Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

Former MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat today confirmed that he had conveyed the message to a United State diplomat saying that the Chinese in Malaysia are indeed being marginalized. According to Tee Keat, he was confirming that it was him who had given this word to the US embassy officials, saying that he was merely conveying the sentiments of the Chinese community at large. So, we want to ask the current leaderships of the BN "Chinese" component parties, like MCA, Gerakan, SUPP (Sarawak) and LDP (Sabah) whether they have the sound courage to answer if the Chinese in Malaysia are really being marginalized or otherwise. Dr Chua Soi Lek (MCA), Dr Koh Tsu Koon (Gerakan), Dr George Chan (SUPP) and Liew Vui Keong (LDP), are you all ready to state your stand on this? Do you all have enough courage to tell the truth that the community you claim to represent are in fact being marginalized in many ways and means? Which one is more important to you? The welfare of the Mal...

As we all Malaysians mark the 54th anniversary of nation's independence, the usual pomp-pomp fun parties and nationwide pageantry comes at a time of a very increasingly tense ethnic and religious ties. What is it to celebrate of when our nation is in the midst of division, both racial and religiously, as the result of the Umno-led BN government, their funded extremist groups and the continuous social injustice towards our people, our family, our children and friends. As usual threat to burn down, to harm, showing off their dagger and violent acts, to do bloodshed, warning our people this and that, creating unrest on the roads, streets, chanting hate slogans are the norms of these Umno, Perkasa and the rest of the extremist groups in this country nowadays. They didn't have to worry of any action by the authorities because they themselves are currently above the law. The authorities are indeed afraid of them. So, with all these extremism and racism on the rise with no che...

First we saw a report from RTM1 saying that some Pakatan Rakyat leaders were behind some efforts to get many Muslim to turn "murtad" against their religion. Then, there is TV3 who faked another report saying that there is some attempt to make some people "murtad" and even publish a picture of an alleged location which didn't even exist in the first place. What are the intentions of these RTM1 and TV3? From our observation since 2008, we notice that news readers from these two stations seems like hating the opposition Pakatan Rakyat so much when they are reading their news reports in front of the screen. When reporting about the condemnation or criticisms on the opposition party leaders, these news reader like to raise their tones and sometimes added funny and sarcastic words to show their dislike on them. Their faces and body language indeed demonstrated them clearly. It seems like the entire community in the RTM and TV3 hated those who oppose Barisan Nasion...

For the past few weeks, we indeed witnessed a lots of bashing from various corners on the Gerakan president and PMD minister Dr Koh Tsu Koon. And then he is on full defensive mode hitting back at all his detractors despite so many evidence being produced on his past under performing governance in Penang. Ever since the political tsunami in last March 2008 which saw the Gerakan-led Penang state government being totally swept aside, the Gerakan president has yet to fulfill his pledges and promises to rejuvenate the party for its massive losses suffered. In fact, Dr Koh had broken all his promises instead, with the first critical one when he pledged not to accept any backdoor ministerial appointment until he rebuild his party, and later decided to accept the senatorial appointment and a ministerial position right after Umno president Najib Razak took helm of the country's premiership. And since then, he never look at his demoralized party anymore. This resulted to some minor r...

By Lim Mun Fah The anti-rare earth plant peaceful rally was threatened by violence, Malay right group Perkasa members openly used violence against a photographer during a rally and lawmakers have received dead threats via short messages on mobile phones. Today, even the Home Minister has received a dead threat letter attached with two bullets. How could such terrible incident take place in Malaysia, a country being ranked 19th in the Global Peace Index (GPI), which is also the highest place among Southeast Asian countries? We condemn any forms of violence and regard all perpetrators as heinous devils. However, perpetrators always believe that they are morally correct and regard all who do not agree with them as devils deserve to be dealt with extreme measures. We cannot tolerate nor ignore such wanton violence and threats. If we tolerate and remain silent, it would mean that we have equated violence to justice while indirectly encouraging more terrorist acts that threaten so...

