Shadow Policy Committee

According to the home minister and Umno vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein, all these PSM 6 detainees arrested in connection with the Bersih 2.0 rally has had "terrorist" connections and their attempt is to establish a communist state in Malaysia. Until today, we have yet to see any evidence from the home minister, the police and special branch and reliable sources from inside the police force also indicated that these 6 detainees were repeatedly interrogated on the Bersih 2.0 programmes and activities instead of the alleged "communist" and "terrorist" activities that the ministry and police officials had alleged to the press. So, which is which? Saying this and doing another. How could we trust this government when it lied to the people not only once but too many times. If both the home ministry and the police force do not have any solid or even a simple evidence, then release all these 6 detainees at once.

By Clara Chooi The Najib administration’s latest “Christmas blunder” has religious leaders in a mad scramble to explain to Christians that the church had not bowed to a directive to remove religious symbols during a Christmas party a fortnight ago. The Malaysian Insider understands that over the weekend, Catholic priests were forced to address the issue as it had caused an uproar among parishioners who questioned why the church had adhered to such “overzealous” requests, allegedly made by the prime minister’s aide. But the leaders also agreed that despite their attempts at defusing the situation, the “damage has already been done”, resulting in a rekindling of the same tension that rose during last year’s “Allah” controversy. Father Simon Labrooy, who spoke on the issue during two separate masses, predicted that the Christian community’s anger was not likely to dissipate until the premier publicly clarified his stand. He agreed that the administration, now mulling snap polls, would enc...

By Tunku Abdul Aziz, DAP National Vice Chairman In an article I wrote recently, Rulers for all Malaysians, I had suggested, in a spirit of helpfulness, that their highnesses the rulers should drop the word “Malay” and instead use the more commonly understood title Sultan, for example, of Selangor or Sultan of Kedah as the case may be. Continuing to describe themselves as Malay Rulers at a time when inclusiveness is what is required as part of the process of integrating our disparate community of races seems to be a little perverse. His Highness the Sultan of Selangor, in decrying the suggestion I had made in my article, has, I fear, got the wrong end of the stick. Even a cursory reading of the article will show that the position of their highnesses in the constitutional arrangements of our nation remains inviolate, and Malaysians do not want it any other way. We recognise the crucial importance of stability in the life of a nation. Stability is inherent in the system of constitutional ...

Racial profiling of Malaysians should be blamed for the dismally small number of non-Malays in the armed forces, said a former Sabah chief minister. Yong Teck Lee, who is also Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) president, noted that in the early years after independence, the armed forces, police and the civil service were multi-racial. “By way of policy and practice, the federal civil service has changed from Malaysian to Melayu. It is not “lack of patriotism” but a “marginalisation of non-Melayu“ that has turned our armed forces from Malaysian into Melayu,” he said. He was responding to remarks made by the Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in parliament where he cited “lack of patriotism” as one of the reasons for the small number of non-Malays in the armed forces. Ahmad Zahid has since come under heavy criticms from both sides of the political divide. Describing the remark as one of 'poor judgment' and a ‘double insult’ to non-Malays, Yong said after being systemically exclude...

Malaysians are aghast with the latest incident of political violence in our country where Sekinchan state assemblyman Sdr Ng Suee Lim was attacked by UMNO members while he was doing his duty as a people's representative. Malaysia is a country ruled by law, not by brute force. No one and definitely not those from the ruling party UMNO should act in violence especially against political opposition. Sdr Ng was invited as a wakil rakyat to visit some farmers at Tanjong Karang afflicted with problems. The people, especially the oppressed farmers have rights to seek redress from any leaders they want, from any political party they desire. UMNO should not take the laws into their own hands and prevent our wakil rakyat from executing their duties. If UMNO members can be so arrogant and beat up a YB and wakil rakyat, ordinary people will have no security from UMNO's hegemony and abuse of power. We fully support Sdr Ng to continue to serve the people and hope he will not be affected by t...

By: Raja Petra Kamarudin (Malaysia Today) - What I am concerned with is the latest revelation of the Malaysian government purchasing millions of rounds of ammunition and tens of thousands of pistols, submachine guns and stun grenades. And this is the Malaysian government's shopping list. 9mm pistols & accessories 9mm submachine guns & accessories 7.62mm sniper ammunition 9mm para subsonic ammunition 9mm para hollow point ammunition (a hit from this bullet in the body = 100% dead) Stun grenades One-Bang Stun grenades 7-Bang Now, there is nothing wrong with governments buying bullets, pistols, submachine guns and stun grenades, even in the millions of rounds and tens of thousands of pieces like what the Malaysian government is doing. All governments do this, even the Malaysian government. But this particular cache is not being procured through normal channels. There is no tender being called for this purchase. It is being negotiated through "underground" sources, th...

Penang Chief Minister and DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng has challenged Penang UMNO's latest attack against him, in which it was alleged that several mosques had replaced the Agong's name with Lim's during the invocation at the end of the Friday khutbah (sermon). Lim however told UMNO to lodge a police report and furnish evidences. “If UMNO Pulau Pinang has evidence, please go ahead make a police report against the mosques," said an incensed Lim, adding that the state's Exco in charge of religious matters Malek Kassim had confirmed that the texts of the Friday sermons did not mention Lim. State UMNO chairman cum defence minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had claimed that the use of Lim's name was detected a week ago at Friday sermons at mosques in Tasek Gelugor, Permatang Pauh and Jelutong. “No police report had been made so far but there was sufficient evidence pertaining to the matter,” Zahid claimed. Lim said it was "impossible" that the Imam would do...

