Chinese groups weigh in on Interlok Me So Happy Prominent Chinese groups are among 45 organisations which inked a joint statement slamming Muhyiddin. A number of prominent Chinese groups are among 45 organisations which inked a joint statement criticising the government's decision to retain the controversial novel 'Interlok' as a compulsory textbook for secondary schools. In a strongly-worded statement, the civil society groups ticked off the novel for attempting to indoctrinate Form Five students with the 'Malay supremacy' ideology. Describing 'Interlok' as an “insidious poison”, the civil society groups accused the novel of propagating the ideology of “Ketuanan Melayu”. “In fact, Interlok is barely a step away from the Biro Tatanegara brainwashing that promotes racism and disunity. 'Interlok' conveys the central message that Chinese, Indian and other minorities are second-class citizens in addition to perpetuating the...

Sakmongkol infected by CheDet, slams Ghani Othman by uppercaise The infection at Chedet.cc and Chedet.co.cc, the sites of Mahathir Mohamad’s blog, has worsened. In addition to being listed as “malicious attack sites” on Tuesday, Google Safe Browsing popped up an even more ominous warning on Wednesday. Google said: “Web forgeries are designed to trick you into revealing personal or financial information by imitating sources you may trust. Entering any information on this web page may result in identity theft or other fraud.” Sakmongkol AK47, the blog of former Pahang assemblyman Dato Ariff Sabry Aziz, has been also infected by CheDet (and not merely by the virus that Google says is lurking somewhere at CheDet). The bitching Ghani Othman… Dato Sak’s latest blog posting is about the Daim Zainuddin interview published by Mingguan Malaysia on Sunday; among other comments, Dato Sak blasts Abdul Ghani Othman, now menteri besar of Johor, “the bitching Abdul Ghani” in his words,...

But a graft watchdog says there are no adequate laws to deal with handouts to voters. The Malaysian chapter of the corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI-M) has refuted the claim that election handouts are not bribes. "This is especially during campaigning. Unfortunately there are no adequate laws to deal with those things, especially when it comes to cash and sewing machines," said TI-Malaysia president Paul Low. "There are a lot of promises made, like building a bridge. These promises are borderline. "You cross the line when you say, 'here is RM1,000, vote for me'," Low told a press conference at the organisation's headquarters this morning. This directly contradicts a claim by Minister in Prime Minister's Department Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz. The minister had told the Dewan Rakyat in a written reply yesterday that 'assistance' given to people during an election cannot be interpreted as corrupti...

March 31, 2011 Finally: Statement by Joint Action Group for Gender Equality * It is time for Malaysian politics to get out of the gutter, stop campaigns to slander personal reputations and focus on the important issues facing Malaysia today. A video that was allegedly filmed on 21 February 2011, which shows a man, allegedly an opposition politician, having sex with a foreign prostitute, is the latest in a series of sordid debacles to which Malaysian voters have sadly been exposed. The timing of the release of the tape coupled with the intense politicisation surrounding the case raises some serious concerns about the state of Malaysian politics. Seeking to undermine the credibility of individuals for political gain in this way is insulting and condescending to Malaysians . The exposing of such a video at such a time insults Malaysian voters intelligence as it is clearly intended to divert attention away from the critical issues facing this country. The Three Sex Stooges of...

March 31, 2011 Alfred Lord Tennyson s Ulysses : Uplifting our Spirits I find the last two stanzas of Alfred Lord Tennysons Ulysses uplifting for all of us who must face the challenges of a much confused Malaysia . We seem to be without direction, drifting in a sea of acronyms (ETP, NKRA, NEM) and slogans like 1Malaysia : Rakyat Didahulukan, Pencapaian DiUtamakan, Malaysia Boleh, and Wawasan 2020 . Promises, Promises, Projects, Projects (4Ps), if I may add. So let us be inspired by Ulysses and verses from Lord Tennysons poem with the same name. Din Merican Come, my friends, Tis not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset , and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles , And see the great Achilles , whom we knew. Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength whi...

