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Tag: 1Malaysia

  • Najib Razak Was My Hope But He Broke His Promise – Dr Mahathir Mohamad

    Najib Razak Was My Hope But He Broke His Promise – Dr Mahathir Mohamad

    Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has unleashed a scathing attack against Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, saying that the Prime Minister broke his promise to build a crooked bridge between Johor Baru and Singapore.

    In a five-part interview uploaded on a blog, Din Turtle, two days after Najib’s television interview, Dr Mahathir responded that the Prime Minister had supported the project when he took over office from Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

    “He was my hope after Pak Lah (Abdullah) resigned. He said he would build the bridge when he became the prime minister even if Singapore opposes to it. But he didn’t do,” claimed the former premier.

    Dr Mahathir said he was unhappy when Najib broke his promise and appeared to “kowtow” to Singapore for not proceeding with the project.

    “If Singapore does not agree to this, it is not my fault. It is our sovereign right, it is in our own territorial area, territorial waters. Half of that Causeway belongs to us. I’m not touching Singapore’s side.

    “He (Najib) said he made an agreement with Singapore, where is our independence? Are we part of Singapore?” questioned Dr Mahathir.

    In a special interview with TV3 on Thursday, Najib said Dr Mahathir’s attacks against him could have been triggered due to their disagreement on the crooked bridge and the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) cash handouts.

    On BR1M, Dr Mahathir insisted that “feeding people with free money” was not an answer, but creating jobs and providing education to the people was what the country needs.

    “We should create jobs for the people, give them education, train them so that they can live and make money for themselves. You can give welfare, but only to the people who are in need of welfare,” he said.

    On the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy, Dr Mahathir said it was better for Najib to resign now to prevent Barisan Nasional from losing in the next general election as the investigations to the company could take years to complete.

    “It has to be now because we still have two years to recover. If he doesn’t go now, the Public Accounts Committee and others will be investigating the matter for the next two or three years and come GE, if he is still around, we will lose.

    “I think there will be a lot of trouble for everyone. And those who cover up, they will have to pay the price,” he said, adding that there should be ‘two or three’ independent commissions to look into the matter.

    “We need ‘neutral’ people to do a thorough investigation as to where the money went. Who was handling the money? Who is this Jho Low? Suddenly he became very important. He is not a civil servant, suddenly he has such power,” said Dr Mahathir.

    On former police commando Sirul Azhar Umar, who was convicted of the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu, Dr Mahathir said that every person who was sentenced to death has the privilege to appeal to the King or to the Sultan.

    “I was formerly a prime minister, you know. My duty is to advise the King (on whether the appeal should be granted or not),” he said.

    Dr Mahathir, who met Sirul’s mother recently, insisted that the issue was not about politics.

    He said that Sirul as a policeman would not kill unless he was attacked or instructed by someone.

     

    Source: www.thestar.com.my

  • Malaysian Sex Blogger Alvin Tan Prefers Malaysia Over Singapore

    Malaysian Sex Blogger Alvin Tan Prefers Malaysia Over Singapore

    PETALING JAYA: Malaysians who rave about how good life is in Singapore have probably never ever lived in the city-state and have a distorted view of the reality there, said controversial Malaysian sex-blogger Alvin Tan, who is living in self-exile in the US now.

    In a Facebook posting on April 1, Alvin wrote, “They (Malaysians) have this utopian, idealistic view of the city-state, and they even think that the high GDP per capita actually trickles down to ordinary folks like them (har har har).

    Listing six “truths” about Singapore, Alvin slammed the cramped quarters that Singaporeans called housing, saying their flats were “smaller than even the upstairs area of your terrace house”.

    He also talked about how tough it was to own a car and how Singaporeans had to depend on “riding trains that break down” despite the fares being pricey.

    He said many became “bitter, cynical individuals early on in life” due to the compulsory national service they attended in Pulau Tekong and spent their working lives “competing fruitlessly” with foreigners who stole their jobs.

    Noting that monthly commitments were sky-high, he said many simply resigned themselves to their corporate lives and paid chunks of their salaries into a “compulsory saving scam” called CPF that he likened to a Ponzi scheme.

    In comparison, he said life in Malaysia was relatively better.

