Don’t let racial issues destroy what has been painstakingly built: Najib
August 30, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said society should not allow the Malaysian way of life, which is based upon diversity and moderation, to be undermined by extreme attitudes which manifest themselves through racial and religious issues.
“Everything which we have achieved, everything which we have built, and things which are dear to us, will be destroyed.
“We should, therefore, value the prevailing peace, harmony and stability in the country,” Najib said in his message in conjunction with the 53rd National Day tomorrow.
He also said that the time had come for the current generation to take the lead to propel the country to greater heights.
Saying that the real challenge for Malaysians today was to transform the country to become a developed and high-income nation by the year 2020, Najib said, the government had put in place strong foundations in the form of the Government Transformation Plan and Economic Transformation Plan to achieve the objective.
Najib said the success achieved in transforming Malaysia from that of a low-income and agricultural-based country into a medium-income industrialised country was due to the commitment, planning and diligence of the government, along with the people, in holding fast to the philosophy of being constantly ahead of the curve of transformation and changes.
“Refusing to be contented with the status quo, and out of sheer determination, our forefathers took Malaysia from one success to another.
“Today, it is our turn to lead Malaysia to greater heights of progress and prosperity. The question is, are we courageous enough to break away from tradition and achieve the extraordinary?” said the prime minister.
Looking back into the struggle of the country’s past leaders, Najib said the nation’s forefathers had never felt satisfied with what the country had at that time and had striven hard to overcome no matter how big the challenges were.
“They constantly seek and work to create a better future for the country and its people,” he said.
The prime minister also said that each Malaysian citizen was crucial to the country’s development and that he or she had the capability to contribute towards the nation’s prosperity and well-being.
The time had also come for the country to fully utilise local talents, he said.
“It will be a huge loss to the country if the talents, whom we have painstakingly nurtured, migrate in search of a greener pasture just because of our failure to provide the conducive environment for them to contribute,” he said.
He added that globalisation not only allowed for easy flow of capital and technology across the borders but also the flow of human capital.
Najib said that to create a better future, Malaysia should safeguard national unity, saying it had been the country’s pillar of peace and stability.
It was for this reason, he said, that the basis of integration among the Malaysian people should be built upon shared values as spelled out in the national ideology or Rukun Negara and enshrined in the constitution.
Najib also said that the government was truly committed to defending the country’s and sovereignty within the framework of legal instruments and based on its own strength to face threats either from within or outside the country.
“Please remember that Malaysia is our homeland; this is the place where we were born, the place where we grow up, where we find our livelihood, a place where we find happiness and where we shall be laid to rest,” he said.
In conjunction with the National Day, he called on Malaysians to renew their commitment and strengthen their resolve to make Malaysia the best country.
“For the sake of our children’s future, we must defend the survival of our country. Let us not break what is intact,” he said. – Bernama
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
DAP’s Christian Evangelical Politics, Aftermath & the Islamic State
by Azizi Safar
In the vilification of former DAP Perak’s Hee Yit Foong – bitch, mother of frogs and whore were some of the choicest abuses – there was brief talk of “personal” clashes between Lim Guan Eng and Ngeh Koo Ham on the one side, Hee on the other. Against those two, one party boss, the other state chief, how could Hee not end up losing? But, after an initial run, that kind of talk was never again raised. This is unusual. All defections within the Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR bring with it personal, mud-slinging allegations of loss of confidence in the leadership, betrayal of cause by leaders, and things similar. But not in Hee’s case.
With her instead, it was all about her ethics. Even her husband was entered into the the entire hate campaign – with the “alternative independent media” in Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today in the lead. It was a campaign carried out with extraordinary cruelty.
It went on everyday for days, then weeks, with the refrain she hankered after positions in the state government, an expensive car and related benefits, little of which she got even after the Barisan Nasional seized power. The picture painted of her, and that by lawyers, was pure libel: insatiably greedy, avaricious, opportunistic, materialistic, bitchy and a whore. The DAP, enabled by the online media, permitted it all to hang out, coupling the strategy with hate whispers – example: she took money to Hong Kong for a holiday – all of which added to a phenomena that was infinitely more intense and abusive than against the PKR defectors Osman Jailu and Jamaluddin Radzi (for reasons not told publicly, DAP switched allegiance for mentri besar from the former to Nizar Jamaluddin of PAS).
For the two PKR men, there was virtually next to nothing. Where there were oral abuses, it was primarily about them trying to save their skin from corruption charges. But who wouldn’t? Even the great patriot Petra Kamarudin ran away and hid from the law.
In the vilification of Hee Yit Foong (centre on door mat), conducted with extraordinary cruelty, Nga Kor Ming made sure Kit Siang joined in, thence the entire party.
If they had seen or realised it, Malaysiakini and the others chose to ignore the inconsistencies in the allegations against Hee, centred on money and that she was in debt. Hee had been in the Jelapang constituency for all her adult life. If she had gotten rich “defecting” it was not immediately evident, not even a year later. She had won Jelapang for DAP in 2004 when the party was in the doldrums and Abdullah Badawi had swept nearly every imaginable seat. Even Karpal Singh lost then.
After her party resignation, she hadn’t attended a single Barisan function. She refused to join Barisan in the Bukit Gantang parliamentary contest that DAP’s ally in PAS subsequently won. Instead, she retreated to herself, quietly with her husband, who like Hee is physically disabled and had no means of support. Their financial situation isn’t unique. Rather it’s typical of village and small town, suburb Chinese, not schooled in St Michael’s or a La Salle, scraping together a living, grandparents, husband, wife, kids, outside the quota system and no loan and purchasing discounts. Together they constitute the base-roots of the DAP. If money mattered more than anything else, Hee would have been better off from the beginning, or in 2004, not in the DAP but the MCA that’s close to the centre of power, Umno, hence connections to the government largesse. Alternatively, if she stayed in DAP, keeping her head down against her values, she was at least assured of, even if not guaranteed, a legislator’s salary and some pension beyond the next general elections. Now, all that’s left in limbo.
Against the crescendo of hatred – the DAP had perfected it to a pitch that was identical to a religious-style inquisition – there was a silent group inside the DAP, and within Perak. This was the Indian Hindus and, mostly, notably Karpal and his sons. It was as if they intuitively felt, and rightly so, Hee’s resignation was a family feud, meaning a fight among Chinese within the parameters of Chinese culture and it was not about the party or state politics.
If anybody could lay claim to DAP’s continued survival, Hee would be one of them. She rose from the ranks, a long time member, somebody from the grassroots, the laobaixing. This can be disadvantageous against a tide, both cultural and political, sweeping into the party with Lim Guan Eng as boss. Hee is representative of the Chinese-schooled whereas the new face cultivated by Guan Eng were Anglophiles, preferably English-speaking lawyers, preferably schooled in a La Salle, and visits the church on Sundays. So the likes of Ngeh, Nga Kor King, Tony Pua, and Jeff Ooi are in their separate ways representative of the new cadres, antithetical and even hostile to the base roots of the classical Chinese DAP, people like Hee.
To the Anglophiles, their thoughts and values framed by an imported Anglo-Saxon culture, fellow members like Hee and her constituents would be considered unrefined, half-literate, deficient in both English and Malay, worshippers of voodoo beliefs. Their bloc votes and support are both wanted and needed but, otherwise, “fuck off, go dig ditches, don’t bother us about your mosquito-infested drains, we are destined for bigger things, and leave politics to us,” the Ngehs and the Ngas. Such a condescending attitude would have an effect on intra party member relationships because, by extension, the most abusive slanders against Hee, passing from tongue to ear to tongue, could only have come from those who knew enough to know where it hurts most. The cousins Ngeh Koo Ham and Nga Kor Ming, the top two Perak DAP leaders, come to mind. They are staunch Christians, or so the online media says while bragging about their religious affiliation.
When Hee went public with her resignation two months later, she neither confirm not dispel the allegations. She merely repeated her silence. Instead, she said over and over again: “I like to stress I did not leave to join another party.” Coupled with other facts, that statement was revealing in its depth, but the Press ignored it again – that, or they were stupid not to see this: she had quit purely out of frustration. If true, then it means there was neither defection nor betrayal, two of the most widely used terms to malign her. Rather, she had enough; she resigned and that was that.
This raises the question: what was so bad in Perak she had to throw it all away? Again, silence, no hint from her.
Even the DAP had been muted in its demand that she surrender her seat, which is to suggest the party isn’t sure it can keep Jelapang without her. Guan Eng also did not plea for her to rejoin the party, only that she “not neglect the people’s interest”. But keeping her seat, which she could rightly claim she won for the DAP and not the other way around, was one way to ensure the “people’s interest” was kept.
