No wonder Penang Malays supported opposition.....My World

My World

No wonder Penang Malays supported opposition Mar 19, '08 9:19 PM

Abdul Rahman | Mar 19, 08 4:14pm

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Umno holds one-hour protest at Komtar.

Truthfully, I voted for BN in the 12th GE for Pak Lah and Umno in the hope that the Penang state will remain in BN's hands. So did many of my friends here in Kepala Batas. The people of Penang, however, voted for the opposition, so be it.

The protests made by Azhar Ibrahim in Penang is causing embarrassment for us, the Penang Malays, and is uncalled for. The other component BN parties from the other races don't behave that way. Why is Umno being a sore loser ? If we have lost, it's time we review what can be done to change and make Penang better in the hope that BN will be able to capture Penang back in the next GE.

Instead we show our frustration by calling for all the projects to be stopped which is detrimental to the people of Penang. Hey! I am staying in Penang (not in Penang Island itself though) and hope all these projects will benefit the rakyat. Fortunately, Pak Lah did not heed this unsound advice by these people.

Will all these protests help us Malays? These Umno leaders are causing anxiety for the people of Penang. They are not listening to the rakyat and continue to be arrogant. In fact, it makes me angry as well despite being a BN supporter to see these protests. No wonder many Penang Malays supported DAP, PKR or PAS.

Generally ,we Malays are well-behaved as we are taught to be religious and respect others. Penang Umno should focus on the the proper things and be a respected ‘opposition’ in Penang. Please stop being childish and focus on more important issues or else Umno will lose more of its Malay supporters to PKR or PAS in the future.

We tell Hindraf and some of these organisations that street protests are not our culture but we are doing the very thing we tell others not to. So what is the difference between Umno and these groups? I don't know what to say if my friends, Malay or non-Malay, ask me this question. This is a shame to us. If this simple thing we preach but cannot do ourselves. So how to talk about defending the NEP which is alleged by the opposition to benefit the Umnoputras and not bumiputeras. Will people listen to us?

Sorry, my English may not be so good but I hope Penang Umno leaders will behave themselves and not create more embarrassment for us Penang Malays by holding street protests. Champion for the cause of the Malays in a proper manner. Four or five years is not very long to the next GE. Umno must change before the people of Penang totally vote for the opposition even in Malay majority areas in the next GE.
Prev: Penang state gov't is a M'sian gov't

All leaders in states not controlled by Umno dominance must be careful.

March 15, 2008
Utusan and Bernama

All leaders in states not controlled by Umno dominance must be careful.

In the aftermath of the Abdullah debacle in GE2008, Utusan Malaysia and Bernama became the two media organisations that stoked political hatred, pitting Malays against non-Malays.

Both the media groups framed Lim Guan Eng for a mention of May 13, which the new Penang CM didn't say. I knew as I stood behind him during the press interview. And the CM's press secretary confirmed the same.

We queried Khalid Mohd, the Group Editor-in-Chief of Utusan. He passed the buck to Bernama, saying that his paper had used the national news agency's dispatch, though his reporters were present during Guan Eng's interview.

We took Khalid at face value and queried Yong Soo Heong, the Editor-in-Chief of Bernama. He faxed us this letter yesterday, which I reproduce verbatim:

March 14, 2008

YAB Sdra Lim Guan Eng
Chief Minister of Penang
28th Fl, Komtar
10502 Penang

Dear YAB,

On behalf of my colleagues in BERNAMA, I would like to congratulate your team and you for the recent victory in Penang.

I would also like to take this opportunity to apologise for the sloppy editing in the news story of March 12, 2008, which we mistakenly quoted you as commenting on the May 13 incident as well. The inclusion of the fact was intended to give background on the establishment of the NEP in 1971. Nevertheless, upon a thorough review, the inclusion of that fact along with your quote may have been inappropriate.

As we move forward, I would like to ensure you of BERNAMA's co-operation for your newly-formed government and shall always endeavour to help you promote the well-being of Penang and its people.

Yours sincerely,

YONG SOO HEONG
Editor-in-Chief

The Utusan-Bernama ruckus started when Guan Eng announced all government procurements in Penang will be through open tender -- something that the NEP did not address and went on to create cronies and entrench corruption in the system.

I hope the next time Umno leaders took to the streets to stoke people's sentiments along racial lines, you know who is to blame.

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Penggabungan Pas - Umno bukan tidak perlu waktu ini

Penggabungan Pas - Umno bukan tidak perlu waktu ini

Posted by Raja Petra
Tuesday, 18 March 2008, MT

Pas dan Umno umpama laki bini. Pas sebagai isteri yang ditendang dan dideritai tidak mungkin akan bersedia tidur sekatil dengan suami ganas bernama Umno selagi kepedihan ditampar masih terasa kesakitan dijati masih dikira!

