World Messenger

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

2011-12-04T02:14:00.000-08:00

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

Institutional racism is the process by which people from ethnic

minorities are systematically discriminated against by a range of public

and private bodies. If the result or outcome of established laws, customs

or practices is racially discriminatory, then institutional racism can be

said to have occurred.

Dr.Benjamin Bowling

(Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice and Director of Criminological studies in the School of Law,

King's College London.)

In this paper we postulate that Malaysia has all the hallmarks of a racist and

religious extreme state on the following foundation;

a) The Federal Constitution basically establishes 2 classes of citizens, vide

Article 153, the root of the racist system.

b) The State sanctions racist and religious extreme laws and policies

c) The State controls the Government Administration through one racial

and religious group

d) The State channels most funds for economic/education/social

development programs and licenses, permits etc., to one race

e) The State controls Religious freedom to the disadvantage of non-

Muslims, imposes of Muslim religious laws on non- Muslims and extends

the jurisdiction of the Syaria Courts onto non-Muslims.

f) The State sponsors violence and threats of violence both directly and

indirectly (outsourced) on the citizens to create fear among the non-

Malay non-Muslims.

g) The State sanctions draconian, punitive laws and gives blank cheques to

the Police to make arbitrary arrests of dissenters.

h) The State explicitly and implicitly declares that the Malays are the

masters (Malay Supremacy) and the sons of soil.

Ethnic composition of Malaysia : Malays 53.3%, Chinese 26.0%, indigenous

11.8%, Indians 7.7%, others 1.2%. Religions: Islam (60.4%), Buddhism (19.2%),

Christianity (9.1%), Hinduism (6.3%), other/none (5.0%). - US Department of

State 2011

In the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, a Malay is one who is defined as one

who is a Muslim, speaks the Malay language and habitually practices Malay

culture, customs and traditions.

In reality as long as a person is a Muslim he can be a Malay, even an illegal

immigrant and a foreigner who is a Muslim can be Malay.

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

Non-Muslims represent approximately 40 % of the population – approximately

12.5 million people and include Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs and nature

worshipping communities. The Indian population and other non-Malay and

native races are clearly a minority community.

The treatment received by the minorities in Malaysia relating to public and

private bodies clearly establishes that Institutional racism is occurring in

Malaysia.

Malaysia is not that bubbling, bustling melting pot of races. In reality it is a

country based on a subtle, pervasive and increasingly aggressive form of

racism1

The conflict that lies just below the artificial calm, is so well concealed, that

someone with not more than a cursory knowledge Malaysia will find it hard to

believe that there exists anything significant otherwise . The current discourse

holds that even what is termed racism here is no more than an outcome of a

failing and incompetent bureaucracy. Everything else is just affirmative action.

The various state policies have been creatively crafted and carved into a jigsaw

of a reinforcing racist system.The state system operates with the protection of

official secrecy and a tight hold on the various apparatus of the state that

whosoever dares to cross the line runs the risk of detention and malicious

prosecution. This effectively renders the phenomenon of racism in Malaysia

opaque and gives racism in Malaysia its uniquely Malaysian flavor.

The Malay supremacy or Malay dominance narrative holds that the Malay

people are the tuan (masters) of Malaysia and the Chinese and the Indians,

who form a significant minority are beholden to them for granting them

citizenship. In return for which the special position of the Malays as set out

in Article 153 of the Malaysian Constitution is freely interpreted to mean special

privileges – no holds barred. The Article was initially intended to be reviewed 15

years after independence (1957), however it has become a permanent feature.

In subsequent amendments to the Constitutions, Article 153 was entrenched

further which requires the consent of the Malay Rulers before it could be

amended.

Article 153 is a deep-rooted racist provision in the Constitution which sanctions

implementation of all racist policies in Malaysia to the disadvantage of the

minority non-Malay/Muslim population. Questioning any matter, rights, status,

privilege etc of Article 153 is considered a challenge to the Malay Supremacy,

insulting the Royal Institution and Islam. It is also deemed a threat to National

Security, an offence under the Internal Security Act which gives powers of

arrest for unlimited period without trial and under the Sedition Act which

provides for imprisonment between 3-5 years.

The current Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers have on previous occasions

openly threatened non-Malays with violence (blood) should this provision be

questioned.

The rise of Malay "ultras " who advocated a one-party government led by

UMNO, and an increased emphasis on the Malays being the "definitive people" Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

of Malaysia — i.e. only a Malay could be a true Malaysian became more

apparent after the race riots in 1969.

The riots caused a major change in the government's approach to racial issues,

and led to the introduction of an aggressive affirmative action policy strongly

favoring the Malays, the New Economic Policy (NEP).

The Malaysian New Economic Policy (NEP or DEB for Dasar Ekonomi

Baru in Malay), was a determined and divisive socio-economic

restructuring affirmative action program launched by the Malaysian government

in 1971 under the then Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak. In practice it was a

social engineering project to enrich a particular race – the Malay Muslims.

Though the NEP ended in 1990, it effectively continued as the National

Development Policy in 1991. The NEP has reduced non-Malays and natives of

Peninsula Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak to the status of second-class

citizens through the ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacist) policies. The non-

Malay/Muslim minority will never be able to call themselves Malaysians in

equality and would remain a permanently colonized people.

The entire range of government administrative policies, annual budgets,

economic programs, education, job opportunities in public sector, grant of land,

business opportunities, permits or licenses for any business or trade are tilted

to favor Malay Muslims and are meant to segregate just like the apartheid

system in South Africa and In effect to implement a divide and rule policy to

maintain the UMNO led political party hegemony.

This paper establishes the facts and joins the dots and hopes to clarify the

reality of this institutionalized racism and religious extremism. The phenomenon

will be established by laying out the experience of the minorities. In this paper

we try to give as many facts and as much data as are available to us to

corroborate our claims. It continues to be an uphill battle getting necessary and

reliable statistics from the Government as it does not put out such statistics as

this is part of their scheme to keep under wraps the numerical representation of

the uncomfortable facts.

We will segment the various experience as follows:

1. Treatment in State Policies

2. Treatment by the Malaysian Police

3. Treatment in and by the State Administration

4. Treatment by the Judicial System

5. Treatment by the Media

6. Treatment in the Education system

1. Treatment in Government Policies

The New Economic Policy (NEP) of the Malaysian Government from the 1970s

had the stated objective of eradicating poverty irrespective of race and of

eliminating identification of race with occupation. However in reality NEP and its

subsequent economic programs have seen the channeling of hundreds of Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

billions (the exact figure remains a state secret) to enrich and uplift the Malay

Muslims.

Article 153 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution states that:

153. (1) It shall be the responsibility of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (the

Malaysian King) to safeguard the special position of the Malays and

natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and the legitimate

interests of other communities in accordance with the provisions of this

Article.

The phrase special position has been interpreted to mean special privileges

and the entire government policy frame has been hijacked in favor of the

Malays and the innate racist tendency of the Constitution was given a fillip by

Dr.Mahathir from the 1980s. This hijacking has been made possible by the

muzzling of any and all dissenting views by the various draconian laws of which

the Internal Security Act of 1960 is the most notorious. The Sedition Act (1969),

the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, and the Official Secrets Act

1972 are some of the other acts.

The above two factors – the NEP driven by the distorted interpretation of Article

153 and the muzzling of dissension of Government policy has in effect made

NEP the policy vehicle for the institutionalization of the racism. The NEP

accelerated the formation of the largely Malay Administration which for its part

then worked hand in glove with the dominant Malay political party – UMNO and

the other key institutions and consolidated the institutionalization in the ways

described above to become what it has become.

Outsource of UMNO policy implementation to NGO’s and the Para-Military

underworld.

Since the Democratic uprising of Indians led by Hindraf in 2007 and the

subsequent loss of its 2/3 Parliamentary mandate in the March 2008 elections,

UMNO has outsourced its overt racist agenda to NGO’s in particular PERKASA.

This is an NGO led by a Pro UMNO Parliamentarian who promotes the Malay

supremacy agenda and has the explicit support of top UMNO leadership

including the former Prime Ministers, ex Army officials and ex Inspector General

of Police.

PERKASA works intimately with a more militant group known as Pekida2

and

another underworld Para- military group known as 3 LINE. Together they

perpetuate racial hatred and cause fear among the non-Malays.

3 LINE is believed to have existed from after the 1969 racial riots and its

members pledge their loyalty to the serving UMNO Prime Minister. It is said

they have sworn to protect the Malay UMNO hegemony at any cost and

believed to be armed and work closely with the Police and Armed forces. Many

Malaysians know the existence of 3 LINE but dare not speak about this

underworld movement for the obvious reasons.

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

3 LINE members are mainly former and current members of the Royal Police

force and Armed forces. They move freely and are not subjected to Law and

often their threat of violence is given tacit approval by the government.

We have reliable information that the 3 LINE para-military members were

involved in the Kg Medan Racial attack in 2001 where hundreds of ethnic

Indians were attacked unprovoked and 5 killed.

All 3 groups are sanctioned to perpetuate racial / religious hatred and fear

towards the Non-Malays.

Government budgetary allocations

Government budgetary allocations have largely been slanted towards Malay

Muslims in the following areas as a matter of unashamed policy. Various arms

of the Government act in support:

1. All Government projects are primarily given to Malay Muslim individuals

and organizations. All government procurement requires involvement of

or outright Malay equity participation in the supplying organization.

2. All Government contractors have to be licensed by the Finance Ministry

before being given any Government projects. The Finance ministry

ensures that only Malay contractors are licensed such.

3. Malays have been promoted in the Civil service to assure that the

highest policy-making positions will be filled by Malays regardless of

objective performance standards. Almost all Secretaries-General of

ministries and Directors-General of professional departments are Malays.

The same is true of their deputies. And it cannot escape notice that

virtually all senior officials in public universities, from school deans

upwards to Chancellors are Malays.

4. Thus, the Malay to non-Malay recruitment ratio of 4:1 for the elite

Malayan civil service (MCS) was instituted3

, which ensured that “at

least 80 per cent of the service will be filled by Malays, far above

their proportion in the total population”4

5. As of June 2005, more than 85% of the Civil Servants were Malay

This was an increase of close to 25% from 1971.

Malay Chinese Indian Others

1971 60.80% 20.20% 17.40% 1.60%

Jun-05 77.04% 9.37% 5.12% 8.47%

6. Development programs such as Entrepreneur, Technoprenuer

development programs, Land development Programs, Small and

Medium Industry development Programs, Financial Aid programs,

Womb to Tomb business development programs are almost

entirely for the Malays.

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

The FELDA Scheme – Federal Land development Authority

What started as a modest land development agency in 1956 today has become

a giant scheme which manages an area of 2 million acres and encompasses

more than 530,000 people. FELDA's main role is to open up new land areas for

agriculture and relocation of low income and landless rural inhabitants. This

program has become an almost entirely Malay Muslim development program.

There is a systematic and wholesale exclusion of Non-Malays from this

program. Indian plantation workers who were being actively displaced at the

time of the growth of this FELDA scheme in the 1970s and 1980s were not

considered part of the target group, because they were not categorized as

being from the rural community. This was convenient way to exclude. An

estimated 800,000 Indian plantation workers have been displaced from

plantations without any alternative programs/compensation.

FELDA, FELCRA, PERDA, KEDA, KETENGAH, KESEDAR, KEJORA and a

host of other development agencies use procedural techniques of one form or

another such as this to entirely exclude the deserving Indians and other non-

Malays from any form of participation in these schemes. What is guaranteed in

the constitution is made totally inconsequential by the introduction of arbitrary

rules by the administration. This is the subtlety inherent in the uniquely

Malaysian form of racism.

This is very clearly basic UMNO policy. It helps it take care of its core

constituency, the rural Malays. It becomes a platform for patronage that has

been developed and honed and fine tuned over the last 50 plus years, and

provides the necessary opportunities for accumulation of wealth for the growing

appetites of the Malay elites. The 2009 results of FELDA show a total turnover

of RM 11.8 Billion. The profits before tax alone are RM804 million6

. See the

scale of things – enormous.

Take this one initiative by FELDA - a RM 120 million residential school for

FELDA children - a Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) in Trolak, Perak.

Compare this with the recent promise of an allocation of RM100 million by the

Prime Minister for 523 Tamil schools in the country, for which there is no

evidence of disbursement anyway. There are 42 MRSM schools like the one

above in the country.

Felda has launched a new generation skills training program and has put out

over 24,000 Malay Muslim graduates since 2005.They have a budget of RM50

million annually for this program.

In 1980, the World Bank raised concerns over the ethnic bias in FELDA

settler selection by pointing out that if the government was serious

“about increasing the non-Malay share in agriculture, some increase in

the non-Malay share of settlers was warranted.” It was especially

concerned about Indian plantation workers who faced increasing under-

employment following the estates’ conversion from rubber to oil palm and

who in normal circumstances “would be good candidates for land

development schemes.” 7

The World Bank’s concerns went unheeded by UMNO.

