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Enlightened Chinese have many reservations regarding the MCA. Many of the party's leaders, including President Ling Liong Sik, can hardly claim to be representatives of the Chinese when, in fact, they have not been elected from Chinese-majority electorates. Indeed, the practise by BN of allocating MCA leaders safe, Malay-majority seats election after election is disturbingly akin to the use of puppet leaders to control a community, puppets that are also sit-down guests at Mahathir's banquet of corruption.

Hence, it is no surprise that the MCA has never challenged UMNO to advance Chinese rights, whether it is Merdeka University, Chinese schools, non-Muslim places of worship or the blantant discrimination against the China-born wives of Malaysian citizens.

Indeed, the refusal or inability of the MCA to confront the last issue bespeaks an organisation that can aptly be described as "good-for-nothing." There can be no reason why China-born wives should not be treated on a par with other foreign born wives. Yet, we have the recent case of an IT professional forced to migrate because because his wife from China was only allowed into Malaysia two weeks in a year.

Why should the MCA be disinterested in an issue that sits so squarely within its area of responsibility? If it is part of the government, then why can't it fight for a cause that is as just as it is sorely needed? Or are its leaders afraid of upsetting their UMNO bedmates?

Mahathir-controlled Ling has even opposed a proposal to upgrade TAR College to university status. Given his well-known sycophancy to UMNO, Datuk Ling will probably lose his deposit should he be brave enough to stand in a Chinese-majority electorate.

The illicit fruits of cronyism will ensure that many big Chinese businessmen will continue to support a party that has long deserted its original mandate. As for the rest of the community, their support during the last elections can, in large measure, be attributed to a triumph of the politics of lies, fear and intimidation over the politics of reason, aided by a supine local news media.

It is time that the Chinese wake up to political realities and the advent of Malaysiakini can hopefully stimulate an awakening through the provision of balanced news and information.

JC

It is a political truism that the MCA while not being able to do anything for Chinese, attempt to maintain its hold on them through instigating baseless fears. It has worked hand in hand with Umno in this regard with its leaders going round the country during the last election churning up fear of riots, fear of PAS, fear of Islamic State and fear of being culturally sidelined. Now Ling Liong Sik is starting a campaign to whip up Chinese sentiments against PAS as no doubt Chinese accomodation with PAS would mean votes for Barisan Alternatif instead of the present swing to BN out of fear.

When a party has to rely on creating fear instead of its own merits and accomplishments to get support, it is a sure sign that that party is bankrupt of ideals and can do nothing good for the group it claims to represent. Sadly the MCA has shown Chinese time and again that it cannot fight for more Chinese rights or even prevent existing rights from being eroded. Ling Liong Sik has demonstrated his great inferiority complex by declaring that Chinese are a minority race and should behave like a minority race or “there will be trouble”. He is the quietest man in the Cabinet, not daring to speak up on issues that affect Chinese be it the Nipah virus tragedy or Chinese films on Astro. MCA will vote with Umno on any issue that Umno wants even if it means restricting, limiting or eroding Chinese rights. A case in point is the legislation to make it legally permissible to convert non-Malay children to Islam without their parents’ permission which MCA willingly went along. Under Ting Chew Pei’s housing ministry, another by-law was proposed to make it compulsory to seek the Islamic Council’s approval to establish any place of worship for non-Muslims. Meanwhile Chinese schools continue to be starved of funds, new Chinese schools are supremely difficult to establish and non-Malays continue to labour under a welter of unnecessary quota and restrictions in every niche and fabric of society under the guise of the affirmative action program. Never has the MCA or the MIC sought to question or alleviate the dismal second class status of the Chinese and Indians.

Indeed the MCA has become nothing more than humble apologists for Umno, a party designed to hold in check the multitudes whose rights it was supposed to champion. In return Umno allocates some safe seats for MCA leaders. It is like paying off the village headman to keep the ignorant natives in check. What a feast of ironies that MCA leaders should be elected by a Malay dominated electorate and Umno now maintains its hold based on Chinese support. The MCA due to its totally subservient position under Umno cannot fight or safeguard Chinese rights. On the contrary it serves as a convenient vehicle for Umno to ride roughshod over them. It is time for Chinese to look for an alternative political platform to champion their interests.

