Merdeka 曖昧

KLCC, 28 Mei - Cikgu Badrul Hisham Shaharin, Timbalan Ketua Penerangan Angkatan Muda, Kak Nora, aktivis Reformasi, Ronnie Liu, Setiausaha Perhubungan NGO DAP, Dr. Wardah Abdullah, AJK Lajnah Pengguna PAS Pusat dan Salahuddin Ayub, Ahli Parlimen Kube Keghie dan Ketua Pemuda Pas antara 20 orang termasuk 2 wanita (Kak Nora dan Wardah) yang ditahan polis dalam tunjuk perasaan membantah kenaikan harga minyak dan tarif elektrik di KLCC tadi.

Protes di KLCC tadi adalah yang terakhir daripada siri protes kenaikan minyak yang dinamakan “Protes Sampai Turun“, menurut penganjurnya, Dr. Hatta Ramli.

Dua orang penunjuk perasaan mengalami luka parah, termasuk Amran Zulkifli, 38 yang dipukul pengganas Unit Simpanan Persekutuan (FRU) di bahagian kepala dan Lim Ban Teng, 24, bendahari Pergerakan Demokratik Belia dan Pelajar Malaysia (Dema) yang mengamali fracture di tangan kanan.

Amran telah dikejarkan ke Hospital Pusat Rawatan Islam (Pusrawi) dekat sini oleh mereka yang baik hati.

Ketua Polis Dang Wangi, ACP Kamal Pasha mengesahkan 18 orang ditahan, termasuk dua orang wanita. Mereka ditahankan di Balai Polis Hang Tuah a.k.a. Penjara Pudu.

Bantahan yang disertai 2000 orang menurut laporan Harakahdaily, dan, 500 orang menurut Malaysiakini itu bermula dengan lancar. Menurut little bird kita, blogger Eva, bilangan pnunjuk perasaan hari ini jauh melebihi demonstrasi terdahulu pada 10 Mac lepas.

(more…)

Photo copyright: Malaysiakini

Pas, Keadilan, DAP and PSM together with Non-Governmental Organizations will hold a big scale demonstration and protest against the recent extraordinary fuel hike, as well as the impending electricity tariff hike effective 1 June, at 10am, 28 May 2006, KLCC (facing Jalan Ampang).

All are welcome. Let’s exercise our freedom of assembly as guaranteed by UN UDHR and Federal Constitution to speak up against injustice and mismanagement of the country by the Barisan Nasional (BN) regime.

Queen-controlled DPM Datuk Seri Najib tells us to change our lifestyle, let’s tell them, we want Regime Change!

For more info, please visit Fuel Hike Protest blog by Dr. Hatta Ramli, and don’t forget to download Fuel Hike issue leaflet (pdf, 3 MB).

To see more photos of the previous fuel hike protest on 6 March 2006: (more…)

The Ninth Sarawak State Election is approaching. Nomination has taken place last Tuesday, seeing all seats apart from 2 being contested.

Keadilan, Sarawak National Party (SNAP) and Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC) have formed a Sarawak Solidarity Front (BBS). Thanks to an election pact, BBS components and DAP will not fight against each other, as disclosed by Wan Zainal, Keadilan Sarawak Liaison Chief in a press conference that I’ve attended, on Dec 23, 2005 in Hotel Istana, KL, on the sideline of 2nd Keadilan National Congress.

Meanwhile, Pas is also given a seat to contest in Beting Maro, and surely we must thank them for saving Keadilan from one more defeat. Maybe we don’t need to go that far, but a blogger just told me, “Hope they hilang deposit!”

So what’s the focus for this election? When we asked ourselves the same question prior to Pengkalan Pasir by-election last year, I knew what we want. We have to defend Malaysia’s only non-BN state government, which was a difficult challenge, given Pas’ mediocre track record, but we wanted to choose the lesser evil, and the keyword was “Democracy”. What about this time?

Sarawak politic is a battle without ideology. For ages we’ve seen BN legislators of different camps, usually divided along ethnic lines, fighting against each other for larger share of cake, in the forms of government construction contract or logging consessions, among others. The Ming Court Power Struggle Affair had nothing to do with democracy, mind you.

