Monday, March 31, 2008
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad challenge
The Star Monday March 31, 2008
Dr M throws challenge over judicial crisis issue
PENANG: Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad challenged his detractors to show where he had gone wrong in the so-called judicial crisis of 1988 and take him to court.
He said all actions taken that led to the sacking of then Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas was done according to the law and constitution.
“If they (the critics) can show in which part I was wrong, I am willing to be charged in court,” he said when fielding questions from Tanjong Malay Association members at a hotel here yesterday.
Still influential: Dr Mahathir arriving to open the Tanjong Malay Association AGM in Penang yesterday.
Dr Mahathir said it was illogical for him or the Government to apologise to Salleh because actions were taken in accordance with provisions of the law.
On the five states and one Federal Territory currently controlled by the alternative coalition, Dr Mahathir said the opposition parties might be able to win the hearts of even the Malays if they could rule fairly.
On de facto PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, he said cynically that “everybody loved Anwar.”
“When he is with the Jews, the Jews love him. When he is with the Muslims, the Muslims love him. When he is with the temple groups, they love him too.
“Everybody loves him. He is a convincing orator. He talked bad about me to foreigners. He told them I put him in jail,” he said.
On talks that Anwar stood a chance to be the next prime minister, he said he would make a “good prime minister of Israel”.
On Umno vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s allegation that Dr Mahathir introduced the 30% nomination quota to contest top Umno posts to protect himself when he was in power, Dr Mahathir said the policy was to ensure only serious candidates contested the post.
“During my time it was easy to get 30% nomination.
“But not now, because most of the leaders in Umno today are ‘yes men’ who do everything to please the leadership,” he said.
My comment:
One fine day, when Abdullah Badawi with his new Judicial minister, Zaid will have to settle all the old accounts of 1988 judicial crisis. Hope that they will have the gut and political will to straighten what Mahathir had done! The problem with Abdullah is that he is more of a follower than a leader, he is very slow in taking decisive initiative. This we have seen in his previous 4 years record. Even the recent call by Mukhriz for him to resign, his reaction was to let the UMNO Youth to decide. UMNO Youth did nothing!
Dr M throws challenge over judicial crisis issue
PENANG: Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad challenged his detractors to show where he had gone wrong in the so-called judicial crisis of 1988 and take him to court.
He said all actions taken that led to the sacking of then Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas was done according to the law and constitution.
“If they (the critics) can show in which part I was wrong, I am willing to be charged in court,” he said when fielding questions from Tanjong Malay Association members at a hotel here yesterday.
Still influential: Dr Mahathir arriving to open the Tanjong Malay Association AGM in Penang yesterday.
Dr Mahathir said it was illogical for him or the Government to apologise to Salleh because actions were taken in accordance with provisions of the law.
On the five states and one Federal Territory currently controlled by the alternative coalition, Dr Mahathir said the opposition parties might be able to win the hearts of even the Malays if they could rule fairly.
On de facto PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, he said cynically that “everybody loved Anwar.”
“When he is with the Jews, the Jews love him. When he is with the Muslims, the Muslims love him. When he is with the temple groups, they love him too.
“Everybody loves him. He is a convincing orator. He talked bad about me to foreigners. He told them I put him in jail,” he said.
On talks that Anwar stood a chance to be the next prime minister, he said he would make a “good prime minister of Israel”.
On Umno vice-president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s allegation that Dr Mahathir introduced the 30% nomination quota to contest top Umno posts to protect himself when he was in power, Dr Mahathir said the policy was to ensure only serious candidates contested the post.
“During my time it was easy to get 30% nomination.
“But not now, because most of the leaders in Umno today are ‘yes men’ who do everything to please the leadership,” he said.
My comment:
One fine day, when Abdullah Badawi with his new Judicial minister, Zaid will have to settle all the old accounts of 1988 judicial crisis. Hope that they will have the gut and political will to straighten what Mahathir had done! The problem with Abdullah is that he is more of a follower than a leader, he is very slow in taking decisive initiative. This we have seen in his previous 4 years record. Even the recent call by Mukhriz for him to resign, his reaction was to let the UMNO Youth to decide. UMNO Youth did nothing!
Release Hindraf5 immediately
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that he has heard the voice of Malaysians on March 8 for change! However the actions taken by the second Abdullah administration have proved otherwise – in particular the statement by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar refusing to release newly-elected Selangor DAP State Assemblyman for Kota Alam Shah and four other Hindraf leaders, P. Uthayakumar, V. Ganabatirau, R. Kenghadharan and T. Vasantha Kumar from Internal Security Act (ISA) detention.
We the people of Malaysia need to paressure the Abdullah regime for the immediate and unconditional release of the five Hindraf leaders from ISA detention and to ensure that the second Abdullah government understand the meaning of “Makkal Sakti”.
If Abdullah continue to turn a deaf ear to what we have spoken loud and clear, wait and see how long he can remain in power. Since I wrote on Rout-BN's days are numbered in my earlier post, there are lots more signs pointing to the soon demise of Abdullah administration. Just to name a few, 2 Sabah MPs resigned from the deputy minister posts. This is unheard of in the previous 50 years. However, they are asking for more representations since they in Sabah has propotionately more MPs. Gerakan Secretary Genaral had just resigned from all his 7 posts! More drama will be in the pipe line, UMNO will has its general assembly in this December. MCA also will has its election soon. Exciting days ahead!
We the people of Malaysia need to paressure the Abdullah regime for the immediate and unconditional release of the five Hindraf leaders from ISA detention and to ensure that the second Abdullah government understand the meaning of “Makkal Sakti”.
If Abdullah continue to turn a deaf ear to what we have spoken loud and clear, wait and see how long he can remain in power. Since I wrote on Rout-BN's days are numbered in my earlier post, there are lots more signs pointing to the soon demise of Abdullah administration. Just to name a few, 2 Sabah MPs resigned from the deputy minister posts. This is unheard of in the previous 50 years. However, they are asking for more representations since they in Sabah has propotionately more MPs. Gerakan Secretary Genaral had just resigned from all his 7 posts! More drama will be in the pipe line, UMNO will has its general assembly in this December. MCA also will has its election soon. Exciting days ahead!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Public inquiry into several billions of ringgit of Wang Ehsan "black gold" expenditures in Terengganu
By Mr. Lim KIt Siang March 28, 2008
The constitutional crisis in Terengganu over the appointment of Datuk Ahmad Said as the new Mentri Besar has come to an end with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi backing off from his original nominee of the former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.
As a result, the front-page article of former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in The Sun on “Role of rulers in picking mentri besar” has been overtaken by events.
However, Mahathir’s views on two ongoing controversies – Wang Ehsan and the judicial crisis – are very pertinent.
On the Wang Ehsan issue, Mahathir wrote:
Terengganu is blessed with petroleum deposits. It should get 5% of the total earning from oil production. The Federal Government; fearing the previous PAS government might use this money wrongly had withheld payment.
But when the Barisan Nasional (BN) regained Terengganu the money, now called “Wang Ehsan”, was lavishly spent by the Federal Government on Terengganu. It is not a small sum. Over these years “Wang Ehsan” totalled several billion.
We know that since the BN regained Terengganu in 2004, all kinds of projects have been developed in Terengganu. This includes The Monsoon Cup, luxury housing for sale to foreigners, Crystal Mosque and theme park, university, etc. Some of these projects are very good but many are totally unnecessary and wasteful.
But what the Terengganu people are saying is that all these mega projects costing billions of Ringgit have been contracted out to people outside Terengganu. Terengganu contractors got practically nothing.
But additionally, they say the contracts all went to one person and they are suspicious that behind this person are members of the first family.The rumours also say that the previous Mentri Besar was responsible for these things happening and of course, they think that he might have benefited financially.
The rumours went on to say that the Prime Minister might have influenced the Mentri Besar into doing wrong things. These are all rumours. It will be quite impossible to prove anything as the perpetrators are skilled in hiding themselves.
This is not good for a Government keen to abolish corruption and be transparent. To clear its name, an investigation should be made.
With former Prime Minister Mahathir coming round to the view that there should be an investigation into the expenditures of Wang Ehsan, Abdullah should take up the challenge to institute a public inquiry on accountability and integrity of expenditures of several billions of ringgit of “black gold” through Wang Ehsan in Terengganu in the past seven years since 2000.
In his article, Mahathir also denied any fault, culpability or responsibility for the two-decade crisis of confidence in the judiciary, particularly the 1988 “mother” of judicial crisis which saw the arbitrary and unconstitutional sacking of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President and Datuk George Seah and the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh as Supreme Court judges, as well as the suspension of three other Supreme Court judges.
This is what Mahathir wrote:
Even other accusations against me, including the dismissal of judges, were not my doing and I do not feel obliged to apologise. Ask the Tribunal to apologise.
The person asking that the Government should apologise for what happened to Tun Salleh Abbas may have forgotten that as President of the Muslim Lawyers Association, he fully supported the action that was taken. He castigated the Bar Council for condemning Tun Hamid Omar over the dismissal of judges. Now he wants to be more correct than correct. I wonder why.
If Mahathir could suggest an inquiry into the investigation into the expenditures of several billions of ringgit on Wang Ehsan in Terengganu, he should also support a public investigation into the two-decade crisis of confidence in the judiciary, starting with the “mother of judicial crisis” in 1988.
The constitutional crisis in Terengganu over the appointment of Datuk Ahmad Said as the new Mentri Besar has come to an end with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi backing off from his original nominee of the former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh.
As a result, the front-page article of former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in The Sun on “Role of rulers in picking mentri besar” has been overtaken by events.
However, Mahathir’s views on two ongoing controversies – Wang Ehsan and the judicial crisis – are very pertinent.
On the Wang Ehsan issue, Mahathir wrote:
Terengganu is blessed with petroleum deposits. It should get 5% of the total earning from oil production. The Federal Government; fearing the previous PAS government might use this money wrongly had withheld payment.
But when the Barisan Nasional (BN) regained Terengganu the money, now called “Wang Ehsan”, was lavishly spent by the Federal Government on Terengganu. It is not a small sum. Over these years “Wang Ehsan” totalled several billion.
We know that since the BN regained Terengganu in 2004, all kinds of projects have been developed in Terengganu. This includes The Monsoon Cup, luxury housing for sale to foreigners, Crystal Mosque and theme park, university, etc. Some of these projects are very good but many are totally unnecessary and wasteful.
But what the Terengganu people are saying is that all these mega projects costing billions of Ringgit have been contracted out to people outside Terengganu. Terengganu contractors got practically nothing.
But additionally, they say the contracts all went to one person and they are suspicious that behind this person are members of the first family.The rumours also say that the previous Mentri Besar was responsible for these things happening and of course, they think that he might have benefited financially.
The rumours went on to say that the Prime Minister might have influenced the Mentri Besar into doing wrong things. These are all rumours. It will be quite impossible to prove anything as the perpetrators are skilled in hiding themselves.
This is not good for a Government keen to abolish corruption and be transparent. To clear its name, an investigation should be made.
With former Prime Minister Mahathir coming round to the view that there should be an investigation into the expenditures of Wang Ehsan, Abdullah should take up the challenge to institute a public inquiry on accountability and integrity of expenditures of several billions of ringgit of “black gold” through Wang Ehsan in Terengganu in the past seven years since 2000.
In his article, Mahathir also denied any fault, culpability or responsibility for the two-decade crisis of confidence in the judiciary, particularly the 1988 “mother” of judicial crisis which saw the arbitrary and unconstitutional sacking of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President and Datuk George Seah and the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh as Supreme Court judges, as well as the suspension of three other Supreme Court judges.
This is what Mahathir wrote:
Even other accusations against me, including the dismissal of judges, were not my doing and I do not feel obliged to apologise. Ask the Tribunal to apologise.
The person asking that the Government should apologise for what happened to Tun Salleh Abbas may have forgotten that as President of the Muslim Lawyers Association, he fully supported the action that was taken. He castigated the Bar Council for condemning Tun Hamid Omar over the dismissal of judges. Now he wants to be more correct than correct. I wonder why.
If Mahathir could suggest an inquiry into the investigation into the expenditures of several billions of ringgit on Wang Ehsan in Terengganu, he should also support a public investigation into the two-decade crisis of confidence in the judiciary, starting with the “mother of judicial crisis” in 1988.
A New Malaysia
by Dr. Chen Man Hin
MARCH 8TH 2008 was a defining day for Malaysia. The voting results clearly sent out messages by the voters.
The first message indicated that the people want
A NEW MALAYSIA WITH GOOD GOVERNANCE AND A NEW SOCIETY OF RACIAL EQUALITY, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WITH EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IN EDUCATION , EMPLOYMENT AND IMBUED WITH A VISION TO TURN MALAYSIA TO BE A LIBERAL MODERN GLOBAL NATION.
Since March 8th there has been a noticeable difference in society. The people are happier and more optimistic because they feel that change is in the air. They see the changes happening.
The political map has changed. There are now five new states under opposition rule, This is the beginning of a two party system of government, as in advanced countries like Australia, Canada and USA. it is accepted practice in these countries to have states controlled by opposition parties.
The new opposition states have immediately implemented new populist policies like stopping waste of public funds, simple lifestyle for chief minister and mentris besar, ban on application of land by elected DAP MPs and SAs, weeding out corruption.and an amnesty of fines for humble traders and hawkers.
THE SECOND MESSAGE message which is fundamental and show a radical change in the thinking of Malaysians on politics.
This change was voiced out aptly by Malaysia think-tank director-general Wan Saiful Wam Jian. He said
“The results indicated the voters had broken the ethnic and religious barriers. Voting no longer based on ethnicity or religion any more.
“Voting also shows we are heading more towards a Malaysia that is suitable for all Malaysians regardless of race and creed as in Perak where the Malays had voted for the DAP and Chinese for PAS…”
This is one message which PM Dato Abdullah and UMNO should take note. Umno should reform and initiate party reforms and take a multiracial approach in future. instead of sticking to its Malay agenda, reform and change to a policy of Malaysian agenda which would serve the interests of all Malaysians.
Wan Saiful Wam Jian also hinted that the challenge for political parties was to offer alternative policies which were no longer based on ‘defending Malay rights’ or ‘we’re an islamic country’. The debate should be on who can promote Malaysian rights best and on issues such as improving the school system and hospitals.
Political debates must revolve arouind policy issues rather than sentiments.
These are the messages of the people who want a change, and from the director general of Malaysia think tank, which UMNO should take heed.
UMNO must be aware that the popular votes of the opposition in peninsular Malaysia is 52% for the opposition whereas only 48% supported Barisan National
UMNO is no more the top dog in parliament, as it has only 79 MPs compared with the figure of 82 for the opposition coalition of DAP, PKR and PAS. Its old partners MCA and MIC are in tatters. UMNO should eat humble pie and accept the new political reality. It must be prepared to reform its old ‘Rip Van Winkle’ policies.
The people want a “Malaysian Agenda” not a Malay Agenda to lead the nation to peace, unity and prosperity.
MARCH 8TH 2008 was a defining day for Malaysia. The voting results clearly sent out messages by the voters.
