Lets the New Year Begin

“Save the best till the last” seem explains some high impact happenings in Malaysia. November 2007 witnessed the two People’s rallies, namely the Bersih Rally and Hindraf Rally that caused a shocking moral defeat to the “invincible” Barisan Nasional ruling government in the 12^th General election in March 2008. On one hand, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s liberal stand on freedom is blamed for the release of Anwar Ibrahim, the rallies and the mushrooming of blogging activities, which all contributed to the so called “political tsunami”. On the other hand, Mahathir’s uncompromising approach is believed to have seeded continuous suppression of dissatisfactions that erupted like a volcano during the general election.

While all winning parties in their respective ruling states were busy planning the administrative and power sharing matters, finger pointing particularly among the Barisan Nasional (BN) members occupied the months of April and May. Not to miss out in action is Mahathir Mohammad, who stole the headlines of blaming Abdullah Badawi for the election defeat and setting up its blog. By the end of May, his blog, “chedet.com” registered a milestone of one million hits, clearly showing to Malaysian what is missing after his “retirement”.

Petrol price hike took over the spotlight in June after the government announced a jump of 40.6 percent hike to RM2.70 per litre. Inflation shot up record high. There was even a public debate between Anwar Ibrahim (opposition leader) and Ahmad Shabery (Information Minister) on this issue, which is the first of its kind and something Malaysians never imagine under Mahathir’s era. Credit should be given to Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi for his effort towards liberalization of speech. All this while, Malaysians have been mocked as “having freedom of speech but no freedom after speech”. Unfortunately, his effort and liberal stand brought him more calamity than blessing as he was held responsible for indirectly strengthening the opposition, hence asked to relinquish his top post comes March 2009. Abdullah is also branded as “softie and like to sleep in meeting”. Other happening was increasing news of mass defection from BN to Pakatan Rakyat, thus setting a climate for “unstoppable Anwar against immovable BN” showdown.

The showdown sparked off with Anwar being charged for sodomy again while Najib Razak is being linked to the murder case of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu. Both denied their respective involvement. Nevertheless, Anwar won the “first round” by winning the Permatang Pauh by-election in August on a bigger majority to return to Parliament. The “second round” fight was on the “September 16” plan of change of ruling government. As a result, the BN’s MP being packed off to a study tour in Taiwan, believed to be a strategy to avoid the “September 16” plan. For those Malaysians that are not interested in the country politic, Olympic Games could be occupying part of their August, perhaps supporting other Asian teams like China and Japan rather than Malaysia.

Besides, the debate on New Economic Policy (NEP) and Malay supremacy getting hot up until nearly tearing Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM) away from BN coalition. In early September, Ahmad Ismail and his gang from UMNO Penang controversially stroking up racial tension and tearing Koh Tsu Koon’s (then, PGRM acting President) picture. Ahmad blamed a journalist from a Chinese-language Sin Chew Daily named Tan Hoon Cheng for the whole mess up. Subsequently, the later of September rocked Malaysia with the triple arrest through the Internal Security Act (ISA). The victims are blogger (Raja Petra), journalist (Tan Hoon Cheng) and politician (Teresa Kok). These arrests triggered nationwide condemnation of the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) and resignation of Zaid Ibrahim from his Minister post as a sign of disagreement to the misused of the ISA by the government. Zaid, widely known as de facto Law Minister and is Malaysian best hope for juridical reform. He was later sacked from UMNO. In this month, Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) also announced its pull out from the BN coalition.

Nonetheless, “September 16” became an anti-climate for the opposition and never materializes. BN keep a clean a sheet and won the “second round” despite Anwar has far more possession in this round. In other happening in September, announcements of big banks from the United States and Europe collapsing did chill the country of a possible global economic crisis and start to trigger the nation attention to economic arena.

The “third round warm up” did not start off as fierce as the previous two rounds. Therefore, month of October merely involved randomly throwing of punches to each other. These include outgoing MCA President, Ong Ka Ting surprisingly criticizing UMNO as bully in the BN coalition and Zaid Ibrahim claiming that Malay supremacy model has failed. Sexual abuse of Penan women in Sarawak, the controversial appointment of Low Siew Moi as temporary head of PKNS, MCA election, nominations for UMNO election, banning of Hindraf and reductions of petrol price filled up the month.

