bobjots : redux

With the brickbats that's been thrown at the Selangor Menteri Besar, Khalid Ibrahim, on his recent proposal to levy employers of foreign workers to fund a skills training programme for unemployed youths in the state, it is quite heartening to see that he has found it fit to respond in a positive manner. A bit of a change compared to the previous administration whose default reaction was to ridicule critics and then subsequently ignore them.

Among the responses made by the MB was a commitment to utilise legitimate methods to administer this proposal undergirded by a firm undergirding of the respect of basic human rights (which ultimately was the main concern of civil society). He also expressed his appreciation towards civil society groups who expressed their concerns over this matter.

Civil society does have some good ideas that have been floating around for quite a while and some of them are actually proven ones. The Shagmeister has some ideas of his own which I am pretty sure aren't entirely original. If you've been around the NGO and trade union circles, you'd have heard similiar sentiments and solutions being thrown on the table ..

.. The solution, dearest MB, is to make foreign labour less attractive vis-a-vis local labour. Reducing or eliminating the differential between local & foreign workers in (i) wages & (ii) the negotiating power of employers will solve the youth unemployment (& reduce the number of foreign workers) ..

I must admit I have had my doubts about Dr Wan Azizah's (aka Kak Wan) capacity to serve as a leader when she first took the reins of the infant Reformasi movement way back in 1998. Over the years, I have seen her settle and grow into the position of leadership, first as the president of Parti Keadilan Nasional and later as president of Parti Keadilan Rakyat and this is one of the rare occasions that I find myself very glad to be proven wrong.

While the mainstream press has either ignored her or painted her as a subservient puppet of her more famous husband, Anwar Ibrahim, a more detailed look at her record, both in Parliament or outside, proves otherwise. While not as fiery or as adversarial as the more famous Opposition MPs like Lim Kit Siang or Karpal Singh, one cannot fail to notice that she doesn't take the floor of the Dewan Rakyat without the necessary facts in hand. What she lacks in rhetoric and aggressive posturing, she makes up with her comprehensive grasp of the issue on hand. Don't take my word for it, go check out the Parliamentary Hansard archives yourself.

A search on The Star Online for the term "apolitical" and you get the most improbable entries like :

• Apolitical website for people to rate their councillors
  A website has been set up to enable the public to review and rate their local councillors, government officers and ministers online.
• Councillors should be apolitical
  The Petaling Jaya Residents Association (PEJRA) has issued an official statement expressing their stand on what they would like to see in the appointment structure of new MBPJ councillors.

PAS Selangor is organising a People's Rally at Stadium Melawati, Shah Alam on Monday, 31 March 2008. The programme starts at 8.00pm and will see a Quran recitation as well as a Nasyid presentation.

The following are expected to take the podium :

• Tuan Guru Dato' Seri Haji Abdul Hadi Awang
  PAS President
• Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim
  Dato' Menteri Besar of Selangor
• Nasharuddin Mat Isa
  PAS Vice President
• Dato' Dr. Hasan Ali
  Selangor Chairperson for Islamic Affairs, Malay Culture, Infrastructure and Public Amenities
• Teresa Kok Suh Sim
  Selangor Chaiperson for Investment, Industry and Commerce

Some of you may have noticed popunder ads on this blog showing up. Rest assured, its not my doing. It took me a while to figure out but I finally guessed that it was the Rankwidgets that were injecting the Clicksor ads on this blog.

Honestly, I don't mind having some ads on my blog (obvious isn't it) but I'd prefer if I actually knew who was advertising here. Rankwidget could have just sent us all an e-mail letting us know that they planned to insert ads in the widgets and provided us an option to opt out.

Anyway, its fixed now .. I hope.

The criticism regarding the Selangor Menteri Besar's statement that his administration will continue with the "Zero Squatters" policy of the previous Barisan Nasional administration has generally been justified, especially in view of the previous administrations horrendous human rights record in implementing the policy. Forced evictions and the use of violent force was normative and this has been amply recorded in cases like Kampung Berembang and Kampung Padang Jawa.

