Mahathir: Even 5 years for Pakatan is dangerous

2:06PM Jan 3, 2013  

As the polls draw nearer, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad again raised the red flag for voters that handing over Putrajaya to the Pakatan Rakyat, even for just five years, would be dangerous.

"Five years for the (PKR de facto leader) Anwar (Ibrahim) or (PAS president Abdul) Hadi (Awang) -led opposition to govern is dangerous. Many things can be destroyed in five years. We have some experience in this.

"Already we see this person who claims to fight for free speech suing and resorting to the courts to shut the mouths of his critics. Other powers of the government will be similarly abused, "said Mahathir. (right)

"Nepotism and cronyism will be employed as indeed they are in the party he now heads," said the veteran politician in his blog posting today titled "Change".

Mahathir said Pakatan would ensure there will be no return for the BN and government officers would be used to threaten whoever tries to change the administration should Pakatan capture Putrajaya.

Dr M lists Anwar's shortcomings

He also revisited his arch rival Anwar's track record when the latter was his deputy and finance minister during the 1998 Asian financial crisis, to back his claim that Pakatan cannot rule the nation.

"The then deputy prime minister and minister of finance tried the International Monetary Fund (IMF) solution without the IMF loans.

"Banks and companies were faced with the threat of bankruptcy from non-performing loans. Imports cost more. Cost of living shot up.

"The record is there. Malaysians must not allow themselves to be hoodwinked as I was hoodwinked by the appearance of religious piety in the past," he said, referring to Anwar's background as the leader of Islamic NGO Abim before joining politics.

He also slammed Anwar (left) for promising changes to the voters but had failed to introduce any positive change when he was in the government.

"All he was interested in was getting up Umno's leadership ladder in order to become prime minister. How he achieved his objective does not bear scrutiny."



'BN people friendly coalition'

Mahathir trumpeted BN's achievements, contrasting with the current financial crisis in Eurozone and the United States.

"The BN has listened to the people and has changed many laws and policies. All that the people need to do is to urge the BN to carry out whatever change the people desire.

"But changing the government can and will result in this country becoming unstable and unable to grow."

On the other hand, the promises offered by Pakatan to change the nation into a welfare state by waiving various fees and increasing petrol subsidy, would lead Malaysia onto the footsteps of Greece, Mahathir argued.

"That's what happened to Greece. It's bankrupt now. The whole of Europe cannot put it back together again.

"Admittedly the BN has ruled this country ever since independence. But look at the record and compare it with other countries which gained independence at the same time.

"Compare it even with the developed West. They are in deep financial trouble and try as they might, they have not been able to overcome the crisis."

DAP draws a line against politicos in business

Terence Netto
2:20PM Jan 3, 2013

COMMENT It's been bruited about on the grapevine that the DAP has drawn a line against its elected legislators getting involved in business.

The issue came up when it was revealed in the Perak State Assembly last month that the party's state chief, Ngeh Koo Ham, and his cousin, Nga Kar Ming, have landed interests in Kelantan.

Word has it that the duo would shortly announce a move that should see them divested of their holdings in Kelantan which had qualified them to be members of the landed gentry, a dubious distinction for politicos from a party of social democratic aspirations.

The business-politics nexus is the widely acknowledged cause of Umno-BN's decline as a political power. The corruption and nepotism that this nexus has engendered has left the once powerful coalition too enfeebled to implement the reforms deemed necessary to regain its popularity among voters.

Once this nexus is forged, it's fiendishly difficult to eradicate. Unchecked, its tendrils penetrate to every corner of the polity and soon enough the conglomerate that holds power is in a freefall to disaster.

The DAP, poised with the rest of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat to take federal power in the country at the coming polls, would be loath to see this canker in the ruling coalition replicated by some among the party's Perak power brokers.

The question now arises whether the move by Ngeh and Nga in being involved in the business of plantation agriculture was due to a lapse of judgement or was the result of a mindset in which the acquisition of political power is prelude to the accumulation of wealth.

Fong Po Kuan troubled

For some years now, the DAP has been at a loss as to how to deal with the Foochow cousins who rule the roost in a state where the party has almost 200 branches and 17 state assembly representatives, figures that provide the contingent with formidable clout at both internal party elections and in state coalition politics.

Word of their overbearing nature started to spread from the time DAP's MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan, intimated that she was not willing to re-contest her seat at the 12th general election in 2008.

Though she was publicly discreet about the reasons for her reluctance, speculation arose that it was due to her dismay at the machinations of Ngeh and Nga, who combine like a tag team to wrestle away any threat from quarters they view as rivals to their grip on party affairs in Perak.

The feisty Fong reconsidered her reluctance and chose to stand again but elected to remain distant from the state party affairs.

She retained her Batu Gajah seat in the 2008 general election and went on to become the DAP's most regular attendee whenever Parliament is in session.