The first message indicated that the people want
A NEW MALAYSIA WITH GOOD GOVERNANCE AND A NEW SOCIETY OF RACIAL EQUALITY, FREEDOM OF SPEECH, RELIGIOUS FREEDOM WITH EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES IN EDUCATION , EMPLOYMENT AND IMBUED WITH A VISION TO TURN MALAYSIA TO BE A LIBERAL MODERN GLOBAL NATION.
Since March 8th there has been a noticeable difference in society. The people are happier and more optimistic because they feel that change is in the air. They see the changes happening.
The political map has changed. There are now five new states under opposition rule, This is the beginning of a two party system of government, as in advanced countries like Australia, Canada and USA. it is accepted practice in these countries to have states controlled by opposition parties.
The new opposition states have immediately implemented new populist policies like stopping waste of public funds, simple lifestyle for chief minister and mentris besar, ban on application of land by elected DAP MPs and SAs, weeding out corruption.and an amnesty of fines for humble traders and hawkers.
THE SECOND MESSAGE message which is fundamental and show a radical change in the thinking of Malaysians on politics.
This change was voiced out aptly by Malaysia think-tank director-general Wan Saiful Wam Jian. He said
“The results indicated the voters had broken the ethnic and religious barriers. Voting no longer based on ethnicity or religion any more.
“Voting also shows we are heading more towards a Malaysia that is suitable for all Malaysians regardless of race and creed as in Perak where the Malays had voted for the DAP and Chinese for PAS…”
This is one message which PM Dato Abdullah and UMNO should take note. Umno should reform and initiate party reforms and take a multiracial approach in future. instead of sticking to its Malay agenda, reform and change to a policy of Malaysian agenda which would serve the interests of all Malaysians.
Wan Saiful Wam Jian also hinted that the challenge for political parties was to offer alternative policies which were no longer based on ‘defending Malay rights’ or ‘we’re an islamic country’. The debate should be on who can promote Malaysian rights best and on issues such as improving the school system and hospitals.
Political debates must revolve arouind policy issues rather than sentiments.
These are the messages of the people who want a change, and from the director general of Malaysia think tank, which UMNO should take heed.
UMNO must be aware that the popular votes of the opposition in peninsular Malaysia is 52% for the opposition whereas only 48% supported Barisan National
UMNO is no more the top dog in parliament, as it has only 79 MPs compared with the figure of 82 for the opposition coalition of DAP, PKR and PAS. Its old partners MCA and MIC are in tatters. UMNO should eat humble pie and accept the new political reality. It must be prepared to reform its old ‘Rip Van Winkle’ policies.
The people want a “Malaysian Agenda” not a Malay Agenda to lead the nation to peace, unity and prosperity.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Raja Petra and editors to pay RM7mil for libel
The Star today Thursday March 27 2008 reports:
ALOR STAR: A High Court here has ordered blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the group chief editor and editor of PKR’s organ Suara Keadilan to pay a total of RM7mil to Universiti Utara Malaysia and its vice-chancellor Tan Sri Dr Nordin Kardi for libel.
High Court deputy registrar Priscilla Gengadaran made the order yesterday following a judgment in default she handed down on Feb 26 after the three had failed to file their defence within the required period.
She ordered the damages to be paid to the plaintiffs for claiming that Dr Nordin was a plagiarist on the Malaysia Today website and in the 98th edition of Suara Keadilan in November 2006.
Nordin and UUM had filed a lawsuit against Raja Petra, PKR, Suara Keadilan group chief editor and the editor. Only PKR had submitted its defence.
Priscilla ordered Raja Petra to pay RM2mil to Dr Nordin and UUM respectively. She also ordered each of the editors to pay RM1mil and RM500,000 to Dr Nordin and UUM respectively.
Dr Nordin told a press conference yesterday that the judgment showed that there was room for the public to take action against bloggers who made slanderous remarks.
“Politicians and artistes who are the usual targets should take action to ensure bloggers do not make libellous statements,” he said.
Dr Nordin said that if the defendants paid up, he would use the money for the benefit of UUM.
My comment:
The pen is mightier than the gun!
However those who write, must be responsible to make sure what he writes is evidence base.Not libel!
Mass media, commentators, journalists and bloggers should not unthinkingly toss poison and dirt into the internet pool. What they write may be juicy, tasty with a bias twist. Yes, they can mock and debase a political leader. This is irresponsible.
Errant journalists, publishers, bloggers should be taken to court for libel.
Many a time, there is a tendency for anyone writer to boost his popularity by whipping up public controversy and political intrigue.
Anyone can choose to simply eat but not simply write!
ALOR STAR: A High Court here has ordered blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the group chief editor and editor of PKR’s organ Suara Keadilan to pay a total of RM7mil to Universiti Utara Malaysia and its vice-chancellor Tan Sri Dr Nordin Kardi for libel.
High Court deputy registrar Priscilla Gengadaran made the order yesterday following a judgment in default she handed down on Feb 26 after the three had failed to file their defence within the required period.
She ordered the damages to be paid to the plaintiffs for claiming that Dr Nordin was a plagiarist on the Malaysia Today website and in the 98th edition of Suara Keadilan in November 2006.
Nordin and UUM had filed a lawsuit against Raja Petra, PKR, Suara Keadilan group chief editor and the editor. Only PKR had submitted its defence.
Priscilla ordered Raja Petra to pay RM2mil to Dr Nordin and UUM respectively. She also ordered each of the editors to pay RM1mil and RM500,000 to Dr Nordin and UUM respectively.
Dr Nordin told a press conference yesterday that the judgment showed that there was room for the public to take action against bloggers who made slanderous remarks.
“Politicians and artistes who are the usual targets should take action to ensure bloggers do not make libellous statements,” he said.
Dr Nordin said that if the defendants paid up, he would use the money for the benefit of UUM.
My comment:
The pen is mightier than the gun!
However those who write, must be responsible to make sure what he writes is evidence base.Not libel!
Mass media, commentators, journalists and bloggers should not unthinkingly toss poison and dirt into the internet pool. What they write may be juicy, tasty with a bias twist. Yes, they can mock and debase a political leader. This is irresponsible.
Errant journalists, publishers, bloggers should be taken to court for libel.
Many a time, there is a tendency for anyone writer to boost his popularity by whipping up public controversy and political intrigue.
Anyone can choose to simply eat but not simply write!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
"We lost in the Cyber War"
The Sun Wednesday March 26 2008 reports:
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday admitted the Barisan National government lost in the cyber war in the just-concluded general election and that it was a "serious misjudgement"on their part.
He said the BN had thought the traditional print media would be able to influence the people but it was not the case in particular with the young people who rely heavily on sms and the internet.
My comment:
Gone are the days where BN owned media can continue to churn out their propaganda. If they continue to do that nobody will buy their papers.
With internet, hand phone and international media, there is instantaneous free flow of news. There will be no more room for lies. People want to know the truth.
The problem with Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is that the alternative media had been casting aspersions on his leadership and his son-in-law, yet he has done nothing. It is like this, "Read this, he's done nothing about it. It must be true."
He needs to stand up to the media barrage against him. (hope he is listening!) He needs to challenge them in court if need be. He needs to have the courage to withstand their assaults by being open to scutiny. The question is, can he or rather dare he withstand microscopic examination in the Court? Is he the Mr. Clean we first thought him to be, 4 years ago when he first became the Prime Minister?
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday admitted the Barisan National government lost in the cyber war in the just-concluded general election and that it was a "serious misjudgement"on their part.
He said the BN had thought the traditional print media would be able to influence the people but it was not the case in particular with the young people who rely heavily on sms and the internet.
My comment:
Gone are the days where BN owned media can continue to churn out their propaganda. If they continue to do that nobody will buy their papers.
With internet, hand phone and international media, there is instantaneous free flow of news. There will be no more room for lies. People want to know the truth.
The problem with Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is that the alternative media had been casting aspersions on his leadership and his son-in-law, yet he has done nothing. It is like this, "Read this, he's done nothing about it. It must be true."
He needs to stand up to the media barrage against him. (hope he is listening!) He needs to challenge them in court if need be. He needs to have the courage to withstand their assaults by being open to scutiny. The question is, can he or rather dare he withstand microscopic examination in the Court? Is he the Mr. Clean we first thought him to be, 4 years ago when he first became the Prime Minister?
Transformed people with renewed minds
Romans12:2 (NKJV)
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mand, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Comment from Life Application Bible:
God has good, acceptable, and perfect plans for His children. He wants us to be transformed people with renewed minds, living to honor and obey Him. Because He wants only what is best for us, and because He gave His Son to make our new lives possible, we should joyfully give ourselves as living sacrifices for His service.
Christians are called to "not be conformed to this world," with its behavior and customs that are usually selfish and often corrupting. Many Christians wisely decide that much worldly behavior is off limits for them. Our refusal to conform to this world's values, however, must go even deeper than the level of behavior and customs- it must firmly planted in our minds- "be transformed by the renewing of your mind."It is possible to avoid most worldly customs and still be proud, covetous, selfish, stubborn, and arrogant. Only when the Holy Spirit renews, reeducates, and redirects our minds are we truly transformed.
My comment:
One good habit to form is to start the day with Bible reading. No matter how busy, start to do it just one minute. One minute, that's all. I find it much more effective by reading aloud.
Try it! Just one minute. It is very easy! When you get the hang of it, you will do more! God bless you. By the way for those who want to get a Bible, please ask me. Is FREE.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mand, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Comment from Life Application Bible:
God has good, acceptable, and perfect plans for His children. He wants us to be transformed people with renewed minds, living to honor and obey Him. Because He wants only what is best for us, and because He gave His Son to make our new lives possible, we should joyfully give ourselves as living sacrifices for His service.
Christians are called to "not be conformed to this world," with its behavior and customs that are usually selfish and often corrupting. Many Christians wisely decide that much worldly behavior is off limits for them. Our refusal to conform to this world's values, however, must go even deeper than the level of behavior and customs- it must firmly planted in our minds- "be transformed by the renewing of your mind."It is possible to avoid most worldly customs and still be proud, covetous, selfish, stubborn, and arrogant. Only when the Holy Spirit renews, reeducates, and redirects our minds are we truly transformed.
My comment:
One good habit to form is to start the day with Bible reading. No matter how busy, start to do it just one minute. One minute, that's all. I find it much more effective by reading aloud.
Try it! Just one minute. It is very easy! When you get the hang of it, you will do more! God bless you. By the way for those who want to get a Bible, please ask me. Is FREE.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Anti-hopping law
There are numerous talks about Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim becoming the Prime Minister very soon. Heard of it from close associates who are in PKR initially soon after the election. That prompted to write on "Rout- BN's days are numbered" on 18th. March (please refer to the earlier post).
Read on "Switching camps against democratic process" reported by The Sun yesterday, on Monday March 24 2008. Out of all people, the Rural and Regional Development Minister Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib said, the practice of switching camps by elected representatives will not benefit the people, but instead would be detrimental to the democratic process. He described the practice as a betrayal of the people's trust, elected representstives were not only voted on their personality and personal traits but also on the party they represented. "Should elected representatives hop from one paarty to another, they are deceiving the...."
My comment:
Politicians, or any leaders need to have integrity. Muhammad Muhammad Taib, if you remember, below is the history that you can read. By Mr. Lim Kit Siang on 29.6.1997.
Muhammad Taib should explain the latest Australian press revelation that he had bought more than A$3 million property in New Zealand in the past year and registered in his wife’s name
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Speech (Part II) - DAP Malacca Anniversary Dinner
by Lim Kit Siang
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(Malacca, Sunday): The Acting Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim with the approval of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, has launched an all-out war against corruption declaring that the government is serious and that "Now is the time to act…we will catch the big ones and we will catch the small ones."
There are many in the country who regard the "war against corruption" as only a political gimmick which would fizzle out in a short while.
I take a positive attitude and want to see the "war against corruption" achieve results and take root in the country, resulting in the creation of a new political culture on integrity in public service and political life with zero tolerance for corruption.
If the "all-out war against corruption" is to succeed, then all political leaders must set good examples.
It is most ironical that when Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib resigned as Selangor Mentri Besar in April, he said he wanted to set an example of the "new culture of accountability" as in Japan and South Korea where government and political leaders resign their various posts if involved in scandals of corruption, gross negligence or incompetence.
On this standard set by Muhammad Taib, the Malacca State Secretary Abdul Rahman Jamal should at minimum be asked to go on leave as he is under investigations by the Anti-Corruption Agency in connection with the contract for the new Malacca State Sports Complex.
Be that as it may, Muhammad Taib himself had not fully acted out the example of the "new culture of accountability" he wanted to set, as he has not resigned as UMNO Vice President and State Assemblyman for Batang Kali, especially when he had not fulfilled his promise at a press conference on 14th April that he was going to sue the Brisbane Courier-Mail for its various reports about his Australian properties.
What is of greater concern to Malaysians is Muhammad Taib’s failure in the past six months to give a satisfactory explanation for the the RM25.4 million worth of various expenditures and properties which had been reported by the foreign press and linked to him, namely:
1. that the RM2.4 million cash for which he was arrested in Brisbane was intended to purchase furniture and fittings for his new Gold Coast home;
2. that he is building a RM2 million Gold Coast home at Sovereign Islands in the name of his wife, Asbi Rohani Binti Asnan;
3. a RM5 million ranch in Queensland in the name of his wife, Asbi Rohani Binti Asnan; and
4. that he had paid RM16 million as a divorce settlement with Tengku Puteri Zahariah Bte Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah (Ku Yah).
If the all-out war against corrupution launched by Anwar is to be taken seriously both inside and outside the country, then the drive must also be extended to the "appearance of corruption".
Muhammad Taib has not only failed to institute legal proceedings against the Brisbane Courier-Mail, the Queensland newspaper has now come out with a new revelation that Muhammad Taib had acquired more than A$3 (RM5.2) million of property in New Zeland over the past year and registered in his wife’s name.
The Brisbane Courier Mail report, dated 28th June, 1997, under the heading "Politician’s property empire still growing", in a report by-lined Sean Parnell, states:
"The international property empire of an embattled Malaysian politician continues to grow despite concerns over how he funds the massive land purchases.
"Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib, a vice president of the ruling United Malays National Organisation, resigned as chief minister of Selangor in April citing The Courier-Mail’s reporting of his activities as a reason for his decision.
"On December 22 last year, Mr. Muhammad was detained at Brisbane International Airport as he was about to board a plane to New Zealand with the equivalent of A$1.26 million in Singapore, Malaysian and New Zealand currency in his luggage.
"Customs officials have alleged that they were not told about the cash, and Mr. Muhammad will appear in committal proceedings in Brisbane’s Federal Court on August 19 on charges of failing to declare cash above A$5000 and making a false declaration.
"The Courier-Mail has revealed Mr. Muhammad and his wife spent a week in Australia - checking on a luxury house being built on the Gold Coast and a 4500ha property in western Queensland - then flew to New Zealand for two weeks after Mr. Muhammad had appeared in court.
"The properties - registered to his wife in her maiden name of Asnan - were purchased last year for more than $3 million.
"It has been discovered more than $3 million of property has been purchased in New Zealand over the past year and registered to Ms Asnan…
"Land title searches have revealed six properties on New Zealand’s north island - in total more than 140 ha - registered to Ms Asnan.
