Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 20/10/2013 When thieves stole our money, are we going to say thank you to these thieves? Sounds crazy, isn’t it? This is the case of the petrol subsidies which have been taken away little by little from our people by the Barisan Nasional government. When people are complaining of an increase in inflation following the rise in the petrol price recently, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan, who is also the Umno information chief, came out in defence of the government by saying that the people did not even thank the government when there are subsidies for the petrol all this while. Yes, no one thanks the government, the BN coalition or even Umno for the subsidies that the people had enjoyed all this while. First of all, why should we thank the thieves? The BN government, Umno and Ahmad should understand the basic roles and responsibilities of a government. When you give subsidies to all of us, we do not ...

This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 12/10/2013 After the 12th and 13th general elections, the leaders of Barisan Nasional have often spoken about the disunity and possible break-up of the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, due to the latter’s “failure” to form a shadow cabinet in Parliament. The latest attack came from Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, the Youth and Sports Minister, who said that Pakatan leaders are always bickering internally and that is why the shadow cabinet failed to materialise. Khairy also pointed out that Pakatan should be more responsible on the opposition bench because, according to the Westminster-style democracy “practised” in our nation, the opposition should have a shadow cabinet in place. Then, recently Suaram adviser Dr Kua Kia Soong also spoke about the need for Pakatan to quickly get the shadow cabinet in place. In the first place, Khairy was totally wrong when he said that our nation practises a Westmins...

Datuk Mah Siew Keong was elected the new party president of Gerakan in a straight fight with Penang Gerakan chairman Teng Chang Yeow yesterday. And we congratulate him for his sound victory. Time to get down to work in getting the Gerakan's house back in order. With Datuk Mah's election as party president as well as the new central committee in place, it looks like the Penang influence over the party's central leadership is almost gone. Datuk Mah is from Perak, while his new deputy president and running mate, Dr Cheah Soon Hai is from Kedah. The very typical question here is, will Datuk Mah and his team, clearly backed by the party elders, be able to step out of the shadows of the party veterans who had earlier groomed and campaigned tirelessly for him for the party presidency? Will Datuk Mah and Dr Cheah be able to stand on their own politically in Gerakan and BN as well? Are they ready to take on a critical role in the BN in ensuring their voices in the coalition...

Former MCA president and former transport minister Dr Ling Liong Sik was today acquitted the court of all charges against him in the much publicized Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal which had cost the government billions of Ringgit in losses. Then, the question here is, who is the real culprit? Why was the probe only focusing on Dr Ling and not the other parties who are also involved in the PKFZ dealings, be it directly or indirectly? The contractors, sub-contractors, as well as those minor contractors at large, business connections, other powerful people behind the scene, why weren't all these elements taken into consideration during the probe. Another former transport minister Chan Kong Choy who is also the former MCA deputy president was also reported to be part of the PKFZ deal during his tenure in the government. Why was his case yet to be heard? Perhaps the Attorney-General's Chambers had forgotten. So does the Malaysian Anti Corruption Agency (MACC). Besides Ch...

Mahkamah Rayuan baru-baru ini telah mengumumkan keputusan penghakiman dengan menjelaskan bahawa ahkbar terbitan kumpulan gereja Kristian Katolik, The Herald tidak boleh menggunakan istilah Allah di dalam terbitan mereka. Ya, jika dipandang dari sudut penghakiman itu sendiri, ia sememangnya hanya merujuk kepada akhbar The Herald dan tidak meliputi mana-mana terbitan yang lain seperti Al-Kitab agama Kristian yang digunakan oleh kebanyakan penduduk pribumi (orang-orang Asli di Semenanjung, bumiputra Kristian di Sabah dan Sarawak). Selain daripada itu, penghakiman tersebut juga tidak meliputi upacara sembayang yang dijalankan oleh para penganut Krisitian di dalam Bahasa Malaysia yang turut menggunakan istilah Allah untuk merujuk kepada Tuhan. Begitu juga dengan kenyataan yang dikeluarkan oleh perdana menteri Najib Razak, yang juga presiden Umno, menteri di jabatan perdana menteri yang juga presiden Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS) Joseph Kurup dan ketua menteri Sarawak Taib Mahmm...

