Re: Tun Mahathir - see the Police Watch statement questioning his credibility to lead a War Crimes Commission. They quoted an IHT article which young fellas like me found new and disturbing.

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The Star carries MIC Youth chief SA Vigneswaran’s plea to the police to stop using the Emergency Ordinance to send Indian’s to Simpang Renggam. I note that he stopped a little short of advocating that the EO been done away with altogether.

Nonetheless, I support his notion that such detention is totally counter productive and that instead of using the EO, any arrestees should be charged in court.

I take strong exception to the NST article titled “Hardcore criminals among those held.” Forget hardcore. Criminals? That’s bullshit. In any civilised, functioning state, all are innocent until proven guilty.

Whatever sins they may or may not have convicted, the 4,100 people being held in Simpang Renggam are not criminals convicted with any modicum of due process. Legally speaking, that makes them not criminals at all - they are citizens brutally kidnapped by the state.

[Read more →]

Tags: Detention without Trial, Ethnicity, Government Policies, History, Impunity, Law Enforcement, Laws, Malaysian Politics by Nathaniel Tan
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Selamat Hari Raya al-Adha!!

Sorry for the late greeting, hope it’s turning out well for all!
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Guess it’s a tough one for flood victims though :(

I think at this point, I will discontinue updating my original flood post, and try to blog about developments as they occur.
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It’s not every day you’ll hear me urging you to get a copy of the NST, and again this comes late, but I was fairly impressed by the content today - primarily by the features of people doing good in Malaysia (also good pics but unfortunately, the online versions do not seem readily available).  Lots of little private, local initiatives, working with children from troubled homes, sex workers, and other under-served segments of society.

I am always heartened by such stories and only disappointed that I know so little about them (anyone want to bankroll my private research / investigative journalism outfit?! :P :)

But really, all those people are doing great work - keep it up!! and do have a read!
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Still a few more days at least before going back to regular blogging - sorry!
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Also featured in today’s NST is my Taman’s namesake - Tun Dr. Ismail. Here’s an interesting quote from his uncompleted autobiography (italics) and the new book about him:

The Special Position of the Malays proved a less intractable problem because the leaders of the Alliance realised the practical necessity of giving the Malays a handicap if they were to compete on equal terms with the other races.

The only point of controversy was the duration of the ‘special position’ — should there be a time limit or should it be permanent?

I made a suggestion which was accepted, that the question be left to the Malays themselves because I felt that as more and more Malays became educated and gained self-confidence, they themselves would do away with this ‘special position’.

In itself, this ‘special position’ is a slur on the ability of the Malays and only to be tolerated because it is necessary as a temporary measure to ensure their survival in the modern competitive world: a world to which only those in the urban areas had been exposed.

This analysis provides insight into how Dr Ismail perceived the Malayan situation.

What is striking is Dr Ismail’s belief that the Malays would do the right thing in the long run, as well as his faith in the Alliance as a model of government capable of meeting these challenges taken as a whole.

Tags: History, Malaysian Politics, little points by Nathaniel Tan
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NST -

“We need to identify our strengths and weaknesses. One weakness that we have is that the present generation does not share the spirit of independence.”

Abdullah said the young generation were like children born into wealth who could not understand their parents’ struggles because they had air-conditioned houses and were chauffeured around in big cars.

“Today, things are easy, and how easy it is to forget the struggles and perseverance of their parents so that their children and grandchildren would have a comfortable life.

“If we forget history, then we cannot learn and move forward. Let’s hope that does not happen,” he said.

Oh come off it. As if the BN government hasn’t used all the fruits of these ’struggles’ to create more messes that my generation will have to really struggle to clean up. Don’t talk to me of independence until you can truly demonstrate we have an independent media, an independent judiciary, and most importantly, a rakyat independent of corruption.