RCI chairman makes a startling revelation about a MACC officers misbehaviour. KUALA LUMPUR: One of Teoh Beng Hocks interrogators watched pornography on his office computer after he had finished a questioning session with the late political aide whose death is the subject of current investigations by a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI). The startling revelation was made today by the RCIs chairman, James Foong, when the commission was hearing the testimony of Hishamuddin Hashim, the deputy director of the Selangor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Foong said MACC officer Mohd Ashraf Mohd Yunus watched pornography at 1.20am on July 16, 2009, while other officers were questioning Teoh. He did not say how the RCI got the information, but it was reported recently that the panel had instructed a private investigator to confiscate computers used by MACC officers directly involved in questioning Teoh. July 16 was the day Teoh was found dead at Plaza Masalam, a building in Shah Alam t...

By Reverend Dr. Thomas Philips | MCCBCHST President It is with great disgust and disbelief that we Malaysians were regaled over the last few days with the graphic narration of the existence and viewing of a 21-minute sex video to a select few masterminded and acknowledged by a trio under the pseudonym Datuk T. The Malaysian Consultative Council for Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism wishes to register its utter horror and sheer disgust at the despicable methodology devised by the unscrupulous and disgruntled trio. Their aim in publicly humiliating our elected Opposition Leader of Parliament offends the sensitivities of decent people no matter to what race or religion they belong to. This sad sordid episode, once again, brings the nation to prominence for the wrong reasons. Over the last few decades we have been treated to and numbed by numerous financial scandals, social scandals and political scandals committed by those supposedly dedicated to leading our citizens t...

by sakmongkol AK47 I am writing an article divided in 2 parts on the sex video. Once again, the nation will be gripped by another sordid tale. It's that video featuring a man resembling Anwar Ibrahim with a China doll. It's widely known as the Carcosa sex video. Produced by a trio of people, known collectively as Dato T. I am writing the articles and sending them to Free Malaysia Today, I hope the editors will publish those. Readers may want to check out FMT- not to be confused with Malaysia Today . I have been away for 1 week. That is a long blogging time for me. This self-enforced hiatus is much needed as I need to update myself on current literature. I hope I have renewed sufficient reserves to continue writing. I need to have the intellectual 'cojones' as it were, to engage rigorous people like ' evilcooler' for example. I will in the near future. He has proposed a topic. It's an interesting one. For now I want to give some commentaries o...

At this time when Barisan Nasional leaders are indulging in an orgy of throwing public funds to buy votes in the current Sarawak state elections with polling only days from now (on April 16), it is indeed heartening to hear the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) categorically insisting that all forms of material inducement for votes, including election promises, constitute an election offence. Bersih 2.0 chairman Ambiga Sreenevasans statement came in the wake of Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Paul Lows reservation as to whether election promises could be considered bribery andde facto Law Minister Nazri Azizs outright denial of any election goodies handed out during election as corruption. Anyone who has read through Sections 10 and 11 of the Election Offences Act 1954 should not have the slightest doubt that the rampant bribery that is going now in the form allocation of funds for sundry projects and purposes by BN leaders is indeed a serious elec...

This is a sign of a crisis-plagued economy in need of a quick solution. FMT ALERT KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat leaders urged the government to set up a commission to help the average Malaysians solve their debt problems amid soaring cost of living. The Malaysian middle and lower class are living on borrowing, a sign of a crisis-plagued economy, said DAP economist Charles Santiago today. He said a quick solution increasing real income was needed. At present, the nation is faced with an indebted middle and working class that is unable to support families with their present wages and remuneration, he told reporters at Parliament lobby. MORE TO COME

PKR gives details of six cases of state land allegedly given to BN cronies IPOH: PKR has accused the BN-led state government of what it called abuse of state land, providing details of six cases of alleged distribution of such land among Umno and MCA cronies. Perak PKR vice chairman Chang Lih Kang told a news conference here yesterday that the party believed the six cases were only the tip of the iceberg and that it uncovered them by chance. In the latest of the six cases, he said, the state gave three acres of land in Mukim Teja to Umnos Gopeng division. The title was registered at the state land office on July 20, 2010. These six pieces of state land should have rightfully gone to the poor, landless and needy people, but instead they went into the hands of BN cronies. In the other five cases, the state administration gave: Ten lots of land in Kampung Sungai Itek, Gopeng, to Hamzah Mohd Kassim, who leads Umno Gopeng Fifty acres in Kampung Sungai Itek to Syarikat Safura House of Diamo...

