Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
There cannot possibly be anyone left of sound mind who imagines that the Arab Spring was anything more than seismic shifts in various countries to remove unpopular despots; have tribal, sectarian, or ideological bloodletting of different levels of ferocity, according to the temper of the countries; and then observe the reassumption of authority by whatever new despotism emerged at the end of strenuous Darwinian internecine struggle. The Egyptian army acquiesced in the departure of its champion, President Mubarak, when his position became unsustainable and, after more than 30 years, he no longer possessed the popularity or determination to retain his authority.
The whole idea of free elections was always a confidence trick, a stall, in which the Muslim Brotherhood — which brought down Mubarak, and had, 31 years before, assassinated his predecessor, Anwar Sadat — showed some restraint in not taunting the army, promised not to run a presidential candidate, and envisioned a regime in which the legislature would dominate and the army would be well paid. As the constitutional council failed to produce even an indicative constitution, a game of chicken ensued, in which the army stated that it would not hand over power until there was a constitution, i.e., one in which they could either retain power or take it back at any time. The Brotherhood then said they would run a presidential candidate after all. Army-dominated agencies disqualified most candidates, and finally gutted the powers of both the congress and the president, and delayed at their convenience the confirmation of the universally assumed fact that the Brotherhood candidate (though not its first candidate) had won the election.
It all somewhat resembles the recent history of Algeria, whose constitution empowered and instructed the army to be the guarantor of democracy. This led in 1992 to the interruption of a two-stage election that was going to elevate an anti-democratic Islamist party, and also to a prolonged civil war, in which 300,000 Algerians died. Egyptians are less violent than Algerians, and despite the Ruritanian over-costuming and parading of the Egyptian army, and all the pompous pronunciamentos of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces of that country, the Egyptian army has never been overly frightening, even when it did briefly pierce the Israeli Bar Lev Line in 1973. The Algerian army, however, which fought through the war of independence with France (1954–62), in which perhaps 500,000 people died, is a serious and an unambiguously victorious force and has reimposed secular order.
Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began, is unstable, and Libya, Yemen, and, of course, Syria, are virtually in chaos. Egypt will go on floundering, as neither the army nor the Brotherhood has the slightest ability to pull Egypt out of its economic dyspepsia, aggravated by an unsustainably high birthrate. There is, unfortunately, no reason to be confident that Iraq will make the cut either: There is still no real progress toward federalism in the sharing of oil revenues, and Baghdad’s writ does not run in Kurdistan. Maliki may hang on to power, but he cannot be said to have been reelected. In the broad arc of the Islamic world, from the Atlantic to the gates of India, only Turkey, Morocco, and Jordan have shown the slightest aptitude for self-government. Turkey has been a Great or at least significant Power for 600 years. Morocco was an independent country for centuries before the French occupied it shortly before World War I. And Jordan — “invented” as he wrote, by Winston Churchill, “on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Jerusalem” in 1921 — has a crafty Hashemite dynasty in which a Bedouin minority carefully rules a Palestinian majority.
The potential for most Islamic countries to become completely dysfunctional and erupt in atrocities and disintegrate into terrorist breeding grounds is now too familiar to merit much elaboration. The George W. Bush crusade for democracy — and, to be fair to him, it was the policy of Jimmy Carter also — now appears to be a product of the same painfully naïve school that held in 1964 and 1965 that we could defeat the Communists in South Vietnam by building schools, bridges, and clinics, as if the opposition response would be anything except to blow them up and kill anyone who collaborated. Despite the vast experience accumulated in America’s unexampled rise from colonial obscurity to unprecedented paramountcy in the world in less than three long lifetimes from Yorktown to the fall of the Berlin Wall, there seems to be some hobgoblin that washes and hijacks the brains of American policy planners from time to time and propels them like Gadarene robots toward an ahistorical fantasy that altruism alone will make the world right.
1Malaysia : where (non Muslim) tradition is prohibited
Not entirely prohibited, of course. At least not yet. But the trend in the 'model Muslim state' of Malaysia firmly points in the direction of, over time, greater and ever greater suppression of non Muslim cultures, belief systems and traditions. This is the agenda otherwise known as supremacy. It's an agenda that more non Muslims will become unwillingly acquainted with in the years to come, as two Malaysian-Indian dance troops recently discovered to their chagrin. From "Where tradition is prohibited", by Himanshu Bhatt, The Sun Daily, 28 June 2012:
TWO Indian cultural organisations were taken by shock recently when they applied to use the auditorium of the government’s official Taman Budaya park in Penang for their classical dance concerts.
It was not so much that their applications were rejected that bothered them. What smarted was that the shows were disallowed purportedly because they contained ceremonial acts and the placement of a [non Islamic] deity on stage, which are much part and parcel of classical Indian dance.
The Taman Budaya is operated by the National Culture and Arts Department. Ironically, it is on the grounds of the birthplace of Tan Sri P. Ramlee – one of the finest liberal performance artistes to emerge from Malaysia in modern times. The auditorium is even named after him.
The National Culture and Arts Department is an arm of the Malaysian federal government. The top leadership of this government department, according to this organization chart posted at their website, appears to be 100% Muslim. So a government department run by Muslims wouldn't ban non Islamic deities from being portrayed in stage performances, would they? Obviously all those Muslim officials and directors and ministers are misunderstanding the tolerant, pluralistic religion of Islam somehow.
The two groups – the Temple of Fine Arts and the Penang Hindu Association – claimed to have been told that the auditorium stage must not have the relevant images and statues because of their [non Islamic] religious allusion.
But such items are integral historical and creative components of the age-old practice of disciplines such as the Bharatanatyam and the Kathakali. This is because the presentations are to a large extent based on ancient mythologies that are rooted in the cultural fabric of the shows.
And such references to ancient mythologies are common features of performing arts in other cultures. It is not only Indian dances that have such invocations. Many ancient disciplines from other civilisations also employ ceremonial or ritualistic acts.
One can see similar elements in the Beijing Opera of China, the Kabuki of Japan, the Kechak of Indonesia and Passion Play of Europe. Such elements are also ingrained in the Wayang Kulit or shadow puppet shows that have played across the Nusantara region for centuries.
So when the two groups protested that they were not allowed to hold such performances despite the features in question being traditional elements, it beguiles the mind. Hat tip: Jihad Watch
A real Malaysian ghost story by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
You realise that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past. - Chuck Palahniuk (Survivor) COMMENT Here we go again. The central theme of my previous piecewas how we as Malaysians willingly played Dr Mahathir Mohamad's race game and lost.
That's not surprising since the Umno house always wins. We are still playing the same game only this time, we have changed the rules. Prime Minister Najib Razak and MCA chief Dr Chua Soi Lek obviously have not caught on to this fact. I don't find either Najib's mendacious assurances to the Chinese community that the systemic racism faced by them is a fringe ideology and not mainstream Umno dogma or the predictable banal backlash by a certain section of the Chinese community, particularly newsworthy.
Perceptive observers would understand that race relations in Malaysia is solely defined by these two communities - Umnoputra and the Chinese community, while the Orang Asli, non-Umno Malays, Indian, et al, are merely ‘passengers' (or traitors in the case of non-Umno Malays) - a step-up from ‘pendatangs' I suppose. Pointing out the inconsistencies in Najib's ‘reassurances' would be like shooting fish in a barrel but there are some insights to be gained from the rhetoric oozing forth from the regime with regards to the political reality of Malaysia.
"We don't intend to lose," Najib proclaims, so sure is he of the democratic process in Malaysia, and seeing as how the numbers are constantly being manipulated I don't doubt him. But by ‘we' he doesn't really mean BN but Umno. He warns the Chinese if they want to have a ‘voice' in the system, they should vote for MCA, never mind that having a voice hasn't halted the institutional racism that is the foundation of Umno policy or that he (and Umno) are supposed to represent every Malaysian regardless of race, or so they claim.
But the question still remains, what would Umno do as far as communal expectations are concerned if their coalition partners lose?
Malays go at it alone
Well, the answer to that is simple. The hawks in Umno have already decided that a "Malay go at it alone" policy is the best strategy. No doubt buttressed by the corrupt coalitions from Sabah and Sarawak, Umno could theoretically hold on to power and wait the opposition out. By maintaining control in the so-called ‘Malay heartland' by any means necessary, they hope to cut off Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim from the mainstream Malay polity. This, and of course the "flawed" electoral process, should keep the game going for some time even if by electoral attrition their influence wanes.
The so-called moderates, realising the inevitable futility of this, are chaotically coming up with other strategies. The newish strategy of Najib echoing the Anwar refrain of government aid not being a zero-sum game and implying that BN, or at least his BN, is offering a class-based approach to problems even if BN is in theory a race-based political coalition, has been pretty limp going so far.
The only difference between him and Anwar is that unlike Anwar, who has been pretty consistent in his message to the various communities he is campaigning to (much to the dismay of his political opponents); Najib and his allies have one message for each community, which at least in this regard is consistent with the underlying ideology of their political pact.
This abrupt change of ideological rhetoric of Umno is hardly surprising. Former prime minister and Perkasa patron Dr Mahathir Mohamad claimed not too long ago at the Perkasa/Gertak ‘mega' rally that May 13 was in actuality a class-based conflict but of course his polemic was tinged with the usual ‘communist' undertones aimed at Anwar and the DAP. The fact that the former premier could suggest such a thing at a supposed ‘race-based awakening' was amusing, but I reckon only to me.
