PH leaders confident of defeating bigotry in march to Putrajaya

Pakatan Harapan is ready to battle the toxic bigotry Umno is certain to call up in the run-up to the polls. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, May 27, 2017.

AS sure as night follows day, Pakatan Harapan (PH) is certain toxic bigotry will be a big part of Umno's arsenal in the run-up to the polls.

As a coalition that includes the Chinese-majority DAP, PH knows it is vital to persuade Malay voters that it will protect Muslim-Malay interests if it wins control of Putrajaya.

For a start, PH leaders believe the greater prominence of its two newest members – Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and PAS splinter party Amanah – is helping to blunt attacks that the coalition is led by DAP.

“Malays can see an Islamist party and a Malay party as components in a coalition that stands for good governance and reformist politics,” said Amanah communications director Khalid Samad.


However, said the Shah Alam MP, the challenge is explaining this without coming off like "Malay nationalists or religious extremists.”

The bogeyman

Despite Khalid's confidence, it will not be a walk in the park convincing the ground that Malay political power will be safe in the hands of a PH government.

The impression civil servant Kamarul Salleh has of PH reflects the corrosive influence of Umno’s brand of racism on the Malay electorate.

Kamarul feels the pinch of rising prices for groceries and knows the country is in trouble, but is unsure whether he can trust the opposition with federal power.

“They say that if you vote for PH, it is a vote for DAP. DAP runs PH because it has the most parliamentary seats,” he said.

He was referring to the 37 seats DAP holds, compared with PH components PKR’s 29 and Amanah’s six. Bersatu has one.

“So it can dominate PH because PKR does not have many seats and neither do the other parties,” he said recently in Shah Alam.

Kamarul’s aversion to PH is rooted in the age-old fear Muslim Malays have of DAP –  that as a secular party, it will remove Islam as the religion of the federation and end affirmative action policies for the Bumiputera.

This is despite DAP’s constant pledge to uphold Islam as the religion of the federation as well as the Malay privileges enshrined in Article 153 of the Federal Constitution.

Analysts such as Prof Redzuan Othman predicts that as the campaign heats up for the general election, racial rhetoric will be dialled up to divert the attention of voters like Kamarul from more pressing issues such as inflation.

For instance, the current brickbat wielded by Umno leaders is that the real PH leader and eventual opposition prime minister is DAP national chairman Lim Kit Siang.

Studies by think tanks such as Merdeka Center show that such provocation does work, particularly with rural Muslim Malays, whose votes hold the key to Putrajaya.

“Among all countries in this region, Malaysians have consistently voted along communal lines for as long as we’ve had elections,” said  Merdeka Center executive director Ibrahim Suffian.

For Muslim Malays, Umno and PAS have been the only viable political parties simply because they have been around for more than five decades and because they are communal. One represents race and the other, religion.

“So when Malays want to show their anger at Umno, they choose PAS,” said Ibrahim.

And even though Bersatu has the legendary Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Ibrahim said the data did not show that it had gained the trust of Muslim Malays like Umno or PAS had.

The alliance with DAP has also tainted Dr Mahathir’s credentials as a Muslim Malay leader, said Ibrahim.

Debating racism  

Bersatu leaders claim they are up to the challenge of explaining the party’s ties with the DAP.

Shukur Mohamad of Batu Pahat regularly holds ceramah and dialogues with Johor’s Muslim Malays, who are arguably the country’s most loyal Umno supporters.

“I explain to Malays how the parliamentary seat argument is flawed. If an Umno MP is defeated, he is defeated by another Malay MP from either Amanah, Bersatu or PKR, because an Umno candidate is always challenged by  another Malay candidate.” said Shukur, who campaigns in Sri Gading, a seat that Umno won by a 5,761 vote majority in 2013.

“So I tell them, the more Amanah or Bersatu candidates win, the more Malay MPs you will get in Pakatan, and that Pakatan can only come to power with lots of Malay MPs.”

The logic, he claimed, is gradually sinking in as evidenced by the better turnouts for Bersatu programmes in Johor’s Malay heartlands such as Mersing and Kota Tinggi, places that even PAS used to be chased out of.

The trick, says another Johor Bersatu leader, Mazlan Bujang, is to have smaller interactive sessions so that the Muslim-Malay audience can debate and ask questions.

“In order to deal with racist views, you have to show how their logic is flawed. It cannot be just a ceramah where the communication is one-way,” said Mazlan, who is Tebrau Bersatu chief.

“My approach is dialogue so that they can reply to me and I can counter their arguments. Only then do they see how their logic is wrong,” said Mazlan, who claimed that he had registered more than 2,000 new Bersatu members through such dialogue sessions. – May 27, 2017.

