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Tag: UMNO

  • Malaysia Court Upholds Jailing Of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim

    Malaysia Court Upholds Jailing Of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim

    Anwar Ibrahim, the former leader of the Malaysian opposition, has lost a final appeal to have his prison sentence for sodomy overturned and will serve out the remaining 16 months of his sentence in jail.

    Significantly the ruling means Anwar will not be allowed to contest the next election in 2018, which the opposition saw as their best chance to unseat prime minister Najib Razak and end his ruling party’s six decades in power.

    A five-member panel of judges ruled unanimously that there was no merit in Anwar’s application for a review of his 2014 conviction, his final legal option for an acquittal.

    “We will not proceed to examine the applicant’s review application,” the court said.

    Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered outside the Palace of Justice to show support for Anwar and police erected steel barricades around the court complex.

    Anwar was led into the dock by more than a dozen prison guards. His wife, daughters and grandchildren were present. After the ruling he told reporters: “It is not the end of the road.”

    Having led a coalition of opposition parties in 2013 to their largest ever electoral gains, Anwar, 69, is seen as the greatest threat to the ruling United Malays National Organisation (Umno).

    He served as deputy prime minister and finance minister in the 1990s for Umno under former leader Mahathir Mohamad but they fell out and he was removed from his post and jailed for several years amid outcry from human rights groups.

    In 2013 he returned to politics to run a campaign against corruption and nepotism against Najib that won the popular vote but lost the election by number of legislators elected. Its was Umno’s worst ever election performance.

    But Anwar returned to prison in 2015 after his longstanding conviction — for allegedly sodomising a former aide — was upheld. His supporters say the case is a politically motivated attempt to end his career.

    This summer Anwar rejoined his old enemy Mahathir to try to unseat Najib, who in 2015 was thrown into a multi-billion dollar corruption scandal involving the debt-laden state fund 1MDB. Najib denies taking any money for personal gain.

    The historic partnership between Anwar and Mahathir brought members of the opposition and Umno against Najib for the first time.

    However under Malaysian law a person is banned from political activities for five years after the end of their sentence, closing the possibility of Anwar leading any campaign as he did in 2013.

    The Free Anwar Now campaign released a statement ahead of the verdict saying the case had “been plagued with many anomalies and inconsistencies, questionable DNA evidence and tampering of critical evidence”.

    “Anwar Ibrahim, who turns 70 next year, is surely not a hardened criminal that deserves the harshness of a prison sentence. He endures physical discomfort and mental anguish daily.”

    Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said the decision was a “real tragedy for justice” in Malaysia.

    “More than anything this outcome shows that the Malaysian courts were no match for prime minister Najib Razak’s political vendetta against Anwar,” he said.

    “With this final decision running roughshod over Anwar’s rights and sending him back to prison, Najib and the ruling Umno party have just fired the starting gun on the expected 2018 election by permanently sidelining the political opposition’s most capable leader.”

    Writing in the Guardian on Tuesday, Anwar said his “political imprisonment” meant Malaysia needed “unyielding international encouragement and pressure”.

    “The past 20 years … have seen our country go from bad to worse politically and economically, driven by compromised democratic institutions and years of systematic abuse by the ruling elite to maintain their grip on power.”

     

    Source: www.theguardian.com

  • Malaysia DPM Dismisses Culprit Of Hoax Letter As Jealous Of UMNO Unity

    Malaysia DPM Dismisses Culprit Of Hoax Letter As Jealous Of UMNO Unity

    KAJANG: Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has dismissed concerns over a viral fake letter of him asking Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to step down.

    Zahid said he strongly believes the letter is defamatory.

    “(The culprit) knows (about my and Najib’s) official and personal relationship, going back to when Najib was the Umno Youth chief and the Youth and Sports Minister.

    “They see my good relationship with the Prime Minister, they are jealous of our unity, so they try to make us clash,” he said at a press conference after closing the Indian Progressive Front’s (IPF) 26th general assembly here today.

    The hoax letter also includes a list of new Cabinet members under Zahid’s administration once he takes over the number one post.

    Zahid said it is clear that the person who penned the fake letter committed three major offences, namely, forging his signature, using official government material, and spreading lies.

    “The letterhead used is not original, and the posts mentioned were also not according to protocol or present guidelines,” he said.

    Zahid, who is also Home Minister, said he has been informed that police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) are probing the case, with over 20 police reports received so far.

    On his advice to grassroots members who may have been influenced by the letter, Zahid said they should show the detractors how close of a bond they have.

    “There have been many political bullets fired at us. We need to deflect all these lies thrown at us.

    “What is important for us is to show how close the relationship is among leaders and members from all component parties,” he added.

     

    Source: www.malaysiandigest.com

  • Malaysia PM Najib Razak: Hudud Is About Empowering Sharia Courts

    Malaysia PM Najib Razak: Hudud Is About Empowering Sharia Courts

    KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s prime minister has expressed support for strict Islamic laws as he seeks to consolidate support of ethnic Malay Muslims at a party meeting this week, as frustration over graft and the economy cloud prospects for the next election.

