Deciphering The Code

Across Nation, Mosque Projects Meet Opposition

2010-08-08T22:48:00.000+08:00

Ny Times: “What’s different is the heat, the volume, the level of hostility,” said Ihsan Bagby, associate professor of Islamic studies at the University of Kentucky. “It’s one thing to oppose a mosque because traffic might increase, but it’s different when you say these mosques are going to be nurturing terrorist bombers, that Islam is invading, that civilization is being undermined by Muslims.”

Taking a Break

2010-06-30T21:29:00.000+08:00

Author is currently taking a break from political blogging - he shall return!

Tweeting

2010-04-13T13:24:00.002+08:00

The Sun on tweeting politicians >> "Although they are from opposite sides of the House, Pua and Khairy show maturity lacking in many politicians from their and the older generation – that they can disagree on many issues but still remain friends. Pua also thumbed a lift from Khairy to a forum last week".

Russia and U.S. Sign Nuclear Arms Reduction Pact

2010-04-09T07:27:00.000+08:00

NYtimes: The treaty signed in Prague on Thursday would trim the strategic nuclear arsenals of the two nations to their lowest levels in half a century.

PM defends TDM

2009-12-30T08:55:00.004+08:00

KOTA KINABALU: Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has dismissed the call to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the claim that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wasted RM100bil during his years in office, saying there was no basis for it.

TDM's response to Barry Wain's book that allegedly blames TDM for the loss of RM100B during his premiership.

Malay Mail: Nazri rubbishes call for inquiries into jet engine theft and Dr M's spending

MYSTERY MANSION

2009-12-17T19:20:00.004+08:00

Malay Mail: KUALA LUMPUR: Is this or is this not the RM12 million mansion allegedly being built for former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi?

While City Hall and the Public Works Department have "confirmed" that the massive project at Lot 65, Seksyen 60, Persiaran Mahameru — near Carcosa Seri Negara, right next to the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Counter Terrorism (SEARCCT) — is for the former premier, its status remains very much a mystery as the Federal Territory Land Office as well as the Prime Minister's Department, ironically the project owner, denied any knowledge of such a project.

PPSMI

2009-12-17T19:20:00.001+08:00

Hong Kong Chinese schools prefer English, And here in Malaysia we shot down the PPSMI ...

PAS playing moral cops

2009-11-22T09:48:00.001+08:00

TDM: Anwar Sebagai Penasihat Ekonomi

2009-11-16T23:36:00.000+08:00

1. Saya ucap taniah kepada Kerajaan Negeri Selangor kerana berjaya menganugerahkan Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim dengan jawatan penasihat ekonomi dengan bayaran hanya RM1 setahun.

2. Mungkin kepimpinan Kerajaan Selangor tidak tahu akan prestasi Dato Seri Anwar sebagai Menteri Kewangan Kerajaan Pusat diwaktu krisis kewangan melanda Malaysia.

3. Dia begitu taksub dengan Dana Kewangan Antarabangsa (IMF - International Monetary Fund) dan Bank Dunia sehingga menerima bulat-bulat nasihat Michel Camdessus (pengarah urusan IMF) dan James Wolfensohn (presiden Bank Dunia dan sahabat karibnya) supaya negara ini mengurangkan perbelanjaan Kerajaan untuk mencapai surplus, menaikkan faedah pinjaman bank dengan tinggi supaya peniaga kekeringan modal dan tidak dapat berniaga, memendekkan masa untuk membayar hutang bank daripada enam bulan kepada tiga bulan untuk menjadikan yang berhutang muflis dan bank dibeban dengan hutang tak berbayar (non-performing loans), supaya bank tidak dapat berfungsi dan memerlukan suntikan modal dan bermacam lagi tindakan yang melemahkan dan memburukkan lagi ekonomi negara ini supaya terpaksa mendapat bantuan IMF dan Bank Dunia dengan syarat ekonomi Malaysia diserahkan kepada institusi-institusi ini.

4. Jika pentadbiran ekonomi Malaysia diserahkan kepada IMF maka Dasar Ekonomi Baru akan dihapuskan.

5. Tindakan Anwar ini dikenali dalam akhbar-akhbar sebagai pengamalan dasar IMF tanpa IMF - iaitu tanpa apa-apa bantuan kewangan daripada IMF.

6. Dengan dasar yang diperkenal oleh Dato Seri Anwar maka keadaan ekonomi menjadi lebih buruk dan Ringgit Malaysia jatuh lagi nilainya.

7. Jelas sekali Anwar tidak faham sama sekali pengurusan kewangan dan ekonomi negara.

8. Kuasanya keatas kewangan dan ekonomi terpaksa dipindah kepada Majlis Tindakan Ekonomi Negara (MTEN), sebuah jawatankuasa dan think tank yang ditubuh untuk menangani masalah kesusutan nilai Ringgit dan ekonomi negara.

9. MTEN-lah yang mencipta currency control atau kawalan matawang dan menyekat CLOB (Central Limit Order Book - pasaran saham haram yang ditubuhkan di Singapura) supaya segala perniagaan Ringgit oleh penyangak matawang dan penjualan saham Malaysia dalam CLOB ditamatkan.

10. Tindakan MTEN ini berjaya memulihkan ekonomi dan kewangan negara.

11. Mungkin sikap Gabenor Bank Negara dan Timbalan Gabenor yang cuba mengagalkan currency control tidak ada kena mengena dengan Dato Seri Anwar. Tetapi hakikatnya ialah kedua-dua pegawai ini terletak dibawah bidangkuasa Menteri Kewangan.

12. Saya berdoa Kerajaan Selangor tidak akan dipermainkan oleh Penasihat Ekonominya.

Generasi Muda Sokong Umno Tapi Hadapi Halangan Sertai Parti - Dr Mahathir

2009-11-15T12:32:00.002+08:00

KOTA KINABALU: Bekas Perdana Menteri Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad berkata adalah tidak benar bahawa generasi muda sekarang tidak menyokong Umno, tetapi mereka sebenarnya menghadapi halangan untuk menyertai parti.

Beliau berkata ini berikutan ada sesetengah pimpinan peringkat cawangan parti enggan menerima kemasukan generasi muda yang kebanyakannya terdiri daripada mereka yang berkelulusan tinggi kerana bimbang kedudukan mereka tergugat.

"Sekarang ini ramai orang Melayu memiliki ijazah dan inilah cabaran kepada ketua-ketua cawangan, mereka takut disingkir dan diganti dengan mereka yang punyai pelajaran lebih tinggi.

>> So true. Attempted to register several young professionals into UMNO Bahagian Putrajaya without success. The reason stated was that the online form was incorrectly filled. With the recent constitutional amendment, more office bearers will be able to register members, that's a good sign for aspiring individuals to join the cause.

Tun Dr Mahathir - Perjuangan Yang Belum Selesai

2009-10-24T18:40:00.005+08:00

Sesungguhnya tida ada yang lebih menyayat
dari melihat bangsaku dijajah,
Tidak ada yang lebih menyedihkan dari
membiarkan bangsaku dihina,

Airmata tiada ertinya,
sejarah silam tiada maknanya,
sekiranya bangsa tercinta terpinggir,
dipersenda dan dilupakan,

Bukan kecil langkah wira bangsa
para pejuang kemerdekaan
bagi menegakkan kemuliaan dan darjat bangsa
selangkah bererti mara mengharung sejuta dugaan

Biar bertatih
asalkan langkah itu yakin dan cermat
bagi memastikan negara merdeka dan bangsa terpelihara,
air mata sengsara mengiringi setiap langkah bapa-bapa kita,

Tugas kita bukan kecil
kerana mengisi kemerdekaan
rupanya lebih sukar dari bermandi keringat
dan darah menuntutnya

Lagi pula apalah ertinya kemerdekaan
kalau bangsaku asyik meniya dan menidakkan
mengangguk dan membenarkan kerana
sekalipun bangganya negara
kerana makmur dan mewahnya,
Banngsaku masih melata dan meminta-minta di negaranya sendiri

Bukan kecil tugas kita meneruskan perjuangan kemerdekaan kita,
kerana rupanya selain memerdekakan,
mengisi kemerdekaan itu jauh lebih sengsara

Bangsaku bukan kecil hati dan jiwanya
bukankah sejak zaman berzaman
mereka menjadi pelaut, pemngembara
malah penakluk terkemuka?

Bukankah mereka sudah mengembangkan sayap,
menjadi pedagang dan peniaga,
selain menjadi ulama dan ilmuan terbilang?

Bukankah bangsaku pernah mengharung samudera
menjajah dunia yang tak dikenal

Bukankah mereka pernah menjadi wira serantau
yang tidak mengenal erti takut dan kematian?

Di manakah silapnya hingga bangsaku
berasa begitu kecil dan rendah diri?

Apakah angkara penjajah? lalu bangsaku mulai
melupakan kegemilangan silam dan sejarah gemilang membina empayar

Tugas kita belum selesai rupanya
bagi memartabat dan memuliakan bangsa
kerana hanya bangsa yang berjaya
akan sentiasa dihormati

Rupanya masih jauh dan berliku jalan kita
bukan sekadar memerdeka dan mengisinya
tetapi mengangkat darjat dan kemuliaan
buat selama-lamanya

Hari ini, jalan ini pasti semakin berliku
kerana masa depan kita belum tentu menjanjikan syurga
bagi mereka yang lemah dan mudah kecewa

Perjuangan kita belum selesai kerana
hanya yang cekal dan tabah
dapat membina mercu tanda bangsanya yang berjaya

Dr Mahathir Mohamad, May 1996

Tangents: Ignorance Reigns On Merdeka and Malaysia Day

2009-09-26T10:39:00.001+08:00

"Sarawak actually gained independence on 22 July 1963, whilst Sabah, interestingly, was declared independent as North Borneo on 31 August 1963! The formation of Malaysia was originally planned for 31 August 1963, to coincide with the independence of Sabah and Singapore, however, it was postponed to 16 September whilst a diplomatic solution was being sought to address opposition to Malaysia's formation by Indonesia and the Philippines".

Mukhriz dan San Miguel Corp - Melayu `ketam batu dlm bakul'?

2009-09-16T19:46:00.001+08:00

In response to articles in Malaysian Insider:

Mirzan says San Miguel stake is just business

Mirzan Mahathir appointed director on San Miguel Corp board

11 September 2009

The Editor,

The Malaysian Insider

I read with interest your article about my becoming a director of San Miguel Corporation (“SMC”). As you rightly pointed out, I sit on the board to represent an investment group, Q‐Tech Alliance Holdings Inc., that invested in SMC.

After being in the brewery business for more than 100 years, San Miguel has decided to shift its attention to the infrastructure, public utility and energy requirements of the Philippines.

Since Kirin Holdings of Japan acquired a significant direct ownership stake in the brewery division, this will result in a dramatic change in SMC’s revenue mix, with beverages expected to contribute
less than 15% of total sales by next year. This major diversification move, made possible by our taking over of Kirin’s 20% stake in SMC, starts a new era for San Miguel and is the principal reason for my involvement in the company.

Since the last quarter of 2008, SMC has bought an option to acquire a controlling interest in Petron Corp., the largest Philippine oil refiner which owns 1,400 retail stations, and a substantial equity stake in Manila Electric Co., the largest distribution utility in the Philippines that has a base of over 4.5 million
customers. Both these firms are publicly listed companies with annual revenues of US$4bn (RM 13.9bn) and US$5.6bn (RM19.4bn) respectively. SMC has also announced its intention to venture into the telecommunications industry through their stake in Liberty Telecom Holdings Inc. with Qatar
Telecommunications Co. to initially build a Wi‐Max network and potentially a full‐scale national cellular operation.

The company also recently won in a public auction, two major power plants with a combined generation capacity of 1,600 MW. Unfortunately, certain parties are keen to turn this exciting positive change in
a well‐managed Philippine corporation into an assault on the reputation of my father, even though he has nothing whatsoever to do with my business interests.

I can only provide a rational explanation for my actions and it would be a pity if facts are twisted to gain dubious points from a straightforward business decision. Your article covered the beverage aspects of San Miguel but ignored the company’s recent purchases and strategy moving forward.

As a Malaysian, I am looking forward to assisting San Miguel chart this new course and hopefully, its success will reflect well on our country and people.

Mirzan Mahathir

10 arrested after clashes at UK mosque

2009-09-13T08:22:00.001+08:00

An anti-Islam demonstration has resulted in 10 arrests, police in the UK said.

Officers were attacked with bricks and bottles and had to act fast to prevent events from escalating, a police spokeswoman added.

Protesters from the Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) group were greeted by anti-fascist groups and local people when they tried to gather outside Harrow Central Mosque in London yesterday afternoon.

Geng Lembu

2009-09-13T08:05:00.000+08:00

"Lagi pula, berdasarkan REKOD, tindakan hanya diambil terhadap pemimpin Hindraf selepas berkali-kali mereka membuat kacau bermula di Masjid Putrajaya, beberapa kali di luar KL dan 2 kali di KL, iaitu selepas berkali-kali mereka menghasut bukan sahaja penganut agama Hindu tetapi masyarakat kaum India dengan tuduhan-tudahn yang palsu, misalnya bahawa kerajaan telah dengan sengaja dan terancang membunuh orang India setiap minggu dan merobohkan kuil setiap dua minggu dan sebagainya. Tuduhan-tuduhan palsu ini menjadi bukti kepada elemen hasutan pemimpin Hindraf dan mereka telah melakukannya berkali-kali dan menggunakan pelbagai media".

YB Zul: Alahai Sang Lembu

2009-09-13T07:52:00.003+08:00

YB Zul's take on Sek 23 incident:

"Dimana suara-suara Pak Janggut dan Pak Keris ini apabila Jeff Ooi melabel mereka yang bercita-cita untuk melaksanakan Islam sepenuhnya sebagai ekstremis. Sehingga hari ini Jeff Ooi terus dengan sifat bongkak dan angkuhnya enggan menuntut maaf atas kebiadapannya. Sehingga ke hari ini Jeff Ooi masih bebas, tiada sebarang tindakan pendakwaan diambil terhadap keceluparan beliau. Mengapa Peguam Negara tidak bertindak tegas terhadap Jeff Ooi. Mengapa Jeff Ooi tidak dikenakan pertuduhan dibawah Akta Hasutan, mahupun Seksyen 298A Kanun Kesiksaan?"

"Bukan kita menghalang mereka ber'ibadat. Masih banyak lagi kuil dan tempat 'ibadat yang mereka punyai. Mengikut statistik, dalam negeri Selangor ada 4.3 juta penduduk. Daripada jumlah itu, majoritinya umat Islam sebanyak 2.5 juta dengan masjid hanya sebanyak 259 buah. Sebalik nya masyarakat Budha berjumlah 1.3 juta mempunyai 1,015 tokong. Kaum Hindu pulak, yang berjumlah 647,000 mempunyai 810 kuil berdaftar (ini tidak termasuk kuil yang haram dan tidak berdaftar!). Dan bagi 50,000 penganut Kristian di Selangor, cuba kira berapa jumlah gereja mereka!"

Protes Pembinaan Masjid di Denmark Tanda Kemunduran Pemikiran Mereka

2009-09-11T09:42:00.005+08:00

Sekali lagi Denmark mendapat perhatian dunia apabila Parti haluan kanan Danish’s People Party melancarkan kempen membantah pembinaan masjid pertama yang diluluskan oleh Majlis Perbandaran Copenhagen baru-baru ini (Sinar Harian, ruangan Global@Sinar 11 Sept 2009). Katanya, pembinaan masjid ini akan ditaja sepenuhnya oleh pihak Iran yang merupakan “terror regime”. International Civil Liberties Alliance di laman web www.libertiesalliance.org telah melancarkan petisyen online untuk membantah pembinaan masjid pertama di Denmark. Ahli Parlimen Denmark Martin Henriksen pula berkata, sudah tiba masanya Negara Barat meminta supaya Negara-negara Islam meminta maaf kerana kekejaman ke atas wanita, hukum merejam batu dan sebagainya yang dianggap melanggar hak asasi manusia.

Kita juga masih ingat insiden di mana seorang pelukis kartun dari Denmark menimbulkan provokasi besar dengan melakar sebiji bom di dalam serban junjungan besar Nabi Allah Muhammad SAW . Akhbar Jylland-Posten yang memaparkan segmen itu mengeluarkan kenyataan untuk meminta maaf jika terbitan itu menyinggung perasaan umat Islam walaupun tidak salah di sisi undang-undang Denmark.

Pertama sekali, Ahli Parlimen Denmark itu bertanggapan bahawa semua Negara Islam mengamalkan system perundangan yang sama. Ini jelas menunjukkan kemunduran beliau di arena global. Kedua, pihak yang membantah pembinaan masjid itu secara jelas menunjukkan sifat hipokrit orang Barat di Denmark yang melanggar hak asasi manusia dalam menindas kepentingan minoriti di Negara mereka. Ketiga, dana yang disalurkan dari Negara Iran untuk pembinaan masjid pertama di Denmark dianggap dana yang datang dari regim pengganas atau “terror regime”. Ini satu tanggapan yang membinasakan dan sengaja menyimbah petrol ke dalam api untuk memprovokasi umat Islam.

Ini juga menunjukkan bahawa sindrom “Islamophobia” masih nyata dan jelas di kalangan masyarakat Barat secara am, seperti menganggap semua yang berjanggut itu pengganas dan menahan suspek pengganas berdasarkan profil nama dan agama. Penulis berpendapat bahawa bantahan yang keras perlu dibuat oleh Pihak Wisma Putera atas tragedi ini. Di waktu kegawatan ekonomi yang teruk yang melanda Negara-negara Eropah berpunca dari kerakusan Wall Street dengan penjualan “sub prime mortgages”, “derivative speculation” dan spekulasi harga minyak yang melampau oleh penyangak ekonomi menyebabkan ketidakstabilan ekonomi dunia, negara-negara ini terutamanya Denmark perlu sedar bahawa banyak sumber dana untuk menghidupkan semula syarikat-syarikat yang telah menyeleweng wang rakyat datangnya dari negara-negara Islam juga, seperti contoh dana dari Kuwait Investment Authority untuk membela Citi Group sebanyak USD 1B.

