Will Khairy demand for Maria Chin’s release since he mocked the opposition’s fear that SOSMA would be abused against peaceful assemblies when the Act was passed in April 2012?

The Securities Offences (Special Measures) Act (SOSMA) was passed in Dewan Rakyat on 17 April 2012.  The controversial new law intended to fight and counter terrorism was hotly debated by both sides of the House.

Among the issue which was most fiercely discussed was the fact that provisions of SOSMA could be used against individuals deemed to be “carrying out activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy”.

The members of the opposition led by the then Opposition Leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had argued furiously that such a clause of involving “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” was too broad and will be subject to abuse by the authorities.

However, the Member of Parliament for Rembau, Khairy Jamaluddin, and a Minister in Najib’s Cabinet today, had mocked the opposition’s fear, claiming that they were not only unfounded, the letter of the proposed law was extremely clear and had no room for the purported abuse.

Instead, in his speech on the 16th April 2012, he praised the SOSMA Bill which was tabled by the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak himself, was “on the side of civil liberties”[1].
                                                                                       
He criticised the Opposition Leader for not understanding that activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy means, “an activity carried out by a person or group of persons designed to overthrow or undermine Parliamentary Democracy by violence or unconstitutional means”.[2]

Subsequently, during his speech on the Amendments to the Penal Code (2012) the next day, Khairy further criticised the opposition’s position as “misleading” and reiterated that legitimate political dissent including peaceful assemblies or even, Bersih “is not detrimental to Parliamentary Democracy”.

“Saya dapati bahawa perbahasan daripada pihak pembangkang bukan mengelirukan tetapi amat lemah sekali sebab tidak mengkaji ataupun sengaja tidak mengakui bahawa sebenarnya apa yang dipinda ini tidaklah terlalu umum, tidaklah terlalu general, tidaklah terlalu longgar dan tidaklah satu peruntukan yang boleh ditafsirkan mengikut sesuka hati siapa-siapa pun.”

“…Kalau nak buat perhimpunan aman atau bersih pun, itu tidak detrimental to Parliamentary Democracy. Itu yang mereka [pembangkang] tak faham. Sudah cukup khusus daripada segi definisi yang diberi.”[3]

However, Bersih chairpeson, Maria Chin’s arrest under SOSMA three days ago has materialised all the fears expressed by the opposition MPs when the law was passed 4 years ago.  Despite only organising a peaceful assembly to seek free and fair elections to ensure a clean government, the Police are investigating her for “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” and detained her under SOSMA.

The question now for the Youth and Sports Minister is, will he now accept that he was over-zealous in his defence of the SOSMA and Penal Code Amendment Bills and his confidence with the authorities’ interpretation of the Acts in the spirit that they were intended was badly misplaced?

More importantly, will Khairy Jamaluddin do the honourable thing now to demand that Maria Chin be immediately released because she has been wrongfully arrested?

Or will he, more likely, keep his mouth shut and pretend that he had never said in Parliament that the SOSMA and Penal Code Amendment Bills will not be used on peaceful assemblies or Bersih?

[1] Hansard 16/4/2012 p18
[2] Hansard 16/4/2012 p24
[3] Hansard 17/4/2012 p73

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Khairy, you are wrong – the United States Department of Justice did not paint Putrajaya guilty, they merely laid out the facts

It appears that the undoubtedly intelligent UMNO Youth Chief, Khairy Jamaluddin is more than prepared to walk the talk, to become Najib’s number one “macai”, even if it destroys all the street cred he has built for himself over the years.

He has urged UMNO Youth members to “stand by our leader”, “even at the cost being labelled as ‘macai’ or ‘balachi’” on Tuesday’s Putrajaya UMNO Wanita, Youth and Puteri meet. 

He followed up last night by ticking off the United States (US) Department of Justice (DOJ) for painting Putrajaya as guilty.

"The way they announced (their findings) is as though it was a conviction, as though (those named) are already guilty and to be punished… The words used showed as though Malaysia and the government are guilty," Khairy said at the Sepang Puteri and Umno Youth annual assembly.

It is all a very clever play of words, to first discredit the prosecution, taint the people’s perception of the case and tug the members’ heartstrings for sympathy for pretend innocence.

Yes, the DOJ did indeed accuse “Malaysian Official One” of embezzling US$731 million of Malaysian tax-payers’ money via 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).  But what is wrong with that?  Isn’t the role of any public prosecutor, including those in Malaysia, to lay out the charges by accusing the suspects of criminal wrongdoings?

The DOJ did not pronounce the “Malaysian Official One” “guilty”.  They merely laid out the detailed facts and figures which backed their very serious and convincing charge of money laundering and grand larceny.

Hence when Khairy demanded that the troops “defend the truth”, Malaysians would like to know what exactly is the truth that the UMNO Youth and Sports Minister is talking about? 

In fact, the DOJ charges are all the more convincing because the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak, Khairy and all the other BN leaders have failed to come up with an iota of evidence or alibi to deny the charges put forward by the DOJ.