Egypt launches air raids on Libya after Christians killed

 May 27, 2017 by editor

EGYPT, May 27: Egyptian fighter jets carried out strikes on Friday directed at camps in Libya which Cairo says have been training militants who killed dozens of Christians earlier in the day.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said he had ordered strikes against what he called terrorist camps, declaring in a televised address that states that sponsored terrorism would be punished.

Egyptian military sources said six strikes took place near Derna in eastern Libya at around sundown, hours after masked gunmen attacked a group of Coptic Christians traveling to a monastery in southern Egypt, killing 29 and wounding 24.

The Egyptian military said the operation was ongoing and had been undertaken once it had been ascertained that the camps had produced the gunmen behind the attack on the Coptic Christians in Minya, southern Egypt, on Friday morning.

“The terrorist incident that took place today will not pass unnoticed,” Sisi said. “We are currently targeting the camps where the terrorists are trained.”

He said Egypt would not hesitate to carry out further strikes against camps that trained people to carry out operations against Egypt, whether those camps were inside or outside the country.

Egyptian military footage of pilots being briefed and war planes taking off was shown on state television.

East Libyan forces said they participated in the air strikes, which had targeted forces linked to al-Qaeda at a number of sites, and would be followed by a ground operation.

A resident in Derna heard four powerful explosions, and told Reuters that the strikes had targeted camps used by fighters belonging to the Majlis al-Shura militant group.

Majlis al-Shura spokesman Mohamed al-Mansouri said in a video posted online that the Egyptian air strikes did not hit any of the group’s camps, but instead hit civilian areas.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on the Christians, which followed a series of church bombings claimed by Islamic State in a campaign of violence against the Copts.

Islamic State supporters reposted videos from earlier this year urging violence against the Copts in Egypt.

At a nearby village, thousands later attended a funeral service that turned into an angry protest against the authorities’ failure to protect Christians.

“We will avenge them or die like them,” mourners said, while marching with a giant wooden cross.

GUNFIRE AND BLOOD

Eyewitnesses said masked men opened fire after stopping the Christians, who were in a bus and other vehicles on a desert road. Local TV channels showed a bus apparently raked by gunfire and smeared with blood.

Clothes and shoes could be seen lying in and around the bus, while the bodies of some of the victims lay in the sand nearby, covered with black sheets.

Eyewitnesses said three vehicles were attacked. First to be hit was a vehicle taking children to the monastery as part of a church-organized trip, and another vehicle taking families there.

The gunmen boarded the vehicles and shot all the men and took all the women’s gold jewelry. They then shot women and children in the legs.

When one of the gunmen’s vehicles got a flat tire they stopped a truck carrying Christian workers, shot them, and took the truck.

One of the gunmen recorded the attack on the Copts with a video camera, eyewitnesses said.

The attack took place on a road leading to the monastery of Saint Samuel the Confessor in Minya province, which is home to a sizeable Christian minority.

Security forces launched a hunt for the attackers, setting up dozens of checkpoints and patrols on the desert road.

Police armed with assault rifles formed a security perimeter around the attack site while officials from the public prosecutor’s office gathered evidence. Heavily armed special forces arrived later wearing face masks and body armor.

The injured were taken to local hospitals and some were being transported to Cairo. The Health Ministry said that among those injured were two children aged two.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made a point of improving relations with Cairo, said his country stood with Sisi and the Egyptian people.

“This merciless slaughter of Christians in Egypt tears at our hearts and grieves our souls,” Trump said.

The Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Egypt’s 1,000-year-old center of Islamic learning, said the attack was intended to destabilize the country.

“I call on Egyptians to unite in the face of this brutal terrorism,” Ahmed al-Tayeb said. The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Allam, condemned the perpetrators as traitors.

The head of the Coptic Christian church, Pope Tawadros, who spoke with Sisi after the attack, said it was “not directed at the Copts, but at Egypt and the heart of the Egyptians”.

Pope Francis, who visited Cairo a month ago, described the attack as a “senseless act of hatred”.

ONGOING PERSECUTION

Coptic Christians, whose church dates back nearly 2,000 years, make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 92 million.

They say they have long suffered from persecution, but in recent months the frequency of deadly attacks against them has increased. About 70 have been killed since December in bombings claimed by Islamic State at churches in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Tanta.

An Islamic State campaign of murders in North Sinai prompted hundreds of Christians to flee in February and March.

Copts fear they will face the same fate as brethren in Iraq and Syria, where Christian communities have been decimated by wars and Islamic State persecution.