KeADILan's Youth Wing recently released a statement committing towards a humane and equitable approach towards achieving the "Zero Squatters" goal. Knowing some of the people who are in the middle of this PR boo boo, and also seeing how they have, in the past, stood up for the rights of squatters and urban settlers who have been violently evicted, I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt. Their full statement, in Malay, reads :

One of the more enduring myths about Anwar Ibrahim was the role he played in the Kampung Rawa incident in 1998 where up to 500 Muslims & Hindus clashed over misunderstandings caused by the building of a Hindu temple next to mosque. Anwar allegedly confronted the Hindus and threatened them to stand down, or else. Or at least, that's what the official spin is (with people like Samy Vellu and Dr Chandra Muzaffar repeating it during the run up to the last general elections as a way to discredit Anwar Ibrahim).

Anwar himself has addressed this issue countless times but yesterday saw the publishing of his side of the story for the first time in the mainstream media when The Sun published an interview with Anwar by Citizen Nades and Terence Fernandez :

My friend, Nik Nazmi, who is also currently the State Assemblyman for Seri Setia and Political Secretary to the Menteri Besar of Selangor, is appealing for volunteers to help in a community tuition project that he started earlier in Desa Mentari, Petaling Jaya. This is a working class neighbourhood with a lot of hard core poor. Education might be one of the few attainable goals to help the people break free from the vicious cycle of poverty.

Currently there are 30 children between the ages of 10 - 12 (Year 4 - Year 6) who are beneficiaries of the project with emphasis being given on tuition in English, Mathematics and the Sciences. Long term plans include the expansion of the project to the Seri Setia low-cost flats area. Throughout the elections campaign period, a lot of other areas like Taman Glenmarie in Shah Alam have also been identified as potential areas where similiar projects can be set up and run by different groups.

Volunteer tutors for the Desa Mentari project are only required to commit to a maximum of three hours per weekend - three hours that can mean all the difference in the lives of many. Donors, are of course welcomed as well.

Further details are available from Nazmi's blog or you can contact him direct via e-mail (available at his blog).

From SUARAM :

Suaram is deeply disturbed with the plan of the Selangor state government to collect RM10 monthly fee from all migrant workers in the state of Selangor. The new policy was announced by the Chief Minister of the newly formed Selangor state government, Khalid Ibrahim recently during a press interview with Chinese press.

According to the Chief Minister, the money collected will be used for the purpose of setting up a re-training fund for unemployed youths. It aims to equip them with more skills and in a long run reduce the reliance on migrant workers.

The newly minted KeADILan-DAP-PAS coalition Menteri Besar of Selangor may have just made his first major PR boo boo. In a recent interview with Malaysiakini, a few points that he brought up are basically political landmines :

• Taxation of Employers Who Employ Foreign Workers

  While I like the idea of expanding the skills training programme to make our young adults employable (there does exist a substantially large group of young adults in this country who lack the necessary qualifications to make them gainfully employed), the proposal to levy a tax on employers who employ foreign workers to fund this programme is something that ought to be seriously re-thought.

  How many employers will not pass the cost back to the foreign workers who are already among the most marginalised community in this country?

Don't fret. The Jabatan Tenaga Manusia (Manpower Department) of the Ministry of Human Resources is currently inviting applications for the July 2008 ILP (Institut Latihan Perindustrian or Industrial Training Institute) intake for their Certificate and Diploma courses. These courses are fully funded by the state and are meant to provide pre-employment skills training to meet the needs of the industrial sector in Malaysia.

Both certificate and diploma level courses are available as well as Majlis Latihan Vokasional Malaysia's (MLVK) Sijil Kemahiran Malaysia (Malaysian Skills Certificate) qualifications, similiar to the more well known VET, BTEC and TAFE qualifications with the courses being organised with approximately 70% practical training and 30% theoretical instruction.