The Sultan of Selangor expressed "anger" and "shock" today at Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s claim that the Ruler had suggested the formation of a syura advisory council. Tan Sri Khalid had said yesterday the idea for the advisory council to resolve a controversial raid on a church — comprising him, state Mufti Datuk Setia Mohd Tamyes Abd Wahid and deputy Mufti Datuk Abdul Majid Omar — came from the Ruler during a meeting last week. "Ampun tuanku, beribu-ribu ampun, pohon patik harap diampun" . We really do not understand that why are they so many "kejutan" or shock waves from the Selangor palace since from March 2008 until now? Don't you know that, it shows there are grave communication breakdowns around your palace between you and you staffs. Forgive us if we have to say this. Because your staffs' salary also derive from our annual income tax and revenue payments. As at now, we had only hear statements released from your ...

Setelah perdana menteri dan presiden Umno Najib Razak mengumumkan penubuhan sebuah jawatankuasa pilihan parlimen bagi mengkaji pembaharuan di dalam sistem pilihanraya di dalam negara kita ini, rakyat kita telah mengalu-alukan penubuhan jawatankuasa bertaraf parlimen tersebut dengan harapan agar sistem dan perlaksanaan pilihanraya di negara kita dapat dirombak dan diperbaharui dengan segera bagi menampakkan ciri-ciri keadilan dan kesaksamaan. Harapan seterusnya oleh kita adalah struktur jawatankuasa pilihan parlimen bagi pembaharuan dalam sistem pilihanraya tersebut akan juga terdiri daripada wakil-wakil daripada semua pihak baik kerajaan BN mahupun Pakatan Rakyat berserta dengan ahli-ahli parlimen bebas dan pertubuhan-pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) yang berkaitan misalannya Fomca, Suaram, Aliran, Manfrel, Bersih 2.0. Selain daripada itu, rakyat juga berharapan tinggi agar wakil Majlis Peguam juga dapat dilantik ke jawatankuasa tersebut bagi membantu dari segi perundangan dan perlem...

The parliamentary select committee on electoral reform which is scheduled to be officially established in the next parliament sitting on October had already saw its potential failure of which will eventually lead to its ineffectiveness. First, the membership of the select committee shall comprise of nine members where it will be represented by five BN members of parliament, three Pakatan parliamentarians and one independent member of parliament. And worst of all, this committee will be adamantly chaired by a cabinet minister. And there you see, with the composition of the select committee's membership which will definitely give more advantages to the BN side rather than both sides having the same and fair composition. So, what ever the committee chairman (a minister) says, he will certainly obtain the majority as there are already a firm five of them, whereas the Pakatan side will have limited say on all matters arise no matter how loud they voice them out as they will be havin...

RELA atau nama penuhnya Ikatan Relawan Rakyat Malaysia telah ditubuhkan pada 11 Januari 1972 di bawah Akta (Kuasa-kuasa perlu) Darurat 1964, Pindaan 2005 (RELA). Pembentukan RELA adalah untuk memberikan peluang kepada rakyat jelata untuk tampil ke hadapan untuk berkhidmat untuk negara melalui penglibatan secara sukarela di dalam pasukan keselamatan tersebut, umumnya membantu kerajaan memelihara keamanan dan keselamatan negara. Akan tetapi, RELA yang sepatutnya menjadi benteng keselamatan dan pertahanan negara selain daripada angkatan tentera dan pasukan polis, telah dipolitikkan oleh kerajaan pusat. Penglibatan ramainya ahli-ahli dan pemimpin akar umbi parti-parti politik yang memerintah khususnya daripada kalangan Umno dan MCA telah mengakibatkan pasukan RELA tersebut telah dijadikan seperti satu lagi komponen politik untuk Barisan Nasional (BN) untuk mengekalkan kuasa yang mereka sedang nikmati sekarang berikutan kemerosotan pengaruh mereka di dalam tsunami politik pada tahu...

