Devious Pay Rise

Govt accused of devious tactics in lawmakers' pay rise

• Published: 18/08/2010 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

The Abhisit government is being accused of underhand tactics by slipping a huge salary upgrade for MPs and senators into the royal decree for a civil servant pay rise due in April.

The cabinet on Monday approved in principle the plan to increase salaries for civil servants by 5%. But without any previous announcement it furtively added a 15% pay increase for lawmakers, the Puea Thai Party claimed.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban yesterday rejected criticism of the civil service pay rise but did not address the 15% bonus for lawmakers.
A cabinet source said a draft royal decree sought pay rises for the entire public sector, including teachers, police and soldiers, giving them an extra 5% on their monthly salaries.
But the salaries of members of public independent agencies and parliamentarians, with the exception of ministers, would rise by about 15%.
That would mean the monthly salary of an MP or senator would jump to 71,230 baht from 62,000. The salary of the house speaker would rise to 75,590 baht from 65,920.
Wisuth Chai-narun, an opposition Puea Thai MP for Phayao, lashed out at the government for sneaking in the salary increase for parliamentarians to avoid public criticism.
He said the government should have made the decision to increase salaries and allowances for parliamentarians public when it agreed to the pay rise for civil servants.
The public had a right to know how taxpayers' money was being spent.
Mr Wisuth criticised the government for trying to please civil servants and politicians by increasing their salaries while ignoring the plight of ordinary people, particularly the rural poor. Consequently it would face a barrage of criticism.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep insisted the government had no hidden agenda in increasing salaries for government officials.
He said the increase was carefully studied before being approved. A pay rise was necessary to encourage officials to perform their duties more efficiently at a time of inflation and currency value changes.
Extra allowances for lawmakers would not be increased. Senators and MPs are given special allowances of 42,330 baht a month and the house speaker 50,000 baht.
The pay rise would take effect on April 1 with 13 billion baht from the 2011 fiscal year budget being allocated to cover it.
Deputy government spokesman Supachai Jaisamut said yesterday the cabinet had agreed to raise starting salaries for government officials as proposed by the Office of the Civil Service Commission.
The salary increase would make the civil service more competitive with private enterprise in hiring staff.
Bangkok Post

King Rat of NEP

King Rats of the NEP – William Leong

August 17, 2010

AUG 17 - Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin, chairman of SP Setia Bhd, provided statistics to show that Malaysian Chinese businessmen have prospered and fared well under the pro-bumiputra New Economic Policy.
He said Chinese individuals controlled 73% of the wealth owned by the top 40 richest Malaysians and make up eight of the top 10 richest Malaysians. The people know who these persons are. Some of them are not only among the richest in Malaysia but in the world.
The people also know how they made their fortunes in the past 40 years. The complaint is not that there is no Malaysian Chinese, Indian, Sikh, Kadazan, Dusun, Iban or other non-bumiputra who has found fame and fortune under the NEP. There will always be those who will thrive even in the most brutal and oppressive regimes.
The complaint is that due to the abuses of the NEP, Malaysians have been deprived of their inalienable right to seek a livelihood with dignity.
Malaysians irrespective of race or religion is entitled to the inherent dignity and inalienable equal right to a livelihood and a standard of living adequate for the well being of himself and his family.
Malaysians are entitled to seek a livelihood with dignity. They need not in the struggle for survival have to be like the King Rat in James Clavell’s novel who engaged in bribery, corruption and black market activities to survive in a Japanese POW camp.
The King Rat, an enlisted man without distinction in civilian life becomes a major power in the prison camp by being the most successful trader through bribery and corruption and black marketeer.
The Japanese gave the prisoners nothing other than filthy huts to live in and the bare minimum of food. Officers were reduced to wearing rags and were closed to losing their humanity. Even the senior officers had to come to the King Rat for help in selling their valuables to buy food.
The King Rat thrived in the brutal environment of deprivation of a prison camp. The abuses of the NEP or its bastardization as described by Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, have created an environment that has spawned King Rats.
The implementation of the NEP required the government to grant wide discretionary powers to officers in approving licenses, permits and other instruments to intervene in economic activities.
By wielding such powers, it allowed such officers opportunities to seek payments from business tycoons to street vendors to obtain licences or approvals. Hawkers and street vendors have to make under counter payments before they are granted licences to eke out their meager earnings.
Business tycoons have to pay much more for their projects to move. This has given rise to both petty corruption and grand corruption. How else can you make a living in a country ranked 56 in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index?
Malaysians should not be subjected to such indignities.
Tan Sri Liew called on the Chinese businessmen to work with their Malay counterparts. This has been done from the outset of the NEP. The disingenuous did not wait for Tan Sri Liew’s call. Many contracts given to the Malays were subcontracted to Chinese contractors.
Class F contracts are only given to bumiputra contractors selected according to the personal discretion of government officers or local council mayors and not by open tenders. The Ali Baba system has put paid to the noble objective of granting contracts, licenses and permits to Malay businessmen to uplift their economic status.
After 40 years and billions of ringgit in contracts 82 per cent of the rural poor and 67 per cent of the urban poor are still Malays. So long as the majority of Malays remain in poverty, Perkasa and the extremists will claim that the NEP must be continued. The NEP will then stand for the Never Ending Policy.
One cannot blame the Chinese and non-bumiputra contractors taking on the jobs as second, third or even fourth hand sub-contractors. They also have to survive. They also have needs. Many of these sub-sub contractors end up not being paid for the work they have done.
In many instances, the contractors at the top have taken payments upfront leaving nothing for the sub-contractors.
I know of many Chinese and non-bumiputra subcontractors who end up being bankrupts in this way. Why should these sub-subcontractors be forced to earn a living in this way? If Class F contracts are awarded based on needs and not race, much grief and suffering would be avoided for all involved.
Tan Sri Liew pointed out examples of the spectacular gains made by Chinese businessmen under the NEP. It must however be noted that due to the restrictions imposed by the NEP especially under the Industrial Co-ordination Act and key economic areas, Chinese businesses are not a force in manufacturing and they are no longer owners of the number of banks and finance companies they had before the 1970’s.
During the 1980’s the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry have repeatedly complained that if foreign investors were exempted from the obligatory Bumiputra equity participation requirements in their Malaysian enterprises, why were Chinese enterprise forced to bear the same obligation. The complaints fell on deaf ears. The consequential result was the tie up between the Chinese entrepreneurs and Malays who were influential politicians or former top level bureaucrats (including military).
This was not the objective of the NEP. The NEP was intended to be the catalyst for mutually equal tie-ups between Chinese and Malay entrepreneurs to strengthen Malaysian companies’ economic resilience. Instead it became a mix between business and politics.
In the long run this did not portend well for a healthy business or social–economic environment.
Tan Sri Liew said business was all about profits and not politics. Businessmen are in the business to make money. The King Rat when asked by the British captain who liberated the prison why the King Rat was in a far better health and condition than the other ragged, emaciated and sickly prisoners, he replied that there was no harm in looking out for number one.
The British captain retorted it was no harm provided it was not at others’ expense. Similarly there is no harm to continue the NEP provided it is not at others’ expense. In reality the costs and expense is too high and disproportionate to the gains.
A brief example is more than sufficient to illustrate the point. Under the NEP between 1995 and 2000, the Seventh Malaysia Plan for primary education development allocated 96.5 per cent to the national primary schools which had a total environment of only 75 per cent.
The Chinese primary schools which had a total enrollment of 21 per cent was allocated with only 2.4 per cent while Tamil schools with 3.6 per cent of the total enrollment was allocated one per cent of the budget.
Despite announcements by the government on a reduction of reliance on racial quotas for admission to public universities in 2004, 128 students who obtained the best possible grade of 5A’s were denied their first choice of course in medicine. The only thing they have in common is that they are not bumiputras.
Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mukhriz Tun Dr Mahathir informed the Dewan Negara on July 27 2010 that SME Bank from 2006 to June this year approved a total of RM9.8 billion loans involving 5,447 applications and other programmes of which 90 per cent of the beneficiaries are bumiputra SMI’s.
According to the Federation of Chinese Malaysia Youth Section Strategy Research Committee Head Professor Dr Chin Yew Sin there are about 519,000 SMEs in Malaysia and they have not received loans from the SME Bank.
The costs of the NEP to Malaysia among others, is the thousands of primary school children who have to do with less, the lost to the nation of the hundreds of brilliant and talented scholars who cannot realise their full potential and hundreds of thousands of small and medium enterprises who face financial difficulties because of race.
The whole world has recognised that inequality within a nation and between nations leads to poverty and generally poorer living conditions. A socially equal system should achieve fairness in distribution and opportunity among everyone. The NEP cannot drive Malaysia out of its present social-economic quagmire.
Just as in the novel, where the King Rat becomes the strongest in an environment that rewards cunning, luck and strength, he in the end becomes food for someone stronger, Malaysia cannot sustain its development in an environment where the bastardization of the NEP rewards the cunning and the disingenuous.
The nation can only prosper where integrity, ethics and good governance are practised. The few Malaysian Chinese businessmen who have thrived under this restricted environment cannot justify the continuance of the NEP and the social and economic losses suffered by all the others.
William Leong Jee Keen is the Member of Parliament for Selayang

