakunya hegemoni perkauman oleh mana-mana komuniti. Usaha yang sedemikian mesti ditumpaskan dan disingkirkan sama sekali, atas dasar keinginan dan boleh dilakukan.”

DAP menjunjung Bahasa Malaysia sebagai bahasa kebangsaan, tidak ada pertikaian dalam hal ini. DAP juga mahu bahasa ibunda lain terus diiktiraf dan diberi ruang dalam bidang pendidikan, kesusasteraan, seni dan kebudayaan selagi mana ia terus mengabdikan cinta dan taat setia kepada tanah air. Itulah yang sewajarnya dan itulah rupa Malaysia.

Sebelum kita terlupa, lebih awal daripada semua ini, Presiden Umno yang pertama dapat menghidu akan semua masalah ini. Pada 1951, Dato Onn Jaafar keluar Umno kerana cadangannya untuk menjadikan Umno parti pelbagai kaum, ditolak oleh perwakilan dan pemimpin elit Umno.

Sayang sekali, jika tidak, integrasi antara bahasa dan budaya akan lebih mencerminkan semangat Malaysia. Kini, semangat Dato Onn itulah yang sedang kita sama-sama perjuangkan. – 15 Januari, 2014.

* Bahagian kedua – Mitos DAP tolak DEB kerana perkauman akan menyusul.

* Penulis adalah Ahli Jawatankuasa Pemuda DAP Pusat (DAPSY Kebangsaan), juga seorang peminat seni dan kebudayaan.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 January 2014, 11:59 am and is filed under
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