Kevin Gan

As Anwar's lawyers continue their attacks against puppet Augustine Paul in the Court of Appeals, Malaysians can only hope that the rest of the world is not listening too closely. If the Malaysian judiciary is likened to a whorehouse, then Augustine Paul can only be described as its most versatile hooker. He conducted the most shamelessly biased trial in the history of Malaysia, not so much an impartial judge as a part of the prosecution team. He did everything he could to impede the defence team who, if allowed a freer hand, would have severely embarrassed his puppet-master. So, like a slut, Augustine exercised the most astonishing of judicial contortions, postures that you would never have thought possible in a human being. Any piece of evidence that would have upheld the defence case was declared "irrelevant." Whenever Anwar's lawyers got too uncomfortably clever, he threatened them with contempt of court, even jailing one of the lawyers three months. The prosecution, however, could do whatever they like, even to the extent of amending their charges at a late stage of the trial. Ten defence witnesses were prevented from testifying. Then, to cover his tracks, Augustine imposed media black bans on parts of the proceedings.

Only the most dim-witted would have accepted that Anwar's corruption trial was fair. In the final analysis, Augustine Paul was so over-zealous in puppet obedience that he did not run his kangaroo court with any degree of conviction. But what can you expect from this, the most junior judge of the High Court, who was promoted only a short time before the start of the trial for Mahathir's express purpose? So amatuerish and eager to please was this puppet that he sank the entire judiciary several fathoms lower into the slime-pit. And while this judicial slut still dares to call upon God as his witness, Malaysians know that his actual god is none other than Mahathir.

"Ariffin Jaka"

The newspapers reported recently that Umno members were divided over how candidates for Umno election should be nominated. Which only goes to show that many members are not familiar with the party constitution. Either that or they have chosen to ignore the provisions on the nominations of candidates.

The Umno Constitution stipulates clearly that candidates for party election should be nominated by secret ballots. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah called for the procedures to be enforced strictly for the same reason that it was laid down in the first place - to allow members to make their choice freely without fear of retribution.

Freedom of choice is synonymous with democracy and can only be practised under cover of secrecy which protects voters. So why is Datuk Abdullah Badawi, against the procedure spelt out in the constitution that he has sworn to uphold?

His view is that Umno division all along have been nominating candidates by show of hands and this practice should continue. Presumably even if it is undemocratic and against the party constitution.

The Deputy Prime Mnister sees virtue in the present practice being “open” - by which we can only interpret him to mean that it lets everybody know who is voting for whom. (It is telling that while insisting that nominations should be “open”, Pak Lah wants the vote-counting at the upcoming Umno assembly in May to be done behind closed door, disagreeing with Tengku Razaleigh’s proposal that the process be telecast live.)

Pak Lah, who hopes to be Umno Deputy President without a contest, must have been disappointed when his own ally, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Rais Yatim, finds flaws in this present practice.

Datuk Rais said members choosing candidates without benefit of secret voting risk angering or hurting certain people.

ato Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad sounded conciliatory and even democratic when he said that every division should decide for itself when the nomination should be done by show of hand or secret voting. Actually, the Prime Minister and Umno President was being wily.

For if secret voting is not the norm and is not made compulsory, division leaders or ordinary members will have to propose it at their meetings openly and in the sight of all. And we all know what that means.

PencintaKeadilan
pencinta_keadilan@hotmail.com

"What sort of monster cages their domestics and denies them even the right to go to the toilet?" Marina Mahathir demanded to know in her newspaper column. Indeed, what sort of beastliness possessed those who batter their maid black and blue, then sneer at her, calling her a "hantu?" And what sort of moral pervert would work their household drudges like slaves and then rape them into the bargain?

It is the same sort of people who accept blithly that a person can be detained indefinitely without trial simply because he or she is critical of the government. It is the same sort of people untroubled by the fact that a courageous Member of Parliament has been thrown into jail for daring to criticise the favoured treatment of a powerful politician accused of raping a minor, while nothing is done about the said politician. It is the same sort of people who do not raise an eyebrow to the knowledge that false confessions of sodomy have been wrung out of innocent men by terrible means in prison. It is the same sort of people willingly blind to the fact that an ex-deputy Prime Minister is sentenced to a savage six-year jail term for trying to clear his name of slander while his jailer still walks free without bail even after having admitted to bashing him to within an inch of his life.

