Najib the most stressed-out person in Malaysia today?

Written by  Mathias Gomes, Malaysia Chronicle

The most worked-up and stressed-out person in Malaysia today is the Prime Minister Najib Razak. The grapevine in Putrajaya is that he s so worked up that even if the Opposition breaks wind he wants to know what they ate for lunch.

Why is he so stressed out? Well, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is among the reasons - perhaps the MAIN reason. Mahathir is breathing hard and fast down his neck because he is afraid Najib will fumble in the last lap and lose the BN's 55-year-old political hegemony. That is serious indeed. Many top Umno leaders will immediately fall from hero to zero, 'enjoy' jail time and their families disgraced if the Opposition were to win the federal government.

Yes, being a Prime Minister, one does have tremendous duties to govern the country but alas for Najib Razak, he is constantly watching his back because he has enemies on all fronts now.

'Instant noodles' formula fails, Muhyiddin seizes the chance

Najib's enemies are from within. It appears that Mahathir has decided to bet on Deputy Prime Minister Muyihiddin Yasin. These two are plotting to force Najib to a corner. It is a pity because it is these two and Najib's own wife who are the ones who 'pushed' him into the hot seat in the first place. Not that Najib wasn't willing, he's just too indecisive to really make a push on any matter.

Some of his supporters say, if not for this haste he will still be around as number two and would have taken his time to mellow into a strong Prime Minister. They point out he was the youngest Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) once, and it took him a number of years to mature into a strong leader. But that's all water under the bridge.

Today, Najib doesn't have the luxury of time, its all 'instant noodles' for him. He has to make instant decisions with a team of very ill-advised consultants who are all 'book and paper'. They advise him based on pure assumptions without gauging of grassroots sentiments. His well-fed and well-clothed advisers who sit on high-rise chairs too do not go to the ground to survey what's happening.

Some of his key decisions that have badly flopped are classic models of what happens when time-tested and tried methods of research are not used. The 1 Malaysia concept is a very good example. With the advice of consultants, Najib embarked on the 1 Malaysia for all, forgetting that Mahathir in his 22 years reign had sidelined all other races in his quest to create a superior race Malay race to challenge other ethnic groups in the country with handouts under the New Economic Policy.

Mahathir engineered the population and advised the Malays to be fruitful and aim for at least 5 children without worry because the NEP would take care of them, whereas the other races did not have such luxury and as such could afford to have 2 to 3 children only. Mahathir also gerrymandered constituency boundaries with the Election Commission so that it was easy for UMNO to manipulate the general election results.

Hence for Najib to succeed with the I Malaysia concept, the chances are nothing to nil. This is why Muhyiddin was so daring to publicly ridicule 1 Malaysia. Indeed it becomes a joke when the Deputy Prime Minister stresses that he is  Malay first and Malaysian second. Perhaps, if Najib had quietly and efficiently carried out reforms first, instead of politicizing the issue and giving his rivals the chance to back stab him, then there would be a chance for 1 Malaysia to survive.

Najib falls on his own 1Malaysia sword

Today, sadly 1 Malaysia is Najib's biggest downfall because the other races are also scorning it. They are scorning it because they see it as yet another insincere mega public-relations exercise to distract the public and waste their time. Mahathir and his cronies are also using 1Malaysia as bait to finish Najib off.

Another 'instant' decision was the BR1M or cash assistance to each household earning less than RM3,000. According to the news reports, the money went to about 5 million households, and there was some euphoria there but sadly for Najib, this was short lived because there is no way RM500 can solve the people's problems of soaring food and transport prices. Kangkong is RM3.60 a kilo! Imagine that, so what about the rest?

Everyday we see 1Malaysia' this' and 1 Malaysia 'that'. But aren't these eyewash only. None of the programs can sustain. There is no escape - only good governance and transparency can solve Malaysia's huge economic and social headaches. But Najib not only defends former Women's minister Shahrizat Jalil, he is telling the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission not to investigate Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud, unofficially the richest Malaysian in the world beating even Robert Kuok.