For example, why hasn’t Dato’ Seri Najib Razak denied that US$681 million of funds borrowed by 1MDB Global Investment Limited on 19 March 2013 found its way into the personal bank account of “Malaysian Official One” on 21 and 25 March 2013 via intermediary companies?

In fact, we would like to further ask the Prime Minister if he is still standing by his earlier alibi that the funds came from an unnamed ultra-generous donor from the Middle East?  It could not be easier for the Prime Minister to prove the DOJ wrong by showing up the mysterious Arab donor with the relevant transaction documents.

Instead, the Arab sheikh seems to have vanished altogether into thin air after DOJ laid out its facts. 

All that Dato’ Seri Najib Razak is doing now is making all Malaysians cringe with shame and embarrassment, by insisting “that what was done by the DOJ recently does not involve me, or the Malaysian government, or 1MDB directly,” as he did on Indonesian television yesterday.

How can anyone who is apparently “innocent” claim that the DOJ suit does not involve the Prime Minister, the Malaysian government or 1MDB directly, when the whole world saw how the US Attorney General detailed how Malaysia has become a kleptocratic nation, led by “Malaysian Official One” whose brainchild 1MDB misappropriated more than US$3.5 billion of funds to be laundered around the world.

Khairy Jamaluddin has insulted his own intelligence and brought shame to his alma mater by choosing to be a Najib “macai”, not to “defend the truth” as claimed, but to do the exact opposite of covering up the most corrupt regime in the history of Malaysia.  His transformation to the Dark Side is clearly complete.

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1MDB Whimper

Media Statement by Tony Pua, DAP National Publicity Secretary and Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday, 12 May 2015:

After all the fire and brimstone by top UMNO leaders about the 1MDB bailout over the last few days, the UMNO Supreme Council Meeting ended with a whimper, pledging complete support to the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak

This is the proverbial story of the wolf or in this case, wolves who huffed and puffed with great pomp and vigour, but just couldn’t blow the house of Najib down.

Top UMNO leaders lined up to speak up against the 1MDB imbroglio which touched a raw nerve when it sold a piece of land to Lembaga Tabung Haji at RM2,773 per square feet (psf) which 1MDB bought from the Government for less than RM64psf 4 years ago.


Just a day ago, the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin sternly warned “Umno’s image cannot be smeared just because of 1MDB. It affects the trust i.e. the core belief that the people have in the party.”

UMNO Youth Chief, Khairy Jamaluddin even demanded that the Ministry of Finance cancels the land transaction between 1MDB and Tabung Haji to “avoid negative perception”.

UMNO Vice-President, Datuk Shafie Apbal warned that if the 1MDB crisis isn’t handled well, the credibility of the Government will continue to be questioned.

Even fellow UMNO Vice-President and cousin to the Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Hishamuddin Hussein broke his silence to demand that an international auditor be appointed to audit 1MDB.

But in the UMNO Supreme Council meeting held last evening, everything ended up business as usual. The much-anticipated fireworks ended with a pathetic whimper.

UMNO President, Dato’ Seri Najib Razak disclosed that “the Supreme Council expressed renewed support for the president and the deputy president. The Supreme Council wants the president, deputy president, the council and all Umno leaders to unite as a team to face all the challenges and take positive action to strengthen Umno and Barisan Nasional’s position among the people”.

The support from the all-powerful UMNO Supreme Council comes after the Prime Minister publicly proclaimed that he will not bow to pressure to resign two days ago.

Hence it cannot be clearer that UMNO is like a leopard which can never change its spots. No matter how serious the degree of abuse of power, incompetence, gross mismanagement and corruption involved in the party, they will continue to support their supreme leader who wields near absolute powers.

Despite the massive public uproar over the bailout of 1MDB via the sale of land purchased at bargain basement prices from the Government to other government-linked financial institutions at astronomical prices, it remains business as usual for UMNO. Over the past week, both Tabung Haji and the Pension Fund (KWAP) have been exposed as having purchased land from 1MDB at very high prices, providing the latter with the necessary life-support to service its interest payments.

Tonnes of evidence have surfaced which pointed to Jho Low embezzling billions of ringgit of 1MDB’s borrow monies into his own company’s accounts. Despite that, Dato’ Seri Najib continued to insist that Jho Low wasn’t involved and the UMNO Supreme Council happily falls in line.

The above only goes to show that UMNO leaders are nothing more than a bunch of power-hungry hypocrites. At the end of the day, despite all the foaming at the mouth to express their disgust and anger against the billions lost by the taxpayers, it is more important to toe the line of the all-powerful party President.

The Rakyat should not have any expectation that UMNO is able to change its DNA. The only expectation they should have is, as long as UMNO is in power, grand corruption, abuse of power and sheer incompetence will not only be tolerated, they will only become more blatant and brazen, as they did since the days of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohammed.


Tony Pua

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Stop Procrastinating, Reform the Police

First of all, I would like to express my commiseration to Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin whose house in Bukit Damansara was burglared in broad daylight over the weekend.  My own terrace house had been burglared twice in 2009 and 2010, which was a reason why my family moved into an apartment which has 24 hours security in 2011.

