DAP ideology suits rapper Edry just fine

By Geraldine Tong

Malaysiakini

Jun 21, 2015

MALAYSIANS KINI
 Edry Faizal Yusof is a Malay who speaks near-perfect Chinese. But suggest it as a reason for his joining DAP, a Chinese-majority political party, and he noticeably bristled at the thought.

“People always say ‘oh you speak Chinese, no wonder you joined DAP’. But that has nothing to do with anything,” Edry insisted.

For Edry, now a coordinator for DAP mouthpiece Roketkini, it has never been a race thing, but more of an ideology thing.

“When I first started considering getting involved in politics, I did my research and found that DAP and its ideals suited me best. That’s why I joined them,” he explained simply.

But he has not always been interested in politics, he admitted.

Right out of university, he got heavily involved with the NGO Islamic Renaissance Front (IRF), while juggling a day job as a graphic designer in a small company.

He accepted a job offer from IRF a few years later, turning his night-time activism into a full-time occupation, tirelessly pushing the idea of reform in Islam.

“I fell in love with activism (back then). I used to think NGOs were the backbone of change,” he admitted.

Eventually though, Edry got slightly disillusioned with the life of an activist.

“A lot of people in NGOs try to stay away from power because they think power corrupts. But power can be useful. You need power to make changes,” he mused.

“Yes, NGOs are the backbone of change, but I think the real battlefield is to confront the people in power directly and the way to do that is through politics,” he added, stating that’s when he began to ponder joining a political party.

“I didn’t even consider DAP at first. I think for most Malays, DAP doesn’t really come into their consciousness,” he said, noting that he had plenty of friends in PAS or PKR but only a handful in DAP.

While talking to his friends, it occurred to him that he knew very little about DAP which prompted him to do research on the party.

When he finally approached the party to join them as a member, he was offered a job at Roketkini instead, as DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang’s translator.

“I was expecting to get a (membership) form, but instead I got a job offer. We have a saying in Malay that goes “pucuk dicita, ulam mendatang,” he said.

Now, not only is Edry the coordinator for Roketkini, he is also the chairperson of the DAP Bandar Utama branch and Subang DAP Socialist Youth (Dapsy), and a Selangor DAP committee member.

Healthy democracy, secular state

The ultimate goal for Edry is a “much more democratic Malaysia.”

“At the very least, I want to see a healthy democracy where people can change the government as they want,” he said thoughtfully.

It’s not as if he wants the opposition to win just because he’s from an opposition party; the point is that’s how a healthy democracy works.

“Not necessarily I want DAP to win and then rule for another 100 years. Any party, even DAP, which comes into power and eventually does not serve the people, if we need to change it, just change,” he explained.

The idea of a secular state also appealed to Edry, which is one of the main reasons that prompted Edry to join DAP, a secular party.

This ideal seemed a bit odd, considering he came from an Islamic NGO, but while working in IRF, Edry realised that even the IRF’s progressive ideas are limited.

Talking about different discourses in Islam is fine, but in the end, it still degenerates into a shouting match of whose interpretation is the right one, he groused.

There must be a bigger picture, he thought, and he found it in secular politics.

“It’s not about a matter of religion, it’s about the well-being of all people – what people need to eat, not what people need to believe.

“Yes, I am Muslim, but I don’t think we have to force our religion into the realm of power,” said Edry.

He immediately clarified that regardless of his belief in a secular state, his number one priority is still a healthy democracy.

“It’s useless to have anything else without a healthy democracy, because a secular state can still be just another tyranny,” he said.

Stigma to joining DAP

While his personal circle of friends and family mostly reacted quite mildly to Edry joining DAP, he readily admits there is still some stigma attached to a Malay who joins a Chinese-majority party.

He has however discovered he can soften the blow by revealing it through layers of questions and answers.

“I have to slowly lead them up to the revelation, starting with I’m just working in a news portal and ending with, it’s a DAP news portal,” he said.

He only has to do this with strangers or older Malays though, he said, pointing out that his family and friends didn’t seem particularly affected by his decision.

In his younger days, Edry said he used to write outrageous statements on certain issues on his social media accounts, so when it came to light that he had joined DAP, his friends were mostly unfazed.

“They probably think, ‘Oh you’re already going to hell, where else can you go?’” he joked, bursting into laughter.

‘Lazy bunch of rappers’

In another surprising facet to Edry, activist-turned-party-member, his simmering passion since he was 16 years old has always been hip-hop music.

At that age he wanted to try out several ventures within the hip-hop scene, but he couldn’t afford a turntable for DJ-ing and he quickly found out he didn’t have the talent for breakdancing nor graffiti drawing.

“That’s when I realised I do have a way with words and I started to learn how to write rhymes,” he said.

His musical breakthrough happened when he and his brothers recorded a song titled ‘Ushahidu: Budak-budak Zaman Sekarang’ (Kids These Days) on a whim. They posted the song on Myspace under their group moniker ‘5forty2’ and it quickly went viral.

“It got to a point where my friend sent me a link to the song, not knowing that I actually recorded it,” he remarked.

The success of that song in the underground scene completely blindsided Edry because he said it was a result of him and brothers being bored and deciding, “Let’s ‘kutuk’ (criticise) those we think are ‘poyo’ (uncool).”

For them, this is something they’re doing out of passion and interest, not for money or fame.

His group 5forty2 has evolved over the years, expanding from just him and his brothers to include several friends as well.

At one point, they even collaborated with infamous rapper and filmmaker Wee Meng Chee, popularly known as Namewee (photo) on a song titled ‘Wake Up!’

They got popular enough that people started asking them when they were going to release a full-fledged album. The fans got their consolation prize in the form of a demo released in 2010.

“What they don’t understand is that we’re just a lazy bunch of rappers,” Edry laughed.

But he admitted it has gotten more difficult to find time to record new music because of his constantly busy schedule in DAP.

“The other day I did my first gig in a very long time and it made me restless to make new music again. I need to force myself to make time for my music.

But for now, my top priority is the party (DAP),” Edry said.

MALAYSIANS KINI is a series on up-and-coming politicians and activists.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 June 2015, 4:53 am and is filed under
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Malaysia Gets a Dose of Real Talk

By William Pesek

Bloomberg

Jun 18, 2015

Asia-based journalists have missed Mahathir Mohamad since he left office in 2003. The former Malaysian prime minister’s mercurial governing style and fiery rhetoric made for great copy. I was in a Hong Kong ballroom in 1997 when Mahathir — the man credited with turning the agricultural backwater Kuala Lumpur, which literally means “muddy river,” into one of Asia’s most impressive skylines — responded to his country’s crashing economy by castigating hedge fund managers. He singled out George Soros as a “moron.”

Mahathir now has a new target — Najib Razak, Malaysia’s current prime minister. The daily squabbling between Najib and his predecessor has unsettled Malaysian markets, with the ringgit falling to its lowest value in a decade. But Najib has nobody to blame but himself for the attacks, given the country’s underlying economic distress. Malaysia’s prolonged slow growth, which has Fitch now threatening a downgrade of the country’s credit ratings, traces back to Najib’s refusal, or inability, to make good on his pledges to dismantle race-based policies that strangle innovation, feed cronyism and repel multinational companies.

You don’t have to take Mahathir’s word for it — Malaysia’s most successful entrepreneurs say the same thing. Just ask Tony Fernandes of AirAsia.

The man often referred to Asia’s Richard Branson has been waging his own battle with the government on Twitter. Fernandes has been decrying, 140 characters at a time, the Malaysian government’s misguided priorities and its utter lack of accountability. “Government and opposition spend so much time on race and religion. Will there ever be a truly Malaysian party that puts people first?” he tweeted recently. Another message reads: “Good education, good hospitals, fair distribution of wealth, an economy that creates jobs, honest clean government. Transparent leadership.”

My favorite was Fernandes’s take on the kind of national culture the government should be cultivating: “Where all Malaysians respect each other’s culture, religion but work together to benefit all. If you need an example look at AirAsia.”

This last point deserves closer attention. AirAsia has admittedly had a rocky six months, beginning in December with its first crash (killing all 155 on board) and culminating in today’s share-price plunge (its accounting practices are being questioned by GMT Research). But Fernandes has earned his status as a major player — and Malaysia’s most recognizable face — on the global stage. With his Bransonesque daring and social-media savvy, the billionaire Formula One team owner personifies the heights to which the Malaysian economy might climb if the country’s dysfunctional politics didn’t stand in the way.

Indeed, AirAsia might never have gotten off the ground if Najib had been in office at the time of its inception, rather than Mahathir. Fernandes had three big strikes against him when he started out 14 years ago: He’s not Malay (the majority ethnicity coddled by Malaysia’s affirmative-action policies); he was intent on challenging the flagship Malaysian Airlines; and he was starting an airline just as the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. was sending the industry into the throes of an existential crisis.

Nonetheless, Mahathir’s government gave Fernandes the green light to create the company. In the interim, AirAsia has literally changed the world. Although the company’s “Now Everyone Can Fly” slogan seemed somewhat trite at the time of its founding, it has gone on to inspire myriad developing-world copycats.

Malaysia needs more homegrown success stories that raise living standards and the country’s global status. Sadly, when Malaysia makes headlines these days, they’re often about the government’s dysfunction — whether the never-ending effort to jail opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on sodomy charges, legal tussles over who exactly is permitted to utter the word “Allah,” or clueless castigations of foreign tourists (a group of whom allegedly caused an earthquake by taking nude photos atop Mount Kinabalu).

Since becoming prime minister in 2009, Najib should have worked to level Malaysia’s playing field for would-be entrepreneurs. Instead, he has protected race-based quotas and deepened the economy’s reliance on oil and gas production. Najib seems to be more concerned about retaining power for his ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, which has been in power for almost six decades, than attending to the aspirations of Malaysia’s 30 million people.

Meanwhile, some of his supposed reforms are dragging down the economy. A case in point is 1Malaysia Development, the state investment company Najib created, and which Mahathir claims is missing “huge sums of money” and buckling under debt. The scandal has contributed to the plunging of Malaysia’s currency some 13 percent over the past 12 months.