ANTARA KITA

Oleh Mohd Sayuti Omar

BANGSA Umno seperti baru terbangkit dari tidur lena yang panjang kini. Keputusan pilihan raya umum ke-12 lalu menjadi trompet yang menyedarkan bangsa itu bangkit. Sebelum ini bangsa itu nyenyak atas tilam tebal dan tidak pernah merasa bimbang kepada hari-hari mendatang. Mereka sering mengira panas hingga ke petang dan tidak pernah mengira akan berlaku gerimis di tengah hari.

Namun keputusan pilihan lepas yang melayangkan empat buah negeri; Pulau Pinang, Kedah, Selangor dan Perak, bangsa itu seakan tercuit punggungnya. Dengan mata masih berpinar mereka mahu menolak apa yang berlaku. Tidak mempercayai penghukuman rakyat ke atas mereka yang menjajah rakyat selama setengah abad.

Namun akhirnya mereka juga terpaksa menerima hakikat. Dalam pada itu seribu dalil dan dalih dicari unuk membela diri mereka sendiri mengatakan mereka masih dipihak benar. Dasar...! Lagi sekali untuk kesekian kalinya pembangkang dijadikan kambing hitam. Jari kelingking, telunjuk dan semua jari ditunding kepada pembangkang khasnya Pas dan PKR.

Pas dan PKR dijadikan alat untuk menepis kekecewaan mereka. Dituduh Pas dan PKR menjual kerusi untuk kepentingan Cina – menjadi alat dan perkakas DAP. Anwar dituduh sebagai menjadi petualang bangsa! Aduh Saliha!. Begitulah bangsa yang merasakan mereka sudah lama bertamadun tidak pernah mengalah dan berasa bersalah.

Sehubungan itu meletuslah suara-suara yang kononnya daripada rakyat marhean mengeluh dan mengalunkan kebimbangan mengenai nasib bangsa di masa akan datang. Kononnya kedudukan Melayu akan terancam dan masa depannya juga menjadi suram temeram kerana Umno sudah ditolak. Wekkkkk.... Lantas cadangan dan pandangan dikumpul yang semuanya meluahkan rasa kesal dan marah atas apa yang berlaku. Rata-ratanya menyalahkan Pas dan Anwar Ibrahim dan sedikitpun tidak nampak kesalahan Umno.

Dalam pada itu ada yang mendayu-dayu (pastinya diajar) agar Pas dan Umno segera bergabung. Atas nama survival bangsa dan masa depan negara kedua pihak perlu berada dalam satu saf. Berbagai jenis dan golongan (pendidikan) manusia disuruh agar membuat desakan berkenaan dengan harapan membuka pintu hati pihak Pas.

Sesiapa pun sebagai bangsa Melayu yang tulen, mencintai adat dan budaya dan berpegang kepada agama rasmi negara – Islam?, bersretuju kalau kafilah Pas dan bangsa Umno bersatu dan duduk atas satu landasan. Mereka adalah serumpun yang mempunyai bau yang sama dan memiliki segalanya sama termasuk saiz-saiz anggota sulit yang sama.

Cuma apa yang ingin ditanyai apakah gesaan dan permintaan itu ikhlas? Apakah huluran tangan kepada Pas dan PKR itu suci dan murni untuk menyelamatkan bangsa? Ataupun pengabungan itu diperlukan bagi menyelamatkan individu-individu tertentu yang sebelum ini bakhil akal dan sombong peribadinya yang mana baru sedar setelah kepala terhantuk lambung! Mereka juga terdesak kerana bimbang kesalahan mereka akan dibongkar dan lengan mereka akan disarung dengan gelang besi!

Bagi Pas tentu sukar untuk mereka berbuat demikian meskipun ia tidak bukan langsung menolak. Pas juga mengira ada keperluan dan ruang-ruang kepentingan bangsa yang harus diisi secara bersama Umno. Tetapi seperti mana yang sering disebut Pas, peristiwa lampau masih mencengkam jantung mereka. Tragedi kebencian Umno kepada Pas sehingga menendang Pas dari Barisan Nasional (BN) tahun 1978 masih segar bugar dalam ingatan.

Pas dan Umno umpama laki bini. Pas sebagai isteri yang ditendang dan dideritai tidak mungkin akan bersedia tidur sekatil dengan suami ganas bernama Umno selagi kepedihan ditampar masih terasa kesakitan dijati masih dikira!

Pun begitu bukan bermakna pergaduhan itu akan berterusan selama-lamanya. Ia tetap ada titik tolak. Justeru bagi mereka yang ingin menghukum (pecat dari menjadi ahli Pas) sesiapa yang mengadakan perbicangan agar Umno dan Pas rujuk semula adalah tindakan yang kasar dan membelakangkan budaya perundingan. Selalunya mereka yang berpandangan demikian berkerja secara one man show dan tidak suka menerima pandanghan dan idea orang lain.

Kepada Umno yang kini sakit, pasrahlah dengan apa yang ada. Berikan peluang kepada Pas, PKR dan DAP membina kerajaan mereka. Berilah mereka peluang dan kritiklah secara konstruktif. Bagi saya kalau atas nama negara penggabungan bukan saja antara Umno dengan Pas, tetapi antara Umno, Pas, PKR dan DAP sekali.