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

The TEKUN Program

The Tekun Nasional scheme is a scheme to provide micro credit and to develop

entrepreneurs. The specific objectives of the scheme are:

 · Provide business funding which is easily available and quickly

disbursed.

 · Provide information on entrepreneurs and business opportunities

 · Offer training and support to entrepreneurs participating in Tekun

programs.

 · Create a community of Tekun entrepreneurs who will form a hard

driving, innovative and progressive business network.

 · Nurture a culture of entrepreneurship within the Malaysian people.

 · Encourage and foster a culture of prudence in the Tekun community

To give you an idea of the scale of discrimination:

This was statement from Datuk Abdul Rahman Hassan, the Managing Director

of Tekun ’ From 1998 till 31 December 2007 , TEKUN Nasional has disbursed

loans totaling RM 772.0 million to 139,000 entrepreneurs. For the year 2008

alone TEKUN Nasional has provided RM 182 million as loans to 19,000

entrepreuners.’

That is close to RM1 Billion -not to mention almost all those

loans went to Malay Muslim entrepreneurs. Participation in the Tekun program

of Indians is miniscule - a total of 93 Indian entrepreneurs received loans

amounting to RM761,000 on July 24, 2009 in a ceremony.

That is less than

0.1% of that disbursed to the Malay Muslim entrepreneurs.

The collusion of the various arms of the Government to keep dissent in

check

Various arms of the Government work in tandem to operationalize the racist

agenda of the Government Policies

Some of the key ones are :

1. Government Linked Companies

2. Government Investment Companies

3. Economic Planning Unit

4. The Federal Cabinet of Ministers

5. The various Ministries

6. The Royal Malaysian Police

7. The Attorney general’s Office

8. The Judiciary

9. The Government Administrative Services

10. The Government owned Banks

11. The Government controlled media

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

The repressive laws that facilitate the development of racism

The Government has used suppressive laws like the Internal Security Act, the

Official Secrets Act, Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Seditions Act

during this period to implement these terribly racially lopsided development

plans while allowing the racist system to grow. This very clearly reminds one of

similar laws employed by Apartheid South Africa.

The ISA took effect on August 1 1960 with the solemn promise that it would

only be used “solely against communists. Tun Abdul Razak Hussein the former

Prime Minister who had tabled the Bill had also assured the House during

heated debates that the law was for two purposes — to counter subversion and

to enable measures to be taken to counter terrorism. Despite their promises the

Alliance government and its successor BN have over the years been using the

oppressive act for political reasons — to silence dissenting voices that criticized

the government and to prevent the people from exercising their right to free

speech. Since the ISA was enacted in 1960 some 10 670 people have

experienced what it is like to be imprisoned on mere suspicion without given the

right to a trial.

Just in September 2011 The Prime minister who has been under tremendous

pressure on these counts announced that the ISA would be repealed. This has

however to be passed in Parliament before it will take effect.

2. Treatment by the Malaysian Police

Given the need to maintain a racist regime, the Police have become a primary

instrument of control for the majority Malay party in Government –UMNO.

Police violence, abuse of power and human rights abuses occur very regularly.

Cases of death in custody, partial handling of criminal disturbances, violent

dispersal of peaceful protestors and other form of human rights violation

continue. This has created a climate of impunity and normalization of violence,

abuse of power and violation of human rights in Malaysia.

The socio-economic marginalization of the Indian minority has resulted in the

formation of a significant underclass among the Indians. The numbers of

Indians involved in crime has risen alarmingly.

The number of individuals detained just under preventive laws for crime

of violence at the Simpang Renggam Rehabilitation Centre in Johor in

2003 is 702 of which 316 are Indians compared to 111 Chinese and 111

Malays.

This is about half of total inmates. For a population which makes up

less than 10% of the total population the percentage of Indian inmates is

disproportionately high. More than 45% of the crimes reported in Malaysia

are committed by Indians10

This fact coupled with the impunity of the police force has resulted in the brutal

treatment of Indians in custody. This convergence of unbridled police power, a

regime based on racism and the politically and economically weak Indian

community has resulted in some of of the worst forms of Human Rights

violations in Malaysia. Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

Death in custody

Further the treatment meted out to Indians remanded by the police or in its

unofficial shoot to kill policy clearly indicates a systematic institutional intent to

physically hurt, and to psychologically damage and is invariably harsh. The

testimony to that are the rampant cases of death of Indian suspects beaten to

death.

Occasionally we get a glimpse of this in the public. Kugan’s death while in

custody on the 20th

of Jan 2009 is a very well known example of Police

Brutality against Indian crime suspects. In the October 2003 parliamentary

sitting, Deputy Home Minister Zainal Abidin Zin revealed the numbers of

alleged criminals shot to death by the police. (This is a rare occasion when the

government Minister comes out with some statistics like this)

2000 - 33 deaths;

2001 - 14 deaths;

2002 - 54 deaths;

2003 to date - 27 deaths12

In another written parliamentary reply to Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj (PSM-

Sungai Siput) on 28 June 2010, Home Minister Hishammuddin revealed that

police shot dead 82 suspects in 2008 and 88 in 2009.

We know from newspaper reports alone that there were 11 police caused

killings in 2009 and 10 out of those were Indians. Most of those killed thus are

of Indian origin. Reliable statistics are difficult to come by to corroborate. But

from samples available this is what we get.

DATA ABOUT SOME OF THE SUSPECTED CRIMINALS KILLED BY

THE POLICE IN 2003. 60% OF THE SAMPLE.(Indian victims in blue)

Name Age Date of death Place of detention

Syed Fadzil Syed

Ibrahim

21 9 January 2003 Jasin Police Station, Melaka

Hasrizal Hamzah 27 9 February2003 Kajang Police Station, Selangor

Prakash Moses 23 18 February

2003

Hang Tuah Police Station, Kuala

Lumpur

Kannan Kanthan 45 1 March 2003 Batu Pahat Police Station, Johor

Ahmad Salleh 42 7 June 2003 Kuala Krai Police Station, Kelantan

Ulaganathan

Muniandy 19

19 21 July 2003 Kajang Police Station, Selangor

Ho Kwai See 28 5 August 2003 Sungai Buloh Prison, Kota

Damansara Police Station (died in

prison)

Ravichandran

Ramayah

38 21 October

2003

Penang Prison, North East Police

Station

Veerasamy Gopal 52 28 November

2003

Ampang Police Station, Selangor

L. Yoges Rao 22 11 December

2003

Sitiawan Police Station, Perak. Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

Here is an example of a typical occurrence quoted from the Suaram Report of

2003

V. Viknes, 19-year-old school boy was fatally gunned down by the police in

October 2002. Viknes parents disputed the police’s claim that their son was a

wanted criminal and "marksman and weapons expert."

The account presented by police was disputed by Viknes's family, who claimed

that the youth was nothing more than an innocent schoolboy who still lives with

his family. They raised suspicion of foul play. Where are the witnesses? Where

are the police cars that should be riddled with shots? Where are the wounded

policemen?" asked his distraught father G. Vesvanathan at a press conference.

He also accused Federal Criminal Investigation Department director Salleh Mat

Som of being a “liar” for claiming that his son was a "marksman and weapons

expert." Vikines’s uncle, Silva Govindasamy, questioned the police’s claim that

his nephew was involved in about 20 criminal cases.

"If he was a suspect in so many cases, why didn’t the police approach the

school or family? The boy has never been arrested, never harassed, he

doesn�t even have a (criminal) record!" The family also alleged that the police

instructed the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang not to conduct a

second post-mortem on Vikines’s body nor cooperate with them.

Selective enforcement of the law and intervention by the Police

On the 28th of August 2009 a protest march was held by a group of Malay

Muslims in the township of Petaling jaya against the location of a Hindu temple

in the vicinity of their residence. The protestors carried a severed cow’s head to

rub salt into their overt disregard for the sensitivity of the Indian Hindus. Ten

days after the incident the Police took no action against the Malay Muslim

offenders. Yet 16 Indian Hindus were arrested for holding a peaceful candle

light march at Dataran Merdeka to protest the desecration of a sacred Hindu

symbol.

For 15 days from the 8th

of March 2001 to the 23rd

of March 2001 killings and

slashing of Indians in Kampung Medan were allowed to occur under the very

nose of the Police.

5 Indians were killed and more than 100 Indians were seriously wounded in

these racially motivated criminal acts . The Police were “unable to control the

situation” in spite of the fact that all these incidents happened within an area of

10 sq. kilometers and a Police cordon of the area. Inspite of loud calls by

several members of civil society there has been no impartial inquiry into this

incident nor any move to bring to book the perpetrators of this crime..

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

3. Treatment in and by the State Administration

More than 77% of the Government administration members are of Malay

ethnicity. About 20% the Indian members and about 60% of the Chinese

members of the Government administration are teachers in the Government

schools. If they are excluded from the numbers employed by the Government

administration, the picture that emerges is about an overall participation of 85%

Malays in the administration. Also the proportion of Malays increases as we

go higher in the ranks of the administration clearly indicating the control of the

Government apparatus by the Malays.

Source: Government of Malaysia, Dec 2005

In the State of Johor alone with a total population of almost 3.17 million

made up of 54 percent Malays, 33 percent Chinese and 6 percent Indians

the ethnic composition of the Civil service is13

Malays Chinese Indians Others

8,244

(98.47%)

(0.12%)

116

(1.39%)

(0.02%)

The large Malay representation of a bloated administration in addition creates a

substantial basis for race based benefits to be given out to the Malays in the

cover of the generous benefit and welfare and economic programs of the

Government – Government Medical and Health programs single out

administration employees for favored treatment, there are special treatment in

various other areas as scholarships, admissions into higher educational

programs, pension schemes, discounted travel fares for retired administration

employees, discounted hotel charges in government run hotels and so on. This

yet another subtle way by which the uniquely Malaysian racism operates.

The racist indoctrination program Biro Tata Negara BTN. (National Civics

Bureau)

The Malay employees of the administration go through special programs of

training called Biro Tata Negara where they are all educated on how to keep Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

“the wealth of the family within the family” in short how to operationalise the

racist policies of the Government. This is a much criticized activity, but the

Government continues with impunity as it is a key approach in recreating that

racist bureaucracy.

A central feature of the Malaysian system is also the categorization into the

racial categories of Malays, Chinese, Indians and Others from birth to death.

Everywhere one goes, one has to declare Bangsa(race), Ugama (religion) – at

birth, at school registration, in the applications for ID cards, driver’s licence,

bank accounts, passports, marriages, deaths and burials and in many more

situations in dealing with the government agencies and Government linked

agencies and businesses. This identification by race becomes the determining

criteria in the award of any benefits from these institutions.

One interesting point to note about Government statistics is that even though

ethnicity data is picked up in almost all the data collection, the reports from the

Governments seldom provides the ethnic categorization of the data to the

public, unless it is to justify some Government position. This will be immediately

evident if one just visits the Malaysian government statistics department’s

website www.statistics.gov.my

Access to Government aid programs, information of all kinds relating to the

many development programs, information of government awards, contracts,

special opportunities are all made easy for majority Malays but kept well out of

reach for the Non-Malay minorities by this ethnic identification and the wall of

a monolithic Malay Administration. This is aggravated for the Indian minority by

the fact that a sizeable portion of the Indian populace is semi-literate or illiterate,

which makes them ignorant of their rights, the laws or the procedures.

There are an estimated 150,000 – 200,000 Indian children who are stateless

due to the States’ reluctance to recognize them as Malaysians. This is

operationalized by the racist state bureaucracy. As result they are not admitted

in Schools, enjoy health care and other benefits a child enjoys.

4. Treatment by the Judicial System of the State

Alongside the racially lopsided developments on the economic front, the

Islamists have been steadily gaining influence over the judicial system in the

1990s. (The Federal Constitution was amended in 1988 to give recognition to

Sharia Laws). This is visible in the steady ascendancy of the Sharia Legal

system over the Civil Legal System which is enshrined in the Malaysian Federal

Constitution. The Syaria courts are clearly inferior to the Civil Courts in the

Federal Constitution – but in practice the Judges in the Civil courts do not want

to rule on matters involving non-Muslims who are entangled between the two

systems.

It is estimated more than 90% of the judiciary is filled with Malay-Muslim Judges.

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

5. Treatment by the Media

The Mainstream media blocks out, demonizes and distorts information of any

organization that speaks out against this racist system in a coordinated fashion.

The Government uses the Printing Presses and Publications Act and limiting

ownership to known allies to control the Media to do this.