After getting the Selangor state executive councillor and State DAP Chairman Teressa Kok detained in the Internal Security Act (ISA) for alleging that she had instructed mosques in her constituency not to sound the azan during prayers, Umno is now trying to get the Penang chief minister and DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng into the same condition. When the Jabatan Hal-ehwal Agama Islam Pulau Pinang (JHEAIPP) decided to issue a Fatwa in accordance to the Islamic teachings, to all mosques in the state instructing them to lower their tones and loud speakers when reciting the Quran verses, Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is quick to jump into the extremist wagon by claiming that the Penang chief minister had a say in the recent JHEAIPP Fatwa. We supposed the Umno vice-president who is also the former head of the Penang Umno state liaison committee is suffering from a most severe brain damage. And so does all the state Umno leader there. So are very sick while the rest are so ...

Senator Mohd Ezam Mohd Nor dari Umno baru-baru ini telah mengumpul puluhan penyokong Umno, Perkasa dan lain-lain kumpulan ekstremis di sekitar kawasan Shah Alam untuk berhimpun di perkarangan Masjid Shah Alam bagi melafazkan rasa dendam dan kebencian mereka terhadap dua media internet yang terkemuka, Malaysiakini dan The Malaysian Insider . Malah, di dalam ucapan tersebut, Senator Ezam turut melaung-laungkan ancamannya untukpergi ke dua media internet tersebut bagi membakar serta memusnahkan pejabat mereka, sambil menuduh kedua-dua media tersebut campurtangan di dalam hal-ehwal Islam. Walaupun ada unsur ancaman untuk membakar yang merupakan suatu jenayah di bawah Kanun Keseksaan (Penal Code), namun pihak polis yang berada di situ pada waktu itu hanya sekadar melihat dan tidak berani bertindak terhadap beliau, berkemungkinan bahawa Senator Ezam adalah ahli Umno. Wah! Kalau ahli atau pemimpin Umno, polis pun takut untuk mengambil tindakan terhadap mereka, kerana kita semua seme...

Just after several NGOs exposed some irregularities in the electoral list, the Election Commission (EC) was so quick and efficient in having all those records erased from the electoral list and on the next day, the EC officials came out to the press denying that such irregularities never even exist and that of those NGOs' claims were baseless. Well, we really hope that those NGOs who exposed these electoral irregularities did print out all those wonders and keep them in their file as a record. We wish to remind the EC and its officials, there's no point for you to deny whatever irregularities that had existed in the electoral list which you are supposed to be responsible of maintaining and housekeeping it. Are you telling us that you are so clean and efficient? If yes, why all these exist in the first place? Why did Bersih 2.0 exist then? Why did our people rallied to support Bersih 2.0 then? We had nothing to do? We all have an important objective, that is to ensure that...

Before that, there are a lots of proven allegations of phantom voters, then we are hearing words from retired army personnel tampering hundreds of ballot papers during their service, later on claims of those outsiders with permanent residence status being upgraded to citizens and granted rights to vote. And many more, some voters found in several states has already reach the age of 132 years. Recent findings from independent electoral watch groups had also indicated that there are voters names and details being duplicated in a few different voting areas i.e. different parliamentary and state constituencies. They have the similar names, same identity card numbers, but different addresses and date of births. And some of these voters were also found to have been duplicated in few different states. Apart from that, army and police personnel also possess two different identifications, the one issued by the force while the other by the National Registration Department (NRD). Highly poten...

Kita telah mengetahui bahawa, sesiapa sahaja yang tidak menyetujui cara-cara Umno dan versi ketuanan parti tersebut akan dicapkan dengan pelbagai nama dan gelaran yang boleh memusnahkan masa depan seseorang tersebut. Apabila Anwar Ibrahim mula mengetuai barisan pembangkang yang kemudiannya dinamakan Pakatan Rakyat, media-media Umno asyik menghentam beliau pada setiap saat dengan mendakwa kononnya Anwar adalah seorang penderhaka, agen Yahudi. Dan setelah satu rampasan kuasa di negeri Perak setahun selepas pilihanraya umum 2008 di mana Umno yang memberontak berjaya menggulingkan kerajaan negeri Perak pada masa itu, Karpal Singh mempersoalkan tindakan Umno mempergunakan institusi raja untuk tujuan politiknya, beliau pula dicap sebagai penderhaka dan didakwa di mahkamah tetapi Karpal kemudiannya telah didapati tidak bersalah kerana beberapa orang saksi pendakwa gagal mengemukakan bukti yang sahih berhubung dengan penderhakaan tersebut. Isu penukaran ugama rasmi negara Tidak pu...

