Khamis, 16 Oktober 2014

Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar Ibrahim

Southeast Asia’s points of light in a murky democratic dawn

Posted: 16 Oct 2014 02:02 AM PDT

Asia Sentinel

Long uphill fight to make progress

As if it wasn't bad enough that Indonesia's parliament just voted to curtail democracy at the grass roots level, the Indonesian police have banned the democratic right to protest against the move at an international forum on democracy the government is hosting on the island of Bali.

That's almost as absurd as the military's insistence in Thailand that it intervened to save democracy.

Nearly two decades into the twenty-first century, the struggle for democracy in Southeast Asia continues to battle strong headwinds. Sometimes, as in Thailand where the military seized power last May, this has resulted in a complete reversal of course.

In Indonesia, where for the first time one popularly president will shortly transfer power to another as a result of free and mostly fair elections, the sudden course correction forced by a parliament dominated by conservative forces has everyone spooked and worried for the future.  Will the long journey from darkness into light ever be smooth?

A wise and experienced politician in the region once said that the struggle for freedom was like driving a car uphill and that he could not envision ever being able to take his foot off the gas.

Arguably, this is a useful piece of advice for democrats everywhere, but it is particularly instructive in Southeast Asia where three generations of activists have been imprisoned, tortured or killed for their belief in freedom since the end of the colonial era only to see their countries lurch from the triumph of people's power to betrayal and regression.

It's not quite the same in other parts of the globe where democracy was fought for and flowered over a similar period. Transitions are real and sustained. In Chile and Argentina, the victims of repression are at last receiving justice. Kenya's indicted president recently showed up at the International Criminal Court.

Here in Southeast Asia the word 'transition' imparts more ambiguity. Power changes hands more easily, but remains concentrated in the hands of the few. No attempt to eradicate corruption goes beyond scratching the surface and punishing the minnows. Impunity prevails, as victims of political repression are asked to bury the past to avoid opening up old wounds.

Thus while Indonesians celebrate the election of a new kind of grass-roots politician as president, a man who supposedly cares for the people, the atrocities of past violence since the 1960s, in which as many as two million Indonesians were killed, were not even considered important enough by anyone to be featured in the campaign.

The developed West cheers the outcomes it likes best, which are usually tidy and good for business. China's influence now looms larger in Southeast Asia as good roads and high-speed railways start to pierce once remote borderlands. Chinese trade and investment as well as strategic support finds firmer footing in places where democracy is in deficit.

As a result, the United States, whose aim is to stem the tide of Chinese influence supposedly in the name of freedom, is forced to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in order to shore up old alliances and build new ones, as in the case of Vietnam where the Obama administration has just announced the relaxing of a ban on the sale of lethal arms.

Meanwhile, civil society perpetually struggles to be heard across the region. Noisy activists are either jailed or disappeared – as was the allegedly the case for environmental activists recently in Thailand and Laos. The public airing of injustice or inequality is often deemed unpatriotic or economically inconvenient.

Although, in a stunning challenge to this, a group of Cambodians have filed a case with the International Criminal Court alleging that “the ruling elite have illegally seized and re-allocated millions of hectares of valuable land from poor Cambodians for exploitation or speculation by its members and foreign investors."

Points of light pierce the murky democratic dawn, but little more. Meanwhile, in Thailand martial law remains in force and it is illegal for more than five people to gather – even lone protestors eating sandwiches have been arrested. In Myanmar, a where democratic transition is said to be in full swing, journalists are subject to prosecution and are sentenced to hard labour.

Later this month a Malaysian court will likely jail the country's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, whose party won the popular vote in the last election. And Indonesian lawmakers consider that after almost a decade of popularly elected mayors and district officials, it is time to reverse course and have them appointed.

It's not as if people are demanding all that much change. One former official from Myanmar speaking at a conference of civil society actors in Bali ahead of the heavily guarded Bali Democracy Forum put it like this: what people want is a government that is capable, efficient, accessible, caring, responsive and, if possible, replaceable.

However, for established elites in the region it's that last point about a genuine democratic system that is hardest to swallow. Power can be responsibly wielded, even in the name of the people, but is not easily surrendered.  As former Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri once told a journalist colleague, all that is required is to let a little light into the system.

