Shadow Policy Committee

By: Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle Concern is rising that Prime Minister Najib Razak has begun a series of moves including the use of force to retain control of Malaysia. Sparking the speculation is the second-day shutting down of popular political blog Malaysia Today run by the controversial Raja Petra Kamaruddin. RPK had accused Najib’s government of buying small arms – pistols, sub-machine guns, stun-grenades and so forth – from underground sources in the overseas black markets. Until now, the PM has not responded to the allegations nor has he explained why the Youth wing of his Umno party is suddenly embarking on paramilitary training . “This is extremely worrying. There must be impartial investigation to check if the allegations are true. It is very alarming because it has all the footprints of an Umno maneuver. Of late, it has been displaying the characteristics of ultra movements in line with the rise of Nazism and Facism,” PKR strategic director Tian Chua told Malaysia Chro...

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng wants the government to investigate why RM52 billion worth of shares in public listed companies allocated for Bumiputeras under affirmative action policies were no longer in their hands. He told reporters in Parliament today that the fact that the shares were no longer in the hands of Bumiputeras was an act of betrayal. The Penang Chief Minister suggested a Royal Commission be set up to investigate such leakages. He said that out of RM54 billion in shares allocated for Bumiputeras, only RM2 billion were still in their hands. “According to a Bernama report, the Prime Minister had been quoted as saying that of the RM54 billion in shares allocated, only RM2 billion worth of shares were left in the hands of Bumiputeras,” said Lim. “There is a leakage of RM52 billion which is not in the hands of the Bumiputeras. This is a betrayal. The government has to arrest and take action against the people who have hijacked the money,” he added. When asked by a report...

Muslim terrorists attempted to set fire to the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church here, causing minor damage to the building, another Klang Valley Christian church attacked over two days. Church authorities said the building in Petaling Jaya Old Town was believed to be firebombed sometime between last night and this morning. “The fire-bomb missed a window and caused minor damage,” said Rev Dr Hermen Shastri, the general-secretary of the Council of Churches, Malaysia. When further reports and complaint were made to the police, the inspector-general of police Tan Sri Musa Hassan said that the police force were unable to provide full protection to the churches reasoning that their manpower were short. Tan Sri Musa's explanation was unreasonable given the fact that they had sufficient personnel in the force nationwide to curb the activities and peaceful protest organised by the Pakatan Rakyat component parties all these while. Are they telling us that politics of securing the positions of U...

DAP leaders today urged the police to get their priorities right in Teoh Beng Hock's case, who was found dead outside the Selangor Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) office earlier this year. In a statement today, DAP Socialist Youth (DAPSY) chief Loke Siew Fook said the move to investigate Lim Guan Eng over his remarks at the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) convention last week, showed the police lacked sincerity in solving the case. "By lodging a police report themselves against Guan Eng, the Selangor police have given the impression that they are not so interested in solving the Teoh Beng Hock’s case compared with finding faults with Pakatan Rakyat leaders," said Loke who is also the Rasah MP. What the DAPSY chief had stated is right. The police is merely acting in a political motivated anti Pakatan move ir order to curb the influence of our party leaders. The police wanted to scare PKR, DAP and PAS leaders into giving up their quest for democracy in our country. But our ...

The Penang state government and Gerakan continued bickering over the decision to turn down a US$3bil (RM10.1bil) investment deal because the state government could not guarantee 1,000 electric and electronic (E&E) engineers required by the company. In a statement yesterday, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s special investment officer Jeffrey Chew lashed out at Gerakan for using hit-and-run tactics and practising a “promise first hope later” attitude. "The Penang state government is not as irresponsible as Gerakan in making empty promises that would jeopardise our credibility,” he said, adding that the state government could incur loses as much as US$3bil to compensate the investors should it be unable to fulfill its own guarantees. Chew said this in response to criticism from Penang Gerakan chief Datuk Dr Teng Hock Nan who said the state could not afford to turn away investors. Chew said the Malaysian Employers Federation, among other bodies, had detailed the shortage of E...