In November, PKR move up the heat by indicating that the Pakatan Rakyat is targeting Sabah and Sarawak to fulfil the “unfinished” plan of “September 16”, or at least for the coming state elections. Fatwa on the ban of tomboy characteristic and yoga to Muslim trigger anxiety. Yet, this month seems to belong to BN as various happening started to reveal weakness of the Pakatan Rakyat. Examples are the Penang’s UNESCO status fiasco and various reports of rifts among the Pakatan members.

Full concentration to economy provides calmness before the storm in early part of December. In the late December, plan to privatize IJN (National Heart Institute) causes some spark but it was the debate about implementation of Islamic hudud law resurfaces that matter most, threatening to tear DAP and PAS apart and leaving Anwar and PKR aimless with the “head Pakatan lose, tail, BN win” dilemma.

As the Kuala Terengganu by-election, perhaps the “third round” around the corner, happenings at the very end of the year set the stage for the battle to continue. Who will win? How many more “rounds” are needed to unveil the winner? Will this battle of the unstoppable against the immovable benefit the country and the rakyat? How about the potential catastrophe of a global economic crisis?

Anyway, lets the new year begin. Welcome the Year 2009 and whatever it may bring.

Ethic versus ethnic

Har Wai Mun | Dec 12, 08 12:43pm
(Available at http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/94775)

They look the same, sound the same, but they are not the same. Correct! Correct! Correct! Ethic is different from ethnic but unfortunately, in Malaysia, the latter is misused to camouflage or even suppress the former.

MCPX

Some clear examples include the debate on the New Economic Policy (NEP). The opposition alliance is actually questioning the ethical reasoning behind the implementation of this policy and want it revised to benefit all, regardless of race, instead of an elite few.

However, many others are trying to divert the issue of ethics by bringing in the Malay supremacy issue.

Ethnic was also used to camouflage the rationale of Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim’s two suggestions, namely reserving 10 percent of places in UiTM for non-Bumiputera students and foreigners, and the appointment of Low Siew Moi as acting head of PKNS. Recent suggestions regarding education from various parties have been instantly met with an ethnic-sensitivity-roadblock without proper debate.

Negative effects of deteriorating ethical standards, results of political plays on ethnic and religious sensitivities, are ample and recent: Malaysia’s high ranking on the Corruption Perceptions Index, the low ranking of local universities, alleged misbehaviour of some rescue personnel in the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide tragedy, a tarnished judicial system, the Lingam case, the resignation of Zaid Ibrahim and the proposed ‘toothless’ Malaysian Commission on Anti-Corruption (MCAC).

Despite the significant reduction in petrol prices and the looming economic crisis, prices of goods have not dropped. Materialistic attitude and greed seem to have successfully orchestrated an invisible consensus among local sellers to maintain higher prices as well as attract investors to continuously bet on the stock market and encourage the over commercialisation of the education sector in Malaysia.

Ethical standards in Malaysia have dropped to make way for the rule of might based on the power of politic and money. This situation needs to be reversed as soon possible.

I hope the process of healing the country can start with the abolition of the Internal Security Act (ISA) and the restoration of a transparent, empowered judicial system. The quality of our academic system must also be improved, to educate Malaysians on the importance of ethics and the need to think beyond ethnic lines.

Malaysia-West Asia Relations and Foreign Direct Investment: Proposal for an Ummah Network based on Social Capital Concept

Har Wai Mun, Lam Zheng Ling & Liew Khai Yi

[UKM Institute of West Asian Studies national conference on "Malaysia-West Asia relations: Prospect and challenges" on 1st -2nd December 2008]