But then again, nobody should be surprised with BN's ideological dissonance since Pakatan Rakyat itself is a bundle of barely suppressed ideological and religious impulses. Not that it matters of course. Pakatan partisans have displayed a remarkable intolerance at challenging their own political dogma or even possible policies, preferring instead to gorge on the daily financial scandals and the resultant shadow play arrests, which are fed to them by canny political operatives.
The opposition coalition has played the political game shrewdly but really Umno's incompetence is half the battle won. Pakatan's own financial and political scandals are dismissed by their supporters as inconsequential (compared to BN's) or as BN propaganda meant to destabilise the fragile coalition.
Modern-day slavery
Najib's latest "goody" - how I loathe that term - bag to taxi drivers is the latest state-sanctioned bribery that has blown up in Umno's face. Predictably Pakatan supporters have lapped this up gleefully pointing out the numerous cronycrats, who have benefitted from this system. Taxi drivers as a possible voting block are awash with the muck that soils the system. Playing the system with price-fixing gangs, employing ‘foreigners' as proxy drivers, and the list goes on.
Najib's rather preposterous claim that the monopoly of private companies of taxi licences is a form of modern-day slavery is despicable but fits in nicely with PAS' ‘mahafiraun' narrative with regard to the citizen slavery to Umno. If Najib really wants to wage a jihad on modern-day slavery here in Malaysia, he should personally look into the human trafficking of children, women and men who service the various industries - both legal and illegal - which contribute to the economy of this country and Umno coffers.
He should look at the ‘slave wages' earned by some in the Indian and Chinese community who have the added indignity of being denied citizenships for bureaucratic reasons. And then of course, there's the ‘Orang Asli problem'. But all these very real issues are subsumed beneath the political one-upmanship that Umno seems to be losing in the cyber propaganda war and let's face it, Pakatan is unable to address for various reasons. All that is forthcoming are assurances that by winning federal power, they would be able to solve these ‘issues"' Exactly how they intend to do this is something we have to take on faith.
Faith. Something that Umno doesn't seem to realise is practically non-existent in a certain section of the voting public, which Umno is aggressively courting. Najib talks of "ghosts" which are being created out of the Lynas issue and he's right. There has been very little objective discourse on the Lynas issue so far except appeals to emotion from both sides of the political divide. BN, of course, has got nothing to fall back on because decades of executive interference has left all the government institutions devoid of credibility, staffed by cronycrats unable to command an iota of respect.
Pakatan, on the other hand, has had a field day turning this issue into their main environmental and safety (sic) issue in lieu of any substantive environmental policies of their own. And good for them but bad for us in the long term if any issue will always been used as stakes in a political game because the alternative alliance that claims to be forward thinking and progressive always has the excuse that it is involved in a life and death struggle with their political opponents.
Najib's wingman
I'm not surprised that Umno has some sort of ‘reality distortion field' at work in Putrajaya but I'm surprised that it has affected Najib's wingman to the Chinese community, Chua Soi Lek. Chua, a shifty operator with a good work ethic - he would have done well during Tunku Abdul Rahman's tenure (sex scandal and all) - but seems to have really lost the plot.
His bare naked shilling for Umno has reached preposterous heights. His ‘counseling' of ‘not dwelling' on what happened in 60s and 70s to those youths is bizarre. I doubt most Chinese, or even most Malaysians, are even aware of what happened in the 60s or 70s. What they know of it is probably Umno propaganda or unofficial communal propaganda. I doubt they are up-to-date on the subaltern narratives that are excluded from the discourse.
No. What they are dwelling on is what happened last year. Or last week or yesterday. What they are dwelling on is the murder of Teoh Beng Hock or the demonisation of a Malaysian politician like Lim Guan Eng who is a marked man simply because he is Chinese chief minister not sanctioned by Umno. They are dwelling on the numerous provocations by Umno outsourced thugs with whom the MCA is guilty by association.
As I said we are playing the same game but we changed the rules. The main rule change is that the Chinese community doesn't care if they get representation in the cabinet because the MCA has been doing a piss poor job. They don't give a damn about the vigorous discussions behind ‘closed doors'. The communal issues that the MCA championed before is now in the purview of the DAP.
The MCA, unlike Umno, has nothing to fall back on. That's the problem with being a minority race-based party in a multiracial country. Of course, the existential crisis MCA is facing now will eventually be experienced by any minority race-based party. Thinking long-term has never been a strong suit of the Malaysian voting public.
Ghosts from the past haunt this election and every other election. We will never be able to exorcise them because we continue to play the same game. Malaysiakini.
MIC apologists provide out for Umno on matriculation by S Ramakrishnan
Thursday, June 28, 2012
MIC president G Palanivel had announced on June 16 that those who were rejected for matriculation would be given seats in AIMST University. This announcement was to calm down the 400 plus students who got more than 7As but were rejected by the Education Ministry. But MIC/BN must explain why despite making a public announcement that 1,500 seats were allocated for Indian students, only about 780 seats are given?
Palanivel said 700 seats were given. MIC sec-gen S Murugesan said 800 seats were given. Prime Minister's Special Officer Ravin Poniah's secretary said 500 over seats were given in the first intake.
So what is the real figure?
But the education minister couldn't be bothered about the broken promise of the prime minister. Indians are only needed for votes and nothing more than that. During the appeal period for those students who were rejected in the first application where assuming only 700 were taken in, both Human Resources Minister S Subramaniam and Palanivel had announced that the balance of 800 seats would be filled. But in the appeal, only 81 students were taken in.
Instead of demanding that the PM fulfill his promise, MIC leaders gave him an escape route by announcing that those who were rejected for matriculation would be given places in AIMST University. With MIC around it is so easy for Umno to just ignore Indians. Umno keeps MIC to act as its apologist to Indian community. MIC has compromised our rights to education many times over. Can MIC offer scholarships to all these 400 over students? They owe an explanation to the Indian community how they are going to support and sponsor the education of these students from pre-university and university level.
MIC vice-president SK Devamany said that the intake of students for matriculation consists of 90 percent bumiputera and 10 percent non-bumiputera. Why should it be so? What is the entry requirement for Malay students? Aren't we citizens of this country and contribute to the coffers and economy of this country?
It is the racial discrimination that makes Indian students have low expectations and have low self-esteem. With MIC/PPP around we don't need enemies. The BN government has systematically alienated the non-Malays from the education system.
These 400 over students will not be able to go back to the government education institutions, and its scholarships and other support. Umno can rob us in daylight despite openly promising in front of a large ponggal gathering in Kapar in February this year. The excuse is that the Education Ministry did not receive any circulars stating that an extra 1,000 seats were to be offered to Indian students. As long as the Indian community is naïve, ignorant and forgiving, Umno and their MIC/PPP dispatch boys will keep us begging for a pittance.
Be the change agent for the change we want to see.
PKR: Zahid must answer for leaked naval documents by Hazlan Zakaria
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Pre-empting Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's answer to the adjournment speech by PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar on the Scorpene saga later tonight, the opposition party insists that the minister must answer for the leaked naval documents revealed in a French inquiry on the matter. They based their demands on recently-leaked investigation papers from the French Scorpene probe obtained by journalist John Berthelsen and published by news portal Asia Sentinel which clearly mentioned the secret navy papers as being part of the evidence discovered by investigators.
"Upon receiving certain information relating to the documents exposed by John Berthelsen, we have verified Document 151 in the French investigation files has a comment written by the investigatiors," said PKR political bureau member R Sivarasa (left) in a press conference at Parliament lobby today. The comment which they had translated from French, claimed Sivarasa, mentioned the internal Malaysian navy evaluation document of the initial offer from DCNS.
He argued that the papers are proof that the leaked naval documents exist and the defence minister's answer should not be just more denials but address the following concerns:
How did the secret document get into Terasasi's hands and then DCNS's?
Who is responsible for selling the document?
Is the government going to investigate and will political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda be clled in for questioning?
PKR vice-president Tian Chua (right) also refuted a Defence Ministry written answer to him that Terasasi was not involved in the purchase of the Scorpene submarines from DCNS by Malaysia. The written answer said that the Defence Ministry had no knowledge that Terasasi had any dealings in the purchase, nor of any contact between Terasasi and Thint Asia, a DCNS subsidiary.
He furnished copies of company search documents from Hong Kong which he claimed showed clearly that Terasasi is a company registered in Hong Kong and whose shares are owned by Razak Baginda and his father. Tian Chua claimed that the similarities in ownership between Terasasi and Perimekar showed that they are the almost the same company and indeed controlled by the same people. He argued that they fulfilled the same function for the purchase of the subs.
Terasasi's involvement in the Scorpene saga was allegedly uncovered during the French probe, as details of the investigation revealed by the lawyer for Suaram who are pursuing the case, Joseph Breham, had mentioned the Malaysian company's alleged involvement in negotiations for the subs, including allegedly providing the secret Malaysian navy papers to DCNS. Malaysiakini
Photos show that Altantuya was in France by Susan Loone
While French police investigations have revealed that Altantuya Shaariibuu never entered France from 1999 to 2006, there are photographs of her taken in Paris published several years ago, that indicate otherwise. A report on the French police investigations was carried by online news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) in an article headlined 'French probe: Altantuya never entered France'. The report published yesterday was based on confidential investigative documents submitted to the French judicial inquiry that is looking into alleged kickbacks paid out in the 2002 Scorpene submarine deal between French firm DCNS and the Malaysian government.