So how can the people trust this UMNO-BN government and give it a mandate to continue to rule?

Return of the Dr M dictatorship

Maybe this is the reason for Mahathir's sudden high-profile. Suddenly he is everywhere in the Utusan, Berita Harian and the Star newspapers lashing out at the United States, George Soros, Anwar Ibrahim and the "ungrateful" and "lacking in intelligence" Malays who support the Opposition. He is even more Muslim than PAS.

Mahathir has even taken to ridiculing Najib's instant plans to the extent of proclaiming that the BR1M handout could be considered a 'bribe'. Talk about dog eat dog! Is Mahathir taking over then? For sure, some major political developments in UMNO are brewing and should erupt soon.

For the Opposition, all of Najib's follies have been great ammunition. His misjudgments  have helped them gain ground with the people. Today, public sentiment stand at 50-50 for the Opposition to win whereas before UMNO-BN had the edge. The 13th general election can go either way.

Najib knows very well that Mahathir as well the Malays are the ones who will either retain him or send him packing. So this is why Najib too has instantly dumped his 1 Malaysia concept and is now championing Malay rights so that even if they reject him, Mahathir might still prop him up.

But it is too little, too late. Too many of the Malays in UMNO are in agreement with the Malays in PKR , PAS and DAP that Mahathir is the Devil as he himself puts it so colorfully. There has been too much corruption, too much dictatorial dominance. The pus must be released and checks and balances finally put in place to preserve the country and their own race.

Malaysia Chronicle

Indecisive Najib has himself to blame for losing best timing to call for GE-13

By Lim Kit Siang

The whole country and all Malaysians will be faced with two critical tests when the long-delayed 13th General Election is finally held, whether in another two or three months or next year.

Time has run out for Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his window of choosing the best time for dissolving Parliament to seek his own mandate as the nation’s sixth Prime Minister has long been lost, particularly after Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9, 2011 and Bersih 3.0 rally on April 28 this year.

Najib should be aware of his plight, which explain his desperation to the extent that he has to hijack the National Day and Malaysia Day celebrations as part his 13GE election campaign - insisting that the BN campaign theme of “Janji Ditepati” (Promises Fulfilled) is adopted as this year’s theme for National Day and Malaysia Day celebrations.

Desperate

National Day and Malaysia Day should be national occasions where Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region, class, gender, age and most important of all, political beliefs and affiliations, can come together as Malaysians first and last to celebrate the attainment of Merdeka on August 31, 1957 and the formation of Malaysia on Sept. 16, 1963.

But when the Prime Minister is politically desperate, he cannot see anymore the clear and important distinction between the nation and the parties-in-power or among the government, political parties and private personal interests.

Failure to distinguish between nation and parties-in-power

It is the failure to make the important distinction between the nation and the parties-in-power , or among the government, political parties and personal interests that is the real cause of the overwhelming misgovernance in the country, whether gross abuses of power, massive corruption or rampant cronyism.

From now to Malaysia Day on Sept. 16, let the “Janji Ditepati” slogan all over the country be a powerful and constant reminder to all Malaysians that they must stand united to demand for change in the 13th general election if they want the promises of democracy, justice, progress, clean and honest governance in Malaysia to be fulfilled!

Indecisive

In retrospect, the best time for Najib to dissolve Parliament was either to hold the 13th general election simultaneously with the Sarawak state general election on April 16 last year, or in the three months after the Sarawak state general election and before the Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9, 2011.

But with his characteristic indecisiveness, Najib has lost the initiative to choose the best timing for dissolving Parliament. He can only choose the next best timing in the remaining nine months that is left before the 12th Parliament is automatically dissolved on April 28, 2013 with 13th general election to be held latest by middle of May next year.

