Zaid : Mentakrifkan Semula Agenda Melayu

Dubai

June 20, 2013

Dr. Kamsiah

Komen saya : Saya kurang bersetuju dengan penulisan Zaid dan saya telah membuat kajian saya sendiri apabila isu bangsa dan bahasa di bahaskan di dunia Internet. Saya pernah belajar dan bekerja dengan kaum lain sebelum membuat perniagaan saya sendiri. Saya cuba menenangkan fikiran saya dengan menganggap ia sebagai situasi telur dan ayam atau “tit-for-that”.

Walaupun saya menganggap diri saya “color blind” , tidak rasis tetapi kenyataan ini masih terbelenggu dikepala saya sendiri. Apatah lagi jika kita lihat kajian baru yang berasaskan fakta saintifik. Saintifik bermakna ia boleh diulangi dan mendapat jawapan yang sama. ( ramai yang menganggap bidang pergigian adalah Seni atau Arts, tetapi ia sebenarnya adalah Sains kerana teknik yang digunakan didalam rawatan pergigian boleh diulangi oleh beberapa perawat dan mendapat jawapan yang sama ).

Diskriminasi tetap berlaku seperti mana kajian yang telah dilakukan oleh penyelidik luar seperti 1980 oleh pakar ekonomi, D. R. Snodgrass , Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI) pada 2005 bagi pihak Bank Dunia, dan pakar ekonomi Bank Dunia, Branko Milanovic pada 2006 pula mempersoalkan kenapa pekerja Cina menerima gaji lebih tinggi antara 20 hingga 40 % dari pekerja Melayu yang setaraf.

Sementara itu kajian itu dibuat oleh seorang ahli akademik Cina daripada sebuah universiti awam utama negara yang baru baru ini untuk tujuan kajian ilmiah tanpa sebarang agenda politik.

Menurut kajian itu, faktor kaum lebih diutamakan berbanding kualiti pendidikan dengan siswazah kaum Cina lebih berkemungkinan untuk dipanggil temu duga berbanding kaum Melayu yang merupakan penduduk teramai di negara ini.

Kajian selama enam bulan itu mendapati, syarikat yang dimiliki oleh kaum Cina dan pihak asing lebih mengutamakan graduan kaum Cina untuk bekerja dengan mereka.

Daripada 3,012 resume yang dihantar untuk 753 pekerjaan kepada syarikat terbabit, kaum Melayu hanya mempunyai 4.2% peluang untuk dipanggil menghadiri temu duga.

Kaum Cina pula mempunyai sebanyak 22.1% peluang walaupun mereka mempunyai kelulusan setara dan lepasan universiti sama dengan kaum Melayu.

Kajian itu melibatkan 439 jawatan kosong di syarikat yang dimiliki kaum Cina, 131 jawatan di syarikat milik asing dan 73 jawatan di syarikat milik Melayu dan selebihnya di syarikat yang dimiliki secara bersama oleh pelbagai kaum.

Dalam erti kata lain, siswazah kaum Cina mempunyai 5X lebih kemungkinan untuk dipanggil temu duga berbanding siswazah Melayu. Ini adalah kerana prejudis perkauman yang masih menebal antara kaum kaum di Malaysia

Ia juga berpunca daripada persepsi bahawa pekerja Melayu tidak sanggup bekerja kuat dan tidak menghayati nilai etika dan budaya yang telah menyebabkan kaum Cina berjaya dalam bidang ekonomi.

Persepsi ini juga berpunca kerana graduan kaum Melayu dianggap berjaya mendapat pendidikan tinggi bukan hasil daripada usaha sendiri sebaliknya kerana sokongan dasar afirmatif seperti DEB.

Jadi, kita perlu memperbaiki keadaan ini secara lebih profesional dan bukan seperti kumpulan ultra Melayu seperti Perkasa, Perkida atau NGO NGO Melayu yang tidak tahu berdebat secara ilmiah tetapi menggunakan bahasa dan perbuatan kasar seperti tarian punggung dan kek tahi.— Dr. Kamsiah

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News Details

Ada rakan-rakan saya yang agak kritis tentang tweet dan posting saya di dalam blog saya akhir-akhir ini hanya kerana saya membuat komentar mengenai UMNO dan malah memuji-muji Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Mereka yang kurang sofistikated telah mentafsirkan perkara itu sebagai cara saya cuba untuk kembali ke pangkuan UMNO. Tetapi, sebenarnya, sekarang musim pemilihan dalam UMNO, dan apa jua yang berlaku di dalam parti berkenaan, suka atau tidak, bakal memberi impak kepada kita semua. Itulah sebabnya saya menulis posting berkenaan. Harapan saya agar sesetengah daripada apa yang saya katakan itu sedikit sebanyak bakal mempengaruhi para perwakilan dan ketua-ketua parti berkenaan.

Perkara paling utama di dalam kamus UMNO adalah ungkapan Agenda Melayu. Menurut dakwaan parti berkenaan, Agenda Melayu meliputi beraneka jenis hak dan keistimewaan yang merupakan perkara asasi bagi orang Melayu. Ini akan menjadi  teras utama ucapan para pemimpin parti berkenaan dalam Perhimpunan Agung UMNO yang bakal tiba tidak lama lagi. Dengan keputusan PRU-13 dan masyarakat Cina dan India pula menolak UMNO/Barisan Nasional, semua orang dijangka akan menggunakan saat-saat bergelora itu untuk membelasah orang Cina. Sesetengah yang sewel pula bakal mendesak supaya Akta Penderhakaan digubal – mereka akan menggesa supaya orang Cina dihantar pulang ke negara China, dan kedudukan orang Islam dan Raja-Raja Melayu diperkukuh. Inilah gesaan yang bakal didendangkan oleh orang Melayu yang berfikirkan singkat, yang terdapat di dalam UMNO. Inilah sebahagian daripada cara mereka menunjukkan kemarahan yang tidak kena pada tempatnya. Lagipun, ini merupakan satu lagi pusingan yang membazir.

Sebaliknya, saya kira adalah lebih konstruktif sekiranya mereka berbicara soal perkara-perkara yang dapat diterima akal; soal kenapa masyarakat Melayu/Bumiputera terus-menerus meninggalkan UMNO. Tidak ada faedahnya mencemuh dan mencerca orang Melayu yang meninggalkan UMNO/BN itu seraya mengatakan bahawa mereka adalah manusia yang “tidak tahu bersyukur” atau “kacang lupakan kulit”. Sebaliknya, UMNO/BN seharusnya menumpukan pada keperitan yang terpaksa dilalui oleh pengundi-pengundi muda, dan bagaimana hendak mengatasi kebimbangan mereka. Usaha mesti dilakukan untuk menambat kembali hati pengundi-pengundi muda ini. Untuk itu, para pemimpin Melayu harus memberikan tawaran yang lebih baik – bukan sekadar laungan slogan dan ucapan-ucapan yang disarati nada-nada berbaur perkauman. Para pemimpin Melayu perlu menangani soal rasuah, salah guna kuasa, pembaziran sumber serta masalah birokrasi yang tidak berperikemanusiaan. Kalaulah para pemimpin Melayu secara jujur sanggup mengakui kelemahan dalam aspek itu, sudah tentu mereka akan menyedari bahawa masalah-masalah berkenaan tidak akan selesai meskipun dengan memberikan kuasa yang lebih kepada Raja-Raja Melayu dan “memperkukuh Islam” (walau apapun maksudnya).

Supaya bermanfaat, Agenda Melayu perlulah bersifat introspektif (muhasabah). UMNO boleh terus mengambil jalan keluar yang mudah dan hanya perlu menuduh orang Cina, orang Melayu yang tidak bersyukur dan orang lain, tetapi rasuah para pemimpinnya merupakan sebab yang paling kerap disebut-sebut sebagai punca kenapa rakyat tidak menyokong parti itu. Rasuah melambangkan sebuah sistem apabila mereka yang punya wang dapat mengatasi atau menewaskan apa jua dasar atau peraturan kerana pemimpin-pemimpin boleh diberi rasuah (disogok). Jadi, UMNO boleh saja dengan lantang melaungkan “Hidup Melayu” tetapi jika pembuat keputusan, yang rata-rata terdiri daripada orang Melayu, boleh dibeli maka tidak ada dasar atau hak keistimewaan yang dapat menyelamatkan orang Melayu. Perdana Menteri dan Presiden UMNO Dato Seri Najib Razak melakukan kesilapan apabila memerihalkan perkara ini sebagai suatu masalah persepsi sedangkan perkara-perkara yang berlaku itu benar-benar wujud atau merupakan suatu realiti. Untuk terus-menerus menafikan perkara itu merupakan suatu petanda kepimpinan yang lemah dan yang tidak sanggup untuk menangani masa depan rakyatnya sendiri.

Kemudian, mari kita lihat pula soal pendidikan. Jika UMNO berpendapat mereka perlu memastikan bahawa lebih ramai orang Melayu belajar di universiti-universiti kerana dengan itu  mereka dikatakan dapat meningkatkan kuota Melayu di institusi pengajian tinggi, mereka perlu berfikir dua kali. Graduan-graduan yang menganggur atau yang tidak punya potensi untuk diambil bekerja akan menjadi graduan-graduan yang bakal menumbangkan mereka di dalam pilihan raya yang akan datang. Saya kira lebih baik orang Melayu/Bumiputera diberikan kemahiran hingga ke peringkat tertinggi iaitu dengan memberikan mereka latihan yang betul di dalam perniagaan dan pengetahuan teknikal. Ini lebih baik  daripada menghantar mereka ke universiti. Semata-mata mahu meningkatkan bilangan graduan supaya kita mempunyai lebih ramai graduan Melayu berbanding graduan Cina merupakan suatu strategi yang bodoh, kecualilah standardnya tinggi dan pekerjaan terjamin. Kita harus belajar dari Singapura. Negara itu membatasi bilangan graduan mengikut kadar bilangan penduduk negara berkenaan. Graduan yang menganggur, terutamanya graduan yang tidak punya potensi untuk diambil bekerja, sudah sedia untuk berarak ke jalan-jalan raya.

Sejak akhir-akhir ini, usaha membabitkan sesetengah Raja Melayu dalam kontroversi politik telah menjadi-jadi. Ini merupakan satu lagi strategi yang  tolol. Ini kerana kemunduran orang Melayu, atau berkurangnya kuasa politik Melayu, kalaulah benar sekalipun, tidak boleh diselesaikan dengan mengambil jalan yang mempunyai kedudukan emosi dan simbolik. Keputusan-keputusan yang sukar atau keras perlu dibuat untuk memperkasa orang Melayu dan Bumiputera dan perkara terbaik yang harus dilakukan oleh parti-parti politik Melayu adalah dengan mengelak daripada  terjebak atau terperangkap dengan institusi yang tidak boleh mereka kritik. Pengajaran daripada peristiwa tahun 90-an apabila Dr Mahathir terpaksa menghadapi isu-isu berkenaan tidak seharusnya dilupakan begitu saja oleh para pemimpin sekarang.

Birokrasi Melayu merupakan punca yang jelas yang menyebabkan wujudnya ketidakcekapan dan rasuah. Sudah tiba masanya UMNO menangani isu ini. Semakin banyak lesen dan kelulusan yang diperlukan bagi menjalankan perniagaan, semakin besar peluang orang Melayu dan bukan Melayu yang kaya untuk menjadi cemerlang. Rakyat marhaen tidak mempunyai sumber untuk merebut peluang sebegitu rupa. Sesetengah orang mendakwa Najib lebih berkebolehan untuk terus menjadikan negara ini sebuah negara yang lebih moden dan negara industri. Rancangannya untuk membawa Malaysia kepada status sebuah negara maju pada tarikh yang disasarkan itu juga dikatakan lebih realistik. Walaupun demikian, kita masih perlu tahu apakah butir-butir terperinci mengenai rancangan berkenaan. Di manakah letaknya rakyat Malaysia yang kurang pendidikan dan yang tidak mempunyai modal besar – terutamanya orang Melayu – di dalam rancangan yang diketengahkan oleh Najib itu? Mampukah mereka, yakni orang Melayu berkenaan, hidup dalam negara mereka sendiri, atau apakah mereka terpaksa keluar ke Sumatera, tanah dari mana nenek moyang mereka berasal? Ini merupakan isu yang luas yang boleh dibincangkan di kalangan ahli-ahli UMNO, yang membawa kepada perbualan yang agak konstruktif/membina yang dapat memberikan nafas baru kepada parti itu.