Hee was not alone in her frustration at the DAP, but her resignation had come with the rise of the Christian evangelical faction within it. Their position, before strengthened, is now cemented with Lim Guan Eng at the top, Betty Chew, his Christian wife, by his side at home and outside.
Without open admission, inside party whispering would have attributed the results of the March 2008 victory to Guan Eng, perhaps even to the evangelical faction as well. One hint to have exposed that faction is found in Fong Po Kuan, who announced, then retracted, her decision not to stand in Batu Gajah where she had won twice before, in 1999 and in 2004.
Thoughout the time Hee was being lynched Fong kept silent, perhaps a testament to her sympathies rather than a betrayal of a party colleague. On Fong’s unwillingness to contest, Karpal, who himself had criticised Guan Eng, could only admit he was “surprised”. As with Hee after that, there again was an intra-Chinese feud he probably could not fully comprehend and so might have thought it best to leave alone. Only when Kit Siang, an old, but dying remnant of the surviving classical DAP, stepped into the feud did Fong agreed to change her mind.
Po Kuan in Feb 2008: for her Chinese culture knows when to participate in speech and politics but for the DAP’s evangelist Anglophiles they understood what’s needed to crucify somebody.
It is rare in Chinese culture that they should spit at each other so openly and, more than the MCA, the DAP relied on Chinese votes and sympathy. This means, in a sense, the DAP is more culturally oriented than it is purely political or religious. Hence, the silent responses to internal party conflicts by Fong and Hee reflected the early ethical values of the Chinese party backbone.
But those values are not Christian values. So it was typically un-Chinese in the demonic way the party, led by Ngeh, sanctioned by Guan Eng, had denounced Hee. It was as if she was satan reincarnate to be flogged and crucified. Like Hee and Fong, Zhao Mingfu (Teoh Beng Hock), if alive, would reflect the values of the early DAP but a non-existential voice today in the party.
This factional marginalisation would explain why Zhao’s wife and sister sounded disgruntled, saying so only in oblique ways, although the DAP, more accurately Kit Siang and Karpal, had taken great pains to give Zhao an honourable burial. The party, on the other hand, would use his death to maximum political effect but how will Betty, also a Malacca state assemblywoman, to hold a joss-stick at Zhao’s funeral that would make her look an idolater? The evangelist Christians in the DAP could have none of that.
Like Zhao and Fong, Hee would also belong to a category that the DAP evangelists, or Anglophile sympathizers like Josh Hong, would say are, on top of being old-style Chinese, also pagan chauvinist, therefore racist. This isn’t a new stigma. Coming however from Guan Eng that’s implied in his Middle Malaysia, it’s complete: gangsters and communists before, prostitutes and racists today. (Note that when Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa is accused of owning shares in a gambling company, the immediate reaction judges him to be a hypocrite. It infers Malay purity whereas the Chinese is synonymous with an evil, corrupted class prone to all sorts of vices, and gambling is supposed to be a Christian vice. Petra Kamardin constantly lends weight to such prejudices and racial discrimination in his Malaysia Today. )
Before treated with condescending mockery, Zhao’s family members must have intuitively understood why the DAP tears were faked although their son had given away, not jail, not hand or limb, but his life for the party. This was one up against the DAP evangelical faction who like comparing Guan Eng’s time in jail and personal sacrifices to early Christians being thrown in the dungeon for the political Christian cause. Consequently, it was Karpal and his lawyer sons who shared empathy with the Zhao family more than did Teresa Kok, another DAP evangelist.
Once party boss Guan Eng permitted DAP’s evangelization, he, like Anwar and PAS for the Malays, would drag an entire Chinese community into the political fray that’s pivoted on religion and on an upper-case God alien to both pagan Chinese and infidel Indians. Whose god will he pray to now, or who will he serve: Man or God?
Below is a list of the evangelical DAP MPs and State assemblymen, which is to suggest the extend of Christianity’s influence in the party’s state and national apparatus. As Islam is to PAS, Christianity is to the DAP. Along with some PKR Chinese such as Elizabeth Wong, the DAP Christians will preach the same message about politics beyond race but not religion. As follows: the DAP pulpit politicians and Anglophiles in no particular order and this not a definitive list.
Betty Chew (Guan Eng’s wife)
Ngeh Koo Ham alias James
Ngar Kor Ming
Teresa Kok
Chow Kon Yeow
Liew Chin Tong
Tony Pua
Hannah Yeoh
Edward Lee
Anthony Loke
The knock-on effects on national policy, should they take power, is not to be underestimated. DAP evangelists alongside PAS ustaz and ulamas make for a powerful, perhaps even a lethal outcome. This isn’t just an irony, but is a betrayal of DAP’s long-standing stance about involving religion in politics. It is one reason, Karpal, so much against a religious state, had openly cautioned Guan Eng about going a certain direction, especially hand-in-hand with Anwar. And he has told Guan Eng not to underestimate his internal support, a statement, if true, says that the classical side of DAP, Hindus and the Chinese alike, as opposed to the Christian Anglophiles, have yet to show their hands.
In the same cab and going the same way: the Ngehs and the Ngas together doing God’s work in the DAP. True to their Christian injunction, they couldn’t leave home without it.
Here is Ngeh Koo Ham in 2003 when PAS ruled Terengganu:
“DAP Perak fully support the CEC decision requiring DAP Terengganu members to quit PAS appointed political posts. We must never accept the implementation of an Islamic State in Malaysia just because we are accommodated in the Government.”
Perak, more than any other state, highlighted the betrayal of the position eight years later.
Like Umno and like Anwar Ibrahim, with the uncanny ability to speak from both sides of the mouth, below is Ngeh latest when asked between his preference for a secular or Islamic state. With eyes in the back of his head trained on his new political buddies in PAS, he says this:
The words “secular state” and “Islamic state” connote different meanings to different people. I would prefer to discuss this from the stand point of a theocratic state versus a secular state.
After he side-steps the question of the Islamic state, he adds:
However, a secular state must not also mean it is anti-religion or anti-God. Good values taught in [all] religions must be adopted by [people] in a secular state after they have been examined and scrutinised. Therefore, I support a secular state imbued with virtues, and not a humanistic secular state.
But a secular is a humanist state by its very internal definition. To be secular is to be without God (‘g’ in upper case), true, but only the likes of PAS people and Ngeh would they equal the absence of God to being anti-religion or anti-god. Buddhism is such a religion without God. Daoism would be humanist and secular, yet neither anti-religion nor anti-God. And so too Hinduism, which is without Ngeh’s kind of God that now enters his politics as well as DAP’s. And when Ngeh speaks of “God”, he knows by whose god he means the word.
Ngeh’s upside-down, doublethink perversion is revealing: when he says secular he means Godly secular, and when he says humanist he means it isn’t virtuous. Ignore for the moment the definition errors and contradictions; rather his statements say how far the political ground has shifted within the DAP: (a) the abandoning of its secular creed, and (b) its evangelization by Christians in the Ngehs, Ngas, Betties and the Koks. To represent Malays, PAS could rightly claim Islam as font of its political battles but how many Chinese and Indians (even Malays) are Christians unless it is Teresa Kok’s intention to covert all of them to Jesus Christ?
From this vantage view, it is possible to see how and why Christianity is to the DAP today as Islam is to PAS and the two parties are now aligned, DAP especially by going back on its word. Ngeh, again, before he flipped, but frothing at the other end of his mouth against the Islamic state in 2002 that inferred Islam was neither universal nor did it possess “brotherhood values” of the “human race” from which humanism is drawn:
The general principle is that there must be mutual respect base(d) on universal values and the brotherhood of the human race. Should there be any belief or value that is not universal, any party who wishes to disseminate his belief or value may do so only through education and persuasion.
At a DAP convention in 2003 when secularism was never qualified by the term “humanistic”, Ngeh wanted to “ensure Malaysia will not become an Islamic State”:
This convention is called in view of the urgency to inform DAP Perak members and the Malaysian Public on the need to uphold the Malaysian Federal Constitution to preserve Malaysia as a secular democratic state. … DAP is against making Malaysia an Islamic State either ala UMNO or PAS.
Today there are no such conventions even with Ibrahim Ali’s Perkasa and especially since PAS has to be spoken in the same breath as the DAP.
The Ngas coddling to PAS, the Ngehs shifting the ground on DAP’s early-day resistance to an Islamic state, and Kit Siang hosting ex-Umno chauvinist ideologues aren’t in themselves sufficient to cause the party to split into two. But Hee’s resignation to create an “independent” category has opened up a power-broking role left void by MCA, Gerakan and MIC. That role is no more about getting some pickings for your community that the MCA does before, with astounding ineffectiveness. Rather it is more fundamental: that power having veered from the periphery, MCA, etc., affecting the centre, Umno, as a result, a sizeable faction within the DAP could now trade Umno’s continued existence in return for an equitable, national partnership.