No one, whether a Minister, politician, whether from Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional, or any man on the street, should be subjected to the trauma of crime in this country. We are thankful that in this instance, no one was injured in the incident. The above, and many other crime incidents in recent months occuring to VIPS, including family members of  other ministers and senior police officers proved that crime is not mere perception in Malaysia. If Minister’s and senior police officers are not safe from crime, then how can the ordinary city folks even sleep in peace?

Khairy himself has accepted as such in his Facebook comment yesterday evening on the incident. He wrote that "Insiden ini adalah peringatan kepada kita semua bahawa jenayah merupakan masalah serius di negara kita. Masalah ini adalah perkara yang nyata, bukan semata-mata persepsi."

The threat of crime has forced the man on the street to take matters into their own hands by setting up "illegal" boom gates and access barriers as well as forking out millions of Ringgit every year to employ security guards to protect themselves. Therefore these acts of barricading their housing estates into war zones are certainly not acts of wanting to "live in exclusivity" as alleged by Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Member of Parliament for Kota Belud previously in Parliament.

There is no question that crime statistics over the past years have been manipulated to give Malaysians a false perception of security. The government claims that street crimes have been reduced by 40% in recent years while the crime index has fallen by 25% from 2007 to 2011. What the government has attempted to hide from Malaysians was that non-index crime index have over the same period increased by a whopping 69%!

The most incredulous of the BN Government claims must be that Malaysia is the safest country in Southeast Asia, even safer than Singapore, and some say, Hong Kong and Japan.

We must stop lying to ourselves and the Government must start admitting the severity of crime in the country.  Only and unless the Government and the police are willing to accept that fact, there will be no sense of urgency among the authorities to make things better.  What we will get instead is excuses by the police force and even Pemandu itself, that the repeal of Emergency Ordinance to keep suspects under 2 year detentions have caused an increase in crime.

The Malaysian Police must concede that the real reason behind the weaknesses in fighting crime is the sheer misallocation of resources within the force.  Over the past 8 years, the criminal investigation department (CID) comprises barely 9% of the police force. In stark contrast, 41% of uniformed police perform management functions, while 31% are tasked with internal security and public order such as the Federal Reserve Unit (FRU), the Light Strike Force as well as the General Operations Force.

Even the Special Branch of the police has nearly the same number of personnel as the CID.  In fact the Budget figures in 2010 showed that the police produced 733,237 reports and security checks by the Special Branch, but only 211,645 criminal investigation papers. So Special Branch produced more than three times as many reports as the CID.

The 2005 Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) Report has recommended about 20,000 uniformed personnel or 22% of the force could be reassigned to go back to active core policing work. Unfortunately this recommendation was never taken seriously by the Home Ministry.

The Home Ministry and the Malaysian police must stop giving excuses to the rising spate of crime.  It must accept the findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry carried out 8 years ago, and implement all the necessary measures to improve the effectiveness and professionalism of the police force.  The failure to do so will only see crime persist at high and increasing levels, making Malaysia unsafe not only for its citizens, but also as a conducive country of business and investment.

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Khairy vs Zahid - Who's Spinning?

Khairy Jamaluddin says Zahid Hamidi’s “leave Malaysia” statement is the latter’s own opinion while Zahid defends his statement – so who’s spinning?

Newly appointed Home Affairs Minister, Datuk Zahid Hamidi told Malaysians in Utusan Malaysia to leave the country if they are not happy with the outcome of the 13th General Election.  He gave the excuse that Malaysia has inherited the first-past-the-post system from the United Kingdom, which is also utilised in many Commonwealth states.  Therefore he argued that despite Pakatan Rakyat achieving 51.78% of the popular vote, our adopted system allows for a party or coalition with lower popular vote to win 60% of the seats in Parliament.

Datuk Zahid Hamidi is in effect demonstrating his utter contempt and arrogance by telling Malaysians who wants to improve our electoral system and prevent blatant abuses via gerrymandering to leave the country.

In the ensuing uproar, first-term and newly appointed Youth and Sports Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin tried to diffuse the controversy by telling reporters that the “leave Malaysia” comment was the UMNO Vice-President and Home Minister’s personal view.  He claimed that it is not the view of Najib’s administration.

However, at the same time, Datuk Zahid Hamidi came out to defend his article claiming there is nothing wrong with his comments because he wasn’t racist.

The statements by these two Ministers makes a complete mockery of Najib’s “new” administration, and leaves Malaysians completely stunned dumbfounded.

First of all, who is Khairy to claim that the “leave Malaysia” comment is Zahid’s personal comment and not that of the Najib administration?  Did Najib appoint Khairy has his official spokesperson to the extent that Khairy can dismiss outright the comments made by the UMNO vice-president?  Or was it instead, only Khairy’s “personal view” that Zahid’s comments was the latter’s personal view?

It appears that Khairy has been completely discredited because the Prime Minister has himself remained completely silent over the issue. Zahid has on the other hand come out with all guns blazing defending his “leave Malaysia” statement, while ignoring the “personal view” issued by Khairy.

Unfortunately Zahid’s only defence for his statement was that he wasn’t making a racist statement. Zahid obviously doesn’t take the criticisms by Malaysians seriously as we never accused him of making a racist statement here.  We are accusing him of being arrogant and contemptous of the rights of Malaysians to a freer and fairer electoral system.