However, in 2007, a series of photographs made available to Asia Sentinel by Syed Abdul Rahman Al-Habshi, the former honourary Mongolian consul-general in Malaysia, showed Altantuya "on the trip of her life to Europe". According to the Hong Kong-based news portal, Syed Abdul Rahman had then declined to say where the pictures came from. They are believed to have been found among Altantuya's possessions after she was killed, according to Asia Sentinel in an article headlined 'Who was Altantuya Shaariibuu?', written by John Berthelsen on Dec 5 of that year. "If you go to the Asia Sentinel site, you will see pictures of her standing in front of a Louis Vuitton store, the Buddha Bar, Notre Dame Cathedral and a whole flock of other locations in Paris," Berthelsen told Malaysiakini.
Berthelsen, a former Asian Wall Street Journal correspondent in Malaysia, also said Altantuya's family had declined to elaborate on the photographs. However, in April this year, Altantuya's father Setev Shaariibuu told a press conference hosted by Suaram in Kuala Lumpur that his daughter's visa to France was issued in Kuala Lumpur under the name "Amina Abdullah" and that she was supposed to enter Paris after flying to Germany.
Red flag on alleged Altantuya-Najib photo
The FMT report says the latest revelation from the French police investigation raises a red flag on the existence of a photograph of the Mongolian woman, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his close ally, Abdul Razak Baginda in Paris, allegedly taken between 2004 and 2006. The alleged photograph was made known at the murder trial of Altantuya during the testimony of her cousin Burmaa Oyunchimeg, who had accompanied the Altantuya to Kuala Lumpur to purportedly extort money from Abdul Razak.
The photograph was not among Altantuya's possessions after her body - blown into bits with C4 military explosives - was found in a jungle clearing in Shah Alam in October 2006. Two police officers who were once bodyguards to Najib have been convicted of Altantuya's murder and sentenced to death. They are now awaiting their appeal. Abdul Razak was also charged with abetment in Altantuya's murder, but he was acquitted without being called to make his defence. FMT reported that the French police investigation papers revealed that Najib - who was defence minister at that time - and Razak were on an official visit to Paris from June 16 to 18 in 2000.
Najib also visited France in July 2001, July 2003, June 2005 and October 2007 but it is possible that Najib and his entourage could have entered France through diplomatic channels, the FMT report said. Officials of state-owned defence giant DCNS have also informed the French police that they never met a person named Altantuya and did not know who she was during the course of their negotiations for the Scorpene deal, the report said. The confidential documents also raise questions about Altantuya's role as a translator for the deal since the DCNS officials had also informed the French police that negotiations for the submarines were done in Malaysia, not in France. "One official - DCNS former sales manager in Malaysia, Fredric Faura - told the French investigators that the negotiations were conducted in English, not in French, so there is no need for an interpreter," FMT added in its report.
"Furthermore, Altantuya did not speak French, so she could not have acted as an English-French interpreter." Malaysiakini
Strike at Israel-upgraded RF-4E Phantom aimed at restoring confidence in Syrian army after pilot defects with jet. When Syria shot down an Israeli-upgraded Turkish fighter jet it was delivering a message that the air force, despite the defection of a senior pilot a day earlier, was still in control and a force to be reckoned with.
The incident has also made air commands in the region that fly Western aircraft sit up and take notice, since it marked one of the rare times in recent years when Russian-designed weapons took on and defeated Western systems. “Excuse me for saying so, but there appears to have been a lack of professionalism by the Turks,” Shmuel Gordon, a reserve colonel and pilot in the Israel Air Force, who has written extensively on air power and national security, told The Media Line.
“It is completely clear that the jet came to a place where it was entirely up to the good will of Syria whether or not he would return,” Gordon said. “I don’t remember the last time the Syrians shot down an aircraft. I can assume that the Turks carry out these flights regularly and they saw that the Syrians didn’t react and each time got a little and little closer until one day on orders from very high up it was decided to show the Turks that they can’t fly around here anymore. And they shot the jet down.”
A Syrian military spokesman told Sana, the state-run news agency, that on Friday their anti-defense systems detected an unidentified aircraft flying in Syrian airspace at a very low altitude and high speed. It said anti-aircraft artillery hit it when it was one kilometer from land, causing it to crash into Syrian territorial waters about 10 kilometers from shore. Syrian and Turkish naval forces were dispatched to search for the two missing airmen, but neither country gave further details on this mission. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told TRT television on Sunday that their records show the aircraft was shot down in international waters a quarter of an hour after it had “momentarily violated Syrian airspace.”
He also denied that it was on a spy mission and said the jet had been unarmed and on a training flight to test a radar system. The Turkish RF-4E Phantom, reportedly took off from the "Aarkhach" air base in the southeastern province of Malatya, which also hosts the NATO-run missile shield radar. It was shot down by Syria’s air defense system near Latakia, which is close to the Russian naval base at Tartus. Turkish leaders were cautiously backing down from the belligerent rhetoric of the day before when they had said they would respond “decisively.” But that hasn’t stopped the calls for a backlash from Turkish media. The widely circulated Hurriyet ran a banner headline: “He (Assad) is playing with fire.” And Vatan cried: “They (the Syrians) will pay the price.”
In a move that further escalated tensions, Turkey on Sunday requested that representatives from NATO-member states convene in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the attack. Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned Syria’s downing of the Turkish fighter jet as “outrageous" and said Britain was ready to support “robust action” against Syria by the United Nations Security Council. Turkish-Syrian relations have been deteriorating since the Assad regime started to crush the Syrian opposition, which has been demanding more rights as a result of the Arab Spring. Currently there are more than 33,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey, including senior military officers. Also, the Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army have their main headquarters in Turkey.
Nevertheless, the latest incident showcased Russian-supplied air defenses, which have just proven their lethality. Just last week, a Russian arms dealer had boasted to The New York Times that advanced weapons they were shipping to Syria could be used to down aircraft and sink ships. "I would like to say these mechanisms are really a good means of defense, a reliable defense against attacks from the air or sea. This is not a threat, but whoever is planning an attack should think about this,” Anatoly Isaykin, the general director of Rosoboronexport, was quoted as saying. Isaykin said weaponry being shipped to Syria included the Pantsyr-S1, a radar-guided missile and artillery system capable of hitting planes at high altitudes; Buk-M2 anti-aircraft missiles; and land-based Bastion anti-ship missiles.
Syria said the jet was shot down by artillery, but the Turkish daily Vatan said the system used to down the F-4 was the BUK-M2, also known as the SA-11. The Phantom RF-4E jets were part of the batch of 54 Turkish warplanes upgraded by Israel Aerospace Industries in the last decade in a deal worth more than $700 million. While the Israeli air force has since demobilized its fleets of the aging F-4s, the upgraded Turkish jets had been equipped with electronic warfare suites. But Turkish-Israeli relations have soured in recent years and it is not clear if counter-measures for evading anti-aircraft weapons were updated to deal with current Russian-designed systems.
It is no secret that Syrian airspace has been repeatedly violated by various players, including the Turks, Israelis, Americans and more, analysts say. But taking down the F-4 on Friday was likely a decision handed down from the very top Syrian echelon to prove that the air force was still under control of President Bashar Assad’s beleaguered regime. It also marked the first time in nearly five years that any weapons system with Israeli manufacturing input had faced a Russian weapon acquired by Syria. The last time was in September 2007, when Israeli fighter-bombers reportedly destroyed a Iranian-North Korean-built nuclear reactor in the northern Syrian town of Al-Kibar. Airspace over the reactor was guarded by Russian anti-air missiles, but Israeli aircraft reportedly penetrated by disabling the Russian missiles’ radar so that Damascus never realized its reactor was being bombed until it had been smashed and Israeli bombers were home safely.
“The Russians are very serious and you can’t dismiss them,” said Gordon, who had first-hand experience dodging SAMs during the 1973 Yom Kippur War. “They make some of the best anti aircraft systems in the world. Really, they are very sophisticated and at the highest operational levels. They have a huge variety of systems. And no one should dismiss them. And I am absolutely sure that the Israeli air force doesn’t dismiss the Russian air defense systems for one minute and in every plan everything is worked out to the last detail.”
Gordon suggested that the defection last week of a senior Syrian pilot with his MiG-21 was like an earthquake to the Assad regime and probably prompted the decision to pull the trigger on the Turkish jet. “The (Syrian) air force had been considered until now one of the main sources of might. So in order to send a message externally and internally that one can’t underestimate its capabilities, they took the shot,” he said. “It wasn’t done to raise morale, but rather, to restore Syria’s sense of national security which is capable of not only detecting, but also in shooting down aircraft.”
The Jordanian newspaper Alarab Alyawm reported on Sunday that three more Syrian air force pilots have defected to Jordan and joined their fellow pilot Col. Hassan Hammadeh who flew his MiG-21 fighter jet to Jordan last week. It said the trio crossed the border by land. The Jerusalem Post.
Documents: Dr M 'consented' to Scorpene misdeeds by John Berthelsen, Asia Sentinel
Leaked prosecution documents show a pattern of official misdeeds in two countries
A two-decade campaign by the French state-owned defense giant DCN and its subsidiaries to sell submarines to the Malaysian ministry of defense has resulted in a long tangle of blackmail, bribery, influence peddling, misuse of corporate assets and concealment, among other allegations, according to documents made available to Asia Sentinel.