Entry requirements vary but the basic requirements are a simple SPM/O-Level pass (8D) in Bahasa Malaysia and aged between 17 - 30. Some courses require additional SPM/O-Level passes in subjects like Mathematics and the Sciences (or a related technical course).

Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, president of Parti KeADILan Rakyat and the designated Leader of the Opposition for the incoming 12th Parliament unveiled her 5 point agenda for the next Parliamentary session (see Malaysiakini and full statement at KeADILan) :

1. The Economy
   Malaysia’s economy must be safeguarded to ensure maximum growth, investor friendliness and equitable distribution for all Malaysians. By continuing to speak out against corruption and wastage, we will continue to help guide Malaysia to a more robust, poverty-free economy.
2. Harmony
   We must continue to build genuine harmony from Malaysia’s rich diversity. While we will ensure that the position of the Malays will not be threatened, the rights and access to equal opportunities of Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Kadazans and all Malaysians will be fully protected with equal vigour.
3. The Judiciary
   We must move towards rebuilding the tarnished integrity of our judiciary. Judicial institutions that can be relied upon to deliver judgements without fear or favour are a cornerstone without which a democracy cannot function properly.
4. Media
   Malaysia’s media must be given the freedom to report freely and fairly. Any government of the day, at state or federal level, must be subject to unbiased scrutiny to ensure that there are no abuses of power.
5. Human Rights
   We will continue to uphold human dignity and human rights. Laws that deprive Malaysians of their fundamental liberties must be abolished, and Malaysians still detained without trial must be charged or released immediately, including newly elected Kota Alam Shah State Assemblyman M. Manoharan and the other four prisoners of conscience currently held in Kamunting.

Always starting the season well only to fizzle out when it matters ....... sigh ..... berapa dekad lagi hal ini nak berulang?

I'm talking about Perak's trashing by Kedah in the Super League, of course. They lost 5-1!!

Now the state government better get its act together real quick or I'm gonna take down the Perak flag from my window. :P

The dust has yet to settle after the 12th General Elections when the question of ethnic quotas raised its ugly head again. While observers seem to think that the Malaysian electorate has finally had enough of ethnicity based politics and were willing to give the alternative a try, we saw Umno organised demonstrations against the newly elected state governments for allegedly not having enough Malays in their EXCO lineups, folks upset because certain parties were not given their due rewards in terms of representation (I read it as having not enough Chinese), and now in Malaysiakini's Vox Populi today and apparently e-mails sent to KeADILan's HQ (so I heard); people upset that the Makkal Sakthi movement was not rewarded with enough Indian representation in the Selangor EXCO line up.

Granted that due to the fact that we have had to endure more than half a century of ethnic identity based politics, certain contructs remain difficult to dismantle overnight. A lot of these contructs are embedded in our constitutional setups (like the requirement for a Malay Muslim to be appointed Menteri Besar in the Malay states) and many more remain embedded in our psyche. Many still find it impossible to fathom the possibility that perhaps a Malaysian would stand up for the rights of another Malaysian who happens to be of a different ethnic or religious background.

John Donne, a poet and preacher who lived from the late 16th to mid 17th century, is attributed for the quote above which were penned by him in a collection of meditations (specifically Meditation XVII) known as the "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions" while serving as the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral :

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

Paskah adalah satu bukti cinta Allah
Ada kuasa yang memberi kemenangan
Salib bukanlah akhir melainkan awal
Karena Kristus t’lah patahkan kuasa maut
Anak Allah sendiri pulihkan umat-Nya
Hingga kau dan aku beroleh selamat

- creativeage

"Our task…is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day, with our Christian life, corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first and the foretaste of the second."

- N.T. Wright, Surprised By Hope
(interview on Preaching Today)

- Bishop Prado's Sermon; Seoul Cathedral, 1999

.. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay ..

