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Malaysiakini :: Berita

Kebebasan bersuara segar dalam Umno, kata pemimpinya

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 10:39 PM PDT

Kebebasan bersuara dalam Umno masih wujud malah segar dalam era transformasi dan model baru politik pada masa ini, kata beberapa pemimpin Umno pelbagai peringkat bagi menyangkal kenyataan bekas Menteri Penerangan Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir kononnya Umno kini sudah tidak lagi menyediakan ruang untuk anggotanya memberi perbezaan pendapat.

Di laman sosial pula, terdapat penyokong Umno yang mencabar Abdul Kadir, yang kini bendahari Umno bahagian Kulim-Bandar Baharu, supaya keluar parti dan menegur Umno dari luar seperti yang pernah dilakukan oleh Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad semasa Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi menjadi Perdana Menteri dan Presiden Umno.

Timbalan Pengerusi Tetap Umno Datuk Mohamed Aziz menolak keras pendapat Abdul Kadir itu, dengan berkata Umno tidak pernah menyekat anggotanya untuk bersuara selama ini.

"Kita bebas bercakap. Saya hormati beliau tetapi janganlah apabila kita sudah tidak berada dalam arus perdana parti, parti pula dikritik dan diburukkan. Umno yang membela bangsa dan agama selama ini, dan sedikit sebanyak membantu beliau," katanya kepada Bernama hari ini.

Mohamed, yang juga ketua Umno bahagian Sri Gading, berkata beliau sendiri adalah antara orang yang lantang bersuara dalam Umno tetapi tidak pula pernah dikenakan tindakan.

"Dalam mesyuarat Majlis Tertinggi pun ada yang sampai merah-merah muka (kerana berbeza pendapat). Adakah ini bukan satu bentuk kebebasan bersuara?" katanya.

Anggota Majlis Tertinggi Veteran Umno Datuk Mustapha Yaakub juga tidak bersetuju dengan pandangan Abdul Kadir.

"Dalam mesyuarat bahagian baru-baru ini, anggota parti membuat tuntutan-tuntutan yang radikal supaya pihak atasan boleh mengambil kira, malah dalam Veteran Umno sekalipun mereka masih bertindak membuat teguran namun kurang mendapat liputan media," katanya.

Ketua Puteri Umno Datuk Rosnah Abdul Rashid Shirlin berpendapat apa yang katakan oleh Abdul Kadir itu hanyalah pendapat peribadinya dan tidak mencerminkan keadaan sebenar yang ada sekarang.

"Saya kurang bersetuju dengan beliau. Kalau nak dikirakan, pelbagai transformasi sudah dilaksanakan dalam kerajaan dan juga politik. Lihat sahaja di mana Perdana Menteri dan Presiden Umno Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak merombak pemilihan Umno.

"Perubahan ini meletakkan beliau sendiri boleh dicabar kedudukannya sebagai presiden dengan hanya dua pencalonan," katanya.

Anggota Parlimen Kota Belud Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan menggangap kenyataan Abdul Kadir adalah tuduhan melulu, tidak berasas dan memperlekehkan usaha presiden parti untuk mendemokrasikan Umno.

"Perdana Menteri faham bahawa gagasan 1Malaysia hanya boleh berjaya dengan adanya budaya keterbukaan dan mengkritik secara membina," katanya.

Abdul Rahman berkata akhbar kini juga lebih terbuka manakala blog, portal berita dan laman sosial seperti Facebook dan Twitter yang digunakan oleh jutaan rakyat Malaysia begitu bebas.

"Saya cadangkan beliau membuka blog beliau sendiri agar senang orang ramai membalas hujah-hujah beliau. Nanti bila beliau baca komen-komen dalam blog beliau, saya rasa beliau jugalah orang pertama yang akan meminta perdana menteri mengekang kebebasan bersuara di negara ini," katanya.

- Bernama

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Gempa bumi kuat landa selatan Sumatera

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 10:29 PM PDT

Satu gempa bumi kuat bermagnitud 6.0 pada skala Richter melanda selatan Sumatera pada pukul 8.16 pagi hari ini.

Jabatan Meteorologi Malaysia dalam kenyataannya hari ini berkata gempa itu berpusat di 170km barat laut Bengkahulu, Indonesia dan 595km barat daya Johor Bahru.

Sementara itu, gempa bumi sederhana bermagnitud 5.8 pada skala Richter berlaku di New Britain Region di Papua New Guinea, 512km timur laut Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea pada pukul 6.39 pagi ini.

Gempa bumi dengan magnitud 5.4 juga melanda Sumatera utara pada pukul 4.02 pagi ini, 71km baratdaya Padang Sidempuan, Indonesia.

Satu lagi gempa bumi sederhana dengan magnitud 5.3 pada skala Richter melanda laut Molucca di Indonesia, 238km tenggara Manado, Indonesia pada pukul 6.52am ini.

Kesemua gempa bumi itu tidak membawa ancaman tsunami, kata kenyataan itu.

- Bernama

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Kredit: www.malaysiakini.com

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Malaysiakini :: Letters

'Bogus Malaysians' - royal commission needed

Posted: 03 Aug 2011 03:54 AM PDT

I am surprised. The breast beating, portrait burning, screaming obscenities 'champions of nationalism' - politicians and a certain mainstream vernacular newspaper alike - have remained strangely comatose at claims that foreigners and PR holders are being granted citizenship status just as speculation mount on a snap general election in Malaysia.

Awarding a citizenship is no laughing matter.

It is no 'suka suka' matter.

A person can become a citizen of Malaysia only by registration or naturalisation.

In cases by registration, where a person is by operation of law is a citizen but has yet to be registered, such a person is entitled to citizenship upon application and be registered as a citizen of Malaysia.