Ini merupakan masa yang sesuai untuk ahli-ahli parti membahaskan dan membincangkan dengan panjang lebar hala tuju yang sepatutnya diambil oleh UMNO. Dalam konteks itulah saya menyokong pertandingan dalam memilih pemimpin. Anda tidak dapat memberikan nafas baru kepada parti anda dan menimbulkan keyakinan kepada pengundi-pengundi muda kecuali para pemimpin  menyatakan dasar-dasar yang progresif itu dengan jelas dan terang dan mempamerkan bakat yang mereka ada bagi memegang tampuk kepimpinan negara. Najib dan timbalannya Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin mempunyai pendekatan yang berbeza terhadap kepimpinan, dan dari situ tahulah kita nanti apakah perbezaan antara keduanya, dari sudut ideologi dan juga gaya pengurusan. Apa yang lebih penting, pertandingan tersebut akan membolehkan sebuah parti yang jelas makin kehilangan sokongan untuk bermuhasabah diri dan membuat keputusan besar. Pemimpin yang mana satukah yang lebih berkebolehan untuk menangani ibu segala kebejatan, iaitu rasuah? Ini merupakan salah satu daripada sekian banyak elemen yang berfaedah dalam Agenda Melayu yang baru yang kini ada manfaatnya untuk diteruskan.

Anwar declines Najib’s gambits in Jakarta

June 19, 2013

MY COMMENT: I have a message to both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Why do you need to get Indonesia involved in our domestic politics? We are not a colony of Indonesia. We are an equal partner with Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries in ASEAN. As ASEAN members, we agreed not to interfere in each other’s internal affairs. Furthermore, we Malaysians are capable of solving our political problems.

I am embarrassed to learn that Najib and Anwar have to take their rivalry beyond our shores. Both must be pretty desperate–Najib needs to cling to power, while Anwar is anxious to become Prime Minister, whatever that takes. Both have shown to me at least that they are irresponsible and self serving.

Netto’s spin on the whole episode is not going to help. I expect this respected journalist to be critical of Anwar’s  reliance on Indonesian top leaders, the Indonesian media and civil society activists for support, and as hard on Najib’s reconciliation gambit.

Both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader want to the same thing, that is, power. One has it, but unable to use it while the other is grasping for it and might misuse it. Both must learn to recognise that real power rests with Malaysians via elections.

General Election13, flawed as it may be, is over. The business of government must begin. There is a national budget to be presented to Parliament in October, 2013 and other business of our legislature needs their attention.

I also have a gentle message to leaders of Indonesia, past and present: you should stop entertaining our two leaders with their politics. I thought you would have advised them politely, or bluntly, that they should sort out their politics. You do not understand what we want here in Malaysia. Please take care of your own business, and leave ours to us.–Din Merican

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Anwar and Najib are playing politics instead of getting down to serious Government

Anwar declines Najib’s gambits in Jakarta

by Terence Netto@http://www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak must have been desperate for a deal with opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

That can be inferred from the type of deal Najib offered Anwar – who declined to personally meet with the Malaysian PM – through intermediary Jusuf Kalla, the former Indonesian vice-president who is friends with both Najib and Anwar

Najib pressed an offer of reconciliation that apparently entailed a national unity government with a deputy prime minister’s role for Anwar and four ministerial posts for PKR leaders. Anwar was said to have rejected the offer.

According to sources, Najib had tried to meet with Anwar in Jakarta all of Saturday but Anwar studiously avoided the PM.

Whereas Najib had the edge over Anwar on how a pre-polls pact between the two had panned out, the latter regained the initiative in supposedly reconciliatory gambits initiated by Najib in Jakarta to which both leaders had repaired over the weekend.

Last Friday, Anwar had flown to Bali to meet Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who a week after the May 5 polls in Malaysia, had requested that the Pakatan leader visit Jakarta for discussions.

Anwar told Bambang (left) he could only meet with the Indonesian President after a pre-planned visit to the United States.

That visit over, Anwar flew to Bali last Friday where he met Bambang who gave vent to his views on the May 5 general election.

According to a source close to Anwar who met with the Pakatan leader on Monday, Bambang said he had expected a bit of fraud to taint Malaysia’s Election 2013, as in most such affairs throughout the world, but the extent of the cheating that took place in GE13 had appalled the Indonesian leader.

The source, a former senior PKR leader, said the Indonesian president told Anwar he was deeply disappointed by what had happened.

No meeting in Jakarta

After his discussions with Anwar that continued on Saturday, Bambang lent Anwar the use of his presidential jet to fly to Jakarta where Anwar was scheduled to meet former Indonesian VP Jusuf at the latter’s residence at 3pm the same day.

Najib was waiting to meet Anwar whom the Malaysian PM had expected to arrive in Jakarta from Bali through the Halim Perdana airport but the presidential jet landed at another airport in the Indonesian capital.

Unable to meet with Anwar at Halim Perdana, Najib bided his time with a round of golf with Jusuf (right) whose good offices the PM had sought in arranging a meeting with Anwar.

In conversation with Jusuf over golf and later at Jusuf’s home in Jakarta where Najib waited for Anwar to show up, the PKR source said Najib sold Jusuf on the idea of Anwar as a leader of impressive calibre.

When Anwar declined to show up at Jusuf’s residence for the scheduled meeting because he wanted to avoid Najib, the former Indonesian veep came to Anwar’s hotel in Jakarta to convey Najib’s proffer of posts for him and his PKR cohort.

But Anwar declined to bite the bait and flew out of Jakarta. At a PKR political bureau meeting last night, Anwar tabled Najib’s proffer for discussion, only to find his rejection of it affirmed by the party.

A National Unity Government for MALAYSIA?

June 18, 2013

MY COMMENT: Politics is the art of the possible. A Government of National Unity with Tengku Razaleigh, a man of considerable political and administrative experience, wisdom and personal integrity, as Prime Minister is what Malaysia needs right now. This is because the newly elected government is in a gridlock given uncertainty over the political future of Najib.

The ideal may not become reality because it is near to impossible for two ambitious men, Najib and Anwar with both wanting the premiership. Anwar’s lifelong ambition is to be Prime Minister while Najib will want to cling to the job. “So politicking rather than governance is dominating the national narrative”, says Murray in his article. Let us  recognise that there are also forces within UMNO and Anwar’s coalition that will nip this prospect in the bud. But then miracles can happen. Could a national unity government be one? –Din Merican

by Murray Hunter (06-17-13)

With the perceived weakening of Najib Tun Razak’s position of tenure as Malaysian Prime Minister, there is deep speculation within the country about moves afoot to form a national unity government.

Since the Barisan National’s re-election on May 5, there has been a distinct shift in stance towards ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ or Malay privilege, at the cost of 1Malaysia inclusive philosophy. There is now little talk about Najib’s Economic Transformation Program, and after a relaxed stance towards rallies by the Opposition, authorities are now taking stern action towards Anwar’s Black 505 movement with mass arrests of demonstrators over the weekend. Even Najib’s calls to make UMNO more inclusive have aggravated many within his party.

According to political pundits and more specifically former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who is now viewed as kingmaker inside UMNO, Najib is still Prime Minister only because there is currently no other creditable and popular figure who could take the mantle of leadership away from him.

If we go back to pre-May 5 feeling in the community, there was great anticipation that an era of change was about to sweep the country. There was excitement on the streets with an almost carnival atmosphere. But the result on election night disappointed so many people, where denial and claims of massive cheating showed that many refused to accept the result.

This has left the country just as divided as it was before the election. Nothing was settled and politicking rather than governance is dominating the national narrative. Anwar Ibrahim is pushing the government into a corner with his national Black 505 tour, disputing the election result which seems to be directly challenging Najib to take action against him.

Today’s political situation is of concern to many of Malaysia’s top echelon of business people, politicians, civil servants, and even members of the Royal families. There is a strong feeling among the country’s elite that Malaysia needs good governance rather than politicking. Many are very sympathetic to the concept of a national unity government as a solution to this impasse, as it appears any election would not bring the harmonious result the nation needs. The idea of a national unity government is not without any precedent, as PAS was once a member of the Barisan Nasional back in the early 1970s.

Some feel that although the Barisan won through the first-past-the-post electoral system, the Pakatan Rakyat’s higher popular vote justifies the Opposition having some say in government. For these people, a unity government would restore moderate policies and narrative, and keep ‘ultra-ism’ in check. Even within UMNO itself, some see the possibility of a national unity government as a means to maintain the party’s long-term survival, as the party to many Malays is an icon of political history and development. UMNO’s participation in a national unity government would act as pressure for internal reform, something many members want.

From Anwar Ibrahim’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat, there are many, particularly those ex-UMNO members that see the party’s participation in a national unity government would give it the legitimacy it needs to survive in the long term past the persona of Anwar Ibrahim. They want PKR to stand on its own two feet without the ‘Anwar personality cult’.

PAS has been reluctantly romanced by UMNO many times over the years, but the party may favorably consider the concept of a national unity government under certain conditions. Many just feel that it’s time to stop talking about race and religion, and address the real needs of the country.

If one looked through the blogs and even the mainstream media over the weekend, many different scenarios and numbers have been canvassed. Two speculative scenarios exist. One involves Premier Najib himself and the other with a move by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah or Ku Li as he is known.

The first option would involve Najib making a move to bring in parties from the Pakatan Rakyat into the government, as has been periodically mooted over the last few years. Such a move would probably ensure UMNO a much brighter future electorally. This would stall the forces of Malay nationalists Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Mahathir, and if completed smoothly, would shore up Najib’s position as President of UMNO in the coming October elections.

Such a move would also allow Najib to change the narrative from the ‘ultraist’ direction it is going, to a more moderate and inclusive one. Such an achievement could elevate Najib’s status, which might create a positive legacy for him despite the allegations of deep corruption that have swirled around him and his wife, Rosmah Mansor.

However this move would also seal the fate of the Malaysian Chinese Association and Gerakan, the two ethnic Chinese parties in the Barisan which were reduced to a shambles in the May election, and maybe even the Malaysian Indian Congress, which won four Parliamentary seats, as they are tossed aside for the DAP, PAS, and PKR.

Many outstanding issues must be solved before such a government could happen. It would include policies and corruption, where it is rumored the new minister in the PM’s office Paul Low is shocked by the extent of waste and corruption within government. Determining a way for all parties to work through these issues could be big stumbling blocks to any potential agreement.

The biggest problem would be that any initiative by Najib may lack the persuasion and statesmanship needed to pull of such a big coup. His track record has been a very passive one during his tenure as prime minister, especially since the May 5 election. The formation of a national unity government would take a massive amount of negotiation and convincing to all parties, including the UMNO rank and file. To date Najib hasn’t shown that he has got what it takes.

The Tengku Razaleigh option has been gathering much speculation over the last few days, and there is a difference in the stories circulating as to whether he may make a bid for the UMNO party presidency, or seek to move a no confidence motion against the Prime Minister during the first day of Parliament sitting. His discussions with members of parliament from both sides fuel speculation about the latter.

Ku Li is reported to be meeting political leaders in Sabah and Sarawak who are disillusioned with Najib for not appointing them to the Federal cabinet. Moreover they feel let down with the solid performance that they achieved in support of the Barisan with little reward. Finally they have concerns about how a weakened Barisan will be able to govern effectively. Although there is much wishful thinking about this scenario, such a dramatic seizure of power doesn’t seem to be Ku Li’s modus operandi. A Kuala Lumpur-based businessman with extensive connections to the party says the chances that Ku Li could oust Najib are extremely slim.

So what are the realistic chances that a national unity government could occur sometime in the near future?

A meeting between Najib and Anwar Ibrahim, although denied by Anwar, was reported to have taken place at the Istana Presiden Indonesia in Jakarta last Saturday. It can only be speculated upon what was discussed, but with pressure put on Najib by Mahathir, Najib’s options are limited. Najib’s bid to stop the two top posts within Umno being contested by election was met with great animosity by pro-Mahathir bloggers.