(more…)

After all, director Amir Muhammad’s latest silver screen hit, “Laki-Laki Komunis Terakhir” (The Last Communist) has been hit by Berita Hairan before it could hit the silver screen.

As reported in the New Streets Times, Censorship Board approved it, Special Branch (SB) of Royal Malaysian Police, that had suffer heavily during liberation war of Malayan people against colonial masters and colonial puppets Communist insurgency has also approved it. The dissappointed SB dude even said the melo-drama-documentary is a bit boring.

Yet, thanks to Berita Hairan’s manipulation, his honourable Minister of Homely Affairs, Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad through his discretionary power banned the much awaited film.

Everyone lamented the decision as at best unwise and at worst, crazy. But let’s not forget, long before the production of this film kick started, Umno Youth had already wanted to ban the film. Under Khairy’s skippership, you need not watch it and understand its content, if something really needed to be banned. Masa itu emas.

But all that is history. Today, I have a profound suggestion that will settle this issue once and for all.

(more…)

Reader Johnleemk has given an interesting comment on our previous entry, Why Keadilan : Bridging the Gap Towards Opposition Unity,

Keadilan is very much Malay-based, and from what I’ve seen, it’s basically a Ketuanan Anwar party. Some of the crap I’ve seen from Anwar worshippers is really disgusting - lamenting that there’s no hope for the opposition if Anwar goes to the other side, bla bla bla.

Keadilan has as much trouble winning over the Chinese and Indian voters as DAP does winning over the Malay voters. These two parties would be better off if they merged and created a real multiracial party.

For the first statement, yes, we do not agree with personality cult too. Do you think we worship Anwar ? Yes, many supporters are here because of Anwar. However, instead of idolising Anwar, they are here because they are convinced that if even a Deputy PM could be tortured in that way, it would be meaningless to support BN anymore ! It is more about injustice rather than personality. Even Pas and DAP have agreed to nominate Anwar as PM, instead of Haji Hadi, Nik Aziz or Kit. But that don’t make them Anwaristas I suppose ?

(more…)

Pengkalan Pasir by-election is coming. BK Ong of Malaysian Voters’ Union (Malvu) will turun padang to campaign too ! Malvu is neutral but pro-democracy. In this by-election, they will observe closely the violation of election laws by both (or all three) sides, record and document them.

Some violations have already been taking place. Posters are up everywhere before nomination day, with Annuar Musa greeting constituents Happy Aidilfitri and such. And according to the police they have dispersed quite a number of ceramahs that were held without approved permit.

Frankly, as a democrat, I am against restrictions on freedom of expression, so these limitations on posters or public seminars are quite unproductive, as it only fuels the government’s suppression of our freedom of expression.

(more…)

Pilihanraya kecil pertama selepas Pemilihan Umum 2004 akan diadakan di N 12 Pengkalan Pasir, Kelantan, berikutan pemergian Ahli Dewan Undangannya Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Jaafar yang menang dengan majoriti tipis iaitu 55 undi. Pencalonan dan undian dijadualkan pada 27 Nov dan 6 Dis masing-masing.

Apakah tema utama pilihanraya ini? Itulah soal yang sering kita pertimbangkan sebelum kita bicarakan cerita ini. Apakah ia suatu pertarungan di antara Islam Hadhari dan Hadhariah Islamiyah ? Ataupun pertandingan mengenai pembangunan “jasmani” atau “rohani” (in a very generic sense) ? Ada juga yang melihat pilihanraya kecil ini sebagai pertempuran di antara Anuar Musa dan Husam Musa demi trofinya iaitu jawatan Menteri Besar Kelantan. Jadi, macam manakah patut kita menganalisa perkembangan ini ?

Yang jelas, keputusan pilihanraya kecil amat berkemungkinan menjejaskan kestabilan kerajaan negeri Pas, yang akan tinggal dengan majoriti cuma 1 kerusi di DUN jika BN menang, iaitu 23 : 22. Jika seseorang ADUN Pas malangnya dibeli dan kataki ke parti rasuah, Pas bahkan seluruh golongan pembangkang akan menerima padah.

(more…)

I am not sure if Sdr Anwar Ibrahim is a party member. Some say yes, some say no. Miss Jasmine of Batu Service Center claimed that his membership number is 1. He’s barred from holding any political office, so instead he was crowned as the party advisor.. What I wish to ask is, whether he’s an asset or liability for the party.