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal March 31, 2011 Low said enticement to voters cannot be seen as anything other than blatant corruption. file pic KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 Transparency-International Malaysia (TI-M) insisted today that any form of election handouts to voters was outright corruption, insisting that there should be no exception to the definition. Any form of enticement for votes, that is an outright form of corruption. What else can it be? Of course it is a bribe, said TI-M president Datuk Paul Low. Lows remarks were in response to a statement made by Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz yesterday, in which the minister had told the anti-graft watchdog to shut up and mind its own business. Nazri had refuted TI-Ms views on election handouts, citing a legal case to back up his arguments. The minister had pointed out that a 1981 court case had ruled that it was not an offence but in line with the responsibility of the government to ensure development and allocate funds regardless of whether there wa...

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal March 31, 2011 Protesters in the group urged Sarawakians to unseat Taib in next months election. file pic KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 Growing discontent with the Taib state administration has resulted in Internet activists taking their protests online ahead of the upcoming tenth Sarawak election. The Facebook group 1M Malaysians Reject 100-storey Mega Tower has launched an online protest campaign against Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, accusing him of being responsible for the plunder of priceless Sarawak land. With members and fans currently at 293,756 the group is expected to leverage residual popularity from its previous protest against the construction of a 100-storey mega tower last year. The administrators of the group announced yesterday that a protest event will be held online today, calling it Sarawak Forest Minute a minute of protesters time for Sarawaks forest. The Facebook group, 1M Malaysian Reject 100-storey Mega Tower launches a o...

To the uninformed, one might be forgiven if her or she thinks that once one is a Muslim, the discrimination that one once faced as a Untouchable @ Dalit / Harijan / Parayan, etc might be a thing of the past. Not as I have learned. It is shocking to see these unwarranted forms of apartheid being practiced by those who claim to be Muslims. I will not pretend that there are no such behaviors amongst the Muslims of Malaysia but to see these absurd levels of segregations being allowed to divide and separate the ummah over there in India just makes me seethe with anger and be sad and dismayed simultaneously. What kind of people do we have there masquerading as the alims, ulema and scholars of Islam whilst at the same moment allow such bias and discrimination fester amongst the obviously confused and ignorant lot of India's Muslim communities? Fair enough, we have to accept the fact that even in the life and times of Prophet Muhammad Sallalahu Alaihi Wassallam, there were slaves who were ...

By Debra Chong March 31, 2011 The ministrys seal is seen on the front cover of an Alkitab at Kuching Port. file pic KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 Despite denouncing the federal government for desecrating 5,000 Malay bibles with the Home Ministrys seal, the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) has finally picked up its two-year-old cargo worth RM70,000 from Port Klang. The importer said the stamped and serialised bibles, which it collected yesterday, cannot be sold and will instead be preserved as museum pieces and a reminder to future generations of Malaysian Christians of what it maintains was a deliberate and unjustified government move to deface their holy book. The 5,000 copies of the Alkitab that has been defaced by KDN (the Home Ministry) cannot be sold to Christian buyers. Instead, they will be respectfully preserved as museum pieces and as a heritage for the Christian Church in Malaysia, the BSM said in a statement last night. It was silent on the present location of the holy books and t...

This Week: Fareed Zakaria on Benazir Bhutto, Pamela Paul on the baby biz, Dave Itzkoff and bestseller news. Popout Original audio source (05bookupdate.mp3)

Zaid Ibrahim A friend advised me not to comment any further about that sex scandal video. My already diminishing popularity will plummet further, he said. He went on to say that no one would believe that Anwar was the person involved anyway. Needless to say, it was something that riled me up a bit. I have never been involved in public issues for popularity. To get involved would be because I think its in the interests of the public for me to do so. When Dr Mahathir acted against the Rulers and curtailed their immunity, I supported him even when the UMNO rank and file was deeply divided on the issue. I believed that even Rulers had to be responsible for their actions. There was widespread media coverage across the newspapers while I was lambasted by many quarters within the party. When no Malay politician dared to speak out against PAS enacting Hudud Laws, I did just that and challenged the legality of the laws in the Federal Court. Under Pak Lahs administration, when almost the entire...

8 people liked this At TED2009, Tim Berners-Lee called for "raw data now" -- for governments, scientists and institutions to make their data openly available on the web. At TED University in 2010, he shows a few of the interesting results when the data gets linked up.

