UiTM reflects years of providing a crutch so that Malays cannot compete on a level playing field

Malaysia questions preferential treatment of Malays – Taiwan News Online

Analysts and some employers say many graduates from UiTM and other state universities that have quotas favouring Malays simply cannot compete for the best private sector jobs and either swell the ranks of the civil service or the unemployed.

“UiTM has been politicised. It reflects years of providing a crutch so that Malays cannot compete on a level playing field,” said Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia expert at Johns Hopkins University.

Fight for investment

Southeast Asia’s third biggest economy is already facing falling foreign investment, eroding competitiveness and a worsening brain drain. Many analysts trace the stagnation in foreign investment to the racial and religious politics that divide the country. Malays are Muslims by state definition, while Chinese and Indians are mostly Christians, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs.

UiTM is the only university in Malaysia that is closed to other races, although other state-run institutions generally have high Malay enrolments because of quotas. This has forced ethnic Chinese and Indians to turn to private universities or move abroad, creating an economically damaging brain drain that might hurt Malaysia’s competitiveness for years to come.

Some Malay political leaders have recently joined a growing chorus for UiTM to open its doors to non-Malays.

“It is time for the Malays to take a step (towards a multiracial approach),” opposition leader Anwar said, throwing his weight behind his political party’s proposal to open up 10 percent of UiTM places to non-Malays.

Anwar, himself an ethnic Malay, was returned to parliament in a by-election after a decade-long absence. Despite pledging to end ethnic-based affirmative action programs, he romped home in a constituency that was largely rural and Malay.

The government, fearful of losing power, and UiTM have balked at the plan, with the university galvanising its students to march on the streets waving pro-Malay banners.

Malay newspapers have condemned plans to open up the university, with one quoting a Malay leader warning of a repeat of the 1969 race riots between ethnic Malays and ethnic Chinese and Indians which left hundreds dead.

Lifting ethnic restrictions on the UiTM student body might be a small step towards resolving the woes of modern-day Malaysia, critics of affirmation action believe.

Yet that step is unlikely to be taken unless Anwar and his resurgent opposition take power by setting up a new majority bloc in parliament.

Meanwhile, Malaysia has fallen completely off the list of the world’s top 200 universities in 2007, according to a ranking by London’s Times Higher Education Supplement and Quacquarelli Symonds.

“Investors are concerned with the quality of the graduates,” said Mohamad Sofi Othman, who heads a grouping of foreign and local investors in Penang, Malaysia’s industrial state controlled by the opposition.

Still, UiTM defends its policy, saying that non-Malays form the majority of students in critical courses such as accountancy and pharmacy at state universities. At private universities, 90 percent of the students are non-Malays.

Lim Kit Siang: Najib’s apology for Ahmad is INADEQUATE

Kit Siang questions Ahmad’s silence

Lim asked whether Ahmad, who has shown no contrition or remorse since he made the remarks nine days ago, was fully confident that he had the mainstream support of Umno leaders and members, encouraging him to show contempt for the nationwide furore.

Saying Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s apology on behalf of Ahmad was “inappropriate, inadequate and unacceptable”, Lim said the apology could not be acceptable if Ahmad continued to be defiant and unrepentant.

“Even if he tenders an apology, the question of its adequacy will arise, following the precedent set by the Cabinet in the Wee Meng Chee case over his Negaraku rap video-clip last year, when the Cabinet rejected Wee’s apology as inadequate,” Lim said in a statement yesterday.

Lim said Najib should apologise on behalf of himself as Najib had failed to reprimand Ahmad immediately after he made the remarks during the Permatang Pauh by-election ceramah on Aug 24, where Najib was present.

Anwar would be a better Prime Minister than Najib

Breaking News

MALAYSIAN opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim would make a better prime minister than Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s deputy, Mr Najib Razak, said the Malaysian Insider, citing a poll by Merdeka Centre.

Results of the poll, based on 1,002 people of voting age from the country’s three main ethnic communities, showed that 39.3 per cent supported Mr Anwar and 33.8 per cent favoured Mr Najib.

The online newspaper said, according to a Bloomberg report, that a majority of Indians and Chinese supported Mr Anwar while Malays favoured Mr Najib. The poll was conducted from Sept 11 – 22.

Mr Abdullah has delayed a leadership election at the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and said he will decide in the next two weeks whether to contest the position of party chief.

Pressure mounts on Malaysian Barisan Nasional government to repeal ISA

Breaking News

Protest groups and individuals are stepping up pressure on the Malaysian government to repeal harsh internal security laws, echoing the widespread outcry that marked the recent arrests under the Internal Security Act (ISA).

Last Saturday marked one of the largest protests that have taken place in recent months, as more than 2,000 Malaysians from all walks of life staged a peaceful march through the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), as well as rights groups Suaram and the Abolish ISA Movement, they called for the removal of the ISA, which allows for detention without trial. They also wanted the release of 65 detainees.

Hindraf coordinator R.S. Thanenthiran said the ISA – first drafted half a century ago to fight communism – was outdated.

