Sensitive issues barred in Sarawak assembly

Joseph Tawie

The bulk of Meradong assemblywoman Ting Tze Fui’s speech in the Sarawak Legislative Assembly yesterday was ordered to be expunged by Deputy Speaker Roland Sagah.

KUCHING: Opposition elected representatives received a ‘warning’ from the state legislative assembly deputy speaker Roland Sagah not to raise issues related to “corruption, nepotism and allegations of impropriety” and the native customary rights (NCR) matters.

Sagah’s “warning” yesterday came in the form of expunging from the Hansard segments of Meradong assemblywoman Ting Tze Fui’s debate on the Yang Dipertua Negeri’s address.

Ting had during her debate touched on the recently concluded general election, alleged corruption linked to Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and his family as well as NCR matters.

Sedition dragnet: Cops do not rule out more arrests

G Lavendran

KL police chief Mohammad Salleh says that in order to protect peace and security, there could be more arrests coming.

The police have not ruled out the possibility of more arrests under its Sedition Act dragnet.

Speaking at a press conference here, city police chief Mohammad Salleh said the priority was to ensure peace and security.

The police have so far arrested four  people under the Act. These are student leader Adam Adli, Anything But Umno (ABU) leader Haris Ibrahim, PKR vice-president Tian Chua and PAS’ Thamrin Ghaffar.

Three Pakatan, NGO leaders nabbed in noon dragnet

Koh Jun Lin

PKR vice-president Tian Chua as well as Anything But Umno (ABU) chief Haris Ibrahim, were arrested seperately this afternoon, in relation to a recent anti-electoral fraud ceramah in Kuala Lumpur.

They were later joined by former Batu Berendam MP and PAS member Tamrin Ghafar (right), who also spoke at the forum, after he, too, was arrested by the police in Bangsar this afternoon.

All three were taken to the Jinjang police station.

At a press conference later, Kuala Lumpur CPO Mohmad Salleh confirmed the trio’s arrest under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act.

Pakatan MPs to use parliamentary strength to block unfair redelineation

CLARA CHOOI

People queue at a polling station in Gelang Patah, May 5, 2013.

 Pakatan Rakyat (PR) federal lawmakers have vowed to make full use of their increased parliamentary numbers to ensure constituencies are fairly redrawn when the Election Commission (EC) kicks off the redelineation exercise this year-end.

PKR’s Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli reminded that if the exercise involves an increase in seat numbers, a two-thirds majority vote is needed to approve the changes before they are passed by the lower House.

The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) does not have required two-thirds majority in Parliament, with only 133 seats to PR’s 89 seats, and will require votes from opposition lawmakers to approve the exercise.

SAVE RIVERS lodges police report against IHA and Sarawak Energy

Bruno Manser Fonds

The International Hydropower Assocation’s World Congress to be held in Kuching, Sarawak/ Malaysia, from 21 to 24 May 2013, is beginnig badly.

Peter Kallang, an important indigenous leader from Baram, Sarawak, has been barred this morning from a pre-congress workshop organized jointly by the International Hydropower Association (IHA), the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

Despite having paid the horrendous IHA World Congress’ registration fee of USD 1750, Mr. Kallang was stopped this morning from boarding a bus to the International Hydropower Association’s pre-congress workshop at Sarawak Energy Bhd’s office. The reason given to Mr. Kallang was that he had written critical letters to the International Hydropower Association’s chairman, Richard Taylor, over the IHA’s cooperation with the regime of Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and the association’ss policy to exclude affected indigenous people from the congress.

For the love of God, he speaks

RK Anand

The 73-year-old cleric is passionate about his chosen path, and his faith and conviction motivate him to speak out against injustices, which has earned him both bouquets and brickbats.

JOHOR BAHRU: Step into the office and his four-legged companions are the first to greet you. Among the canine entourage, are two beautiful German Shepherds called Max and Bella. The rest are Beagles and a Doberman Pinscher.