    Prime Minister Najib Razak has battled calls to resign over the last 18 months, as a scandal at his pet project, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), drew the anger of the public, opponents and members of his own United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) ruling party.

    A new opposition party led by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and a former deputy prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, who Najib sacked for questioning his handling of 1MDB, is threatening to split the majority Malay vote that has handed UMNO victory in every election since independence in 1957.

    Ahead of the annual party meeting, Najib said it was the responsibility of Muslims to support a plan by the rival Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party to push for the adoption of hudud, the Islamic penal code, that sets out punishments such as amputation and stoning.

    “We want to develop Islam,” Najib said in an interview with pro-government broadcaster TV3.

    “Non-Muslims must understand that this is not about hudud but about empowering the sharia courts.”

    With rising prices and poor economic prospects for next year, Najib is expected to bank on ethnic and religious sentiment to woo majority Malay voters. An election is due by 2018.

    Najib said his policy speech at this year’s UMNO meeting would focus on the interests of Malays and Islam.

    “This is my speech as UMNO president, so my main audience are UMNO members and the Malays and bumiputera,” he said, using a term that roughly translates as sons of the soil, and includes Malays but not members of the ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.

    “It doesn’t mean we don’t care at all about the others, but this is an UMNO assembly,” he said.

    Najib faced the biggest challenge to his leadership last year after reports that hundreds of millions of dollars was misappropriated from state fund 1MDB, which he founded.

    He acted swiftly to preserve his position – sacking critics in his administration and closing a graft investigation.

    Nevertheless, the scandal clouds prospects for an early election that Najib could call to cement his position, with multiple international investigations going on and a suit related to the case filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.

    Adding to his troubles is the plunge of the ringgit currency after Donald Trump’s U.S. election win. It is Asia’s worst performing currency, shedding nearly 7 percent over the past two weeks.

    “Najib’s big problem is market confidence,” said James Chin, director at the University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute.

    “Tycoons will move against him if the ringgit keeps going down, but more importantly, SMEs and traders will go to the wall as prices will go up 20 percent across the board,” he said, referring to small- and medium-sized enterprises.

    (Editing by Robert Birsel)

     

    Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

  • Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak To Join Gathering Protesting Myanmar Government’s Treatment Of Rohingyas

    Malaysia’s PM Najib Razak To Join Gathering Protesting Myanmar Government’s Treatment Of Rohingyas

    Malaysia’s prime minister will be joining a gathering organized by the government to protest violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, according to his deputy.

    Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told a press conference that the Dec. 4 gathering would later determine Malaysia’s diplomatic ties with Myanmar’s government if it decides to continue military operations in troubled Rakhine State — home to around 1.2 million Rohingya.

    “The gathering would be attended by Prime Minister Najib Razak and other political leaders. To-date, PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang has confirmed his participation,” he said late Saturday, referring to the Malaysian Islamic Party.

    Hamidi also urged other major opposition political parties, namely the People’s Justice Party and the National Honest Party, to join the gathering.

    “We put aside our political differences and as Muslims we gather to express our concern for our fellow Muslims in Myanmar,” he underlined.

    The announcement came after thousands of people protesting violence against Rohingya joined demonstrations Friday in the capitals of Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

    Over the past six weeks, rights groups have expressed concern over reports of killings, rapes, arbitrary arrests and other violations in villages predominantly inhabited by Rohingya in Rakhine amid military operations launched after fatal attacks on police outposts last month.

    Myanmar has said that since Oct. 9, at least 86 people — 17 soldiers and 69 alleged “attackers” (among them two women) — have been killed, and property destroyed in the area.

    Rohingya groups, however, claim that the number killed in one weekend alone earlier this month could be as high as 150 civilians.

    Humanitarian outfits have called for independent investigations into the initial attacks, the ongoing operations and reported rapes and rights abuses in Rakhine, as with the area placed under military lockdown, rights groups and international reporters have been unable to enter.

    Hamidi said Malaysia remains firm on the principle that it cannot interfere in the affairs of other countries, but said that on humanitarian grounds, it must express its concern to Myanmar authorities.

    “We are not belittling other countries, but we have demonstrated our deep concerns over the Rohingya issues because as fellow Muslims we can feel their sufferings,” he stressed.

    The deputy premier also said the gathering would discuss, and state the country’s stance, on calls for the withdrawal of the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, currently the country’s state counselor-cum-foreign minister.

    “If someone who is given the award can no longer maintain peace, it [the conferment] can still be questioned,” Hamidi underlined.

    Meanwhile, Malaysia’s government is also due to send a protest note to the Myanmar government to demand their concern regarding persecution faced by the stateless Rohingya community.

    “A cabinet meeting has decided to send a protest note to the Myanmar Embassy in Kuala Lumpur,” Hamidi added.

    A law passed in Myanmar in 1982 denied Rohingya — many of whom have lived in Myanmar for generations — citizenship, making them stateless.