Some of the misdeeds appear to have taken place with the knowledge of top French government officials including then-foreign Minister Alain Juppe and with the consent of former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, according to the documents, comprising 133 separate files and hundreds of pages. They were presented to the French Prosecuting Magistrate at the Court de Grand Instance de Paris in May and June of 2011. French lawyers have begun preparing subpoenas for leading Malaysian politicians including Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, the current Defense Minister, Ahmad Zaki Hamad and several other figures. The documents were sent anonymously to Asia Sentinel via a circuitous route that took them to Brussels, Belgium; Lagos, Nigeria; Brazzaville,Congo; Libreville, Gabon; then to Leipzig, Germany and finally to Hong Kong. The documents, written in French, can be found in a collection in Asia Sentinel's Scribd account.
The documents were compiled as a result of a raid on April 7, 2010, when scores of investigators from the anti-organized and financial crime unit of the French Directorate of Judicial Police swooped down on DCN’s offices at 19 rue du Colonel Pierre Avia in Paris’s 15th Arondissement, and four other locations, demanding that stunned officials give them access to safes, files and computers. They collected thousands of documents that form the bulk of the files delivered to Asia Sentinel.
Together, they present a damning indictment of Malaysian officials whose goal was to steer a €114.96 million (US$114.3 million at current exchange rates) payment through a private company called Perimekar Sdn Bhd, wholly owned by Abdul Razak Baginda. Razak Baginda was then the head of a Malaysian think tank called Malaysian Strategic Research, which was connected with the United Malays National Organization, the country’s biggest political party.
The payment appears to have been in violation of the OECD Convention on Bribery, which France ratified on June 30, 2000. On Sep. 29, 2000, according to document D00015, DCNI, a DCN subsidiary, “took corrective actions” after France joined the bribery convention. Contracts concluded after that date were to be routed to Eurolux and Gifen, companies held by Jean-Marie Boivin, DCN’s former finance chief, and headquartered in Luxembourg and Malta respectively Boivin is being investigated for having played a central role in the “corrective actions,” with what were described as “outlandish commissions” traveling through the welter of companies that he established in tax havens around the world. Among the documents is one that shows Boivin paid to send Razak Baginda on a jaunt to Macau with his then-girlfriend, Altantuya Shaariibuu, a Mongolian national who was later murdered by two of Najib’s bodyguards.
“A separate agreement sets other compensation consisting of a fixed amount independent of the actual price of the main contract,” one document reads in reference to the payment to Perimekar. “This has been made to be consistent with [DCN’s] internal rules and [its subsidiary] Thales and those of the OECD. The beneficiaries of these funds are not difficult to imagine: the clan and family relations of Mr. Razak Baginda. In addition, these funds will find their way to the dominant political party." Malaysia’s dominant political party was and is UMNO.
Malaysian Defense Spree
The story in essence began when Najib Tun Razak was appointed defense minister in Mahathir’s cabinet in 1991 and embarked on a massive buildup of the country’s military, arranging for the purchase of tanks, Sukhoi jets, coastal patrol boats – and submarines. That kicked off a stiff competition between French, German, Swedish, Russian and Dutch manufacturers, who in turn went looking for the most effective cronies of the Malaysian leadership to help them out. By 1995, according to document DC00078, DCN’s subsidiary Thales was losing out to the German manufacturer Kockums AB, which was represented by Amin Shah, dubbed “Malaysia’s Onassis” because of his business and shipping interests, who was close to then-finance minister Daim Zainuddin and was suspected of being a front man for Daim’s interests.
French authorities seemed to counter by paying a “consultancy fee” according to a handwritten document called a "Consultancy Agreement” signed in Kuala Lumpur on Oct. 1, 1996 between DCN International representative Emmanel Aris and a Malaysian Army major named Abdul Rahim Saad. The purpose was “to reintroduce DCNI in the short list of tenders after it was rejected by the Government of Malaysia” on Dec. 14, 1995, according to the French documents. The remuneration was to be paid in two lots, US$20,000 before Jan. 31, 1996, and US$80,000 after acceptance. Apparently it was successful. Rahim is now managing director of a company called ARS Sehajatera Sdn Bhd., which supplies logistical equipment to the Malaysian armed forces.
However, there are questions whether Rahim was ever paid. A memo found in the DCN files said he “expresses discontent and proclaims his support for the Agosta [the Spanish manufacturer of the Scorpenes for DCN] submarines since 1996 but he ‘has not had any news from DCNI to date.’ He says he organized shady activities to promote the French bid…He complains of not having been paid for his services.” Eventually, according to the documents, Amin Shah began to lose his influence with the government after Daim Zainuddin left his position as finance minister. DCN and its subsidiaries began casting around for other sources of influence within the Malaysian government.
An attempt to woo Tan Sri Razali Ismail, one of Malaysia’s most distinguished diplomats, failed. “It was ultimately unsuccessful and Mr. Abdul Razak Baginda was chosen in his place,” the documents note. “The role of the latter was to facilitate the submission procedure to the Malaysian government and the responsible ministers, in particular the Minister of Defense, with whom he claimed to have a close relationship.” According to Document D000112, “…Razak Baginda has maintained excellent relationships with the Defense Minister and Prime Minister. Moreover, his wife, Mazlinda Makhzan, is a close friend of the Defense Minister’s wife. Thus, Baginda has become the center of the network. Both companies are at the center of this network: Terasasi, related to Baginda, and Perimekar, which was initially controlled by Mohamad Ibrahim Mohamad Nor,” who was also close to Daim Zainuddin. However, with Daim stepping down as finance minister after a spat with Mahathir, Razak Baginda took over sole proprietorship of that company through his wife.
“The major defense contracts in Malaysia as in other countries require substantial money transfers to individuals and/or [political] organizations,” the document noted. “In Malaysia, other than individuals, the ruling party [UMNO] is the largest beneficiary [rather than Perimekar, the company to which the commission was directed]. Consultants [agents or companies] are often used as a political network to facilitate such transfers and receive commissions for their principals.”
The Heart of the Deal
Over the next few years, the documents show, as the contract came closer to fruition Razak Baginda and Najib maneuvered in France to get the best possible deal for themselves and UMNO, establishing a tangle of companies through which funds would ultimately pass. Their activities included the founding of several companies including Perimekar in 2000 as a vehicle to funnel the €114.9 million commission to Razak Baginda and others, with Razak Baginda’s wife the principal shareholder. The plan appears to have had the approval of Mahathir. A diplomatic cable to Foreign Minister Juppe said, “The company chosen by the government for the submarine project is…Perimekar. This choice is the subject of an official notification from the Malaysian Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Defence... Note that this decision of the Ministry of Finance was taken while the Prime Minister himself held the post of Minister of Finance, after the departure of Tun Daim.”
The French company appears to have had no illusions as to Perimekar’s function. Documents note that “Perimekar was a limited liability company with a capital of MR5 million (€1.4 million) of which 1 million is available. It was created in August 1999 … it has no record of sales during 2000. Its ownership is in the process of restructuring.” As Asia Sentinel has previously reported, document D00087 shows that Najib demanded a US$1 billion “condition” for Perimekar Sdn Bhd’s “stay in France.” The notes, however, don’t make it clear exactly what that means. The information is contained in a note faxed from Francois Dupont, the Asian representative of Thales International Asia, to his bosses but the notation in the documents presented to the court doesn’t elaborate. Dupont indicated that a meeting with Najib on July 14, 2001 would take place with the above mentioned “condition” but it was not known if the meeting transpired.
Along the way, Jasbir Singh Chahl, one of Razak Baginda’s associates at Perimekar, decided he hadn’t been paid enough. In several memos to DCN, Jasbir Chahl demanded a full fourth of Perimekar’s total €114.96 million. Despite several demands, there is no indication that Chahl has ever been paid. He has been subpoenaed as a witness in the case, but after first indicating to French lawyers that he would cooperate, he has since said he knows nothing of the affair. He is said to be extremely ill and suffering from some form of cancer. Other documents made public by Asia Sentinel earlier show that at least €36 million flowed from the DCNS subsidiary to Terasasi Hong Kong Ltd., whose principal officers are listed as Razak Baginda and his father. Najib was defense minister from 1991 through the time when the submarines were delivered in 2002. Terasasi only exists as a name on the wall of a Wanchai district accounting firm in Hong Kong.
RELATED DOCUMENTS:
The French-Malaysian Submarine Scandal: the Documents
The 133 official documents uploaded onto this website are from the Directorate-General of the French National Police and the Judicial Police Directorate’s anti-organized and financial crimes unit. They were presented to a French anti-corruption court in May and June of 2011. Taken together, they present –in French – the clearest picture to date of the two-decade campaign by the French state-owned defense manufacturer DCN and its subsidiaries to sell Scorpene submarines to the Malaysian Ministry of Defense. Asian Sentinel.