Dalam keadaan sekarang ini apa-apa teori atau perkiraan pun tidak wajar kalau mengkesampingkan DAP. Atas nama demokrasi dan kebebasan bersuara terimalah realiti yang ada hari ini kerana rakyat telah memilih mereka sehingga Dewan Rakyat akan dibubarkan lima tahun akan datang.

Dan kepada mereka yang mempersoalkan kejujuran DAP dan curiaga terhadapnya berhubung dengan Melayu, saya ingin menanyai balik apakah kelebihan dan jaminan bahawa Gerakan dan MCA juga tidak memiliki unsur-unsur yang boleh dicurigai oleh orang Melayu? Bahkan bukan itu saja, para elita dan bangsawan di dalam Umno itu sendiri juga ada kalanya memiliki unsur-unsur yang perlu dicurigai tentang patriotisme mereka.

Malaysia rocked to the economic core... What now after NEP ?

Malaysia rocked to the economic core

Posted by Raja Petra
Thursday, 20 March 2008, MT

"A few years ago, all talk about 'Malays losing power' would have invoked street demonstrations but it doesn't seem to work now," says Rustam Sani.

............................

What now after NEP ?
Wednesday, 19 March 2008

If the NEP goes, what will replace it? The Malaysian Economic Agenda? This policy calls for providing assistance to all those who need it, irrespective of ethnicity.

Fine, but PKR, DAP and Pas leaders must realise that the people voted for more subsidies and greater government social spending. This is what they were promised. They did not vote for “free market”, “business friendly” policies. Neither did they opt for neoliberal policies (privatisation, corporatisation and policies favouring the corporate elite), which have actually widened the gap between the rich and the poor.

Voting for greater democracy does not mean support for “free-market” policies. Actually, what we often have in Malaysia is a situation, as economist Charles Santiago puts it, “where you had subsidies for the rich and a free market economy for the poor. While you subsidise the rich on one side, the debt of the country is being borne by the middle-classes and the poor”.

So true - just think of the billions of ringgit in gas subsidies dished out to the lucrative Independent Power Producers, who are raking in the profits.

Remember, ordinary Malaysians voted in droves for people-centred development (projects that really benefit the ordinary people) rather than corporate-driven development (mega projects that primarily benefit the corporate elite while ruining the environment).

..................................

Power shift to the provinces

By Anil Netto, ASIA TIMES ONLINE

Malaysia's race-based affirmative action policies have come under the spotlight in the aftermath of a pivotal general election which saw opposition parties making sweeping gains.

Opposition parties captured the "rice-bowl" state of Kedah and the industrialized states of Penang, Perak and Selangor in addition to retaining power in the Muslim heartland state of Kelantan on the east coast in the March 8 general election.

The three industrial states will be ruled by coalition governments made up of the multi-ethnic - but largely ethnic Chinese - Democratic Action Party (DAP), the multi-ethnic People's Justice Party (PKR) and the Islamic party PAS. The opposition parties won 82 of 222 parliamentary seats while the ruling federal coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), or National Front, clinched 51.5% of the popular vote.

The new state governments now have their work cut out for them to make good on their opposition campaign promises of ending the New Economic Policy in favor of their "Malaysian Economic Agenda". The NEP was introduced in 1971 to uplift the economic position of the majority ethnic Malays and remove the stereotyping of race with specific occupations.

But along the road, economic planners became obsessed with its 30% target for bumiputra (Malays and other indigenous groups) equity ownership while huge privatization projects and neo-liberal policies benefited the elite of all ethnic groups. This concentrated wealth in their hands while fueling discontent among the lower-income groups who have struggled to cope with rising prices for essential goods and services, as income inequalities grew.

One of the first things the new state government in Penang did was to announce a major policy shift in running the government free from "the New Economic Policy that breeds cronyism, corruption and systemic inefficiency".

"We will implement an open tender system for all government procurement and contracts," said new chief minister Lim Guan Eng from the DAP during his swearing in on Tuesday. The new state government would also practice transparency by uploading information of such tender bids in an Internet portal to be set up for public access, he added.

That did not go down well with leaders of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which along with coalition partner Gerakan, had just lost power in Penang.

On Friday, some 1,000 protesters led by UMNO representatives staged a demonstration outside the Penang chief minister's office. They were worried that ethnic Malays would be sidelined if the government disregarded the NEP.

"I do not think Malay contractors object to the open tender system as it is more transparent. I just want to rectify some of the mistakes committed during the previous administration," Lim later clarified.

The pro-NEP demonstration is the action of people trying to come to terms with what is going on, says Rustam Sani, one of the country's leading public intellectuals and writer on Malay and Malaysian nationalism. "The language of ethnic politics is suddenly not working and they are hanging on to it and trying to revive it."