Malaysians are fully aware that the first-past-the-post system does indeed grant disproportionate allocations of seats relative to the percentage popular vote.  However, the system in Malaysia has been abused by BN to the extent where the gap between the constituencies with the least number of voters such as Putrajaya (15,791) and Padang Rengas (28,518) won by BN, compared to those with the biggest population such as Kapar (144,159) and Serdang (133,139) won by Pakatan Rakyat far exceeds acceptable reason.  One will not find such ridiculous discrepancies between constituencies in other advanced first-past-the-post democracies such as United Kingdom or Australia.

This is the reason why hundreds of thousands of Malaysians have gathered in various cities over the past week to demand a better electoral system, be it a fairer distribution of voters in all constituencies or a thoroughly revamped proportional representation system, or a mixture of both as practiced in certain other advanced democracies.  It is the right of ordinary Malaysians to demand free and fair elections.

Datuk Zahid Hamidi’s continued defense of his comments proves that BN does not believe in free and fair elections and will once again use all necessary means to manipulate constituencies in the next general election.

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Khairy Claims Tajuddin Paid Up Outstanding Debt to Government

Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin has claimed in his debate with PKR Director fo Strategy Rafizi Ramli 2 days ago that he is “certain that Danaharta didn't incur losses in the Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli case”.

In fact, the Umno Youth chief cited “sources” claimed that Tajudin may have even paid more than the amount owing, as a result of the undisclosed out-of-court settlement.

“We don't know the outcome as it was done out of court. (The opposition) says Tajuddin need not pay, but they don't say that maybe the settlement involved paying part of the debt or maybe more than the RM500 million owed.”

Khairy’s claim is completely unbelievable and lacks all credibility given the clandestine manner in which the Government has sought to cover up the entire episode and the refusal of any Minister to confirm or deny the claim that Danaharta had in fact written off all Tajuddin’s debt.

Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office had in November last year directed all Government-Linked Companies (GLCs) to withdraw all civil suits against former MAS owner and chairman, Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli.  He wrote that “the government of Malaysia and the Finance Ministry has agreed to settle all civil claims against Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli and others to be withdrawn immediately in view of the fact that the government and the Finance Ministry have agreed that the said cases will be settled out of court.”

The High Court had in December 2009 rule in favour of Danaharta and its two subsidiaries on the on the full amount outstanding – RM589.15 million – and had ordered Tajudin to pay an interest of 2% above the base lending rate of Malayan Banking Bhd until the date of full realisation.  The Court had also dismissed Tajudin’s counterclaim to the tune of over RM14 billion excluding damages and cost.

Danaharta’s claims are based on the claims that Tajudin had defaulted on a syndicated loan of RM1.792 billion, which he took in 1994 to acquire the Government’s 32% stake in Malaysian Airlines System (MAS).

Rafizi has rightly sniped that Khairy seems to be answering "as if he is Tajudin's lawyer" when even Cabinet Ministers were unable and unwilling to provide straight answers.

The Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak must immediately confirm if indeed his UMNO Youth Chief is telling the truth or is lying to the public over the above scandal.  This is especially since it is the first time a BN politician has claimed that Tan Sri Tajuddin paid part or all of his outstanding debt as part of the settlement exercise.

If not, it will only prove that there is a conspiracy to cover up the fact that Danaharta has in effect written off the debt in order to protect BN’s long-time cronies.  It will be clear that under Najib’s administration, the cronies’ interests will be protected at all cost, at the expense of ordinary Malaysians.

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Khairy should Get Out from the Racial Mindset

I read with bemusement and disappointment not for the first time, MP for Rembau, Khairy Jamaluddin asking DAP to declare its number of Malay members to prove our 'multiracial' credentials.

It is unfortunate that Khairy is not able to rid himself of the UMNO paradigm of race-based ideology and politics. The DAP has never denied the fact that Malays form a small proportion of our membership base, and this "weakness" has been exploited by BN politicians stuck in the racial mindset to the hilt to frighten the Malay community into submission.

Khairy and his fellow BN leaders subcribes to the quota-based "multi-racial" definition where it can only be multi-racial if 70% of scholarships are awarded to Malays or if 30% of corporate wealth is in the hands of bumiputeras (excluding Government ownership).

The DAP's political ideology is based on social justice, democracy, freedom and equal opportunity and not based on race.  Hence we are multi-racial because we do not ban membership based on the colour of one's skin, unlike the key BN parties of UMNO, MCA and MIC.  The DAP accept all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or geography as members, as long as they believe in our struggles and subscribe to our political ideals.

There is no question that we face the uphill task of convincing the Malay community to join our struggles over the past decades, especially in the light of UMNO's use of racial arguments to fan sentiments, attract and retain members. However, our leaders have never been dismayed by the uphill battle and have no intention of sacrificing our ideals by doing a "Perkasa", just to attract more Malay members.  The means will not justify the ends.

