Saturday, July 31, 2010

We were once ‘Malaysians’

We were once 'Malaysians' from MalaysiakiniTV on Vimeo.

“ It is time to wake up. That waking up can begin here, right here, at this conference. Not tomorrow or the day after but today. So let me, as I have the honour of opening this conference, suggest the following:

Overcome the urge to have our hopes for the future endorsed by the prime minister. He will have retired, and I'll be long gone, when your future arrives. The shape of your future is being determined now.
Resist the temptation to say “in line with” when we do something. Your projects, believe it or not, don't have to be in line with any government campaign for them to be meaningful. You don't need to polish anyone's apple. Just get on with what you plan to do.
Do not put a lid on certain issues as 'sensitive' just because someone said they are. Or it is against the 'social contract'. Or it is 'politicisation'.
You don't need to have your conversation delimited by the hyper-sensitive among us. Sensitivity is often a club people use to hit each other with. Reasoned discussion of contentious issues builds understanding and trust. Stress test your ideas.
It's not 'conservative' or 'liberal' to ask for an end to having politics, economic policy, education policy and everything and the kitchen sink determined by race. It's called growing up.
Don't let the politicians you have invited here talk down to you.”

Keynote speech by Gua Musang parliamentarian and former finance minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah at the 4th Annual Malaysian Student Leaders Summit (MSLS) today.

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Full Text of Speech : "We were once Malaysians"

Police Brutality reported in Kota Samarahan

Kota Samarahan cops under fire over abuse claims

| SAT, 31 JUL 2010 14:30 | By Joseph Tawie |

KOTA SAMARAHAN: Reports of police brutality came to fore in two separate instances involving a teenager and a mother in Sarawak recently.

In the first case a teenager was dragged from his home in Kampung Merdang, Lumut, Muara Tuang at midnight and taken to the police station where he was physically assaulted for allegedly threatening a girl.

A bewildered 17-year-old Tidiwin anak Cheuan said at 12.30am on July 27 police took him to the Kota Samarahan police station where a senior officer kicked at his shin and the left side of his ear and slapped him hard twice, leaving him in deep pain.

Tidiwin said police informed him that he was arrested over a report made by his twin-brother’s girlfriend. The girl had allegedly said that Tidiwin had threatened.

When asked by the police officer, Tidiwin denied making any threats. But the police did not believe him and continued to assault him.

“They wanted me to admit that I had threatened her. But how can I admit as I never made a threatening statement. I only told her to resolve her problem amicably,” said Tidiwin.

Tidiwin said he was locked up by the police for 18 hours until 6.30pm on 28 July without being produced to court.

His father was only able to pick him up from the police station at 7pm. Later that night with the help of a neighbour his father took him to the emergency department of the Sarawak general hospital.
Tidiwin suffered from shooting pains in his ear and his leg until today. He has also since developed a hearing problem.

Tidiwin attempted to lodge a police report on the brutality but the recording officer was the same policeman who had hit him.Fearing further abuse, he took the long ride to Kuching and lodged the report at the police headquarters.

Tidiwin’s family have sought legal advice and are seeking to bring the matter to Suhakam’s attention.

Trigger-happy cops
Meanwhile also in Kota Samarahan, another case came to the attention of Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen.

A mother, her son and a worker had approached Chong, alleging that a group of detectives from the Kota Samarahan police station had aimed fire arms at them on July 27.

The mother, Chong Ngian Lan, son Chin Kheng Fui, 20, and their worker Ang Boon Chin 27, had sought the Sarawak DAP secretary’s advise.

Chong advised them to lodge a police report against the detectives.

According to their complaint, several plainclothed police officers pointed their guns at them when they carried out raid at 7.30pm on July 27 at an outlet here.The complainant alleged that the officers did not identify themselves.

They said the police officers pulled them out from their vehicles and pointed a gun at their heads.

Commenting on this assault, Chong said said that there were several reports of trigger-happy police officers shooting suspects.

