Monday, March 30, 2009

Umno has keris, why not the 'clenched fist'?

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM), which recently won a decade-long battle for recognition, faces a new hurdle after the election commission (EC) rejected its "clenched fist" symbol as too violent.

What sort of people in EC who made such an uncivilised decision? The "clenched first" being too violent. To us, the Umno's "keris" is the most violent. It symbolised hatred, kill, violent, threat and terrorism.

The EC decision on not accepting PSM's logo for the use in general election is clearly a political motivated one. The registrar of societies had already approved the registration of PSM, so is EC trying to sabotage PSM's existence and its rights "on behalf" of Barisan Nasional?

This action also clearly symbolised BN-Umno's ketuanan to curb human rights, freedom of speech and freedom of association.

Money politics continue in by-election campaigns

The nominations for the by-elections for Bukit Selambau in Kedah, Bukit Gantang in Perak and Batang Ai in Sarawak had started on 29 March with candidates from both Pakatan Rakyat, Barisan Nasional and the independents being endorsed for contest on 7 April.

And there comes money politics pouring in from BN and Umno election machineries with all sorts of promises and pledges to uphold the constituencies with developments, new roads, new lanes and “new state governments” as well.

BN and Umno campaign machineries, with the assistance of the federal government departments are doing all it can to trick and cheat the voters into believing in their promises and pledges. During the one week campaign grace period for these three constituencies, millions of Ringgit will be pouring in, thanks to Umno’s continuous practical money politics.

Besides, BN and Umno will also be working hand in hand with the election commission, the police and other federal government agencies to ensure that phantom voters will be safely ferried into these constituencies during the voting day on 7 April. Possible manipulated postal votes will also be on standby should the BN and Umno feel that the votes seen are not accounted on their side in a week’s time.

As such, Umno cannot eradicate money politics, as it has been in their roots ever since. The Bukit Mertajam Umno division chief had already said it during the party general assembly.

Hisham wants teachers to be active in politics

The News Straits Times press had on 29 March reported that the Umno newly elected vice president and education minister Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein had suggested in the Umno general assembly that school teachers to be allowed to get involved in politics.

If allowed and implemented, school teachers nationwide will be actively participating in politics and they will lose focus as educationist. Hishammuddin’s suggestion to allow teachers to take active part in politics is just like asking our children to give up education completely.

We also view Hishammuddin’s suggestion as being political motivated as majority of the teachers in the national based schools are Umno members.

Therefore, once these school teachers are allowed to take active role in politics, the educational needs of our children will be totally neglected as these politician teachers will tend to leave their work behind by taking emergency leave, no pay leave or even medical leave to attend political gathering and functions.

And again, once these school teachers are elected to hold party positions in Umno, will they have the sufficient and quality time to focus on the educational aspects of our children? Will they have the sufficient time to provide quality teachings and guidance to our children in the schools?

The answer is, they will not even have time to provide focus to our children once they are active in politics. With these teachers losing focus on their professionalism to serve their own political needs, our children and the parents are the ones who are going to suffer.

The parents upon seeing their children having insufficient education in schools will resort to sending them to tuition centers to ensure their kids would not be left out. And the children themselves will then feel the pain and suffer due to overstrained and pressure they endured the entire day with lack of proper rest and attention.

So, the consequences are our children are going to suffer the most when school teachers are allowed to take active part in politics. And if this is allowed and implemented, it is going to benefit Umno entirely and as the result the educational qualities is going to lose out eventually.

Umno is trying to make use of our children for their own political gains. This is disgusting and inhumane.

Read more in the Bahasa Malaysia version.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Change or no change makes no difference in Umno

Yesterday night, we saw the results from the Umno polls and its elected members of the supreme council.

There is actually no change at all. The line-up in the new leadership still consist of old guards and conservatives. The only change that Umno undergone yesterday was a transition from Pak Lah's men to Najib's men.

This is not change at all but only an exchange. Umno is still the same like the last or previous Umno. It did not demonstrate its willingness to open up and be multi-racial in its stand as well as its policies. It is still a political party that emphasize high supremacy over others with its racist jargons and normal threats towards others should anyone tries to mention about justice, equality, democracy and freedom. Money politics and corruption will still continue in the party as usual.

So, why do we need to focus so much on Umno's general assembly unnecessarily? Let us not waste our time on Umno.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Umno is the real power crazy traitor

In his final speech as Umno youth chief, Hishammuddin Hussein warns the delegates of the one who 'sows the seeds of hatred and will turn against his own race'.

Since from the beginning, we had already seen who were the real power crazy traitor who had sowed the seeds of racist, hatred and violence against other race.

This shows Umno's attempt to cover up their own extremism by trying to put the blame onto others. Umno is now blamming those who stood up for justice, equality and democracy for leading the nation into chaos.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Umno's Hisham bars Pakatan leaders from schools

According to Malaysiakini today, a list issued by Education Minister Hishammuddin Hussein to all schools in Selangor allowed only 73 leaders from BN to attend events in the schools in the state.

Looks like Hishammuddin and Umno is very revengeful towards the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat State Government and did not want the Pakatan officials to attend the schools' functions in the state.

This move is clearly a sabotage act by Umno and its BN lackeys in order to create instability in Selangor by instilling hatred and anger, at the same time provoke other sentiments which is deemed harmful to the state government and its people.

Bar Council done a good job in upholding justice, freedom and equality

We would like to congratulate the Bar Council for their continuous effort in upholding justice, freedom and equality.

Well done and Good Job! We know some Umno leaders are now abusing the government machinery for their political gains to threaten the Bar Council to stop their quest to protect the federal constitution, the people and the nation.

We wish to remind the Bar Council not to be afraid by the cowardice act shown by these Umno leaders. Their objectives are not to protect the Malay rulers or the Malay community but they are simply doing all these provocations issuing threats in order to protect their own interest, power and wealth.