Instead we believe that over time, the principles of social justice, freedom, democracy and equal opportunity will emerge victorious against race-supremacist ideologies.  Increasingly, we can see greater dissatisfaction among the Malay community of UMNO's antics of hiding corruption, cronyism and abuse of power under the guise of the New Economic Policy. We are happy that there are an increasing number of leaders and activists in the Malay community who have joined DAP recently because they believe in our cause.

The numbers will only increase once the Malay community, and Malaysians at large see past the lies printed in BN-owned mainstream media, and understand that the DAP causes will benefit all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion and geography.  Hopefully Khairy, of all people, will be able to rid himself of his preoccupation with race by then.

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UMNO Must Apologise to Guan Eng's Son

Khairy Jamaluddin must apologise and UMNO must take stern actions against its members
The UMNO bloggers are individuals with absolutely no scruples or morals. They are willing to sink to despicable depths to achieve their political goals. They are the bottom feeders of the society, and are a complete disgrace to their race, religion and country.

They have attempted to defame the 16 year old son of Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng and humiliate his family with a completely fictitious sexual harassment story. These bloggers even attempted to lend credibility to the concoction by putting up the picture of a young girl.
Nobody from the school of Lim’s son knew who she was, including the principal and teachers. It is not surprising, especially since, the girl never studied in Penang, and “better” still, is not even a Malaysian resident!

With some quick sleuthing work by Goh Kheng Teong, our IT Manager at the DAP Headquarters, we soon discovered that the girl in question is not only a foreigner, but also a high achiever. Anya Corke has been Hong Kong’s national champion of chess for many years as a teenager, and is now a 21 year old 3rd year student at a top liberal arts college in the United States.

The above proves beyond doubt that all the accusations by these UMNO cybertroopers are nothing by barbaric lies. They are willing to destroy the life of an innocent 16 year old and bring the country into disrepute by defaming a foreign top achiever for political ends.

UMNO Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin must immediately withdraw his tweet yesterday which said “Mungkin dia roboh Kampung Buah Pala sebab nak ganti dengan Kampung Buah Dada”. His snide remark was not only crass, he was perpetuating the vicious lies to his 64,000 followers on Twitter.

As an UMNO Youth Chief who is a role-model for many Malaysian youths, and who claim to be an example of “new politics”, he must take responsibility for his callous action and publicly apologise, especially to the victimised 16-year-old son of Lim Guan Eng. The failure to do so will only further taint his character in the eyes of Malaysians.

We would also like to call upon all UMNO cybertroopers who have concocted the lies and making Malaysia a centre for gutter politics to repent for their actions.

The UMNO disciplinary committee must also take harsh and stern actions against the UMNO members and leaders who perpetrators of the above slander to prove that UMNO is not beyond redemption. The failure to take actions against these rogue and vulgar members such as Dr Novandri Hassan Basri and “Papagomo” will only lead to the conclusion that UMNO is the real culprits behind these concerted efforts to slander and libel Pakatan Rakyat leaders, even if young innocent boys and girls become collateral damage in the process.

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Khairy Asks "Who is DAP?"

Many would have read Khairy's UMNO Youth speech by now. It contains some marked changes from UMNO Youth speeches from the past. Less "ketuanan Melayu", more "open competition". Whether the rank and file will pay heed to his "clarion call" will determine if UMNO survives or perish.

But the speech wasn't all about the need for change, he took the opportunity to hentam the Pakatan Rakyat parties as well. More specifically, he whacked DAP:

...who is DAP, really? Masking its almost mono-racial character with the chimera of a multi-racial platform - when in truth, DAP's priorities are unmistakably racial.

"After 40 years of Lim Kit Siang being a parliamentarian, the opening of one Malay branch was deemed fit to shout about, as though it was an astounding achievement. DAP is multi-racial only in name, for its actual agenda is couched in racist sentiment," he said.

I hereby openly challenge Khairy to name 1 instance where Lim Kit Siang or DAP uttered anything that is remotely racist. All our statements are available publicly both on our blogs, or the party's official website. Khairy should point out any article or statement in there by our leaders, which are so called "couched in racist sentiment" to back his claims.

Unless of course Khairy feels that when we talk of UMNO leaders being corrupt is a racist statement, or when we berate the stench from the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal as racist, or when we seek to protect the constitutionally guaranteed rights of minorities of their freedom as racist. Then, I would have really got nothing left to say.

Otherwise, if Khairy is unable to bring up at all any iota of evidence that DAP is racist, he should just go hide in his corner and play with his marbles, and stop making baseless statements to stir racial sentiments.

Khairy should look at himself and UMNO in the mirror, and count for himself the number of times the term "Malay" is stirred, and the manner in which all policies and speeches revolves around the race supremacy and dominance concept, instead of the Malaysian concept, and then decide who is the real racist party in this country.

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UMNO Youth Returns To Racist Rhetoric

I had thought that under the "new" leadership of Khairy Jamaluddin, UMNO Youth might just portray a different face of UMNO, compared to its vitrolic and thuggish past. I that thought, wrongly, that we'll have a more "centrist" UMNO Youth to deal with in the years to come, making the opposition's life more difficult. But it looks like it just cannot stay away from its true nature for long.

