SORRY DR M, YOU HAVE TO ANSWER for the political, social & economic MESS in M'sia - not the Chinese

I was reminded of the witticism on politicians that “we hang the petty thieves but elect the great ones to office” when I read Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s claim in his blog that the Chinese (and Indians) are the real masters of the country.

Specifically, he wrote that “Because they (the Malays) are willing to share their country with other races, the race from the older civilisation of more than 4,000 years and who are more successful, as such today whatever they have now is also being taken away from them”.

As election day approaches, this line of argument is being rehashed. We can expect more of this race baiting by Dr Mahathir and his kind in Umno and PEMUDA when they are addressing Malay voters.

Of course, this rehashing will take on new permutations such as “the PKR and PAS are selling out the rights of the Malays” or “the DAP is really the dayang master pulling the strings of the Pakatan coalition”.

What is important is not to get angry or remain silent but to refute it with facts, figures and arguments.

Political idiocy

For Dr Mahathir to accuse the Chinese of being the real masters of the country is really the height of political idiocy. If we want to go by racial perception, it would appear to everyone that Malays dominate in every sphere of life in the country.

They form the majority in Parliament, judiciary, army and police, the MACC and all other important political bodies. In the socio-economic and educational sphere, they control all the major banks except for Public Bank, the GLCs, Petronas, public universities, civil service, etc.

Any Chinese or orang putih wanting to do business has to kowtow to the Malays for licences and permits. Moreover, Malay businesses control some of the monopolies such as water, electricity, toll roads, etc. where it is so easy for them to make more profits by just increasing the price.

Even the richest and most powerful Chinese and Indians such as Robert Kuok, Ananda Krishna, Tony Fernandez, Vincent Tan and others are completely at the mercy of the Malays if they want to do business in Malaysia.

It's Umno-BN that has called all the shots

But let’s not go by simplistic perception. The indisputable fact is that the real masters of the country are the Umno-led Barisan Nasional, which has ruled Malays and Malaysia for over 55 years.

During that period, Dr Mahathir as prime minister was the undisputed number one man. He changed the country’s constitution and laws; sent his political opponents into prison or oblivion; singlehandedly undermined the judiciary; and put the clock and our time back to ensure that we would all wake up an hour earlier.

He even took on the most sacrosanct of Malay institutions ― the Sultanate ― by reducing the authority of Malay rulers.

Dr Mahathir also controlled and manipulated the country’s purse strings. His financial leadership of the country have left an indelible black mark on the country’s economic and financial fortunes.

First, he made the key decisions on economic white elephants and scandals such as Proton, Bakun Dam, Putrajaya, and Perwaja. The last resulted in a loss of RM2.6 billion.

Dr Mahathir himself has admitted publicly in 2002 in a dialogue with Malaysians in London that the loss could have been as much as RM10 billion due to possible misappropriation of funds.

Mother of all scandals

The mother of all financial scandals took place during Dr Mahathir’s time. This was the forex losses incurred by Bank Negara’s speculative currency trading which cost us over RM50 billion.

The second outcome was the plague of privatization he inflicted on the country. A devoted fan of Margaret Thatcher, Dr Mahathir pursued privatization of telecommunications, utilities, airlines and other public sectors and services with a vengeance.

But he lacked the British premier’s caution and acumen and closed both eyes to the leakages and abuses that accompanied the privatization programme.

Dr Mahathir can be considered to be the godfather of the class of capitalist cronies that has cornered much of the country’s wealth and who, together with Umno/Barisan, are the undisputed masters of the wealth of Malaysia. These big time tycoons comprise of many Chinese but they are a multiracial cast and include an increasing number of Malay businessmen.

Today, Dr Mahathir blames the Chinese for working hard and enjoying the fruits of their labour. He is envious of the Chinese middle and upper classes living in high end housing estates and owning the lion’s share of urban property.

He himself lives in a gated community and is reputed to own numerous properties but he laments for the many Malays living in squatter houses.

But who has been responsible for this situation?

No escape for you, Dr M

Dr Mahathir needs to look at himself in the mirror. He has squandered our petro dollars on his projects of superficial grandeur and his love of cronies, many of whom he has helped with expensive bailouts. He could have solved the plight of hundreds of thousands of squatters by using treasury funds on them instead of his pet projects.

If he had invested the money wisely in skill acquisition for the young Malays and in public housing and urban infrastructure for all Malaysians, especially needy and deserving Malays, the racial economic divide will surely not be so conspicuous.

