Unsatisfied with their financial situation and buoyed by the middle-class uprisings in the Middle East, the American middle class organized massive protests in New York and Washington D.C"Listen, I want change as much as the next guy, but I really needed to catch up on . "Middle-class frustrations have resulted in broad grassroots movements like the Tea Party movement, which began as town hall meetings. Middle-class wages have stagnated for the last 20 years whereas the earnings of the wealthy have climbed steadily. From 1988 to present day
Anwar says he has a direct line to the country’s leading politicians.
JAYA, Feb 23 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim scoffed at Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s current visit to Turkey today, claiming the Prime Minister would not succeed in undercutting his support from the Muslim nation’s government.
The Opposition Leader told a press conference at PKR’s headquarters this evening that despite Najib’s presence in Turkey, the country’s top politicians still sent him personal messages, proving that his relationship with the government was still intact.
“I just received a message ... so there is no problem at all,” he said.
Anwar was responding to speculation that Najib was attempting to poach his international support during his ongoing three-day visit to Turkey.
The prime minister, accompanied by his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and other senior ministers, touched down in Istanbul yesterday for an official visit to enhance existing bilateral relations between Malaysia and Turkey.
“If their intention is to forge better relations, I am very supportive but I maintain extremely close relations.
“Personal messages continue to be received from the Turkish leadership and I do not have that problem ... and I am very pleased with the meetings the leaders have had and the messages given to our leaders. You understand what I mean?” a smiling Anwar told the press conference.
When asked if he was still confident of support from Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is known to be his close ally, Anwar nodded and pointed out that the leader was not a “Mr 10 per cent”.
He was referring to a term often used to describe corrupt individuals who seek commissions or incentives when negotiating for a contract.
“The Turkey PM is not a Mr 10 per cent. Neither is his wife Emine Erdogan who is a dear friend of (my wife Datin Seri Dr Wan) Azizah (Wan Ismail) ... (so) is Suzanne Mubarak (wife of ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak) or Leila Ben Ali (wife of ousted Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali).
“So I think we should give them (Turkey) the credit ... they were the first or initially the first important Muslim country, they came up strongly and forcefully in defence, in support of the Egyptian people to reject the tyrannical regime of Hosni Mubarak.
“You cannot compare this to Umno leaders,” he said.
The Permatang Pauh MP also made an indirect jibe at Najib for once saying that Malaysia bore no similarities to Egypt, pointing out that these were the same words used by Hosni to describe Tunisia when its ousted president fled the country.
“And then (Libyan leader) Muammar Gaddafi said that Libya is an exception, that it is not Egypt ... Now Najib is saying that Malaysia is not Egypt,” he pointed out.
The overthrow of Tunisia’s Zine al-Abidine later inspired Egyptians to rise up against strongman Hosni, sending him packing on February 11.
The multiple-nation revolt has today spread to Libya as violent clashes broke out across the north African nation in an uprising against Gaddafi.
Anwar added that he had often warned Najib and the Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership not to cheat and to uphold democracy in Malaysia through free and fair elections.
“In my speeches, I have given strong reminders and warnings to Najib and the leadership — do not cheat. Make sure that the elections are free and fair. Learn from the experience of other countries.
“You can always say that Malaysia is not Egypt ... precisely what Mubarak said when Ben Ali fled Tunisia — Eqypt is not Tunisia.
“But notwithstanding what has been said, it is important to ensure free and fair elections. You cannot have free and fair elections if the Election Commission (EC) is not perceived to be free and fair and the media is not free and all instruments of government are being utilitsed and used to frustrate the campaign efforts by the Pakatan Rakyat,” he said.
Anwar added that PR had received information that BN has been registering foreigners as Malaysian citizens in an apparent bid to shore up support ahead of the coming general election.
“We have some evidence to this effect but we have to adduce this. We have also alerted the Bersih leadership but we need evidence to expose the dirty machinations of Umno.
“Why are they making it so difficult in the meantime for Malaysians to register?” he said.
Anwar said that the fact that political parties and civil society groups had to undertake the task of registering voters showed that the EC had failed in its duties.
“We hope that Najib will use the opportunity of his Turkey trip to learn from them what is free media, rule of law and a country that follows the process of democracy,” he said.
Najib Razak
Information Communication and Culture Minister Rais Yatim has just told Malaysians that we should ignore Opposition propaganda to hold protests like those in Arab countries.
Rais, the Minister of Information is misinformed.
As far as I am aware, neither Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim or Pakatan Rakyat has ever asked the people to hold protests and take to the streets. The Opposition has always wanted to hold dialogues. Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has refused to have a public debate.
The Opposition has however warned Rias and his ruling party, BN, that it should take heed of what is happening in the middle-eastern countries and to start to embrace reforms.
Perhaps Rais is alarmed by the events in the middle-east so he issues statements which imply the Opposition is fomenting dissent.
Does not he read the papers? Is he not the Minister for Information and Communication? All of the events in the middle-east were not started by Opposition parties. Egypt, for instance, does not have a credible Opposition – most of their members are in jail.
