PAGE hands over memo on English to PM

The Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) delivered its memorandum on the language issue to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak here on Monday with the hope “he is listening to the people.”

“We want the memorandum to reach the hands of the PM before he leaves for Mecca for the Hajj.

“The PM says he is listening to the Rakyat, so I hope he listens to us,” Page chairperson Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim told reporters after handing over the memorandum at the PM’s Office.

Around a dozen Page members accompanied Noor Azimah to hand over the memorandum to request that the government allow the option for the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI).

Noor Azimah added that she handed over graphs and figures showing the percentage of parents and students supporting PPSMI and exam results that warranted the continued use of English.

Sarawak Bengoh Dam: RM 58mil cost overflow

Aidila Razak

Ill-conceived plans over the resettlement of natives living around the Bengoh Dam in Sarawak are causing massive delays to the RM310.65 million project.Although the cabinet is still deliberating its options, the Auditor General in his 2010 report estimated that the delays could cost up to RM58.37 million.According to the report, the delay is because some of the 1595 natives affected do not accept the compensation offered by the government.

The dam, which is 97.3 percent ready and is due for completion in May 2011, cannot be impounded on schedule until the natives have been resettled.

PAGE warns BN of polls backlash from PPSMI snub

Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

Children stand next to a PAGE poster, during the group’s launch event in Petaling Jaya, March 7, 2010. — File pic

Barisan Nasional (BN) risks losing votes in upcoming polls if it continues barring students from learning science and maths using English in schools, a parents lobby group said today.

The Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) wants the 10-year-old policy of teaching science and maths in English at national schools (PPSMI) to be made an option for students in primary and secondary schools.

“If it is political (decision on PPSMI) give us the PPSMI option in national primary and secondary schools, and we will give you the two-thirds majority, which you are making increasingly difficult for us to do.

DAP pushes for optional PPSMI

Debra Chong

PPSMI advocates gather to deliver a memorandum to the prime minister, in Putrajaya, January 19, 2011. — File pic

The Education Ministry must be more flexible and give students the option to learn maths and science in English, the DAP urged today, saying such a policy can help the country retain its best talents.

The party threw its weight today behind a pro-English group in the tug-of-war over Putrajaya’s decision to abandon the 10-year-old policy of teaching science and maths in English at national schools — better known by its Malay abbreviation, PPSMI.

The growing row over the education policy has split the country along racial, political lines ahead of national polls likely to be called early next year.

No two ways about it: If M’sia is to be competitive, the NEP has to go!

Maclean Patrick

The main hindrance to competitiveness in the Malaysian business sphere is the government’s own insistence that there should be no competition when it comes to any or all their ventures. We have in place huge monopolies in oil, electricity generation and even television; in which the government holds strategic stakes that basically curtails and dampens any form of competitiveness.

Dismantling these systems is something the BN is not prepared to do. Its own component parties, Umno in particular, hold large stakes in these monopolies.

Prime Minister Najib Razak’s recent call for meritocracy amongst the bumiputera community means allowing the best Malays in the country to emerge through competition amongst themselvesbut not through competition with other races whether in the country or from overseas.

Muhyiddin: If not BM, there’ll be chaos

Patrick Lee

The Education Ministry has refused to allow students the option of Bahasa Malaysia or English in the teaching of Science and Mathematics, angering groups like PAGE.

Malaysian students will not be able to choose between English or Malay as the medium of instruction for the learning of Science and Mathematics.

According to Education and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, such an option would result in chaos for the national education system.

“If we give parents this choice, it will cause chaos (kucar-kacir) in our education system. It will be difficult for the Education Ministry to plan as to whether a school will teach (the subjects) in English or Bahasa Malaysia,” he told reporters today.

APCO to FBC to Tony Blair: What the heck is Najib doing wasting so much money?

Maclean Patrick

Prime Minister Najib Razak is busy doing everything and anything except what Malaysia really needs to have done. At a time when the economy is poised to suffer the global impact of the financial crisis swamping America and Europe, vain Najib prefers to looking at the mirror to spruce up his battered image. But as PAS vice president Salahuddin Ayub has gently reminded, no amount of foreign consultancy can turn a frog into a Prince!

