Najib's reputation hits new lows

Malaysia's "reformist" PM seeks to prosecute protesters

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak appears determined to give himself a political black eye.

On June 13, government prosecutors will haul into court 10 leaders of Bersih, a coalition of civil society groups campaigning to clean up the country’s corrupt elections commission. The government is demanding damages for destruction to public property during a clash between Bersih demonstrators and police in Kuala Lumpur on April 28. At least 100,000 people marched for clean elections in the Malaysian capital that day, while tens of thousands more joined protests in 11 other cities across the country and 80 cities around the world.

Whether or not the government wins compensation in court, however, no amount of money will undo the damage it is inflicting upon its own reputation by pursuing the case.

Keenly aware of the escalating problems, Najib has tried to present himself as a reformer. The steps he has taken so far, however, haven’t done much to improve BN’s image as increasingly corrupt, ill-equipped to deal with global economic complexities and out of touch with the aspirations of significant segments of the population.

In 2008, BN was shocked when opposition parties captured five of the country’s 13 states in national elections—the worst showing in the coalition’s history. If voters are more dissatisfied now, they are also more frustrated: few can see how real change can be achieved as long as the BN controls access to the media and elections continue to be riddled with irregularities.

Najib’s attempts at reform “ring hollow when the electoral system remains flawed,” Datuk Ambiga Sreenavasan, Bersih chairperson one of the defendants in the case brought by the government, tells TIME. “The stark reality is that genuine reform will not benefit those in power.”

Read more from TIME magazine

Najib's "reformist" government fired ONLY 967 rounds of tear gas at peaceful assembly of Malaysians calling for electoral reforms

Malaysia falling far behind in investors' map

Dr M: "I am worried what happened to Gadaffi and Mubarak will happen to me"

The Economist: Anwar's secret weapon to crack open a safe deposit

Tear gas fired at protestors at Bersih rally

Malaysian protests against Najib met with riot police

LIVE: Report from Malaysiakini.com


Malaysian police fired tear gas and water cannon in clashes with thousands of protesters demanding electoral reforms on Saturday, raising the risk of a political backlash that could delay national polls which had been expected within months.






Riot police reacted after some protesters among the crowd of at least 25,000 tried to break through barriers, in defiance of a court order banning them from entering the city's historic Merdeka Square. They fired several dozen tear gas rounds, sending the protesters scattering through nearby streets.

Reuters: Malaysian police fire tear gas

BBC: Current arrangements will benefit Najib

AlJazeera: "We will march to the barrier"

Guardian: "We cannot be quiet anymore"

"This was a peaceful protest and they have come in with this heavy handed crackdown to disperse people" - Nick Xenophone

Adelaide Now: Senator Xenophon gassed in  KL

“By launching a crackdown on peaceful protesters on the streets of Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian government is once again showing its contempt for its people’s basic rights and freedoms” - Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s deputy director for Asia.

Washington Post: "We do not want them to get elected by cheating"

CBC News: Najib can now be proud he has given birth to SE Asia's biggest street rally


“The reason [authorities] reacted that way is they’re afraid of losing power and, in the back of their minds, they’re aware of what’s happened in the Middle East” - Bridget Welsh, a Malaysia expert and associate professor at Singapore Management University.

“They also made it illegal to protest in Merdeka Square,” Welsh said. “Why? Because it’s just like Tahrir Square in Egypt.”

GlobalPost: Malaysia's Arab Spring?

MCA leaders caught lying again

It's best for Chua Soi Lek and Liow Tiong Lai to resign now

At first the IGP denied it, then Najib denied it but he was smart enough to get CSL and LTL to deny it in public while he hides behind Rosmah's skirt. Now 11 DOCTORS from the Tung Shin hospital has appeared in public to verify that the Malaysian security forces (disregarding all norms of public safety and international standards) has indeed fired tear gas into the hospital compound and ALSO assaulted people trying to take refuge in the hospital compound during the recent Bersih rally.

“What was most frightening and witnessed by many was the unprovoked violent assault within the hospital compounds and the apprehension of several protesters who had merely run into the hospital to seek shelter from the tear gas and the water cannons,” the statement by the 11 doctors said.



The Star: Chua Soi Lek and Liow Tiong Lai lied to the public

Who betrayed Liow Tiong Lai? Was it Najib or CSL?