The ringgit’s fluctuations are a decent summary of the country’s wayward course in recent years. It’s now close to 3.80 to the dollar, the level where Mahathir pegged it during the 1997-1998 Asian crisis. Mahathir now says it may be time to peg the currency anew to stabilize it. That speaks to how little progress Najib has made internationalizing the economy — and how urgent new political leadership (or a return to old political leadership, as it were) would be for entrepreneurs like Fernandes.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 June 2015, 6:21 am and is filed under
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‘Ultra Malay racist’ BTN undermining multicultural Malaysia, says G25 rep

By Zurairi AR

Malay Mail Online

June 17, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 ― The National Civics Bureau (BTN) is undermining Putrajaya’s effort to promote inclusiveness among races, former ambassador Datuk Noor Farida Ariffin said yesterday after the agency’s slides critical of several groups were leaked online.

Noor Farida also slammed BTN for toeing the line of religious authorities by demonising liberalism and pluralism without explaining why, when such concepts are reflected in the Quran, the Federal Constitution, as well as the Rukunegara.

“There seems to be very little doubt that BTN is an ultra Malay racist agency. How the government can establish an organisation like this and use civil servants and public funds boggles the mind,” said Noor Farida, the spokesman of G25, a group of former Malay high-ranking civil servants.

“Instead of promoting national unity, the BTN is undermining it. Notions like Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy) appears to be it’s main agenda. Whatever happened to the Ministry of National Unity? It has now been relegated to nothing.”

In one set of slides leaked online, BTN accused members of the G25 of being a product of a “socialist era” through their English-medium education in the 1970s, and blamed it for opening doors for pluralist and liberal movements.

The BTN also disputed claims that the G25 has no political motive through its strongly-worded open letter last year, pointing out to Noor Farida’s role in civil service.

Noor Farida laughed off BTN’s suggestion of a “socialist” influence in the 1970s, admitting that she was astonished that her role representing Malaysia at the International Court of Justice when she served as the ambassador to the Netherlands meant a “political interest”.

“Does this mean that civil servants performing their duties are politicians?” asked Noor Farida, who is also a former Sessions Court judge.

Noor Farida also claimed that BTN is out of touch with the reality, after the agency claimed in another set of slides that “racism” can unite a race for a “good purpose”.

“[This] shows a low IQ on the part of the BTN officer who prepared the report as well as a total lack of sensitivity … This also indicates the total lack of competence, critical thinking skills and professionalism of BTN staff. Is this the calibre of civil servants that we have now?” said Noor Farida.

After the reports by Malay Mail Online on Monday, BTN removed the folder containing the slides from its website, and claimed these were for internal “academic” use.

Despite denials by the government and the agency, sporadic leaks of closed-door events conducted by the BTN or featuring its staff have continued to entrench suspicions that the bureau was a hotbed of racism and “brainwashing”.

A senior BTN official caused an uproar back in 2010 when word leaked that he had used the terms “si mata sepet” and “si botol” at a closed-door Puteri Umno gathering to describe the Chinese and Indians respectively.

The terms are considered derogatory with “si mata sepet” meaning slit-eyed and “si botol”, alcoholic, in Malay.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 June 2015, 5:34 am and is filed under
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Why the BTN must be shut down

Azrul Mohd Khalib

The Malay Mail Online

June 19, 2015

JUNE 19 ― Ask anyone who has ever done their undergraduate degree in Malaysian public universities and quite a few of them will tell you how they were forced to attend and endure the Biro Tatanegara courses.

Each year, hundreds of students join civil servants from various departments, ministries and institutions to be indoctrinated or brainwashed into becoming unthinking, obedient and compliant drones whose allegiance is arguably not towards God, King and Country but more likely leaning towards Umno, Melayu and of course, Umno.

What they often produce instead each year are groups of people who are often embarrassed, cynical and frustrated listening to a bumbling group of individuals who have no business being instructors of anything other than potty training.

Many former attendees admit to being shocked and mortified at the content of these courses which are often unashamedly racist, bigoted, and ignorant and Malay Muslim supremacist in nature. The thing is  the attendees are often multi-ethnic and reflect the rich diversity of Malaysian society.

Instead of fulfilling its stated aims which are to nurture the spirit of patriotism and commitment to excellence and good values among Malaysians, and to train leaders and future leaders to support the nation’s development efforts, this government agency which exists under the Prime Minister’s Department has for decades promoted racial and religious discrimination and divisiveness.

In its programming, the BTN has cultivated concepts such as “pendatang” and “Ketuanan Melayu” which run contrary to the values and ideals of the Federal Constitution.

It has been used to stir up animosity and hatred towards those who think differently from the government and oppose the status quo. They have promoted belief that if you are not in support of the government, therefore you are being disloyal to the country.

While so many have been picked up for alleged and imagined offenses which are supposedly seditious in nature, this lot have been able to operate and spread their views through the cover of government national civics courses which are anything but.

As can be seen from recent documentation from the BTN itself, they are even trying to justify the practice of racism as something good for the country. Not too long ago, Malaysia stood by Nelson Mandela’s struggle and together with the countries of the world spoke out and condemned the ultimate expression of racism, apartheid. Today, these people are trying to justify and legitimise institutionalised racism in our country. This is how far these people have lost their way.

These are scared and ignorant people who jump at shadows and create enemies where there are none. In their arrogance, they refuse to learn from others. They expect people to obey and not to think and argue. In time honoured tradition, they even consider writers, book publishers and even books themselves as threats. Tyrants fear the power of the written word.

I can’t believe that such a Bureau continues to exist under the direct aegis of the Prime Minister’s Department and whose staff and activities are paid for in the millions each year by the Malaysian taxpayer.

The continued existence of the Biro Tatanegara is an affront to Malaysians everywhere. It dishonours the memory of the founders of this country, the women and men who fought and died to gain independence. It besmirches the struggles of all those who believe that there is a place for all under the Malaysian sun. It directly contradicts and works in opposition to the ideals espoused under the Rukun Negara. Based on its actions and words, it certainly cannot be said to support Vision 2020 or even 1Malaysia.

One thing that I am glad about though. It is very clear that these people of the BTN do not speak for us. That their bigoted, hateful and prejudicial views are rejected by most Malaysians. The recent outcry against their “programming” is proof enough that there is no place in a modern Malaysia for cultivating such beliefs and views.

Let us end these attempts which work at cross purposes to nation building. Let us call for the dissolution of the Biro Tatanegara. Let not another day go by that the money from the sweat and tears of all Malaysians is used for such purposes.

Shut down the BTN.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 22 June 2015, 5:16 am and is filed under
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Ayah sokong parti baharu jika masih hidup, kata anak Fadzil Noor

The Malaysian Insider

23 June 2015

Anak kepada bekas presiden PAS, Muhammad Faiz Fadzil yakin jika bapanya Datuk Fadzil Mohd Noor masih hidup, beliau akan menyokong parti baharu yang sedang dalam proses pembentukan.

Faiz mengulas video Youtube yang disebarkan di laman sosial bagi menunjukkan Fadzil akan menentang penubuhan parti baharu sekiranya masih hidup.

“Anda mungkin tak setuju dengan saya, tapi saya percaya Ustaz Fadzil Noor (UFN) pasti menyokong parti baharu yang didokongi oleh pemimpin yang dilahirkannya yang banyak berjasa kepada karier perjuangannya,” tulis Faiz dalam laman Facebooknya hari ini.

 “Parti baharu adalah meneruskan perjuangan UFN walau berlainan.”

Menurut Faiz, ayahnya satu-satunya pemimpin zaman 70-an yang menentang kemasukan PAS ke dalam Barisan Nasional (BN) semasa pemerintahan perdana menteri kedua, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein.

Katanya, Fadzil pada ketika itu beralih untuk bersama Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, termasuk menjadikan Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (Abim) kumpulan pendesak Islam yang kuat di negara ini.

“Dia kembali aktif bersama PAS setelah PAS ditendang keluar daripada BN dan sertai PRU 1978 sehingga sanggup dibuang kerja dari UTM. Jelas perjuangan UFN istiqamah menentang Umno-BN dan mahu tubuhkan kerajaan.

“Sebab itu UFN merencana pelbagai strategi politik termasuk menarik golongan profesional menyertai PAS, memadamkan fahaman ahli terhadap Amanat Hadi dan Tahaluf dengan Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah dan Barisan Alternatif,” katanya merujuk kerjasama PAS dengan parti politik lain sebelum ini.

Menurut Faiz, video yeng disebarkan mengenai Fadzil menyebut pemimpin yang gilakan jawatan sampai sanggup tubuh parti baru, menjelaskan keadaan ketika itu.

“Itu keadaan ketika itu. Tapi keadaan sekarang lain. Ahli dan rakyat yang nakkan parti baru kerana PAS sekarang sudah terpesong daripada peta perjuangan menentang Umno-BN.

“Dalam keadaan rakyat dahagakan sebuah pemerintahan baru yang bersih adil dan berkebajikan melibatkan penyertaan semua kaum, maka parti baru yang memperjuangkan semua prinsip Islam ini dan aspirasi rakyat adalah menjadi wajib,” katanya.

Beliau yakin parti baharu yang bakal dipimpin G-18, kumpulan yang tewas dalam pemilihan PAS baru-baru ini, akan terus mendaulatkan Islam.

“Insya Allah parti baru ini akan terus menentang Umno-BN, mendaulatkan Islam dan akhirnya menyelamatkan ahli PAS yang masih keliru dengan halatuju politik PAS sekarang,” katanya. – 23 Jun, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 3:16 pm and is filed under
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Civics bureau: from attendee to slideshow feature

Lyana Khairuddin

The Malaysian Insider

22 June 2015

I was amused to find a picture of me, particularly the one used for the profile of this column, on one of the slides sourced by the National Civics Bureau and recently released online. The slide cited the online petition I founded, I am #26, my age and affiliation. Upon sourcing for the whole slide deck and reading through them, I could only roll my eyes at the sheer audacity and idiocy of it all.

For someone who was (un)fortunate enough to have attended three “Kem Bina Negara” courses organised by the bureau, I am thankful that I ended up being the liberal, rational-minded person that I think I am today.

Syukur Alhamdulillah, the brainwashing did not work on me.