"Documents show a 4573 sq m property in Pakurunga was purchased on June 18 last year; a 1713 sq m property in Otahuhu was bought on November 27 last year for $550,000; and four properties in Mataitai, totalling 144ha, were bought between November 29 last year and March 11 this year.
"Purchase price for the Pakurunga and Mataitai properties were not disclosed on transfer documents, although stamp duty payments indicate a total transaction for the Mataitai properties of about $2.1 million.
"The Pakurunga property was purchased from Hasan B.M.Taib of Singapore, who is Mr. Muhammad’s younger brother. Hasan purchased the property in 1990 for $520,000."
With these new revelations in the Brisbane Courier-Mail, Muhammad Taib, who had failed to sue the newspaper despite his public threat on April 14, has no choice but to resign as UMNO Vice President as well as Assemblyman for Batang Kali.
The Anti-Corruption Agency sent a high-powered team to Brisbane to investigate into the reports about the various properties of Muhammad Taib in Australia. Nobody knows what is the outcome of such investigations. Is the ACA also going to send a team to New Zealand to check on the new revelations?
(29/6/97)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Lim Kit Siang - Malaysian Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Democratic Action Party Secretary-General & Member of Parliament for Tanjong
Read on "Switching camps against democratic process" reported by The Sun yesterday, on Monday March 24 2008. Out of all people, the Rural and Regional Development Minister Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib said, the practice of switching camps by elected representatives will not benefit the people, but instead would be detrimental to the democratic process. He described the practice as a betrayal of the people's trust, elected representstives were not only voted on their personality and personal traits but also on the party they represented. "Should elected representatives hop from one paarty to another, they are deceiving the...."
My comment:
Politicians, or any leaders need to have integrity. Muhammad Muhammad Taib, if you remember, below is the history that you can read. By Mr. Lim Kit Siang on 29.6.1997.
Muhammad Taib should explain the latest Australian press revelation that he had bought more than A$3 million property in New Zealand in the past year and registered in his wife’s name
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speech (Part II) - DAP Malacca Anniversary Dinner
by Lim Kit Siang
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Malacca, Sunday): The Acting Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim with the approval of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, has launched an all-out war against corruption declaring that the government is serious and that "Now is the time to act…we will catch the big ones and we will catch the small ones."
There are many in the country who regard the "war against corruption" as only a political gimmick which would fizzle out in a short while.
I take a positive attitude and want to see the "war against corruption" achieve results and take root in the country, resulting in the creation of a new political culture on integrity in public service and political life with zero tolerance for corruption.
If the "all-out war against corruption" is to succeed, then all political leaders must set good examples.
It is most ironical that when Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib resigned as Selangor Mentri Besar in April, he said he wanted to set an example of the "new culture of accountability" as in Japan and South Korea where government and political leaders resign their various posts if involved in scandals of corruption, gross negligence or incompetence.
On this standard set by Muhammad Taib, the Malacca State Secretary Abdul Rahman Jamal should at minimum be asked to go on leave as he is under investigations by the Anti-Corruption Agency in connection with the contract for the new Malacca State Sports Complex.
Be that as it may, Muhammad Taib himself had not fully acted out the example of the "new culture of accountability" he wanted to set, as he has not resigned as UMNO Vice President and State Assemblyman for Batang Kali, especially when he had not fulfilled his promise at a press conference on 14th April that he was going to sue the Brisbane Courier-Mail for its various reports about his Australian properties.
What is of greater concern to Malaysians is Muhammad Taib’s failure in the past six months to give a satisfactory explanation for the the RM25.4 million worth of various expenditures and properties which had been reported by the foreign press and linked to him, namely:
1. that the RM2.4 million cash for which he was arrested in Brisbane was intended to purchase furniture and fittings for his new Gold Coast home;
2. that he is building a RM2 million Gold Coast home at Sovereign Islands in the name of his wife, Asbi Rohani Binti Asnan;
3. a RM5 million ranch in Queensland in the name of his wife, Asbi Rohani Binti Asnan; and
4. that he had paid RM16 million as a divorce settlement with Tengku Puteri Zahariah Bte Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah (Ku Yah).
If the all-out war against corrupution launched by Anwar is to be taken seriously both inside and outside the country, then the drive must also be extended to the "appearance of corruption".
Muhammad Taib has not only failed to institute legal proceedings against the Brisbane Courier-Mail, the Queensland newspaper has now come out with a new revelation that Muhammad Taib had acquired more than A$3 (RM5.2) million of property in New Zeland over the past year and registered in his wife’s name.
The Brisbane Courier Mail report, dated 28th June, 1997, under the heading "Politician’s property empire still growing", in a report by-lined Sean Parnell, states:
"The international property empire of an embattled Malaysian politician continues to grow despite concerns over how he funds the massive land purchases.
"Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib, a vice president of the ruling United Malays National Organisation, resigned as chief minister of Selangor in April citing The Courier-Mail’s reporting of his activities as a reason for his decision.
"On December 22 last year, Mr. Muhammad was detained at Brisbane International Airport as he was about to board a plane to New Zealand with the equivalent of A$1.26 million in Singapore, Malaysian and New Zealand currency in his luggage.
"Customs officials have alleged that they were not told about the cash, and Mr. Muhammad will appear in committal proceedings in Brisbane’s Federal Court on August 19 on charges of failing to declare cash above A$5000 and making a false declaration.
"The Courier-Mail has revealed Mr. Muhammad and his wife spent a week in Australia - checking on a luxury house being built on the Gold Coast and a 4500ha property in western Queensland - then flew to New Zealand for two weeks after Mr. Muhammad had appeared in court.
"The properties - registered to his wife in her maiden name of Asnan - were purchased last year for more than $3 million.
"It has been discovered more than $3 million of property has been purchased in New Zealand over the past year and registered to Ms Asnan…
"Land title searches have revealed six properties on New Zealand’s north island - in total more than 140 ha - registered to Ms Asnan.
"Documents show a 4573 sq m property in Pakurunga was purchased on June 18 last year; a 1713 sq m property in Otahuhu was bought on November 27 last year for $550,000; and four properties in Mataitai, totalling 144ha, were bought between November 29 last year and March 11 this year.
"Purchase price for the Pakurunga and Mataitai properties were not disclosed on transfer documents, although stamp duty payments indicate a total transaction for the Mataitai properties of about $2.1 million.
"The Pakurunga property was purchased from Hasan B.M.Taib of Singapore, who is Mr. Muhammad’s younger brother. Hasan purchased the property in 1990 for $520,000."
With these new revelations in the Brisbane Courier-Mail, Muhammad Taib, who had failed to sue the newspaper despite his public threat on April 14, has no choice but to resign as UMNO Vice President as well as Assemblyman for Batang Kali.
The Anti-Corruption Agency sent a high-powered team to Brisbane to investigate into the reports about the various properties of Muhammad Taib in Australia. Nobody knows what is the outcome of such investigations. Is the ACA also going to send a team to New Zealand to check on the new revelations?
(29/6/97)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Lim Kit Siang - Malaysian Parliamentary Opposition Leader, Democratic Action Party Secretary-General & Member of Parliament for Tanjong
First meeting with YB Betty Chew on March 15, 2008(more photos in the previous 2 posts on the same day)
We invited YB Betty Chew, CM Lim Guan Eng's wife to Wong clinic. It was crowded. 40 people in the waiting room, some in the consultation room, some have to stand. (sorry, will be better prepare next round). Betty gave us the inside story about the election, how we can better prepare ourselves for the next election.Dr Wong shared with us how he got to know Guan Eng, Senior Lawyer Nga Hock Cheh and YB Ngeh Kor Ming who were instumental in encouraging him of joining DAP in 2004. He also shared how he waited for the past 4 years before he got the green light from family members to go all out in giving himself to God to serve the Malaysian public.
We had a good time fellowshipping after Q and A.
Living sacrifices to God.
Romans 12:1 (NKJV)
I beceech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasoinable service.
Comment from Life Application Bible
When sacrificing an animal according to God's law, a priest would kill the animal, cut it in pieces, and place it on the altar. Sacrifice was important, but even in the Old Testament God made it clear that obedience from the heart was more important. God wants us to offer ourselves, not animals, as living sacrifices-daily laying aside our own desires to follow Him, putting all our energy and resources at His disposal and trusting Him to guide us. We do this out of gratitude that our sins have been forgiven.
My comment:
It is not difficult at all to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God when we are at our best. It is very difficult to do it ALL the time because this "alive" sacrifice can get down from the altar whenever it wants whereas the dead one can't. That is why Catherine Kulman said, I died a thoundsand times daily. Let's yield to the Holy Spirit from moment to moment so that He can live this exciting supernatural yet normal Christian life through us! Amen!
I beceech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasoinable service.
Comment from Life Application Bible
When sacrificing an animal according to God's law, a priest would kill the animal, cut it in pieces, and place it on the altar. Sacrifice was important, but even in the Old Testament God made it clear that obedience from the heart was more important. God wants us to offer ourselves, not animals, as living sacrifices-daily laying aside our own desires to follow Him, putting all our energy and resources at His disposal and trusting Him to guide us. We do this out of gratitude that our sins have been forgiven.
My comment:
It is not difficult at all to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God when we are at our best. It is very difficult to do it ALL the time because this "alive" sacrifice can get down from the altar whenever it wants whereas the dead one can't. That is why Catherine Kulman said, I died a thoundsand times daily. Let's yield to the Holy Spirit from moment to moment so that He can live this exciting supernatural yet normal Christian life through us! Amen!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Political Frog
There have been talks about Anwar forming a new government in a near future! He only needs 3o members of parliament to cross over he will have a simple majority to form the new government.
A lot of talks now on anti -hopping law recently. We should condemn political frogs!
Look like BN is very keen to to have this law only now! Why? For the past 50 years, numerous opposition members of parliament or state assemblymen had deflected to BN. None in BN talk about anti-hopping! Now only!
From many signs we see in the paper on asking Abdullah to resign, the crisis of Menteri Besar in Trengganu, BN is really in a very precarious condition of collapse! A rout in the UMNO will be the main cause of the downfall.(refer to Rout-BN's days are numbered).
I would like to see BN re-transform itself! Only with 2 equally strong parties will there be meaningful democracy. Hope and pray that Malaysia will catch up and do better. This will benefit the people.
A lot of talks now on anti -hopping law recently. We should condemn political frogs!
Look like BN is very keen to to have this law only now! Why? For the past 50 years, numerous opposition members of parliament or state assemblymen had deflected to BN. None in BN talk about anti-hopping! Now only!
From many signs we see in the paper on asking Abdullah to resign, the crisis of Menteri Besar in Trengganu, BN is really in a very precarious condition of collapse! A rout in the UMNO will be the main cause of the downfall.(refer to Rout-BN's days are numbered).
I would like to see BN re-transform itself! Only with 2 equally strong parties will there be meaningful democracy. Hope and pray that Malaysia will catch up and do better. This will benefit the people.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Malaysian Chinese being marginalised!
Subject: Malaysian Chinese being marginalised ... by Lee Kuan Yew
Posted by Raja Petra Kamarudin to MT-Guest Columnists at 9/24/2006 08:16:29 PM
In the chorus of angry protests against Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's recent remark that
Chinese Malaysians have been marginalised, can these angry protesters answer one simple question? If
there has been no racial marginalisation, why has the word meritocracy been a taboo in Malaysian politics
ever since the racial riot of May 13, 1969 - the only country in the world doing that?
A few more simple questions:
Why have there been massive and unrelenting brain drains ever since the infamous debacle in 1969,
resulting in countless Chinese Malaysians excelling in many fields in foreign lands?
Why has there been a virtual monopoly by one race - numerically as a whole as well as the top hierarchy -
in the entire spectrum of the public sector, namely, the army, the police, the civil service, the judiciary,
public universities, semi and quasi government bodies, government controlled financial institutions and enterprises?
Why have there been, year after year, the spectres of top Chinese Malaysian students being barred from
universities, only to be admitted later (only for some) upon begging by Chinese ministers in the Cabinet?
No doubt Lee Kuan Yew may be faulted for lacking diplomatic niceties in his remarks, but he has spoken
the truth. And I think every Malaysian irrespective of race knows that, at least in the deepest part of his heart if not outwardly.
Yes, we have been practicing racial discrimination, and that is a zero sum game. When race A is barred so
that race B can get in, it is one side's loss to another side's gain, as simple as that. It is sheer dishonesty
and hypocrisy to deny that any race has suffered a disadvantage as a result of this policy.
But the real question is: is such policy justified?
To answer that question, we have to go back to where such policy started - the New Economic Policy
(NEP), formulated after the racial riots in 1969. It is necessary to refresh our memory over the original
concept of this NEP, since it has almost become a dirty word now, having been hijacked by politicians for
self-gain and for perpetuating political hegemony.
The prime objective of NEP was to achieve national unity, and the strategy to achieve that was two-
pronged: to eradicate poverty irrespective of race, and to restructure society so as to eliminate the
identification of race with economic function.
There is nothing wrong with such an affirmative action policy, but the tragedy is that over the years, through
racial hegemony, it has been transformed into a policy synonymous with racial privileges, totally forgetting
the over-arching objective of national unity and eliminating poverty across racial lines. Through two decades
of dictatorial rule by former premier Mahathir Mohamad, the NEP had been blatantly abused to justify
uncontrolled corruption, cronyism and nepotism, which have continued to rage unabated under the present prime minister.
There is no question that in spite of these abuses, the NEP has achieved its limited objective of having
elevated the status of Malays in the economic and educational fields to a respectable level, compared to
those of other races. But the fallout of such abuses is devastating indeed, which is nothing less than the
drastic plunge of the ethos of the Malaysian society tantamount to a virtual breakdown of morality and law and order.
The chief setbacks of the abuses of NEP are rampant corruption and cronyism, worsening racial
polarization, unrelenting brain drains, warped educational system, thwarted economic competitiveness,
ineffectual bureaucracy, retarded economic growth and perverted social values.
Such anachronistic and regressive policy has no place in the present globalizing world, and for that matter,
in any civilized society. As it is, the pressure to dismantle such policy does not come from within the
country - as the deprived races seem powerless to redress this wrong - but from the whole wide world who
are our trading partners. Our trade negotiators should be able to testify how tough the going is when it
comes to negotiating free trade agreements with foreign parties whether it is regional marketing pacts (Afta,
WTO) or bi-lateral agreements such as those involving Japan, US, Australia, China and India (through
Asean), etc due to the presence of Malaysia's race-based protectionist policies. Invariably, these NEP
inspired policies stand as stumbling blocks to the opening of a wider window for two-way trades and investments for this country.
World trade liberalisation is a one way road, and there is no turning back, whether we like it or not. So, for
how long can Malaysia buck the world trend without causing unacceptable damage to its own economy?
Even worse than the anticipated trade frictions is the loss of Malaysia's economic competitiveness in the
face of heightening competition from abroad. Our prime minister has correctly diagnosed this malaise as
the prevalence of our third world mentality, but he has done nothing to correct our uncompetitive culture or
to stamp the worsening racial and religious dissension within the country. In fact, he has done the opposite
by intensifying the imprint of the perverted NEP philosophy on our economic plans, and prohibiting inter-
religious and inter-racial discourse which would otherwise have contributed to greater understanding and
harmony among the races.