The 13th General Election is a critical test for Najib, not only whether he could lead UMNO/BN to win the next general election to get his own mandate as the sixth Prime Minister, but whether he could win with better results than his predecessor Tun Abdullah so as to fob off and foil any UMNO attempts to topple him in the way Abdullah was toppled in 2009.

Questions Malaysians must ask

Malaysians will decide whether they are sufficiently impressed by Najib’s premiership, his “1Malaysia, People First, Performance Now” slogan; various transformation programmes whether government, economic, political or social; and finally, his “Janji Ditepati” roadshows.

Has Najib “walked the talk” of his 1Malaysia slogan and made Malaysians more united than ever or is there greater polarization whether or race or religion in his three years as Prime Minister?

Do Malaysians feel safer in the streets, public places and even the privacy of their homes despite all the publicity about Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and National Key Result Areas including reducing crime?

We have the scandalous situation where fighting crime is increasingly outsourced as witnessed the mushrooming of gated and guarded communities, but the fear of crime is even more palpable in many places than in the past!

Have we achieved the other NKRA in fighting corruption? Only two days ago, we marked the third death anniversary of Teoh Beng Hock, victim of cruel injustice perpetrated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) which must bear full responsibility for the death Teoh Beng Hock because of abuses of power by MACC officers.

Can Teoh Beng Hock’s family expect justice as promised by Najib to them that “no stone would be left unturned” to find out Teoh Beng Hock’s killers? The answer is no, that only a Pakatan Rakyat government is prepared to open a high-powered investigation to get to the bottom of the killing of Teoh Beng Hock and to bring the killers to justice.

Has MACC succeeded in fighting corruption, bringing to book the “big fishes”, as is happening in Indonesia, Philippines, India, Hong Kong and China?

That Malaysia has fallen to the lowest 60th ranking in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2011 with the lowest CPI score of 4.3 is a double indictment of the failure of Najib’s GTP and NKRA to fight corruption in the past three years.

2 critical tests for Malaysia

Although the 13GE will be a critical test for Najib, it also poses two critical tests for Malaysians, whether Malaysia has matured as a democracy and as a nation 55 years after Merdeka.

For the first time in the nation’s electoral history, Malaysian voters will be going to the ballot boxes knowing that they have the power to effect a democratic change of government at the federal level.

Will they dare to do so and will they be allowed to do so.

Already forces are at work to disseminate lies to create fear, hatred and distrust, with UMNO/BN raising an army of 10,000 cybertroopers to stoke racial tensions with dishonst and unethical “spins” and downright falsehoods.

Lim Kit Siang is the DAP adviser and MP for Ipoh Timur

Pakatan pledges to ‘leave no stone unturned’ in Scorpene scandal

By Clara Chooi

June 27, 2012

Malaysia’s Scorpene-class diesel-electric submarine, “KD Tunku Abdul Rahman”, docks in Port Klang outside Kuala Lumpur in this September 3, 2009 file photo. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, June 27 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers have vowed to continue hounding the Najib administration with the Scorpene submarine scandal, suggesting today that the government was hiding behind the facts last night when it denied knowledge of the alleged sale of Malaysia’s naval secrets to the French.

The lawmakers said that if the allegations were proven true, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi could be cited for contempt for making the claim in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday while the Hong Kong-based company owned by Abdul Razak Baginda, which was revealed in an ongoing French inquiry as the firm that sold the secrets, could be charged with treason.

Abdul Razak, the political analyst investigated in the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu, has often been said to be a close associate of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Najib was defence minister at the time when the RM7 billion Scorpene submarines were purchased in 2002 but he has since denied allegations of having received hefty commissions in the controversial purchase.

There has been no evidence linking him directly to corruption in the deal and his supporters have accused the federal opposition of reviving the issue to tarnish his credentials ahead of a general election that must be called soon.

PAS MP Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad told a press conference today that despite Ahmad Zahid’s denial yesterday, the matter could not just be laid to rest and should be investigated to the very end.

“This is not just about misleading Parliament. This is treason.