Again, the views are split. Supporters claim that he is a charismatic leader with overflowing intelligence and fantastic leadership skills. People now blame Datuk Seri Abdullah’s fruitless war against graft on his lack of leadership. Khairy might look like a maverick but is far from being well-accepted especially by the heartlanders. Just to prove my point, do you think there would be a reformasi of the same size, had Datuk Seri Najib, the Umno politician said to maintain the biggest networking, been dismissed the way Anwar was ?

Apart from that, supporters also refute Umno’s accusation that we are inexperienced in administrative matters by claiming that we have, as party advisor was part of the government. And it is exactly this “experience” that backfire on us.

(more…)

Reformasi that started in 1998 has waken up a lot of apolitical or self-denial Malaysians. The so-called ruling elite’s dirty conspiracy on politican opponents has opened the eyes of Malaysians, many of them who had used to all kinds of ill-treatments and discriminations.

However, due to the ideological differences which refrained the 2 major opposition parties from joining force, they painted themselves into a corner and failed to live up to the expectation of many. Thus, the rotten beyond repair ruling party could stay in the throne election after election eventhough their administration is mediocre.

While Pas might be the best choice for some, upholding God’s words according to their interpretation with little consideration of the real Malaysian context, together with their proposed legal system that infringes human rights and civil liberty have shun the support from many. The occassional protest vote against Umno (as in 1999) should never be taken as an approval of their policies, and the outcome of hijacking it (as in 2004) has been proven fatal.

(more…)

Deeparaya is, as far as I am concerned, a basi issue. Our societies are plagued with so many illnesses. In the name of Islamic state, dissidents are detained without fair trial. Corruption is rampant be it in Kuala Lumpur or Kota Bharu. God’s name is hijacked to further one’s political ambition. A municipality can be declared an Islamic city without meeting the criteria of a city. Even Khairy also wore something like a rosary while making his rounds in Pasir Mas. Combining the names of 2 festives, for most of us, is really trivial.

Rajan Seri Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi (MENJ), my good friend, has explained to me the background of his entry, which basically can be applied to all entries in his blog:

1. The blog is solely for the consumption of Muslims. Therefore if non-Muslims come to visit it and feel uneasy, it is not his problem. It is your problem because you idiots failed to understand his version of true Islam.

(more…)

Menurut laopran berita Muda Mohd Noor daripada Malaysiakini, Keadilan Akan Bangkitkan Isu Nasional di Pengkalan Pasir, yang telah disiarkan di KeadilanRakyat.org,

Sementara itu, Setiausaha Agung DAP, Lim Guan Eng berkata, DAP tidak berminat dengan pilihanraya kecil kawasan Pengkalan Pasir dan tidak akan mengambil sebahagian dalam pilihanraya itu.

Katanya, DAP tidak mempunyai cawangan di kawasan Pengkalan Pasir dan tidak ada sebab untuk membabitkan diri dalam pilihanraya kecil tersebut.

Apakah mesej yang dibawa oleh Setiausaha Agung kali ini ?

Bahawa walaupun Keadilan akan membantu rakan seperjuangannya, PAS untuk berkempen di Kawasan Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) N 12 Pengkalan Pasir, termasuk Penasihatnya Datuk Seri Anwar yang akan sendirinya turun ke padang, DAP tetap tidak berminat hulurkan bantuan ?

Lebih kuranglah begitu, kan ?

Tidak berminat berkempen, atau bertanding ?

(more…)

I don’t know why certain quarters here tend to say silly things and paint themselves in a bad light during the double celebration. Deeparaya is Deeparaya, no more no less, just to show how harmonious the Malaysian society can be (albeit sometimes merely superficial or plainly imaginative) during the festive seasons.

Nevertheless, I think Rajan Seri MENJ is right in one thing. Nobody can stop the others from minding their own business. Hindus can go on to celebrate Deepavali no matter how this idiotic good friend of mine and yang sewaktu dengannya called Hindu the faith that indulges in polytheism or idol worshipping. For this alone, we will consider upgrading MENJ’s Rajanship to Rajan Seri Paduka.