Still, it would be too much to expect the 58-year-old Malaysian PM to immediately give up prepping up his image despite the dose of good advise and even though his makeover endeavours have so far yielded disastrous results, and worse of all, left Malaysians stuck with a sky-high bill. Really, the time has come for Najib to stop fritterring away the people’s hard-earned money.

Math and Science: It is the concept, not the language but is it really?

Feizrul Nor Nurbi

Lately, it is interesting to note the shift in stand by the PPSMI-proponents generally, and PAGE specifically.

No, not that they somehow understand the folly of their campaign in reintroducing PPSMI in Malaysian schools, but rather the refocusing on their raison d’être – from arguing that PPSMI will improve the standard of English in Malaysian schools – to the argument that PPSMI will help to empower the nation in the field of Science and Mathematics.

Don’t miss the forest for the trees

Firstly, it is worth noting that on PAGE’s website – http://www.pagemalaysia.org – there is no specific and clear objective regarding the direction or the ‘fight’ undertaken by the body, just a broad mission statement that the body acts as a platform for parents to voice their concerns regarding educational issues.

The Najibs’ pilgrimage and GE

Jeswan Kaur

If the allegation is true that it is nothing more than a political gimmick, Does Najib think manipulating his hajj will assure him of the people’s vote?

News is out that the 13th general election is scheduled for Dec 10. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is expected to dissolve Parliament on Nov 11.

All this will happen once Najib and wife Rosmah Mansor return from their hajj pilgrimage on Nov 6.

Along with this news which was made by Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) chairperson Badrul Hisham Shaharin or better known as CheguBard, came some disturbing revelations.

Data shows better Maths, Science results during PPSMI

Page

The Parent Action Group for Education (Page), who are at the forefront in the struggle to have Maths and Science taught in English, today said that research findings found that the performance of students in the subjects of English, Mathematics and Science improved when the latter two subjects were taught in English.

Quoting research by the 2010 update report for the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals for Malaysia, Page said that results show that the policy was starting to work when the decision to abolish it was made.

The results also showed an improvement in performance in mathematics and science in rural schools.

“PPSMI is working, even for the rural students… (The examination results) show improvement in English, no reduction in Bahasa Malaysia and improvements in Science and Mathematics in the last few years,” Page said, referring to the policy by its Malay language acronym.

BMF exposes Sarawak CM’s ‘foreign helpers’

BMF

In a name and shame exercise, native rights advocacy group Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) has issuedd a “blacklist” of individuals it claimed are “secret foreign helpers” of Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

These “helpers”, the BMF alleged, helped Taib and his family “conduct international business transactions, hide foreign assets or gain undeserved respectability outside Malaysia”.

Amongst the most prominent of the 30 individuals from nine countries named were a head of state and three public officials.

Monaco’s Prince Albert II has been accused by BMF of maintaining too cosy a relationship with the Taib family.

Barking up the wrong tree for Malay unity

Joe Fernandez

Umno began digging its grave when it allowed Mahathir to refashion it as Umno Baru.

Umno, from time to time, beats the drums of war on “political unity”, one of the sacred cows in things Malay. Witness the call for PAS-Umno unity talks and a myriad other stage-managed events since 2008, including, at one time, stomping on a cow’s head to rile the Hindus.

Nowadays, these drumbeats are more a ventilation of the Umno activists’ ignorance of their party’s history, which began with the anti-Malayan Union movement in 1946, although the spiritual roots go further back in the concept of Malay nationalism first espoused by the Jawi Peranakan.

The Jawi Peranakan were the Singapore-born offspring of immigrant Muslims, many of whom came from Kerala, India (see William Roff’s “Origins of Malay Nationalism”).

Paid to shine Najib’s government, UK firm goes under

Debra Chong

TV company FBC Media, at the centre of the Malaysia news-fixing scandal facing broadcasters BBC and CNBC, is facing collapse, The Independent newspaper reported in London today.

The British daily said the London-based firm and its parent company FBC Group had gone into administration — a legal term that allows a company facing bankruptcy to carry on business — following reports it accepted £17million (RM85 million) from Putrajaya to burnish the Najib administration’s image on global broadcast networks.

The newspaper said FBC Media called in administrators last Monday, days before the BBC Trust was to review a BBC Executive report on a series of programmes the production company made for broadcast on the British corporation’s international news and current affairs channel.