Yes, it is the same sort of people happy to ignore documented cases of high-level corruption, even voting back into office those corrupt politicians. It is these same people who returned the Barisan Nasional government with a thumping majority in the last elections, indifferent to its thick layer of injustices, oppression, corruption and bigotry.

And if we have acted inhumanely to poor, defenceless maids, it is because we have for so long been deaf and dumb and mute to the many instances of barbarity in our public life, willing to sacrifice our humanity on the alter of economic good and the specious notion of stability.

We have lately awakened into shame, scarcely able to comprehend the beast lurking beneath our smiling, amiable faces. Let us hope that this burning shame will at least be purifying.

Tsu Nam

On 1 March 2000 Datuk Mahfar was sentenced to 6 months jail for willfully causing the death of his wife. The judge conceded that he was aware that his wife was behind his car when he ran over her. He walked from the sentencing a free man as he had already served six months in remand during the course of his trial.

In April 1999 Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sentenced to 6 years for non-monetary technical corruption of the flimsiest nature which many people would be hard pressed to find a crime.. He was convicted of asking police to clear his name from vile slanderers. He had no direct power over the police and the prosecution could not prove that he was guilty of what he was accused of trying to cover up. For this he was savagely jailed for 6 and a half years as the period of his remand was not considered.

The judiciary sinks to such a cesspool of selective prosecution and sentencing but Mahathir still wonders why people are not believing the court’s judgement on Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Guan Eng. Justice in Malaysia is not blind, it depends on which side of the political fence you sit. With the judicial cruelties meted out to those out of favour like Lim and Anwar for non-crimes, it is small wonder that the public views the court as a whorehouse to serve Mahathir’s purpose.

There are no lack of pimp judges like Augustine Paul, Ghani Patail and Lamin Yunus who are all too willing to bend truth and sodomize justice to further their careers. They are led by the corrupt Chief Justice Eusoff Chin who has to cover his corruption by carrying Mahathir’s balls. Malaysian judiciary has become a tool of oppression instead of a guardian of democracy and defender of justice. We have come a long way from the independent judiciary of 1988 when Tun Salleh Abas was sacked as Lord President, thus beginning the slide into the whorehouse that it is now.

Augustine Paul the Puppet Judge

As the Court of Appeals sits in judgement of Anwar Ibrahim, there can be little doubt that it will uphold the latter's conviction for non-existent corruption. Anyone who imagines that a higher court will be less corrupt than a lower should think again. Neither the Court of Appeals nor the Federal Court corrected the miscarriage of justice against Lim Guan Eng whose only crime was to criticise the attorney-general's handling of a case involving the rape of a minor by a powerful politician. The Court of Appeals in fact, increased Lim's punishment from a fine to 18 months imprisonment. Then we have the example of Murray Hiebert, the Canadian journalist jailed for an article highlighting the frivolous legal action undertaken by the wife of a High Court Judge against his son's school. (The school had dropped him from its debating team.) The Court of Appeals upheld his conviction and sentence, and one of its judges, Denis Ong, used immoderate language to describe Murray's attack of the Malaysian judiciary when in fact, the article was so mild as to be entirely inoffensive.

It is to be noted that the three judges now hearing Anwar's appeal exclude Justice Chen, who is known to be independent-minded. This selection of judges by the swine-like chief justice, Eusoff Chin, can be no accident. In an earlier appeal, Justice Chen was the only one of three judges who criticised Augustine Paul's refusal of bail for Anwar Ibrahim. The panel, however, includes Lamin Yunos who cited as reason for refusing Anwar's bail, the fact that his supporters had made a lot of noise as the accused was brought in and out of court, as though this were any reason for denying a man his freedom.

Greater shame has no country than a judiciary that stinks to high heaven. As the "judges" wallow in pools of slime like human pigs and as their pig herder rubs his prime ministerial hands in glee, Malaysians can only cringe at this most degrading spectacle.

Tsu Nam

Despite the most shamelessly biased trial in Malaysian history under the sickening Augustine Paul, no one expects Anwar's appeal against his conviction for so-called corruption to succeed. The Court of Appeals and the Federal Court are no less corrupt than the High Court, all being under the sway of puppet-master Mahathir. So perverted and depraved has the Malaysian judiciary become that to compare it to a whorehouse would do injustice to sex-workers who at least make an honest living.

