Malaysia's opposition alliance mired in troubles

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It is the season of discontent in Pakatan Rakyat, the opposition alliance, with the top leaders in Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) constantly at odds with each other.

At the same time, Pakatan’s lead member PAS, an Islamist party, is woefully divided over whether to bed down with arch-rival United Malays National Organisation (Umno) to advance Malay unity and Islam.

In Perak, the Democratic Action Party-led opposition is no better soldiering on as the government in a make-believe world despite losing the state to Barisan National, the ruling coalition, in February.

The all-round troubles in Pakatan have considerably weakened the camaraderie in the coalition, raised suspicions among leaders and generally created doubts among the people over their political maturity and skill to manage the country if they were to capture power at federal level.

Political commenters, including some who are enthusiastic about Anwar Ibrahim and the PKR, are now openly questioning his status as a unifying national leader and the sole harbinger of national change.

For example, lawyer Haris Ibrahim, in a recent entry under the title “The end days of PKR in Sabah?” in the popular website People’s Parliament, criticised Anwar and his handling of the Sabah leadership crisis.

He also criticised Anwar for wanting a Muslim as PKR leader in Sabah on the grounds that the state is Muslim-majority although PKR’s philosophy is not about race or religion.

Sabah and Sarawak, which were touted as frontline states in his march to Putrajaya, are especially problematic for Anwar.

Historically, Anwar was the man who defeated then chief minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan in the mid-1990s and oversaw the dismantling of the PBS and the rise of Muslim political parties in the state.

But now as challenger to the throne, he needs the two states to help him reach the seat of power. However, his most recent decisions have made the political situation worse for him.

First, he appointed himself as head of Sabah and Sarawak PKR last year on the grounds that the two states have to be carefully nurtured and the Pakatan network expanded in order to capture them from Barisan Nasional.

But constant infighting in PKR in both states and between PKR and the DAP saw to it that nothing useful by way of organisation took place there.

PKR’s defeat in the April 7 Batang Ai by-election showed the great difficulties Pakatan face in Sarawak and in Sabah.

The setbacks in both states simply kept piling up.

In Sarawak, Ngemeh assemblyman Gabriel Adit was hailed as the man who would deliver the state to Pakatan. However, several months on, he has all but quit PKR and is likely to form his own party.

In Sabah, Anwar passed the PKR chairman’s post to his controversial acolyte vice-president Azmin Ali whose alleged “conceited and arrogant style” virtually saw Sabah PKR close to breaking up.

Last week, Anwar made the situation worse by appointing his loyalist Ahmad Thamrin Jaini as the new Sabah PKR chief, by-passing prominent Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, former Berjaya star Ansari Abdullah and another PKR luminary in Kota Kinabalu, Christina Liew.

All three are deeply upset with the selection of Thamrin, who they say is too much an “Islamic person” to unite the different ethnic groups in Sabah.

As a consequence of choosing Thamrin, Dr Jeffery has resigned as PKR vice-president but remains a party member, but, by the looks of it, not for long.

Anwar is desperately sending emissaries to both Dr Jeffrey and Liew to urge them not to do “anything hasty”. But the damage is done, with Dr Jeffrey telling The Star he has burnt “all his bridges”.

Anwar’s dream of reaching Putrajaya would be all but dashed if Dr Jeffrey quits, taking with him at least 15 PKR divisions which are mostly led by non-Muslims.

These leaders had openly supported Dr Jeffrey and demanded that he be made Sabah PKR chairman.

There are similar troubles closer to home, with the well-regarded Zaid Ibrahim taking six months’ leave after losing a battle with Azmin for the ears of the boss.

It would be a major loss for PKR if Zaid does not return and decides to move on.

Lately, another well-regarded PKR luminary, secretary general Salehuddin Hashim, is said to have handed in his resignation letter to Anwar.

Salehuddin has denied resigning but his disagreements with Anwar over the numerous “not logical” decisions from the party supremo have pushed him to the wall, PKR sources said.

“Salehuddin is tired of the backbiting and the favouritism in Anwar’s decisions,” a PKR source said, adding that the “frustration level” in the top PKR leadership is rising dramatically.

Haris, equally exasperated with Anwar and the PKR over the “Sabah and Sarawak situations”, asked several pertinent questions of Anwar in recent postings.

One was whether Anwar was “truly the changed man from your Umno days or are you a closet Malay nationalist (in the way you are making politically expedient decisions)?”

It is a question many people are also asking.

Banned: First Altantuya, Now Perak

Athi Veeranggan | May 30, 09 4:38pm | Malaysiakini

It is clear that any mention of a possible link between Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and murdered Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu can land a person into trouble.

