Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

Ever since the 2013 general elections, the Barisan Nasional (BN) regime has not won handsomely but with a very low margin with more support moving towards the opposition parties. The reasons are very clear, corruption, power abuse, mismanagement, racism and religious extremism. The BN regime has continue to refuse acknowledgment of its shortcomings despite its electoral setbacks, but instead continue to introduced many tough laws in order to curb the rising influence of the opposition parties, human rights NGOs, civil societies and the people's criticisms against the regime. Opposition leaders, civil societies leaders, human rights activists, intellectuals, educationists, critics, social media users and ordinary people were charged, fined or imprisoned for allegedly being seditious and insulting in opposing the BN regime. Now, when it comes to charging the person for his seditious statements, words, articles, action and manner, what kind of reference does this regime refer...

Premier Najib and allies use law to bludgeon critics In 2012, with Malaysia’s national ruling coalition facing a tough reelection campaign, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak promised a raft of human rights reforms including cutting the country’s infamous colonial-era Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial. None of those reforms happened. Instead, in the past several months, Najib, faced with a revolt within his United Malays National Organization, has in effect replaced the internal security act with a sedition law that he had also promised to do away with. Under its provisions, as many as 20 opposition political figures, lawyers and at least one journalist have been charged and are confronted with varying penalties in what the Malaysian press has taken to calling “operation dragnet,” an oblique reference to Operation Lalang, in which former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad ordered the roundup of dozens of opponents in 1987 and jailed them under ...

Human Rights Watch Prime Minister Najib Razak abandoned his pledge to revoke Malaysia ’s repressive sedition law and oversaw a wave of arrests of opposition politicians and social activists, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2015. The authorities continued their politically motivated prosecution of parliamentary opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy. “Prime Minister Najib’s shameful reversal of his pledge to end sedition shows his willingness to put politics over human rights,” said Phil Robertson , deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Malaysia’s human rights are in a downward spiral because the government evidently believes that continued rule depends on suppressing speech, harassing opposition groups, and targeting prominent figures with legal action.” In the 656-page world report, its 25th edition, Human Rights Watch reviews human rights practices in more than 90 countries. In his introductory essay, Executive Director Kenneth Roth urges government...

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 ...

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...

Recently, an insane politician claimed that the holy books of the religion that she professes was burned in her home state and the crowd in front of her got provoked and turned into a mass anger.  Later on, another senior politician confirmed that there wasn't any such event taking place in that state at all. What then? She has gone missing, kept so quiet and yet refused to apologize for her misinformation.  First of all, why the big fuss over the burning of some holy books? Just call the fire department or take a bucket of water to put down the fire before it spreads or endanger anyone. That's it! No issue, just put off the fire. It is just a book. Books are normally written by someone, published, printed, reprinted, distributed or redistributed, later on re-edited, improvised or re-generated. Books are normally written, copied, printed, produced, reprinted and reproduced by many people, many interest groups and individual contributors for the purpose of propaga...

National laureate A Samad Said and former Malaysian Bar president Ambiga Sreenevasan have formed a new NGO to battle racism and extremism in the nation. The outfit is called, "A people's movement to reclaim our nation (Negaraku)". Speaking at the launch today, Ambiga said following the general election, there has been an increase in racial and religious rhetoric in the country, as if certain quarters have a "hidden agenda" to create chaos. These, she said, included "statements from certain leaders" about the May 13 racial riots of 1969. Both Samad and Ambiga were former chairpersons of electoral watchdog Bersih. Joining them in Negaraku is former judge and human rights commissioner Simon Sipaun. The coalition is made up of 60 other NGOs and is chaired by former Bersih steering committee member and Ikram vice president Zaid Kamaruddin. Nation-building neglected Zaid said that the coalition is non-partisan and is aimed at educating the rakyat on the con...

My article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 2/7/2014 Racist and extremist groups, most of them believed linked to Umno, the dominant party of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN), have been continuously claiming that the Malay community and Islam are under threat. They use this to constantly urge Malay Muslims nationwide to come forward in order to “defend” their special rights at all costs. The question here is, who is actually threatening the Malays and Islam in particular? As we all know, the Malay Muslim community forms the majority in Malaysia. Islam has been enshrined in our Federal Constitution as the official religion in the federation and nobody can dispute this. Furthermore, it is also very clear that Umno has been ruling our nation uninterrupted since our nation achieved its independence in 1957. Under Umno’s governance, the New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced and a number of Malay and Bumiputera first policies were implemented to guide and develop the community...

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 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...

This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 2/3/2014 Since 2008, there have been many allegations that the Malays and Islam have been insulted, undermined and challenged. The impression given is that they are constantly under threat. The situation has turned from bad to worse. Nowadays, when someone criticises a top leader of Umno, the dominant party in the ruling coalition, he or she would inevitably be accused of insulting the Malay race, Islam and even challenging the special rights of the Malays. Almost everyone is wondering why the country’s political landscape has turned so ugly. Why must politics be so racist and be filled with threats and acts of vengeance? We keep asking all these questions to the politicians almost every day. The country gained its independence more than 56 years ago and by now, it should be developed, civilised and mature in terms of political, socio-economic and human rights, or whatever you could name. Unfortunately, our ...