And why not? The old DAP is gone, betrayed, the evangelists have taken over, the new Anglophiles spit on Chinese, exploit them for the votes but bully them, they trade with an old, bigoted Umno class, they dance over an Islamic state and make pacts with Hadi Awang’s PAS anyway. But the Confucianists must act with diligence, keeping virtue on their side always. Only watch the timing, as Mengzi has said repeatedly.
In the vilification of former DAP Perak’s Hee Yit Foong – bitch, mother of frogs and whore were some of the choicest abuses – there was brief talk of “personal” clashes between Lim Guan Eng and Ngeh Koo Ham on the one side, Hee on the other. Against those two, one party boss, the other state chief, how could Hee not end up losing? But, after an initial run, that kind of talk was never again raised. This is unusual. All defections within the Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR bring with it personal, mud-slinging allegations of loss of confidence in the leadership, betrayal of cause by leaders, and things similar. But not in Hee’s case.
With her instead, it was all about her ethics. Even her husband was entered into the the entire hate campaign – with the “alternative independent media” in Malaysiakini and Malaysia Today in the lead. It was a campaign carried out with extraordinary cruelty.
It went on everyday for days, then weeks, with the refrain she hankered after positions in the state government, an expensive car and related benefits, little of which she got even after the Barisan Nasional seized power. The picture painted of her, and that by lawyers, was pure libel: insatiably greedy, avaricious, opportunistic, materialistic, bitchy and a whore. The DAP, enabled by the online media, permitted it all to hang out, coupling the strategy with hate whispers – example: she took money to Hong Kong for a holiday – all of which added to a phenomena that was infinitely more intense and abusive than against the PKR defectors Osman Jailu and Jamaluddin Radzi (for reasons not told publicly, DAP switched allegiance for mentri besar from the former to Nizar Jamaluddin of PAS).
For the two PKR men, there was virtually next to nothing. Where there were oral abuses, it was primarily about them trying to save their skin from corruption charges. But who wouldn’t? Even the great patriot Petra Kamarudin ran away and hid from the law.
In the vilification of Hee Yit Foong (centre on door mat), conducted with extraordinary cruelty, Nga Kor Ming made sure Kit Siang joined in, thence the entire party.
If they had seen or realised it, Malaysiakini and the others chose to ignore the inconsistencies in the allegations against Hee, centred on money and that she was in debt. Hee had been in the Jelapang constituency for all her adult life. If she had gotten rich “defecting” it was not immediately evident, not even a year later. She had won Jelapang for DAP in 2004 when the party was in the doldrums and Abdullah Badawi had swept nearly every imaginable seat. Even Karpal Singh lost then.
After her party resignation, she hadn’t attended a single Barisan function. She refused to join Barisan in the Bukit Gantang parliamentary contest that DAP’s ally in PAS subsequently won. Instead, she retreated to herself, quietly with her husband, who like Hee is physically disabled and had no means of support. Their financial situation isn’t unique. Rather it’s typical of village and small town, suburb Chinese, not schooled in St Michael’s or a La Salle, scraping together a living, grandparents, husband, wife, kids, outside the quota system and no loan and purchasing discounts. Together they constitute the base-roots of the DAP. If money mattered more than anything else, Hee would have been better off from the beginning, or in 2004, not in the DAP but the MCA that’s close to the centre of power, Umno, hence connections to the government largesse. Alternatively, if she stayed in DAP, keeping her head down against her values, she was at least assured of, even if not guaranteed, a legislator’s salary and some pension beyond the next general elections. Now, all that’s left in limbo.
Against the crescendo of hatred – the DAP had perfected it to a pitch that was identical to a religious-style inquisition – there was a silent group inside the DAP, and within Perak. This was the Indian Hindus and, mostly, notably Karpal and his sons. It was as if they intuitively felt, and rightly so, Hee’s resignation was a family feud, meaning a fight among Chinese within the parameters of Chinese culture and it was not about the party or state politics.
If anybody could lay claim to DAP’s continued survival, Hee would be one of them. She rose from the ranks, a long time member, somebody from the grassroots, the laobaixing. This can be disadvantageous against a tide, both cultural and political, sweeping into the party with Lim Guan Eng as boss. Hee is representative of the Chinese-schooled whereas the new face cultivated by Guan Eng were Anglophiles, preferably English-speaking lawyers, preferably schooled in a La Salle, and visits the church on Sundays. So the likes of Ngeh, Nga Kor King, Tony Pua, and Jeff Ooi are in their separate ways representative of the new cadres, antithetical and even hostile to the base roots of the classical Chinese DAP, people like Hee.
To the Anglophiles, their thoughts and values framed by an imported Anglo-Saxon culture, fellow members like Hee and her constituents would be considered unrefined, half-literate, deficient in both English and Malay, worshippers of voodoo beliefs. Their bloc votes and support are both wanted and needed but, otherwise, “fuck off, go dig ditches, don’t bother us about your mosquito-infested drains, we are destined for bigger things, and leave politics to us,” the Ngehs and the Ngas. Such a condescending attitude would have an effect on intra party member relationships because, by extension, the most abusive slanders against Hee, passing from tongue to ear to tongue, could only have come from those who knew enough to know where it hurts most. The cousins Ngeh Koo Ham and Nga Kor Ming, the top two Perak DAP leaders, come to mind. They are staunch Christians, or so the online media says while bragging about their religious affiliation.
When Hee went public with her resignation two months later, she neither confirm not dispel the allegations. She merely repeated her silence. Instead, she said over and over again: “I like to stress I did not leave to join another party.” Coupled with other facts, that statement was revealing in its depth, but the Press ignored it again – that, or they were stupid not to see this: she had quit purely out of frustration. If true, then it means there was neither defection nor betrayal, two of the most widely used terms to malign her. Rather, she had enough; she resigned and that was that.
This raises the question: what was so bad in Perak she had to throw it all away? Again, silence, no hint from her.
Even the DAP had been muted in its demand that she surrender her seat, which is to suggest the party isn’t sure it can keep Jelapang without her. Guan Eng also did not plea for her to rejoin the party, only that she “not neglect the people’s interest”. But keeping her seat, which she could rightly claim she won for the DAP and not the other way around, was one way to ensure the “people’s interest” was kept.
Hee was not alone in her frustration at the DAP, but her resignation had come with the rise of the Christian evangelical faction within it. Their position, before strengthened, is now cemented with Lim Guan Eng at the top, Betty Chew, his Christian wife, by his side at home and outside.
Without open admission, inside party whispering would have attributed the results of the March 2008 victory to Guan Eng, perhaps even to the evangelical faction as well. One hint to have exposed that faction is found in Fong Po Kuan, who announced, then retracted, her decision not to stand in Batu Gajah where she had won twice before, in 1999 and in 2004.
Thoughout the time Hee was being lynched Fong kept silent, perhaps a testament to her sympathies rather than a betrayal of a party colleague. On Fong’s unwillingness to contest, Karpal, who himself had criticised Guan Eng, could only admit he was “surprised”. As with Hee after that, there again was an intra-Chinese feud he probably could not fully comprehend and so might have thought it best to leave alone. Only when Kit Siang, an old, but dying remnant of the surviving classical DAP, stepped into the feud did Fong agreed to change her mind.
Po Kuan in Feb 2008: for her Chinese culture knows when to participate in speech and politics but for the DAP’s evangelist Anglophiles they understood what’s needed to crucify somebody.
It is rare in Chinese culture that they should spit at each other so openly and, more than the MCA, the DAP relied on Chinese votes and sympathy. This means, in a sense, the DAP is more culturally oriented than it is purely political or religious. Hence, the silent responses to internal party conflicts by Fong and Hee reflected the early ethical values of the Chinese party backbone.
But those values are not Christian values. So it was typically un-Chinese in the demonic way the party, led by Ngeh, sanctioned by Guan Eng, had denounced Hee. It was as if she was satan reincarnate to be flogged and crucified. Like Hee and Fong, Zhao Mingfu (Teoh Beng Hock), if alive, would reflect the values of the early DAP but a non-existential voice today in the party.
This factional marginalisation would explain why Zhao’s wife and sister sounded disgruntled, saying so only in oblique ways, although the DAP, more accurately Kit Siang and Karpal, had taken great pains to give Zhao an honourable burial. The party, on the other hand, would use his death to maximum political effect but how will Betty, also a Malacca state assemblywoman, to hold a joss-stick at Zhao’s funeral that would make her look an idolater? The evangelist Christians in the DAP could have none of that.