Matthew 28:6, Lectionary Year A Gospel Reading

Whether we like it or not, the politics of Borneo are a mystery to most of us here in the Peninsular. Despite the almost total sweep of the contested seats in both Sabah and Sarawak, I am pretty sure that Barisan Nasional (BN) would be making a mistake to assume that their position is secure there. I have been informed that voting trends tend to go along personality lines rather than party lines. So I reckon it would mainly be because that the dominant personalities happen to be part of BN parties (for now) that the BN gained the victory that they did in Sabah and Sarawak.

Poverty and the loss of indigenous land rights (which makes a mockery of Article 153 of the Federal Constituton) remains major problems in the Borneo states so there exists also a genuine fear of losing Federal support under such circumstances. Ethnic disparities and divisions, while very much hidden below the surface; can be in some ways more pronounced in the Borneo states than they are in the Peninsular due to the more identifiable ethnic categories in the various professions (sort of like pre 1969 Malaysia).

On March 21, 1960, a large group of between 5,000 - 7,000 people converged on the local police station in the town of Sharpeville in what was Transvaal province (present day Gauteng province) in South Africa. They offered themselves for arrest for not carrying the mandatory passbooks that allowed black South Africans limited freedom of movement outside the "homelands" as a protest against the hated pass laws that have been in place since 1923 and progressively broadened over the years.

Despite the gathering being generally acknowledged by observers, including members of the local police as being peaceful and even festive, police forces from neighbouring precincts equipped with Saracen armoured vehicles opened fired at the crowd, eventually killing 69 people (inc. 8 women & 10 children) and wounding an additional 180 (inc. 31 women & 19 children).

Ada apa dengan Cinta?
- Ang Tek Kun

Ada apa dengan cinta?

Ada kerelaan
yang tak terbanding oleh manusia
untuk meninggalkan segalanya, segala-galanya
melangkah turun dari takhta kemuliaan
ke tempat terendah, serendah-rendahnya
tanpa desah, tanpa keluh

I was going through some online forums and re-read some of the threads that discussed the recently concluded General Elections. A lot of these threads pre-dated the dissolution of Parliament and spanned through the whole campaigning period until after the results were made known.

I couldn't help but be somewhat bemused by the amount of negative things being said about Parti KeADILan Rakyat in the early posts - how the party exists only to make Anwar Ibrahim Prime Minister (a few years back the main argument against KeADILan was that it existed to free Anwar - I guess one had to change that a wee bit considering that the party did not dissolve itself after Anwar was actually freed), how it actually is an Umno splinter party made up of disgruntled Umno members, and of course the perennial "I don't trust Anwar" line (heck .. I don't trust him 100% too .. the same way I don't trust myself 100%).

The tone generally remained the same during the campaigning period although more positive voices were starting to make themselves known, especially among those who have actually heard some of the ceramahs where the Malaysian Economic Agenda was presented (albeit somewhat anecdotally - you really can't expect a full policy briefing in a ceramah). Still the same critiques remained (surprisingly absolutely unchanged). Interestingly a lot of this criticism came from people who would be willing to support the other Opposition parties. They just mainly balked at KeADILan.

The same can be said about a lot of the commentaries from political pundits and observers (which were not from the mainstream media).

I've spent my whole adult life fighting for a cause, giving up such "creature comforts" like a college education, a "proper career", et al. Now that we've almost achieved it, I find myself suddenly at an impasse, somewhere along the lines of needing to re-boot my life all over again. Of course, it isn't that easy to re-boot and start afresh when you actually have a family with you now and mortgages to pay.

Anyway, Lent is coming to a close and the new spring is coming. Seeing that it took the execution of the Lord as a common criminal to begin the process towards the Resurrection, I am hopeful even as I acknowledge my own brooding sense of uncertainty and fear of the unknown.

My congregation is keeping the sanctuary doors open every night from 8.00 pm - 10.00 pm from Holy Wednesday (ie. today) until Good Friday with exhibits of the Stations of the Cross culminating with a Tenebrae service on Good Friday before we celebrate the Resurrection on Easter. You're all welcomed to participate.