Besides the fact that harping on Independence ‘57 still reflects a mild obssession with dead white men, I don’t recall many instances of the people who really fought for independence relentlessly reminding their youngers of how hard they fought, how much they sacrificed, etc. If their glory lives in noble modesty, why should their children - who were but kids in the early 50’s - keep berating us? Is it to distract us from the real problems of today?

Ultimately, a true appreciation of the struggle of our forefathers and foremothers is to uphold the integrity and principles they have passed down to us, and to prevent all the same injustices alive during colonisation from creeping any further back in to our lives.

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With regard to this most recent speech, Pak Lah did get one thing right though (bad English notwithstanding) on the subject of race relations: “Don’t let it look all right from the outside but is not right inside,”

Tags: History, Malaysian Politics by Nathaniel Tan
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I attended a forum on Ops Lalang last night, and got a taste for pieces of history I’m still quite ignorant of.

The speakers were Dr. Kua Kia Soong, Sonia Randhawa, Sivarasa Rasiah and Lim Guan Eng.

Dr. Kua spoke first, and introduced an observation all speakers later concurred with - the correlation of an ISA arrest wave with an internal struggle within Umno. There were a number of examples given, the clearest being the Mahathir - Tengku Razaleigh challenge in ‘87 and the Mahathir - Anwar challenge around ‘98. This pattern had never been highlighted to me before.

Ms. Randhawa spoke about some of the legacies of Ops Lalang, including the emasculation of the media, and pointed out that many parts of our history are completely unknown by young chiku’s like me and that questions regarding many incidents of our past remain unanswered (eg, the Private/Corporal Adam incident).

Mr. Sivarasa shared some experiences regarding having a house guest arrested, and efforts to get the Ops Lalang detainees out, especially on the legal front.

Lim Guan Eng was good deal more sedate than usual it seems, which becomes him. He expounded calmly and not without eloquence on the political motivations (rather than ‘national security’ concerns) behind Ops Lalang, pointing out that after all, he himself was probably a greater threat to national security now than he was then. He also insinuated that YAB Dtk Abdul Ghani Othman qualified to be arrested under the ISA :P :)

Mention was made of detainees being held without trial for 15-20 years. FIFTEEN TO TWENTY YEARS.

All 3 men also talked a lot about the climate of the time, providing context and suggesting that ‘tensions’ were in fact manipulated into being - there being secretly organised mass responses to the Chinese educationist movement (btw, Anwar Ibrahim was the Education Minister when the controversial appointments of non-Chinese ed administrators to the Chinese schools), ‘deviant’ Islamists, non-Muslim religious activists, etc.

So much history. So many things I’d like to know better…

One of the most vivid pictures, painted by Mr. Sivarasa I *think*, was of a young Najib Tun Razak who was a leader at a mass Umno gathering speculated to be convened with the specific, secret intention of stroking the tensions that would justify use of the ISA. While inciting the crowds, he (imitated by his cousin some years later) is said to have been wielding a keris while shouting ‘We will bathe this keris in Chinese blood!’.

I just came across this in Wikipedia (Try googling ‘najib’ :)

In 1987, as UMNO Youth Chief, Najib vociferously defended special Malay priveleges in a fiery speech featuring the Malay Keris (dagger) shortly before the government launched a crackdown on extremist elements termed Operation Lalang. At the same rally, banners were hoisted carrying phrases such as “revoke the citizenship of those who opposed the Malay rulers”, “May 13 has begun” (referring to the May 13 racial riots in 1969), and “soak it (the keris) with Chinese blood”.

Some say he will lead us one day :|

Tags: Detention without Trial, Ethnicity, Event, History, Laws, Malaysian Politics by Nathaniel Tan
2 Comments »

Much has been said today, maybe I’ll only add this (hopefully not duplicating anyone).

Looked at one way, Merdeka can be thought to be a rather colonial-centric celebration, much like the academic discipline of post-colonialism.

Granted, born over 20 years after the fact, I am in quite a position to take for granted the freedoms that came with independence. With that caveat, I’d say that perhaps there are other - at least equally important - things to focus on, today and every day, with regards to defining moments of Malaysia.