This is a feature of no mean worth given that at one time, when the DAP-backed Pakatan Rakyat held state government reins in Perak, the party had up to nine legislators serving in state executive council positions while being federal reps which compelled a juggling of responsibilities regarded as almost impossible to bring off.

Assiduity in the execution of a single role was Fong's response to the schemes of the territorial barons in Perak.

Because Fong chose not to publicly bleat about her discontent with Ngeh and Nga, observers could only speculate about the way the cousins operate.

When the DAP state assemblyperson for Jelapang crossed the aisle in February 2009, a desertion that brought the 11-month Pakatan government of Perak to an end, she muttered about the conduct of the cousins as having prompted her to leave.

However, the word of a quisling is seldom credible and so what blame there was to be apportioned for her desertion could not be fixed on the cousins.

‘One candidate one seat' policy 

But matters were different when a short while later the party's MP for Ipoh Barat and national vice-chairperson M Kulasegaran verged on a decision to quit his posts when tensions from rivalry between state factions got to him.

It took a late night trip to Ipoh by the party's national leaders to persuade Kulasegaran (far right) to stay put.

The latter's grouse: party branches with his supporters were being deregistered while new ones, stacked with the cousins' proxies, were being opened.

The party's principal Indian leader who have worked hard to build up Indian support for a Chinese-dominated party seeking to widen its support base could not help but cry foul, particularly when the cousins enticed Indian leaders Kulasegaran had groomed to ditch him.

Against this backdrop the call sounded from national chairperson Karpal Singh for a ‘one candidate one seat' policy that he said the party should adopt to widen opportunities for DAP members to be elected to state and federal legislatures. The Perak cousins were both state assembly representatives and MPs.

Soon anti-DAP blogs began to circulate stories of the business interests of the cousins, one item being Nga wife's interest in a tailoring concern that was said to have had a contract to suit Ipoh City councillors when Pakatan was in charge of the state government.

But nothing more damaging to DAP's image as a party set against corruption and cronyism emerged than when news broke last month that Ngeh and Nga had proprietary interests in a huge estate, slated for palm oil cultivation, in Gua Musang, Kelantan.

Casual observers of parliamentary proceedings in the month of October recalled that both Ngeh and Nga held forth on the oil palm industry in Budget debates, without declaring that they had a pecuniary interest in the matter.

This gave retrospective justification to all the earlier murmurings against the cousins in Perak. The national leadership of the party knew they must act: they have chosen to give the thumbs down to any attempt by their elected representatives to mix politics with business.

In the next days, DAP's Perak cousins will have to tell of how they have trimmed their business sails to accord with the party's directive.

Musa Hassan enggan komen kisah terbaru kes pembunuhan Altantuya

Oleh Amin Iskandar
Penolong Pengarang Berita January 03, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, 3 Jan —Tan Sri Musa Hassan enggan diheret ke dalam kisah terbaru pembunuhan Altantuya Shaariibuu pada tahun 2006 berikutan penerbitan sebuah buku yang mendakwa bekas Ketua Polis Negara (KPN) mempunyai maklumat dalaman berkenaan kes itu.
Bekas KPN juga mengulangi kenyataannya sebelum ini bahawa Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak tidak terlibat dengan dengan kes letupan yang dikaitkan dengan beberapa ahli politik dari pemerintah Barsian Nasional (BN) yang timbul semula baru-baru ini menjelang pilihan raya umum ke-13.

“Saya takde apa nak komen,” kata beliau (gambar) kepada The Malaysian Insider ketika dihubungi semalam sebagai respon mengenai tuduhan beliau tahu mengenai kegiatan-kegiatan yang menyelubungi kematian penterjemah Mongolia yang diupah untuk membantu pembelian dua buah kapal selam Perancis beberapa tahun lalu dimana dua polis komando elit telah disabitkan kesalahan dan menghadapi hukuman mati.

“Saya dah kata banyak kali, Najib tidak terlibat dengan pembunuhan Altantuya. Ini kerja (Abdul) Razak Baginda,” katanya merujuk kepada bekas penasihat politik Najib yang mempunyai hubungan dengan Altantuya.

“Saya pernah brief (beri taklimat) Pak Lah bahawa Najib tidak terlibat dalam kes ini,” katanya merujuk kepada perdana menteri pada ketika itu Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Sebuah buku 26 halaman bertajuk “Black Rose - Black Rose 1.0” menerangkan tentang kes politik berprofil tinggi melibatkan personaliti kerajaan dan ahli perniagaan yang kononnya terlibat dalam konspirasi pembunuhan Altantuya beredar dalam talian sejak beberapa hari lepas.

Peniaga permaidani Deepak Jaikishan yang berada di tengah-tengah kontroversi sekitar akuan bersumpah bercanggah P. Balasubramaniam mengenai kes itu, semalam mengaku merupakan penulis buku tersebut. Beliau juga telah berkata beliau akan mengeluarkan sekuel selepas ini.