Problems within MCA has reached epic proportions

TODAYonline: How can the Malaysian Police investigate themselves?

Karim Raslan: Najib faltering and losing his grip - is there no one else in UMNO more capable than him?

What Bersih Acheived Najib Never Could

Malaysians proud of their rally to fight against a corrupt government



"Yesterday, we were not rich men or poor. We were not Malays or non-Malays. We were not Muslims or non-Muslims. We were just fellow-Malaysians."

Read more


Even the Queen (what's with the yellow dress?) supports Bersih?

Ambiga: There was never any attempt to topple BN

Dr Dzul: Najib now seen as worse than Pak Lah

Malaysians march for a better government

Bersih Rally to clean up a corrupt government

Unggun Bersih



Semakin lara kita didera bara—
kita laungkan juga pesan merdeka:
Demokrasi sebenderang mentari
sehasrat hajat semurni harga diri.

Lama resah kita—demokrasi luka;
lama duka kita—demokrasi lara.
Demokrasi yang angkuh, kita cemuhi;
suara bebas yang utuh, kita idami!

Dua abad lalu Sam Adams berseru:
(di Boston dijirus teh ke laut biru):
Tak diperlu gempita sorak yang gebu,
diperlu hanya unggun api yang syahdu.

Kini menyalalah unggun sakti itu;
kini merebaklah nyala unggun itu.
- A. SAMAD SAID (National Laureate and Poet)


Teargas fired at peaceful rally

Photo gallery

Live updates from Bersih 2.0

Live updates from Malaysiakini

Live updates from Malaysia Today


Worldwide support for Bersih


Malaysians from all races show Najib what he has NOT succeeded in doing

Malaysians everywhere condemn Najib

Worldwide condemnation for PM Najib

Najib's popularity suffers severe setback, BN's pride and credibility in tatters

Financial Times: Thousands protest against Malaysia's Government election fraud

WSJ: Malaysia's PM gets a hint on how popular he is

Neil Khor: How Najib made a mess out of Bersih

The time has come to clean up Malaysia

UMNO goes into panic mode as Bersih gains momentum

PM Najib's intimidations never worked. Now, even the King is on the side of Bersih as he has allowed Bersih to conduct their peaceful rally in a stadium. The only thing Najib can do now is to stop them getting into the stadium!

If (like me) you have also lost the plot, read here what Bersih is all about



King says YES, IGP says NO

Silat Masters to be hired to protect Najib!

Cuci Cuci Malaysia: No to Bersih, YES to Kotor?

Kit: Najib is a coward, a passer-of-the-buck, and a man with a slippery tongue.

Marina: Is Malaysia's image more important than democracy?

Retired army officer advises Najib to heed the voice of the people and to listen to the King

All cannot la!

A peaceful rally is the last thing a paranoid Najib wants

Do you want to organize a peaceful rally? Cannot-la... All rallies in Malaysia must be violent. If it is a peaceful rally then it will bring shame to BN because no one wants to join our rallies. Your peaceful rally will attract thousands and of course this is bad PR for BN. Tell you what. If you let UMNO Youth join the rally we can guarantee the rally will be violent (you take the blame-la), then we can have the PR we want! Win-lose situation right? You lose, I win!

Cannot have rally

Cannot read poems

Cannot wear red t-shirts

Perkasa: We can make it violent!

UMNO Youth: We can do the job too!

Suhakam: The people have a right to assemble

Nathaniel Tan: A worried government gripped by paranoia

MarinaM: Is it wrong for Malaysians to assemble peacefully?

UMNO tries to stir racial tension after losing the election

PM Abdullah Badawi losing control of UMNO amidst being snubbed by the Sultan of Perlis

PM Abdullah Badawi's days are numbered as he grows increasingly out of touch with his own party. 3 days ago UMNO members planned and executed a protest rally in Penang as he sat and watched (or did he sleep through it?) without lifting a finger. This coming from the Executive who disallowed any form of protest from the Opposition prior to the just concluded election. This coming from a man who said that he worked very hard and would be fair to all Malaysians. 3 days after the protest there has not been a word coming out from him.

Spot the missing link among the 3 images below:-







Answer: FRU
Images downloaded from Susan Loones' Blog

Penang UMNO: Those were OUR projects, you CAN"T have it!