For cases by naturalisation, this refers to the process of admitting a person not a citizen of Malaysia, to citizenship.

This is subjected to the requirements and conditions as laid out by the Government of Malaysia.

And one of the requirements of citizenship is that that person is disallowed to hold any other country's citizenship.

In this latest salvo fired at the federal agencies and the now under siege Malaysian Election Commission, many pertinent questions have been raised against the professionalism, impartiality, dedication, bipartisanship, governance and ethics of federal agencies.

More so, with this shocking revelation of over 1,600 cases of foreigners being given the right to vote between March to June this year alone.

Using this as an issue doubts are also raised over other border protection programs such as the current drive to register millions of migrant workers - both legal and illegal.

Opposition lawmakers have asked for an emergency sitting of Parliament to be called during the Ramadan fasting month to debate the issue of fraudulent voters.

And we must allow this in view the seriousness of the allegations and its impact on the sovereignty of the nation!

The issue of fraudulent voters is not a new issue making its rounds as it was quite infamous in Sabah where the allegations were rather serious as those behind that exercise were clearly identified but till today, remain 'untouchable!'

Till today, it is one of the contentions that have upset the locals in Sabah as they feel their state is being overrun by foreigners from the Philippines and Indonesia now carrying local identity papers which has upset the balance of power and threatens the socio-economic conditions of that state.

The Selangor claims are said to be just the 'tip of the iceberg' but if the allegations are true, then this is basically treason.

Are we going to hear professional and well qualified answers, or will those raising the questions be threatened, shouted down and accused of undermining the nation and threatening its security?

Since Selangor is mentioned, we, who are bipartisan, are setting up a task force in Selangor to verify these serious allegations and I am being advised that similar moves are now being made in all peninsula based states by other parties and NGOs!

In the present political climate and undercurrents it would be rather foolish to issue denials or threats.

It is best we address this issue with sincerity, common sense and professionalism.

A bipartisan high powered royal commission must now be set up to address these serious allegations which if true, threaten to undermine the sovereignty of the nation, its national security and foundation!

Dr Jacob George is the president of the Consumers Association of Subang and Shah Alam, Selangor.

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Set up a national education reform consultative council

Posted: 02 Aug 2011 11:50 PM PDT

LLG Cultural Development Centre is highly concerned about the announcement by the Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin in mid July that the ministry was readying a study on a complete revamp of the existing education system.

The report is to be submitted to the cabinet for approval end of this year.

Education reform is of paramount importance. Any country proposing to review its national education system as a whole, will inevitably have to study thoroughly the shortcomings of the current education system, and to consult the opinions of various stake holders in relation to education reform.

We urge the Education Ministry and the Higher Education Ministry to make public details of the proposed education reforms such as the guiding thoughts, principles, objectives, strategies and implementation in the course of undertaking such reforms.

The proposed reforms must be carried out in a transparent manner, allowing people and education organisations to take part in the process. This is to ensure that the true spirit of democracy will prevail, particularly in this area of utmost importance to all the people.

We hold the view that the government should set up a national education reform consultative council, comprising representatives from various education organisations.

These representatives should be involved in the process of brainstorming, idea contribution, planning, implementation and monitoring of the education reforms.

LLG Cultural Development Centre contends that the education reform ought to incorporate four principles as follows:

1. Democracy in education decision-making The government should reform the highly centralised decision-making process in the education system.

The government should also dismantle policies which prohibit strictly certain education providers, particularly those providing vernacular education, from acting as education providers.

In fact, the government ought to decentralise its educational decision-making power to the state governments, municipal governments and even down to the community, allowing the community people to participate in the planning of education.

If the people decide to increase the numbers of Chinese schools, Tamil schools, national schools or any other linguistic schools in their community, the respective governments must seriously consider implementing the proposals.

In short, the government should not suppress primary, secondary and higher education provided in the various mother tongues as medium of instruction. In fact, the federal government should provide educational resource to support these efforts.

2. Equitable provision of education resources. The government must recognise the equal status of all schools by ensuring the fair and equal distribution of education resource for all the schools.

If the government maintains the discriminative education policy and subject tax payers who send their children to Chinese schools and Tamil schools to unfair treatment, the education reform will lose its progressive meaning and is a contradiction to the concept of 'people first' as advocated by the prime minister.

To ensure equality, we propose the adoption of an Education Equality Act that stipulates clearly that the government must treat all schools fairly. To us, this act is an important cornerstone of any education reform.

3. Academic Independence. The most worrying issue for higher education in Malaysia is the lack of academic independence.

The vice chancellors of universities are taking orders from politicians, as witnessed by the recent parking of riot police trucks in university campuses, something that would be taboo in countries that observe strictly the principle of university autonomy.

The universities and politicians have been working hand-in-hand to manipulate campus elections. Academicians with critical thinking have been sidelined and denied promotions by the authorities.

The promotion of academicians is not based on merit but nepotism and ethnic identity.

The University and University Colleges Act suppresses the freedom of thought and movement of students, nurturing graduates who follow uncritically the thoughts and ideas propagated by state elites.

The education reform must abolish all these problems if higher education is to be intellectually strong, creative and vibrant.

4. Elimination of racism. We are extremely worried about the escalating racist mindset in university campuses and schools.

For instance the indoctrination of racist thinking by the Biro Tata Negara, the use of history text books that have been severely distorted and imbalanced, the adoption of the Bahasa Malaysia text book 'Interlok' that instills the idea of Malay supremacy, and the hiring of teaching staff who insult students with racist statements, and the like, are some such examples.

The government must dissolve Biro Tata Negara, abolish all practices that promote racism and seriously punish teaching staff who make racist statements.

TOH KIN WOON is president of the LLG Cultural Development Centre.

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Rabu, 3 Ogos 2011