Like Zhao and Fong, Hee would also belong to a category that the DAP evangelists, or Anglophile sympathizers like Josh Hong, would say are, on top of being old-style Chinese, also pagan chauvinist, therefore racist. This isn’t a new stigma. Coming however from Guan Eng that’s implied in his Middle Malaysia, it’s complete: gangsters and communists before, prostitutes and racists today. (Note that when Ibrahim Ali of Perkasa is accused of owning shares in a gambling company, the immediate reaction judges him to be a hypocrite. It infers Malay purity whereas the Chinese is synonymous with an evil, corrupted class prone to all sorts of vices, and gambling is supposed to be a Christian vice. Petra Kamardin constantly lends weight to such prejudices and racial discrimination in his Malaysia Today. )
Before treated with condescending mockery, Zhao’s family members must have intuitively understood why the DAP tears were faked although their son had given away, not jail, not hand or limb, but his life for the party. This was one up against the DAP evangelical faction who like comparing Guan Eng’s time in jail and personal sacrifices to early Christians being thrown in the dungeon for the political Christian cause. Consequently, it was Karpal and his lawyer sons who shared empathy with the Zhao family more than did Teresa Kok, another DAP evangelist.
Once party boss Guan Eng permitted DAP’s evangelization, he, like Anwar and PAS for the Malays, would drag an entire Chinese community into the political fray that’s pivoted on religion and on an upper-case God alien to both pagan Chinese and infidel Indians. Whose god will he pray to now, or who will he serve: Man or God?
Below is a list of the evangelical DAP MPs and State assemblymen, which is to suggest the extend of Christianity’s influence in the party’s state and national apparatus. As Islam is to PAS, Christianity is to the DAP. Along with some PKR Chinese such as Elizabeth Wong, the DAP Christians will preach the same message about politics beyond race but not religion. As follows: the DAP pulpit politicians and Anglophiles in no particular order and this not a definitive list.
Betty Chew (Guan Eng’s wife)
Ngeh Koo Ham alias James
Ngar Kor Ming
Teresa Kok
Chow Kon Yeow
Liew Chin Tong
Tony Pua
Hannah Yeoh
Edward Lee
Anthony Loke
The knock-on effects on national policy, should they take power, is not to be underestimated. DAP evangelists alongside PAS ustaz and ulamas make for a powerful, perhaps even a lethal outcome. This isn’t just an irony, but is a betrayal of DAP’s long-standing stance about involving religion in politics. It is one reason, Karpal, so much against a religious state, had openly cautioned Guan Eng about going a certain direction, especially hand-in-hand with Anwar. And he has told Guan Eng not to underestimate his internal support, a statement, if true, says that the classical side of DAP, Hindus and the Chinese alike, as opposed to the Christian Anglophiles, have yet to show their hands.
In the same cab and going the same way: the Ngehs and the Ngas together doing God’s work in the DAP. True to their Christian injunction, they couldn’t leave home without it.
Here is Ngeh Koo Ham in 2003 when PAS ruled Terengganu:
“DAP Perak fully support the CEC decision requiring DAP Terengganu members to quit PAS appointed political posts. We must never accept the implementation of an Islamic State in Malaysia just because we are accommodated in the Government.”
Perak, more than any other state, highlighted the betrayal of the position eight years later.
Like Umno and like Anwar Ibrahim, with the uncanny ability to speak from both sides of the mouth, below is Ngeh latest when asked between his preference for a secular or Islamic state. With eyes in the back of his head trained on his new political buddies in PAS, he says this:
The words “secular state” and “Islamic state” connote different meanings to different people. I would prefer to discuss this from the stand point of a theocratic state versus a secular state.
After he side-steps the question of the Islamic state, he adds:
However, a secular state must not also mean it is anti-religion or anti-God. Good values taught in [all] religions must be adopted by [people] in a secular state after they have been examined and scrutinised. Therefore, I support a secular state imbued with virtues, and not a humanistic secular state.
But a secular is a humanist state by its very internal definition. To be secular is to be without God (‘g’ in upper case), true, but only the likes of PAS people and Ngeh would they equal the absence of God to being anti-religion or anti-god. Buddhism is such a religion without God. Daoism would be humanist and secular, yet neither anti-religion nor anti-God. And so too Hinduism, which is without Ngeh’s kind of God that now enters his politics as well as DAP’s. And when Ngeh speaks of “God”, he knows by whose god he means the word.
Ngeh’s upside-down, doublethink perversion is revealing: when he says secular he means Godly secular, and when he says humanist he means it isn’t virtuous. Ignore for the moment the definition errors and contradictions; rather his statements say how far the political ground has shifted within the DAP: (a) the abandoning of its secular creed, and (b) its evangelization by Christians in the Ngehs, Ngas, Betties and the Koks. To represent Malays, PAS could rightly claim Islam as font of its political battles but how many Chinese and Indians (even Malays) are Christians unless it is Teresa Kok’s intention to covert all of them to Jesus Christ?
From this vantage view, it is possible to see how and why Christianity is to the DAP today as Islam is to PAS and the two parties are now aligned, DAP especially by going back on its word. Ngeh, again, before he flipped, but frothing at the other end of his mouth against the Islamic state in 2002 that inferred Islam was neither universal nor did it possess “brotherhood values” of the “human race” from which humanism is drawn:
The general principle is that there must be mutual respect base(d) on universal values and the brotherhood of the human race. Should there be any belief or value that is not universal, any party who wishes to disseminate his belief or value may do so only through education and persuasion.
At a DAP convention in 2003 when secularism was never qualified by the term “humanistic”, Ngeh wanted to “ensure Malaysia will not become an Islamic State”:
This convention is called in view of the urgency to inform DAP Perak members and the Malaysian Public on the need to uphold the Malaysian Federal Constitution to preserve Malaysia as a secular democratic state. … DAP is against making Malaysia an Islamic State either ala UMNO or PAS.
Today there are no such conventions even with Ibrahim Ali’s Perkasa and especially since PAS has to be spoken in the same breath as the DAP.
The Ngas coddling to PAS, the Ngehs shifting the ground on DAP’s early-day resistance to an Islamic state, and Kit Siang hosting ex-Umno chauvinist ideologues aren’t in themselves sufficient to cause the party to split into two. But Hee’s resignation to create an “independent” category has opened up a power-broking role left void by MCA, Gerakan and MIC. That role is no more about getting some pickings for your community that the MCA does before, with astounding ineffectiveness. Rather it is more fundamental: that power having veered from the periphery, MCA, etc., affecting the centre, Umno, as a result, a sizeable faction within the DAP could now trade Umno’s continued existence in return for an equitable, national partnership.
And why not? The old DAP is gone, betrayed, the evangelists have taken over, the new Anglophiles spit on Chinese, exploit them for the votes but bully them, they trade with an old, bigoted Umno class, they dance over an Islamic state and make pacts with Hadi Awang’s PAS anyway. But the Confucianists must act with diligence, keeping virtue on their side always. Only watch the timing, as Mengzi has said repeatedly.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Happy National Women's Day
Honouring Malaysian women
By Flora McCraith, MSN, Updated: 8/24/2010
In conjunction with Malaysia's National Women's Day, we honour the milestones achieved by our fairer sex.
Although the Constitution lacks a clear definition of discrimination, the government is continually implementing legal amendments designed to eliminate any discrimination against women. Much of the progress can be linked to increased access to education for women and greater awareness of their constitutional rights. (genderindex.org)
Women, family and marriage
Many women’s groups in Malaysia are seeking to raise the legal marriage age and to make child marriages illegal - in 2009, Malaysia’s Woman’s Aid Organisation found that 32 girls under the age of 10 had taken the premarital HIV test.
In 1999, the Infants Act was amended and parental control granted equally to both mother and father. Before this, only the father who was recognised as the sole legal guardian. But, now in the event of a divorce the Civil Law Reform Act gives men and women equal guardianship.
Marriage reform laws were pushed through in 1989, and the 1976 Law Reform Marriage and Divorce Act banned polygamy among non-Muslim men. By 1981, all marriages had to be registered.
In 1991, working married women were allowed to file annual tax assessments and able to enjoy the same tax free allowances as their husbands.
Women and education
There has been a significant increase and steady stream of women in education, especially in higher education. This reflects a development in the educational accomplishments of women - largely due to the fact that there is now greater access for women to education facilities. In 1995, female students outnumbered the male students in higher learning, and in 1996 there were 106 women to every 100 men. (www.undp.org.my)
“Although the number of women members of political parties is high, representation of women in decision-making positions in the Government and other statutory bodies is poor, and falls well short of the 30% women participation rate in Government targeted in the 1995 Global platform for Action.”(www.wao.org.my)
While there are women in ministerial positions, significant governmental posts such as deputy ministers, diplomats, and senior civil servants, women are still under-represented in the political organisations and far behind the developed world.