Likewise the authorities clamping down on the 505 rallies might put some pressure on Anwar to consider a national unity government, if that was indeed on the agenda of their discussions, if at all they occurred.

Any attempt to seize the initiative by Najib would no doubt meet with the full wrath of Mahathir, who would go into overdrive to replace him as PM. This fact alone casts doubt about any moves by Najib to discuss the possibilities of forming any type of national unity government. It would be a brave man who crossed the Tun, yet Najib is also desperate for self- survival.

The logistics of organizing any form of national unity government which could survive the whole parliamentary term would be horrendous. Allocating ministries among DAP, PAS, and PKR, developing policies, and creating a working cabinet among previous adversaries is a tall order. However if this could be achieved a certain amount of political stability would be achieved and the centre of political gravity would return to the peninsula, something many want.

A national unity government might give the people of Malaysia the feeling that some of their aspirations have been met.

Ku Li first postulated a national unity government back after the 2008 election. In the post GE-13 scenario he would need Pakatan Rakyat’s 89 members, plus 35 other supporters to enable him to win a vote of no confidence on the floor of the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house. Ku Li is probably seen as the only figure left in the parliament who could not only unite Umno, but a government, and even the country as a whole.

The political leaders in Sabah are known for their fickleness, which was blamed for Anwar’s botched attempt to win their defection on September 16, 2008. Within UMNO, one of the biggest unknowns is the new voting system the direct election of the party resident this year. Nobody really knows what the majority of UMNO members really want. However there are many people inside of UMNO who might welcome Ku Li as a chance to break away from the current mold and allow the party to progress.

Things start to get much more complex from the Pakatan Rakyat side. The spiritual leader of PAS Nik Aziz has been against negotiations with Umno, but now after standing down as the Chief Minister of Kelantan, his continued influence within the party is unknown. There are those within PAS who see negotiations as a good thing for Malay and Muslim unity.

The ethnic Chinese Democratic Action Party, now the second-biggest party in the country, has gone so far without compromise and stalwarts within the party would likely oppose any such moves. But then many also said that the DAP would not last long within PR. The DAP has surprisingly lasted, even with the unfriendly rhetoric that arises from time to time from its coalition partners.

Ironically, it may be two arch rivals Anwar Ibrahim and Mahathir who might be the big spoilers of any such moves towards any form of national unity government. Many close to Anwar Ibrahim often comment about his strong personal drive and determination to become PM, and a national unity government would probably exclude him of that chance. Consequently he may not allow PKR to become involved in any discussion or participate in any government.

However those within PKR who believe that the party is more than a vehicle for Anwar to achieve his own political ambitions may be more conducive to the possibility of negotiations, especially given the fact that many PKR members are in actual fact ex-UMNO members. The serious mooting of a national unity government could develop a crisis within PKR between those who are opposed and those who want to explore the possibility.

From Mahathir’s perspective, he is rebuilding influence within the party and any national unity government would threaten this. Any national unity government would take Malaysian politics to a new era where he may become excluded.

Malaysia’s political future must have UMNO within its calculations. UMNO has strong enough support by those who belief in its heritage, the party cannot be ignored. For those who see politics as the art of the pragmatic and possible, power sharing may be the avenue to change that so many Malaysians desire.

However, besides the spoilers, self interest is likely to get in the way of any real breakthrough with people fearful of losing positions and influence. Developing a new model of government without the embedded corruption may be too difficult a task, as those involved will need to cover up their deeds.

It is difficult to see how this issue could ever be resolved without giving immunity of prosecution, something people may not be willing to agree on.

Although a national unity government has so much to give Malaysia, and so many people view this as a real hope for the future, there are too many forces against this reality. Had a hung parliament resulted from the May 5th election, a national unity government led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah might have been a real possibility, but the reality today may be that any potential national unity government is only a fairytale, albeit one shared by many.

(Murray Hunter is an Australian academic teaching at a Malaysian university and a consultant to several Southeast Asian governments.)

http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5503&Itemid=178

Focus on Issues that will unite us,that’s the Way Forward

June 18, 2013

MY COMMENT: It will be brief. One can reasonably assume that this article by Dato’ Wong is directed at politicians in power and those who once held power. He should not be worried about Malaysians. We know what we want.

The last elections showed that nearly 53% of Malaysian voters rejected politics of race and religion.It may be recalled that leading to elections, Wanita UMNO’s Shahrizat A. Jalil raised the spectre of May 13 and that did not work. Najib’s pandering to PERKASA’ rethoric and subsequently making Ibrahim Ali and Zulfikli parliamentary candidates for Pasir Mas and Shah Alam was unacceptable to voters. In the rural heartland, the race issue especially the fear of losing Malay political power was effective  but it did not make a serious impact on the outcome. UMNO-led Barisan Nasional won 133 seats against 88 seats for the Opposition.

Overall the election showed that Malaysians are united in demanding good governance, freedom, democracy and justice. They want firm action against people who are known to be very corrupt.If the government led by UMNO does not listen to voters, there is a very strong likelihood that the Opposition will win GE-14.

Demographic changes with new voters coming on stream can have an adverse impact on the present regime.  Najib and his associates must take the country forward and treat Malaysians with respect. We are are better informed, thanks to the Internet enabled social media and the emerging civil society activists, and will not allow ourselves to be led by our noses.–Din Merican 

by Dato’ Wong Chun Wai (06-16-13)@www.malaysiakini.com

Malaysia must really grow up and not let the divisive and emotive issues long resolved to fester in the present environment.

WE are about two months away from National Day. We will be turning 56 years old, which is still relatively young in terms of nationhood. But we are not really that young any more.

The country will once again put on a flag-waving exercise as our leaders wax eloquent on patriotism and nationalism.

Malaysians can expect those inspiring TV commercials extolling how the people of this plural socie­ty have come together and proven the critics wrong that Malaysia would collapse as a country upon independence.

It is now more than five decades and we have remained strong. But wait a minute.Just glance through the newspapers or read the online postings, and we get another picture – one that gives the impression that we are a country that is terribly torn apart.

Any investor wanting to put money in this country would look for another option because we have been sending messages to the world that we are at each other’s throats and the country is waiting to explode, politically. Many of us, including those in the media, are still talking about issues that were emotionally debated in the 1950s, before the nation was born.

We are still talking about race and religion in a terribly shameless and sad way. These contentious issues were settled and resolved by our founding fathers. We should be moving on but instead we seem to be heading in the other direction.

Some of our politicians are even fuelling the political temperature by bringing up, or allowing, these issues to fester, even if it affects the unity of the people.

The Malays, Chinese, Indians and the other Malaysians have made the country what it is today. There would be no Malaysia without the contributions of all these ethnic groups. Go and read the history books.

Blame the British for the divide-and-rule system but the fact remains that the labour of the Chinese and Indian immigrants helped to build the economy.

The Malay farmers and fishermen fed the nation; the Malay Policemen and soldiers kept the country safe to allow the Chinese traders to expand the economy; and the Malay-dominated civil service enabled the country to be efficiently administered.

In fact, many non-Malays joined the Police force to fight against the communists because they believed in safeguarding their country – Malaysia. Each and every one of our forefathers has made Malaysia to be truly outstanding in the eyes of the world.

Many of the present Chinese and Indians are third or fourth generation Malaysians. We were born, raised and will die here in Malaysia. There is nowhere else and we will not choose anywhere else, because we are proud to be Malaysians.

Many of us, especially those who were educated in English-medium schools, cannot even speak and write in Chinese.If there are employers who refuse to hire non-Chinese speaking employees, certainly it is not just the Malays and Indians. Many Chinese also fall in this category.

Let no Jurassic racist politician tell us that only certain ethnic groups are immigrants because most of us, if we trace our roots hard enough and are honest, would find that we have ancestors from another part of this world. That is history.

Similarly, the general election is over. We have lost enough productive time on the campaigning, which seems to have clouded the judgment and sanity of many Malaysians, turning them into petty political tyrants.

Malaysians have made their choices. The victors have plenty of work to do and the least of their concern should be to talk about punishing those who did not vote for them. It is the people’s right to vote for anyone or any party. A general election in any democracy is about the right to choose.

No one should be made to feel pressured or threatened, in any way, simply because they did not vote for the winning ruling party.

And for the losers, please stop blaming the system and just move on. Come back in five years’ time. Surely, both sides have to administer the states they won. For Pakatan, just accept the fact that you did not win enough seats to form the federal government.

While every National Day celebration is about remembering what our founding fathers have done, it should also be a time to review what we of this generation have done or not done. It is now mid-2013 and we have just over six months to another year. Surely, we should be worried about how much we need to catch up.

Young Malaysians, without the baggage of the past, have spoken out loudly during the elections. From the mainstream media to our ministers, surely we must acknowledge that it cannot be business as usual again.

The destiny of this country is in our hands. We need to make Malaysia a liberal, progressive and democratically open country.

Don’t let our neighbours, which are starting to open up, catch up with us. Malaysia has to move forward faster and there is no time to waste. We are not young any more. We need to grow up.

Stop Najib and Anwar from playing political games at our expense

June 16, 2013

MY COMMENT: It is time to tell both Najib and Anwar straight to their faces that they should not treat all of us as a bunch of  idiots. I am glad that CT Ali has taken on the task of delivering the first salvo to these politicians.

Najib should perform his duties as Prime Minister and not be distracted by party politics ahead of the forthcoming UMNO General Assembly. Anwar Ibrahim in turn should behave like a Leader of the Opposition in our Parliament, no longer the agitator he was in his days at the University of Malaya. He should show us that he has it in him to be an effective Opposition Leader. We need ideas and proposals for getting our country out of the post election mess as soon as possible.

So let us pressure both sides of our political divide–Ministers and Parliamentarians– to deliver results, not more crap and politics. We need to stop corruption, want stability for business to invest so that we can have jobs for our citizens who are entering the labour market, and we expect solid development for the future of our country.–Din Merican

by CT Ali @http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com

“…the political leaders we now have are not honourable men. They are not men upon whom we can stake our future and the future of our country.They are not men who will do what we need most for our country – to restore political accountability and social justice.”-CT Ali

Rightly or wrongly too many of us think of wealth as a sign of greatness. And money is the root of all evil – even more so in politics.In as long as that view prevails, our political leaders will have problems of morality because the political leaders we now have are not honourable men.

They are not men upon whom we can stake our future  and the future of our country.They are not men who will do what we need most for our country – to restore political accountability and social justice.

It is one thing to tell a white lie to gain an immediate or temporary political advantage over your opponent and for the most part the public can understand and possibly forgive this transgression.

But we are less likely to forgive a hypocrite. These are leaders who deceived and made deliberate efforts to continue to deceive the public over a lengthy period of time to gain political advantage.

In other words they take the public for a fool. Inevitably when truth prevails and these leaders are exposed for their wrongdoings, the public will react with contempt and disgust and forgiveness will not be possible.

Both Najib Tun Razak and Anwar Ibrahim have done this many times in their political life and the public has had enough of their duplicity.If we cannot believe in the honesty of our leaders than how can we allow them to lead us?

The turmoil our country is now in is because our people do not see the leaders that they want in either Najib or Anwar. Their political past reeks of duplicity, deceit and a denial to do what they themselves have promised their electorates they will do – good governance, openness and accountability while in public office.

The political realities after the 13th general election promises nothing more than continued turmoil that has allowed the Opposition to question the legitimacy of the electoral process.

The Opposition has chosen to do this not in a measured and structured manner. It has chosen instead to take its grievances to the people via its rallies on the premise that public opinion is the highest court in the land.And so the stage is set for the massive June 22 rally.

The self-serving belief

As far as I am concerned, Najib and Anwar can play at their selfish games but do it in their own time. Our country, our people, our future must take precedence before their personal mind games. For every action that they now take, they must ask themselves what their motives are.

The people are counting on the two of them to ensure that they are able to take care of their family, the community and country’s needs and will hold them accountable for their sins of commission and omission.

Unfortunately our leaders lost their moral compasses many years ago. They have not made enough effort to develop their moral and ethical compass to face True North! True North requires them to see themselves not as heroes but as servants of the people they lead.

