Fiery Umno delegates and the bangsa Malaysia
Focus on universal justice
Three speakers out of a number of Umno delegates who made inflammatory remarks during the party's 57th general assembly last month have been censured by the party's management committee. In doing so, the party leadership has helped to limit the damage that was caused by the speeches, which ranged from the racist to the seditious.
New Straits Times report, “Fiery Umno delegates to still speak but carefully”, it is clear that there is no regret or remorse on the part of the three Umno general assembly delegates – Perlis delegate Datuk Hashim Suboh, Umno Youth delegate Datuk Azimi Daim and Malacca delegate Hasnoor Sidang Hussein – for their insensitive, racist, extremist, incendiary and seditious utterances at the recent Umno general assembly.
Instead they put the blame on “those who did not understand the metaphors used, particularly members of opposition parties” who “should be given lessons on such literary devices”.
Their utter lack of regret or remorse is illustrated by Azimi’s claim that “it was not our Barisan Nasional comnponent parties which stoked the argument, but DAP and Keadilan”.
The Sun Says :
Three speakers out of a number of Umno delegates who made inflammatory remarks during the party's 57th general assembly last month have been censured by the party's management committee. In doing so, the party leadership has helped to limit the damage that was caused by the speeches, which ranged from the racist to the seditious.
Various observers - of all races - have pointed out that the debate is not about whether the remarks should have been made on live television, but rather that they should not be made at all.
Further, it is pertinent to note that the crux of racial harmony and national unity lies only marginally in whether the champions of each community exercise moderation in their public comments.
Rather, a healthy national consciousness is embedded in the adherence to the fundamental rights of all citizens as enshrined in such instruments as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our own Federal Constitution.
These include such basic ideas as the concept that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights", as the UN document states.
It is in this milieu that the special position of the Malays as enshrined in the Constitution is situated. Unfortunately, the dominant political dialogue has tended to stridently assert this special position for the narrow purpose of communal popularity.
In doing so, these politicians have diverted attention from the vital task of ensuring that all citizens can experience social justice in their daily lives.
These deficiencies show up from time to time in the various socio-cultural and development sectors including education, employment, public affairs, social policies, religious rights, land matters and many more besides.
All the issues that keep surfacing point to the urgent need for the inadequacies in policy planning and particularly implementation to be corrected in view of their importance in the long-term viability of the national compact.
Political leaders who shout themselves hoarse in acting the communal champion damage the social cohesion that builds with each affirmation of our essential oneness under the Malaysian sun.
It is reassuring that the political leadership has recognised the damage that has been done. Now, it should throw itself into the unfinished business of embracing our plurality as a nation.
Lim Kit Siang wrote on Bangsa Malaysia : )
Malaysia publishers end merger talks
Malaysian newspaper publisher New Straits Times Press has suspended takeover talks with smaller rival Utusan Melayu , partly because of political concerns, sources close to the talks said on Monday.
The two firms publish all of the major Malay-language newspapers and, combined, would become a powerful political influence in a country where Muslim Malays form the majority.
But the two publishers have slightly different editorial viewpoints, with Utusan Melayu controlled by the main ruling party and more closely aligned with Malay and Islamic agendas than the more mainstream New Straits Times Press.
Umno leaders fear it may weaken voice of Utusan, which reflects Malay views. Most of the party's Supreme Council members voiced concern about the deal at their meeting last Friday and insisted on a review.
'There were valid reservations about the move, and most of us were uncomfortable with the proposal,' Supreme Council member Shahrir Samad told The Straits Times.
The fear was that Utusan Malaysia - the country's most influential Malay daily - would lose its bite and identity after the merger.
Utusan Malaysia has a strong Malay focus and reflects the viewpoints of Umno and the Malay ground without mincing words.
The New Straits Times group, which publishes rival Berita Harian, has a more cosmopolitan and multiracial outlook.
NSTP publishes the English dailies New Straits Times and Malay Mail, as well as Malay newspapers Berita Harian and Harian Metro.
It also controls all the private free-to-air TV stations - TV3, ntv7, 8TV and Channel 9.
Utusan Malaysia publishes Malay dailies Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo.
The proposed merger has already come under fire from media watchdogs.
The Centre for Independent Journalism was quoted in online news portal Malaysiakini as saying that it would 'completely erode the plurality of expression, which is already severely curtailed in the country'.
The National Union of Journalists said the consolidation of media companies into a few hands was a worrisome trend as it posed a threat to the freedom of the press.
