Hadi's message on Malaysia Day

KUALA TERENGGANU, Sept 16 : Conveying his Malaysia Day message, PAS president Tuan Guru Abdul Hadi Awang reiterated PAS's commitment to not only maintain good relations with different communities but also to exploit the country's diversity to strengthen it in accordance with Islamic teachings.

Hadi recalled what he had said at the last PAS annual Muktamar, in which he described Malaysians as a unique and fortunate group, living among diverse ethnic groups with various races and cultures.

“And this (diversity) is enriched by the people of Sabah and Sarawak,” said Hadi in a statement in conjunction with Malaysia Day.

Saying diversity was the country's greatest strength, he warned of a catastrophic repercussion if there was any mismanagement.

“This (repercussion) is what we see after 47 years Malaysia existed amid weaknesses of leadership in UMNO and Barisan Nasional, who should have been the protector of the people and make the country stand proud among the others,” lamented Hadi.

Hadi also stressed that PAS believed in the basic principle of equal treatment for all races, and this should be defended at all costs to strengthen race relationship in the country.

“Islam stresses that the tendency to belittle other people is inherently evil and must be avoided,” he said.

“It is strange that some people claim to be pious to Allah but fail to advocate true justice (as demanded by Islam),” he added.

Harakahdaily

Pakatan yakin menang pilihan raya Sarawak

KOTA BHARU, 16 Sept (Hrkh) : Pakatan Rakyat (PR) yakin mampu menewaskan Barisan Nasional (BN) pada pilihan raya Sarawak jika amalan demokrasi dilaksanakan dengan cara yang betul.

Mursyidul Am PAS, Tuan Guru Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat berkata, PR bukan sahaja mampu menguasai Sarawak sahaja, sebaliknya seluruh Semenanjung sekiranya negara benar-benar mengamalkan prinsip demokrasi.

"Saya yakin Pakatan Rakyat ini betul, dan sekiranya negeri-negeri kita berdiri atas demokrasi yang betul, tidak ada rasuah, tidak ugut orang, maka tidak ada sebab rakyat hendak tolak Pakatan.

"Usahkan di Sarawak, di sini pun saya yakin Pakatan boleh menang kalau tiada amalan rasuah ataupun unsur ugutan," katanya ketika ditemui selepas melawat modul bangunan baru kondominium di Kubang Kerian, dekat sini, hari ini.

Beliau mengulas tahap keyakinan PR dalam menghadapi pilihan raya negeri Sarawak yang dijangka bakal diadakan pada tahun ini.

Desas-desus pilihan raya Sarawak semakin hampir dan mula menjadi perhatian umum berikutan kenyataan Speaker Dewan Undangan Negeri (Dun), Datuk Sri Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar, yang tidak menolak kemungkinan percutian Ketua Menteri, Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud ke luar negera adalah untuk mencari ilham bagi pembubaran Dun.

Tempoh penggal Dun Sarawak akan tamat pada Julai tahun depan.

Bangunan kondominium setinggi 20 tingkat yang bakal dibina di tapak seluas kira-kira satu ekar itu akan dikendalikan pemaju, Ghazziz Sdn Bhd.

Kerja-kerja pembinaannya akan dimulakan pada Ahad ini dan dijangka siap pada tahun 2012.

Najib, Dr M put on show for S'wak polls, mask business scandals

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

Mahathir, Najib - murky dealings

Those who have forecast a major power tussle at Umno may have to reassess the latest situation. The two protagonists Prime Minister Najib Razak and his predecessor Mahathir Mohamad appear to have knocked out a deal or at least reached an initial compromise.

At glittery function on the eve of Malaysia Day, both men were all smiles and Najib not only paid tribute to the elder statesman but also pledged to continue the latter’s Vision 2020 economic plan.

“Our aspiration was encapsulated when Tun Dr Mahathir launched an articulated Vision 2020 and we are the generation that will make it happen,” Najib said in his speech at the inaugural Music Arts Style International Festival or MASiF 2010.

Najib chickens out, Mahathir sings new tune

To financial analysts, Najib’s words provided further proof that his own New Economic Model, due to be fleshed out next month, will be a watered-down version to appease Mahathir. The ex-premier does not want any further lifting of protectionist barriers even though experts have warned they would harm the economy.