Lee Kuan Yew's comments have understandably riled many Malaysian leaders particularly those in the
ruling coalition, but he should also have struck resonance among many who have silently put up with these
unjust policies all these years.
As for the great silent majority in this country, they should now ponder what would serve their interests
best: to save face by angrily rebutting Lee Kuan Yew or to stare at the ugly truth bravely and institute
changes that will put the nation on the right path?
I think we have reached a stage in our history critical enough to warrant caution in putting too much trust in
the incumbent leaders. The people of Malaysia have traditionally placed much trust in the ruling power,
perhaps more than they should, as evident from the fragrant abuses of government authorities. The fact that
we have scraped through as a nation in the past despite such serious misrule does not guarantee that we
will be similarly lucky in the future. This is due to the fact that both internal and external circumstances
have so radically altered that we can no longer commit such major errors in policies and in the choice of
leadership without putting our future in peril.
Looking from this perspective, Lee Kuan Yew's bitter medicine may yet work to our advantage if we are
humble and brave enough to take this as a challenge to do some serious introspection that may eventually
lead to our common good.
Posted by Raja Petra Kamarudin to MT-Guest Columnists at 9/24/2006 08:16:29 PM
In the chorus of angry protests against Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's recent remark that
Chinese Malaysians have been marginalised, can these angry protesters answer one simple question? If
there has been no racial marginalisation, why has the word meritocracy been a taboo in Malaysian politics
ever since the racial riot of May 13, 1969 - the only country in the world doing that?
A few more simple questions:
Why have there been massive and unrelenting brain drains ever since the infamous debacle in 1969,
resulting in countless Chinese Malaysians excelling in many fields in foreign lands?
Why has there been a virtual monopoly by one race - numerically as a whole as well as the top hierarchy -
in the entire spectrum of the public sector, namely, the army, the police, the civil service, the judiciary,
public universities, semi and quasi government bodies, government controlled financial institutions and enterprises?
Why have there been, year after year, the spectres of top Chinese Malaysian students being barred from
universities, only to be admitted later (only for some) upon begging by Chinese ministers in the Cabinet?
No doubt Lee Kuan Yew may be faulted for lacking diplomatic niceties in his remarks, but he has spoken
the truth. And I think every Malaysian irrespective of race knows that, at least in the deepest part of his heart if not outwardly.
Yes, we have been practicing racial discrimination, and that is a zero sum game. When race A is barred so
that race B can get in, it is one side's loss to another side's gain, as simple as that. It is sheer dishonesty
and hypocrisy to deny that any race has suffered a disadvantage as a result of this policy.
But the real question is: is such policy justified?
To answer that question, we have to go back to where such policy started - the New Economic Policy
(NEP), formulated after the racial riots in 1969. It is necessary to refresh our memory over the original
concept of this NEP, since it has almost become a dirty word now, having been hijacked by politicians for
self-gain and for perpetuating political hegemony.
The prime objective of NEP was to achieve national unity, and the strategy to achieve that was two-
pronged: to eradicate poverty irrespective of race, and to restructure society so as to eliminate the
identification of race with economic function.
There is nothing wrong with such an affirmative action policy, but the tragedy is that over the years, through
racial hegemony, it has been transformed into a policy synonymous with racial privileges, totally forgetting
the over-arching objective of national unity and eliminating poverty across racial lines. Through two decades
of dictatorial rule by former premier Mahathir Mohamad, the NEP had been blatantly abused to justify
uncontrolled corruption, cronyism and nepotism, which have continued to rage unabated under the present prime minister.
There is no question that in spite of these abuses, the NEP has achieved its limited objective of having
elevated the status of Malays in the economic and educational fields to a respectable level, compared to
those of other races. But the fallout of such abuses is devastating indeed, which is nothing less than the
drastic plunge of the ethos of the Malaysian society tantamount to a virtual breakdown of morality and law and order.
The chief setbacks of the abuses of NEP are rampant corruption and cronyism, worsening racial
polarization, unrelenting brain drains, warped educational system, thwarted economic competitiveness,
ineffectual bureaucracy, retarded economic growth and perverted social values.
Such anachronistic and regressive policy has no place in the present globalizing world, and for that matter,
in any civilized society. As it is, the pressure to dismantle such policy does not come from within the
country - as the deprived races seem powerless to redress this wrong - but from the whole wide world who
are our trading partners. Our trade negotiators should be able to testify how tough the going is when it
comes to negotiating free trade agreements with foreign parties whether it is regional marketing pacts (Afta,
WTO) or bi-lateral agreements such as those involving Japan, US, Australia, China and India (through
Asean), etc due to the presence of Malaysia's race-based protectionist policies. Invariably, these NEP
inspired policies stand as stumbling blocks to the opening of a wider window for two-way trades and investments for this country.
World trade liberalisation is a one way road, and there is no turning back, whether we like it or not. So, for
how long can Malaysia buck the world trend without causing unacceptable damage to its own economy?
Even worse than the anticipated trade frictions is the loss of Malaysia's economic competitiveness in the
face of heightening competition from abroad. Our prime minister has correctly diagnosed this malaise as
the prevalence of our third world mentality, but he has done nothing to correct our uncompetitive culture or
to stamp the worsening racial and religious dissension within the country. In fact, he has done the opposite
by intensifying the imprint of the perverted NEP philosophy on our economic plans, and prohibiting inter-
religious and inter-racial discourse which would otherwise have contributed to greater understanding and
harmony among the races.
Lee Kuan Yew's comments have understandably riled many Malaysian leaders particularly those in the
ruling coalition, but he should also have struck resonance among many who have silently put up with these
unjust policies all these years.
As for the great silent majority in this country, they should now ponder what would serve their interests
best: to save face by angrily rebutting Lee Kuan Yew or to stare at the ugly truth bravely and institute
changes that will put the nation on the right path?
I think we have reached a stage in our history critical enough to warrant caution in putting too much trust in
the incumbent leaders. The people of Malaysia have traditionally placed much trust in the ruling power,
perhaps more than they should, as evident from the fragrant abuses of government authorities. The fact that
we have scraped through as a nation in the past despite such serious misrule does not guarantee that we
will be similarly lucky in the future. This is due to the fact that both internal and external circumstances
have so radically altered that we can no longer commit such major errors in policies and in the choice of
leadership without putting our future in peril.
Looking from this perspective, Lee Kuan Yew's bitter medicine may yet work to our advantage if we are
humble and brave enough to take this as a challenge to do some serious introspection that may eventually
lead to our common good.
At 84, the fire still burns!
At 84, the fire still burns!
By Ahmad Mustapha
Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, who was Singapore's founding father, has always been very direct in his comments. This was the man who outsmarted the communists in Singapore (with the innocent help of Malaya then and the willing help of the British) and who later outwitted the British and outpaced Malaysia in all spheres.
Singapore practices meritocracy and Malaysia affirmative action. The former attracted all the best brains and the latter chased out all the brains. The Singapore cabinet consists of dedicated and intelligent technocrats whereas Malaysia has one the most unwieldy cabinet. Not only that, brain wise it was below par.
With that kind of composition, one that is very brainy, naturally Singapore, with no natural resources could outstrip Malaysia in every aspect of development. Malaysia, on the other hand, was too much preoccupied with its Malayness and the illusory 'ketuanan Melayu' and was also more interested in iconic development rather than real social and economic development.
Whenever Kuan Yew utters anything that deemed to be a slight on Malaysia, voices were raised admonishing him. Malaysia would never dare to face reality. That Singapore had shown that it could survive was a slap on those who believed that Singapore would fold up once it left Malaysia. Therefore it was natural that these doomsayers would try to rationalise their utterances to be in their favour to combat on whatever Kuan Yew commented.(clarity)
Singapore achieved its development status without any fanfare. But here in Malaysia, a development that was deceptive was proclaimed as having achieved development status. It was trumpeted as an achievement that befits first world status. This was self delusion. Malaysians are led to believe into a make believe world, a dream world. The leaders who themselves tend to believe in their own fabricated world did not realise the people were not taken in by this kind of illusion.
Lee Kuan Yew believed in calling a spade a spade. I was there in Singapore when the People's Action Party won the elections in 1959. He was forthright in his briefing to party members as to what was expected of them and what Singapore would face in the future. Ideologically, I did not agree with him. We in the University of Malaya Socialist Club had a different interpretation of socialist reconstruction. But he was a pragmatist and wanted to bring development and welfare to the Singaporeans. Well! He succeeded.
Malaysia was so much embroiled in racial politics and due to the fear of losing political power, all actions taken by the main party in power was never targeted towards bringing wealth to all. Wealth was distributed to the chosen few only. They were the cronies and the backers of the party leadership.
Seeing the efficiency and the progress achieved by Singapore caused the Malaysian leadership to suffer from an inferiority complex. That Malaysia should suffer from this complex was of its own making.
In a recent interview, Kuan Yew said that Malaysia could have done better if only it treated its minority Chinese and Indian population fairly. He added that Singapore was a standing indictment to what Malaysia could have done differently. He just hit the nail right there on the head.
Malaysia recently celebrated its 50th year of independence with a bagful of uncertainties. The racial divide has become more acute. The number of Malay graduates unemployed is on the increase. And this aspect can be very explosive. But sad to see that no positive actions have been taken to address these social ills.
Various excuses were given by Malaysian leaders why Singapore had far outstripped Malaysia in all aspects of social and economic advancement. Singapore was small, they rationalised and therefore easy to manage. Singapore was not a state but merely an island.
There was one other aspect that Malaysia practises and that is to politicise all aspects of life. All government organs and machinery were 'UMNO-ised'. This was to ensure that the party will remain in power. Thus there was this misconception by the instruments of government as to what national interest is and what UMNO vested interest is.
UMNO vested interest only benefited a few and not the whole nation. But due to the UMNO-isation of the various instruments of government, the country under the present administration had equated UMNO vested interest as being that of national interest. Thus development became an avenue of making money and not for the benefit of the people. The fight against corruption took a back seat. Transparency was put on hold. And the instruments of government took it to be of national interest to cater to the vested interest of UMNO. Enforcement of various enactments and laws was selective. Thus a 'palace' in Kelang could exist without proper procedure.
Singapore did not politicise its instruments of government. If ever pollicisation took place, it is guided by national interest. To be efficient and to be the best in the region was of paramount importance. Thus all the elements like corruption, lackadaisical attitude towards work and other black elements, which would retard such an aim, were eliminated. Singapore naturally had placed the right priority in it's pursueit to achieve what is best for its people. This is the major difference between these two independent countries.
Malaysia in its various attempts to cover up its failures embarked on several diversions. It wanted its citizens to be proud that the country had the tallest twin -tower in the world, although the structure was designed and built by foreigners. It achieved in sending a man into space at an exorbitant price. These are what the Malays of old would say "menang sorak" (hollow victories).
It should be realised that administering a country can be likened to managing a corporate entity. If the management is efficient and dedicated and know what they are doing, the company will prosper. The reverse will be if the management is poor and bad. The company will go bust.
There are five countries around this region. There is Malaysia, and then Indonesia. To the east there is the Philippines and then there is that small enclave called the Sultanate of Brunei. All these four countries have abundance of natural resources but none can lay claim to have used all these resources to benefit the people. Poverty was rampant and independence had not brought in any significant benefits to the people.
But tiny Singapore without any resources at all managed to bring development to its citizens. It had one of the best public transport system in the world and it is a very clean city state.
It is impossible to compare what Singapore has achieved to what all these four countries had so far achieved. It was actually poor management and nothing more. Everything is done for the vested interest of the few.Malaysia , Indonesia and the Philippines and the Sultanate of Brunei need good management teams. They would not be able to do this on their own steam. I would advise that they call on Kuan Yew to show them what good governance
By Ahmad Mustapha
Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, who was Singapore's founding father, has always been very direct in his comments. This was the man who outsmarted the communists in Singapore (with the innocent help of Malaya then and the willing help of the British) and who later outwitted the British and outpaced Malaysia in all spheres.
Singapore practices meritocracy and Malaysia affirmative action. The former attracted all the best brains and the latter chased out all the brains. The Singapore cabinet consists of dedicated and intelligent technocrats whereas Malaysia has one the most unwieldy cabinet. Not only that, brain wise it was below par.
With that kind of composition, one that is very brainy, naturally Singapore, with no natural resources could outstrip Malaysia in every aspect of development. Malaysia, on the other hand, was too much preoccupied with its Malayness and the illusory 'ketuanan Melayu' and was also more interested in iconic development rather than real social and economic development.
Whenever Kuan Yew utters anything that deemed to be a slight on Malaysia, voices were raised admonishing him. Malaysia would never dare to face reality. That Singapore had shown that it could survive was a slap on those who believed that Singapore would fold up once it left Malaysia. Therefore it was natural that these doomsayers would try to rationalise their utterances to be in their favour to combat on whatever Kuan Yew commented.(clarity)
Singapore achieved its development status without any fanfare. But here in Malaysia, a development that was deceptive was proclaimed as having achieved development status. It was trumpeted as an achievement that befits first world status. This was self delusion. Malaysians are led to believe into a make believe world, a dream world. The leaders who themselves tend to believe in their own fabricated world did not realise the people were not taken in by this kind of illusion.
Lee Kuan Yew believed in calling a spade a spade. I was there in Singapore when the People's Action Party won the elections in 1959. He was forthright in his briefing to party members as to what was expected of them and what Singapore would face in the future. Ideologically, I did not agree with him. We in the University of Malaya Socialist Club had a different interpretation of socialist reconstruction. But he was a pragmatist and wanted to bring development and welfare to the Singaporeans. Well! He succeeded.
Malaysia was so much embroiled in racial politics and due to the fear of losing political power, all actions taken by the main party in power was never targeted towards bringing wealth to all. Wealth was distributed to the chosen few only. They were the cronies and the backers of the party leadership.
Seeing the efficiency and the progress achieved by Singapore caused the Malaysian leadership to suffer from an inferiority complex. That Malaysia should suffer from this complex was of its own making.
In a recent interview, Kuan Yew said that Malaysia could have done better if only it treated its minority Chinese and Indian population fairly. He added that Singapore was a standing indictment to what Malaysia could have done differently. He just hit the nail right there on the head.
Malaysia recently celebrated its 50th year of independence with a bagful of uncertainties. The racial divide has become more acute. The number of Malay graduates unemployed is on the increase. And this aspect can be very explosive. But sad to see that no positive actions have been taken to address these social ills.
Various excuses were given by Malaysian leaders why Singapore had far outstripped Malaysia in all aspects of social and economic advancement. Singapore was small, they rationalised and therefore easy to manage. Singapore was not a state but merely an island.
There was one other aspect that Malaysia practises and that is to politicise all aspects of life. All government organs and machinery were 'UMNO-ised'. This was to ensure that the party will remain in power. Thus there was this misconception by the instruments of government as to what national interest is and what UMNO vested interest is.
UMNO vested interest only benefited a few and not the whole nation. But due to the UMNO-isation of the various instruments of government, the country under the present administration had equated UMNO vested interest as being that of national interest. Thus development became an avenue of making money and not for the benefit of the people. The fight against corruption took a back seat. Transparency was put on hold. And the instruments of government took it to be of national interest to cater to the vested interest of UMNO. Enforcement of various enactments and laws was selective. Thus a 'palace' in Kelang could exist without proper procedure.