"A few years ago, all talk about 'Malays losing power' would have invoked street demonstrations but it doesn't seem to work now," he added.

"For UMNO, the language and political idiom they have used all these years doesn't seem to be as effective as it used to be. They have to re-tool the political idioms or re-tool themselves! That's not easy - it's a political and intellectual challenge; it's a tough job."

As for the new opposition-led state governments, Rustam said he detected a certain impatience in its onslaught on the NEP from the start: "We need to go slow. I hope there is more wisdom. We must not let them use our impatience with trying to get rid of such policies [to their advantage]."

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, for his part, said the question of abolishing the 20-year NEP was a non-issue as the policy expired in 1991. Since then, he pointed out, the government has set up a National Economic Consultative Council (Mapen) to take responsibility for planning the country's economy.

"Through Mapen, many policies had been agreed upon for implementation by the government and among the policies were two policies taken from the NEP, with one being the overall eradication of poverty irrespective of race, and the second dealt with distribution," he said.

But the term "NEP", with its reminder of pro-Malay policies, carries huge historical and psychological baggage, said Rustam. "And it will take some time for the new state governments to explain their agenda. There is a need for both sides to handle change and the perception of change."

Opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim led the charge in calling for an end to the NEP in favor of a new Malaysian Economic Agenda in the run-up to the March 8 general election. Anwar himself believes in a pro-growth free market economy balanced by humane policies to ensure "equity and distributive justice".

The NEP has a certain flavor to it that UMNO can still exploit, warned Rustam. "I think there is no need to [actually] say that 'we are ending the NEP'. We can achieve more by implementing something that is different from what has been done all this while such as transparency and open tenders."

UMNO must realize by now that the Malays voted against the Barisan Nasional partly because they are unhappy with the party's approach to the NEP, said economist Charles Santiago, just elected to Parliament under a DAP ticket.

"While the original NEP aims were laudable, it later turned into a policy to enrich the Barisan putras [princes], largely from UMNO," Santiago said. "The average Malay was feeling the increase in prices, their jobs were no longer protected and inflation was eating into their income. Real wages were coming down [but] you didn't find UMNO providing support. In fact, it was removing subsidies for the average citizen."

"You had a situation where you had subsidies for the rich and a free market economy for the poor. While you subsidize the rich on one side, the debt of the country is being borne by the middle-classes and the poor."

Santiago said UMNO should come to terms with the fact that the way the NEP was implemented had made some Malays very rich while marginalizing a whole lot of poorer and middle class Malays. As a result, he added, UMNO's legitimacy as the "protector" of Malays has been called into question.

He, however, cautioned opposition politicians from interpreting the opposition gains and their mandate as a vote for free market policies. In fact, many ordinary people were promised more subsidies, including oil subsidies, if the opposition came to power (at the federal level).

"Opposition parties must realize it was free market policies, privatization and labor market restructuring that resulted in many people opposing the BN," said Santiago.
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Back In the Light

Back In the Light

Posted by Raja Petra
Thursday, 20 March 2008, MT

Purged, jailed and humiliated in the late 1990s, Anwar Ibrahim has staged a remarkable comeback at the helm of an opposition insurgency.

Lorien Holland and George Wehrfritz, NEWSWEEK

Anwar Ibrahim takes six calls in quick succession on three different mobile phones. Five days after Malaysia's general election—in which his coalition shocked observers by winning several key states and almost ousting the long-ruling party—he has segued from surprise victor to tireless political operative, ironing out disagreements and building bridges within the still-fractious opposition. Inside his low-key suburban office, tucked several kilometers away from Parliament in leafy Kuala Lumpur, Anwar's sense of purpose—destiny, even—is palpable. "Just listen to what the others have to say. Listen," he tells one caller. "Stay calm, go home and have some dinner, some Panadol, whatever you need," he tells another, adding, "If there are still strong views and you can't solve it, let me handle [it]."

The performance is vintage Anwar: the great conciliator doing what he does best. Barely a decade ago, this was the man who was going to help Asia and the West see eye to eye and bridge the chasm between Islam and other faiths. As Finance minister and then deputy prime minister of Malaysia in the late 1990s, Anwar was heir apparent to the strongman Mahathir Mohammed. But it was always an odd pairing. Mahathir was an angry anti-colonialist, forever railing against the West; he denounced Western pressure for democracy and human rights as cultural imperialism, an affront to more authoritarian "Asian values," and fiercely resisted international attempts to dismantle Malaysia's cozy and corrupt business culture after the Asian financial crisis. Anwar, by contrast, was a proud universalist, a personally pious Muslim who was also a relentless modernizer and whose penchant for quoting Gandhi and declaring the necessity of democracy and economic openness won him international acclaim. In speeches filled with terms like "civil society" and "freedom," Anwar opposed the notion that Asians were somehow destined for repressive rule and sought to turn regional vehicles like ASEAN into forces to promote liberty and justice. This won him widespread adoration—he was named NEWSWEEK's Asian of the Year in 1998—and made him a darling of the Davos set.