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...

By Viktor Wong In the prime minister’s speech at the recently concluded Gerakan national delegates conference which he officiated, Datuk Najib Razak told the Gerakan delegates and the people that racist comments from one or two Umno leaders should be ignored, Umno is not a racist party and don’t listen to one or two leaders’ talk. Does Najib think that by ignoring these “one or two racist Umno leaders” would be enough? Or why does he think that by ignoring these racist would be effective to curb them out of political influence? And are there really only “one or two” racist Umno leaders as he claimed? Since from the beginning of Umno’s inception till today, we had seen more than just “one or two” racist Umno leader wielding and yielding racist and supremacist jargons as well as threatened the lives of other communities. So, we want to correct Najib’s error, it is actually between “one to two thousand”. And we hope he does acknowledge his error. By just ignoring these racist Umno leaders...

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has recommended that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) or the police to investigate former Transport Minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy and former Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager Datin Paduka OC Phang for criminal breach of trust over the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) project. The committee, which is investigating the scandal-ridden PKFZ, has found both Chan and Phang to have breached Section 14 (1) of the Financial Procedure Act 1957 by issuing three letters of support and three letters of undertaking without the approval of the Finance Ministry. PAC said the Attorney-General revealed that the three letters of support issued by Chan and three undertaking letters issued by Phang had implicitly placed responsibility on the Government to ensure there is allocation for PKA to fulfil its obligation under the development agreement. “Hence, thorough investigation by the MACC or police on these matters were required as the letters were i...

By Viktor Wong From MACC's massive targetting of Selangor state executive councillors, state assemblymen right to the cause of death onto DAP's Teoh Beng Hock, till today, what did MACC get and are there any results? Till now, no one from the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat state government has been proven of any corruption or any wrongdoings as alleged by some Umno leaders. The facts are simply very clear, MACC acted on rumours put up my Umno leaders who were going all out to cover all their original dirty works of their previous administration. That is why we could see and observe how the MACC acted. They were either being blinded or turned their eyes away from the happennings before 8 March 2008. What happenned before 8 March 2008? Well, prior to the general elections then, the district offices in various parts of Selangor had approved billions of Ringgit of funds for Umno state assemblymen to cover the expenditures for the entire year of 2008 in just two months.And these are all cl...

Several Penang-based Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) are against the police's move to raid residential houses for pirated discs. Penang Consumer Protection Association (PCPA) president K.Koris Atan said the move was "not feasible and ridiculous", adding that it was just a rumour being circulated by the public."What if the consumer themselves burn a copy of movie or songs for their own consumption and keep the discs, is that wrong? The police have to use their own discretion in this matter," he said.Koris said the police had more urgent matters to attend to, like maintaining peace and public order, than to go after individuals with pirated discs. "The police and the Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry should go after the big fish instead, like those involved with illegally manufacturing such discs," he added. Penang CPO Datuk Wira Ayub Yaakob said the police may check homes and set up roadblocks in the states to search for pirated discs or video a...

By: Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader and Ipoh Timor MP Are Malaysians seeing the start of the Najib crackdown from events of the past week? These developments include: 16.3.09: DAP MP for Puchong Gobind Singh Deo suspended for one year in “kangaroo court” proceeding in Parliament without parliamentary pay and privileges for asking the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak whether he was involved in the murder case of Mongolian Altantuya Shariibuu. 17.3.09: DAP National Chairman and MP for Bukit Gelugor Karpal Singh charged under the Sedition Act 1948 for stating that a State Ruler can be brought to court in their official and personal capacities under the Constitution. 18.3.09: Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) showed utter contempt for the doctrine of separation of powers and continued harassment of the Perak State Assembly Committee of Privileges chaired by Perak State Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar for suspending usurper Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadi...

Penang Chief Minister and DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng said he would consider barring New Straits Times (NST) from covering his press conferences or functions in response to articles in the newspaper which he alleged were slanderous and false. He said he was willing to accept criticisms but not statements with elements of slander and certain agenda intended to disparage him and the state government. "In the last election they also wrote very bad about us, we also took it. "With or without NST we survive all the time. We urged the people of Penang, if they want to read the truth about Penang don't buy NST," he told reporters after visiting the Relau Community Park today. "The Penang government will not bow to NST but only heed the people," Lim said. "NST must adapt themselves to the new situation. They cannot force the state government to follow what they say, not like before," he added. Lim made these remarks when asked to comment on an arti...

The police were told to stop politicking and work on their crime prevention efforts effectively. Right now, we noticed that the police force is focusing its entire workforce in helping Umno to curb opposition political activities which are deemed to anger Umno. Even when an NGO called JERIT organised its cycling tour around the nation, the police had send out almost half of its workforce to curb this event. Why do they want to curb JERIT's activities, what crime have they committed so far? Did they carry weapons and harm any passer bys or the public? When manning the road blocks in order to detain the JERIT cyclist, these policemen were holding semi-automatic machineguns and other weapons as well. Looks like the police are terrorising the people and not protecting the people from the increasing crime spree nowadays. They are just too busy entertaining to a lots of Umno's request to curb the influence of the opposition parties.