Dr Mahathir's bad medicine by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Sunday, June 24, 2012
COMMENT I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality - Ash (Alien)
Where do we begin? For a start let’s stop blaming former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad for everything which is wrong with Malaysia as though he is the sole architect of the mess we find ourselves in now. If you see someone setting a trap and you determinedly (for whatever reasons) walk into it, you have only yourself to blame. And this is in essence what Mahathir the predatory politician has been doing his entire career, setting traps for willing victims. Let’s take this brouhaha about vernacular/mother tongue education systems being an impediment to national integration. First off, he is right. They are an impediment to national integration. Culture (including language) in a multicultural country like Malaysia is the responsibility of the parent, not the state.
azlanI’m sure many people would find heartwarming, stories about how a teacher from a different ethnic community in a vernacular school “taught” his or her students about their culture but the reality is, is a single teacher truly representative of a whole culture? The best way a different culture (in all its diversity) is transmitted to young children is if they are forced to deal with each “other” in a disciplined and well-run school environment. But here’s the trap. Discover some emotive issue that would appeal to the baser racial impulses of a community and set it up as a prize worth fighting for. So “Chinese” education is the prize and for decades the MCA seemed like the champions of the community for making it a part of its agenda in the odious “power sharing” formula.
If they weren’t doing a good enough job, there was always the “chauvinistic” DAP to pick up the slack. This way Umno appeared to be the paterfamilias, keeping its wayward demanding children in line. Instead of fighting for a national school system free from bigotry and an education system which was not merely an indoctrination tool for Umno and not the state, the Indian and Chinese leadership hooked on the Umno crack pipe of gaining little advantages over each other were content to champion individual communal interests instead of the ultimate prize of all-inclusive national participation.
Another example would be Islam. For years Mahathir baited PAS, who in turn questioned the regime’s Islamic credentials. What did Mahathir do? Crack down on the so called “extremist” thereby proving to the non-Malays/non-Muslims that only Umno could keep the Islamic boogeyman at bay. Whilst doing this he also begun an Arabisation process that has far reaching consequences that I fear that will make itself known in the not too distant future.
And what did PAS do? Instead of seizing the middle ground (like any shrewd political organisation would) it retreated further into its Islamic preoccupations. Now of course they realise their mistake and are determinedly if gingerly staking the middle ground (with the help of its coalition partners), leaving the “extremist” territory to Umno.
Assimiliation but not integration
National integration was never part of the plan. Assimilation maybe but “integration” implies some sort of harmonious embracing of a shared ethos, at least in this context. But neither Mahathir nor a significant section of the voting public wanted this (integration). Sure, you could point to the flawed electoral process but the reality is, just as the 2008 elections demonstrated that a significant section of the Malaysian voting public wanted something else, pre-08 it was more or less wanting what Umno was pushing.
azlanUnderstand now, that I am not questioning the quality of vernacular education systems (well at least not in this piece) but rather pointing out its deleterious effect on national integration. If I had a say in the education policy of a newly-elected regime, I would suggest that whatever is working in these vernacular schools be integrated into our national school system. The genius of Mahathir is that he understood the limitations of the “power sharing” formula, which is the distribution aspect of the equation. He realised that if each community was constantly questioning the size of its share of the pie, Umno could easily appear to be magnanimous in its distributions so long as there were easily identifiable variables for each community which were defined by Umno.
It would be a mistake to consider Mahathir an average racist of the Perkasa variety. He’s far too self-aware for that. This is a man who very early caught on to the fact that there was a deep well of post colonialist racialist anxiety that could be tapped for the benefit of the political party of his choice. He never hid behind any politically correct justifications for his policies, making the social and economic inequalities faced by the community he claimed to represent as something beyond their ability to overcome and exacerbated by the presence of “foreigners” who took advantage of their hospitality. This of course is pure rubbish but it is the narrative in which he chose to frame the racial discourse.
When he bemoans the fact that everyone is more race conscious in this new “liberal era”, where everyone throws about the term racist with impunity, what he really means is that in this era, nobody is afraid of calling Umno or him racist. You see in the reality Mahathir and Umno have created, drawing attention to the systemic inequalities faced by non-Malay communities is a racist act. Criticisms directed towards the government or civil departments are considered racist acts because the majority of those who comprise those institutions are Malays. It was getting to the absurd level where simply being a non-Malay who didn’t support the government was considered a racial provocation.
And we are still falling into his trap. These days you find people more than willing to subscribe to the premise that “as Malaysians we are all racists in our own ways” as shorthand to dismiss any constructive objections to racists or racialist ideas. In this way it legitimises the Umno/BN ideology as not a moral failing but as a failure of execution. It implies that the only route for a functional Malaysia is a racial one. Hence the usual BN plea of “give us more time” or “the Malays need not worry, because even in a class-based approach, the Malays are the majority” assurances from Pakatan Rakyat.
The difference is the subject matter
This brings us to Mahathir’s reminder to vote with our heads and not hate. And he’s right; the Umno regime is not like some of the authoritarian regimes in the Middle East. And he is right that the opposition is spearheading a “hate campaign”. This is nothing unusual in politics. BN is carrying out its own hate campaign against Pakatan Rakyat. The difference is the subject matter of the hate campaigns. While Pakatan highlights the financial malfeasances of Umno and whips up a certain section of the voting public into a frothing hate for BN, Umno uses its propaganda organs to either whip up racial discord or demonise individuals critical of government policies, which so far has not played well with the urban multicultural segment of the voting public but I hears it’s going gangbusters for a certain rural demographic.
But again he is right. Voting with your “head” means voting in the pre-08 pragmatic mode. It’s a vote which acknowledges the fear of the unknown, of what Umno could do if it loses. It’s a vote that basically acknowledges that (for all its corruption) Malaysia is not as bad as some of the dysfunctional third world countries out there and that we should be thankful. It’s a vote for comfort in that you will never need to worry about fighting for your rights because your rights will be defined for you. And for some this is acceptable.
Now, voting with “hate”. I understand that Haris Ibrahim and Co’s ‘Anything But Umno’ (ABU) is more nuanced than its detractors make it out to be but for most people, hate for Umno means voting for anyone but them. For some a hate vote is the acknowledgement of their own part in the mess this country is in. For some it’s an opportunity to finally chart a new course even if they are unsure of the captains they are voting for. They are willing to take that risk for greater rewards.
It is a tragedy that these are the only motives Mahathir and us, could come up with. Malaysiakini
The downfall of a moralising moron is truly a thing of beauty By Robert Colvile
Friday, June 22, 2012
There’s a cod-Japanese proverb I’m rather fond of: “Sit by the river long
enough, and the bodies of your enemies will float by.” It’s meant to counsel
patience in adversity – but this month, there are so many corpses bobbing
past that they’ve started to form a crude but effective dam. Take Julian Assange, fearlessly self-important crusader for truth, justice and
the anti-American way. Not since Lembit Opik was stretchered out of a
wrestling arena has a public figure connived so enthusiastically in his own
destruction.
After Wikileaks – and its mission to change the world – collapsed under the
weight of its leader’s ego,
Assange started hosting a TV show sponsored by
that noted friend of freedom, Vladimir Putin. Now, to avoid taking the rap
for his sleazy and potentially criminal dating habits, the internet messiah
has sought asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy (prop: Rafael Correa, whose
hobby is suing newspapers into bankruptcy). Such ocean-going cowardice has
had the delicious side effect of breaching his bail conditions, leaving the
bien-pensants who rallied to his cause – Ken Loach, Michael Moore, Tariq
Ali, Jemima Khan, John Pilger – tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket.
Then there’s Jimmy Carr, who has done the nigh on impossible by equalling Ken
Livingstone for hypocrisy.
Paying a tax rate of as little as 1 per cent,
after lambasting Barclays for doing exactly the same, is right up there with
Ken’s industrious attempts to lower his tax bills, even while claiming that
“rich bastards” who don’t pay their fair share shouldn’t be allowed to vote,
“let alone sit in Parliament”. Again, each had a marvellous side effect: Ken
lost the mayoral election, pursued all the while by demands to publish his
tax details (we’re still waiting…). And Carr’s humiliation should torpedo
not just his ticket sales, but any chance of 10 O’Clock Live – the insular,
disjointed, murderously unfunny smug-a-thon on which the Barclays sketch
appeared – darkening our screens again.
The real joy is that these people are all Lefties of the worst sort. I don’t
just mean they’re pompous, preachy and self-satisfied – God knows, the Right
has a few of those as well. I mean they’re the most glaring kind of
hypocrite, denouncing their enemies as not just wrong but evil, while
committing the sins they rail against. It’s like those class crusaders –
Polly Toynbee, Diane Abbott – who send their children to private schools: by
their own behaviour, they forfeit any claim to be taken seriously. It may
seem gratuitous to rejoice in their downfall, but the moralising morons have
fashioned the rods for their own backs. It would be positively rude not to
take a thwack or two.The Telegraph
For Umno, 'V' is for Vindictive by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power. - John Steinbeck
When
Dr Mahathir Mohamad is not worrying about the supposed ‘reforms' the
administration of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak plans to carry out
that will wreck havoc on the delicate social fabric of Malaysia, he's
worrying about the ‘trumped-up charges' that will be his downfall if
Pakatan Rakyat ever comes into power. I
don't think that the former prime minister has anything to worry about
with regard to the former, since the Najib regime has so far displayed
no sincere commitment to reforming the electoral process or any interest
in the slaying of Umno/Malay nationalist sacred cows.