Negara-negara Islam juga perlu bijak dalam menangani masalah ini dan janganlah jadikan bantahan di jalan (street protest) sebagai jawapannya. Kita perlu menggunakan kebijaksaan seperti menggunakan kekuatan ekonomi negara Islam dalam menyelesaikan isu ini. Mesej yang penting untuk disampaikan ialah Islam yang mempunyai penganut kira-kira 1 billion tidak mengamalkan dasar keganasan, malah akan membela nasib orang-orang yang tertindas, seperti contoh rakyat Palestin yang setelah lama ditindas oleh pihak Zionis dan baru-baru ini niat regim Zionis untuk membina penempatan haram baru di Tebing Barat, walaupun dikecam oleh PBB. Jika Ahli Parlimen Henriksen dari Denmark ingin membela hak asasi manusia, mulakanlah perjuangan anda di Palestin.

Islamophobia In Denmark (again)

2009-09-11T07:56:00.006+08:00

After Copenhagen city council approved the building of Denmark's first mosque, extreme-right Danish People's Party launched a massive campaign against it, citing that the mosque will be funded by "terror funds".

Let's not forget their islamophobic stance when their daily printed a cartoon depicting our great prophet with a bomb in his turban.

Muslims account for 3.5% of the population in the country, with a strength of 200,000.

Here's an excerpt from the petition site to ban all mosque construction:

"Recep Tayyip Erdogan Prime Minister of Turkey publicly read an Islamic poem including the lines: “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers…” The faithful?

That would be muslims then!

Well let’s blunt their bayonets and hammer their helmets. Sign the SIOE petition Stop all mosque building in Denmark http://www.petitiononline.com/stpmsqdn/petition.html "

Islam: Antara Nas Dan Pendapat Tokoh

2009-09-10T17:25:00.002+08:00

For those who argued that we can't question ulama's decisions or opinions:

MStar:
"Sebagai muslim, kita berhak bertanya dan mencari yang lebih tepat sesuai dengan akal yang Allah kurniakan kepada kita. Kita hormati tokoh, tapi dalam masa yang sama kita tidak akan menggadaikan kebenaran. Kita patut bezakan antara nas Allah dan rasulNya, dengan pandangan tokoh yang mungkin betul, mungkin salah, mungkin patut disemak semula, mungkin juga melepasi batasan keperluan dan kemunasabah untuk umat.

Disebabkan tidak memahami hal inilah, umat Islam pening kepala dengan pandangan tokoh-tokoh agama hari ini yang bermacam-macam. Jika ulama itu berniaga, mungkin dipengaruhi urusan bisnes, yang politik mungkin dipengaruhi urusan politiknya. Begitulah seterusnya. Jalan keluar, kita menyemak alasan dan hujah setiap mereka dan bertanya: adakah ini daripada Allah dan rasulNya, atau tuan ‘rasa-rasa’ sahaja?!."

Darah Tuah: Gugurkan Kaum Dan Agama

2009-09-10T13:58:00.003+08:00

"Perlembagaan Malaysia hanya menyebutkan secara khusus / mengiktiraf lima sahaja kaum di negara ini iaitu (1) Orang Asli (Perkara 160), (2) Melayu (Perkara 160), (3) Bumiputera Sarawak [Perkara 161A (6) (a) & (7)], (4) Bumiputera Sabah [Perkara 161A (6) (b)] dan (5) kaum-kaum lain".

"Apa yang sebenar berlaku ialah tahap toleransi antara kaum semakin terhakis dan yang wujud ialah uneasy racial co-existence. Justeru bagaimana pula pengguguran ‘kaum’ dan ‘agama’ ini boleh menyelesaikan masalah sebesar gunung Kinabalu itu? Dijangka kerajaan akan ditomahkan sebagai tidak bersedia ‘menggenggam bara api sehingga jadi arang’, jika syor tersebut dilaksanakan juga."

"Tidak ada lagi hak istimewa untuk orang Melayu/Bumiputera kerana tiada lagi “kaum Melayu/Bumiputera”? Semua bahasa menjadi Bahasa Kebangsaan seperti di Singapura? Semua agama adalah agama rasmi? Institusi Raja-raja Melayu dihapuskan kerana sudah tidak ada lagi orang Melayu di negara ini? Adakah ulterior motive mereka yang sebenar ialah hendak menjadikan negara ini sebuah republik?"

"Apabila agama Islam, Melayu dan Bumiputera tidak lagi diiktiraf dalam mana-mana dokumen rasmi, bagaimanakah hendak melaksanakan peruntukan-peruntukan dalam Perlembagaan yang berkaitan dengannya seperti Perkara 3 (agama Islam), 38 (Majlis Raja-Raja), 39 (Kuasa pemerintah)), 89 (Tanah rezab orang Melayu), 90 (Tanah adat di Negeri Sembilan & tanah di Trengganu), 152 (Bahasa Kebangsaan), 153 (Hak istimewa orang Melayu), 160 (Tafsiran Orang Asli & Melayu) dan 161A (Kedudukan istimewa Bumiputera Sabah & Sarawak)?"

"Bukankah mereka yang mengsyorkan ini sebenarnya tidak ikhlas dan barking at the wrong tree? Jika mereka benar-benar ikhlas hendak mewujudkan perpaduan kaum dengan menghapuskan pengenalan kaum dan membasmi polirisasi kaum maka punca utama perkauman iaitu sekolah pelbagai aliran hendaklah dihapuskan segera dan digantikan dengan sistem satu aliran sekolah kebangsaan untuk semua."

Economist on Graduates Earnings

2009-09-09T15:50:00.001+08:00

Economist: "In America the lifetime gross earnings of male graduates are, on average, nearly $370,000 higher than those of non-graduates, comfortably repaying the pricey investment in a university education (female graduates earn an extra $229,000)."

Let This Be A Lesson For Those Who Are Complacent

2009-09-04T08:46:00.000+08:00

Brutally similar to local scenery, 2-1/2 years to the next general election, 2 months to party constitutional amendments. Other than that, nothing revolutionizing to win hearts and minds.

Economist: A landslide victory for the DPJ in Japan

The victors have an emotive name for it: seiken kotai, or regime change. It came in brutal fashion on Sunday August 30th when Japan, Asia’s richest democracy, dumped the party that has ruled it for almost all of the last 53 years and gave a huge win to one that until recently had little idea of how it would govern.

In a historic result, unofficial results showed that the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), a leftist grouping of ruling-party renegades, social democrats and socialists, was heading for a landslide. It is led by Yukio Hatoyama, a mild-mannered career politician likely to be the next prime minister. He promises a government less beholden to the powerful civil service, wants to temper the free market and is keen to dole out cash to the disadvantaged in the economically stagnant and ageing country. He declined to name a cabinet until he is confirmed as prime minister in a special session of the lower house, or Diet. That may be within the next two weeks.

Jubilant cries of Banzai! echoed around the DPJ’s victorious campaign offices. NHK, the public broadcaster, said the party had won 308 seats in the Diet, with almost all the seats counted, as polls had largely predicted. The DPJ hopes to forge a coalition with two minor parties that would give it a two-thirds majority, enabling it to force through legislation. But the three parties do not see eye to eye on all issues, which means plenty of haggling will be needed. The DPJ already holds the upper house.

For the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) there was no disguising its anguish, as discredited heavyweight after heavyweight fell, often to young, telegenic DPJ novices shrewdly drafted in as giant-killers. Taro Aso, the visibly shaken prime minister, conceded defeat, describing the result as “very severe”. When he dissolved parliament in July to hold the elections, the LDP held 300 seats. NHK’s count showed it had won 119 seats so far, almost the same as the puny number the DPJ held before the elections.

The raw numbers, however dramatic, only partly tell of the upheaval this could mean for Japanese politics. The LDP has had its hands on almost every lever of power for more than half a century; even when it briefly lost office in 1993, it regained it within 11 months because the forces assembled against it fell apart.

During much of its tenure, it held power because it helped deliver rising prosperity to a country that had only recently endured the ignominy of second-world-war defeat and American occupation. After taking office in 1955, it turned Japan into one of America’s firmest cold-war allies.

But as Japan’s economic miracle faded, and the country sank into a deflationary funk in the 1990s, the LDP clung onto power largely thanks to an entrenched system of patronage and lavish use of the pork barrel. It used public funds or access to Japan’s vast pool of private savings to launch public-works projects that for its last two decades in power kept its grass-roots supporters, such as farmers and construction workers, loyal.

None of that spending generated a sustainable recovery, however, nor did reforms by Junichiro Koizumi, a political one-off who revived the LDP’s fortunes during the last election in 2005, but whose followers, known as “Koizumi’s children”, were crushed by the DPJ this time round. Instead Japan has become saddled with a debt projected to rise to twice the country’s ¥497 trillion ($5.3 trillion) GDP, and it remains dangerously dependent on its large exporters. Figures released in the closing days of the campaign showed unemployment, exacerbated by the global financial slump, hit a record 5.7% in July. Deflation has also re-emerged; consumer prices fell 2.2% in July from a year earlier.

The LDP’s failure to improve people’s lives was one of the twin pillars of the DPJ’s successful campaign. The other was the LDP’s complicity with an all-encompassing bureaucracy that has been guilty of staggering incompetence recently, not least by losing millions of personal-pension records in 2007. The public has also been vexed by the practice of rewarding top civil servants with plum jobs at firms they formerly supervised. The DPJ has vowed to stamp out that policy.

But how well it can fulfill its manifesto pledges—repeated with worthy insistence on the campaign trail—will depend on many factors. Firstly, it may need to reach some sort of accommodation with civil-service mandarins, because only a handful of its most senior members have experience at cabinet level. Its spending proposals are largely to be funded by cutting waste from government spending; that is always easier to promise than to deliver.

Meanwhile, Japan’s economy is still poised precariously between recovery and renewed slump. If the recovery fails to materialise, it will not necessarily be the DPJ’s fault. But it will be the first test of its administrative competence in a country that is crying out for good leadership.

Besides naming a cabinet, Mr Hatoyama, who has appeared to flip-flop on sensitive issues such as Japan’s occasionally subordinate relationship with America, is soon likely to have to step onto the world stage. He hopes to travel to New York in September for the UN general assembly, and will probably meet Barack Obama on that trip.

But as he sets out to introduce a new era of political openness and accountability to Japan, he will be dogged by a thorny question that was already being put to him as he cautiously claimed victory on Sunday night. That is the position of Ichiro Ozawa, the DPJ’s former leader, who orchestrated this remarkable election victory and is a master manipulator eminently capable of pulling Mr Hatoyama’s strings.

So far, the new leader has ducked the question. But Japan, for all that it will celebrate dealing the LDP a punishment it has long deserved, will want an answer. Otherwise its people may fear they have replaced one dark force with another.

ISA by Tan Sri Sanusi Junid

2009-09-04T00:01:00.003+08:00

......"Siapakah sebenarnya yang anti ISA? Ada lima kelompok yang menentang ISA, iaitu:
a. Bekas tahanan-tahanan di bawah ISA,
b. Anggota keluarga kepada banduan ISA,
c. Orang yang takut ditahan kerana keghairahannya berpolitik sehingga didapati bersalah di bawah ISA,
d. Orang yang sering mendengar dakyah menentang ISA tanpa mendengar hujah sebaliknya, dan
e. Orang yang mengikut arus kerana persekitaran yang ternampak menentang ISA"..........

Era Baru: 2 Ogos Genaplah 35 Tahun Kepergian Tun Dr Ismail

2009-09-03T16:42:00.003+08:00

..........."Sebagai Timbalan Presiden UMNO, beliau sangat prihatin tentang keadaan UMNO dan apabila perwakilan UMNO semakin bertambah setiap tahun dan tidak ada dewan yang menampung kehadiran ahli-ahli di Perhimpunan Agung sehingga terpaksa diadakan di The Dragon Court, Hotel Merlin yang kecil dan sempit, maka Tun Dr Ismail telah meminta Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah untuk mencari sebidang tanah untuk tujuan mendirikan bangunan UMNO sendiri.

Ekoran dari itu, jawatankuasa bangunan telah dibentuk dan dipengerusikan sendiri oleh beliau dan timbalannya ialah Tun Hussein Onn. Begitu tegas pendiriannya sehingga sanggup berkata yang UMNO tidak akan mengambil seinci pun tanah kerajaan untuk mendirikan bangunan sebaliknya UMNO telah membeli sebidang tanah melalui usaha Tengku Razaleigh yang memikul tanggungjawab seperti yang diamanahkan kepadanya oleh Tun Dr Ismail. Tengku Razaleigh menyifatkan Tun Dr Ismail yang beliau kenal baik dan rapai sebagai "a real Malaysian and a pillar of strength during that period". Ada juga yang menyifatkannya seperti "Rock of Gibraltar".

Apabila Tun Dr Ismail mengetahui tentang penyakit yang sangat berbahaya yang dihadapi oleh Tun Razak dan dalam keadaan kesihatan beliau sendiri yang membimbangkan rakyat dan negara, Tun Dr Ismail telah melahirkan perasaannya pada 30 Mac 1970 dengan kata-kata seperti ini; "with Tun Razak a doomed man, my heart operation became vitally important not only to myself and my family, but to the whole nation. Between the Tunku, Tun Razak and myself on the one hand, and all the other politicians on the other, there was a wide gap in leadership. With Tunku past his prime, Tun Razak a doomed man although unknown to the nation, everything seemed to depend on me"......

More By-Elections

2009-09-02T08:11:00.001+08:00

More distractions from the other side to divert attention from real issues:

'Letak jawatan jika tak mampu berkhidmat'
Ogos 21, 09 9:35am
Pengerusi Perhubungan Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Selangor Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim menasihatkan ADUN Pelabuhan Klang Badrul Hisham Abdullah supaya melepaskan jawatannya jika tidak mampu berkhidmat untuk rakyat.

Beliau berkata langkah meletakkan jawatan adalah yang terbaik sekiranya sudah tidak mampu berkhidmat kepada rakyat kerana PKR tidak akan mensia-siakan amanah yang telah diberikan oleh rakyat.

Nut Graph: PAS tunjuk belang

2009-09-01T11:41:00.002+08:00

By Shanon Shah:

"MENURUT Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi, Ketua Pemuda PAS, konsert Michael Learns to Rock pada 5 Sept 2009 kelak "akan membawa umat leka dan lalai malah merosakkan moral dan akhlak mereka". Daripada ayat ini saja, saya sudah boleh agak yang tidak ada sesiapa pun dalam Pemuda PAS yang pernah mendengar lagu Michael Learns to Rock.

Bagi saya, Michael Learns to Rock adalah kumpulan muzik yang paling membosankan di dunia. Bila saya terdengar lagu mereka berkumandang di pasar raya atau restoran, saya akan keluar dari tempat-tempat sedih ini. Bila lagu mereka diputarkan di radio atau televisyen, saya akan matikan bunyi dengan serta-merta. Ya, kalau saya ditahan dalam lokap, satu kaedah yang paling berkesan untuk mendera saya ialah dengan memaksa saya mendengar lagu Michael Learns to Rock. The Actor? Sleeping Child? 25 Minutes? Bunuhlah saya, bunuh saya sekarang".

Muslims Banned from BEP gig: ST

2009-08-27T11:38:00.002+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR - MUSLIMS in Malaysia have been barred from attending a concert by US hip hop band the Black Eyed Peas sponsored by Guinness which is owned by the world's biggest spirits group Diageo.

The move comes after a Malaysian Islamic court sentenced a 32-year Muslim woman to be caned after she was caught drinking beer in a hotel and at a time when an opposition Islamic party has moved against beer sales.

>> Only Muslims from Malaysia?

10 reasons why Anwar denied meeting PM

2009-08-26T08:21:00.000+08:00

By BigDog

Banning Concerts Again

2009-08-26T07:43:00.004+08:00

Here we go again, another Youth Chief, same old story. PAS is condemning Cabinet's approval to allow performance by international rock band Michael Learns To Rock.

Syed Akbar Ali clearly opines that PAS has clearly lost the plot. The move was said to be "insulting to all Muslims in the country", according to newly elected PAS Youth Chief Nasruddin Hassan.

It's good that Nasruddin made that statement to give him some cheap publicity. I was not updated in the new hierarchy of the organization. Nasruddin's predecessor and his band of young turks were champions of boycotting concerts (have yet to see them boycott Dato' Siti's concerts). Let's see the young turks march in the cold winds of Genting Highlands.

Nik Aziz Dituduh Sesat?

2009-08-25T12:52:00.005+08:00

Era Baru 21/08: Menteri Dalam Negeri Dato' Seri Hishammuddin digesa mengambil tindakan tegas terhadap Mursyidul Am PAS yang kebelakangan ini dikatakan sudah membimbangkan diatas tingkah laku beliau. Mereka mahu Hishammuddin berani untuk menyiasat diatas tuduhan2 beliau terhadap UMNO apatah lagi Nik Aziz tidak menafikan kenyataan beliau Isnin lalu bahawa orang UMNO tidak akan masuk syurga. Ini bermakna Nik Aziz membuat tuduhan itu dalam keadaan sedar dan waras.

Akibat tuduhan terbaru itu, Nik Aziz dikatakan cuba menghidupkan semula "Fatwa Haji Hadi" yang sedikit masa dahulu menjadi pegangan pengikut PAS yang taksub untuk mengkafirkan sesama Islam khususnya ahli-ahli UMNO kerana memenuhi agenda politik mereka.

Kenyataan yang dianggap karut itu telah menimbulkan kemarahan dan kekesalan banyak pihak termasuk golongan agama dan ulamak yang beranggapan bahawa Menteri Besar Kelantan itu semakin nyanyuk dan dihanyutkan oleh arus politik yang dibawa oleh PKR dan DAP.

Ketika Nik Aziz lantang membuat tuduhan yang membayangkan bahawa orang UMNO akan masuk neraka manakala pengikut PAS pula dijamin masuk syurga, orang ramai pula mempersoalkan kenapa Nik Aziz begitu takut untuk mengkafirkan DAP yang sebelum ini telah terbukti begitu memusuhi orang Melayu dan umat Islam di negara ini. Dan Pengerusi DAP, Karpal Singh begitu berani dan lantang bersuara dengan berkata, "langkah mayat saya dahulu sebelum tubuhkan negara Islam"..............