Penang new CM: "No more lawatan sambil belajar!"

Malaysian Police Crushed Peaceful Flower Protest

Abdullah's government has done it again. His so called Islamic Hadhari principles has again found no sympathy for Malaysian minorities. This time he uses tear gas in a rally to help free the parents of children held in his clutches. Is he losing hold of himself with the coming election?



Gulf Daily News: "It is an embarrassing attack on the Indian community and on people who just wanted to hand over flowers to the prime minister"

The Hindu: In a dramatic show of force, the police fired teargas and targeted water cannon at several hundred ethnic Indians...

BBC News: Malaysian police have broken up a demonstration against alleged government discrimination by about 2,000 ethnic Indians in the capital.

Washington Post: Malaysian police fired tear gas Saturday to disperse about 200 ethnic Indians protesting to demand racial equality ahead of a general election.

AFP: "We wanted to have 200 children also peacefully give Abdullah flowers but we were tear-gassed and water-cannoned by police"




Video from Al-Jazeera:


And in the local news: Nothing was reported....

No End To Discrimination Stories

More readers of The Star have wrote in to say that they too have been discriminated against by The Malaysian PSD as the PSD DG (and of course the whole Malaysian government) continues their silence. Is this the way to treat Malaysians who complain through the "proper channels"? Or is our Government waiting for another mass rally before they act?

BTW, can our government for once define what are proper channels?


Complaint No.4

I REFER to press reports that quoted the Director-General of the Public Services Department as stating that “...of the 486,802 applications to work in the civil service last year, Chinese and Indians only accounted for 1.78% and 2.5% respectively.”

Since then I have also read letters to rebut the D-G's statement and in particular a letter by Au Yeong How regarding his attempts to enter the civil service albeit without success as the hiring system failed him.

My son also applied to join the police force in 2006 after graduating with a 2nd class LLB and he speaks fluent Malay, too.

He received an acknowledgement of his application but was not even called for any preliminary interview.

I was dissatisfied and e-mailed Datuk Ismail Adam using the address I obtained from the PSD website but as expected, there was no response.

If the very few non-Malay who have the minimum qualification applied and did not even get called for a preliminary interview, how does Ismail expect to recruit non-Malays into the civil service?

In addition, I would like to tell the D-G about what we hear on the ground in Sarawak – that although Sarawak has more non-Malay bumiputras, the government offices and even local councils are staffed mostly by Malays, especially at officer levels because the recruitment officers are mostly Malays from Peninsular Malaysia.

We can see this in certain local councils and government departments and of course it leads us to believe that the PSD is biased. Does the D-G want to correct this negative perception? Well, the ball is in his court now.

ANOTHER GOVT JOB SEEKER,
Kuching, Sarawak.


Complaint No.5


I REFER to the report “Few non-Malays applying, says PSD,” by the Director-General of the Public Services Department Tan Sri Ismail Adam (The Star, Dec 25) and wish to add my comments to that of Elsie Leei in “Case of once bitten?” (The Star, Dec 30).

Ismail’s statement that Government’s appointments are “based on merit or academic qualifications, not race?” is highly questionable as pointed out by Leei and Au Yeong How in “Qualified but can’t get government job,” (The Star, Dec 27).

The Government may have set fair policies but when it comes to recruitment and promotion, they do not work out that way.

Whether we want to admit it or not, the tendency to recruit and promote based on race is a common malaise in government departments.

This blatant disregard for fairness can be seen in my school.

Four years ago, a non-Malay colleague was appointed Ketua Bidang.

He had efficiently and responsibly carried out his duties for a good part of the year while waiting for his appointment letter.

But lo and behold, when the letter came, a Malay colleague who was well known for his lackadaisical approach to work got the job.

Recently, the school recommended a non-Malay colleague with 25 years experience for a senior administrative post but it was given to a Malay colleague who was much more junior in rank. Can the district and state education department sincerely say that such appointments are done based on merit or academic qualifications?

This is just a few among the many incidences that have occurred. Unless something is done to overcome this malaise and non-Malays are given the opportunity to achieve their full career potential “trying to reduce the gap between the races in the civil service” will continue to be a fruitless exercise.

