Non-Malays and the military service

Non-bumiputras must come forward
THE PUBLIC outrage at Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for his remark relating to the low number of non-bumiputras in the armed forces has yielded some positive responses. First it caused the nation to focus on the well-known fact that there are few non-bumiputras in the armed forces as well as their low turnout at recruitment centres. Last year for instance only 1.2% of the recruits were non-bumiputras. There used to be a time when there was a large number of pilots, engineers, technicians and doctors who were non-bumiputras. What has happened to change all that?

It must be in complete despair that Ahmad Zahid had lashed out with the stinging remark. If only a trickle of non-bumiputras are entering the armed forces there must be a reason especially when we know that they were there in bigger numbers a few decades ago.

Another positive response is that a better attempt is going to be made to recruit the non-bumiputras. While doing so there should, of course, be no compromise on the quality of the recruits. And because of the publicity given to the dearth of non-bumiputras in the armed forces, the whole country now expects them to come forward to be recruited. And they must if the country is to have a fighting force we can truly call national and a force we can all be proud of. And when they leave in a contingent to serve as part of a larger international peace keeping force overseas the whole country watches with pride as they march out to their carriers.

But while the country tries to unravel the mystery behind the low number of non-bumiputras in the armed forces, it must also mull over their scarcity in the other branches of government as well. The racial composition of the civil service, for instance, does not reflect the true character of multiracial Malaysia.

The teaching service could do with a few thousand more non-bumiputras to make it truly reflective of the national service. While it matters in terms of national unity, yet what is more important is the meaningful contribution they can make to education at the primary and secondary levels.

The country’s education standard was certainly better a few decades ago when it was served by a truly multiracial corps of teachers. It is indeed sad that even at the tertiary level there is a dearth of non-bumiputra teachers. We must change the trend. Let’s make 1Malaysia a truly inclusive concept and the way we do things in this country.
sun2surf

Siapa yang gugat kuasa raja?

Gugat kuasa Raja, Umno dicabar buktikan petualang

Nov 24, 10 

 

PAS hari ini melahirkan rasa kesal parti itu dengan isu gangguan perlembagaan dan kedudukan Raja-Raja Melayu seperti yang sering dibangkitkan, kata ketua penerangannya, Idris Ahmad.

Menurut beliau usaha Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yang mengingatkan pihak-pihak tertentu yang cuba mengubah perlembagaan negara supaya tidak bersikap seperti 'tikus membaiki labu' sebenarnya cuba menimbulkan ketakutan di kalangan orang Melayu supaya tidak menyokong PAS dan Pakatan Rakyat.

"Sejak mutakhir isu Melayu dan kedaulatan Raja-Raja dibangkitkan sebagai usaha untuk menarik sokongan orang Melayu kepada Umno, kononnya Melayu dan Raja Berperlembagaan hanya selamat di bawah Umno, setelah isu pembangunan sudah lapok, kerana dunia semakin maju," katanya dalam satu kenyataan media hari ini.

Idris berkata satu ketika dahulu kononnya ada perlembagaaan baru seperti yang ditimbulkan oleh Mufti Perak, Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria tetapi sehingga hari ini perkara itu gagal dibuktikan.

“PAS mencabar mana-mana pihak yang ada bukti jika ada mana pihak yang hendak menggugat perkara yang telah dipersetujui bersama seperti kedudukan agama Islam, kedudukan Raja-Raja Melayu dan Hak Istimewa Raja-Raja Melayu silalah bawa ke pengadilan.

Isu derhaka

"Isu derhaka kepada Raja-Raja Melayu dibangkitkan dengan hebat ketika pilihanraya kecil Bukit Gantang, kononnya Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaludin derhaka kepada Sultan Perak. Mereka eksploit perkatan yang diucapkan oleh Nizar "Patik Mohon Sembah Derhaka", pada hal ini adalah istilah yang diajar oleh protokol istana ketika berbahasa dengan Raja apabila kita tidak sependapat dalam satu pandangan," kata Idris.