Women in law
Previously, it was only the civil judiciary that has had female judges. Therefore, the recent decision to assign women judges in the Shariah courts was a big achievement. The aim is to improve justice involving women’s rights and family affairs in such courts.
50 per cent of Malaysian women work, with many in high level positions, including in the post governor of the Central Bank. According to official statistics, women make up 36 per cent of the workforce.
In 1999, in response to the pleas of women's groups the minister of Human Resources launched the Code of Practice on the Prevention and Eradication of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. In 2010, a bill was brought to Parliament calling for a fine of up to RM10,000 to be imposed on all employers who fail to investigate and employee's sexual harassment claims.
A Nationwide survey carried out by the Woman’s Aid Organisation (WAO) found that about 40 per cent of Malaysian women over the age of 15 had been beaten by their partners. The Domestic Violence Act, implemented in 1996 made domestic violence, causing physical injury or putting someone in fear of physical injury, a punishable offence. While it only applies to those who are married, it says that Malaysia will not tolerate domestic violence.
Women and NGOs and women’s groups
There are a number of women’s groups in Malaysia championing women’s causes. Shelters have also been set up to protect those in need.
The National Council of Women’s Organisations , established in 1963, has worked hard as an advisory body to push for the equality of woman’s rights.
All Women’s Action Society (AWAM) was founded in 1985 and aims to “improve the lives of women” and “create a just, democratic and equitable society where women are treated with respect, and free from all forms of violence and discrimination.”
The Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) is a global programme aimed at empowering Muslim women. Founded in 2006 and led by 150 leading Muslim women scholars, activists, religious and civil society leaders, it represents over 25 countries worldwide.
Sisters in Islam was founded in 1988 and their mission is to promote the rights of women within the framework of Islam. They are certainly the most outspoken campaigner of change involving Muslim laws that supposedly fail to defend the rights of women.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
MPM reported for calls to close vernacular schools
Susan Loone
Aug 24, 10
7:14pm
The Penang based Parti Cinta Malaysia has lodged a police report in Prai against the Malay Consultative Council (MPM) for asking for the closure of Chinese and Tamil schools.
In his report, PCM vice president Huan Cheng Guan (right) urged the police to investigate and take action on MPM's three committee members who asked for the closure, which in this country, is regarded as a sensitive issue.The three are MPM secretary-general Hasan Mad, committee members Mohd Hilmi Ismail and Kamaruddin Kachar.
"I personally felt that it is provocative in nature to ask for the closure of Tamil and Chinese schools," said Huan, in a press conference after lodging the report.
"After 53 years of Merdeka, I felt that it's a shame to touch on this issue," he added.
"The foreign press are watching us, and if we keep on calling the Chinese to 'balik Cina' and the Indians to 'balik India', then who would like to come and invest in our country?"
PCM has joined several groups including BN Youth wings - MCA and MIC - to lodge reports over MPM for calling for the abolition of Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools.
'Don't question constitution'
Today Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar, in a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, said the establishment of vernacular schools had been agreed upon by the founding fathers of the country, and is guaranteed in the constitution.
"So don't go questioning the constitution. Vernacular schools are already part of the national education system," said Khairy (left) at a press conference at party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon.The MPM on Saturday demanded for the government to abolish vernacular schools in favour of a single national school system, blaming racial misunderstandings on the variety of school systems.
Sedition laws may apply to MPM as such schools are protected under the Education Act 1996 and Article 152 (A) of the federal constitution.
Meanwhile, Huan is asking the goverment to review the registration of Malay ultra rights group, Pribumi Perkasa Negara (Perkasa).
"I think they are playing the role of more than a political party; therefore they should be deregistered and instead, they should set up a political party," he said.
"Then we shall see whether the Chinese and Indians will vote for them or not," he added.
"As citizens, we love our country, even if we travel aboard , we talk good about our country. I urge them not to question our loyalty to Malaysia," he stressed.
Speech by The Hon. Mr Huan Cheng Guan at the United Nations
Championing women's rights
Permanent Mission of Malaysia to the United Nations
Statement by
The Honourable Mr. Huan Cheng Guan,
Member of Parliament, Malaysia
on agenda items 61(a): Advancement of Women & 61(b): Implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly at the Third Committee of the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Mr. Chairman,
My delegation associates itself with the statement delivered by the distinguished representative of South Africa on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on the agenda items under consideration. We would like to also express our appreciation to the various officials for presenting us with their respective reports yesterday.
Mr. Chairman,
2. To realise its full potential in pursuing sustainable development, a nation needs to
harness all of its human resources including women. Given equal opportunity, women have succeeded in holding high positions and being involved in decision-making processes, both in the public and private sectors. We recognize that the vision and leadership of women, their knowledge and skills, their energy and drive, have benefited their families and entire communities. We also recognize that women's progress has contributed significantly to the overall progress of the nation.
Mr. Chairman,
3. Creating an enabling environment and mainstreaming a gender perspective into the
national agenda are necessary to establish a foundation of equal rights and opportunities for
women and men. It is in this spirit that the Malaysian Government constantly endeavors to
reform its related mechanisms and institutions to enable them to take active measures to
redress any gender disparities and inequalities. The most significant measure taken by the
Malaysian Government was the formulation of enabling legislations and policies. Malaysia’s
Federal Constitution fully recognizes and safeguards the rights of women. It contains explicit
provisions that prohibit discrimination against women. Malaysia is now in the process of
reviewing existing laws including in the area of Islamic Family Law, to identify and eliminate
any provision that may have a negative impact on women, and will carry out gender impact
analysis of all future draft laws.
4. In order to ensure the equitable sharing in the acquisition of resources, information,
opportunities and benefits of development for men and women, the National Policy for Women and its Plan of Action were formulated in 1989 and are now being reviewed. Greater
prominence has also been given to promoting and achieving gender equality with the inclusion of a special chapter called “Women and Development” in Malaysia’s Five Year Development Plans.
5. With a separate Ministry dedicated to women’s issues, gender mainstreaming and
gender responsive processes across the whole country have been enhanced. The catalytic role of national mechanisms is further strengthened by the establishment of the Cabinet Committee on Gender Equality chaired by the Hon. Prime Minister, the setting up of Gender Focal Points in all Ministries and Government agencies, the inter-ministerial working groups and technical working groups on critical areas of concerned, as well as the broadening of networking and sharing of good practices with government agencies, gender centers and experts in and outside the country.
Mr. Chairman,
6. Malaysian women are empowered. Laws, policies and programmes have ensured their
access to education, healthcare and employment. Our success at providing Malaysian women with a high level of education has empowered many of them to hold high-level jobs and participate in formal decision-making processes, as well as provided them with access to more resources and better health services. In many instances, they very often exceed expectations of their potential.
7. Notwithstanding these accomplishments, impediments to the achievement of the goal of
gender equality persist. Negative aspects of culture including sex stereotyping for example,
remains a major hindrance to the advancement of women. In this regard, the Government has drawn up guidelines to ensure that the content, presentation and graphics in school textbooks are not gender biased. Sex disaggregated data and statistics are produced at all levels of education system. Gender centers have been established in almost all universities, where courses on gender issues are conducted and research in the field of gender are being carried out.
Mr. Chairman,
8. In the area of health, an enabling mechanism such as the Advisory and Coordinating
Committee on Reproductive Health was established that has helped to integrate the elements of reproductive health into the national health programmes. Sex education has recently been introduced into the school system to inculcate positive values of mutual respect, promote healthy relationships between boys and girls as well as to prevent abuse and create awareness of self worth, rights and responsibilities.
9. Similarly, the Government has issued guidelines against sexual harassment in the work
place and has encouraged its implementation in the private sector, as well.
10. Women’s safety and security is a major concern in Malaysia, especially given the rise in
violence perpetrated against women worldwide. The ratio of one in three women subjected to
violence at one point in her lifetime is indeed very disturbing. We welcome the long-awaited
Secretary-General’s in-depth study on all forms of violence against women and remain
confident that its recommendations would indeed become a clear strategy for Member States and the UN systems to make measurable progress in preventing and eliminating violence
against women. Malaysian Government agencies, in close collaboration with NGOs, have
succeeded in making significant progress in the fight to curb domestic violence and other
crimes against women. One-stop crisis centers, acknowledged in the Secretary-General’s report as one of the best-known good practices in service provision, have been set up in almost all hospitals in Malaysia. This service brings together police investigation, medical treatment and counselling services in one neutral and friendly place.
Mr. Chairman,
11. Monitoring progress and setting benchmarks are essential steps in order for us to
ensure the effectiveness of all our initiatives and the progressive realization of our goals.
Towards this end, the Government of Malaysia has established the Gender Disaggregated
Information System (GDIS), which will help us to track gaps and discrepancies in
implementation, and to plan and formulate new initiatives.