    “Our day-to-day cost of living is high, but at least the biggest things – transportation and housing – is more affordable. Hell, you can rent a room for RM250 in Kuala Lumpur (instead of S$700 in Singapore); what more do you want? And lastly, our EPF isn’t a Ponzi scheme to fund god knows what,” Alvin said.

    He argued that the clean, safe streets of Singapore did not make up for all that was wrong with the country and that so many could not gain access to their “world-class education system” that Singapore boasted of and had to obtain an education overseas instead.

    “I was offered Singaporean Permanent Residence (status) in 2007. I tossed the letter into the rubbish bin. I had no intention of becoming a cog in the wheel to fund the CPF, Temasek Holdings, and your ministers’ million-dollar salaries.”

     

    Source:www.freemalaysiatoday.com

  • Dr Mahathir: Sad At Demise Of Lee Kuan Yew, Marks End Of Era of Independence Leaders

    Dr Mahathir: Sad At Demise Of Lee Kuan Yew, Marks End Of Era of Independence Leaders

    No matter how friendly or unfriendly we are, the passing away of a man you know well saddens you.

    I cannot say I was a close friend of Kuan Yew. But still I feel sad at his demise.

    Kuan Yew became well known at a young age. I was a student in Singapore when I read about his defence of labour unions.

    I first met Kuan Yew when I was a member of Parliament in 1964 after Singapore joined Malaysia in 1963. We crossed swords many time during the debates. But there was no enmity, only differences in our views of what was good for the newborn nation. He included me among the ultra Malays who was responsible for the racial riots in Singapore. Actually I never went to Singapore to stir up trouble. Somebody else whom I would not name did.

    The Tunku attended the inaugural meeting of the PAP and was quite friendly with Kuan Yew. He believed Kuan Yew was a bastion against Communism. But when the PAP contested in the Malaysian elections in 1964 with Malaysian Malaysia as its slogan, Tunku felt that the PAP’s presence in Malaysia was going to be disruptive for the country.

    When I became PM in 1981, I paid a courtesy call on Kuan Yew. It was a friendly call and he immediately agreed to my proposal that the Malaysia and Singapore times which had always been the same should be advanced by half an hour. I explained that it would be easier adjusting our time when travelling as we would fall within the time zones fixed for the whole world at one hour intervals.

    I am afraid on most other issues we could not agree.

    When I had a heart attack in 1989 and required open heart surgery, he cared enough to ring up my wife to ask her to delay the operation as he had arranged for the best heart surgeon, a Singaporean living in Australia, to do the operation. But by then, I had been given pre-med and was asleep prior to the operation the next day.

    My wife thanked him but apologised. She promised to ring him up after the operation. She did the next evening.

    When he was ill, I requested to see him. He agreed but the night before the visit, the Singapore High Commissioner received a message that he was very sick and could not see me.

    Still when he attended the Nihon Keizai Shimbun annual conference on the Future of Asia in Tokyo, which I never failed to attend, I went up to him at dinner to ask how he was. We sat down together to chat and the Japanese photographers took our pictures promising not to put it in the press. I wouldn’t mind even if they did. But I suppose people will make all kinds of stories about it.

    Now Kuan Yew is no more. His passage marks the end of the period when those who fought for independence lead their countries and knew the value of independence.

    Asean lost a strong leadership after President Suharto and Lee Kuan Yew.

    * Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is former prime minister of Malaysia. This article was originally posted on his personal blog at chedet.cc

     

    Source: www.themalaymailonline.com

  • PKR To Mediate In Hudud Disagreement Between DAP And PAS

    PKR To Mediate In Hudud Disagreement Between DAP And PAS

    PKR said today that it would play the role of mediator between PAS and DAP to ensure that Pakatan Rakyat does not split up, following the latter’s decision to end ties with the Islamist party’s president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang over the hudud issue.

    PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli said the party’s political bureau had held a meeting last night at which it was decided that PKR would meet separately with the warring PAS and DAP leaders to discuss the issues threatening to split the seven-year coalition.

    “We want to sit down with PAS and DAP leadership. At the end of the day, even the most difficult issues have been resolved by sitting down and discussing,” he said at a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

    “Pakatan is like a tripod. We cannot survive without one leg. In spite of the miscommunication and internal problems, we have our common interests and we will move along the same direction.”