In all honesty, the first course that I attended when I was still in secondary school was not too bad. It felt more like summer camp. The day would begin as early as 5am and end as late as 3am. I remembered there were many breaks for food: breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper.

The schedule also made allowances for all the 5 prayer times, but on the whole it was packed with talks, group assignments and many tazkirah (religious talks) sessions. There was also a whole day or night allotted for an adventure session – this could either be activities like hiking through the jungle or performing adventure sports such as the flying fox and abseiling.

One adventure session that we girls looked forward to with mixed feelings was the “Night Owl”. The trainers would bring everyone in a single file into the woods, leave us one by one at designated spots that ensured we were alone and then allow the night to do its thing. This session was supposed to be a mix of meditation and empowerment of the spirit through scaring the hell out of some of us.

It was preceded by stories of jungle spirits and how “keras” a particular camp was, interspersed with warnings that if any of us girls were menstruating “to be careful”, and stories of people who went missing. The one time that I had to go through this session, the trainers played an audio recording beforehand that staged the interrogation and torture by the Angels Munkar and Nankir on a Muslim’s life and sins.

Suffice to say, fear is a very powerful tool to psychologically control any human being. Personally, I think the trainers did a very good job of instilling fear, and not much else.

I attended my second bureau course during my undergraduate studies at a local public university, and the most recent one before I left to further my studies overseas on a government scholarship.

The content did not wary much over the years, but the talks and the assignment questions handed out, at least at the last one I attended and could remember, were offensive to racial unity, didactic and sexist. It conveniently forgot that Malaysia is a multiethnic country, and careless of the sensitivities of non-Malay, non-Muslim attendees of such courses.

It demeaned the hard work we attendees put towards securing a scholarship, and emphasised the need for us to be thankful to the government for having had policies that allowed for public scholarships. I am grateful that such policies exist, for it allows those who can’t afford to study overseas like yours truly a golden opportunity. But I also think that serving the nation means much more than baying blind obedience towards the current government.

After all, aren’t we citizens of Malaysia all building this nation together? Was that not the purpose of a camp whose literal meaning from Malay means “nation building”?

I couldn’t ignore some of the things mentioned and the authoritative way things were carried out, so I stood up and spoke against what was being said and done. I ended up being bullied by a few of the trainers throughout the course and my time at the last bureau-organised programme did not feel like summer camp anymore.

There were many who called for the abolishment of such courses and the bureau itself following the expose of the PowerPoint slides last week. Personally, I believe that such programmes had good intentions of nation building in the beginning, but like many things in our country, we seem to have lost our way over the years and struggle with the implementation of it all.

Any programme carried out in the spirit of nation building should promote integration, allowing intermingling of citizens from different genders, economic classes and ethnicities. The programme should include interfaith dialogues to further understand the many religions practised in our country, and an appreciation of our heritage and history. The facilitation of discussions with regard to current issues should allow participants a safe space to discuss ideas critically and analytically for the betterment of the nation.

Perhaps it would be better for the bureau to organise their manpower towards the redevelopment of natural disaster-affected areas such as post-floods Kelantan or post-earthquake Sabah rather than forcing would-be civil servants and academics attached with public universities to spend a week in a jungle undergoing a programme that clearly does little towards nation building in its current format.

Promote camaraderie, understanding differences and the spirit of working together, rather than instilling fear and hatred by painting a picture of the movers and shakers in the country as socialist-educated rebels. Personnel working with the bureau should stop this climate of fear and misleading information, and instead promote understanding and compassion towards a better nation.

And for the love of God, learn how to use the Google search engine. – June 22, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 4:18 am and is filed under
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Demi hudud, kepimpinan Kelantan bakal bertukar tangan?

 – Riesya H.

The Malaysian Insider

22 June 2015

Isu hudud nampaknya belum reda.

Terkini, dengan terburainya Pakatan Rakyat, boleh lah dianggap isu hudud berjaya memainkan peranannya. Peranan untuk memporak porandakan PR.

Di zaman teknologi facebook dan whatsup hari ini, saya ingin kongsikan secebis nota menarik yang dipanjangkan kepada saya, berbunyi begini;

“I, like many Malaysians, may have underestimated Datuk Seri Najib Razak as a politician. He may have committed a lot of economic and public relation blunders. But he has managed to kill PR. Tricking PAS into believing that Umno will support hudud, Najib has cause a major rift between PAS and their PR allies, which then caused a crisis within PAS. Now that he has accomplished what he wanted, he pulled his support from hudud.

With one stroke, najib has managed to kill PR and put PAS in the ECU. He may have assured Umno’s rule for another 2-3 terms. And for that, he should be named one of Malaysia’s best politician. He took over the helm when Umno was at its worst. He didn’t try to make things right with Umno, but he destroyed the opposition.

Great game Najib.”

Itu lah yang menjadi persepsi dan gambaran rakyat marhaen semacam saya yang kerdil ini.

Di perincikan lagi mesej dari cebisan berbahasa Inggeris itu, persepsi yang bole dirumuskan 1.8 juta pengundi pemula yang mengundi dan menaruh harapan kepada PR pada PRU13 yang lalu, boleh disimpulkan sebegini;

• Hudud mampu menyelesaikan segala masalah (Umno)

• Hudud, bukan hanya menghancurkan PR, tetapi juga perpecahan dalaman PAS yang parah.

• Hudud, umpan Umno yang menyangkut.

Hudud sebagai kunci pencapaian PAS

Tetapi, mungkin ramai lebai-lebai Umno tidak berpandangan sedemikian. Bagi mereka, hudud adalah segala-galanya, dan juga sebagai kunci pencapaian (key performance indicator – KPI) kepada perjuangan dan pencapaian politik mereka.

Bukan mengenai urus tadbir yang terbaik, bukan mengenai membenteras rasuah, kronisma, nnepotisma, pembaziran, kebocoran, pengsonglap duit Tabung Haji, atau tanah rakyat felda yang lebur akibat dilabur dan dijaja kepada pemberi hutang. Bukan itu semua ataupun segala macam nahi mungkar yang boleh dihidu didepan mata. Tetapi hudud.

Tidak mustahil jika Datuk Nik Amar Nik Abdullah beriya-iya begitu berani mengistiharkan perang semata-mata kerana hudud, “Kita tunggulah Oktober nanti untuk sesi Parlimen seterusnya. Kita beri peluang kepada Umno untuk menunaikan janjinya sehingga hujung tahun ini. Jika tidak, kita akan perang habis-habisan,” sepertimana yang dilapor dalam sinar harian pada 20/6/2015.

http://www.sinarharian.com.my/mobile/politik/hudud-pas-beri-umno-masa-tunai-janji-1.402856

Ingin juga saya ketengahkan cebisan menarik penulis Mohd Sayuti Omar, di penghujung 2014,

“MB Datuk Ahmad Yaakob pernah berkata sekiranya hukum hudud tidak dilaksanakan tahun depan (2015) beliau akan letak jawatan sebagai MB. Exco agama Nasaruddin Daud juga menegaskan hukum hudud akan dilaksanakan pada 2015”

Umumnya, persepsi rakyat terhadap perjuangan PAS adalah semata-mata demi hudud. Berjaya hudud, membawa maksud perjuangan PAS berjaya. Mendahului segala macam masalah. Masalah menaiktaraf ekonomi rakyat Kelantan, masalah pengangguran anak muda, masalah anak muda terpaksa berhijrah keluar untuk mencari rezeki, masalah cerai dan nafkah, masalah berjudi dan berlaga ayam dalam belukar, masalah ponteng Jumaat, masalah cari betina Siam di Golok, masalah pil kuda dan pengedaran dadah di setiap pelusuk negeri. Ataupun bagaimana kaedah untuk menangani masalah banjir selut yang melanda sekian tahun.

Siapa bakal menerajui Kelantan?

Saya ingin membawa pembaca menjawab teki teki. Sekiranya semua telahan di atas menjadi realiti. Ringkasnya, apa natijahnya jika isu hudud yang selama ini panas dan hangat digembar gemburkan itu dicurahkan air sejuk begitu saja Umno.

Menteri besar berjanji untuk meletakkan jawatan dan timbalan menteri besar yang mengistiharkan perang dan kita pasti seorang (atau dua) ulama tidak akan melanggar sumpah atau memungkiri janji.

Jadi, siapakah bakal mengambilalih jawatan MB dan TMB baru menggantikan MB dan TMB yang bakal berhenti nanti? Adakah ada tokoh-tokoh lain dari barisan wakil rakyat PAS sediaada? ataukah kita bakal melihat bukan sahaja melihat Kelantan bertukar MB atau TMB, malah pertukaran kerajaan, dari PAS kepada Umno?

Hudud. What a Great game, Najib!! – 22 Jun, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 4:03 am and is filed under
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Excerpt #6  Incentives And Zero-Sum Mentality

M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)

June 24, 2015

Unlike my earlier books, in
Liberating the Malay Mind
I adopt a narrow approach, focusing only on Malays. Some would counter that Malaysians are now at a stage when we should consider ourselves Malaysians rather than Malays, Chinese or Ibans. Thus we should seek an approach applicable to and suitable for all Malaysians. I agree, up to a point.

One does not have to be particularly perceptive to note the obvious and significant differences between the races beyond how we look, dress and what we eat. If there are those obvious differences in such simple things, imagine our differences on more substantive matters, like what we value and aspire to.

Being mindful of our differences does not mean ignoring our commonalities rather that we should be cautious as to the possible variations in how we react to policies and initiatives. We may all aspire to ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’, but those concepts mean a whole lot of different things to different people.

Consider economics. Most of it, as Steven Landsburg observed in his The Armchair Economist, can be summarized in four words:  Humans response to incentives. The rest is commentary. Incentives matter, but what constitute incentives vary considerably with culture.

The example I used in an earlier book to illustrate this central point was of the novice priest sent to preach among the Eskimos. Arriving in the depth of winter, his first sermon was all fire and brimstone to impress his flock. He warned them of the huge perpetual ball of fire in Hell that awaited those who would transgress God’s command. Imagine his anger and astonishment when the very next day his parishioners were exuberantly engaged in those sinful deeds. Responding to his admonishment they replied, ‘But Father, we want to go to that place where the big fire burns all the time!’