But it also led to his downfall. By 1998, Mahathir had had enough of his high-flying deputy, and after Anwar publicly broke with his boss over the response to the Asian financial crisis (which Anwar hoped to use to impose fiscal discipline and dismantle Mahathir's crony system), he was sacked and then jailed on what were widely seen as trumped-up corruption and sodomy charges. "It was a terrible time," Anwar admits in a NEWSWEEK interview, but not one he is not eager to revisit. Asked about Mahathir, over whom he would appear to have scored a historic reversal of fortune, Anwar won't take the bait, dismissing his former patron as old, ill and "not an issue for me … In order to succeed, we have to look beyond him."

Under Malaysian law, Anwar is barred from holding office until April 15. Yet clearly the rising fortunes of his party make him once again a potential prime minister, though this time around his ambitions appear focused solely on Malaysia, not Asia and the world. Asked if he was poised once again to act as a bridge figure between East and West, Anwar embraced that "important role" as one he had been "playing for a long time," but then quickly gave it a distinctly local focus: reassuring both Malays and non-Malays and getting them to work together in his party.

Thanks to widespread disgust with the lackluster performance of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, the three-party opposition more than quadrupled its presence in Parliament (going from 20 to 82 seats out of 222), and it now controls five of Malaysia's 13 states. The greater import is clear: even some members of Abdullah's camp are now calling for his resignation, and "Anwar has returned as a major force," says Bridget Welsh, a Southeast Asia expert at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.

But the opposition still has to parlay those results into effective control. For the moment, Abdullah remains in charge, if barely. Still, the election was a water- shed, the closest the ruling United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has come to defeat since independence in 1957. The best Abdullah could say about the drubbing was to call it "democracy at work," and Mahathir, who retired in 2003, called it "shocking"—adding, suggestively, "The Japanese would have committed hara-kiri."

The vote also represented a major challenge to Malaysia's wide-ranging race-based affirmative-action program, which, under Mahathir gave the country's ethnic Malay majority broad preferences over the long-dominant Chinese community in business affairs. Even if the fragile center now holds in Kuala Lumpur, UMNO will soon face unprecedented threats from state governments now controlled by the opposition. Following a pattern discernible elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Anwar and his allies are staging an assault on the cronyism and patronage of old and pledging social justice, openness, transparency, and anticorruption measures.

The new movement is something of a sequel to the failed Reformasi drive of the late 1990s. Launched by Anwar after his ouster in late 1998, it aimed to ignite a "people power" uprising of the sort that had toppled Suharto in Indonesia. But Reformasi fizzled after Anwar's criminal conviction; he ultimately served six years in prison.

Yet Malaysians' desire for change never died. Abdullah, handpicked by Mahathir on the assumption he'd be easy to control, actually took up the reform mantle himself at first, pledging sweeping change during the campaign of 2004. Abdullah vowed to promote moderate Islam to counter creeping fundamentalism, promised an anti-corruption campaign and suggested he might turn back Malaysia's race-based development policies. Voters responded well, especially when, in 2005, he began dismantling massive Mahathir-era infrastructure projects. But the electorate slowly soured on the new leader as scandal and indecisiveness hobbled his administration. "He did not deliver effectively, and Malaysians called him on it," says Welsh.

If anything, the opposition's triumph was even more significant than the raw numbers indicate. Anwar's People's Justice Party grabbed 31 seats—up from just one in 2004—and its victors included his wife and daughter. Opposition candidates dominated in peninsular Malaysia's west coast, seizing the key industrial states of Penang and Selangor. To reach voters, the opposition relied on bloggers, You-Tube and text messages sent to grass-roots organizers via cell phone: common tactics in places like Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea but new to Malaysia. Indeed, they took UMNO and its National Front coalition so much by surprise that the opposition nearly won the election outright. Anwar, for one, thinks it could have; during his NEWSWEEK interview, he hinted at fraud connected to the use of mail-in votes and the Election Commission's last-minute decision to scrap plans to stain the voters' fingers with indelible ink.

The electorate also broke with the race-based voting patterns of old. Malaysia's Chinese and Indian minorities, which make up a quarter and a tenth of the population, respectively, deserted government-allied ethnic parties in favor of Anwar's Justice candidates and those of center-left Democratic Action Party. The rebellion of ethnic Indians was particularly dramatic; many quit the pro-government Malaysian Indian Congress and the MIC's leader even lost his seat. "This is new territory" for the ruling party, says Garry Rodan, director of the Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia. "The [party's] longstanding emphasis on ethnic identity to mask socioeconomic inequalities traversing ethnic groups has much less currency now."

Anwar's coalition deftly managed this feat by playing on one issue that united Malaysians whatever their race, sex or station: dismay at rising prices that have lead to hoarding of some staples like cooking oil. Jeff Ooi, a blogger turned parliamentary candidate, traded on this anger, writing in February that "now that the cost of living has gone up, unhappiness is fermenting." By promising to raise the people's concerns in Parliament, Ooi won a seat in Penang with an impressive 16,000-ballot margin (out of 46,000).

