Denied Entry Again

The dictator government of Malaysia is at it again!!

They are still banning Haris Ibrahim from entering Sarawak because they know that he is nothing but pure, unadulterated trouble -- for them, that is.

This dude knows how to speak his mind and uphold the rights of the Rakyat. And for that, we are grateful.

But something needs to be done about this banning of people for politically-motivated reasons.

From FMT:

Haris, the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) president, said that he was detained by Sarawak immigration authorites after landing at the Kuching International Airport at about 5.30pm today.

“The order of notification is the same as the one in April (this year). (But) I haven’t seen any papers (about this deportation) yet,” he told FMT through a telephone conversation.

Interestingly, he was allowed into Sabah to have his RARA roadshows in Tawau and Kota Kinabalu. But obviously, he has made Taib Mahmud very worried.

For the Sarawak elections recently, a lot of people were banned from entering Sarawak.

Launch of the Short Film ''Police Powers and Your Right"

Folks, this could be very useful for you.

Launch of the Short Film '' Police Powers and Your Right ''

Date: 29 September 2011 (Thursday)
Time: 8.00pm (Registration begins at 7.30pm)
Venue: Auditorium, 1st Floor KL &Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall

This has apparently been produced by several NGOs to provide basic knowledge to the people about their civil rights when dealing with the police.

This 15 minute film is presented by Ayam Fared, Amerul Affendi and Khairilridzuan, in collaboration with Rumah Anak Teater, SUARAM, Lim Lian Geok Cultural Development Centre, Amnesty International Malaysia and KOMAS.

For any enquiries: Please contact Lucas at 03-77843525 or 016-411 4147.

Smart Election Gimmicks

1. Hijack poor DAP's efforts to improve the facilities of the Chinese schools :-)

2. Pretend to work hard to raise money by cycling

3. Claim to take "great pride in the role and contribution of the Malaysian Chinese towards the betterment of education in the country"

4. Claim - even more ludicrously - that the BN government supported and gave assistance to the Chinese schools since independence.

5. Kiss Chinese ass by saying that the ability to speak Mandarin would help Malaysians remain competitive in the current global environment, that even his son learns it, and that his father had established links with China.

The smart Chinese that I know hardly give two hoots about China. They consider themselves Malaysian now.

But this was probably spun to glory for the stupid ones. And believe me, they will buy this -- hook, line and sinker.

Now You Know Why .....

... Lynas is being stubbornly hailed as a necessity in terms of job opportunities etc, in spite of the danger it poses.

Because Dr M's son Mokhzani holds a significant share in Lynas!

PETALING JAYA: Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has an ulterior motive for supporting the Lynas rare earth project, claimed an NGO.

“Mahathir’s eldest son Mokhzani Mahathir, the CEO of Kencana Petroleum has a large stake in the Lynas rare earth refinery project, said the Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL).

Its spokesperson, Steven Hang, said: “Kencana Torsco Sdn Bhd is a subsidiary of Kencana Petroleum that won lucrative contracts from Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

“Kencana Torsco is involved the design, fabrication, lining, supply, installation, and commissioning of carbon steel and stainless steel tanks worth RM9.1 million for the project.”

Hang made this claims based on facts obtained from Bloomberg Businessweek, a US-based business website portal.

Read the rest here: ‘Dr M has vested interest in Lynas’

Our Taxpayer Funds Used Again!

I have always been annoyed at how carelessly our money is spent. First APCO, then FBC Media, and now the former advisors to Tony Blair.

The thing that puzzles me with Najib is his fixation with spin and foreign spin doctors. First, he paid millions to APCO, then paid much more millions to FBC Media, a company which brought much disrepute to Malaysia because it transpired they paid for Najib and Malaysia to get good publicity.

The PM obviously does not rate his own staff highly. And it surprises me that any leader has to hire foreign spin doctors to tell him how to become a reformer.

Now he has got the Blair Boys. So who is paying their fees? Am I, as the taxpayer, picking up the tab? Is Najib paying out of his own pocket?

Read the whole piece by Lucius Goon at Who’s paying for Blair’s Boys?