Abstract
Research on foreign direct investment (FDI) often ignores the psychology aspect of relationship. The role of relationship is embedded in Bourdieu’s social capital, believing that networking and friendship could be valuable factors for attracting business. In macroeconomic context, international relations could be an important determinant in attracting foreign investment. Manifestations of this conceptualization are guanxi and “Bamboo network” in Chinese business culture. Applying to Malaysia international relations with Islamic countries of West Asia, an “Ummah network” can be established to enable win-win situation in investment decision. This is in contrast with the rational behaviour of profit maximization motive of the classic school of thought. In reality, foreign investors with higher degree of negotiation power may seek maximum incentives at the expanse of the welfare of the host country, thus evaporating any possibility of win-win outcome. Given close relationship between Malaysia and Islamic countries of West Asia through Islam brotherhood and membership of Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Malaysia is in the best position to utilize its social capital to attract mutually beneficial FDI rather than giving excessive incentive to profit maximization oriented investors. Furthermore, growing tension and suspicion between Western world and Islamic countries strengthen Malaysia’s position to build up long term investment relationship with West Asian countries. Hence, this paper aims to explore potential mutually beneficial Malaysia-West Asia partnership through the perspective of social capital networking with the focus on foreign investment. The ultimate objective of this paper is to propose a framework for the establishment of a relationship-based “Ummah network” between Malaysia and West Asia.

[Full paper and presentation slides available at: http://www.harwaimun.com/presentation.html]

S.H.E. vs Nameewee and multilingualism

Har Wai Mun | Nov 28, 08 4:00pm

(Available at: http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/93932)

I refer to the Malaysiakini report “Namewee in a new video controversy”.

Recently, we were presented an example of Newton’s Laws of Motion (Third Law) with regard to Mandarin language and particularly in referring to Nameewee’s (Wee Meng Chee) latest controversial video clip.

According to Newton, ‘to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction’. In social science dialectic, one may rephrase this theory as ‘on one hand...on the other hand’.

Back to Nameewee’s video clip, he seems portray Mandarin language as of ‘no value’ when compared to English in Malaysia. This is in complete contrast with one of S.H.E’s (a Taiwanese female band) songs entitled ‘Mandarin (Chinese) Language’.

In their song, S.H.E. claim that ‘among the different people of the world with different skin colours, hair, nationalities and tastes, the Mandarin language is the most popular choice’.

It continues: ‘The whole world is learning Mandarin’ because ‘Mandarin is being more and more globalised’ and therefore, ‘this (Mandarin) language we (Chinese) speak makes all other people listen seriously’. Mandarin in the S.H.E. song is a marvelous and valuable language.

The equal and opposite reaction to the S.H.E song is Nameewee’s video, portraying Mandarin language as ‘shameful’ and ‘useless’. In his video clip, knowing Mandarin without mastering English mean it is hard to get employment in the urban areas.

Being told to balik kampung actually juxtaposes Mandarin as a village language to English as an urban language in the Malaysian context.

Attention should also be paid to the issue of the over- domination of the English language in both as the medium of instruction in Malaysian colleges and for employment until Mandarin-speaking Malaysians are isolated and discriminated.

Besides Mandarin, Malaysians should also do a reality check on the survival of the Malay language as well as other minority languages. I have regularly been getting responses in English from even Malay speakers despite the fact that I spoke to them in Bahasa Melayu.

This reflects a choice to speak in English, which is an early symptom of the extinction of a language.

One should realise that language is a hidden resource to unlock knowledge, bridge differences (particularly due to mis-communication), to foster relationships for social harmony or business and to reflect on human civilisation (as in a Malay saying, bahasa jiwa bangsa).

Hence, multiracial Malaysia should encourage multilingualism to blossom but not over-emphasisie on a particular language be it the English or the Malay language.

Neither should we politicise or threaten any expression of dissatisfaction due to language matters, but debate them constructively.

Complication of mankind’s destiny in all aspects has created a spectrum of colours between black and white. S.H.E.’s song and Nameewee’s video (Mandarin and English) could represent the opposite ends while our debate (other languages) could fill up the in-between with variety.

Rising crime rate in Malaysia?

