Banning of Malaysia Today is blatant and crude employment of state power, inconsistent with widening of democratic space

Khairy disagrees with blocking of news portal

“Such blatant and crude employment of state power is inconsistent with the widening of democratic space.

“Citizens’ right to information aside, SKMM’s high-handed approach also sends the wrong message as it is at odds with the Multimedia Super Corridor Bill of Guarantees – a 10-point Bill that prescribes zero Internet censorship.

Khairy added that “apart from violating the principle of openness and transparency that this Administration champions and that I have publicly defended, this move also threatens to further alienate young, urban voters from Barisan Nasional.”

In Kajang, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar claimed that the Malaysia Today news portal had no respect at all for religion even though the topic is very sensitive and the “fire of religion” could cause chaos and havoc.

Earlier this week, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) said it was blocking access to the Malaysia Today website under Section 263 of the Act.

Energy Water and Communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor and Syed Hamid said the government did not instruct SKMM to do so.

However, Utusan Malaysia reported on Saturday that SKMM had banned Malaysia Today not for political reasons or because it was very critical of politicians , but because the website had insulted Prophet Muhammad.

Syed Hamid said countries take action when people profane religion, “what more from a person (Raja Petra) who professes to be a Muslim.” He was speaking to reporters yesterday after attending the Merdeka celebrations at the Kajang Prison.

He denied that the ban was tantamount to censoring the Internet, saying that even other countries banned some sites such as one on paedophiles, circulating hate mail or Osama bin Laden.

Umno Bukit Bendera chief Ahmad Ismail’s racist remarks rattles BN partners

Ahmad didn’t mean it, says Abdullah

Ahmad had allegedly called the Chinese pendatang (immigrants) and was also reported to have said that “as the Chinese were only immigrants it was impossible to achieve equal rights amongst races” during a ceramah in Permatang Pauh in Aug 25.

He had allegedly uttered the remarks in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Penang Gerakan Youth committee member Dr Thor Teong Gee lambasted Ahmad and charged that Umno was still using racial ideology to achieve its own personal political agenda.

Bukit Mertajam MCA division chairman Lau Chiek Tuan called for disciplinary action against Ahmad.

Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s political secretary Ng Wei Aik also called on Ahmad to immediately retract his statement and apologise to the community.

Ahmad could not be reached for comment.

Tanjung Gerakan Youth division chief H’ng Khoon Leng lodged a police report at the district police headquarters in Patani Road over Ahmad’s alleged remarks.

MCA Youth chief Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said there was no reason for Ahmad to stir racial feelings with his remarks.

“This is the Merdeka month and such a racist remark should not have been made,” he added.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Umno leaders should stop using racial sentiment to seek support from the people.

Barisan Nasional government has done poorly in fulfilling Malaysia’s Independence proclamation

Flight of human capital worrying

THE Merdeka celebrations are around the corner but to many the past one-year has been an unhappy time.

More and more young Malaysians are leaving the country as a result of some policies, which in my view are now outdated. Can we continue down this road?

Less than a month after last year’s Merdeka celebration, we saw the Walk for Justice, followed very closely by the Bersih and Hindraf rallies and the People’s Freedom Walk in celebration of the World Human Rights Day.

The first quarter of this year saw the general election and the shocking wave of change brought by it.

Soon after that the people struck again with various rallies and assemblies, big and small, in protest of the fuel price hikes. There were also other less sensational rallies and assemblies and hype over Namewee, Fitna and the arrest of Raja Petra.

Then came the furore over the Bar Council’s forums on the “Social Contract” and “Conversion to Islam”. In the latter’s case, the abbreviation of the title, which resulted in much misunderstanding, is still very much in our minds.

The latest was the UiTM students’ assembly. And not to mention the cancellation of Ella’s performance and Beyonce’s concert. I am pretty sure I have missed a lot more!

And yes – all these happened in just one year. The reason for these can be summed up in three words – race, religion and politics. Perhaps not in that particular order.