The Malay pro-Government Media is given a free hand to speak for the racist

policies of the government. The leading Malay language newspaper, Utusan

Melayu, is as described by the Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, “provides a

daily staple of falsehoods that stoke racial hatred”. The other leading media

group –Prima Media, is firmly in the control of the Malay elite and whose

Chairman of the Board is a former chief editor of Utusan Malaysia. It owns 4 TV

stations, 3 major newspapers, 3 Radio stations, and a slew of other related

companies.

Reporting on minority issues and problems are either selectively done or is

slanted or is just plainly blacked out. There is a clear racist slant and scheme to

the projections. The slant is that the Malay elite is the Tuan (Master) and the

Non-Malay is always the recipient of his largesse.

6. Treatment in the Education system.

Article 12 of the Federal Constitution guarantees that there shall be no

discrimination against any citizen on grounds of religion, race, descent, or place

of birth.

The racial bias in the educational system is the area where racism is most

blatant – all the way from pre-school and primary education up to Tertiary levels.

One of the major features of the colonial rule was the identification of race with

vocation. Separate communities developed around their places of work. The

Malays in the villages, the Indians largely in the plantations and the Chinese

largely in the urban areas. This served British colonial rule very well, keeping

the people apart while extracting the most out of them in the service of British

capital.

What has however happened in the post colonial period is the

institutionalization of this communal division into a bifurcation in the education

system all the way from Primary to the Tertiary level.

The Government budgetary allocations worth billions for education went largely

into promoting education for the Malays, at the expense of allocations for the

Chinese, the Indians and the rest. At the Primary school level, we have a fully

aided stream and a partially aided stream. The partially aided schools are

termed such as they essentially only have the salaries of the teachers paid. All

other expenses have to be self-funded by the schools.

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

Primary Schools

For the Chinese community they, saw an opportunity in this and went ahead

with community financing, built up an education system that essentially runs

without establishment interference. For the Indian community it is working out to

be a disaster as this has resulted in the crumbling of the foundation for the

future of the Indian child. Because of the economic position of the Indian

community, the partially aided schools are under-funded, under-resourced and

in the process produces under achieving children. A national study done in

1973 by the Government concluded that these children from the plantation

environment were underachievers and early leavers. This was the time the New

Economic Policy was being implemented and the results of the study were

ignored because of the racially slanted imperatives of the Malay elite. And so it

remains. 371 out of 523 Tamil schools are partially aided. Many of these

schools are no more than where the British had left them off at. Half the Indian

children go to such schools. Inspite of the chronic nature of the problem and the

deleterious effects it is having on the Indian community, the Government

continues to ignore this condition .

Secondary Schools

There are 42 fully residential elite Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) (Mara

junior Science College) (NST 5/4/08) with 12,440 places also in the fully

residential schools (BH 21/11/09 at page 7). These schools have been almost

exclusively for Malay Muslim students. Most of the non-Malay school pupils

who easily qualify for entrance to these schools are summarily denied

admissions. A few get in as a token. Each of the MRSM schools cost around

RM100 million to build.

Indians and non-Malays are also almost 100% excluded in other elite schools

like the Royal Military College, Aminuddin Baki Institution, Matriculation courses

and the Malay College Kuala Kangsar.

80% Indian pupils had (been forced) stopped schooling after 5th

Form (O’

Levels) because of performance and because of their socio-economic status14

Pre-University

There are two streams for entry into the Public Universities. One is through the

Matriculation 12 month program specifically tailored for the Malay students and

the other is through the 18 month and much more stringent STPM program. Of

course the matriculation is especially reserved for the Malays. University

entrance criteria are based on meritocracy the country is told. S0 4As in one is

equated to 4 As in the other. But the awful truth of this is that 4Cs in one will

probably equal 4As in the other. Again this is the working of the unique

Malaysian racist system. What is guaranteed in the constitution is made totally

inconsequential by the introduction of arbitrary methods, mechanisms and

criteria.

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

Tertiary Education

Of course coming out of matriculation, will be “many more better performing

students” who not only will be on the top of the lists for the Public universities,

but they will also very likely get the scholarships, the courses of their choice

and the loans for study.

Admissions into public Universities is more than 80% reserved for the Malays

Malay Muslims. One university with a student population of 170,000 in

2011(UiTM) is for Malay Muslims only. The other 19 public Universities with

about 170,000 enrolments in all have a 60% Malay Muslimsstudents making it

80% for Malay Muslims in all Public Universities. This does not even talk about

the composition in the various courses offered.

Only a handful of seats in Medical Faculties of the Malaysian Government

Universities are made available to Indians and non-Malays. Exact statistics are

not available but it is estimated to be around 5% percent of the places. An

estimated 90% of deserving Indian and non Malay students are denied places

in the 20 Government run Universities in Malaysia.

There are 62,000 diploma places and 60,000 degree places for 2010 at 27

Polytechnics in Malaysia15

. Our estimate is a very small number of these places

will be allocated for non Malay students no matter their qualifications. Most of

the places are allocated to Malay-Muslim students.

8,132 Phd graduates produced from the 20 government Universities

. Our

estimate is again a very small number will be Indians and non-Malays.

There are 163,779 students studying at the 19 other Public Universities

nationwide at an annual expenditure cost of RM 2.6 Billion17

. Our estimate is a

mere 5 % of this expenditure will accrue to non-Malay students.

The former prime Minister, the architect of this racist system Mahathir decided

to restrict the number of students studying medicine in various universities in

Russia after a visit in 2003. Most of the Malaysians there were from Indian

families, many of whom had scraped the bottom of the barrel to put their

children through a medical education. There just were not enough places for

them In Malaysian universities because of the Governments discriminatory

practices, Russia, Romania, Indonesia provided affordable alternatives. But the

Government decided to reduce those alternatives. Several of the Universities

were derecognized by the Malaysian Government from 2006 onwards despite

there being a shortage of doctors in Malaysia by 50%18

RM 2.8 Billion is allocated for the 2010 National Budget for students

assistance19

scholarships but only an estimated 5% may reach the non-Malay

students. Most of the funds go for scholarships to Malay Muslim Students.

1,266,671 students have benefited from the government PTPTN (Government

Higher Education Loan Fund) study loans till 2009. 147,441 such loans were

approved at RM 17.0 Billion20

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

But thousands of private Indian medical students studying in Russia, Ukraine,

Romania, India and Indonesia have been denied these loans. Similarly Non-

Malay students studying at private Universities and Institutions of Higher

Learning have also been denied these study loans.

Ms Syamala Devi

Ms M Syamala Devi’s a 28-year-old final year medical student has returned

home from Romania because she cannot afford to continue her education.

She had taken a RM20,000 loan to finance the final two years of her study for

which she now has to pay RM2,000 in interest every month. She is a student

with the University of Medical Pharmacy of GRT Popa in Romania said she

needs another RM40,000 to complete her degree. Syamala said after

completing her STPM examination, she had applied in vain for a place to do

medicine in the 20 local universities. She has also applied for scores of

scholarships and education loans, including the Public Service Department

(PSD) scholarship and Higher Education Loan Fund (PTPTN), but was rejected

in each of these applications..

Contrast that with the following scheme for Malay Muslim students going

abroad to do Medicine. Kolej Teknologi Timur in Sepang,which has graduated

its 4th batch of students on what is called the Kursus Intensif Timur Tengah

(Middle East Intensive Course). This is a 3 month program preparing MARA

sponsored students selected to do medicine in the Alexandria University in

Cairo. This is a 100pct Malay Muslim program and it is 100pct funded by the

Government.

All allocation of the National resource has been slanted in favor of the majority

ethnic group and away from minorities as a matter of overt policy.

FREEDOM OF RELIGION

Article 11 of the Federal Constitution provides for religious freedom, which

includes the right to establish and maintain places of worships and own and

acquire property.

Article 12(2) among others provides that no person shall be forced to receive

instruction in or to take part in any ceremony of act of worship of a religion other

than his own.

Article 12(4) provides his parent or guardian shall decide the religion of a

person below the age of 18 years.

The constitution provides for freedom of religion; however, the constitution and

the government placed restrictions on this right. The constitution defines all

ethnic Malays as Muslims at birth and stipulates that Islam is the "religion of the

Federation."

In 1988 Article 121 of The Federal Constitution was amended to make

provisions for the recognition of Islamic Syaria Courts/Laws. It was intended to

adjudicate upon Muslim marriage and personal law. However this provision has Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

been the manipulated by the authorities to implement and impose syariah Laws

on non-Muslims. The Judiciary abdicated its powers to the inferior Syaria courts

whenever there is a dispute between a Muslim and non-Muslim.

The government significantly restricted the practice of Islamic beliefs other than

Sunni Islam. Article 11 of the constitution states, "Every person has the right to

profess and practice his religion," but it also gives state and federal

governments the power to "control or restrict the propagation of any religious

doctrine or belief among persons professing the religion of Islam."

Civil courts continued to concede jurisdiction to Shari'a courts on cases

concerning conversion from Islam and certain areas of family law involving

disputes between Muslims and non-Muslims.

The syaria laws, does not permit Muslims, born into Islam, to convert to another

religion. Shari'a courts does not allow renunciation from the Islamic faith.

The law strictly prohibits non-Muslims from proselytizing Muslims; proselytizing

of non-Muslims faced no legal obstacles.

Forced religious conversions and religious intolerance are evidence of creeping

Islamization in Malaysia. Whenever there is a conflict between Muslim and non-

Muslims , the tendency is for Muslim Laws to prevail over the non-Muslim

issues regardless of the merits of the case. This can be seen in the several

cases of non-Muslims who have found themselves or their children forcibly

converted and are not able to reverse the process. This is an area where

clearly minority rights are being deliberately overdrawn by the majority Malay

Muslims over minority non-Muslims.

The decision of the Court of Appeal on 21st

August 2010 in the case of Maniam

Moorthy is a disturbing trend in the role of the Judiciary which has abdicated its

powers to the inferior Shariah Courts which was meant to serve the Muslims

only on matters (personal) pertaining to marriage, divorce, property distribution

etc.

Lina Joy, 42, who was born to a Malay Muslim couple, became a Christian

when she was 26. She lost her final round of appeal when the Federal Court

dismissed her appeal on 30th

May 2007 against a ruling that the National

Registration Department was right not to allow her to remove the word "Islam"

from her identity card.

This decision by the apex court removed an individual’s constitutional freedom

to choose one’s religion as well the right to private married life , especially for

those who want to renounce Islam and for people who convert to Islam but later

want to revert to their former religion.

In August 2010 The newspaper of the Catholic Church in Malaysia, The Herald,

filed a legal suit at following warnings that its permit could be revoked if it did

not cease use of the word "Allah" in the Malay language section of its

newspaper. The paper has a circulation of around 12,000 and writes in four

languages. Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

Several Malaysian churches have been attacked and fire bombed, leaving at

least one badly damaged, in an escalating dispute over the use of the word

"Allah" by Christians. Muslim groups with the tacit support of the government

held protests and threatened violence publicly for an alleged act of challenging

the superiority of Islam.

A religious edict (fatwa) by a Muslim cleric in the state of Sabah caused the

Sabah state government to cancel the construction of a 108 feet Goddess of

Sea Mazu statue by the Taoist in 2008. The construction was approved by the

Local authorities but cancelled by State Government on grounds it would offend

the Muslims.

In August 2011 The Selangor Religious Department raided a Church dinner

function organised by an NGO on allegation of Christian proselytizing campaign.

The Selangor Ruler who heads the State Islamic faith conveniently relied upon

the biased investigations conducted by the raiding authority instead of forming

an independent investigation committee and warned the Christians not to

influence and distort the understanding and belief of Muslims towards Islam.

According to the government, it allocated 428 million ringgit (approximately

$125.9 million) to build Islamic places of worship and 8.1 million ringgit ($2.4

million) to build Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, and other minority religions' places

of worship between 2005 and the end of 2008.

Examples of forced conversion:

Rani, 56, has been struggling for the past thirty years to get her Muslim name

and religious status changed to Hindu. Rani was only a sixteen-day-old baby

when she was given away by her Muslim biological mother to a Hindu

neighbour family due to extreme poverty. Rani’s Hindu adopted father brought

her up as a Hindu. Her marriage registration application was rejected and her

Hindu husband was forcefully taken away, circumcised and converted.

He agreed to the conversion after he was threatened with jail sentence if he

refused to convert to Islam. As a consequence, Rani’s children as well as her

grandchildren have all been denied their Birth Certificates even after thirty years

of struggling as they are all practising Hinduism. In an interview with HRP,

Rani’s famiy threatened to commit suicide.

A mother of two, S Banggarma was unknowingly converted to Islam by state

religious authorities as a child at the age of 7 while at a welfare home in

Penang against the provisions of Article 12(4) of the Federal Constitution. She

discovered this when seeking to register her marriage in 2000.