Therefore, the Bar Council is here to stay and we shall always support their effort to uphold justice, freedom and equality for all Malaysians regardless of their race, religions and backgrounds.

Let us all condemn Umno for their continuous blatant acts of violence, barbarism, racism, terrorism, corruptions, money politics and power abuses which had resulted to our people’s suffering, fear and worries on the insecurity of our nation.

Read more in our Bahasa Malaysia version.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Minister abused his government position to get rooms for his supporters

The minister of higher education Datuk Mohamed Khalid Nordin, one of the top contenders for the Umno vice president’s post had openly admitted that he had used the ministry’s official letterhead to book some 70 hotel rooms for Umno Pasir division members and delegates for the upcoming Umno general assembly.

A confirmed source had also state that a government cheque had been issued as a deposit to obtain the hotel rooms for the party delegates.

Datuk Mohamed Khalid also reasoned that he had instructed the usage of the ministry’s letterhead to book the hotel rooms because it is very difficult to book hotel rooms during the Umno general assembly period. What does he actually mean by that?

This is clearly an abuse of power and corrupt practice. Just because he wanted to contest and win a party vice president position, he uses his government position to serve his own interest in Umno.

Therefore, the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) should start investigating this power abuse and corrupt practice as soon as possible.

NGOs planned protest against Bukit Aman

A coalition of NGOs consist of about 50 organizations had planned to hold a mass protest ring in front of the police headquarters in Bukit Aman to shown their dissatisfaction on certain unresolved issues.

It also shows the public discontent on the police force is also growing following the BN federal government’s decision not to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) but to do with only a less effective Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC).

Besides, the highlights of the NGOs’ protest will also be focusing on the unresolved case of A.Kugan’s death while he was under investigation for suspicion in a car theft syndicate. They are now emphasizing why no action taken against Kugan’s killers from the police force.

Come on Tan Sri Musa (the inspector-general of police), it does not mean by hauling up your officers who murdered Kugan will make you or your entire force lost your faces. You have to accept that this is a process of justice and the murderers be it your policemen or whoever it is must face the judiciary process. They had murdered a guy who is under investigation.

If you keep on covering your face or being arrogant, Kugan will even become a national hero or perhaps a national statesman because he is a murder victim now. People are making a fame of him because your officers murdered him. Even if Kugan had committed a crime by stealing some vehicles to make ends meet, he should be allow to go through the judiciary process and from there he will be judged by the court if he is guilty or not.

The IGP should not blame the entire episode on Kugan. The more you blame him the more heroic he becomes and he might be turned into a Tun or Tan Sri type of guy by the people who fought for him. Those policemen who murdered him should be blamed for their impatience in their interrogations and their disrespect to the judiciary process.

If you let justice serve on Kugan accordingly, you don’t have to through such suffering situation. You asked for it, the entire police force asked for it. You cannot blame all these on the people, Kugan’s family and the whole. We did not go against you simply because we wanted to. We wanted justice, not to make Kugan a winner or you a loser. Justice means equality. You must serve everyone equally and not one-sided like what you have been doing in Perak right now.

As member of the police force, you must serve the people and preserve the nation’s security and not only serve the interest of a particular political party just because the leader of the political party is your home affairs minister.

Pakatan Rakyat cannot but BN all can in Perak

The police on the instruction from the home affairs ministry had banned series of ceramahs in Bukit Gantang, Perak led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin.

But the police on the instruction from the home affairs ministry had allowed ceramahs by BN and Umno to be held all over Bukit Gantang in order for them to gear up for the by-election at the said parliamentary constituency.

Apart from that, BN and Umno were allowed to raise their party flags and election banners now while the Pakatan Rakyat parties are not allowed to do so. Wasn’t that supposed to be in the Elections Act stating that party flags and banners as well as campaigns are only allowed once the nomination takes place?

The Elections Commission (EC) also did not act against BN and Umno for putting up their party flags and banners prior to the nomination day. It has been clearly shown that the EC is truly a pro-BN as the entity is still under the jurisdiction of the prime minister’s department even though EC is a commission status and was supposed to be “responsible to the parliament”.

So, are the police and EC actually apolitical or should we call them the Umno police and the Umno EC?

Factional rifts in Umno worsens

Looks like the factional rifts in Umno had worsens following the recent decision made by the party’s disciplinary committee to disqualify potential deputy presidential candidate Datuk Mohd Ali Rustam from contesting in the party polls.

But the Umno disciplinary committee decides to allow the Federal Territory youth chief Datuk Norza Zakaria to contest in the party polls instead. Datuk Norza was recently charged in the court for money politics and corruptions in the party.

It seems that the Umno disciplinary committee is behaving one-sided, barring Ali Rustam from contesting in the polls because he is guilty of money politics and corruptions in the party and allowing Norza to contest but he is also guilty of money politics and corruption.

The situation here is Ali Rustam is being probed by the Umno disciplinary committee while Norza is being investigated by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC). What has been decided by the Umno disciplinary committee is being upheld, while what has been investigated by MACC was not recognized by Umno, reasoning that Norza has not been found guilty yet by the court and the proceedings are ongoing.

So, MACC should also charge Ali Rustam in this case or Ali Rustam should voluntarily surrender to the MACC so he could be investigated like what had Norza being treated with.

The differences of treatment carried out by the Umno disciplinary committee had been clearly seen as a factional rift in the party had intensified. Party president-elect Datuk Najib Razak will take office soon and he wanted to see his men on his line-up. That is why he needed to purge as many rivals as he could in order for him to consolidate his grip in both party and the government.

Why did Pak Lah lied to Sarawakians ?

On 16 March recently, our prime minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had confirmed to the press that the Brunei had dropped its territorial claim on Sarawak’s Limbang district following an agreement reached between the Sultan of Brunei and Pak Lah himself.

But on 19 March, the Brunei second foreign affairs and trade minister Datuk Lim Jock Seng had denied claims by Pak Lah that the sultanate and Malaysia had already resolved their territorial dispute over Limbang in Sarawak.