To those in the desert and the tropics, a huge ball of fire is indeed hellish, but in the frigid tundra, that is heaven!

Those who would argue against my focusing only on Malays are revealing their own entrapped minds. There is this mindset, widespread in Malaysia and elsewhere, that when you help or favor one community you are ipso facto against or punishing another. This ‘zero-sum mentality’ is especially ingrained among Malaysians, and is getting worse. It is not productive, in fact destructive.

At the negotiations for merdeka, the participants from the various communities were fully aware that Malays were far behind in just about every aspect. The reasons were many, but simply knowing them did not necessarily lead to solutions. As part of the grand bargain, the participants agreed to a set of special privileges for Malays. That was part political pragmatism (no agreement, no merdeka), and part collective wisdom. Our forefathers and the British recognized that the new nation could not possibly survive if a significant and visibly identifiable segment of the population were to remain marginalized. Their insights were particularly prescient, as demonstrated by the 1969 deadly race riot triggered by the obscene inter-communal inequities of the time.

My thesis is that helping Malays or any underdeveloped segment of the community, especially one so highly visible because of color, culture or demography, is also helping the larger community. If the socioeconomic standing of Malays was lifted, the whole nation would benefit. We would have essentially uplifted nearly two-thirds of the population. That would mean more customers, more economic activity, and consequently more revenue for the country. It is far from being a zero-sum exercise. Increasing the portion size of the pie for one community need not be through making the shares of the others smaller, but by making a bigger pie.

This win/lose mentality can quickly degenerate into an even more destructive dog-in-the-manger mindset, where purely out of spite one prevents another from getting something they would otherwise have no use for anyway. Worse, you would then be actively engaging in activities deliberately detrimental to the other groups without benefiting your own. Sabotage is the proper word.

I will illustrate this point with a personal anecdote. Years back I had a vigorous discussion with my parents on a highly divisive issue in Malaysia at the time. The Chinese community wanted to have a private university and had cleverly chosen the name Merdeka University in the hope of getting Malay (in particular UMNO) support. As that proposal would further advance the Chinese community, and thus put the Malays further behind vis a vis the Chinese, it was vehemently opposed by Malays right across the political spectrum. It was one of the few issues that actually united Malays. My parents were no exception.

When I suggested to them that Merdeka University would indeed be a great idea, worthy of support of all Malaysians, my parents were taken aback and wondered whether I was saying that purely to be argumentative. I assured them that I was not. After all, that university would not cost the government a penny, and if through that campus there were to be many more successful Chinese, Malays too would benefit. For one, those successful Chinese would pay more taxes to what was (still is) essentially a Malay-dominated government. Imagine what it could do with all that extra revenue. For another, some of their graduates or the enterprises they created would meet the needs of Malays, like becoming English teachers in rural schools or employing Malays to attract Malay customers.

Considering the benefits that could potentially accrue upon Malays for which we contributed nothing, the Merdeka University would be a good idea and thus worthy of our support. At the very least we should not oppose it. My parents however were not persuaded, demonstrating a variant of the dog-in-the-manger attitude, except that here while Malays would also benefit, the Chinese would obviously gain more.

So I framed the issue differently. Instead of opposing and being unduly negative about the university, why not explore the concept together with the Chinese community and see how we could make the project beneficial not just for them but also us? Be proactive instead of automatically opposing what the Chinese had suggested. For example, the government could consider supporting through monetary and other grants (like state land). After all, the government had given generous donations to foreign universities in return for agreeing to admit our students.

Likewise Merdeka University could agree to certain mutually beneficial conditions, like attracting students from all communities, especially Malays, and be ‘Malay friendly’ such as serving halal food. Then we could have a truly ‘win-win’ situation, as the clich would have it. The proponents of the university would benefit as with the extra help they could build a far superior facility than they could otherwise. The students too would benefit, as they would have plenty of opportunities to escape their clannishness with the presence of many non-Chinese classmates. Malays and Malaysia would also benefit from the additional opportunity for tertiary education.

I won my parents over with that argument. I hope to win my readers by pursuing a similar line in this book.

This essay is excerpted from the author’s latest book, Liberating The Malay Mind, ZI Publications Sdn Bhd, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia , 2013.

Next Excerpt #7:  The Internal Consistency of a Culture

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 5:15 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s Long Road to Change

Asia Sentinel

June 20, 2015

The headline issues behind Malaysia’s current political crisis often puzzle outside observers, not just for the specific and sometimes bizarre details but for what they reveal about a system designed to maintain the status quo at all costs. Taken in the current context, it is remarkable that Prime Minister Najib Razak remains in power. In an actual democracy – instead of the kind of purpose-built one-party state in Malaysia – he would presumably be long gone and perhaps in the dock.

The 1Malaysia Development Berhad debacle, with its overtones of greed, political favoritism and inside deals is exactly the kind of sleaze that should and does bring down governments worldwide. Add to that the lingering issue of the 2006 murder of the misbegotten Mongolian party girl Altantuya Shaariibuu by bodyguards linked to Najib, the shamelessly cooked-up jailing of long-suffering opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, the poisonous stew of bitter racial politics manipulated by the ruling elite and the widespread disgust with the acquisitive ways of Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and it is a wonder that anyone can keep a straight face while claiming Malaysia’s system is anything but a thinly disguised playpen for the Barisan National and its cronies.

Still, and finally, we may be witnessing the endgame in the country’s painful transition from the 20th century politics and governance that started with the transition from British colonialism to rule by the Barisan Nasional, the race-based coalition of political parties led by the United Malays National Organization. In power since 1957, the Barisan is the world’s longest-ruling parliamentary coalition.

Malaysia, a much richer and more sophisticated country now than it was when the kampungs could so easily be fooled by the elite, may finally have no choice but to adapt to the demands of the 21st century and the digital era.

Finding its own way

If it happens it won’t be anything like the Arab Spring, the sudden downfall of Indonesia’s Suharto or the tumultuous and joyous chaos favored by the Philippines when its people and elites overthrow governments. Instead it will be the result of a long, frustrating process that began with Anwar’s premature and frustrated effort to supplant then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1998 during the chaos of the Asian Financial Crisis.

Curiously, 17 years after those first attempts at reformasi, it almost looks as if the country is back where it started. Mahathir is lashing out, only this time at the sitting PM; Anwar is back in prison on trumped up charges; the PM is again facing a financial scandal.

But in those days, Anwar’s movement had virtually no media voice. His supporters dreamed to no avail of a radio station that might take up the cudgels. But in keeping with the digital age, today’s political drama is being played out on the Internet by contending blogs and social media chatter that even has the royalty getting in on the act, such as the Johor Crown Prince’s recent weighing in via Facebook. Malaysians are also skewering Najib and Rosmah with vicious spoofs on YouTube.

It remains for the system to catch up with the popular mood and realize that Malaysia will stand still or go in reverse if racial gerrymandering and rank corruption prevail over change. Perhaps the real significance of the recent tantalizing news that Najib’s powerful banker brother, Nazir Razak, is poised to lead an NGO that will seek to build a unity government is that big business may finally be putting the nation’s best interests ahead of the payoffs and perks handed out by UMNO

Indeed, if UMNO chooses to align itself with the medieval minds of PAS in imposing sharia law and hudud amputations in parts of the country as a cynical way of clinging to power, an admirably modern business sector that has accomplished much could see itself mortally damaged.

The long race

Here is one way to look at this marathon drama. 1998 marked the year when Malaysians first threw off the shackles of fear by protesting in the streets. They marched, they had no fear of being arrested, they began speaking out. Later, Internet sites like Malaysiakini, Malaysia Today and Malaysian Insider kept the flames of free thought alive at a time when the mainstream media were all owned by the ruling political parties.

In 2008, a decade later, this manifested itself in the electoral field. The ruling coalition lost its two-thirds majority in parliament to the Anwar-led opposition; the then-pm was shown the door by his party colleagues led by Mahathir; and Najib took over. But in the 2013 election, the BN did even worse. It’s taken 17 years to get to this point, but the once-unthinkable question is finally being asked by more and people: is Malaysia’s single-party-rule system finally in its death throes?

Unlike more obvious dictatorships such as those that once existed in the Philippines and Indonesia, Malaysia’s collective party-certified dictators could hide under the guise of legality. That curtain is falling away and the only system most Malaysians have ever known seems as close as it has ever been to real change.

That such change carries with it risks and unease is certainly the case. The alternative – a seemingly crooked and ossified elite clinging to power through corruption, court manipulation and racism – seems far worse. Just as other countries have found a way forward without their once-entrenched despots, we are certain Malaysia will find its path.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 12:57 pm and is filed under
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Najib should begin a 1MDB Nothing2Hide confession starting with revelation what has happened to the RM3 billion which were “overprized” in acquisition of  15 power stations for RM18 billion

The Wall Street Journal expose five days ago has probably started the end-game for the six-year RM42 billion 1MDB scandal with attention focussed on the question which the parliamentary duo, DAP MP for PJ Utara, Tony Pua and  PKR MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli, joined by former Prime Minister Tun Mahahtir, have repeatedly asked: “Where have the 1MDB billions disappeared to? Show us the money!”

The Wall Street Journal report, “Fund Controversy Threatens Malaysia’s Leader”, alleged that 1MDB had bought Genting Group’s power assets at an inflated price, and the group then made substantial donations to the 1MDB-linked charity YR1M.

YR1M had then allegedly bankrolled BN’s 13th general election, and is now funding social programmes in Sarawak where state elections are widely anticipated.

The Wall Street Journal reported last Friday  1MDB made overpriced purchase of power assets from Genting Group in 2012.

The price, which was equivalent to about US$740 million at the time, came to RM2.3 billion, around five times what it was worth.

Genting later reported it had a 1.9 billion ringgit extraordinary gain on this sale, implying a value for its stake in the power plant of just 400 million ringgit – or less than one-fifth what 1MDB paid for it.

A few months after the sale, a unit of Genting called Genting Plantations Bhd made a donation of about US$10 million to a Najib-linked charity, Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia (YR1M), which lists Najib as chairperson on its website.