Crime is part of the “3C” factor that played a role in the Barisan Nasional government’s moral defeat in the 12th Malaysian General Election in March 2008 (Lim & Har 2008). Prior to that, an opinion pool commissioned by The Star newspaper in December 2007 reported that the three most concerned issues to Malaysian are cost of living (as claimed by 96% of the respondents), followed crime rate (88%) and illegal immigrants (40%) (Zulkifli Abd Rahman & Florence A. Samy 2008). On crime, Malaysians generally have not satisfied with the crime rate. Statistics from the Royal Malaysia Police are summarized in Table 1. As per Table 1, total crimes, rape and property crime accelerate in year 2006 and 2007. If year 2004, the year of the prior 11th general election is used as yardstick, total crimes have increased 33.94%. Increase in rape cases is even more alarming at 84.92%. Perhaps, a laymen voter might not understand or have exact access of these statistics, but their fear of crime and their family members (especially the daughter) safety have been part and parcel of their life, hence further boiling their dissatisfaction towards the government.

Nevertheless, the eruption of dissatisfaction and fear on crime concerns in Malaysia could be due to few high profile crime cases involving brutality against women and children. Example of those cases include the murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibu (body was allegedly blown up by military-grade explosives, case still pending hearing), Canny Ong (rapped, stabbed and then dumped into a manhole to be burned to dead on 14 Jun 2003), Nurin Jazlin Jazimin (8-year old, reported missing since 20 August 2007), Nurul Huda Abdul Ghani (10-year old, brutally raped and murdered, Jan 2004 case) and Sharlinie Mohd Nashar (five-year-old, reported missing on 9 Jan 2008). Besides, gang-rape cases also widely reported in Johor Baru, the capital city of Johor state. A series of rape cases in June 2007 particularly terrified the residents of Johor Baru. On 12 June 2007, three men raped a 19-year-old girl and forced her 22-year-old boyfriend to watch helplessly, after he had been slashed twice. The following day, a group of armed men took a couple on a terror ride before raping the 35-year-old woman in the presence of her friend, who was slashed. On 20 June 2007, a schoolgirl was raped by four men and another by a bogus policeman in two separate incidents within a six-hour period (The Star Online 2007 & Farik Zolkepli 2007).

Based on the annualized half year data (from January to June) for 2008, the crimes continue to increase but the year-to-year rate of increase seem slowed down significantly for all the three category of “total crime”, “rape” and “property crimes”. Annualized method is used due to unavailability of up-to-date figure on crime rate. Nevertheless, scenario for the second half of year 2008 could be greatly different from the first half of the year, with added hardship to living standard such as sharp increase of petrol price (despite being reduced significantly months later) and economic crisis looming. Hardship and crimes generally have positive relationship, hence not surprisingly that some qualitative news (including individual’s everyday experience and those reported in media) indeed pointed to a rising crime happening in Malaysia. The Star newspaper (24th November 2008) reported that Teratai assemblyman Jenice Lee marched peacefully with 40 other residents to the local police station to submit a memorandum on the rise in the number of crime incidents in the area, highlighting 50 recent cases the residents want the police to act on (Aziz 2008: M7). Another random example of crime cases, The Star Online (10th November 2008) reported that residents in the Jalan Dharma and Lebuhraya Bodhi areas in Penang are living in fear after thieves broke into three houses over the past three weeks.

Further on crime and police matter, a debatable case worth mentioned. Malaysiakini (Ghazali 2008) reported that on 16th Oct 2008, the Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar was mauled by the opposition when he revealed in Parliament that the police beat along the infamous Lorong Haji Taib ceased operations because its personnel were exposed to contagious diseases and safety risks. This was related to the closure of police beat in the notorious Chow Kit area in Kuala Lumpur, which the reasons are varied. Some versions claimed that the closure is “due to fear of criminals or health concerns” but the Home Minister later clarified that “the 'right' reason was that the owner of the building (police beat station) wanted to build shop houses in the area.”

Regardless of what had happened, prevention is better than cure. Hopefully, all parties from ordinary citizen (especially helpless children, students and golden citizens) to higher authority such as the police, Member of Parliament and Ministers responsibly play its part to fight crimes in Malaysia.

Reference:

Aziz, F. (2008). Rising crime rate in Ampang. The Star. 24th November: M7.

Farik Zolkepli. (2007). Two rape incidents in Johor Baru, just six hours apart. Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp? file=/2007/6/21/nation/18088466&sec=nation. Access date: 19 May 2008.

Ghazali, R. (2008). ‘Fear of thugs’ not behind police beat closure. Retrieved on 24 Nov 2008 from http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/92594.