Dr Mahathir still does not want to go away from the centre stage. He wants to remain in it because he knows that the BN has to maintain power if he is not to be made answerable for the racial, political and economic mess that he was responsible for and left behind as his main legacy.

The extent of his desperation can be seen in his speeches aimed at shoring up Malay support by claiming that the Chinese are the real masters of Malaysia.

But as the Malaysian saying goes, his talk has no walk!

ON THE “HARAM-NESS” of CHRISTMAS GREETINGS and other RELATED FATWAS

It is fine for Muslims to greet others with "Assalamualikum" the more often the better for it simply means "peace be with you ..." it is a good cultural experience to exchange greetings in different languages .. Salaam, Shaloom,Namaste, Neehow Ma, Wassup dude, Peace out my man, etc.

A REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE

Dr Azly Rahman

Reading the global controversy surrounding the wishing of “Merry Christmas” by Muslims, I have decided to construct my own understanding of what the fatwashould be, touching on related matters that perhaps have been on the mind of those wishing to grasp a newer and fresher understanding of religious perspectives in opposition. I have therefore decided to issue my own philosophical fatwas grounded in phenomenology and pragmatism true to the nature of a hyper-modernizing and globalizing world we live in.  I invite a good and rational discussion on the edits produced.

FATWA #1:

noting wrong but everything is right in wishing others a "Merry Christmas and a Ho Ho Ho New Year" ...makes it merrier and hearts warmer in a world of jihadis and crusaders trying to burn each others' house of worship down in the name of each other's god ...

... AGAIN ... MERRY CHRISTMAS FOLKS ... DON'T LET RUDOLPH'S NOSE GROW REDDER and LONGER

FATWA #2:

true jihad in a multcultural multireligious world is to alleviate poverty, racism, ignorance, and violence regardless of race, religion, creed ... the Muslims in this country have been living a selfish world in which there is a truncated believe that sedekah jariah and zakat should only be given to the poor of the Islamic faith .. leaving the abject poor of other races poorer and poorer ... how much of the zakat money in this country has gone elsewhere but to help the poor ? wake up to a newer and better fatwa on social justice.

FATWA #3:

in a multicultural country such as Malaysia, it is not mandated nor is it necessary to have a Malay-Muslim as a prime minister ...a good man or woman with good ethics, good stewardship and management skills with a good heart transcending barriers will do

... the country has not seen a good Muslim leader running the country anyway ... it has seen ruins.

FATWA #4: ...

the salutation "Salam 1Malaysia" now popularly used in public gatherings and public spheres should be forbidden/made haram not because it sounds cocky and cheeky but because it symbolizes hypocrisy of a political practice ... untrue to the much needed sense of muticultural sincerity.

FATWA #5:

... it is perfectly fine for the word "Al-lah" to be used by Christians in Malaysia .. it simply means "the god" and has been used by Christians even before the emergence of Muhammad and the institutionalization of the religion called "Islam" .. what actually is the controversy? don't the Muslims, Christians, and the Jews share the same "Allah'" anyway?.

FATWA #6: ...

it is perfectly fine for Muslim women to wear or not to wear the hijab/head covering because virtue and personal ethics does not lie in identity politics and religious semiotics and that the idea of covering one's head is still a matter of interpretation up to this day ... one can wear or not wear based on one's readiness to wear or not ... no one can be judged of the degree of his/her piousness based on how skillful one is in perception management ... if it is tempting for men that women should cover, then men should walk around covering their eyes ... -- would all of you agree?.

FATWA #7:

it is an excruciatingly ethical obligation of the highest order for people of any religious faith to vote out/remove their leaders known to abuse power, rob the poor, live a life of conspicuous consumption, lie through their army general or sultanic headgear, or siphon money out of the country, or talk about nationalism while engaging in treason ... those who still vote for these crooks will experience eternal damnation in hellfire while wearing Tommy Hillfiger, Prada sneakers, and Burberry headgears.

FATWA #8:

it is perfectly fine for men not to grow long beard especially if they are genetically unable to . the length of one's beard is not a measure of piety nor a necessary symbol of religiosity .. it is merely a fashionable look and a need to look Arabic.

FATWA #9:

it is fine for Muslims to greet others with "Assalamualikum" the more often the better for it simply means "peace be with you ..." it is a good cultural experience to exchange greetings in different languages .. Salaam, Shaloom,Namaste, Neehow Ma, Wassup dude, Peace out my man, etc.