Bersih 2.0: Polls promises are bribes too Bersih 2.0 chief Ambiga Sreenevasan says election promises are still a form of inducement, even though it is not direct handouts. The Coalition for Free and Fair Elections said that while election handouts are a clear-cut case of corruption, the same should apply to election promises. Disagreeing with Transparency International-Malaysia's statements that election promises are, though unethical, not a form of corruption, the coalition said that they are still a form of inducement. “Clear reading of the Elections Offences Act shows that whenever there is an inducement for votes to vote for a particular party, no matter whether they are with funds or promises, that is an election offence... NONE“I'm sorry but I disagree with Transparency International. I am disappointed that they take the view when they should uphold fair practices,” said former Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan, who now helms the coa...

A Malaysia without politicians? — Azril Mohd Amin A certain prominent psychiatrist here in Malaysia once commented (“off the record”) that one of the job skills required of successful politicians is “borderline criminal psychosis”. In other words, many political leaders are not that far away from being crazy criminals. Anyway, everybody seems to know that politics is a “dirty business”. The ancient Hindus, however, extolled political leadership by giving it one of the four major castes, the Brahmin class. Nevertheless, only in newly developing countries do you find many young people seeking employment with the government. In the US, Europe, and so on, private enterprise is more respectable. Private enterprise usually opens to a better future, though perhaps not as secure as “government service”. Here in Malaysia, a certain variety of “dirty politics” is practised more and more, called “jungle politics”. The first rule of “jungle politics” is that you must...

Tainted seafood fears spread as Japan plant leaks Reuters/Issei Kato Japan's Emperor Akihito (L) and Empress Michiko (2nd L) talk with evacuees at Tokyo Budoh-kan. AP – U.S. military and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force soldiers help clean mud from tsunami floodwaters in … By MARI YAMAGUCHI and SHINO YUASA, Associated Press Mari Yamaguchi And Shino Yuasa, Associated Press – 11 mins ago TOKYO – Fears about contaminated seafood spread Wednesday despite reassurances that radiation in the waters off Japan's troubled atomic plant pose no health risk, as the country's respected emperor consoled evacuees from the tsunami and nuclear emergency zone. While experts say radioactive particles are unlikely to build up significantly in fish, the seafood concerns in the country that gave the world sushi are yet another blemish for Brand Japan. I...

Malaysia has been rated top in English-language proficiency among Asian countries and the only high-proficiency country outside Europe, according to rankings on an English Proficiency Index , the first produced by a private English training organisation EF Education First, which has a network of 400 English-language schools around the world. Hold the cheering, though. For one thing, the rankings do not include Singapore, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, most of the Gulf countries, Papua-New Guinea or Australia and New Zealand. The whole of Africa and North America are out, and so is the UK. For another, the index was based on scores from two online English-language tests available on the Internet and two placement tests used by EF when students enrol at its English-language schools. It seems obvious that few Singaporeans, Australians or New Zealanders bothered to take EFs tests or enrol in their English-language schools, thus the absence of those countries on the rankings. Countr...

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has to fork out RM50 million a year to maintain the nation’s two submarines, Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Latiff Ahmad told Parliament today. He was responding to a question from Ibrahim Ali, the independent MP for Pasir Mas. He dismissed claims that one of the submarines was unable to dive, saying it was repaired last month after suffering a technical problem. The government bought the two Scorpene submarines from French-based company DCNS in a controversial deal in 2002, when Najib Tun Razak was defence minister. The opposition has been alleging corruption in the RM6.7 million purchase, arranged by a company owned by Abdul Razak Baginda, the former Najib aide who was charged with abetting in the murder of Altantuya Shaariibu. The Mongolian beauty was a translator in the deal. Abdul Razak was eventually acquitted. Abdul Latiff, responding to a supplementary question from Tian Chua (PKR-Batu), said a six-year contract to maintain the submar...

March 30, 2011 Alkitab Row: The CFM rejected Federal Government Overtures by Debra Chong@ themalaysianinsider.com Christian Federation of Malaysia Founded in 1986. Mission Statement: We, who are Christians belonging to different Christian churches, denominations and organizations but professing the same Christian faith, have resolved to form the Christian Federation of Malaysia through which we, as a community, shall endeavour, together with other religious communities, to play our part as loyal and useful citizens of our nation. No religious community will ever want to suffer the indignity of having its sacred scriptures banned and prohibited as though it is some seditious material or a contraband product considered immoral. That this has [been] done repeatedly over so many years is an affront and insult to the religious community concerned and raises very serious questions about the status of religious freedom and respect for other religions in our country. Bis...