Singapore did not politicise its instruments of government. If ever pollicisation took place, it is guided by national interest. To be efficient and to be the best in the region was of paramount importance. Thus all the elements like corruption, lackadaisical attitude towards work and other black elements, which would retard such an aim, were eliminated. Singapore naturally had placed the right priority in it's pursueit to achieve what is best for its people. This is the major difference between these two independent countries.
Malaysia in its various attempts to cover up its failures embarked on several diversions. It wanted its citizens to be proud that the country had the tallest twin -tower in the world, although the structure was designed and built by foreigners. It achieved in sending a man into space at an exorbitant price. These are what the Malays of old would say "menang sorak" (hollow victories).
It should be realised that administering a country can be likened to managing a corporate entity. If the management is efficient and dedicated and know what they are doing, the company will prosper. The reverse will be if the management is poor and bad. The company will go bust.
There are five countries around this region. There is Malaysia, and then Indonesia. To the east there is the Philippines and then there is that small enclave called the Sultanate of Brunei. All these four countries have abundance of natural resources but none can lay claim to have used all these resources to benefit the people. Poverty was rampant and independence had not brought in any significant benefits to the people.
But tiny Singapore without any resources at all managed to bring development to its citizens. It had one of the best public transport system in the world and it is a very clean city state.
It is impossible to compare what Singapore has achieved to what all these four countries had so far achieved. It was actually poor management and nothing more. Everything is done for the vested interest of the few.Malaysia , Indonesia and the Philippines and the Sultanate of Brunei need good management teams. They would not be able to do this on their own steam. I would advise that they call on Kuan Yew to show them what good governance
We want a NEW order
Subject: An Open Letter to Chandra Muzaffar from someone who voted OppositionAn Open Letter to Chandra Muzaffar from someone who voted Opposition
Listen to the youth of today, we didn’t vote out of racial dissatisfaction like you said; we want a new order
Dear Dr Chandra Muzaffar, I remember the first time I saw you speaking. I was in my sixth form and you were in a public forum at the Komtar Dome in Penang. I was in awe of your intellectual courage. You spoke the language of justice and equality in an environment where equality seemed a dirty word. Fast forward two decades later, reading your analysis on BN's dismal showing at the polls (The Polls - and the BN debacle, The Star, March 17), I must say, I was disappointed. You seemed to have regressed. And your words belie a lack of understanding and sympathy for fellow Malaysians who long to be counted as equal citizens of this country.I have no problems when you criticised Anwar Ibrahim although it was clear you took advantage of the platform readily offered to you by the pro-BN media. You are entitled to your opinions and I believed that you had your reasons to warn us against Anwar. Although your choice of platform dents your integrity, I am all too willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. After all, I too, do not trust Anwar Ibrahim entirely, just as I distrust any DAP, PKR, PAS or BN leaders. I would rather invest my time not in bolstering support for any political parties or leaders, but in strengthening the democratic structures of this country - the media, the judicial system, the electoral process, the right to information. For only these structures can guarantee a nation free from the corruption of power and the tyrannies of all too powerful governments. Back to your article in The Star, I thought your analysis on the Opposition's sterling performance was myopic. You suggest that the Opposition managed to attract votes because they harnessed ethnic discontentment "to the hilt" - from the Hindraf debacle, the Malay response towards it, to the keris-waving incident and the non-Malay reaction against it. You seem to see everything through a racial lens. And instead of moving beyond it, you are imprisoned by it. Your analysis of why non-Malays voted heavily for the Opposition is one of protest and racial dissatisfaction. But I think you fail to realise that many of us voted for a new politics, one that is non-racial based, non-discriminatory and inclusive. Referring to Anwar as being a successful personality in harnessing this racial dissatisfaction, you said: "...whenever a prominent Malay leader articulates non-Malay grievances, the Chinese and Indian anti-establishment vote shoots up significantly. It is as if they are encouraged, even emboldened, by the stance of the Malay leader." I am one of the many, many who voted for the Opposition and I did so NOT because I am encouraged, even emboldened by a Malay leader. To suggest that is offensive, and it shows your ignorance and condescension to non-Malay voters. I voted the Opposition because I am sick of BN racialised politics and corruption. I want a party that reflects my vision of a Malaysia for all Malaysians. Not one that tells me that I need an MCA or an MIC to fight for my rights. As a citizen of this country, why aren't my rights already protected? Why do I need a party to fight for my rights based on my ethnicity? I also do not agree with you assessment that racial discontentment is the reason why voters deserted the BN. Many international media portrayed the elections like this: "Malaysians go to the polls amidst racial tension." That's misleading. This election is not one of interracial discontentment.Malaysian-Malays, Chinese and Indians are NOT fighting among themselves or hating each other. What they are doing is throwing out the old order that divides us and continually tell us that some of us are above others, and others should just be thankful for being allowed to exist on this land. That is why we see so many first time voters, and non-Malays voting heavily against the BN, but voting not just for the DAP but for PAS and PKR. In Titiwangsa, a mixed constituency where Dr Lo Lo of PAS was contesting, I saw many lower-income Chinese in their 40s and 50s wearing PAS caps and campaigning for the party. At many constituencies where PKR was contesting, I saw Indian youths carrying PKR flags, zig zagging on their motorbikes. At Lembah Pantai, when Raja Petra with Anwar Ibrahim declared that Indians and Chinese would be defended with Malay bodies, the largely Malay audience erupted into cheers. All this clearly shows that many, many of us have transcended the racial allegiance that the BN expects us to hang on to. I believe we are seeing the dawn of a new nationalism. Malaysians are asking - what does it mean to be a Malaysian? In fact, we are not only asking, we are answering it with our votes. It's a search for a new Identity. We want a Malaysia where all Malaysians are equal. I think the role of public intellectuals like you should be to articulate that hunger and move the nation away from the harmful ideology and practices that may have served us before, but no longer now. In doing so, we need to be aware of our language. Quit drawing on that same old racialised language because it won't work anymore. And listen to the youth of today. It is their vision that will make the country from now on. -- Jules Ong, Kuala Lumpur
Listen to the youth of today, we didn’t vote out of racial dissatisfaction like you said; we want a new order
Dear Dr Chandra Muzaffar, I remember the first time I saw you speaking. I was in my sixth form and you were in a public forum at the Komtar Dome in Penang. I was in awe of your intellectual courage. You spoke the language of justice and equality in an environment where equality seemed a dirty word. Fast forward two decades later, reading your analysis on BN's dismal showing at the polls (The Polls - and the BN debacle, The Star, March 17), I must say, I was disappointed. You seemed to have regressed. And your words belie a lack of understanding and sympathy for fellow Malaysians who long to be counted as equal citizens of this country.I have no problems when you criticised Anwar Ibrahim although it was clear you took advantage of the platform readily offered to you by the pro-BN media. You are entitled to your opinions and I believed that you had your reasons to warn us against Anwar. Although your choice of platform dents your integrity, I am all too willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. After all, I too, do not trust Anwar Ibrahim entirely, just as I distrust any DAP, PKR, PAS or BN leaders. I would rather invest my time not in bolstering support for any political parties or leaders, but in strengthening the democratic structures of this country - the media, the judicial system, the electoral process, the right to information. For only these structures can guarantee a nation free from the corruption of power and the tyrannies of all too powerful governments. Back to your article in The Star, I thought your analysis on the Opposition's sterling performance was myopic. You suggest that the Opposition managed to attract votes because they harnessed ethnic discontentment "to the hilt" - from the Hindraf debacle, the Malay response towards it, to the keris-waving incident and the non-Malay reaction against it. You seem to see everything through a racial lens. And instead of moving beyond it, you are imprisoned by it. Your analysis of why non-Malays voted heavily for the Opposition is one of protest and racial dissatisfaction. But I think you fail to realise that many of us voted for a new politics, one that is non-racial based, non-discriminatory and inclusive. Referring to Anwar as being a successful personality in harnessing this racial dissatisfaction, you said: "...whenever a prominent Malay leader articulates non-Malay grievances, the Chinese and Indian anti-establishment vote shoots up significantly. It is as if they are encouraged, even emboldened, by the stance of the Malay leader." I am one of the many, many who voted for the Opposition and I did so NOT because I am encouraged, even emboldened by a Malay leader. To suggest that is offensive, and it shows your ignorance and condescension to non-Malay voters. I voted the Opposition because I am sick of BN racialised politics and corruption. I want a party that reflects my vision of a Malaysia for all Malaysians. Not one that tells me that I need an MCA or an MIC to fight for my rights. As a citizen of this country, why aren't my rights already protected? Why do I need a party to fight for my rights based on my ethnicity? I also do not agree with you assessment that racial discontentment is the reason why voters deserted the BN. Many international media portrayed the elections like this: "Malaysians go to the polls amidst racial tension." That's misleading. This election is not one of interracial discontentment.Malaysian-Malays, Chinese and Indians are NOT fighting among themselves or hating each other. What they are doing is throwing out the old order that divides us and continually tell us that some of us are above others, and others should just be thankful for being allowed to exist on this land. That is why we see so many first time voters, and non-Malays voting heavily against the BN, but voting not just for the DAP but for PAS and PKR. In Titiwangsa, a mixed constituency where Dr Lo Lo of PAS was contesting, I saw many lower-income Chinese in their 40s and 50s wearing PAS caps and campaigning for the party. At many constituencies where PKR was contesting, I saw Indian youths carrying PKR flags, zig zagging on their motorbikes. At Lembah Pantai, when Raja Petra with Anwar Ibrahim declared that Indians and Chinese would be defended with Malay bodies, the largely Malay audience erupted into cheers. All this clearly shows that many, many of us have transcended the racial allegiance that the BN expects us to hang on to. I believe we are seeing the dawn of a new nationalism. Malaysians are asking - what does it mean to be a Malaysian? In fact, we are not only asking, we are answering it with our votes. It's a search for a new Identity. We want a Malaysia where all Malaysians are equal. I think the role of public intellectuals like you should be to articulate that hunger and move the nation away from the harmful ideology and practices that may have served us before, but no longer now. In doing so, we need to be aware of our language. Quit drawing on that same old racialised language because it won't work anymore. And listen to the youth of today. It is their vision that will make the country from now on. -- Jules Ong, Kuala Lumpur
Friday, March 21, 2008
Anwar- articles by Newsweek
19
Mar
Liputan Newsweek: Back in the Light
Categories: Anwar
3 articles in Newsweek:
Back In the Light
Purged, jailed and humiliated in the late 1990s, Anwar Ibrahim has staged a remarkable comeback at the helm of an opposition insurgency.Anwar Ibrahim takes six calls in quick succession on three different mobile phones. Five days after Malaysia’s general election—in which his coalition shocked observers by winning several key states and almost ousting the long-ruling party—he has segued from surprise victor to tireless political operative, ironing out disagreements and building bridges within the still-fractious opposition. Inside his low-key suburban office, tucked several kilometers away from Parliament in leafy Kuala Lumpur, Anwar’s sense of purpose—destiny, even—is palpable. “Just listen to what the others have to say. Listen,” he tells one caller. “Stay calm, go home and have some dinner, some Panadol, whatever you need,” he tells another, adding, “If there are still strong views and you can’t solve it, let me handle [it].”
The performance is vintage Anwar: the great conciliator doing what he does best. Barely a decade ago, this was the man who was going to help Asia and the West see eye to eye and bridge the chasm between Islam and other faiths. As Finance minister and then deputy prime minister of Malaysia in the late 1990s, Anwar was heir apparent to the strongman Mahathir Mohammed. But it was always an odd pairing. Mahathir was an angry anti-colonialist, forever railing against the West; he denounced Western pressure for democracy and human rights as cultural imperialism, an affront to more authoritarian “Asian values,” and fiercely resisted international attempts to dismantle Malaysia’s cozy and corrupt business culture after the Asian financial crisis. Anwar, by contrast, was a proud universalist, a personally pious Muslim who was also a relentless modernizer and whose penchant for quoting Gandhi and declaring the necessity of democracy and economic openness won him international acclaim. In speeches filled with terms like “civil society” and “freedom,” Anwar opposed the notion that Asians were somehow destined for repressive rule and sought to turn regional vehicles like ASEAN into forces to promote liberty and justice. This won him widespread adoration—he was named NEWSWEEK’s Asian of the Year in 1998—and made him a darling of the Davos set.
But it also led to his downfall. By 1998, Mahathir had had enough of his high-flying deputy, and after Anwar publicly broke with his boss over the response to the Asian financial crisis (which Anwar hoped to use to impose fiscal discipline and dismantle Mahathir’s crony system), he was sacked and then jailed on what were widely seen as trumped-up corruption and sodomy charges. “It was a terrible time,” Anwar admits in a NEWSWEEK interview, but not one he is not eager to revisit. Asked about Mahathir, over whom he would appear to have scored a historic reversal of fortune, Anwar won’t take the bait, dismissing his former patron as old, ill and “not an issue for me … In order to succeed, we have to look beyond him.”
Under Malaysian law, Anwar is barred from holding office until April 15. Yet clearly the rising fortunes of his party make him once again a potential prime minister, though this time around his ambitions appear focused solely on Malaysia, not Asia and the world. Asked if he was poised once again to act as a bridge figure between East and West, Anwar embraced that “important role” as one he had been “playing for a long time,” but then quickly gave it a distinctly local focus: reassuring both Malays and non-Malays and getting them to work together in his party.
Thanks to widespread disgust with the lackluster performance of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, the three-party opposition more than quadrupled its presence in Parliament (going from 20 to 82 seats out of 222), and it now controls five of Malaysia’s 13 states. The greater import is clear: even some members of Abdullah’s camp are now calling for his resignation, and “Anwar has returned as a major force,” says Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia expert at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.
But the opposition still has to parlay those results into effective control. For the moment, Abdullah remains in charge, if barely. Still, the election was a water- shed, the closest the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has come to defeat since independence in 1957. The best Abdullah could say about the drubbing was to call it “democracy at work,” and Mahathir, who retired in 2003, called it “shocking”—adding, suggestively, “The Japanese would have committed hara-kiri.”
The vote also represented a major challenge to Malaysia’s wide-ranging race-based affirmative-action program, which, under Mahathir gave the country’s ethnic Malay majority broad preferences over the long-dominant Chinese community in business affairs. Even if the fragile center now holds in Kuala Lumpur, UMNO will soon face unprecedented threats from state governments now controlled by the opposition. Following a pattern discernible elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Anwar and his allies are staging an assault on the cronyism and patronage of old and pledging social justice, openness, transparency, and anticorruption measures.
The new movement is something of a sequel to the failed Reformasi drive of the late 1990s. Launched by Anwar after his ouster in late 1998, it aimed to ignite a “people power” uprising of the sort that had toppled Suharto in Indonesia. But Reformasi fizzled after Anwar’s criminal conviction; he ultimately served six years in prison.