Though set up to help underprivileged Malaysians through education and sport, YRIM poured funds into the 13th general election campaign in Penang for BN’s bid to recapture the state.

It and other charities linked to the government spent millions of dollars before the voting in Penang on polling day on 5th May 2013, and Najib visited Penang during the campaign and announced that Yayasan Rakyat 1Malaysia would donate RM2 million to two local schools.

What is most intriguing about the expose is the deafening silence in the past five days from the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who should have no qualms about instituting legal proceedings against Wall Street Journal as Najib had already sued both Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli over the 1MDB scandal.

Has Najib a soft spot for Wall Street Journal that he has prepared to be defamed without wishing to clear his reputation?

Furthermore, a Cabinet Minister, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz (Tourism) has issued an extraordinary  statement which could only be interpreted as justifying Najib’s misuse of 1MDB billions of ringgit for the 13th General Elections campaigning for the UMNO/BN coalition.

Nazri had said:

“If the report carried by WSJ is proven true, then it is good, as it shows the money was not lost. Then why do you (critics) say the money is lost?

“What’s wrong with (Finance Ministry wholly-owned 1MDB’s) money being spent on the people?”

Without going into the pros and cons of Nazri’s shocking statement, it must be pointed out that the Wall Street Journal report only directly referred to the US$10 million donation which Genting had subsequently made to YR1M which were used to bankroll Najib’s 13GE campaign.

What has happened to the fourth-fifth of the overpriced total paid by 1MDB to Genting for the power plant?

What other charities had benefited from Genting’s largesse and were they similarly used to bankroll Najib’s 13GE campaign?

1MDB paid US$740 million  or five times the worth of the Genting power plant i.e. US$592  million above the plant’s actual worth. Genting donated US10 million to YRIM purportedly for charity work but were used to bankroll Najib’s 13GE campaign.

What happened to the  balance of fourth-fifth of the “overprice” paid by 1MDB  i.e. US$592 million – UD$10 million or US$582 million or RM1.8 billion?

Where did this RM1.8 billion “overprice” for the Genting power station go to?

It has been estimated that of the R18 billion paid by 1MDB for 15 power stations, there was an overpayment of at least RM3 billion.

Where have these RM3 billion of 1MDB ringgit disappear to?

Najib should begin a 1MDB Nothing2Hide confession starting with the revelation what has happened to the RM3 billion which were “overprized” in acquisition of  15 power stations for RM18 billion!

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 1:27 pm and is filed under
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Pak Samad pilih parti berintegriti

A Shukur Harun

The Malaysian Insider

23 June 2015

Beberapa hari selepas Sasterawan Negara, Datuk A. Samad Said menyertai DAP, beberapa sahabat bertanyakan pendapat saya mengenai langkah sasterawan ternama itu, saya menjawab: “Apa salahnya, ini demokrasi, Samad seorang pemikir dan dia sudahpun berfikir sebelum menyertai DAP.”

Untuk beberapa hari saya belum lagi menghubunginya, memikirkan mungkin beliau sedang sibuk dengan perkembangan baru ini, hinggalah penyair Dinsman memberitahu saya bahawa Samad mahu mendengar pendapat saya mengenai langkahnya itu.

Lalu saya menghubunginya, mengucapkan tahniah kepadanya kerana memilih parti yang berintegriti, mempunyai imej bersih. Beliau mengucapkan terima kasih kepada saya.

 Pada pendapat saya, sasterawan negara itu membuat pilihan yang tepat, iaitu memilih parti yang mampu mempertahankan integritinya, teguh pada prinsip perjuangannya untuk menegakkan demokrasi dan keadilan, menentang perkauman, walaupun selama puluhan tahun DAP digambarkan sebagai parti chauvinis Cina dan pelbagai lagi.

Pada mulanya Samad cuba merapatkan diri dengan pimpinan PAS, terutamanya daripada golongan sederhana seperti Mohamad Sabu, Dr Hatta Ramli, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Datuk Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa , Khalid Samad dan lain-lain sentiasa yang dilihatnya sebagai pemimpin berintegriti dan berada di tengah gelombang rakyat dalam pelbagai perhimpunan dan program lain parti itu dan Samad sangat gembira melihat keadaan ini dan berada di tengah mereka.

Sasterawan Negara itu pernah membaca sajaknya bersama saya di majlis Sambutan Di ambang Merdeka di Kelab Sultan Sulaiman, Kampung Baru Kuala Lumpur, anjuran PAS Wilayah dua tahun lalu.

Penglibatannya sebagai pengerusi bersama Bersih 2.0 pula bersama Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan.

Ambiga beberapa tahun lalu dan seterusnya penglibatannya dalam pelbagai kegiatan rakyat, membaca sajak di Dataran Merdeka dan di mana-mana di seluruh negara, memperlihatkan minatnya untuk berjuang bersama rakyat.

Di sinilah saya melihat Samad mendekati PAS dengan harapan bahawa parti itu juga sama-sama mendukung cita-citanya memperjuangkan keadilan rakyat.

Malangnya apa yang berlaku kepada PAS sejak lebih setahun lalu itu sejak berlaku krisis yang puncaknya apa yang terjadi di Muktamar PAS baru-baru ini sangat mengecewakan Sasterawan Negara itu.

Saya sendiri merasakan bahawa peristiwa di Kuala Selangor – tempat muktamar itu diadakan – adalah sejarah hitam bagi PAS dan sangat sukar dibaiki kerosakannya.

Nilai Ukhuwah Islamiyah, kasih sayang sesama jemaah hilang seperti disambar raksasa, digantikan dengan persengketaan dan prejudis. Matlamat menghalalkan cara. Lalu golongan sederhana dan progresif disingkirkan semuanya dengan cara paling hina, seperti “menghalau kucing kurap dengan penyapu”.

Saya kira begitu ramai orang, termasuk Samad sendiri turut merasa amat kecewa dengan peristiwa ini, melainkan musuh politik PAS yang tentunya merasa gembira.

Di sinikah saya terkesan dengan sebuah mesej yang saya terima: “Sebelum muktamar: Jebon, barua, munafik haraki, engkar syhura, pengkhianat, lawan ulama, pro-DAP, fikrah tak jelas, liberal, sekular, anti hudud, pemecah belah. Selepas muktamar: Mari kita rapatkan saf perjuangan kita, rapatkan ukhuwah, kalah menang adat bertanding. Jadilah Khalid Al-Walid. Ruang dalam perjuangan sangat luas.”

Demikianlah lidah bercabang dan sikap kepura-puraan tahap tinggi yang wujud dalam sebuah parti yang bernuansa Islam sejak akhir-akhir ini.

Sebagai pemikir yang merenung kehidupan ini dengan mendalam, termasuklah dunia politik, A, Sa,mad Said akhirnya mengambil keputusan untuk menyertai DAP, sebuah parti politik yang dilihatnya berwibawa, konsisten dengan perjuangan menegakkan keadilan dan demokrasi, tidak sekadar bermain dengan kata-kata, tetapi melaksanakan yang termampu olehnya serta memiliki daya intelektual yang tinggi.

Permusuhan terhadap DAP oleh sesetengah pihak, adalah biasa, ditambah lagi dengan kempen anti DAP oleh BN/Umno sejak puluhan tahun. Namun Samad tidak terpengaruh dengan parti lawan itu.

Penyair dan dramatis Dinsman menyatakan bahawa dia sedar memang ada kerisauan beberapa teman penulis iaitu apabila menjadi ahli DAP nanti Samad akan menerima kritikan, tohmahan dan fitnah, seperti yang biasa berlaku di kalangan orang politik. Bahkan ada yang mengatakan DAP akan memperalatkannya demi kepentingan politik mereka.

Bagi saya, betapapun kita menjangka fitnah dan kutukan akan dihadapi oleh sasterawan negara itu, tetapi tentu sekali Samad sudah merujuk kepada bisikan hatinya sendiri, penilaiannya terhadap semua parti politik tanah air dan membuat perbandingan. Lalu beliau mendapati perjuangan DAP memenuhi sebahagian besar cita-citanya.

Bukan bermakna DAP itu serba sempurna, tetapi bagi Samad, ia memenuhi sebahagian besar ideal yang dihajatinya. Saya kira selepas ini pun Samad akan bebas mengkritik, termasuk mengkritik DAP di mana DAP sendiri pula perlu bersedia untuk dikritik.

Dalam hal ini ramai penulis yang kononnya tidak memihak kepada parti politik, tetapi ternyata sikap, aliran fikiran mereka yang dipancarkan melalui tulisan dan kata-kata, ternyata ada di antara mereka yang memihak. Tidak kurang juga yang membisu melihat kemungkaran yang berlaku di depan mata mereka.

Daripada segi seni-budaya pula, seperti kata Dinsman, rasanya tiada pihak yang lebih tahu dan faham Samad melainkan Seniman Paksi Rakyat (Paksi).

 “Maka setakat ini, kami perhatikan walaupun beliau terlibat dalam pelbagai jenis dan lapangan aktiviti, yang menjadi inti pati atau roh atau semangat penglibatannya adalah kerakyatan dan kemanusiaan. Dia masih menjunjung dua prinsip tersebut, di mana Paksi pun menganggapnya sebagai inti pati, roh dan semangat kreativiti seniman dalam berkarya.

Dinsman percaya, keputusan nekad Pak Samad menyertai politik DAP itu adalah juga kekecewaannya terhadap sikap pimpinan PKR dan PAS terhadap seni-budaya.

Kawan dalam paksi, kata Dinsman, sangat faham, kerana Samad adalah sebahagian daripada gerakan itu.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 4:11 pm and is filed under
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Skewered for joining ‘Chinese party’, Pak Samad laments Malaysians’ racial lens

by Boo Su-Lyn,

The Malay Mail Online

June 23, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, June 23 ― National laureate and new DAP member Datuk A. Samad Said has questioned Malaysians’ race-centric mindset that remains prevalent almost 60 years after the country achieved independence.

Commenting on reaction to his entry into the DAP, the 83-year-old bemoaned how his Muslim friends responded to the news negatively and rebuked him for joining what they described as a “Chinese party”.