Beberapa tahun lalu, fatwa atau amanat Haji Hadi di Rusila, Terengganu telah menyebabkan orang Islam berpecah belah terutama di negeri Terengganu dan Kelantan. Akibat fatwa itu, berlaku sembahyang dua imam, pernikahan anak orang UMNO dengan orang PAS terbatal, kenduri orang UMNO tidak boleh dimakan, mayat orang Islam yang tidak menyokong PAS tidak boleh disembahyangkan, malah untuk masuk syurga, lambang atau simbol PAS harus diletakkan di bawah bantal tidur......

Sementara itu bekas Perdana Menteri, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad menyifatkan Nik Aziz sebagai orang yang "lebih dari manusia biasa" kerana kebolehan Mursyidul Am PAS itu yang boleh menentukan siapa orang Islam yang bakal masuk syurga atau neraka. Dalam masa yang sama, Dr Mahathir berkata secara sinis, "kita pun tidak tahu sama ada Nik Aziz akan ke syurga atau neraka".

Ilmu Membangkitkan Keberanian Bangsa

2009-08-24T12:45:00.001+08:00

Syndicated from Tan Sri Sanusi's blog:

Itulah sebabnya Lee Kuan Yew dilaporkan telah berucap dalam majlis mera'ikan Presiden Chaim Herzog dari Israel dengan kata-kata yang bermaksud - 'Kamu telah berjaya mengajar Umat Islam di padang pasir, ajarlah kami bagaimana menghadapi Umat Islam di hutan belantara'.

Dr M to Malays: Don't hang too much on Hang Tuah's famous words

2009-08-23T08:41:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR – Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the Malays should give much thought to the predictive words of the legendary Hang Tuah that the race will never be wiped out from the face of the earth.

“His words should make us ponder if the Malays that will be left in the world of the future are the positive types. Or, are they going to be the types that are slaves, beggars or drug addicts?

“If those are the kinds of Malays that will continue to exist, then we are in trouble,” he said at a press conference after launching an exhibition at the National Art Gallery here on Friday.

Another Brick In The Wall: On LKS

2009-08-21T09:02:00.001+08:00

If Unker Kit doesn't mind answering, how does he differentiate his own Government paid travelling expenses to visit his constituency in Ipoh and the convenient stopovers for party purposes? Or did he return to Kuala Lumpur first before pursuing his trips to other places?

Outsyed The Box: Keep your money, MCA has RM2B in assets

2009-08-17T13:57:00.002+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: There is no sign of the purported RM10mil “loaned” by Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd CEO Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing in the MCA coffers, treasurer-general Tan Sri Tee Hock Seng said.

“I do not see any donation from outsiders. There is no proof of the RM10mil donation,” he said. Tee said all donations to MCA must be accounted for.

Tee became the treasurer-general after the party election last October, taking over from Tan Sri Lau Yin Pin.

“The whole year’s budget for the party must go through the presidential council,” he said.

On the sources of the party’s income, Tee said it received revenue from the rental of Wisma MCA and Megan Avenue buildings.

“We have assets of RM2bil and do not need donations,” said Tee during a press conference after attending the special briefing chaired by president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat at Wisma MCA yesterday.

French pool bars Muslim woman for 'burquini' suit

2009-08-17T10:06:00.000+08:00

PARIS -- A Muslim woman garbed in a head-to-toe swimsuit - dubbed a "burquini" - may have opened a new chapter in France's tussle between religious practices and its stern secular code.

Aspiring Politicians Should Not Have Skeletons In Their Closets - Mahathir

2009-08-16T20:32:00.000+08:00

TRONOH, Aug 16 (Bernama) -- Aspiring politicians or leaders should not have skeletons in their closets, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

He said the people would get to know about them sooner or later.

"If any wrong has been committed, the people will get to know about it. We cannot hide it. That is why, if we want to be in politics or a leader, we must not get involve in anything that is bad," he told reporters at the 9th convocation of Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) here on Sunday.

KL Foundation to Criminalize War

2009-08-13T20:09:00.001+08:00

Efforts to raise Fund for Gaza at this stage is with the specific intention of buying vessels to transport humanitarian aid to Gaza which is currently in a choke hold by the Tel Aviv regime’s illegal blockade.

The blockade has been imposed since 2006. Then in late 2008 through January this year, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) broke the ceasefire and launched a military aggression on Gaza causing over 1400 deaths and massive destruction to homes and buildings.

Following immense international pressure and its inability to subjugate the valiant Palestinians, the Israeli Government ended the aggression.

However, the blockade continued and these resulted in a stranglehold on Gaza, depriving the devastated population of medicine, food and materials to rebuild their homes.

If the act of war by the IDF earlier this year saw lives of thousands of Palestinians, mostly civilians including children lost within the short period of time, this blockade is equally cruel if not worst.

The children, the sick and elderly are subjected to a slow but sure death.

The ongoing genocide of the people of Palestine in Gaza being committed silently by the Tel Aviv regime is largely ignored by the international community either due to their lack of awareness or not wanting to see the ugliness.

But a group of concerned people from the Free Gaza Movement was not about to let the injustices and cruelties by the Israeli Government inflicted on the people of Gaza go unnoticed.

Boarding small boats which they could barely afford to buy, the Free Gaza Movement embarked on its first trip to Gaza from Larnaca, Cyprus on August 2008 carrying much needed aid.

To the Free Gaza members, their efforts were not merely to provide aid to the people in Gaza but more than that, it was an act of defiance, a committed protest to break the illegal siege.

To them, the siege needs to be challenged and if enough people came forward, the siege will be broken.

And that is what the Palestinians want – their freedom and not charity.

Since their first trip, the Free Gaza Movement had launched seven other trips and the last two was aggressively challenged by the Israeli authorities.

The sixth trip which had US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was rammed by the Israeli Navy while en route to Gaza on December 2008.

Recently on June 2009, McKinney together with Nobel Laureatte Mairead Macguire were on board the eighth trip when their vessel was stopped by the Israeli forces in international waters while again en route to Gaza to send aid and supply.

Together with other members of Free Gaza, McKinney and Macguire were taken to an Israeli prison before being deported.

KLFCW & PGPO chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who met Free Gaza leader Huwaida Arraf in Kuala Lumpur in early July was convinced that Malaysians should assist in the breaking of the siege on Gaza.

Dr Mahathir then went to Larnaca, Cyprus on July 16 to see for himself how the Free Gaza Movement had operated from the port and what kind of vessels they had in order to carry out their future trips to Gaza.

It was then decided that Dr Mahathir and PGPO will take up the efforts to raise funds to help purchase a 300-500 tonnes cargo ship to be used to transport aid to Gaza.

There is an urgency in raising the funds to enable the pruchase of the vessels. Winter is drawing near and the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza will worsen.

Dr Mahathir is hoping that the PGPO and the people of Malaysia will be able to raise enough funds to launch the vessels before winter hits the already depressed population.

Today marks the launching of the Fund for Gaza and all proceeds will be utilised towards purchasing the vessels and humanitarian aid for the Palestinians.

August 12, 2009

>>>

Feel free to donate:
Account Name: KLFCW (Gaza Fund)
Number: 5123 3430 6634
Bank : Maybank

Maybank Berhad
SECTION 14, PJ SSC
18A, Jalan 14/14,
46100 Petaling Jaya
Selangor Darul Ehsan
Malaysia

Swift Code: MBBEMYKL

or Send your cheque/Bank Draft/Money Order/Postal Order to:

Suite 2-4, Level 2, Tower Block Menara Milenium,
Jalan Damanlela Pusat Bandar Damansara,
50490 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
Fax: +603 2094 2992
Email: info@criminalisewar.org

All donations are tax-exempt under S.44 Of The Income Tax Act 1967. Ref LHDN 01/35/42/51/179-6.6183 Government Gazette: 11643 Dated 30.08.2007

>>>

For more details please email: ram@perdana4peace.org

ST: KL raps Maybank board, orders changes

2009-08-12T10:44:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's central bank has directed a sweeping overhaul in the board of directors of the country's largest banking group Maybank, in an unprecedented government censure on a board of a financial institution.

Forbes: Gov 2.0

2009-08-12T10:41:00.000+08:00

Over the past 15 years, the World Wide Web has created remarkable new business models reshaping our economy. As the Web has undermined old media and software companies, it has demonstrated the enormous power of a new model, often referred to as Web 2.0.

Shahrir: Anwar Traitor to Malay Race

2009-08-10T08:11:00.003+08:00

After branding Anwar Ibrahim as a traitor to the Malay race and the nation, Dato' Shahrir Samad, Johor Bahru UMNO chief has called on the PKR advisor to sue them as they are prepared for any legal action.

Datuk Kadir Jasin on "Pulling Malaysian Equity Back"

2009-08-07T19:49:00.004+08:00

"Mohd Najib must also ensure that non-Bumiputera companies that benefit from his liberalization policies increase their Bumiputera employment meaningfully - not limiting to employing Bumiputera as drivers, bodyguards, tea ladies, dispatch riders, sales persons and guest relations officers as they often do today."

"If Mohd Najib and his Cabinet saw it fit to form a Royal Commission in response to the death of one Chinese political operator, I see no harm in them ordering the Economic Planning Unit or the Manpower Department to do a comprehensive census of Bumiputera employment in non-Bumiputera and non-GLC companies. The results may not reflect the Prime Minister's 1Malaysia lofty ideals."

"BN leaders must have the courage to acknowledge and restate that the BN is a coalition of parties representing the various Malaysian races and ethnic groups, and frame its policies and programmes accordingly."

"There is a world of difference between the various Malaysian races making demands through their race-based parties and outright racism."

"But lately, the BN parties are being cowed by the Pakatan Rakyat to treat such demands as racist, while the PR parties themselves are not beyong stoking racial sentiments."

>> Thinking about those "multinationals" in the country with employees conducting meetings in Mandarin whilst presence of non-Mandarin speaking colleagues, discriminating employment criteria. If MCA opines that liberalization would enhance economic activity, would that change the status quo of cartels running major businesses in the country, both legit and vice?

Tanah Wakaf Untuk Perkuburan Islam

2009-08-07T10:29:00.001+08:00

From DS KT's blog:

12. Kerajaan negeri juga belum menyelesaikan isu tanah perkuburan Islam di Kampung Kebun Bunga, Shah Alam.

13. Terdapat tapak perkuburan muslim dan kaum cina yang berada sebelah menyebelah di kampung kebun bunga ini. Namun masalah mula timbul apabila sebuah Dewan telah dibina oleh persatuan kaum Cina di situ di atas tanah wakaf untuk perkuburan orang Islam.

14. Pada 2007, Kerajaan Selangor telah membuat keputusan agar Dewan Orang Ramai Kaum Cina yang didirikan secara haram atas tanah perkuburan orang Islam dipindahkan segera ke Tanah Perkuburan Cina di sebelahnya dengan sebahagian kos pemindahan ditanggung kerajaan.

15. Malangnya, apabila kerajaan bertukar pada tahun 2008, kerajaan Pakatan di Selangor enggan melaksanakan keputusan tersebut. Saya difahamkan ada usaha-usaha untuk membenarkan Dewan "haram" ini terus kekal di tanah wakaf untuk perkuburan Islam tersebut.

Economist: Sex Laws, Unjust & Ineffective

2009-08-07T10:18:00.001+08:00

ONE day in 1996 the lights went off in a classroom in Georgia so that the students could watch a video. Wendy Whitaker, a 17-year-old pupil at the time, was sitting near the back. The boy next to her suggested that, since it was dark, she could perform oral sex on him without anyone noticing. She obliged. And that single teenage fumble wrecked her life.

Her classmate was three weeks shy of his 16th birthday. That made Ms Whitaker a criminal. She was arrested and charged with sodomy, which in Georgia can refer to oral sex. She met her court-appointed lawyer five minutes before the hearing. He told her to plead guilty. She did not really understand what was going on, so she did as she was told.

Malay Mail: PAS vs Ronnie

2009-08-07T07:49:00.004+08:00

PAS Hassan Ali pressures the state government to strip Ronnie's position as exco member.
Mixed reviews from Exco members. What is brewing up in Selangor? No synchrony in policies with regards to alcohol sales, no co-operation in pretty much anything/everything.

Azmin Ali earlier expressed a similar position. So what is Ronnie Liu's position?

Bernama - 7 wasiat Raja-Raja

2009-08-06T22:04:00.000+08:00

KUALA LUMPUR, 6 Ogos (Bernama) -- Raja Muda Perak Raja Dr Nazrin Shah pada Khamis mengingatkan rakyat khususnya orang Melayu mengenai tujuh wasiat Raja-Raja Melayu yang menjanjikan kesejahteraan, kedamaian dan keamanan jika mereka bersatu dan berpegang teguh kepadanya.

Menurut baginda, wasiat yang disampaikan semasa Raja-Raja Melayu menurunkan tandatangan persetujuan pembentukan Perlembagaan Persekutuan Tanah Melayu pada 5 Ogos 1957 ialah :

* Kami namakan dan kami panggil dia, bumi yang kamu pijak dan langit yang kamu junjung PERSEKUTUAN TANAH MELAYU (sekarang dikenali dengan nama Malaysia);

* Kami isytiharkan dan kami simpan untuk kamu dan kami benarkan kamu isytihar dan simpan untuk anak cucu kamu, selain gunung-ganang, tasik dan hutan simpan, TANAH SIMPANAN MELAYU sehingga nisbah 50 peratus, selebihnya kamu rebutlah bersama-sama kaum lain;

* Bagi menjaga kamu dan bagi melindungi anak cucu kamu serta harta hak milik kamu, kami tubuhkan REJIMEN ASKAR MELAYU selain untuk membanteras kekacauan dalam negara dan ancaman dari luar negara;

* Kami kekalkan dan kami jamin Kerajaan dan Kedaulatan RAJA-RAJA MELAYU memerintah negara ini;

* Kami isytiharkan ISLAM adalah Agama Persekutuan;

* Kami tetapkan bahasa kebangsaan ialah BAHASA MELAYU;

PKR teams up with PAS to slam Ooi

2009-08-03T09:49:00.001+08:00

PETALING JAYA: Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi came under fire for wanting to get rid of a PKR councillor on grounds that he was linked to Jemaah Islah Malaysia (JIM).

PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan said Ooi had shown his prejudice by calling Penang municipal councillor Mohd Razali Abdullah a ‘religious extremist’.

“He has proven his ignorance as he is making sweeping statements without thinking rationally,” he said.

Bingung Rakyat... Demo Pro Dan Anti Semalam Untuk Apa? - Akhram

2009-08-03T09:46:00.001+08:00

"Malah, warga KL dapat membandingkan sendiri aksi lebih sopan kumpulan pro-ISA, yang dipelopori gabungan MAGARAN, yakni NGO-NGO GGMM, Pewaris dan Perkasa. Mereka berkumpul di Pasar Seni untuk menunjukkan sokongan, kemudian sedia bersurai apabila digesa oleh Polis. Para pemimpin pro-ISA kemudian ber * kereta ke Istana Negara dan berjaya menyerahkan memorandum menyokong ISA dan usaha kerajaan merombaknya kepada Istana".

An Outsider Commenting On TDM's posting

2009-08-02T22:14:00.004+08:00

As an Israeli and a Jew, it is not really my business in the internal politics of Malaysia and it is an issue to be dealt by Malaysians solely.

May be I don't understand well the whole Malaysian political processes, but I would like to post my opinion as an "outsider".

Any political leader or any public or national servant must understand that when he/she joins the public role, he/she will be exposed to criticism. It is not a regular criticism. It is criticism using a magnifying lens. A mouse size of a mistake would look now in the size of an elephant. No one can escape of that political drama. This is also even your destiny when you entered the political life.

Where is the difference? There are two kind of politicians. Those who enter into politics for selfish ambitions and pretending to be working for the people and the other are those who enter into politics with the pure intention to serve the people.

Both types are making mistakes. The selfish are making their mistakes because of their narrow viewing angle. Looking always for their own and selfish promotion while the people are last priority. Those will be also the first to jump from the ship if it will sink. Criticism of those leaders by the people and the media is a MUST. The people must understand that this was a wrong choice. These kind of mistakes of the selfish leaders cannot be forgiven and must not.

The true people's political servant may also be mistaken. But this mistake is different, it is not done intentionally and not for selfish purpose. Because that type of leader is motivated for the good of his own people and view a wider angle, he/she may have mistakes due to the huge amount of data to be analyzed. Now he/she have a big dilemma to make a choice of several options. It is not an easy task and mistakes are part of the process. Of course those mistakes must be criticized by the people and media. But this must be with the intention of improvement and learning the lesson for the future. In this case if the leader is a honest servant, he/she will listen to the criticism, internalize the lesson and learn how to avoid similar mistakes in the future. Those mistakes can be forgiven by the people and a second chance can take place. In cases when honest politicians are committing severe mistakes, they are self resigning their position. A selfish leader wouldn't do that.

Dear Dr. Mahathir, I tend to believe that you are the second type of politician and this is why you have so many supporters even you are not leading Malaysia for almost 6 years. People are not forgetting the good things and the bad things leaders did for them. Having so many supporters is speaking for itself.

When people are criticized, it must be done in a way such that the criticized object will not be pushed against the wall. Pushing the criticized to the wall may react opposing to the intention of the criticism. So, criticism must have the proper approach and timing if the intention is to get improvement. If the criticism is in the intention to smear mud on the face of the leader, it will not achieve a thing since mud can be smeared on the face of the criticizer since he/she is not pure of mistakes. Everyone bears a Pandora box that maybe opened.

Now, Malaysians need to understand themselves who is a real leader and who is a false leader and criticize him/her accordingly.

Dear Dr. Mahathir, I’m continuing reading your posts even I'm not commenting on the internal issues of your country. Since "criticism" is a more generic issue, I felt that I may comment.

Dear Dr. Mahathir, I wish you all the best and good health.

Wassalam.

Hanan, Jewish,
Israel.

PM: Time to help capable bumiputra companies instead off handing out shares

2009-08-02T22:08:00.002+08:00

"Najib, who touched on the topic when opening the Pagoh Umno delegates meeting here Sunday, elicited laughter when he pointed that those who received shares were not ordinary folk but mostly influential people who sat in the front rows at functions such as Tan Sris and Datuk Seris".

>> PM must not forget the small and medium enterprises as well.