Due to her Muslim name, she could not register her marriage to Sockalingam,

which was conducted according to Hindu rites. She was also unable to register

her husband's name as the father in her children's birth certificates. The civil

courts will not hear her case and the decision of the Syaria Court is a foregone

conclusion Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

Indira Gandhi’s 3 children were converted without her consent and

knowledge and her 11 month baby girl abducted by her husband who had

converted to Islam just to spite her because of marital problems (see NST

28/4/09 at page 4). The Islamic authorities and the police had refused to secure

her baby from her estranged husband despite a High Court Order in favor of

applicant. (The star Apr 24 2009).

She would not obtain justice as the highest Federal Court are most likely to rule

that the conversion of her children is within the jurisdiction of Syariah Court. It is

highly likely her children would soon be removed from her custody and placed

with the Islamic authorities.

Raimah Bibi is a practicing Hindu. She was once adopted by a Indian-Muslim

family when she was a child. Her National Identity card had never indicated

that she was a Muslim until when she applied for her new Identity card when

her name was changed to Rahimah Bibi bt Noordin and identified as a Muslim.

On 2nd April, 2007, seven officers from JAIS arrested her and told her husband

that his wife of 21 years was a Muslim and that she and the six children must

be placed in a rehabilitation centre. She is still forcibly separated from her

family by order of the Islamic Shariah Court.

State Sanctioned Destruction of Hindu Places of Worship

Throughout the years since Malaysian independence in 1957, the government

has been disregardful of the systematic destruction of Hindu places of worship,

which previously stood on estates and state owned estates and land. An

estimate of about 10,000 Hindu places of worship have been demolished.

The government justifies the demolition of the places of worship on the grounds

that they were illegally constructed or were occupying government land.

 Most of the places of worship and graveyards/crematoriums demolished

by the state were built during the colonial era and therefore existed up to

200 years ago.

 The Indian migrant workers transported under the indentured labour

system were assigned to clear large acres of thick jungle areas and

prepare land to plant rubber tress; these lands later referred to as rubber

plantation estates. The workers who were encouraged by their colonial

employers to reside on the plantations were given permission to build

their places of worship on the plantation land, which survives to date.

 Upon independence, the government of Malaysia failed to observe its

responsibilities under the Federal Constitution specified above and issue

land rights to the Hindu places of worships, whereas existing mosques

built before independence were granted land titles to legitimize them

 A study by Centre for Public Policy studies shows that since the 1970’s

whilst in the process of acquiring thousands of plantation estates under

the Land Acquisition Act for development purpose the government has

been directly responsible for displacing 300,000 ethnic Indians from the

plantations. A further 300,000 were at risk in year 2000. Displacement

came with destruction of places of worship without relocation program

on the basis that temples sited on government land were without permit Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

 The rights of the poor Indians are seldom acknowledged or respected in

those situations and the State Governments tend to use their full might of

State power and the media to manipulate public opinion, corruption and

‘Mandorism’ to evict the marginalized Indians who, unaware of their

entitlement, are denied their legal ownership of land in majority of cases.

Their historical occupation of the land in the many cases appears not to

count for much and any offer of compensation seldom matches their loss.

 Although we are without an exact figure on the number of places of

worship destroyed since 1957, witness statements available from

community leaders, estate workers, temple committees, union leaders

and residents clearly demonstrate that the number of such places

destroyed by the state runs into thousands.

HRF, Malaysia estimates that a high proportion of the existing number of

temples estimated at 10,000 currently based on plantation land risk being

demolished due to the government’s unwillingness to grant land rights and to

legitimize their existence.

Conclusion

The Malaysian minorities long to live with dignity and freedom but are denied

dignity and freedom by a racist regime that has developed over the last 50

years in the name of affirmative action for the majority. The endless extensions

of the affirmative action policies have now led to serious Human Rights

violations of the minorities in the country. This is inconsistent with

developments around the world and with the aspirations of the minorities of

Malaysia. It is time for the international community to hold the Malaysian

government accountable for this performance. The world has to wake up to

these developments in Malaysia, for the future of all of this is being told many

times over now, in the many tragedies that are happening around the world

even as we pen this report.

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

References

1. John R. Mallot, US Ambassador to Malaysia from 1995-1998. Feb 8th

2011 -

The Wall Street Journal, , “The Price of Malaysia's Racism”

2. Malaysia Today , January 15th

2011 -October 1987 revisited

3.Khoo Boo Teik : December 2005 “Ethnic Structure, Inequality and

Governance in the Public Sector, Malaysian Experiences, , Democracy,

Governance and Human Rights”Programme Paper Number 20, pp29. United

Nations Research Institute for Social Development.

4. Puthucheary, Mavis. 1978. The Politics of Administration: The Malaysian

Experience. Pp58. Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.

5. Norman Fernandez: Jul 5, 2011 “Media whitewash on non-Malays in civil

service” - www.malaysiakini.com

6. Felda official website http://www.feldaholdings.com 5 Year Financial

Highlight,Group Performance 2005-2009 (year ended December 31)

7. World Bank Report, 1980, pg 70-71: David Glover and Lim Teck Ghee –

Contract Farming In Southeast Asia, 1992 Pg 84.

8. Welcoming speech by the Managing Director and CEO of Tekun from the

official Portal of tekun Nasional. http://www.tekun.gov.my

9. Bernama Nationa News Agency - 24 July 2009

10. ACP Amar Singh Sidhu: “The Rise Of Crime In Malaysia An academic and

statistical analysis” - Journal of the Kuala Lumpur Royal Malaysia Police

College, No. 4, 2005

11. Deputy President of MIC, S Subramanian, April 26th

2011, Tamil Nesan

12. SUARAM monitoring

13. Norman Fernandez: Jul 5, 2011 “Media whitewash on non-Malays in civil

service” - www.malaysiakini.com

14. Malaysiakini/10/07/11-Lim Teck Ghee, Asli

15. New Straits Times 22/11/09 at page 25

16. The Star 2/12/09 at page 20

17. Utusan Malaysia 8/10/09 at page 29

Institutional Racism and Religious freedom in Malaysia

18. Utusan Malaysia 25/3/08 at page 31

19. Ministry of Higher Education 2007

20. Ministry of Higher Education 2007

All Malaysians must strive to bury religious and racial differences

2011-11-19T18:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Pete,

With my comment under your article "Let's get it straight", I was trying to put across a subtle, subliminal message but, judging by the responses, I obviously failed big time to hit the target. I will be more direct in future!

My underlying message was: "All Malaysians must strive to bury religious and racial differences and work at becoming fulltime Malaysians". After all, peaceful cooperation is a two-way street, and blaming each other for the jams will get everybody nowhere!

Anyway, please allow me to elaborate, based on the way I see things from an interested outsider's perspective:

1. UMNO have deliberately kept the religion/race cards in constant play (and today, even more so), solely to ensure that (i) Malays are always driven to vote for UMNO and (ii) non-Malays will be confused as to the intention of the Malay elements of the opposition parties, so that retaining UMNO will seem a far safer option to non-Malays than voting for the unknown, possibly far worse political scenario. In this, UMNO is conducting an extremely Machiavellian game, knowing full well what it is doing.

2. As all past visitors to Malaysia will tell you, for so many reasons Malaysia used to be a great place to visit, the principal reasons being (a) the wide variety of cultures and food to be experienced across the length and breadth of the country, (b) the ease of travel and communication, (c) the cleanliness and attention to beautiful landscaping everywhere, and (d) the politeness and respect with which Malaysians used to treat not only each other but foreigners too. All those attributes within Malaysia combined to create a society possessing an exquisitely unique flavour, which I can only describe as "Malaysianess". All foreign visitors to Malaysia will know exactly what I mean by that – Malaysia's southern neighbour is nice enough, but Singaporeans just don't seem to generate the spontaneous warmth that at one time existed everywhere in Malaysia, plus Malaysians generally dress so much more colourfully than Singaporeans and aren't, well, boring……..

3. Having said that, today Malaysia is not as nice, safe or friendly as it once used to be. The warmth at the Immigration Department coming by road from Singapore has disappeared completely, almost as if visitors from the south are no longer welcome. Taxi drivers in KL constantly bitch about the GOM in general and about the discrimination shown to non-Muslims and non-Malays in particular, the courtesy level shown to foreigners has dropped considerably, the streets aren't anywhere near as safe to walk along as they once were (in some of the less salubrious areas you can almost feel the resentment in the air against those with money), and some former tourist spots in KL seem to have been deliberately abandoned and left to become run-down (particularly in the predominantly Chinese and Indian areas).

4. In the process of deliberately playing the religion/race cards, UMNO have carefully avoided making "Malaysianess" the desired objective, contrary to what they should have been doing for the past 50+ years.

5. The Malaysian people should not let UMNO get away with having deliberately trashed "Malaysianess". In fact, it seems as though UMNO specifically concentrated on fomenting strife between (i) Islam and other religions and (ii) Malays and other ethnic groups. Malaysians themselves must therefore urgently resurrect "Malaysianess" from its half-burial if they are to stand any chance at all of voting UMNO out in the next GE!

6. To achieve the goal of resurrecting "Malaysianess", all Malaysians (including the current opposition politicians) must, regardless of ethnic and religious differences, start to develop trust in each other and work together to openly discuss the framework for the fair and just society that is so much needed in Malaysia. If ordinary Malaysians in the street (non-politicians) cannot begin to trust those with different religions or cultures to be committed to building a better Malaysia for all, then there will be no political change through the ballot box possible within the next 100 years! So the concept of "Malaysianess" must be worked at very hard if it is to stand any chance of succeeding – it won't work if it is only a half-hearted attempt!

In my view, whole-heartedly adopting "Malaysianess" doesn't mean burying the differences between the various religious and ethnic groups - it means accepting those differences and showing compassion towards (and complete tolerance of) all others who don't follow your religion, customs or whatever, and recognising in word and deed that all Malaysians are equal in every respect.

My above comments are driven by the fact that, of all the countries in the world, Malaysia probably still stands the best chance of demonstrating that Islam is perfectly capable of offering all its citizens equal opportunities and equal justice in a well developed country that would be the envy of most others, including those supposedly well developed countries in the west. However, right now Indonesia is doing its best to show the world what Islam can do, and it is making great headway ("Look At Us Now!"). Malaysia ought to be able to get there far faster, because it has the very useful advantage of the English language at its disposal!

Sadly, the main thrust of the responses to my previous comment is that, at best, Malaysian Muslims can't be trusted by the rest of Malaysian society to do the right thing, and that my comment is therefore somehow "theoretical". However, I consider that there is nothing "theoretical" about building national unity! It has to be done, or else society will disintegrate! In particular, if something is not done quickly to redress the negative perception about Malaysian Muslims (or to put the situation right if, indeed, that perception is indicative of the way things really are now going inside Malaysia today), then I fear that Malaysia has some extremely tough times ahead. This will mean that Indonesia will be allowed to stand far taller than Malaysia, despite Malaysia's magnificent Twin Towers and its very unique but currently eclipsed "Malaysianess".

Nobody but Malaysians can resurrect "Malaysianess" – Malaysians must become re-united through their own efforts! But, sadly, right now I can't see anybody at all recognising the need to promote "Malaysianess", let alone someone dedicated to driving those unification efforts. That is a pity, because I am confident that there must be many moderate Malaysian Muslims who are sitting on the fence because they are ashamed of the discrimination they see at play by the GOM, but who are afraid of changing their allegiance because of the anti-Malaysian Muslim rhetoric they see every day, especially in the comments posted in MT.

And just because ordinary Malaysians didn't create the religious and racial problems currently being faced in Malaysia, it doesn't mean that they can afford to sit there and do nothing, as if it isn't their problem. It bloody well is their problem, because UMNO made sure it is!

Anyway, now perhaps you can see why I tell my Malaysian friends here in Abu Dhabi (regardless of their ethnic background or which religion they follow) that, if they are not willing to close their eyes to religious and racial differences in Malaysia and embrace "Malaysianess" whole-heartedly, they themselves are therefore part of the problem and can't ever expect a solution for the religious and racial divide that they themselves help to perpetuate!

Warmest regards to you and Marina,

Wally

Malaysian PR KR1M Exposé

2011-11-17T02:47:00.000-08:00

By Tony Pua via Malaysian Mirror

Pakatan Rakyat members of parliament have over the past 2 weeks exposed the fact that many of the goods sold in Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M) were not only substandard, illegal and unhealthy, many of these products were also not cheaper than products sold in existing hypermarkets.

We were criticised by the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister, Ismail Sabri as being unfair by not comparing “apple to apple”, that is we should not be comparing 1Malaysia products with house-branded products from Tesco, Giant or Carrefour.

However, we have proven that the comparison was indeed not “apple to apple” for products such as the “oyster sauce” because the sauce from Tesco contained real oyster extracts, the 1Malaysia product had only flavouring and no oysters.

