Malaysiakini :: Letters
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. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by Used Car Search. |
| 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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Menurut kabel yang diperolehi dari laman sesawang Wikileaks dan disiarkan di blog Malaysia Today milik Raja Petra, perkara itu disahkan oleh ahli parlimen Pulai Nur Jazlan Mohamed pada Oktober 2008, sebulan selepas penahanan ISA tersebut.
Bagaimanapun, ketika diminta mengulas laporan itu, Nur Jazlan berkata ia amat melucukan kerana kedutaan Amerika Syarikat berpendapat beliau boleh mengesahkan alasan di sebalik penahanan itu.
"Tempoh masa telah berubah dari Disember kepada Mac 2009, selaras dengan pemilihan parti Umno ketika Najib diangkat sebagai presiden Umno tanpa pertandingan.
Faizul ((gambar kanan, tiga dari kiri) juga mendakwa, kebanyakannya mempunyai nama yang sama atau seakan-akan sama. 
Sambil tersenyum, Anwar (kiri) berkata beliau sendiri tidak mendengar berhubung perkara itu daripada mana-mana pemimpin Pakatan.
"Lawak jenaka! Itulah saja yang boleh saya sifatkan kepada khabar angin yang mengaitkan saya dengan perbincangan rahsia untuk melantik YBM Tengku Razaleigh sebagai ketua Pakatan Rakyat menggantikan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.