Secret societies have infiltrated DAP, claims Johor chief

2009-07-31T10:31:00.000+08:00

JOHOR BARU (July 28, 2009) : Johor DAP chief Dr Boo Cheng Hau says the underworld is rearing its head in the party and secret society members have warned him to stay away from north Johor.

According to reports in Chinese press today, Boo who is Skudai assemblyman and Johor opposition leader, said he is also being smeared by people from within and without the party, including being labelled "anti-federal (DAP)".

Another By-Election Looming

2009-07-31T10:24:00.000+08:00

GEORGE TOWN: Penang state assemblyman for Permatang Pasir Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman died at the National Heart Centre in Kuala Lumpur Friday morning. He died at 6.10am.

Politics 101 by TDM

2009-07-28T09:08:00.000+08:00

HOW TO MUZZLE YOUR CRITIC - SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR POLITICIANS

PM's Key Result Areas

2009-07-28T08:08:00.005+08:00

Dato' Seri Najib has identified key areas of interest in rejuvenating public confidence. The National Key Result Areas such as crime rate reduction and public transportation improvement reflect PM's acknowledgement to the grouses of the people including Sabahans and Sarawakians who do not enjoy basic amenities.

The expansion plan for LRT has yet to reappear in the news. Building new expressways to do not ease traffic congestion. The only solution is to increase the coverage of trains to the city center.

Crime rate hike has been alarming. Snatch thefts and break-ins are rampant, a clear indication of recession. What is the best short-term solution? Maybe the Home Minister could study the use of RELA to aid PDRM in patrolling housing areas and city centers. Housing communities should also get organized and procure security services.

For major infrastructural projects, the problem lies with the execution and co-ordination by multiple agencies and ministries and perhaps money to finance these monumental endeavors. The government would have to figure out how to funds these without putting pressure on money supply and inviting inflation, especially during these troubling times.

Perhaps our very first nuclear power plant could be installed in Sabah/Sarawak.

Melayu boleh bersatu jika ada ancaman lain – Sanusi

2009-07-27T10:23:00.001+08:00

Bekas tokoh UMNO, Tan Sri Sanusi Junid berpendapat orang Melayu tidak akan bersatu atas dasar parti sama ada antara UMNO dengan PAS sebaliknya boleh berbuat demikian atas ancaman lain.

The DAP's corruption modus operandi in Selangor

2009-07-27T10:16:00.001+08:00

Teoh Beng Hock is dead. Let not his death be forgotten and for nothing. The reason why Teoh died is because of the massive scale of corruption by the DAP since they took over the running of the Selangor state government in March 2008.

Liu and Ean Yong rubbish allegations by new blog

Defending Constitutional Rights is not racism

2009-07-27T10:09:00.003+08:00

Tun M labeled as racist. This day and age, those who defend constitutional rights are called racists, but those against the abolishing of race-based schools are called traditionalist. PAS decreed that voting for non-Muslims is sinful (isn't that being racist?), later made a u-turn on their policy by fielding a non-Muslim in the last GE.

86,000 votes for PPSMI

2009-07-17T22:07:00.003+08:00

86,000 chose to do it the civilized way, not getting 10,000 to the streets and riot.

Teo's Death

2009-07-17T16:45:00.003+08:00

Syndicated from Another Brick In The Wall

"Why no such issue when MB Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim's office was raided several times? Is the writer and DAP implying only Malays (I donlt care what political party they are) corrupt and Chinese not? Answer me, which race is THE player in big time crime, underworld and vice activites?"

From KMU:

"Teori yang tidak mustahil juga ialah pembunuhan ini dirancang oleh kumpulan "underworld" yang dikatakan oleh ahli Parlimen Wangsa Maju, Wee Chee Keong sebagai menguasai Ronnie Liu dan Kerajaan Negeri. Kumpulan ini akan melakukan apa sahaja untuk menyelamatkan kerajaan DAP Selangor. "

Only good teachers can save our country

2009-07-14T12:21:00.001+08:00

The crux of the problem is really the poor quality of teachers that we have; some are even unable to teach Science and Maths properly in English.

PKR acknowledges Hindraf as Legit Org

2009-07-14T12:15:00.001+08:00

POTUS' Second Stimulus Package

2009-07-13T17:38:00.000+08:00

Poll on Loan Sharks from PM's site

2009-07-11T17:01:00.001+08:00

The Price Of Arrogance - Forbes.com

2009-07-11T00:01:00.001+08:00

"Alexander is a cautionary example for today's leaders. Success not only in the corporate world but in politics, entertainment, and professional sports can frequently end in personal tragedy and failure. It can undermine the best achievements of the most brilliant leaders if they lack self-control and the discipline to remain focused on what is important and keep their success in perspective".

Dato' Dahan on TAMU and 1Malaysia

2009-07-10T17:30:00.000+08:00

Tamu started last year but was dormant. It was set up by a group of concerned individuals interested in the country. The core objective is improving race relations and unity. Now all this is under 1Malaysia, the new rallying cry.

Kg Buah Pala - NST

2009-07-10T09:56:00.001+08:00

PPSMI Reversal

2009-07-10T08:11:00.003+08:00

From Datuk Kadir Jasin's blog post

"Baru saja PM mengumumkan yang kita harus bersedia di dalam menghadapi era globalisasi dan sebagaimana yang kita maklum, globalisasi ini didukung oleh negara-negara barat seperti AS dan Kesatuan Eropah. Bahasa rasmi pertuturan mereka adalah Bahasa Inggeris dan Perancis. Pusat pembelajaran sains dan teknikal serta bahan-bahan ilmiah kebanyakannya di tulis didalam Bahasa Inggeris, Perancis dan Jerman.”

"Bunga yang cantik warnanya dan wangi baunya, akan hancur rosak jika diberikan kepada kera. Kera yang diberikan bunga itu tetap kelaparan. Kara tidak tahu apa gunanya bunga".

Malaysian Mirror

2009-07-10T00:01:00.000+08:00

Malaysian Mirror news portal launched by Dr M. Valid point made about mainstream media anywhere in the world, which I've talked about briefly in one of my earlier postings.

He said all news, irrespective of their source, are controlled. If it was not the authorities, it could be the media owner, the writer or even the advertiser.

“Someone out there is controlling you. If you want the real truth, it could be expensive. For instance, if you want to know the actual situation in Gaza you would have to go there.

“Otherwise, you will have to just rely on the media, the blogs or the online news. You have to decide yourself what is true."

Big M Vents Out

2009-07-09T12:18:00.001+08:00

It’s saddening, says Mahathir

PUTRAJAYA: The future of our schoolchildren will be compromised with the Government reversing the teaching of Science and Mathematics from English to Bahasa Malaysia, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said.

PPSMI Reversal

2009-07-08T17:00:00.005+08:00

Truly disappointed with PPSMI gradual withdrawal and total cessation in 2012, after all that has been said and done. What of the kids already in tune with Math and Science in English? Guess they'd have to revert back to BM, vernacular language at the expense of confusing themselves! Mastery of Math and Science in BM, vernacular language. Good luck with the transition to college & university.

Sains, Matematik dalam bahasa Melayu mulai 2012

PUTRAJAYA 8 Julai - Matapelajaran Sains dan Matematik di sekolah rendah dan kebangsaan akan diajar dalam bahasa Melayu berkuatkuasa pada 2012.

Chedet's polling says something else.

Of UMNO Delegates

2009-06-27T20:00:00.000+08:00

The public wants it, but does UMNO want it? (taken from Utusan)

Are They Ready?

2009-06-26T12:00:00.000+08:00

Lolo was quoted earlier to have said that PAS was the "Government-in-waiting". The loose coalition Pakatan Rakyat without a doubt made sweeping victories in 5 states in the last general election. Since then, they remained as a respectable opposition, no sign of financial leadership or great policy makers.

Speaking of leadership, PAS has sidelined Anwar as their de-facto leader. If Pakatan Rakyat wins the election, who would be their selection for the covetous Prime Ministership (they can't even agree on appointments in municipals) . It is open season among the three parties, which since the general election are plagued with internal politicking, power struggle and finger pointing. No synchrony with regards to "unity" government. Welcome to multi-racial politics, fellow egalitarians!

They have yet to convince the bright-minded Malaysians that they are ready to lead this country to greater heights. Are they ready to accept the importance of English? Will they take the populist stand and strip Petronas' profit to suit the voters' sentiments? Populist ideology as witnessed in Latin America has caused severe inflation over 2000% especially in Brazil and Argentina. Are they ready to make real, tough decisions even if it means going against popular sentiments, i.e. reducing subsidies?

If their own party struggle and agenda could be altered at their whim and fancy in the case of Hudud and NEP, could they chew on more delicate and complex issues at Federal level?

Is there anyone in Pakatan Rakyat that we see as Prime Minister material? Hadi? Anwar (close, but no cigar)? Nik Aziz? Forget Nizar who has lost his own state government from defections. Forget Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng or Karpal (or would they do another "Perak" where the new Malay Prime Minister is subject to the will of the cabinet and a more chauvinist non-Malay DPM). Malaysia is not ready to see a non-Malay at the apex of the Executive Branch.

Where is their shadow cabinet? Have they given fruitful discussions on national issues besides lambasting the government for deciding things against their will? What is their stand on NAP, what is their solution for the fragmented school system, what is their stand on digging ourselves out of the economic downturn hole? Oh, they can't portray themselves as being more sophisticated than the ruling coalition, lest their ideas be imitated!

The sentiment in last general election was clear; people wanted a stronger opposition to keep Barisan Nasional in check. Nothing more, nothing less. No doubt corruption was perceived to be rampant within Barisan Nasional leadership but we see a similar trend in Selangor and Penang when Fairuz vacated his seat in lieu of allegations of corruption. Power corrupts. Business intertwines with politics. People who think otherwise are plainly idiotic and should come out from under the coconut shell. Other sentiments have been driven by pure speculations in the blogosphere realm, baseless allegations coupled with juicy gossips in the case of postings by self-exiled RPK. The two combination that sells newspapers and enhances your blog hits, politics + gossips.

Most young, urban voters would confess that they had voted for PR because BN seemed to be lost in the political wilderness for the last 5 years, not so much of PR being a reckoning force. Looking at the line up of wakil rakyat on the PR side would be testament to the fact that they lack depth in leadership. Amateur videographer and blogger do not count.

If you're ready to see Petronas go bust because of subsidies,
if you're ready to see 5 school systems remain status quo,
if you're obviously mentally-blocked and perceive that NEP is UMNO and UMNO is NEP, NEP is Malay Rights and NEP = more projects to the Malays
if you're ready for leaders who can't decide whether to implement Islamic laws because it is written in their party constitution but change their mind because Karpal said "over my dead body",

Vote for them!

Our Education System

2009-06-07T00:08:00.005+08:00

Much have been said about the state of education in this country, likewise everywhere in the world. Education, besides the economy, are the two most essential ingredients for growth.

Our country remains the most unique state in the world with 5 education systems fighting tooth and nail for federal funds. The recent propensity of uniting the differing platforms have been severely opposed by many quarters on the basis of conserving "culture". The policy of enhancing our kids' fluency in Math and Science via English medium has also met with equal if not more opposition.

Theoretically, market would dictate that the best teachers would veer to the best paid institutions. Naturally, private schools are becoming increasingly popular especially among young, urban parents. The chinese are also known to save every penny necessary to put their kids through private system, regardless of job functions and affordability. The chinese public schools are also known to have massive external donations. This is unlike the sekolah kebangsaan system. That says enough about the merits of sending our kids to the public domain.

Although the US could boasts of their Ivy League schools and cutting-edge universities in research, faculty strength and ties with corporations, the public school system requires massive overhaul. This is acknowledged by all. The degradation of mathematical capabilities of high school students, for example, has reached worrying state. The US is not resting on their laurels. We should not either.

Putting a cap on SPM subjects is a good start. The quality of teachers must also be addressed, regardless of whether political mileage might be affected. Ideally, the nation must reach a unified education system eventually. Reaching that stage would already be a giant step for this small country.

US experiments high salary for teachers
Obama on overhauling US education
Catching up in college

Hadi Wants Unity Government

2009-06-05T17:50:00.005+08:00

PAS President is adamant for a unity government but shows disunity in Pakatan Rakyat. Hadi confidently stated that the idea of a unity government has been somewhat approved by DAP and PKR. LKS's input here.

What Have They Done?

2009-06-02T03:08:00.005+08:00

>> Pakatan Rakyat has been in power for more than a year. Can we confidently extract substantial policy-making or decisions that have created wealth and abundance for the rakyat or have these been overshadowed by corruption, scandals, thirst for by-election and their single most important motto of "Find people's fault first, performance later".

When corruption cases hit Selangor and Penang, the excuse given was that we are all humans bound to err. When PAS was put under the microscope and it was later exposed that "handouts" and "freebies" were given in exchange for votes, Nik Aziz made it clear that it's acceptable to receive them but insisted that voters should teach the offenders a stern lesson by not voting them.

What is PR's stand on streamlined education? Not a single word. PAS' attempt to "arabize" the Malay society in the form of Hudud? Literally shut down by DAP (but wait, PAS is claiming "co-operation" in the spirit of partnership and camaraderie). Their most prominent blogger is in exile. His son was apprehended by the authorities for theft. One MP was suspended for disobeying house rules. Another was arrested in an illegal assembly (you're a member of parliament now, not a street activist). Not to mention the circus show in Perak with ADUNs climbing tables and chairs. No class.

One former minister whispered to a friend that the 13th general election will be decided by one prevailing factor: which party the rakyat is less fed up with. The lower turnout for Penanti was a subtle sign.

We Demand In No Uncertain Terms A Report Card From Leaders Of The Pakatan Rakyat - What Have You To Show To The Citizens of Kelantan, Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor After One Year In Power?

By Matthias ChangTuesday, 19 May 2009 14:25

We, at Future Fast-Forward have been very critical of the Barisan Nasional government and we make no apologies for our biting criticisms.

We do so because as the Federal Government, you set the standards by which others are judged. Should you fall below our legitimate expectations, it is inevitable that your failures will snowball and overwhelm the rest of the body politic.

This is an awesome responsibility.

You stepped on the plate and asked us to elect you to lead the nation, thereby asking us to put our faith in your leadership. The electorate has re-elected you to manage the country in accordance with the highest standards so that we may hold our heads high and be proud to be Malaysians.

However, we do not believe that our role is merely to criticise and not to demonstrate our appreciation when correct policies are being implemented.

We therefore applaud the Prime Minister and the leaders of the Barisan Nasional for heeding the sentiments of the rakyat in not falling into the trap of the political mischief-maker, Anwar Ibrahim by contesting the Penanti By-elections.

For too long, over a year after the General Elections in March 2008, we have witnessed gutter politics practiced by Anwar and his fascist band of bloggers and the incredible stupidity of the Barisan Nasional reacting to each and every provocation.

It is a welcome change of strategy that the Barisan Nasional has finally found the wisdom in rejecting the taunts and provocations of Anwar Ibrahim and his spin doctors.

For over a year, the focus was on the Barisan Nasional. They only have themselves to blame for being in the tight spot.

Pakatan Rakyat and Anwar Ibrahim got away with political murder and distracted the entire country from the urgent tasks at hand – to overcome the impact of the global financial crisis and lay a solid foundation to propel our country to achieve greater excellence in all fields of our national endeavour.

At long last, we can now focus on critical issues.

We have highlighted the various challenges in the financial and economic areas in numerous articles and we shall not repeat them here.

Every citizen who loves Malaysia must now make an objective analysis and evaluation of the two competing political forces – the Barisan Nasional and the Pakatan Rakyat.

Choice is important and before we make our choice, we must be level headed and examine every facet and angle of the policies and plans supposedly conceived and executed for the benefit of the rakyat by these political leaders.

If we make the wrong choice, we may plunge the country into chaos and at the minimum, ten to fifteen years of mediocrity, if not failure.

The Barisan Nasional has a report card of fifty years of governance.

In contrast, only PAS has some record of governance and then only in the state of Kelantan. DAP and Keadilan are novices and have yet to prove their mettle.

By all means, visit the blogs that are pro-opposition and that of their leaders, but please apply common sense when reading what they have to offer. They are all heavy on sound bites but what is most glaring: is the total absence of coherent policies, practical measures and direction from the state governments which they are in control.

Notice also that these blogs do not tolerate any dissension from their perspective. They adopt a fascist mindset. Say anything contrary, and you will receive a heap of profanities. This is their standard operating procedure, one designed to intimidate and discourage rational debate.

Just pause and think and think hard.

If a man, whose only reputation is that of taking some photos allegedly of Dato Lingam and who had no prior experience in politics and or public administration, was recruited by Anwar’s PKR to contest in the General Elections, how can such a person contribute effectively to developing our country? The rest of Anwar’s political entourage is no better and does not inspire confidence.

Hence, Anwar’s diversionary tactics and distractions. Anwar is a master in manufacturing “political noise”, massive amount of noise to cover up his inadequacies and to prevent people from asking the right questions and focusing on critical issues.

We are now issuing a public challenge to Anwar and the leaders of the PR state governments.

Give us a report card on your achievements after one year in power!

Give us your blueprint for the states under your control, specifically your policies in ensuring the continued wellbeing of the rakyat suffering from the impact of the global financial tsunami.

Give us your strategies in making Malaysia the most dynamic country in ASEAN.

Give us specifics, not spin, in achieving a higher degree of national unity, as this is always a work-in-progress.

Take Notice: If Anwar, Hadi, and Lim Kit Siang fail to respond within 48 hours from the date hereof, as it is their duty to do so, they must be exposed for what they are – political charlatans.

Finally, Anwar, I dare you to debate with me in public on the above issues. Let this be a No Holds Barred debate.

The rules are simple.

We speak for half an hour.

We cross-examine each other without mercy for another half hour.

We let the rakyat decide the winner of the debate.

Politik Wang Dipanggil Hadiah Atau Sedekah

2009-05-14T22:36:00.001+08:00

MACHANG 13 Mei - Perebutan kuasa dalam Pas semakin ketara sehingga ada individu sanggup memberikan 'hadiah' kepada perwakilan untuk mendapat sokongan.

Perkara ini diakui oleh Ketua Dewan Ulama Pas, Datuk Mohamed Daud Iraqi yang menganggap situasi tidak sihat itu mula menular di kalangan pemimpin Pas yang inginkan kuasa.