At the same time, the comparison of 1Malaysia milk powder with that of Nestlé’s Nespray 1+ demonstrated not only that the former is a far inferior product but also the fact that the latter was 24% cheaper. The 1Malaysia milk powder was short of at least 15 legally required vitamins and minerals, deficient in calcium and iron and provided a 802% overdose of Vitamin A, putting at real risk our very young children.

Instead of facing up to the problems, IsmailSabri has chosen to go on an inflammatory rant calling Pakatan Rakyat MPs, DAP and myself racists for allegedly being anti-Malay in our exposés.

Ismail Sabri said on his Facebook and Twitter on Tuesday 15th November 2011 that “tony phua DAP ni masih tk habis2 menfitnah KRIM. kini dgn tuduhan tdk berkualiti. semlm isu ini tlh dijwb oleh Mydin & pembekal IKS. jelas agenda DAP yg ingin menguburkan KRIM yg rata2 supplier nya terdiri dari IKS bumiputra. Rata2 pembeli nya terdiri dari gol berpendapatan rendah bumiputra. Mydin pun bumiputra. malangnya ada bumiputra spt nurul izah & zulkifli 'menyalak' bagi pihak DAP..”

The racist accusations made by the Minister is not only completely baseless, it is the complete opposite of what the Pakatan Rakyat MPs are trying to achieve. By exposing the list of poor quality and illegal products which do not meet the minimum legal standards set out in the Food Act 1983 and Food Regulations 1985, it is Pakatan Rakyat that is truly fighting for the interest of the mostly Malay consumers at KR1M as well as other poor Malaysians.

If not for our exposés, many Malays and poor Malaysians will still be consuming poor quality oyster sauce, evaporated millk, ice-cream,sardines and fruit jam sold at KR1M. What is worse, if not for Pakatan Rakyat highlighting the shocking deficiencies of the 1Malaysia children’s milk powder which resulted in the product’s withdrawal yesterday, a whole generation of Malay and poor Malaysian children might end up suffering from malnutrition, disease and poor physical development.

It is the BN Ministers like Ismail Sabri who are more than willing to sacrifice the interest of ordinary Malays and Malaysians by giving unsubstantiated “guarantees” on the quality of KR1M products and pander to the monetary and vested interest of certain businessmen.

The fact that Ismail Sabri’s ministry is going to subsidize theKR1M stores to the tune of RM40 million in 2012 to sell some of these productsto ordinary Malaysians without first ensuring strict quality control over the products shows that BN Ministers are only keep to score political goals with KR1M. They are not at all interested in the welfare of Malaysians, especially the Malays, who will suffer the most.

White LEDs May Upset Sleep Patterns

2011-11-13T02:34:00.000-08:00

White LEDs May Upset Sleep Patterns

October 17, 2011

You come into contact every day with light-emitting diodes (LEDs)—they illuminate alarm clocks, new televisions, traffic lights, and smart phone displays. Increasingly, you will see white-light versions of LEDs becoming available for energy-efficient home lighting, car headlights, and streetlamps.

What you may not know is that the most common form of white LEDs—which emit a spectrum of colors, including blue light—is inadvertently effective at sending signals to our brain’s biological clock, which regulates daily activities such as sleep.

The realization of the body's special sensitivity to blue light has spurred scientific investigations of whether the light can disrupt our circadian rhythms, the roughly 24-hour cycle in animals that sets the body's patterns for sleep and other biological processes.

While organizations such as the International Dark-Sky Association urge caution on using white LEDs for outdoor nighttime lighting and some scientists are already calling for regulations to ban the outdoor use of blue-rich light, others estimate that the effects are small and caution that more rigorous scientific studies are needed before determining if white LED light has any health impacts at all. Some scientists argue that other factors, such as sleep deprivation and abnormalities in a person's overall 24-hour pattern of exposure to light and dark, may do much more to disrupt circadian rhythms. Epidemiological studies have linked circadian disruptions to health problems, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and obesity, and scientists are trying to determine if light at night—and blue-rich LEDs—are a cause.

Abraham Haim of theUniv. of Haifa in Israel considers white LEDs a form of "light pollution." "What is called 'friendly' environmental illumination is unfriendly," says Haim, who is a chronobiologist, a scientist who studies biological rhythms and cycles in animals. He has conducted studies showing that blue light can disrupt circadian-related hormones in nocturnal animals such as voles, moles and rats.

In the most common design, white LEDs create a mixture of blue and yellow light that the eye sees as white. Other light bulb varieties, including incandescents and compact fluorescents, tend to produce much less blue.

Articles

Products
Transceiver Signal Penetrates Walls
Web-Featured LIMS for Apple iPad
Interactive, Digital Product Guide
Ergonomically Designed MicroTubes

News
Floating Weed Inspires Waterproof Coating
Social Interactions Affect Plants
Some Trees May Adapt to Warming Climate
Whiskers, an Evolutionary Milestone

Until the 21^stcentury, scientists only knew of two types of light-sensitive cells in the eye: rods and cones. But in 2001, David Berson from Brown Univ. established that the eyes of mammals contain a third type of cell for absorbing light.

"This has been a very exciting discovery in the whole world of chronobiology and vision research," says Jay Neitz, a professor of ophthalmology at the Univ. of Washington in Seattle. "We always thought rods and cones were responsible for circadian rhythms and then we find there’s a particular cell that [sends signals] to the superchiasmatic nucleus, the brain's central clock important for daily biological rhythms."

The recently discovered type of cell, called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells, are much smaller in number than other light-sensitive cells—approximately only one of them for every million cones. But they contain a key light-sensitive protein called melanopsin. When light strikes melanopsin, it can trigger the ganglion cells to send signals to the superchiasmatic nucleus, a small brain region that regulates the body's circadian rhythms.

The newly discovered ganglion cells "play the central role" in sending signals from the retina to the brain's circadian system, says Mark Rea, director of the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. As it turns out, melanopsin proteins are most sensitive to light in the wavelength range between 440 and 460 nanometers—in between indigo and blue. Many white LED designs create blue light centered at around 450 nm.

A 2005 study by chronobiologists in Basel, Switzerland showed that human volunteers exposed for two hours to 460 nm light at night experienced greater reductions in melatonin, a hormone regulated by the body’s circadian system, than when they were exposed to a roughly yellow-green light with a higher-wavelength of 550 nm. Melatonin, in addition to helping the body maintain a regular 24-hour rhythm of wakefulness and sleep, is an antioxidant compound that has been shown to protect biological molecules such as DNA.

In the Oct. 2011 issue of the Journal of Environmental Management, Haim of the Univ. of Haifa and his co-authors calculate that white LED light can reduce melatonin levels five times more than low-pressure sodium lamps, which produce yellow-orange colored lights often seen in parking lots.

Haim and his co-authors call for a "total ban of the outdoor emission of light at wavelengths shorter than 540 nm"—and to go back to older low-pressure sodium lamp designs—"to reduce the effects of decreased melatonin production and circadian rhythm disruption in humans and animals."

They also call for increased consumer awareness and for bulb producers to state the wavelengths of light produced by their bulbs.

However, Rea says that it is important to find out the absolute amount of melatonin reduction, instead of the relative amount, caused by different types of lighting. Five times greater than a small amount may not be great, he says. In addition, he argued, simple calculations based on the spectrum of the light may not accurately determine melatonin reduction. Instead one must take into account other factors, such as the amount, source and duration of exposure to the light, as well as how directly it reaches the observer. "All this stuff matters in terms of predicting what effect you’re going to have," he says.

Haim is aware of these factors and his team would like to follow up with controlled studies that account for them. Meanwhile, Rea and his colleagues are pursuing research on this topic from two angles. First, they have developed a headset to measure light reaching the eye in human subjects over a 24-hour period. They call it the Daysimeter. Measuring the light that actually reaches the eye with calibrated instruments, he says, will be a key next step in getting answers on the effect of light on health problems.

In addition, Rea and colleagues have developed a physiological model of how light reaching the retina is converted into nerve signals that reach the circadian system.

Previous research has established that the degree to which nerve signals stimulate the circadian system determines how much melatonin is reduced. The model accounts for the sensitivity to the eye to different parts of the visible-light spectrum, and the level of light that triggers a signal to various parts of the brain. A brief flash of lightning does not trigger a signal to the circadian system, but a longer exposure to light would.

Applying this model to a hypothetical person under a white LED streetlight for one hour, Rea and colleagues calculate that one hour of exposure can reduce melatonin levels by about 3 to 8 percent.

"A 3 to 8 percent effect on modeling is small but maybe it does matter. I think the science just isn't there yet," he says.

Similar model-based calculations by his group show that light from computer screens and electronic devices such as tablets can reduce melatonin by 7 to 20 percent.

For perspective, Rea offered another example not involving white LED light. He fitted a colleague with a light measurement device when she attended a live hockey game. According to their model’s calculations, this suppressed 20 to 25 percent of her melatonin production.

"But it's not like suppressing to zero," he says, "like you're getting rid of all your melatonin and you go out and look out the window and the streetlight and all of a sudden [you] don't have any melatonin for the rest of the night. That's just not true. So you really have to know the numbers."

Rea believes that looking at light at night alone won’t answer fundamental questions about how the environment can affect the biological clock.

"You find you can’t really talk about light at night without also knowing what you’ve got during the daytime. Taking into account the full 24 hour rhythm is essential," says Rea. "It's just too shallow to talk about melatonin suppression by 3 to 8 percent and draw any conclusions about what is going to be healthy or not healthy."

Haim calls for more detailed epidemiological studies that explore relationships between nighttime light and health problems, by following large populations over long periods of time.

Rea suggests moving beyond epidemiology. He suggests making detailed measurements of people's actual 24-hour light exposure and then designing experiments that create similar light-dark patterns for animals. Then, he says, you could test the hypothesis of whether the light-dark pattern causes health effects.

And there are technological solutions. Wendy Davis, a vision scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, says that it is possible with LED technology to create "tunable" light, so that it would produce blue-rich light during the day and blue-poor at night. But whether this will be necessary remains to be seen.

"There is not enough research in circadian disruption to have a position other than we support good, intelligent, properly executed research, and when it's done, we'll review it and see if we need to change anything or what needs to be done," says Alex Boesenberg, manager of regulatory affairs at the National Electrical Manufacturers Association.

Haim says that decisions on indoor and outdoor lighting "must follow chronobiological ideas," and not ignore the biology of humans, wildlife, and other animals. He calls for more studies of animal models that would look for biological effects of light.

Absent definite answers at this point, Rea advised that people keep a fairly consistent 24-hour schedule when possible, which may be the safest way to keep the circadian system in a regular rhythm and not contribute to any possible adverse health effects.

Top US Economist Jeffrey Sachs tricked

2011-11-13T01:33:00.000-08:00

Top US Economist Jeffrey Sachs Was ‘Cultivated’ and ‘Influenced’ To Become a ‘Champion’ of Sime Darby – Exclusive!

Posted Saturday, November 12th, 2011

Professor Jeffrey Sachs of The Earth Institute, Columbia University – a ‘champion’ of Sime Darby?

Sarawak Report has uncovered shocking documents, which detail a deliberate and orchestrated campaign by the Malaysian Oil Palm giant, Sime Darby, to court and seduce one of the world’s most celebrated economists into becoming an ‘Ambassador’ for the company.

Jeffrey Sachs is the Professor of Sustainable Development at New York’s Columbia University and was listed by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

As Head of the University’s Earth Institute, Special Adviser to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and former Director of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, Sachs is famous for his initiatives on reducing world poverty.

: Horizon to horizon – Sime Darby’s HQ for its plantations between Miri and Bintulu

Yet, despite the World Bank’s decision to ban further lending to large scale palm oil plantations, because they have been shown to INCREASE poverty, Sime Darby believe, according to these documents, that they have converted Jeffrey Sachs into a valuable ‘champion’ for their company and for Malaysia’s palm oil industry.

Our evidence shows that Sime Darby, Malaysia’s largest oil palm company, hired the disgraced PR outfit FBC Media to ‘cultivate’ and ‘influence’ this key opinion former, so that they could use him as a ‘Third Party Endorser’ in the numerous newspaper advertisements and TV programmes they commissioned to promote their palm oil business.

: Professor Sachs praises Sime Darby and the Malaysian Government’s initiative on sustainability in a full page Advertorial in the Herald Tribune, next to CEO Musa Hitam and an ad for Iskandar

For example, in this Herald Tribune full page advertisement Sachs authored a guest piece back in 2008, praising the Malaysian Government and Sime Darby for their supposed initiatives on sustainable development. Alongside, is a second feature by Sime Darby CEO, the former Deputy PM Musa Hitam, and also an advertisement for Malaysia’s development zone, Iskandar.

There is no indication as to who financed the advertisement or whether Professor Sachs received any form of payment. However, we can demonstrate that his Earth Institute has just received a half million dollar donation from Sime Darby towards its projects and that Sachs has personally accepted family trips to Sime Darby’s Carey Island plantation, where he was transported in the company’s private jet.