The White Rajah of Sarawak

August 18, 2010

EDITORIAL(www.freemalaysiatoday.com)–August 17, 2010

The MACC Untouchable White Rajah (Taib Mahmud) and His Business Empire

When the wealth of Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud was exposed to public viewing, the reaction was one of utter disgust. How could a political animal earning RM20,000 a month amassed such a colossal fortune? Where did he get all the extras? Was his massive business empire built on legitimate foundation? Or was it all ill-gotten gains? Of course, where he gets his money and what he does with it is his private affair. But when a person holds a high public office, he is no longer in control of his personal domain. It becomes public property and thus subject to scrutiny. If a person has nothing to hide, he has nothing to fear. Only when he covers his misdeeds, is he open to censure and even trial.

The most disturbing aspect of the whole sordid affair is that Sarawak, the largest state in Malaysia, is still mired in poverty while the man controlling its destiny is fabulously rich. The Land of the Hornbills was once ruled by the White Rajahs whose paternalistic reign lasted for 100 years. In all those years, the indigenous people were protected against exploitation. Then came eventual independence in the larger Malaysian federation.

And now comes another White Rajah who has been around for nearly 30 years. In that period, he grew powerful and became well-heeled. He ruled the state like as if it is his fiefdom. No one dared stepped on his toes, not even the federal masters, past or present.

But Taib is not living in the Stone Age. An intrepid news portal, The Sarawak Report, was all this while probing into his wealth. It followed his trail of affluence and discovered, to the horror of the public, the source of his minted money: he and his family members owned an “overseas business empire worth billions of ringgit”. When the pot of gold was unearthed, the White Rajah hit the roof and wanted the public to believe it is all lies. But the documented proof is solid and indisputable. It is pointless for him to claim innocence: the whole world knows his billionaire status. A public figure cannot run and hide in a hole and expect the storm to blow over. It won’t.

The tempest is still raging. The White Rajah must explain to quell the growing anger. He must speak the truth or resign on moral grounds. But he chose to keep quiet. He gives the impression that he is in total control of the situation. In the absence of his side of the story, the allegations against him stand: he made his pile from land, forestry, and palm oil concessions. Most of the projects went to his family members and cronies. They all became rich while the indigenous population – Melanaus, Ibans, Bidayuhs, Penans – continues to wallow in misery. The White Rajah stays in a palatial mansion but the indigenous people have to fight to keep their ancestral lands. In many encounters, they lost out to the combined might of the police, army and timber merchants. Taib does not want to share his wealth with his people. He does not want the natives to block his “rape”of the virgin environment.

Sarawak is rich in natural resources. Taib knows it. The people know it. But what Taib did not want the people to know is his plundering of the state’s wealth. For 30 long years he has been the master of all he surveys. During all those years, he could have used his power to enrich the people. Instead he enriched himself. He did have his dream. He told the people about his vision: he wanted to make Sarawak the richest state in Malaysia by 2030. Which means he wants to stay around for another 20 years. God forbid.

BN Fixed Deposit in Sarawak

Why rural S’wakians keep voting ‘feudal’ Taib

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:02

By Joseph Tawie

KUCHING: Chief Minister Taib Mahmud runs a ‘repressive’ government, one that is 'worse than the communist', says a local activist. Yet the rural people of Sarawak continue to vote him in. Why is that?
“It’s  because the government has perfected the method of making the people feel helpless. The government has created a situation where they (natives) are dependent. In everything they (natives) need, they can always depend on the government to provide,” said John Brian.

To further weaken the native network and strengthen his political hold over them, Taib has deviously pursued a divide and rule policy.

His latest is a new policy which splits the Dayak natives into ethnic groups – Iban, Bidayuh, Kayan, Kenyah, Penan, Kelabit and Lun Bawang.
An amendment to the Sarawak Interpretation Ordinance 2004, tabled and passed by the state assembly, has declassified the word 'Dayak'.
The term ‘Dayak' is now banned in all official government communication.

The move, said Brian, paves the way for Taib to pit one community against the other, keep them repressed and ensure his continued rule.

Sense of helplessness

According to him, years of  false indoctrination and purposeful exploitation of the native ignorance had contributed to a prevailing 'sense of helplessness’ in the rural areas.

He said not many in the rural and interior areas are educated and this works well for the government .

“The government has been lying and cheating the people by telling them how great their achievements are and how the country has progressed. When you are not educated, its easy to believe them.

“But if you go to the rural areas, nothing has changed: there are no roads, no clean water; and electricity. Healthcare is very poor and the mortality rate remains the highest in the country,” he said.

There are some economic activities provided for by the government via its Minor Rural Projects (MRP), but Brian notes in his blog DayakBaru that the MRP is a ‘miserable’ handout that will not contribute to the economic progress of the rural people.

“I'm still mulling on what type of government is this when it is prepared to see its people getting poorer and poorer by the day.

“To me this is a repressive government which is worse than the communist government,” he added.
FMT

Aspan Alias on NEP Bastardized

I have been watching from the sideline on the heavy issue on Nazir Razak who believes that the NEP was ‘bastardized’ for the advantage of a few privileged. I am saddened that everyone is talking on issue which is non-existence. NEP was totally disbanded in 1990 20 years after it was launched.

We are witnessing a vicious quarrel between Ibrahim Ali (PERKASA) and Nazir and the quarrel between Chua Soi Lek and Ibrahim Ali. If everyone reads and follows their articulations on the issue debated one will be totally confused as the NEP does not exist any longer.

I am not sure what Nazir was trying to say, but if he was saying that the NEP was bastardized during the tail end of its existence, than there are some relevance and logic to his comment. Since mid-1984 until the end of NEP in 1990, the policy was ruthlessly bastardized.

Let us recollect from the start of the NEP until it was disbanded by Dr Mahathir in 1990. In practice Mahathir was quite allergic to the NEP and he called on the Malays and that Bumis to throw away their ‘tongkat’.

NEP was well thought policy where it benefited everyone directly or indirectly. NEP had spelt a clear intention of its formulation and the intention was only one; that was National Unity.

This holistic intention was agreeable by all races when Tun Razak was able to convince every race in this country that National Unity was the only way to ensure the nation’s security and the people’s well being be taken care of, and live in togetherness in civil and harmonious nation.

To achieve this ultimate (National Unity) the nation had to go through an affirmative action, that was via the following;

Firstly was to eradicate poverty irrespective of races. This was the main agenda actually. Tun Razak and friends believed that poverty can ruin a nation. The Malays were poor, the Indian were trapped in a poor living environment in the estates and rubber plantations while there were also poor Chinese in the sub urban areas even though the nation’s economy was controlled by them.

In reality the economic ownership of the Chinese was less than 25 percent during that period. The main chunk of the economy was in the hands of the foreigners. So there was nothing racial about the policy.

Tun Razak or anyone would believe that if most of the people were poor than that could be a very serious political destabilizing factor that could lead the country into political anarchy and the 13 May incidence was the living example where economic disparity could cause chaos.

Secondly in order to achieve the National Unity the country and the government had to reduce the income disparity between the haves and the have not’s and the diparity between the incomes of the urban and the rural population. The rural people were too far behind in income and opportunities and the government felt that this issue must be addressed holistically without affecting any other race or quarter.