Bishop Paul Tan loves his dogs, and never tires talking about them. He recalled how he had been given Bella when she was a two-month-old pup, and was thus forced to play the role of a surrogate mother.

The 73-year-old cleric is just as passionate about his chosen path, and his faith and conviction motivate him to speak out against injustices, which has earned him both bouquets and brickbats.

Beyond GE13

Wong Chin Huat

AND so the Barisan Nasional (BN) is still in power. Those hoping for a change in government are still coming to terms with the results of the 13th general election since our independence (GE13). The Nut Graph asks political scientist Wong Chin Huat how the BN won, why it would racialise the poll results, and what needs to happen next.

So, the BN is still in power. How did that happen, considering that there was such an upsurge in support for the Pakatan Rakyat (PR), as reflected in the increase in popular vote for the PR?

The PR’s vote share has risen from 36% in 2008 to 51% in 2013, but its seat share merely increased from 36% to 40% and the BN continues to rule despite more voters rejecting it than supporting it. This is the outcome of malapportionment where constituencies are of unequal electorate sizes, and of gerrymandering – manipulating constituency boundaries to benefit certain parties.

Pakatan: It’s BN that’s detrimental to democracy

Mkini

Pakatan Rakyat today hit out at the BN government for investigating student activist Adam Adli for allegedly being detrimental to parliamentary democracy, and claims that it is the ruling coalition that has threatened parliamentary democracy.

In a joint statement by PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan, DAP Youth chief Teo Kok Seong and PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin (right), the trio said that BN has destroyed democracy by clinging to power although it does not have the support of the majority.

“It is BN that is detrimental to parliamentary democracy, and not Adam Adli. BN has destroyed the value of democracy by continuing to shamelessly rule despite having less than 50 percent of the support in Malaysia,” they said.

People’s fiesta to ‘take back democracy’

Alyaa Azhar

The rakyat just want to take back the stolen democracy, says SAMM’s Chegubard.

The people’s fiesta is not about toppling the government, rather, it is about taking back democracy, claimed NGO Solidariti Anak Muda Malaysia (SAMM) chairman Badrul Hisham Shahrin.

Badrul Hisham, also known as Chegubard, said a coalition made up of nearly 50 NGOs named the People’s Voice 505 (Suara Rakyat 505) will be launching an event on May 25 at Padang Timur, located in front of Amcorp Mall to present evidences of electoral fraud in the 13th general election (GE13).

“We are going to the streets not to topple the government, but to re-claim democracy.

Inclusive Dayak pact to counter Najib

Joseph Tawie

Unless all Dayak MPs are ‘roped’ into the new entity, the community will continually be sidelined by future leaders fo Malaysia, says PRS president James Masing.

Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president James Masing is serious about merging his party with Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and wants talks on it to resume as soon as possible in view of the current political situation in the country.

“After analyzing the post cabinet appointments by (Prime Minister) Najib (Tun Razak), there is an urgent need for Dayak-based political parties to get together.

“Loose ends need to be tied up, and it must be inclusive where all Dayak MPs are roped into the new Dayak entity.

Kuching Conference Threatens Image Of International Hydropower Association

Sarawak Report

Millionaire Tostein Sjotveit poses with the kids he plans to wash out of their homes.

The Chief Executive of Taib’s closely controlled Sarawak Energy Board, the Norwegian Torstein Dale Sjotveit, has been working hard to merit his extraordinary four million dollar a year salary.

His principle job is to push through SCORE, which is the Chief Minister’s monstrous plan to build up to 50 dams in the state.

It is also to make sure that all the plum Sarawak Energy contracts go to Taib’s own family in the process.

Building ‘respectability’

JUSTICE FOR ALL MALAYSIANS ?

J. D. Lovrenciear

It is very telling that the onslaught of racists slurs and demands for ‘Malays’ rights is all geared to distract the rakyat from the core issue that needs to be addressed affirmatively. Thank God too that the honorable citizens – Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans and others have not fallen for the UMNO bait or the BN poison.