Perhaps its a good time to stop and re-centre before taking the next step in my journey.

I had to laugh out loud when I read this. How many of us of Chinese ethnicity can deny this if we're truly honest with ourselves. If it isn't prejudice against Malays, its blind prejudice against Islam. Heck, some are even prejudiced against Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists .. ah .. just fill in the blanks.

Enjoy this piece from Pete. Better still, translate it into Chinese and try to get it published in our Chinese language press :

Compromise Works Both Ways
Raja Petra Kamaruddin, Malaysia-Today

I was at a party on Saturday night and one Chinese man who sat beside me commented that 'we Chinese are scared of PAS because we don't want Malaysia to be turned into Iran'. I then asked him what exactly is it like in Iran and he was at a loss for words. He could not reply to my question. I then asked him if he had ever gone to Iran and he shook his head. Had he even gone to Kota Bharu? No!

Utusan Malaysia, one the country's leading Malay language dailies, have found it fit to publish an opinion piece that clearly seeks to inflame ethnic tensions and pit the majority Malays against non-Malays :

Sebaik sahaja selesai pilihan raya 8 Mac lalu, ramai pengundi yang memprotes menghela nafas panjang dan mengurut dada. Mereka kini menyesal. Baru mereka sedar betapa hebatnya kuasa undi protes mereka. Mereka kini tahu bahawa satu undi kepada Pas dan PKR akan membolehkan ahli-ahli politik DAP menguasai kerajaan negeri dan negara.

Mereka kini ada contoh jelas bagaimana kuasa UMNO dan Melayu jatuh. Muncul di depan mata mereka pengalaman orang Melayu hampir-hampir hilang kuasa, pemimpin Melayu terpaksa menjadi boneka dan bagaimana ayat al-Quran digunakan dalam kempen oleh sesetengah pihak tetapi bila memperoleh kuasa ia dilupakan untuk membantu menaikkan politik cauvinis Cina di Pulau Pinang, Perak, Kuala Lumpur dan Selangor.

Family affairs have got me tied down for a while after the General Elections which would account for the general lack of postings, unanswered e-mails and unacknowledged SMS's. My greatest apologies.

Well .. it looks like the Perak saga might be over. Bernama reports that the Sultan of Perak will be swearing in the new Menteri Besar of Perak, Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, at 11.30am tomorrow at Iskandariah Palace in Kuala Kangsar. Someone told me Nizar is multilingual. He speaks Chinese, English and Malay fluently.

Unfortunately the impasse in Terengganu and Perlis seems a bit more difficult to resolve with the MB designates suggested by the Prime Minister being rejected by the respective royal houses.

I'm still trying to catch up with my rest, my family and my work. So I suspect updates will be intermittent for a while. Thanks for pushing the bandwidth meter of this server to the limit :) .. seriously, I mean it.

I am going to have a sort of self-imposed moratarium on criticism of the newly empowered alternative parties that have emerged after our historic 12th General Elections. I think the advice given by who Sivin calls "a wise friend who’s been there, done that, and is still there and doing that which is needed" is probably not a bad idea.

With that in mind, I thought I might as well focus on some exciting possibilities that would emerge now that a new start is possible.

The Sun reports that constituent States of the Federation might be able to take advantage of some loopholes in the existing Local Government Act 1976 (LGA76) to reintroduce local elections without the approval of the currently Barisan Nasional controlled Federal government. The paper quotes town planning lawyer, Derek Fernandez, who points out that Section 1(4) of the Act allows a state government to exempt any area within any local authority area from the provisions of the Act :

(4) The State Authority may, notwithstanding subsection (2), by notification in the Gazette exempt any area within any local authority area from all or any of the provisions of the Act or from any by-laws.

(2) This Act shall come into force in a State on such date as the State Authority may, after consultation with the Minister, appoint in relation to that State by a notification in the Gazette and the State Authority may, after consultation with the Minister, appoint different dates for the coming into force of different provision of this Act and may bring all or any of the provisions thereof into force either in the whole State or in such part or parts of the State as may be specified in the notification.

