Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

My article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 21/12/2014 It is not too way off to say that we are living in a nation full of distraction. Here we are, facing off so many distraction, one after another, non-stop. Perhaps it was meant to confuse all of us, to take us away from the real issues affecting our daily lives, those issues moving our nation towards bankruptcy and destruction, both socially and economically. The real issues seriously affecting our nation are mismanagement, power abuse and corruption that are taking place in the both BN-led federal and state governments. All these mismanagement, power abuse and corruption had cost billions of ringgit in public funds almost every year, very much celebrated as an anniversary by the ruling elites and their cronies after the release of the Auditor-General’s Report every year. So, after the Auditor General Reports were released every year, what has been done then? Has the BN government initiated any tough and effective meas...

My article was earlier published in the Aliran.com on 18/12/2014 The Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the undocumented immigrants in Sabah report has just been finalised and released to the public after months of hearings and investigations. Some major points to be looked at: in 2000, there were about 600,000 foreigners in Sabah. Ten years later, in 2010, there were about 889,780 foreigners in the state. That is a drastic increase, perhaps an uncontrolled one, of a large number of foreigners arriving into the state in just ten years. From 1996 to 2000, about 457,850 Indonesians entered Sabah, but only 228,370 left the state and during the same period too, about 210,910 Filipinos entered the state but only 199,170 left. The question here is, where did the 229,480 Indonesians and 11,740 Filipinos go? They cannot just vanish like that without a single trace. Why is there no report on the foreigners’ entries from 2001 to 2014? Why is there no scrutiny for this particular period, w...

By Amy Chew It was 3am when a 30-year-old female Malay financial researcher was woken up by her flatmate in a middle class suburb in Kuala Lumpur early this year. Six to seven men from the Selangor State Islamic Department (Jais) had entered her apartment in a "morality" raid. An anonymous phone call to the religious department alleging a man was seen entering her flat was all it took for the religious officials to descend on her home. "The men were not accompanied by any woman. They searched all our bedrooms, closets and even looked under the bed as they thought a man could be hiding there," said the researcher who spoke on condition of anonymity. The incident left her angry and helpless and helped compel her to make plans to leave Malaysia in two years. The researcher is one of an increasing number of Malay Muslims aspiring to leave this country of 30 million. In the past, it was the country's ethnic Chinese and Indians who left Malaysia in large numbers fo...

Under Abbas, majority say they can't speak freely! Two-thirds of Palestinians say they are afraid to criticize Mahmoud Abbas, according to a poll, and some of the Palestinian president's recent actions only seem to confirm claims that dissent comes at a price. Last month, Abbas outlawed the West Bank's largest labor union and briefly jailed its two leaders for organizing strikes. Security agents routinely monitor social media and send threats or complaints to some of those criticizing Abbas. Meanwhile, the Palestinian leader's Fatah movement continues to purge supporters of an exiled rival. Critics say that after a decade in power, Abbas is overseeing a largely authoritarian system with shrinking room for dissent — a claim denied by Abbas supporters who say Palestinians enjoy more political freedoms than most in the Arab world. Complaints of heavy-handedness come at a time of paralysis on all fronts. Abbas' strategy of setting up a Palestinian state through negot...

My article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 7/12/2014 The Penang and Selangor Pakatan Rakyat state governments’ move to provide annual allocations to opposition assemblymen is seen as new era for Malaysian politics and democracy. The gesture signals the Pakatan-led states’ recognition of the importance and roles played by BN opposition assemblymen in providing regular checks and balances to ensure effective administration of the two states. Though the move is something new here, it has nevertheless been a common practice in democracies like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Great Britain, Taiwan and South Korea, where the leaders of the opposition are recognised by the governments. Apart from recognising the leader of the opposition, these nations also recognised the institution of the shadow cabinet to oversee government ministers and their offices within the administration. However, the BN assemblymen in Penang and Selangor had refused to accept the annual allocations as ...