FATWA #10:

because truth is contingent upon cultural construction and context, and because it is phenomenological, no one can say that the belief of this or that person is false ... to each his own and must be respected ... there is therefore no need for any work on proselytizing/dakwah when truth is all encompassing and universal .. the wok of this sort .. spreading this or that message ... has led to crusades and religious wars and they should be stopped if more harm than good is going to be done.

More Spectacular Malaysian Scandal Revelations

Carpet seller implicates, PM's brother in bid to silence murder witness

The world of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife, Rosmah Mansor appears in increasing danger of coming apart because of sensational revelations by Rosmah’s former personal friend hinting at complicity in the six-year-old murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaariibu. Najib’s brother Nazim has now been enmeshed in the scandal.

The 28-year-old Altantuya was shot in the head twice and her body was blown up with C4 plastic explosives, possibly to hide an unborn child, in October 2006 by two bodyguards from Najib’s personal unit. One of the two confessed that they were to be paid RM100,000 to get rid of the woman, who had been jilted by Najib’s best friend, former security analyst Abdul Razak Baginda.

The two have been on death row for three years. The confession, despite the fact that it was a cautioned statement, was never introduced in court and the individual who offered to pay to have Altantuya killed has never been named.

The big question being asked all over Kuala Lumpur is who, if anybody, put the businessman Deepak Jaikishan, who once said he was as close to Rosmah as if she were his sister, up to the revelations, which began just before the three-day United Malays National Organization’s Annual General Assembly which started Nov. 28.

“Deepak has claimed that he’s with the No. 2 (Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin), but there’s no evidence to prove that,” a longtime political source told Asia Sentinel. “If you remember, there were moves earlier this year to suggest that Najib should step down before elections and allow the Nov. 2 to lead the Barisan Nasional (the national ruling coalition) into the polls. Posters to this effect were put up in Johor and Penang but they fizzled out just as fast.”

During the UMNO conclave two weeks ago, Deepak met with Zahid Hamidi, the defense minister to appear on a video that supposedly implicated Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim in his decision to go public. That has largely been discarded by the political cognoscenti in Kuala Lumpur as a red herring.

At the same time as Deepak has been making his statements, the retired inspector general of police, Musa Hassan, has issued a series of charges that politicians have intervened in police affairs and called for an independent panel to probe his allegations. For Musa to protest that he is shocked, shocked to learn of such political intervention is almost laughable, since he himself played a role in railroading Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim into prison for six years on trumped-up charges of sodomy. Musa told opposition publications that when the police were about to arrest politically connected suspects, they would often receive calls from powerful figures.

As with Deepak, the timing of Musa’s allegations raises many questions -- including allegations he didn’t make. On Oct. 20, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand announced that Musa would hold a Monday press conference in Bangkok with “new revelations” over Altantuya’s murder. Then, just as mysteriously as it had been made, the announcement was withdrawn and Musa told local reporters he had never heard of the matter.

National elections must be held before mid-April 2013. Driving Najib from power at this point, especially if his faction were to turn its back on the party, would probably wreck its organizational capability to put on the elections.

Although it appears unlikely that would happen, the allegations are believed to be taking their toll among party stalwarts. Especially if Muhyiddin is behind them, it would spell big trouble. Political observers say it does pave the way to drive him out if the Barisan doesn’t make gains in the April polls. The scandal so far hasn’t resonated outside the urban areas into the Malay heartland enough to damage the party’s chances.

At the heart of the Deepak revelations is a statement by Perumal Balasubramaniam, who was hired by Razak Baginda to keep the Mongolian translator and party girl away from him after she jilted him. In a sworn declaration he said that Razak Baginda had told him Altantuya had been Najib’s girlfriend first, but that he had passed her to Razak Baginda because he expected to become prime minister and didn’t want a scandal over a girlfriend. Najib has repeatedly denied meeting the woman and sworn on the Quran that he knew nothing of her. He called Bala’s statements “frivolous.”

That statutory declaration earned Balasubramaniam a fast ticket out of the country after a quick trip to a local police station, where he later said he was forced to sign a statement recanting his original one, on pain of harm to his family. In November 2009, Balasubramaniam displayed photocopies of several RM50,000 checks drawn on Public Bank of Malaysia made out by Deepak as an inducement to leave the country.