“We cannot put it to rest until and unless the proof is all uncovered. So we must leave no stone unturned,” the Kuala Selangor MP said.

In his reply to an adjournment speech by Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar yesterday, Ahmad Zahid had insisted that no information was leaked regarding the evaluation of the Scorpene submarines, despite court documents from the ongoing French inquiry claiming the contrary.

“To the best knowledge of the ministry, up to now there is no information detected to have been taken out of Malaysia.

“The Defence Ministry has no information on the allegations of so-called secret documents sold by Terasasi (Hong Kong) to Thint Asia (Thales International) said to be worth €36 million (RM142 million),” he had said.

He also denied any knowledge of dealings between the two companies, the latter having formed a joint-venture with French defence giant DCNS to build the two vessels, as the government had no dealings with either company in the purchase.

But PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang furnished another court document today, which he claims proves the government had lied in its denial.

“The government says that they do not know about Terasasi’s existence and they categorically denied that Terasasi has sold secret Malaysian naval documents to France.

“But yesterday I revealed the annual returns which showed that Terasasi’s owners are only two — Abdul Razak and his father, the same owners of Perimekar,” he said, pointing out that Putrajaya had previously insisted that it had signed a contract with Perimekar for “coordination and support services”.

“So if the government claims that they don’t know, it means that Abdul Razak was dishonest in his contract — because he not only received payments from the government, the contract was also signed between Terasasi and Thompson, which later became (French shipmaker) DCNS,” he said.

The Batu MP also cited a French court document available online on Asia Sentinel, where Abdul Razak was mentioned as a party to the controversial Scorpene submarine purchase.

Chua singled out Document 136, which was translated from French, which details the interview between the French police and DCNS’ financial controller, Gerard-Philippe Menayas.

The document, distributed to the media today, was of Menayas’ explanation to the police of how the firm had to use other associate companies to make payments to Abdul Razak’s Terasasi.

Even more notable from the document, said Chua, was Menayas’ clear mention of Altantuya as Abdul Razak’s “interpreter”.

“So the government cannot deny the link,” he said.

Malaysia paid RM6.7 billion in 2009 for the two submarines of which RM574 million was earmarked for co-ordination and support services for Perimekar Sdn Bhd, owned by Abdul Razak.

Abdul Razak is being sought as a witness in the French case.

CAUGHT LYING BY THE UN: From Utusan to NST to the Star, Najib shames M'sia

The United Nations in Malaysia would like to refer to the article published in The Star newspaper on May 7, 2012 titled “Police: Tear gas used at rally safe, UN-approved’.

We very much regret that the UN in Malaysia was not consulted before the publication of this article as it contains serious inaccuracies. The UN has consistently condemned the excessive use of force, including through the use of tear gas.

Please also note that the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council have on various occasions publicly expressed concerns about reliable reports indicating that civilians who died from tear gas suffered complications from gas inhalation, and that security forces have been firing metal tear gas canisters from grenade launchers into crowds.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression after his mission to the Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in December 2011 noted that "while the use of tear gas to disperse a crowd may be legitimate under certain circumstances, tear gas canisters should never be fired directly at demonstrators."

Moreover, unlike what is alleged in the article, the UN does not set international standards on different kinds of irritants, nor has the UN approved ‘CS Gas’ as a ‘riot control’ agent.

Journalists AND public officials should be professional

As far as the use of force is concerned, the relevant UN instrument is the Basic Principles on the use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, which was adopted by the Eighth United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders in 1990, not the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) of 1993. I provide its general provisions below:

1. Governments and law enforcement agencies shall adopt and implement rules and regulations on the use of force and firearms against persons by law enforcement officials. In developing such rules and regulations, Governments and law enforcement agencies shall keep the ethical issues associated with the use of force and firearms constantly under review.