More Fraud: Ex-EC Chief Issued 60,000 Fake ICs

From Malaysiakini:

A leaked US Embassy cable carries an explosive charge against former Election Commission (EC) chief Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman - that he admitted to issuing more than 60,000 fake Malaysian identity cards to foreign workers in Sabah in the 1990s on Umno's orders.

The cable, posted on WikiLeaks, quotes former Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) chief Malek Husin as claiming that Rashid confessed this to him during a private meeting at Rashid's house on Oct 25, 2006.

In the cable marked confidential, Malek is said to have told US Embassy officials that Rashid also confirmed Umno's launch of a "shadowy" campaign in the 1990s to wrest political control of Sabah - held until 1994 by then opposition front PBS.

"During that decade, Umno granted citizenship and Malaysian identity cards to over 600,000 foreign migrant workers (predominantly Muslims from Indonesia and Mindanao in the Philippines) in Sabah, in exchange for their votes in state assembly elections.

"According to Husin, Rashid 'admitted to personally issuing over 60,000 fraudulent Malaysian ICs in Sabah', to help Umno assume political control there," the cable says.

Up to the time of writing, Malaysiakini was unable to get an answer to calls or a text message sent to Abdul Rashid's mobile phone.

Instant citizenship and voting rights for illegal immigrants have long been an issue in Sabah, with local leaders within and outside the BN coalition having repeatedly demanded a solution from the federal government.

However, nothing has come of their demands.

It is claimed that the situation became acute in the 1990s, with the blame placed on then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for allegedly launching what is now called 'Projek IC' - a clandestine operation said to involve the National Registration Department, related government agencies and their agents - to artificially boost votes in favour of Umno and the BN.

In the 1994 state election, PBS - which had held Sabah as an independent opposition front since 1985 - saw its majority hold of the state assembly reduced to a razor-thin margin over the BN.

Although PBS was eventually toppled with a string of defections to the BN by party stalwarts, many blamed the contentious 'Projek IC' for playing a major role in the success of BN's hostile takeover of Sabah.

Wan Ahmad is 'anti-reform'

The cable, created on March 16, 2007, also includes Malek's claim that Rashid had described EC deputy chief Wan Ahmad Wan Omar as "an Umno member who is anti-reform".

Malek is said to have told US Embassy officials that Rashid had intended to stay on as EC chief until "the number two is gone", with the aim of easing in then EC secretary, Kamaruzaman Mohd Noor, as his successor.

In a separate meeting with Kamaruzaman, the cable quoted him as telling US Embassy officials that the EC was not in a position to push for reforms, as each and every proposal had to go through the Prime Minister's Office for approval.

Kamaruzaman is also reported to have said that the EC has no power to investigate election day abuses, with it having to refer allegations of fraud or election tampering to either the police or the Anti-Corruption Agency, the predecessor of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.

Battle for polls reform 'very steep'

Based on meetings among US Embassy officials and the EC, Mafrel, Bersih and several academicians, the cable summarised that electoral reforms in Malaysia faced a "very steep uphill battle" as it moved towards the March 2008 general election.

It ironically proved to be a watershed outing for opposition parties, which were able to deny the BN a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

The cable described the "Umno-led BN governing coalition" as keeping a tight rein over all important levers of power, including the EC, leaving little wiggle room for any efforts to open up elections to greater transparency and fairness.

It pointed out that, despite concerted efforts by Mafrel and Bersih to push for grassroots engagement in their bid for a revamp of an electoral system heavily tilted in BN's favour, "their best efforts will almost certainly not produce meaningful reforms", at least in the medium term.

"Umno, in power since independence, faces no effective public, opposition party or internal pressure to reduce its overwhelming powers of incumbency," the cable states.

Rakyat Reform Agenda

MCLM launches its Rakyat Reform Agenda roadshow later today:

Date: 19/09/2011
Time: 7:00pm
Venue: KL-Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall

Please attend and spread the word. Details at The People's Parliament.

Old Butch

John was in the fertilized egg business.

He had several hundred pullets (young hens) and ten roosters to fertilize the eggs.

He kept records, and any rooster not performing went into the soup pot and was replaced.

