‘Cease attacks on SAPP’

Lim Kit Siang has reminded Sabah DAP that their fight
is with Umno-Barisan Nasional not SAPP.

By Michael Kaung

PENAMPANG: DAP strongman Lim Kit Siang has directed party leaders in Sabah to bury the hatchet and stop the on-going war of words with fellow opposition member, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).
Lim, the DAP adviser, is worried that the quarrel between the party’s state branch and SAPP is distracting them from the real challenge in the 13th general election that could be called by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak any time now.

Waiting to get paid

A new CEO takes over at a struggling company and decides to get rid of all the slackers.

On a tour of the facilities, the CEO notices a guy leaning against a wall. He can’t believe this guy would just stand around on the job. The new CEO walks up to the guy and asks, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m just waiting to get paid,” responds the man.

People's power and winning the battle for a future - S.Arutchelvan's paper presented in Australia

By S. Arutchelvan, Sec-Gen of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM)

In Thailand, Malaysia’s neighbor - recently the Reds won the elections against the yellow. The Reds were mainly based in rural areas and from working class and farmers background but firmly also supporters of Thaksin – the former Prime Minister and telecommunication tycoon while the yellow were those within the elites, supporters of the royalty and the army and many of them are from the urban areas especially Bangkok itself. The NGOs and civil societies – a numbers of them stayed A-political and some call this group, “wait and see” while some lefties organization stood with the Reds because of their class characteristic as well as because they are seen as the democratic forces. The Reds have since won the elections but real reforms are slow to come. The Army and the royalty still very much in the picture.

Timbalan Menteri: Tarik balik penggantungan Aziz Bari

Timbalan Menteri Pengajian Tinggi Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah hari ini menasihatkan rektor Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) untuk menarik balik penggantungan kontroversi ke atas Prof Abdul Aziz Bari.

Malaysiakini ternampak mesej teks beliau kepada Datuk Zaleha Kamaruddin pagi ini, di mana beliau berkata penggantungan itu adalah “memudaratkan”.

Menurutnya, apa sahaja (sebab-sebab untuk tindakan itu), ia masih
salah dari segi moral dan intelektual (kerana) Aziz belum didapati bersalah.

Sabah’s right: Jeffrey disputes historian’s view

A Universiti Malaya professor claims that Sabah and
Sarawak cannot 'legally' secede from Malaysia.

KOTA KINABALU: Malaysian history professor DS Ranjit has come under fire in Sabah for declaring that the people of the state no longer have the fundamental right to self-determination as their legislators had surrendered that power a long time ago.

The Universiti Malaya historian, whose talk entitled “Sabah prospects and retrospect: The aftermath of colonial rule” here on Thursday, put forward the argument that the British colony which had joined Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya to form Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963, would never be able to legally withdraw from the union.

UMNO dan PKR itu adalah serupa

Oleh Maslan Maginda

Aktivis Masyarakat, Maslan Bin Maginda

KOTA BELUD: Rakyat Sabah jangan terlalu mengagungkan pemimpin asing yang sedang menikmati kekayaan di Negeri sendiri. Kita harus meneruskan perjuangan Tun Fuad Donald Stephen selepas pertikaian isu minyak yang dilihat perkara itu sebagai melanggar pembentukan Malaysia dan menjajah ekonomi Sabah.

Apa yang kita dapat lihat pembangunan hari ini, hanyalah satu wayang kepada kerajaan pusat dan ini melambangkan bahawa rakyat Sabah hanyalah anak patung yang tidak bersuara dan seekor binatang yang hanya menurut perintah mereka sahaja. Cukuplah kita ditindas dari semua arus pembangunan perdana yang dilakukan oleh parti BN/UMNO.

Himpun berjaya, kata penganjur

Pengerusi bersama Perhimpunan Sejuta Umat, Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid berkata perhimpunan di Shah Alam hari ini tetap merupakan satu kejayaan walau jumlah kehadiran peserta tidak seramai yang diharapkan sebelum ini.

Tambahnya, peserta perhimpunan itu juga berlangsung dengan tenang tetapi tetap bersemangat.
“Dengan tenang mendengar tapi dengan semangat, kenyataan
bahawa kita minta saudara kita hormati, negara ini letakkan kedudukan Islam kedudukan istimewa,” katanya dalam sidang media selepas perhimpunan itu berakhir lewat petang ini.
Dianggarkan seramai 5,000 orang hadir di perhimpunan berkenaan di Stadium Shah Alam.

Why is BN afraid of white paper on SAS?

By Daniel John Jambun

We all know the protracted issue of Saham Amanah Sabah (SAS) which was launched on a share value of RM1 and then got reduced to 20 sen ("Cheaper than kueh pisang," as many people put it) and caused a loss of more than RM400 million involving 55,000 investors.

And it is still raging today, with certain groups, especially BN leaders trying to point their accusing fingers at Datuk Yong Teck Lee who happened to be the Chief Minister when SAS was introduced.