Press Freedom in Western Terms

2009-05-09T12:01:00.004+08:00

Much has been said about press freedom. Press freedom is the buzz phrase for western media, an excuse to label which country is 'democratic' and which is not. Dato' Najib lifted the ban on Harakah and Suara Keadilan during the first week of becoming the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia. Young Malaysians quite often cringe about the biasness of 'mainstream media' reporting, therefore they are switching to alternative media (blogs and online news portal), to the extent that they would believe every bit of alternative media news even laced with lies. That is the extent of people's disgust of mainstream media.

Fair enough. Many colleagues have expressed disgust of the monopoly by Media Prima over major news networks, TV channels and mainstream periodicals. This might be the source of the problem why people perceive the media as the government's mouthpiece.

Fair enough. Notwithstanding their feelings, I find it somewhat convenient to procure opposition-backed papers these days although slightly more pricey than the usual Utusans and Stars. If people are tired of reading what Utusan has to say, it's not that difficult to grab the latest copy of Suara Rakyat. The market will be at equilibrium once again.

Of course, the great western countries and their brand of media are fond of labelling other countries as undemocratic because of the lack of 'press freedom'. Let's look at press freedom in Australia. Back in 1974, the Australian government filed an injunction to prohibit any newspaper to reproduce a cable sent by the Australian ambassador to Indonesia regarding 'national interests' of oil reserves in East Timor.

CNN and BBC have also been labeled biased in reporting the massacres in Palestine and Iraq, while depicting US, British and Australian soldiers to be 'liberating' the people of Iraq from dictatorship (only to be changed with another form of dictatorship - occupation). To date, the so called "War on Terror" has killed more than 100,000 Iraqi civilian and a mere 4000 American troops.

Al-Jazeera, the Qatari-based news agency was the sole news agency giving a balanced view of the second Gulf war, only to have its base in Kabul bombed by US warplanes. The Pentagon denied any intention to bomb the news agency office but could not explain the gross error despite their technological superiority in precision bombing and weapons of mass destruction.

Nevermind the fact that major news networks and periodicals are owned by powerful figures such as Rupert Murdoch (whose 170-odd publications supported the war in Iraq).

kudakepang in his blog also asserts that journalists and reporters were heavily screened by Pentagon in the interest of "national security". In 2006, Israeli troops shelled the Al-Manar media office, accusing it of having ties with the so-called "Terrorist" organization Hezbollah. Both US and Germany have banned Al-Manar.

An excerpt from Syed Akbar Ali's book "To Digress A Little" to illustrate the press freedom that Australians enjoy when dealing with "national security".

The Aussies never championed the Timorese when East Timor was a Portugese colony. But after Indonesia kicked out the Portugese colonialists from East Timor in 1975, the Aussies started to champion Timorese independence from Indonesia. Now after Timor is independent, the Aussies are stealing Timor's oil resources. The Aussie plotting to loot Timor's oil reserves has been in the works for decades. At last, they are achieving it.

In August 1974, when the Aussies realized that the Portugese colonials will be kicked out by the Indonesians, a secret cable was sent by Richard Woolcott, the Australian ambassador to Indonesia, to the Foreign Affairs department in Canberra. The cable said:

"We are all aware of the Australian defence interest in the Portugese Timor situation. But I wonder whether the department has ascertained the interest of the minister of the Department of Minerals and Energy. This department might well have an interest in closing the present gap in the agreed sea border and this could be much more readily negotiated with Indonesia, than with Portugal or independent Portugese Timor. I know I am recommending a pragmatic rather than a principled stand but that is what the national interest and foreign policy is all about. (Quoted in Aarons. The cable, sent on 17 August 1974 appears in the book Documents of Australian Defence and Foreign Policy 1968-1975 by GJ Munster and RR Walsh. This book was banned in November 1980 after an Australian government injunction. The Australian High Court prevented newspaper from publishing the cable".

So much for press freedom, freedom to be given if you're reporting for the right side.

Pakatan's Newly Adopted Political Strategy

2009-05-07T00:01:00.000+08:00

Anwar's old strategy to topple the government: Get 30 MPs to join Pakatan Rakyat, table a motion of no-confidence of Pak Lah and the ruling government. This strategy was shot down after their own 3 jumped ship in Perak, resulting in the political calamity we are witnessing till today. Technicalities and legalities aside, the whole episode was triggered by defaction from Pakatan.

Anwar's new strategy: Run by-elections till the general election, then blame the government for not accomplishing anything during its term.

Fairuz has been cleared by SPRM of any wrong doing, but the Penanti by-election is still on. What is Anwar up to? PAS was eyeing the seat even though PKR intended to field its own candidate. The seat comes with a bonus of becoming the next deputy chief minister. The power struggle continues within Pakatan Rakyat and within PAS.

Manoharan, a member of the racist group Hindraf, was detained in 2007 for inciting racial sentiment and demanding compensation from the UK government for deporting the Indians during colonization. He ran for election last year and won as Kota Alam Shah State Assemblymen. Because he is unable to service the rakyat from jail, he is contemplating to throw in the towel, thus setting the stage for another by-election.

BN has yet to decide whether to contest for the Penanti seat. Win or lose, the current state government in Penang would remain. Of course, Pakatan is taunting Barisan of being afraid to lose yet again, based on the recent by-elections at Permatang Pauh, Kuala Terengganu, Bukti Selambau and Bukit Gantang.

BN must maintain its course and ignore the child's play by the opposition. The people have decided in Mar 2008. The people have decided that BN would continue to run the Federal Government. The people also have decided that they would give Pakatan Rakyat a chance to run 5 states. Nothing more, nothing less. We don't have to be reminded everyday of that fact. The results from recent by-elections do not represent the aspiration of the entire nation.

Parliament must pass a law to discourage elected representatives from vacating their seats at their whim and fancy, lest we have the stomach to witness 5 more by-elections before the next general election.

Kota Alam Shah rep has mulled quitting

DAP for the Chinese and PAS for Ulama's only

2009-05-04T01:47:00.004+08:00

KOTA BHARU 2 Mei - Sekarang bukan masa untuk Pas menukar kepimpinannya daripada ulama kepada golongan profesional.

Timbalan Pesuruhjaya III Pas Kelantan, Datuk Mohd. Amar Nik Abdullah berkata, dua jawatan tertinggi parti, Presiden dan Timbalan mesti disandang oleh ulama kerana mereka adalah pemimpin dalam menguruskan urusan harian 'kehidupan' Pas.

>> So what happened to the so-called democratic values that Anwar and Pakatan Rakyat have been preaching when PAS has declared that they are not ready for professionals to take over? Is PAS conveying the message that professionals do not have in-depth knowledge of the religion thus rendering them less capable of being leaders? What does religion have to do with running political parties? The tempo is similar with DAP's pseudo twin, which declared that Singapore is not ready for a non-Chinese Prime Minister.

Find People's Fault First, Performance Later

2009-04-26T09:09:00.010+08:00

For the first few months governing one of the richest states in Malaysia, the Selangor government was only keen to search for and catalog Khir Toyo's follies and fumbles. Even their very own brethren were tainted in money politics and insider dealings resulted in the departure of Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim's special officer.

Enter Eli Wong, the state assemblyman and State Exco, whose nude pictures taken by dear boyfriend were released on the internet. Eli was pressured to step down even by party mate YB Zul Noordin, Kulim. Eli took a long holiday before being offered to continue working with the State Government by Tan Sri Khalid. Not to anyone's surprise, Pakatan Rakyat accused Barisan Nasional for orchestrating the whole episode instead of dear boyfriend (his boyfriend is still missing).

Perak is similar. After losing 3 State Assemblymen to Barisan Nasional, they've been adamant to tear the current Perak Government down through the courts with petty issues. DAP has been attempting to attack every technical & legal avenue possible; failing to recognize that all of this had started with their own 3 jumping ship (Pakatan should seek clarification from its defacto leader as to the status of the other 30 MPs ready to abandon the BN ship). The attacks included blaming the Sultan of Perak for misinterpreting the state constitution in his Majesty's decision to ask Nizar to step down as Menteri Besar.

Because they were locked out from the State Govt office, the disbanded Pakatan Rakyat "Exco" led by Sivakumar convened a meeting under a tree to extract more sympathy votes for their struggle. A plaque dedicated to the "tree of democracy" was built but later vandalized. To add salt to the wound, the Ipoh Municipal decreed that the plaque was erected illegally.

In Penang, the Deputy Chief Minister, Fairuz, was asked to resign due to his intention to further his studies (why did he contest in the first place knowing that he would want to go to grad school during his tenure?). Fairuz was allegedly involved in some dealings concerning state quarry projects. Lim Guan Eng was furious that he was not notified of Fairuz' resignation (Isn't he the Chief Minister)? Anwar later apologized to Lim Guan Eng. Meanwhile, Fairuz had threatened Pakatan Rakyat that he would expose their treasured secrets if his name was not cleared. The MACC then had cleared his name.

All kinds of drama in "Makkal Sakthi" movement. Find People's Fault First, Performance Later. The clock is ticking. General Election is around the corner. Get ready.

This is the real "People First, Performance Now". Please take note.

U.S. Said to Seek a Chrysler Plan for Bankruptcy

2009-04-25T23:09:00.002+08:00

"The company faces a deadline of April 30 to come up with a viable business plan supported by its creditors, the United Automobile Workers union, and Fiat, the Italian car company that wants to acquire a stake in Chrysler".

>> Why would Obama inject massive public funds into private companies without nationalizing them first and changing out current management? Fiat intends to purchase the ailing US auto, but Congress once blocked China from acquiring Unocal. Incoherent US policies.

To PKR: This is no Chess Club

2009-04-17T01:16:00.008+08:00

Wan Azizah stepped down last year to make way for hubby, the de-facto leader of Pakatan Rakyat. A by-election was in order due to the resignation. The PR coalition is supposedly gaining momentum, on its way to seize and conquer Putrajaya. After failing his bid to declare a new government on Sept 16 last year, Anwar decided to change the take over date to Hari Raya Qorban. Hari Raya Qorban had passed, and Anwar was still the opposition leader. Maybe it was the wrong date.

Then, Arumugam, State Assemblyman of Bukit Selambau, Kedah, caught with some scandal resigned, making way for another by-election. He had claimed that there was pressure to make him switch camp, a promise of great wealth & fortune if he packs and joins BN. Fortunately, PKR retained the seat.

Now, the Deputy Chief Minister Fairuz, previously claiming to further his studies, has resigned, suspected of being involved in multiple corruption cases concerning quarry management and other projects in Penang. His resignation will force the voters to come out once again. Fairuz is now threatening PR to clear his name, lest be exposed of its inner dealings that I reckon the public would have an interest on.

With all the money being spent on by-elections, when will it stop? If Fairuz were to be trialed and convicted with a crime, the seat should be left vacated until the next general election. We are not in the right economic environment to be spending resources on by-elections everytime some inconsiderate YB resigns (deaths are acceptable of course but they raise the question of health screening among YBs). There should not be any correct economic environment in the first place to justify such practice. Are we to condone these leaders vacating a seat like it was the Chess Club?

The Malays are known to possess a trait of being "kesian" (having sympathy for someone), according to the late Senu Abdul Rahman. He would have said "kesian dia".

On Hudud (again)

2009-04-16T19:32:00.008+08:00

Had an open discussion on facebook recently on race-based politics. The premise of the debate was to discuss whether race-based politics was the main ingredient of the declining support for BN. I begged to differ as both sides were equally 'guilty' to some degree of advocating race-based politics, which is not something treachery or destructive, it's just the nature of the landscape in our country.

Although PAS' islamic approach is noble, I really can't accept the rhetorics behind boycotting Western concert, depicted to be "maksiat" or evil. It's no different than our "Jom Heboh" concert or watching MTV, HBO. No consistency there in their stand. We know they got a big bashing from DAP on Hudud, and they retracted the stance soon after.

On Penang development under Gerakan for 18 years vs how DAP is running it now, well, I do not have enough data to make any convinction, but it may seem that people are saying DAP is doing a better job. Guan Eng perhaps is trying to leave the shadows of his father who seems to be more extreme in his approach. Is it really UMNO's fault if Gerakan lost control of the island?

On a different note, YB Eli has accepted the offer to continue working. I think that's acceptable seeing that it's actually a blatant invasion of privacy. What if photos of a leader caught in the act of sodomy were released, hypothetically? Would it be an invasion of privacy or do you think resignation is in order? During Genghis Khan's reign, sodomy was punishable by death.

Explaining the National Economic Policy

2009-04-15T02:27:00.002+08:00

NEP, one of the double-edged swords in Malaysian political landscape, champion it and you lose the support for the non-Malays, abandon it and the Malays shirk away. What is the right balance? No one knows. However, we cannot dismiss the fact that the policy has increased Malay holdings in the market up to 19%, increased the number of Malay professionals, reduce poverty through multiple agencies created under the purview of NEP, creation of universities and so on. Tan Sri Sulaiman Mahbob argues that the policy, although perceived by many as benefitting the Malays only, benefits all in the context of project distribution and eradicating poverty. When projects are given out by the government, because the chinese holds a major stake in the construction business and supplies, not only the malay companies given the award would benefit, but the spill over effect reaches others.

MCA Retaliates Soon After MIC's Discontent

2009-04-14T02:32:00.004+08:00

MCA firing away at Tan Sri Muhyiddin's statement on Sunday on why the Chinese voters went the other way.

Press Statement issued by MCA Spokesperson and Central Committee member Sdr. Lee Wei Kiat in taking exception to remarks by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on Bukit Gantang that “(sokongan kaum Cina) mencatatkan penurunan, macam tidak ada penghargaan terhadap apa yang kita lakukan (the drop in Chinese support is like as if there is no appreciation towards what we (BN) are doing)” as reported in Utusan Malaysia on 12 April 2009.

From grievances with vernacular education, Malay special privileges to award of contracts and "preferential" in the civil service and police force. Harping the tunes of opposition? Well, then we'd have to say, how about monopoly in businesses and market domination, discrimination in the private sector for mandarin-speaking candidates, opposition to streamlined education system, ignoring the social contract, side stepping power sharing concept, allowing seats to be held by MCA in malay-dominated areas, 18 years of non-progression for the malay community in Penang.

The blame game continues.

Losing Sight Of Priorities

2009-04-13T20:46:00.007+08:00

Here we go again. Just when PM is making progress with naming his cabinet and getting the ball rolling, both sides are clamoring about who's not supposed to be in his cabinet and who should and why MECD was abolished? The agencies and bodies under the former MECD has been re-organized and absorbed into several ministries, including Rural Development and MITI. Imagine detractors trying to crucify PM if and when logical merger is done, say between MOA and Ministry of Plantation and Commodities, "Who will protect palm oil?!". The whole idea of streamlining is to enhance efficiency and minimize overlapping. While I may think that more could have been done, but that's PM's prerogative and the dynamics of power sharing in BN would dictate a higher importance than rational cabinet downsizing.

The pressure is not coming solely from the Opposition, but pro-government entities. Even MIC is threatening to pull out, albeit being slaughtered in the last GE (remember Kayveas threatening to pull out from the coalition also?). Securing seats in the cabinet does not equate to having the ability to help the Indian community. The president of MIC should resolve outstanding issues such as Maika Holdings failure to disburse dividends, allegations of funds mismanagement and reforming the election mechanism in the organization, not lobbying for cabinet positions.

Welcome back, Mahathirism - Malaysiakini

2009-04-11T20:37:00.002+08:00

>> In the US, the democractic party is nothing similar to our coalition formula. Obama also made some follies when selecting 2 members who did not pay their taxes and bringing in old faces from the previous Clinton administration. Of course US democratic system is exemplary where cabinet appointments and some 7000 political appointments must be agreed by Congress.

The composition of the PR is nothing different than that of BN. If PR is saying they are more race-blind, then why is PR endorsing Hindraf (clearly a racist hate group), why did PAS say it's haram to vote for non-muslim candidates and then flip flop on that, DAP is clearly chinese dominated, PAS with Malays, etc. So if they're so full of it about race being immaterial, prove it by forming a one-party system and open election among the races.

And no, America is not the land of the free if you have names similar to suspected terrorists and you get locked up at the airport for having beards and wearing kupiah. Gitmo?

Quoted from Malaysiakini
New cabinet - 'Welcome back, Mahathirism'
Apr 11, 09 11:20am

‘By not giving Khairy any post, Najib is just inviting trouble. To rub salt into the wound, Mukhriz is deputy minister of Miti.’

On Najib names his new cabinet

Sivaraman: Same old, same old. By not giving Khairy any post, Najib is just inviting trouble. To rub salt into the wound, Mukhriz is deputy minister of Miti. Welcome back, Mahathirism.Malaysia Boleh: ‘Of the ministers, 16 are from Umno, MCA (4), MIC (1), Gerakan (1), PBB (1), Supp (1), PBS (1) and Upko (1).’ Well, can we see any changes here? It is safe to say ketuanan is still being practiced. Look at the ratio, it is just like my working place. Seventy-five percent bumis, 20% Chinese, followed by rest of us at 5%. It just so disheartening.Fifty years ago my father saw this and now I’m still seeing it and so will my children. Well, PKR, it’s time to change. Hear me and hear the people - ‘go for it’.

Rachel Loo: With the new cabinet line-up, I see Bernard Dompok has been retained as a minister. As such, perhaps our YB can now persuade our new PM, in line with his vision of ‘1Malaysia’, to declare Good Friday a public holiday for the Christians in West Malaysia just like in Sabah and Sarawak. Is Bernard Dompok only representing the Christians in Sabah and Sarawak or is he representing all Christians in Malaysia ?

Sang Kancil: Saudara Najib finally managed to get all his men into the system, one which will face a real challenge from the rakyat. If we analyse it properly, some of the senators and MPs who were selected to hold a minister’s or deputy minister's post are basically losers. Meaning to say, they are ‘rejects’. They were either rejected during the 12GE or during the Umno elections recently. Is this what we call democracy? Getting someone rejected by the rakyat into the cabinet is totally unwarranted. Perhaps the BN machinery is punishing the rakyat for not giving them absolute power during the 12GE. Anyway, we the rakyat, are not really worried or bothered about this too much. After all, this may be the last BN cabinet in Malaysian history.