In a conference room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Singapore last week, strategists for the Las Vegas-based consortium Eighth Wonder prepared for battle.
Executives dashed about with stacks of paper or scribbled notes on white boards; in one corner stood a detailed scale model of the project they would pitch to Singapore authorities the next day — a US$3.6 billion casino resort featuring an artificial caldera with a saltwater lake at the centre and a 10-story-high waterfall.
Elsewhere in the same hotel, Bahamas-based Kerzner International set up cameras and rehearsed its play for "an Atlantis for the year 3000" designed by legendary modernist architect Frank Gehry, while a third contestant — Malaysian gaming monopoly Genting—fine-tuned its own presentation at an undisclosed location.
Then, like beauty queens, each paraded one last time before a Singaporean selection committee in the hope of claiming what has become the most sought-after crown in Asia's booming gaming industry: the city-state's second (and grandest) casino licence, to be awarded as early as this week.
As with any beauty pageant, the fighting behind the scenes has been fierce and at times catty.
Contestants have implied that rival designs are pedestrian, dished unflattering spin about each other to the media and bickered over which plan boasts the bigger aquarium or best protects animal rights.
Eighth Wonder boss Mark Advent even accused Merrill Lynch of bias after it issued a report that tipped Genting to win the contract, suggesting a conflict of interest because the brokerage once helped the Malaysian company go public.
"If Eighth Wonder wins," the Merrill Lynch analyst shot back, "they don't have to invite us to their party."
The prize is a 49-hectare waterfront site on Singapore's lush Sentosa Island, set aside by the government for what will be Asia's most lavish casino resort when it opens for business in 2010.
The size of the bids — each exceeds US$3 billion — illustrates the city-state's huge potential for luring tourists.
And it underscores a new struggle that pits the Las Vegas heavyweights who pioneered the transformation of casinos into family destination resorts against an old-school Asian gaming establishment that for decades has made fortunes off punters by offering plenty of baccarat tables and slot machines, but little in the way of amenities.
"Given what's at stake, I feel it's natural to be slightly competitive with the other players," says Advent. "Sentosa will be a crown jewel in the gaming, entertainment and leisure world."
Indeed, stellar economic growth in Asia, the rise of budget airlines and easing travel restrictions bespeak a tourism boom of global dimensions.
According to media-intelligence company Mintel, residents of the Pacific Rim currently spend roughly US$800 billion a year on travel, a figure that should rise to US$1.8 trillion over the next decade.
Likewise, gambling revenues in Asia are projected to shoot up 14 percent a year thru 2010, calculates PricewaterhouseCoopers — well ahead of the global annual growth of 8.8 percent.
Already, Singapore has emerged as the most popular travel destination for outbound Chinese after Hong Kong and Macau (both reachable by land).
All this makes the Lion City the newest front in a war that began in Macau four years ago, when the Sands became the first international player to challenge billionaire Stanley Ho's 40-year monopoly on gaming in the former Portuguese enclave.
Genting most at stake
The Malaysian contestant, Genting, has the most at stake in the fight for Sentosa.
Its Genting Highlands Resort, 58 kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur, has enjoyed monopoly status since opening in 1971, an advantage the company leveraged into Asia's leading cruise-ship company, Star Cruises, which operates some of the largest floating casinos in the world.
In Singapore it has partnered with Universal Studios and drawn up plans for a casino cum theme park.
"There's no magic to being a Las Vegas player," says Lim Kok Thay, chairman of Genting International. "The important thing is to be in tune with what your customers want."
Genting's problem is that its design looks like that of a standard theme park, and has been criticised as uninspired — a sure negative if judges are looking for an iconic facility; the casino itself is largely concealed underground.
In contrast, Kerzner's Atlantis is a futuristic abstract sculpture in glass with advanced robotics.
Eighth Wonder's volcano crater—complete with a Pelé football academy, a Deepak Chopra retreat centre, an Alain Ducasse cooking school and a wedding pavilion and hotel by Vera Wang—is the opposite of bland.
"In terms of architecture, the Genting bid would lose out," notes Winston Liew, analyst at OCBC Investment Research.
"But we believe this is outweighed by the Universal tie-up, which is the most proven scheme in terms of attendance." Most analysts think Genting will win.
In the long run Singapore, not Macau, could be better positioned to become Asia's Las Vegas, although it will never achieve the same pure gaming numbers.