It is shocking that they have gone to the extent of using extremist religious rhetoric to rouse hate sentiments which clearly runs contrary to the so called concept of "1Malaysia".

Umno Youth stepped up its attacks against the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state government, accusing PAS of abandoning its Islamic ideology, and of becoming so liberal that “pork would soon be sold openly on the streets here [Shah Alam].”

Will they get any tongue-lashing from Datuk Seri "1Malaysia" Najib Abdul Razak? Or any threats of being charged for sedition by the Home Minister? No. I wouldn't be surprised if they are being given a pat in the back instead.

They continue with the old failed tactics of "A vote for PAS is a vote for DAP." This is no different from MCA's ploy with the minorities by arguing that "A vote for DAP is a vote for PAS."

I believe Malaysian voters have matured, and finds it completely reasonable that "A vote for PAS is a vote for DAP and vice-versa", for we are all in a coalition to protect the interest of all Malaysians, uphold integrity and promote good governance. Unlike of course, UMNO and Barisan Nasional who are unable to distinguish between personal and public interest, between racism and "Malaysian.

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Khairy Shows True Colours Again

For a moment, I thought there was a slight possibility that of all the insular, extremist UMNO leaders, there was one person who learnt his lesson well from the last general elections, that is the favourite public whipping boy, and now UMNO Youth Chief, Khairy Jamaluddin.

Check out his interviews with Malaysiakini post-March elections. Did you attend his Asia21 Forum where he said "I'm sad for BN, but I'm happy for democracy and for Malaysians", almost inspiring? What about the oft used phrase by BN leaders "We must change, or be changed!", that appears absolutely down the drain now too.

Read Utusan Malaysia. Hear what our Deputy Prime Minister is talking about. It's all still race, race, race. (Oh, and it's not about taking part in a "competitive race")

And now back to Khairy. After a brush with projecting a "reformed" image, it's now back to being a race and religious bigot. This piece of Bernama news is just shocking, when Khairy accused "the DAP, which was becoming more bold in insulting Islam lately."

"Umno Youth will organise a 'ceramah perdana' in Shah Alam, Selangor next Friday to counter the (DAP) insults against Islam... on this issue (religion), the Muslims are offended at their (DAP leaders') attitude and this needs a joint effort," he said.

DAP despite not having issued anything statement at all that is anti-Islam, despite having just been upholding justice and the law, we are defamed as "insulting Islam". Of course, by their definition, any such racist and religious bigot attacks on DAP is not sedition.

Suddenly Khairy is now a religious hero who is anti-alcohol. What hypocrisy, a perfect example of "meludah ke langit".

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Khairy Face-Off

I've been off only for a few days from blogging and I'm getting complaints already ;-)

Well, besides a day which I took off to quietly enjoy my 36th birthday (and to remind myself that age is certainly catching on...), there just wasn't time to sit down and blog properly despite having at least 7 posts in draft mode(!).

But skipping the drafts and coming to the most recent event yesterday when I had a "face-off" with the honourable Member of Parliament from Rembau, Khairy Jamaluddin as well as the Selangor state assemblyman for Seri Setia, Nik Nazmi. Nik is also the youngest candidate in the last general elections, and is now doubling up as the political secretary to the Selangor Menteri Besar. The forum was held at the Malaysian Student Leaders' Summit, hosted by the UK and Eire Council for Malaysian Students (UKEC).

I won't go into the details of the session which lasted some one and a half hour long, which was certainly lively on the issue of subsidies and the tongkat mentality in Malaysia. Nik has blogged it here, with the Star headlining Rembau here and Malaysian Insider terming the debate as a "stalemate".

(Heh, Nik and I must have done a real crappy job of it if it was 2 against 1 and still ended stalemate ;-))

Khairy gets squeezed in this threesome

And there are other bloggers who blogged about it as well so far, Rajan R with a specific reference to the issue of foreign labour and low wages, and Shannon Shah, who will be writing for the soon-to-be-launched "The Nut Graph", was happy to see a democratic debate alive in Malaysia. I'm sure there'll be other sites which I've missed who have blogged the event.

Khairy revealed that I will be crossing over to Barisan Nasional on September 16th

I've only got a few points to add from the debate.

Firstly, possibly the only bit which I thought I could have answered better when pressed by the moderator with regards to the issue of forcing the hands of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) to renegotiate the purchasing power agreements (PPAs) versus the concern of upholding the sanctity of contracts.

I had ended the line of argument by saying that the Government must have the political will to act in the interest of the public. I could probably have better express my point by making the Government weigh the cost (if any) of the grossly unfair PPA contracts which benefits very very few, versus the cost to the public and the overall Malaysian economy in the years to come. In my opinion, a mistake has been made by the government, and a responsible government will have to take the side of the people it serves.

Secondly, it was a rebuttal which I had wanted to make while debating a point with Khairy, but I didn't, so that the debate can move on to subsequent points. But I thought, definitely worth putting in the rebuttal here at the very least.

In a gist, Nik and I have argued that gradual reductions in subsidies should be done only after 2 key issues, a comprehensive social safety net as well as a efficient public transport system has been put in place.

