Month: June 2009

Chief Secretary’s “careful study” required comment sighted…

by

 

As a journalist working fulltime for 25 years, I was mainly based in Peninsular Malaysia most of my working life, except for occasional short travel stints to Sabah and Sarawak, so much so I must plead ignorance on many things going on in the two East Malaysian states. To the extent I also feel sorry” for my fellow Malaysians who only came on board the Malaysian ship after chooisng to expand Malaysia to a bigger entity along with Singapore in 1963. Somehow, Malaysia does not make it any easier for its citizens of multi-ethnic origins to integrate, and if any Minister claims that NegaraKu is a united nation today, he surely must be either blind or speaking with one eye closed. Our country is soon to celebrate its 52nd birthday marking Malaya’s gaining independence from the British colonial masters on 31st August 1957 — could be only 46th for “Malaysia Day”  counting from September 16, 1963 –but there are obvious barriers that stand in the way of the march towards fostering unity as One Nation. Here’s one entrenched requirment that irritates every patriotic Malaysian every time we need to fill up any forms for officlaldom. All that is needed is quick, national-minded political will to do away such barriers,but all East Malaysians got was a comment of reuqiring “careful study” equivalent to a “keep in file” automated response from the top public servant in the country to a simple proposal to remove a divisive irritant.So what ails my motherland? — YL Chong, Editor, CPI

Read more

PAS Should Be Banned?

by
June 12, 2009
 
And so, it needs no further proof that political assemblies could churn out rationalities which could sit anywhere between the state of burlesque and the city of grotesque. Just look at the recently concluded PAS muktamar.

Apparently in Malaysia, no political assembly could be completed — and probably regarded as meaningful — without the usual mega important gimmick or resolution. In Malaysian politics, perhaps the two are even one and the same. Hence the unsheathing of the keris and the subsequent kissing of it during the Umno general assembly. That was the gimmick. That was to be followed by the usual we-are-the-Malays-and-we-have-our-rights-and-don’t-challenge-us-or-else-we-would-run-amok rants. That was the resolution. After that, everybody had tea and curry puffs and went home.

Read more

Farish Noor on Lesson in Pas history: M’sian public doesn’t like extremists

by

http://www.aliran.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=934:another-lesson-in-pas-history-malaysian-public-doesnt-like-extremists&catid=76:2009&Itemid=40

Published by Aliran

June 10, 2009

A quick re-visit of Pas’ history from the 1980s to the present will show that the Malaysian public has never had much appetite for violent, extreme and exclusive political discourse and behaviour, be it from Pas or Umno, observes Farish Noor.

The repercussions of the somewhat clumsy attempt by some sections of Pas to call for the investigation, and possibly banning, of the Muslim women’s rights group Sisters in Islam are still being felt today. Many questions have arisen in the wake of the proposal that was passed without debate at the recent Pas general assembly: How and why was the proposal passed as one of the ‘non-debated proposals’ in the first place? Why was it not vetted properly and why was it tabled at all? What does this say about the Pas’ internal cohesion and internal discipline? Does this proposal reflect just a faction of opinion among PAS members, or is it actually representative of the party as a whole? And what does this mean with regards to Pas’ avowed claims to be a modern party that supports the democratisation process and dialogue with others?

Read more

Scholarships: The Sultan of Perak disappoints again

by

Commentary by Dr. Lim Teck Ghee

Director , Center for Policy Initiatives

It is not only the weather but also our political climate that has gotten unbearably hazy. Youngsters who excel in their studies but have been deprived of opportunity might, rather worryingly, be misconstrued as questioning the sovereignty of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Malay rulers.

Some 17-year-olds with outstanding exam results have asked why they failed to get a Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) scholarship. Some 19-year-olds have asked why they were not admitted into the course of their choice in local public universities despite doing well. Little do they know that by asking these perplexing questions, they are viewed by some quarters as somehow challenging the entrenched interests of the Malays or engaged in potentially anti-national activities.

Read more

Sedition under the Law of this Country

by

Prelude – please read it before reading the article

I write this article so as to apprise the people who, in the mind of the general public, have taken the law into their own hands through the harassment of law abiding citizens of this country with the threat of using the Sedition Act 1948 on them. They should not have done it without first taking expert legal advice on the technical and difficult law of sedition under the Act.