In order to reduce the disparity of incomes the government wanted to do away with recognizing races by their economic functions. We didn’t want to recognize Malay as farmers in the padi fields and small holders. We wanted to do away recognizing the Indians as plantation or as workers of gigantic estates that were mostly owned by foreigners, like Harrison and Crossfields, Sime Darby, Guthries, London Tin (now MMC), Tradewinds and many others.

That was why Tun Razak instructed Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to bring back all these companies back to Malaysia from their head quarters in London. All these companies were finally brought back to the nation and to implement the exercise it needed a person with nationalistic sensitivity and had a strong political will.

The last of the big corporation that was brought back was Guthries and that happened on Monday the 7th of September 1981 after a lengthy and tedious preparation years before that date.

The brief narration above needed to be actualized and the government were very serious of uplifting the wealth of the Bumiputra to the 30 percent equity by 1990 without taking away the ones owned by the other races.

Hence within the sphere of NEP they holistic goals where the Bumiputra were given the target of 30 percent wealth and equity holdings, the Non Bumi was given the target of 40 percent and the rest for the foreigners who were looking at this country as the potential centre of economic vibrancy.

As the NEP was to increase the Malay capitalization and equity, it was agreed that the Bumiputra should not take away the portions that were already owned by other races. The formula to the plan was to enlarge the nation economic cake. So the 30 percent allocated for the Bumis were through the enlarged cake of the nation’s economy.

Everyone was happy to implement the policy. As far as I remember every economic development project both the Bumi and Non Bumi worked things out in a very cordial and cooperative atmosphere.

The non Malays were most of the time enjoying the early fruits of any social engineering projects. For example the Felda, then Called LKTP (lembaga Kemajuan Tanah Persekutuan) which was then busy opening up lands for plantations in the scheme made the Non Bumi the first group to enjoy clearing the land and the supply of fertilizers and other needs of the scheme.

The Bumi had the land the non Bumi had earlier enjoyed the clearing jobs that were worth in hundreds of million of ringgit. Everybody was happy and the busiest department in co-coordinating all NEP projects was the Implementation and Co-Ordination Unit of the PM Department (ICU).

Those days everything was transparent and could visually saw the focus of the implementers were at the peak without thinking of making personal gain and greed.

The Non Malays respected both the Malay politicians and the government implementers as they witnessed the most outstanding episode of nation building was implemented with pride by everybody.

Even the Non Bumi were happy to assist the Bumi to prosper together with them as they accept the fact that prosperous Bumi will make them more enjoyable undertaking businesses in the vibrant economy.

In short the real economic impetus for the country was the NEP. BUMI and Non Bumi enjoyed living in the most cordial as far as history can reminisce.

Bumiputra’s stake in commerce and Industry and the equity ownership increased tremendously from 2.7 in 1970 to 18.2 in 1984.

But when the change of guard in the Ministry of Finance happened in June 1984 anything surrounding the NEP was slowly neglected. Daim made many changes that was detrimental to NEP.

From then on we saw leaders in power were also interested to become rich themselves. From then on the leaders in power were competing with the ordinary Malay businessmen and that was the time when the Bumi special rights shifted to a very small and exclusive members who surrounded the PM and our great Daim.

The Bumi special rights which were meant for Malay and other indigenous were transferred to names like Vincent Tan, YTL, Halim Saat and many other names that were familiar to everyone in the country.

All these new Malay Bumiputra exclusive cronies were actually the Bumis, not for people like you and me anymore.

This was the period when the whole NEP was ill treated and pitilessly bastardized and I agree with Nazir Razak at this point.

To be continued……………..

Aspan Alias on NEP Bastardized 2

I am continuing what I was writing yesterday about the issue of bastardizing the NEP that was raised by Nazir Razak the brother–in-law of Rosmah Mansor. Nazir sounded very thankful being the product of the NEP and that policy made him where he is today.

Resulting from Nazir’s strong statement Ibrahim Ali of PERKASA reacted muscularly against Nazir and called Nazir as inexperience and Ibrahim was just short of saying ‘you shut up’ to Nazir.

I appreciate Ibrahim for speaking on the Malay gallery and that is fine with me and everybody. The Malay issues that PERKASA is resting its laurel on are fitting to some extent. The Malays are certainly in need of a ‘shoulder’ to lean on as the party which is supposed to care for them is flirting around with others leaving their members without lead and pointer. Hence the NGO Ibrahim is leading becomes an expedient premise for the disgruntled UMNO members and Malays to get associated with.

PERKASA has been overt and explicitly doing the tetchy job for what the Malays is at today. Ibrahim has been wailing and has been putting the government leadership on trial for negating from the original role of observing the Malay rights and protecting other races as provided by the Federal Constitutions.

I must say it loudly that in effect what Nazir has said concurs with the struggles of PERKASA. Both are not happy with the Malay’s progress. The difference between these two personalities is the position or angle they look the issue from.

Nazir was talking about the contributory factors that made the NEP a failure and he chose to blame the successors to the NEP inventors for bastardizing the well thought policy. Ibrahim on the other hand is looking from the angle of ill fated Malays who have been the victim of bastardizing the NEP done by the successors of NEP founder.

Ibrahim is no more young and if he cares to recollect history which is still recent, he must remember how the prostituting the NEP started and he must also admit that what he (Ibrahim) is complaining today is the result of dismantling the NEP which Nazir has rightly said.

The introduction of direct negotiations on the gigantic fast tract projects was the killer for the NEP. Development projects with the tune of big billions destroyed the basic fabric of the NEP. Bumiputra was not able to participate as the recipients of those projects were already predetermined and more often than not, the same faces within the cronies secured the jobs.

Let us be reminded that the ‘Unit Penyertaan Bumiputra’ which was set up in every bank and government department was unceremoniously set aside and not many people remember it any more.

The government went on with express project and was very proud of GDP growth of almost double digit so on and so forth. The late Tun Dr Ismail told the last General Assembly he attended in 1972 that we were able to grow with double digit growth but the slowing down of the growth was for national purpose; that Bumiputra was not yet ready and if the economic development growth was too fast it might leave the Malays and other indigenous far behind. Hence that would bring political instability. BUT that caution was not remembered and appreciated. Our leaders wanted what they wanted to do very quickly.

Hence the marginal growth of Malay and Bumiputra equity holding was so insignificant. A day before Dr Mahathir stepped down from power he mentioned the official figure of Malay equity as at 2002 as 19 percent.

It simply means that during the period of 1984 until 2002 there was only an increase of 0.8 percent Bumiputra equity. For this I don’t know what to say about Daim Zainuddin who took the mantle of the nation’s economy. BUT he was and still is appreciated by the exclusive cronies who were able to secure project by billion of ringgit then.

1990s were the period when all the special ‘Bumiputras’ with big names were flying in personal executive jets, some of them even had 2 jets, one of which to be used to fly PM, DPM and Senior Ministers and exclusive heads of GLCs and related personality within the corridors of power.

The spirit of NEP was swiftly forgotten. Our corporate guys within PM and Daim’s circle were spending the ill gotten money more than the expenses of the CEOs of world’s big corporation like Toyota, Honda and other gigantic names in the world class corporations.

BUT of late we don’t see the jets anymore. I am told that all those were repossessed and many are back to flying commercial flights. If that is true, then what a close friend of mine said has been proven right. “Owning a jet is only two-time happiness; one is when we get the delivery and the other is when we are able to sell it”. So that is the reason why we only see Dr Mahathir who flies in and out of the nation in a white Global Express.

The operative Malay businessmen were slowly thinning in numbers as almost big opportunities were taken away by the ‘special bumiputras’ who worked hand-in--glove with the powerful power house for negotiated tenders where prices and costs of the development projects were determined by a ‘cartel like’ apparatus. They were not worried because the forgiving ralyat and in particular the Malays continued on supporting them.

They took the Malays and others as donkeys with one responsibility, i.e just support them. They would be telling the people, we have Putrajaya, we have KLCC, we have the tallest flagpole in the world so on and on.

So Nazir is very close to telling the truth but may be he is the wrong person to talk about the issue. He is certainly together with some others who enjoyed being within the corridors of power right from his infant age until now.

I never had the opportunity like Nazir has, as my father was a policeman, not the PM of this nation. Like many others I have no capacity to be a social climber.