Yet Malaysians’ desire for change never died. Abdullah, handpicked by Mahathir on the assumption he’d be easy to control, actually took up the reform mantle himself at first, pledging sweeping change during the campaign of 2004. Abdullah vowed to promote moderate Islam to counter creeping fundamentalism, promised an anti-corruption campaign and suggested he might turn back Malaysia’s race-based development policies. Voters responded well, especially when, in 2005, he began dismantling massive Mahathir-era infrastructure projects. But the electorate slowly soured on the new leader as scandal and indecisiveness hobbled his administration. “He did not deliver effectively, and Malaysians called him on it,” says Welsh.
If anything, the opposition’s triumph was even more significant than the raw numbers indicate. Anwar’s People’s Justice Party grabbed 31 seats—up from just one in 2004—and its victors included his wife and daughter. Opposition candidates dominated in peninsular Malaysia’s west coast, seizing the key industrial states of Penang and Selangor. To reach voters, the opposition relied on bloggers, You-Tube and text messages sent to grass-roots organizers via cell phone: common tactics in places like Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea but new to Malaysia. Indeed, they took UMNO and its National Front coalition so much by surprise that the opposition nearly won the election outright. Anwar, for one, thinks it could have; during his NEWSWEEK interview, he hinted at fraud connected to the use of mail-in votes and the Election Commission’s last-minute decision to scrap plans to stain the voters’ fingers with indelible ink.
The electorate also broke with the race-based voting patterns of old. Malaysia’s Chinese and Indian minorities, which make up a quarter and a tenth of the population, respectively, deserted government-allied ethnic parties in favor of Anwar’s Justice candidates and those of center-left Democratic Action Party. The rebellion of ethnic Indians was particularly dramatic; many quit the pro-government Malaysian Indian Congress and the MIC’s leader even lost his seat. “This is new territory” for the ruling party, says Garry Rodan, director of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. “The [party’s] longstanding emphasis on ethnic identity to mask socioeconomic inequalities traversing ethnic groups has much less currency now.”
Anwar’s coalition deftly managed this feat by playing on one issue that united Malaysians whatever their race, sex or station: dismay at rising prices that have lead to hoarding of some staples like cooking oil. Jeff Ooi, a blogger turned parliamentary candidate, traded on this anger, writing in February that “now that the cost of living has gone up, unhappiness is fermenting.” By promising to raise the people’s concerns in Parliament, Ooi won a seat in Penang with an impressive 16,000-ballot margin (out of 46,000).
Now the opposition must quickly transform its promises into a cohesive strategy for governing. Given internal divisions, that won’t be easy; the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party wants to establish an Islamic state, while the secular, center-left Democratic Action Party wants to abolish pro-Malay preferences. These divisions kept the opposition from uniting during the last election, in 2004. But Anwar and his Justice Party are hoping to provide a bridge; in addition to controlling the most seats, his party sits between its partners on most issues. Anwar himself is working overtime to find common ground, using his charismatic magic on all parties. Before the election, he managed to persuade the three factions to divvy up constituencies so as to avoid splitting the vote, and ever since he’s been working his cell phones relentlessly, jawboning allies into submission. Though he lacks a formal position, Anwar hopes to enter Parliament soon: he plans to ask an ally to resign once his legal ban lifts, and then to run for the seat in a by-election.
Any number of things could disrupt his grand plans. His Islamic allies could prove too uncompromising, or Malaysia’s economy could deteriorate—something the newly empowered opposition might be blamed for. On the first trading day after the election, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell by almost 10 percent, as investors dumped shares in companies with large government contracts.
Yet if he manages to hold on, Anwar’s comeback will offer a powerful lesson on the dangers of complacency for long-ruling parties throughout Asia. The 4 million citizens of neighboring Singapore, for example, are already watching events closely, and comparing UMNO’s fate to the city’s own dominant political machine. Abdullah’s shortcomings—scandals and political indecisiveness—have no obvious equivalents in Singapore. Yet UMNO’s surprise setback “holds a lesson” for the city-state, one reader argued in a letter to The Straits Times last week. “Democracy’s tool, the vote, is powerful and swift. A government chosen by its people must stay in touch with the ground. An incumbent who holds power for too long” could run into trouble fast if he becomes unresponsive, the writer warned.
That has been Anwar’s point since the 1990s. With his nemesis, Mahathir, now reduced to carping from the sidelines, and the government coalition looking shakier than ever before, Anwar has again illustrated the fact that when fed-up citizens demand sweeping change, they can accomplish it. Anwar, of course, still has to turn promises into reality. But he’s already made one thing very clear: if anyone can accomplish it, Anwar’s the man.
Mar
Liputan Newsweek: Back in the Light
Categories: Anwar
3 articles in Newsweek:
Back In the Light
Purged, jailed and humiliated in the late 1990s, Anwar Ibrahim has staged a remarkable comeback at the helm of an opposition insurgency.Anwar Ibrahim takes six calls in quick succession on three different mobile phones. Five days after Malaysia’s general election—in which his coalition shocked observers by winning several key states and almost ousting the long-ruling party—he has segued from surprise victor to tireless political operative, ironing out disagreements and building bridges within the still-fractious opposition. Inside his low-key suburban office, tucked several kilometers away from Parliament in leafy Kuala Lumpur, Anwar’s sense of purpose—destiny, even—is palpable. “Just listen to what the others have to say. Listen,” he tells one caller. “Stay calm, go home and have some dinner, some Panadol, whatever you need,” he tells another, adding, “If there are still strong views and you can’t solve it, let me handle [it].”
The performance is vintage Anwar: the great conciliator doing what he does best. Barely a decade ago, this was the man who was going to help Asia and the West see eye to eye and bridge the chasm between Islam and other faiths. As Finance minister and then deputy prime minister of Malaysia in the late 1990s, Anwar was heir apparent to the strongman Mahathir Mohammed. But it was always an odd pairing. Mahathir was an angry anti-colonialist, forever railing against the West; he denounced Western pressure for democracy and human rights as cultural imperialism, an affront to more authoritarian “Asian values,” and fiercely resisted international attempts to dismantle Malaysia’s cozy and corrupt business culture after the Asian financial crisis. Anwar, by contrast, was a proud universalist, a personally pious Muslim who was also a relentless modernizer and whose penchant for quoting Gandhi and declaring the necessity of democracy and economic openness won him international acclaim. In speeches filled with terms like “civil society” and “freedom,” Anwar opposed the notion that Asians were somehow destined for repressive rule and sought to turn regional vehicles like ASEAN into forces to promote liberty and justice. This won him widespread adoration—he was named NEWSWEEK’s Asian of the Year in 1998—and made him a darling of the Davos set.
But it also led to his downfall. By 1998, Mahathir had had enough of his high-flying deputy, and after Anwar publicly broke with his boss over the response to the Asian financial crisis (which Anwar hoped to use to impose fiscal discipline and dismantle Mahathir’s crony system), he was sacked and then jailed on what were widely seen as trumped-up corruption and sodomy charges. “It was a terrible time,” Anwar admits in a NEWSWEEK interview, but not one he is not eager to revisit. Asked about Mahathir, over whom he would appear to have scored a historic reversal of fortune, Anwar won’t take the bait, dismissing his former patron as old, ill and “not an issue for me … In order to succeed, we have to look beyond him.”
Under Malaysian law, Anwar is barred from holding office until April 15. Yet clearly the rising fortunes of his party make him once again a potential prime minister, though this time around his ambitions appear focused solely on Malaysia, not Asia and the world. Asked if he was poised once again to act as a bridge figure between East and West, Anwar embraced that “important role” as one he had been “playing for a long time,” but then quickly gave it a distinctly local focus: reassuring both Malays and non-Malays and getting them to work together in his party.
Thanks to widespread disgust with the lackluster performance of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, the three-party opposition more than quadrupled its presence in Parliament (going from 20 to 82 seats out of 222), and it now controls five of Malaysia’s 13 states. The greater import is clear: even some members of Abdullah’s camp are now calling for his resignation, and “Anwar has returned as a major force,” says Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia expert at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.
But the opposition still has to parlay those results into effective control. For the moment, Abdullah remains in charge, if barely. Still, the election was a water- shed, the closest the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has come to defeat since independence in 1957. The best Abdullah could say about the drubbing was to call it “democracy at work,” and Mahathir, who retired in 2003, called it “shocking”—adding, suggestively, “The Japanese would have committed hara-kiri.”
The vote also represented a major challenge to Malaysia’s wide-ranging race-based affirmative-action program, which, under Mahathir gave the country’s ethnic Malay majority broad preferences over the long-dominant Chinese community in business affairs. Even if the fragile center now holds in Kuala Lumpur, UMNO will soon face unprecedented threats from state governments now controlled by the opposition. Following a pattern discernible elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Anwar and his allies are staging an assault on the cronyism and patronage of old and pledging social justice, openness, transparency, and anticorruption measures.
The new movement is something of a sequel to the failed Reformasi drive of the late 1990s. Launched by Anwar after his ouster in late 1998, it aimed to ignite a “people power” uprising of the sort that had toppled Suharto in Indonesia. But Reformasi fizzled after Anwar’s criminal conviction; he ultimately served six years in prison.
Yet Malaysians’ desire for change never died. Abdullah, handpicked by Mahathir on the assumption he’d be easy to control, actually took up the reform mantle himself at first, pledging sweeping change during the campaign of 2004. Abdullah vowed to promote moderate Islam to counter creeping fundamentalism, promised an anti-corruption campaign and suggested he might turn back Malaysia’s race-based development policies. Voters responded well, especially when, in 2005, he began dismantling massive Mahathir-era infrastructure projects. But the electorate slowly soured on the new leader as scandal and indecisiveness hobbled his administration. “He did not deliver effectively, and Malaysians called him on it,” says Welsh.
If anything, the opposition’s triumph was even more significant than the raw numbers indicate. Anwar’s People’s Justice Party grabbed 31 seats—up from just one in 2004—and its victors included his wife and daughter. Opposition candidates dominated in peninsular Malaysia’s west coast, seizing the key industrial states of Penang and Selangor. To reach voters, the opposition relied on bloggers, You-Tube and text messages sent to grass-roots organizers via cell phone: common tactics in places like Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea but new to Malaysia. Indeed, they took UMNO and its National Front coalition so much by surprise that the opposition nearly won the election outright. Anwar, for one, thinks it could have; during his NEWSWEEK interview, he hinted at fraud connected to the use of mail-in votes and the Election Commission’s last-minute decision to scrap plans to stain the voters’ fingers with indelible ink.
The electorate also broke with the race-based voting patterns of old. Malaysia’s Chinese and Indian minorities, which make up a quarter and a tenth of the population, respectively, deserted government-allied ethnic parties in favor of Anwar’s Justice candidates and those of center-left Democratic Action Party. The rebellion of ethnic Indians was particularly dramatic; many quit the pro-government Malaysian Indian Congress and the MIC’s leader even lost his seat. “This is new territory” for the ruling party, says Garry Rodan, director of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. “The [party’s] longstanding emphasis on ethnic identity to mask socioeconomic inequalities traversing ethnic groups has much less currency now.”
Anwar’s coalition deftly managed this feat by playing on one issue that united Malaysians whatever their race, sex or station: dismay at rising prices that have lead to hoarding of some staples like cooking oil. Jeff Ooi, a blogger turned parliamentary candidate, traded on this anger, writing in February that “now that the cost of living has gone up, unhappiness is fermenting.” By promising to raise the people’s concerns in Parliament, Ooi won a seat in Penang with an impressive 16,000-ballot margin (out of 46,000).
Now the opposition must quickly transform its promises into a cohesive strategy for governing. Given internal divisions, that won’t be easy; the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party wants to establish an Islamic state, while the secular, center-left Democratic Action Party wants to abolish pro-Malay preferences. These divisions kept the opposition from uniting during the last election, in 2004. But Anwar and his Justice Party are hoping to provide a bridge; in addition to controlling the most seats, his party sits between its partners on most issues. Anwar himself is working overtime to find common ground, using his charismatic magic on all parties. Before the election, he managed to persuade the three factions to divvy up constituencies so as to avoid splitting the vote, and ever since he’s been working his cell phones relentlessly, jawboning allies into submission. Though he lacks a formal position, Anwar hopes to enter Parliament soon: he plans to ask an ally to resign once his legal ban lifts, and then to run for the seat in a by-election.
Any number of things could disrupt his grand plans. His Islamic allies could prove too uncompromising, or Malaysia’s economy could deteriorate—something the newly empowered opposition might be blamed for. On the first trading day after the election, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell by almost 10 percent, as investors dumped shares in companies with large government contracts.
Yet if he manages to hold on, Anwar’s comeback will offer a powerful lesson on the dangers of complacency for long-ruling parties throughout Asia. The 4 million citizens of neighboring Singapore, for example, are already watching events closely, and comparing UMNO’s fate to the city’s own dominant political machine. Abdullah’s shortcomings—scandals and political indecisiveness—have no obvious equivalents in Singapore. Yet UMNO’s surprise setback “holds a lesson” for the city-state, one reader argued in a letter to The Straits Times last week. “Democracy’s tool, the vote, is powerful and swift. A government chosen by its people must stay in touch with the ground. An incumbent who holds power for too long” could run into trouble fast if he becomes unresponsive, the writer warned.
That has been Anwar’s point since the 1990s. With his nemesis, Mahathir, now reduced to carping from the sidelines, and the government coalition looking shakier than ever before, Anwar has again illustrated the fact that when fed-up citizens demand sweeping change, they can accomplish it. Anwar, of course, still has to turn promises into reality. But he’s already made one thing very clear: if anyone can accomplish it, Anwar’s the man.
People's tribunal against corruption
Set up people’s tribunal against corruption: TIby Pauline WongPETALING JAYA (March 21, 2008): Transparency International Malaysian Chapter (TI-M) has called for an independent monitoring machinery to be set up to curb corruption and also to keep tabs on the declaration of assets by ministers and deputy ministers. “It must be a people’s tribunal. There should be a ‘tsunami’ against corruption. The people should put pressure on the government; it should be a people’s movement,” said TI president Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam.Commenting on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s directive for cabinet ministers and deputy ministers to declare their assets publicly twice every five years, Ramon said the independent monitoring machinery should be made up of representatives from the public, so that it does not become counter-productive and turn into another avenue for corruption. However, he would not elaborate on the setting up of the independent monitoring machinery.He said the families of ministers and deputy ministers must also be required to declare their assets, as it is a norm for those holding public office to transfer their assets to family members to avoid declaration.“Declaring their liabilities must also be made mandatory as part of the efforts to be fully transparent,” he told theSun.Ramon said the people must exercise their rights to information and perform their duties in reporting corruption, adding that public knowledge of assets must also mean public participation in ensuring this is done with integrity.Stressing that it is the duty of the people, he said: “The people should be aware and alert towards corruption and report any misconduct, just like any other crime. Report it to the police, or the Anti-Corruption Agency. This should be a national movement towards accountability, integrity and transparency.”TI-M, a non-governmental organisation that leads in the fight against corruption, had said it was greatly impressed with Abdullah’s directive as it would be a step forward in strengthening transparency, accountability and integrity.Ramon said the directive is of historical importance and could provide the watershed and beginning of a new drive to fight corruption with a stronger political will.He said TI-M had hoped Abdullah would also ask the mentri besar and chief ministers in Barisan Nasional-controlled state governments to follow suit to combat corruption more seriously and set an example to the private sector and civil service.Abdullah’s directive followed suit a directive from Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, who had ordered top government servants to publicly declare their assets.Those who will be required to make the assets declaration include the chief minister, state executive council members, speaker and deputy speaker as well as the heads of the Penang and Seberang Jaya municipal councils.
