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Monday, May 20, 2013

Melayu di hina lagi? Kata Siapa?


Kalau betullah lapuran Utusan Online yang dipetik dari sini yang juga melapurkan seperti berikut:-
“Azran menerusi akaun Facebook dan Twitternya baru-baru ini bertindak mencerca Utusan Malaysia sebagai sebuah akhbar rasis hanya kerana menyiarkan artikel berbentuk pertanyaan bertajuk 'Apa lagi Cina mahu' pada 7 Mei lalu.

Menerusi akaun Facebook beliau, Azran menulis: "I am Malaysian. I am anti-racism. I am disgusted by Utusan's editorial stance. (Saya rakyat Malaysia. Saya antiperkauman. Saya meluat dengan pendirian pengarang Utusan),"

UMNO Veteran marah dengan pandangan dan kritikan Azran terhadap artikel yang dimuatkan dalam Utusan Malaysia. Kritikan ini dianggap sebagai satu tindakan biadab oleh Azran. Pendekata, bagi Veteran UMNO, mengeritik Utusan Malaysia adalah satu tindakan biadab.

Bukan itu sahaja, tindakan Azran mengeritik Utusan Malaysia juga dianggap sebagai “perbuatan Azran mencerca Utusan Malaysia bermakna beliau menghina kaumnya sendiri ketika kaum Melayu turut ditekan dari pelbagai sudut”.

Dari pemahaman minda Veteran UMNO, kritikan terhadap Utusan Melayu disamakan dengan penghinaan terhadap kaumnya sendiri. Disini lah cabaran untuk memahami lonjakan logik bagaimana kritikan terhadap satu artikel yang ditulis didalam satu surat khabar boleh dirumuskan sebagai satu peghinaan kepada satu kaum yang besar yang semestinya terdiri daripada anggota yang berlainan tahap pemikiran (dan pemahaman) serta pelbagai pandangan yang berbeza.

Bukankah kepelbagaian pandangan terhadap satu isu itu melambangkan kematangan satu kaum dan ekoran itu memuliakan kaum tersebut? Ini menunjukkan bahawa Melayu berupaya untuk melihat kepada satu artikel atau satu isu dengan pandangan dan kupasan yang berbeza.  Pada masa yang sama, keupayaan anggota dalam kaum itu untuk menerima dan berhujah berkaitan dengan pandangan yang berbeza secara berilmiah dan berasaskan fakta juga melambangkan peningkatan ketamadunan kaum itu. Mustahil satu kaum itu boleh maju kalau masih bergantung pada satu pendirian, atau fahaman atau kaedah yang telah ketinggalan zaman.

Didalam dunia keintelektualan, ada satu ungkapan yang sering diutarakan iaitu “those with brains can argue in a civilised manner but those with brawn will just flex their muscles”. Orang atau kumpulan yang yakin diri serta mampu berhujah balas tidak pernah gentar dengan pendirian orang lain yang berbeza, apatah lagi menggunakan kaedah pemikiran songsang dimana direspon balik dengan menggunakan taktik sentimen perkauman dan tunjuk kuasa. JIka ada pandangan yang berbeza, haruslah kumpulan itu memberi hujah balas yang boleh direnungi dengan akal. 

Veteran UMNO harus berhujah dengan fakta dan logik mengapa pendirian Azran terhadap Utusan Malaysia itu dikatakan sebagai “menghina Melayu”. Kalau pun kita andaikan dia menghina Utusan, bagaimana ianya boleh ditafsirkan sebagai menghina Melayu?

Jika benar Azran telah “menerusi akaun Facebook dan Twitternya baru-baru ini bertindak mencerca Utusan Malaysia sebagai sebuah akhbar rasis hanya kerana menyiarkan artikel berbentuk pertanyaan bertajuk 'Apa lagi Cina mahu' pada 7 Mei lalu” dan jika ini dianggap sebagai satu tindakan memfitnah, maka Utusanlah yang seharusnya mengambil tindakan undang-undang terhadap Azran.  Undang-undang Negara kita mantap dan jelas dalam hal ini. Dimana pula peranan Veteran UMNO dalam hal ini dan apakah locus mereka bercakap bagi pihak Utusan kecuali mereka sekadar melaksanakan hak bersuara mereka?

Ini yang saya kerap tidak faham dengan ”perjuangan” beberapa kumpulan dalam Negara ini. Utusan tidak mengambil sebarang tindakan undang-undang. Lembaga Utusan tidak berkata apa-apa namun Veteran UMNO yang tidak ada kaitan korporat atau undang-undang atau moral pula bertindak sebagai pelindung Utusan!