But not so these "judges" who think little of arm-twisting the law or turning black into white so as to give a verdict pleasing to the government. The manifestly unjust rulings made by Augustine Paul during the trial of Anwar Ibrahim can only be defended by someone as morally flexible as he is, but such individuals will not be hard to find within the cesspool of the Malaysian judiciary. And if justice is the soul of a nation, Malaysians seem willing to sell their souls for thirty pieces of silver. At the last general elections, morally indifferent Malaysians gave Mahathir a blank cheque to continue degrading all public instruments to his own ends. History will one day judge this generation, and the black-widow judges of Malaysia will one day be judged by God.

But till then, it does not matter whether Anwar has 29 or 129 grounds of appeal. All will be struck down by puppet judges, and Anwar will continue his sentence in prison, a victim of gross miscarriage of justice. Malaysians will again be shamed in the international arena while the Dictator rubs his hands in glee. But being nearly at the end of his road, his personal Day of Judgement will not be long in coming. And then Malaysians must tell themselves: "Never, Never Again!"

Tsu Nam

So the Clob debacle is finally drawing to a close after one and a half year of clobbering the legitimate investors by freezing their shares in limbo. Predictably they are being railroaded to accept Effective Capital’s solution whose principal Akhbar Khan is a close friend of finance Minister Daim Zainuddin.

At first the KLSE approved only the Khan proposal with the Clob investors threatened in no uncertain terms that their shares would revert to the Finance Ministry if they rejected Daim’s proxy. “Let them claim their shares from Daim”, was the derisory cry of the KLSE officials. When the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) failed to send out the offer documents for Effective Capital in view of the lack of viable alternative for the mistreated Clob shareholders and the unsatisfactory terms, the Malaysian authorities threw in an alternative.

But it was an alternative that mocked the SGX and the 172,000 Clob investors. Only a harden masochist would opt for the absurd alternative which means waiting for 42 months for their shares to be released and on top of that still having to pay 1% administrative fee. Most would just wearily accept the Khan proposal and pay off Daim with 1.5% fee for their shares to be released within 17 months instead of dragging out their suffering. As for the SGX it has clearly been bruised, beaten, cornered and cowed into accepting an eyewash alternative proposal. Instead of insisting on reasonable offers from Melewar Bintang and other proposers to be included it caved in to the KLSE’s bullying tactics to herd the investors to Effective Capital. The SGX has failed the Clob investors by failing to stand up to the robber baron Daim.

As for Daim, this avaricious robber baron has become more and more brazen in his lust for wealth to the extent of shaming the nation with his crude machinations. As with the Great Malaysian Bank Robbery disguised as bank consolidation he cares not whether the trail points directly to him, so determined is he to enrich himself. Malaysians have good reasons to worry that his psychotic addiction to money coupled with his ruthlessness to acquire it will drive the country into the ground.

Clobbered

It sounded charming: a Chinese New Year Exhibition put on by a group of students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. You might think that such an event would be warmly welcomed as a reflection of the country's diverse cultures. But, astonishingly, the event was cancelled at the last minute University's Vice-Chancellor.

The reasons now given are so specious as to excite scorn. If it is the administration policy only to encourage student activities which "involve racial integration", then surely a cultural exhibition that is open to all will promote racial understanding and, hence, integration. If, however, the event was cancelled so as to allow students to concentrate on their exams as claimed, then why not cancel all non-academic activities, even those that "involve racial integration?"

It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the event was cancelled out of pure racism. This is a policy that is well in line with the religious and cultural bigotry of Barisan Nasional. The fact that non-Muslim places of worship have a hard time getting established is all part of this bigotry; the fact that Chinese schools are in poor shape and that the proposal for a Chinese medium University has repeatedly been knocked back is all part of the credo the ruling BN. While BN used its slavish news media during the elections to portray PAS as a destroyer of Chinese culture, the truth is that PAS has been far more accommodating than BN. Non-Muslim places of worship are not restricted in Kelantan and the ban on pig farming has been lifted in Terengganu since PAS formed the state government.

You can be sure that the MCA will be right behind UMNO and helping the latter destroy Chinese culure. No one in MCA has voiced concern over Universiti Teknologi's discriminatory ban. And The Star, which is owned by the MCA and hence would be expected to help protect Chinese culture is all mum over the issue. But what can you expect from this pathetic lot?