12. At the 35th session of CEDAW in May this year, Malaysia presented a comprehensive
account of the situation of Malaysian women to the committee in its initial and second periodic reports. My delegation appreciates the constructive dialogue with the members of the Committee and thanks the Committee for its positive recommendations, which we will
endeavour to implement.
13. Malaysia believes that the sharing of experiences, practices and expertise is essential for the strengthening of the enabling environment and the acceleration of the success of our
efforts. Malaysia has been participating in multilateral efforts through which such sharing and learning takes place. Malaysia has been in the forefront of some of these efforts. During our Chairmanship of the NAM we hosted a Ministerial Meeting on the Empowerment of Women in the era of Globalization where Malaysia’s proposal for the setting up of an Institute for the Empowerment of Women for NAM member countries to be located in Malaysia was adopted. The Heads of State/Government of NAM countries at the NAM Summit held in Cuba in September this year endorsed this initiative. We welcome the offer of the Government of Guatemala to host the next ministerial meeting next year.
14. Finally, Mr. Chairman, the government appreciates the work and the continued support
of many of the women NGOs. Their wealth of experience and inputs has greatly contributed to the informed decisions and the planning and formulation of policies on women and
development in Malaysia. We hope that such cooperation and partnership will be sustained for the achievement of our common goal. Malaysia will continue to work with all stakeholders and support the international and regional initiatives in making this world a better place for women and all humanity.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Statement by
The Honourable Mr. Huan Cheng Guan,
Member of Parliament, Malaysia
on agenda items 61(a): Advancement of Women & 61(b): Implementation of the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly at the Third Committee of the 61st Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, Wednesday, 11 October 2006
Mr. Chairman,
My delegation associates itself with the statement delivered by the distinguished representative of South Africa on behalf of the Group of 77 and China on the agenda items under consideration. We would like to also express our appreciation to the various officials for presenting us with their respective reports yesterday.
Mr. Chairman,
2. To realise its full potential in pursuing sustainable development, a nation needs to
harness all of its human resources including women. Given equal opportunity, women have succeeded in holding high positions and being involved in decision-making processes, both in the public and private sectors. We recognize that the vision and leadership of women, their knowledge and skills, their energy and drive, have benefited their families and entire communities. We also recognize that women's progress has contributed significantly to the overall progress of the nation.
Mr. Chairman,
3. Creating an enabling environment and mainstreaming a gender perspective into the
national agenda are necessary to establish a foundation of equal rights and opportunities for
women and men. It is in this spirit that the Malaysian Government constantly endeavors to
reform its related mechanisms and institutions to enable them to take active measures to
redress any gender disparities and inequalities. The most significant measure taken by the
Malaysian Government was the formulation of enabling legislations and policies. Malaysia’s
Federal Constitution fully recognizes and safeguards the rights of women. It contains explicit
provisions that prohibit discrimination against women. Malaysia is now in the process of
reviewing existing laws including in the area of Islamic Family Law, to identify and eliminate
any provision that may have a negative impact on women, and will carry out gender impact
analysis of all future draft laws.
4. In order to ensure the equitable sharing in the acquisition of resources, information,
opportunities and benefits of development for men and women, the National Policy for Women and its Plan of Action were formulated in 1989 and are now being reviewed. Greater
prominence has also been given to promoting and achieving gender equality with the inclusion of a special chapter called “Women and Development” in Malaysia’s Five Year Development Plans.
5. With a separate Ministry dedicated to women’s issues, gender mainstreaming and
gender responsive processes across the whole country have been enhanced. The catalytic role of national mechanisms is further strengthened by the establishment of the Cabinet Committee on Gender Equality chaired by the Hon. Prime Minister, the setting up of Gender Focal Points in all Ministries and Government agencies, the inter-ministerial working groups and technical working groups on critical areas of concerned, as well as the broadening of networking and sharing of good practices with government agencies, gender centers and experts in and outside the country.
Mr. Chairman,
6. Malaysian women are empowered. Laws, policies and programmes have ensured their
access to education, healthcare and employment. Our success at providing Malaysian women with a high level of education has empowered many of them to hold high-level jobs and participate in formal decision-making processes, as well as provided them with access to more resources and better health services. In many instances, they very often exceed expectations of their potential.
7. Notwithstanding these accomplishments, impediments to the achievement of the goal of
gender equality persist. Negative aspects of culture including sex stereotyping for example,
remains a major hindrance to the advancement of women. In this regard, the Government has drawn up guidelines to ensure that the content, presentation and graphics in school textbooks are not gender biased. Sex disaggregated data and statistics are produced at all levels of education system. Gender centers have been established in almost all universities, where courses on gender issues are conducted and research in the field of gender are being carried out.
Mr. Chairman,
8. In the area of health, an enabling mechanism such as the Advisory and Coordinating
Committee on Reproductive Health was established that has helped to integrate the elements of reproductive health into the national health programmes. Sex education has recently been introduced into the school system to inculcate positive values of mutual respect, promote healthy relationships between boys and girls as well as to prevent abuse and create awareness of self worth, rights and responsibilities.
9. Similarly, the Government has issued guidelines against sexual harassment in the work
place and has encouraged its implementation in the private sector, as well.
10. Women’s safety and security is a major concern in Malaysia, especially given the rise in
violence perpetrated against women worldwide. The ratio of one in three women subjected to
violence at one point in her lifetime is indeed very disturbing. We welcome the long-awaited
Secretary-General’s in-depth study on all forms of violence against women and remain
confident that its recommendations would indeed become a clear strategy for Member States and the UN systems to make measurable progress in preventing and eliminating violence
against women. Malaysian Government agencies, in close collaboration with NGOs, have
succeeded in making significant progress in the fight to curb domestic violence and other
crimes against women. One-stop crisis centers, acknowledged in the Secretary-General’s report as one of the best-known good practices in service provision, have been set up in almost all hospitals in Malaysia. This service brings together police investigation, medical treatment and counselling services in one neutral and friendly place.
Mr. Chairman,
11. Monitoring progress and setting benchmarks are essential steps in order for us to
ensure the effectiveness of all our initiatives and the progressive realization of our goals.
Towards this end, the Government of Malaysia has established the Gender Disaggregated
Information System (GDIS), which will help us to track gaps and discrepancies in
implementation, and to plan and formulate new initiatives.
12. At the 35th session of CEDAW in May this year, Malaysia presented a comprehensive
account of the situation of Malaysian women to the committee in its initial and second periodic reports. My delegation appreciates the constructive dialogue with the members of the Committee and thanks the Committee for its positive recommendations, which we will
endeavour to implement.
13. Malaysia believes that the sharing of experiences, practices and expertise is essential for the strengthening of the enabling environment and the acceleration of the success of our
efforts. Malaysia has been participating in multilateral efforts through which such sharing and learning takes place. Malaysia has been in the forefront of some of these efforts. During our Chairmanship of the NAM we hosted a Ministerial Meeting on the Empowerment of Women in the era of Globalization where Malaysia’s proposal for the setting up of an Institute for the Empowerment of Women for NAM member countries to be located in Malaysia was adopted. The Heads of State/Government of NAM countries at the NAM Summit held in Cuba in September this year endorsed this initiative. We welcome the offer of the Government of Guatemala to host the next ministerial meeting next year.
14. Finally, Mr. Chairman, the government appreciates the work and the continued support
of many of the women NGOs. Their wealth of experience and inputs has greatly contributed to the informed decisions and the planning and formulation of policies on women and
development in Malaysia. We hope that such cooperation and partnership will be sustained for the achievement of our common goal. Malaysia will continue to work with all stakeholders and support the international and regional initiatives in making this world a better place for women and all humanity.
I thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Time to overcome the resistance to change
by Tan Sri Dato' Dr Lim Kok Wing
Malaysia has to change. The goal has been set – to become a high income, innovation-led economy by 2020. The plans have been made – through a combination of the New Economic Model as well as the Government Transformation Plan that are embedded into the 10th Malaysia Plan.
It sounds good. It sounds right.
But is every Malaysian on board? Does every Bakar, Ah Boo and Muthu understand their roles in the scheme of things? Besides the call for unity through the pervasive 1Malaysia drive, do Malaysians really know how we are going to achieve this transformation into a high-productivity, high-value, high-income economy that our Prime Minister has envisioned?
Getting every Malaysian on board the national innovation drive
I think what will help is to break the aspiration down into tiny portions that every Malaysian can consume and digest.
And for most people the big picture eludes their understanding. They need to know how such an ambitious plan by the government will help them. “What is in it for me?” That is the question we have to answer to convert the ideals of government plans into doable strategies that will rally every Malaysian to lend support and actively participate.
But even then it is not as easy as that.
