Rabu, 16 April 2014

Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar Ibrahim


[VIDEO] Today’s PC

Posted: 16 Apr 2014 02:35 AM PDT

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has hit back at Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for “manipulating” a comment made to Chinese daily Southern Weekly.

At a Finance Ministry meeting yesterday, Najib had attacked Anwar for reportedly saying that he could have solved the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 mystery “in one second if he was prime minister”.

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim reiterated that his fight to win the presidency is not with his wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, but with the Registrar of Societies (ROS).

Pakatan Rakyat has been told to be “mindful” that Umno will use PAS’ proposal to implement hudud in Kelantan, in order to get political mileage.

In issuing the reminder, PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim pointed to Umno’s inconsistency on the matter.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has criticised Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for remaining silent on the MH370 crisis and refusing to take questions from the media.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has criticised Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for remaining silent on the MH370 crisis and refusing to take questions from the media.

Anwar also questioned the government’s refusal to release the cargo manifest from MH370.

In the name of God, go

Posted: 16 Apr 2014 02:30 AM PDT

Malaysiakini

As you may or may not recall, in my column last week I made the blindingly obvious point that Malaysia's perennially crooked, incompetent and thus altogether pathetic apology for a government should get real or get out.

But I also realistically conceded that the Barisan Nasional gangster-regime will never so much as consider getting real, let alone getting out, as long as there is anything left for it and its cronies to steal.

A dismal truth that has been even more pressingly and depressingly evident in the week since, due to fresh revelations of BN's stealing on regardless, as in robbing the rakyat blind as ever, and no sign whatever that it has any intention of stealing away as in getting lost.

The clearest signal this week of BN's steely and stealy determination to stay despite the incalculable amount it has cost Malaysia and Malaysians economically, electorally, socially, educationally and every other way domestically, and the shame it has brought on the nation internationally, was the refusal of Malaysia Airlines CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya to contemplate resigning.

Far from taking any responsibility for the mysterious disappearance of MAS Flight MH370, however, let alone for the airline's shocking financial losses and its record of corrupt dealings with crony suppliers under his stewardship, he brazenly ignored the question of his resignation and declared that "we have a lot of work to do. The airline needs to get itself together" so it can once again "soar".

Whether MAS can ever soar above its sore and sorry mismanagement by BN and the would-be high fliers it has variously sold it to or hired to run it after its corrupt "repurchase" at an inflated price and at public expense remains a moot question at this moment.

But meanwhile, note the typically BN-style weasel words in this statement, implying that it's "the airline", not himself or the regime that installed him in his job as head or at least figurehead of the airline, that "needs to get itself together", and thus neither his responsibility personally or that of the regime collectively.

But at least Yahya was relatively subtle in dodging blame for the airline's woes on his own or BN's part, compared with Utusan Malaysia, the rabid, racist alleged 'newspaper' that serves as the most strident voice of Umno, the majority party in the BN coalition.

Recycled conspiracy theory

Some Umno poison-penman whose name I can't be bothered looking up last week recycled the tired old Dr Mahathir Mohamad conspiracy theory that the CIA carried-out the 9/ll attacks on the World Trade Centre to provide a pretext for the US to go to war against Muslim countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, and put forward the proposition that the CIA has likewise engineered the disappearance of MH370 for the purpose of sabotaging the relationship between Malaysia and China.

As former US Ambassador to Malaysia John Mallot recalled in his responseto this latest crime against journalism byUtusan Malaysia, this rabid rag is not only owned by Umno, but the president of Umno and Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Abdul Razak, recently praised it to the skies, urged government-linked corporations to advertise in it, and even named a street after the thing.

So, in view of the image of caring and compassion that Najib and his regime have been desperately trying to convey despite their incompetent handling of the MH370 disappearance and their blood-sucking attempts to make capital of it by proposing the squandering and stealing of yet more public money on still more price-inflated, "commission"-generating defence purchases, Malott was more than justified in posing the question "so what say you, Najib?"

"You will soon be welcoming President Barack Obama to Malaysia. Are you going to let this absurd statement in 'your' newspaper stand? Or will you speak out – and denounce this nonsense – before Obama comes?"

Of course as John Malott and all the rest of us are well aware, Najib will not admit, let alone denounce, any fault whatever in the way he and his fellow 1RM chickens in the kangkung BN regime choose to run, or rather ruin, Malaysia.