After you have read this article, I am sure you will agree with me that the law of sedition is not easy for a layman to understand. Even lawyers and judges have found great difficulty in understanding it – let alone an uninitiated policeman. If the police are not careful, one of these days they will find themselves at the receiving end of a suit for malicious prosecution, false arrest or whatever the victims of their harassment would throw at them.

I hope you will bear with me if this time I am not able to explain difficult law in simple language as much as I would like to. It is at a time like this that I really appreciate the great ability of the late Lord Denning who was so adept at explaining difficult law to us ordinary folk.

Read more

Desiderata on…Blogswagon Interruptus — Some Awakening…

by

http://desiderata2000.blogspot.com/2009/06/blogswagon-interruptus-some-awakening.html

 

10th June, 2009

Desiderata has been somewhat concerned, and seemed to be caught in a whirlwind of confusion and a form of paralysis in blogging — yet educational on reflection — that affects me personally in an emotional way because I do interact with some of the key players on the stage I call Blogswagon. In some ways the Players demonstrated by certain events in the infant world of Malaysian Bloggers show signs of parallelism with the world of Politics and Politicians quite often regarded with contempt (as revealed in a recent survey which in gist listed Politicians as deemed to be the “most corrupt” group in society and hence to be least trusted among the various “professions/professionals in the community…). I have indeed arrived at the conclusion that as in politics, the dictum that “There are no permanent friends or enemies in politics, only permanent interests” holds true also in blogosphere in a “general” way. (Personally, I deem to have acquired some companions I deem as “friends” along the four-year-old Blogging journey.)

Read more

Columnist Art Harun on The RPK case

by

http://art-harun.blogspot.com/2009/06/rpk-case-significant-victory.html

The RPK case – A significant Victory

9th June, 2009

Civil societies advocates today gained a significant victory in the Federal Court in the case involving the appeal by the Home Minister against the release of Raja Petra Kamaruddin from his ISA detention.

Briefly, the Federal Court today declared that the last sitting of the Federal Court which heard and dismissed four applications (motions) by RPK was not properly convened. Consequently, the Federal Court today set aside all orders made on the said motions.

In order to appreciate the significance of today’s order, allow me to give a chronology of events.

Read more

Consolidated post on Post-PAS Muktamar’s Indicators

by

 

Interesting questions arise over the recent PAS party elections which saw the “Ulama” faction strengthening its grip versus the more “progressive” faction aligned with the younger leaders as inferred by the victory by incumbent deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa over the so-called “progressive” (hence more welcomed by the non-Muslims…?) Husam Musa. This Islam-based party whose sphere of influence is still embedded in the northern “Islamic” belt of peninisular Malaysia, notably led by long-held bastion of Kelantan, is spreading steadily its national presence, and the non-Muslim electorate is watching PAS’ power equation with its informal Pakatan Rakyat parners, namely Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Keadialan Rakyat (PKR). Some apparent friction appeared when the incumbent PAS President still talked obliquely about forming a “unity government” with UMNO-led Barisan Nasional — a move totally against spiritual adviser Nik Aziz’s advice and a notion quickly dismissed by Pakatan Rakyat’s other two components, DAP and PKR. Following are some Bloggers’ perspectives post-PAS Muktamar which invariably will impact on the nation’s politics, especially the fragile inter-PR relations and some believe, UMNO’s ultimate survival in Malaysian politics. ~~ English and BM Editors, CPI

Read more

PKFZ: Will Heads Roll?

by

http://cyusof.blogspot.com/2009/06/pkfz-will-heads-roll.html

June 6, 2009

In 2007, the Ministry of Finance has already extended a RM4.6 billion soft loan at 4% interest rate to Klang Port Authority to salvage the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project. Now it appears that they will have to extend an additional RM3.56 billion loan to cover the cash flow deficit over the next 20 years! As projected by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), this restructured financing will cost an additional RM5 billion in interest costs over the next 42 years!

Read more

SIS (Sisters In Islam) Press Statement

by

7 June 2009

SIS strongly urge PAS to re-track resolution against SIS
 
 
SIS is surprised by and strongly protest against the resolution passed at the PAS National Meeting to call “for a ban by the National Fatwa Council on the Sisters in Islam (SIS). (Malaysiakini, 7 June 2009). The motion also called for the National Fatwa Council to conduct a study over SIS’ approach in its work to reclaim the rights of Muslim women, which PAS claims is confusing Islamic society and also infiltrating the minds of Muslims and which may destroy the Islamic faith, especially among the younger generation.

Read more