Malaysian Honoured by Queen

Malaysian lawyer honoured by Queen Elizabeth

• News

 2010-08-18 12:39

MELBOURNE, Wednesday 18 August 2010 (Bernama) -- When Malaysian lawyer Lim Chuen Ren arrived here in 1988, he was surprised to see that the Asian community, especially the Chinese, did not have much financial resources and it was expensive to buy Asian produce.
"Australia was in recession and the issue of Asian immigration raised its head," said Lim, 61, who has a successful law firm in the central business district, here.
"It was also when John Howard (later to become prime minister) waded into the debate against Asian immigration. And you got the usual 'Asian go home' graffiti and other insults," he told Bernama.
Compelled to tackle the problem, Perak-born Lim helped to establish the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Victoria, and became its founding secretary.
He then ran the Chinese Entrepreneurs Programme aimed at promoting the growth and business acumen of new Chinese businesses by matching them with experienced entrepreneurs, while at the same time providing mentoring and leadership.
"Those days, we had to speak up for the Asian community and help (members of) the Asian community, who were usually not conversant in English, deal with these issues," he said.
"We organised meetings with the government, and the Australian authorities were very keen to resolve and assist the community."
Lim has also been active in promoting trade between Malaysia and Australia through the Malaysian External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) and the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (Mida).
In June this year, Queen Elizabeth of Britain honoured Lim with the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to business, and to the Chinese community of Victoria.
Lim, who studied at St Anthony's School in Teluk Intan and, later law at the University of Singapore, was one of the earliest lawyers to promote mediation to the Bar Council of Malaysia.
"I introduced mediation to Catherine Eu, who was then the chief executive of the Bar Council of Malaysia," he said.
Lim continues to provide community mediation. (By NEVILLE D'CRUZ/Bernama)

MySinchew 2010.08.18

Sakmongkol on Superbumis

Wednesday, 18 August 2010

Our Superbumis

Last year I wrote about Malaysia's super 30. I was inspired by the Indian educator, Anand Kumar. He selected 30 students from the underclass of Indian society and teaches and trains them to get into the Indian Institute of Technology, which some people say is better than MIT. Last year I also wrote instead of bringing Shahrukh Khan over to Malaysia, let's bring more of Anand KUmars here. 

The Malaysian super 30 are those who champion that Bumis must get 30% of whatever they can think of. I was saying, the target of the 30 percenters is nothing but self aggrandizement for the selected few.

Now, in addition to the super 30, we have our own super 40, the super bumis. Almost 30 of them are non Malays. These are the superbumis.

Chua Soi Lek is asking the government to open up the GLCs, the Oil and Gas Industry- open up everything in the name of competition, transparency so that we will put the economy on high gear. Very ingenious I say. But Soi Lek can't ask these to be opened without also willing to open up Chinese dominated business enclaves and fiefdoms.

So here goes. Why doesn't he call for the opening up of Public Bank to see whether the composition of Bumis there is right? Public Bank in its early days used EPF money too. If there are Bumis there, please publish their names so that we can see whether they are the privileged bumis? Open up Hong Leong, Open up Berjaya Corporation, Open up Sunway, Open up Yeoh Teong Lay, open up the various Chinese Hongs for us to see whether they are practicing 1 Malaysia. open up Tanjung and the various companies owned by Ananda. See whether they, having leveraged on the NEP were also implementing it.

Then we shall ask what Soi Lek wants opened so that we can disembowel them alongside those in the preceding paragraph.

In Malaysia we have had our own Anand Kumars of a different kind. These were our political leaders wanting to jump start Malay control of the economy by conferring on them the green lane to economic riches. By giving them monopolies, licenses and special arrangements to acquire shares in listed companies. These are the leaders, my fellow Malays- who bastardised our NEP.

The efforts continue today. Our political leaders entrusted in re-arranging the wealth owning structure in the country are helping themselves first and the people second. Once up theer, you draw up all those various hurdles in the forms of this and that regulations, rulings etc, to prevent ordinary bumis from participating in the economic game.

When the NEP was launched, the sources of wealth owned by foreigners were brought back into the hands of government entities. You had London Tin, Guthrie Corporation, Harrisons and Crossfield, Sime Darby and countless others. You didn't see any individuals assigned and parked there to help themselves do you? these were put in the hands of Malaysians through government owned entities.

Those were the early days of the NEP before it was bastardized. It wasn't the NEP any more. We had a new economic model then. It was known by people as the Ali-Baba Economic Model. This model goes right up the upper echelons of leadership. The royalties and the each top leader have their own Baba fence to bring in money for them. for the Malays, they have a special case of economic model- the Putera-Bumi model. Putera first, Bumi later. Not even second. Much much later.

In 1976, Nazir was a primary school student and I remembered a photograph of him and cousin Haris Hussein on in class at VI. Today of course he is the CEO of CIMB, a sad reminder of once deceased BBMB. BBMB was essentially an ATM for the political leaders who bastardized the NEP.

I am not going to respond to A Voice's take on what I wrote. He got it wrong. I am one of the earliest to dispute the suitability of NEM being incubated by a few foreign experts who don't know local conditions. I have said before that maybe the PM asked the wrong question- he asked how can I make my economy grow into a high income economy? Give me a model- forget the collateral damage. So he got the standard recipe of the free market economy in the raw. He can still have a free market economy if he asked the right questions. But because he surrounds himself with people who also think like him and not a team with a diversity of opinions, the right question weren't asked.

When I met Ibrahim Ali – I asked him how confident was he in seeing his resolutions taken up seriously by the PM? how sure was he that his resolutions handed over to Najib amidst much fanfare are not given to one of Najib's numerous PAs and then relegated to the backrooms of the PM's office? The resolutions were probably spat on. He wasn't sure. He is like the person who thinks posting a letter means the intended recipient has actual information and his job is completed. Not time to open the budu bottle yet abe hem.

He said he was and I said how could you monitor it? He didn't know. So I am asking his people again- would they be confident the resolutions they passed will be implemented knowing that the PM has spent more than RM 60 million to draw up a new economic plan and had numerous labs on this and that carried out?

The MCA Chinese Economic Congress( not the Malaysian Chinese mind you) is more successful because it reaffirms what the PM wants. Whether that is good is another matter. Whether it is agreeable to Perkasa members is another thing. But I thought the Perkasa Members were peeing in their pants in jubilation after getting assurances from the PM at their congress? Why don't they now openly criticize the PM now that he is actually saying the NEPish policies are finished? What the MCA Chinese Economic Congress is saying are more in sync with PM' thinking. It is successful in those terms. Catching the attention of the PM. The PM must be thinking, with this support albeit from a Chinese Economic Congress he is onto something correct. That's how the PM functions- he just needs to hear some reassuring voices fortifying his discomfiture.

Before I talk about Chua Soi Lek, let me talk about Nazir first.

Nazir himself is a product of this bastardized version of NEP- some residual of the NEP that says affirmative action must include giving ownership to someone close to the political leadership or someone who is seen with an inherent status( such as being the son of a PM, Minister etc). on his own merits, I don't think Nazir would have made it to the top. What happened was he had the situation made for him and people like him. He comes from an eco system where the wealth distribution machinery depends on wide discretionary powers of decision makers. That is why he is now the 3^rd highest paid CEO earning around RM 14 million a year. Yes sir, go salivate or drown in your drool.

If I were to give a simpler definition of a bastardized NEP it is just playing favorites. A person holding ultimate power has the unbridled discretionary power to appoint anyone to wealth creating sources. Capability is second. More important is to gain access and be counted of in the leaders inner circle. This is the old story of ascriptive norms- people are identified as worthy of anything by virtue of his inherited status and bloodline.

The superbumis- Indian and Chinese businessmen recognize this- as long there isn't a system to tweak the wealth distribution system but instead its working depended on the discretionary powers of people in power, they knew they can profit from it. All they need to do is to get into the 'knickers' of decision makers and they can manipulate the outcome. Yeoh Teong Lay was just another of those numerous Chinese contractors under the YTL senior who was given a head start by DR Mahathir. Ananda Krishna began business as an oil trader selling basically PETRONAS Crude Oil. He made tons of money selling what belongs to PETRONAS. He then went on and on. And he doesn't want to share the wealth. That's why he turned private many of his companies that were public.