Memang pihak-pihak tertentu boleh berhujah bagi pihak lain yang dianiayai. Namun pembelaan haruslah berdasarkan hujah-hujah bernas, munasabah dan yang tidak menghina akal orang yang mendengarnya. Dizaman ini, ramai sudah kurang sabar dengan taktik-taktik yang menggunakan ungkapan sebagai “Melayu dihina”, “tidak kompromi dalam isu Melayu” dan ungkapan-unkapan yang seangkatannya yang tidak diiringi dengan hujah bernas atau fakta.

We have to evolve and therefore we have to learn to present our case. It is becoming embarrassing to use sentiments and superlatives to cover up our lack of thinking ability.

Saya berpendirian Veteran UMNO tidak perlu gusar. Melayu hari ini tidak mudah latah atau mudah terasa terhina dengan pandangan orang lain apatah lagi pandangan berbza daripada ahli kaumnya sendiri. Melayu hari ini lebih bersenjatakan maklumat dan fakta serta mempunyai keyakinan diri yang lebih tinggi. Mereka tidak perlu orang lain, apatah lagi orang-orang politik untuk melentur emosi mereka. Yakinlah kepada keupayaan Melayu untuk menilai sesuatu dan Insha Allah, mereka akan menilai dengan baik. Lagipun, kita bangga ada anak Melayu yang maju, kenapa pula kita nak taburkan pasir dalam periuk nasi Azran pulak kerana berbeza pendapat dengan dia?


Salam.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Will BN be Opposition in 2018?

What happened to BN is something that is bound to happened under the circumstances. In fact, they could very well have lost the government. Almost everyone who is in touch with the grassroots could see this except, I am afraid those within the BN and especially those who are entrusted to "strategise" for BN were unable to fathom the ground swell of "anti-BN" sentiments caused by various factors. 

While I acknowledge that there was a cry for change and it appears unstoppable to BN advisers, I believe that BN could actually have done better IF it had chanced to so some of the things that it was advised to do and it did not do many of the things that it did. Unfortunately, penetrating the "fortress of BN walls" to the Ears that matter is a tough uphill task for those with decency and pride. 

Even 3 years before several advices were given to those who were supposedly entrusted to advise the Ears that matter. The advise that there need to be changes in THEIR own mindset BEFORE they can hope to assist BN to retain or improve its strength fell on completely deaf ears. I do not know to this day if the advice ever went to the Ears that matter to this day. I have never been one of those born to wait and ambush the "King or Lord" to kiss his hand and then give him my advice. 

Being a Muslim, I find it extremely tough to kneel and bow to another fellow human being, especially one whom I am trying to assist. I would be insulted even more if he thinks his presence alone is a major blessing in my life. But many in UMNO are indebted in this way to the point of selling their souls! Anyway I have digressed.

The think tanks I have been invited to (which I could not repeat my attendance more than once) was to me an immediate failure - it was largely made up of people with like-minded. one track mind founded on past strategies - race, reward, fear, etc. They still do not understand the ground sentiments and ground perceptions. It was very tiring.

They missed a big opportunity and I am prepared to be chastised here for exposing it. They missed the big opportunity to meet up with the key civil society personalities and groups that had been skilfully and secretly arranged for them. They also missed the opportunities to embrace the wave of change but instead treated it as a threat. The advisers to the Ears that matter fatally underestimated the tenacity, sincerity  and passion of these groups and individuals. Instead, they would rather be happily seen with the "NGOs" which are actually them in different clothes - a further insult to the Rakyat's mind.

Pakatan on the other hand readily embraced civil society. Many of the ideas that were given to BN advisers were dismissed as too "youthful" and replaced with very superficially "cool" measures and transparent feudal strategies - " Peasants, here are some silver coins! Kneel and be grateful". This does not work any more. People do not care on which throne you sit any more. They just do not wish to keep sitting on the toilet bowl as it stinks!

I think BN, to date has not changed in its political outlook - it is being sordidly comfortable with its rural base which it does not realise is eroding. Once again please do not dispute me with the JASA, SB and other data - go on the ground yourself. You have been proven wrong twice already - 2008 and now, 2013.

The problem is that BN has become so straight jacketed and not so cool and this makes new ideas very difficult to be articulated to them.

Without saying much in public, I'll say this - if BN continues to think in the way it has been thinking (and it will if it keeps using the same advisers or advisers from the same school of thought), it will definitely be the opposition in parliament in 2018.

BN, you should just learn to be cool - and learn to listen. To be able to listen emphatically, you must get off your high horse.


Peace !