Gerakan acting president Datuk Chang Ko Yooun had recently said that it was crucial for Umno to include non-Malay partners, like MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP in formulating government policies, failing which voters may perceive the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is an Umno-dominated bloc. Then an Umno supreme council member Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamaed shot back at the Gerakan leader by saying that the party has to prove it can draw support before demanding a bigger role in the government's policy making. Apart from that Nur Jazlan also claimed that it was Gerakan's own factional fighting that caused the support for the party eroded and not due to Umno's dominance, adding that Gerakan was supposed to be a multiracial party but ended up as a Chinese-based instead and that too has contributed to Gerakan's failure in the two subsequent general elections. First, Gerakan should accept the facts that its party ideology of non-racial approach cannot work in the coalition l...

There's a recent call from the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) calling on the government to build more hospitals to ensure jobs for doctors in this nation. To us, the MMA is wrong about calling for more hospitals to be build but not exactly in the overall situation. First, the government has already build so many modern hospitals nationwide. Be it district hospitals or sub-district based hospitals. These modern hospitals are well-equipped (in most of them). The only thing is these modern equipped hospitals are not fully-utilized. Why? Because there are not enough doctors in these hospitals to handle all those modern hospitals. As such, these equipment became some sort of white elephant, in the end. Where had all those doctors gone to? The Health Ministry tends to assign these doctors or housemen to district and state level hospitals and not those sub-district or rural based hospitals. Just take an example of the Seberang Jaya Hospital in Central Seberang Perai. It has ...

Apabila laporan ketua audit negara di keluarkan, adalah amat dikesali bahawa gejala penyalahgunaan kuasa, rasuah dan penyelewengan dalam pengurusan masih berlaku di dalam kerajaan yang diterajui oleh kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) walaupun gejala negatif tersebut telahpun dilaporkan sebelum ini. Yang anehnya, kenapa gejala tersebut masih berulang walaupun ketua audit negara telahpun membentangkan laporan yang kurang memuaskan hampir pada setiap tahun sebelum ini? Kenapa pula kerajaan masih belum mengambil sebarang tindakan terhadap para pegawai kerajaan yang tidak bertanggungjawab ini? Kenapa gejala tersebut masih belum dibenteras walaupun ianya telahpun dilaporkan pada tahun-tahun sebelum ini? Apa yang lebih mengejutkan baru-baru ini adalah, ketua Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) mengumumkan bahawa pihaknya tidak dapat mengambil sebarang tindakan terhadap gejala penyalahgunaan kuasa, rasuah dan penyelewengan dalam pengurusan yang kian buruk di dalam kerajaan BN ...

This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 6th October 2013 Recently, a group of 23 MCA division chairmen publicly questioned the management of the party’s finances and assets, especially during the reign of party president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek. There are indeed lots of suspicion. What had actually gone wrong? No one knows exactly what is happening in the MCA’s financial and asset management. It has been so secret and confidential under the hands of the party president. However, the 23 division chairmen are adamant in finding out the truth behind the party’s iron curtain. In fact, the majority of the party members also suspect that Chua might be rushing to sell off the various party assets ahead of the upcoming party elections. Right now, not only those 23 division chairmen are demanding to know the truth, but the press as well as ordinary party members are also keeping a close watch on the origins of the RM107 million gained by the party as claime...

Apabila berita mengenai kehilangan sejumlah besar senjata api polis tersiar di dalam laporan Ketua Audit Negara baru-baru ini, rakyat jelata amat terkejut dengan kejadian tersebut dan tertanya-tanya bagaimana pihak polis boleh kehilangan senjata api tersebut. Dan apabila berita polis kehilangan senjata api tersebut mula menjadi hangat, Ketua Polis Negara Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar pula mengumumkan bahawa sejumlah besar senjata api polis yang hilang itu telah "jatuh ke dalam laut" tanpa memberikan sebarang penjelasan yang lebih lanjut mengapa ianya semua boleh "jatuh ke dalam laut". Menteri Dalam Negeri dan Naib Presiden Umno Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi kemudiannya mengeluarkan kenyataan yang menyokong penuh alasan yang diberikan oleh Tan Sri Khalid mengenai berita kehilangan senjata api tersebut. Dan apabila menteri tersebut berasa semakin tertekan akibat daripada persoalan terhadap alasan yang tidak munasabah dan tidak masuk akal itu, Zahid dengan nada yang ker...