There are many layers and segments to society and while we may go on a campaign to educate with a “one-size-fits-all” message there is still a lot of work to be done to address the various parties involved.
Need for public and private sectors to intensify collaboration
The private sector, which is entrusted with the task of driving the transformation, is itself a complex group of nationally and internationally interconnected service providers and manufacturers.
Certainly the private sector has been grappling with innovation to build its advantage in the market. It is the only way forward and each enterprise or conglomerate has tackled innovation in its own way.
The stakes get higher for the private sector
But now the private sector is being asked to review its operations to change its game plan so it may move to another field where the game is being played to higher stakes. The competition is tougher, the investment is higher, the risks are greater but the rewards are better.
Given the incentives the private sector will find its level. It always has because it is the only way it can survive. Certainly it is not going to jump aboard just because the government says so but because it must make good business sense to do so.
Which then leaves us with the public sector, another complex group of agencies and departments with a wide array of tasks to keep the peace, provide the services that support enterprise, build infrastructure, sustain the environment and maintain cordial foreign relations.
How is innovation understood by the rank and file of bureaucracy and how would they incorporate it into their work style?
Do they grasp the crucial stage that Malaysia is in right now? Do they know that if the Malaysian economy begins to slide the downward momentum picks up speed and chances are that by 2020 our economic status could be behind that of Cambodia, Laos or Myanmar?
Do they grasp the crucial stage that Malaysia is in right now? Do they know that if the Malaysian economy begins to slide the downward momentum picks up speed and chances are that by 2020 our economic status could be behind that of Cambodia, Laos or Myanmar?
Public sector support will make or break innovation drive
The Prime Minister’s push for innovation-led economy will motivate the private sector to upscale but will it move the public sector to embrace innovation in the same spirit?
As I have always said both the public and private sectors are two sides of the same coin. They must move together in tandem.
The public service must see very clearly that innovation does not mean increased regulation. It must see a more liberalized environment that facilitates the private sector as it battles global competition.
The public sector must see that it is the wealth created and generated by the private sector that oils the government machinery so it is well-equipped to service the rakyat.
It is not by chance that the most advanced countries possess the environment that facilitates the private sector so it may work more efficiently and productively.
They know that over-regulation of any sector will stem its growth and in today’s furious global competitive market that in itself is akin to sounding the death knell of any sector.
Over-regulation kills innovation, suffocates creativity, destroys growth
Over-regulation will kill innovation because it suffocates the ability of the sector to create and originate which are the twin building blocks of innovation.
To illustrate what I mean it is like giving a child a long list of “don’ts”. What do you think will happen to the child? Yes, the child will not grow. The mind will lose its agility as well as its sense of curiosity and in the end its intellectual capability.
The drive to transform Malaysia must also include the layman, the average Malaysian. However to define the average Malaysian we must make the point of difference between urban centre and rural heartland.
We have to whittle innovation down to something that the average person from two vastly different backgrounds can adopt and adapt into his or her lifestyle?
Malaysians need to wake up and see the danger headed towards them
These are questions that must be seriously thought through because Malaysians, in general, are not just pretty laid-back in their mindset, a large number are actually resistant to any kind of change. And that is anathema to this serious national drive to transform into an innovation-led economy.
Therefore the most urgent of all tasks right now is to reach out to this corps of Malaysians and transform their mindset. Without the average Malaysian on board we are doomed to fail right from the start!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
EIU, London reports on Malaysia
Economist Intelligence Unit, London
Country Report - Main report: August 1st 2010
Highlights
Outlook for 2010-11
Highlights
Outlook for 2010-11
The Economist Intelligence Unit expects the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition to remain in power in 2010-11. The BN still has a sufficiently large parliamentary majority to pass the bulk of new legislation unchallenged. Speculation has grown about the likelihood that the government will call a snap election, but we do not believe that the prime minister, Najib Razak, is preparing to go the polls before 2012.
Policy will be tightened in 2010-11 following a recent period of fiscal stimulus and loose monetary policy. The government aims to cut its fiscal deficit through an efficiency drive and a reduction in the subsidy bill. The economy is expected to stage a strong recovery in 2010, growing by 6.8%. However, as this relatively rapid acceleration mostly reflects the rebound from the contraction in 2009, the annual average rate of growth will slow in 2011.
Price pressures will remain subdued in 2010, when we expect consumer price inflation to average 1.7%. Inflation will then accelerate to 2.6% in 2011, owing in part to continued growth in domestic demand. Despite the relatively fast pace of growth of imports compared with that of exports, Malaysia will continue to post substantial trade and current-account surpluses in 2010-11.
Monthly review
Monthly review
There has been speculation in the past month that a general election will be called by early 2011. This would be considerably before its due date, which falls in March 2013. If an early election is called, it may be because the BN wants to make the most of a possible conviction against Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat alliance, who is in court fighting sodomy charges.
Relations between Malaysia and Singapore are improving, with the two sides co-operating on land ownership and tourism deals.
On July 8th Bank Negara Malaysia (the central bank) took another step towards returning its main policy rate, the overnight policy rate, to a more neutral level. BNM raised the rate by 25 basis points to 2.75%.
In a surprise move on July 15th the government has reduced the size of the subsidies for five important items. It raised the regulated prices of petrol (RON95 grade) by 2.8%, diesel by 2.9%, cooking gas by 5.7% and sugar by 15.2%.
Data on industrial production and external trade for May showed a continuation of the recent strong growth, but a degree of caution is becoming evident, as reflected by changes in a business conditions index.
Outlook for 2010-11: Domestic politics
In 2010-11 fierce political tussles will continue between the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and the main opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR, People’s Alliance) as both groups strive to increase their representation in national and state parliaments. At present the BN governs with a simple parliamentary majority, which allows it to pass the bulk of legislation unchallenged. However, a two-thirds majority is needed to amend the constitution. The prime minister, Najib Razak, will continue to pursue a strategy aimed at restoring public confidence in the BN and winning back the seats in state assemblies and the national parliament that the coalition lost at the general election in March 2008. To date, there have been 11 state and parliamentary by-elections since the 2008 general election. The scorecard is eight wins to the PR and three to the BN. Despite these results, Mr Najib's approval ratings have been climbing steadily, from 44% in April 2009 to 72% in May 2010.
In the light of this higher approval rating and recent signs of a strong recovery in the economy, speculation has grown about the likelihood that the government will call a snap election. (The next general election is not due until early 2013.) Although a recent increase in parliamentary allocations for BN members of parliament (MPs) for help with their constituency expenses and a renewed focus on registering new voters has contributed to this speculation, the Economist Intelligence Unit does not believe that Mr Najib is preparing to go the polls before 2012. Although a strong election performance would bolster his mandate, the results of recent by-elections suggest that the electorate has become much more volatile, especially non-Malay voters, and there is no guarantee that the government's plans to reform policies that favour bumiputera (ethnic Malays and other indigenous peoples, who make up around 60% of the population) has increased its appeal among ethnic minorities.
Mr Najib continues to enjoy general support among ethnic Malays, but he does face opposition from conservative groups to his plans to reduce special rights for Malays. He appears to be hoping that he still has sufficient latitude to make further changes to these policies, while also securing a greater understanding for the necessity for other unpopular policy decisions, such as pushing through a goods and services tax (GST). The prime minister is also aware that the promotion of racial harmony is vital to his plans to woo voters from the country’s ethnic minorities, many of whom abandoned the BN in favour of the multiracial opposition at the last election. Mr Najib attempted to encapsulate his political ambitions by coining a new slogan—“1Malaysia: People first, Performance now”—at the start of his premiership.
Mr Najib may be looking for the opposition to fall further into disarray before going to the polls. The opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, is facing the possibility of a 20-year prison term if found guilty of sodomy, a charge for which he is currently on trial. Mr Anwar continues to claim that the case against him is politically motivated and has been fabricated to remove him from the political scene. A guilty verdict and a custodial sentence for Mr Anwar could destabilise the PR, as he is widely believed to be the glue that holds the alliance together. The PR received a confidence boost from its electoral success in May 2010 when it won the Sibu parliamentary seat, but morale among members of the one of the parties in the PR, the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) led by Mr Anwar, remains low, undermined by the recent decision by a handful of its MPs to leave the PKR and stand as independents.
In 2010-11 fierce political tussles will continue between the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition and the main opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR, People’s Alliance) as both groups strive to increase their representation in national and state parliaments. At present the BN governs with a simple parliamentary majority, which allows it to pass the bulk of legislation unchallenged. However, a two-thirds majority is needed to amend the constitution. The prime minister, Najib Razak, will continue to pursue a strategy aimed at restoring public confidence in the BN and winning back the seats in state assemblies and the national parliament that the coalition lost at the general election in March 2008. To date, there have been 11 state and parliamentary by-elections since the 2008 general election. The scorecard is eight wins to the PR and three to the BN. Despite these results, Mr Najib's approval ratings have been climbing steadily, from 44% in April 2009 to 72% in May 2010.