The question is why did Pak Lah lied to the Sarawakians at the first place? What were the political motives behind such an inaccurate statement made by Pak Lah? Has Pak Lah lied in order to give credit to Sarawak chief minister and state Barisan chairman Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud in order for him to gain some grounds in the coming Sarawak state elections?

Looks like Tan Sri Abdul Taib had already felt the pressure from within his state and the growing influence of the opposition coalition who is going all out to ensure their victory. Abdul Taib is feeling the pinch right now. He had realized that he has been staying in power for too long and in fact the longest in our nation’s history. His monopolization in power, businesses and power abuses in Sarawak had became a talk all over the state and the people are now fed up with this kind of rules. That is why he is banking on Pak Lah assistance on the Limbang dispute in order for him to regain his ground and popularity.

But the Sarawakians knew better. They had been sidelined and divided for over decades by the Sarawak BN so that those in power could monopolize the state’s resources and enrich themselves. The state’s natives are still being left as it in decades ago. No change, nor any developments actually take place in most of the lands in that state. Corporate leaders having close connections with the Sarawak BN leaders were given exclusive rights and permits to conduct loggings in the state’s forest which forcefully misplaced thousands of natives from their homes, lands and farms.

Well, we are all hoping for the best that could take place in Sarawak soon. We hope that all Sarawakians will now come forward to demand for a change and to claim back their legal rights to decide what is best for their state and the people. And they could engineer the change by voting in the coming state elections.

The Batang Ai by-election will also be a testing ground for both Pakatan Rakyat and BN. IN the last state election, we could see one of the state BN’s component SUPP losing its influence when many of its candidates had lost to DAP. And in the last general elections, PKR and DAP also gained some grounds by winning some parliamentary constituencies.

Therefore, the people there could seek the change by voting Pakatan Rakyat. The people there needed a New Sarawak to emerge and rule by their own people.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Perda denies it being part of Bandar Perda development

The Penang Regional Development Authority (Perda) chairman and Penang Umno secretary Datuk Azhar Ibrahim denied that the federal development authority which he currently chairs had jointly build and developed Bandar Perda.

According to Datuk Azhar, Perda had nothing to do with Bandar Perda at all. And now the fate of some high profile occupants are uncertain, as the supplier for chill-water had confirmed that its bills had not been settle nor paid promptly. Those occupants who are expected to face a possible stoppage in their air-conditionings starting this Friday are the Seberang Perai Tengah District Police headquarters, Jaya Jusco Shopping Mall, the Seberang Perak Municipal Council (MPSP) complex, the Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) and several other establishments.

A check at the major property developer Aseania Development Sdn Bhd website shows that Bandar Perda was a privatized project jointly undertook by both Aseania and Perda. That means Bandar Perda township is clearly a joint-venture project carried out with Perda’s active participation.

Meanwhile, the supplier had already informed the state authorities that it cannot afford to pay the sum of RM800,000 owed to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) anymore. TNB had given a notice to the said supplier until this Friday to settle the outstanding bills.

According to the agreement, the occupants of affected buildings in Bandar Perda are required to pay their air-conditioning bills to Aseania Development Sdn Bhd which in turn will channel the payment to the chill-water supplier. It has also been confirmed that most occupants had promptly paid their air-cond dues to Aseania Development Sdn Bhd which is owned by a Bukit Mertajam Umno divisional leader and it is uncertain if Aseania had really channel the payment to the chill-water supplier.

As a partner in developing Bandar Perda, Perda’s continuous denial of any responsibility clearly demonstrates their irresponsible attitude towards the well-being of the people and the businesses situated in the said township. They are running away from the facts and refuse to be part of Aseania when such crisis happens. Aseania belongs to Umno too, and to avoid further embarrassment, Azhar denied Perda’s involvement.

From here, we could see both entities belong to Umno and one part of it is trying to run away. Are there any motives or cover-ups? We hope the relevant authorities could start their probe as soon as possible to ascertain if there are any elements of corruptions or power abuse involved.

Why Karpal Singh was charged? The Umno racists are spared!

DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor Karpal Singh was charged in the court recently under the Sedition Act 1948 for calling on the Sultan of Perak to be taken to court for his recognition onto the Perak Umno rebel state government which was established following the coup d’etat initiated by Umno.

Karpal was merely giving his opinion on the way the Sultan of Perak had managed the constitutional crisis in the state. In 1993 Umno under the then leadership of Dr Mahathir Mohammad had openly sought to reduce the powers of the Malay Rulers and to curb their royal immunity as well by initiating the amendment to the federal constitution. Then Umno at that time also supported the establishment of a special court in order to hear grievances forwarded by the people against the Rulers.

So it was Umno then under the leadership of Dr Mahathir who had abolished the immunity of the Malay Rulers in order to pave way for the people to comment, constructively criticize and to allow Rulers to be taken to a special court should any grievances arise.

Last year, when the then Bukit Bendera Umno division chairman Ahmad Ismail called our Malaysian Chinese as “pendatang” and “penduduk sementara”, numerous police reports has been made against him and there are many people who urge the authorities to charge him in the court for his seditious and racist acts which could harm the national unity of our nation.

But the police only accepted the reports and just threw it into the waste paper bins and forget about it. This is because Ahmad Ismail was a prominent Umno leader who had close connections with the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. That is why the police dare not act against him even if his remarks and statements were seditious and racist which could endanger the national security of this nation.

So does former Selangor Umno mentri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, who provoked a racial outbreak in the state by accusing Selangor State Executive Councillor Teresa Kok of organizing petitions against the Muslims for their loud azans at the mosque. A number of police reports were made against Khir Toyo for inciting racial hatred in this manner, but the police again failed to act or charge him in the court for his seditious and racist statements.

When Karpal Singh was speaking of justice and carried out his duty to defend and champion the democratic principles for the people, he was immediately hauled up into the court to be charged under Sedition Act 1948. What kind of justice is this? As long as Umno rules and dominates, there will be no justice at all to anyone of us.