Pakatan vs BN: No room for reconciliation in Malaysia

Ismail Dahlan

One fact is clear, there will be no room for reconciliation in Malaysia. In the event Pakatan Rakyat takes power in this election, the people will demand justice for the crimes that have been committed against them. At which point Pakatan had best not suggest forgiveness or reconciliation for the worst of the BN politicians or their cronies. Or for any of them.

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has said that he has forgiven the crimes committed against his person and against his long-suffering family. That is his prerogative.

A bitter hatred has developed

Most people in the country, however, will not be so forgiving. There are many who have never been investigated who must be investigated. There are those walking free who deserve to be behind bars, with the key thrown away. The crimes that have been committed against Malaysia cannot be forgotten. The divide between the two political sides in Malaysia has grown too wide. What was once political differences has now evolved into  bitter hatred.

Najib needs Alastair to scrub out the dirt

Mariam Mokhtar

How could Najib shamelessly use public money in a vain attempt to win votes and improve his international reputation?

It takes a liar to know another liar. So good luck to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, if he has secured the services of Alastair Campbell, to help him plot his next moves, in the 13th general election. Campbell is as slippery as an ikan keli, and teeth as sharp as a barracuda. Anything he says should be taken with a pinch of salt.

After the recent furore about Malaya not being colonised, why is Najib taking orders from a “mat-salleh”?

Najib is deluded to think that a non-Malaysian can resolve Malaysia’s problems. It is only the Malaysians who have the power to find the solution to our many problems and we do not need help from outside.

Scandal-hit FBC Media now faces bankruptcy

Malaysiakini

London-based television content producer FactBased Communications (FBC Media), which recently produced programmes to spruce up the image of Malaysian politicians, is now facing bankruptcy, reported UK daily The Independent.

The daily reports that FBC Media and its parent company FBC Group’s affairs are now being sorted out by administrators Hillier Hopkins Corporate Recovery.

“At the end of the day, if there is money available for creditors that will be paid of by way of dividend,” administrator David Butler was reported as saying.

The daily reported Hillier Hopkins saying that the it is now trying to establish “the extent of the companies’ assets in order to maximise any potential return to the ex-employees and other creditors”.

Masing woos and warns Dayaks

Joseph Tawie

Taking advantage of the internal strive within SUPP and SPDP, another Sarawak BN ally, Parti Rakyat Sarawak, is touting its ‘stability and vision’ to the Dayaks.

Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) is positioning itself to become the second largest party in the state Barisan Nasional after Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB).

Leveraging the ongoing leadership tussle and disillusioned members in Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), PRS is steadfastly wooing the Dayak community with its image of stability and solidarity.

Malaysia’s ‘clash of civilisations’ is a phoney war

Keruah Usit

Shortly after the invasion of Iraq, I took part in a discussion about the so-called ‘clash of civilisations’ between the neatly compartmentalised ‘West’ and the ‘Islamic world’.

I suggested that the Judaeo-Christian Western tradition and Islamic civilisation share far more similarities with each other than differences.

“Yes,” someone volunteered, “but the devil is in the detail.”

To this day, I disagree. Conflict arises, not so much from the detail of any particular faith, as from our human and very fallible interpretations of religious texts.

Language and human communication can only transmit meaning imperfectly. Even if, as believers profess, divine revelation is unimpeachable and immutable, our flawed understanding of language can never allow this messageto be conveyed perfectly to human believers. Something is always lost in translation.

Sex, Lies and Malaysian Politics

John Berthelsen

A House is not always a home

Prurient and puritanical, the country gags, goes gaga for naughty tales

Malaysia fancies itself a conservative society, with plenty of restrictions on racy movies and activities that might lead its majority Muslim population astray. But get inside a courtroom and anything goes, with details that would make a New Yorker blush, published in the mainstream media.

In the latest trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, whose sex life has been an object of prosecutorial attention off and on since 1998, the court — and the press — has been filled with graphic descriptions of the anatomy of Mohamad Saiful Bukhairy Aslan, the 26-year-old former aide who has accused Anwar of sodomy. Outside of court, the titillations are also commonplace — especially when an opposition politician or his family is involved.