‘If somebody has committed a crime, then they must be tried in an open court,’ he told The Straits Times.

Next up, the group intends to keep up the pressure by gathering 10,000 supporters at Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s traditional open house in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday – the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

They are also planning to attend his open house in his Penang constituency of Kepala Batas on the second day of Hari Raya.

Earlier this month, the authorities detained three people under the ISA: a reporter and a lawmaker who were later released, as well as prominent blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who was sentenced to a two-year detention order in the notorious Kamunting detention centre.

The last time the ISA was used was when five Hindraf leaders were detained in December last year, after the group staged a massive anti-government protest a month earlier.

The five were sent to Kamunting for two years, and Hindraf plans to hold a large gathering to commemorate the first anniversary of their arrest.

The authorities maintain that the ISA is needed to fight terrorism and threats to national security, but critics have long condemned it as outdated and a tool manipulated by the government to silence critics and the opposition.

The call to get rid of the Act has been championed for years by groups such as Suaram and the Abolish ISA Movement.

Apart from protests in the past years, they have held weekly candlelight vigils in Kuala Lumpur and Penang this month. They plan to organise more anti-ISA protests in the coming months, but have yet to finalise details.

Even individual activists are chipping in. Human rights lawyer and blogger Haris Ibrahim, for instance, recently launched a petition to free ISA detainees on his site, aiming to get one million signatures.

The petition currently has around 34,000 signatories.

‘The use of such legislation violates the basic rights of detainees to due process and fair rule of law,’ he said, adding that it strengthens the view that the government is losing control and embarking on desperate authoritarian measures.

Indeed, critics called the recent ISA arrests a ‘crackdown’, as it came just days before the opposition’s Sept 16 deadline to topple the government, which never materialised.

All this backlash is increasing the pressure on the beleaguered Prime Minister to step down – and it appears that it will not let up.

‘We will keep holding gatherings until all ISA detainees are released. The PM should listen to the people of Malaysia,’ said Mr Thanenthiran.

Najib not going to UN to tell ‘good story’, have to attend to national economy ?

Najib skips UN to devote attention to the economy

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will not be going for a working visit to the United States from Sept 25 to Oct 1.

Najib was scheduled to deliver his maiden speech at the UN General Assembly on Saturday.

A statement from the Deputy Prime Minister’s office said the cancellation of the trip was approved by the Prime Minister.

The statement added that among the reasons for the cancellation was the current global economical situation which would demand the full attention of Najib at home to ensure that the national economy was on a solid footing.

“Najib only took over as Finance Minister on Sept 17 and will need more time to be briefed on economic developments in the country by various departments and agencies under the Finance Ministry,” it said.

Read:
Najib has good story to tell

Najib’s record

Najib: Some people were disseminating distrust and ill feeling to strain relations between the races

The New Straits Times Online……

Datuk Seri Najib Razak said some people were disseminating distrust and ill-feeling to strain relations between the races.

Is he talking about:

Ahmad Ismail is a villain, not a hero

Ahmad Ismail reflects racist views in Umno – using racial issues to defend survival of cronies, not Malay rakyat

Barisan’s ugly campaign in Permatang Pauh

Badawi And Najib Okay Merc For Terengganu

Graft in Malaysia’s Defense Ministry ?

Najib says Indians do not have a bad deal

Malay politicians will not let Malays grow up

Dr. Mahathir disgusted that Umno cannot control racism, says Ahmad Ismail should face disciplinary committee

Umno’s Formula – Turn Everything Racial

Utusan Malaysia slammed with RM 30m legal suit for libel

UTUSAN MELAYU SLAMMED WITH RM30M LEGAL SUIT FOR ALLEGED LIBEL BY ISA DETAINEE & MP – THERESA KOK | My Sinchew

UTUSAN MELAYU (MALAYSIA) reported Sep 18, 2008 that the Malay language daily had been served with a Notice of Demand by Member of Parliament and ISA Detainee – TERESA KOK SUH SIM – for alleged libel in respect of a commentary titled “AZAN, JAWI, JAIS, UiTM DAN BA-ALIF-BA-YA” which was published in the ‘Cuit’ column of the UTUSAN MALAYSIA on Sep 10, 2008. The complainant is claiming RM30m for the alleged libel.

The contents of the article said that TERESA KOK hadinsulted Islam which led to her arrest under Malaysia’s detentionwith charges Internal Security Act.

The Company is seeking legal advice on the matter.

Read:

Selangor Cancels Utusan Malaysia Subscription For Unfair Reporting And Stoking Racial Flames

Extremists Fragmenting Malaysian Society And Destroying The Malaysian Identity

Fanning Racial Flames

Syed Hamid Albar orders detention of Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin under ISA for 2 years

Sun2Surf

Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Syed Albar has ordered blogger Raja Petra Raja Kamaruddin to be detained under the Internal Security Act for a period of two years, effectively making a habeas corpus application for his release an academic exercise.