    The law denies the Rohingya rights to Myanmar nationality, removes their freedom of movement, access to education and services, and allows arbitrary confiscation of property.

    Myanmar nationalists have since taken to referring to the Rohingya — which the United Nations calls one of the most persecuted people in the world — as Bengali, which suggests they are not Myanmar nationals but interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh.

     

    Source: www.worldbulletin.net

  • Thousands Of Malaysians Participated In BERSIH March Against Government

    Thousands Of Malaysians Participated In BERSIH March Against Government

    When they were completed in 1998, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur were the tallest buildings in the world. At 1,483 feet, they beat out Chicago’s Sears Tower — which had held the record since 1973 — by only 10, but all the same, the superlative was a trophy for a Southeast Asian nation that had transformed itself from a sleepy agrarian society into a crucial economic center in less than a quarter of a century. Specifically, they were a point of pride for Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who had led Malaysia in its rebirth; so personal was the accomplishment that he himself chose the fixtures in the skyscrapers’ bathrooms.

    On Saturday, Mahathir was one of the many of thousands of people who gathered in the shadow of the towers to demand that Malaysia’s current Prime Minister, Najib Razak, step down from office. “Time has come for us to topple this cruel regime,” Mahathir said, standing on a portable stage before a crowd of roaring supporters dressed in yellow. “Najib is no longer suitable to be the prime minister. He is abusing the law.”

    Saturday’s protest, organized by a group of pro-democracy and anti-corruption activists collectively known as Bersih (the Malay word for “clean”), was the second massive display of outrage towards Najib since July 2015, when the Wall Street Journal and investigative news website Sarawak Report reported that his personal bank accounts held nearly $700 million in cash apparently siphoned from a state development fund called 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Najib has strenuously denied the allegations.

    The rally — which attracted around 40,000 people, according to local media reports, though one organizer placed it at twice that — was peaceful, even festive, despite the endemic frustration here. Attendees blew vuvuzelas and shared bottles of water when the equatorial heat proved too oppressive. (Before afternoon thunderstorms accumulated overhead, the thermostat hit close to 90 degrees.) Police blocked access to Merdeka Square, where the march was scheduled to culminate, so organizers deftly regrouped and informed participants over social media that they would instead head to the Petronas Towers. Reports that violent pro-government groups would be there to provoke demonstrators proved false.

    “We’re not out here to create any sort of problems — we just want to be seen and be heard,” 37-year-old Rizal Ahmad, who says he is currently unemployed, tells TIME. “The situation is getting worse, and people are becoming more desperate. We need to be heard.”

    Fahmi Reza, a street cartoonist who has previously been arrested for his work, is blunter. “We live in a country that’s full of clowns and crooks stealing money from us,” he says, raising over his head a large cutout of a caricature of Najib.

    It is hard to discredit their frustration. Najib took power in 2009 promising to bring the country into the 21st century, emphasizing ethnic plurality, economic growth, and good governance. Instead, he has supported not only policies that not only reinforce the country’s ethnic tensions — Malaysia is about 60% ethnic Malay, 25% Chinese, and 10% Indian — but plot the blueprint of a security state. In the year and a half since the 1MDB scandal erupted, he has penalized his detractors, shutting down or prosecuting media outlets that aspire to transparency in their political reporting. His party, the right-wing United Malays National Organization (UMNO), is stronger than ever.

    “We are looking at a collision between what has been a clubby, insular Malaysian political order and the norms and the expectations of the wider world,” Michael Montesano, a researcher at Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, tells TIME. “The nagging question is whether movements like Bersih point to patterns in social change in Malaysia that will lead to a different outcome.”

    The prelude to Saturday’s protest was an anxious one. The night before, it was reported that Maria Chin Abdullah, Bersih’s chairperson, and her colleague Mandeep Singh had been arrested at the Bersih headquarters on charges of “activity detrimental to parliamentary democracy.” On Monday, Rafizi Ramli, a prominent opposition politician, had been sentenced to 18 months in prison for revealing “state secrets” concerning the 1MDB scandal.

    The prosecution of two largely popular progressive figures “tipped the scales,” opposition lawmaker Wong Chen says, prompting Malaysians to flood the streets rather than stay at home. “The government really wants to keep people away, and I think it’s backfiring,” Ambiga Sreenevasan, a human-rights lawyer who organized earlier iterations of Bersih, tells TIME. “The Malaysian people are fuming.”

    Rafizi Ramli is currently out on bail, and when he showed up at Saturday’s demonstration, he was treated as a celebrity. He was a good sport about the dozens of selfies he was asked to pose for.

    “I’ve been in the so-called reform movement since I was 21, and every year we make gains inch by inch,” he told TIME late in the afternoon, as rain began to fall over the city. “It may not seem momentous, but it’s 10 or 15 times more than what it once was. The fact that people come out, in spite of all the intimidation, means that we have reached something that is unstoppable.”

     

    Source: http://time.com