The difference with Macau
Already famed as a shopping and transport hub replete with verdant gardens and a burgeoning art scene, Singapore attracts couples and families, who stay on average 3.4 days.
Macau, in contrast, is smaller, grittier and much less family-friendly; it's a hive of predominantly Chinese male day-trippers who "are in Macau to make money gambling," says Morgan Stanley gaming analyst Rob Hart.
So far, he argues, the Las Vegas newcomers have not softened the hard-core gambling vibe with their five-star restaurants and multi-light-fountain shows.
"People are hoping Macau will develop the way Vegas has, but that has not been the case yet," he says.
"What Las Vegas players have done is shown that the Chinese do like a better product.
They prefer a nice table near the toilet, rather than a creepy table next to the toilet, but they still want to sit next to the toilet, and I don't think that's going to change."
Stanley Ho's empire is nevertheless under attack. More than half of all gaming revenues in Macau come from so-called VIP halls, where high rollers bet upwards of $10,000 per hand or die roll.
Getting such players to show up has traditionally fallen to outside agents, well-connected private fixers whom the newcomers have lured away with higher commissions.
Over the summer Ho lamented the "vicious competition" and warned that some VIP halls could be shut down. "If the heat's too strong, get out of the kitchen," replied Sands' CEO Sheldon Adelson.
Ho's answer is a US$380 million Grand Lisboa that will open in January, though it is expected to lack Las Vegas-style glitz, which Ho believes Chinese gamblers care little about.
He may be right. Yet most experts view Singapore as more fertile ground than Macau for the amalgam of gaming, dining, stage shows, shopping and luxury accommodations Las Vegas pioneered.
"Macau is much more of a mainstream gambling location, Singapore a family tourism destination," contends Tobin Prior, president of Kerzner's international division.
And he's willing to bet US$3.4 billion on it.
Malaysia Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Tun Mahathir UMNO bangsa Malaysia Sentosa Asia Singapore Genting casino
Three speakers out of a number of Umno delegates who made inflammatory remarks during the party's 57th general assembly last month have been censured by the party's management committee. In doing so, the party leadership has helped to limit the damage that was caused by the speeches, which ranged from the racist to the seditious.
New Straits Times report, “Fiery Umno delegates to still speak but carefully”, it is clear that there is no regret or remorse on the part of the three Umno general assembly delegates – Perlis delegate Datuk Hashim Suboh, Umno Youth delegate Datuk Azimi Daim and Malacca delegate Hasnoor Sidang Hussein – for their insensitive, racist, extremist, incendiary and seditious utterances at the recent Umno general assembly.
Instead they put the blame on “those who did not understand the metaphors used, particularly members of opposition parties” who “should be given lessons on such literary devices”.
Their utter lack of regret or remorse is illustrated by Azimi’s claim that “it was not our Barisan Nasional comnponent parties which stoked the argument, but DAP and Keadilan”.
The Sun Says :
Three speakers out of a number of Umno delegates who made inflammatory remarks during the party's 57th general assembly last month have been censured by the party's management committee. In doing so, the party leadership has helped to limit the damage that was caused by the speeches, which ranged from the racist to the seditious.
Various observers - of all races - have pointed out that the debate is not about whether the remarks should have been made on live television, but rather that they should not be made at all.
Further, it is pertinent to note that the crux of racial harmony and national unity lies only marginally in whether the champions of each community exercise moderation in their public comments.
Rather, a healthy national consciousness is embedded in the adherence to the fundamental rights of all citizens as enshrined in such instruments as the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our own Federal Constitution.
These include such basic ideas as the concept that "all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights", as the UN document states.
It is in this milieu that the special position of the Malays as enshrined in the Constitution is situated. Unfortunately, the dominant political dialogue has tended to stridently assert this special position for the narrow purpose of communal popularity.
In doing so, these politicians have diverted attention from the vital task of ensuring that all citizens can experience social justice in their daily lives.
These deficiencies show up from time to time in the various socio-cultural and development sectors including education, employment, public affairs, social policies, religious rights, land matters and many more besides.
All the issues that keep surfacing point to the urgent need for the inadequacies in policy planning and particularly implementation to be corrected in view of their importance in the long-term viability of the national compact.
Political leaders who shout themselves hoarse in acting the communal champion damage the social cohesion that builds with each affirmation of our essential oneness under the Malaysian sun.
It is reassuring that the political leadership has recognised the damage that has been done. Now, it should throw itself into the unfinished business of embracing our plurality as a nation.
