Tag: Najib Razak

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Politics & government

[2684] For reconciliation, Najib needs to address UMNO first

It was a Pyrrhic victory for Barisan Nasional and Najib Razak’s post-election speech called for national reconciliation. That is perhaps admittance that his 1Malaysia policy has not been as successful as he had hoped. It is all a nice, humble speech but his call for national reconciliation suffers from credibility crisis.

Soon after, various UMNO leaders made it clear that they did not plan to take up the reconciliation tone. They immediately took up their racialist perspective and blame the Chinese for their loss. The bitter former Chief Minister of Malacca Ali Rustam who lost his election went as far as accusing the Chinese as being ungrateful. Only the heaven knows what Utusan Malaysia will spew out today and the days after.

Najib may be sincere about reconciliation but the party is always bigger than him even as Najib is proving to be more popular than everybody else in his party. The truth is that the majority in his party does not believe in an inclusive Malaysia. If Najib is honest in reconciliation, he has to address his party, not the wider Malaysians, about his reconciliation agenda. He needs to convince his party of reconciliation and not the wider Malaysians. The wider Malaysians hear both Najib and his parties and there are stark diverging themes going on there.

Besides, it was UMNO — the primate party of BN by far — who pushed the Chinese aside. Can you really blame the Chinese for rejecting UMNO and BN?

And the suggestion that BN lost because of a “Chinese tsunami” is not entirely true. BN lost the popular votes for the first time in a long time. That would not have been possible if it were all Chinese votes. There are just not enough Chinese voters to go around making that kind of shift. And the Chinese have been hostile to BN for quite some time now. Does the death of MCA, Gerakan and SUPP not tell you something?

Maybe it was something else. Maybe, it was the urban-rural divide. The urban-rural factor has more explanatory power to describe BN’s loss of popular votes.

Maybe BN believed in its lying media too much that they thought they would have performed better. Maybe, the lesson of 2008 of the importance of credible media has not been learned by BN. They ate their own propaganda and then when it tastes bitter, they begin to blame for someone else.

For reconciliation to happen, BN needs to look at the urban-rural factors. Looking through the racialist view and then talking about reconciliation just will not fly.

Categories
Books & printed materials Politics & government

[2525] The Star says nothing happened yesterday

I suppose there are times when there is a piece of news that the mainstream media rather not report, but it has to because it is still a news organization and the readers do want to know. If the news organization wants to keep its readers loyal, the readers have to be served lest they migrate to another comprehensive sources all else being the same. This is especially so when the news organization is the old-style media complete with deadwood newspaper section to manage in this digital age, and the reader profile is English-speaking and mostly better educated than the rest of Malaysians.

The big news yesterday was the success of Shahrizat Abdul Jalil in holding back insurrection in Wanita UMNO, complete with the backing of UMNO and BN President Najib Razak. Shahrizat is already controversy-ridden with her family members through and through involved in the NFC corruption scandal. For a coalition that is trying hard to shed its corrupted image even since the last general election, this controversy is a major setback. That the man who supposedly carries the transformation banner to be fully behind Shahrizat, this is beginning to develop into a story of a leopard and its spots, instead of The Ugly Duckling.

The Star realizes this and The Star is obviously owned by MCA, an ally of UMNO within the BN coalition. They need to keep their owners happy. They need to prop their owner up or at the very least, not make them look bad given the constraint of the digital age. Not to highlight the unfortunate news and not trying to blatantly pretend that nothing happened yesterday, on its front page, “Be phone smart”, trumpeting a clarion call for consumers to know their cell phone and their bills.

There is a small subsection about Shahrizat and Najib, telling readers that the news is somewhere inside. Somewhere, inside.

And of course, a picture of a top-South Korean girl band singing in Kuala Lumpur.

And a big KFC finger licking good commercial at the bottom.

Categories
Politics & government

[2494] Cheapening transformation

Transformation is a big word. It is not some word that should be used lightly. Use it too often for the smallest of things, it will turn into a cliché and it will lose its meaning soon afterwards. In Malaysia, that is already happening with all the stress on transforming Malaysia under the 1Malaysia banner.

And so, in conferring an award to Prime Minister Najib Razak, World Chinese Economic Forum’s Michael Yeoh said, “[y]ou have contributed significantly to the transformation of the Malaysian nation.”[1]

Transformation of the Malaysian nation?

With the ETP appearing stalling or at more kindly put, going slowly, economic liberalization halted halfway through, along with half-baked realization of the September 15 announcement of the so-called political transformation program, and moreover, not even 3 years in office, I would think there is hardly anything that could be transformed. Tweak yes, but transform? Far from it.

Remember, transformation is a big word. It connotes an action that changed something completely into something else. Maybe the ETP has it right when it uses (and overuses) the word transform. At least, the objective of being (yet another overused phrase) high-income nation suggests a completely different Malaysian economic reality that prevails today.