Updated: 01:01AM Fri, 21 Mar 2008
Printable Version Email to a Friend
Updated: 01:01AM Fri, 21 Mar 2008
Printable Version Email to a Friend
People's tribunal against corruption.
News without borders
The Sun Friday March 21 2008 reports
PETALING JAYA: Transparency International Malaysia has called for independent monitoring machinery to be set up to curb corruption and also to keep tabs on the declaration of assets by ministers and deputy ministers.
"it must be a people's tribunal. There should be a 'tsunami' against corruption. The people should put pressure on the government; it should be a people movement," said TI president Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam.
We, as the responsible citizens, need to organise ourselves to form the people movement! Nobody like to be short changed by a corrupt regime.
We like to hear from you! are you interested to get involve? What are the policies you think the Government need to change or improve? How have you been affected? Please send your story, we may post it in this blog.
The Sun Friday March 21 2008 reports
PETALING JAYA: Transparency International Malaysia has called for independent monitoring machinery to be set up to curb corruption and also to keep tabs on the declaration of assets by ministers and deputy ministers.
"it must be a people's tribunal. There should be a 'tsunami' against corruption. The people should put pressure on the government; it should be a people movement," said TI president Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam.
We, as the responsible citizens, need to organise ourselves to form the people movement! Nobody like to be short changed by a corrupt regime.
We like to hear from you! are you interested to get involve? What are the policies you think the Government need to change or improve? How have you been affected? Please send your story, we may post it in this blog.
Abdullah fights for survival!
Mar 19th 2008 BANGKOKFrom The Economist print edition
The prime minister fights for survival
TEN days after suffering heavy losses in a general election, Malaysia's prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, shuffled his cabinet on March 18th, hoping to stave off calls for his resignation from within his party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). The removal of some scandal-tainted ministers and the elevation of a judicial reformer showed he is at least trying to get to grips with his problems. But Mr Badawi still seems to be shuffling deckchairs on a personal Titanic.
The National Front coalition, led by UMNO, won this election, as it has every one since independence from Britain in 1957. But it scraped barely half of the vote at national level and, most importantly, lost the two-thirds parliamentary majority it had held since 1974, which had allowed it to change the constitution at will.
straight after the election, Mr Badawi's embittered predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, called on him to resign. The retired leader's son, Mukhriz Mahathir, became the first UMNO official to echo his father's call. Another party figure, Razaleigh Hamzah, a former finance minister, called for an emergency party congress and later offered to stand against Mr Badawi if enough members supported him. Even if not, the knives may come out at the party's annual congress in August.
So Mr Badawi's survival rests on how his new ministerial line-up is received and how well it performs. His first change was to cut the cabinet list from a bloated 90 to a still excessive 68, merging several ministries. Some ministers were easy to cull, having crashed to defeat in the election. One such was Samy Vellu, the only representative of Malaysia's ethnic Indians (8% of the population) in the cabinet. He bore the brunt of Indian anger at discrimination in favour of the Malay majority.
The most notable sacking was that of Rafidah Aziz, believed to be the world's longest-serving trade minister, with over 20 years in the job. Ms Rafidah faced criticism over alleged corruption in her ministry's granting of car-import licences. The most noticeable absence was Khairy Jamaluddin, Mr Badawi's ambitious (and disliked) son-in-law, who might have expected a post after winning his seat (he was also once an intern at The Economist).
The most promising appointment was that of Zaid Ibrahim, a prominent lawyer, who will join the prime minister's office to oversee reforms of the justice system. Mr Zaid has criticised the government's sluggishness in investigating allegations of judge-bribing and his calls for a royal inquiry into the accusations were reluctantly accepted by Mr Badawi late last year. The inquiry, still going on, has heard damning testimony against Eusoff Chin, the chief justice from 1994 to 2000.
Another welcome move by Mr Badawi, if followed through, is that ministers will be required to disclose their assets. Such declarations could make interesting reading. One disclosure statement likely to be perused closely will be that of Muhammad Taib, one of the cabinet's not-so-new “new faces”. He resigned as chief minister of Selangor state in 1997, after being arrested at Brisbane airport in Australia for failing to declare a suitcase of money he had with him. Both the Australian and Malaysian courts acquitted him, but he was an odd choice for a prime minister seeking to project a cleaner image.
Of course, Mr Badawi did not have a free hand. He must satisfy factions within his coalition while finding seats for some token ethnic Chinese and Indians to disguise its increasingly Malay-dominated profile. Nevertheless, by dropping several big-hitters he may have created fresh enemies. The shuffle has not, overall, dispelled speculation that he may have to stand down, perhaps in favour of his deputy, Najib Razak. Mr Najib, however, has challenges of his own: his political adviser and two officers from a police unit that reports to him are on trial for the murder of a Mongolian fashion model. Though not accused himself, Mr Najib's prospects may be fatally damaged by the case.
The prime minister fights for survival
TEN days after suffering heavy losses in a general election, Malaysia's prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, shuffled his cabinet on March 18th, hoping to stave off calls for his resignation from within his party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). The removal of some scandal-tainted ministers and the elevation of a judicial reformer showed he is at least trying to get to grips with his problems. But Mr Badawi still seems to be shuffling deckchairs on a personal Titanic.
The National Front coalition, led by UMNO, won this election, as it has every one since independence from Britain in 1957. But it scraped barely half of the vote at national level and, most importantly, lost the two-thirds parliamentary majority it had held since 1974, which had allowed it to change the constitution at will.
straight after the election, Mr Badawi's embittered predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad, called on him to resign. The retired leader's son, Mukhriz Mahathir, became the first UMNO official to echo his father's call. Another party figure, Razaleigh Hamzah, a former finance minister, called for an emergency party congress and later offered to stand against Mr Badawi if enough members supported him. Even if not, the knives may come out at the party's annual congress in August.
So Mr Badawi's survival rests on how his new ministerial line-up is received and how well it performs. His first change was to cut the cabinet list from a bloated 90 to a still excessive 68, merging several ministries. Some ministers were easy to cull, having crashed to defeat in the election. One such was Samy Vellu, the only representative of Malaysia's ethnic Indians (8% of the population) in the cabinet. He bore the brunt of Indian anger at discrimination in favour of the Malay majority.
The most notable sacking was that of Rafidah Aziz, believed to be the world's longest-serving trade minister, with over 20 years in the job. Ms Rafidah faced criticism over alleged corruption in her ministry's granting of car-import licences. The most noticeable absence was Khairy Jamaluddin, Mr Badawi's ambitious (and disliked) son-in-law, who might have expected a post after winning his seat (he was also once an intern at The Economist).
The most promising appointment was that of Zaid Ibrahim, a prominent lawyer, who will join the prime minister's office to oversee reforms of the justice system. Mr Zaid has criticised the government's sluggishness in investigating allegations of judge-bribing and his calls for a royal inquiry into the accusations were reluctantly accepted by Mr Badawi late last year. The inquiry, still going on, has heard damning testimony against Eusoff Chin, the chief justice from 1994 to 2000.
Another welcome move by Mr Badawi, if followed through, is that ministers will be required to disclose their assets. Such declarations could make interesting reading. One disclosure statement likely to be perused closely will be that of Muhammad Taib, one of the cabinet's not-so-new “new faces”. He resigned as chief minister of Selangor state in 1997, after being arrested at Brisbane airport in Australia for failing to declare a suitcase of money he had with him. Both the Australian and Malaysian courts acquitted him, but he was an odd choice for a prime minister seeking to project a cleaner image.
Of course, Mr Badawi did not have a free hand. He must satisfy factions within his coalition while finding seats for some token ethnic Chinese and Indians to disguise its increasingly Malay-dominated profile. Nevertheless, by dropping several big-hitters he may have created fresh enemies. The shuffle has not, overall, dispelled speculation that he may have to stand down, perhaps in favour of his deputy, Najib Razak. Mr Najib, however, has challenges of his own: his political adviser and two officers from a police unit that reports to him are on trial for the murder of a Mongolian fashion model. Though not accused himself, Mr Najib's prospects may be fatally damaged by the case.
12 Proposals for a First-World Parliament in Malaysia
By Lim Kit Siang
12 Proposals for a First-World Parliament in Malaysia
In 2004, I had made 12 proposals for parliamentary reform and modernization for Malaysia to have a “First World Parliament” not only in infrastructure, but mindset, culture, practices and performance.
These 12 proposals for First-World Parliament should be adopted as the parliamentary agenda of both the Barisan Nasional and the Opposition in the 12th Parliament when it convenes for its first meeting in May, viz:
- live telecast of parliamentary proceedings;
- daily two-hour question time;
- Prime Minister’s Question Time twice a week;
- Opposition MP heading the Public Accounts Committee (PAC);
- some 30 specialist Parliamentary Select Committees with a Select Committee for every Ministry;
- about ten general Parliamentary Select Committees to produce annual reports on progress, trends and recommendations on national integrity, IT, women’s agenda, environment, mass media, corruption, etc;
- allocation of certain days a week specifically to deal with Opposition business;research and constituency staffing for MPs;
- an Opposition Deputy Speaker;
- modernization and democratization of Standing Orders;
- code of ethics for all MPs;
- Ministers’ Parliamentary code of conduct.
The political tsunami of March 8, 2008 general election is an unmistakable mandate and demand for far-reaching changes in Malaysia after 50 years of nation-building, including the creation of a vibrant, vigorous and truly representative First-World Parliament.
At the meeting of PKR, PAS and DAP leaders in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night, I had proposed that PKR President Datin Seri Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail be the Parliamentary Opposition Leader of the new Parliament until Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim regains his full civil liberties and is re-elected to Parliament, and the proposal was agreed by the leaders of the three parties.
DAP MPs and I will give full support to Azizah and the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz who is now fully responsible for parliamentary affairs, to turn the Malaysian Parliament into a First-World Parliament – as it is better to be late than never.
Abdullah's Bible
By Farish A. Noor
For a country that is not exactly known for its reading habit, we seem to be grabbing a lot of books lately. Or to put it more accurately, we seem to be confiscating and detaining an awful lot of books.
For reasons best known to themselves, the benighted authorities in this land of ours have been vigilantly manning the outposts on the frontier lest we, while sleeping, are caught unawares by the legions of dog-eared tomes that are – at this very moment – surreptitiously on their way to this country to ‘pollute, corrupt and confuse’ our minds. The list of banned books grows ever longer; and the outrages continue unabated. The latest fiasco was when thirty-two Bibles were confiscated by customs officials from a Malaysian Christian on her way back from the Philippines, to be submitted for inspection by the Ministry of Internal Security. Strange that Bibles are now seen by some as a potential ‘security threat’ that need to be confiscated upon entry into the sacred precinct that is Malaysia. But Bibles? A security threat? To whom?
All this talk of ‘dangerous’ texts and potentially dangerous Bibles in particular reminds me of one particular edition of the Bible that caused quite a stir when it first came out. In fact so controversial was this particular edition that it almost never came out at all. For here I am talking about Abdullah’s Bible; or rather the translation of the Bible by none other than Munshi Abdullah Abdul Kadir, who is universally regarded as one of the forefathers of modern Malay literature.
Now those of you who remember what you were taught at school (and believe me, as an academic I am all too familiar with the phenomenon of selective amnesia among students), will also remember the name of Munshi Abdullah. He was the Peranakan Muslim scholar and translator who served both the early British colonial administrators in Singapore and Malacca as well as the various Malay courts during the opening stages of the 19th century.
Abdullah wrote his ‘Hikayat Abdullah’ which stands until today as one of the most honest accounts of the state of the Malay world at that crucial juncture in the history of this region. Abdullah was of course a key figure in the exchange of letters between British colonial administrators like Raffles, Farquhar, Minto, et al. and the Malay nobles and kings. The Hikayat of Abdullah was unique for its pointedly frank observations about all that was wrong with the world he lived in then, though perhaps one of the most interesting and touching episodes in the Hikayat is where Abdullah describes his quarrel with his father, who was afraid that his son might be tempted off the right path by the ‘deviant teachings’ of the English missionaries he was working with.
The thorny issue that was being debated between Abdullah and his peers at the moment was his role as translator for a particular text that many of them were reluctant to touch: The New Testament.
Abdullah had been approached by some English missionaries and commissioned by them to translate the New Testament into vernacular Malay, which was to be used at Church as well as the modest missionary efforts among the colonial subjects of the Crown Colonies. As Malay was the lingua franca of everyone who lived in the straits then (including the Peranakan Chinese, Indians, Eurasians and even the British and Dutch), it was deemed appropriate to have the Bible translated into Malay as well.
Munshi Abdullah who regarded himself primarily as a professional translator was prepared to do the job that scared off all other contenders; until his father came into the picture, spewing steam and hot curses, and swearing that his son would never be converted by the heathen missionaries. In a touching passage of the Hikayat Abdullah describes how he appealed to his father’s own sense of values, and in particular to his father’s own love for knowledge and languages in general. His father was further persuaded by the appeals of the priests Milner and Thomson, who promised that they would respect his father’s wishes and refrain from offering any religious instruction to Abdullah. In the end, Abdullah notes how the appeals eventually won over his father’s consent and he was allowed to continue his study of this foreign language called English. The result of Abdullah’s efforts came in the form of one of the first vernacular Malay translations of the New Testament, the Kitab Injil al-Kudus daripada Tuhan Esa al-Masihi.
Now contrary to the fears and doubts of his friends, Munshi Abdullah was not secretly converted to Christianity as a result of translating the Kitab Injil al-Kudus. No magic Christian pills were plopped into his tea behind his back while he was working in the missionaries’ quarters; nor were there any reported attempts to lure him to the Church by offers of money, promotions or package holidays. As he stated from the outset, he was professional through and through and he carried out his translation work in a scrupulous and objective manner, to the satisfaction of all.
Today one can only wonder aloud about the fate of such a text, should it find itself before the customs officials or immigration desk at KLIA or the Golok crossing up North. If Bibles from the Philippines can be detained upon arrival, what then would be the fate of Abdullah’s Bible, born and bred (or translated and bound) right here, in our dear ‘ol Malaysia? And how would be take to Munshi Abdullah, ‘father’ of modern vernacular Malay literature, pioneer of the vernacular autobiography and realist writing; who also happens to be one of the first translators of the Bible? Or have we, in denying the religious complexity and pluralism of Malaysia today, also closed the door to Malaysia’s past where Muslims seemed less easily spooked by books of whichever tongue?
The fear of the Lord
Psalm 111:10 (NKJV)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
A good understanding have all those who do His cammandments.
His praise endures forever.
Comment fom Life Application Bible:
The only way to become truly wise is to fear (revere) God. Too often people want to skip this step, thinking they can become wise by life experience and ecademic knowledge alone. But if we do not acknowledge God as the source of wisdom, then our foundation for making wise decisions is shaky, and we are prone to mistakes and foolish choices.