Rahmanizan: Do you know Obama took more than 30 days to find the right people to form his cabinet? Everyone that was short-listed was checked and scrutinised to ensure that they are clean and did not come with any baggage that could put his administration in bad light. He looked for the best, the most capable, the most qualified and ones that were highly regarded to assume their respective posts.And now compare that to Najib's administration. Najib selected his cabinet in just six days and what do we have? Pure politicians! They were selected because they are heads of BN component parties or the leaders of each of the parties’ wing or Umno loyalists. The selections were made purely to appease the political parties.Now you see why America is named the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave whereas Malaysia is Bolehland.

Great Start with Cabinet - Now Some Tough Work

2009-04-10T00:01:00.002+08:00

Now that the cabinet has been assembled, it's time to get some government work done. The main issues of interest to me and colleagues alike:

FINANCE! No surprise there with Dato' Najib still holding on to the most crucial portfolio in our trying times. Where is our second Fortune 500 to kick in more revenue for the country? We cannot be dependent on oil as the main revenue stream forever. What is our stand on continuing fuel subsidy? Should we scout around for great acquisition opportunities overseas, i.e. GM, GE? The new wave of GLC bosses would definitely determine whether Dato' Najib's ambition to put us back on track would materialize. How about reactivating vital economic projects, i.e. Bridge to Singapore? Shelf the second bridge project in Penang, is it really a necessity now? What of our bad investments via CTRM in the US and such? Hmmmm Tenaga made some big losses there last year, what's your plan sir?

Home: Dato' Hisham will face the enormous task of lowering crime figures, studying the ISA to be more "acceptable" to the general public, cracking down on the increase of foreign labors. As much as we want this to be a free country for press and media, hate groups such as Hindraf should be banned and locked up for good. Need to increase the number of cops and their salary. ISA is a required component of national security.

Defence: Dato' Zahid, please get our radars up and running, attempt to reach the impossible level of getting a 1:1 ratio of pilots to planes, define a defence doctrine, cease irrational procurements, increase the number of soldiers and their salary. Please cease the usage of military assets for NGO use. Perhaps getting our Navy in more engaging roles internationally like the recent escort mission in Gulf of Aden. RMC new campus and IB program still on?

Transport: What of the government's promise to add a perpendicular line to the current LRT track? The greatest challenge is overcoming bureaucratic hurdles of coordinating with multiples agencies and government bodies to get this going. I hope Labu airport is off the table for good. what of the national physical plan?

MITI: Mainly to finalize the FTA with the US, obviously to ensure that our interests are protected against giant congolomerates eating up mom & pop setups, regardless of what they say about how rewarding capitalism is. Malaysia Kitchen project should be continued and expanded. Need to boost our exports before it really hurts us dramatically, source for new emerging markets in South America and Middle East. What of APs and the national automotive policy? When are these being phased out?

MOSTI: Please don't send another space tourist, purchase exorbitant space suits and capsules. Continue to strengthen MDeC and Biotech Corp in facilitating home grown companies to capture a better slice in the market overseas. MOSTI has been busting their budgets for years. Need to be able to manage their finances better.

Sports: Please don't over-promise and under-deliver. For this one term, focus on a few projects, please do not use public funds to procure facilities overseas. If the football team makes it somewhere regionally or globally, it'll be a good enough term/KPI. Avoid being too ambitious. Study viability of getting more involved in increasingly popular sporting events among youths, i.e. paintball, futsal.

Foreign Affairs: The continuous battle to settle border disputes must continue full steam ahead. Study the possibility of retaking Pulau Batu Putih at all cost to boost political morale! Bridge to Singapore?

Rural Development: Since a Sabahan is leading this ministry, we should not hear any more complaints about not having water and electricity in schools and homes. Sabah is one of the biggest recipients of federal funds and now one of three vice presidents of UMNO is the minister of rural development. So, let's see some work done.

Agro: OK, now that Agro bank has been 'commercialized', why is it still difficult to extract loans for small & medium farmers? Easy for the big congolomerates to say, they're getting the juicy stuff. Should study Yunus' microcredit program in Bangladesh. The target for this ministry should be 'self-sufficiency' for food supply.

Energy, Green Tech & Water: Is Peter Chin up to it to assess the viability of alternative energy and fuel replacement initiative? What is the commercial viability of biofuel, wind farms, nuclear, geothermal and such for the country? Wasn't nuclear discussed at some point of time last year?

Plantation and Commodities: How is it that our island neighbor has the biggest asset base in palm oil but we've got all the land?

Above all, Dato' Najib has stressed on minimizing formalities. No more red carpets, trips to Disneyland, RM100k watches for anniversary, tonnes of billboards with minister's face next to PM and TPM, etc. Watch your budgets like a hawk. Study the auditor-general's latest report and fix the flaws pronto. These are robust KPIs to monitor. Kick out ministers resting on their laurels.

New Cabinet
Marina's take
Datuk Kadir Jasin's view

When the Church Does Not Get Separated From State

2009-04-08T00:01:00.007+08:00

Is this revelation of what's happening in the Israeli Army shocking to the general public? We've heard about it getting publicized but not to this extent. It is now clear that a faction within the government wants to exterminate the "gentiles" from "Jewish land".

Am quite surprised this was published by a renowned Western media, seeing most of the time the obvious lob-sided reporting covers a wide array of stories exclusively about Muslim extremists obsessed with killing infidels by strapping themselves to loosely-wired bombs.

"We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the non-Jews who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land"

Kabinet Baru

2009-04-07T00:01:00.001+08:00

Kita sekarang menanti pengumuman kabinet baru oleh Dato' Seri Najib, Perdana Menteri Malaysia ke-enam. Umum tertanya-tanya, adakah pembentukan kabinet baru oleh Dato' Najib akan mencerminkan hasrat beliau untuk mengubah persepsi dan tanggapan umum mengenai UMNO dan kerajaan Barisan Nasional?

Ramai tokoh-tokoh UMNO yang kalah dalam pemilihan UMNO baru-baru ini, antaranya menteri-menteri kanan seperti Dato' Seri Khaled Nordin, Dato' Seri Utama Rais, Dato' Shahrir, Dato' Seri Azalina dan 4 Menteri Besar. Dato' Seri Sharizat, walaupun kecundang di parlimen Lembah Pantai, telah menang dengan majoriti yang besar sebagai Ketua Wanita. Sama juga dengan parti-parti komponen yang mana kepimpinan mereka kecundang di kerusi Parlimen masing-masing dalam PRU-12.

Kerana dunia dilanda wabak ekonomi yang perit, Dato' Najib perlu menubuhkan pasukan ekonomi yang terbaik dan terhandal tanpa mengira jika ada jawatan di dalam UMNO dan mengaktifkan semula Majlis Tindakan Ekonomi dibawah nasihat pakar-pakar ekonomi, "industry captains" dan negarawan seperti TDM. Kerana darurat ekonomi yang sedang melanda kita, saya fikir Dato' Najib akan kekal sebagai Menteri Kewangan untuk menumpukan sepenuh perhatiannya dalam kedudukan khazanah negara.

Kabinet baru di bawah pentadbiran Dato' Najib mungkin akan mirip seperti yang berikut:

TS Muhyiddin: TPM & Menteri Dalam Negeri

DS Zahid Hamidi: Menteri Pertahanan

DS Hisham: Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Industri (kedudukan yang penting untuk menilai dan mengukuhkan kedudukan ekspot negara ekoran ekonomi yang merudum di arena global, juga mengkaji semula FTA dengan Amerika Syarikat).

DS Shafie Afdal: Menteri Pertanian (dengan gabungan Kementerian Perusahaan Perladangan dan Komoditi), sesuai dengan fokus kerajaan membangunkan Sabah yang berasaskan pertanian dan Sarawak sebagai jelapang padi baru negara.

DSU Rais: dikekalkan Menteri Luar (fokus untuk mendapatkan semula Pulau Batu Putih, menyelesaikan isu Limbang dan lain-lain "border disputes"), walaupun kalah dalam pemilihan sebagai Naib Presiden UMNO, kearifan beliau dalam undang-undang dan kalibernya sebagai menteri kanan masih diperlukan Dato' Najib.

DS Khaled: Menyambung kerja Dato' Shahrir sebagai Menteri Perdagangan Dalam Negeri dan HEP, memberi pendedahan langsung kepada rintihan rakyat mengenai inflasi dan harga barang terutamanya isu harga dan subsidi petrol.

Tok Pa: Menteri Pelajaran (fokus untuk meneruskan PPSMI). Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi juga digabung semula dengan Kementerian Pelajaran supaya ada "continuity" apabila polisi-polisi kerajaan dilaksanakan di sekolah-sekolah.

JJ: Mungkin kembali sebagai Menteri Kewangan II.

Shaziman: Kekal di Kementerian Tenaga, Air dan Komunikasi, MOSTI digabungkan sekali untuk menyelaraskan pentadbiran ICT dan multimedia yang bersangkut paut dari segi infrastruktur.

Dato' Saifuddin: Kenaikan dari timbalan menteri ke menteri penuh kerana memenangi kerusi Majlis Tertinggi dan terkenal dengan penglibatan dalam NGO. Kementerian ini juga patut digabungkan dengan Kementerian Sumber Manusia untuk memantau isu pekerja asing. Isu ini berkaitan langsung dengan pembangunan usahawan dan latihan semula penganggur.

Dato' Sri Zin Mohamed: Kekal sebagai Menteri Kerja Raya (fokus dalam menyelesaikan masalah pembangunan di lereng bukit dan konsesi tol).

Dato' Sri Ong Tee Keat: Kekal sebagai Menteri Pengangkutan.

Dato' Sri Ng Yen Yen: Menteri Pelancongan.

KJ: Timbalan Menteri Belia dan Sukan (sesuai dengan penglibatan beliau dalam arena bolasepak negara)

Dato' Mukhriz: Timbalan Menteri Pelajaran (memberi pengalaman kpd beliau sebagai saf kepimpinan akan datang dan mengatur strategi bagi pendidikan satu aliran untuk masa hadapan, satu elemen penting "One Malaysia")

Tan Sri Nor Mohamed: Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri utk portfolio EPU.

Menteri Kesihatan: Perlu seorang profesional dari bidang kesihatan, mungkin dari IJN.

Timbalan menteri yang akan menjadi menteri penuh: Idris Haron, Lajim Ukin, Latif Ahmad.

Menteri2 lain yang akan kekal: Ismail Sabri.

Pilihan ketara untuk wakil wanita dari UMNO ialah Dato' Seri Sharizat. Kerana beliau gagal memenangi parlimen Lembah Pantai, tetapi menang besar sebagai Ketua Wanita, Dato' Seri Najib akan melantik beliau sebagai senator dan Menteri Pembangunan Masyarakat dan Luar Bandar (gabungan 2 kementerian). Ketua Puteri Rosnah mungkin diberi Timbalan Menteri untuk menambahkan perwakilan wanita dalam kabinet.

Apa yang disampaikan hanyalah ramalan saya. Ini semua terpulang kepada saiz dan bentuk kabinet baru.

Rujukan:

Ahli2 Majlis Tertinggi UMNO 2009

Kabinet sekarang

Politics and economics under Najib - The Nut Graph

Apa komen PAS?

2009-04-06T21:12:00.007+08:00

Nyata bahawa PAS mempunyai perkongsian yang kecil dalam Pakatan Rakyat. Bukan sahaja konsep negara Islam dan Hudud ditentang oleh rakan-rakan seperjuangan, sekarang PAS berdiam diri apabila Nga Kor Ming memetik ayat al-Quran dalam ceramah beliau. Komen Karpal mengenai hudud "Over my dead body". Apa komen orang-orang kuat PAS? Apa pendirian PAS apabila YB Zul Nordin mengetuai demonstrasi membantah tindakan Majlis Peguam mengadakan forum mengenai memeluk agama Islam?

Apa pula komen PAS mengenai ketua umumnya, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, yang kononnya telah membuat pengumuman penting mengenai satu pengumuman yang penting (announcing an announcement) jika menang di tiga-tiga pilihanraya kecil? Adakah ianya pengumuman sama pengambilalihan kuasa dari kerajaan seperti yang diumumkan tahun lepas? Mungkin tarikhnya telah bertukar ke April 16 2009. Komen Karpal mengenai Anwar "Anwar unfit to become PR leader".

Kenapa PAS bertukar sentimen mengatakan TDM akan ditelan kemarahan orang, tetapi sebelum ini mempelawa TDM masuk PAS apabila Tun keluar dari UMNO?

Caturan Baru - Pendapat Saya

2009-04-04T23:51:00.009+08:00

Jika pembangkang merasakan kepulangan TDM sebagai satu isyarat bahawa UMNO itu sudah lapuk dan ketandusan idea, fikir semula kedudukan Lim Kit Siang dan Karpal dalam percaturan mereka. Kehadiran Tun Mahathir dapat menyemarakkan semula semangat perjuangan UMNO dan Barisan Nasional di bawah kepimpinanan Perdana Menteri Malaysia yang ke-enam. Mereka tahu kedudukan terancam jika UMNO tidak lagi berpecah dan kukuh dibawah kepimpinan Dato' Najib.

Yang penting sekarang ialah percaturan Dato' Najib dalam memilih ahli-ahli kabinet supaya agenda "One Malaysia" beliau dapat dilaksanakan dengan baik. Rata-rata masyarakat menyuarakan bahawa ini akan menunjukkan samada Dato' Najib betul-betul inginkan reform dan bukan semata-mata retorik.

Saya fikir penyelarasan portfolio-portfolio dalam kabinet sesuai dengan peredaran masa.

Kementerian wilayah persekutuan perlu dimansuhkan kerana berlaku 'overlap' dengan peranan DBKL, Perbadanan Putrajaya dan Labuan.
Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi elok kalau digabungkan semula supaya ada keseragaman dan 'continuity' dalam polisi-polisi pendidikan nasional khususnya PPSMI. Jika inginkan continuity, DS Hisham patut diberi peluang melancarkan perjalanan PPSMI sebelum diberi kepercayaan di kementerian yang lain.
Kementerian Pertanian dan Asas Tani dan Kementerian Perusahaan Perladangan dan Komoditi juga patut digabung dan diberi fokus untuk menjayakan projek kerajaan berteraskan "self-sufficiency" dalam pengeluaran makanan dan justeru mengurangkan jumlah impot negara.
Eloklah juga jika Dato' Najib fokus dalam tugasnya sebagai PM dan melepaskan portfolionya kepada yang layak. Mansuhkan kedudukan Menteri Kewangan II. Tidak salah jika beliau menobatkan seorang tokoh korporat untuk peranan ini.
Peranan Kementerian Sains, Teknologi dan Innovasi dan Kementerian Tenaga, Air dan Komunikasi perlu diteliti juga. Ini kerana ICT yang diterajui oleh MDeC berada dibawah MOSTI tetapi pentadbiran multimedia di bawah MCMC terletak dalam bidang kuasa Kementerian Tenaga, Air dan Komunikasi.
Mansuh jawatan Menteri di Parlimen untuk menunjukkan "separation of powers" dari bahagian eksekutif di Parlimen
Kementerian Pembangunan Usahawan patut digabungkan sekali dengan Kementerian Sumber Manusia kerana fokusnya yang agak serupa. PATI juga patut ditadbir dibawah kementerian yang baru ini. Hasrat kerajaan untuk mengurangkan bilangan pendatang asing dan melatih semula penganggur2 di negara dapat dilaksanakan dengan lebih berkesan di bawah satu kementerian. NEP dan juga hak keistimewaan juga patut dipantau oleh kementerian baru ini supaya implementasinya teratur dan tiada ketirisan atau salah guna keistimewaan seperti penjualan kontrak semula dan sebagainya.
Kementerian Kesenian, Kebudayaan, Warisan & Perpaduan Negara, Kementerian Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga & Masyarakat dan Kementerian Pembangunan Luar Bandar digabungkan menjadi Kementerian Kesenian dan Pembangunan Masyarakat. Kementerian bukan sahaja akan bertanggungjawab dalam soal warisan dan kesenian, tetapi khusus dalam pembelaan masyarakat dan komuniti. Ketiga-tiga kementerian saya fikir mempunyai teras yang agak serupa.
KDN tidak perlu lagi dipecahkan dua. Yang penting ialah untuk meletakkan seorang tokoh yang mempunyai integriti tinggi dan kepercayaan rakyat. Kerana kementerian ini dianggap sangat berpengaruh dan berkuasa, perlulah seorang yang tahu undang-undang dan dapat berkerjasama dengan pihak PDRM dan sebagainya dengan mesra dan profesional. Tokoh ini juga harus cekap dan fasih dalam menjelaskan polisi-polisi dan tindakan-tindakan kerajaan. Pertelingkahan antara PDRM dan kementerian yang kita saksikan sebelum ini tidak patut diulangi.

Bagaimana pula dengan reform dalam UMNO?

Nota 1: Apa muslihat MCA untuk menggesa Dato' Seri Najib supaya diwujudkan jawatan TPM II? Mana lagi penting, jawatan TPM atau supaya calon2 MCA yang ramai tumbang dalam PRU12 kerja keras untuk mengembalikan kepercayaan rakyat?

Syabas Dato Najib!

2009-04-03T20:38:00.006+08:00

Tanpa membazir masa, Dato' Seri Najib, Perdana Menteri Malaysia yang ke-enam telah mengumumkan bahawa beliau akan melepaskan 13 tahanan ISA dan memberi semula kebenaran cetak kepada dua akhbar yang telah digantung lesen mereka. Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri itu juga akan dikaji semula supaya mekanismanya lebih relevan dengan perkembangan masa.

Ini menunjukkan 'signal' yang nyata bahawa DS Najib komited untuk memenangi semula kepercayaan rakyat terhadap kerajaan Barisan Nasional. Langkah seterus DS Najib ialah untuk membentuk kabinetnya yang baru, termasuk hasrat Dato Seri PM untuk menyelaraskan beberapa kementerian supaya lebih efektif dalam mentadbir negara. Justeru bilangan menteri akan berkurangan dan Dato Najib akan diperhati semua akan pilihannya untuk mengisi kekosongan kabinet. Ramai yang tertanya siapa yang akan dikekalkan dan siapa akan dilepaskan. Itu lumrah apabila pertukaran kepimpinanan berlaku. Kita berdoa agar Dato' Najib membuat pilihan yang mantap dan menyingkir pemimpin2 yang kotor dan tidak berkeupayaan.