FAIR & JUST,
Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysian lawyers arrested for celebrating Human Rights Day

A sad day for human rights in Malaysia

If you are a rapist you might not even be caught. If you are a murderer chances are the Malaysian police are not even interested in you. If you are a robber, just try not to rob someone important. But if you are a lawyer and you want to celebrate Human Rights Day - sorry... you better lookout for the Malaysian Polis!




Human rights day celebration more of a wake

Latest: Lim Kit Siang to table motion of protest in Parliament today

Hindraf rally opening the eyes of more Malaysians

A seemingly ridiculous protest by Hindraf has now turned into an eye-opener as more Malaysians of all races realised the significance behind the rally. The issue was not the memo which was to be submitted to the British High Commissioner. The issue was more about the Malaysian Indian minorities and how they have been sidelined by the ruling government after 50 years of independence. The issue was more about how their own party which was supposed to be helping them have failed for the past 50 years. The issue was more about how the ruling party has chosen to ignore their interests all this while. The issue was about their frustrations and how nobody listens to them anymore. The issue was about how no one will listen even now.

Read Dr Toh Kin Woon's view on the rally.

Read Dr Khoo Kay Peng's views

Read IHT's report - "A Cry For Attention"

Read Time's report - "We fight for the future of our children"

Read the Malaysian PM's callowed response - "They want to kiss the orang putih"

Malaysian Minister Nazri's response - "Don't be samseng"

See who is the real samseng (gangster) here:

Malaysia still in a state of Emergency (2) ?

Unfortunately for the Malaysian government, Thierry Rommel's observation (which was strongly objected by them) has proven true again. This time it is the Hindraf rally on November 25. A seemingly innocent (and ridiculous, some might add?) protest against the British government for its treatment of Indians brought to Malaysia during its pre-independence days, again given the baton and water cannon treatment by the Malaysian government. Is this just an attempt to serve the British government a class action lawsuit or is there more to it?

And why are the Malaysian government so afraid of protests? Surely this is another sign of a weak government unable to handle protests and objections in a rational manner. One can only ask if all the Police violence were necessary. Luckily for Mr Rommel he was not a Malaysian!

The pictures speak for themselves:







Pictures from The Star and Jeff Oois' blog.

Report from The Hindu

Malaysia still in a state of Emergency?

Reuters, Nov 13 - Malaysia is living under an effective state of emergency, an EU envoy said on Tuesday, after police used tear gas and water cannon at the weekend to break up the biggest anti-government protest in a decade.

"Today, this country still lives under emergency," the European Commission's envoy to Malaysia, Thierry Rommel, told Reuters by telephone on the last day of his mission to Malaysia.

Rommel's remarks, extraordinarily blunt for a diplomat, chime with a chorus of criticism from opposition parties and some non-government groups about the way the government handled the protest, which it called an illegal assembly of troublemakers.

Police had set up road blocks around the capital to prevent protesters converging on Kuala Lumpur for Saturday's rally, but despite these measures and heavy rain, around 10,000 people thronged the city centre to call for electoral reform.

Police later moved in with tear gas and water cannons, which fired jets of water laced with a chemical irritant, to break up the crowd. There were no reports of any serious violence.

Read the full article

If you are NOT a Malaysian you shoudn't be watching Al-Jazeera

The Star Nov 13:-
Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin has strongly criticised satellite television station Al Jazeera’s coverage of Saturday’s illegal gathering here.

Describing the coverage as biased, unfair and confusing to people living overseas...

JR: You should be watching Malaysian TV where NOTHING was shown

“The police only used water cannons and tear gas and did not shoot anyone,” he said.

JR: Did Al-Jazeera mentioned that the protestors were shot??

Zainuddin said Al Jazeera should use its base in Malaysia as an opportunity to strengthen bonds with the West rather than to portray Malaysia as anti-West.

JR: I thought the protestors were ANTI-GOVERNMENT??

JR: I really wonder who is more confused - Zainuddin or Al-Jazeera?

Read the article

Is this why Zainuddin is so mad?

Video Reports of Mass Rally in KL

The peaceful Bersih rally on November 10 shot down by Malaysian police:

Malaysians gathered for mass protest shot by water cannons

The Bersih Rally went on as scheduled and the protesters were faced with a wall of red helmeted police and their water cannons.




Where it is happening

Read the BBC Report

Latest report from Malaysiakini.com