No peace for Altantuya until after GE-13 despite dad’s protest

Maria Begum

More than 4 years have passed but the Malaysian courts are still dragging their feet on a RM100 million lawsuit filed by the parents of Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian national killed on Malaysian soil allegedly in connection with a corruption case involving Prime Minister Najib Razak and the purchase of Scorpene submarines from French giant DCN.

Her fed-up father Setev Shaariibuu has sent yet another tracer to Malaysia’s growingly notorious courts, where his latest letter is bound to suffer the same fate as previous reminders – suppression and total silence! This time, however, Setev and his wife Altantsetseg Sanjaa have taken the additional step of appealing to Malaysian lawmakers for justice.

“Honoured members of the Parliament of Malaysia, I would like you to pay attention to my request and to treat this issue from the stand worthy of intelligent human beings,” Setev said in his letter submitted via his counsel Karpal Singh, who is also the MP for Bukit Gelugor.

The BN govt has gone to the dogs and the Auditor’s report confirms it

Maclean Patrick

A lot can be said about the recently released Auditor-General’s Report which was conveniently revealed 17 days after Prime Minister Najib Razak’s ‘feel-good’ Budget 2012.

The delay caused many to think that it was held back on purpose. The audit report has always been released before the presentation of the government’s Budget, so that lawmakers and the country have a sense of how the past year’s allocations were spent. Yet this year it only saw the light of day after the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim started questioning its glaring absence in Parliament.

But aside from the customary list of financial mismanagement that is so prevalent in every audit report, a few questions stare us unblinkingly. For all the audit reports released todate, how much effort has really been made to ratify the problems stated? Simply saying that the nation is better off this year than the last year does not constitute effort.

Without follow-through action, the Auditor-General’s report stands at risk of losing its credibility and becoming another exercise to mask the real problems in government agencies and ministries in Malaysia.

Acquisition, resettlement send Bengoh cost spiralling

Stephanie Sta Maria

Sarawak’s yet-to-be completed Bengoh Dam could cost an additional RM60.57 million, according to the 2010 Auditor General’s Report.

Severe delays in the construction of Sarawak’s Bengoh Dam could send costs skyrocketing by an additional RM60.57 million, warned the 2010 Auditor-General’s Report.

The dam, located about 40km from Kuching, will supply untreated water to the Kuching Water Board’s treatment plant until 2030.

The initial construction cost stands at RM310.65 million. The amount was a secured loan from the federal government.

PM and DPM stay stuck in fantasy, shunning reality as GE-13 deadline looms

Maclean Patrick

The timing of the 13th general election is still anybody’s guess. But however fickle and indecisive Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government is, the sands of time are fast slipping away. GE-13 must be held by April 2013, but due to Umno’s internal polls next year, snap national elections are likely to be held within 6 months. And like it or not both, Najib and his deputy have begun to court voters in their own styles.

Showy and lavish as ever, Najib chose to give football fans a treat at his official residence recently. It was a clever move to garner much needed support from the Malaysian middle ground. The aim was to give an image of a prime minister that is a huge Manchester United fan, who tweets and attends rock concerts. Words like “cool” and “awesome” seem to be the by-word with the PM when addressing his many ‘adoring fans’.

However, it was a different scene with his deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin. The stodgy DPM has been busy fixing a leaky boat, and he seems to be more concerned about the political survival of UMNO and BN. Also the BN depuy chairman, Muhyiddin said he has begun meeting parties in the coalition regarding their preparation to face the next general election. So far, he has met with six component parties. “I fear that if they take their own sweet time to resolve the problems, it may pose a problem for us,” he told a news conference.

Petronas will make Mokhzani RM400m richer

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz

In Malaysia’s elite business circles, the big boys don’t understand the conventional wisdom of ‘competition’.

Competition in Malaysian business lexicon means NO competition for the big boys. The feeding frenzy and free-for-all fight is actually only among the smaller boys.

It’s the smaller boys who fight it out for a smaller portion of the business.

Petronas, it appears, has departed from its current practice of handing out jobs to only licensed players in certain segments such as oil and gas equipment makers and offshore support vessel operators.

Licensed players are those who are registered with Petronas and have fulfilled certain strict requirements as demanded by the oil company.

Taib and gang cannot dismiss EU logging rules

Joseph Tawie

Sarawak can no longer ignore EU regulations governing import of timber because it will eventually affect ‘finished products’ originating from Sarawak.

Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s administration cannot continue to dismiss European Union Timber and Trade regulations because it would inevitably affect ‘finished products whose origins are traced back to Sarawak.”

Opposition assemblymen concerned over the State Government’s stubborn refusal to comply with the regulations are expected to raise the logging issues during the State Legislative Assembly sitting next month.

Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How said the recent decision by the Netherlands’ Independent Appeals Board  was not merely linked to raw logs but also ‘finished products such as furniture which could be traced  to Sarawak.”

‘Monument of Corruption’ still gets flak

M Jegathesan

Bakun dam turbines are spinning but it is billed as the graft-plagued human and ecological disaster.

The first turbine is spinning, electricity is pulsing out, and the water level is climbing in the Borneo jungle behind Malaysia’s huge US$2.2 billion Bakun hydroelectric dam.

But questions continue to swirl around the viability of a project described by critics as a graft-plagued human and ecological disaster – and as opposition mounts against a dozen other planned dams in Sarawak.

The first turbine from French giant Alstom began producing electricity in August and the dam’s reservoir has swelled to the size of Singapore since impoundment began a year ago.

After years of warnings about the impact on Sarawak’s pristine jungles and the forced removal of thousands of local tribespeople, the dam’s head Zulkifle Osman sees light at the end of the tunnel.

Alastair Campbell Is Advising Najib On How To Win Election in PRU13

Sarawak Report

Alastair Campbell (left) ex-Communications Chief to Tony Blair has been spotted in Astana and KL

Sarawak Report can now add to growing questions in Britain about Tony Blair and his former PR advisors’ links with repressive regimes.

We have learnt from exclusive sources that the former UK Prime Minister’s ex-Communications Chief, Alastair Campbell (world-famous for the so-called ‘Dodgy Dossier’ that sanctioned the invasion of Iraq), is now advising Najib Razak on how to win the next election!

This follows the recent scandal over FBC Media, a story also broken by Sarawak Report, which revealed that Najib and Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud were illegally buying positive publicity on worldwide TV-news shows.

FBC’s Final Betrayal – Friedman Accused of Dumping Workers !

Sarawak Report

Denying all charges – Friedman still claims he never did anything wrong

Sarawak Report has learnt that FBC Media, the production company exposed for taking nearly a hundred million ringgit to showcase Najib Razak, Taib Mahmud and other BN politicians and leaders from the palm oil business on its programmes, has gone into administration in the UK and sacked all its UK staff.

Someone, who would appear to be a former employee, has written to Sarawak Report making clear their level of disgust at the treatment by the multi-millionaire Chairman of the company, Alan Friedman, of his employees, many of whom were carrying out “entirely legitimate work”.

The correspondent says that the staff only learnt of their redundancy when they arrived at work on Monday morning to find baliffs changing the locks to the offices.  Friedman had closed up without warning and so far without paying many freelance workers, who are apparently owed tens of thousands of pounds in some

Peter Chin ups the ante in the SUPP supremo-race

Lee Ryujin

The presidential race for SUPP has suddenly picked-up steam with Miri MP Peter Chin Fah Kui’s decision to contest the party’s top post.

Chin, 66, was previously thought to be less interested in state politics. A federal minister in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Cabinet, Chin holds the Energy, Green Technology and Water portfolio and has managed to win some national profile – albeit on the negative side over Malaysia’s nuclear power plants and the Selangor water deal.

Impressive show of support

Some see in his shift back to the nerve centre of Sarawak state politics the hidden hand of Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, who may fear that the existing SUPP old guard will not be able to convince the Chinese there that they are a better choice than the thriving and dynamic DAP.

In Australia, Ambiga serves notice of people power

KC Boey

Ambiga (left) speaks during a public lecture at University of Melbourne, October 25, 2011. — Pictures by KC Boey

Bersih 2.0 will hold Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to the civic movement’s eight demands on elections and governance should the opposition pact come into government, chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan said at a public forum here yesterday.

“Not only Pakatan,” Ambiga said of her movement that transcends party politics. “We will hold all parties accountable. That’s the way it should be. The power is with us (the people), not with them (political parties). It’s only when power is in the hands of the citizenry that we have a working democracy.”Ambiga was responding to a question at a public lecture at the Asian Law Centre, University of Melbourne, to kick off a speaking tour of four of the most renowned law schools in Australia.