When Perak Umno initiated a coup d’etat to topple the Perak state government their actions were immediately legalized as correct. When Perak Umno established the rebel state government, and the Sultan of Perak accidently and mistakenly recognized it, we were all condemned as traitors and alleged that we had committed treason just because we try to correct the wrong and we insisted that there is a constitutional crisis in Perak.

Again during the Umno general assembly few years back, a large number of party delegates in their speeches had called on their party leaders to wage war on our Malaysian Chinese community, but no action was taken by the police to have all these racist and violent culprits detained and charged in the court for their subversive activities. The police were afraid of them because Umno is very powerful.

If changes are not made now, maybe one day we could see the entire institution of this country being Umnonized. Soon, there will be an Umno police force, an Umno military force, an Umno attorney-general, an Umno supreme court, an Umno constitution, and everything that is Umno or it might be worst with an Umno monarch having absolute power ruling over us.

Right now, we could even see that the basic institution in our country’s administration has been collectively Umnonized without our knowledge or without ourselves realizing it that such dangerous moves had been systematically organized.

Therefore, if we as rakyat do not do something right now to uphold justice and unity, our generations to come will not be able to live in this country anymore as Malaysians. We as Malaysians must act now to stop Umno from further destroying our nation.

Mohd Ali Rustam disqualified from Umno election candidacy

One of the top contenders for the Umno deputy presidency, Datuk Mohd Ali Rustam has been disqualified by the party disciplinary committee recently. Ali Rustam was disqualified from contesting any positions in the party because of his active involvement in money politics.

Actually there is no such word of “money politics”. The word “money politics” was created by Umno leaders in order to confuse the people on its definition from the real facts. The actual word for such wrongs is in fact called corruption or bribery. Ali Rustam was disqualified because he was guilty of corruption for trying to bribe Umno delegates into voting for him and it has been proven by the party disciplinary committee after calling up several witnesses to testify during their inquiry.

Since his corrupt practice has been proven and because of his offence, he has been disqualified from the party elections, why is the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) keeping quiet? Wasn’t the MACC supposed to come in and detain Ali Rustam, who is also Malacca chief minister and charge him for corruption as well. The evidence has been shown and proven, so what is MACC waiting for?

Or is MACC afraid to act against Ali Rustam because he is still a head of a state government? Was MACC prevented from acting against Ali Rustam by both the Umno president and deputy president as well?

Umno caught some of its prominent leaders for corruption but did not want to release them to MACC for prosecution. And MACC did not want to act reasoning that there is no report lodged, that is why they did not file the case. Double standards and pretenders!

Read more in Bahasa Malaysia version

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Everyone has their right to an attorney

Because of the influence from the Perak Umno rebel state government, the Ipoh High Court had denied Perak State Assembly Speaker V.Sivakumar’s right to have an attorney to represent him in his suit against the rebel state administration.

They reason that since Sivakumar as a Speaker is a public or civil servant, he has no right to engage an attorney of his own to address his case in the court against the rebel state government led by Umno. According to Umno he could only be represented by the state legal advisor.

This ruling does not make any sense at all. In this case every public or civil servant who has a case to be heard in the court will have to engage the state legal advisor or attorney-general to act on their behalf. A teacher is a public servant, a customs officer is a public servant, a municipal council worker is a public servant, the driver of the prime minister’s official vehicle is a public servant, a clerk attached to the treasury department is a public servant, a cleaner working in the prime minister’s official residence is also a public servant.

So does the attorney-general or state legal advisor have to answer to the calls of all public servants who are in a legal tussle or whatever case they may have to face? Why can’t a public servant have their every right to choose or select an attorney of their own to represent them? What is wrong with the judicial commissioner who sat in the chambers of Ipoh High Court? Why can’t he use the common sense to make the judgment correct but choose to depend blindly on the standard proceedings of the government which applies generally to only specific application and not as the entire service?

Well, the Court of Appeal had finally given its judgment and allowed Sivakumar to have his rights back to seek his own attorneys to represent him. Sivakumar’s basic human rights had been restored after being denied by the Ipoh High Court judgment.

The Perak Umno rebel state government had tried to prevent Sivakumar from advancing his legal suit against them by misusing the stature of the state civil service for their political ends.

The federal constitution guarantees all its citizens their rights to an attorney. And by depriving one’s right to an attorney means insulting the federal constitution as well. As such, Umno had in fact insulted the federal constitution.

6 bloggers charged in court

6 bloggers were hauled up by the police recently and charged in the court for alleged “insult” of the Sultan of Perak over the Umno’s coup d’etat in Perak.

The 6 bloggers who were charged in the court were actually trying to inform the public and the people the truth and facts on the crisis and to expose Umno’s political terrorism. As such, these bloggers were not guilty.

Umno via its police force hauled up these bloggers because they were afraid that these blogger will eventually expose their wrongdoings to the people. Umno is afraid that the truth will prevail and in order to cover up their misdeeds, they instructed their police force to act against the bloggers so the other bloggers will be afraid to voice their opinions and truth.

Umno is in a denial mode, they refused to accept the fact that they had became irrelevant and the people no longer support their policies and supremacist ideas.

We strongly believe that the rest of the bloggers are also supporting their fellow bloggers who were charged in court for expressing the truth in public.

We are repeating our call now! Disband the Umno rebel state government and dissolve the state assembly to pave way for a new state election.

EAIC a powerless entity

Most of us are gravely disappointed with the tabling of the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) bill in parliament on last Wednesday.

The bill clearly shows that it failed to address the fundamental characteristics of a complaint as it lacks the independent enforcement powers to provide effective checks and balances in a fair and transparent manner.

The attorney-general who is a political appointee of the prime minister will be vested with full powers in decision making in the EAIC thus, defeating the notion of a case being handled and disposed of in a truly independent, just and credible manner.

