Abdullah toying with Ops Lalang ?

Abdullah toying with Ops Lalang ?

Is Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi toying with the idea of a massive clampdown on dissent like the 1987 Operation Lalang which former premier Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad launched six years after becoming Prime Minister – when Abdullah will only be marking the third anniversary of his premiership in two weeks’ time? wrote Lim Kit Siang.

Perceptive Malaysians find Abdullah’s comments on his return at the Royal Malaysian Air Force Base in Subang last evening after performing the umrah in Mecca.most ominous, when he as good as warned of repressive actions against “”trouble-makers”, particularly with his parting shot: “If people do good once, we can do so 10 times over. Once you do something bad, be careful …’.

The national news agency, Bernama, immediately put up the Prime Minister’s threatening comments as its lead story, “Don’t Try To Cause Trouble, Says PM”, and when I saw it in Geneva attending the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly, my first reaction was that the country was going back to the pre-Operation Lalang days before Oct. 27, 1987, which could not be good for Abdullah’s premiership, Malaysia’s nation-building which is to celebrate 50th National Day celebrations next year or to enhance Malaysia’s international competitiveness to reverse the tide to attract investments.

Former Deputy Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam, is worried and has advised all parties to stop having a public discourse on the racial equity share in the national economy, saying it could turn into something emotional.

Suggesting that the National Economic Action Council (NEAC) would be the useful forum to discuss the issue of corporate equity ownership, Musa referred to the “so many predators” in the “current mood in the country”: who are ”ready to grab the issue and irrationalise them and exploit them for their own political ends”.

Musa may be referring to his former political boss, but Malaysians – political leaders and citizens alike – must ponder why after nearly half-a-century of nationhood and 36 years after the promulgation of the New Economic Policy, questions and debate as to what are the facts about corporate equity ownership and distribution should become so sensitive and inflammable that they must be classified as the new “unmentionable” subject in public discourse?

I call on all Malaysians to exercise restraint and responsibility in the public discourse on the methodology and data on ethnic corporate equity ownership and distribution and not to allow it to degenerate into insensitive race-baiting or any form of “predatory” communal politics.

Manufacturers have commended the government for its willingness to make public the method of calculating the Bumiputera equity holding.

This showed the government’s political will and commitment towards transparency and better governance, the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers said in a statement.

It said strategies to achieve socio-economic aims would not be meaningful if they do not take into account the realities of global competition. The root causes of weaknesses also needed to be clarified.

The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, a private think-tank, asked the government to reveal the method used by the Economic Planning Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department to calculate equity held by Bumiputeras.

Its executive director, Emeritus Prof Mohamed Ariff Abdul Karim, said this would allow the public to examine the method used and see whether government policies had been successful.

The Asian Strategy and Leadership Insitute (Asli) had claimed Bumiputeras controlled 45 per cent of the corporate equity but it later retracted the report

The government maintains the EPU’s calculations showed Bumiputera equity ownership is only 18.9 per cent.

Umno Youth Prepared To Explain To Any Party That Disputes Govt Policies

Umno Youth is ever willing to meet any quarters who dispute government policies so that these could be clarified, said its deputy chief Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said that academicians and intellectuals for instance, should be more open in their criticisms of the government, which was transparent in its decision making.

"Umno Youth does not want to see any quarters criticise the government without fully understanding the issues and they should also listen to the government's explanations," he told reporters after attending a Ramadan function with the Tumpat Umno Youth at the home of Tumpat Umno division head Datuk Noor Zahidi Omar, here Tuesday night.

Khairy said that Umno Youth was also prepared to listen to criticisms but they must have a basis for it.

According to him, similar explanations had also been given to university students.

So, the government belongs to UMNO youth ?

It was reported that George Bush, the US president, has signed a law legalising the use of secret CIA prisons, harsh interrogation practices and military trials against suspected 'terrorists' - " Bush toughens 'anti-terror' laws"

The new law means Bush can continue a secret CIA programme for interrogating terrorism suspects.

ISA the American style ?


Undur lah, Pak Lah!

M Bakri Musa wrote, in response to the readers comments on the same topic posted last month.

My essay last month, Undur lah, Pak Lah (Step Down, Pak Lah! September 3, 2006), stirred quite a response both in this website and elsewhere. The issues I raised must have struck a chord with Malaysians.

To those who agree with me either in total or partially on Abdullah Badawi’s lack of leadership, I urge you not to resign to that fact. There is much that we can do; we must continually put our leaders’ feet to the fire. We should demand high standards and expectations of them, and if they do not perform, we must not shy from asking them to leave. Eventually even the densest among them will get the message. Formidable leaders like Tony Blair succumb to grassroots pressures. Abdullah is even denser and not as smart as Blair, so we have to hammer the message even harder and more often.

To those of my generation, we owe it to younger Malaysians not to accept or tolerate mediocrity in our leaders and those aspiring for leadership. Now that Abdullah has postponed UMNO’s leadership conference originally scheduled for next year, all the more we must let him know that his brand of leadership is severely wanting.

Those who disagree with me fall under three categories. There are those who dispute the facts I cited and/or their interpretations. Then there are those who disagree because they have misread my essay and misattributed certain assumptions on my part. The last are those who question my standing to comment, on account of my residing outside of Malaysia.