Lim Kit Siang wrote on Bangsa Malaysia : )
The continued open challenge to the Bangsa Malaysia concept of Vision 2020 by the Johore Mentri Besar, who re-opened the issue in his speech at the Datuk Onn National Conference over the weekend, has brought to the fore the question as to what is the meaning of nation-building on the occasion of the 50th Merdeka celebrations next year.
What is the position of the Federal Government and the various Barisan Nasional component parties to the open challenge to the concept of Bangsa Malaysia in Vision 2020 posed by the Johore Mentri Besar?
Malaysia publishers end merger talks
Malaysian newspaper publisher New Straits Times Press has suspended takeover talks with smaller rival Utusan Melayu , partly because of political concerns, sources close to the talks said on Monday.
The two firms publish all of the major Malay-language newspapers and, combined, would become a powerful political influence in a country where Muslim Malays form the majority.
But the two publishers have slightly different editorial viewpoints, with Utusan Melayu controlled by the main ruling party and more closely aligned with Malay and Islamic agendas than the more mainstream New Straits Times Press.
Umno leaders fear it may weaken voice of Utusan, which reflects Malay views. Most of the party's Supreme Council members voiced concern about the deal at their meeting last Friday and insisted on a review.
'There were valid reservations about the move, and most of us were uncomfortable with the proposal,' Supreme Council member Shahrir Samad told The Straits Times.
The fear was that Utusan Malaysia - the country's most influential Malay daily - would lose its bite and identity after the merger.
Utusan Malaysia has a strong Malay focus and reflects the viewpoints of Umno and the Malay ground without mincing words.
The New Straits Times group, which publishes rival Berita Harian, has a more cosmopolitan and multiracial outlook.
NSTP publishes the English dailies New Straits Times and Malay Mail, as well as Malay newspapers Berita Harian and Harian Metro.
It also controls all the private free-to-air TV stations - TV3, ntv7, 8TV and Channel 9.
Utusan Malaysia publishes Malay dailies Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo.
The proposed merger has already come under fire from media watchdogs.
The Centre for Independent Journalism was quoted in online news portal Malaysiakini as saying that it would 'completely erode the plurality of expression, which is already severely curtailed in the country'.
The National Union of Journalists said the consolidation of media companies into a few hands was a worrisome trend as it posed a threat to the freedom of the press.
**********
Casinos Royale
The war for Asian gaming supremacy now has a second front: Singapore, where three business groups (including one from glitzy Las Vegas) are vying for a license.
The making of Asia’s Most lavish casino
By Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop - NewsweekIn a conference room at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Singapore last week, strategists for the Las Vegas-based consortium Eighth Wonder prepared for battle.
Executives dashed about with stacks of paper or scribbled notes on white boards; in one corner stood a detailed scale model of the project they would pitch to Singapore authorities the next day — a US$3.6 billion casino resort featuring an artificial caldera with a saltwater lake at the centre and a 10-story-high waterfall.
Elsewhere in the same hotel, Bahamas-based Kerzner International set up cameras and rehearsed its play for "an Atlantis for the year 3000" designed by legendary modernist architect Frank Gehry, while a third contestant — Malaysian gaming monopoly Genting—fine-tuned its own presentation at an undisclosed location.
Then, like beauty queens, each paraded one last time before a Singaporean selection committee in the hope of claiming what has become the most sought-after crown in Asia's booming gaming industry: the city-state's second (and grandest) casino licence, to be awarded as early as this week.
As with any beauty pageant, the fighting behind the scenes has been fierce and at times catty.
Contestants have implied that rival designs are pedestrian, dished unflattering spin about each other to the media and bickered over which plan boasts the bigger aquarium or best protects animal rights.
Eighth Wonder boss Mark Advent even accused Merrill Lynch of bias after it issued a report that tipped Genting to win the contract, suggesting a conflict of interest because the brokerage once helped the Malaysian company go public.
"If Eighth Wonder wins," the Merrill Lynch analyst shot back, "they don't have to invite us to their party."
The prize is a 49-hectare waterfront site on Singapore's lush Sentosa Island, set aside by the government for what will be Asia's most lavish casino resort when it opens for business in 2010.
The size of the bids — each exceeds US$3 billion — illustrates the city-state's huge potential for luring tourists.
And it underscores a new struggle that pits the Las Vegas heavyweights who pioneered the transformation of casinos into family destination resorts against an old-school Asian gaming establishment that for decades has made fortunes off punters by offering plenty of baccarat tables and slot machines, but little in the way of amenities.