The rebellion in Egypt was a spontaneous movement started by the young who were mainly students. They galvanised the people using the power of the internet – Google, Facebook and Twitter.
The trouble in Tunisia started because of one young unemployed graduate who immolated himself because the police prevented him from earning a living the only way he thought was possible – by selling vegetables.
Rais said '...the political systems in those countries differed from Malaysia's, and as such, there was no reason for any party to ask Malaysians to follow in their footsteps...'
Poor Rais. He cannot see the wood for the trees. But what do you expect from a man who is afraid and who lacks integrity.
He knows that if there was a similar “people power” movement in Malaysia, the Cabinet members will be hauled up, for the various crimes they have allegedly committed against the state and against various individuals. In addition to that, many ministers will find it hard to explain how they amassed a fortune with a minister’s meager salary.
Can the obtuse Rais not comprehend that the people in north Africa and the middle-east rebelled because its government refused to listen to them? Does Rais not read the newspaper reports and also the circulars from our High Commissions in these countries?
The people were fighting injustice, oppression, corruption, economic stagnation, poor living conditions, unemployment, political repression, police brutality, rigging in elections. These are things that Malaysians also experience.
Rais said that Malaysia had a solid constitution which protected the rights of the people, unlike the Arab countries.
Egypt and the other countries also have a constitution which they are now updating to suit the times and the new order.
Rais is more dense than he makes out. He said that ‘…Malaysia also had a democratic system which allowed citizens to pick the party they wanted to govern the country every five years in free and fair elections……’ Big deal!
Ex-President Hosni Mubarak held elections and he always ‘won’ them – Soviet style, 110% all the time.
Rais said, “In those countries (which are facing popular uprisings), they do not have a solid constitution like us and do not have free elections to chose their leaders”.
Rais is living in a world far removed from reality. Malaysia does not have free and fair elections. If we did, why can’t we have international observers? What have we got to hide. The last time the international observers tried to come into the country, they were refused entry.
In our supposed fair elections, BN always arrives bearing material goods, cash and blank cheques. Perhaps he cannot remember the time the Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak came with a RM5 million carrot for the citizens of Sibu. And Chief Minister Taib Mahmud came with lots of brown envelopes. Is that fair? At the last by-election in Tenang, they used the floods to their advantage. They provided transport to the BN stronghold areas but left others to fend for themselves.
King Abdullah of Jordan has sacked his top leaders and is looking hard at reforms. King Hamad of Bahrain has been told by the people to sack his uncle, Prince Khalifa the unpopular Prime minister. Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi wants to die a martyr and is prepared to sacrifice his people.
Rais needs to brush up on his information and communication and either step down or embrace reforms.
Feb 24 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak is taking “an unprecedented gamble” by pledging to dilute the system of Malay patronage that has kept Umno in power, said a foreign report yesterday.
Feb 24 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak is taking “an unprecedented gamble” by pledging to dilute the system of Malay patronage that has kept Umno in power, said a foreign report yesterday.
The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) — an Australia-based think tank — said that the large support for the status quo and Umno’s current vulnerability meant that “Najib will have a difficult task convincing his colleagues to ‘risk all’ for the sake of Malaysia’s long-term future.”
Its foreign policy research fellow Dr John Lee also questioned the prime minister’s capacity to introduce economic reforms as the introduction of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1970 has cultivated a “vast and deep network of rent-seeking and patronage.” While acknowledging that the New Economic Model (NEM) introduced by Najib last year was “enormously significant,” Lee said that the decades of pro-Bumiputera affirmative action was now a “millstone around the neck of the struggling Malaysian economy and the cancer behind the country’s growing structural problems.”
However, the public policy think tank backs Najib’s gamble as an opinion poll by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research in 2008 found that 71 per cent of Malaysians — including 65 per cent of Malays — believed that affirmative action needed to be reviewed.
Lee’s paper, “Malaysian Dilemma: The Enduring Cancer of Affirmative Action,” said that the NEM has the potential to win back disaffected Chinese and Indian voters to Barisan Nasional (BN).
But the researcher, who was born in Ipoh but migrated to Australia, added that there has “been few initiatives aimed at reducing the role of the state in the Malaysian economy—which is essential for cutting back rent-seeking opportunities by Malay elites in the name of affirmative action.”
Calling steps such as relaxing Bumiputera equity requirements in 27 service subsectors “piecemeal,” the paper noted that Najib has had to placate pro-Malay groups including senior Umno figures who are “far from unanimous in their support of Najib’s gamble.”
The largely Malay civil service with its deeply entrenched ‘pro-Malay’ culture means it will be difficult to effect genuine reform, Lee added.
Commenting on the paper, local libertarian think tank Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) believes that it is time to debate the policy of affirmative action.
Project manager Afif Abdullah said that “the evidence against affirmative action is now clearer. The prime minister must not succumb to demands from far right groups, be they Malay, Chinese, Indian, Dayak, or anything else.”
Established in 1976, CIS states that it supports a free enterprise economy and a free society under limited government where individuals can prosper and fully develop their talents.
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