“We’ve been independent for almost six decades and it’s a shame if we still think racially,” Samad told Malay Mail Online in an interview yesterday.

“I received phone calls and SMSes scolding me and asking me why I joined a Chinese party. I said, ‘Who said it’s a Chinese party? It’s a Malaysian party’,” he added.

The Malay-Muslim novelist and poet said although his wife and family members supported his decision, his friends were concerned and mistakenly thought that he had rushed into joining the secular party on June 13.

“I’ve been thinking about it for two years already. I’ve known Lim Kit Siang since the 50s. We were journalists then,” said Samad, referring to the senior DAP leader.

Samad, who has written 75 books comprising novels, short stories, dramas, essays and poems, said the DAP may have started off as a predominantly Chinese party, but pointed out that the “visionary” Lim’s “Malaysian dream” of making the party multi-racial.

“They want to be a Malaysian party. What is important is their ideal, their dream,” he said. “Because of that, I think I made the right choice in joining DAP”.

The former co-chair of electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0 said he does not deny that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are important, but noted that “when you come to a crossroads, you have to make a decision”.

“NGOs are good, but I think I can contribute more in DAP,” he said.

Samad said Malaysians still generally operate along racial lines without thinking of themselves as Malaysians, especially the Malays whom he said find it difficult to understand the Chinese’s “willingness to build a better Malaysia”.

“I never think in terms of race; I think in terms of ‘You are a Malaysian’. Irrespective of race, you have to do something for Malaysia,” he said.

The DAP has been trying to move towards a more multi-racial image, having fielded a Malay woman, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, in the Teluk Intan by-election last year that had a significant Chinese electorate.

Race and religion remain hot-button issues in predominantly Malay-Muslim Malaysia, with the National Civics Bureau (BTN) even saying recently in leaked presentation slides that racism can unite an ethnic group for a “good purpose”.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 8:40 am and is filed under
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The untouchable Dr M

Kapil Sethi

The Malay Mail Online

June 22, 2015

JUNE 22 ― On the surface, it seems even more lopsided than a David and Goliath battle. On one side is a frail, almost 90, long gone from the corridors of power old man whose bark is practically all that is left of what was 22 years of autocratic but arguably economically robust rule. On the other is a man decades younger and a second term prime minister controlling all the levers of power who is increasingly comfortable in deploying them to crush all dissent, whether through legislation, 3am wake-up calls by the police or even by suing through the judiciary.

The PM also has publicly-funded government largesse to dole out as and when the situation requires. He has a plethora of government and party posts and contracts to hand out to keep his party cadres in line. He controls all the mainstream media and has a large, ever-expanding public relations machine at his disposal to run down all enemies, real or imagined.

So it would seem bizarre that things have reached such a head that the battle is not only not over, but has spilled out on the international stage courtesy of the New York Times. In a sign of exactly how difficult the situation is for the incumbent PM, his foreign minister is reduced to replying to the article by criticising Dr Mahathir for internationalising the issue rather than rebutting the issues themselves.

So why is it that the government is incapable of coming down hard on a person who is, in their own words, pursuing a personal political vendetta against the current regime? Why cannot the IGP, through one of his now infamous tweets, order the same treatment as has been dished out to dozens of activists, Opposition politicians and the nine times seditious cartoonist? After all, he has called the PM’s conduct verging on the criminal in an interview with the NYT, no less?

The answer may lie in part in the nature of 1MDB, in part the nature of Malay and Malaysian society, and in part in the nature of Umno, the political party both men belong to. 1MDB is proving to be a complex matter which defies easy answers and solutions, so carries the potential of being dragged on for a long time as an issue, all kinds of audits notwithstanding. When nobody can say anything definitively, it becomes hard to silence the questioner.

Secondly, in the Malaysian context, it would be extremely rude for a younger man to even criticise, let alone arrest or charge a much older man who is also his political mentor without whom his becoming prime minister may not have even been possible. The same logic also applies to all the ministers still in power from Dr Mahathir’s time as PM, which is why the ones attacking him are newer members of the administration.

And finally, in a way because Umno is built around the politics of patronage, the loyalties of many within the ranks are divided based on the duration and quantum of favours received. Both men can call on powerful interests to be counted on their side. But what makes the current PM’s job much harder is the nature of the issue Dr Mahathir has chosen to base his attacks on. Whatever be the final outcome of all the enquiries, in the court of public opinion 1MDB is an unholy mess that stinks to the high heavens.

But scandals have been a plenty in Dr Mahathir’s time too, as have been critics of his administration. He never stepped down. But the defining difference lies in who is doing the critiquing. Dr Mahathir is the only leader that a generation of Malaysians has seen. At a time of economic gloom and bitter political divisions, many look back on his years in power with qualified nostalgia and in the absence of an Opposition figure of the stature of Anwar Ibrahim, are happy to see him take the role of a check and balance to the perceived excesses of the current administration.

Even more tellingly as a predictor of who may emerge victorious in this tussle is a comparison of who has more to lose. Hands down it is the person currently in power. All his opponent has to do is keep the heat on. If Dr M cannot be silenced or even critiqued in any meaningful way through either the use of the carrot or the stick, then he cannot lose.

He can carry on in this vein forever while the PM cannot allow him to do so. Which is why the longer this goes on, the weaker the current government looks. The open feud in MIC, the economic drift, the fall of the ringgit, the angst against the GST and the sliding share market are all matters the government is unable to respond effectively to, transfixed as it is by this unprecedented war.

While this column predicts only one winner to this conflict, if it carries on much longer they may be 30 million losers.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 4:32 am and is filed under
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Will 1MDB fallout push Najib out?

By P Gunasegaram

Malaysiakini

Jun 18, 2015

QUESTION TIME
 1MDB’s impact on the financial markets is more than just worry about whether potential defaults will impact the banking system and whether the government’s finances will be adversely affected when it stands by to honour 1MDB’s many obligations.

These questions have been largely answered – the central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, has already said that 1MDB does not pose a systemic risk to the domestic banking sector, although it may depress the profits of some banks.

Various analysts believe that the federal government, which owns all of 1MDB through Minister of Finance Inc, has the capacity to take care of 1MDB’s obligations, which amount to RM42 billion.

So why is the ringgit more depressed than it should be and what is really the concern about the situation in the country? The problem is not directly related to the economy but politics. An increasing number of people are considering how the overall political situation in the country will change if Najib Abdul Razak, for whatever reason, decides to step down.

It is more than likely that it is the political situation which is causing the ringgit to be even more volatile than the currencies of other countries that have yo-yoed against the US dollar, but generally trended downwards against the greenback. That the US dollar is strengthening is indisputable, the roots being the strong possibility of upward increases in US interest rates some time later this year.

The pressure on Najib increased when former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad stepped into the fray over the 1MDB issue, accusing the self-styled strategic development company of not being able to account properly for its debts of RM42 billion. Now, that’s something that lots of others agree with.

However, Mahathir’s premise for his interference has not always been from the perspective of high moral values – he often repeats that the reason why Najib has to go is that if he stays on he may well lead Umno and Barisan Nasional into defeat in the next general elections. The elections have to be held on or before 2018, still some three years away.

Najib has maintained, without offering much by way of evidence, that 1MDB is in good shape and that all monies are intact and can be accounted for. This runs counter to the many reports written on 1MDB and its various shenanigans, which includes pieces written by both KINIBIZ online and KINIBIZ magazine.

In fact KINIBIZ online was the first anywhere to write an extensive series of reports on 1MDB outlining its various mistakes, including underpricing bonds, overpaying for assets, paying too much to Goldman Sachs, dubious investments, suspicious money trails, influence from outside parties and so on.

Position full of holes

All analyses indicates that Najib’s position with respect to 1MDB – that basically the company is okay and only needs time to put its affairs in order – is full of holes and does not hold water. There is much that 1MDB has not given satisfactory answers to and it looks like for many questions, there will be no good replies.

The billion ringgit questions then are, will Najib step down? And if he does, who will take over from him?

Najib will not take on Mahathir directly – he pointedly avoided one confrontation at the so-called ‘Nothing2Hide’ forum. But behind the scenes he would be quietly accumulating support from his loyalists.

His deputy and Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin is already testing the waters. In a leaked video of a meeting, he made some strong remarks against 1MDB, which some take to mean that he is ready to step into Najib’s shoes.

Meantime, rumours of a cabinet reshuffle swirl and there is speculation that Najib’s alternative choice, if he should decide to leave, might be Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, with Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein as deputy.

If that is being passed around by Najib’s camp it may be a signal to Muhyiddin to watch his step, for the power of incumbency in Umno cannot be denied. Jumping ship too early might result in a step into the ocean.

It is very difficult to mount a challenge against an incumbent president who holds wide powers. Just to contest, a challenger has to get nominations from 30 percent of the branches. Considering that the president will have considerable influence over branch officials, that is very unlikely to happen in the current scenario.

Many like to say that former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was forced out from his position, mainly by Mahathir. That’s probably not true. Abdullah made no attempt to cling to power but was likely ready to step down from the rigours of political office of his own free will.

Najib will not leave so easily. If he is going to leave, then a deal has to be struck – that’s always been the Umno way. There will be some face-saving, and there will be assurances that he himself will be immune from any kind of prosecution over 1MDB or any other matters.

One possible deal could be that he stays but when the next elections are within sight he will make way for the next person to take over the mantle. Whether that will be Muhyiddin or someone else is not clear at this point of time. But any Umno politician who makes too quick a move against Najib is likely to pay for his recklessness.

If Najib gets no such assurance, then he has no choice but to fight tooth and nail to keep his position, for to give it up may well mean opening himself up to further action against him in future.

Nearly impossible to mount a challenge

Najib is not likely to be removed against his will. Ironically this is because of all the measures that Mahathir put in place to make it nearly impossible to mount a challenge against the incumbent president in the wake of the bruising challenge against him in 1987 by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Musa Hitam.

It’s an irony, too, that the votes of Najib’s supporters, who firmly swung to Mahathir in the last leg of the Razaleigh/Musa campaign against Mahathir, probably contributed to Mahathir’s narrow win in 1987 and that they now stand on opposite sides of the divide.