The seeds of the "Allah" controversy, the custody battles between Muslim and non-Muslim spouses and the spread of anti-Christian feelings in Malaysia can be traced to a certain translation of the Quran, a recent forum on Muslim extremism in Kuala Lumpur was told. This widely available translation, called the Hilali-Khan, made Muslims think that Islam was a religion hostile to other faiths, said academic and progressive Muslim thinker Dr Ahmad Farouk Musa. It also nurtured a belief among ordinary Muslims that it was acceptable to treat non-believers as second-class citizens and deny them equal rights, he said. The Hilali-Khan translation is the joint work of two scholars, Dr Muhammad Taqi-ud Din Al-Hilali and Dr Muhammad Muhsin Khan, who inserted their own interpretations of the holy text according to world views that existed about 600 years ago. It is said to be among the more controversial translations of the Quran. This worldview was forged at a time when there...

Malaysia should perhaps tear up its constitution if it wants to escape from liberalism and pluralism, in which the country was based on in the first place, says a South African Muslim scholar. Professor Ebrahim E. I. Moosa told a forum in Penang today this was because Malaysia was a pluralistic and liberal country. "The very idea that Malaysia has accepted, constitutionally or otherwise, the plurality of religious and ethnic communities… it is already on the way to liberalism. "You are already on a certain kind of liberalism. It might not be an optimal one, but it is already there. "If you want to get away from liberalism, you need to tear up the Malaysian constitution and begin knocking down the foundation of what the society is about," he said at the forum “Developing a Philosophy of Pluralism” organised by think tank Penang Institute. He was replying to a question from the audience on his thoughts on the Senate being told earlier today that "the...

Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) said it is serious that the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) has admitted the possibility of the existence of 'Project IC and how it played a vital role in the Sabah electoral results. This follows the unveiling of the report on Wednesday, that concluded that the issuing of ICs was not motivated by political reasons but pure profit. "Of particular concern is the finding that 'it was more likely than not, that Project IC did exist'. "That is, the systemic incorporation of irregular immigrants through dubious documentations and facilitating their access to become registered voters and possibly determine political outcomes in Sabah," said LFL executive director Eric Paulsen in a statement today. The project, which some have claimed to be a brainchild of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, allowed the issuing of identity cards to illegal immigrants, causing a population boom in the state. He said Project IC had serious impact on the im...

Malaysia's ringgit was set on Monday to suffer its biggest two-day slide since the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis as tumbling oil prices threatened to undermine the oil exporter's economy. The ringgit fell 2.4 percent to 3.4300 per dollar as of 0653 GMT from Thursday's close of 3.3465, according to Thomson Reuters data. Earlier on Monday, the Malaysian currency slipped as far as 3.4375, its weakest since February 2010. That would be the largest two-day depreciation since July 1998, the data showed. In 1998, Malaysia fixed the ringgit at 3.8000 and abandoned the peg in July 2005. Kuala Lumpur stocks lost nearly 3 percent after Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas), Malaysia's state oil company, said on Friday it plans to cut capital expenditure next year by 15-20 percent. "It just adds to the negatives," said Jonathan Cavenagh, senior FX strategist with Westpac in Singapore. "I suspect until oil stabilises, the ringgit is at risk of continuing to fall....

A peace treaty had been signed and an insurgency long ended, but a quarter of a century later, hurt remains for former members of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) who still feel the sting of broken promises and continued demonisation over their past. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Hatyai Peace Accord, when the CPM laid down arms against the Malaysian and Thai governments, ending an insurgency that began in 1948. But despite having signed the agreement with Malaysia, the government has not been sincere in honouring the pact, former CPM members living in Narathiwat province in southern Thailand told The Malaysian Insider during a visit there ahead of the anniversary of the signing of the treaty. Still demonised Former CPM member Yaacob Ibrahim, 53, better known as Bulat among his comrades, was angry that the CPM continued to be demonised despite there being a peace agreement and the fact that the party was no longer a threat. "In my view, the last 25 years had been a t...