PKR supreme council member and fiery orator Badrul Hisham Shaharin had to spend nearly five hours at the Central Seberang Perai police headquarters yesterday to answer questions over his by-election campaign speech in Penanti on Monday where he mentioned ‘Altantuya’.

Now, however, one cannot also link Najib to the four-month political impasse in Perak or you can be investigated for sedition and criminal defamation.

Senior DAP leader Lim Kit Siang found out about this after a report was made by the police and a statement was taken on the matter.

At a 3,000-strong by-election campaign rally in Guar Perahu, Penanti last Sunday, Lim accused Najib of engineering the Perak power grab.

The Ipoh Timur parliamentarian was quizzed by investigating officer ASP Norazizi Saad for nearly an hour from 11.30am today at his house in Island Park, Georgetown.

Lim said he was being investigated for sedition and criminal defamation in blaming Najib for the Perak political stalemate.

He added that he was being probed following a report lodged by an on-duty police officer at the Sunday rally.

“If I am charged and found guilty, I will be imprisoned … simple as that,” the DAP supremo told a press conference, flanked by his son and Penang Chief Minister Guan Eng, DAP national chairperson Karpal Singh and several DAP local leaders and assemblypersons.

Even Najib’s father did not do this.

The senior Lim cautioned that the two-month-old Najib’s premiership was fast descending into a “police state” and into an “era of darkness”.

He cited police crackdowns on candlelight vigils, hunger strikes, wearing black, the raid on DAP headquarters, and the harassment of Pakatan Rakyat leaders and social activists to back his claim. Over 160 people have been arrested in the past three weeks.

“This is a serious violation of human rights and civil liberties,” said the veteran opposition leader, the only opposition parliamentarian who has faced off the country’s six prime ministers.

“I don’t blame the police. They are acting on the directives from a higher-up power,” he said, suggesting that the Barisan Nasional government was increasingly spooked by the rapid loss of public confidence.

Kit Siang recalled that even Najib’s late father, former premier Abdul Razak Abdul Rahman, had never investigated him for sedition or criminal defamation despite engaging in many political duels with him back in the 70s.

“We are facing a major political crisis at the same time when the country is facing its biggest economic crisis,” lamented the senior politician.

Guan Eng, meanwhile, criticised the police for wasting their resources on petty political issues, and ticked them off for increasingly acting like “bodyguards to BN rather than to the people.”

Like Chegu Bard, as Badrul Hisham is fondly known, Kit Siang was slapped with a police order yesterday under Section 111 of Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) requesting him to be present at the Central Seberang Perai police headquarters this morning.

However, the DAP leader had asked Norazizi to record his statement at his Penang home.

Karpal, who was also at the press conference after Kit Siang’s sesssion with the police, slammed the police for applying Section 111 on his DAP colleague.

The MP-cum-lawyer said that such an order could only be issued after a witness had failed to turn up at the designated police station to give a statement.

Karpal: Charge Khir Toyo instead

Karpal instead called on the attorney-general to press charges against former Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo for taking part in an illegal Umno Youth rally in Waterfall, Penang on Feb 13.

The demonstration was to include a march from Waterfall to Karpal’s house nearby in Jalan Utama. However, it was called off after police warned Umno Youth members that severe action would be taken against them.

Mohd Khir and Permatang Pauh Umno Youth chief Mohd Zaidi was later escorted to the Georgeown police headquarters for their statements to be recorded. They were later released.

“It was an illegal assembly. Why none of them were charged?” asked Karpal, the Bukit Gelugor MP.

According to Kit Siang, he was approached by police officers at a Pakatan Rakyat rally in Berapit last night where he was informed about the investigation. At the same time, a police order was delivered to his house in Persiaran Besi, Island Park.

Police also served a separate notice to Chegu Bard at his homes in Seremban and Bangi on Thursday when he was in Perak.

During the Guar Perahu ceramah, Kit Siang had condemned the police raid on DAP headquarters in Petaling Jaya as “a shameful incident”, and called on Penanti voters to teach Najib a political lesson.

Pakatan candidate Mansor Othman from PKR is up against three independent candidates – Aminah Abdullah, Kamarul Ramizu Idris and Nai Khan Ari, in Penanti by-election.

Campaigning will end at midnight and polling is tomorrow.

Excerpt -http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2009/05/30/are-there-enough-courts-and-prisons/#

Is UMNO Over?