Grave concerns were also raised on the effectiveness and efficiency of the EAIC in handing and covering about 21 public enforcement agencies. It will definitely make the commission redundant and ineffective in its function as it will be impossible for a single commission of such limited capacity and resources to be able to handle all cases of about 21 public enforcement agencies of vast different procedures and operational orders.

Therefore, we urge the federal government to go back to original proposal of setting up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) as recommended by the Royal Commission on the Police Force in the year 2006, instead of going round and round giving numerous excuses and reasons to avoid the IPCMC bill.

Tunku Aziz urged feds to rethink Allah ban

DAP National Vice Chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim had urged the federal government to rethink its insistence on banning Christians from using the word “Allah” in the religious service before the high court confirm its ruling.

The minister in the prime minister’s department Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had been reported earlier as saying that he wanted all states without a ruler like Penang, Melaka, Federal Territories, Sabah and Sarawak to follow the gazette ban on the word “Allah” for non-Muslim publications.

As such, it is very unfair for Zahid to force all those states to gazette the ban without taking into account of the court’s judgment.

It is very clear that Zahid and the rest of the Umno leaders are using this sensitive issue simply to fight for positions in their party elections which is due to be held at the end of this month.

The home minister Datuk Syed Hamid Albar had issued a gazette on last 16 February allowing the use of the word “Allah” in non-Muslim publications, only to reverse his decision later, reasoning that it was an error.

Tunku Aziz also mentioned that what is important is to accept the reality that Malaysia is a country where we share our lives and nobody has the right to portray himself as superior to another.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Perak NGOs call for immediate dissolution of state assembly for fresh elections

About twenty over non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Perak had made an appeal to the Sultan of Perak to dissolve the state assembly to pave way for a fresh state election.

It has also been reported that ten thousand signatures has been collected during the campaign around the state’s cities, towns and villages to explain to the people on the current constitutional crisis. The signatures collected had shown that the people wanted a fresh election and did not recognize Umno’s rebel state government as a legitimate one.

Among the twenty over NGOs who rallied for the Sultan to dissolve the state assembly were twenty three Chinese associations and guilds, the Perak Bloggers Network, four Islamic associations consisting of Jamaiy Negeri Perak, Kumpulan Prihatin Pertubuhan Islam bukan kerajaan Negeri Perak, Yayasan Amal Negeri Perak and the Biro Kebajikan Pusat Khidmat Sosial Islam Negeri Perak.

It shows that the people of Perak are already fed up with Umno’s lies, falsehood and undemocratic manipulation in the state’s politics and wanted a fresh election as soon as possible. The uprising of the Perakians had begun.

A fresh election is the only solution to the current constitutional crisis. Let us all support the call for a fresh state election and condemn Umno’s treason.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

He Still Does Not Understand

The three young future country leaders, former Selangor MB Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo, Umno Youth Deputy Chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Jerlun MP Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir recently expressed their governance views on a TV series.

One of the three will certainly be the next Umno Youth Chief. And thus, their political views attracted extra attentions from the public. However, their remarks in the show shocked me and these future leaders scared me.

Particularly Dr Khir. How do you think the former Selangor MB, who have lost his state regime in the 8 March 2008 general elections, makes a self-examination?

His reasoning was, Umno lost support because the party's Malay racism and Islamism are not yet fully carried out. He believed that as long as Umno further promotes Malay agenda and Islamic policies, the party will be able to turn the tide in the next general elections.

If you think these are already the most extreme and absurd remarks, you are wrong. Dr Khir has always been unexpected. He said that it is a desecration to the Malay Privileges to allow non-Malays enjoy the same status as Malays. Similarly, non-Muslims should not enjoy the same status as Muslims.

Attention! The remarks were not made in the Umno General Assembly. Instead, the remarks, meant to dedicate to the whole nation, were made in a TV series last month on 17 February.

It was the inspiration Dr Khir got from the 8 March 2008 general elections: Umno must be more rightist to draw closer to Malay Sovereignty and Islamism.

Dr Khir still did not understand that the Selangor BN suffered a great loss was because the people could no longer tolerate Malay racism and theocracy. Also, they could no longer tolerate a corrupt, power abuse, bias and extreme government. And he was the then state government leader.

After the collapse of the Selangor state government, Dr Khir wished to revive in a new guise by making use of Umno Youth, so that he could extend his political life, expand his territory and realise his ambitions.
According to the current situation, he has the highest chance. Don't ask me why, it is an Umno's tradition.

And we heard that Umno wants to reform and BN is going to restructure. Yes, under the leadership of Dr Khir.

By: Tay Tian Yan, Translated by: Soong Phui Jee - Sin Chew Daily

New administration in Perak is a rebel state government until the state assembly is dissolved and a fresh state election is called

The current administration running the Perak state is called the Umno rebel state government. Despite Umno’s repeat of its legitimacy in the power seizure and its recognition by the Sultan of Perak, the people will not be easily fooled by such stature made by Umno.

It is a fact that the Perak state is currently run by a rebel state government led by Umno Perak with its lackeys MCA, Gerakan and PPP acting as mere office boys or just like ball keepers. The Sultan of Perak had made a mistake in recognizing the rebel state government and it might be due to the pressure put on him by Umno who authorized the federal security forces to surround the Kinta Palace where the Sultan resides. Therefore the Sultan did not fully commits the mistake. He was pressured into making the wrong decision.

The power seizure initiated by Umno in Perak happened when three state assemblymen from Pakatan Rakyat had decided to switch their support to Umno. Two of the three state assemblymen who are now facing charges on corruption and power abuse are believed to have made a deal with Umno and the federal government to have their charges dropped later after their defection.

When the defection of these three state assemblymen has been formalized, Umno together with them held the state assembly sitting in the Perak Umno headquarters chaired by Umno deputy president Najib Razak.