[PROGRAM] Solidariti Bersama Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim

Posted: 15 Oct 2014 08:32 PM PDT

Program Solidariti Bersama Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim

21 Oktober 2014 (Selasa)

1) 3.00 – 5.00 ptg – Bersama Masyarakat India Menjelang Deepavali

Lokasi: Little India, Jalan Tengku Kelana Kelang Depan Ajuntha (Sebelah Masjid India)

22 Oktober 2014 (Rabu) – Pulau Pinang & Kedah

1) 12 .00 tghari – Sambutan Rumah Terbuka Deepavali Yb Prof Dr Ramasamy TKM 2 Pulau Pinang

Lokasi: No11 A , Lorong 16 Tmn Tambun Indah, Simpang 4 , Batu Kawan, Pulau Pinang

2) 7.00 – 9.00 mlm – Sambutan Rumah Terbuka Deepavali Kedah Yb Dr Krishnamoorthy Adun Bukit Selambau

Lokasi: Jalan 5 , Cinta Sayang Resort Home, Sg Petani, Kedah

3) 8.00 – 12.00 mlm – Ceramah Solidarity Bersama Anwar Ibrahim

Lokasi: Dewan Lip Seang Khor, Sg Petani (Depan Hospital Lama, Sg Petani)

4) 9.00 – 12.00 mlm – Ceramah Solidariti Bersama Anwar Ibrahim

Lokasi: Tapak Expo Seberang Jaya, Pulau Pinang

Bersama YAB Lim Guan Eng, YAB Azmin Ali, dan Sdr Mat Sabu


23 Oktober 2014 (Khamis) – Pulau Pinang & Perak

1) 12.00 tgh – Sambutan Rumah Terbuka Deepavali Pulau Pinang

Lokasi: Dewan Jubli Home, Sg Dua, Pulau Pinang

2) 2.00 ptg – Perasmian Pusat Khidmat Adun Machang Bubuk Yb Lee Khai Loon

Lokasi: Pusat Perniagaan Alma

3) 5.00 – 7.00 ptg – Perjumpaan MPN Perak,

Lokasi: MH Hotel, Ipoh

4) 7.00 – 9.30 mlm – Rumah Terbuka Depavali Perak

Lokasi: Rumah M Tinagaran, Bandar Baru Tambun

5) 9.00 – 12.00 mlm – Ceramah Solidariti Bersama Anwar Ibrahim

Lokasi: Batu 3, Temoh, Tapah, Perak

24 Oktober 2014 (Jumaat) – Terengganu

1) 9.00 – 12.00 mlm – Ceramah Solidariti Bersama Anwar Ibrahim

Lokasi: Dataran Pulau Warisan, Kampong China, Kuala Terengganu

25 Oktober 2014 (Sabtu) – Pahang

1) 9.00- 12.00 mlm – Ceramah Solidariti Bersama Anwar Ibrahim

Lokasi: Bandar Maran , Pahang


26 Oktober 2014 (Ahad) – Melaka & Johor

1) 6.30 – 9.30 mlm – Majlis Makan Malam

Lokasi: Flat Koperasi, Kg Baru, Machap Baru, Alor Gajah

2) 8.00 – 11.00 mlm – Ceramah Solidariti Bersama Anwar Ibrahim

LOKASI : Taman Cheng Perdana, Cheng, Melaka (Belakang CIMB)

3) 8.00 – 12.00 mlm – Ceramah Solidariti Bersama Anwar Ibrahim

Lokasi: Grand Seaview Restaurant, Batu Pahat, Johor

27 Oktober 2014 (Isnin) – Selangor

1) 7.00 mlm – Solat Maghrib & Hajat

Lokasi: Kediaman Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Bukit Segambut,

2) 7.00 – 11.00 mlm – Majlis Makan Malam

Lokasi: Dewan MBPJ, Petaling Jaya

3) 8.30 – 12.00 mlm – Solidariti Bersama Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim

Lokasi: Stadium Kelana Jaya, Selangor

Turut bersama:

YAB Azmin Ali, YAB Lim Guan Eng, Sdr Mat Sabu
dan pimpinan utama Pakatan Rakyat

Pengarah UMcedel yang dipecat catat rekod hasilkan 9 graduan PhD tahun ini

Posted: 15 Oct 2014 08:25 PM PDT

TMI

Bekas Pengarah Pusat Kajian Politik dan Pilihan Raya Universiti Malaya (UMcedel) Profesor Datuk Dr Mohammad Redzuan Othman mencatat sejarah tersendiri dalam pendidikan negara apabila 9 calon di bawah penyeliaannya berjaya menerima ijazah doktor falsafah (PhD) dalam majlis konvokesyen UM baru-baru ini.