Jawatan Menteri ini sepatutnya tidak dianggap sebagai sagu hati kepada sesiapa yang telah memenangi jawatan2 dalam parti tetapi harus diberi kepada mereka yang mempunyai kaliber untuk menerajui kementerian tertentu. Banyak isu yang telah timbul sejak kebelakangan ini terutamanya dalam konteks kestabilan politik, ekonomi, projek2 yang diluluskan dan selepas itu dibatalkan kerana desakan ramai, kehilangan pulau kepada jiran dan sebagainya. Oleh itu, pilihan sebagai Menteri lebih penting diberikan kepada mereka yang akan menjalankan tanggungjawab dengan sempurna, bukan sekadar memberi 'reward' kerana setia kepada parti atau telah menang apa2 jawatan.

"Double Standard" Anwar Dalam Kes Elly, Arumugam Terbongkar

2009-04-01T00:24:00.000+08:00

"Double Standard" Anwar Dalam Kes Elly, Arumugam Terbongkar
Posted on Tuesday, March 31 @ 15:58:27 MYT

Oleh Adnil Mohd

Bukit Gantang -- Bekas Setiausaha Pemuda dan Ahli Majlis Tertinggi Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Lokman Noor Adam mendakwa Penasihat PKR, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim sehingga kini tidak mahu Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (ADUN) Bukit Lanjan, Elizabeth Wong melepaskan jawatan disebabkan peranan penting Elizabeth kepada parti itu.

Lokman yang kini Exco Pergerakan Pemuda UMNO Malaysia seterusnya mendedahkan pada tahun 2003, Anwar telah menghantar pimpinan kanan PKR ke Washington DC untuk mendapatkan dana daripada George Soros bagi menghadapi Pilihan Raya Umum ke-11 ketika itu.

Menurutnya, pertemuan itu telah diatur Tian Chua dan pimpinan PKR yang menghadap George Soros ketika itu ialah Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Azmin Ali dan Khalid Jaafar.

"Bagaimanapun Tian Chua tidak ada pada pertemuan itu sebaliknya beliau menghantar Elizabeth Wong untuk menguruskan pertemuan berkenaan.

"Pertemuan mereka terbongkar apabila berlaku pertengkaran di antara Azmin Ali dan Elizabeth setelah Azmin tidak membenarkan Elizabeth memasuki perbincangan tersebut kerana khuatir ada pihak luar yang mengetahui tindakan mereka menagih dana dari Soros", katanya.

Beliau mendedahkan perkara itu ketika berceramah ‘Kenapa Harus Tolak Pas’ di sini, Isnin malam.

Kata beliau lagi, perkara tersebut dimaklumkan oleh Ezam semasa mesyuarat 'inner circle' mereka.

Tegas beliau hakikat berkenaan jelas membuktikan “double standard” Anwar dalam berdepan dengan krisis dalaman parti tersebut.

"Saya katakan begitu kerana apabila bekas ADUN Bukit Selambau terlibat dengan masalah moral (perempuan simpanan) beliau segera desak agar ADUN tersebut meletakkan jawatan.

"Namun bila berdepan dengan kes Elly, Anwar mempertahankan Elizabeth habis-habisan sungguhpun ADUN berkenaan didakwa menghadapi masalah ketagihan rokok, arak dan yang terkini masalah gambar bogel serta hubungan dengan pemuda Islam (Helmi)", katanya.

Lokman seterusnya menambah Anwar masih tidak mahu Elizabeth meletakkan jawatan kerana Elizabeth adalah ‘jambatan’ kepada dana yang diberikan kepada PKR dari pihak asing yang mahu mengkucar-kacirkan negara.

Pada 1997, George Soros dilabel sebagai penyangak mata wang yang menyebabkan ekonomi negara merundum dan ekonomi Asia juga turut tergugat.

Khaled: Umno cannot afford to be race-centric

2009-03-23T12:27:00.003+08:00

Finally, one of the candidates for UMNO VP says it: "Umno’s internal problems arose from the attitude that “we have been in power for too long, and we are comfortable with what we have achieved,” when asked about the internal problems of UMNO.

"Many became “passengers,” enjoying the strength of the party without contributing to strengthen the party".

Tun Dr.Mahathir : Melayu dalam cemas

2009-03-23T00:01:00.002+08:00

DI PERHIMPUNAN DAN SIDANG KEMUNCAK PRIBUMI PERKASA NEGARADI KOMPLEKS SUKAN TNB, JALAN BANGSAR,KUALA LUMPUR PADA HARI AHAD, 22 MAC 2009

Tun Dr.Mahathir : Melayu dalam cemas,perlu tolak rasuah & usaha keras untuk ubah nasib dalam cabaran globalisasi

1. Terlebih dahulu saya ucap terima kasih kepada penganjur perhimpunan ini kerana menjemput saya dan memberi peluang kepada saya untuk berucap kepada hadirin.

2. Saya yakin ramai daripada kita yang hadir, terutamanya orang Melayu dan bumiputra lain, hadir kerana kita berasa kita berada dalam keadaan cemas, keadaan yang merbahaya, keadaan terancam.

3. Kenapa tidak? Kita kini diserang berkali-kali oleh berbagai pihak.

4. Ramai daripada orang lain berkata Melayu adalah kaum pendatang.

5. Melayu mengamalkan apartheid ala kulit putih Afrika Selatan.

6. Melayu tidak adil, suka menidakkan hak kaum-kaum lain.

7. Melayu sudah cukup kaya dan tidak perlu dasar Ekonomi Baru lagi.

8. Semua peluang perniagaan dan pelajaran diberi hanya kepada orang Melayu.

9. Kuasa politik dibolot oleh orang Melayu dan lain-lain.

10. Berhadapan dengan tuduhan dan tohmahan ini Melayu sekarang tidak boleh mempertahankan diri, bahkan tidak boleh bercakap berkenaan dengan bangsa mereka tanpa dituduh sebagai racist. Mereka harus terima sahaja semua tuduhan/tohmahan ini dan berdiam diri atau bersetuju sahaja. Mereka juga boleh tambah tokok kepada kecaman ini dan mereka ini akan dianggap liberal dan disanjung tinggi oleh orang lain. Sebenarnya orang Melayu sekarang berada dalam ketakutan, tidak mempunyai pemimpin yang sanggup pertahankan mereka. Sebaliknya pemimpin mereka mengerohkan lagi keadaan dengan memohon maaf walaupun kesalahan dilaku oleh orang lain.

11. Demikianlah situasi yang mereka hadapi sehingga mereka berasa mereka bersalah, tergamam dan tak dapat berkata apa-apa.

12. Keadaan hari ini lebih merbahaya daripada keadaan semasa British merancang untuk menakluk negeri-negeri Melayu dengan perancangan Malayan Union. Pada masa itu kita boleh cakap berkenaan Melayu dan tidak ada sesiapa yang akan tuduh kita sebagai racist. British pun tidak panggil kita racist. Mereka akui memang pun hak orang Melayu menuntut negeri-negeri Melayu sebagai hak orang Melayu. Semua perjanjian berkenaan dengan negeri-negeri di semenanjung mesti dibuat dengan Raja-Raja Melayu. Tidak ada siapa dari kaum laim yang berhak membuat apa-apa perjanjian.

13. Sekarang orang Melayu tidak pun boleh berkata negeri ini negeri Melayu, tidak boleh sebut negeri ini dikenali sebagai Tanah Melayu. Negeri Jepun boleh dikatakan negeri orang Jepun, negeri Korea – negeri orang Korea, negeri China – negeri orang Cina, negeri India – negeri orang India. Tetapi negeri Melayu – bukan negeri orang Melayu. Dahulu mungkin. Tetapi tidak sekarang. Sekarang Malaysia, hak orang Malaysia dan bukan hak orang Melayu. Kesanggupan dan kerelaan orang Melayu berkongsi milik negara ini tidak sedikit pun dihargai. Pemberian satu juta kerakyatan oleh Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra kepada kaum lain tidak dihargai bahkan tidak diingati, dilupakan dengan begitu sahaja.

14. Orang Melayu dikatakan kaum pendatang di negaranya sendiri. Dan kaum pendatang lain tidak boleh dipanggil kaum pendatang. Jika sesiapa berbuat demikian, mereka mesti minta maaf. Tidak perlu sesiapa minta maaf jika berkata Melayu kaum pendatang.

15. Namun saya memberanikan diri untuk bercakap sedikit berkenaan orang Melayu di Malaysia walaupun akan dituduh sebagai racist. Saya beranikan diri kerana sesungguhnya orang Melayu berada dalam keadaan cemas, dilanda oleh bermacam-macam masalah dan ancaman. Jika orang Melayu tidak dibenar bercakap berkenaan masalah mereka, maka mereka mungkin jadi kaum yang terlucut hak (dispossessed) di negara mereka sendiri. Bahaya ini benar kerana kita sudah lihat tekanan dan kehinaan terhadap bangsa kita apabila mereka dijadikan bangsa minoriti di wilayah yang dahulu adalah sebahagian daripada negeri-negeri Melayu.

16. Keadaan ini boleh berlaku kepada orang Melayu bukan sahaja kerana orang lain tetapi kerana orang Melayu sendiri. Mereka suka membinasakan diri mereka.

17. Mereka tidak mahu merebut peluang yang disedia bagi mereka. Tempat di universiti tidak diambil. Peluang perniagaan diselewengkan. Belia Melayu tidak ingin belajar, lebih berminat dengan melepak atau jadi Mat Rempit.

18. Majoriti daripada rakyat Malaysia yang terlibat dengan dadah terdiri daripada orang Melayu, yang mendapat penyakit HIV Aids kebanyakan adalah Melayu, kes rogol dan jenayah lain juga ramai orang Melayu.19. Yang gagal dalam perniagaan juga Melayu, tidak bayar hutang Melayu, tak selesaikan kontrak juga Melayu.

20. Gejala jualan AP pun melibatkan Melayu.

21. Kita tak suka dengar semua ini. Kita malu. Tetapi jika tidak disuarakan masalah tidak akan hilang dengan sendirinya. Orang lain tahu juga. Lebih baik malu jika kita dapat sedarkan beberapa kerat daripada kita dan mereka mengubah tabiat supaya tidak melakukan yang salah lagi. Yang lain tak malu tak mengapa. Tak mungkin kita dapat sedarkan semua. Yang kena akan terus kena.

22. Dasar Ekonomi Baru dibentuk supaya dalam jangkamasa 20 tahun kita akan dapat bahagian kita sebanyak 30%. Tetapi sekarang sudah hampir 40 tahun. 20% yang dikatakan kita dapat pun dapat kerana badan-badan yang mewakili Melayu, bukan orang Melayu sendiri. Kita hendak supaya DEB diteruskan. Apa gunanya jika kita tidak mahu guna peluang yang diwujudkan? Apakah kita mahu DEB kerana nak jual AP, kontrak, lesen dan sebagainya? Lebih baik DEB tidak diteruskan dan kita tidak dapat selewengkannya. Sekurang-kurangnya kita tak akan malu kerana pelbagai ejekan yang akan dibuat kepada kita.

23. Kita bernasib baik kerana dalam bidang politk kita cekap, kita kuat, kita dapat menguasai Kerajaan selama 50 tahun. Walaupun Melayu berpecah kepada beberapa parti, bermusuh sesama sendiri, tetapi majoriti Melayu masih dapat kekalkan kuasa mereka. Mereka dihormati dan disegani.

24. Tetapi itu pun sudah terlepas daripada genggaman kita. Sekarang kita tidak kuat lagi. Parti Melayu yang terkenal sudah kalah dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-12. Parti Melayu yang menangpun berada dalam ketakutan jika parti rakan mereka menolak mereka. Sekarang orang tidak lagi hormat kita. Apa sahaja yang dituntut orang lain, baik yang menang, baik yang kalah akan kita layan. Kita yang perlu hormati orang lain. Tersilap sikit kita minta maaf bagi pihak semua bangsa Melayu.

25. Sesungguhnya pemimpin kita yang perjuangkan kemerdekaan, yang menebus maruah kita sudah kita khianati. Mereka berjuang bermati-matian supaya kita hidup bahagia. Mereka korbankan apa sahaja yang ada pada mereka. Pemimpin Melayu hari ini, pengikut –pengikut mereka tidak tahu mengenang budi. Mereka khianati pejuang-pejuang dahulu dengan melupakan perjuangan asal kerana utamakan kepentingan diri sendiri. Biar bangsa hancur asalkan dapat kemenangan bagi diri sendiri, dapat jadi Menteri, Perdana Menteri, dapat kontrak, dapat duit.

26. Kononnya nak jadi Perdana Menteri termuda. Bukan nak majukan bangsa dan negara, hanya jawatan tertinggi untuk diri sendiri seawal mungkin. Dengan apa cara sekalipun, halal atau haram, tak mengapa asalkan boleh jadi Perdana Menteri termuda.

27. Jika kita sudah sanggup jual bangsa kita, kita jual untuk dapat duit sedikit, untuk jawatan kecil dan besar, untuk isi temolok kita, alamatnya apa? Yang dikejar tidak akan dapat, yang dikilik akan berciciran. Lepas itu kita tidak ada apa-apa yang boleh diraih lagi. Semuanya akan dikuasai orang. Pada masa itu kita jadi hamba sahaja, kita akan meminta-minta sepanjang masa.
28. Ada pula yang dibawah bertanya, orang yang mereka sokong dapat jadi Perdana Menteri, Menteri, Menteri Besar – dapat kereta, dipanggil Yang Berhormat, elaun besar, terbang sana, terbang sini.

29. Kita dapat apa? Duduk di takuk tu juga. Lebih baik kita ambil sedikit bagi diri kita, sementara ada peluang.

30. Salahkah kalau kita terima duit sedikit? Mungkin kita tidak undi orang yang menyogok. Dia bukan tahu. Tetapi Tuhan tahu. Kamu membuat sesuatu yang haram. Kamu bukan sahaja jual bangsa. Kamu menolak agama kamu yang melarang, yang mengharamkan perbuatan kamu. Kamu berdosa.

31. Tapi tak mengapa. Masih muda, tak akan mati lagi. Bila dekat nak mati pakai kopiah putih dan sembahyang kuat-kuat.

32. Tetapi yang haram, haram juga. Kalau makan daging bibi haram, makan duit rasuah lebih haram, kerana ia akan binasakan bukan kita sahaja, tetapi kaum bangsa kita yang semuanya beragama Islam.

33. Pengundi salah, samada undi penyogok atau tidak. Salah kerana sudah terima jenayah rasuah sebagai budaya kamu. Apabila rasuah dibudayakan, percayalah bangsa dan negara mungkin dijajah oleh penyogok secara langsung atau tidak langsung. Bangsa akan dihina oleh dunia, akan dipandang rendah, akan dipermainkan orang. Akhirnya yang makan suap, mereka sendiri akan jadi mangsa, mereka sendiri akan terpaksa hulur untuk mendapat apa yang sebenarnya hak mereka. Inilah nasib bangsa yang menjadikan rasuah sebagai budaya biasa.
34. Sesungguhnya Melayu mudah lupa. Kita lupa betapa kita dijajah dahulu, kita terpaksa panggil tuan orang yang menjajah kita, orang yang menghina kita. Tak boleh cakap berkenaan ketuanan Melayu. Kamu jadi hamba dahulu, bukan Tuan, layak hanya untuk tanam padi, tangkap ikan, jadi kuli orang, bawa kereta orang, tukang masak orang.

35. Selama 450 tahun kita dijajah, hidup sebagai hamba, dianggap tidak layak mentadbir negara sendiri, tidak layak merdeka.

36. Kita terpaksa letak diri kita dibawah naungan negara-negara jiran yang lebih kuat.

37. Tiap tahun kita usung bunga emas dan perak untuk dipersembahkan kepada negara penaung-penaung kita.

38. Kadang-kadang Raja kita pun pergi bersama, untuk membukti kesetiaan diri dan negeri kepada negara penanung.

39. Kata orang Kedah “Terkerempun-kerempun” apabila berhadapan dengan orang asing. Mungkin ramai yang tidak faham. Tanyalah orang Kedah. Itulah “body language” kita dahulu walaupun hari ini ada juga, tetapi pada Raja yang tak bertakhta.

40. Saya biasa lihat seorang orang tua Melayu berbasikal di tendang jatuh oleh askar Siam semasa Kedah diberi kepada Siam oleh Jepun. Kesalahan orang tua ini ialah kerana tidak berhenti dan menghormati lagu kebangsaan Siam.

41. Saya biasa lihat orang Melayu ditempeleng dan disuruh panjat pohon kelapa seperti kera oleh Jepun. Inilah nasib orang yang tidak merdeka, tidak memerintah negara sendiri. Boleh ditendang, boleh ditempeleng.
42. Dan yang lihat diam sahaja, tak dapat buat apa-apa, termasuk saya. Dalam kehinaan ini muncul kesedaran dan semangat untuk menebus balik maruah bangsa. Dan bergabunglah orang Melayu untuk menangkis rancangan Malayan Union British, untuk mengekalkan perhambaan orang Melayu. Tidak siapa yang bertanya “apa yang saya akan dapat bagi diri saya” pada ketika itu. Yang kita tumpukan ialah untuk membebaskan bangsa dan negara daripada dijajah dan dihina. Kalau dalam proses ini kita terkorban, atau kita berada seperti biasa, itu tidak mengapa. Yang kita utamakan ialah maruah bangsa kita, tidak lagi akan ditendang, tidak lagi akan ditempeleng – tetapi akan dihormati oleh kawan dan lawan.

43. Sekarang kita merdeka. Perjuangan pengasas negara telah berjaya. Kita tidak akan ditendang dan ditempeleng lagi. Kita bebas daripada kehinaan. Memang pun keadaan terhormat ini sudah menjadi perkara biasa bagi kita. Bagi ramai dari kita ia datang bergolek. Ia datang melayang. Ia tidak akan dipisah dari kita.

44. Perjuangan orang dahulu adalah perkara lama, tidak perlu diingati. Yang jelas kita sudah merdeka, dapat pelajaran dan kaya sedikit. Soal tendang, tempeleng, itu cerita lama. Pepatah Melayu berkata sekali merdeka, selama-lamanya merdeka. Apa pun kita buat merdeka tetap merdeka. Sekarang ialah masa untuk kita “enjoy”. Kita kecap sepenuhnya nikmat yang ada pada kita.

