Boikot Perhimpunan Haram!

Baru-baru ini, Perhimpunan BERSIH hangat digegarkan dan ada berpendapat Perhimpunan BERSIH yang dirancang merupakan jalan singkat pembangkang untuk ke Putrajaya. Penghormatan tidak diberi kepada prinsip demokrasi dan demonstrasi jalanan ini hanya mencetuskan suasana huru- hara yang mempunyai agenda terselindung.

Sekiranya perhimpunan ini mendakwa PRU (Pilihanraya Umum) yang tidak telus dan bersih, mengapa BN masih kalah di 4 negeri.. cuba fikir-fikirkan, adakah terdapat perkara yang tersembunyi mengenai apa yang ingin dicapai pembangkang di sebalik rancangan mengadakan perhimpunan haram itu?

Sistem demokrasi dan sistem sosial di negara-negara luar (Egypt dan Tunsia) amat jauh bezanya dan seharusnya kita di Malaysia bersyukur dapat menjalani hidup dalam suasana baik dan aman

Kita sebagai rakyat boleh mempersoalkan apakah niat sebenar demontrasi haram Bersih 2.0 ini diadakan. Adakah mereka ingin jadikan tarikh 9 Julai ini sebagai “hari rusuhan dan kekacauan” sebagaimana berjayanya teori domino di Asia Barat? Amalan demonstrasi haram Bersih 2.0 sewajarnya ditolak dan wajib diboikot oleh seluruh rakyat !

It's a wake up call..Claimed Datuk Chua

The voting pattern among the Chinese in the Hulu Selangor by-election is a wake-up call for MCA leaders that the community is no longer just concerned with basic needs but also national issues, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said.

Dr Chua said the party needed to relook its approach as just providing allocations for Chinese schools, halls and better drainage systems was no longer enough.

“Apart from basic amenities, the Chinese are now more concerned about national issues,” he told reporters here after Barisan Nasional claimed victory in the Hulu Selangor by-election last night.

Results from polling stations showed that there was strong support for PKR from areas where the community formed the majority.

Dr Chua said the MCA would also be more vocal from now on.

He said the party would also send more leaders to Chinese villages to interact with the people to make them feel that they were part of the national agenda.

“We need to listen to them and get their feedback as well as update them on national issues,” he said.

Dr Chua also reckoned that the internal problems in the Kuala Kubu Baru division had contributed to the weak support from Chinese voters.

“Infighting exists in all parties but we will have to talk to the people concerned,” he said.

He said the 1½-year party crisis had also affected the Chinese support in the constituency.

“This is a wake-up call for all leaders to put aside their personal differences and work for the good of the rakyat.

“Otherwise, we will be consumed by the political dustbin and be called a political dinosaur,” he said.

On Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s comment that the by-election was an acid test for MCA, he said Najib had made the reference not just to MCA but also himself and Pakatan Rakyat.

“If it was just a reference to MCA, there would not be so many big guns coming here to campaign,” he said.

Party secretary-general Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha said the party would conduct a post-mortem to find out the reason behind the voting trend of the Chinese in the constituency.

Ask whether the poor response from the Chinese voters would make it more difficult for MCA to deal with Umno, Kong said Malaysia was a multiracial country and all component parties must work together.

Source-The Star

Hello GTP...

The nation will usher in a new era of 1 Malaysia with the implementation of a New Economic Model and the delivery of results of the unprecedented Government Transformation Programme (GTP).

This will lead to a thriving modern economy, united society and competent government to address issues such as brain drain, capital flight and positive participation from all races, according to the GTP Roadmap launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today.

“Our mission of unity is not merely for the sake of harmony and good relations, but is critical to building a productive and competitive Malaysia and achieving Vision 2020.

“While our path to Vision 2020 may be difficult, we trust that the benefits will be greater, given the richer resultant cultural diversity and competitive advantage this approach engenders,” it said.

The Roadmap stressed that it was imperative to promote integration through inclusiveness in managing the polarity between assimilation and segregation in Malaysia’s multi-ethnic society.

