Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

By Andre Damon Governments of the world's major economies announced staggering first-quarter contractions in the past few days, as real indicators of the economic crisis continue to worsen. Mexico was the latest country to post a huge decline in the first quarter, announcing Wednesday that its economy shrank by 8.2 percent compared to a year ago. This is the steepest fall since the peso crisis of 1995 brought the country to the brink of insolvency and works out on an annualized basis to a 21.5 percent free fall. This followed Tuesday’s announcement that the Japanese economy contracted 4 percent in the fourth quarter, the worst downturn since 1955, and a stunning 15.2 percent annualized contraction. The Japanese economy had shrunk by 3.8 percent in the previous quarter. Last week Germany announced that its economy had also fallen by 4 percent in the first quarter, the sharpest contraction since the government began keeping quarter-to-quarter figures in 1970. Germany, whose export-le...

The People's Progressive Party (PPP) doubt as the smallest party in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is now in trouble and facing a possibility of being de-registered by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) for not having its annual returns send up every year. Apart from that, there is also a power struggle in PPP where its supreme council member T.Murugiah who is seen as a young rising star in the party has been purged and sacked from the party by its president M.Kayveas. The reason for Murugiah's sacking were allegation of money politics and the possibility of Murugiah mounting a challenge against Kayveas in the June's party election. Apart from that Murugiah and his supporters are also accused of damaging the party's reputation by exposing its non-conformance in public. But some source said the real reason for Murugiah's sacking was because he was too patriotic to PPP and he in fact wanted to save the party from being de-registered for not submitting their annual ...

By Abu Talib Othman The Perak incident was raised and discussed at SUHAKAM monthly meeting on 11th May 2009. It appears to us that during the incident that occurred in the Perak State Legislative Assembly on 7th May 2009, the police and the civil service acted in concert with the government that has assumed power in controversial circumstances, showing complete disregard for human rights. Governments may change but those who serve in the police and administration must remain loyalto the wider interest and respect human rights rather than the narrow interest of individuals who form the government of the day. When the elected members of the Assembly met and challenged each other in the august House, the police were busily engaged in “maintaining public order”. Outside, passive demonstrators dressed in black to mourn the violation of their rights to assemble peacefully, were particularly provoked and manhandled. The Dewan proceeded even while the court was still to decide on the following...

Perak remained in a political limbo yesterday, as leaders from both the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and its rival Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance insist their chief is the rightful mentri besar. But concern is spreading among politicians and observers that the continuing mess will affect Perak's economy, as investors are unsure who to approach. The three-party PR coalition took over Perak after winning the most seats in the March general election last year. But on Feb 4, BN seized power after the defection of three PR lawmakers. “If you are a businessman and wish to invest in a certain project which can be approved only by the chief, who are you to see?” Dr Hsu Dar Ren wrote. “You see one a few hours ago and then a new one comes in through the revolving door, who is the actual boss?” asked Hsu, a top leader of Gerakan, a component party of BN. Yesterday, BN's Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir reported to work as mentri besar, just a day after PR's Datuk Seri Nizar Jam...