"Given what's at stake, I feel it's natural to be slightly competitive with the other players," says Advent. "Sentosa will be a crown jewel in the gaming, entertainment and leisure world."
Indeed, stellar economic growth in Asia, the rise of budget airlines and easing travel restrictions bespeak a tourism boom of global dimensions.
According to media-intelligence company Mintel, residents of the Pacific Rim currently spend roughly US$800 billion a year on travel, a figure that should rise to US$1.8 trillion over the next decade.
Likewise, gambling revenues in Asia are projected to shoot up 14 percent a year thru 2010, calculates PricewaterhouseCoopers — well ahead of the global annual growth of 8.8 percent.
Already, Singapore has emerged as the most popular travel destination for outbound Chinese after Hong Kong and Macau (both reachable by land).
All this makes the Lion City the newest front in a war that began in Macau four years ago, when the Sands became the first international player to challenge billionaire Stanley Ho's 40-year monopoly on gaming in the former Portuguese enclave.
Genting most at stake
The Malaysian contestant, Genting, has the most at stake in the fight for Sentosa.
Its Genting Highlands Resort, 58 kilometers away from Kuala Lumpur, has enjoyed monopoly status since opening in 1971, an advantage the company leveraged into Asia's leading cruise-ship company, Star Cruises, which operates some of the largest floating casinos in the world.
In Singapore it has partnered with Universal Studios and drawn up plans for a casino cum theme park.
"There's no magic to being a Las Vegas player," says Lim Kok Thay, chairman of Genting International. "The important thing is to be in tune with what your customers want."
Genting's problem is that its design looks like that of a standard theme park, and has been criticised as uninspired — a sure negative if judges are looking for an iconic facility; the casino itself is largely concealed underground.
In contrast, Kerzner's Atlantis is a futuristic abstract sculpture in glass with advanced robotics.
Eighth Wonder's volcano crater—complete with a Pelé football academy, a Deepak Chopra retreat centre, an Alain Ducasse cooking school and a wedding pavilion and hotel by Vera Wang—is the opposite of bland.
"In terms of architecture, the Genting bid would lose out," notes Winston Liew, analyst at OCBC Investment Research.
"But we believe this is outweighed by the Universal tie-up, which is the most proven scheme in terms of attendance." Most analysts think Genting will win.
In the long run Singapore, not Macau, could be better positioned to become Asia's Las Vegas, although it will never achieve the same pure gaming numbers.
The difference with Macau
Already famed as a shopping and transport hub replete with verdant gardens and a burgeoning art scene, Singapore attracts couples and families, who stay on average 3.4 days.
Macau, in contrast, is smaller, grittier and much less family-friendly; it's a hive of predominantly Chinese male day-trippers who "are in Macau to make money gambling," says Morgan Stanley gaming analyst Rob Hart.
So far, he argues, the Las Vegas newcomers have not softened the hard-core gambling vibe with their five-star restaurants and multi-light-fountain shows.
"People are hoping Macau will develop the way Vegas has, but that has not been the case yet," he says.
"What Las Vegas players have done is shown that the Chinese do like a better product.
They prefer a nice table near the toilet, rather than a creepy table next to the toilet, but they still want to sit next to the toilet, and I don't think that's going to change."
Stanley Ho's empire is nevertheless under attack. More than half of all gaming revenues in Macau come from so-called VIP halls, where high rollers bet upwards of $10,000 per hand or die roll.
Getting such players to show up has traditionally fallen to outside agents, well-connected private fixers whom the newcomers have lured away with higher commissions.
Over the summer Ho lamented the "vicious competition" and warned that some VIP halls could be shut down. "If the heat's too strong, get out of the kitchen," replied Sands' CEO Sheldon Adelson.
Ho's answer is a US$380 million Grand Lisboa that will open in January, though it is expected to lack Las Vegas-style glitz, which Ho believes Chinese gamblers care little about.
He may be right. Yet most experts view Singapore as more fertile ground than Macau for the amalgam of gaming, dining, stage shows, shopping and luxury accommodations Las Vegas pioneered.
"Macau is much more of a mainstream gambling location, Singapore a family tourism destination," contends Tobin Prior, president of Kerzner's international division.
And he's willing to bet US$3.4 billion on it.
Malaysia Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Tun Mahathir UMNO bangsa Malaysia Sentosa Asia Singapore Genting casino
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