As part of his substantial write up for the advertorial the professor endorses Sime Darby’s eco-credentials:

“Some promising steps have been taken by Malaysia in recent years, which may set a powerful example for the rest of Asia… The government is working closely with leading companies, such as the palm-oil giant Sime Darby, which have recognized that long-term environmental sustainability is vital to the business interests of serious, law-abiding companies with long-time horizons” [Int Herald Tribune, 20/06/08]

Destructive giant

Yet, the eco-claims of Malaysia, Sime Darby and Iskandar are, of course, highly questionable. The Iskandar part of the advertisement carries the slogan ’Growing In Harmony With Nature’. However, that project has controversially destroyed one of the last remaining mangrove areas on mainland Malaysia and displaced the indigenous Seletar people, the region’s last sea nomads, from their fishing grounds, which are now depleated and polluted by the development.

: Cleared for mono-culture – Sime Darby has 47,000 hectares under cultivation in Sarawak

Likewise, Sime Darby, which is controlled by the Malaysian Government, is the world’s largest palm oil company and its vast plantations have destroyed huge areas of Sarawak’s coastal peat forest in the region between Miri and Bintulu and elsewhere.

Apart from the environmental destruction of Borneo’s valuable rainforest, these plantations have alienated Native Customary Lands from local tribes and communities and most of the resulting jobs are poorly paid and have been handed increasingly to immigrant workers and not local people.

Sime Darby’s latest controversial activities have moved outside of Sarawak, where it has planted 47,000 hectares, into Liberia in Africa, where native communities are protesting that the company has been taking their ancestral lands and causing them hardship.

Moving to Africa - Sime Darby is currently up to its old tricks displacing native communities in Liberia. So much for sustainable development.

Indeed, just last month theLiberian Government finedSime Darby US$50,000 for non-compliance with the terms and conditions of their permit. So, it appears that the company is not so law-abiding after all.

Incentives?

The intervention by Sachs was doubtless well-intentioned. However, exclusive documents obtained by Sarawak Report prove that FBC believe they had succeeded in their campaign of ’cultivating’ and ‘influencing’ him and others into becoming one of the useful ‘tools’ they were able to offer their clients for their PR campaigns.

Sachs has appeared in numerous promotional articles and TV programmes commissioned by Sime Darby from FBC, before that company was exposed for its illegal PR activities earlier this year. These programmes included Third Eye on BBC World and CNBC’s World Business Programme.

In a pitch made by FBC to Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud for the multi-million ringgit contract to promote SCORE (Taib’s pet development project) the PR company brags that their successes for Sime Derby included:

“The cultivation of influential ‘ambassadors’, such as The Earth Institute’s Jeffrey Sachs or Dr Reza Azmi, of wild Asia, leading voices on environmental issues”

: “Cultivation of influential ‘ambassadors’ such as The Earth Institute’s Jeffrey Sachs” – FBC’s ‘Track Record with Sime Darby’

Embarrassing

Such claims can only be embarrassing for Jeffrey Sachs, particularly in the light of the fact that only last year Sime Darby was included in The Earth Institute’s prestigious “Corporate Circle” of companies, described as “dedicated to sustainable development”.

Sime Darby's $500,000 donation to the Earth Institute's Corporate Circle projects on joining last year

The Institute, of which Sachs is the Head, explains “We promote opportunities to join the Earth Institute in building strong links between corporate sustainability and holistic sustainable development”.

At the same time Sime Darby provided a half million dollar donation to support The Earth Institute’s Tropical Agriculture and China programmes.[Our Donors]

Given the claims by FBC, Professor Sachs may now have to consider whether such support and the huge financial gestures he has accepted on behalf of his Institute were merely a cynical ploy on Sime Darby’s part to ‘cultivate and influence’ him as part of the company’s well-funded campaign to counter a mass of environmental criticism about the destructive nature of their business?

‘Corporate Greenwash’

FBC’s presentations make clear that their objective for Sime Darby was to ”counter negative perceptions surrounding the Palm Oil Industry”, through “managing and influencing the news agenda” and “sophisticated corporate messaging within an editorial framework”.

Under one section entitled “Palm Oil’s Sustainable Future: Myth or Reality?” they lay out in detail how they plan to spend a good chunk of the industry’s millions on altering world perception:

“Palm oil…remains surrounded by controversy with its production methods triggering fierce debate and harsh criticism from the ‘green lobby’…..The following slides outline FBC’s production strategy for producing editorially credible content for placement on international, pan-regional broadcasters, helping re-set the debate around palm oil and its sustainability and initiating a wider, more objective dialogue”.

Their presentations also make clear that their strategy was to “cultivate Sime Darby ‘champions’” and “target organisations and opinion formers” who could be quoted in their articles and films.

“]: Targetted opinion-formers – Jeffrey Sachs was top of Sime Darby’s list [FBC Power Point Presentation

FBC go on to explain that their promotions, which posed as objective journalism, would create the appearance of balance by featuring critics, who would then be over-ruled by more sympathetic voices to their clients.

"To keep the reporting balanced, we will interview NGOs leveling criticism at the industry, but then getting responses from the key players in palm oil production from countries such as Malaysia, where sustainable certification is promoted and forest conservation efforts are underway". [FBC Media Presentation]

The strategy, eplains FBC, is to present Sime Darby as a well-meaning company striving towards ‘sustainability’ by making all the right gestures… and also all the right friends. They call it “Moving the Perception Needle’ to create an ‘Environmental Reputation’ for Sime Darby.

Greenwash agenda - disguising the destructive reality of the oil palm business with Green PR about 'sustainability efforts'. Such campaigns do not come cheap, but Sime Darby and Taib Mahmud were prepared to pay!

Sime Darby was paying FBC millions of ringgit to conduct this illegal PR campaign, known as ‘Greenwash’, which is all about perception rather than reality.

Compromised?

: Fun for the family? ‘World Sustainability Expert’ Sachs tours Sime Darby’s showcase Carey Island. Pity he did not have time to come and see the destruction of Sarawak

Given this calculated and well-funded agenda and the widespread knowledge about the dangers of ‘Greenwash’ campaigns, one might question the wisdom of Professor Sachs in accepting a family tour for himself, wife and two children to Malaysia and India in 2008, escorted in the Sime Darby private jet.

Insiders have revealed that, throughout the trip to Sime Darby’s showcase plantation on Carey Island, Sachs and his family were accompanied by a then employee of the PR agency APCO, Razi Rahman, which was working for the Malaysian government at the time and continued to have close links with FBC Media.

Sime Darby’s newsletter recorded the event and explained how the Carey Island Managing Director headed a reception team at the airport which then proceeded to show the Sachs family round.

Unfortunately, the Professor did not appear to realise that he was the prime target of an expensive PR effort, which was being ultimately paid for by the people of Malaysia.

Sarawak Report has researched a number of subsequent appearances by Jeffrey Sachs on FBC programmes for CNBC and the BBC, some of which raised eyebrows among those concerned about genuine sustainable development.

Positive programming, masquerading as genuine reporting

Just last June Sachs appeared on FBC’s World Business Programme for two consecutive weeks providing a set piece interview on global warming and sustainability. At the same time he appeared numerous times in a BBC programme Third Eye, focusing on the ‘world food crisis’.

The show painted a picture of imminent catastrophe and starvation if more palm oil was not grown. It also presented a positive picture of the impact of palm oil on Malaysia:

“Third Party Endorser” – Sachs appears on BBC’s Third Eye for FBC Media
“The growing trade in palm oil is providing much needed income to poorer farmers in Malaysia, where living standards are rising. It is also giving jobs to poor people who once owned no land” The programme explains and it features a Malaysian small-holder who is represented as a typical palm oil producer!

By taking part in the programme, Sachs was made to appear to endorse this positive message. However, such claims would not satisfy many poor people in Sarawak, where most of the palm plantations are run by enormous companies like Sime Darby or owned by members of Taib’s family and cronies. In Sarawak it is the poor people who have had their native lands grabbed and handed to plantations, not the other way around.

: Job lot – same interview different channel! FBC got two interviews for CNBC out of the Sachs interview, plus the BBC Third Eye.

As for jobs, the plantations prefer to bring in immigrant workers paid as low as RM 8 a day, leaving the locals unemployed. Likewise, those so-called cooperatives run by SALCRA have in fact delivered a pittance in profits for the poor small farmers, since most of the money seems to have been ‘lost’ by the manager of the state-led enterprise, Deputy PM Alfred Jabu!

Few people in Sarawak would therefore recognise the story being painted by FBC Media of people being made better off by palm plantations. Rather, they would understand the findings of the World Bank, which concluded that large scale palm plantations make the local people poorer, because they lose their lands to big plantation businesses, like Sime Darby.

However, BBC’s Third Eye programme on palm oil, which was produced and scripted by FBC as a supposedly objective documentary ,closely followed the strategy below, laid out in FBC’s proposal documents for the Malaysian Palm Oil Industry:

“The programme will put a particular focus on small farm holders – to emphasise the often overlooked fact that these constitute the majority of players in an industry too often associated to large corporate interests…… We should take the Malaysian example as a sign to reassess many assumptions about the environmental impact of industry in the developing world, and remember that our well-meaning sentimentality can have profoundly negative consequences for people trying to work their way out of poverty.”

Likewise, Jeffrey Sachs, who appeared throughout the programme, was blatantly used to re-enforce the Sime Darby message, having been allocated the role of a so-called “Third Party Ambassador” or “Third Pary Endorser” for the company.

: Sachs cultivated as a ‘Third Party Endorser’?

World-wide corruption through Greenwash millions

Our evidence shows that Professor Sachs was not the only apparently unwitting ’tool’ of Sime Darby. Others too have been pawns of the palm oil industry’s strategy of cultivating third party champions. By allowing themselves to be ‘cultivated and influenced’ in this way, these highly-regarded ‘ambassadors’ have done no service to the genuine poor of Sarawak and Malaysia, whom they claim to be trying to help.

FBC's 'One Square Mile' for BBC World was paid for by Taib as one of the PR opportunities to present his government in a good light. The programme presented a picture of a government trying to help the people and ignored the logging, land grabs and plantation problems.

To the contrary they have merely performed a highly funded service for the rich land-grabbers, who are behind the destruction of the environment that these ‘sustainability gurus’ claim they are trying to save.

Likewise, the television companies which queued up to provide a platform for these FBC sponsored programmes, because they came so cheaply.

They should remember that their cheap programming has come at great expense to the desperate communities of Sarawak, who deserve honest reporting about their plight, and also to the tax-payers of Malaysia, who have funded FBC to the tune of millions of ringgit for this deceptive PR.

BBC, CNBC, CNN and all the global broadcasters who regularly carried biased programming by FBC media to promote big businesses and the Malaysian and Sarawak State Governments, should all now come to Sarawak and fully report on the real problems behind the destruction of the Borneo Rainforest and the suffering of its people.

Political corruption, big agri-business and lawlessness are the problems that need to be identified and addressed. Instead we got Greenwash.

M"sia politics: Guan Eng labels Muhyiddin a ‘coward’ for attacking his son

2011-10-23T02:40:00.000-07:00

Guan Eng labels Muhyiddin a ‘coward’ for attacking his son

By Yow Hong Chieh

October 23, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Lim Guan Eng has called Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin a “coward” for repeating claims by pro-Umno bloggers that his son had molested a schoolmate.

The Penang chief minister said he was “appalled and disgusted” that Muhyiddin had attacked his son for political mileage and told the Umno number two to focus efforts on him instead.

“If Muhyiddin hates me so much, he can do his worst to finish me off politically,” he said in a statement.

“But Muhyiddin should not join the craven pack of cowards to pick on my 16-year old son and put my son again through this traumatic experience.”

Lim (picture) said Muhyiddin had failed the moral and ethical test to be prime minister by repeating “lies” about a teenager who could not defend himself, even after the alleged victim had come forward to deny the claims.

He added that the deputy prime minister risked losing the respect of the public if he continued to repeat the allegations.

“Muhyiddin loses the respect of decent Malaysians if he behaves in the same arrogant manner as those ferocious Umno beasts who know only how to bully my 16-year old son and feast on a child’s innocence,” he said.

Pro-Umno bloggers had claimed that Lim’s son had assaulted a 16-year-old schoolmate and tried to escape punishment by using his father’s name.

Lim, who is also DAP secretary-general, denied the allegations, saying he was furious with the “barbaric lies” made about his teenage son by “pro-Umno ferocious beasts”.

The DAP later said the picture of the purported victim used by pro-Umno bloggers was of 21-year-old chess grandmaster Anya Sun Corke, who is studying at Wellesley College in the US.

On Friday, Corke denied ever having met or heard of Lim’s son.