I wrote about our own efforts of creating the super 30. Bumiputeras holding 30% of equity in business organizations notably the listed companies and those companies wanting to be listed. So selected Malays were given shares either free or 100% financed in listed companies. The PM once stated that the value of shares given to Malays from 1970 was RM 54 billion. The figure is now RM 2 billion which means that Malays who got the shares cashed out early. Put simply, these are the saboteurs of the NEP. I have suggested that the names of all these who sold out be published and never to be given any economic concessions forever. The government has of course declined. Probably they didn't even read the article.

Besides our own super 30 consisting of the puteras in the Bumiputera, the sons of UMNO leaders, the cronies of leaders, the well heeled and well connected, the fixers, we have also created another economic caste- the superbumis. You can actually buy yourself a bumi status and acquire the paraphernalia that confer you a status better than real toiling bumis. You get showered with titles of tan sri,dato seri, buy youself a datukship and have all the kampong folks grovel at your feet.
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Posted by sakmongkol AK47

Ground Zero Mosque Backfires

Obama mosque stand draws praise and fire

Defense of Muslims' right could put Dems on spot before elections

Comments

August 15, 2010

BY JULIE PACE

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. -- Weighing his words carefully on a fiery political issue, President Obama said Saturday that Muslims have the right to build a mosque near New York's Ground Zero, but he did not say whether he thinks it's a good idea.
Obama commented during a trip to Florida, expanding on a Friday night White House speech in which he said Muslims have the same right to freedom of religion as everyone else in America.
His statements thrust him squarely into a debate he had skirted for weeks and could put Democrats on the spot three months before midterm elections. Until Friday, the White House had said it did not want to get involved in local decision-making.
Following up on Obama's comments Saturday, White House spokesman Bill Burton said the president wasn't backing off in any way from the remarks he made Friday.
"What he said last night, and reaffirmed today, is that if a church, a synagogue or a Hindu temple can be built on a site, you simply cannot deny that right to those who want to build a mosque," Burton said.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who was among those who met with Obama on Saturday, lauded his position. Crist is running for the U.S. Senate as an independent. "I think he's right -- I mean, you know we're a country that in my view stands for freedom of religion and respect for others," Crist said. "I know there are sensitivities, and I understand them. This is a place where you're supposed to be able to practice your religion without the government telling you you can't."
Others pounced on Obama's statements.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Saturday the decision to build the mosque wasn't an issue of religious freedom, but a matter of respect. "The fact that someone has the right to do something doesn't necessarily make it the right thing to do," he said. "That is the essence of tolerance, peace and understanding."
Added Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.): "President Obama is wrong. It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero."
The mosque would be part of a $100 million Islamic community center two blocks from where nearly 3,000 people perished when hijacked jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
The proposed construction has sparked debate around the country that has included opposition from top Republicans including Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich as well as the Anti-Defamation League.
Obama's Friday comment was taken by some to mean that he strongly supports the building of an Islamic center near the site of the Sept. 11 attack, which he never said.
Speaking to a gathering at the White House on Friday evening to observe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, Obama said that he believes "Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country."
"That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances," he said. "This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable."
Asked Saturday about the issue, he said: "I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding."
Obama said that "my intention was simply to let people know what I thought. Which was that in this country we treat everybody equally and in accordance with the law, regardless of race, regardless of religion." AP

Social Networking Hazards

Google chief: My fears for Generation Facebook

By Jerome Taylor

Wednesday, 18 August 2010

Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google, has issued a stark warning over the amount of personal data people leave on the internet and suggested that many of them will be forced one day to change their names in order to escape their cyber past.

In a startling admission from a man whose company has made billions by perfecting the art of hoarding, storing and retrieving information on us, Mr Schmidt suggested that the enormous quantity of detail we leave online may not be such a good thing after all.
The man who – alongside Google's founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page – runs the world's largest search engine said that young people will need to go as far as changing their identities if they are to truly erase what they have left online.
"I don't believe society understands what happens when everything is available, knowable and recorded by everyone all the time," he told the Wall Street Journal. "I mean we really have to think about these things as a society."
For a man whose company is built on the ability to store information and retrieve it again in a faster and more efficient way than its rivals, Mr Schmidt's admission revealed a surprising concern among Google's leadership over the importance of data privacy.
But it has also provoked a wider debate on the sheer amount of information we give away about ourselves online and how most of that data is virtually un-erasable.
Perhaps more than any other company Google has helped created a world where we willingly deposit vast amounts of personal data into the public domain – information that might previously have taken months of investigative work by professionals to find.
Google has made billions from storing data on its customers' browsing habits so that it can use that data to target them with personalised adverts. It also runs the kind of websites that have pioneered the open sharing of information online. The Californian internet giant owns You Tube, the world's largest video sharing website; it handles billions of our emails through Gmail; and – if you live in a big city – chances are that a Google Street View car has photographed your front door. A series of recent acquisitions also suggests it is hoping to move into the social networking market, the area of the internet that most concerns privacy campaigners.
Thanks to the global popularity of social networking – an estimated 600 million people have personal online profiles – friends, prospective employers and enemies alike are able to access photographs, videos and blogs that we may have long forgotten with a few simple clicks of a mouse. Recently one columnist in The New York Times went so far as to describe our current world as an age defined by "the impossibility of erasing your posted past and moving on".
Many websites yesterday picked up on the apparent disconnect between Mr Schmidt's comments and his company's ethos.
Chris Williams, of the online tech news website The Register, said: "Recording everything and making it knowable by everyone all the time is Google's stated mission, and it is profiting handsomely from the fact that society doesn't understand the consequences."
Other blogs remarked that one previous instance when Mr Schmidt had admitted concerns over the amount of personal information stored online was in 2005 when Google blacklisted the online technology magazine Cnet for an entire year.
In an article discussing privacy concerns generated by Google's data mining capabilities, Cnet's reporters published Mr Schmidt's salary, named the neighbourhood where he lives, some of his hobbies and political donations. All the information had been gleaned from Google searches.
But while bloggers and web forums reacted with tangible scepticism to Mr Schmidt's comments, others welcomed his frankness.
"His comments are a little ironic but they are also timely," said Dylan Sharpe from Big Brother Watch, which has campaigned against Google collecting wifi data on web users while taking photographs with its Street View cars.
He added: "Google is a company that specialises in knowing where you are, what you are doing and who you are talking to. That's a scary prospect even though Google's users sign up to this sort of data collection willingly.
"But Mr Schmidt is completely right on how much information we are giving away online. Right now there are millions of young kids and teenagers who, when they apply for jobs in 10 years' time, will find that there is so much embarrassing stuff about them online that they cannot take down."
Those who wish to delete what they have put up online, meanwhile, may find it next to impossible to entirely erase their cyber past.
"What many people do not realise is that as soon as you put something up online you lose possession and control of that information immediately," said Rik Fergusson, a cyber security expert at Trend Micro. "Anyone can download, store and distribute that information, it's out of your hands."
Privacy campaigners say more needs to be done to stop young people in particular depositing information online that may come back to haunt them.
"I think we need to change people's mindsets through education rather than legislation but it's definitely something that we need to talk to our children about," said Mr Sharpe.
Mr Fergusson, meanwhile, believes web users will increasingly demand better levels of data privacy over the coming decade.
"What would be ideal is some sort of technology where you as an end user would be able to assign the right to use, copy or distribute information about yourself to people of your own choosing," he said. "That sort of technology is already used in encrypted emails. I'm sure people will soon start asking for some form of encrypted social networking and companies will respond to that demand."
In his own words...
* "The internet is the first thing that humanity has built that humanity doesn't understand, the largest experiment in anarchy we've ever had."
* "Show us 14 photos of yourself and we can identify who you are. You think you don't have 14 photos of yourself on the internet? You've got Facebook photos! People will find it's very useful to have devices that remember what you want to do, because you forgot... But society isn't ready for questions that will be raised as a result of user-generated content."
* "When the internet publicity began, I remember being struck by how much the world was not the way we thought it was, that there was infinite variation in how people viewed the world."
* "People are surprised to find out that an awful lot of people think that they're idiots."
Case study: 'Drunken pirate' lark destroyed teaching career
The tale of Stacy Snyder, the "drunken pirate", is a cautionary one for any young person hoping to embark on a promising career.
Ms Snyder, a trainee teacher, had passed all her exams and completed her training. Her academic record was unblemished. That is, until her final summer, when her teachers – out of the blue – deemed that the behaviour she had displayed in her personal life was unbecoming of a teacher.
Her crime? She had uploaded an image of herself, wearing a pirate costume and drinking from a plastic cup on to a social networking site with the caption: "drunken pirate."
A colleague at the school where she had been training had seen it and reported it, saying that it was unprofessional to potentially expose pupils to photographs of a teacher drinking alcohol.
As university officials told her that her dream career was now out of her reach, she offered to take the photo down, and argued that it was not even possible to see what was in the cup. After all, she told them, "is there anything wrong with someone of a legally permissable age drinking alcohol?"
But her pleas were ignored. Ms Snyder never got the certificate she needed to teach and an attempt to sue the university for it was unsuccessful.
Placing a photograph of herself in "an unprofessional state" was her downfall: the image had been catalogued by search engines and by the time she realised the danger, it was impossible to take down.
Kevin Rawlinson
Independent UK

TBH Hearing-not suicide.