Anti-MCA Dogs

So the Election Commission has finally completed its registration of 680,000 voters in what must be the slowest voter registration in the world. It is astounding that in this age of computers and electronic databases, it should take 8 months to complete the registration.

What does the Election Commission have to explain about this? Despite all the flak it has received from the public, it has explained nothing except to point vaguely to “applicable laws” which need to be followed. But what are these laws? We have a right to know especially when Lim Kit Siang has already pointed out that previous exercises were completed in as little as 4 months. Why should the “applicable laws” be different for other years?

The EC’s stubborn silence and disdain to justify the unusually long waiting period for new voters leads one to conclude that it was trying to help the Barisan Nasional by disallowing the mostly young disenchanted voters from voting against the ruling party. There were also reports that some of these voters were actually on the electoral roll on polling day, namely those who had registered through Umno centres. The EC appears to have degraded into yet another oppressive tool of the ruling party in their desperate bid to cling on to power in the face of declining support from the people. So we have yet another case of an institution intended to protect the people’s rights and safeguard democracy becoming instead an institution to protect the ruling party’s hegemony by betraying the people

Shame…shame…shame. But like most Umno rabidly loyal dogs, the Election Commission has no shame.

Voter

Churchill supported the democratic process with a smooth change of office to his successor. He was later brought back for further service to his country. He was a great man. He could retire to private life with dignity, and the gratitude of his countrymen.

Bertrand Russell made an interesting comment on the mentality of dictators and their grip on office and power ...

"Stalin could neither understand nor respect the point of view which led Churchill to allow himself to be peaceably dispossessed." ("Ideas That Have Helped Mankind", 1946)

Power is addictive, as is the love of money. Both are corrosive to the soul, and prevent any knowledge of Allah (swt). On the contrary, both promote denial of Allah, and supplant the ego instead.

All evil arises from the greed of such self-worship, and the poison it places in the person allows justification for all and any acts, and no cruelty is too horrible, and no compassion is possible. The symptoms of a dead soul are that one cannot love anyone or anything other than power and money. There can be no feelings of affection for spouse, children or kin.

This is the ultimate loneliness. Even when surrounded by yes-men and sycophants, the power-money mad addict feels no surcease. It is a living death. Only fools choose it.

Is this not a high price M pays for the chance to strut about the world's stage prattling nonsense?

The difference between greatness and smallness is a keen sense of life's priorities. The great man humbly desires to follow the will of Allah (swt) the best he can, while the small man arrogantly follows the blare of his own tin trumpet. His head turns only to listen for applause and a promise for the tinkle of coin. To him these pass for warmth, they are his emotion. It is a thing of pity.

Wassalam,

Sri Mersing
"Genggam bara api sampai jadi abu"

The Election Commission secretary, Datuk Wan Ahmand Wan Omar must have graduated from the Mahathir School of Lies and Hypocrisy. He certainly exhibits the Barisan Nasional flair for covering up lies, deceit, corruption and unfair practices by branding foreign and local NGO reports about them LIES. (The Sun, Feb 10)

So says Datuk Wan Ahmad, all unflattering reports about the 10th general elections are simply “not true.” They are all lies by people who have a vested interest and their own agenda. He wants us to believe that the conduct of the general elections was free and fair although any simpleton exposed to the vile campaigning period would have come to a different conclusion.

But like all the other indignant politicians branding foreign reports as “lies”, Wan Ahmad did not give any details. That would be too inconvenient for refuting truth takes a whole lot of extra lies which may collapse on itself. So they are amorphously grouped as “lies” without a single need to identify and refute any of the so-called lies. To add a little conviction to his eyewash, he mentioned the NGOs not knowing the workings of the electoral process and the country’s legal system as if there exist in these arcane codes the justification for the gross unfairness and abuses of the electoral process. That may be remotely so, but often one does not need to consult the written laws to know that a wrong is a wrong because there are universal and moral values which no edict can overturn. By not being specific Wan Ahmad comes across as trying to gloss over real grievances with ambiguous and general statements which explain nothing but attempt to stop the masses questioning further. This seems to be a required skill for all BN apologists and politicians.

Besides, Wan Ahmad did not explain the motivation of the NGOs for reporting lies instead of what they really see and hear. But as usual, BN apologists and politicians have a ready answer. They are all ganging up on Malaysia because they have a “vested interest” or their “own agenda”. What vested interest or agenda? Why would a whole group of independent bodies dedicated to truth and justice conspire and gang up on our small country? It is not explained. Being enigmatic is a fallback for those who have nothing to explain.