For Najib and Anwar, power and prestige are the obvious attractions and yet they fool themselves into believing that they are serving something bigger than themselves – the people, King and country – not forgetting religion. And they have the audacity to believe that the people, King and country cannot do without them.

This self-serving belief drives them to keep going no matter what, and this will eventually lead to them breaching ethical and moral standards by which they have once held themselves accountable to.

The highs and the peaks of holding political power intoxicate them and they lose touch with reality – and the people around them learn not to confront them with reality.

In the lead up to the 13th general election, Anwar had convinced himself that he will win the general election. When he lost he could not accept the reality and so he continues to seek ways and means to secure that elusive win.

It is time Anwar confronted the fact that he has lost the election – however painful the reality is – before everything gets out of balance, and he will lose not only the respect of the Malaysian public but also his position within the Pakatan Rakyat coalition as its leader.

Where is Najib now taking us and our country to? It cannot be denied that there has been many irregularities and fraud in the election process, aided and abated by a compliant Election Commission.

The question now is this – if Najib and BN are already involved in these fraudulent activities to win the election, how will they now conduct themselves when in government? Can we trust them?

If a pact existed between Najib and Anwar – brokered by the former Indonesian Vice-President Jusuf Kalla to accept the results of the election whichever way it went – then our question has to be “why was a pact needed in the first place?” And why was this pact not made known to the public?

The long goodbye

All this and more boils down to moral leadership or the lack of it.You cannot abandon all those promises of open, accountable and good governance that you have both previously elevated to lofty prominence simply because it is no longer convenient for you to do so.

What separates good men, good leaders are the morals by which they live their life. Hubris and isolation from the real world is no excuse.

For Najib and Anwar, the long goodbye has started. Najib will have another five years to make good the promises he made to the people of Malaysia to gain him that five years. Anwar has the task of seeing that Najib does make good those promises. But more critical, Anwar has to make ready the next echelon of Pakatan leaders who will once again give the people of Malaysia a viable alternative.

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.

Khairy Jamaluddin: Back in the Spotlight

June 15, 2013

MY COMMENT: Oxford educated Khairy Jamaluddin is the spokesman of international media for the Najib administration. Never underestimate his political resilience.

The Prime Minister’s Department is now like The White House, where the spokesman manages press relations. This is a good move since KJ is charismatic, intelligent and articulate; he has a way with words, an essential quality of any spokesman. It is also a reward for his patience and service to UMNO in particular for his support of Prime Minister Najib who is fighting to keep job as Party President and Prime Minister. 

It is  difficult to tell what effect this appointment will have on Najib’s political fortune. But I believe that KJ is astute enough to use this opportunity to further strengthen his position in UMNO and the Najib Administration. He is our man to watch in UMNO, and I congratulate and wish him well.–Din Merican

by The Malaysian Insider (06-14-13) @http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Not too long ago, he was sidelined by the UMNO-owned media, vilified as a member of the infamous Fourth Floor and deemed untrustworthy by the Najib administration.

All in all, he was headed for political mediocrity. Not anymore. Today, Khairy Jamaluddin is the go to guy for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Appointed Minister of Youth and Sports, he has also been named government spokesman of international media.

In return, the son-in-law of former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Badawi has become a loyal cheerleader for the PM at a time when there is roiling debate on the PM’s strategy and performance at GE13 and growing discourse on whether there should a no-contest for the top UMNO position at the coming polls.

It is notable that many UMNO bloggers with a fondness for the Mahathir era have called for contest for the top two positions and The Malaysian Insider has learnt that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has also communicated to Najib the need for democracy to thrive in UMNO. In contrast, the mainstream media, under direction from Putrajaya, has been sourcing comments and quotes from the likes of Khairy and other UMNO politicians supporting a no-contest, a move which will keep Najib as UMNO President.

Sources in Putrajaya told The Malaysian Insider that in addition to being close to Najib, Khairy now enjoys good ties with the First Lady, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, a seismic change from sometime ago.

So how did the change from outcast to insider happen? Government officials say that Najib’s camp were initially wary of Khairy’s ambitious streak and political allegiance. The PM’s advisors also were mindful of Mahathir’s antipathy towards Khairy and Abdullah, with the former PM believing that his legacy was damaged by the Pak Lah-Khairy combination.

But Khairy hunkered down and just concentrated on political programmes, stayed below the radar and made it clear that his loyalty was to Najib. His upward fortunes have also been helped by the fact that he was one of a few BN politicians who emerged from the polls with a commanding majority and with a rare commodity in UMNO these days: the ability to speak and write proficiently in English.

Najib’s advisors also believe that in the run-up to the party polls, it will be important to bring as many “fighters and orators” into his camp, especially if there is a challenge to the top position in the party.

This thinking explains why the likes of Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, Datuk Tajudin Rahman, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz were rewarded with positions as Ministers and Deputy Ministers.

Khairy, apart from being given the task of putting together programmes to win over younger Malaysians and help cobble together a better image for Malaysia in international media, is also expected to shore up support for the PM among UMNO politicians who will be voting in the party polls in October.

By giving Khairy a place at the main table, there is also a hope that UMNO politicians loyal to Abdullah Badawi will also fall in line and throw their support behind Najib.

As a political strategy and a reward system for a politician who has stayed the course, promoting Khairy is sound. But it is also a path fraught with some craters. The UMNO Youth chief is still persona no grata on Mahathir’s list and his higher profile may provoke a stinging response from the former PM, a complication Najib and UMNO can do without.

Tengku Razaleigh: A De Gaulle or Rab Butler of Malaysian Politics?

June 14,2013

MY COMMENT: In my book, YBM Tengku Razaleigh has all the makings to be our next Prime Minister. He combines experience in public administration with political wisdom and personal integrity. The Tengku was groomed by Tun Razak at an early age for this top post. He was Chairman of PERNAS and PETRONAS and Bank Bumiputra, Minister of Finance and Minister of Trade and Industry, but somehow he let the opportunity go by when Tun Hussein Onn was thinking of a suitable successor in 1981.

In 2008, he was courted by the Opposition and offered the post of Prime Minister if he could bring enough UMNO Parliamentarians with him. It did not happen. Now that UMNO is in crisis over Najib’s leadership after GE-13, Tengku Razaleigh is back in the news. Opportunity presents itself again for the Tengku to be in the arena of leadership.

What will it take the much respected and admired Kelantanese prince and arguably Kelantan’s most eminent politician with a technocratic bent to seize the moment. It is time for decisive action on his part. Muster enough support to challenge Najib for UMNO Presidency or do a deal with forces of change and others in UMNO-Barisan Nasional which will enable him to be Prime Minister.

Our country needs a leader who can govern with lots of conviction and truly change the course of Malaysian political history. Tengku Razaleigh, as I know him through the years, is our man of the moment.  Teddy Roosevelt has a message for the Tengku as follows:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Seize it and be in the theatre of action,YBM Tengku—Din Merican

by Terence Netto@http://www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT: If there is anything sadder in life than unrequited love, it must be unfulfilled ambition.Almost three decades ago, the flavour of that truth was hinted at by the subtitle of a biography of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, ‘An Unending Quest’.

That subtitle and what it entails are evoked by the news that the 10-term MP, the longest such occupancy by a federal legislator in Malaysian parliamentary history, who was returned from his southern Kelantan bailiwick of Gua Musang with a larger majority in the May 5 polls, has begun meeting with assorted MPs of the 13th Parliament.

The latter are said to be unhappy with the putative contestants for prime ministerial power in the country’s presently unstable political scenario.

These contenders are Najib Abdul Razak, who has said he expects to be challenged for the post of UMNO president with its undisputed claim to the PM-ship of the country; Muhyiddin Yassin, who is apparently timorous about his prospects of unseating Najib; and Anwar Ibrahim, who is stalled by the fact that the rousing crowds which attended his pre-polls rallies did not proportionately translate into actual Pakatan Rakyat seats in the House, a point that’s up for contention in the courts.

In other words, the situation is the best yet for a final shy at the prime ministerial wicket by the person who, for the better part of the past three decades, has been trying to be PM only to fail at each attempt by a peculiar combination of aristocratic hauteur and scruple.

When in April 1981, then Prime Minister Hussein Onn, having decided to retire, called aside UMNO Senior Vice-President Razaleigh to advise him to opt for the Deputy presidency of the party instead of the top post because Hussein wanted his Deputy Dr Mahathir Mohamad to succeed him, the more popular Kelantanese prince’s sense of amour-propre led him to abide by the elder politician’s wishes.

Odd Couple: Tun Musa Hitam and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

Out of deference to the retiree, Razaleigh went for the Deputy President’s post, to which he was surprisingly beaten, as much by the savvy style of challenger Musa Hitam as by revulsion at the hauteur of a Razaleigh campaign that showed little or no understanding of the Malay distaste for overweening presumption.

A beaten Razaleigh sulked for three years before vying once more for the Deputy President’s post in 1984, losing yet again to Musa by the same margin of 200-plus votes, a result that showed that the strong support Razaleigh long enjoyed in UMNO had not waned despite the man’s attenuation from the top two posts of the party, regarded as his not just by logical progression up the party hierarchy, but by something that is more aptly rendered by the term ‘manifest destiny’.

Rivals teamed up

In 1987, internal ructions in UMNO saw Musa teaming up with ex-foe Razaleigh to take on Mahathir and Ghafar Baba for the No 1 and 2 posts respectively, with Razaleigh and Musa losing in a vote the losers suspected was tainted with fraud in much the same way that Pakatan suspects the vote in several seats in Election 2013 was marred by cheating.

A court case ensued with the verdict eventuating in the creation of an UMNO splinter, Semangat 46, led by Razaleigh, of course. This party led the Gagasan Rakyat opposition coalition which drew DAP and PAS into a tripartite force that fought BN in Election 1990, the first time since the 1969 polls that UMNO-BN were menaced with the possibility of a loss of its two-thirds parliamentary majority.

But a devious Mahathir-inspired counter-thrust turned the Parti Bersatu Sabah’s eleventh-hour bolting of the BN stable and tying up with Gagasan, into a potentially sinister Christian plot against the Muslims of the peninsula.

Sufficient numbers of the latter were rendered anxious enough to rescind a nascent inclination to support Gagasan which stuttered to defeat at the 1990 polls after having surged on popular discontent with the authoritarian ways of Mahathir.

A Gagasan-led denial of BN’s two-thirds parliamentary majority in the 1990 polls would in all probability have triggered the defection of more parties from the BN stable to the Gagasan camp, and Razaleigh’s prime ministerial ambitions would have waxed on that wave.

But quirks of fate and dwindling stamina saw Semangat 46 fold as a threat and return to the UMNO fold in 1996, a retreat that, had it been delayed by two years, would possibly have seen Razaleigh installed in the Prime Minister’s office by the 1999 general election when widespread anger at Mahathir’s treatment of Anwar Ibrahim caused fragmentation in the Malay vote, the first time since the 1969 polls when Malays in large numbers decided that UMNO was not their party of choice.

Razaleigh, as a lukewarm UMNO member and MP, kept his counsel during the years of Malay-voter disaffection (1999-2008) with UMNO over the mistreatment of Anwar which saw the latter goaled for up to six years on trumped-up corruption and sodomy charges.

When a jail-freed Anwar led the opposition to a denial of the BN’s two-thirds majority at the March 2008 polls, Anwar approached Razaleigh the following month with an offer that Razaleigh be Prime Minister for a term, provided the latter could bring across the aisle 10 UMNO MPs allied to him which Anwar would transmute, aided by defections from BN MPs from Sabah and Sarawak, into a new government-forming parliamentary majority that would call for fresh polls.

Razaleigh wanted 30 seats for which he would choose the candidates at the fresh polls; Anwar, opting for Deputy PM for a term under Razaleigh, would only offer him 10.

The deal fell through and Razaleigh chose to continue to bide his time in UMNO, keeping his PM-ambitions smoldering on a low flame while mulling the pros and cons of a still-fluid political situation wherein UMNO’s loss of its long hegemony over Malaysian politics ramified across the national landscape.