Pornthip rules out suicide

By Neville Spykerman and Boo Su-Lyn

August 18, 2010

SHAH ALAM, Aug 18 — Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand maintained today that she is sure Teoh Beng Hock’s death last year was not a result of suicide, but she declined to repeat her previous assertion that it was 80 per cent a homicide.
“I still maintain my findings on pre-fall injuries. I cannot confirm he was conscious during the fall.
‘I will not go into percentage. I am sure it is not suicide,” she told the Coroner’s Court here under questioning from Selangor government lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.
Dr Pornthip was testifying for the second time at the inquest into DAP political aide Teoh’s death. Teoh was said to have fallen from the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam here where the state headquarters of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) was once housed.
Before his body was found on a fifth floor landing he had been questioned overnight by the MACC.
Earlier today in court, Dr Pornthip testified that she disagreed with the findings of Dr Peter Vanezis, the British forensic pathologist brought in by MACC to observe a second post mortem on Teoh last year. Dr Pornthip also observed the second post mortem.
“I still believe he was unconscious because there is no significant pathology to show he was conscious (when he fell),” she said, adding there was no sign of bilateral wrist fractures, so “I cannot confirm he was fully conscious.”
She disagreed with Dr Vanezis that Teoh broke his fall with his feet because she said there were no fractures on both ankles and wrist.
Dr Pornthip also disagreed with Dr Vanezis’s finding that neck injuries were caused by impact of fall. She pointed out that the neck was a protected area.
She said she found hemorrhaging on the neck which was bigger than what would have been caused by a fall. She and her staff reviewed 30 other cases at her institute and they did not find similar injuries.
She concluded it was impossible that the wound was caused by the fall.
On the injury to Teoh’s spine, she reviewed six cases at her institute and found no contusion under the skin as was the case with Teoh.
As such, she concluded that it was a pre-fall injury which was more severe than a manual strangulation.
The wound, she said, was caused by a blunt object which could be something pressed against Teoh’s head or neck.
The injury to Teoh’s anal region was also caused by a blunt object, she said.
As the second post-mortem showed severe fracture to Teoh’s pelvis which could have caused Teoh’s anus to be torn, she concluded that his anal injuries were a result of the fall and not from any beating.
Testifying in April, Dr Vanezis, had said a mysterious bruise to the left of Teoh’s neck was likely caused upon impact on the rough ground and consistent with death from a high place when he took to the witness stand in April this year, reinforcing the findings of previous government pathologists who concluded that Teoh had jumped to his death.
But the British pathologist — famed for his role in Princess Diana’s inquest — did not rule out the possibility that Teoh could also have suffered pre-fall injuries.
Vanezis told the inquest a broad bruise on the left side of Teoh’s neck could have been caused by a chokehold, a move he demonstrated in court.
He added the move may have knocked out Teoh, or at the very least, disoriented the latter enough when he fell out a 14th floor window at Plaza Masalam onto the fifth floor rooftop on July 16 last year.
“Sometimes you cannot take an injury in isolation. I’m uncomfortable to call it a pre-fall injury with confidence…I can’t rule it out,” Vanezis responded under cross-examination from lawyer Gobind Singh Deo, representing Teoh’s family during the hearing in April.
MI

Tengku Razaleigh on Malaysian Politics

Malaysia's Uneasy Dance with the Web

Tuesday, 17 August 2010
Are authorities about to start to filter Internet journalism? On July 31, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who is rapidly becoming the stormy petrel of Malaysian politics, made a tough, uncompromising speech to the annual Malaysian Student leaders Summit in Kuala Lumpur. The 72-year-old Razaleigh, an elder statesman of the United Malays National Organization, called for the abolition Malaysia's Internal Security Act, the Official Secrets Act, the Printing and Publication Act and the Universities and Colleges Act, which circumscribes the freedom of expression of students and professors and which, Razaleigh said, "has done immense harm in dumbing down our universities." It was a major speech on an important occasion to Malaysia's future leaders. Other speakers included members of the judiciary, presidents of bar councils and many others. (It can be found here in its entirety) "Billions have been looted from this country, and Billions more are being siphoned out as our entire political structure crumbles. Yet we are gathered here in comfort, in a country that still seems to 'work': Most of the time," Razaleigh said. "This is due less to good management than to the extraordinary wealth of this country. You were born into a country of immense resources, both natural, cultural and social. We have been wearing down this advantage with mismanagement and corruption. With lies, tall tales and theft. We have a political class unwilling or unable to address the central issue of the day because they have grown fat and comfortable with a system built on lies and theft." Razaleigh's speech, controversial as it was, was not mentioned anywhere in the nation's mainstream press, despite the fact that among other things, he said that "over the last 25 years, much of the immense wealth generated by our productive people and our vast resources has been looted." Despite the fact that no newspapers printed any of the speech, Rejal Arbi, the former editor of the Malay language Berita Harian who is now a columnist, thought it merited exposure. However, Mior Kamarulbaid, the editor of the paper, thought otherwise. He spiked Rejal's column. Berita Harian is owned by UMNO, which is increasingly unsettled by Razaleigh's calls to clean out the endemic corruption in the party. Likewise, The Star, which is owned by the Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-biggest component of the Barisan Nasional, the ruling national coalition, didn't carry Razaleigh's remarks, nor did the New Straits Times, which is also owned by UMNO. Nor was it carried on the party-owned television stations. However, it was carried widely on Internet news sites, including being streamed on the independent Malaysiakini television. It was carried verbatim on the Internet-based news portal Malaysian Insider, among other Internet sites. This has assumed increasing importance because of an Aug. 16 report in the independent Internet news site Malaysian Insider that the administration of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is evaluating the feasibility of putting an Internet filter in place to block so-called "undesirable websites." According to the report, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission commissioned the Malaysian arm of KPMG, the accounting and advisory firm, to carry out a "'Study on Positive and Safe Use of the Internet' in early August to evaluate, among others, "the implementation of Internet Filter at Internet Gateway level" and "the impact of the various methods to Malaysian Internet users and Malaysia economy.'" A year ago, the government backed away from a similar plan for a filter to block websites it considered undesirable. After the story became public, Najib denied there was any plan to police the Internet. Although the rationale cited for such a filter is usually to keep pornography away from the nation's youth, it can be used to block undesirable political comment as well. In Thailand today, for instance, at least 13,000 websites have been blocked by the government, ostensibly to block unfavorable comment about the country's monarchy. But in fact, it is being used extensively to block political comment as well. It isn't clear what the KPMG study will be used for by the government. But when Internet journalism was just getting started in the late stages of the reign of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the government took a decision not to place the same kinds of controls on websites that it maintains for the print media, which are onerous indeed. The Printing and Presses Act, passed in 1984, has been used repeatedly against such publications as The Rocket, the vehicle of the opposition Democratic Party, and others. Human Rights Watch reported from New York in July that "the government has effectively suspended indefinitely publication of Suara Keadilan, the paper of the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat" and severely circumscribed the circulation of Harakah, published by the opposition Parti Islam se-Malaysia, or PAS. As a result of the fact that political parties control the mainstream media, the Internet in Malaysia has come alive, not just with opposition blogs and comment about the government, but with some solid – and some not so solid – journalism. But backing away from total internet freedom today is a difficult thing for any government to do and would generate considerable embarrassment, if not public outrage. In Malaysia, the Internet is broadly regarded as having played a major role in 2008 national elections that cost the Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in the parliament for the first time in the 50-year history of the country and delivered several states into the hands of the opposition. More lately, the Internet has carried extensive and embarrassing reports by The Sarawak Report, a Sarawak-based NGO, of the astonishing international holdings of the chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, in Canada, the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, which the NGO claims were built on the ravaging of Sarawak's vast natural resources, particularly timber. Not a word of Taib's holdings has been carried in Malaysia's press. "We must have freedom as guaranteed under our Constitution," Razaleigh told the student leaders. "Freedom to assemble, associate, speak, write, move. This is basic. Even on matters of race and even on religious matters we should be able to speak freely, and we shall educate each other." Asia Sentinel