In the light of this higher approval rating and recent signs of a strong recovery in the economy, speculation has grown about the likelihood that the government will call a snap election. (The next general election is not due until early 2013.) Although a recent increase in parliamentary allocations for BN members of parliament (MPs) for help with their constituency expenses and a renewed focus on registering new voters has contributed to this speculation, the Economist Intelligence Unit does not believe that Mr Najib is preparing to go the polls before 2012. Although a strong election performance would bolster his mandate, the results of recent by-elections suggest that the electorate has become much more volatile, especially non-Malay voters, and there is no guarantee that the government's plans to reform policies that favour bumiputera (ethnic Malays and other indigenous peoples, who make up around 60% of the population) has increased its appeal among ethnic minorities.
Mr Najib continues to enjoy general support among ethnic Malays, but he does face opposition from conservative groups to his plans to reduce special rights for Malays. He appears to be hoping that he still has sufficient latitude to make further changes to these policies, while also securing a greater understanding for the necessity for other unpopular policy decisions, such as pushing through a goods and services tax (GST). The prime minister is also aware that the promotion of racial harmony is vital to his plans to woo voters from the country’s ethnic minorities, many of whom abandoned the BN in favour of the multiracial opposition at the last election. Mr Najib attempted to encapsulate his political ambitions by coining a new slogan—“1Malaysia: People first, Performance now”—at the start of his premiership.
Mr Najib may be looking for the opposition to fall further into disarray before going to the polls. The opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, is facing the possibility of a 20-year prison term if found guilty of sodomy, a charge for which he is currently on trial. Mr Anwar continues to claim that the case against him is politically motivated and has been fabricated to remove him from the political scene. A guilty verdict and a custodial sentence for Mr Anwar could destabilise the PR, as he is widely believed to be the glue that holds the alliance together. The PR received a confidence boost from its electoral success in May 2010 when it won the Sibu parliamentary seat, but morale among members of the one of the parties in the PR, the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) led by Mr Anwar, remains low, undermined by the recent decision by a handful of its MPs to leave the PKR and stand as independents.
Outlook for 2010-11: International relations
Mr Najib is expected to strengthen economic ties with Singapore and China, Malaysia’s largest trade partners in Asia. To this end, he will continue to promote to Singaporean investors the Iskandar project, a 2,217 sq-km develop-ment zone in the state of Johor, which borders Singapore. In addition, state tourism agencies of both countries have recently launched a feasibility study to look into ways to replicate the success of Singapore's Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in Kranji at similar sites in Johor. Through its membership of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Malaysia’s economic ties with China, Australia, New Zealand and India have been strengthened by the signing of free-trade agreements, all of which came into full effect in January.
Mr Najib is expected to strengthen economic ties with Singapore and China, Malaysia’s largest trade partners in Asia. To this end, he will continue to promote to Singaporean investors the Iskandar project, a 2,217 sq-km develop-ment zone in the state of Johor, which borders Singapore. In addition, state tourism agencies of both countries have recently launched a feasibility study to look into ways to replicate the success of Singapore's Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve in Kranji at similar sites in Johor. Through its membership of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), Malaysia’s economic ties with China, Australia, New Zealand and India have been strengthened by the signing of free-trade agreements, all of which came into full effect in January.
Outlook for 2010-11: Policy trends
During the next decade the policy agenda will be guided by a host of initiatives aimed at raising per-head income and meeting the goal of becoming a high-income nation by 2020. Improvements will be made to six national key result areas, outlined in a Government Transformation Programme, which includes raising the quality of human capital and improving basic rural infrastructure. The Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP), a medium-term spending plan covering 201115, will promote 12 national key economic areas, such as tourism, palm oil and private healthcare, which are thought to have the greatest potential to boost overall economic growth. In the forecast period the government will also be implementing eight strategic reform initiatives, which have been outlined in an Economic Transformation Programme. One of the initiatives is the phasing out of price controls and subsidies, which has been deemed necessary to create a competitive domestic economy. Another is to reform bumiputera affirmative-action policies. The government has already relaxed a requirement obliging firms to offer a minority equity stake to bumiputera. It hopes that further reforms will attract greater inflows of foreign direct investment, which will be one of the main drivers of growth in the next five years. However, the government is unlikely to dismantle affirmative action altogether for fear of losing its Malay support base.
During the next decade the policy agenda will be guided by a host of initiatives aimed at raising per-head income and meeting the goal of becoming a high-income nation by 2020. Improvements will be made to six national key result areas, outlined in a Government Transformation Programme, which includes raising the quality of human capital and improving basic rural infrastructure. The Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP), a medium-term spending plan covering 201115, will promote 12 national key economic areas, such as tourism, palm oil and private healthcare, which are thought to have the greatest potential to boost overall economic growth. In the forecast period the government will also be implementing eight strategic reform initiatives, which have been outlined in an Economic Transformation Programme. One of the initiatives is the phasing out of price controls and subsidies, which has been deemed necessary to create a competitive domestic economy. Another is to reform bumiputera affirmative-action policies. The government has already relaxed a requirement obliging firms to offer a minority equity stake to bumiputera. It hopes that further reforms will attract greater inflows of foreign direct investment, which will be one of the main drivers of growth in the next five years. However, the government is unlikely to dismantle affirmative action altogether for fear of losing its Malay support base.
Outlook for 2010-11: Fiscal policy
The government appears determined to address the country’s poor fiscal position, having run up a budget deficit equivalent to 7% of GDP in 2009 owing in part to its economic stimulus measures. The government will have broad success in its aim to cut the deficit to 5.3% this year through an efficiency drive and a reduction in the subsidy bill. The Economist Intelligence Unit expects the government to have further success in reining in the budget deficit in 2011, but there will not be a marked narrowing. Plans to widen the tax base have encountered strong resistance from businesses as well as consumers. The government has already announced changes to a new property tax, which will reduce the amount collected from this particular source. However, it remains non-committal on the implementation of the GST, a crucial part of tax reform. The proposed GST will make the government less dependent on payments by the national oil company, Petronas, which currently supplies over 40% of the government's revenue. According to the second finance minister, Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, in early July 2010 the government still had not set a definite timeframe for the implementation of the new tax. Under its original plan, the government had sought to introduce the tax in the third quarter of 2011.
The government appears determined to address the country’s poor fiscal position, having run up a budget deficit equivalent to 7% of GDP in 2009 owing in part to its economic stimulus measures. The government will have broad success in its aim to cut the deficit to 5.3% this year through an efficiency drive and a reduction in the subsidy bill. The Economist Intelligence Unit expects the government to have further success in reining in the budget deficit in 2011, but there will not be a marked narrowing. Plans to widen the tax base have encountered strong resistance from businesses as well as consumers. The government has already announced changes to a new property tax, which will reduce the amount collected from this particular source. However, it remains non-committal on the implementation of the GST, a crucial part of tax reform. The proposed GST will make the government less dependent on payments by the national oil company, Petronas, which currently supplies over 40% of the government's revenue. According to the second finance minister, Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, in early July 2010 the government still had not set a definite timeframe for the implementation of the new tax. Under its original plan, the government had sought to introduce the tax in the third quarter of 2011.
Outlook for 2010-11: Monetary policy
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM, the central bank) is expected to tighten monetary policy further in the forecast period. It has already raised the overnight policy rate (OPR) three times since March 2010, by a total of 75 basis points, pushing the OPR up to 2.75%. It is expected to make incremental changes to the OPR in a process that it regards as a normalisation of this interest rate, after it was cut to a record low in response to a dramatic downturn in the Malaysian economy in 2009. However, BMN does not foresee inflation rising to problematic levels, believing that it will remain moderate going into 2011, with the forecast of a strengthening in domestic demand being accompanied by only a gradual acceleration in inflation. As such we do not see the OPR rising above the high of 3.5% that was in place during 2007 and much of 2008.
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM, the central bank) is expected to tighten monetary policy further in the forecast period. It has already raised the overnight policy rate (OPR) three times since March 2010, by a total of 75 basis points, pushing the OPR up to 2.75%. It is expected to make incremental changes to the OPR in a process that it regards as a normalisation of this interest rate, after it was cut to a record low in response to a dramatic downturn in the Malaysian economy in 2009. However, BMN does not foresee inflation rising to problematic levels, believing that it will remain moderate going into 2011, with the forecast of a strengthening in domestic demand being accompanied by only a gradual acceleration in inflation. As such we do not see the OPR rising above the high of 3.5% that was in place during 2007 and much of 2008.
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