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Najib's Transformers - The Malaysian New Cabinet


The StarOnline today reported:

The new line-up of Ministers and Deputy Ministers:
*Prime Minister: Najib Razak (UMNO)
*Deputy Prime Minister: Muhyiddin Yassin (UMNO)
Prime Minister's Department:
*Ministers:
Jamil Khir Baharom (UMNO), 2. Abdul Wahid Omar (Senator), 3. Idris Jala (senator); 4. Joseph Kurup (PBRS), 5. Shahidan Kassim (UMNO), 6. Nancy Shukri (PBB), 7. Paul Low Seng Kwan (senator), 8. Joseph Entulu Belaun (PRS)
Deputy Ministers: 1. Razali Ibrahim (UMNO); 2. Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy (Senator)
*Ministry of Finance:
Minister of Finance 1: Najib Razak (UMNO)
Minister of Finance 2: Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah (UMNO)
Deputy Minister of Finance
Ahmad Maslan (UMNO)
Ministry of Transport:
Minister: (Acting post being held open pending MCA decision) Hishammuddin Hussein (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Ab Aziz Kaprawi (UMNO)
*Ministry of Defence
Hishammuddin Hussein (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Abdul Rahim Bakri (UMNO)
*Ministry of Home Affairs:
Minister: Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar (PBB)
*Ministry of Education & Higher Learning
Minister 1: Muhyiddin Yassin (UMNO)
Minister 2: Idris Jusoh (UMNO)
Deputy Minister 1: Mary Yap Kain Ching (PBS)
Deputy Minister 2: P. Kamalanathan (MIC)
*Ministry of Works:
Minister: Fadillah Yusof (PBB)
Deputy Minister: Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin (UMNO)
*Ministry of International Trade & Industry
Minister: Mustapa Mohamed (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Hamim Samuri (UMNO)
*Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Minister: Anifah Aman (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Hamzah Zainuddin
*Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism
Minister: Hasan Malek (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Ahmad Bashah Mohamad Hanipah (Senator)
*Ministry of Communication & Multimedia
Minister: Ahmad Shabery Cheek (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Jailani Johari (UMNO)
*Ministry of Human Resources
Minister: Richard Riot Jaem (SUPP)
Deputy Minister: Ismail Abdul Muttalib (UMNO)
*Ministry of Rural & Regional Development
Minister: Shafie Apdal (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Alexander Nanta Linggi (PBB)
*Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing & Local Government
Minister: Abdul Rahman Dahlan (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Halimah Mohamad Saddique (UMNO)
*Ministry of Youth & Sport
Minister: Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: M. Saravanan (MIC)
*Ministry of Health
Minister: S. Subramaniam (MIC)
Deputy Minister: Hilmi Yahaya (UMNO)
*Ministry of the Federal Territories
Minister: Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: J. Loga Bala Mohan (Senator)
*Ministry of Plantation Industries & Commodities
Minister: Douglas Uggah Embas (PBB)
Deputy Minister: Noriah Kasnon (UMNO)
*Miistry of Energy, Green Technology & Water
Minister: Maximus Johnity Ongkili (PBS)
Deputy Minister: Mahdzir Khalid (UMNO)
*Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry
Minister: Ismail Sabri Yaakob (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (UMNO)
*Ministry of Tourism & Culture
Minister: Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz (UMNO)
Deputy Minister: Joseph Salang Gandum (PRS)
*Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation
Minister: Ewon Ebin (UPKO)
Deputy Minister: Abu Bakar Mohamad Diah (UMNO)
*Ministry of Natural Resources & Environment
Minister: G. Palanivel (MIC)
Deputy Minister: James Dawos Mamit (PBB)
*Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development
Minister: Rohani Abdul Karim (PBB)
Deputy Minister: Azizah Mohamad Dun (UMNO)
Ministers: 30
Deputy Ministers: 27
Total: 57
Total ministries: 24

I must say that the Honourable Prime Minister has come up with quite a surprise!

Peace !

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

If You Do Not Vote For Me, You Are Ungrateful? -Apa Lagi???

This 13th General Elections in Malaysia (PRU13) is interesting for so many reasons. Clearly it shows that democracy is evolving and that incumbents cannot depend on their traditional logic for support from voters. There has been shifts in issues and shifts in mindset.

At the same time, it also presents various peculiar mindsets that I never thought is possible. One of which is the "apa lagi Cina mau" kind of mindset. I have been trying very hard to understand what it actually means and I suspect even the writer who wrote that does not know exactly what he meant. Maybe he didn't give much thought to it or maybe it was a result of past faulty thinking processes which has become a mental habit.