    DAP said yesterday that although it would remain in PR, it was ending all ties with Hadi following the latter’s decision to go against the coalition in tabling a Private Member’s Bill on his own without discussing it with the rest of the leadership.

    “DAP is unable to work with a PAS president like Hadi Awang who persists in such dishonest and dishonourable acts,” secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said.

    “As Hadi is the PAS leader in PR, DAP’s decision to end all ties with Hadi will effectively put the PR leadership council in limbo. DAP will meet the PKR leadership to discuss the future course of PR.”

    Lim later told reporters that Hadi should leave the opposition coalition if he insisted on implementing hudud in Kelantan.

    Hadi had come under severe criticism after failing to agree to the decision made at the PR leadership council meeting on February 8, where it was agreed that Kelantan PAS’s hudud bill to amend the state’s Shariah Criminal Code Enactment II (1993) would first be discussed by all three PR party leaders, before it was tabled in the legislative assembly.

    The frictions between both parties came to a head after Hadi had gone ahead to submit a private member’s bill on March 18 to Parliament without presenting it first to the PAS central committee and to the PR leadership council.

    Rafizi said today that although the matter cannot be swept under the carpet, the hudud issue is not big enough to put the coalition at a breaking point.

    “We had also discussed our differences about the hudud in 2011 and resolved it. In the end, the commom interest of the coalition is to bring up pressing issues concerning the rakyat.

    “There will be some skirmishes, problems between two parties and the other one tries to bring back peace. There have been problems between PAS and PKR.

    “When we were preparing the shadow budget and manifesto, there were a lot of shouting, walk-outs and yet we managed to come together and present our budget and common policy framework,” he added.

    “By making that stand, we have declared that it is very hard for us to work with Hadi now,” he said.

     

    Source: www.themalaysianinsider.com

  • Najib Razak Defends Use Of Sedition Act To Prevent Acts Of Terrorism

    Najib Razak Defends Use Of Sedition Act To Prevent Acts Of Terrorism

    The police are justified in making arrests under the colonial-era Sedition Act 1948 to prevent acts of terrorism in the country, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.

    The prime minister said use of the Act was a preventive measure and if not used, more people could become victims to acts of terror.

    The controversial law, criticised by many here and abroad for quelling legitimate dissent, was useful in preserving ethnic relations, he added.

    “We also place importance on ethnic and religious relations and that is why we are strengthening the Sedition Act. All this is meant to forestall something bad from happening to our country.

    “As the saying goes in English, ‘prevention is better than cure’. I believe that it is better for us to have preventive detention laws than having someone commit an act of terror.

    “If terrorism were to happen, many lives may be sacrificed,” Najib said in a speech to the police force at the 208th Police Day anniversary in Kuala Lumpur today.

    Najib said there was no reason for the government to apologise for using the Sedition Act, despite international criticism against the colonial-era law.‎

    “We should not be apologetic. Some may say this is not democratic, this ‎(violates) rights to freedom, and more.

    “But I want to say that there is no absolute freedom. There is no place for absolute freedom without responsibility in this country,” said Najib.

    He also gave his assurance that the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which will be tabled in Parliament soon, would not be used for political purposes.

    Najib added that the executive arm of the government would have no say in whether to detain an individual under the new act.

    “The government has no intention of using the new act for political purposes. That is why the power to detain is not placed under members of the administration.

    “We will place it under a credible body so that only those truly involved in terrorism can be detained under the new act. That way, we can guarantee Malaysia will continue to be safe,” said Najib.

    He also reminded Malaysians not to belittle the efforts of the police force in ensuring public safety.‎

    “We should not disrespect the police and look down on them by using words and insults that are unsuitable, as if the police act ‎freely as they like.

    “The groups that insult the police’s honour are completely irresponsible,” said Najib.

    The police have come under heavy criticism after nearly 90 anti-goods and services tax (GST) protesters were arrested on Monday as they were demonstrating at the Customs Department headquarters in Kelana Jaya.

    Opposition politicians have also accused Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim of taking selective action and targeting opponents of Barisan Nasional (BN).

     

    Source: www.themalaysianinsider.com