Difahamkan, jumlah itu merupakan yang terbesar pernah dicapai seorang pensyarah Fakulti Sastera dan Sains Sosial sejak ditubuhkan pada 1959.

Menurut senarai nama yang dicatatkan dalam buku Istiadat Konvokesyen 2014 UM, keseluruhannya terdapat 33 penerima PhD dari fakulti itu pada majlis yang diadakan Isnin lepas.

Ijazah PhD itu disampaikan Canselor UM Sultan Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah Muizzuddin Shah.

Empat daripada 9 graduan PhD itu dari luar negara iaitu Indonesia, Mali, Iran dan Yaman manakala 5 lagi pelajar Malaysia.

Mereka ialah Mohamed Ali Haniffa (Malaysia), Mehdi Soltanzadeh (Iran), Salwa Ahmed Qasem Dammag (Yaman), Abu Hanifah Haris (Malaysia), Chaibo Fodie Makan Drame (Mali), Hasanudin Daud (Malaysia), Nur Atikah Tang Abdullah (Malaysia), Jazilus Sakhok (Indonesia) dan Jamal Hamil (Malaysia).

Hanifah mencatatkan sejarah yang tersendiri sebagai calon PhD di bawah penyeliaan Redzuan yang paling cemerlang apabila berjaya menyiapkan PhD dalam masa dua tahun setengah melalui program ‘fast track’, iaitu membuat PhD di bawah Skim Bright Spark dalam tempoh kurang tiga tahun.

Bagi program ini, calon cemerlang di peringkat ijazah pertama boleh membuat PhD tanpa melalui peringkat Ijazah Sarjana.

Mereka yang mendapat PhD di bawah penyeliaan Redzuan ini adalah dari Jabatan Sejarah serta Jabatan Antropologi dan Sosiologi.

“Biasanya seorang profesor atau pensyarah paling ramai mampu menghasilkan 2 atau 3 graduan PhD setahun.

“Namun dalam kes Redzuan ini, satu pencapaian luar biasa apabila berjaya mengeluarkan 9 calon PhD dan menerima ijazah mereka serentak tahun ini.

“Lebih-lebih lagi dengan kesibukan tugas beliau sebagai Dekan Fakulti Sastera dan Sains Sosial dan Pengarah UMcedel,” kata satu sumber dari Fakulti Sastera universiti itu.

Pada tahun ini juga, Redzuan merupakan penerima Anugerah Khidmat Cemerlang UM selama 13 tahun berturut-turut sejak 2001 dan penerima Anugerah Perkhidmatan Setia kerana berkhidmat selama 30 tahun dengan UM.

Beliau sebelum ini tidak disambung khidmatnya sebagai dekan fakulti itu, walaupun mendapat sokongan undi lebih 80% kakitangan akademik fakulti itu yang mahu beliau mengekalkan jawatan.

Pihak UM enggan secara telus mendedahkan undi yang beliau peroleh dan menjadikan tarikh persaraannya tahun depan alasan perkhidmatan beliau sebagai dekan tidak disambung.

“Menariknya, terdapat mereka yang sudah bersara dilantik memegang jawatan pentadbiran, termasuk sebagai ketua jabatan,” menurut sumber itu lagi.

Pada Mac lalu, Redzuan ditamatkan jawatannya sebagai pengarah UMcedel selepas tekanan politik ke atas pentadbiran universiti itu.

Perkara ini turut didedahkan Tan Sri Ghauth Jasmon, bekas naib canselor UM yang pernah menerima tekanan sama semasa menjawat jawatan tertinggi di universiti tertua di Malaysia ini.

UM menerima tekanan ini susulan kajian yang dibuat UMcedel didapati tidak memihak kepada parti memerintah, khususnya menjelang Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13 dan Pilihan Raya Kecil Kajang, walaupun kajian yang dilakukan ini dari sudut akademik diakui kewibawaannya dan boleh dipertanggungjawabkan.

Redzuan dalam kenyataannya awal Julai lalu berkata, jawatan beliau sebagai pengarah UMcedel tidak disambung walaupun kontraknya akan tamat hujung tahun ini.

Redzuan berkata, beliau menerima surat pelantikan sebagai pengarah UMcedel pada 28 Disember, 2013 bagi tempoh 2 Januari, 2014 hingga 31 Disember, 2014.
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