I too have a query, one only. Mamu is against mixing Holy Islam of Allah Almighty with faiths that indulges in polytheism or idol worshipping, such as Hindu or Buddhism or Taoism. So, does he mean it’s alright to mix the agama langits ? Shouldn’t be a problem to have Natalraya, to mark the birth of Yesus Kristus of Nazareth together with Eid-al-fitr, or Pesachraya, to commemorate Israelites’ keluaran dari Mesir (exodus from Egypt) under the leadership of Nabi Musa together with Eid-al-fitr ? If we can mix the food, the kuih-muihs, why not the names ? After all, there’s nothing beyond mixing the names !

(more…)

We’ll be missing you, Allahyarhamah Yang Amat Bahagia Datin Seri Endon Mahmud, the beloved first lady of we Malaysians.

Surely you have had a meaningful life, Datin Seri. Your kid, Kamaluddin Abdullah, tauke of Scomi, has helped many in the street seeing their accounts multiplying.

And your son-in-law, Khairi Jamaluddin. He could’ve contributed ideas to the nation in much better ways, had the warlords not ridiculed his young age. Similarly, they blocked his way to becoming CEO of Khazanah Nasional Bhd at the last minute. What a loss for the nation.

And you have your adorable daughter, Nori, who, like Datuk Paduka Marina, supports and promotes liberalism. I sincerely wish you gals could do more. Our country need progress. I pray for her becoming the next Marina, outspoken and fearless.

I wonder who else will succeed you in promoting Nyonya Kebaya and Songket. Will your successors also support breast cancer awareness campaign, or help starving kids in North Korea, Bosnia Herzegovina or Kosovo like you ?

You have laid the foundation of such a fine legacy. I offer my deepest condolence to Datuk Seri, Nori, Kamaluddin and Khairy. May you rest in peace. May God bless your soul. Farewell, my dear first lady.

All of you us who wish to offer your condolence to PM, please visit this PMO page :

Ucapan Takziah Kepada YAB PM Di Atas Kembalinya Allahyarhamah YABhg Datin Seri Endon Mahmood Ke Rahmatullah Pada 20 Oktober 2005

Thank you to all of you who criticized the previous version as distasteful (Bob), bad taste (Din), unfair and dissappointing (Lyn), bad taste and not at the most appropriate of times (David) and imporper (Ninetnine). The criticism is very much appreciated.

Yesterday around 5 pm, Po Kuan told me that the Parliament would sit until 11 pm, wow ! At that particular moment, it was Agriculture minister’s turn to take on the stage. According to Po Kuan, many were shooting questions regarding subsidies or assistance given by Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) or Lembaga Peladang Kebangsaan (Nafas). However, those are beyond the reach unless if you are an Umnoputras, she added.

I asked her about the free fertilizer given by federal government, with a Dacing logo on it. Po Kuan was somehow suprised to learn that I have acually seen it before. Yes, I did. I have seen it a few times when I went to lepak in our Lake Gardens in KL with a woman (my mom lah, idiot!). Workers there throw the fallen leaves into empty sacks such as this.

Po Kuan told me that she had never seen it before, only heard it from Mohamad khalwat Sabu in the House, in the good old days when there were 32 Barisan Alternatif MPs. Therefore, I have been searching for its picture, and found it in the RSF Freedom Blog. It was given to him by his little bird, Wong PY.

So you have it, Skim Baja Padi Kerajaan Persekutuan. Without these free fertilizers, there won’t be enough rice for all of us. As it signifies, yes, we are living in the grace of Umyes. It can’t be the other way round. Bersyukurlah !

I have just talked to YB Miss Fong Po Kuan, MP for Batu Gajah this morning. YB told me that Minister in the Prime Minister in-charged of Parliament Affairs, Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Aziz was melatah-ing and merepek-ing on the so-called “misundestanding” of his intention to set up a Parliament Department (Jabatan Parlimen), which he later dramatically denied and claimed to be just a post of Director. Thus, “the incident of big J and small j”.

It’s simply idiotic ! Or should I say, it’s so Malaysiana !

What did Nazri have in mind for this department ? Just to look after the administrative stuff, or to put the legislative branch under the fangs of the Executives ? If the latter, surely Malaysia will be the pariah of democracy in the world again by going against separation of powers between Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. Quoting Azizah, it’s an insult to our intelligence !