Oleh Rizal Tahir Biarpun bulan Ramadan hanya disambut oleh umat Islam sahaja, namun kerajaan Kelantan itu tidak melupakan masyarakat bukan Islam di negeri itu. Sempena majlis Iftor Ramadan dan sumbangan kepada golongan miskin anjuran Perbadanan Menteri Besar Kelantan (PMBK) itu, seramai 6 orang bukan Islam yang terdiri dari kaun Cina, India dan Siam turut menerima sumbangan berkenaan. Mereka yang mewakili 25 Dewan Undangan Negeri di negeri itu menerima sendiri sumbangan dari Menteri Besar, Tuan Guru Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat yang diadakan di Masjid Kota Darulnaim, di sini malam tadi. Pada masa yang sama Kifalah Sdn Bhd turut menyumbang sebanyak RM1.5 juta kepada penerima untuk pemberian awal Ramadan. Hadir sama, Ketua Eksekutif, Ir Mustapha Salleh , Adun serta pemimpin masyarakat. Tuan Guru ketika berucap pada majlis itu berkata, pentingnya golongan terbabit dijemput sama pada majlis berbuka puasa agar mereka dapat melihat keindahan Islam. “Pada masa yang sama ...

By Kamilia Sharifuddin I read with interest the report and claims that there is a secret "underground" mission to target hard-up Muslims and entice them into Christianity. While the truth of this claim is not established, the statement is a slap on Muslims in more ways than one. Firstly, it shows how vulnerable Muslims in this country are, despite all the assistance and encouragement given to them. On television, there is no end to religious shows and so-called Islamic series. The mosques are getting bigger every year and the amount spent by the government on anything to do with Islam (of course, as interpreted to suit them) is also astronomical. So what has gone wrong? Muslims should think: how come Islam is attractive in the West where there is no government funding at all to Muslim organisations, where mosques are scarce and where there is always some level of Islamophobia, whether at an individual level or institutional level? And here in Malaysia, we stil...

During the recently concluded Sabah MCA convention, the party president Dr Chua Soi Lek had alleged that DAP has been trying to ensure the Chinese would be pitting against the Chinese in its political foul play by dividing the Chinese political representatives among the other Pakatan Rakyat component parties. So what is the meaning of this statement actually? After saying those words, Dr Chua gave another confusing statement that DAP was also plotting to establish a "Chinese State" in Malaysia by employing a split tactic to woe the Chinese voters. Dr Chua's statement is so confusing as on the same day, at the same time, he had said that DAP was pitting Chinese against each other while a few minutes later he mentioned DAP was trying to establish a "Chinese State" in this country. And the delegates of the Sabah MCA convention blindly applauded his statement made during his presidential address then. Let us make thing straight to the point about these two r...

By Anthony Tay My name is Anthony Tay and I am a retiree in my 70s. I vote in Segambut and I am writing to express my concern regarding the new biometric system which is going to be implemented in the coming 13th General Election. This is because I have read in the papers that the Election Commission (EC) has announced that they are considering the usage of the biometric system to read the identity card of voters before allowing them to vote. However what is important to note is that the biometric system does not in anyway detect multiple voting. It just reads the identity card only. Period. The Federal Government has given full support to this so-called advanced and sophisticated system despite its obvious flaws. This being the case, the issue of multiple-voting has been totally ignored. Multiple-voting is the greatest crime of all as it is against the democratic process because it nullifies the one person-one vote formula. To be frank, at first I was sceptical of Bersih's demands...