Now the opposition must quickly transform its promises into a cohesive strategy for governing. Given internal divisions, that won't be easy; the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party wants to establish an Islamic state, while the secular, center-left Democratic Action Party wants to abolish pro-Malay preferences. These divisions kept the opposition from uniting during the last election, in 2004. But Anwar and his Justice Party are hoping to provide a bridge; in addition to controlling the most seats, his party sits between its partners on most issues. Anwar himself is working overtime to find common ground, using his charismatic magic on all parties. Before the election, he managed to persuade the three factions to divvy up constituencies so as to avoid splitting the vote, and ever since he's been working his cell phones relentlessly, jawboning allies into submission. Though he lacks a formal position, Anwar hopes to enter Parliament soon: he plans to ask an ally to resign once his legal ban lifts, and then to run for the seat in a by-election.

Any number of things could disrupt his grand plans. His Islamic allies could prove too uncompromising, or Malaysia's economy could deteriorate—something the newly empowered opposition might be blamed for. On the first trading day after the election, the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index fell by almost 10 percent, as investors dumped shares in companies with large government contracts.

Yet if he manages to hold on, Anwar's comeback will offer a powerful lesson on the dangers of complacency for long-ruling parties throughout Asia. The 4 million citizens of neighboring Singapore, for example, are already watching events closely, and comparing UMNO's fate to the city's own dominant political machine. Abdullah's shortcomings—scandals and political indecisiveness—have no obvious equivalents in Singapore. Yet UMNO's surprise setback "holds a lesson" for the city-state, one reader argued in a letter to The Straits Times last week. "Democracy's tool, the vote, is powerful and swift. A government chosen by its people must stay in touch with the ground. An incumbent who holds power for too long" could run into trouble fast if he becomes unresponsive, the writer warned.

That has been Anwar's point since the 1990s. With his nemesis, Mahathir, now reduced to carping from the sidelines, and the government coalition looking shakier than ever before, Anwar has again illustrated the fact that when fed-up citizens demand sweeping change, they can accomplish it. Anwar, of course, still has to turn promises into reality. But he's already made one thing very clear: if anyone can accomplish it, Anwar's the man.

Nasi kandar sellers hit by boycott

Nasi kandar sellers hit by boycott

Posted by Raja Petra
Thursday, 20 March 2008, MT

(THE STAR) - Nasi kandar operators are appealing to Penangites not to boycott their outlets, as they had nothing to do with last Friday's street protest at Komtar.

Malaysian Muslim Restaurant Operators Association president K.K. Sihabutheen said some members had complained of poor business following the circulation of an SMS, calling on the people to boycott their stalls after the demonstration.

There are over 250 nasi kandar outlets in Penang alone as the Indian Muslim fare is popular among people of all races here.

Sihabutheen, who is co-director of the homegrown Pelita chain, said it was unfair to spread rumours on nasi kandar operators when they were not even involved in the demonstration.

"We are all very busy with our business, where can we find the time to go to Komtar to protest? Anyway, such an act will not benefit us," he said in an interview.

"I have been told that outlets in Chinese populated areas have reported slow business due to a drop in customers the last few days," he said.

He advised nasi kandar sellers not to panic as he believed the business slowdown was temporary and the people would soon realise there was no truth in the rumour.

Bayan Baru Kassim Mustafa outlet supervisor Ibrahim Majid said his business was not directly affected but many regular customers had shown him the SMS.

“I am surprised why we businessmen are being ‘penalised’ over a political issue we are not even involved in,” he lamented.

Logistics executive Mandeep Singh, 33 said the SMS did not have any effect on him, as he was not easily influenced.

“It will not do anyone good to boycott the food,” said the nasi kandar lover.

Jacky Tan, 40, said he heard about the SMS from a friend but did not receive any such message himself.

“I think it is unnecessary to boycott mamak food. We shouldn’t blame the community for what happened at Komtar,” he added.

Jalan ke hadapan

Jalan ke hadapan

Posted by Raja Petra
Thursday, 20 March 2008,MT

Politik Malaysia pasca pilihanraya umum ke-12

Melihat kepada perkembangan-perkembangan yang berlaku dalam masa tidak sampai dua minggu ini, kita berasa optimis bahawa negara kita akan selamat, aman dan terus maju.