Egypt’s Copts are vocal supporters of Sisi, who has vowed to crush Islamist extremism and protect Christians. He declared a three-month state of emergency in the aftermath of the church bombings in April.

But many Christians feel the state either does not take their plight seriously enough or cannot protect them against determined fanatics.

The government is fighting insurgents affiliated with Islamic State who have killed hundreds of police and soldiers in the Sinai Peninsula, while also carrying out attacks elsewhere in the country.–Reuters

Stop issuing family entertainment licenses- IGP

 May 27, 2017

MELAKA, May 27: Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar has urged the state governments and local authorities to cease issuing family entertainment licences.

He said this was because there were too many cases of operators abusing such licences to turn the family entertainment centres into gambling dens.

“What is the purpose of having family entertainment centres when it is filled with machines that are turned into gambling slot machines,” he told a press conference after attending a gathering of senior officers of the state police contingent at the Bukit Beruang police headquarters Friday.

Khalid said it was unfair to blame only the police in the prevention of gambling activities when the local authorities issued the entertainment licences and had legal provisions to curb them.–Bernama

“We are still proud of you Agilan Thani”

KUALA LUMPUR, May 27: Malaysians were united in expressing their support for Malaysian mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter  Agilan Thani, saying that he has made the country proud.

Agilan was defeated by One Championship welterweight champion Ben Askren by submission in the co-main event of ONE Championship: Dynasty of Heroes in Singapore Friday night.

The American – a 2008 Olympic wrestler and former Bellator champion – tapped into the vast gulf in experience to overwhelm his Malaysian challenger from the get-go, rag-dolling Thani and quickly taking the fight to the ground.

The youngster fought valiantly to get back up on his feet but in the end, Askren was too strong and too savvy as he sunk in an arm triangle submission to end the bout.

Askren extends his record to 16 wins and no losses, to cap off the third defence of a strap he won back in 2014.

Supporters from all walks of life also took social media by storm to voice their congratulations to Agilan.

MIC Youth Chief Datuk C. Sivarraajh said: “Agilan is just 21 … he’ll make it big soon…. everyone needs a defeat to boast them in life. Keep rocking and you’re already our champion.”

Facebook user Yogeswary Vallaisamy said: “We are still proud of you Agilan Thani.”

Rinajoe Joey said: “So what if u didn’t win this time? My support is still for you Agilan “Alligator” Thani Agilan Thani! Proud of you man…though it wasn’t an easy match but you’ve made this far to compete Ben.

Anbu Arasu Kasirajan said: “It’s okay Agilan Thani. There’s always next time. This isn’t the end. It has just begun.”

Shivaseelan Sukumaran said: “Seriously, Proud of you brother Agilan Thani…. It’s a tough game though… We are happy and so proud of you again.”

Shankar Ganesh Siridharan said: “To me Agilan Thani is a winner. Proud of you Agilan. There is always rematch. We still support you.”

Malaysian Invasion Mixed Martial Arts (MIMMA) said: “Agilan Thani, you took Malaysian MMA further than it has ever gone before. Thank you Agilan, you’re our champion. And we have yet to see the best of you.”

Danesh Navanethan: “You’ve made us proud.”

Dranoel Sinclair: “Its ok Agilan Thani… You did a good job.”

Agilan, also known as “The Alligator Thani”, has become a social media sensation after a promotional video, titled “The Boy from Sentul”, on his title fight went viral.

His story has been called the real-life ‘Cinderella’ fairy tale as he was bullied for being overweight in school.

Agilan was raised by his father after his mother left him when he was only one.

Frustrated with with the bullies, one day Agilan decided to stand up for himself and started to learn martial arts at age 13.

So brother also gets his cut - What a beautiful family - will all clever to scratch the backs

Questions For Nazir Razak Re-1MDB Payments NEW EVIDENCE

26 May 2017

Sarawak Report has now received the full details of the payments received by CIMB boss Nazir Razak from his brother Najib, out money which turned out to have been stolen from 1MDB.

Nazir Razak admitted to these payments when they were first reported by the Wall Street Journal last year, which amounted to the equivalent of around $7 million.  Nazir temporarily stood down from his position in April 2016 and initiated an enquiry at the bank.

Returning to his position the following month, Nazir said that he had been exonerated by the bank’s independent enquiry into its boss.  The Prime Minister’s brother had explained he had been asked by Najib to assist in processing money, which he had understood to have been legitimately raised through genuine donations for the BN election effort.