As this last group is the easiest to dispose off, I will attend to it first. As one of my readers succinctly put it, who cares where I live. We should address the issues. Would those who currently disagree with me react favorably if I were to inform them that I live in Ulu Kelantan? Their reactions then would undoubtedly be: what would a villager know!

I am contemptuous of and do not wish to engage those who view ideas first and foremost on the pedigree of their bearers instead of addressing the merit of those ideas.

Yearning for Mahathir?

There are those who believe that my criticizing Abdullah was nothing more than my yearning to have Mahathir back. Yes, Mahathir was the best leader Malaysia ever had; he transformed the nation. Having stated that, I am also on record as being among his severest critics. I believe the man was sincere when he said that he was not interested in being prime minister again. He is a man of his word; the same cannot be said of Abdullah.

Abdullah’s frequent utterances for transparency and welcoming criticisms are nothing more than, to put in the local colloquial, “cock talk.”

Reflecting back on my criticisms of Mahathir, even when I was severely knocking him down during the terribly trying times following the 1997 economic crisis, I never felt at any time threatened. I felt free to critique him. In the last couple of years under Abdullah Badawi however, I have heard from several reliable sources that I am now on the Special Branch’s radar screen!

Not that it would bother me, but that more than anything else is the key difference between the administration of Abdullah and Mahathir, which in turn reflects the key difference between the two leaders.

As for Mahathir’s many Johnny-come-lately critics, I remember receiving a long and unsolicited e-mail from one Kalimullah Hassan back in the early 1990s chiding me for daring to criticize Mahathir! Of course that was the time when Kali was enjoying plump positions in the many GLCs. Today Kali has nothing good to say about Mahathir I am sure that if Abdullah Badawi were out of power, Kali would be praising Abdullah’s successor sky high and at the same time unhesitatingly condemning Abdullah. Such are the true nature of such characters.

I do not pretend to know what Mahathir’s motives are for criticizing Abdullah, but many Malaysians share his concerns about Abdullah’s competence to lead. The significant difference between Mahathir and me is this: I predicted Abdullah’s mediocre potential way back in 1998 when Mahathir appointed him, while Mahathir discovered the man’s hollowness only recently.

Najib Not Much Better

Many assumed that my calling for Abdullah to withdraw meant that I was favoring Najib. Far from it! With Abdullah’s withdrawal, all the top slots in UMNO would be open, and Najib would have to fight to be the number one.

I do not know who would be the best candidate. If we open up the nominating process so that anyone could contest without first getting the division’s nomination, you would likely get more and better choices.

If we remove the current blight of money politics, we would ensure that the wisdom of the crowd would get expressed. By Abdullah withdrawing now, the upcoming General Assembly next month would then become a leadership convention. Since the campaign period would be short and sudden, that would negate (but not wipe out completely) some of the corrupting influences. It takes time to raise the cash and to corrupt people, as well as to engage in intrigue and backstabbing.

I agree that the current senior leaders in UMNO are a bunch of losers, and that includes Najib Razak. He reached the top simply because Malays felt a deep sense of gratitude to his legendary father. My simple answer to that would be to pick any of the other sons of the late Tun. Najib may be the eldest, but he did not inherit any of his father’s smartness; that went to the late Tun’s other sons.


Judging Abdullah, Not Mahathir

Many are unhappy because by my focusing on Abdullah’s evident weaknesses, I am conveniently overlooking Mahathir’s. Mahahtir’s presumed sins are irrelevant; he is no longer leader. Precisely because I do not want Abdullah to repeat Mahathir’s mistakes, I am relentless in criticizing Abdullah. Mahathir may have had many negatives, but he also had many compensating achievements. Besides, I have no interest now in criticizing Mahathir as he is retired. I have done my part, and more, when he was in power.

If Abdullah would recognize his glaring weaknesses and not be taken in by the soothing praises from his courtiers and step down now, that would ensure UMNO, Malays, and Malaysia would have the opportunity to be led by more enlightened leaders. That would be one enduring legacy worth striving for, and one that sadly eluded Mahathir.

Still, it is only an opportunity, whether it would be realized with his stepping down remains to be seen. He could do much to enhance the possibility of UMNO selecting competent and honest leaders by ensuring the election process be as open as possible. As matters now stand, there is only one certainty: Abdullah staying on would be a disaster for Malaysia, and at a time when it could least afford it.

Many of Abdullah’s earlier moves were promising but he failed miserably in the subsequent follow through or execution. His reform of the Police Force is well intentioned, but is bogged down. His cutting of the oil subsidy too was wise, as that benefited the rich disproportionately, but he did not make the necessary contingency plans ahead of time to ameliorate its impact on the poor.

Consider Abdullah reducing the federal budget deficit, which his spin-doctors proudly proclaim to be their master’s best stroke. There are good deficits and there are bad ones. Having a deficit to finance schools, universities and the infrastructures is good; creating another monster money-losing GLC is not. In failing to differentiate between the two, Abdullah and his advisors are exposing their lack of leadership skills and financial finesse.

Abdullah Badawi is bad news for UMNO, Malays, and Malaysia. I knew this man was kosong (empty) a long time ago. Mahathir is only now discovering this. I hope the rest of Malaysia does not take as long to discover the vacuity of Abdullah Badawi.

Abdullah must step down, and do so now!

Malaysia Mahathir Abdullah Ahamd Badawi Asli Equity share Bumiputras