In any event, Najib has already moved on from the MH370 affair, leaving countries with operative air and sea assets and competent defence personnel to conduct the search while he and the BN gang get back to business as usual.

And business has certainly been brisk this past week, with so-called 'editor' of Umno's unsanitary Utusan Malaysia, Zulkiflee Bakar, attacking Malaysiakini for what he oddly calls "stone-age journalism", presumably in a bid to aid Najib in his determination to ignore the latter's revelations that the regime's career of crime is raging unabated.

Items of BN 'business' this week have included the awarding of a RM1.6 billion contract for the building and maintenance of a hospital by "direct tender", which is apparently the latest euphemism for crony-riddled rip-off, and of a similarly uncontested RM98.85 defence contract to the Destini Prima subsidiary of Destini Berhad, a company plausibly suspected of strong ties to Umno Youth chief and Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

Daylight robberies

And these daylight robberies come on top of the annual farce of a damning report by the Malaysian Auditor-General into shocking levels of waste, embezzlement, fraud and theft by the BN regime's tame civil services, and the news that just one (of course unnamed) such culprit has been sacked since the previous year's equally scathing report.

Far from appearing to notice, let alone take the slightest responsibility for this disgraceful state of affairs, however, Najib was out demonstrating that he is lying as usual in claiming to be "prime minister for all Malaysians" by urging employers in the nation's private sector to hire more Malays.

Or perhaps, as some commentators have taken him to be suggesting, he means that private business should hire pretty well only Malays, like the police, military and most other departments of the BN regime do.

But whatever he had in mind, or at least was reading off the piece of paper someone had put in front of him on this occasion, Najib has repeatedly and definitively demonstrated over the past five years or so that he is a fitting prime minister not for all or some but of no Malaysians, and thus, along with the rest of his rotten, ridiculous regime, should get the hell out of office.

But he, or they, won't go voluntarily, of course. So it's up to the Malaysian people to progress from just criticising and complaining about these incompetent crooks to pressuring them in every way possible to go get lost.

Or, to employ the immortal words of Oliver Cromwell in his April 20, 1653 speech contemptuously dismissing Britain's then so-called Rump Parliament in sending BN the message: "Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

Anwar slams Khalid’s weak handling of Allah bible row

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 10:58 PM PDT

TMMO

Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim should have taken a tougher stance and intervened in the bible seizure row to ensure a fairer outcome for Muslims and Christians in the state, Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today.

The PKR advisor said the Khalid administration could have returned the 300 Malay language bibles confiscated by the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) in January to the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM) with the condition that they were not distributed to Muslims.

"The MB should have taken a tougher stance..the state government must take measures to appease the situation. You could return the bibles but give a strong condition that the bible cannot be distributed to Muslims," Anwar told a press conference here.

He said that as Mentri Besar, Khalid should have acted firmer in protecting both Muslim and non-Muslim rights in the country.

Yesterday BSM announced its decision to relocate its headquarters from Selangor to Kuala Lumpur, citing its disappointment with the state government's decision not to interfere in the seizure of its bibles.

BSM president Lee Min Choon said the federal government has given "better protection" to the society's operations, and has even upheld the Cabinet's 10-point solution to the "Allah" row by allowing free movement of its bible shipments.

Selangor, on the other hand, has continued to refuse to help the society recover the over 300 Malay and Iban language bibles that were seized by the state's religious authorities earlier this year, Lee said.

Anwar raps Najib for distorting ‘solving MH370 in a second’ remark

Posted: 15 Apr 2014 10:56 PM PDT

TMI

PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today criticised the Prime Minister for manipulating his statement of solving the MH370 crisis in a second.

Anwar (pic, right) said Datuk Seri Najib Razak was swift in retorting his statement but did not display such agility in handling the MH370 crisis.

“Najib did not answer the issues which have arisen due to the disappearance of MH370,” Anwar told a press conference today.

“But he appears to be nimble when replying to my claim that the tragedy could be resolved in a second.”

Anwar explained that the remark, which was translated from the Chinese language, was completely different to what had been reported by the media.

“In the original Chinese language text, I said it would take a second to carry out the necessary enforcement to guarantee national security,” he said.

He then denied issuing any statement that he would resolve the MH370 crisis in a second if he was prime minister.

“Najib twisted my statement and lied by misinterpreting my statement,” Anwar said.

Ever since Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 with 12 crew members and 227 passengers, Najib has not taken any questions from the media.

“Instead, Najib preferred to hand over the responsibility to his cousin, acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein,” Anwar said.