“Many of the issues that we grapple with as a nation — and which the rakyat have identified as important — are in fact polarities, such as between rich and poor, between young and old and across religions, races and regions.”

Delivering the six National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) outlined in the GTP would reduce disparities and mitigate the sense of deprivation and discontent that were sometimes expressed in racial terms, it said.

The six NKRAs are crime reduction, combating corruption, improving education, raising the living standards of low-income households, upgrading rural basic infrastructure and improving urban public transport.

The Roadmap noted that the implementation of the National Economic Policy (NEP) had led to “certain unintended results”, among them a sense of deprivation and discrimination felt by non-Bumiputeras due to the over-zealous approach of officers of certain agencies.

There has also been a widening of the income gap within the Bumiputera community, causing rising discontent among certain segments of the community. These factors had pushed many Malaysians, especially professionals, to migrate and the brain drain had become increasingly serious.

Adding to the establishment of Ekuinas, the private equity fund to promote Bumiputera economic participation, and the liberalisation of the financial sector and 27 sub-sectors, more initiatives are expected to be announced in the first quarter of this year.

The government will upgrade the quality of national schools to be the schools of choice for all students with the provision of pupils’ own language and a more multi-inclusive atmosphere as among the steps to address education and national unity under 1 Malaysia.

Other initiatives include having 1 Malaysia boarding schools with multiracial students and awarding national scholarships to study at international universities based on merit.

In fostering a 1 Malaysia government, it has been proposed that the mention of race on government forms be eliminated except for the purpose of census and statistics.

It is also suggested that more Chinese and Indians be encouraged to join the civil service while officers of Bumiputera origin from Sabah and Sarawak will be upgraded. — Bernama

H1N1-More Deaths

Three more deaths have been reported from the Influenza A (H1N1) virus, bringing the overall death toll to 62.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said there were delays in administering patients with anti-viral treatment in two of the three deaths.
“The ministry will check on why there was a delay,” he said yesterday.
The delay involved a three-year-old boy who was admitted on Aug 1 for fever, cough and dyspnea for five days where he received anti-viral treatment beginning Aug 3 but died last Friday due to severe pneumonia, he said.
The other case was a 50-year-old man warded on Aug 3 with cough, fever, dyspnea, vomitting and diarrohea, he said.
He had influenza-like symptoms since July 28 and anti-viral drugs were given on Aug 4 but he died last Friday due to septicemia and pneumonia, Liow said.
In the third case, a six-year-old Down Syndrome boy suffered from congenital heart problem despite being given anti-viral treatment on the same day he was admitted to hospital on Aug 9 for cough, fever and dyspnea.
He died on Aug 13 due to severe pneumonia with underlying problems and complications.
Speaking after launching a healthy lifestyle campaign here, Liow said there were 283 new cases of infection, bringing the tally up to 3,857 cases.
Thirty-three patients remained in the intensive care unit and out of the number, 16 had co-morbid conditions and chronic diseases while 213 were hospitalised in normal wards, he said.
He urged the public to practise social distancing when they have influenza-like symptoms.
The ministry could apply the Disease Control Act to fine those who knowingly infect others up to RM10,000 or jail up to two years, he said.
On private doctors recently saying that they were reluctant to stock up much anti-virals because the ministry’s guidelines were inconsistent, and that they would prescribe the drug on a case-to-case basis, Liow said the guidelines were clear.
On private doctors complaining about the high prices and the lack of stock of the drugs, he said the Government would talk to the supplier with the hope that they could reduce the price and make it available to everyone.

No more Indonesian Maid?