.. that one issue had been solved with Kit Siang's apology, another had to arise. This time Dr Syed Husin Ali's statement on the lack of equitable representation in the Perak EXCO is the focus (see full press statement here)

Now I don't know how I can say this without sounding partisan, but I think the concerns are valid. Perak's Malay make up approximately 54% of the population with ethnic minorities making up the rest. The current proposal of having 8 out of the 10 EXCO positions filled by DAP representatives would generally be not a problem. Unfortunately, DAP currently doesn't have a single Malay elected representative nationwide. This essentially means that 80% of Perak's executive will comprise of ethnic minorities.

Terang Bulan

Dilanjutkan Allah usianya Sultan
Adil dan murah memerintah watan
Ditaati rakyat kiri dan kanan
Iman yang saleh Allah kurniakan
Allah berkati Perak Darul Ridzuan
Allah selamatkan Negeri dan Sultan

Perak Darul Ridzuan

Perak Darul Ridzuan
Negeri indah permai
Penduduknya hidup aman damai
Dinaungi keadilan sultan

Kuala Kangsar Bandar Diraja
Iskandariah istana ternama
Tempat bersemayam Baginda Paduka Seri
Menjadi lambang tunggak negeri

I just left this comment at Kit's blog and it is now awaiting moderation :

I think you chest beating Kitsters failed to realise that we did not get a vote of confidence from the rakyat. We benefited from a vote of no confidence against the BN.

I don’t blame the DAP yet, I know for a fact that a lot of DAP cadres are as upset as I am over this. The blame has to fall squarely on Kit’s shoulders.

I don’t know what type of a game he’s playing but I think he may have showed hand a bit too soon and might end up being the biggest loser. Shame on him for risking both the DAP and the loose coalition that so many have tried to hammer out just to give the rakyat a chance for change.

If this is really a maneuver against the MCA’s propaganda and a plan to catch them with their pants down at his own expense, then I probably owe Kit an apology.

Either way, if this finally does turn out well, it would do Kit as well as the others here good to know that this type of stunt will only work once. If it screws up, we have a whole generation of Malaysians to apologise to.

A little bird of the media variety told me that a late night session with HRH Sultan Azlan Shah and the DAP, KeADILan and PAS delegations has resolved the issue and they're calling it a "misunderstanding".

My take is that the old rocket went rogue. We're seeing the same trend in PAS where Hadi Awang seems to be ignoring Husam Musa and making Husam sound like a liar. Could the old guard be starting to feel uneasy because their age old approaches have consistently failed or is the contemporary situation turning too Derridasque for them to deal with?

So we have Kit Siang making Ngeh Koo Ham look like a liar and an incompetent and we have Hadi Awang doing the same to Husam Musa.

What is happening? The old guard feeling edgy all of a sudden?

Don't Listen To Rumours: Perak Police
- Bernama

IPOH, March 12 (Bernama) -- Perak state police today advised the public to be calm and not be influenced by rumours that there were disturbances in several areas in the state after Saturday's general election.

State CID chief, SAC II Ismail Yatim, said police would take action against those who spread rumours, including through text messages, as this could endanger the peace and well-being of the people.

"The situation in the state is peaceful and under control and no disturbance has been reported," he told Bernama today.

Ismail said the situation was normal all over Perak eventhough the new state government had yet to be formed following Saturday's election.

He said the stationing of police at the Perak Darul Ridzuan building and at the Menteri Besar's residence here was a normal procedure to ensure no untoward incident happened there before the new state government was formed.

Ismail said staff at the building were working as usual.

The Barisan Nasional lost Perak to the opposition when it only garnered 28 state seats against the 31 won by the DAP, Parti Keadilan Rakyat and PAS coalition.

Thanks for nothing. 15 years ago, they said you were in the pockets of Mahathir .. I dismissed that with a dismissive laugh. Now I'm not so sure anymore.