First of all, a forum participant recently made a brilliant comment: “Sarawak and Sabah didn’t join Malaysia, we MADE Malaysia.” All too true :) so let’s not forget that fateful juncture as well.

A less comfortable source - Gen-M, the latest grassroots support for TDM’s cause - lends us another useful axiom: perjuangan belum tamat - the struggle is not over.

So alongside glorifying the day we threw off the yoke of our oppressors and all that, let’s take a moment to remember the things that continue to oppress us: corruption, racism, abuse of power, repression, poverty and unequal wealth distribution, ignorance.. the list goes on. All things I’d like to try and continue writing on.

These many things continue to subjugate Malaysia and all Malaysians, the only difference between these tyrannies and the evil colonials is the “white man.” At the end of the day I believe there is no real Independence without freedom from these afflictions.

The struggle is not yet over, but neither - I’d like to believe - is our fighting spirit. Hidup rakyat!

Tags: History by Nathaniel Tan
3 Comments »

In today’s NST:

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said Malaysians should learn about both good and bad events in the country’s past to understand the proper context of why the events happened, and why certain decisions were made.

I couldn’t agree more DS. I’m not sure we would agree as to the reasons behind every decision, but if what you’re promoting is a culture of greater openness about the checkered history of our beloved country, aku sokong.

In the same paper however, MP YB Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN-Ayer Hitam) says that our history books do not reflect the nation’s past accurately enough, basically saying that non-Malay historical personalities were not given enough attention.

Parliamentary secretary for the Min. of Education P Komala Devi’s excuse for things being left out was not encouraging:

“Research showed that students were not interested in history, they had difficulty understanding facts and were only memorising information without appreciating the subject. We decided to consolidate the facts to make the subject less boring,” she said.

That’s because of the way you test them (trust me, I remember), not because of the content. I have this feeling that if you let all the truths out, the last thing Malaysian history will seem is boring. Why would students enjoy history if they don’t somehow feel a part of it?

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On the issue of history, Pas has some very interesting things to say about the Communist party and its role in gaining independence - praising Chin Peng for fighting the Japanese, sleeping under the stars and such. I wonder why they happen to be bringing this up. Looking for Chinese votes? Some more sincere motivation?

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Higher Education Min Datuk Mustapa Mohamed has quite a bit to say about student loans. Apparently the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) has been administered in a fashion that has become increasingly unsustainable.

But despair not, the Star alone (no surprise) also covers an MCA initiative to make available interest free loans to early school leavers for courses in technical and vocational courses. Credit where credit is due: can’t be bad.

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Gerakan Kuala Lumpur chairperson Dr Tan Kee Kwong submitted a memorandum to Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. malaysiakini reports that he requests that DBP

“remove the words keling and cinabeng from the next edition of ‘Kamus Dewan’ or amend their definition to avoid misleading users”

Meanwhile, Education Min DS Hishammuddin prepares to table a memorandum, also involving the DBP, promoting the use of BM.

I wish I spoke and wrote better BM. English is super-useful and I’m thankful for my ability with it, don’t get me wrong; just that it’s good to have a linguistic identity separate from one essentially formed in the aftermath of hegemony.

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Quick point to a good article on autonomy for successfully run schools (a concept with relatively impeccable logic).

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Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed calls for a greater representation of non-bumiputras in academia.

He talks a lot about improving the universities, making them exciting places to work, etc etc.. I think however the Star (predictably) points to a most telling fact:

In Universiti Malaya there is only one non-bumiputra dean among 20. In many of the other universities, there is none.

If you want more non-bumis in universities, give them the credit they deserve. People will serve locally out of pure love for the country, if only you give them only as much recognition they deserve - no need for special treatment or anything. The rest is pretty much tangential and probably barely relevant.

Tags: Education, History, Malaysian Politics, Responsible Free Speech by Nathaniel Tan
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