This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 16/2/2014 Many reviews and observations have been made on Seputeh MP Teresa Kok’s Chinese New Year video clip which was posted on YouTube. An honest assessor would admit that the video is satirical but has nothing to do with race or religion. It is about the difficult life of Malaysians, poking fun on our politics, corruption, power abuse and mismanagement that are really happening. The fact is that it is a comical depiction of all that is wrong with our governance but there was no mention at all of the Malays or Malay rulers. The opposition MP was trying to drive home the message that the people have been “robbed” and thus the need to buy many “branded handbags” for use to fend off those street robbers or snatch thieves. Then all of a sudden, a group of Umno-linked NGOs came together in the name of “Coalition of Muslim NGOs” and rolled out its threats of violence in the street, claiming that the video clip ...

Initially, these pro-Umno NGOs had made an offer of RM500 to anyone who could slap the Seputeh MP Teresa Kok over her Chinese New Year video clip. Then these groups of extremist and racist NGOs increase their offer to RM1200 for the same slap threat. And now, in a surprise move, these extremist and racist NGOs are offering pork to anyone who could slap the opposition MP. We wonder what kind of situation are they trying to provoke. First they offer money, now they are offering pork. Are they trying to create havoc or to promote more hatred? Are such actions Islamic as proclaimed by these extremist and racist NGOs? Now they are putting up pork as a reward to anyone who could slap the MP, knowing that pork is a non-halal meat to Muslim and to many of the leaders of these extremist and racist NGOs who are Muslims themselves. Can the leaders of these extremist and racist NGOs give the public a clearer picture on their cash and pork offer, on whether the RM500 to RM1200 cash rewards...

This article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 27/1/2014 When the Bangsa Malaysia concept was introduced to promote national unity and the Malaysian entity amongst its citizens, most of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government’s race-based policies were kept intact. Therefore, efforts aimed at fostering unity came to nought and Bangsa Malaysia turned out to be a mere window dressing. Later on, when the Malaysian Malaysia concept was expounded by opposition leaders, the BN government condemned this concept, describing it as being anti-Malay, against the Islamic values and principles, a kind of ideology on republicanism which aimed to abolish the country’s monarchy system. Then recently, the Malaysian Malaysia concept was also labelled as an attempt to create a Christian state by abolishing Islam as the official religion of the federation. These allegations were made by many BN-linked racial and religious extremist groups. The 1Malaysia concept was introduced when...

A pro-Umno racist and extremist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) has continuously blamed the opposition leaders for failing to see Islam is under threat from elements of Jews, Freemasons and Christians or whatsoever they saw it as "western", thus further accusing the oppositions as pro-western and pro-Christian as well. So, Isma, is this why Churches and other places of worship has been attacked and fire-bombed recently. Is this some sort of your so-called warning? Isma speaks and behaves like a terrorist at large. Isma should also realize are all their actions such as, hate, racism and violence in line with the teachings in the holy Quran. In fact, whatever Isma is doing right now is certainly attacking and damaging the reputation of Islam itself. Isma has done nothing good for the sake of Islam so far because whatever actions that they have been carrying out all this while are all against the principles and teachings of Islam and the holy Quran. Isma has indeed ...

Does everyone know what religion and what is the function of the religion? Religion is the way of life that should enable each individual to attain the highest possible development in his spiritual, moral, physical and intellectual faculties. The function of every religion is to establish and to maintain the most harmonious relationship between men and his Creator on the one hand and between men to men in all aspects of their relationship on the other. But if a religion is often misinterpreted, misused and corruptly abused by some quarters of men who are in power, like the ruling elites, powerful politicians and made part of the government’s day to day rule and enforcement in order to control and subdue the citizens as well as other religions, then the religion of that state has become what Karl Marx, a renowned German philosopher and founder of the revolutionary communism, had defined the term as “the opiate of the people”. So, this particular religion of the state...

The recent questions on whether Christians can use the word Allah in their publications has indeed stirred up a lot of angers and hatred. First, the bombing of churches by some religious extremist groups, then a leader of an extreme racist organization had called for the Holy Bible to be burned as a warning to those who insist the usage of Allah in their recitations and prayers. The question is, are those who are behaving in such an uncivilized manner, like showing the sign of violence, issuing threats, warnings and inciting hatred to the public really carry the value of Islam in themselves? Are they really representing Islam in whatsoever actions they have been carrying out over the issue of Allah? In which part of the Islam’s holy book did carries the need to be threatening, to use extensive violence, to commit harm and to instill hate onto others in order to seek what they claimed as theirs? Why do they have to be so uncivilized in order to be “Islamic”? Are ther...