Menurut beliau, dalam sejarah politik Malaysia - “yang biadab dengan Raja-Raja Melayu ialah pemimpin Umno.” Malahan, dakwa Idris, Umno juga cuba mengambil alih kuasa mengistihar darurat daripada Yang Di-Pertuan Agong.

Katanya, rakyat negara ini juga tidak lupa bagaimana Umno “membelasah Raja-Raja Melayu pada tahun 1983 kerana menolak cadangan supaya kuasa Yang Di-Pertuan Agong mengenai pengistiharan darurat dikurangkan.

"Begitu juga penyokong Umno pula mengatakan Sultan Terengganu binatang. Kenapa polis tidak tangkap mereka yang berdemonstrasi dan menghina sultan Terengganu kerana tidak melantik Datuk Seri Idris Jusuh sebagai Menteri Besar Terengganu?” soalnya.

Idris berkata sebenarnya, banyak lagi yang boleh dibongkarkan bagi membuktikan siapa yang sebenarnya menghina Raja-raja Melayu.MK

Chasing UMNO out of Sabah

Karim renews pledge to send Umno ‘packing’ from Sabah

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 11:11

By Joe Fernandez

KOTA KINABALU: Veteran politician Karim Ghani, 70, who quit Umno on Monday, has vowed for a second day in a row to send his former party packing from Sabah.
He renewed the pledge here last night at a PKR goodwill dinner which was witnessed by several senior leaders led by vice-president Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan.

Senior PKR activist and former health minister Chua Jui Meng was guest of honour. He was accompanied by party seniors Michael Bong from Sarawak and David Yeoh from Johor.

“I am the one who single-handedly brought Umno to Sabah,” said Karim before a full house at a popular seafood restaurant here. “I hope to send this party back to where it came from,” he said to applause.

He told the party faithful that he “had a score to settle with Umno”. “It’s payback time. We will start with the Batu Sapi by-election – 25 activists already on the ground – and work our way towards the next general election.”

Citing from Sabah’s recent political history, he pointed out that Berjaya was used to topple the United Sabah National Organisation (Usno), Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) was used to topple Berjaya, Umno was used “not to topple but grab power” from PBS, and “Pakatan Rakyat can topple Umno in Sabah”.

Karim’s beef with Umno is that the Peninsular-based party “has forgotten why it came to Sabah in the first place, that is, to help Usno members”. Instead, Umno is “playing footsie” with PBS, the very party that sidelined Usno for nine long years, added Karim. “Usno was also in the cold for nine years under the Berjaya administration.”

Karim recalled that when Usno went from 17 state seats, during the 1985 state election which toppled Berjaya, to 12 seats the following year in a snap election, the party leaders realised that it was the end for them. So, the decision was made to bring in Umno and get Usno members to join the former en bloc, he said. “I took the initiative to bring Umno to Sabah after PBS left BN in 1990 and was immediately sacked by Usno.”

Subsequently, then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had Usno de-registered when he realised that its members were returning to their old party after abandoning Umno, said Karim. “Now, all our attempts to re-register Usno have been thwarted by Umno and the Registrar of Societies.”

'Cium tangan culture must go'

Umno, noted Karim, has a certain system, culture and practices in place which endure despite the change of leaders. “When a new leader comes in, only the style changes, but the system, culture and practices continue.”

“This cium tangan (hand-kissing) culture must go,” said Karim. “The 2008 general election has opened up a window of opportunity for us. We must make use of it at the next 13th general election.”

Failure to capitalise on the next general election, he warned, would be to miss the window of opportunity and wait another 50 years for change.

He said this message must be communicated to the people by all available means – text messaging, blogs, FaceBook – besides word-of-mouth. “We must recapture the Spirit of 1963,” said Karim who has since added another eight points to the original 20 Points under which Sabah agreed to help form Malaysia in 1963. “We must win back our autonomy and increase the oil royalty to at least 20%.”