Mahathir encouraged and supported Perkasa

To the political observers, few were surprised as many had expected Najib to chicken out. Mahathir's ruthlessness is legendary and Najib’s scandal-plagued record makes him vulnerable to exposure and therefore pressure from the older man, they said.

But Mahathir also sprang a surprise of his own. The former prime minister who ruled Malaysia with a fist of iron for 22 years made a rare departure from his racial rhetoric.

“Although we belong to different races and different ethnic groups but we feel that we are all Malaysians. We may have our differences but not so much that we do not regard this country as ours. Malaysia is our country. Whatever our differences, I am sure everyone in Malaysia will feel a real brotherhood between the people of Malaysia,” Mahathir said in a speech that followed Najib’s.

Hoping for Malaysians to take the bait

Political pundits whom Malaysia Chronicle spoke with were unimpressed. They believe Mahathir was playing to the gallery, pointing out that it was under his administration that the seeds for Malaysia’s deepening racial polarization were sown.

Umno's race-rhetoric lost the BN votes in 2008

That the Sarawak state polls had to be held within the next 10 months also made it expedient for Mahathir and Najib to put on a public show that all was well in Umno, they added.

“This is just another example of the depth of deception and duplicity at Umno. As we said many times, Najib’s zero-tolerance for racism and the recent Umno rejection of Perkasa is just a sandiwara stage-managed by their newspapers and online portals,” PKR strategic director Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

“They will need to keep up the pretence for the next few months so that Malaysians especially Sarawakians will start to believe that things have really changed. But it is easy to spot through the shadow-play. Just ask yourselves, before Perkasa, wasn’t Umno racist. As it is now, can you trust them or MCA and MIC?”

Huge business scandals

There is widespread speculation that the recent brouhaha over ultra-Malay rights group Perkasa was also aimed to deflect attention from a series of business scandals involving Najib, Mahathir and another former prime minister Abdullah Badawi.

Abdullah involved in MAS

Controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin had given Malaysians a taste of how deeply involved Mahathir and Badawi could be in the RM8 billion ringgit of losses racked up by national airline MAS. Raja Petra also accused Najib of wanting to cancel a Letter of Intent to China Railway Engineering Corp in favour of China Harbour Engineering Corp so that he could re-negotiate and benefit from a multi-billion ringgit double-tracking railway project.

“They are all holding pistols to each other’s throat but nobody will be so silly as to pull the trigger because this is within Umno. If it involves Pakatan, that is a different story. But now as it is, they will give into negotiations with money the most important factor and how to settle with everyone more or less happy,” a political watcher had told Malaysia Chronicle. He was referring to the Umno infighting between camps aligned to Najib, Mahathir and Badawi,

Burning issues left over from British rule

COMMENT For the first time in 47 years since the new Federation of Malaysia came into being on Sept 16, 1963; Malaysia Day is being officially celebrated today as a national public holiday.

This is 47 years too late say critics. Others like Sabah opposition strongman Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan say “better late than never”.

Jeffrey has been waging a long and lonely battle to get recognition for Malaysia Day. As recently as last year, police stormed a Malaysia Day function within the compound of a house in Kota Kinabalu. Jeffrey was scheduled to speak at the function. They ordered the assembled crowd to disperse but left Jeffrey, an ex-Internal Security Act detainee, alone after advising him “not to create trouble”.

Malaysia Day was a taboo subject until Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, in a belated recognition, declared late last year that Sept 16 would henceforth be a national public holiday from this year.

But it’s by no means clear that the official line on Malaysia has changed. This year, according to Putrajaya, the country celebrated 53 years of independence. Peninsular Malaysia, formerly British Malaya, became independent on Aug 31, 1957.

Sabah and Sarawak never tire of pointing out that they became independent much later on Aug 31,1963 and, therefore, independence for them means 47 years this year.

Not so, point out official historians in Putrajaya and cite the United States of America as an example. The US became independent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on July 4, 1776 with just 13 colonies along the eastern seaboard of the North American continent. Although the great majority of the 52-odd states joined the US much later at various dates, 1776 is still held to be the year of independence for the US.