Read:

Barisan Nasional government is structurally and inherently incapable of leading Malaysia

Malaysia slips further in Corruption Perception Index

Sun2Surf

The people’s perception on the state of corruption has not changed despite concerted efforts by the government to beef up the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and put in place mechanisms to combat corruption.

Malaysia’s corruption perception score for 2008 remains at 5.1 — the same as last year — and its ranking down from 43 out of 179 countries in 2007 to 47 out of 180 countries in 2008.

Although Malaysia is placed second among the Asean countries, its world ranking is way below Singapore’s, which stands at No. 4.

Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden rank the highest in the world — with identical scores of 9.3 of a possible 10 — and the lowest is Somalia, with a score of only one.

Transparency International (TI) Malaysia president Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said today that when it comes to corruption perception, Malaysia “just has its head above the water”.

“If we start sliding below five, then it is the start of the slippery slope leading down where we need to avoid,” he said.

“Among the contributing factors to this perception index is the failed link between poverty and the misallocation of resources, unfair distribution, and the exploitation of the poor by the rich.”

He said that while efforts and measures to fight corruption have been put in place, there must be strong will power to implement them by the leaders elected by the people, but if these leaders themselves are corrupt, then it make it all the more difficult.

Admitting that perception is something that will take time to alter, Navaratnam said Malaysia’s CPI reflects this, having moved form 5.1 in 2005 to 5.0 in 2006, and then back to 5.1 in 2007 and this year.

“This shows that all that the government has done has not made any impact on the perception. People don’t believe the changes are real or meaningful because they do not see the difference,” he said.

Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam
Navaratnam said the perception will have an impact on business and foreign direct investments as people will shy away from doing business in a country where their cost goes up because they have to fork out money to get things moving.

“If the government is not moving then the people must act,” he said.

“Leaders who do not fight corruption should be replaced because the country cannot carry on like this. Other countries have move forward while we seem to be heading for the slippery slope.

“The government will have to walk the talk if the people tell them ‘if you don’t sack the people who are corrupt, we will sack you’.”

Navaratnam said Asean countries need to do more to address corruption, too, because most of them have fared poorly in ranking and score.

Tan Sri Megat Najmuddin Khas, a TI executive council member and committee member of the Umno disciplinary committee, said addressing money politics in the party is an uphill battle.

He said among the measures being discussed to curb this are putting in mechanisms for transparency in the funding process, enacting laws. ande public funding for political parties.

Read:

Umno runs on system of loyalty and patronage

Umno rife with corruption

Umno politicians in for financial gains

Umno – money politics reach worrying level

Barisan Nasional government is structurally and inherently incapable of leading Malaysia

Sun2Surf

Former Finance Minister and Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah today appealed to all parties to come together in humility, beyond party politics, to hold an honest discussion, in the spirit of shared citizenship to bring the country out of a political and economic crisis.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah
“We need to come together to find unity and direction out of this dangerous situation. In doing so, we might turn our crisis into an opportunity and renew our unity and sense of direction as Malaysia,” he said in a statement today.

He said the political impasse was happening at a time of heightened economic, political and security challenges. He noted that:

/> the global economy faces the prospect of a meltdown on a scale last seen in the Great Depression of the last century. As a trading nation, Malaysia is strongly exposed to its effects;

/> the ground-shifting March 8 general election signalled a public sentiment that cannot be ignored;

/> the grievances of Sabah and Sarawak remain unaddressed, risking the integrity of the Federation;

/> misunderstandings over race and religion are ripe for political exploitation, with potentially disastrous consequences;

/> the government now commands even less confidence than it did post-March 8; and

/> rather than share the public’s sense of urgency, our present office-holders have redoubled efforts to frustrate renewal, cut off reform, and silence criticism. These efforts only underscore the weakness of the administration and its will to change.

Razaleigh, who has offered himself as a presidential candidate for the Umno election in December, said: “We can no longer deny that in its present form, and under present leadership, the government, led by the party to which I have given my life, is now structurally and inherently incapable of providing the direction and confidence that the country needs, whether over the long or short term.“

He cited the following indications “that are there for all to see”:

/> The government has been unable to respond to the economic crisis with even a basic plan of action;

/> The recommendations of two Royal Commissions of Inquiry have been ignored or watered down into insignificance;

/> Instead of using elections to renew its leadership, the leadership of the party has retreated into the fantasy world of a “transition plan” which rides roughshod over the party’s constitution and the rights of its members.

This risible attempt to treat public office and party trust as a private bequest between two individuals, one of whom wishes to hold office beyond his democratic mandate and the other to ascend without one, and the continuing effort to force feed the country with this notion, fools no one.

/> The Opposition has made undeniable gains in the number of parliamentarians it commands; and

/> We are beginning to lose grip of the rule of law. The use of the Internal Security Act and of Sedition Laws to target particular individuals further erodes the credibility of the government.

He said Malaysians cannot afford to allow these disturbing trends to play out their destructive course while “we suffer a de facto leadership vacuum, and while the rule of law is uncertain and the Constitution not upheld”.