Month: February 2009

Message from Dr. Lim Teck Ghee and Dr. Azly Rahman

by

We are posting here RPK’s message to Malaysians. 

We appeal to the Government not to use the ISA again on RPK.  

We appeal to all fair minded Malaysians – especially those members of our elites – to urgently raise their voices and concern so that RPK is not deprived of his freedom and the tragic outcome predicted below does not come about.

We appeal to the international community to express their solidarity with the country’s foremost dissident and to ensure that he is not incarcerated once more on political grounds.

Please disseminate RPK’s letter as widely as possible.

Read more

Risking the nation for an Umno post

by

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/breaking-views/136-breaking-views/18377-risking-the-nation-for-an-umno-post–the-malaysian-insider

Published by The Malaysian Insider

FEB 15 – The Perak imbroglio has thrown up many issues and many players on national stage from royalty to politicians, some hungry for their 15 seconds of fame and eyeing a bigger role in the future.

Read more

Message from Dr. Lim Teck Ghee

by

  Because of the strict control exercised by the Government over the printed official media and the limited public space available for informed and critical discourse on vital national matters, the CPI  has developed two websites – one in English and the other in Chinese – to help improve public access to information on vital … Read more

Pakatan treads carefully as royalty flexes muscle

by
Sultan Azlan & Nizar

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/18342-pakatan-treads-carefully-as-royalty-flexes-muscle

Published by The Malaysian Insider

February 14, 2009

Sultan Azlan & NizarKUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — While Barisan Nasional may yet pay at the ballot box over its ruthless power grab in Perak, its aggressive foray has put Pakatan Rakyat on the ropes, with its parties mulling an uncertain future and the possibility of a powerful enemy it could do without — the Malay Rulers.

Beyond the prospect of dealing with a resurgent BN and Umno, adept at using the advantages that come with being in power, the PR parties of Pas, PKR and DAP will now have to tread very carefully in dealing with the royalty.

Yesterday, Selangor’s Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah made it quite clear in a public statement that he was unhappy with what he perceived to be the rudeness shown against his uncle Sultan Azlan Shah over the latter’s role in the Perak political impasse.

Read more

You know what the 3 Aduns did last March?

by
newspaperban

 

newspaperban

 

In tandem with the rapid fire developments in Perak, the media itself is also being cast an intriguing role. Even whilst it reports, it has become a topic reported about too.

The Home Ministry seized almost 20,000 copies of Suara Keadilan which frontpaged the Perak constitutional crisis, PKR information chief Tian Chua told a press conference yesterday.

Copies of Harakah bearing the banner headline ‘SPR memihak BN’ (Election Commission sides with BN) were seized in a few states as well. Malaysiakini reported that distributors have been warned not to sell the PAS bi-weekly newsletter.

The Home Ministry confirmed that it launched an operation to seize the publications – a move questioned by Tian Chua who challenged: “Tell us why. You can’t just go around confiscating from distributors???.

Read more

The Monkey Handler

by

http://www.bakrimusa.com/archives/the-monkey-handler
 
February 8, 2009

In the few months that he has before assuming office I would have expected Prime Minister-in-waiting Najib Razak to be focused on forming his new leadership team and formulating his major policies. Instead there he was in Perak smirking with renegade state politicians who had crossed over to his Barisan coalition. Najib looked like a mischievous monkey handler who had successfully enticed a couple of wily monyets from the neighbor’s coconut tree to his.

In these perilous times Najib is more a slimy backroom political operative consumed with concocting shady deals than a national leader ready to steer the nation through tough economic and other challenges. This latest and unneeded upheaval in Perak only adds to Malaysia’s already muddled political climate, and comes at a time when the nation can ill afford this distraction. Najib is oblivious of the evolving global economic disaster and its inevitable impact on Malaysia.

Read more

Bukit Gantang a referendum for both BN and Pakatan

by

 

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/breaking-views/136-breaking-views/17941-bukit-gantang-a-referendum-for-both-bn-and-pakatan-leslie-lau

Published by the Malaysian Insider
February 9, 2008
 
FEB 9 – Someday, historians may well look back on the events in Perak in the past few weeks and see the death today of Pas MP for Bukit Gantang Roslan Shaharom as a tipping point which eventually decides the fortunes of the country’s biggest political players.

For Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN), it is quite possibly the last thing they need.

Fighting public perception that their takeover of the Perak state government last week was immoral, unethical or even unconstitutional, they are looking at being given time to prove they can offer a better administration than the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance.

Having a by-election so soon after the dramatic events of the past few days will be a referendum, of some sort, of how public feels about the continuing political drama and impasse.

Read more

Malaysia’s Opposition Continues to Defy Sultan

by

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1709&Itemid=178

Monday, 09 February 2009

A heated political squabble could be spreading to other parts of the country

Malaysia’s political furor shows every sign of growing more heated, with the chief minister of the tin-rich state of Perak, Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin, continuing to defy Sultan Raja Azlan Shah’s order to vacate the Perak statehouse after a coup engineered by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and the United Malays National Organisation.

The ouster of the Pakatan Rakyat government in the state, one of the country’s richest, has thrown Malaysian national politics into turmoil, with additional rumors that the Kedah government, also controlled by the Pakatan coalition led by national opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in the wake of elections last March, could be wobbling as well.  Anwar has threatened a national barnstorming tour of rallies to stir his opposition forces into action.

Read more

Ancient Mariner on Another PKFZ in the making …

by

http://cyusof.blogspot.com/2009/02/another-pkfz-in-making.html

February 8, 2009

Another PKFZ in the making …

The Malaysian Insider, here, has quoted a Singapore The Straits Times (TST) report today that a worsening ownership battle for a planned Malaysian bunkering facility on a reclaimed island in Johor to rival Singapore’s is threatening to derail the project and could hurt CIMB, one of the country’s largest commercial banks.

It appears that the project leader, a little-known private company called KIC Oil and Gas, has so far drawn down nearly half of its RM1.4 billion financing facility from CIMB to fund construction work. But it has failed to resolve problems with another key shareholder of the project, Seaport Terminal, which owns both the Johor ports of Pasir Gudang and Pelabuhan Tanjung Pelepas (PTP). This has prompted CIMB to consider suspending further funding for the construction.

Read more