But despite all of Mahathir’s fighting qualities, it looks like the only way Najib will leave is if a deal is made. Mahathir himself has ensured that by the changes to Umno’s voting rules.

Meantime, the political uncertainty will add to the woes of the country, contributing to currency volatility and confidence erosion.

P GUNASEGARAM is founding editor of KINIBIZ which produces an online business news portal and a fortnightly print magazine.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 23 June 2015, 6:08 pm and is filed under
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Call on Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to review the decision not to investigate serious allegation of 1MDB’s indirect funding of BN’s 13GE campaign

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should review its decision not to investigate the serious allegation of 1MDB’s indirect funding of Barisan Nasional’s  (BN)  13th General Election campaign with public funds.

It is surprising that the PAC chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed has decided that the PAC would not investigate into the 1MDB’s indirect funding of BN’s 13th General Election campaign, telling Malay Mail Online  that it was premature to claim wrongdoing in Genting Plantations’ US$10 million  donation to a Barisan Nasional-linked charity, Yayasan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (YR1M) which used the funds for the 13GE campaigning.

After the Wall Street Journal expose, “Fund Controversy Threatens Malaysia’s Leader” last Friday that Genting Plantations contributed US$10 million to YR1M  after its parent sold a power plant to 1MDB five times its actual value for RM23 billion when the plant was only worth RM400 million, it was naïve for Jazlan to say that  Genting Plantations could have made the donation for a variety of reasons, including CSR (corporate social responsibility).

Although Jazlan said there is nothing wrong with corporates making CSR contributions, the PAC will be seriously remiss and negligent of its parliamentary duties to uphold probity and integrity in the  handling public funds if it ignores the prima facie case that grave impropriety in expenditure of public funds had been committed in 1MDB’s indirect funding of  BN’s 13th General Election campaign.

PAC must get to the bottom of the Wall Street Journal report that 1MDB paid inflated prices for energy assets from Genting Group whose subsidiary later contributed to YR1M that is linked to BN and which featured during the campaign for the 13GE.

It is most intriguing that the Prime Minister, who is responsible in law and in fact for the 1MDB transactions, has maintained  a deafening silence in the past six  days when Najib Razak should have no qualms about instituting legal proceedings against Wall Street Journal as Najib  had already sued both DAP  MP for PJ Utara  Tony Pua and PKR MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli over their statedments on the  1MDB scandal.

Has Najib a soft spot for Wall Street Journal that he is prepared to be defamed without wishing to clear his reputation?

The PAC should investigate as to what  has happened to the fourth-fifth of the overpriced total paid by 1MDB to Genting for the power plant?

What other charities had benefited from Genting’s largesse and were they similarly used to bankroll Najib’s 13GE campaign?

1MDB paid US$740 million  or five times the worth of the Genting power plant i.e. US$592  million above the plant’s actual worth. Genting donated US10 million to YRIM purportedly for charity work but were used to bankroll Najib’s 13GE campaign.

What happened to the  balance of fourth-fifth of the “overprice” paid by 1MDB  i.e. US$592 million – UD$10 million or US$582 million or RM1.8 billion?

Where did this RM1.8 billion “overprice” for the Genting power station go to?

It has been estimated that of the RM18 billion paid by 1MDB for 15 power stations, there was an overpayment of at least RM3 billion.

Where have these RM3 billion of 1MDB ringgit disappear to?

These are answers the public would expect the PAC to find and ferret.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 24 June 2015, 6:33 am and is filed under
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Corrupt Malaysia money distorts Melbourne market

Nick McKenzie, Richard Baker, John Garnaut

The Age

June 23, 2015

Even in Melbourne’s booming property market, the $22.5 million price tag for a  building designed like an IKEA cupboard seemed well above the odds. That’s because it was.

Named Dudley House by developers keen to imbue it with a sense of grandeur, it seems the last place to host any untoward dealings.

But the sordid tale of this building highlights one reason that federal treasurer Joe Hockey is so concerned about the foreign funds flowing into an already overheated property market, as well as why local and international corruption fighters say Australia has become an investment hot spot for the crooked and corrupt.

An eight-month Fairfax Media investigation has traced suspicious money flows, court files and corporate records across three continents to uncover why Dudley House’s purchase price was so high.

Its sale was part of a global money laundering and bribery scheme engineered by greedy local developers and powerful officials overseas who pocketed $4.75 million in bribes on this single deal.

Fairfax Media has also discovered that some of these same figures are linked to tax haven companies which are also behind the purchase of around $80 million in Australian properties.

By following a complex money trail – which, in a curious twist, includes front companies set up by a Singaporean wedding-cake maker – Fairfax Media has identified the foreign officials who appear to be using Australia as a money laundering hub.

There are also Australian facilitators tied to these suspect dealings, including Melbourne man Peter Mills, who once did a stint in Pentridge prison for corporate fraud. Mills was recently quizzed in a civil court case about whether the $4.75 million generated by inflating Dudley House’s sale price was used “to grease palms” overseas.

His reply was short but surprisingly honest. “Yeah, I think so”.

Financial laundromat

For a country whose leaders claim it to be a world leader in integrity, Australia is developing an ugly reputation.

In 2012, PNG’s chief corruption fighter labelled Australia the “Cayman Islands” of the Asia Pacific, due to the ease in which PNG politicians could invest their ill-gotten wealth in Australian property.

The Chinese government has more recently launched its own campaign, warning that crooked officials are taking refuge and squirelling away embezzled funds in Australia.

Fuelling this developing scandal have been incentives, including fast-tracked Australian residency visas, for overseas businessmen who invest large amounts here.

Earlier this year, Joe Hockey himself intervened to force one of China’s richest men  to divest a $39 million Sydney Harbourside pad because he’d tried to use front companies based in tax havens to avoid foreign investment restrictions. Last month Fairfax revealed that another Chinese businessman hid behind an elderly Melbourne couple to disguise the purchase of an even bigger mansion in the same neighbourhood, the $52 million Altona.

Only last month, the Paris-based anti-laundering agency, the Financial Action Task Force, warned that “Australia is seen as an attractive destination for foreign proceeds [of crime], particularly corruption-related proceeds, flowing into real estate, from the Asia-Pacific region.”

The Dudley House deal is the clearest example to date. But it would have almost certainly remained a secret without Melbourne tradesman John Bond.

The Malaysian connection

Bond, 53, is a man who doesn’t walk away from a fight. The barrel-chested former suburban footballer helped manage a jail for young offenders before starting his own window and door company. When the window-maker won a lucrative job to help outfit Dudley House, he dreamed of dramatically expanding his business. But employees need to be paid. And after working on the development for many months, Bond, along with his own staff and dozens of other contractors, were owed several million dollars.

“They [the developers] kept putting it off. It became one week. Then one month. Then six months.  And I thought to myself, something is terribly wrong here. They seem like they are never going to pay us.”

The ‘they’ were Melbourne developers, Chris Dimitriou and Peter Mills, along with their joint venture partners – two mysterious Malaysian businessmen.

These two businessmen, Yusof Gani and Ahmad Azizi, appeared keen to keep a low profile in Australia.

“We knew they were influencing things behind the scenes, but I never met them,” says Bond. “All I know is that they are powerful back in Malaysia.”

Emails uncovered by Fairfax Media and sent to the Malaysian pair suggest this low profile was aimed at avoiding scrutiny by the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board.

In one missive, their Australian manager, Dennis Teen, suggests that Gani and Azizi understate their true investment in the Dudley House development by falsely nominating Teen as the majority shareholder.

“The maximum for each individual foreigner without FIRB approval is 15 per cent,” wrote the manager in one email, so he suggested the Malaysian duo claim their shareholding was only “14 per cent.”

“I’m agreeable,” one of them replied.

In Malaysia, Gani and Azizi have a much bigger profile. Each has been anointed a “Dato” by the Malaysian government — the Malaysian version of a knighthood.

Facebook posts show Azizi and his two sons, Erwin and Erwan, mixing with the elite and getting around in Porches and Ferraris. Erwan hangs out at the Kuala Lumpur Porsche club. There is plenty of international travel, including a family trip to Paris.

In Malaysia, where wealth and political connections go hand in hand, the Azizis didn’t just have the funds to invest in a multi-million dollar Australian property development. They also had the contacts to pull off a remarkable deal: the sale of this development to the Malaysian government at a massive mark-up.

According to confidential documents, it was Dato Azizi’s Porsche-loving son Erwan who facilitated this deal via a network of contacts connected to a multi-billion dollar Malaysian government institution called MARA.

Created in 1965 with the noble aim of helping the rural poor, MARA is a household name in Malaysia. But MARA’s decision to buy Dudley House through a subsidiary, MARA Inc, shows how far it has strayed from its core values.

The right price

The property that John Bond had helped to build was worth $17.8 million and Mills, Dimitriou, Azizi and Gani were, according to paperwork, intending to sell it for this amount.

But, around the time that the Porsche-driving Azizi junior helped introduce certain Malaysian officials to the deal, the sale price was suddenly inflated by $4.75 million.

As the two Datos’ Australian manager Denis Teen later explained in civil court proceedings lodged on behalf of the Dudley House creditors: “If we didn’t agree on the $4.75 million, we would not have the deal”.

This inflated sale price of $22.5 million should have increased the prospect of tradesman like John Bond getting paid. But Bond’s fears that he and his fellow creditors were about the be ripped off dramatically increased when the Australian developers Mills and Dimitriou appointed an administrator, indicating their company would not be able to pay the bills of the tradesmen who built Dudley House.

By 2013, Bond had spent two years working on the project. He was broke and desperate. His tipping point had come when his son, Cooper, asked his dad to pay for a trip to an interstate football carnival to represent Victoria.

“I couldn’t afford it,” says Bond quietly in an interview with Fairfax Media. “I had to borrow money from my own parents to send Cooper to Darwin.”

The experience left Bond determined to find out who had got rich from Dudley House while he was left facing ruin.

Harking back to his days as a suburban footy player, he pushed back. Hard. With several other creditors, he went to the Victorian Supreme Court, and demanded the appointment to the project of a new liquidator, Pitcher Partners boss Andrew Yeo.