This took a lot of time, so he bought some tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone, so he could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing.

Now, he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report by just listening to the bells.

John's favorite rooster, old Butch, was a very fine specimen, but this morning he noticed old Butch's bell hadn't rung at all!

When he went to investigate, he saw the other roosters were busy chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing, but the pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover.

To John's amazement, old Butch had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring.

He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

John was so proud of old Butch, he entered him in the Renfrew County Fair and he became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The result was the judges not only awarded old Butch the "No Bell Piece Prize," but they also awarded him the "Pulletsurprise" as well.

Clearly old Butch was a politician in the making.

Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the unsuspecting populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

Are They Really Listening When It Comes To Oppressive Laws?

Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch once said, "It’s a fallacy to suggest Malaysia needs laws that violate basic rights in order to maintain a peaceful and harmonious society. Malaysians have time and again proven themselves capable of exercising the basic democratic rights to which they are entitled. It’s time their government listened."



For Hari Malaysia today, the PM Najib promised to "abolish" or "repeal" the Internal Security Act (ISA). The question is, was he listening to the citizens he serves?

Now the ISA is the most popular of Malaysia's draconian laws. Most of the detainees are high profile politicians and other opponents of the government, along with a sprinkle of genuine terrorists.

While the ISA may not be used anymore, nothing has been said about the Emergency Ordinance which has been abused far more than any other law.

It took at least 2 weeks of candlelight vigils around Kuala Lumpur to get the government's attention. The PSM6 were in custody for over a month.

To begin with, Najib's promises are not something I take very seriously. I believe this is basically posturing for the international scene. After all, the Sydney Morning Herald appears to have bought his claims in Malaysia to abandon its harshest laws.

What the SMH also has missed is the fact that two of the laws that are purportedly being repealed are merely being replaced by two other differently-worded laws but with potentially same consequences.

So did we really gain our basic democratic rights? Has the government listened?

The Haze And The Malaise

SKYSCRAPERS and lampposts in Kuala Lumpur are still festooned with flags left over from independence day festivities at the end of August.

Fittingly, this week they were shrouded in the annual “haze” of smog from forest fires on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Malaysia’s politicians are not in the mood to celebrate nationhood and unity. Rather, with an election in the offing, everything is a chance for political point-scoring.

Read the rest at The Economist

Using Money To Buy Votes

Bernama never fails to amuse.

There have been countless instances of BN cheating -- politicians and party workers blatantly giving money to buy votes.

In fact, there is a Malaysiakini video of Najib telling the voters of Sarawak that they will get their perpetually flooding drain fixed only if they voted for the BN candidate.

All this while, when BN was ruling the state they did nothing. But when they needed the votes, they promise the sky and the moon.

And yet, when DAP gives money to every child born, they claim that it is a case of vote-buying.

Doesn't that smell of an acute case of pot calling the kettle black???

Mobile Prepaid Service Tax

Once upon a time, no one used mobile phones. People communicated using landlines in their homes and offices. They made plans and kept them, instead of cancelling at the last minute.

And when they made plans, it was specific - "meet you at the front entrance of Central Market, the entrance in front of the car park" and if one party was late, they waited.

Things are different now. The pace of life is faster. The population is bigger. People travel further.

And so they need to communicate during the times between their homes and offices.

Very few people use prepaid service. Most prefer to use postpaid which comes with data roaming etc all thrown in.

The prepaid service was meant to be the cheapest, the most basic mobile service.

But thanks to the BN government, the service tax of 6% has been implemented, which is going to add to the burden of many retirees, not the yuppies.

This comes in the wake of Rosmah's diamond ring which she claims was purchased using money that she saved up since her youth.

The email showing the photos of Rosmah's ring and the Custom's records made the rounds twice in my office! Even my yuppie colleagues are unhappy about their hard-earned tax money being used by those in power.

Even before that, when the fuel subsidy was reduced and people had to pay high prices for petrol, the response from the prime minister was: Learn to tighten your belts!

Tighten??? The only way the average Malaysian could tighten his belt is if he wore an ular sawa (python) around his waist.

