Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad wrote an insightful piece on "Middle Malaysia" in Sinar Harian. I will not be surprised if the article was first rejected by the other Malay press. Excerpts are quoted as follows, and the full article's available here .Majoriti pasif dijangka penentu PRU-13 TAN SRI ABDULLAH AHMAD [...] DAP, komponen Pakatan Rakyat dan pemerintah di Pulau Pinang dalam konvensyennya hujung minggu lalu di Ipoh berpendapat sebaik jalan ke Putrajaya adalah melalui ‘jalan tengah’ atau ..
One of the Prime Minister's key National Key Result Area (NKRA) Labs is on Fighting Corruption. The were plenty of proposals within this NKRA made by the labs, and it's available for review here. However, it is curious that the chief of the lab choses to focus on one tiny aspect among the tonnes of proposals within, that is creating new laws to control political funding . Is there an ulterior motive? You decide. Below is the write up on the press conference I gave a few days back on the issue ..
'Middle Malaysia' isn't a new slogan. It's not a new cool term to replace "Malaysian Malaysia" or "Malaysian First". It's a political description of the centre-majority of the Malaysian public. It is a statement and approach that the DAP seeks to fulfil the wishes of "Middle Malaysia". Sdr Lim Guan Eng has said that "Middle Malaysia prefers co-operation not conflict, consultation instead of confrontation and an inclusive, shared society rather than an exclusive, separate society... We want no ..
"Transformation Malaysia" was the theme of DAP 2010 Annual Convention held yesterday. But it was the approach of "Middle Malaysia" in the Secretary-General Sdr Lim Guan Eng's speech which caught the imagination of the press and commentators. "Middle Malaysia" is apt in times like this, as we swim in various parochial and fringe controversies like 'Allah' and 'Ketuanan Melayu', it is time to position DAP and our partners PAS and PKR as taking the middle ground where the overwhelming majority of ..
And it's coming from PAS. This time it's PAS National Unity Committee chairman and MP for Parit Buntar, Mujahid Yusof Rawa with his comments on his speech within the Hall of the Holy Spirit. You really cannot get more sincere than that for a leader of an Islamic party. Such a bridge across the divide must be applauded, and unfortunately, I don't think we'll see any UMNO leader willing to do the same, clearly showing the inability for them to come to terms with themselves and their faith. To ..
I was invited to the Malay-language 'Hujah' talk show on TV9 at the end of last year to discuss the issue of Goods and Services Tax. Together with me was the MP for Pulai, Datuk Nur Jazlan speaking on behalf of the government. It was a 30 minute programme, so it's split into 4 parts on YouTube below. Enjoy ;-)
I was asked to write by The Edge weekly for their 2009 year end bumper issue on the theme of "The Year That Wasn't". Originally, I had no clue what I was going to write, I mean, was there any positive expectations in the first place? But I soon found my inspiration as the deadline approached. The article was published and juxtaposed against a pretty good write up by Khairy Jamaluddin, who at least made the effort to be critical, unlike some of the others who wrote, who were more into flattering ..
Deputy Prime Minister defends exclusivity :Muhyiddin said he had been receiving quite a number of messages from non-Muslim friends in Sabah and Sarawak who said there were Christians who felt that things would not have happened in the first place “if we, the Christians, would just not use the word ‘Allah’”. “This is because in Malaysia and in many parts of the world and in all Muslim countries, Allah is the only God for Muslims. We cannot equate Allah to god in the other religions and ..
I've been quietly told by some of the printed press that they will not be able to print comments relating the controversial 'Allah' issue. As such, I'm unable to write about it in my newspaper columns as well. Fair enough, if the rule is applied to all, in order for the heated atmosphere to "cool" down. However, it's clear that while there are rules for newspapers in general, there are no rules for UMNO-owned Utusan Malaysia who continues to carry biased, one-sided and incendiary reports on the ..
The following is the full text for Tengku Razaleigh's speech at the Institute of Southeast Asia Studies in Singapore yesterday. It says it all. Thank you for the honour of addressing you today. The centre of gravity of global economic activity has been moving eastwards towards Asia for quite some time now. The present global financial crisis has accelerated that process. Asian economies, led by China, seek to spur domestic demand and increase intra-regional trade. As the global appetite for ..
Honestly, I'm happy and impressed. Essentially the party position is that there is nothing wrong with the use of 'Allah' by other Abrahamic faiths, but the term should not be misused. We have no problems with that. We call upon the Federal Government to accept the High Court ruling and not to appeal and prolong the matter further. (Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the honourable President of the BN component party) Kenyataan rasmi Presiden Pas mengenai isu kalimah Allah Ditulis oleh ..
The Saints Go Marching In... I had the privilege of being invited to join the Nuffnang - Friso Gold 'Family Day Out' for 80 blogging families at Kidsports & Gym, 1Utama this morning, so the least I could do is to 'blog it' ;-) The missus even made my day for offering to outfit in Saints jerseys ;-) (Just don't ask where they are in the league ;-)) So Tony, Ting Fong, Totto and little 'Peter Parker' Pua made it to 1U @ 10am in the morning and the kids certainly had a good time courtesy of ..
Following the earlier post on the 2 cards I retained, the following are the 8 cards I snipped, and my experience attempting to "snip" them. Hopefully I didn't forget about any other cards I may have ;-) Citibank "Air Asia" and platinum Mastercards This was fairly easy. They even have a special telebanking option when you call in to "explain" the credit card tax issue. After explaining that I wasn't keen to wait until October to cancel my cards when they expire (don't want the hassle of tracking ..
Ah... finally with some time in my hands as I stayed off work, and found the "will" to call up the credit card companies to "snip" all the credit cards to avoid having to pay the RM50 credit card tax and RM25 for supplementary cards. All my hopes of the Government reversing the new tax has completely vanished. But first, I have to decide which card(s) to keep and frankly, the decision was relatively easy. Please proceed to read this post only if you are a little bit of a shopper, or you are ..
I was given the task and honour to present the Economic section of the Pakatan Rakyat Common Policy Framework (CPF) during the historic inaugural Pakatan Rakyat Convention. There were a slew of policy outlines contained in the framework (which is available here), but I outlined some of the broader policies within the 20 minutes given to me. The original full text of my speech is here below, but I probably only read 50% of it, leaving out vast chunks, while going off the cuff for the balance. ..