However, Nazir did not publicly appear to explain how it could be necessary to ask a senior banking official, like himself, to process legitimate money – rather than putting it through the party books in the normal manner?

On the other hand, Nazir did helpfully confirm where this money was later sent:

Nazir, a leading Malaysian corporate figure, had said earlier that he believed the money came from legitimate fundraising, and said that CIMB bank staff disbursed the funds to ruling-party politicians on the instructions of his brother.

At Monday’s news conference, the banker spoke of Najib’s request for assistance, and said it was the first and last time he had been asked for such help.

“My brother asked for some help and I agreed after I assessed that it would not involve anything illegal or misuse of my position at CIMB, or any inappropriate use of CIMB’s resources,” Nazir told a news conference after the bank’s annual general meeting. [South China Morning Post]

“Ruling-Party Politicians”
Sarawak Report suggests that Nazir, who has shown some commendable disapproval of corrupt practices and unexplained wealth on the part of his brother, ought now provide further details on these furtive handouts.

Specifically, which ruling party politicians were paid, how much were they paid and why were they paid, as opposed to their formal party offices?

This is particularly so now that Sarawak Report is in a position to list the exact payments made to Nazir, of which there were four.

The first three payments, just before the General Election, came from the AmBank account xxx 964.  This account was furnished by payments from abroad, including Tanore Finance and Blackstone Asia (both controlled Jho Low in Singapore):
– on 5th April 2013 RM13,500,000 was paid to Nazir;
– on 9th April 2013 RM500,000 was paid to Nazir
– and on 22nd April 2013 RM5,700,000 was paid to Nazir
(Total RM19,700,000).

However, these pre-election requests turn out not to have been “the first and last” after all.

There was a further payment, this time from the SRC funded local account number xxx906, made after the election on 20th December 2013 for RM6,000,000, bringing the grand total to RM25.7 million, considerably over US$7 million at contemporary exchange rates.

Therefore, the election payments appear, according to these investigation documents, not to have been “the last time he helped his brother in this way“.

So, perhaps Nazir can help answer the question why was Najib paying “ruling party politicians”, secretly through him again, even AFTER the elections?

In fact, why was he paying them at all?

Sarawak Report suggests that in the absence of any official explanation so far, Malaysians are entitled to conclude that Najib was attempting to buy his own party leadership’s loyalty to him personally, by putting large numbers of ringgit in the pockets of key players.

If so, it represents one further act of extreme political corruption waged against the democratic process of Malaysia.  Ironically, it is so far the Editor of Sarawak Report who has been charged by the Malaysian authorities with “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” for pointing such matters out.

Names in the frame

Not all recipients from Najib’s slush fund were paid so secretly through his brother’s bank, however.  We have details of some political figures who were paid directly with cheques from Najib, which substantiates the theory that the reason why all these UMNO/BN ‘bigwigs’ have stood silently by or in some cases have raced to his defence over 1MDB is because he has them all bought and paid for with that very self same stolen public money.

In a not necessarily exhaustive list, known politicians who have directly received personal cheques from the 1MDB accounts are as follows:

– Jacob Sagan – Sarawak PBB – 17/06/11 – RM200,000
– Ahmand Bashah B MD Hanipah – Kedah – 05/07/11 – RM200,000
– AB Aziz Kaprausi [Kaprawi?] – UMNO Sri Gading – 13/10/11 – RM 100,000
– Kasitah Bin Gaddam – UMNO Sabah – 06/01/12 – RM100,000
– Kasitah Bin Gaddam – UMNO Sabah – 02/02/12 – RM100,000 (again)
– Richard Riot – SUPP Sarawak – 02/03/12 – RM100,000
– Hassan Malek – UMNO Negeri Sembilan – 04/05/12 – RM100,000
– Ismail Adb Mattalib – UMNO Pahang – 27/06/12 – RM100,000
– Wetrom bin Bahanda – UMNO Sabah – 29/06/12 – RM100,000

Hanifi bin Mamat

Then just two days before the election a fat RM10,000,000 was extracted processed made out to Dato Hanafi Bin Mamat an UMNO senator from Kelantan.

What was he doing with that money?  Certainly, the handout appears to have bought Hanafi’s firm loyalty.

After the eruption of the 1MDB scandal it was he who was chastising his local party members against showing any dissent to Najib over the matter:

Kelantan Umno would take stern action against two party branches in Machang following the action of those who openly reject the leadership of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak as party president.

Secretary Datuk Hanafi Mamat said it because that’s considered not in accordance with the prescribed channel as the party’s constitution and rules.

“They should be allowed to use channels that criticize or reprimand in which all members have been informed about this, but if the president so openly about ready for action.