Obama Flip Flop on Ground Zero Mosque

Op-Ed Contributor

The Muslims in the Middle

By WILLIAM DALRYMPLE

Published: August 16, 2010

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Luba Lukova

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S eloquent endorsement on Friday of a planned Islamic cultural center near the World Trade Center, followed by his apparent retreat the next day, was just one of many paradoxes at the heart of the increasingly impassioned controversy.
We have seen the Anti-Defamation League, an organization dedicated to ending “unjust and unfair discrimination,” seek to discriminate against American Muslims. We have seen Newt Gingrich depict the organization behind the center — the Cordoba Initiative, which is dedicated to “improving Muslim-West relations” and interfaith dialogue — as a “deliberately insulting” and triumphalist force attempting to built a monument to Muslim victory near the site of the twin towers.
Most laughably, we have seen politicians like Rick Lazio, a Republican candidate for New York governor, question whether Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, the principal figure behind the project, might have links to “radical organizations.”
The problem with such claims goes far beyond the fate of a mosque in downtown Manhattan. They show a dangerously inadequate understanding of the many divisions, complexities and nuances within the Islamic world — a failure that hugely hampers Western efforts to fight violent Islamic extremism and to reconcile Americans with peaceful adherents of the world’s second-largest religion.
Most of us are perfectly capable of making distinctions within the Christian world. The fact that someone is a Boston Roman Catholic doesn’t mean he’s in league with Irish Republican Army bomb makers, just as not all Orthodox Christians have ties to Serbian war criminals or Southern Baptists to the murderers of abortion doctors.
Yet many of our leaders have a tendency to see the Islamic world as a single, terrifying monolith. Had the George W. Bush administration been more aware of the irreconcilable differences between the Salafist jihadists of Al Qaeda and the secular Baathists of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the United States might never have blundered into a disastrous war, and instead kept its focus on rebuilding post-Taliban Afghanistan while the hearts and minds of the Afghans were still open to persuasion.
Feisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative is one of America’s leading thinkers of Sufism, the mystical form of Islam, which in terms of goals and outlook couldn’t be farther from the violent Wahhabism of the jihadists. His videos and sermons preach love, the remembrance of God (or “zikr”) and reconciliation. His slightly New Agey rhetoric makes him sound, for better or worse, like a Muslim Deepak Chopra. But in the eyes of Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, he is an infidel-loving, grave-worshiping apostate; they no doubt regard him as a legitimate target for assassination.
For such moderate, pluralistic Sufi imams are the front line against the most violent forms of Islam. In the most radical parts of the Muslim world, Sufi leaders risk their lives for their tolerant beliefs, every bit as bravely as American troops on the ground in Baghdad and Kabul do. Sufism is the most pluralistic incarnation of Islam — accessible to the learned and the ignorant, the faithful and nonbelievers — and is thus a uniquely valuable bridge between East and West.
The great Sufi saints like the 13th-century Persian poet Rumi held that all existence and all religions were one, all manifestations of the same divine reality. What was important was not the empty ritual of the mosque, church, synagogue or temple, but the striving to understand that divinity can best be reached through the gateway of the human heart: that we all can find paradise within us, if we know where to look. In some ways Sufism, with its emphasis on love rather than judgment, represents the New Testament of Islam.
While the West remains blind to the divisions and distinctions within Islam, the challenge posed by the Sufi vision of the faith is not lost on the extremists. This was shown most violently on July 2, when the Pakistani Taliban organized a double-suicide bombing of the Data Darbar, the largest Sufi shrine in Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city. The attack took place on a Thursday night, when the shrine was at its busiest; 42 people were killed and 175 were injured.

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William Dalrymple is the author, most recently, of “Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India.”
New York Times

Sodomy 11 Application Denied

August 18, 2010

Sodomy 2–An Authoritarian Fantasy

by Terence Netto @www.malaysiakini.com(August 17, 2010)

Judge Mohamed Zabidin Mohd. Diah, the Malaysian judiciary’s version of ‘Stonewall Jackson’, continues to proceed in Sodomy II by the light of his interpretation of the law, no doubt.

Yesterday(August 16) he rejected, for what must seem the umpteenth time (one loses count), an application by the defence – this one, to strike out the charge on the basis that the integrity of the prosecution has been compromised by an affair between the accused and a prosecution lawyer, an affair not denied by the involved parties.

Like the American Civil War commander who ordered his troops to stand like stones in the face of unremitting enemy fire, Judge Zabidin stands as an immovable object against the irresistible force of the defence in the sodomy trial of Anwar Ibrahim.

Thus far in a trial that’s turning out to be interminable, the immovable object has not budged an inch.

While Jackson’s obduracy saw his first name become a metaphor for the quality his troops famously displayed, it is more likely that what fame (or infamy rather) Judge Zabidin’s rejections of applications by the defence would gain would reside in their repudiation in some future rerun of this case.

Given the sequel to Sodomy I, which saw Anwar Ibrahim acquitted after spending six years in jail, no one can say with certainty that such repudiation is not a future possibility.

Legal process not paramount

Judge Zabidin’s rulings and their ratiocinative basis have the unfortunate effect of reminding observers of the dark side of the law, as distinct to its fair side which is the law’s majesty and its philosophical striving for justice.

This dark side of the law tells us that while the law can begin in principles, it can be traduced by interests and these interests can be disguised as principles. Though the law is not an exact science, it is like science in its adherence to methods by which to arrive at a finding.

Just as in science a finding is said to be scientific if the methods of inquiry have conformed to correct procedure, so in law an outcome is said to be just if the legal process that led up to it has been adhered to.

In the jurisprudence of Judge Zabidin in Sodomy II, legal process is not paramount.

A lax application of the stricture against contempt during trial proceedings, the prosecution’s refusal to hand over medical reports and police reports, a material contradiction between the charge of consensual sex and the reported claim of the accused of having been coerced, and a story, not denied, of an affair between the accused and a prosecution attorney – have all been taken as having not compromised the process by which a just finding is to be arrived at.

This is not the modern conception of law. This is something else – an authoritarian fantasy, perhaps.

China Threat

Breakingnews » Breakingnews

Pentagon warns of China buildup

• Published: 17/08/2010 at 07:24 PM
• Online news: Breakingnews

WASHINGTON : China is extending its military advantage over Taiwan and increasingly looking beyond, building up a force with power to strike in Asia as far afield as the US territory of Guam, the Pentagon said.

In an annual report to Congress, the US Defense Department said Monday that China was ramping up investment in an array of areas including nuclear weapons, long-range missiles, submarines, aircraft carriers and cyber warfare.

"The balance of cross-Strait military forces continues to shift in the mainland's favor," the report said.

The Pentagon said China's military build-up on the Taiwan Strait has "continued unabated" despite improving political and commercial relations since the island elected Beijing-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou in 2008.

Taiwan said Tuesday it was "closely monitoring" China's arms build-up and renewed calls for the United States to sell it upgraded F16 jets and diesel submarines in the wake of the report.

"China has not given up the use of force against Taiwan, and we are closely monitoring China's military developments. We ask the public to rest assured," defense ministry spokesman Yu Sy-tue told AFP.

The report -- which US officials delayed for five months amid strains with China -- covered 2009, before the United States approved a 6.4 billion-dollar arms package for the island in January.

China considers Taiwan, where the mainland's defeated nationalists fled in 1949, to be a province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary.