The situation of the state assembly sitting in the Perak Umno headquarters was the Speaker was not present to chair the meeting at all. Secondly, the state assembly sitting was held in the Perak Umno headquarters and not in the State Assembly Building as required. Third, the state assembly sitting in the Perak Umno headquarters was not attended by other state assemblymen from Pakatan Rakyat. Fourth, the state assembly sitting in the Perak Umno headquarters who passed a no-confidence vote against the Pakatan Rakyat state government in a press conference chaired by Najib was illegal.

Why the state assembly sitting was held in the Perak Umno headquarters and chaired by Najib. When Umno claimed that they already have the majority to form a new state government, they did not ask for the state assembly sitting to be convened in the State Assembly Building with the presence of the state assemblymen from Pakatan Rakyat in order to prove the stature of their majority and to put a no-confidence vote to dissolve the then state government in a lawful manner.

But instead these Umno state assemblymen cowardly held their state assembly sitting in the Perak Umno headquarters without the presence of the Speaker, other state assemblymen nor any official notice of requisition in order to formalize the sitting in a proper quorum.

Therefore, the state assembly sitting in the Perak Umno headquarters was totally illegal and so does the results of its proceedings. In this case, the new administration is also an illegal one called the rebel state government. It is a fact. Umno is still in a denial mode.

Umno similar to Hezbollah

In the a report released by New Straits Times press on 7 March recently, Penang Umno secretary and Penaga state assemblyman Azhar Ibrahim had stated that the state DAP organized program to help the hard core poor via the sales proceed of the party’s newsletter Rocket was similar to the tactic used by the banned Al-Arqam sect.

According to Azhar, the program organized by DAP was insincere and aimed to enslave the participants into helping DAP blindly and the initiatives was merely used for the party’s political gain.

We wish to condemn the statement made by Azhar as been wild and made without having the actual facts being checked first. His accusation and subsequent labeling of DAP being similar to Al-Arqam are also completely baseless and a wildest lie we had ever heard.

Let us take a look at Umno and what we could see if they too have any similarity. Well, it is clear the Umno’s racist, supremacist, war-like, threats, arrogant, violent and undemocratic policies are similar to that of Hezbollah of Lebanon.

We had all seen and heard of Umno’s policies lauded by their leaders of all levels in their party general assembly previously, we had all seen and heard of Umno’s threat and its racist jargons calling for ethnic cleansing in our nation, to soak their “keris” with our blood and to burn cities in event of their party’s position being sidelined or should they fall out of favour.

And this is Umno, the Malaysia’s Hezbollah. What will become of our nation if Umno were to continue its governance in future? We cannot let them ruin our entire nation anymore. We must prevent Umno or Hezbollah from exceeding their racist and violence into our communities.

Read more in our Bahasa Malaysia version.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Is Malaysia not technically in recession?

The second finance minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop had recently stated in the parliament that our nation is not in the throes of a technical recession but only facing a certain challenging times.

So, the BN federal government is asking our people not to worry and be happy. Despite the upcoming effects on the country’s economy following the widespread global economic crisis, the BN is still in denial mode and nothing concrete has been carried so far to address the growing inflation and high unemployment rate in our nation.

The previous statement made by the deputy human resources minister Noraini Ahmad saying that there will be about 100,000 employees out of job this year via retrenchments, layoffs and voluntary separation scheme following the recent global economic crisis which had in fact spread over to our nation. The closure and suspension of businesses by some multi-national companies were the brief impacts of the crisis. Some MNCs which huge workforce are beginning to reduce its employees drastically and have their manufacturing plants shut down, forcing employees to take up pay cuts or surrendering their various benefits in exchange of continuing employment and so on.

And now the BN federal government formally announced that they will not establish the retrenchment fund as proposed earlier but instead choose to enrich some political link businesses by awarding them with various training contracts to upgrade retrenched workers.

Instead of using the taxpayers monies to enrich these businesses, why not use the fund to help those retrenched workers directly? Why choose a third party to handle the situation instead? Wouldn’t that be more costly in terms of fund management and its effectiveness?

These retrenched workers needed whatever help and assistance possible in order to have their feet up again to support their family, children, home and their basic needs so that they could continue shoulder on.

The BN federal government is in total ignorance. They are abandoning our people in order to further their own political interest.

Who embarrass the nation in the eyes of the world?

According to the Perak Umno rebel state government’s mentri besar Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir the emergency session of the state assembly held under the tree was to embarrass the nation in the eyes of the world.

It was Umno who had already embarrassed the nation in the eyes of the world from day one starting from the coup attempt organized at the Perak Umno headquarters right to the day when Umno held its illegal state assembly sitting also in the Perak Umno headquarters to topple a legally elected state government by proclaiming the rebel state government.

Umno toppled a legally elected state government by force, in an unconstitutional manner, in an undemocratic way, and in order to enforce their rebel administration, they got the federal security force to surround the Kinta Palace to force the Sultan of Perak to recognize their rebel administration.

That has actually already embarrassed the nation in the eyes of the world. And now they are creating more and more chaos and threats in order to curb the people’s uprising and to cover up their misdeeds.

Then they order the federal security forces to storm and seal the state assembly building and prevent our state assemblymen from convening a meeting for our people. That is why the state assembly sitting has to be held outside the building under a tree.

Umno had actually embarrassed the people of Perak and the nation in the eyes of the world just because they wanted to achieve their own political agenda, power and prestige. Umno had created a jungle rule in Perak.

MACC investigating Perak Speaker

The Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) is still an old brand of Anti Corruption Agency despite its recent rebranding and upgrading. They are not doing what they are supposed to do, to combat corruption at all levels.

But instead they are now helping the BN-Umno federal government to combat their political opponents, by targeting Pakatan Rakyat leaders with unnecessary threats of harassments, investigations and interrogations like the police are doing now.

They are helping the BN-Umno leaders to curb Pakatan Rakyat influence by taking up various imagining corruption and power abuse allegations on its leaders in order to create a bad reputation on PKR, DAP and PAS leaders.