UMNO and its BN coalition are shrouding the electoral results that are being questioned by the rakyat. Their tactics so far is not fooling the rakyat who are determined to return the honor and glory to the nation and restore its dignity and pride in the eyes of the global community of citizens who are watching Malaysia very closely.

But it won’t work

What Tsunami? It was a political awakening

P Dev Anand Pillai

Umno is up its tricks to ensure that future generations remain firmly in its grasp by keeping them intellectually challenged and incapable of thinking

I had always participated in the workings of general elections since the time I was a staff in the Suruhanjaya PilihanRaya Selangor in the early 90s. Being a Polling and Counting Agent (PACA) in 1999 and 2004 general elections gave me the insight as to how it all worked at the end of the day. But this time, it was different, what I witnessed was a coming together of the whole country with a motive to change the federal government for the first time in history, friends from overseas whom had almost given up on their country of birth had made time to return to try to make the change happen. It would have, had it not been for massive fraud by the custodians of the elections themselves, the Election Commission, who were in cahoots with the  police.

Racism and a blueprint for rebuilding M’sia

Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi

Although many things remain uncertain after the GE13 result, one thing is unarguably clear…Malaysia is in trouble.

Who is in trouble? Not Pakatan, not BN to my mind…we are. We…the rakyat.

Our children are in trouble and yes, theirs too, in the distant future if we do not stop this juggernaut called…racism.

I would like to outline my basic blueprint for rebuilding this country with the special focus of eliminating racism as its main objective.

Chinese businessmen say boycott on community’s products “racist”, will hurt economy

BOO SU-LYN 

The Chinese community is being vilified for Barisan Nasional’s poor showing in Election 2013.

 The call by pro-Umno bloggers and Muslim groups for a boycott of Chinese businesses is racist and will harm the country’s economic growth, according to businessmen from the community.

Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 4.1 per cent in the first quarter of the year as a result of weaker exports and slower growth in public spending, compared to 4.7 per cent in the same quarter in 2012 and 6.4 per cent in the last quarter of 2012.

“How can you say boycott? Who loses? The government and Malaysia are the ones that will lose out,” Chen Kien Keong, chairman of the Tea Trade Association of Malaysia, told The Malaysian Insider yesterday.

‘They welcome Bangladeshis, but tell us to balik Cina’

Ahmad Fadli KC

Anger at new home minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who had told those dissatisfied with the 13th general election to leave the country, is fuelling the crowds at the Black 505 rally in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan.

Participant Karen Ngoo, 46 (right), when met at the 30,000-strong rally last night said Zahid’s comment did not make sense, as there were many allegations of foreigners being allegedly brought in to vote.

“He wants to drive away us Malaysians, but Bangladeshis are being brought in to the country.

“He should show us respect. The Bangladeshi phantom voters are the ones who need to be sent away,” she said.

Reject GE13 results before it is TOO LATE!

Wong Choon Mei

Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim called on his countrymen to reject the results of the recently-concluded 13th general election, urging them to defend their rights and “save Malaysia” from a bleak future where corruption and political tyranny would dominate.

His call comes as pressure mounts from Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government to accept the outcome of the May 5 polls, which has been marred by allegations of vote-rigging, phantom voters and even the use of illegal foreign workers to slip into the polling booths and vote for Najib’s Umno-BN coalition in return for which they would be given permanent residency.

The 64-year-old Anwar is disputing Najib’s claim of a 133-seats victory in Malaysia’s 222-seats Parliament. His Pakatan Rakyat coalition, which won the popular vote, sweeping 52% of all ballots cast, wants a re-election in 27 seats where they say they have evidence of highly irregular procedures. Anwar has refused to concede defeat, and has kicked off a nationwide tour to take his case to the people.