A moth into a butterfly, that is transformation. Ass to a donkey? Maybe not so.

In the past three years, what transformation have we seen? Is Malaysia today any different that in 2009? Some potholes in the city have been there even before the PM assumed office with Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s mandate. It will not take a transformation to cover the potholes. Yet, here we are living in transformation, so claimed Michael Yeoh.

You cheapen the word Mr. Yeoh. But I guess, since everybody uses it so cheaply, it does not hurt much. How more cheaply can the cliché get, eh?

A mere less-than-three-years, and Mr. Yeoh and the WCEF granted the PM a lifetime award.

If anything, the supposedly transformation has hardly begun in earnest. The jury is still out there but Mr. Yeoh and the WCEF have jumped the gun. Overwrought, them.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved
[1] — PUTRAJAYA, Jan 25 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak was crowned today the “Father of Moderation and Transformation” by the World Chinese Economic Forum (WCEF), which said the prime minister’s “fair and just leadership” had benefited the Chinese community “tremendously”.

Najib was also conferred the “Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award” by the WCEF for his work and commitment towards transforming Malaysia.

“You (Najib) have contributed significantly to the transformation of the Malaysian nation.

“The Chinese community has benefitted tremendously from you for your fair and just leadership,” WCEF chairman Datuk Michael Yeoh said in his speech at the conferment ceremony here today. [Chinese economic group calls Najib ”˜Father of Transformation and Moderation’. Clara Chooi. The Malaysian Insider. January 25 2011]

Categories
Liberty Politics & government

[2430] Let us inspect the qualifications first

Prime Minister Najib Razak has just delivered a much awaited speech.[1] It is much awaited because it was hyped up by the media. The speech did contain important announcement of intentions but the first 15 minutes were full of fluff.

The substance came later in the second half of the speech. He said his administration intends to repeal all declarations of emergency still in force. These declarations are frequently cited as anti-liberty and as means to circumvent more rigorous laws. He mentioned that the necessary bills will be sent to the Parliament for consideration.

My first reaction was one of excitement. Yet, questions linger. Will we see the return of local elections? There is no explicit mention of that. There are other questions in my mind that require answers.

With that realization, I take a skeptical position. This skepticism grew as the PM read more of his speech.

The proposed abolition of the Internal Security Act for instance should be a reason for liberals to cheer but two new laws are being proposed to replace the ISA. I fear that this may be merely a renaming exercise, due to the qualifications the PM included in his speech.

Another is the annual renewal of permit for the press. The proposal on the table is to replace that mechanism with a system where a license will only be canceled until it is canceled by the government. Does this mean the government will have the discretionary power to cancel a license just like that? That is not much better than the current setup. I prefer a renewal system where the permit lasts more than 5 years beyond typical election cycle to limit political manipulation by the government, be it one led by Barisan Nasional, Pakatan Rakyat or anybody for that matter. It limits discretionary power. The newly proposed system increases opportunity for discretion. The problem has always been the exercise of discretionary power, not the permit system per se.

These qualifications are important because these qualifications will be the true measure of sincerity of this announcement and of any effort at liberalization.

The Prime Minister and his administration deserve a nod for this liberalization plan but let us inspect the qualifications first before applauding the administration.

And I will believe it, after I see it finally done.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reservedMohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reservedMohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

[1] — [Najib Razak. Perutusan Hari Malaysia. Office of the Prime Minister of Malaysia. September 15 2011]

Categories
Conflict & disaster Liberty

[2378] To impress, support tyranny

It is quite understandable why Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak wants to impress King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is an important country to Malaysia. It is the largest oil exporter in the world. It is the leader of the Muslim world by default, for better or for worse.

But when the Prime Minister decided to offer military assistance to Bahrain and back the roles Saudi Arabia had played over the course of the Arab Spring,[1] that was just a little bit too much.

The government of Bahrain has suppressed unarmed protesters with brutality. Saudi Arabia aided Bahrain in suppressing demand for democratic change, fearing the democratic change that began in Tunisia and Egpyt would spread at the expense of autocratic rulers. Najib said those efforts by Saudi Arabia were noble.

Shame.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

[1] — KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak says the country is willing to send peacekeepers to help “de-escalate tension” in Bahrain while backing Saudi Arabia’s role in resolving regional unrest.

Bahraini authorities in the kingdom ruled by a Sunni dynasty have attempted to curb violent protests in recent months inspired by uprisings that toppled Egypt’s and Tunisia’s presidents.

“Malaysia stands ready to contribute peacekeepers to the Kingdom of Bahrain, if invited to do so by the Bahraini leadership,” Najib said in a statement on Friday following a meeting with Saudi Arabian monarch King Abdullah in Riyadh.

 

 

 

“Malaysia will consider it a great honour to offer assistance in this noble effort.” [AFP. Malaysia pledges to help Bahrain. New Straits Times. May 15 2011]