Lim, K. H. & Har, W. M. (2008). “Political volcano” in 12th Malaysian General Election: Makkal Sakhti (People Power) against communal politics, “3Cs” and marginalization of Malaysian Indian. Journal of Politics and Law. Vol. 1(3): 84 – 101.

Malaysia Royal Police. (2008a). Jenayah indeks 2000 – 2004. Retrieved on 20 May 2008 from http://www.rmp.gov.my/statistics/statistic_content.cfm?tajuk=16.

Malaysia Royal Police. (2008b). Jenayah indeks 2005 – 2007. Retrieved on 20 May 2008 from http://www.rmp.gov.my/statistics/statistic_content.cfm?tajuk=17.

Malaysia Royal Police. (2008c). Jenayah indeks 2007 – 2008. Retrieved on 24 November 2008 from http://www.rmp.gov.my/#.

The Star Online. (2007). Trio rape girl after car chase. 13 June. Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/6/13/nation/18009628&sec=nation. Access date: 19 May 2008.

The Star Online. (2008). Residents fearful after break-ins. Retrieved on 24 Nov 2008 from http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?file=/2008/11/10/north/2469515&sec=north.

Zulkifli Abd Rahman & Florence A. Samy. (2008). Bread and butter matters. The Star. 12 February: 1 & 8.

Weathering the financial crisis: Malaysia rated among 'most risky'

[Source: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/11351-weathering-the-financial-crisis-malaysia-rated-among-most-risky]

SINGAPORE, Oct 29 - Malaysia is rated as "high risk" while Singapore is well-positioned to weather the economic slowdown because of its political and social stability, says Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy.

Its analysts ranked Singapore as having the least political and social risks next year among 16 territories in Asia-Pacific, according to a summary of its 87-page report released to the media yesterday. Malaysia, Thailand and India were ranked as the most risky because of internal developments.

The unlikelihood of sudden political changes, stable labour relations and sound policies, including measures to help the poor, were among the factors in Singapore's favour, said Perc's managing director, Robert Broadfoot.

"Singapore's fiscal situation is strong enough for the fiscal incentives that are going to help the country get over the crisis and spread the pain of recession," he said. Politically, he noted, Singapore has no election coming up and the Government would stay in power. In addition to crafting good policies to take Singapore through a recession, the Government's ability to implement them is a plus point.

Social stability is also expected, he said, because Singapore has "no insurrection movements, the labour situation is stable and more harmonious than most countries, and you don't have religious fundamentalist movements."

The report also concluded that despite external shocks, Singapore and Hong Kong will emerge stronger in their credibility as regional and international business centres.

Singapore's Government-backed institutions such as Temasek Holdings and the Government Investment Corporation (GIC) remain well-positioned to capitalise on opportunities that emerge in the region and globally in these times. Broadfoot said: "GIC and Temasek have assets and are liquid. Their brands are still quite good: Temasek has an image of a stable company and will be viewed as a preferred partner."

Hong Kong's ace in its pack is The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) coming through the crisis intact as one of the large remaining private banks in the world. The report found that while Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia could be hurt the most by the crisis, they were the most stable politically and socially.

On a scale of zero for the least risky to 10 for the most, Singapore scored 2.76, followed by Australia (2.9) and Hong Kong (3.23). Most risky are India (6.87), Thailand (6.28) and Malaysia (6.07). They are vulnerable not so much to the financial fallout but due to internal developments, the report added.

So, while India and China have been seen as engines of growth that will lift Asia out of a slowdown, the report warned of the external and internal troubles these countries will face.
China will have to contend with a drop in exports to the US, and deal with social instability arising from a widening income gap and a surge in unemployment.

India faces uncertainties over a general election due by May next year, rising communal violence and acts of terrorism.

The report predicted that a weakened US is likely to be less aggressive in pushing its views on other countries. This will put more responsibility on US allies like Singapore, Japan and Australia to take the lead in issues the US has previously fronted, such as countering terrorism.

Singapore Management University law professor Eugene Tan warned that Singapore still faces terrorist threats.

It is also uncertain how long the slowdown will last, he said, adding: "Race, language and religion are still fairly strong faultlines and the slowdown will make those faultlines more significant." - The Straits Times.