Silver nitrate’s not carcinogenic, voter tells EC

Mkini

A voter is taking Election Commission (EC) chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof to task for a recent statement that silver nitrate content of more than 1 percent in indelible ink could cause cancer or kidney damage, which the former claimed is untrue.

Disputing this, Stephen Ng, who claims to be a chemist by training, said such serious health effects are not even listed on the material safety data sheet (MSDS) of the AgNO3 compound, or silver nitrate, which instead states there is no available evidence of carcinogenic, mutanic or teratonic effects.

The MSDS is a document which denotes health and safety information pertaining to the properties of a particular substance of chemical.

It’s Najib’s ‘thank you’ to Taib

Joseph Tawie

Opposition PKR claims that MPs from Sabah and Sarawak are nothing more than ‘window dressing’ in the new federal cabinet.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s allocation of seven ministers from Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) is an act of gratitude and a bid to “establish a foothold in Umno” in preparation for the October Umno assembly, claims Sarawak PKR.

Said PKR vice-president See Chee How: “Giving PBB the lion’s share is probably to please Taib (state BN chairman) for winning 25 seats, including 14 from PBB.”

Najib’s legitimacy deficit

Josh Hong

I am surprised that there are voices from within the opposition saying that it is time to move on and get on with business, ie. acknowledging BN’s victory and continuing the fight within the current system that we have.

Perhaps this is understandable, given that many candidates, especially those from DAP, have now won a seat and do not want to betray the trust that their voters have put in them.

But what is often overlooked is that GE13 was not contested on a level-playing field. The following points can help illustrate this:

Another May 13 in the offing?

Ong Kar Jin

For the sake of this country, the writer hopes his entire analysis is rubbish, and that he will be proven absolutely wrong and a pessimistic idiot.

May 13 has arrived and passed with no major incidents. For many Malaysians who sit uneasily with the date, there is a culpable sense of relief. However, is the threat of a nationwide disturbance over?

Is it possible still in this day and age for something on the scale of the May 13 riots to reoccur?

Before moving on let me just clarify that this analysis is not meant to monger fear or accuse the government of anything. It is a hypothesis based on my historical analysis of post-election trends in Malaysia, and as with all hypotheses, is unproven and certainly not set in stone.

Sorry NAJIB: A leopard cannot change its spots – neither can you or Umno!

J. D. Lovrenciear

A leopard cannot change its spots. Now, will this hold true for BN and especially UMNO?

There is talk among some UMNO-BN power brokers that BN needs to “re-brand”. One notion is that that it should mint a new name to replace the “BN” and to even have a new logo to reflect that change.

The idea being mooted is to disband race-based UMNO, MIC and MCA with a single tag to represent a sort of multiracial coalition of sorts.

But let us take a leave from that age-old wisdom – let truth be told!

Having a new logo is not going to change the spots of the leopard. A leopard is a leopard. Having a new name to describe a leopard is not going to make the leopard into a cuddly cat.

‘Putrajaya-state disconnect problem for Orang Asal’

Tharshinaa Chandran

A disconnect between Putrajaya and state policies throws up obstacles to Orang Asal’s rights to forest and land management, a legal expert told a convention on Orang Asal rights yesterday.

Universiti Malaya’s Centre for Legal Pluralism and Indigenous Law head Azmi Sharom (left) said matters concerning Orang Asal rights are handled by the federal government, whereas land and forestry matters are under state jurisdiction.

“The difference makes it hard to solve the issues faced by the indigenous people, especially when the two parties have different kinds of power,” he said.

Najib fails to read the ground right

Jeswan Kaur

The ‘indelible’ fact is that the rakyat have lost trust in BN and its leadership and it is this issue that Najib has to deal with.

Looks like the dismal show of support received by ruling coalition Barisan Nasional has failed to teach the party a thing or two about ‘eating the humble pie’.

Instead, BN has unleashed its fury against its rival, the Pakatan Rakyat pact, accusing the latter of misleading the rakyat into thinking that BN’s dominant arm Umno is a racist party out to sabotage the welfare of the non-Malays.