Sabahans and Sarawakians beg to differ and argue that there’s no basis for comparison between the US and Malaysia.

The US, stress Sabahans and Sarawakians, did not change its name or its Constitution.

In the case of Malaysia, Malaya, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak came together on 16 Sept 1963 as equal partners to form a new Federation known as Malaysia. Malaysia, it is further pointed out, is not a name change for Malaya and the admission of new territories to the existing Federation of 1957.

Patently, Putrajaya is not an accurate rendition of the nation’s history but this is hardly surprising if we glance at the books used in schools these days.

The history of the country is being completely re-written with a heavy political slant, the colonial British depicted as villains; former villains, thieves and murderers hailed as freedom fighters; the contributions of many non-Malay personalities blotted out, the harsh Japanese occupation glossed over and the role of the communist movement in the struggle against Japanese occupation and for freedom denied.

There are two aspects to the story of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia.

Firstly, the United Nations Referendum of 1963 discovered that only a third of the people in both territories favoured the idea of Malaysia. These were mostly the local Muslim minorities who perhaps felt more secure in the new Federation. This was especially so when Kuala Lumpur leaders indicated to the local Muslims that they would be the rulers and proxies for the Federal Government.

Today, the local Muslims have cause for regret in Sabah where the influx of illegal immigrants entering the electoral rolls with MyKads via the backdoor have effectively disenfranchised them and robbed them of many opportunities made available by the government under the Federal Constitution to Natives.

Despite the other Natives and the Chinese overwhelmingly voting against Malaysia, the British and the Malayan Government pushed ahead with the idea of Malaysia.

The other Natives wanted a period of independence and further details and clarification on Malaysia before considering the idea of the new Federation. Many of them were keener on a Federation of Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei but the 1962 Azahari Rebellion in Bandar Seri Begawan killed the Sultanate’s interest in both Malaysia and a North Borneo Federation.

The commercially-minded Chinese were mainly against Malaysia, both in Sabah and Sarawak.

Many independent historians today liken the march of Malayan troops into Sabah and Sarawak on Sept 16, 1963 as equivalent to Indonesian troops invading East Timor as the colonial Portuguese pulled out.

Twenty-seven years later, the UN Security Council kicked out Indonesia from East Timor, now known as Timor Leste. They predict that the same thing will happen to the occupation of Sabah and Sarawak by Malaya. Malaysia was among the few nations in the world to vote against the idea of Indonesia getting the boot in East Timor, and for obvious reasons. At the same time, Malaysia recognized Kosovo when the Muslim-majority province unilaterally pulled out from Serbia.

The other aspect of the story of Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia is that both territories are not equal partners with Malaya as initially envisaged – Singapore was booted out in 1965 – but virtually colonies of Peninsular Malaysia. This was something that was feared in 1963 by the people of Sabah and Sarawak. Malayan Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman gave numerous assurances in public that there won’t be any recolonization of the Borneo territories by Malaya in the wake of the British departure.

The “colonies of Malaya” theory has credence for a number of reasons.

For starters, the non-Muslim majority in both states are hindered from occupying the Chief Minister’s post and denied the opportunity to be Governors.

Elsewhere, Petronas and its numerous subsidiaries worldwide doesn’t have even a single person from Sabah or Sarawak on their governing boards; there has been no Borneonisation of the Federal Civil Service in the two states; and the Federal Government is not being shared equally with Sabah and Sarawak by Malaya.

Jeffrey, meanwhile, is flogging a long list of issues viz. Malaysia Agreement 1963; 20 Points; Sabah Rights; autonomy; equal rights; equal share of the Federal Government; Borneonisation; the meaning of Federation in the Malaysian Constitution; and that Sabah and Sarawak helped form Malaysia and did not join it.

These are burning issues left over from the brief British colonial occupation of Sabah and Sarawak, from after World War 11 to 1963, and needs to be settled by Putrajaya in consultation with the United Nations, the British Government and the governments of Sabah and Sarawak.

* The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysian Mirror and/or its associates.

Malaysian Mirror