Balasubramaniam, bekas polis bertukar penyiasat peribadi, pada masa itu diupah oleh Abdul Razak Baginda untuk memerhatikan Altantuya dilihat menjadi saksi utama kepada seluruh saga.

Deepak baru-baru ini mendedahkan penglibatan beliau dalam mendapatkan Balasubramaniam untuk membuat akuan bersumpah (SD) kedua, mengubah kenyataan awal yang mengaitkan Najib dengan pembunuhan Altantuya.

Majlis Peguam awal minggu ini dikritik kerana melengah-lengahkan waktu untuk mendedahkan identiti peguam di belakang kontroversi akuan bersumpah kedua P Balasubramaniam.

Peguam Americk Singh Sidhu yang mewakili bekas penyiasat persendirian itu memberitahu The Malaysian Insider, Majlis Peguam harus mempercepatkan siasatan kes berprofil tinggi itu yang sebelum ini dikaitkan dengan pegawai tertinggi kerajaan, muncul semula menjelang pilihan raya umum ke 13 yang akan berlangsung tidak lama lagi.

Majlis Peguam berkata ia sedang menyiasat kemungkinan salah laku dalam penggubalan SD kedua Balasubramaniam, yang bercanggah dengan kenyataan beliau sebelum ini yang dibuat sehari sebelumnya berkenaan dengan penterjemah Mongolia.

Misteri menyelubungi ke atas identiti peguam yang menyediakan SD kedua Balasubramaniam, bertarikh sehari selepas SD pertama beliau pada 3 Julai 2008, mengenai kes pembunuhan Altantuya.

Bulan lalu Musa menuduh menteri Kabinet dan ahli politik termasuk Menteri Dalam Negeri Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein sering cuba campur tangan dalam tugasan polis.

Indian Nation in Malaysia needs to get its politics and relationships right

If Indians in the collective vote for Pakatan Rakyat (PR), the opposition alliance, and hypothetically Barisan Nasional (BN) still manages to form the Federal Government, the community is not likely to see any change in its fate. If anything, they are likely to continue as scapegoats and be further victimized by the powers that be and those in the corridors of power and brutalized by the racist police. If Indians being wholly with the BN from 1957 to 2008 did not prevent their decline in the country, just think what will happen when the community is on the wrong side of the political fence?

Joe Fernandez

As the festive cheers end the year and a new one begins, the Indian Nation in Malaysia – a Nation without Territory within a Nation -- needs to think really long and hard about what the forthcoming 13th General Election means for them.

Their past has caught up with them in the present to haunt their future. The 13th GE, more than the 12th GE, will be a watershed year for them in dealing with the politics of the nation.

This is a time for Christmas wishes and making New Year Resolutions.

If there’s going to be a complete break with the past, Indians need to consider that politics for them cannot be what it means to those communities in Malaysia which have ethnic seats for the taking in Parliament and the state assemblies.

Indians are the only community in Malaysia which doesn't have even one ethnic seat in Parliament or the state assemblies despite having a million voters on the electoral rolls and forming eight per cent of the 28 million population. Their marginalisation and disenfranchisement under the Umno regime over half a century has been complete. This is a grave human rights issue.

The 8 per cent excludes at least 300,000 stateless and undocumented ethnic Indians in the country.

 Mohd Khir Toyo exposed the problem of stateless, undocumented children

To his credit, it was former Selangor Menteri Besar Mohd Khir Toyo who first conceded on the Government side the fact that there were 50,000 stateless Indian children in his state alone. Khir, the son of Javanese immigrants, was sore with Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) leaders on other issues and decided to take them down a peg or two with the stateless issue.

The absence of ethnic seats for the Indians means that engaging in party politics and coalition politics will not help resolve their myriad socio-economic problems. This concept must be something to borne in mind by Indians who are now with political parties on both sides of the divide. While no one can force these members to leave their respective organisations, it would be the right thing to do if the Indian community is not to be further victimized in the aftermath of the 13th GE and other similar future outings.

If Indians in the collective vote for Pakatan Rakyat (PR), the opposition alliance, and hypothetically Barisan Nasional (BN) still manages to form the Federal Government, the community is not likely to see any change in its fate. If anything, they are likely to continue as scapegoats and be further victimized by the powers that be and those in the corridors of power and brutalized by the racist police. If Indians being wholly with the BN from 1957 to 2008 did not prevent their decline in the country, just think what will happen when the community is on the wrong side of the political fence?

Indians caught between the known devil and the unknown angel

What can be said about BN can also be said about PR i.e. if the Indians root for BN, and PR comes in to form the Federal Government. PR, under the circumstances, will not have even moral obligations to the Indian Nation in Malaysia.