Not only that, BN chief and prime minister Najib Tun Razak says the opposition Pakatan pact is full of lies and excuses.

Muslim lawyers: Act against Christian group using ‘Allah’

Mkini

The Malaysian Muslim Lawyers Association (PPMM) has urged for action to be taken against the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) for using the word ‘Allah’ in one of its programmes.

“PPMM calls on Muslim NGOs or any Muslim individuals to come forward and lodge police reports for investigations to commence.

“State Islamic religious authorities can also lodge police reports for investigations and appropriate action to be taken against those who breached the enactment (on prohibition for use of the word ‘Allah’),” said PPMM president Zainul Rijal Abu Bakar.

Zainul (left) pointed out that a court case on whether non-Muslims could use the world ‘Allah’ was still ongoing and until then, enactments in several states preventing non-Muslims from using the word ‘Allah’ still stands.

Our task ahead is momentous

Selena Tay

It cannot be denied that Barisan Nasional has won the 13th general election at all costs. And it also cannot be denied that they have obtained less than 50% of the popular vote. When all is said and done, this simply shows that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is not that popular after all.

While Pakatan Rakyat will be filing election petitions to challenge the results of between 25 to 29 parliamentary seats, the results of the 13th general election at this point in time is definitely valid until the legal process takes its course.

Therefore the Pakatan MPs must now focus on the work of being the opposition in parliament. Their first task of course will be to bring up important issues in the new parliamentary session which will be held either end of this month or early June.

‘Redelineation looms, Chinese may be corralled’

Ram Anand

The next redelineation exercise by the Election Commission (EC) – expected later this year – could involve redrawing the borders to group Chinese voters in a single constituency, in order to minimise the effect of the purported “Chinese tsunami”.

Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Elections (Umcedel) director Prof Mohd Redzuan Othman (left) predicts this based on statements by BN leaders in reacting to the consecutive loss of the two-thirds majority in Parliament.

“(In the last) exercise, they realised that there are Malays voting for the opposition. So what they did was (to redraw the) lines to create more mixed seats, and that worked for them,” he said at a forum yesterday that discussed a preliminary analysis of the 13th general election results.

GE13: What Malaysians wanted

Kua Kia Soong

In the aftermath of GE13, Umno wants to know what Barisan Nasional detractors want. Malaysians have felt frustrated and sidetracked by their attempt at communalising the election results, something they have been doing even before Independence.

BN did their worst – did we do our best? Have dissident Malaysian voters been asking what they want in this election apart from “Ubah” and lowering the price of petrol?

“Anything But Umno” is an “away from” response. Have we listed out “towards” demands?

With all the visible injustice and foul play in the GE13, there is understandably plenty of pent-up frustration and anger among those who have experienced being wronged. And we know that the roots of that injustice are to be found in an electoral system that has for years been inherently flawed.

Wait for the next GE, Pakatan

CT Ali

This BN government is not reticent in using everything it has in its arsenal and at its disposal to ‘manage’ any threat to our national security – perceived or otherwise.

The huge crowd at the Pakatan rallies, especially in Kelana Jaya, would have given Najib Tun Razak food for thought.

The oratory on display would certainly have fuelled the adoring assembly into raptures of reverence and expectations of another tsunami, hopefully this time around to sweep Pakatan Rakyat into government.

‘Hari ni PR menang. Esok BN form Government’, ‘Tumbang, Tumbang! Tumbang BN’, ‘Tolak, Tolak! Tolak BN’, ‘BN curi keputusan pilihan raya!’, ‘SPR Tipu! SPR Bohong!’, ‘Mari ketawakan SPR. Ha Ha Ha!’, ‘Tolak Tangan Persahabatan BN’, ‘Kami anak Malaysia’, ‘Kami Pahlawan Rakyat!’.