Yeo assigned the case to a bright young Pitcher Partner employee, Odie Henzel, and told him to start digging.

With his well cut suit, neat hair-cut and quiet demeanour, Henzel and Bond could not be more different. But the financial analyst and the window maker soon struck up a rapport. Incensed at Bond’s treatment, Henzel joined the mission to unearth the secrets of Dudley House.

Among a cache of documents, Henzel discovered a strange email. It was dated March 8, 2013 and sent by a man purportedly working for Malaysian government officials. It stated that in return for the Malaysian government agency MARA buying Dudley House, a payment of “AUS$4,785,000 in the form of introduction and consultancy fees” would have to be wired to a mysterious Singapore shelf company.

Taking the cake

Fairfax Media tracked down the director of this company to a cake shop in a busy, upmarket Singaporean shopping strip. Her name is Hanna Kamruddin and she nervously revealed she’d been appointed a director of the shelf company after her brother, a Harley Davidson-riding Malaysian called Hishan Kamruddin, introduced her to three men who wanted an offshore company and bank account set up. Hanna Kamruddin agreed to help them in return for $1000. “I’m so naïve,” she said when asked about the arrangement.

“When I look back it was a very stupid decision.”

Kamruddin insists she does not know the identity of the Malaysians who paid her the $1000.

But she remembered one thing. They were somehow linked to a Malaysian government agency.

Corporate records in Australia reveal more about those linked to front companies directed by the young cake maker. One of the firms was taken over by several powerful Malaysian officials: a former politician turned MARA Investment chairman, Dato Mohammad Lan Bin Allani, and a MARA chief executive, Dato Halim Bin Rahman.

When contacted by Fairfax Media, Allani said he couldn’t recall the Dudley House dealings, even though he visited Melbourne to inspect the property in May last year, according to a Malaysian Consulate website. He said he was involved in setting up offshore companies in tax havens as a “convenient” way of selling property bought by the Malaysian government. When questioned about his knowledge of any alleged kickbacks, the former politician hung up the phone.

The front companies directed by the Singapore cake maker aren’t the only suspicious corporate vehicles Malaysian officials have used to purchase Australian properties. A company called Thrushcross set up in notorious tax haven, the British Virgin Islands, was used to purchase Dudley House, along with a $23.5 million property on Swanston Street, near Melbourne University. (Dato Azizi’s son, Erwan, signed some of the paperwork associated with the deal.)

Malaysian officials from MARA have also used other shelf companies in Singapore, which is also regarded as a tax haven, to purchase properties in Queens Street and Exhibition Street in Melbourne’s CBD for around $40 million.

The circuitous path of the $4.75 million dollars generated by inflating the price of Dudley House also points back to the Malaysian government. The money was paid by the Dudley House developers for non-existent services, including “professional advice” and “consultancy and advisory fees.”

Corporate records reveal that the firms behind these sham invoices are closely linked to several powerful Malaysian figures, including another top MARA official. The liquidation proceedings lodged in the Victorian Supreme Court after John Bond and Pitcher Partners’ intervention provide further evidence that the $4.75 million was paid as bribes.

When quizzed directly about these apparent “kickbacks” in court, developer Chris Dimitriou stated: “To the best of my knowledge, that $4.8 million went to Malaysian parties.” Dimitriou refused to answer any of Fairfax Media’s questions.

His fellow developer Peter Mills was more forthcoming, telling Fairfax Media in a phone interview that the deal was corrupt.

“I suppose I have to [take responsibility]. But no one told me about it beforehand. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone along with it.”

Zero consequence

While Fairfax Media’s investigation has revealed that at least some of those involved in the Dudley House deal have engaged in serious criminal conduct, nobody has been, so far at least, called to account by authorities in Australia or Asia.

To this extent at least, they join hundreds of allegedly corrupt investors confident they can park their ill gotten gains in properties in Sydney, Melbourne or elsewhere.

Australian resident Denis Teen, who managed the local affairs for Dudley House’s Malaysian developers, was also called to the stand in the liquidation proceedings. He spoke quickly, appeared nervous and denied knowledge of any corruption (a denial he repeated to Fairfax Media). But his testimony still provided insights into the way he and his partners do business.

“We are not saints,” Teen told the court. “We just want a deal done.”

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 24 June 2015, 6:11 am and is filed under
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DAP had never aspired to be a Chinese or non-Malay party and we will double up in our resolve to be a fully Malaysian party  strengthening our Malay, Dayak and Kadazandusun membership in keeping with our Malaysian ideals and aspirations

There are those who forecast that with the PAS Muktamar resolution to cut off relations with DAP spelling the end of the seven-year-old Pakatan Rakyat, DAP will become a narrow-minded  Chinese or non-Malay political party.

They cannot be more wrong. Firstly, DAP had never aspired to be a Chinese or non-Malay party. Right from the beginning during DAP’s formation in 1966, DAP had pledged itself to pursue a Malaysian Dream, not a Chinese Dream, an Indian Dream or a Malay Dream.

This is why DAP is the first political party in the country to be Pan-Malaysian, establishing branches in Sarawak and Sabah before any other political party in the country.

All through the past five decades,  DAP had been accused of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam by UMNO, because of UMNO  fear that the DAP will be able to make inroads into UMNO spheres of influence with our Malaysian political appeal, transcending race, religion or region.

No political party seeking support from all Malaysians can be anti-Malay or anti-Islam, or for that matter, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Dayak, anti-Kadazandusun or anti-Buddhism, anti-Christianity, anti-Hindiuism or anti-Sikkhism.

The battle against such lies and falsehoods had been a particularly uphill battle for the DAP because we had to face the full onslaught of the UMNO juggernaut with its control and ownership of the mass media, particularly in the era before the advent of Internet, the Internet news portals  and the social media.

However difficult the terrain, DAP had never wavered from our objectives and principles that the DAP had been formed not to fight for  any one race but for all races and Malaysians in the country!

This is why right from the beginning, starting from the first general election in 1969 contested by the DAP, the party had always put up a multi-racial and multi-religious slate of candidates.

In fact, in the 1969 general elections, two Malay State Assemblymen were elected, one in Perak and the other in Negri Sembilan.  In the past 11 general elections, DAP had elected Malay Members of Parliament and State Assembly representatives in Peninsular Malaysia.

In the 2013 General Elections, we  elected a Kadazan State Assemblyman in Sabah and we look forward to the election of the first Dayak State Assembly representative in the forthcoming Sarawak state general elections.

As in the 1969 general election, DAP has now  more Indian MPs than MIC.  It is because of the DAP that there is an Indian Deputy Chief Minister in Penang and the first Indian Speaker in the Perak State Assembly after the 2008 General Election.

All these precedents and breakthroughs are testimony that DAP had never aspired to be a Chinese or non-Malay party and in the post-Pakatan Rakyat scenario, we will double up in our resolve to be a fully Malaysian party  strengthening our Malay, Dayak and Kadazandusun membership and support in keeping with our Malaysian ideals and aspirations.

This is why we have Impian Sabah, Impian Sarawak, Impian Kelantan and we have recently announced Impian Kedah/Perlis, all of which are  born out of the  conviction that we are all Malaysians and that  the country cannot be developed, progressive and prosperous if there is any state where the people are poor and backward and that all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region, are entitled to the full development of their potentials and rights.

I have always regarded myself as a Malaysian first and Chinese second.

I believe that in the sixth decade of our nationhood, there are more and more Malaysians with such an outlook and commitment –  who are Malaysians first, and Chinese, Malays, Indians, Kadazandusun and Ibans second.

This is the stuff that Impian Malaysia, whether Impian Sabah, Impian Sarawak, Impian Kelantan or Impian Kedah/Perlis, are made of!

The two political coalitions in the country are in throes of great flux and even chaos.

Pakatan Rakyat is no more as the result of a  new PAS leadership which finds the siren call of a Unity Government between UMNO and PAS to protect Malay interests more appealing than keeping faith with the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework.

But the principles and goals of the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework extends beyond political party walls.

On the other side of the political spectrum, the Umno/Barisan Nasional under the leadership of Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak is on its last legs.

Many  UMNO/BN leaders do not have confidence that they can survive as the Federal government in the next general elections because of the slew of political and socio-economic scandals piling one after another – the most serious of which is undoubtedly the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.

Even the “brain-washing” headquarters of the UMNO/BN coalition government, the Biro Tatanegara in the Prime Minister’s Department, has a very bleak and gloomy forecast for the future of Barisan Nasional, which is why its recent teaching module sought to get public feed on the state of terminal  health of Barisan Nasional, whether the BN coalition is in  (i) Wad Biasa; (ii) Wad Kecemasan; (iii) ICU or (iv)  Tanah Kubur.

It is significant that even Biro Tatanegara, which costs Malaysian taxpayers over RM 1.1 billion in the past three decades to maintain and upkeep of some 300 staff   – does not think  Barisan Nasional is any  good state of health at all!

There are at present three  political realities we must grasp if we are to be ahead of political developments in the present stormy waters:

Firstly, that no single race or one political party can govern  this country, as it is through inter-racial, inter-religious and inter-party co-operation – as equals and not between superior and subordinates – that Malaysia can become a  successful model of plural society which is progressive and prosperous not only to the world but also to the  Middle East.

Secondly, that although Pakatan Rakyat is no more, the hopes and aspirations of Malaysians as encapsulated in  the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework principle and policies of national unity, justice, progress and prosperity remain valid, relevant and achievable in the 14th General Election and must remain the objective and goal of all Malaysians.

Thirdly, that what the country needs today is for Malaysians, whether political parties, organizations or individuals – and most important of all, the Federal and State Governments,  to have a more inclusive outlook and commitment which  tolerate and accept the role and contribution of all races, religions, regions and groups; and not a narrow bigoted, sectarian and exclusive outlook, promoted by the mistaken concepts of master race or master religion.

These are the three principles which can save Malaysia, which has clearly lost its direction in Malaysian nation-building in the past three decades, now mired by corruption, abuses of power and lack of accountability, transparency and good governance.

(Speech at the forum on “Can Najib or 1MDB Survive” at Wisma Teng Chen, Klang on Tuesday, 23rd June 2015 at 9.30 pm)

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