A council of the people for the people

FMT

It is illogical that the fate of the country should lie in the hands of a coterie of mostly self-seeking politicians.

For which inconveniences, the doctrine of Italy, and practice of France, in some kings’ times, hath introduced cabinet counsels; a remedy worse than the disease. – Francis Bacon

Malaysia aspires to be the best democracy in the world and the best way to achieve it is to do away with the Cabinet where only a few heads decide the fate of the country. Times have changed and new eras called for fresh thinking and creative ideas. The Cabinet is a political creature modelled after the Westminster system. It took roots in the 16th century at a time when kings called the shots in Europe. The monarchs would listen to advice given in a private room or Cabinet. It was even said the practice was not a product of British thought but was imported from Italy and France and thus this “dubious foreign habit” was viewed with suspicion in London. But the Mother of Parliament gave birth to so many colonies which readily accepted this alien habit. Malaysia, once dominated by the white masters, also swallowed the Westminster pill.

Altantuya vs Anya: Would DPM have the guts to tell PM mere denial not enough

P Ramakrishnan

The DPM had amazingly stated that if the Chief Minister “thinks it is important to correct the information, then he has to come up with a strong statement…Mere denial is not enough”.

The Penang Chief Minister had rubbished this fraudulent allegation in the strongest possible terms. He had not minced his words in condemning this false allegation. In castigating the pro-Umno blogs that spread this false allegation, he had strongly condemned their nefarious conduct as “morally despicable and barbaric lies”.

The Chief Minister also challenged Umno to act against those guilty of this to prove that the party does not employ “desperate, dangerous and dirty tactics.” He also condemned several Umno leaders for highlighting “this shameful episode” in their blogs. He had referred to these characters as “pro-Umno ferocious beasts”.

Ambiga: Putrajaya stalling over electoral reform

Debra Chong

Bersih 2.0 chief Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan accused Putrajaya of dragging its feet on electoral reform ahead of key national polls likely to be called by early next year, Australia’s national broadcaster reported today.

In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) earlier today, Ambiga highlighted the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government’s refusal hold off on the 13th general election until after it implements reforms to the polling system.

This, she said, was despite the formation of a bi-partisan parliamentary select committee (PSC) by the Najib administration following widespread global criticism over its crackdown of Bersih 2.0’s July 9 rally here.

“We’ve started a campaign called ‘Clean Before 13’,” she told the ABC in its Connect Asia radio programme this morning.

Umno heading for extinction

Kenny Gan

In 1961 the communist government of East Germany constructed a barrier that completely cut off West Berlin from East Berlin to stop citizens from the Communist Bloc fleeing to the West. The 103 miles wall bristling with lethal weapons was a huge construction feat that showcased the engineering capability of the Soviet Union but it was also a monument to the failure of Communism.

Apparently the “workers’ paradise” could only be built in a workers’ prison. If anything the Berlin wall was an ominous signal that Communism was doomed. With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, this farsighted prophesy proved to be true. The Communist ideology has been abandoned all over the world except in a few select countries and even China is Communist only in the sense that it doesn’t hold elections.

Closer to home we can clearly see the signs of a doomed Umno grasping for survival in a political environment which has completely changed since the heady years of post-independence. When a party starts manufacturing sex scandals against the opposition and when even innocent minors are targeted it is only a matter of time before the party is flushed down the drain into the moral cesspool of its own creation by a disgusted electorate.

Wanted: Taib’s international helpers

Clare Rewcastle Brown

Swiss-based NGO, Bruno Manser Fund, has compiled the names of people who have aided Taib Mahmud’s journey in acquiring his immense wealth.

For too long the destruction of the Sarawak rainforest and the land grabs against its indigenous people have been politely treated as an “issue” or an “environmental problem”.

But it is neither an “issue” nor an “environmental problem”. It has in fact been a crime.

The problems in Sarawak have come as a consequence of personal decisions by politicians to break the rules and abuse their power, in order to take the wealth of Sarawak’s people and put it in their own pockets.

If this had not been the case, there might have been a genuine debate to be had about trade-offs between the environment and sustainable development and how to best help the people.