Oleh: Kassim Ahmad

Katakanlah, “Tuhan kami, pemilik segala kedaulatan! Engkau memberikan kedaulatan kepada siapa yang Engkau pilih. Engkau melucutkan kedaulatan daripada siapa yang Engkau pilih. Engkau mengurniakan maruah kepada siapa yang Engkau pilih, serta menghinakan siapa yang Engkau pilih. Pada tangan-Mu segala kebaikan. Di atas segala sesuatu, Engkau berkuasa. Engkau memasukkan malam ke dalam siang dan memasukkan siang ke dalam malam. Engkau mengeluarkan yang hidup daripada yang mati, dan mengeluarkan yang mati daripada yang hidup, dan Engkau memberi rezeki kepada siapa yang Engkau pilih tanpa hisab.” – Quran, 3: 26-27

Keputusan Pilihanraya Umum Malaysia yang ke-12 telah meninggalkan kesan-kesan yang besar dan membawa kemungkinan-kemungkinan dan harapan untuk suatu politik baru di negara kita. Dalam artikel ini, kita akan mengkaji kemungkinan-kemungkinan dan harapan ini.

Perlu kita mengelak pandangan hidup liberalisme yang tidak berpijak di bumi nyata. Persekutuan Tanah Melayu, atau Malaya, dan kemudian Malaysia, lahir dalam suatu konteks sejarah dan budaya – dari Kesultanan Melayu Melaka atau Empayar Melaka, dalam kenteks sejarah dan budaya yang dikenal dengan istilah Alam Melayu, atau Kepulauan Melayu, atau Nusantara. Institusi Raja-raja Melayu dan Yang Dipertuan Agung, sebagai kuasa yang berdaulat, kedudukan bahasa Melayu dan agama Islam dan lain-lain yang bersangkutan, menunjukan keterikatan Malaysia Baru dengan konteks sejarahnya.

Inilah yang dirujukkan sebagai Ketuanan Melayu. Ini dimensi sejarah negara kita. Di samping itu, kita sedang menuju ke arah pembinaan sebuah bangsa baru, Bangsa Malaysia. Apabila Singapura masuk Malaysia dalam tahun 1963, PAP menonjolkan slogan “Malaysia Malaysia” yang akhirnya membawanya tersingkir dari Malaysia. Setelah lebih empat puluh tahun, konsep Bangsa Malaysia telah diutarakan oleh Kerajaan kita sendiri dalam Kertas Gagasan Wawasan 2020. Ini menunjukkan tidak ada percanggah asas dalam gagasan Malaysia “Ketuanan Melayu” dengan gagasan Malaysia “Bangsa Malaysia”. Gagasan ini gasasan yang realistik, berpijak di bumi nyata, padahal gagasan liberal gagasan yang wujud dalam vakum dan tidak boleh dicapai.

Walaupun konsep kongsi kuasa dalam gabungan parti B.N. berbentuk parti-parti dari sesuatu kaum, ia ditonjolkan sebagai tidak perkuaman. Pada praktiknya, ia tidak benar. Malah pemimpin-pemimpinnya masing-masing ingin membuktikana bahawa merekalah wira dan pejuang kaum itu. Pemimpin-pemimpin seperti ini mengobankan prinsip serta mendakap oporcunisma. Lama-kelamaan perjuangan untuk membela bangsa merosot menjadi oporcumisme untuk merebut jawatan, pangkat dan kekayaan. Kes-kes kegagalan B.N. menawan kembali Kelantan dan kehilangan empat negeri lain membuktikan keterpencilan B.N. dari rakyat jelata, termasuk dari orang Melayu sendiri. Masa sudah berubah.

Sekarang bunyi suara supaya UMNO dan PAS bersatu. Ini patut dilakukan pada awal dulu. Malah sejarah membuktikan bahawa PAS sebagian dari UMNO yang kemudian berpecah untuk menubuhkan sebuah parti yang berasingan. Kedua-dua UMNO dan PAS tidak menunjukkan komitmen yang mendalam untuk kedua-duanya bersatu. Setelah lima puluh tahun fikiran rakyat sudah berubah. Parti-parti yang dibentuk mengikut kaum, nampaknya, dari keputusan piliharaya umum ke-12 ini, telah ditolak oleh rakyat semua kaum. Kita tidak mungkin berbalik ke zaman itu lagi.

Namun demikian gagasan besar “Bangsa Malaysia” masih samar. Bangsa Malaysia bersifat Melayu, atau Cina, atau India, atau apa? Soal ini penting dan mendefinasikan Malaysia dalam konteks sejarah dan budayanya, yang telah kita sebutkan tadi. Barisan Nasional, khasnya parti UMNO yang menjadi tulang-belakangnya, dalam masa yang lama yang diberikan sejarah, gagal memperteguh dan memantapkan sifat Malaysia ini melalui sistem pendidikannya dan melalui dasar-dasar kebebasan dan persamaan dalam hal-hal aama dan kebudayaan.