Wan Ahmad’s unconvincing protestation is a prime example of the ready defense the establishment has for the foreign news media. “They are all lies”, “they are all ganging up on Malaysia”, “they have their own agenda”. Such general pronouncements to serve as explanations for unflattering but true reports have been used so often and so consistently that the pundits all seem to have graduated from the same school of lies and hypocrisy.

Kevin Gan

It is fitting that devastated Negri Sembilan pig farmers should sue the grossly negligent Health Minister Chua Jui Meng over the latter’s mishandling of the Nipah virus outbreak. Over a hundred deaths could have been avoided had this incompetent minister recognised the seriousness of the outbreak right from the start and organised a concerted effort to identify the cause. But Chua Jui Ming not only misdiagnosed the virus as JE -- despite telling evidences to the contrary -- but also imposed a media ban at a time when information was most needed. Not only were foreign experts called in far too late, but the idiotic Chua also raised eyebrows by initially claiming that the new virus was a foreign plot.

During the recent general elections, some farmers had sought to place advertisements detailing their predicament in Chinese-language newspapers. But these were refused by all editors who claimed that they had been threatened by MCA leaders that their printing licence would be withdrawn should they accept the advertisements. With this action, the MCA appears to have sunk to a new low in moral turpitude.

By this fiasco, the MCA again exhibits its total lack of regard for the welfare of the people it is supposed to represent. But the worst insult was to come after the elections when Mahathir re-appointed Chua Jui Meng as Health Minister. The MCA as running pig of BN has again run circles around the Chinese community.

Forget about Wawasan 2020. Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's views on homosexuality, as aired during his recent meeting with Malaysian students in London, clearly belong to the Victorian Age ("Homosexuality according to Mahathir", Feb 3)

Can a globe-trotting, sophisticated and supposedly visionary prime minister really subscribe to the seriously outdated notion that homosexuality is no more than a lifestyle choice? If Mahathir had bothered to research the matter even superficially before denigrating homosexuals, he would have found out that one's sexuality of whatever persuasion is unalterably fixed from an early age. To suggest that tolerance towards homosexuals will incline an increasing number of normal individuals towards this particular sexual orientation is nothing more than sheer bigotry. It is disgraceful that a leader of his standing should be preaching intolerance to the young.

It is easy to call upon the jackboot of religion to crush what he perceives to be the scum of the Earth. However, one should at least be allowed to choose one's religion first. Is Mahathir not aware that more than 50 per cent of the population of his country enjoy no religious freedom whatsoever?

Likewise, his appeal to culture and the "values of our Asian people" leaves me cold. Comparing the suffocating sexual mores of the Victorians to those of the England of today, it is clear that culture and values are an evolving feature of society. To attempt to freeze culture and values at any point in its evolution is to rob them of the capacity for progressive enlightenment. Are we not glad that slavery has fortunately gone out of fashion and that Chinese girls are now spared the tortures of feet-binding?

Besides, all this concentration on homosexuality appears to be not for the sake of the subject per se, but simply an indirect means of discrediting sacked deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim. In Mahathir's sick mind, to prove that homosexuality is bad is also to prove that Anwar is bad, as though his audience is quite unable to pass a test in elementary logic. In the same vein, Mahathir attribution of the excesses of his Putrajaya "palace" to his former deputy, citing its six bedrooms and passageway for wheelchairs as evidence, would insult the intelligence of simple kampung folks, let alone university students.

By continually adding insult to idiocy, Mahathir again shows that he is so out of touch as to be unfit to lead the country any further

Tsu Nam

The Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin has said time and again that Clob investors must accept one of the private sector offers to migrate their shares to the KLSE despite a legally binding agreement between Singapore's Central Depository and KLSE's Securities Clearing Network Services (Scans) to migrate the shares into individual accounts. The Malaysian authorities are not interested in the simplest solution to this non-problem, which is to migrate the shares to the rightful owners on a staggered basis.

Any private sector proposal needs the approval of the KLSE. It is clear that the KLSE in endorsing only Effective Capital’s offer despite better offers from other parties such as Bintang Melewar wants to railroad Clob investors into accepting Effective’s offer. It stated in no uncertain terms that Clob investors should not delay in accepting this offer “which is the only one which satisfies all regulatory requirements” and declared ominously that those who do not accept this offer by the June 30 dateline will have their shares transferred into the Ministry of Finance.