Karim appears to be the clearest indication that many local Muslims have decided to part company with Umno, which has often been accused of harbouring illegal immigrants with MyKads. The illegal immigrants are seen as the reason for their growing disenfranchisement.

Karim doesn’t see Umno being acceptable to the voters in Peninsular Malaysia either “since the Indians and Chinese are running away from the Barisan Nasional (BN)”. “The flower (Umno) bloomed and attracted the Indians and Chinese to the BN,” said Karim. “Now, it has wilted and will soon die. The Indians and Chinese are not going to stay with the BN.”
Sabah PKR deputy state chief Christina Liew, who organised the function, earlier issued an eight-point challenge to the state government in a brief speech, namely zero undertable money, no little Napoleons in government departments, deal with state agencies which have deviated from their objectives, no government competition with the private sector, and support the private sector.

She also urged against political interference in the award of government contracts, called for the removal of politicians with vested interests, and wants the Ali Baba system of negotiated contracts done away.

One-to-one fight

Former deputy federal minister Kalakau Untol, in his address, described the night as “a gathering of reformists from every party in the country”.

“The task ahead is how to tackle the BN,” said Kalakau who earlier this year quit the United PasokMomogun KadazanDusunMurut Organisation (Upko) to join PKR. “Negotiations are still going on among opposition parties to ensure a one-to-one fight in Batu Sapi.”

Jeffrey said the forthcoming Batu Sapi parliamentary by-election will be “a test of whether the opposition parties can compromise and work together”.

He expects 40% of the Muslim votes – Usno members – in Sekong, one of the two state seats in Batu Sapi, to vote opposition “now that Karim is with us”. The Chinese-majority Karamunting is the other state seat in Batu Sapi.

Jeffrey also said Umno will not only die, it must die before the country sees political change. “They are talking about a New Political Model (NPM) after flogging the New Economic Model (NEM) for months,” said Jeffrey. “This (NPM) will never happen.”

Hence, Jeffrey’s reading is that it would be impossible for Umno to change despite all the party’s talk about a NPM.

Wallowing in poverty
Jeffrey also took a swipe at the federal government's plan to build a 100-storey skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur “while Sabahans wallow in poverty”.

“At the same time, they say they have no money to pay civil servants the bonus that they deserve,” said Jeffrey. “In another unprecedented move, the federal government has money to make allocations available to the private sector.”

The Sabah strongman suspects that Umno is saddling the country with more debts because “it knows it’s going to lose the next general election”. Moreover, it is an irony that Umno is emphasing on a high-income economy “when we (Sabah) are yet to get out from our poverty trap”.

Chua said Sabah has gone under the BN from being the second richest (1970) state in Malaysia to the poorest (2010). He expects this state of affairs to continue since the recent Budget 2011 only allocates a combined 8% of the financial resources to Sabah and Sarawak.

He pledged better days ahead for the two states as Pakatan's Common Policy Framework was the opposition alliance’s “roadmap to Putrajaya”.

Also read:

Veteran Sabah Umno leader quits, vows to boot out party

Vitrolic debate on Warisan Merdeka Tower

(AFP) - THE Malaysian government's proposal to build a 100-storey mega tower in the capital has triggered a backlash from the opposition and on a fast-expanding Facebook petition.
Plans for the tower, to be built by 2020 at a cost of US$1.6 billion (RM5 billion), were unveiled by Prime Minister Najib Razak during last week's budget speech, which included a number of major infrastructure projects.
The building, named 'Warisan Merdeka' or 'Heritage of Independence', would be the tallest in Malaysia, dwarfing the iconic Petronas Twin Towers which were the world's tallest buildings at 88 storeys when completed in 1998.
Mr Najib said that such projects exemplify the spirit of 'Malaysia Boleh' or 'Malaysia Can!', a national campaign conceived by former premier Mahathir Mohamad, a huge advocate of mega projects.
Mr Mahathir, whose own schemes included the Proton national car and the multi-billion-dollar administrative capital Putrajaya - both of which have failed to thrive - has warmly endorsed the new skyscraper.
But a Facebook page created last Saturday, to which more than 9,600 people had signed up by Tuesday afternoon, has seen an outpouring of criticism from Malaysians who say the money would be better spent elsewhere.