Looks like the MACC is still ineffective in combating corruptions, they are interfering deeper into the political stream especially the current Perak constitutional crisis.

The MACC do not care of the rampant corruption and money politics in Umno at all because because MACC is still accountable to the prime minister’s department whose office was led by the Umno president himself.

So do you think will MACC ever dare step into Umno to probe into their corruptions when their boss is the Umno president and prime minister?

Who acted in an uncivilized manner?

Umno supreme council and tourism minister Azalina Othman Said had described that the Perak state assembly’s emergency session under a tree as an uncivilized act.

We wish to remind Azalina of her words on who actually acted in an uncivilized manner. It was Umno who had acted in uncivilized manner. Remember it was the Perak Umno state assemblymen who did it first by organizing their own state assembly session in the state Umno headquarters instead of having it in the state assembly building in order to proclaim the formation of the Umno rebel state government.

The state assembly session in the state Umno headquarters was not even chaired by the speaker but was done by the Umno deputy president instead. Such action was clearly a coup d’etat, seizing power in an undemocratic manner, treason to the people and constitution, thus an uncivilized act.

It was Umno who had confused the people

An Umno vice president and Melaka chief minister Mohd Ali Rustam had recently said that PKR and PAS are disrespecting the Malay rulers, the Malay rights and creating confusions among Malaysians and said that it was because of PKR and PAS, DAP is now insulting the sultans and touching on sensitive issues and their leader behaving like “kurang ajar”.

From the statement made by Ali Rustam, it shows that he is frustrated because the people had begun to abandon Umno and BN in a very large move and he could feel it. That is why he is frustrated and uttered the word “kurang ajar” on PKR, PAS and DAP leaders for their roles in letting facts known to the people.

Umno is worried that the people would one day know the entire truth. That is why they are trying to cover up their misdeeds by blaming the Pakatan Rakyat of confusing the people. It was actually Umno who is confusing the people, because they are in control of all the mass medias and newspapers, where Pakatan Rakyat did not even have full access to these channels.

Monday, March 2, 2009

MCA factional tussle worsens, party became hopeless and so does the other BN coalition parties

As the factional tussle in MCA between supporters of both party president Ong Tee Keat and deputy president Dr Chua Soi Lek worsens, the party had turned a hopeless political organization with no effectiveness in serving the Malaysian Chinese community anymore.

Because of the MCA’s continuous infighting, Umno is taking advantage in monopolizing all the powers within the Barisan Nasional coalition, as leaders of MCA had no time to seek for a better bargaining power in the coalition.

Gerakan although a multi-racial party in name but a Chinese dominated one had its parliamentarians reduced in the last general elections. Gerakan was also wiped out from Penang because of its subservient nature to Umno. Thus, effectively demonstrating that the Malaysian Chinese interest and representation in the Barisan Nasional coalition has became irrelevant to the fact that the Malaysian Chinese community had already given up hope on the Barisan Nasional Chinese leaders. Most of them are widely seen as overly subservient to Umno who dominates the coalition with its tough racist policies of which the component parties had no rights to object to.

Therefore, it is up to DAP and PKR now to widen its representation in the Malaysian Chinese community. With its increased parliamentarians and state assemblymen in the last general elections, its proves that the Malaysian Chinese community had switched their support dramatically from Barisan Nasional to Pakatan Rakyat in ensuring that their rights are being looked into in every aspect.

But still, with the rising influences of the leaders from the DAP and PKR fold, Umno is seen to have intensify its racist onslaught on the two Pakatan Rakyat component parties by engineering coup d’etats, sexual scandal, and several inducements to incite defection over to the Barisan Nasional.

Umno’s aim was to destabilize the effective governance of the Pakatan Rakyat by injecting unnecessary challenges and politicking in the Pakatan Rakyat held states thus blaming the later in event of ineffective services to the people. This is in fact a clear sabotage carried out by Umno.

Although there are several disagreements on the way Umno handles its politicking, back door deals and undemocratic way of power seizure, the Barisan Nasional component parties like MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP could not do much to caution its dominant partner because their lack of parliamentarian representation had eroded their negotiating powers from within.

As such, there became useless like a lame duck as they could not seek a fair power sharing for themselves in order to speak for the communities that they claimed to be representing. Umno become more powerful and dominant, where those Barisan Nasional component parties had no other choice but to continue to be subservient to their dominant partner in order to survive.

So, in actual fact the Barisan Nasional doesn’t exist anymore. Its component parties like MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP are mere decorations or window dressing to show that it has a coalition but it is Umno who calls all the shots by its own ways and means. Its coalition partners would always say yes and agree to what Umno dictates.

Karpal Singh, victim of Umno youth’s violent and “ketuanan” campaigns

In this “bullets” episode, Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh being a wheelchair-bound man with disability to walk and move about freely but yet, he still serves his people and nation well despite all those short comes.

And yet today, Karpal has been a victim of Umno youth’s violent campaign just because he wanted to end their immunities that they are enjoying and bring all those who were behind the “bullets” episode to justice.

Why did the Umno youth members stormed the parliament attempting to assault Karpal? The Umno youth are guilty conscious and wanted to cover-up the “bullets” episode by diverting the attention to their grievance,at the same time, trying to ensure their immunities are not violated.

The Umno youth members felt that their guilt has been overblown by those who wanted justice into such a criminal act. In fact sending the bullets to an innocent person’s house was already a criminal act. We all know who had demonstrated in front of Karpal residence the other day and we also know who had shown the violent acts and issue threats in front of Karpal’s residence the other day.

The Umno youth members felt their guilt because of Karpal’s attempt to expose them and to end their immunities. When the Umno youth members attacked Karpal at the parliament compound, the security personnel and the police who are directly under the home ministry managed by an Umno supreme council did not act against those attackers, because they were instructed not to do so, just because those attackers were also Umno youth members.

Just imagine if those attackers were not from Umno and they were from other political parties, they are sure to be caught, beaten-up and thrown into the nearby police lock-ups immediately. As those attackers were Umno youth members, the home minister did not want the authorities to act against them. This is what Umno’s “ketuanan” means.