The military report said China was "already looking at contingencies beyond Taiwan," including through a longstanding project to build a far-reaching missile that could potentially strike US carriers deep in the Pacific.

"Current trends in China's military capabilities are a major factor in changing East Asian military balances and could provide China with a force capable of conducting a range of military operations in Asia well beyond Taiwan," it said.

China's military doctrine has traditionally emphasized the ability to strike within an area extending to Japan's Okinawa island chain and throughout the South China Sea east of Vietnam, the report said.

But Chinese strategists are now looking to expand their reach further to be able to hit targets as far away as Guam, including much of mainland Japan and the Philippines, it said.

China is working on the longer-range precision missile, but probably needs more work on the technical infrastructure to put the weapon into use, an official who helped draft the report said on condition of anonymity.

Japan said it would keep a close eye on the Chinese build-up.

"Studying the latest US report, Japan will keep paying attention to China's military trend as it will have a significant impact on security in the region, including Japan, and on the international community," a defense ministry spokeswoman said.

Japan and Vietnam, which both have historic tensions with China, have reported rising incidents with China's military in recent months and the report predicted China may step up patrols in the South China Sea.

In March, China said it was raising its defense budget by 7.5 percent to 532.1 billion yuan -- 77.9 billion dollars at the exchange rate at the time -- breaking a string of double-digit increases.

The Pentagon study was cautious on suggestions that China's military was tightening its belt, saying the spending growth may be lower simply because the forces were at the end of a five-year program.

The Pentagon paper estimated China's overall military-related spending was more than 150 billion dollars in 2009 when including areas that do not figure in the publicly released budget.

President Barack Obama's administration has sought to broaden cooperation with China, but bilateral military exchanges were broken off after the US agreed an arms package with Taiwan that included helicopters, missile defenses and mine-sweepers.

The Pentagon said it wanted dialogue with China to avoid any "miscalculation" between the two militaries.

"We stand prepared to work with the Chinese if they are prepared to work with us," the anonymous official said.
Bangkok Post

Republic of Australia?

Aussie PM calls for republic after death of Queen The Australian    SYDNEY, Aug 17: Australian prime minister Julia Gillard (right) wants Australia to become a republic when the Queen dies and plans to lead a national debate on the form the republic would take. Ms Gillard said today that despite being a republican, she understood that Australians had a “deep affection” for the British monarch, who is 84. “What I would like to see as prime minister is that we can work our way through to an agreement for the model of a republic,” she said while campaigning in the north Queensland city of Townsville, ahead of Saturday's election. “But I would think the appropriate time for this nation to move to being a republic is when we see the monarch change.” Her comments put her absolutely at odds with Tony Abbott, who is a staunch monarchist and was at the centre of the anti-republican cause in the 1999 referendum, which rejected the notion of change. Campaigning with Wayne Swan in the crucial marginal seat of Herbert, Ms Gillard said she wished the Queen a long and happy life. “Having watched her mother I think there's every chance that she will live a long and happy life,” she said. Tony Abbott said later it was “far from certain” that Australia will become a republic in his lifetime and he saw no reason to change the existing constitutional arrangements. “I think the first person who wanted Australia to become a republic was John Dunmore Lang back in the 1850s,” the Opposition Leader told the National Press Club in Canberra. “This republican cause has been with us for a long time but the Australian people have demonstrated themselves to be remarkably attached to institutions that work. “I think that our existing constitutional arrangements have worked well in the past. I see no reason whatsoever why they can’t continue to work well in the future. "So while there may very well be further episodes of republicanism in this country, I am far from certain that at least in our lifetimes that there’s likely to be any significant change.”

US University Ranking

Published: Tuesday August 17, 2010 MYT 3:26:00 PM

Harvard ranked top U in US followed by Princeton and Yale

NEW YORK: Harvard pulled ahead of Ivy League rival Princeton in the latest edition of the influential U.S. News & World Report university rankings, while a stronger emphasis on graduation rates drove other changes in the Top 10.
America's oldest university and traditionally one of its most selective, Harvard has topped the list two of the last three years.
Last year, the two elite schools shared the top ranking.
Yale was the No. 3-ranked university this year, followed by Columbia, and Stanford and University of Pennsylvania tied at No. 5.
Williams College in Massachusetts was ranked the nation's top liberal arts school, repeating its feat of last year.
The most closely watched of a growing number of college rankings, the U.S. News & World Report list is both credited for helping students and families sort through a dizzying college selection process and criticized by those who say it's too arbitrary and pressures colleges to boost scores at the expense of improving teaching.
A change in how rankings are determined led to some shifts in the magazine's "Best Colleges" rankings, which were released online Tuesday and examine more than 1,400 accredited four-year schools based on 16 factors.
How did Harvard edge Princeton by 1 point on an 100-point scale? Robert Morse, director of data research for U.S. News & World Report, credited Harvard's higher scores on graduation rates, and financial and faculty resources.
The rankings take into account factors such as SAT scores, selectivity, graduation and retention rates, alumni giving and peer reputation. This year, high-school guidance counselors' opinions were added to the mix.
Most notably, graduation rate performance was given greater weight, accounting for 7.5 percent of the final score for national universities and liberal arts colleges, up from 5 percent last year. The variable is the difference between a school's actual graduation rate and one predicted by U.S. News based on test scores and schools' resources.
Morse said the shift helped Columbia University rise from eighth to fourth this year and contributed to Cal Tech and MIT falling from a tie for fourth to a tie for seventh.
Nationally, graduation rates are getting more policy attention as higher-education leaders and advocates focus increasingly not just on getting students in the door but also out with a degree or certificate. One of the Obama administration's signature education goals is for the U.S. to regain the world lead in college graduation rates by 2020.
The University of California, Berkeley is the highest-ranked public university, at No. 22 overall in the U.S. News report. Despite a severe budget crisis, five schools in the UC system were among the top 10 public universities.
More schools were ranked this year, a reflection of both increased consumer demand and improved data collection, Morse said. The survey now displays the rank of the top 75 percent of schools in each category, up from 50 percent. The schools in the bottom tier are displayed alphabetically and not given numeric rankings.
The magazine also publishes a list of "Up and Comers," based on a survey of college administrators who were asked to nominate schools they think are making promising and innovative changes. The University of Maryland-Baltimore County was No. 1 among national universities in that category — and ranked No. 159 overall.
Earlier this month, Forbes magazine ranked Williams College No. 1 in its third "America's Best Colleges" rankings — and Harvard No. 8. The business magazine weighs student satisfaction, graduation rates, student debt and other factors. - AP

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FELCRA Scandal

Harakahdaily

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17: After exposing widespread wastages and mismanagement in Felda, the National Felda Settlers’ Children’s Association (ANAK) today revealed at least 22 cases of mismanagement by Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (Felcra) and its holding companies. The cases include mismanagement in the agency's Koperasi Peserta-Peserta Felcra Berhad (KPFB), Special Business Unit and a scam worth RM17 million of investments in unauthorized purchase of bonds. Among others, the latest exposure relates to misappropriation of the supply of Keiserite fertilizers which did not comply with specifications. Speaking to the press at the PAS headquarters today, ANAK chairman Mazlan Aliman said more revelations were forthcoming and would be done in series to allow Felcra answer the allegations. Also present were chairman of the Felcra Task Force, Akmaluddin Mohd Noor and Lenggong PAS chief, Razman Zakaria. Mazlan said his team would require a week to prepare and compile documents relating to complaints about “fraud, mismanagement and abuse of power” in Felcra schemes to be circulated to the press. He also called for a royal commission of inquiry to investigate the allegations against Felcra, and urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to speed up its investigation on reports lodged against the agency last January. According to Mazlan, ANAK had formed a new non-governmental organisation to help Felcra settlers to air their complaints as well as a task force to submit evidences to the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam). Felcra is the latest government agency to come under scrutiny over allegations of graft and abuse of settlers' funds. The latest allegations come hot on the heels of revelations that Felda squandered billions of ringgit in cash reserves. Earlier this month, a gathering by Felcra settlers in Pasir Salak, Perak was ambushed by police, and ended with the arrest of 30 people including 10 from PAS's Welfare Unit. Felcra is a government agency established in 1966 to improve standard of living among rural people and reduce income disparities through land consolidation and rehabilitation programmes. Among its main activities is develop idle land found in villages all over the country.