I doubt many people have forgotten the attitude of the ruling coalition to the needs of the average joe. Barisan Nasional had best rethink its ways of governing, not of cheating during elections!

Bernama Caught Lying Blatantly

The words of a government scholar in Perth:

“They totally changed and added stuff that we never said. And the whole thing was done before the speech … I feel it is rather silly and unnecessary,” he said.

“They… put in quotes that we actually did not say and altered our words. We did not say anything bad so I don’t see why they needed to do that.”

You're probably wondering what this is all about.

It all started when the Malaysian Students' Council of Australia held a dinner for PM Najib Razak at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Perth last Saturday. Also invited were the students sponsored by the Public Service Department, Mara and Petronas.

Before PM Najib Razak even made his speech, the students were asked to write down their comments. Bernama took these comments and changed them to make them sound like they were praising the PM's speech. These comments were published in a Bernama report/article.

Now these students hadn't even *heard* the speech yet at this point, so it is irregular that they be asked to write down their comments.

I derive only one conclusion from this: The mainstream media has gone FROM spinning the news to give it a biased slant TO outright lies.

Reated: Student denies praising PM’s speech in Australia

The Virtual Press Called Internet

Some of you may know that we have very little freedom of press but we have no idea to what extent.

Reporters Without Borders ranked Malaysia a low 141 out of 178 on its 2010 Press Freedom Index.

We probably rank higher than Burma and maybe Zimbabwe. I hate to break this to you, but that is no cause for celebration.

From NYT:

==================================

When thousands of protesters calling for electoral reform took to the streets here July 9, Malaysiakini, one of Malaysia's most popular news
Web sites, received 5.2 million hits, making the day one of the site's busiest since it was established in 1999.

An increasing tendency to seek news online is hardly unique to Malaysia. But here, it is not just technology driving readers to news Web sites.
It is also that - by design, and in contrast to countries like China, with its infamous Great Firewall - in Malaysia the Internet operates
outside the stringent laws that regulate the traditional media.

==================================

Read more here:

In Malaysia, Freedom of the (Virtual) Press

On Recognising History (The Real Events)

Most Malaysians just don't get it. This piece hopefully will enlighten some.

=============================================
I think we are missing the point here. Mat Sabu wasn't glorifying the communists or communism.

He didn't even say anything about communism. He was asking his audience to relook the treatment of history on the role of Mat Indera.

To Mat Sabu, history has unjustly treated Mat Indera and we, the public, have accepted the official version of history - hook, line and sinker.

=============================================
Read more:

http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/09/05/recognising-history-would-make-umno-irrelevant/

Oh Dear!

What's happened to kids these days?!

Mannequin gets molested in broad daylight

This fellow must be trying to get a head-start in life :-)

Ugly

In Malaysia’s religion of ugly, Erna Mahyuni writes about the Malaysian propensity for all things ugly.

Frankly, I agree with most of the things she says. But I feel compelled to respond to this:

There is little left that is beautiful in Kuala Lumpur. Trash in the streets, the sorry attempts at landscaping and our deification of the car. We worship our cars, getting rid of trees and clearing out fields to protect and park them, whittling down our sidewalks to make bigger roads. No one cares about pedestrians. It’s their own fault they don’t earn enough to drive. Yet I see cars as nothing but locusts swarming over KL.

1. Trash on the streets is nothing but the fault of the common Malaysian, who does not think it is his civic responsibility to keep his surroundings clean. I have seen people calmly toss rubbish out of their windows while driving their nice, shiny BMWs. Wealthy but stupid.

2. Our landscaping is done as though someone had a half-thought and couldn't be bothered to complete it. Has anyone seen that ugly bunga raya "sculpture" on Jln Tun Razak opposite the American embassy?

3. Cars. Now, the whole issue of cars is not merely one of vanity but of necessity. That necessity, in my honest opinion, is the source of traffic jams. I have seen Jln Tun Razak and the Federal Highway congested until midnight during week days. It brings about pertinent questions:

- Why aren't people resorting to any other modes of transport?
--> I have seen the train stations, they cannot cope with the amount of passengers. The trains are packed with people.
--> The buses are not on time and do not keep to schedule. Often they are also packed and the drivers are reckless.