This is yet another example of the shameless ‘Malaysia Boleh’ way of doing business, of the deep corruption in our system and the intertwining of politics and business. It is no secret that Effective Capital is controlled by a good friend of Daim and is to all intent and purpose, Daim’s proxy. Effective wants to charge a 2% fee and a 22 months migration period over Bintang Melewar’s 1% fee and 14 months. It’s a lot of money involved when the shares are worth RM17 billion. Clob investors are expected to pony up the extra fee to enrich Daim’s and probably Umno’s coffers.

The way it is being done is crude and involves browbeating, threatening the investors and finally giving them only one option out of the impasse. We have become a nation where honour and fairness means nothing in the lust for personal gain and daylight robbery inflicted on thousands is conducted without shame. There are no men left in Umno to safeguard society’s values and the one only man who might have stood in the way of Daim’s rapacious greed languishes in prison under trumped up charges.

Observer

MacMati, nattily clad in his red South Pole skydiver jumpsuit, presented himself for the lastest in a planned series of Special Branch roadshows, planned to "turnover" the youth.

"We want to engage in a dialogue, to get your opinions, and answer your questions," he said. [I paraphrase, but you get the idea].

To me this is an especially foolish move, as though an old magician is attempting to fool a bright audience with old tricks that they already know. It is also very cowardly. The last time he held such a London performance, the students were tricked into open discussion. One asked a touchy question, and was rebuked. When M returned home he had the student's scholarship terminated. Another student in KL was expelled for "political activities."

How can the dumno party espect anything but contempt from our youth when they come for a dialogue armed with the University Act, the ISA laws, the Official Secrets Act, the Sedition Act, and a judiciary prepared to hold a kangaroo court on any malicious charge the IG can think off, aided by the expert in such matters, Rais Yatim. This is hardly fair play.

Such a roadshow is simply stupid, as all can see, and if the dumno party continues to put M and B on the stage as their dummies, the ridicule and laughter will only get louder. It matters little how angry they get, or how many they arrest. The simple facts are plain for all to see.

There is one little thing that continues to condemn them. Glaring for all but them to see, and that is the failure to give bail to Anwar Ibrahim. I tried back in December to point out the five items on which there must be immediate compromise, and all have been ignored.

Mainly I point out that while Anwar seems the greater threat, it is that truckload of documents held in Kuala Terengganu by PAS which will eventually blow dumno apart. By spending such effort to silence Anwar, the fact is ignored that PAS is quietly and steadily eroding any support the dumno party has left in the North.

I suggest that in the light of subsequent events my earlier five suggestions be carefully reconsidered. Civil unrest benefits no one.

Wassalam,

Sri Mersing
"Genggam bara api sampai jadi abu"

Assalamualaikum,

It is a mistake for the BN party leaders to continue their attempt to intimidate by arrest and imprisonment innocent people who sincerely believe in truth and justice.

It is a mistake for them to believe that a Muslim can be lied to. One who reads the Qur'an has an instinct for the truth, and cannot be lied to for long. Nor is there fear for anything but a failure to obey the will of Allah (swt).

Yet the politicians continue in their criminal conspiracy, hoping against hope that the house of cards will not collapse around them. But it will. It already is. It is happening as I write.

All over Malaysia there are people who know the truth. The truth of the corruption, the truth of the bribes, the truth of the judiciary, the truth of the financial chicanery, the truth of the privitization scams, the truth of the stock market rigging, the truth of the banking and loan improprieties, the truth of the abuse of power in the executive branch in forcing honest managers to commit unethical and illegal acts, the truth of the theft of public funds through every imaginable channel, the use of the mega- projects to enrich crony-owned cement companies and contracting firms, the truth of bribing witnesses, the truth of buying votes, the truth of the election frauds, and the truth of the cover-up of ACA investigations, the truth of long-term government contracts at favorable prices to reward friends and relatives and to pay for political debts, to mention only a few aspects of the current scene.

There are thousands of people who know of these acts, but do not speak up because they fear reprisal from the money interests behind the party in power. There are thousands who have been forced to commit wrongful acts against their will for fear of losing their positions and being falsely charged with some heinous crime, as they see happening every day. A person is encouraged to report criminal activity, and then when the report is filed it is the person doing their duty who is arrested and charged. What kind of government is this?