In the closed network of young legal practitioners, we have been busy attending farewell parties. Our friends, mostly non-Malays, have been leaving in droves to work in Singapore. Most of those leaving are up and coming lawyers who I think are amongst the best brains of the new generation in the legal profession.

Our friends from the engineering and architecture departments back in college are suddenly quitting their jobs and moving their families to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and even Syria.

Our friends who are now medics, high achievers in their respective overseas universities, only exist to us as online identities in Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, Skype and Facebook.

They simply refuse to come back and serve in the country and they have convincingly good reasons for doing so.

We also often hear “good news” from some other friends that their applications for permanent resident status have been approved by a foreign government – generally Australia.

This “brain drain” or flight of human capital has been an increasingly worrying trend for quite some time now.

Having gone past the golden anniversary of Merdeka, we Malaysians have become an unhappy lot. We have a lot to shout about. We are running away!

What are the causes for this state of unhappiness?

In the eyes of a Malay Muslim young lawyer keeping tabs with of all these calamities of late, I would say, it is the curtailment on our freedom of thought which has been instilled in each of us since a tender age.

Didn’t our parents tell us that we should become engineers, doctors, architects or lawyers when we grow up and that becoming musicians, painters, professional hockey players or go-kart drivers would not take us anywhere in life?

So some grew up believing this and later realising that it was not entirely true after all.

How many of us grew up listening to the pearls of wisdom from our elders that the only way to get ahead must be to seek the help of a certain Yang Berhormat or business tycoon who is close to a certain Datuk if we want to enter boarding school, college or university; or to get scholarships, government jobs or business opportunities? And that these are our privileges.

There are also some of us who grew up being told that these privileges do not apply to us. We watched our friends enjoy the privileges in silent envy and we secretly harboured contempt for them.

And we were reprimanded by our elders not to say anything about it as it is a “sensitive” issue.

Some of us grew up realising that we could have made it, and did make it, on our own without such privileges after all. There are still some of us who have not grown out of it.

We need to halt this fiction. The only way for us to grow is to believe that we are the ones in control of our destiny.

We must remove the shackles of generally accepted standards or privileges afforded to some of us at the price of creating discontent amongst others.

Malaysians born post-Merdeka, Malays and non-Malays alike, whether they realise it or not, are screaming for a complete makeover of this orthodox paternalistic approach.

Continued interference with their liberty of action and their freedom of choice, and outright discriminatory means which is used to preserve the rights of one section of Malaysians over the other irrespective of their actual needs should no longer be seen as a necessary form of protection, but a weapon of mass self-destruction.

The makeovers the young ones want, to a large extent, entail real changes in our laws and policies.

Feel good community service messages such as “I am not Chinese, I am not Indian, I am not Malay, (altogether) we are Malaysians!” just won’t cut it anymore.

Our Proclamation of Independence says that we “shall be forever a sovereign democratic and independent State founded upon the principles of liberty and justice and ever seeking the welfare and happiness of its people and the maintenance of a just peace among all nations.”

After 51 years, it seems to many that this has not been fully achieved.

/> The writer is a member of the Bar Council’s National Young Lawyers Committee (NYLC). Putik Lada, or pepper buds in Malay, captures the spirit and intention of this column – a platform for young lawyers to articulate their views and aspirations about the law, justice and a civil society. For more information about the young lawyers, please visit www.malaysianbar.org.my/nylc

Read:

Discrimination and lack of meritocracy in Malaysia

Racist Minister Breeds Racist Teachers

Hishammuddin says Malaysia’s education system is on good platform

Discrimination and lack of meritocracy in Malaysia

Growing disunity under under the BN government…

Najib feels Indians have a good deal in Malaysia

Malays question Umno after 50 years in power

Malaysia’s fraying racial compact – International Herald Tribune

Racial Divisions Sharper After 50 Years

Sense of a people set apart remains

Umno hegemony is under threat, Malays are not under threat

Umno lacks intellectual capability, courage, energy to lead

Umno’s arrogance of power

Umno’s formula – turn everything racial

Umno’s day is over until it learns to respect Malaysian people with more dignity

Umno on the way down

What leadership should be, but is not in Malaysia’s politicians

Wither Malaysia, under BN ?