The Final Thrust

Election 2013 confirmed that the loss was not a fluke. This has introduced uncertainty into national politics and has given fresh impetus to a final thrust for the PM’s post by a septuagenarian politician who has long felt that it is his manifest destiny to become PM of Malaysia.

Hence the recent meeting between Razaleigh and 12 BN MPs from Sarawak and Sabah amidst a renewed flurry of speculation that Razaleigh is to become either the Charles de Gaulle of Malaysian politics or be confirmed as its Rab Butler.

The former was renowned as the imperturbable man of destiny who retreated into the wilderness after leading the Free French forces into Paris in 1944 upon the retreat of the occupying Nazi power but was not immediately called upon to lead the bedraggled French people to the greatness he had always envisioned for them.

The wilderness became one of the more romantic stretches in political history when De Gaulle retreated to it only to return with triumphant vindication in 1958 to lead France.

Rab Butler was an estimable Conservative Party leader who twice missed out – in 1956, after Anthony Eden quit over the Suez debacle, and in 1964, after Harold Macmillan resigned – on becoming the PM of Britain although he was qualified by service and experience to take the post.

At a ripe 76 years, will it be the manifest destiny of a De Gaulle for Razaleigh Hamzah or will it be a Butler-an denouement to the career of a man to whom an unfulfilled quest must be as repugnant as a flight to the safety of sanctuary must have been for Muammar Gaddafi in the days of dictator’s doom in Libya circa 2011?

Najib seeks new Allies to survive in UMNO Politics

June 14, 2014

MY COMMENT: When he took over the premiership from Abdullah Badawi, Najib had a unique opportunity to be his own man. He launched 1Malaysia, his Economic Transformation Programme and New Economic Model and amended draconian laws to allow Malaysians more freedom to express their views. Four years on, and now after GE-13 his credibility is at  a low. Whose fault is that? 

No one will take him seriously because he flip flops on every issue and plays racist politics with his courtship of PERKASA. We see him as a beleaguered and weak leader hanging precariously to power. Talk of a possible challenge for the Presidency of UMNO is getting louder and he is under serious threat of losing the premiership if he fails to gain the endorsement of party as its President. But he has the advantage of incumbency and bags of money to stay as President. Hence I feel the challenger will not be a serious winnable one.

If there is no challenge is forthcoming, then there could be moves by factions in UMNO to pass a no confidence resolution forcing Najib to step down. Let us leave UMNO to deal with its own affairs. That is why the forthcoming UMNO General Assembly will be critical not only for the party but also for the nation. –Din Merican

by Dr. Bridget Welsh@www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT: One month after GE13, attention has turned to the UMNO election. Rumours are already circulating about possible challengers to the ruling party’s No 1 post. While the Black 505 rallies continue to mobilise protest against the May 5 general election that many recognise as seriously flawed, the dominant political party is myopically focused on its party polls and who will lead the party after October.

The flurry of activity in recent weeks – from the call to make UMNO more inclusive ethnically to the pleas for the return of the 2,000 delegates as electors (rather than 146,500 members) are all part of the now intensifying internal UMNO political jockeying.

All eyes are on the contest for the top leadership position, especially given that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak performed poorer electorally compared to his predecessor and did not fully deliver on his promise of winning back Selangor and a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

More and more calls are being made to keep the two top positions uncontested. In UMNO, however, the real politics is happening behind the scenes. The grassroots are mobilising for the first stage of the party electoral process – the divisional polls.

Despite the public rhetoric, current conditions point to a competitive contest, in which if conditions do not radically change, Najib will likely face a credible and substantive challenge to his position.

Five factors

There are five underlying factors that point to a challenge: First, the modus operandi in UMNO is money politics. This was a legacy of the Mahathir years and has become deeply entrenched, feeding into the concerns over corruption and governance. For many of the delegates, they join the party for the perks and invest in positions for potential financial gains.

Elections are an integral part of the financial rewards in the system as they involve the distribution of incentives. The logic is simple – the more the competition within the party, the more the incentives. Given the modus operandi in UMNO, there are vested interests in fueling contests.

The higher the level of competition, the greater the promise of rewards. This election involves more people, so competition is costly, involving mass outlays of funds to more people than ever before. Part of the call for the return to the old 2,000-delegate system is driven by this economic ‘money politics’ reality.

There is a tension here between those who would like to minimise costs, with those who would like to receive dividends. The numbers are on the receiving ends, thus the systemic pressure for greater competition.

Second, UMNO as a party is deeply factionalised. This is not unique. In fact for dominant one-party system this is the norm, as seen in Taiwan, Japan and Mexico. All political parties have some degree of internal divisions. These divisions, however, feed into competition as the leadership has to accommodate the various warlords.

In some cases, such as recently in Negeri Sembilan, the leadership has had to take sides on who to elevate to positions in the state government. Warlordism fuels competition by bringing national politics to the state level and vice-versa. Currently, the intensity of conflict at the state level and underlying resentment against UMNO’s current leadership for perceived favouritism contributes to pressure for more leadership competition.

Malay chauvinism under challenge

Third, UMNO as a party is being pressured to reform its identity after GE13. To be more precise, its Malay chauvinism is being challenged. The challenge is taking the form of calls to move the party into a more multi-ethnic entity, and be more inclusive of non-Malays. This is in response to the effective death of the BN as a multi-ethnic power-sharing coalition in GE13.

This measure initially mooted by Najib has yielded a strong reaction from the rank and file, who have come out of a polls where ethnic Malay chauvinism was stoked and ignited to bring the party faithful together against the opposition. The disconnect between the multi-ethnic initiative promoted by a national leader seeking national representation and the party grassroots embedded in their ethnic nationalist framework is real, and has caused disgruntlement among some and anger among others.

The push to maintain the openness in the party electoral system taps into this, as more numbers can openly display their rejection of transforming the party outside of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Malay chauvinist mode.

Fourth, there is the reality of generational pressures within the party. Najib was not successful in having many of ‘his men’ elected in GE13, as he hoped to garner a new cadre of leaders to support his push to consolidate his position within the party. After all, he has yet to be elected to the presidency.

The push for younger, new faces remains, but the bottleneck in the leadership is substantive. The impact is that younger leaders will by nature ally with different actors with the hope of moving up the ranks in a system that has been slow to engage in generational transformation.

Finally, amidst the structural concerns is the long-standing push for statesmanship. Many in UMNO hark back to the good old days when UMNO leaders were respected across the Malaysian society, and seen as national leaders to be proud of.

There is division within UMNO, and nationally, regarding Najib’s leadership as well as his statesmanship.

He has not taken a prominent role post-GE13, and this raises questions. Najib, like his predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, faces the difficulty of meeting conflicting demands and higher expectations. This push for ‘statesmanship’ leadership will be a driver for some of the potential contenders for power.

Najib seeks new allies

These party dynamics – money politics, warlord factionalism, party identity, generational pressures and statesmanship – all contribute to increased possibilities of a leadership challenge and greater party contention. At issue will be the new electoral system, the timing of the polls (with early polls apparently favoured by Najib) and the composition of the challenge itself.

The question being asked is whether Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is 66 last month, will feel this is his last chance to take a shot at the top spot or someone else steps up to the challenge. Also openly being discussed is Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, 76, who has shown a willingness to contest for UMNO President in the past. It is unlikely, given the systemic issues at play, that no one will step forward.

Despite the questions around GE13 and the continued concerns with electoral irregularities, UMNO feels victorious and is being portrayed as the ‘winner,’ contributing to more risk-taking and competition.

We have seen after the May 5 general election, new alliances are being forged – at least temporarily – ahead of the UMNO polls. Najib has brought many of the Abdullah allies into the cabinet and he has reached out to Sabah.

He has not significantly rocked the warlord interests in most of the states as he sought more allies. His biggest ‘new’ ally appears to be Mahathir who said there was ‘no alternative’ to Najib in a speech in Japan. But history has shown that Mahathir’s fidelity as an ally is uncertain at best.

Najib has simultaneously thrown down the gauntlet by not giving Muhyiddin a senior cabinet position and holding his people at bay by not including them in the cabinet. The contest effectively began when the GE13 results came in, continued with the cabinet selection and is ongoing. The strategy of the marginalisation of Muhyiddin has begun.

In the weeks ahead, the backroom politics will only intensify. It is much too early to write off a challenge. In fact, current conditions suggest the opposite – a growing competition within UMNO.

Najib will rely on the incumbency advantage, something which he had used effectively in GE13. But despite the power of incumbency, Najib’s position should not yet be seen as secure, as he has to pass the test of his party in what may very well be the fiercest contests for the party leadership yet.

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DR BRIDGET WELSH is Associate Professor of Political Science at Singapore Management University. Bridget can be reached at bwelsh@smu.edu.sg.

State of Current Affairs in Wisma Putra

June 12, 2013

MY COMMENT: Criticisms and constructive proposals by ex-Malaysian diplomats (Dato’ Deva Ridzam and others) on the  current state of Wisma Putra have not produced any positive change in the performance of the Ministry. What we get are knee-jerk responses from the Ministry (the one below is the most recent) when it is criticized. In stead of taking some initiative to reimage itself and improve public perception, Wisma goes on the defensive. The truth be told. The Secretary-General and his staff have little influence on the making of foreign policy of the Najib administration. Now, whose fault is that?

The Prime Minister apparently relies a coterie of advisors in his office to develop new initiatives on the foreign policy front. Most of the initiatives have come from the Prime Minister himself.

It is well known that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Anifah Aman, has neither passion nor the requisite background for the job. He prefers to focus on domestic politics in Sabah. 

Furthermore, the Prime Minister knows that Wisma Putra is no longer what it used to be. Unless serious reform is undertaken, Wisma Putra will continue to punch below its weight.  As a result, the Prime Minister relies a coterie of advisors in his office including his special envoy Tan Sri Kamil Jaafar to develop new initiatives on the foreign policy front.–Din Merican

by Megawati Zulfakar (06-07-13)@http://www.thestar.com.my

Professional direction in the Foreign Ministry is a far cry from the golden years of Malaysian diplomacy.

SEVENTEEN years. That’s how long it took for Tan Sri Ahmad Kamil Jaafar to release his memoirs after retiring as Wisma Putra’s Secretary-General.

It is definitely well worth the wait.Even more memorable when one of his good friends, Malacca Governor Tun Khalil Yaacob launched the book. His former boss, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, also attended the event.

In Growing Up With The Nation, Kamil wrote about his childhood years in Kulim, going to school in Bukit Mertajam and Kuala Kangsar and eventually continuing his studies at University of Malaya.

It was during his years at the Malay College Kuala Kangsar that he formed a strong bond with a few friends including Malaysia’s former permanent representative to the United Nations Tan Sri Razali Ismail and Tun Khalil.

After graduating in the 60s from the University of Malaya and much persuasion from Razali, Kamil joined the External Affairs Ministry, then led by Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie.

Kamil gave a glimpse of the legendary Ghazali’s legendary “whipping” – his description of the on-the-spot training. Ghazali was known for striking fear among his officers and even journalists then.

His first serious brush with the law (you need to read the book) got him his first posting abroad – Thailand – where he witnessed the peace treaty between Malaysia and Indonesia in 1966 after the “Konfrantasi” years.

The young Kamil described the actual signing of the treaty as almost banal with everybody crammed in a small room to witness the event. Only brief statements were made.

With Malaysia undergoing peaceful separation with Singapore a year earlier, the fledgling country started to be more aware of its own national interests and concerns in the conduct of international relations and diplomacy.

Malaysian diplomacy moved from anti communist, pro-Western stance to one that was more neutral and non-aligned.

It is a memoir that will take readers on a journey through time to Bosnia Herzegovina, North Korea and growth of ASEAN among others. One interesting chapter is when Kamil spoke of working with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as Wisma Putra’s Secretary-General for more than seven years.

Dr Mahathir’s deep involvement in foreign policy kept the Ministry virtually on its toes all-year round. This was the beginning of Malaysia’s growing diplomatic profile and that bred confidence, even among diplomatic officers.

Kamil may have physically left Wisma Putra but he is still aware of the goings-on in the Ministry.“That is why I am saddened when I now hear disturbing stories of our diplomats’ lack of professional direction. And worse, I also hear stories of a hiatus between political and professional leadership,” he wrote in the book’s preface.