If
anything, his deafening silence when it comes to ‘Malay' rights pressure
groups like Perkasa (which coincidently Mahathir is the patron of) or
Perkida is evidence that the hawks in Umno are ruling the roost. With
regard to the latter, I'm sure anyone who has been in power for as long
as this former strongman would be a tad anxious if the state apparatus
he controlled for so long, and still has influence over, was in the
control of another party.
It doesn't help that the contender to
the Putrajaya throne, Anwar Ibrahim - his former apprentice turned
bitter foe - has publically stated that he intends to aim his political
guns on the Umno top brass. I've always said that what Anwar
intends to do is maintain the ground-level political machinery of Umno
while cutting off the serpent's head. This way, PKR not only can
conjure up the grassroots level support of PAS but will have in its
control the well-oiled machinery of Umno chieftains who no doubt will
jump ship in the unlikely event of a Pakatan takeover of Putrajaya.
And in this way, or so the thinking goes by some PKR middle-grounders
I've spoken to, PKR will not be beholden to the Islamic impulses of PAS
in the long term. Lim
Kit Siang's rather twee rejoinder to Mahathir that he should not be an
impediment to buried financial skeletons being dug up aside, Mahathir
should not be overly concerned. After all, isn't Karpal Singh on record
as saying he would be willing to defend the former prime minister if the
need arose?
And even though the system has been compromised by
Umno, it has not reached a point where social order has broken down, the
level of desperation in the public has not reached breaking point, the
military has no direct influence and so, the fate of Mubarak or Gaddafi
is not for Mahathir. And trust me when I say this is a good thing. In
a follow-up piece, I intend to address the good doctor's concerns about
the vitriolic racial rhetoric that seems prevalent ever since he left
office. Here however, I'd like to make the argument that it does no good
for Pakatan, or for the rakyat, to go after the perpetrators of
political or social malfeasances in Umno or anywhere else should they
come into power.
No one is clean
Let
me be very clear that I think the money trail should be diligently
followed and all monies owed to the government retrieved. I have issues
with the way how Pakatan is running Selangor but Khalid Ibrahim has been
a shrewd operator in the way he has collected what is owed to the state
government, even though he has run into federal-influenced interference
in many instances. Crony deals should be renegotiated and the
culture of patronage should be abolished. Money politics, which like a
cancer has infected every organ of the government, should be sanctioned
by the law.
However, the culture of vindictiveness that Umno has
promulgated should end if and when the party loses power. Ever since
2008, when Pakatan became a viable ruling alternative, BN has been in
vindictive mode not seen since the early days of the Mahathir regime (or
maybe his whole tenure). Don't
like what the Bersih 3.0 protest says about the mood of the country?
Then attack its main proponent using outsourced thugs. Don't approve of
the criticisms levelled by the Bar Council on a host of issues? Publicly
discuss plans to set up an alternative legal body.
Have a
problem with a state for its opposition to the PTPTN scheme? Punish
students in the recalcitrant state (and then retreat from said position,
which makes it even worse). Losing the cyber propaganda war? Table an
amendment to the Evidence Act! Many people would say that if
Pakatan comes to power, there will be nothing vindictive about going
after "wrongdoers" who have profited from "leakages" (isn't this a term
coined by the honourable gentleman from Rembau?) and instituted
policies, economic and social that have led this country down a ruinous
path. This is, they would argue, merely justice.
I sympathise with this view, but I would remind them that nobody, BN or Pakatan, comes to this with clean hands. And
if you are naïve enough to think that there would be no backroom deals
between Pakatan and BN and convenient scapegoats offered to a
bloodthirsty public, then I suggest that you lay off the Pakatan
Kool-Aid. Old grudges that have been lying dormant for so long
in exiled BN members, now rehabilitated Pakatan diehards, would surface,
diluting the concept of ‘justice'. The newly-inherited political
machine has to be lubricated and ‘big fishes', although convenient
targets, are not necessarily the only predators causing mischief in
Malaysian waters.
Yes, we could spend the man hours and effort
(not to mention financial resources) honing in on the decades-long
governmental corruption that has plagued this country and unearth the
nexus between present day political personalities or their proxies who
were involved in scandals. Yes, we could discover the hidden
hands of big patronage businesses that to this very day have links to
both BN and Pakatan. We could unearth the sordid financial scandals that
leached public coffers and the greedy, stupid ‘cronycrats' that inhabit
the halls of power and drag them out into the light of ‘justice'.
And all, this would be played out in a now ‘free' press that would no
doubt satiate the desire of a certain segment of the voting public
frustrated by decades of governmental malfeasances. No doubt, this would
also soothe those who were at the mercy of the regime's security
apparatus and whose lives were destroyed for voicing dissent.
Freak shows
And
the tragedy is that all this would detract from the serious work of
carrying out institutional reforms that this country desperately needs. I
would argue that this freak shows would also give the new ruling regime
the perfect opportunity to get conveniently sidetracked from the real
work of making reforms that it pledged the voters. I would much
rather have some sort of general amnesty policy instituted, as far as
financial corruption scandals are concerned, with an admission of guilt
and a return of money as a ‘get out of jail' card.
It goes
without saying that they and their proxies would never be able to do
business with the government again. I have no doubt they would even be
supplicants from Pakatan but if nobody steps up, then of course the full
force of the law should be deployed. What we (and by ‘we' I mean
anybody interested in real reforms, not necessarily Pakatan partisans)
are talking about, and I assume this is the ideological bedrock of
Pakatan, is serious institutional reform that would take dedicated
long-term commitment.
We are not only talking about changing the
mindset in a variety of government bodies; we are talking about
changing the mindset of a majority community suckling on the teat of
political party benevolence in the guise of government service, for
instance. We are talking about transparency, professionalism and
the re-creation of government bodies not beholden to their political
masters.
Put it this way: I would rather have a
newly-constituted, independent Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission
(MACC) watching the newly-elected regime like hawks for any sign of
corruption than one that's mucking about with the former regime's
malfeasances. We are talking about changes that would affect the
very fabric of the Malaysian polity, changes that would be terrifying to
the current ruling regime. And these changes would have to be made in
chaotic circumstances, where roles are being redefined, and no doubt
where Pakatan in its supposed class-based approach would run into the
realpolitik of race and Islamic preoccupations from its erstwhile
component pact members.
But all this is wishful thinking. Like
many others, I am sceptical of Pakatan claiming the Putrajaya throne.
The numbers game is against them. And even if they do win, like the PKNS
fiasco demonstrates, there's a strong whiff that maybe Pakatan is not
as committed to the reform that it aspires to.
In the current
political reality, something is better than nothing, I suppose, although
I may have to dust off my own personal three-letter acronym, BAU or
business as usual. This reflects the nebulous change that Pakatan
offers, all the while cognisant of traditional BN values.Malaysiakini
Rafoc Secretariatrafocsecretariat@yahoo.com
To All Retired Armed Forces Officers
You may wish to know that under Section 22 of the RELA Act2012, an act which has been passed by Parliament and which will come into force with effect from 22 June 2012, RELA will be using the established Army rank structure. Many members of RAFOC and other retired Armed Forces officers have expressed their “objection” to the use of the Army rank structure by RELA. They are not against the RELA Act 2012 per se but only objected to the use of the Army rank structure, which has been exclusively belonged to the Malaysian Army since 1933 and used by armies world-wide.Although there are one or two organizations such as Civil Defence, Security Guards etc. that use the Army rank structure but their use have not been legalized as such.
Their use is therefore “illegal” or not authorized.
The RELA Act 2012 "legalised" the use of the Army rank structure by the RELA. The Army, for that matter the Armed Forces, holds esteemed and sacred the commission and the rank structure conferred to them. Their commissions are conferred by SPB Yang DiPertuan Agong and can only be withdrawn or revoked by him. Having met the prerequisite to become an officer cadet and a vigorous selection process, those who were successful underwent a period of military training to become an officer, either in our own local institutions or abroad.
Not all who applied were selected to undergo the training and not all who
underwent the training were commissioned.
Their commissions were conferred in a
traditional ceremony, solemnly officiated by SPB Yang DiPertuan Agong or one of
the rulers on his behalf, befitting the profession.Having made a Second Lieutenant, they had to attend numerous professional courses and had to pass a written and a practical examination before they could be promoted to the next higher rank as Kaptain and Mejar.
Their promotions are also based on the vacancies that existed in the establishment and goes through the appropriate Promotion Board and endorsed by the Armed Forces Council before the consent by SPB Yang DiPertuan Agong. They are not promoted simply on a time scale. Hense, a number of officers left or had to leave the Service before their due retirement age or on reaching the end of their short service commission date to facilitate for the upward movement of the younger officers.
Their commissions and promotions are gazetted in the Government Gazette. A commissioned officer holds his commission, using his last rank in Service, till death unless his commission is revoked by the Yang DiPertuan Agong for disciplinary or reasons unbecoming of an officer. Hense, retired Armed Forces officers still have their
last rank before retirement, with their names and they are still referred to by their rank.
They are proud to use them or to be referred by their rank even though it is
only a Kaptain or Mejar when some of their intake members are Kolonels or Jenerals. Likewise, the Other Ranks also goes through a vigorous selection process before they are selected for the basic recruit training. Again, not all who applied to join the Armed Forces were selected to go through the recruit training and not all who underwent the recruit training were selected to serve the Armed Forces.
On joining the Service, they also had to attend numerous professional courses and must have the proper leadership qualities required before they are promoted. Again, their promotions are also subject to the vacancies in the establishment and promoted through a properly constituted Promotion Board.