Utusan Must Apology To All Christian

UTUSAN'S allegation was then featured on the front page of Utusan Malaysia on May 7. Another blog ‘Marahku’ also carried the allegation, reporting a plan to make Christianity the official religion of Malaysia and for a Christian to be Prime Minister.

Tim Hii, DAP Sabah ApiApi Branch Assistant secretary, has called for Utusan license to be revoked as its allegations against Christians, have caused severe defamations to Christian Malaysians' good image.

Utusan had dropped a bomb, which could potentially jeopardize the peace and harmony we Malaysians have long enjoyed regardless of races and religions. Tim elaborated.

The reason Malays don't respect Sultans

The federal Islamic development agency claimed today that many Muslim do not respect the authority of the Malay Rulers who are heads of religions for their respective states. On the eve of a planned gathering of a million Muslims to defend the faith, the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia (Jakim) prepared a Friday sermon that accused some parties of putting political interests ahead of the religion. “Many Muslims today do not respect the views and authority and in fact question the Sultan heads of the Islamic religious councils. The sanctity of the faith has been politicised and the split among Muslims has affected the function and role of the councils,” said the sermon titled “State Islamic religious councils drive the transformation of the faithful”.

NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin

Therefore, the opinion that Rajas should be placed under a Constitution that determined the status and role of the Rajas was born. With this method, the Rajas could no longer act as they liked. The powers of the Rajas would be determined by the Constitution, that is the country's basic law. Yet, there were Rajas who were willing to hand over their own states to foreign powers while ignoring the Constitution.

Although the representatives were free to speak in the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Undangan Negeri about any topic, but they could not touch on the Rajas because any criticism of the Rajas could be interpreted as sedition and they could be charged under the Sedition Act. This provision was a result of an amendment made in 1971. Before this, criticism of the Rajas could be made in the house. In Britain and other countries, the Parliament was free to criticize the Rajas. It is clear that that criticizing the Rajas does not destroy the Rajas' majesty.

While this prohibition on criticism is said to protect the Rajas' majesty, but when the Rajas are not criticized, they will not be aware of the wrongs that they have committed. Hence, maybe more wrongs will be committed and these wrongs may become more serious. This not only contaminates the Rajas' majesty but can also cause the People to hate the Rajas. It is not true to say the prohibition on criticizing the Rajas will protect the Rajas' majesty. Actually, the majesty of the Rajas will be contaminated because of this prohibition.
Unfortunately, because the Chief Ministers and Prime Minister are Malays that are unwilling to be on bad terms with the Rajas, when the Rajas do something that is not supposed to be done, no effective criticism is made. Even if there is, the unwillingness of the Rajas to care about the criticisms of these official advisers does not bring about any action towards the Rajas.

Hence, in the history of independent Malaysia, the actions of the Rajas and parties who hide behind the Rajas that exceed the rights and privileges of the Rajas become more serious over time. The possibility is that it will become more serious in the future. If there are no amendments to the law, like those suggested here, without doubt worse matters will happen that will cause the Raja Institution to be hated by the people. It is not impossible that if one day in the future, demands are made to completely abolish the Raja System although there are provisions in the Constitution.

Hence this amendment that is suggested aims to avoid or prevent the escalation of hatred towards the Rajas that could bring about demands to abolish the Raja System. This amendment is to save the Rajas themselves and the Constitutional Monarchy system. To strengthen the Constitutional provisions to maintain the Raja System, provisions are made such that any suggestion to abolish the Raja System will be interpreted as sedition and falls under Sedition Laws.

If Malaysia intends to become a country that practices Parliamentary Democracy and Constitutional Monarchy, the immunity that is given to the Rajas must be abolished. Because the Constitution in countries that practice the Constitutional Monarchy System doesn't give immunity to their Kings, the abolishment of the immunity of the Malay Rajas cannot jeopardize their sovereignty. In the modern era, only because the King can't commit crimes as they like, the King's status will not be jeopardized, especially in a country that practices Parliamentary Democracy and Constitutional Monarchy.

The interpretation of the sedition towards the King in the Constitution is so wide until no criticism is can be made in Parliament by members of the Dewan Rakyat or Dewan Undangan. Hence, the media also has no opportunity to report. Criticism can only be made by the Rajas' advisors behind closed doors. If this criticism is ineffective, there is nothing that can be done.

Actually all three former Prime Ministers, as advisors to the Rajas, have already criticized the Rajas many times while they were in service. I know criticisms have been made because this matter has been repeatedly reported in Cabinet meetings and also the UMNO Supreme Council.

It should be reminded that the respect of the People towards the Raja cannot be determined by laws. With your permission, 'Respect must be earned'. Having laws that scare the People will not bring 'respect'. With the realization that the Rajas can be brought to court, Rajas will certainly avoid committing acts that will cause the people not to respect the Rajas. Hence, the Raja Institution will be better respected and better preserved.
Extract of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's speech in the Malaysian Parliament (1993)