In this climate there are those heros who are willing to speak out, placing their duty to Allah (swt) before their personal safety.

Dr. Kamaruddin has exposed publicly the South Pole parachute shenanigans. This is only the latest in a long series of similar episodes designed to camouflage the enormous debts and the massive misuse of our oil income by the BN party. The overall attempt has failed, and contributes to the national shame instead. These feats of specious grandeur can no longer hide the truth of the charade.

Dr. Kamaruddin is an example to us all that we can speak out, to tell the true facts, and if we do the intimidation will end. It is the ability to intimidate the many by the persecution of the few that enslaves us. We are the many. They are the few. Let us regain our land.

I hail Dr. Kamaruddin, Wira Rakyat!

Wassalam,

Sri Mersing
"Genggam bara api sampai jadi abu"

The recent rumours about Mahathir’s health while he was on vacation in Argentina highlight the fact that we are a nation of rumour mongers. The speculation that he had fallen off a horse did not subside even when official denial was printed in the mainstream media. The stock market tumbled and things did not cool down until the PM appeared to the news media in London to personally deny the rumours. The case brings to mind the Chow Kit incident in 1988 where rumours of Indonesian rioting spread like wildfire even after police denials appeared in the news media.

If we a nation of rumour mongers than it is a by-product of the tightly controlled press which has totally lost credibility with the public. The press is perceived as a mouthpiece of the government without any shred of independence whose job is to print or broadcast what the government wants us to hear and shield us from what they do not. It is little wonder that rumour mills flourish and alternative sources like the internet and word of mouth are given more credibility than the supine mainstream media. This skewed monopoly of information perpetrated on the public for decades has resulted in a yawning chasm of disbelief.

Perhaps the policy planners should reflect all this has been too much and the control has been too tight. Credibility has been lost due to the one-sided views, the suppression of alternative opinion or rebuttals, the withholding of material news that we should not know and most of all the distortions, half-truths, obfuscation and outright lies in the local press. The planners failed to foresee the unwanted by-product of their flawed policy and the horrendous implication for the future. Realization should have dawned long ago that a biased press will find itself discredited and a discredited press loses its clout to influence public thinking.

But sometimes I am of the opinion that our politicians will never learn. The removal of NSTP chief Kadir Jasin for allowing a few articles showing a little spine to be printed shows that they have not quite got it. As the mainstream media continue down the feckless path of being totally subservient to the establishment, they will find themselves increasing sidelined and Malaysians will depend more and more on alternative sources like Malaysiakini, foreign news agencies or just plain old rumours.

Kevin Gan

An admission by Abdullah Badawi that he did not keep in contact with Mahathir during the latter's holiday, in contrast to Daim Zainuddin, has renewed doubts as to whether Abdullah will ever succeed as PM. Neither was Abdullah appointed as Acting PM during the PM's absence. Given that Mahathir has publicly declared this to be his last term, the sidelining of a man supposedly a whisker away from the throne is all the more paradoxical.

This is despite Mahathir's very strong public endorsement of Abdullah as his heir apparent to the extent of arranging a no-contest walkover for his chosen into the post of UMNO deputy-President. Never has Mahathir shown such eagerness for a deputy, eagerness enough to damage party democracy and perhaps its unity.

These confusing signals are, however, not really confusing when one remembers Mahathir's hypocrisy and lying nature. Mahathir's seemingly discordant public and private treatment of Abdullah Badawi are fully consistent with the impression of many observers that this will not be his last term. A reason will be invented for his continuing after the present term is up, a reason that will surely be roundly applauded by ball-carrying ministers. If such is the case, then Mahathir needs a deputy who will do exactly as he is told, a deputy with no colour of his own but is prepared to wait forever, in short a marionette.

One can easily discern why two oft-mentioned names will not be suitable as Mahathir's marionette. Najib Abdul Razak is over ambitious and too much of a schemer while Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is too old to be comfortable as PM-in-perpetual-waiting. Hence Abdullah.

One might well ask: If Abdullah is only a disposal napkin, who then is really Mahathir's intended succesor? Perhaps not even Mahathir knows. Not that he's given it much thought as he intends to be around into his nineties, even once citing the example of the over-dried prune of a Chinese Communist leader.

Observer