With all due respect, RELA is not part of the Armed Forces. They have their roles to play but their roles are not part of the total defence plan per se. We have the Territorial Army as the back-up force to the regular forces in the total defence plan of the country. The Territorial Army is part of the Armed Forces set-up. Not
having to state the shortfalls of the RELA officers in comparison to the Army officers as stated above, and not having to state other not-so-nice comparisons, we see no similarity nor justification to warrant the use of the Army rank structure by the RELA organization. They should use their own or other rank structure as appropriate to their organization. We hope the appropriate authorities take recognition of this.
We are not privy to know if the Army or for that matter, the Armed Forces or the Ministry of Defence or the Armed Forces Council have been referred to on the use of the Army rank structure by the RELA or by the Ministry of Home Affairs before the Act was tabled in Parliament. We are not sure if SPB Yang DiPertuan Agong, as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, was made aware or has been duly advised beforehand and consented to the use of the Army rank structure by RELA.
On the part of the retired Armed Forces officers, Kol Abd Malik bin Alwi, (Bersara), President of Kelab Pegawai-Pegawai RAMD, has taken the initiative to convey our objection, in writing to our YAB. Prime Minister. Kol Abd Malik has also briefed our RAFOC Committee on this matter during our committee meeting on 14 Jun 2012.
Our RAFOC Committee deliberated on the matter and agreed to support the effort by Kol Abd Malek on this objection. Thus, Jen Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Abd Rahman bin Abd Hamid, (Bersara), our RAFOC Deputy President and Lt Jen Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Abd Ghani bin Abd Aziz, TUDM, (Bersara), one of our RAFOC Vice-President, accompanied
Kol Abd Malek to meet YB. Minister of Defence on 14 Jun 2012 to state our case.
YB. Minister of Defence has agreed to refer the matter to YAB. Prime Minister.
To date, we are yet to get the feed-back. 22 June 2012 is only this Friday!
Pleaselet your objection be made known to the relevant authorities and your
peers still serving in the Armed Forces through your net-work.
We must
protect the exclusive and the sacred use of our Army rank structure by our Armed Forces. RELA should use other rank structure. On behalf of its members, in particular and on behalf of the retired Armed Forces officers' community, in general, RAFOC has made its objection known to the relevant authorities. We want
Section 22 of the RELA Act 2012 rescinded.
A chain email calls on Malaysians to boycott the product. If you have noticed, they always love to shoot themselves in the foot, saving the rest of us alot of trouble. Read more in Malaysiakini's opinion column from readers.
PETALING JAYA: An email making the rounds in cyberspace is urging Malaysians to boycott the 1Malaysia Pad, claiming the company selling it is headed by a participant in the infamous cow head protest in 2009.
FMT received the email with attached photographs of Shohaimi Shahadan, the executive chairman of MalTechPro Sdn Bhd, which launched the 7-inch pad last month.
1Malaysia Pad uses the Android Gingerbread operating system.The email tells Malaysians not to buy the product even if it is cheaper than China-made tablets.It alleges that Shohaimi is an Umno crony who participated in the 2009 protest in Shah Alam against the Selangor government’s intention to relocate a Hindu temple from the city’s Section 19 to the Section 23 residential area. Watch the video clip clip below, you can verify his presence at the 3:11
The protesters angered Hindus because they displayed the severed head of a cow, an animal regarded as sacred in Hinduism.The protest leaders were recorded as saying there would be blood if the temple was relocated to Section 19. Umno denied that it inspired the protest, but photographs taken at the scene showed that several demonstrators were the party’s branch leaders in Selangor.
The anonymous writer of the email requests receivers to relay it to as many Malaysians as possible.It is learnt that 1Malaysia Pad will enter the market next month at RM999 for the first 5,000 units.The tablet comes with two cameras—a 3.0 megapixel device at the back and a 0.3 megapixel device in the front—WiFi and 3G data capabilities, a Li-Polymer 4000mAH battery and a 32GB micro SD memory card.
Shohaimi could not be contacted for comment. Source: FMT
Deaths in custody - the hurt lock-up by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
"Jail's no home for the truth." - Carandiru
COMMENT Three
years is not a long time. Here in Malaysia, it's just a year short of
how long a regime can legitimately hold on to power before it needs to
hold an election to get the endorsement of the voting public to remain
in power. Three years for ‘causing hurt' to A Kugan is what an officer of the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) received.
The truth will never be known in this case or in the hundreds or
perhaps even thousands of others who have suddenly died in police
custody, immigrant detention camps, police shootouts and jails over the
years. We will never know the anguish of families of those killed or who
have died in custody due to negligence.We may share their
sense of outrage but our outrage is diluted with our disdain for the
systemic corruption that permeates every level of government.
Our
outrage in some cases is also dependent on the guilt of the parties
involved. We are indifferent to the fates of convicted inmates and the
unsanitary (and most often criminally negligent) conditions they are
housed in when it is the responsibility of the state to administer their
welfare. Our
parasitic relationship with ‘foreigners', legal or otherwise, does not
leave much room for empathy when it comes to their welfare while in
custody for whatever reasons.
And before anyone accuses me of conflating various issues of our penal and enforcement systems, let me remind you that to this system, everyone who died is guilty or at least that is the presumption. And
like many Malaysians of a certain class (and perhaps because of my
previous professions) my interactions with the PDRM has been positive
for the most part - so-called illegal rallies excluded - but personal
anecdote has no place in the face of the historical and current
corruption of the system.
The Kugan case like most flashpoints
when it comes to the PDRM or any of the enforcement branches of the
state reveals simmering race and class tensions that are so often
glossed over in this country. This case in particular is perhaps the most cogent example of the state's disdain for the rights of its citizens.
Unconvincing cover-up
I have great admiration for the family of Kugan (as I do all other
families in similar predicaments) who began the long journey of making
it impossible for the state to bury its misdeeds only to reach the
destination of an unconvincing cover-up. Blame was assigned, a verdict recorded, a sentence meted out, but Kugan's family will never know the truth and neither will we. Most people would be familiar with the gruesome post-mortem pictures of Kugan but to me what is even more sinister was the attempted cover up.
If his family didn't barge into the mortuary, the truth or the inkling of it would most probably been cremated or buried. The family could not even grieve in peace with mourners being arrested during the funeral. The lies or misconduct of thefirst pathologist(which
only warranted a reprimand) seemed like an apathetic shrug from the
state, as if the murder of Kugan did not even warrant a sophisticated
cover-up. And because of the propaganda for some, Kugan will always
remain the ‘suspected luxury car thief" who died in custody.
It's
times like these Malaysians are reminded of the necessity of opposition
political parties and non-governmental organisations with N Surendran
(whose work together with the other lawyers has been exemplary), Hindraf
and many others (at various times) rightly turning this ‘criminal' case
into a political one. I would argue (and I am sure there will be
many who disagree with me) that here in Malaysia because the system has
been so compromised that any death in custody is an indictment against
the ruling regime and its underlying ideology. With election
fever running high, those sympathetic to the aims of Pakatan Rakyat have
been publically dreaming of the way how a Pakatan administration will
right the wrongs of a system riddled with years of abuse.
This,
of course, is cold comfort to the families of those slain by the system
over the years. Indian, Orang Asli, Malay, Chinese, Indonesian, and
Burmese, the list goes on. The circumstances they died in may not
have received the public scrutiny that Kugan's death did but the system
over the years has many deaths to account for even though our current
home minister can't even get the numbers (of the deaths in custody)
right in the current administration. Reform of the police and
penal systems is such a gargantuan task that it is difficult to
contemplate. No doubt a top-to-bottom approach is needed but the reality
is that any reforms would be piece meal or at worse cosmetic.
Whatever
changes made will fit time and circumstance, this to satiate the
demands of rakyat disillusioned by a police force they perceive as
corrupt or racist, there to do the bidding of their political masters
and not to safeguard their interests.
Reforms need sustained effort
The reality is that any serious reform of the police force or the penal
system will take a sustained effort by successive governments committed
to the principle of reforming these most vital of public services. It
will involve more than just reforming state organs but reforming
mindsets, the public and the police personnel.
It would mean that
the police force as an institution would be more than just any other
convenient government body there to employ individuals who would not be
employable in other jobs. Of
course, the worry here is that these reforms are just part of the many
other desperately needed reforms that this country requires. Cases like
Kugan or Aminulrasyid Amzah or Teoh Beng Hock remind the Malaysian
public of the contempt the current regime feels towards ordinary
citizens.
On the other hand, the deaths and torture that occur in
prisons and so-called illegal immigrant detention camps which is met
with hardly a raised eyebrow by the Malaysian public is evidence of the
apathy the public has towards these issues. I'm sceptical of
truth and reconciliation commissions for reasons which are beyond the
scope of this piece, but I often wonder how a commission like this would
play out in this context.
What would they reveal? Malaysians are
prone to conspiracy theories and who could blame us? A muzzled press
and the constant shadow plays that are a part of our lives are conducive
to a particular mindset that sees tendrils of connections where none
exist. How would we as a nation react to the banal evil that
confronts us in these proceedings? How would certain communities react
when the truth of racial profiling as standard operating procedure is
exposed to the harsh glare of the truth?