Umno and BN need major change

Barisan leaders’ talk of pullout from coalition worries Muhyiddin

Muhyiddin said Barisan should not underestimate the changes that are taking place.

“We can have a dialogue with the component parties but what else can we do? That is what we should be asking ourselves.

“The format in Umno and BN is not right and change should not just be in the form but also in the content,” Muhyiddin said.

“Umno also cannot stand alone. There are weaknesses within Umno but weaknesses also exist within the component parties,” he added.

Meanwhile, in Kuala Lumpur, Jerlun MP Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir said the outcome of the Permatang Pauh by-election was a wake-up call for Barisan, especially Umno, that much had to be done to regain the public’s support.

Mukhriz said one of the major factors that impacted the by-election was the announcement by the country’s top two leaders that there would be a power transfer only in 2010.

“This means business as usual for another two years. For the rakyat, they feel it is too much to swallow,” he said.

“On the Umno side and Barisan, we also feel very exasperated because it is as if we have not started moving towards re-engineering and re-inventing Umno and Barisan.”

Khairy Jamaluddin declared that Umno had gone to Permatang Pauh to bury Anwar

Anwar returns – as the alternative

.. Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin who had declared in grand Shakespearian style that Umno had gone to Permatang Pauh to bury Anwar in the by-election.

Read:

Najib’s Permatang Pauh campaign was embarassing and ugly

Najib was confident of victory in Permatang Pauh with ‘hard work’

The 3 Umno Youth members who contributed to the Barisan debacle

Khairy Jamaludin instigates his followers’ dark side

Khairy calls Anwar a traitor to the Malay cause

Khairy ‘advises’ Barisan Nasional members not to push the envelope too far

Khairy: It never crossed my mind to apologise

Najib fled from Anwar in Permatang Pauh

The Sun

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had chosen a busy Sunday morning to make his campaign round for Barisan Nasional (BN) at the packed Seberang Jaya market in Permatang Pauh, only to find that his bitter foe Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was also arriving there.

The BN deputy chairman took a nippy walk around the premise and was about to reach his car when a din was heard. Anwar had arrived at an entrance further down the road.

Najib stopped. There was a pregnant pause as his security personnel stood still, holding his car door open, while he stayed rooted; his gaze fixed on the PKR crowd with flags and banners mobbing Anwar in the distance. It took a good moment before he slowly turned and got into his car.

It was a defining image of the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election.

Read:

Najib is a coward

Najib’s record

Muhyiddin: Malaysians want fairer, non-racial based politics

The New Straits Times Online……

Muhyiddin added that the results also showed that the voters’ mindset had shifted and that they now wanted something which “are fairer, not racial-based (politics) but one that is based on the profile of the multiracial and multi-religious Malaysians.”
“Umno should be prepared to make the change,” he said.

Read:

The dawn of New Malaysia

Umno on the way down

Umno’s day is over until it learns to respect Malaysian people with more dignity

Barisan’s Permatang Pauh loss was due to swearing by Saiful and Najib

Umno dissidents want change in leadership

…In Muar, several Umno branch leaders represented by Datuk Kadar Shah Tun Sulaiman Ninam Shah said Umno leaders should realise by now that the Malays, including those in Permatang Pauh, had lost confidence in Umno’s leadership.

He said they should accept the fact that they needed to adopt a more realistic approach if they wanted to regain the confidence of the Malays.

He said that one major reason for Barisan’s loss was the swearing on the Quran by both Saiful Bukhari Azlan and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He said Umno leaders should not allow the use of the Quran to resolve personal matters or to prove one’s innocence. “We are sad that the Quran has been used as a means to resolve personal and political matters.

Read:

Najib flees from angry crowd at Permatang Pauh

Najib’s Permatang Pauh campaign is embarassing and ugly

Najib is a weak leader, does not have his own stand

Najib’s record

Barisan’s ugly campaign in Permatang Pauh

Sun2Surf

…In contrast, the BN leaders relied to a large degree on an attempt to build a fear of Anwar – that he was double-faced, that he was a trouble-maker, that he was immoral.