Angry comments

A sampling of angry comments from Malaysians:
'Malaysia needs better education, better health care, better public transportation, safer neighbourhoods, cleaner water, but not a taller building.
'We don't need another white elephant!' said the page, which about 600 people were joining each hour.
'I will support this project if you give me the contract!' - Facebook user named Chee Chuan Tat, referring to endemic crony capitalism linked to the Barisan Nasional coalition.
'It's taxpayers' money, and taxpayers say NO.' - Adrian Matthew Yee.
'What the building will do is to destroy the character of the area while creating a traffic nightmare for all.
There are more than enough office spaces in downtown KL and this will cause a glut of office space, becoming a white elephant like many of the other government projects.' - Opposition lawmaker Fong Kui Lun, in whose constituency the building would be located near the city's chaotic Chinatown, said it would be an eyesore and totally unsuited to the crowded downtown district.
'The country does not need another mega project as the era of mega projects is gone and most Malaysians are not impressed by them any more.' - Tony Pua, also from the Democratic Action Party which is part of the opposition alliance, said. -- AFP

More crony business template

Cancer institute's price doubles to RM700 million

Joseph Sipalan
Oct 20, 10

PARLIAMENT The opposition bench today launched new salvoes at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his far-reaching government transformation plan (GTP), this time claiming that the construction cost of the National Cancer Institute in Putrajaya had jumped by 100 percent to RM700 million.

PKR Machang MP Saifuddin Nasution (right) said the institute was initially supposed to cost RM340 million as indicated under the Ninth Malaysia Plan of former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Saifuddin said the project, which was launched by Abdullah on Jan 9, 2007, was scheduled to be completed over 30 months by June 2009.

“But on March 10, 2009, the then Deputy Health Minister (Dr Abdul) Latif Ahmad said in Parliament that the institute is in the final stages of construction and will cost RM700 million,” he said at a press conference in Parliament.

“Twenty four months after the project was announced, the cost escalated by 100 percent,” he said.

Saifuddin, who is also PKR secretary-general, said the way the project was managed by Kiara Teratai Sdn Bhd was highly questionable as he has seen evidence that the company was in no way involved in the construction of the institute.

“We have gone through some documents, and we suspect that Kiara Teratai did not run the project and instead handed it over to IJM Corporation,” he alleged, saying it could be the reason behind the huge jump in construction costs.

Saifuddin pointed out that a background check done on Kiara Teratai's two directors, Ahmad Zaid Salleh Hamdi and Hashim Hassan, revealed that they have ties with Maritime Management DMCCO (MMC) and Tradewinds.

“These companies are linked to bumiputera billionare Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, which makes these directors very well connected,” he said.

'Tender process only benefits cronies'

Khalid Samad (PAS-Shah Alam) meanwhile queried the government for refusing to take up the offer from the main contractor of the Shah Alam Hospital to complete the controversial RM482 million project.

He said GM Healthcare, which was engaged by developer Sunshine Fleet as the main contractor of the project, had offered to complete the project within 18 months with a RM3 million discount on the project cost.

“The main contractor is giving a good deal, and yet the government has not given them a response. Instead, they want to re-open the tender for the project, which will be offered to selected parties and it will definitely be offered at a higher price,” Khalid (left) said.

Mohd Abdul Wahid Endut (PAS-Kuala Terengganu) added that the RM3.7 billion road upgrading project in Terengganu was not spared the BN's gross mismanagement, with many of the 17 packages under the project left uncompleted while their crony contractors disappear with the profits.

Taking the example of one RM59 million package under the project, he said the contractor had only completed 15 percent of the road but simply left after collecting timber in the surrounding forests.

Khalid said the government is well aware of the “cancer” that infects the government, as proven by Najib's GTP and his many other transformation plans.

“But they do not have the political will to bring about the transformation they talk so much about,” he said.

MK