2. Governments and law enforcement agencies should develop a range of means as broad as possible and equip law enforcement officials with various types of weapons and ammunition that would allow for a differentiated use of force and firearms. These should include the development of non-lethal incapacitating weapons for use in appropriate situations, with a view to increasingly restraining the application of means capable of causing death or injury to persons. For the same purpose, it should also be possible for law enforcement officials to be equipped with self-defensive equipment such as shields, helmets, bullet-proof vests and bullet-proof means of transportation, in order to decrease the need to use weapons of any kind.

3. The development and deployment of non-lethal incapacitating weapons should be carefully evaluated in order to minimize the risk of endangering uninvolved persons, and the use of such weapons should be carefully controlled.

4. Law enforcement officials, in carrying out their duty, shall, as far as possible, apply non-violent means before resorting to the use of force and firearms. They may use force and firearms only if other means remain ineffective or without any promise of achieving the intended result.

5. Whenever the lawful use of force and firearms is unavoidable, law enforcement officials shall:

( a ) Exercise restraint in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offence and the legitimate objective to be achieved;

( b ) Minimize damage and injury, and respect and preserve human life;

( c ) Ensure that assistance and medical aid are rendered to any injured or affected persons at the earliest possible moment;

( d ) Ensure that relatives or close friends of the injured or affected person are notified at the earliest possible moment.

6. Where injury or death is caused by the use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials, they shall report the incident promptly to their superiors, in accordance with principle 22.

7. Governments shall ensure that arbitrary or abusive use of force and firearms by law enforcement officials is punished as a criminal offence under their law.

8. Exceptional circumstances such as internal political instability or any other public emergency may not be invoked to justify any departure from these basic principles.

We at the United Nations appeal to all journalists to correctly and accurately research and report all matters and procedures related to the UN. We believe that such professionalism should also extend to all public officials.

Dr Lin Mui Kiang is the United Nations Coordination Specialist, Malaysia

Nowhere Else In The World Do We Find Censorship Like This! – Al Jazeera Condemns Malaysia EXCLUSIVE

Posted Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

Al Jazeera - appalled at censorship!

The Middle East’s leading TV News Service, Al Jazeera, has given its own appalled reaction to the discovery that its coverage of Saturday’s Bersih 3.0 rally may have also have been doctored by Malaysia’s Astro satellite station.

In an uncompromising statement a spokesman today declared:

“We have not been censored in this way by another distribution platform anywhere in the world.”

The statement has added to the growing international outrage over Malaysia’s authoritarian censorship rules, in a country that poses as a democracy.

The BBC, who discovered its own report of the day’s events was covertly edited, has launched its own legal and editorial enquiry into the incident and is said to be taking the matter “extremely seriously indeed”, according to one insider.

Cover up

Menaced by police - Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett speaking to camera shortly before his equipment was smashed

The Qatar-based Al Jazeera meanwhile, now has reason to believe that its extensive coverage of the Bersih rally was also interfered with.

The station had sent it’s English language reporter Harry Fawcett onto the ground in KL, covering the rally and providing on the spot interviews.

Much of his material was dramatic and showed a number of cases of excessive use of force by the police against demonstrators.

As he spoke to camera, police officers could be seen hovering at the reporter’s shoulder and eventually he reported that they smashed his equipment to the ground – one of several attacks reported against news crews by police.

Fawcett’s report had concluded on an even handed note, suggesting that both sides had matters to regret over the direction of events.  Yet the station is believed to have received information from a number of sources that Astro censored its coverage.

Today Al Jazeera’s English Spokesman released this official statement:

“We will be asking Astro for an explanation as to why Harry Fawcett’s report of the rally in Malaysia was apparently censored. If Astro are indeed saying that it breached “local content regulations”, they would need to outline exactly what these alleged breaches were and how they arrived at their decision.

“As we understand it, the censoring was not made clear to viewers when it happened. We have had no communication on this incident from Astro either.

“Our news report was a factual account of events that day, and intrusion in our editorial process is unwarranted. We have not been censored in this way by another distribution platform anywhere in the world.”

What breaches?