For the past four years, Bala has continued to accuse forces aligned with Rosmah of engineering his forced departure from Malaysia. Now, however, Deepak has largely corroborated Bala’s original statement and added new revelations. In a series of interviews with independent or opposition news sites and bloggers, Deepak has been metering out additional details that implicate others. He has now threatened to go public with a 26-page booklet detailing his relationship with Rosmah and to give the full details of the episode involving Bala.

“Deepak has gone ballistic,” said a longtime political observer in Kuala Lumpur. “Najib’s guys are very jittery. The mainstream powers have blacked out almost all news on Deepak’s allegations but in cyberspace it has gone viral. Najib’s guys’ way of combating this is to order a complete blackout in the mainstream press and for those involved not to comment and hope the issue goes away.”

In a new interview with the news site Malaysiakini Deepak has now named Najib’s younger brother, architect Mohd Nazim Abdul Razak, as the individual who put up the money in return for Bala’s repudiation of his declaration.

"I affirm what was earlier said that Datuk Nazim joined the meeting to facilitate whatever needed to be done. My involvement was just to get everyone together," he told Malaysiakini in an interview, saying he had done so as a favor to Rosmah after receiving a call from the then-defense minister’s wife. In earlier declarations, Bala displayed checks showing he had received RM750,000.

According to Deepak, the money paid to Balasubramaniam came from "Datuk Nazim and his resources".

"Yes," he told Malaysiakini when asked again to confirm that the "Datuk Nazim" he mentioned was indeed Najib's brother.

“I don’t know whether Deepak knows what he is doing but he is certainly not doing it to appease his conscience. Having said that, he knows a lot of secrets and he is courting danger,” said one source.

Getting to the core of stateless issue

As we well know, the politics of statelessness is tied to the politics of race in this country. It is unacceptable that the bugbear that was thrown into the Independence struggle to put the anti-colonial forces on the defensive – viz. who are the ‘pribumi’ (indigenous people) and who are the ‘pendatang’ (immigrants) and therefore not qualified for citizenship – continues to determine the political agenda in 2012.

We never fail to be bemused by the antics of the Barisan Nasional government which gives out a few citizenship certificates to several erstwhile stateless Malaysians just before every election.

The media coverage of grateful beneficiaries hugging the benevolent Home Minister only adds to the parody.

We do not accept such tokenistic attempts to appease the stateless and we demand to know once and for all exactly how many stateless persons there are in this country?

The stateless cannot accept a fate in which they are doomed to wait in line for an election to arrive and hoping for a few lucky draws to bear fruit.

Race has played a key role in Umno’s policy to reduce the number of non-Muslim voters and at the same time increase Muslim voters in order to maintain “Malay dominance”.

East Malaysian leaders have alleged that ‘Project M’ was implemented to ensure Filipino Muslims and Pakistanis were granted citizenship’s in large numbers to dilute the non-Malay majority of Sabah.

In west Malaysia, Indonesians have for years been obtaining citizenship with relative ease compared with many non-Malays who were born in Malaysia.

Committee needed

PKR and Hindraf have claimed that there are as many as 300,000 stateless Indians in this country while the MIC says that they have only registered 9,000 or so. According to the Development of Human Resources in Rural Areas (DHRRA), Malaysia, ‘Southeast Asia – Human Rights Watch’ 2011:

“It is estimated that there are around 40,000 Indian children in the state of Selangor alone who do not have their birth certificates. Similarly, based on the number of cases we received at our 10 community centres from 2003 – 2006, we estimated that at least 20,000 Indian women do not have identity documents. These figures could be much higher if their children are taken into account. Therefore, they become ‘stateless’ in their own country and as a result they been denied of protection and care as a citizen of the nation state, and thus vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.”

What about the stateless Chinese and the stateless indigenous peoples in Sarawak and Sabah? We know that there are considerable numbers of them as well.

We therefore call on the government to set up a credible Committee for Citizenship Registration with enough resources to solve the plight of the stateless once and for all.

This committee must be seen to be independent and professional. It is too important a task to be entrusted to any political party.

The Department of Statistics and the Registration Department should be involved in this exercise in order to give us the correct numbers of the stateless in the country.

The right to a nationality

Every person has the right to a nationality. Yet statelessness continues to be a fundamental cause of discrimination, exploitation, and even forced displacement.

The stateless have no legal protection or the right to participate in political process; poor employment prospects and poverty; little opportunity to own property; travel restrictions, and inadequate access to healthcare and education.

To date, only 57 states have become party to the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and even fewer states, just 29, are party to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

It is time for Malaysia to take the plight of the stateless seriously instead of treating them like a political football to score a few at a time during elections.