It is pertinent to note that Kamil has retired as Secretary-General for nearly 20 years. He still compares Wisma Putra with days gone by.But then again he is not alone.

Keen observers also lament the lack of intellectual thought and strategic planning in formulating sound foreign policy. Serving diplomats, however, lay the blame on previous administrations for the structural problems facing the Ministry now.

“True, those were the golden years but for us in the ministry now, we question their failure to plan for the future of the Ministry especially on human resources development. We are inheriting the problems as a result of lack of foresight by previous leaderships.

“During Dr Mahathir’s time we were opening up missions everywhere that we faced an acute shortage of personnel when not enough hiring was done.

“When we keep on posting officers overseas, we can hardly spare people to keep up with the increasing workload and send people for training.We are really stretching our human resources, and with whatever limited annual allocation Wisma Putra gets, how do you improve on quality? Politicians come and go but professionals stay on.”

Another diplomat said while Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak provided clear political direction for foreign policy, the problem lies with the lack of quality professionals to implement and see it to fruition.

“The world 20 years ago was different, Dr Mahathir could get away with almost anything. The world today is much more complicated that you have to make adjustments.

“There is diffusion of power between China and the United States. You have to manage this carefully. During Dr Mahathir’s time, getting foreign investments was a lot easier but now getting FDIs is much more competitive,” he added.

He admitted though that a little bit of tweaking can be done to improve the way things are done.

“Maybe we should have regular pre- and post-Cabinet meetings or we do not take too much time to make decisions. Perhaps the media too should be better informed on the latest developments on issues Malaysia is involved in,” said the officer.

Among the media fraternity, Wisma Putra is well known as an unfriendly Ministry. Said a Putrajaya-based senior correspondent: “Of course we have been receiving statements via e-mail from the Ministry, but who are these people behind the e-mails.

“Do they bother contacting us? Maybe their standards are too high. Officials from other ministries will call us for a follow-up but not this Ministry.If it is difficult for us to get in touch with the officers to check on news breaks, what more the Minister. Maybe their term for being friendly is when they invite us for ‘buka puasa’ and open house events.”

Officials from other agencies also question when diplomats do go for postings, how much value do they put in their work including interacting with other Malaysian agencies.

There has been talk about closing some missions but it remains just that. A little change in how the Ministry does things will do good for Wisma Putra and its officers. Otherwise, it is just a matter of time before the whole country suffers in the realm of international relations and global affairs.

Mergawati can be reached at merga@thestar.com.my

______________

June 12, 2013

http://www.thestar.com.my

Wisma Putra at the Forefront–Response

THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs refers to Mergawati Zulfakar’s article “State of current affairs in Wisma Putra” (The Star, June 7). We appreciate her interest on the Ministry’s development and evolution over the years in advancing and protecting Malaysia’s interests internationally.

The Ministry certainly takes pride in the specific era of the Ministry’s history characterised by Mergawati as the “golden years of Malaysian diplomacy”. Those are the years when Malaysia faces specific external challenges which warranted approaches that befits the era.

Whilst the fundamental principles of Malaysia’s foreign policy remain the same, Malaysia’s diplomacy continues to be built and expanded in responding to the dynamic and evolution of national interests as we move toward attaining a developed nation status.

As advancing Malaysia’s interests abroad is not static and diplomatic approaches changes or evolved over the years, the ministry is constantly undergoing transformation in its diplomatic approaches to address the shifting global environment, changing geopolitical realities, managing issues, and identifying opportunities for Malaysia.

At the same time, the ministry’s international priorities also move in tandem with the nation’s objective to attain Vision 2020 and driven by the various government transformation programmes.

In characterising certain era in the history of Wisma Putra as the “golden years of Malaysian diplomacy” we unfairly overlooked the sacrifices and contributions of many others.

Beyond the so-called “golden years” asserted by Mergawati, there are many other accomplishments of Wisma Putra such as non-permanent membership of Malaysia to the United Nations Security Council, Chairmanship of the Non-Align-ment Movement, Chairmanship of Organisation of Islamic Conference, Chairmanship of ASEAN and the Presidency of the United Nations Economic and Social Council, just to name a few.

Under the Prime Minister’s stewardship, Malaysia’s foreign policy orientation continues to make tremendous leaps forward. Malaysia’s relation with China is advancing at a rapid phase.

The annual bilateral consultations (renamed Strategic Consultation in 2010) reflect the growing importance of Malaysia-China relations. Both countries are also adhering to the letter and spirit of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in South-East Asia which continues the peace and stability that benefits China and the South-East Asian region.

New initiatives, under the foreign policy umbrella was also introduced. Among them, the Global Movement of the Moderates (GMM), where Wisma Putra has been at the forefront since its inception.

GMM was expounded by the Prime Minister at prestigious platforms including Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, East-West Centre, the Asia-Europe Meeting, the ASEAN Summit and the Com­monwealth Heads of Government Meeting.

The GMM which was adopted by the 20th Asean Summit in Phnom Penh will be promoted within the ASEAN member states to achieve global peace.

At the same time, the recognition that Malaysia’s received as the facilitator in the Philippines government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front successful conclusion of the framework peace agreement has further increased Malaysia’s credibility in the international fora.

Wisma Putra has always maintained good and friendly relations with the media. We always strive to share with the media prompt and accurate information.

However, accuracy and content of the information requires verification and thought as these issues and events transcends our borders as well as taking into account the scope of our bilateral relations with the relevant countries. It should not be misinterpreted then as lacking of communication between Wisma Putra and the media.

The Ministry has been and will always be resilient in advancing Malaysia’s abroad using approaches that are appropriate and required to effectively achieve Malaysia’s foreign policy and interests internationally with the available resources it has.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Putrajaya

Najib Vs Muhyiddin: The New Class War in UMNO

June 7, 2013

Comment: Talking to some UMNO veterans at the RSGC yesterday, I learned that DPM Muhyiddin is not likely to challenge Najib for the post of their party president. For them, unity in time of political crisis is more important than personal ambition. But in politics, anything is possible. The challenge against Najib will not be the DPM’s move. It could come from certain quarters in UMNO who represent the hardline politics of the party.

UMNO will find a way to deal with the leadership issue with a view to GE-14, 5 years down the road. Perhaps a deal between the two protagonists can be struck which gives Najib enough time to step down and hand over party affairs and premiership to his Deputy President and DPM. Saving face is important in our society. Maybe,this is the ideal solution. But given, Mahathir’s influence in UMNO, the former Prime Minister and his advisors will have a big say on who is going to be the next President and Prime Minister.

It is too premature for Dato Ariff to talk about the new class war in UMNO. For UMNO it will be war against the Opposition Pakatan Rakyat to the finish. To say “Muhyidin is expendable and easily forgotten if he can be held captive to the number two post” is to underestimate the DPM’s acumen, tenacity and political resilience.-Din Merican

by Dato Ariff Sabri @www.freemalaysiatoday.com

The official 13th general election maybe over, but the underground polls is not. It is still going on. The underground polls is coming and this clash will not be between cultural groups. It will be between the sad class – our own les miserables, Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth and the Malay-Chinese bourgeoisie.

The sad class is made up of the 11 million Malays who earn less than RM2,500 a month against the minted Malay CEOs such as Abdul Wahid Omar (former Maybank chief) who earned RM 7 million a year and the CIMB numero uno (Nazri Razak) who totals RM16-17 million a year.

The 11 million Malays are joined by the new entrants into a swelling army of the lumped proletariat, consisting of graduates from universities and colleges who don’t earn a decent salary to afford houses that now cost RM700,000-800,000.

These ‘new entrants’  can’t afford a RM400,000 house, a home that is deemed “affordable” by the ruling bourgeoisie.To support their ‘affordable’ truths is UMNO’s media complex.

We are at war with the UMNO media complex – the papers that it owns, the television channels, the radio talk shows and the lists goes on.UMNO controls every avenue of thought formation and has even convinced one part of the Malay thinking crowd into believing that the  community is under siege from marauding Chinese.

Don’t be surprised that the strings on the UMNO media complex are pulled by the shadowy denizens of the UMNO war room.

Bid to circumvent Muhyiddin

The UMNO media complex is loyal and serves only one master- the enfeebled UMNO President.It has already started a new phase by suggesting that many do not want a contest for the top posts in UMNO.

The many are the silent majority whose speech can only be deciphered by people like Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Ahmad Maslan otherwise know by many as Najib’s minions.

That is an early attempt to circumvent Muhyidin from challenging Najib. Many people know that Najib has failed UMNO in so many areas.The nation is imperiled with Najib at the helm.

The UMNO media complex knows that only the Number One position matters. Muhyidin is expendable and easily forgotten if he can be held captive to the number two post.

Maybe the UMNO media complex’s generals underestimate the swollen-faced Muhyidin’s persona as a reflection of stupidity.Carl von Clausewitz, a famed German-Prussian military theorist, once said that “war is the continuation of politics by other means.”

This conventional definition of war as defined by Clausewitz is now extended onto the electronic front. That is the new means.

Shameless enemy

We blog writers who support Pakatan are the internet army. We are on the counter attack mode against the UMNO media complex ready to storm every hill on the battlefield.We will not yield an inch of ground to the ruthless, shameless enemy we are facing.

No sooner after talking piously about Malays, Islam and the King, the UMNO feudal lords and the UMNO nouveau bourgeoisie will retire into their chambers; where they all enjoy musical soirees, engage in business tete a tete  while the missus  poco-pocos all night long.

They have all but forgotten about the downtrodden masses, the brick and mortar people who had faithfully supported them.We have not forgotten them. We have one weapon which our enemy cannot destroy– righteous indignation.

(Dato Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz is DAP’s Member of Parliament for Raub. He is better known as Sakmongkol AK47)

BERSIH’s Ambiga at Oslo Freedom Forum 2013

June 6, 2013

Listen to this brave and committed lady and lawyer on the need for free and fair elections in our country. GE-13 is neither free nor fair. The legitimacy of the present government is being questioned and there will be a major People’s Protest on June 15. I have been informed that this event is being organised not by BERSIH but by a young generation of Malaysian leaders and activists. –Din Merican

UMNO Elections: No Contest Bandwagon has begun to roll

June 5, 2013

by Terence Netto@http://www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT: The ‘no contest for the top two posts in UMNO’ bandwagon has begun to roll, but in the end whether it succeeds in heading off a fight that may well have damaging consequences is dependent on what one man feels about the whole thing.

No Contest for the Top Posts?

No prizes for guessing the identity of the man. In fact, he has already waded in with preliminary comments that suggest he will push for a contest, but more on that later.

The ‘no contest’ ball was set rolling by Puad Zakarshi, former Deputy Education Minister and defeated UMNO candidate for the Batu Pahat parliamentary seat. There’s no point in going into the reasons Puad gave for his call because it was the usual boilerplate.

Actually, a contest for the top leadership positions in a political party is a healthy thing, especially when it is held after the party had undergone what UMNO suffered at the May 5 general election: a test of popular reaction to its stewardship of the country.

Because UMNO is the dominant party in the ruling BN coalition – it bolstered that position by raising its collection of parliamentary seats from 79 at GE12 to 88 at GE13 – how it has performed its role as national chief steward must be important to the UMNO electorate.

This is more so when the party likes to see itself as democratic. No less than the UMNO President, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, averred as much about his party and, on that score, signalled that he was open to a challenge.

UMNO running out of time

But in the indirect mode which is the standard form of Malay political discourse, form is one thing, actual intention another. That is why Malay political discourse is simultaneously fascinating and off-putting. People who camouflage intention behind complex layers of expression must think they have plenty of time on their hands.

Actually, UMNO does not have much time on its hands. It composed itself like it had a lot because after the ruling coalition it dominates suffered the loss of its customary two-thirds parliamentary majority at GE12, it dragged its feet on reform of itself and of the nation, the need for which was the clarion message Malaysian voters sent it at the watershed March 2008 polls.

There was a price to be paid for this lethargy: UMNO-BN incurred the loss of its traditional plurality in the popular vote at GE13, sliding to just over 47 percent of the overall take in comparison with the opposition Pakatan Rakyat’s 51 percent.