Umno’s “ketuanan” also guarantees its members are immune, above the law, above the sultanate, above god and above the federal constitution. That means, like it has been shown in the past few years, Umno reserves the right to organize violence, promoting hatred, organize their so-called band of militias and wage war onto the people and the entire nation if anyone found to have spoken against them, vote against them, criticizing them and so on. The act of criticizing Umno and exposing their wrongdoings are all seen as committing treason against the country, against the sultanate and against the constitution.

But with Umno’s “ketuanan” they are exempted from all such labels which they put on other people, in 1993 they could undermine the sultanate and withdraw their powers and immunities without much problems, during the past years, they issued threats of wanting to burn down the Selangor Chinese Town Hall and wanted to organize violence, promoting hatred, bloodshed, to burn down Kuala Lumpur and their numerous threats to repeat the May 13 incident if they were to lose in the general elections again and so on, hoping to scare the people into continuing to vote them so that such violence will not occurred.

Because of Umno’s “ketuanan” they are of cause also exempted from the law and constitution. They act in such a way because they said that they are immune, above the law, above the sultanate, above god and above the federal constitution.

Why did they hate us so much?

Almost everyday, the name and word Umno has been regularly mentioned in media and other mainstream communication channels. Well, it does not mean Umno is popular. It is because Umno had became too irrelevant until they desperately needed the media and press to assist them in furthering their outdated political agendas so that the people will hear, see and “understand” their policies.

After the 8 March general elections last year, these Umno leaders are frustrated and shocked with their losses and defeats after 50 years of their firm grip in power. They where shock in disbelieve that five states had eventually fell into Pakatan Rakyat’s hands.

When they were defeated, these Umno leaders put the blame on Pakatan Rakyat for their extensive campaigns, the bloggers, the younger generations and our people. These Umno leaders blamed us because of their defeat they had also lost much of their profit making channels in our nation. These Umno leaders blamed us because their positions in the party, government and businesses are not at stake.

And that is why they hate us so much, because we did not vote for them but choose Pakatan Rakyat instead. The hate us so much because they had lost their two-thirds majority in the parliament and their powers has been drastically reduced to a mere balance only to govern.

They denied that they themselves were the contributors to their own defeat. They said that their defeat were because the people sabotaged them, disowned them and disbelieve in them. And that are the only reasons that the Umno leaders had till today. They deny every single fault if they were to be from their party. They are still in a very denial mode. These Umno leaders are hiding their heads under the sand just like the ostrich.

That is why these Umno leaders are resorting to various undemocratic, uncivilized, dictatorial and unjust means to ensure that they remain in power. They are now ensuring that all federal government security organs are fully utilized in order to curb the rising influence of the Pakatan Rakyat and the people’s dissatisfaction. These Umno leaders are now working very hard to put the Internal Security Act, Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, Printing Press Act, etc into full use so that the people would not dare to speak out and expose their misdeeds in public.

They wanted to ensure that the people listen to them and their instructions carefully and obediently without any further questions. If condition warrants they may push their policies into a harsher implementation and ensure tougher enforcements are in place to proceed with their plans.

There they goes, Perak Umno launched a coup d’etat to topple the legitimate Perak state government and installed its leaders and members in the rebel state government after putting their pressure on the Perak Sultanate to recognize their power seizure. Apart from Perak, they are also planning to hatch similar plots in Selangor and Kedah but had put their plans on hold after their attempts were exposed.

Then, when certain people wanted to come forward to report their misdeeds to the relevant authorities, these Umno leaders claimed that they were liars and promised to avenge such reports by threatening those who had reported against them with imprisonment and security detentions.

Besides, their leaders in the youth wing especially, are also getting more violent and racist, attempting, warning and threatening the population with murders, violence, war, supremacy, “bullets” and so on. The Umno youth wing had became more like a Nazi storm trooper where they could attack and condemn any meetings or gatherings which speak against them, criticizing them or uprooting their misdeeds.

These has become of Umno who will turn our nation into a Nazi police state one day. Will we be able to rid off Umno before they could ever rid our nation off the map? We better make our decisions fast.

We must therefore insist a final solution on the Umno’s question fast! Let us all show them that this nation belongs to us and they do not own this nation as they claimed.

We want to preserve the peace, harmony and unity in our nation which we have been maintaining for the past fifty one years. We must preserve these harmonious entities of ours for our generations to come.

Toll hikes differed to end of this year, some in Umno were unhappy

After received much protest from the public on the toll hikes in several highway concessions, the BN federal government had agreed to differ the plan to the end of this year. The people are now relieved after the toll hikes has been differed and will BN make another attempt to do the same in the middle of this year?

Well, when the toll hikes were differed, some Umno state and divisional leaders were in fact disappointed with their top leader’s move. Most of these second and third level Umno leaders were actually owners and directors of several toll concessionary companies which manage those highways and collect the tolls.

By differing the toll hikes would also means differing the profit margins and gains by these Umno linked concessionary companies.

And these unhappy Umno leaders will then voice their dissatisfaction in the coming Umno general assembly which is expected to be held soon. The party assembly is also expected to oversee the power transition from the current Pak Lah’s premiership to his deputy Najib Razak.

The discontent and dissatisfaction among the Umno delegates will also expected to see many of Pak Lah’s men to be voted out in favour of Najib’s henchmen. It is not known if Pak Lah’s son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin will be able to make it in the Umno youth chief race or otherwise. Some source had also mentioned that Khairy may dump his father-in-law in order to further his own political aspirations.

Well, all these transition effects were mere speculations among Umno delegates and members. Some said when Najib take on the premiership, harsher measures and policies are expected to take place, which include the differed toll hikes may also see its increase moving back to its original plan in order to please the Umno linked concessionary companies where several of its party leaders are directors and major shareholders.

Then, after that will Umno ever listen to the people again?