One has to only look at the fate of the minorities in the MiddleEast and West Asia in the wake of the long civil war in Lebanon, US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the eruption of the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria. The Christian minorities here are on the run everywhere, victimized and persecuted by a newly-united majority community for having thrown in their lot for long with the “divide-and-rule” fallen regimes rather than taking a strictly neutral or apolitical stand.

The US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Europe have opened their doors to them but not everyone has been able to escape the refugee camps or being reduced to the status of internally displaced persons.

It’s high time that Indians in Malaysia look at the tragic fate of the Christian minorities in MiddleEast and West Asia and decide whether this is what they want for themselves as well.

The right way forward would be for Indian voters to come out and vote in full force on a non-political, non-party basis.

Those incumbents who have been in a seat for three terms or more should be voted out.

Other incumbents who have not performed and/or otherwise done nothing for the Indian community should also be voted out.

This message needs to get out again and again until the Indian community sees the wisdom of it.

 Indians should not vote for Indians to be in the legislature

Thirdly, Indian should not vote for Indians to be in the legislature. Such Indians would be unable to do anything for the community and having them merely glosses over the problem and paints the impressions that the government is being shared fairly among all Malaysians. This is the proverbial fig leaf. Such Indian legislators become convenient scapegoats i.e. to be blamed by the non-Indian legislators when the Indian community complains about anything.

However, Indians not voting for Indians is unlikely to prevent non-Indian voters rooting for Indian legislators. That’s their prerogative.

No self-respecting Indian should offer himself in the GE as that would be tantamount to further misleading the community and postponing badly-need solutions.

The Government of the Day, whether from BN or PR, should consider that it would be in their interest to appoint Indians to the Senate and in the Government sector, especially statutory bodies, government companies and GLCs.

 Non-Indian legislators should take up the plight of Indian Nation in Malaysia

This would be a start for the Indian community to embark on the long and hard road towards its emergence as a force to be reckoned with in the mainstream.

Individual non-Indian legislators, fearing defeat at the hands of Indian voters, are likely to take up the community’s plight and make an attempt at resolving its myriad socio-economic problems.

The list is long.

At the macro level, the stateless and undocumented phenomenon needs to be brought to an end. At present, the Umno regime deliberately keeps the stateless and undocumented people as virtually slave labour in the twilight zone. Slavery is illegal under the Malaysian Constitution, international law and the UN Charter. The stateless don’t figure in official statistics and the phenomenon further deprives Indians of additional votes.

The Director-General of the National Registration Department (NRD) has prerogative and discretionary powers – can be determined by the Court – to resolve the stateless problem at the stroke of a pen but he refuses to do so because he’s being forced by Umno to act as if he was a hardcore card-carrying racist member of the party.

The Federal Government should appoint an apolitical ethnic Indian, a non-Muslim, as the Director-General of NRD and a non-Muslim Orang Asal – Murut, Dusun including Kadazan or urban Dusun, Dayak, and Orang Asli – as the Deputy Director-General of the NRD at least until the stateless problem in Malaysia is resolved. This is a human rights issue. Everyone has the right to an identity.

To add insult to injury, illegal immigrants and foreign labour are being allowed in to compete with Indians in jobs which they had traditionally held. The Minimum Wage Act ensures that Malaysians will be discouraged from entering the job market at the lower levels which are being kept open for illegal immigrants and foreign labour who go on to pad the electoral rolls.

 Indians can’t get even cendol licences from the local authorities

Again, at the macro level, the spectrum of administrative laws – government policies in action – burdening the Indian community in particular, should be done away. These policies are unconstitutional and therefore unlawful.

An example is the fact that Indians can’t get even cendol licences from local authorities, such licences being reserved solely for members of the Malay-speaking communities -- Bugis, Javanese, Minang, Acehnese, and Indian Muslims – who are Muslim.

Another government policy which targets Indians is that which derecognizes foreign universities with a sizeable number of Malaysian Indian students. This is a policy put in place by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad whose people came from Kerala state in southwest India. The Hindu-Muslim rivalry and animosity in the Indian sub-continent has come to haunt Malaysia.

Administrative laws also facilitate the ruling elite to plunder the Public Treasury from behind the racism (feelings of inferiority in this case), prejudice (being against something for no rhyme or reason) and opportunism (sapu bersih all opportunities) of the Umno regime. Just consider the US$ 44 billion wealth allegedly amassed by Mahathir during his 22 years in the Prime Minister’s post. This is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

The Syariah Court cannot be used against non-Muslims and conversions of non-Muslims should be ended. The stateless, for example, should not be forced to convert to Islam to get personal Malaysian documents.

At the micro-level, there are 1001 issues as raised by Hindraf Makkal Sakthi and other Indian NGOs. Hopefully, Hindraf will remain apolitical and not degenerate and end up as another MIC.