First the loss of its parliamentary superiority, then the downdraft in its overall popularity must mean the writing is on the wall for UMNO and its appendages in BN.

But the message of ‘no contest for the two top posts in UMNO’ bandwagon is that things are nice and peachy, so there’s no need to rock the boat with contests for the upper tier of posts that may well sunder the party.

The ‘no contest’ cabal of support is gathering pace. No sooner had Puad aired his view than Negri Sembilan UMNO backed the proposition. Even party Vice-President Zahid Hamidi joined the caravan the other day by saying he thought the call sensible.

But Zahid’s support is suspect and attributable to the Malay mode of indirect discourse.If current Deputy President Muhyiddin Yassin contests Najib for the No 1 post, Zahid, as top Vice-President, stands to benefit because he can then go for the vacant Deputy President’s post. It’s good Malay political form not to seem to overtly want what you covertly covet.

A Mahathir-created problem

If indirection is the preferred mode of Malay political discourse, projection is not far behind as a method by which to hide one’s scheming heart. The eminence grise of UMNO, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is adept at the art.

One can infer from his latest comments that he wants the UMNO leadership revamped for he believes the party was lucky to win the general election because in general Malay voters opted for the psychological security that UMNO’s patronage affords them to the uncertainties of an Anwar Ibrahim-led Pakatan in which a thrusting DAP would be difficult to contain.

Mahathir said the overweening self-interest of incumbents barred the door to the talented, rendering UMNO bereft of talent and infested with the corrupt and the mediocre.

That UMNO cannot carry on this way and keep Malay support was Mahathir’s warning to the party.

This problem with this narrative is that few these days believe that Mahathir’s 22-year (1981-2003) stewardship of UMNO and Malaysia was a period that emphasised talent over mediocrity, performance over loyalty, probity over corruption, collective interests over partisan considerations.

In fact, majority opinion is coalescing around the position that under his prolonged tenure, the country was built up physically but was emasculated morally.

So his latest posting on his blog is so much projection, attributing to others what he himself was responsible for.Thus indirection and projection combine to undermine the UMNO elector’s grasp of reality which explains the party’s continuing residence in reality-denying mode.

Tun Dr. Mahathir: UMNO tidak relevan lagi

June 5, 2013

KOMEN: UMNO tidak relevan? Memang tepat sekali ! UMNO (1946) berbeza dengan  UMNO Baru (1987) yang ditubuhkan oleh Tun Dr. Mahathir sendiri dengan perlembagaan parti yang tidak bercorak demokrasi.

At RSGC

Kuasa di bawah Presiden UMNO tidak boleh di cabar seterusnya. Tun ingin memegang kuasa selamanya tetap beliau “bersara” dari aktif berpolitik kononnya dari tahun 2003.

Sekarang ini amat sukar untuk ahli UMNO memilih Presiden dan Timbalannya akibat manipulasi Tun yang begitu ghairah untuk menyandang kuasa sebagai Perdana Menteri selama mungkin. Kriteria yang diguna pakai  menjadi peminpin bukan lagi kebolehan. UMNO sekarang ini adalah parti  pengampu, feudal dan  dinasti.

Ini lah yang berlaku apabila TDM dipaksa melepaskan jawatan, beliau memilih AAB yang kemudian dikritik beliau sehebat hebatnya. Malah PM sekarang juga adalah dari senario yang sama.

Kesimpulannya UMNO hancur disebabkan oleh kerakusan beliau untuk berkuasa dan dikelilingi oleh mereka mereka yang kurang cerdik dan yang jadi kaki ampu. Jangan putar belitkan sejarah yang “direka” oleh beliau sendiri. Beliau sendiri yang suka memperlekeh pemimpin pemimpin UMNO .

Selain dari itu beliau juga memusnahkan sistem kerajaan dengan memilih mereka yang menyokong dasar-dasar  beliau sahaja. Ini bermula dari pemilihan Tun Ahmad Sarji sebagai Ketua Setiausaha Negara yang menurut perintah beliau dan juga Gabenor Bank Negara Jaafar Hussein. (Sebelum itu beliau tidak berani menyentuh Bank Negara kerana Gabenor Bank Negara seperti Tun Ismail Ali dan Tan Sri Aziz Taha tidak mengendahkan tuntutan beliau kerana perlantikan mereka dalah dari DYMM Agung).

Begitu juga kemusnahan di syarikat syarikat milik kerajaan (GLCs) dengan memilih mereka yang telah mengampu beliau didalam kerajaan untuk menerajui GLC sebagai ganjaran sewaktu pencen walau rekod mereka lemah atau tiada kaitan langsung dengan syarikat syarikat gergasi yang dahulunya diterajui oleh golongan professional dan menguntungkan !

Apa agenda Tun Dr Mahathir sebenarnya sekarang ? –Din Merican

oleh Harakah Daily

4hb. Jun 2003

KUALA LUMPUR: Setelah menang pilihanraya umum ke 13 walaupun tewas undi popular buat pertama kalinya dalam sejarah, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad mendedahkan wajah UMNO yang sebenar kepada umum.

(Kata Mahathir, orang Melayu sudah meluat dengan UMNO… tetapi hanya sebut selepas pilihan raya selesai)

Bagi Mahathir, ramai orang Melayu sudah merasa meluat dengan UMNO dan mengganggapnya tidak relevan dan perlu ditolak kerana parti itu tidak lagi berjuang untuk bangsa, agama dan tanahair.

“UMNO ternampak dan memang pun benar, berjuang untuk kepentingan orang-orang tertentu dalamnya dan ahlinya sahaja. UMNO berjuang untuk jawatan dan pangkat, untuk memperkayakan diri, untuk sagu hati, untuk poket sendiri,” tulis Mahathir di blognya.

Mahathir berkata pemimpin UMNO kini melariskan budaya memilih orang kurang berkobolehan untuk menyertai parti supaya kedudukan mereka tidak diancam sampai bila-bila.

“Untuk ini mereka berusaha mengurangkan kemungkinan diri mereka dicabar, kurangkan kemungkinan diganti oleh sesiapa yang lebih layak. UMNO adalah hak ahlinya, hak pemimpinnya yang sedia ada dan bukan hak orang Melayu. Setelah mereka mendapat tempat jangan benar orang Melayu lain, terutama yang memiliki kebolehan tertentu, menyertai Umno,” selar beliau.

Sekarang, Mahathir berkata UMNO sudah menjadi sebuah parti hanya untuk pemimpin dan ahli semasa, dari ketua cawangan kepada ketua bahagian.

“UMNO tidak perlu tambahan ahli, tidak perlu penyertaan sesiapa lagi kerana ahli yang sedia ada perlu memelihara habuan mereka. Jika terlalu banyak ahli, habuan perlu dikongsi. Dan habuan yang dikongsi tentulah tidak sebanyak sebelum berkongsi,” sindirnya lagi.

Akibatnya, kata Mahathir, mereka terutama yang berkebolehan, yang berbakat tidak dibenar masuk UMMO lagi.

“Yang boleh menyertai hanyalah yang kurang berkebolehan dibanding dengan yang sudah ada. Oleh kerana penyertaan dalam UMNO mestilah melalui cawangan, yang boleh masuk UMNO ialah yang kurang berkebolehan dari ketua cawangan,” katanya.

Mahathir juga menyindir bahawa pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO ini sering terlupa ajal boleh sampai bila-bila masa.

“Ketua cawangan manusia biasa yang boleh diserang penyakit, bahkan boleh mati pun. Satu hari ketua cawangan terpaksa lepaskan jawatannya. Penggantinya tentulah orang yang memiliki kebolehan yang kurang darinya. Dengan itu kebolehan ketua cawangan akan merosot sepanjang masa, tiap kali pengganti mengambil alih. Dan ini akan terjadi dalam keseluruhan parti,” katanya.

Akhirnya, Mahathir berkata UMNO hanya tinggal golongan yang tidak berbakat sehingga semakin kurang ahli yang berbakat dan layak untuk menjadi calon dalam PRU.

“Calon payung terjun yang berbakat akan dikalahkan. Dengan itu pemimpin Kerajaan juga akan terdiri dari yang tidak berkebolehan,” sindirnya lagi.

“Di mana pergi mereka yang berbakat ini?. Mereka pergi ke mana mereka di terima, tentunya parti lawan,” tambahnya lagi.

PERINGATAN: Komentar yang diutarakan melalui laman sosial ini adalah milik peribadi akaun laman sosial ini. Segala risiko akibat komentar yang disiarkan TIDAK menjadi tanggungjawab Harakahdaily. Komentar yang disiarkan menjadi tanggungjawab pemilik akaun sendiri. Para komentar dinasihatkan bertanggungjawab dalam menulis dan elakkan komentar melampau dan berbaur perkauman.

1BN Plan: UMNO-BN must change to remain relevant, say Najib and Deputy

June 4, 2013

by Terence Netto@http://www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT: After years of keeping at the rear of change rather than in advance of it, UMNO and parts of BN find themselves – a month after a general election that has confirmed that the political dogmas of the past are inadequate to a transitional present – running on the spot.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Deputy Muhyiddin Yassin, in remarks made after their initially tentative conclusions about the import of the results of GE13 had mutated to firmer findings, intimated that BN and UMNO must change to stay relevant.

Muhyiddin, in particular, went a little further by suggesting a study of the possibility that a single party BN would be the way to proceed in contrast to persisting with the presently multi-component structure that has been in power since 1974 and, before that, holding the reins of government since independence through its precursor, Alliance.

Presumably, Muhyiddin was reacting to the phenomena of Malay voters in urban and semi-rural seats marking the ballot for DAP and Chinese all over the country ticking the box for PAS.

This factor was behind the Opposition Pakatan Rakyat’s gains in Selangor where BN had mounted an intense but ultimately fruitless campaign to recover the richest state in the country.

Possibly chastened by this phenomenon, Muhyiddin, hitherto assertive about the immutability of his Malay-ness and its lofty position in the UMNO-nurtured racial pecking order of the country, gave vent to an idea that many in UMNO would like to be amnesic about: his suggestion that BN could become a single party conglomerate was essentially a variation on a theme aired as early as 1951 by UMNO’s founder, Onn Jaafar.

Onn had to leave UMNO, chagrined by its resistance to an idea whose time had not then come but whose point could only be deferred, not interred. Six decades later, Muhyiddin, a scion of Johor UMNO where the party was birthed, has re-floated what a seer-like Onn had first proposed.

A stillborn idea

However, the reactions from within UMNO or from within its extra-territorial fold, PERKASA, to Muhyiddin’s idea confirmed what the British historian John Macauley, master of many intricate partisan maneuvers in his historical research, observed to be true about political parties.

Macauley said that it is in the nature of political parties to retain their original enmities far more firmly than their original principles. Talk of retention of original enmities, shortly after Muhyiddin spoke about a single BN party, PERKASA was on record as warning of grave consequences to those who “erase” UMNO.

The responses of other elements in the UMNO quarter were less dire though no less inhospitable.

UMNO Information Chief Ahmad Maslan said that conservative UMNO Malays would not countenance the idea of a unified BN party; Vice-President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi speculated that the idea arose from the desperation felt by BN component parties which had been annihilated at the recent polls; and UMNO eminence grise Dr Mahathir Mohamad observed that the idea’s time had not yet arrived.

In effect, the reactionaries were saying that what the average voter in the economically leading state of the country was signaling about his political preferences was not what the common UMNO member was inclined to go with.

Sure, less economically endowed Malays in the rural parts of the country had voted for UMNO, a decision prompted in part, in states like Kedah, by the incompetence of the former Menteri Besar from PAS, Azizan Abdul Razak, and abetted by the BRIM (1Malaysia cash handouts) payments they received that required of them a reciprocal obligation to vote the hand that fed them.

But this category of voter is not a demographic that is set to stay for long. If anything, it will recede as rural-to-urban migration accelerates, as people age, and as the threat of mounting insolvency incurred by profligate BN governance becomes palpable.

In short, UMNO and BN are riding a waning wave of voter preference but its leadership ranks are infested with people who cannot distinguish between their specific career interests and the long-term interests of the coalition of which their party is a dominant part.