Khairy had argued that funds were diverted to other important functions such as the RM4 billion food security fund, hence the savings from the "reduction" in subsidies could not be sufficiently allocated to public transport.

I, in return argued that the overall government budget has increased by some RM40 billion since 2004, hence there is no excuse for the lack of expenditure in essential projects like public transport. This increase was largely contributed by payments by Petronas to the government which increased in tandem with the rise in oil prices.

Khairy then argued that while there was an increase in government budget, the funds were utilised for development projects in the interest of the people, hence it was a question of priorities.

I then replied that the priorities were obviously wrong because over the past 10 years since 1998, the government has increased development expenditure from approximately RM20 billion to RM42 billion (2008), while, operational expenditure which comprises rental, wages, pens and paper, maintenance etc., ballooned from about RM40 billion to RM129 billion (2008)! Hence most of the increase in expenditure, financed by our Petronas money was not going to development.

Khairy responded that I have underestimated the importance of maintenance, as it was certainly critical to upkeep our infrastructure, for there is no point building new schools if we don't maintain them.

I let the argument rest there because I thought my point has been made and the audience should be able to judge it accordingly. But I was certainly eager to add on that the reason why our maintenance cost is so darn high is simply because it costs so much more to maintain our infrastructure than to actual build them! The case in point was the RM120 million MRR 2 flyover, which had cost RM70 million to repair in 2004, and now the pillars are cracking again! Or the countless other examples of bailouts - LRTs, MAS, MATRADE etc. Or the schools maintenance scandal, where RM30,000 was paid for RM3,000 worth of renovations. Not to mention of course, our Proton Perdana repair bills!

Khairy obviously doesn't take "no" for an answer ;-)
(Pictures courtesy of Nik Nazmi)

Well, the debate wasn't ever going to have any clear cut winners or losers. Such debate rarely does, unless one party is completely doofuss. What was important was the fact that a meaningful debate was carried out and the panelist has the opportunity to present their views and the audience gets to make (hopefully), a more informed opinion.

I hope that the 500+ audience who attended the forum yesterday had a good time and as I mentioned during the forum, I certainly hope that more will be inspired to join us in playing our part of change and make Malaysia a more progressive nation, whether with the government or the opposition (DAP preferred of course! ;-)) at some point in their lives.

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New Economic Policy Rhetoric

I'm kinda late blogging this issue, as the matter was discussed and a ruckus was created in Parliament last Thursday morning in Parliament. You would have read all about it here (Malaysiakini) or here (The Sun).

The question from REMBAU was:

...adakah kerajaan bercadang untuk mengubah polisi yang telah digubal berlandaskan semangat Dasar Ekonomi Baru, terutamanya yang menolong kaum bumiputera sejajar dengan desakan pembangkang untuk menolak dasar ini.

The replies from the Government, which has been asked numerous times on this issue in this session, of which written replies has been provided has been standard and rhetorical and does not at all address the issues at hand. To quote some of the standard replies provided, the Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Senator Datuk Amirsham A Aziz stated that:

DEB telah digubal pada awal 1970-an dengan matlamat utama iaitu untuk mencapai perpaduan nasional dan pembentukan negara melalui strategi serampang dua mata.

Pertama, pembasmian kemiskinan tanpa mengira kumpulan etnik dan kedua, penyusunan semula masyarakat bagi menghapuskan pengenalan etnik mengikut fungsi ekonomi. Semangat DEB kemudiannya telah diterapkan dalam dasar-dasar ekonomi selepasnya iaitu Dasar Pembangunan Nasional, Dasar Wawasan Negara dan Misi Nasional di bawah Rancangan Malaysia Kesembilan bagi menangani masalah jurang sosial ekonomi antara dan di kalangan kumpulan etnik bandar dan luar bandar.

I won't quote the entire thing but you can read the rest of his "standard" reply here from the Hansard. The government has never responded to the issue that the problem and objection with the DEB doesn't really lie with the "noble" objectives but with its discriminatory practices and overzealous implementation.

Anyway, the whole episode got "politicised" when REMBAU asked in his supplementary question:

Ahli Yang Berhormat daripada bahagian yang juga Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang telah berikrar untuk menghapuskan Dasar Ekonomi Baru daripada pentadbiran Kerajaan Negeri Pulau Pinang kerana DEB ini, “Breeds corruption, cronyism and systematic inefficiency”, dengan izin.

Saya hendak bertanya Yang Berhormat Menteri, adakah adil untuk Yang Berhormat
Bagan membuat rumusan umum seolah-olah rakyat yang mendapat faedah daripada DEB, yang miskin tidak kira kaum, berjuta-juta pelajar dan profesional bumiputera termasuk Yang Berhormat Menteri sendiri yang menjadi produk DEB, yang menjadi ketua pegawai eksekutif bank yang terbesar di Malaysia seolah-olah kita semua ini kroni dan kaki rasuah. Adakah ini kenyataan yang adil, Yang Berhormat Menteri? Adakah ini adil?

That was when the Minister started reading his 2-page prepared text which clearly demonstrated that the answer was prepared in advance, making a mockery of the parliamentary question time. There was obvious collusion between REMBAU and the Minister, to attack BAGAN on his statement to eliminate the corruption and cronyism associated with the New Economic Policy.