Let me explain why I have difficulty understanding what it really means and what it has now become to mean. If I am not mistaken, it means this "The Chinese has been given so much by the BN and now that a large percentage of them voted against BN, therefore what more do they want from BN"? I may wrong, but  I think this is what it is supposed to mean. Whether it is a "Chinese" or "Malaysian" tsunami has been researched by many and I do not intend to go into it too. The researches generally show that it is generally an urban vote and Malaysian rather than racial.

Be that as it may, I find the "apa lagi Cina mau" very hilarious and illogical.

For the first time, BN lost the popular vote. BN got approximately 48% and PR got 51% of the popular votes ( I have rounded up). The total number of voters for Parliament is 11,257,147. This means BN got about 5.4 million votes and PR got 5.7 million votes (approximately).

It is said that Chinese make up about 27% of the total voters population. SO if we give ALL of these votes to PR (which is not the case in reality), PR will end up having 4.2 million votes.

So these 4.2 million voters are Non-Chinese. These are Malays, Indians, Sabahans, Sarawakian, etc. SO by the same peculiar logic, does it not sound hilarious to ask "apa lagi Melayu, India, Sabahan, Sarawakian yang tidak undi BN mau"?

Actually, this does not sound as hilarious as I thought it will be because putting a group of Malaysians together seems okey but isolating a race does sound ridiculously funny in the context.

In any event I do not think BN government is going to punish the 52% of Malays, Indians, Chinese, Kadazans, etc, etc that did not vote for it.

So the appropriate question for BN should have been: "Apa lagi 52% yang tidak mengundi BN mau?".

And for PR would be "  "Apa lagi 48% yang tidak mengundi PR mau?".

Then we can grow up as a democracy instead of being trapped in primitive thinking.

Peace !

Friday, May 10, 2013

Thank You From the PM Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak




Friend yang dikasihi,

Kita baru sahaja menempuh satu proses demokrasi yang terbesar dan paling mencabar di negara kita. Di setiap kampung, pekan dan bandar, setiap rakyat telah berdebat, berkempen dan mengundi untuk masa hadapan negara. Saya amat berterima kasih dengan segala usaha yang telah dilakukan oleh semua pihak yang selama ini telah berusaha gigih dan berdiri teguh di samping saya dan parti. Dengan penuh tawaduk saya juga mengucapkan terima kasih kepada para pengundi yang telah memberikan kepercayaan kepada kepimpinan Barisan Nasional untuk terus mentadbir negara.

Saya telah berkhidmat sebagai penjawat awam hampir sepanjang pengalaman kerjaya saya selama ini. Saya masih ingat lagi kali pertama saya dipilih menjadi Ahli Parlimen, kali pertama saya berucap di Parlimen dan kali pertama saya menjalankan tanggungjawab sebagai ketua jabatan kerajaan. Sepanjang empat tahun yang lalu saya telah diberi peluang pula untuk berkhidmat untuk negara ini di peringkat tertinggi sebagai Perdana Menteri.

Namun pencapaian paling bererti tercatat pada awal pagi Isnin lalu adalah apabila saya diberi mandat oleh rakyat untuk menyempurnakan segala perancangan dan perlaksanaan yang telah saya mulakan sejak empat tahun yang lalu.

Saya merasakan pilihan raya kali ini merupakan yang paling sengit dalam sejarah negara. Sepanjang beberapa minggu kebelakangan ini, begitu banyak pandangan dan hujah-hujah yang berbeza ditawarkan kepada rakyat. Ada yang menyemarakkan semangat, tetapi ada juga yang menimbulkan kemarahan dan prasangka. Kini tempoh pilihan raya telahpun berakhir; tibalah masanya untuk kita kembali ke arah kedamaian dan keharmonian demi Malaysia yang dicintai.

Kerajaan Barisan Nasional akan berusaha bersungguh-sungguh untuk menolak fahaman ekstrem dan perkauman yang tidak memanfaatkan negara kita. Selain itu, kami juga akan meneruskan usaha untuk meningkatkan amalan konsep kesederhanaan atau wasatiyyah di kalangan rakyat berbilang kaum di Malaysia.

Janji saya kepada anda hari ini adalah untuk menjadi Perdana Menteri bagi seluruh rakyat Malaysia – tidak kira agama, bangsa, mahupun ideologi politik anda. Cinta saya terhadap negara kita tidak mampu saya jelaskan dengan kata-kata, dan saya amat bangga serta bersyukur dengan pencapaian Malaysia sehingga ini. Saya percaya, jika kita bekerjasama sebagai satu bangsa negara, insya-Allah k
ejayaan yang lebih besar lagi akan berada di dalam genggaman kita.

Najib Razak