Mired in fevered swamps

Too long in thrall to the dogmas of a race-centred worldview, large swatches of Umno and several components of the BN are mired in its fevered swamps, unable to disenthrall and thus renew their party.

Even the defeat at the polls to politicians like PERKASA firebrand Ibrahim Ali, who lost his Pasir Mas parliamentary seat in Kelantan, and to Zulkifli Noordin (right), the religious bigot and agitator, who was dumped with ease in the Shah Alam federal seat, is apparently not sufficient to convince Umno that the party, as presently constituted and led, is on sliding scale on the voter-preference graph.

Too long a stay in power – this more than a half-century UMNO-BN one aided by a rural voter-weightage that’s gone off the rails, and abetted by the machinations of an Election Commission that’s an adjunct of the government – leaves the anointed with the feeling that come what may, they are ordained to stay.

If it’s true that without vision, people perish, as the French philosopher Blaise Pascal held, then it must also be true that without reform and renewal, sclerotic political parties diminish and die. It’s just that some may mistake merely running on the spot as an adequate substitute for R & R.

Respect and Honour Our King

June 2, 2013

COMMENT: Call me what you like, a traditionalist, an old school fella, a conservative, or a even a monarchist. But never cast aspersions on our King.

It is like insulting our country. Since our country comprises all Malaysians, we are insulting ourselves when we show disrespect for our King who is our Head of State.

I have been critical of the present administration, its policies and politics. I have done so when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was in power. I also criticised Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, and made my comments in Tom Plate’s book, Conversation with Mahathir Mohamad.

I may have been harsh sometimes, but I am never disrespectful of these Prime Ministers. Despite all that, I have had my share of severe damnation from bloggers and others who disagree with me. That is fine. As they say, it comes with the territory. If you dare to criticise, you must be ready for the backlash.

Their Majesties The King and The Queen of Malaysia

But when inconsiderate fellow Malaysians show their disrespect for our King, I join Sdr. Ahmad A. Talib in expressing my disgust at their bad manners and poor upbringing. It is lese majeste, and that cannot be tolerated.

Our King is above politics and our last hope for justice, in my view, when all else fails. His Majesty is a wise and kind Ruler who counsels us to accept the outcome of GE-13 and get on with our lives and our business.

It is normal practice for our King to address our nation on the eve on his Official Birthday. His Majesty chose to talk about peace, stability and harmony after a very divisive election. It is His Majesty’s privilege to speak directly to us. His message is appropriate for the occasion when the entire nation celebrates His Majesty’s Birthday.

We may be unhappy with the election results. But there are other available channels for legal recourse if we have solid and irrefutable evidence that our recent election had been rigged. Taking on His Majesty is certainly not one of the ways to express our frustrations. I am disappointed that good and sensible Malaysians have lost their sense of decency. Respect and Honour Our King. --Din Merican

 By Ahmad A. Talib  | ahmadt51@gmail.com

http://www.nst.com.my

THERE seems to be an increased show of disrespect lately. Some are shown publicly and some are shown in social media. Regardless of where they are displayed, they reflect the same thing — that some of us are showing bad manners and poor upbringing.

In the last couple of days, I was shown pages taken from someone’s Facebook where the said person commented on the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s birthday speech that was shown on television. The comments were clearly rude, to say the least.

If these comments were made by citizens of this country, then these people have clearly expressed their freedom of expression to the extreme. If they are made by non-citizens, then my conclusion is that these people have little respect for this country’s sovereign structure.

The original postings in Facebook have gone viral. Meaning, others have made a screenshot of the posting and sent them to others for them to see, comment and share. By now, the posting has turned into a national issue, stoking yet another round of accusations and counter-accusations.

But there’s one thing about Facebook postings. Some of the people who put up postings are not identified properly. Some carry fictitious names for whatever reasons. One can assume that anyone posting under a fictitious name probably has something to hide.

It’s quite irresponsible actually. If the postings are about trivia, then they wouldn’t create so much of a stir. But for postings such as the one ridiculing our king, this can’t be a small matter. Perhaps, I can share the posting, put up by someone named Melissa.

She asked this question to her Facebook friends: “Anyone listening to the speech? Grrr!” She was referring to the King’s speech made on the eve of His Majesty’s official birthday. The speech was carried live on television.

The posting prompted five comments from Melissa’s friends. There were some exchanges among them, which clearly showed the online conversation was not complimentary to the King at all.

One might say that such statements are harmless and in accordance with one’s freedom of expression. Others do not see it that way. They see them as rude and provocative, besides being political in tone and intention.

Among others, the King told citizens to get on with their lives and accept the outcome of the recent general election. Could this have triggered Melissa’s comments?

Many things are being said in social media. The political stuff seems to continue unabated. One may argue that he or she can say anything he or she likes because that’s in his or her space. That’s correct, of course, but such comments would invite reactions that may not necessary be kind or pleasant.

Many of the things being said in social media are not aimed at national reconciliation. The result of the general election seemed to have divided the people even more. Many have not been able to go back to their pre-GE13 lives.

Neighbours look differently at each other; some verbal exchanges are cold and less friendly. Facebook friends have begun to “unfriend” each other, preferring to confine their “friendship” to real-life friends and acquaintances.

I have yet to comprehend this phenomenon. But one thing I do know — fair comment is fair comment; and good manners are clearly defined, whether they are in real life or in cyberspace.

No matter how deep and wide our differences are, we should all draw a line where respect for king and country are concerned. Ridiculing the King and turning our national flag upside down are not examples of good manners and upbringing. It’s kurang ajar, actually.

Post GE-13: Time to get serious about Government

June 1, 2013

by Din Merican

COMMENT: It has been nearly 4 weeks since GE13. The outcome was in a favour of Najib-led UMNO-Barisan, although Pakatan Rakyat garnered nearly 54 per cent of the total vote. Victory came late in the night of May 5 when the Election Commission chairman jubilantly announced that UMNO-BN was first past the post.

UMNO-BN celebrates while the Opposition and civil society activists rant about fraud and other irregularities which denied victory to Pakatan Rakyat; they have taken their case to the court of public opinion.

Our country is being disrupted by dissent. The UMNO-BN coalition, on the other hand, has formed the government with the consent of our King and has resorted to the law to arrest, detain and charge those who dare to challenge the results. Frankly, confrontation does not solve problems; it merely acerbates them.

Election Results and New Government

Today, our King has urged us to accept the election results. Rightly so because our country needs a government and so whether we like it or not, there is now a government with a mandate to govern. His Majesty is naturally concerned about his subjects and our country.

Let Prime Minister Najib and cohort govern while Parliament with a strong opposition must perform its legislative and oversight duties diligently. Election is over, but there is the business of government to conduct.

Dewan Rakyat: A House of Dignity

Our Parliamentarians must be Yang Berhormats, not a bunch of hooligans shouting down at each other across the aisle such that no sensible debate can take place. We must have a Speaker in Dewan Rakyat who can moderate the debate in an impartial manner, and not behave like a dictator. He must also allow ample time for debate.

We also need a Government that treats Parliament as equal partner, not a rubber stamp. This means that the Leader of the Opposition is consulted on issues of utmost importance to our country, for example,the national budget and security.

The Courts decide on Legitimacy

Legitimacy? That’s another question.We must leave it to the Courts, if it comes to that, to decide on the issue of legitimacy of the elections based on evidence provided by both UMNO-BN and Pakatan Rakyat. The case of Al Gore vs G W Bush comes to mind, where the popular vote favored the former while the electoral college system favored that latter. The Court of Florida decided in favour of Bush.

The court of public opinion cannot adjudicate on matters relating to our constitution and other laws. Otherwise anarchy reigns. For all its faults and frailties, our country is founded on the Rule of Law. Our third estate, the Judiciary, must administer the Law.

Electoral Reforms

At the same time, electoral reform proposals by BERSIH should be looked into by the Election Commission so that by GE-14 we have clean, fair and transparent voting system.

Here the wishes of Malaysians for free and fair elections must be respected. If the electoral process is severely flawed, then Malaysians cannot determine the government they want.

The above are my thoughts as I take time to celebrate the Official Birthday of His Majesty DYMM Yang diPertuan Agong today. In the spirit of discourse, I welcome your views, thoughts and criticisms.–Din Merican

GE-13: Shifting Balance of Power requires Cooperation in Governance

May 31, 2013

by CT Ali@http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com

After half a century of greed, will UMNO now lead or will the need for greed overcome all other considerations? UMNO feeds the greed of its political elites for wealth and political power, and it’s political dominance allows little accountability for the things they do.

What UMNO takes for themselves from the wealth and resources of our country, how they lie and manipulate our people to believe that what they do is in the interest of our common good when it is certainly not, and how they “manage” the opposition and any “national threat” are nothing out of the ordinary for UMNO.

Corruption, money politics, unlawful detention – all the evils of a repressive regime that does not allow social justice and basic human and civil rights upon its own people.

A tainted Judiciary, a Police force that does its bidding, submissive civil servants and, amongst others, a compliant Election Commission are some of the evil tools of trade that UMNO uses to keep its hold on political power. This “banality of evil” permeates UMNO at all levels.

Banality of evil is a phrase used by Hannah Arendt in the title of her 1963 work “Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil”. Her thesis was that the great evils in history generally, and the Holocaust in particular, were not executed by fanatics or sociopaths, but by ordinary people who accepted the premises of their state and therefore participated with the view that their actions were normal.

Thank God for us that all this has started to change after the 12th and 13th general elections.The balance of power in Malaysia has shifted. What was once UMNO’s unchallenged political dominance in Malaysian politics is now no more.

There is now a potentially formidable, effective and hopefully robust Opposition in parliament. Also the rakyat’s ability to question the commission and omission of any act or deeds perpetrated by those in high public office is in its ascendancy.

Our political elite can no longer pillage and plunder our nation’s resources with impunity. Whatever they do now can be effectively challenged in Parliament, by the social media, street demonstrations and tentatively through the Judiciary.

These politicians have been served notice that when conferred with the privilege of high public office and the power that goes with it, they should concern themselves with the responsibilities that come with the office rather than the spoils that political power makes possible.

And so for UMNO, it will no longer be “business as usual”. The responsibility of the Opposition now is to ensure that political change will keep pace with changing realities.

Compromise on all sides

How will we define the modalities of the Malaysia that we all aspire to? What are the certainties that we must have? The protection of human rights, social justice and quality of life? How shall the Malays and non- Malays now base their political and social relationship?

What do we replace Ketuanan Melayu with if the majority of Malays are to be placated? How will the traditional role of the Chinese in commerce be handled so that a more equitable distribution of wealth is made possible? How will the underprivileged, the poor and the aged be treated? How do we protect the interest of the minorities?

These are but just a few of the tasks that await the leaders that will take us into the post 13th general election era that is already upon us. For now our country is in a flux.

Pakatan won all the battle that was to be won in this 13th general election but it lost the war.That notwithstanding Pakatan must continue to be the party for reform and change.Malaysians are angry and more so now with the manner in which the 13th general election has been conducted.

What Pakatan must not do is to talk about change and reform and avoid doing anything about it. Pakatan must become responsible, open and accountable in the states that they govern while taking upon itself the responsibility of being an effective Opposition in parliament.

UMNO must realise that Pakatan – and the people of Malaysia – is a side they cannot defeat nor unilaterally impose its will upon. They must understand that the sharing of power with Pakatan through some consensual process is preferable to the flux that our country is now in after this 13th general election.

Invariably it would require a compromise on all sides but the outlines of a settlement is already apparent. UMNO must share political power with an Opposition that holds the popular mandate from the electorates while Pakatan must accept that UMNO still holds a majority in Parliament.

This is the constrain imposed by the electorates upon them. It would take the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job and the sincerity of our beloved Tunku to make Malaysia the nation all good Malaysian aspire to!

And so I ask that we pause to think what we should do to support BN and Pakatan as they start the process of reconciliation as reconcile they must for we are now, to all intents and purposes, a two party nation.

We do not want BN trying to govern Malaysia without the consensus of over half its electorates who have put their trust in Pakatan.Nor do we want Pakatan to talk of being a responsible political coalition while it goes about inciting hundreds and thousands of Malaysians to take government from a duly elected government of Malaysia.

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.