Islam yang termaktub dalam Perlembagaan Negara sebagai “agama rasmi” atau “agama negara” telah ditafsirkan secara sempit untuk memaksakan tafsiran itu secara tidak adil kepada semua semua kumpulan agama. Kebebasan agama yang mutlak dijaminkan oleh Tuhan dalam Quran dalam ayat yang masyhur (2: 26): “Tiada paksaan dalam agama. Jalan yang betul sekarang telah jelas dari jalan yang salah.” Di samping itu, Malaysia telah didefinasikan sebagai sebuah “negara Islam” dengan implikasi dinobatkan undang-undang Syariah. Harus disedari bahawa apa yang dikatakan undang-undang Syariah ialah ciptaan kaum fukaha (golongan peguam klasik) yang kebanyakannya tiada dalam Quran, malah sesetengahnya bercanggah dengan ajaran-ajaran Quran. Inilah yang menyebabkan kes-kes konflik agama, seperti kes Lina Joy dan lain-lain, dalam masa beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini.

Perhatikan bahawa dalam Perlembagaan Madinah yang masyhur itu, yang digubal sendiri oleh Nabi Muhammad sendiri, tiada langsung tersebut istilah “negara Islam” atau istilah “Hukum Hudud”. Konsep yang ada dalam Quran ialah “sebuah negara yang baik di bawah kedaulatan Tuhan yang pengampun.” (Quran, 34: 15) Quran memerintahkan kita, apabila kita menjadi pemerintah, supaya memerintah dengan adil. Undang-undang kesiksaan yang dianjurkan oleh Quran harus dicirikan oleh dua prinsip saja, iaitu keadilan dan ihsan. Pemerintahan-pemerintahan yang mengikut prinsip-prinsip ini layak digolongkan sebagai pemerintahan-pemerintahan yang diredai Tuhan.

Dengan perubahan-perubahan yang telah dibawa oleh pilihanraya umum yang lalu, kita tersua dengan kemungkinan-kemungkinan dan harapan yang baru. Dalam dunia dalam masa lima puluh tahun yang lalu atau lebih, kita diperlihatkan dengan tiga contoh sistem pemerintahan yan besar, iaitu (a) sistem kapitalis liberal, (b) sistem sosialis komunis, dan (c) sistem teokrasi agama. Untuk masa lima puluh tahun yang lalu, pada dasarnya, kita mengamalkan sistem kapitalis liberal. Bagi kita, sistem ini sudah gagal. Sistem kedua dan ketiga juga sudah terbukti gagal di tempat-tempat lain. Pada saat ini, kita ada satu peluang keemasan dan bersejarah untuk meneroka satu jalan baru bagi kita. Kita mesti mencari “Jalan Yang Lurus”, bebas dari penyelewengan-penyelewangan yang disebut dalam ayat suci dalam surah Al-Fatehah (1: 6-7).

Saya akan menggarsikan beberapa ciri penting dalam sistem baru yang harus kita teroka bagi bangsa kita.

Pertama, ketaatan kita yang asas ialah kepada bangsa dan nusa di atas dasar kebaikan, bukan kepada parti atau suku-kaum. Agama hak masing-masing dan bebas.

Kedua, bangsa Malaysia satu, bukan dua atau tiga. Pada dasarnya, pemerintahan di pusat dan di negeri-negeri harus bekerjasama untuk memajukan Malaysia. Sistem “Kerajaan-Pembangkang” sebenarnya kita tiru dari Barat, dan tidak selaras dengan tradisi dan agama kita.

Ketiga, pemerintah, di Pusat atau Negeri, sama ada dari parti apa pun, mesti memerintah dengan adil

Keempat, pemimpin-pemimpin kita mesti dipilih dari mereka yang layak dari segi kebolehan dan moral.

Kelima, kita mesti menggunakan kaedah perundingan dalam pemerintahan, dalam parti dan dalam masyarakat untuk menyelesaikan semua masalah kita. Cara diktator autokratik dilarang.

Keenam, Bangsa Malaysia sebahagian dari Dunia Antarabangsa. Di satu pihak, kita harus mempertahankan kedaulatan bangsa dan negara kita dari pencerobohan bangsa-bangsa lain, dan, di pihak lain, kita harus bekerjasama dengan semua bangsa untuk kebaikan dunia.

Melihat kepada perkembangan-perkembangan yang berlaku dalam masa tidak sampai dua minggu ini, kita berasa optimis bahawa negara kita akan selamat, aman dan terus maju. Kerjasama antara parti-parti Barisan Alternatif dan sikap mereka yang kostruktif terhadap pemerintahan Pusat, yang dipegang oleh B.N., menggalakkan. Kita harap semua pihak akan memegang teguh kepada politik berprinsip dan membuang politik oporcunis yang lama, yang telah mendatang bencana kepada mereka yang telah mengamalkannya. Kita harap B.A. akan mengotai janji-janji mereka. Kita harap B.N., khasnya UMNO, akan membuat perubahan-perubahan yang akan membolehkan mereka mendapatkan semula sokongan rakyat dan memainkan peranan mereka yang positif dalam perkembangan negara kita seterusnya. Seperti yang diajar dalam Quran, hendaklah kita berlumba-lumba untuk membuat kebaikan.

Kassim Ahmad seorang penulis bebas Malaysia. Beliau boleh dihubungi di kassim1234@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Lama web beliau www.kassimahmad.blogspot.com