Exclusive licence for Astro in Malaysia

Al Jazeera’s accusation that Malaysia’s censorship system is the most authoritarian they have experienced anywhere in the worldis a particularly stinging indictment of a regime that has spent hundreds of millions on cultivating its international image.

In fact it has long been the case that only pro-government organisations ever qualify for print or media licences in Malaysia and that these all slavishly adopt a pro-government stance on each and every issue.

Astro itself is run by the pro-BN crony billionaire Ananda Krishnan and it has been given exclusive rights by the government to act as the sole platform carrying 24 hour news channels, like the BBC, CNN and Al Jazeera to viewers in Malaysia.

In its own defence Astro this week admitted that it is only allowed to operate in accordance with “National Content Regulations”, which media organisations are supposed to put into practice through ‘self-censorship’.

The Al Jazeera statement demands to know what these content regulations consist of and how breaches are assessed?  The station is clearly particularly outraged at Astro’s opinion that it is entitled to censor news reports without even informing either the news channel or viewers! [see Astro statement].

“News Control”

Sarawak Report can now reveal for the first time just how the sinister and arbitrary system of TV News censorship works at Astro.  Sources have revealed that the satellite station employs people round the clock under the job title “News Control”.

Astro’s “News Controllers” have the editorial responsibility of scouring all the news coming in and demanding edits on anything they judge to be contrary to the Home Ministry censorship rules!

“They do four hour shifts, monitoring news output particularly from CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera, and deciding if anything is not to go to air”, explained our source.

For reputable broadcasters like Al Jazeera, this means that objective reports can be turned into biased reports, but that Malaysian viewers are given the deliberate impression that this was the actual voice of the international news station.

If the BBC and Al Jazeera have knowingly entered into commercial agreements that permitted such tampering the reputational issues could be highly damaging.

However, it is most likely that it is Malaysia’s secretive authoritarianism that has been at last fully exposed by this shameful incident.

Harry Fawcett tweeting today about his outrage over his treatment at the Bersih rally and the censorship of his report

Today the British MP Tom Greatrex, a member of the All-party Parliamentary Group on Malaysia made his own statement deploring the tampering of BBC News by Malaysia:

“Freedom of expression is a vital element of any democracy.

For people all across the globe, the BBC World Service is a vital lifeline in the search for truth.

William Hague [Foreign Secretary] must make it clear in no uncertain terms to the Malaysian government that it is entirely unacceptable to censor the BBC.”

Content regulation

Weighty document - so many things are censored, but it comes down to one main thing. Don't allow anything the BN government might not like!

Sarawak Report has been unable to reach Astro Channel’s communications officers today.

We have been requesting both a copy of the National Content Regulations which they are forced to abide by and to learn exactly what their criteria for censoring material is.

Censorship is regarded as an extremely serious issue in most countries.

However, documents that we have obtained showing the Home Ministry’s rules on Film Censorship, give the impression that in Malaysia the restrictions are wide-ranging and arbitrary and apply to anything that might be construed as undesirable by the ruling political regime!

The first main category of 4 areas of censorship outlined by the Government refers to ‘matters of security and public order’.

The list of offences makes clear that anything that criticises or shows the government or its agents in a bad light is to be censored.  Under such a heading bad behaviour by police officers during the Bersih rally would certainly be included!

Nothing that contradicts the policies of the government should be allowed!

Nothing that shows the government or its agents in a bad light either!

Under such rules it is plain that censorship should apply to anything that reveals corruption, illegality, stupidity or misbehaviour on the part of the BN government or anyone working for it.

It is clear that Malaysia, which poses as a democracy, has censorship laws that would befit the most authoritarian and dictatorial states in the world!

Should Al Jazeera and the BBC and CNN be allowing their news broadcasts to pass through such 3rd party censorship without them even being told when these rules have been applied?

http://www.sarawakreport.org/2012/05/nowhere-else-in-the-world-do-we-find-censorship-like-this-al-jazeeras-shock-at-malaysia-exclusive/