45. Apa dianya semangat ke-Melayuan? Apa relevannya? Bukankah kita sudah berjaya? Hendak semangat buat apa lagi? Masuk parti untuk apa? Perjuangan sudah selesai dengan jayanya.

46. Tidak bermakna masuk parti jika tidak dapat sesuatu bagi diri sendiri. Kita sokong orang dapat jadi Yang Berhormat, jadi Menteri, dapat peluang raih duit kerajaan dan lain-lain. Kita tak bolehkah dapat sikit bagi diri kita?

47. Tetapi benarkah kita akan merdeka selama-lamanya? Memang benar. Walaupun kita tidak buat apa-apa untuk mengekalkan kemerdekaan, bukankah sudah 50 tahun kita merdeka? Apa yang hendak dikhuatirkan? Lima puluh tahun, 100 tahun lagi pun kita akan merdeka walau apa pun kita lakukan. Takkanlah kerana kita ambil 100 Ringgit duit sogokan maka akan hilanglah kemerdekaan kita? Kita boleh sembahyang hajat dan terima 100 Ringgit lagi. Orang lain terima lebih daripada kita., katanya satu juta. Masih kita merdeka. Tidak benar kerana sedikit rasuah kemerdekaan akan hilang.

48. Tetapi ingatlah penjajahan tidak selalu berbentuk penaklukan secara langsung. Penjajahan boleh berlaku walaupun kita miliki pemerintahan sendiri. Ia boleh berlaku apabila pemerintah kita yang dipilih dan diberi kuasa oleh kita sudah menjual diri mereka kepada orang lain, samada dari dalam negeri atau dari luar. Atau takut jiran marah.

49. Pemerintah yang mengikut telunjuk orang lain bukan bebas lagi. Pemerintah yang menjadi pemerintah melalui rasuah akan benar diri mereka disogok kerana perlu mendapat kewangan yang cukup untuk membeli sokongan lagi supaya kedudukan mereka sebagai pemerintah akan kekal.

50. Untuk mendapat sogokan yang cukup mereka akan sanggup ikut arahan penyogok. Dengan perkataan lain mereka akan jadi alat pada penyogok.

51. Kepentingan penyogok tidak sama dengan kepentingan kita, atau kepentingan bangsa dan negara.

52. Kita sudah lihat hanya kerana hendak kekal sebagai pemerintah, ada yang sanggup layan apa sahaja arahan, tuntutan, desakan oleh pihak yang menentukan jawatan bagi kita. Kalau pun apa yang dituntut merugikan orang Melayu, itu tidak mengapa asalkan kita dapat jawatan, walaupun sebagai “figurehead”, patung sahaja, tidak berkuasa pun.
53. Jika kita terjemah keadaan ini kepada jawatan yang didapati kerana disogok apakah yang tidak sanggup kita buat? Jual bangsa, jual negara pun kita sanggup.

54. Apabila kita sudah jual bangsa dan negara apakah kita merdeka lagi? Sudah tentu tidak.

55. Justeru itu tidak benar kepercayaan kita bahawa sekali merdeka selama-lamanya merdeka. Pada permukaannya kita merdeka tetapi pada hakikatnya kita sudah kembali dijajah. Apabila kita kembali dijajah maka kita sudah khianati pejuang-pejuang kemerdekaan kita dahulu.

56. Itulah kenyataan yang sebenar.

57. Melayu mudah lupa. Kata seorang ahli falsafah; “Mereka yang lupa akan sejarah mereka akan didera dengan mengulangi kesalahan mereka berkali-kali”.

58. Inilah hasil daripada mudah lupa. Kita lupa bahkan kita tidak suka diperingati akan sejarah kita. Apa kena-mengena peristiwa 50 tahun dahulu? Apa kena-mengena dengan kita akan kemiskinan Melayu, dengan kedaifan mereka dalam bidang ilmu dan profesyen di masa dahulu? Itu dahulu, ini sekarang. Sudah tentu sejarah penjajahan kita dahulu tidak ada kena mengena dengan keadaan kita sekarang. Tidak ada pelajaran yang akan kita dapati daripada sejarah 100, 500 tahun dahulu. Itu semua cerita dongeng.

59. Apa yang kita lakukan sekarang, kita lakukan kerana kita sudah merdeka dan selamat. Buatlah apa pun kita tetap selamat, tetap merdeka.

60. Jadi penagih dadah, jadi pelepak, jadi “Mat Rempit”, jadi penjenayah pun tak mengapa.

61. Bukankah kita yang memilih dan membentuk Kerajaan? Kerajaan perlu bertanggungjawab terhadap kita. Jika kerana amalan buruk kita, sesuatu yang tidak baik menimpa kita, bukankah menjadi tanggungjawab Kerajaan pilihan kita untuk menyelamatkan kita?

62. Jika kita diserang orang bukankah menjadi tanggungjawab Kerajaan yang kita pilih untuk menangkis serangan ini?

63. Jika kerana Kerajaan yang kita pilih terdiri daripada orang yang sogok duit pada kita dan mereka pula disogok oleh orang lain dan mereka berasa lebih terikat kepada yang menyogok mereka dan kurang bertanggungjawab kepada kita kerana sokongan kita mereka dapati kerana kita terima sogokan, apakah yang dapat kita buat? Tak banyak. Hanya menerima sahaja.

64. Akan menjadi lebih buruklah nasib kita sepanjang masa.

65. Hakikat yang sebenar ialah sokongan kita, undi kita yang kita jual tidak lagi mengikat mereka yang kita pilih untuk jadi Kerajaan.

66. Mereka akan anggap balasan kepada sokongan kita sudah pun dibuat melalui wang sogokan daripada mereka.

67. Sesungguhnya nasib kita ada di tangan kita. Jika nasib ini tidak baik kitalah yang harus berusaha untuk memperbaikinya. Ingatlah, Tuhan telah berfirman yang Dia tidak akan mengubah nasib sesuatu kaum melainkan kaum itu sendiri berusaha mengubah nasibnya.

68. Apakah kita sedang berusaha untuk memperbaiki nasib kita? Tidak ternampak satu pun usaha ke arah ini. Yang kita lihat ialah perbuatan merosakkan lagi keadaan nasib yang sudah buruk ini.

69. Kita tahu yang kita lakukan bukan untuk memperbaiki keadaan. Tetapi kita lakukan juga untuk kepentingan semasa kita. Masa depan soal lain.

70. Pejuang-pejuang kemerdekaan telah pilih demokrasi sebagai cara kita memerintah. Kenapa?

71. Sebabnya ialah kerana mereka percaya majoriti daripada rakyat tentulah bijak dalam amalan mereka, tentulah tahu antara yang baik dengan yang buruk, tentulah bijak semasa membuat pilihan.

72. Pengasas kemerdekaan percaya majorti akan tahu pilih apa yang baik bagi mereka. Sudah tentu mereka akan menolak orang yang hanya bergantung kepada sogokan untuk dipilih.

73. Tetapi mereka tidak sangka pewaris mereka, sebilangan yang tidak kecil akan tolak kebaikan dan mengutamakan sogokan untuk menentukan siapa akan memerintah mereka.

74. Pejuang kemerdekaan yang sedar betapa sukarnya bagi orang Melayu mendapat peluang dan bantuan dahulu dan dengan kerana itu Melayu tidak berjaya.

75. Dengan kesedaran ini mereka merangka untuk mengadakan lebih banyak peluang dan sokongan kepada bangsa mereka supaya bangsa mereka boleh berdiri sama tinggi dan duduk sama rendah dengan kaum-kaum lain, bahkan dengan bangsa-bangsa lain di dunia. Mereka percaya semua peluang dan sokongan akan direbut oleh pewaris daripada bangsa mereka.

76. Ya, mereka ini kebanyakan sudah tidak ada, sudah tinggal kita. Tetapi jika mereka ada apakah perasaan mereka? Tentulah mereka akan kecewa dan hampa amat sangat kerana segala-gala yang mereka ilhamkan sudah dipermainkan oleh pewaris mereka, tidak dihargai oleh pewaris mereka.

77. Mereka melihat bagaimana peluang dan bantuan disalahgunakan atau ditolak dengan begitu sahaja. Sepatutnya dengan peluang belajar di semua peringkat bangsa mereka sudah jadi bangsa yang berilmu. Dengan peluang berniaga mereka sudah jadi kaya, atau sekurang-kurangnya tidak miskin.

78. Tetapi tidak. Peluang bukan sahaja tidak direbut tetapi peluang digunakan secara yang boleh merosakkan bangsa. Mereka lepak, mereka jadi Mat Rempit, yang lakukan jenayah yang kadang-kadang menyebabkan kematian mangsa mereka.

79. Diberi peluang berniaga, diberi modal, diberi latihan tetapi kerana ingin kaya cepat mereka memperdagangkan peluang, kontrak, lesen, permit dan sebagainya.

80. Modal mereka guna untuk belanja bagi memenuhi nafsu, hutang mereka tidak dibayar. Kerana kelakuan beberapa daripada mereka, bangsa mereka dicap sebagai bangsa yang tidak beramanah, dan tidak boleh dilayan, tidak boleh diharap dengan duit ringgit.

81. Dan banyaklah lagi perbuatan mereka yang tetap mengecewakan pejuang bangsa dahulu.

82. Kata mereka, jangan buka pekong di dada.

83. Malu kata mereka.

84. Tetapi tidakkah lebih malu apabila mereka lakukan apa yang telah saya sebutkan. Tak buka pekong pun busuk juga. Biarlah pekong di dada dibuka supaya kerana bau terlalu busuk kita akan cuba melepaskan diri daripadanya. Jika tidak ia akan menjadi lebih busuk di dalam dan akan bunuh kita.

85. Semua yang disebut ini menjadi pengkhianatan kepada pejuang bangsa dahulu. Kerosakan kerana ini lambat laun akan merosakkan masa depan kita.
86. Tetapi yang terdahsyat diantara amalan buruk kita ialah rasuah, terutama rasuah politik. Politiklah yang dapat memberi kuasa walaupun pada yang lemah dan miskin. Politik kita sewaktu perjuangan untuk kemerdekaan berjaya memberi kekuatan kepada Melayu sehingga mereka yang daif ini dapat mengalahkan kuasa besar dunia. Hanya dengan bersatu dan bertindak bersama, hanya dengan pendirian yang tegas kelemahan dapat diatasi dan kejayaan dicapai. Sesungguhnya kuasa politik kuasa ajaib.

87. Selagi ada kuasa ini kepada kita, percayalah kita akan dapat pulih segala-galanya, kita akan dapat mengatasi kelemahan kita, kita akan dapat tentukan masa depan kita.

88. Tidakkah kita lihat bagaimana daripada bangsa yang dijajah dan dihina, kuasa politik sudah mengubah nasib kita demikian sehingga kita dianggap sebagai contoh kepada bangsa-bangsa lain di dunia.

89. Bandingkan negara kita 50 tahun dahulu di waktu kita mencapai kemerdekaan dan negara kita sekarang. Negara dagang yang ke-17 terbesar di dunia. Kemiskinan dikurangkan daripada 70 peratus kepada lima peratus. Bandar sebesar bandar di negara maju, penuh dengan pencakar langit. Bekalan air, api dan kenderaan yang terkini.

90. Pendapatan per kapita yang 20 kali lebih tinggi dari 50 tahun dahulu dan lain-lain.

91. Semua ini adalah hasil kuasa politik semata-mata. Kerana kuasa politik, negara berbilang kaum, ugama, budaya dan bahasa dapat distabilkan. Dan sesungguhnya kita sudah dapat berdiri hampir sama tinggi dengan kaum-kaum lain dan bangsa-bangsa lain.

92. Tetapi sekarang kita lakukan perbuatan untuk menghakis dan menghapus kuasa politik kita.

93. Kerana wang yang sedikit, kerana 100-200 Ringgit kita jual kuasa politik, kita serah nasib kita kepada perasuah, perasuah yang akan jual bangsa dan negara.

94. Apakah akan jadi kepada kita apabila kuasa politik terlucut daripada kita? Apakah kita akan terus merdeka? Saya fikir tidak.

Tuan-Tuan dan Puan-Puan,

95. Perhimpunan Melayu hari ini memang menjadi hak bagi kita kerana kita menghadapi masalah-masalah yang besar-besar, bukan satu tetapi banyak masalah.

96. Kita semua berasa cemas. Di mana-mana sahaja orang Melayu sedang berhimpun untuk membincang masalah mereka, kecemasan yang mereka rasai.

97. Jika pada hari ini kita dapat menyedarkan akan musibah yang sedang dan akan timpa keatas kita, jika kesedaran ini akan menyebabkan kita bertindak keras terhadap mereka diantara kita yang mencetuskan masalah ini, jika kita dapat bandingkan gejala rasuah yang menjadi ancaman terhadap kita yang terbesar sekali, maka ralatlah perhimpunan ini, berjayalah perhimpunan ini.

98. Saya tak salahkan orang lain. Saya salahkan kita sendiri. Tak mungkin orang lain menguasai kita jika kita tegas dan tidak membenarkan mereka.

99. Maju mundurnya bangsa kita terpulanglah kepada kita. Ingatlah Tuhan tidak akan ubah nasib kita melainkan kita berusaha mengubah nasib kita sendiri.

100. Oleh itu berusahalah mengubah nasib diri sendiri setelah kita berhimpun di sini untuk membincang masalah yang kita hadapi. Saya percaya perbincangan kita akan membuahkan pemikiran dan tindakan yang boleh menyelamatkan kita.
Wassalamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.

Terima kasih.

Obama's Slip and of Justice in Gaza

2009-03-22T00:01:00.002+08:00

President Obama made a slip of the tongue when talking about his bowling skills on "The Tonight Show", explaining his skills to be "like Special Olympics or something." He quickly made a phone call from Air Force One, apologizing to the Special Olympics Chairman. I think we have seen worse comments and fumble of words from his predecessor Bush.

Meanwhile, the Israeli Army is conducting an investigation over alleged "confusion" amongst soldiers about their instructions during the 20-day Gaza incursion. The International Criminal Court has been asked to look into it.

A total of 1300 Palestinians were killed vs 13 Israelis. 20,000 homes demolished, 240 schools destroyed, producing 600,000 tonnes of debris. An estimated USD4.5B is needed over the next 5 years to restore basic necessities in the war-torn Gaza strip.

Scale of Gaza destruction

Salah Guna Kuasa

2009-03-21T21:45:00.003+08:00

Selepas beberapa hari ditanya mengenai kedudukan Timbalan Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang, akhirnya beliau meletakkan jawatan hari ini. Beliau diminta untuk berundur atas dakwaan salah guna kuasa dalam beberapa projek di Pulau Pinang. Rupa-rupanya masalah rasuah dan salah guna kuasa ini bukanlah masalah kerajaan Barisan Nasional sahaja. Bagaimana pula dengan dakwaan rasuah di Perak & Selangor?

Alasan yang diberi DSAI ialah Fairus ingin melanjutkan pelajaran ke luar negara.

Jadi rupa-rupanya penyakit kuasa dan rasuah tidak mengenal parti.....

AIG Bonus

2009-03-21T00:01:00.002+08:00

The much debated bailout funds approved by Congress was recently used up by AIG for bonus payouts worth $34million to 52 individuals. How this slipped through the cracks, only the Feds could answer. In the words of AIG CEO, it was necessary to retain top executives. One wonders with all the major banks in the US going bust, where would the top execs go to seek employment? US Treasury Secretary, who mistakenly did not pay his tax before taking his oath, had said that executive pay in the US has been exorbitant.

Poor Americans are being chased out of their homes for defaulting their loans, an error on the government side for making it too easy to withdraw loans in the form of subprime mortgages. Executives on the other hand are cashing in. So will Obama's message during inauguration of making America once again the "beacon of hope" materialize?

Congress later passed a legislation to tax the executives heavily.

Our New Deal

2009-03-20T02:53:00.007+08:00

4 days to go to UMNO general assembly. Blogs are brewing with juicy speculations, particularly on the return of one former prime minister and several former ministers back to government pay roll.

Not a bad move, considering Obama himself activated several senior aides during the Clinton administration while attempting to duplicate FDR's New Deal to revive the severely battered economy. FDR was touted to be the American Savior from the Great Depression, using methods such as buying up mortgages using government funds and reducing the monthly payments for consumers, allowing them to return to their homes.

More watchful eyes are on Dato' Seri Najib and his choice for cabinet ministers. Tan Sri Sanusi is rumored to become National Security Advisor, with Tun Dr Mahathir and Tun Daim in advisory roles.

Meanwhile, TDM was commenting on froggy Zaid Ibrahim's plea to the King to choose a better premier.

Of Money Politics

2009-03-18T02:42:00.015+08:00

1. After the announcement by UMNO disciplinary board, the post for UMNO Deputy President will be a straight fight between Tan Sri Muhyiddin and Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib.

2. I really can't imagine a former Menteri Besar caught in Australia with a large stash of cash and no ability to defend himself in the courts because he could not speak any English would win.

3. We hope the delegates would make the right decision. However, my boss used to tell us that "hope" is not a plan.

4. Since Dato' Seri Ali has been barred from contesting due to money politics, it is unclear whether he would retain the seat as Menteri Besar when Dato' Seri Najib takes over. His membership remains intact.

5. His political secretary, Saadun Basirun faced a different tune. Found guilty of money politics, his membership has been suspended for 3 years. If Saadun acted on behalf of Dato' Seri, why is the punishment meted out more severe than of his boss? Perhaps there was no proof of a link, if any.

6. KJ although found guilty of money politics escaped unscathed because of difference in situation than Dato' Seri Ali, according to Tengku Rithaudeen. According to Tengku also, the amount of money and the action of the agents differ between that of KJ's and Dato' Seri Ali's.

7. Who are the agents and will they also face penalty for aiding and abetting? How are the situations different? What is the amount involved here? Tengku was also quoted to have said that it's between "rasuah wang" and "rasuah makan-makan".

8. 12 other members were found guilty, but only 9 had their memberships suspended. Maybe it is also between "rasuah wang" and "rasuah makan-makan".

9. On the other hand, Norza was hauled up by MACC for his alleged involvement in money politics. He could face a fine up to 5 times the amount involved or 20 years of imprisonment. Bail was set at RM10,000.