Lim’s colleagues in Pakatan Rakyat (PR) also came out strongly in support of the DAP secretary-general against what they call “the lowest gutter politics” seen in decades.

Muhyiddin yesterday called on Lim to let the police to investigate the claims if he had nothing to hide

Land fraud by authorities

2011-08-21T03:34:00.000-07:00

‘My dead mother returned and thumprinted document?’

Michael Kaung

| August 20, 2011

Native Abdul Wahab Timbasal's mother died 12 years ago but 'returned' to transfer their native land to someone else.

TAWAU: When the dead in Sabah rise and start

affixing their thumbprints on land title deeds it may be time to call in a ‘religious medium’ to get to the truth.

Abdul Wahab Timbasal’s mother died 12 years ago but according to the land office here, she had ‘returned’ and claimed her land title on 15 June 2008, and that too by placing her thumbprint on the grant in front of a lawyer!

The size of the land, his mother ‘returned’ to claim measures 18.10 acres and is located in Ulu Kalumpang and is registered under the Native Title (NT) number 103032408.

A puzzled Abdul Wahab, only discovered this land-grab on April 14 this year when he went to the Land and Survey Department headquarters in Kota Kinabalu to enquire about the land title.

They told him that the title had already been sent to department’s office here on March 1, 2004.

“On May 25, I went to the land office and they told me the grant had already been taken by my mother.

“In the grant copy it showed that mother had signed in front of a lawyer on June 15, 2008.

“But how can this be … my mother died twelve years ago,” Abdul Wahab told reporters during a press conference here in the presence of state PKR council member Kong Hong Ming.

He said he immediately lodged a police report on the matter but had not received any answers until today.

Land fraud common in Sabah

Abdul Wahab said that on earlier this week (August 15), he had met the ‘new’ owner of the land.

“I met the new owner and he told me that my mother sold the land to him.

“I was shocked and contacted Mr Kong in the PKR office in Tawau,” he said.

Kong, a practising lawyer, has made a name for himself acting pro bono for various poor villagers in their disputes with plantations and private companies who have taken over vast tracks of land in the state.

Kong said that based on the facts it is a typical case of land fraud.

“It is very familiar. Normally this sort of case we need to investigate further until the truth prevails.

“There are many cases of persons taking over dubious land deeds.

“They could be victims themselves or they could be the perpetrators.

“One of the means is to go to court to seek justice.

“I must say this case of land transfer using fraud is not uncommon in Sabah especially with land becoming an expensive commodity.

“My advice to the public is to be cautious on land transfers or deeds and go through the professionals,” Kong advised.

Police report

In another separate case, another land owner, Yong Den Fah, was also shocked to find out that a 19.25-acre C.L (Commercial Lease) land he bought in 1999 had been converted and issued an NT title this year without his knowledge.

He said he discovered the scam from the previous owner who told him that a senior officer from the land office here had offered to buy the land early this year from the first owner.

“I also found out that another land title was issued under NT for the same land this year and was transferred to another person in February this year without my knowledge.

“The first land owner also did not know about the transfer,” said Yong.

He said in 1999 when he bought the land it had already been planted with oil palm by SLDB (Sabah Land Development Board) under the rubber smallholder scheme.

Later in 2006 the land was replanted with oil palm.

“In April this year my workers told me that someone was doing site clearing on the land.

“My worker who lives there said that a senior officer from the Land and Survey department supervised the clearing works for two weeks,” he said.

Yong said he had made a police report on May 16 about the trespassing and named the officer.

No reponse despite complaints

He also wrote four complaint letters to the Land and Survey Department director but has not received any response yet.

“I decided to approach the PKR for assistance,” he said during the same new conference yesterday.

Kong pointed out that a plot of land should not have two titles.

According to him, before the new NT land title is issued the Land and Survey Department must demand for the CL title to be surrendered before any new title can be issued.

Kong said he has agreed to render his legal assistance to Abdul Wahab and Yong.

He called on the Land and Survey department to seriously look into the matter and take immediate action in view of the rampant land scam cases reported from across the State.

Patrick Teoh to all Malaysians

2011-08-07T03:53:00.000-07:00

If You Are A Malaysian, PLEASE Watch This Video.mp4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt224G3c6WE&feature=youtu.be

178,257

Sarawak: Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud - a Freemason!

2011-07-15T04:10:00.000-07:00

MoCS man lashes Taib & co!

Joseph Tawie

| July 15, 2011

Aug 13 rally is on because the !is as legit as the Freemasons, of which the CM is a member, says Salleh Jafaruddin.

KUCHING: A state minister’s criticism of the Movement for Change Sarawak (MoCS) has provoked a tirade against Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and his government from Salleh Jafaruddin, a former strongman of Taib’s Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB).

The outburst included an accusation that Taib was a member of the Freemason society, which many Muslims despise.

Salleh was responding to Awang Tengah Ali Hassan, the Second Minister of Planning and Resource Management, who had remarked that MoCS had yet to be registered and therefore could not go ahead with a Bersih-style rally that it was planning for Aug 13.

He said: “Does Awang Tengah realise that not all unregistered societies are considered illegal?”

“The Freemasons are a well-known weird secret society having a branch in Sarawak. Its members are prominent personalities in the state like Abdul Taib Mahmud, Mr. J.C. Fung (a former attorney general of Sarawak) and many others too many to list.

“Why hasn’t the Registrar of Societies declared the organisation illegal?

“For that matter why hasn’t the ROS declared illegal some known illegal gangs that have been operating in the state for ages?

“I’m pretty sure that it was Awang Tengah who was asked by Taib to approve a piece of state land in Kuching for the Freemasons to build their ceremonial lodge a couple of years back.”

He alleged that the approval was given when Taib held the portfolio of Planning and Resource Management.

Salleh and Taib are cousins. Salleh is a former deputy education minister and used to be a vice president in PBB. In the last state election, he contested against Taib in Balingian as an independent candidate supported by MoCS.

The Aug 13 rally, which MoCS bills as a “walk for democracy and reforms”, is seen as an attempt to force Taib to resign.

Speaker criticised

Responding to Awang Tengah’s remark that the people of Sarawak had made their choice in the recent election, Salleh said:

“Do you mean that you and your bosses allow deceit to flourish freely and be kept undetected and continuously hidden under the many dirty underpants of the 55 filthily democratically elected members of the Sarawak Legislative Assembly?”

He also took a swipe at State Assembly Speaker Mohamad Asfia Awang Nassar, saying he “deliberately disallowed” opposition representatives from “seeking the truth” in the recent session of the assembly.

“Your speaker unceremoniously restricted the rights of the 15 elected members of the Sarawak opposition to seek clarification or to ask questions in the Dewan on corruption allegedly committed by your boss and many others, perhaps including yourself.

“If the 15 elected members of the opposition are disallowed, deliberately prevented from seeking the truth about problems faced by the people or mistakes committed by elected leaders of the government of the day, who else can the public turn to for help other than a coalition of NGOs?”

He said “deceits and lies must be stopped” through public exposure because there was no other alternative.

He said MoCS, conscious of its social responsibility, had decided to “openly seek the truth” and thereby make voters in Sarawak aware of their constitutional rights.

“These rights should not be unethically restricted through unleashing of administrative and political power.

“Awang Tengah should be supportive of MoCS because once Taib voluntarily retires from office, he has the opportunity to take over from him, unless he is also a member of the Sarawak pyramid of corruption.”

Malaysia July 9 Predators

2011-07-14T03:07:00.000-07:00

Predators and preys on July 9

B Nantha Kumar

| July 14, 2011

BN and Pakatan can claim Bersih 2.0 as personal victories but the success really belonged exclusively to the people who shared moments of unconditional kindness.

COMMENT

I am a photojournalist and having witnessed four major rallies – Bersih 1.0, Hindraf, Anti-ISA and PPSMI (a rally against the teaching of science and mathematics in English) – I feel compelled to register my shock and awe at how the July 9, Bersih 2.0′s “Walk for Democracy” turned into a playground for predators and a nursery for unconditional kindness.

There were thousands of Malaysian on July 9 in Kuala Lumpur, all aiming to find their way to the goalpost – Stadium Mederka.

They were all to assemble there and the Bersih steering committee would then march to the palace to give the King the eight-point memorandum.

The runup to the July 9 Bersih 2.0 was anything but smooth. Likewise on D-day July 9.

I must admit Bersih 2.0 was not the largest gathering of people I have seen. Some of the other rallies were even bigger.

But for reasons best known to Umno and Barisan Nasional, Bersih 2.0 peace march was branded as “dangerous” and its president Ambiga S, a traitor for urging Malaysians to support calls for electoral reforms.

Umno-BN was rattled by the Bersih 2.0′s yellow wave (their T-shirt was yellow) and they used all available avenues to warn and instill fear in the hearts and minds of Malaysians supporting the call for fair and free elections.

On July 9, I was told the police had placed nearly 7,000 personnel included Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) and its traffic unit in the “restricted” Kuala Lumpur zone.

Ninety-one people had been issued a restriction order and were barred from entering certain parts of Kuala Lumpur. Before, more than over 200 people had been arrested in relation to July 9.

All this was staggering for me.

Never in the past have I heard of so many policemen on the ground at one spot at one time or that a restrictive order has been issued.

Screaming and scrambling

I was stationed at Jalan Pudu.

By the time, the clock chimed 1pm, there were some 30,000 Bersih members who had flooded Menara Maybank near Jalan Pudu and Tun Perak intersection.

The FRU shot tear gas and sprayed a chemical-laced liquid from the water cannon directly at the protesters.

It was shocking. Thousands of men and women were screaming and scrambling for shelter.

But the police kept chasing and hunting them down like prey.

There was something even stranger – rows of FRU personnel kept relentlessly shooting rounds of tear gas directly at the crowd.

Their demeanour was clear – the FRU and police were there to hunt the protesters down, hurt and frighten supporters. They were not there to disperse the crowd.

In Jalan Pudu, for instance, they blocked off one end and ambushed the suppporters from Jalan Tun Perak.

The protesters had no place to hide and had to run into Tung Shin Hospital.

The second incident was when police started arresting supporters who refused to back off despite the tear gas and water cannon.

The police appeared uncontrollable. They punched some supporters and were physically brutal when making arrest.

Acts of kindness

At one point the Pasukan Unit Amal from PAS tried to calm the police, but a constable took out his gun and pointed it at him.

But his colleagues quickly grabbed him and dragged him away.

I have had sleepless nights since then wondering what would have happened had the policeman opened fire.

And what if the public had retaliated?

I was there and lived to tell the experience.

The police were more interested in arresting people than helping those who were injured.

There was an old Malay man who succumbed to the tear gas and fell to the ground convulsing. The police were around him but they did nothing.

One policeman actually poked the convulsing old man with his leg to see if he was dead or alive.

In the end it was the ordinary Malaysians who rallied together and carried him to safety.

Real victory

In another instant, I was caught in the middle of a massive crowd when the FRU started shooting tear gas at us.

I was unprepared and suffered shortness of breath.

Suddenly, a middle-aged Malay woman pull my hand and shoved a bottle of mineral water into it.

“Minumlah adik. Lepas itu bagi kat orang sebelah,” she said.

I hurriedly drank the water and passed the bottle around. When I turned to thank her, she had disappeared into the crowd presumably to help others with water.

I have no clue who she is or why she felt compelled to aid me but my colleagues stationed in other points of the rally have told me many similar stories of pure kindness.

Both the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional and opposition Pakatan Rakyat have claimed “political” victory on July 9.

But for me this is not important.

I am awed by the kindness I have seen and experienced, and by the simple truth that Ambiga – who on behalf of Malaysians called for electoral reforms and who was subsequently defamed – has united all irrespective of gender, age, race and creed.

I don’t know the woman who helped me, but then again neither did the thousands of others who were aided in their time of need during the rally on July 9.

This is the clean spirit of Bersih which BN and Pakatan will never understand.

This is to me the real victory.

VIDEO: Bersih 2.0 worldwide VIDEO Sunday, 10 July 2011

2011-07-10T02:45:00.000-07:00

VIDEO: Bersih 2.0 worldwide

VIDEO

Sunday, 10 July 2011

Bersih 2.0 Brutal force on protesters by police

2011-07-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

By Niluksi Koswanage and Razak Ahmad, Reuters

Malaysian police fired repeated rounds of tear gas and detained over 1,400 people in the capital on Saturday as thousands of activists evaded roadblocks and barbed wire to hold a street protest against Prime Minister Najib Razak's government.

At least a dozen people were hurt in the demonstration for electoral reform in downtown Kuala Lumpur. There were no reports of serious injuries but some analysts said the police action was excessive and would dent Najib's image.

"We are not criminals, we are just asking for free and fair elections," opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's daughter, Nurul Izzah Anwar, told reporters after her father was knocked down and hurt in a melee when he and his supporters were tear gassed.