“What they are doing is contrary to the values and culture of Umno, we do not restrict members to criticize the leadership but admonished to prudence. Do not join the movement to topple the president at the expense of the party, “he said [translation Sinar online]

Money well spent?

The payments continued after the election. of course, on 27th November 2013 Ahman Maslan received RM2 million, at the time UMNO Information Chief and always one of Najib’s most voluble supporters.

As also previously reported, on 26/11/13 the Chairman of the UMNO Backbenchers group Sharhril Abdul Samad also received a generous donation of RM1 million from the PM. Sharhril went on this year to take over FELDA the floundering famers’ fund run into the ground by Najib’s policies.

This list is by no means likely to be exhaustive and there are other interesting payments, including two telling handouts of RM100,000 each in June 2011 and April 2012 to a certain Ruslan Kassim.  Ruslan is now a leading light of the extreme nationalist Malay ‘supremacist’ group Perkasa, known for its disruptive and divisive activities on the ground.

Najib has always indicated he does not support the party, which has nevertheless been whipping up Malay nationalism against opposition parties associated with tolerance towards minority groups.  Perhaps he can explain these payments also?

What is Happening here

‘JONG-NAM MET U.S. SPY IN LANGKAWI 4 DAYS BEFORE ‘VX NERVE GAS’ MURDER: NAJIB TRYING TO PLEASE TRUMP AGAIN? M’SIAN INVESTIGATORS LEAK NEWS TO JAPAN MEDIA IN BID TO TAR JONG-UN? 

The estranged half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un reportedly met with a suspected US intelligence agent in Malaysia four days before he died, according to a Japanese newspaper. Malaysian investigators believe the meeting was the reason behind Pyongyang’s assassination of Kim Jong Nam. He arrived in Malaysia two days earlier on February 6 from Macau, where he had been living in exile with his family. Hotel security cameras show Kim meeting a middle-aged Korean-American man with US citizenship the day after he arrived in Langkawi. Kim Jong Nam’s alleged assassination

He had a two-hour meeting with the man, who is based in Bangkok, in a hotel suite, according to the Asahi Shimbun. The man and Kim had previously met in Malaysia on several occasions. Malaysian authorities had been tracking the man every time he entered Malaysia, believing he may have had links to a US intelligence agency. Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (Image: AFP) Kim returned to Kuala Lumpur on February 12 and was poisoned the following day at Kuala Lumpur International Airport by two women, who still maintain they were led to believe they were pranking him for a reality television show. The US citizen left Malaysia on the day of Kim’s assassination. Malaysian investigators believe North Korea’s secret police had learned of Kim’s activities in Malaysia and subsequently assassinated him. – http://www.9news.com.au

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Slapping a new ‘imported culture’, Guan Eng says after aide’s assault

Slapping a new ‘i27 May 2017 12:54PM · By Looi Sue-Chern

Slapping a new ‘imported culture’, Guan Eng says after aide’s assault
Lim Guan Eng says he will leave to his aide, Zaidi Ahmad, to settle the slapping incident. – The Malaysian Insight file pic

SLAPPING people over disagreements has become a new norm in Malaysia, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said today, referring to his information officer Zaidi Ahmad being slapped outside a mosque yesterday.


The two-term chief minister said no matter what people disagreed about, there should not be any violence.


"You cannot hit someone for whatever reason but it seems that this has become the norm now. When people have disagreements, they hit the other person.


"That is not Malaysia's culture. That must be some imported culture," Lim told reporters.


Zaidi was slapped by a protester after he asked Jalinan Muslimin Pulau Pinang chairman Mohamed Hafiz Mohamed Nordin to explain the group's accusations against the Penang government.


Hafiz spoke at the protest after Friday prayers outside the Simpang Enam mosque near Komtar where he accused the state of meddling with fatwa (Islamic edicts).


Zaidi, who heard the speech, asked Hafiz to answer which fatwa was purportedly blocked by the state. A protester then slapped him.


Zaidi said he would not lodge a police report, as the assault was carried out by a senior citizen, who was past the age of 60.


Before working for Lim, Zaidi was a Royal Malaysian Air Force major. He gained wide recognition after he lodged a police report over the indelible ink used in the last general election. He was court-martialled for speaking to the media about it and lost his job.


Lim said he had spoken to Zaidi about the incident and was told that the former fighter jet pilot wanted to settle the matter himself.


"He said he was there because he went to pray at the mosque. He told me the incident had nothing to do with his position as a state government officer.


"I respect his decision. So, I leave it to him," Lim said. – May 27, 2017.