Would we be surprised at
the level of cooperation between the various branches of the security
services and where their loyalties lie or would we be cynical enough to
expect such sinister alliances? How
would we react when we discover that the perpetrators were young or
ignorant or both who were just following orders (an invalid defence) or
that psychological examination revealed that security personnel
displayed levels of disorders that made them unsuitable to hold the
positions they held?
How would we react to the blatant racism or
indoctrination that their training exposed them to? And if there were
cover-ups and convicted personnel were paid to take the fall, how much
were they paid?Is the life of a citizen more valuable than a foreigner? Is the life of a Malay man worth more than an Indian or Chinese?
Perhaps the only compensation that these families deserve is financial
ones. It's a band-aid solution at best and if it means that BN pays by
losing its mandate and by winning Pakatan pays in cash, so be it.
Someone has to pay. Malaysiakini
Nephew of Kazakh president is a great success after he 'falsely wormed his way into Columbia University' and 'stole' his stepfather's $20million apartment
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The former nephew of the president of Kazakhstan had 'great success' after he falsely claimed a place at Columbia University and allegedly scammed his stepfather, the president's brother, out of a 'very nice' $20 million New York City apartment, according to a lawsuit. Daniyar Nazarbayev's American adventure is a tale that puts to shame even the mighty Borat, the fictional Kazakh TV producer who lampooned the former Soviet republic on screen in 2006.
Con man? Daniyar Nazarbayev allegedly used his ill-gotten admission to Columbia University to woo Nooryana Najwa, the daughter of Malaysia's Prime Minister
Mr Nazarbaye, 24, who fled from the US, is now reportedly engaged to marry the daughter of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, whom he met at the Ivy League university. Daniyar Nazarbayev and Nooryana Najwa Con man? Daniyar Nazarbayev allegedly used his ill-gotten admission to Columbia University to woo Nooryana Najwa, the daughter of Malaysia's Prime Minister Plaza. Read the whole story here from the Daily Mail........
Kazakhstan president’s nephew cheated his way into Columbia University: lawsuit
The grifter who swindled his gloriously connected Kazakh stepfather out of a $20 million Plaza condo also conned his way into Columbia University, court papers charge. Daniyar Nazarbayev — whose stepdad is the brother of Kazak President Nursultan Nazarbayev — landed at the college using “fraudulent and fabricated” paperwork from a high school he didn’t actually attend, the court papers say. When applying, Daniyar allegedly claimed he had graduated from a high school in Kazakhstan. He actually went to high school in Switzerland — and never graduated, sources said. Even Daniyar’s influential last name isn’t real, the court papers say. His actual surname is Kesikbayev. His mother, Maira, allegedly had his birth certificate changed after she married Bolat Nazarbayev in 2001. Read in full from the New York Post........
The great Umno man's burden by Commander (Rtd) S THAYAPARAN, formerly of the Royal Malaysian Navy
Monday, June 11, 2012
Democracy shows not only its power in reforming governments, but
in regenerating a race of men and this is the greatest blessing of free
governments. - Andrew Jackson
COMMENT
When you define your political and social aspirations through a racial
lens or worse conflate them with religious preoccupations, the only way
forward is backward and post-2008 GE, Umno has overtly attempted to
define the changing political landscape as that of a racial or religious
conflict with the fate of the ‘ummah' in peril at the hands of a
non-Muslim/Malay-influenced political alliance - Pakatan Rakyat.
Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin's clarion call
for Malaysians, specifically Malay-Muslims, to unite under the BN
banner is problematic for a variety of reasons but he is absolutely
right when he reminds non-Malay Malaysians to be cognisant of the fact
that "future of the nation depended on Malay/Muslim unity". I have, more
or less, put forward a similar argument in my Malay matters in the nation's futurepiece.
The
narrative Umno likes to spin is that BN and the intellectually, not to
mention morally, bankrupt ‘power sharing' formula worked post-Merdeka
and as custodians of the Malay community, Umno's ‘struggle' has always
been to uplift the ‘Malay' race from the inequities of colonialism and
the avarice of the ‘immigrant' races that held sway over the land.
Of course, this bears no resemblance to reality but as propaganda goes
it was fairly decent in forming some kind of cohesive society bound by
fear of the ‘other' and an acceptance by non-Malays of their limited
role in government, which belied their enormous contributions to this
country. This
post-Merdeka Umno ‘myth' and the myopic belief that Umno and Umno alone
should lead the Malay community is something of a doubled-edged sword.
This
bears some resemblance to the (neo) conservative Straussian principle
of the creation of ‘myths' as a form of societal cohesiveness and the
political relevance of BN is much like the ANC of South Africa, which
for years was coasting on its own myths but presently riddled with
corruption and is on perilous ground where discriminate voters are
concerned. The tendency to believe their myths is the trap that
Umno has fallen into and the irony here is that for a certain section of
the voting public, these myths no longer hold true.
New myths
are desired which is why Pakatan has caught the attention of a certain
segment of the electorate, one which obviously poses a clear and present
danger to Umno dominance. The outsourced Umno thugs
Whatever
ones views on ‘racialist' ideologies are, the cold comfort reality is
that if they work, they will continue to be legitimately endorsed.
Umno's problem is that by whatever credible criteria that is put
forward, they have failed in their self-appointed role as guardians of
the Malay/Muslim ‘ummah'.
I would argue that the rejection of a
certain section of the Malay voting public of Umno is not an endorsement
of the egalitarian ethos of Pakatan but rather an admonishment to Umno
for failing in carrying out its responsibilities to the Malay community.
Part of this failure is the dilution of the ‘Malay' community with the
Umno-approved influx of ‘foreign' nationals to bolster the electoral
rolls.
But
what exactly is the ‘Malay' community? We could argue till the cows
come home about the specificity of what actually constitutes a ‘Malay'
but the reality is that Umno by its own doing has so mangled the concept
that what we are left with are groups who self identify with the
concept purely because of the economic or social advantages it delivers. There has always been this sense of apartness in the Malay community,
no doubt a relic of our colonial history, that has been used by Umno to
further its own political ends.
The most overt examples of this
are the various ‘Malay' institutions that the British created, be it
elite educational facilities or military branches that fostered the
feudal mindset or encouraged a perspective of singular ownership over
the destiny of this nation. Islam. of course, has slowly but
surely over the years been imposed as a unifying force for the
culturally diverse ‘Malay' community and as a reminder to non-Malays
that they are separate from the national polity.
Of course, what
we are really talking about here is an Arabisation process that
conveniently rejects some of the more ‘liberal' traditions of Islam
which conveniently seems the mode favoured by most authoritarian
‘Islamic' regimes around the world. Malay nationalism these days
is defined by the ranting's of the outsourced thugs of Umno and the
pious declarations of state-sponsored ulamas who say nothing of the
rampant corruption that permeates the system, but seem obsessed with
concepts such as ‘Ketuanan Melayu', ‘defending Islam' and upholding the
dignity of the sovereign.
All this is extremely amusing since it
is Umno who is responsible for all the ills that these groups claim to
be fighting against, not to mention that the said groups are in reality
funded by Umno, with Umno members openly declaring their memberships of
these groups.
So what is Umno hawking?
Gone are the days when Malay nationalism was not about maintaining the
status quo but rather about shaking up the establishment and shining a
spotlight on the Malay underclass, which has always been at the mercy
(throughout history) of an entrenched bureaucratic system. I
have some admiration for the political roads taken by Malay nationalist
like Onn Jaafar, who at least for brief periods either were credible
advocates for the Malay community or would be pioneers for a truly
1Malaysia.
Of course, in the end they too were held hostage by
racial considerations but it is to Umno's downfall that they fail to
heed the lessons of their own historical personalities and continue to
marginalise the contrarian intellectual voices of their party.
Prime Minister Najib Razak's warning to youthsnot
to be taken in by "those selling idealism" in wanting electoral reforms
is indicative of how out of touch Umno is with reality. What the
regime's propaganda of Bersih 3.0 being an attempted coup or some sort
of war against the police has done is alienate those who were not
sympathetic to the goals of Bersih and hardened the views of those who
think that Umno's time has come. If Pakatan or Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is peddling ‘idealism', what is Umno hawking?
Behind
the gilded cages or the crime-infested Malay settlements, a sense of
anomie has settled in. Islam, or the brand Umno perpetuates, is slowly
losing a hold on a disenfranchised Malay polity. The diversity
that Pakatan offers, be it the so-called moderate Islamic stances of
PAS, the middle ground of PKR or the secularism of DAP, provides choices
the Malay community never had. With Pakatan becoming a credible
ruling alternative post-2008, Umno's malfeasances which for so long were
overlooked because the Malay community had no alternatives suddenly
doesn't seem like such an insurmountable obstacle.
The fact that
Umno chose to wield its federal power in such a vindictive manner in
the PTPTN (Higher Education Loan Fund) fiasco is further evidence that
Umno has no problem considering certain segments of the Malay community
as collateral damage in their ongoing war to retain power. Malay
politicians like the late Onn Jaafar (at one time at least) realised
that the burden of a nation's future in a diverse multiracial society
should not rest solely on the shoulders on one community. This is a
lesson Umno has failed to learn or rather it is a lesson they could have
overlooked if they actually carried out their responsibilities towards
the Malay community.
At the end of the day, all we need to
understand is that Umno was dealt extremely good racial cards, but
played their hand badly. Malaysiakini