"Many innocent people were injured. We condemn this act of cruelty by UMNO and Barisan Nasional," she said, referring to Najib's party and the ruling coalition.

Street protests are rare in this Southeast Asian nation, but foreign investors are worried that any groundswell of anti-government sentiment could delay economic reforms seen as essential to draw investment.

If he is put under popular pressure, Najib may reconsider plans for a snap election and hold back on reforms such as cutting fuel subsidies or unwinding an affirmative action program for the country's Malay majority.

Polls are not due until 2013 but analysts have said Najib could seek an early mandate after economic growth accelerated to a 10-year high in 2010.

"From Najib's perspective, holding elections anytime soon would be a mistake because of the damage that has been done today," said Bridget Welsh, Malaysia specialist at Singapore Management University.

"The fact that such a large crowd turned up despite a crackdown shows that voter anger is deep and this is going to push a lot of people who are in the middle toward the opposition."

Reuters witnesses saw tear gas shells lobbed repeatedly at groups of protesters in downtown Kuala Lumpur as the crowds chanted "Long Live the People" and "Reformasi, reformasi," the Malay word for reform.

Several people were seen bleeding after the tear gas was fired, but police gave no details of any injuries. Crowds around the city's main bus station were also sprayed with water cannon.

Malaysia's inspector-general of police, Ismail Omar, said 1,401 people were taken into custody, but many will be released after questioning. At least three senior opposition leaders were among those detained, other officials said.

"We have made our point that we want free and fair elections," said Chan Mei Yin, a 32-year old accountant who joined the protest.

Over 1,400 arrested, tear gas fired in Malaysia protest

"The police are just showing that they are brutal to Malaysians. I will not vote for this government."

NOT THAILAND

While Malaysia is far from being divided by political strife like its northern neighbor Thailand, the opposition has been steadily growing more vocal.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets at a November 2007 rally, which analysts said galvanized support for the opposition ahead of record gains in a 2008 general election.

Analysts said the turnout of protesters on Saturday was more than 10,000, around the same as in 2007. Police, however, put the number at 5,000-6,000, while protest organizers claimed 50,000 attended.

"Malaysian civil society is showing the government that intimidation will not work," said Ooi Kee Beng, a political analyst at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies of Singapore.

"We're seeing a lack of will on the part of the government to try to negotiate and to defuse the situation. It's all going to look very bad outside Malaysia."

After Malaysia's constitutional monarch tried to defuse the situation, the government initially offered Bersih (Clean), the group that called the protest, the use of a stadium to hold its demonstration.

But it baulked at allowing the group to use the main stadium in downtown Kuala Lumpur, at which point Bersih said it would defy the ban.

From midnight, police locked down the central shopping district of the city of 1.6 million people, setting up roadblocks and barring taxis and buses from the area. Suburban trains, however, continued to operate and other areas of the city were not affected.

Bersih has vowed to bring together tens of thousands of supporters to the protest but it fell short. Still, some analysts said the government faced a problem.

"Just looking at the crowd there were many 'first timers', young people from the Facebook generation who just wanted to have a peaceful life," said Ibrahim Suffian, director of the independent opinion polling outfit Merdeka Center.

"This is trouble for Najib as it will polarize traditionally non-political segments of society like the young even further away from him."

Najib took power in 2009, and inherited a divided ruling coalition which had been weakened by historic losses in the 2008 polls. He has promised to restructure government and economy and introduced an inclusive brand of politics aimed at uniting the country's different races.

Najib's approval ratings have risen from 45 percent to 69 percent in February, according to independent polling outfit Merdeka Center. But analysts said recent ethnic and religious differences have undermined his popularity.

(Additional reporting by Angie Teo and Damir Sagolj; Writing by Liau Y-Sing; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Sugita Katyal)

Bersih 2.0 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur KL Rallies

2011-07-09T20:01:00.000-07:00

Bersih 2.0 Today July 9 2011 Malaysia Kuala Lumpur KL Rallies

VIDEO

Saturday, 09 July 2011

Old Malaysia Is Gone! Long Live New Malaysia!

2011-07-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

Old Malaysia Is Gone! Long Live New Malaysia!

By batsman

Saturday 9th July 2011 signals a landmark in Malaysian history. The old Malaysia of corruption, cronyism, abuse of power and arrogance of UMNO is on the way out!

9th July 2011 ushers in a new dawn!

As a consequence of the tsunami of 2008, AAB was kicked out as President of UMNO. He was seen as too weak and too compromising. He was seen as allowing the situation to get out of hand by UMNO warlords.

On 9th July 2011, the hysterical response of strongman and UMNO warlord NTR in suppressing democratic rights of the rakyat in a brutish crackdown on a Bersih 2.0 peaceful demonstration for electoral reform has drawn not only revulsion of the people of Malaysia but international condemnation.

It now seems that neither the diffidence and weakness of AAB nor the brutality and strong-arm tactics of NTR offers any solution to the problems of Malaysia. The birth of a new Malaysia and true Malaysian nationalism cannot be stopped anymore.

The narrow racist Malay nationalism of UMNO is being cast into the dustbin of history. Malaysians cannot be divided anymore into quarreling races and religions. Malaysia is being reborn as a true nation with a united people of all races and all religions.

Although it is still not the end of problems and corrupt crooks will still try their best to kill off new Malaysia, there is a new awareness of true Malaysian nationalism.

Long Live New Malaysia!

Cleaning up Malaysian politics

2011-07-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

Bersih 2.0 / 9 - july - 2011 ( Al-jazeera )

VIDEO

Saturday, 09 July 2011

Malaysian authorities frightened of Bersih 2.0

2011-07-08T03:28:00.000-07:00

Malaysia to lockdown largest city to block protest

(AP) — Malaysian police say they will shut major roads and suspend public transportation into Kuala Lumpur to block a rally by opposition-backed activists.

The organizers of the banned rally planned for Saturday are demanding electoral reforms.

The escalating political tension marks a major challenge for Prime Minister Najib Razak's long-ruling coalition ahead of general elections widely expected next year.

Kuala Lumpur Police Chief Amar Singh says major roads into the city will be shut for 22 hours starting at midnight Friday. More than 200 people linked to the rally have already been detained in recent weeks.

Activists insisted they would gather in a stadium downtown Saturday and urged Najib to call off the clampdown that "fits the style of dictators."

The day when the people rise up: July 9

2011-07-07T04:04:00.001-07:00

Bersih is a temporary and loose grouping of registered NGOs (62 in nos. at this moment) who have come together for the specific task of pursuing electoral reforms. If these NGOs are by themselves legally registered bodies, how can they become illegal just because they have joined forces to pursue a transient objective? If Bersih is decreed illegal, then all the NGOs in this group must also be deemed illegal. So are the members that belong to these respective NGOs.

By Kim Quek

That’s it! Bersih finally has had enough of the treacherous conduct of a shameless government which has lost all sense of decency!

In a firmly worded statement released late last night, Bersih effectively said “come what may, we will have our rally at the Stadium Merdeka on July 9 at 2 pm!”.

This is Bersih’s final answer to a battery of ridiculous obstructions, warnings and excuses put up by the Najib government to obstruct a Bersih rally in the stadium.

This is despite Bersih having made a major concession to shift the rally from the streets to a stadium under the unprecedented intervention of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and after Prime Minister Najib Razak’s offer of a suitable stadium for the purpose.

And the 180 degree turn by Najib and his government happened within one day!

IMPASSE RESOLVED UNDER AUSPICES OF AGONG

It was only on Tuesday (July 5) afternoon that Bersih had an audience with the Agong during which it accepted the government’s rally-in-stadium offer to resolve the tense impasse between Bersih and the Najib government, during which an obviously panic-stricken government went on a rampage to make wanton arrests to deter an anticipated massive street rally.

Upon Bersih’s announcement to stay off the streets, Najib immediately expressed readiness to meet Bersih over a suitable stadium for the purpose.

The next day, Wednesday July 6, Bersih indicated it wanted the event to be held at Stadium Merdeka due to its historical significance and central location. Bersih further said that it had ascertained the stadium’s availability on July 9, as a scheduled concert had been cancelled.

But Umno Youth immediately said: “We reject Stadium Merdeka for Bersih. It is not a place for political gathering. Do it in a Pakatan Rakyat controlled state.”

This was followed by the stadium management’s rejection of Bersih on blatantly false excuses of “internal management sports event” and “renovation”.

What did the Prime Minister, who had earlier suggested and agreed to the rally-in-stadium proposal, have to say about the rally in Stadium Merdeka?

He said it was up to the authorities in charge of such matters to act in accordance with requirements of security and safety. He emphasized however that “permission would only be given to organizations that are registered, but Bersih has never been registered, it is an illegal organization”. He gave no indication whether approval to use the stadium would be forthcoming.

Then, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who had earlier declared Bersih illegal, made the shocking and puzzling announcement that Bersih is still illegal, despite the impasse being resolved in accordance with the wishes of the Prime Minister, mediated by His Majesty Yang di-Pertuan Agong. Hishammuddin said:

“They are still banned. No body can put themselves over the law. Just because Tuanku met them, doesn’t mean they are no longer illegal”.

However, despite the alleged illegality, Hishammuddin made the curious statement that Bersih could still apply to the police for a permit to hold the rally, but gave no assurance that a permit would be given.

BERSIH IS BETRAYED

Finally, Bersih’s door to a stadium rally in Kuala Lumpur was shut when Information and Culture Minister Rais Yatim announced that the Cabinet has decided to bar Bersih from holding its rally in any of the stadiums in the Kuala Lumpur area. Rais suggested that Bersih could hold its rally in a Pakatan Rakyat controlled state.

Meanwhile, police crackdown on Bersih supporters continues unabated, arresting any one seen wearing yellow shirts or any paraphernalia linked to Bersih. So far, there have been more than two hundred arrests, including members of parliament and state legislative assemblymen. Some are being charged in court, and some are detained under the draconian Emergence Ordinance which provides for indefinite detention without trial, which has been traditionally used against vice criminals.

Ministers and police have warned that even when a stadium rally is approved, anyone wearing anything suggesting support for Bersih including the yellow T shirts will be arrested.

LEGAL NONSENSE

So, Bersih was played out!

It gave up the street rally out of respect for His Majesty and in compliance with the PM’s wishes; but in return, it was denied a stadium for rally, and its supporters continue to be hunted down and persecuted like criminals through massive abuse of police power under fallacious legality.

Hishammuddin claimed that Bersih is illegal because it is not registered with the Registrar of Society, and hence any article or any activities promoting Bersih is also illegal, hence the mass arrest.

But this is pure legal nonsense.

By extension, any grouping of registered bodies who have joined forces to pursue any joint objective must also be considered illegal, including the opposition alliance of Pakatan Rakyat, which consists of PKR, PAS & DAP.

Why hasn’t Hishammuddin banned Pakatan Rakyat, and decreed their joint pursuits as also illegal?

Can Hishammuddin explain the strangest logic ever known – as reflected in the police arresting individuals bearing symbols of Bersih, when the organization itself was sanctioned by the PM through the offer of a stadium to conduct its function?

Isn’t the entire Barisan Nasional government – PM, cabinet, police and judiciary - making a fool of themselves by crucifying and persecuting a well-meaning civil society movement on the premise of a fictitious law?

GREATEST DISRESPECT TO AGONG

By insisting that Bersih is an outlaw, after it has reached a settlement with the PM under the auspices of His Majesty, hasn’t Hishammuddin shown the greatest disrespect to the two highest leaders of the country?

And hasn’t PM in turn made a mockery of His Majesty’s gracious effort to bring reconciliation and good sense by failing to keep his end of the bargain to allow Bersih to hold its rally in peace?

In the midst of such treasonous conduct from our leaders, we wish to congratulate Bersih for its courage and determination to do what is right. In its statement signed by all the 14 members of its steering committee last night, it said:

“As members of civil society that are committed to principles of integrity, we fully intend to abide by the advice of Tuanjku DYMM SPB YDP Agong and hold our gathering in a stadium to state our demand for clean and fair elections.

“Whether or not the government abides by their principles, we the Malaysian people will always uphold ours. Our determination to exercise our constitutional right to gather peacefully for a just and reasonable cause is unwavering.”

Now that Bersih has conducted itself with honour, we the people must respond likewise. It is about time that we stand up to reclaim what is due to us – our liberty and dignity and our right to determine our future, as enshrined in the Constituion.

Let everyone come out wearing yellow, and let the traitors be swarmed and drowned by a sea of yellow in Kuala Lumpur on that day.

Let July 9 be remembered in generations to come as the day when Malaysians finally rise up to reclaim their motherland from the grip of a tyrannical power.

Malaysia: Christian response towards Bersih and E.O

2011-07-07T03:45:00.000-07:00