Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

Penang assembly Speaker Law Choo Kiang said the police and attorney-general (AG) cannot prosecute any elected representatives for any wrongdoings committed in the House. Law said the authorities cannot act on the assemblypersons without the agreement of the speaker. "So this clearly cancels the (planned) charge against Seri Delima assemblyperson RSN Rayer for sedition under the 1948 Sedition Act," the PKR Bukit Tambun assemblyperson said in a statement yesterday. Law said a warning based on the assembly's standing orders has been issued to Rayer not to repeat the remark "Umno celaka" (damned Umno), which the latter allegedly uttered in the House on May 20. Based on the standing orders, the 10 disgruntled Umno assemblypersons were also told to table an emergency motion to the Penang special assembly committee to deal with their indignation over Rayer's remark, Law added. "But Umno failed to obtain enough quorum or votes for the motion, so they couldn...

My article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 8/6/2014 Gerakan president Datuk Mah Siew Keong has wrested the seat back for the Barisan Nasional in the recently concluded Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election. However, the Gerakan chief only obtained 20,157 votes while the Pakatan Rakyat candidate, DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, got 19,919 votes. Mah won with a majority of 238 votes. This is a very close call for BN and Gerakan in their fight against DAP who twice defeated BN in the 2008 and 2013 general elections. Never mind the outcome. Both sides, whether the winner or loser, ought to be mindful of the voters and people’s expectations. As everyone is aware, only some 67 per cent of the total 60,349 registered voters turned up. So, where were the other 19,000-plus voters? Even the number of spoilt votes was unexpectedly high, at about 550. Many political observers are also surprised by results that favoured BN. Let us analyse the strategy of DAP. Why was Dyana Sofya fielded i...

The National Unity Consultative Council's (NUCC) new bills drafted to replace the Sedition Act do not undermine Islam, the rulers and bumiputera rights, it told its critics today. In a joint statement, NUCC working committee on law and policy Muhajid Yusof Rawa ( left ) and his deputy Lim Chee Wee dismissed the lobbyists' claims as "untrue". "These bills are not inconsistent with the federal constitution and do not seek to interfere with, derogate from nor question any provision of the federal constitution. "Therefore, it is untrue that these bills challenge or interfere with the position of Islam, the rulers or the special position of Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak," they said. The comment comes after the Malay Consultative Council (MCM) blasted the replacement bills, claiming the Unfair Discrimination Tribunal that will be set up by the proposed laws would take over the role of the court in deciding matters concerning the federal constitut...

By William Pesek From missing airplanes to jail-bound opposition leaders, Malaysia has recently made international headlines for all the wrong reasons. Will the nation's economy be next? That's the thrust of new report from Sarah Fowler of U.K.-based Oxford Economics, which ranks Malaysia the "riskiest country in Asia of those we consider," more so than India, Indonesia and even coup-happy Thailand. On the surface, she points out, all's well: Growth is zooming along at 6.2 percent, the external balance is reasonably sound and political stability reigns. But all's not what it seems. "Prompted by its high levels of public debt, rising external debt and shrinking current account surplus, there has been a shift in the perception of risks towards Malaysia and away from Indonesia," Fowler explains. Malaysia wasn't included in Morgan Stanley's " fragile five " list of shaky emerging economies last year, as were India and Indonesia. But Fo...

My article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 29/5/2014 Umno, a Malay party that dominates the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, has always been claiming that it protects the Malays and bumiputeras as well as upholds Islam, calling others from the community who do not embrace Umno as deviants and traitors. Ever since Umno and BN lost their two-thirds majority in the 2008 general election, Umno has embraced the politics of hatred, threat, violence and racism as part of their effort to create situations of fear among Malaysians. They have no qualms warning people to refrain from supporting the opposition parties, whose influence is on the rise. Apart from this, Umno has also resorted to many kinds of personal and sexist attacks on the opposition parties in a number of by-elections recently. Other dirty tactics employed by Umno include using several front organisations such as Perkasa, Isma, Pekida, Muafakat and Jati to carry out various kinds of political actions on its b...