In a highly critical (free, not fee) article in the March 2009 issue of Far Eastern Economic Review, Barry Wain, former editor of The Wall Street Journal Asia, seems to argue, no, but maybe it should be. He doesn't say this explicitly but that's how it sounds to me in his long article on Najib Razak's impending succession, through UMNO, as Malaysia's next Prime Minister. As I read it, I thought, like father (former PM Abdul Razak) like son. All the same behind-the-scenes power plays and dirty tricks through UMNO political secretaries. All the same fleeting gestures of tolerance to non-Malays while wielding the iron first in practice.

UMNO logo

The difference now is that UMNO in Tun Abdul Razak's time held overwhelming parliamentary control through UMNO, abetted later by the new Barisan Nasional coalition which replaced the original Alliance. But in the 2008 elections, the Barisan nearly lost power. Too, Tun Razak proved not adverse to invoking a state of emergency and widely abusing the ISA (Internal Security Act). The ISA is still with us, but in 1969 many (not including me) believed it necessary and arrests made under it justified. Now, the ISA is widely reviled and most Malaysians understand it is just a tool to repress any democratic opposition posing a threat to UMNO rule. Last, unlike the bad old days in which there was no obvious Malay politician who could hold the country together in an opposition coalition, in Anwar Ibrahim with his PKR, there is. And there is even the unacknowledged possibility, that Lim Kit Siang from DAP could become Deputy Prime Minister. While some may say, dream on, a new Pakatan government led by these two figures is now UMNO's nightmare, all the more so since the Barisan's many non-UMNO political party partners are, for all practical purposes, dead in the water.

Maybe ISA lightning and thunder are in the offing once again.

Background:
Far Eastern Economic Review
Wikipedia entry Politics of Malaysia
Wikipedia entry Malaysia General Election 2008
Anwar Ibrahim's blog
Lim Kit Siang's blog

Malay Language Chauvinism Breaks Out Again in KL

Sadly, Malay-language chauvinism never seems to die in Malaysia, even when it has been in the ascendancy for decades. Today, diehards held a large protest rally (much YouTubed) in Kuala Lumpur, calling for the end of a minor sensible policy concession proposed by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and implemented from January 2003 which mandated a gradual switch in instruction medium for science and mathematics from Malay to English from the first year in so-called national (Malay-medium) schools. Mahathir's rationale, widely considered to have merit, was to remedy serious decline in English competence (especially among Malay students), a handicap to future economic prospects. The policy change has improved this awkward situation somewhat in just the half-dozen years it has been in effect.



Well-organized segments of Malay teachers and Malay student leaders have always opposed any change to Malay as the main medium of instruction, even to the point of making it sole medium in the education system. Many in the raucous demonstration today (over 124 arrested by national police officers, according to The Star) were precisely these large factions of Malay teachers and other Malays vested in current language policies premised on the assumption that Article 152 of the Federal Constitution dictates those policies, an argument impossible to sustain rationally. Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan proclaimed the procession illegal as he justified repeated use of tear gas and water cannons against more rowdy marchers. Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, who will likely give way to Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak in just weeks, made his usual apologies for doing nothing by blaming the Ministry of Education for dilly-dallying in its consideration of the established policy and the current newly aroused highly politicized opposition to it. (This Ministry implements primary and secondary education policy, while tertiary education policy is guided by a new Ministry of Higher Education established in 2004.) It is possible the march was planned in part as a warning shot for Najib, who would likely not make any significant alteration to medium of instruction policy.

The huge crowd, estimated from "hundreds" (by the fairly cautious Singapore-based Channel News Asia) to "at least 5,000 ethnic Malays" (AFP) to "8,000" (Malaysiakini) to even higher numbers was physically led by opposition PAS leader Abdul Hadi Awang, prominent Malay literary figure (Sasterawan Negara) A. Samad Said, 76, and former Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka director Hassan Ahmad. They worked under the formal demonstration sponsor, GNP, Gerakan Mansuhkan PPSMI (Movement to Abolish PPSMI), a coalition of 14 NGOs. PPSMI is the Malay acronym for Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik, the policy protested today. A memorandum was successfully delivered to the State Palace (Istana Negara), official residence of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (always a Malay), popularly known in English as 'king.' The march had begun at Masjid Negara, another potent symbols of Malay political hegemony.

Perhaps surprisingly to some, PKR Supreme Council member Badrul Hisham Shaharin in the opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat, also participated, evidently in his private capacity. While PAS is regarded rightfully as the more conservative Malay Pakatan member, PKR is seen as its more open multi-racial though predominantly Malay component. There were no reports of participation by members of Pakatan's third partner, DAP, an outspoken proponent of multi-lingualism in medium of instruction and in official languages since its founding

Background:
Education in Malaysia
List of political parties in Malaysia