It hardly seemed to work. Already riding on widespread resentment towards the BN government’s social and economic policies, Anwar made sure he presented an agenda that appeared intelligent, humane and well-defined.

…

Read:

Najib flees from angry crowd at Permatang Pauh

Najib’s Permatang Pauh campaign was embarassing and ugly

Najib was confident of victory in Permatang Pauh with ‘hard work’

Najib wanted Permatang Pauh to believe country rested on BN’s shoulders

Najib’s record

Umno politicians in for financial gains

Umno – money politics reach worrying levels

Umno getting scared

Umno hegemony is under threat, Malays are not under threat

Umno is a nest of conspirators

Umno lacks intellectual capability, courage, energy to lead

Umno on the way down

Umno rife with corruption

Umno’s arrogance of power

Umno’s formula – turn everything racial

Umno’s day is over until it learns to respect Malaysian people with more dignity

Wither Malaysia, under BN ?

Anwar’s campaign in Permatang Pauh

Sun2Surf

Anwar cleverly used the deep moral sensitivity of rural Malays to point to BN leaders as having cast “fitnah” (aspersions) on him.

He went through great lengths to describe the emotional pain he and his family had to endure from the profane nature of the allegations. And it moved the masses.

“They have beaten me, they have stripped me naked, they have robbed me of my dignity. But it’s alright. I shall get up and fight back again and again,” he once said to a cheering crowd.

But the biggest, most decisive nail in the coffin must have the gripping appearance two days before polling of the imam who witnessed the swearing of Anwar’s accuser Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

Ramlang Porigi’s confession that he did not believe the swearing was legitimate, and that he had been ordered to be witness, was made in the presence of no less than Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, the revered PAS spiritual leader.

It was a moral coup that disintegrated any remaining doubts most conservative folks would have had about the allegations.

Anwar was also consistent in explaining his agenda on race. He stressed a good deal – both to Malay and non-Malay crowds – that Malay special status (he never called it “ketuanan” or supremacy) would be maintained. But he was quick to add that the Chinese and Indians must also be properly cared for.

He had an oft-rehearsed refrain: “Anak Melayu anak saya, anak Cina anak saya, anak India anak saya.” (The Malay child is my child, the Chinese child is my child, the Indian child is my child.)

It brought applause wherever it was uttered. Intriguingly, while multi-racial crowds roared with joy, audiences in the Malay heartland also reacted with approval.

In fact, he once touched on this very theme at a service road next to the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) campus. Only two days before, the campus had seen some 5,000 Malay students protesting a proposal to bring in non-Malay students.

But when Anwar spoke on ethnic harmony, the audience which included students from the UiTM hostel broke into an ovation.

Then there was his promise for openness in the media. He smartly deflected the stream of negative reporting about him by certain media agencies, to bring repugnance towards them and the controlling government.

Right from the beginning, PKR assumed a modus operandi to name these agencies and question their credibility. This was done frequently during rallies and through the party’s own publications distributed widely throughout the constituency.

Anwar was similarly well-rehearsed in deploring the country’s economic management, as well as the nepotism and bribery.

He spoke eloquently about the nation’s oil wealth and natural resources, about the lack of transparency, and how the ‘anaks’ and ‘menantus’ may be unduly reaping from the land.

…

If there is a lesson to be learned from the election, it is in Anwar’s dexterous use of charisma and logic to move the people.

“We have a clear and consistent agenda,” Anwar once said. “You can see for yourself. Wherever I speak, people who hear me understand who I am, what I plan to do… They put their trust in me.”

Read:

Umno politicians in for financial gains

Umno – money politics reach worrying levels

Umno getting scared

Umno hegemony is under threat, Malays are not under threat

Umno is a nest of conspirators

Umno lacks intellectual capability, courage, energy to lead

Umno on the way down

Umno rife with corruption

Umno’s arrogance of power

Umno’s formula – turn everything racial

Umno’s day is over until it learns to respect Malaysian people with more dignity

Wither Malaysia, under BN ?