The House Committee of the Senate has made a stand on bringing back the Parliament Service Act 1963 (PSA) that Tun terminated in 1992. PSA had allowed the Parliament to run their own administration, but since 1992 that has come under Public Service Department. Nazri claimed that if the House of Representative longs for PSA, their House Committee should decide, for being Parliament’s own aspiration, the bill should not be initiated by Cabinet.

He is right. Rightly getting rid of his responsibility. The House Committee is chaired by the Speaker, Datuk Seri Tan Sri Ramli Ngah Talib who severely lacks political will. He’s reluctant to call the meeting eventhough the DAP member in House Committe has been asking for it for numerous times.

Chairman of Backbencher Club (BBC), Datuk Shahrir Samad has been talking and acting aloud to the press outside Parliament, as if they are the champion. However, without pressing Ramli to call the House Committee meeting, all that he has done is cheap talk di bibir aje. It’s also pointless for anyone else to propose it as a private member’s bill, for its chance of getting through is slim.

The way I see it, our Parliament may only regain its independence (and society’s respect for it) if we have a majority of democrats sitting in it, be it from DAP, Keadilan or others, who knows the ABCs of democracy and separation of power. Better if they also understand the importance of separation of church and state. Do Malaysians hope for a better future ? Don’t just hope, the choice is in your hand !

On the night of Budget 2006, Alvin, Bob and our friend from bahagian Kelana Jaya had dinner in the mamak near my home. Alvin called DAP being sometimes a tit-for-tat party, only reacting to Umno when troubles take place. Fine, they might be realistic and pragmatic enough to realise that they will never come into power, yet, I don’t think it’s a good excuse for them not to present a long-term comprehensive policy.

While Pas fish for votes by claiming whatever they do is in the name of God, they actually offers very little apart from alternative legal, entertainment and clothing systems. For PSM, it is a Socialist (some say Marxist) system that seems so utopian to most of us. DAP, which no longer monopolise the anti-Ketuanan Melayu sentiment, falls back on the little comfort zone of anti-Islamic state hardcore.

Shall we in Keadilan also “monkey see monkey do” ? Instead of only reactively attacking BN at times, I propose we draw up a wholesome plan, to show the voters that we are a capable, trustworthy and most importantly, a better alternative to Umno. Our non-ethnic set up has avoid us from falling into the never ending dilemma of horse trading, compromise and discrimination that is part and parcel of BN, thus, cutting off a lot of BN’s never ending dilemma.

(more…)

Bob has agreed with Charles F Moreira who pointed out that oppositions had so far not matched their manifesto to the voters’ expectation. So do I. In a society as primitive as ours, voters can’t see how rights or civil liberty will improve their life. For these people who vote by stomach, to put food on table is paramount.

Charles was right in observing that,

“It is high time we face some unpalatable facts in that the Western concepts of democracy, free speech, free press and human rights are not an Asian tradition. Asians have mostly known feudalism, patronage and cronyism, and which places priority on economic well-being.”

Concuring, Bob disclosed that without pursuing further on rights, freedom and liberty, coupled up with the absense of a comprehensive policy on national issues, oppositions has already been reduced to merely reacting to Umno’s mistakes point-by-point on “bread-and-butter” issues. What if Umno makes less mistakes ? Many claimed that the autocratic PAP in Temasek is good, to the extent of claiming that oppositions are unnecessary, just because economic is not too bad. They have forgotten that without civil liberty and press freedom, there is no way to prevent PAP from going astray.

Not that rights and freedom are not important. However, Malaysians failed to see that many of the problems today have arisen due to the lack of these rights. We must help them to contextualise how these rights are going to affect them in issues close to their heart, for example, cost of living, fuel, housing, public transport, national car etc. We should emphasis that democracy, rights and freedoms are all means to ensure that our ends, including social stability and economic well-beings, are attainable.

Yes, mediocre Umno is still far from awarding us starvations. Yet, the opportunity cost to keep Hudud at bay should not be surrendering our constitutional rights and let BN milk us as much as they wish. It’s high time for us recapture our rights, else, we and our descendents will be living by the grace of Umno forever. Rights and freedom are instrumental in ensuring our economic well-being, Keadilan should emphasis on this !