My comment:
I just read about a man in the latest Times Magazine, who is a Governor, previously a Attorney General of America, who had been poised for 2012 US president candidate, having to resign due to sexual indiscretion. Look at him, I was sad for him because he has all the ingredients to be great. Alas! his public life is terminated, disgraced because of the lack of the fear of the Lord.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
A good understanding have all those who do His cammandments.
His praise endures forever.
Comment fom Life Application Bible:
The only way to become truly wise is to fear (revere) God. Too often people want to skip this step, thinking they can become wise by life experience and ecademic knowledge alone. But if we do not acknowledge God as the source of wisdom, then our foundation for making wise decisions is shaky, and we are prone to mistakes and foolish choices.
My comment:
I just read about a man in the latest Times Magazine, who is a Governor, previously a Attorney General of America, who had been poised for 2012 US president candidate, having to resign due to sexual indiscretion. Look at him, I was sad for him because he has all the ingredients to be great. Alas! his public life is terminated, disgraced because of the lack of the fear of the Lord.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Armies and Weapons
Psalm 20:6-8 (NKJV)
Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright.
Comment fron Life Application Bible:
As long as there have been armies and weapons, nations have boasted of their power, but such power does not last. Throughout history, empires and kingdoms have risen to great power only to vanish in the dust. David, however, knew that the true might of his nation was not in weaponry but in worship; not in firepower but in God's power. Because God alone can preserve a nation or an individual, be sure your confidence is in God, who gives eternal victory. Whom do you trust?
Kuok Ming Taung in Taiwan fell to opposition after many years. UMNO had been ruling for half a century. Now only we are seeing it weakened. If not careful, they will fall! Are the leaders God fearing?
Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed;
He will answer him from His holy heaven
With the saving strength of His right hand.
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses;
But we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
They have bowed down and fallen;
But we have risen and stand upright.
Comment fron Life Application Bible:
As long as there have been armies and weapons, nations have boasted of their power, but such power does not last. Throughout history, empires and kingdoms have risen to great power only to vanish in the dust. David, however, knew that the true might of his nation was not in weaponry but in worship; not in firepower but in God's power. Because God alone can preserve a nation or an individual, be sure your confidence is in God, who gives eternal victory. Whom do you trust?
Kuok Ming Taung in Taiwan fell to opposition after many years. UMNO had been ruling for half a century. Now only we are seeing it weakened. If not careful, they will fall! Are the leaders God fearing?
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Universal citizenship-above politics and religion
For the first time since 1957, the people have conveyed their wishes for change, they hope to see a new government which is above political party and religion. As such, irrespective of the candidates fielded by the opposition, the voters will give their support, to hand the Opposition a victory.
Malaysian nation having recently come into existence, where citizenship counts the most in defining ones identity. A rupture has been opened up at last in the collective mindset that determines the conduct of our politics.
We need a new Malaysian politics that would breathe new life and faith in the political system, and where all of us- mainly on the basis of our universal citizenship- can claim to be stakeholders in the nation-building process.
We have always assume that the Malays would never vote for DAP, that non-Muslims would never vote for PAS. But this belief has been shattered and we now see that we are a mature, adult nation after all.
We look forward to a truly democratic Malaysia!
Malaysian nation having recently come into existence, where citizenship counts the most in defining ones identity. A rupture has been opened up at last in the collective mindset that determines the conduct of our politics.
We need a new Malaysian politics that would breathe new life and faith in the political system, and where all of us- mainly on the basis of our universal citizenship- can claim to be stakeholders in the nation-building process.
We have always assume that the Malays would never vote for DAP, that non-Muslims would never vote for PAS. But this belief has been shattered and we now see that we are a mature, adult nation after all.
We look forward to a truly democratic Malaysia!
Abdullah New Cabinet- Let's wait and see!
New Straits Times reported that the second Abdullah Cabinet unveiled yesterday as "Reform Cabinet".
It appears that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi seems to be willing to "hear the truth from the people"although he is 4 years late on the pledges. (when he first became Prime Minister.)
The appointment of UMNO Information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib as Minister for Rural and Regional Development is a blemish on the new Cabinet! It is a stain that tarnishes and discredits the new Cabinet. Why Abdullah has included such a person that brings reproach and dishonor to his Cabinet. Had he ran out of reputable candidate?
Malaysians are all eyes on Abdullah Cabinet in its first 2 working Cabinet meetings in the next fortnight!
1.) I like to see an immediate and unconditional release of the 5 Hindraf leaders! What about you?
2.) Restoration of confidence in the independence of judiciary with the estsblishment of a Judicial Appointments Commission and a Royal Commission into the judicial crises starting with the unconstitutional sacking of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President and Datuk George Seah and the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh as Supreme Court judges in 1988.
3.) Implement fully the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission to create a professional police service and to establish an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).
4.) I would like to see Abdullah embracing a full Select Committee system headed by Parliamentarians where every Ministry is shadowed by a Select Committee and an Opposition MP to head the Public Accounts Committee.
5.) Public inquiry into the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) bailout scandal.
We, the people of Malaysia are the Boss! We will wait and see! See if after this round our friends can hear what the people want!
It appears that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi seems to be willing to "hear the truth from the people"although he is 4 years late on the pledges. (when he first became Prime Minister.)
The appointment of UMNO Information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib as Minister for Rural and Regional Development is a blemish on the new Cabinet! It is a stain that tarnishes and discredits the new Cabinet. Why Abdullah has included such a person that brings reproach and dishonor to his Cabinet. Had he ran out of reputable candidate?
Malaysians are all eyes on Abdullah Cabinet in its first 2 working Cabinet meetings in the next fortnight!
1.) I like to see an immediate and unconditional release of the 5 Hindraf leaders! What about you?
2.) Restoration of confidence in the independence of judiciary with the estsblishment of a Judicial Appointments Commission and a Royal Commission into the judicial crises starting with the unconstitutional sacking of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President and Datuk George Seah and the late Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh as Supreme Court judges in 1988.
3.) Implement fully the 125 recommendations of the Royal Police Commission to create a professional police service and to establish an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).
4.) I would like to see Abdullah embracing a full Select Committee system headed by Parliamentarians where every Ministry is shadowed by a Select Committee and an Opposition MP to head the Public Accounts Committee.
5.) Public inquiry into the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) bailout scandal.
We, the people of Malaysia are the Boss! We will wait and see! See if after this round our friends can hear what the people want!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
ROUT- BN's days are numbered!
ROUT
A rout is commonly defined as a chaotic and disorderly retreat or withdrawal of troops from a battlefield, resulting in the victory of the opposing party, or following defeat, a collapse of discipline, or poor morale. A routed army often degenerates into a sense of "every man for himself" as the surviving combatants attempt to flee to safety. On many occasions, more soldiers are killed in the rout than in the actual battle. Normally, though not always, routs either effectively end a battle, or provide the decisive victory the winner needs to gain the momentum with which to end a battle in their favor.
DAYS ARE NUMBERED
Barisan National appears to have all the signs for collapse! namely:
Chaotic, disorderly, collapse of discipline, poor morale.
After the election, Abdullah Badawi vows to carry on with business as usual. Unfortunately all his ministers and UMNO Supreme Council members are all weak. To them, their naked emperor is still immaculately attired in fine embroidery.
Brave Mukhriz Mahathir
Mukhriz called for Abdullah to resign for the greater honor of the party, race, religion and nation.
Mukhriz appears to be a chip off the old block, nearly 40 years ago his father sent a similar letter to Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman asking him to resign following the 1969 election mess and the ensuing horrendous race riot.
Mukhriz , with his blunt letter to Abdullah, is prepared to face all the consequences of his action.
Abdullah's response?
He deferred to UMNO Youth leaders to "take the necessary action". Weak leader!
UMNO Youth's task-baring, nose flaring, and Kris-wielding Hishammuddin, his muted response was simply to assure the public that Mukhriz was speaking in his personal capacity.
Tengku Razaleigh
Veteran Tengku Razaleigh called on Abdullah to "take full responsibility"for the rout. Ku Li indirectly, subtlely called on Abdullah to quit.
Rest assured that there will be many more and louder such voices coming soon!
A rout is commonly defined as a chaotic and disorderly retreat or withdrawal of troops from a battlefield, resulting in the victory of the opposing party, or following defeat, a collapse of discipline, or poor morale. A routed army often degenerates into a sense of "every man for himself" as the surviving combatants attempt to flee to safety. On many occasions, more soldiers are killed in the rout than in the actual battle. Normally, though not always, routs either effectively end a battle, or provide the decisive victory the winner needs to gain the momentum with which to end a battle in their favor.
DAYS ARE NUMBERED
Barisan National appears to have all the signs for collapse! namely:
Chaotic, disorderly, collapse of discipline, poor morale.
After the election, Abdullah Badawi vows to carry on with business as usual. Unfortunately all his ministers and UMNO Supreme Council members are all weak. To them, their naked emperor is still immaculately attired in fine embroidery.
Brave Mukhriz Mahathir
Mukhriz called for Abdullah to resign for the greater honor of the party, race, religion and nation.
Mukhriz appears to be a chip off the old block, nearly 40 years ago his father sent a similar letter to Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman asking him to resign following the 1969 election mess and the ensuing horrendous race riot.
Mukhriz , with his blunt letter to Abdullah, is prepared to face all the consequences of his action.
Abdullah's response?
He deferred to UMNO Youth leaders to "take the necessary action". Weak leader!
UMNO Youth's task-baring, nose flaring, and Kris-wielding Hishammuddin, his muted response was simply to assure the public that Mukhriz was speaking in his personal capacity.
Tengku Razaleigh
Veteran Tengku Razaleigh called on Abdullah to "take full responsibility"for the rout. Ku Li indirectly, subtlely called on Abdullah to quit.
Rest assured that there will be many more and louder such voices coming soon!
HE teaches my hands to make War
Psalm 18:32-34 (NKJV)
It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places,
He teaches my hands to make war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
Comment from Life Application Bible:
God promises to give us strength to meet challenges, but he doesn't promise to eliminate them. If he gave us no rough roads to walk, no mountains to climb, and no battles to fight, we would not grow. He does not leave us alone with our challenges, however. Instead he stands beside us, teaches us, and strenghthens us to face them.
It is God who arms me with strength,
And makes my way perfect.
He makes my feet like the feet of deer,
And sets me on my high places,
He teaches my hands to make war,
So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
Comment from Life Application Bible:
God promises to give us strength to meet challenges, but he doesn't promise to eliminate them. If he gave us no rough roads to walk, no mountains to climb, and no battles to fight, we would not grow. He does not leave us alone with our challenges, however. Instead he stands beside us, teaches us, and strenghthens us to face them.
Monday, March 17, 2008
A NEW DAWN
News without borders, theSun Monday March 17 2008 reports:
Guan Eng sets his MIND on change
Less than a week as chief minister, Lim Guan Eng-received his baptism of fire:
1.) misquoted by media organisations which serve their own political masters.
2.) blacklash from representatives and supporters of the previous regime.
It's not going to be easy, but the 47-year-old ex-prisoner said that:
1.) He will walk the talk .
2.) Goes the distance in fulfilling his election promises.
The biggest headache for Guan Eng is to:
1.) ensure that the government machinery continues to run smoothly.
2.) civil servants remain apolitical.
Before he can address this issue, he has first to get it right with:
1.) the media.
2.) spin doctors
who want to portray him as "anti-this" or "anti-that".
Bernama has apologised to him for including a reference to May 13 in a report attributed to the chief minister.
He reiterated that what he said was: More importantly, we will run the government administration
1.) free from thfe New Economic Policy (NEP) that breeds
a.) cronyism,
b.) corruption and
c.) systemic inefficiency.
We will implement an open tender system for all government procurement and contracts. We will also practise transparency by uploading information of such tender bids in the internet portal...
Lim said it was irresponsible for the politicians, aided by a jaundiced media to play up ethnic sensitivities and reminded all and sundry that he is a chief minister for all races.
"Don't forget I went to jail for a Malay girl!"he said, referring to his incarceration in Kajang Prison for 36 months in 1988 for sedition for accusing former Malacca chief minister Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik of statutory rape.
"We will have new systems in place where everything is transparent and accounted for" he said.
As a parliamentarian (he is also MP for Bagan), Lim said he is determined to push for the Right to Information Act and declassify documents frequently labelled as rahsia or sulit.
In capacity as chief minister, he is already setting things in motion by calling for documents and files that were out of his reach when he was a "pesky opposition politician", but now having to be made available to him at his beck and call.
"...all deals as long as they involve people's money and welfare, we should open up the books,"said the new chief minister, heralding what many believe to be a new dawn of a transparent and people-centred state gorvernment.
A new dawn has come!
Let's uphold our beloved brother in prayers.
God has put him in position to do the Lord's will!
All Malaysians have waited for half a century a new beginning!
This new government was brought about by the people who wanted change.
To me, this is the begining of a new begining!
Let's watch and pray!
Things are going to move very swiftly in the political realm.
Who ever thought that the political landscape would be what it is today?! Even say 10 days ago.
Guan Eng sets his MIND on change
Less than a week as chief minister, Lim Guan Eng-received his baptism of fire:
1.) misquoted by media organisations which serve their own political masters.
2.) blacklash from representatives and supporters of the previous regime.
It's not going to be easy, but the 47-year-old ex-prisoner said that:
1.) He will walk the talk .
2.) Goes the distance in fulfilling his election promises.
The biggest headache for Guan Eng is to:
1.) ensure that the government machinery continues to run smoothly.
2.) civil servants remain apolitical.
Before he can address this issue, he has first to get it right with:
1.) the media.
2.) spin doctors
who want to portray him as "anti-this" or "anti-that".
Bernama has apologised to him for including a reference to May 13 in a report attributed to the chief minister.
He reiterated that what he said was: More importantly, we will run the government administration
1.) free from thfe New Economic Policy (NEP) that breeds
a.) cronyism,
b.) corruption and
c.) systemic inefficiency.
We will implement an open tender system for all government procurement and contracts. We will also practise transparency by uploading information of such tender bids in the internet portal...
Lim said it was irresponsible for the politicians, aided by a jaundiced media to play up ethnic sensitivities and reminded all and sundry that he is a chief minister for all races.
"Don't forget I went to jail for a Malay girl!"he said, referring to his incarceration in Kajang Prison for 36 months in 1988 for sedition for accusing former Malacca chief minister Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik of statutory rape.
"We will have new systems in place where everything is transparent and accounted for" he said.
As a parliamentarian (he is also MP for Bagan), Lim said he is determined to push for the Right to Information Act and declassify documents frequently labelled as rahsia or sulit.
In capacity as chief minister, he is already setting things in motion by calling for documents and files that were out of his reach when he was a "pesky opposition politician", but now having to be made available to him at his beck and call.
"...all deals as long as they involve people's money and welfare, we should open up the books,"said the new chief minister, heralding what many believe to be a new dawn of a transparent and people-centred state gorvernment.
A new dawn has come!
Let's uphold our beloved brother in prayers.
God has put him in position to do the Lord's will!
All Malaysians have waited for half a century a new beginning!
This new government was brought about by the people who wanted change.
To me, this is the begining of a new begining!
Let's watch and pray!
Things are going to move very swiftly in the political realm.
Who ever thought that the political landscape would be what it is today?! Even say 10 days ago.
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