“Why did the police act with such force? Why did they threaten to shoot at point-blank range? What was the information that the police received to justify them to act in such a manner?"Chong asked. - Free Malaysia Today

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Kota Samarahan

Thursday, July 29, 2010

CM Taib's Great "leap into"

CM Taib at a meeting of a small gathering of Peers of the House of Lords

The European Union, is deeply concerned about policies that affect the global community and in meeting the challenges in new concepts of food supply. In particular that of the emergence of bio-fuels that CM Taib took to London to sell this July, 2010. These are so expressed by Baroness Ludford. The outcome of that is that the EU shares Sarawak's aspiration of that great "leap into" basic innovation. Apparently, they're emphatically concerned more so on how we meet challenges, namely in designing policies that involve responsible attention to deforestation, illegal logging and land for food security.

Several other issues surround CM Taib's UK ploy.

Among them, the purported stand of the Sarawak Government and it's concern that national policies have not addressed the core problems. The biggest are poverty, education, ethnic profiling and equitable distribution of wealth.

The video speeches, of CM Taib, suggest how after five decades of 10 Economic Plans, the Barisan National Government is only now aware of the great "leap into" or "1Malaysia" which is supposed to meet local challenges against a backdrop of increasing convolutions in world finances and the delicate balance in political uncertainties.

House of Lords member Baroness Ludford (Member of EU Parliament) does not mince her words - Sarawak's problems of food supply and food security are the EU's shared problem and the impact of the "greap leap into" that Sarawak and Malaysia that CM Taib recommends, is a global concern. CM Taib presents himself as oblivious to the growing dissent and loud clamour of Sarawak natives of the realities on the ground.

Considering the EU Parliament's concerns, it isn't clear that when the US and EU demand for bio fuels is slow, what CM Taib's great "leap into" is all about. Not into some bottomless abyss surely.

Monday, July 26, 2010

PROTEST at Oxford's Said Business School

Protests against Sarawak CM, Abdul Taib Mahmud at Oxford's Said Business School

Live Coverage at Hornbill Unleashed

Live updates: Protest in Oxford U gets under way

The protesters come from various groups; they are mostly individuals concerned about various issues. Says one British protester: “We want to make people in the UK and around the world aware and to let them know that there are people who care about the Penan. It is completely unacceptable that under Taib’s administration, much of the forest has been given to plantations and dams. The Penan have the right to their land.”

Some pix in from London

For more -

anilnetto.com alerts that MP Martin Horwood has protested to Chief Minister Abdul Mahmud urging him to cease activities encroaching on the Penans' rights as citizens. You can read the letter from the UK's All Party Group for Tribal Peoples below:

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Malaysian economy | botched, broken or band-aidable?

What's with our economy?

It's architect Prime Minister Najib Razak said, if we grew at a constant of 6% GDP, we'll be home and dry in 2020. He did qualify his statement though, that if those figures are not there, we'll be kaput.

With growth stifled and the bureaucracy software riddled with UMNO and BN spams, we sure have "spam-a-lot". United Nations report for 2009 fingered Malaysia with a FDI reduction at 81%. Why are foreign investors treating us like we got leprosy? Najib's kid brother Nazir, who for want of something to do and who manages CIMB, the Government's bank, says it's not necessarily a bad idea. He pointed out that we grow other countries, like Indonesia who is already doing quite well, vis-a-vis FDI figures.

PAS' Dr Dzulkifly says, you can't treat our not-so-well economy with band-aid. He didn't in minute details prescribe how we might shed the "corrupt" and the "kurap" image, but you get the idea, the economy has got to go under the knife. The cancer within has got to be cut out. It's not enough for Najib, the PM to pretend, he can stick plasters over the rot.

He botched the whole thing. No matter how much you spin on it, it's a botched job and BN has to go!

Maybe Sarawak can bail out Malaysia? Sarawak with it's narrow rivers (Sayang Sarawak Sungainya Sempit) might not, although Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, will try and convince the world with Halal ideas. He should be speaking at Oxford's Said Business School today Monday 26 July, 2010, to try and sell Sarawak.

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