- Cars in this country are so expensive, to begin with. Of course, since we are a third world country trying to be a developed nation (hence all those big skyscrapers), we have a monumentally huge inferiority complex and get fidgety when compared to the economies of developed nations. But I am going to compare anyway:
--> our purchasing power is so low that we need five-year loans at best, to finance our cars. That is 60 months.
--> in the US and UK, fresh graduates can purchase a car with cash saved up from 6 months' worth of salary.

- I used to be very proud that I have never had to resort to buying a Proton. I used to enjoy showing off my more-expensive-than-local-models Japanese car. Until I realised that in Thailand and Indonesia, it was the model used for taxis!!! We pay so much on sales tax, thanks to the protection of our "national car" aka the bane of our existence.

- Are we environmentally friendly?
--> I think we are a nation that violates many laws and regulations concerning the environment with our lackadaisical attitude.
--> Why is it that we don't have enough pedestrian and bicycle lanes like our Australian neighbours do?

Is it all about showing off? Do we not know the concept of moderation, or 'sederhana' in Malay and Lagom in Swedish?

Why do we not demand that this basic amenities and facilities be accorded to us by the government? Will the Opposition government at least provide us that?

FBI And Taib Mahmud - The Relationship?

I was utterly confounded today.

I just discovered that Sarawak's Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud owns property in Seattle. But Taib Mahmud is a rich man, wealthy from all the natural resources he has plundered from the Sarawakians, so that wasn't what confounded me.

It was the knowledge that the FBI were renting the office space from Taib Mahmud.

How revolting is that? The FBI is supposed to fight crime but it appears to be condoning crime if the criminals are from other countries.

Bear in mind that even the Americans think that Taib Mahmud is corrupt based on a Wikileaks cable (Sarawak: Opposition Adrift; Indigenous People Lack Services; Police Reject Criticism) that said:

(C) Comments from the DAP politicians and Suhakam reinforce what we have heard from other Sarawak state leaders and national politicians. By these accounts, the Sarawak state government remains highly corrupt and firmly in the hands of its chief minister.

So it surprises me that the FBI in Seattle do not find this to be disturbing.

The irony is that Seattle is not redneck country. It is home to Boeing, one of the biggest commercial jetliners in the world. It is also home to Starbucks.

It is home to intellectuals.

Seattle is one of the two most literate cities among America's largest cities and has a higher percentage of college graduates than any other major American city.

This gives me hope that they will think about what they are doing and reconsider their options for renting out office space.

I think you could persuade them to reconsider.

Please go and sign this: Stop the FBI from Supporting Corruption in Sarawak

The petitioners are not asking for outlandish numbers from people who are ignorant and frightened to speak out. They need 500 people.

As I was signing it, I discovered that there was only about 100 or so to go to achieve that target.

You should sign it, especially if you're an intellectual. You could make a difference.

The Modus Operandi Of Tin-Pot Dictators

Singling out political opponents for working against the ruling party is precisely the tactic of every tyrannical government from Red China to Venezuela. The first step in the process is creating unfounded public suspicion of political opponents, followed by arresting and jailing any who continue speaking against the regime.

- John Carter

I'm sure when this was said, no one was expecting it to be true of both Malaysia and Singapore as well.

In Malaysia, the political opponent in question is Anwar Ibrahim. In Singapore, it is Chee Soon Juan. Both men have had charges against them and been to jail.

My point is not about the two men or whether they are upstanding and worthy leaders or not. My issue is with people who think that they can bully their way around because they wield power.

The tin-pot dictators who rule both Malaysia and Singapore respectively, barely worry about their actions because they know that the public would be slow to act and mild-mannered.

I don't know who Singapore employs to give them a good image, but it is public knowledge that Malaysia hires APCO and FBC Media.

Fortunately, Malaysians have been somewhat vocal in their disapproval of public funds being used to promote a certain political party.

But have they been vocal enough against the regime?

There is strength in numbers, and one thing that Asia certainly can boast of is the sheer population.