Merujuk kepada satu kenyataan yang dikeluarkan oleh pengerusi Suruhanjaya Pengangkutan Awam Darat (SPAD) Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar baru-baru ini yang memberi amaran agar parti-parti pembangkang tidak campurtangan di dalam memberikan pendapat politik mereka ataupun menentukan halatuju kemudahan pengangkutan awam. Kami berpendapat bahawa amaran yang dikeluarkan oleh Tan Sri Syed Hamid itu adalah tidak tepat kerana pemerhatian terhadap segala bentuk dasar yang menguruskan kemudahan pengangkutan awam adalah merupakan tanggungjawab semua orang, biar kita sebagai rakyat biasa mahupun seseorang ahli politik. Tambahan pula, kenyataan yang dikeluarkan oleh Tan Sri Syed Hamid itu seolah-olahya juga telah menampar mukanya sendiri, kerana beliau sendiri adalah juga merupakan seorang ahli majlis tertinggi Umno. Jika sekiranya orang-orang politik tidak sepatutnya mencampuri urusan perlaksanaan dasar pengangkutan di negara ini, maka Tan Sri Syed Hamid sepatutnya perlu meletakkan jawatannya sebagai pen...

Baru-baru ini kita telahpun melihat langkah kerajaan pusat BN untuk memperketatkan cengkaman mereka terhadap industri media dengan penubuhan Majlis Perundingan Media Negara. Alasan utama penubuhan majlis tersebut, menurut kerajaan adalah demi “kepentingan nasional” pada keseluruhannya. Apakah yang dimaksudkan “kepentingan nasional” sebenarnya? Kita melihat pembentukan majlis tersebut adalah lebih kepada kepentingan BN semata-mata kerana pembentukan majlis perundingan tersebut mempunyai jumlah keahlian yang terdiri daripada pegawai-pegawai kerajaan, polis, agensi dan jabatan penguatkuasa, suruhanjaya komunikasi dan multimedia yang melebihi jumlah wakil-wakil daripada pihak media yang dijemput. Jadi adakah Majlis Perundingan Media Negara ini benar-benar digunakan untuk perundingan di antara pihak kerajaan dan wakil-wakil daripada industri media pada keseluruhannya? Pada pandangan secara amnya telahpun ditonjolkan bahawa ianya lebih berfungsi seperti sebuah Majlis Kawalan Media Negara. Ra...

The Media Consultative Council established by the BN federal government recently had received poor response from representatives of the media industry. What we saw the membership composition of this council is the consultative council is rather more like a Media Control Council than a consultative. The entire situation of the council had in fact clearly demonstrated that the body aims to control the media. Asides from invitees from the private media industries, there are so many representatives from the home ministry, information ministry, various enforcement agencies, multimedia commission and the police as well. Furthermore, the council is co-chaired by both the home minister Hishammuddin Hussein and information minister Rais Yatim. So, what do you think, do you think it looks like a Media Consultative Council? Demonstrated from the composition of the council members itself had already shown that the council aims to exercise its firm control over the media industry. Besides that, the...

Recently, the Penang wanita MCA chief Tan Cheng Liang had complained that the party was upset as the Chinese contractors in the state were not awarded any contracts in the state's five districts by the Penang state government. Tan also concluded that, the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng for not looking at the Chinese contractors and their abilities but had overly focused on currying favour with other races. So, after Umno's Malay agenda, it is now MCA's Chinese agenda. We supposed MCA is suffering from a total memory loss right now. Has MCA forgotten that all government contractors are for Bumiputras only? This ruling has been enforced at the federal level right down to the state ones, ever since the New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced by none other than Umno, MCA's partner in crime inside the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. When the Penang state government awarded so many contracts to Bumiputra contractors, Umno complained that the Malay contractors wer...

According to Gerakan vice-president Chia Kwang Chye recently, the party is way behind in its preparation to face the next general elections. According to Chia, Gerakan which suffered the worst ever defeat in 2008 and losing its power based in Penang to Pakatan Rakyat, was not ready to battle the currently stable Penang Pakatan Rakyat state government who had since 2008 introduced many reforms in the administration and the state as well. Gerakan lost all its thirteen Penang state legislative assembly seats it had contested in the last general elections in March 2008. Penang state was formerly Gerakan's stronghold and its power base was focused at the state until 2008. The speculations made by Chia had clearly demonstrated the fact that the leadership of the current Gerakan president Dr Koh Tsu Koon is ineffective in reviving the party in aftermath of the 2008 general election which saw Gerakan's worst ever loss. After losing the Penang state to Pakatan Rakyat, the Gerakan presid...