Datuk Amirsham started his reply with

...saya berpendapat kenyataan Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang itu tidak tepat dan langsung tidak memahami objektif DEB... Kalau itu kesimpulan beliau tentang DEB, maka sesiapa sahaja yang mendapat bantuan melalui DEB sama ada dalam bentuk pinjaman, peluang pekerjaan, peluang perniagaan, biasiswa dan lain-lain itu adalah kroni dan kaki rasuah...

An answer like that from a so-called technocrat and professional Minister certainly deserves, in my opinion, the heckling from the opposition members he received subsequently. IPOH TIMUR rightly asked, "Panjangnya jawapan tambahan, siapa sediakan?" You can watch the video here.

I had stood to ask an additional supplementary question, but the opportunity went to BATU KAWAN [Prof Ramasamy]. I had wanted to ask the Minister:

Bukankah satu dasar yang memberikan tumpuan khusus kepada membantu golongan miskin jauh lebih berkesan membantu kaum bumiputera yang kurang berkeupayaan berbanding dengan DEB yang memberikan tumpuan mengikut bangsa, kerana ramai yang diberikan bantuan kerajaan bukannya golongan miskin kaum bumiputera, tetapi kaum UMNOputera yang telah kaya-raya, dan yang menerima manfaat yang lumayan sekali?

It's a question I hope to get the opportunity to ask one day in Parliament, as I would really like to hear the answer from the Ministers involved.

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Beruk Calling Beruk

So much to blog about... how-lah. Where got enough time??

Khairy Jamaluddin had during the UMNO General Assembly called for the organisers of the BERSIH rally to be arrested. He likened the demonstrators to 'beruks'.

“Don’t be like monkeys (beruk) on streets. If you want to fight, fight in the real ring like a man."

You can check out his speech here on YouTube.

Well, I'm guilty of demonstrating at the BERSIH rally, and hence by Khairy's definition, I'm now officially a 'beruk'. ;-)

But interestingly enough, Khairy who has led plenty of street protests as well in Malaysia, a fellow 'beruk' as well? Check out this clip from none other than the Oracle of Truth with Khairy himself leading the show with a group of protesters who tried to force their way into the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. ;-)



And not forgetting, even when not "demonstrating", he certainly carried traits of being one at Ijok ;-).

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Subsidies: RM35b or RM10b?

UMNO leaders typically attempts to talk a little more sense prior to an election, and this years' UMNO General Assembly, which is likely to be the last one prior to the next general election is no different.

UMNO Youth Deputy Chief, Khairy Jamaluddin, rightly criticised the current subsidy structure where the rich benefits more from the Government's subsidy scheme than the poor.

What was however interesting was when Khairy claimed that:

In all, the government had to foot RM35 billion, or 25 percent of government income, lamented Khairy during the debate on economy and education at the Umno assembly today.

Now, this RM35 billion figure is absolutely new to me. For the last I checked, specifically at the Goverment's 2007 and 2008 budget, the subsidy levels are no where near the purported figure given by the Member of Parliament and possible Minister in the making.

Based on the Budget figures provided by the prime minister's office, the subsidies allocated by the Government amounts to only RM12.2 billion and RM10.2 billion for 2007 and 2008 respectively, as shown in the table below.

Federal Government Operating Expenditure by Object 2006-2008

The question, I have then is, who is telling the truth? If the Government's budget is providing the accurate figure, then why is Khairy sensationalising the Government's budget by more than thrice the original amount? Was it to make it look like the Government's burden is higher than it actually is at "25% of total revenue", as opposed to only 7%? It is to illicit the rakyat's sympathy for the government which has wasted billions of the rakyat's tax payers monies in all manners possible?

Or on the other hand, more worryingly, did the Government published budget figure totally inaccurate and hides the fact that the Government (mis)allocates an incredible amount of funds to subsidise parties of unknown origins?

I've always had my suspicions and skepticisms over the manner by which the Government produces their budget numbers (e.g., the discrepancy of RM8 billion (!) expenditure between the Prime Minister's budget speech versus the published Economic Report), but if the above discrepancy is indeed "true", then it's absolutely shocking!

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KJ "Protection"

Khairy Jamaluddin says he wants to use "protection" to change things, as reported by The Star.

PETALING JAYA: Khairy Jamaluddin says that being the Prime Minister’s son-in-law has provided him “protection” which he wants to use to change things for the better. The Umno Youth deputy chief said he was able to “push the envelope now” partly because of that relationship with the prime minister.

“There’s a certain extent (to which) these people in Umno will not go after me. So it gives me ‘protection’ to change things. If I don’t use this ‘protection’ to change things for the better, then I’m just wasting time and marking my time to go up the ladder of politics. That’s not what I am about.

“I want to use this time that I have while I have this ‘protection’ to change things, to change Umno for the better.”

Interesting. And making UMNO a more 'racialised' party, less tolerant of the other Malaysian races as well as promoting the Ketuanan Melayu and the New Economic Policy agenda - "changing UMNO for the better"?

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