THE Indonesian government banned the country’s nationals from coming to work as maids in Malaysia with effect from Friday, just a day after its manpower minister announced the decision in Jakarta.
The sudden action has all the appearance of haste, while piling pressure on Malaysia to expedite changes in the terms of employment favouring maids.
Malaysia’s Human Resources Ministry had not even received the official letter to the effect when the entire country learned about it in the news.
Employers and maid agencies here will suffer losses through prior payments, such as deposits and fees. Such immediate and wilful disruptions of agreements also adversely affect sourcing agencies on the Indonesian side.
This is clearly bad form and bad business practice – it is unethical, sows ill will, and where contracts have been violated, unlawful as well. But Jakarta seems to have some reasons for its abrupt action.
When such policies exert a shock effect on the host country, it usually comes as a bargaining chip for the source country. But it could backfire.
There is also an undeclared rationale for this particular action coming at this point in time.
Indonesians go to the polls in 10 days to elect a new president. In the current campaigns, incum­bent Susilo Bambang Yudho­yono’s two challengers – his Vice-President Jusuf Kalla, and former president Megawati Sukarnoputri – are said to be closing in.
Political expediency would therefore seem to dictate events, at least for now.
Officially, the ban on Indonesian maids will stay until Malaysia is seen and said to have improved the work conditions for them.
The Indonesian manpower minister is scheduled to arrive here in early July to hold tough talks for those conditions. Indonesian voters will no doubt hear much about that heroic mission just days before the election.
Meanwhile, Malaysia should waste no time in sourcing for maids from other countries. Much has been heard about errant employers in Malaysia, but not quite enough about supposedly trained but still incompetent and dysfunctional maids from Indonesia.
In the interests of market competition, reducing needless dependence and much of everything else, diversifying the number of source countries is necessary and urgent.

SUPP pledges to help Barisan in polls

The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) is ready to help Barisan Nasional retain the Batang Ai state seat, which fell vacant following the death of its assemblyman, Datuk Dublin Unting, on Tuesday.
A by-election will have to be called as the Sarawak State Assembly still has more than two years of its term to run.
SUPP president Tan Sri Dr George Chan, who is Deputy Chief Minister, said the party would do its best to assist the state Barisan election machinery.
“Wherever we can, we will definitely help,” he told reporters after receiving a RM20,000 donation from the Sarawak Association of Ministers’ and Assistant Ministers’ Wives (Sabati) for flood victims at his office here yesterday.
With the Opposition expected to focus on the issue of native customary rights (NCR) land in the predominantly Iban constituency, Dr Chan said the state government would have to make clear to the people its policy on developing NCR land.
“This has always been an issue. As the government, we should explain why certain things can be done (with NCR land) and why certain things cannot be done,” he said.
He said land was usually an emotional issue and hoped that the people would be objective and rational in approaching it.
“I hope no one will try to stir up emotions and make people unhappy,” he added.

Spirit of Unity...

Having 28 years living in this country, I must admit that we are fortunate that the country’s unity remains peacefully with religious tolerance, mutual understanding and respect among the various races.

We may have succeeded in effectively managing racial rifts over the decades but there is a dire need for long-term solutions to ensure real harmony.

One obvious obstacle towards this is our ineptitude to hold frank and open dialogues over religious issues without getting all riled up.

As such, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s final mission as Prime Minister before leaving office – to ease racial and religious tensions – should indeed be lauded and supported.

It is never too late for political players and policy makers to realise that the future of Malay­sia hinges on its continued religious and inter-racial harmony.

As the PM said at the Chris­tian Federation of Malaysia’s Christ­mas open housebefore, our children must be raised without any sense of prejudice.

Differences in religion should not be a hindrance to developing and maintaining friendships.

The sad reality is that a large segment of Malaysians, especially among the young, can only mingle within the comfort of their own race groups. They do not show any interest in or concern for other communities.

It is obvious that inexpedient educational policies and failures in promoting multi-racial interactions have contributed to the regretful situation.

But the mess can still be untangled to free the original spirit of unity.

The country, after all, was born and nurtured on such a foundation.

We have proven in the past that the core values inherent in our faiths, cultures and customs are enough to unite us as Malay­sians.

The coming new year offers hope for renewed focus on unity based on respect for multi-ethnicity and religious tolerance.