COUNTDOWN FOR A NEW PM BEGINS

Nawawi Mohamad

If UMNO-BN had lost in the recent GE-13, Najib would have just a few things to worry about, such as how to step down gracefully as the UMNO president, what will become of his family’s business empire and how prepare himself to face the worst possible repercussions from the Altantuya murder and Scorpene corruption cases.

However after winning the 13th general election through dubious means, Najib now faces a myriad of issues that he can no longer resolve by himself. Obviously, the most challenging task is to stay in power because the precedent has been set that if there is poor showing in a general election, the UMNO president has to go. Someone else will be found to replace him, just as he had replaced his predecessor Abdullah Badawi.

Society has changed, May 13 will not replay

Wong Chin Huat

WHEN Umno Wanita chief Datuk Seri Sharizat Abdul Jalil warned on Nov 28 that “May 13 (1969)” may recur if Umno becomes weak, many would recall the quasi-official explanation for the 1969 ethnic riot: Non-Malay or Chinese voters had abandoned the Alliance.

 

It is quasi-official because it has never been the official reason of the tragedy but in the eve of almost every post-1969 election — with the exception of 2004 — similar reminders have been heard.

 

In a month before the 2008 elections, MCA deputy minister Chew Mei Fun reminded the Chinese about the “1969 lesson”.

Lies, damned lies and statistics

Ramesh Rajaratnam

We must thank Mark Twain for his foresight. After my article on May 9 in Malaysiakini on the distorted voting system in Malaysia, I received numerous feedback but two main questions debated were:

1) Why did I not exclude the 800,000 Mykad holders in Sabah in my analysis; and

2) Many believe that if I had factored in this “questionable votes” in my estimates, the outcome of the GE13 would have been different.

Firstly, I would like to say that my analysis and the resultant hypotheses are based on the information from the public domain. I did not “audit” the SPR’s results according to generally accepted auditing standards in Malaysia, as I certainly do not have the access, means and resources to do so.

Playing the BN blame game

Stephen Doss

If BN does not change, it can then expect to continue its free fall and they should not be surprised if their share of the popular votes keep dwindling.

There is a tendency after every election for winners to amplify their wins and take sole credit for their performance, and for losers to find convenient scapegoats.

It would be easy for anyone to look at the results of the 13th general election and classify the winners as Barisan Nasional and the losers as Pakatan Rakyat. Not so.

In actual fact there is much more for Pakatan Rakyat to be happy about than the Barisan Nasional, for one they are riding an uptrend in terms of total number of votes received, not to mention an increase in the number of seats both at the parliamentary and the state.

Record crowd throngs Penang’s Black 505 rally

Susan Loone

The sleepy town of Batu Kawan, tucked away in the southern corridor of Penang, came alive last night when thousands, dressed in black, made their way to the stadium for the second leg of Pakatan Rakyat’s Black 505 rally.

Held three days after 120,000 people showed up for a similar rally in Kuala Lumpur, Penang drew an equally large crowd, who were joined by those from two neighbouring states – Kedah and Perak.

There were also participants from Selangor and Negri Sembilan as well, who waved their state flags incessantly amidst Pakatan’s rocket (DAP), moon (PAS) and eye (PKR) symbols.

Taking back our democracy post-GE13

Dennis Ignatius

Former US vice-president Al Gore said recently that “American democracy has been hijacked”. He said his country needs to wake up to the special interests that have a grip on the levers of power.

The same could well be said about Malaysia, following the 13th general election.

There can be little doubt that there was widespread electoral fraud during the elections. The Election Commission’s much touted indelible ink, for example, turned out to be a joke. The only indelible stain, as far as most Malaysians are concerned, is on the reputation and credibility of the EC itself.

Until these reports are properly and transparently investigated and put to rest, it is reasonable for Malaysians to question the validity of the elections and the continuing legitimacy of the BN government. Clearly, BN has lost the support and confidence of the majority of Malaysians.