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Southeast Asia

Dr M slams anti-Najib stories

2009-04-22

[Straits Times] FORMER Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad accused the international media on Tuesday of trying to demonise Malaysia's new leader, who is battling opposition accusations of links to corruption and murder. Mr Mahathir's defense of Prime Minister Najib Razak reflects concerns within the ruling party that the leader's reputation has been tarnished because of unproven allegations by political adversaries. Mr Mahathir said many articles published in the Western media when Mr Najib took power earlier this month were 'anti-Najib stories' that highlighted the accusations against him. 'From France to Britain to Australia, the articles are identical and carried the same message,' Mr Mahathir wrote on his blog. 'I cannot believe that this demonisation by so many at the same time is a coincidence.' Mr Mahathir - a strident critic of the Western media during his 22 years as prime minister before stepping down in 2003 - said Najib should brace himself for more foreign criticism, but added that it was ultimately with Malaysians 'that Mr Najib has to clear his name.' Mr Mahathir holds no government post, but still commands wide respect and his views often receive attention from leaders and members of the ruling party. The prime minister recently said he has been a victim of personal attacks in the media, referring to allegations by opposition leaders and bloggers that he was involved in a shady government contract to buy submarines from France. He has also been accused of links to the murder of a Mongolian woman, who was the estranged lover of Mr Najib's friend. He has denied the allegations. Mr Najib succeeded former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was pressured to retire after the ruling coalition retained power with its weakest parliamentary majority ever in March 2008 general elections.

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Southeast Asia

Malaysia bans newspapers, raising fears of clampdown

2009-03-24

Malaysia's government has banned two opposition newspapers as incoming premier Najib Razak gets ready to take power, raising opposition fears of a looming clampdown. The party papers of the People's Justice Party (PKR) and the Malaysian Pan-Islamic Party (PAS), two of the three parties in the opposition coalition, said they received letters on Monday from the Home Ministry informing them of a three-month ban. No reasons were specified for the ban issued by the ministry's Quranic Texts and Publications Division in a letter faxed to the editors of PAS' Harakah and PKR's Suara Keadilan newspapers. The ban came just a day before the start of party elections in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the main party in the coalition that has ruled Malaysia for 51 years. Those elections will see Najib, who says he wants to open up the economy to more foreign investment, confirmed as party president ahead of his transition to the post of premier, currently held by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, early next month. "This is clearly a clampdown on press freedom, especially since we have been one of the most critical publications at a time when both the UMNO assembly and by-elections are approaching," said Tian Chua, a PKR official.

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Southeast Asia

Malaysia vows continued help for Philippine peace talks

2009-03-01

Malaysia has vowed to help the Philippines resume stalled peace talks with Muslim separatist rebels in the troubled southern region of Mindanao, a Philippine government official said Sunday. National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi made the assurance during a meeting with Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on the sidelines of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders' summit in Thailand. Gonzales said Arroyo asked Badawi to do something so that the negotiating panels of the Philippine government and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) would meet again as soon as possible. "President Arroyo asked for Malaysia's continued help in our peace talks," Gonzales told reporters. "The president wants the negotiations to resume and she asked Malaysia to take steps so that the two panels meet." Gonzales said Badawi responded favorably to Arroyo's request. "Prime Minister Badawi said Malaysia is always willing to help so they will help," he said. "They will try to facilitate (the resumption of peace talks), They will help in making sure the two panels will meet." Malaysia had been facilitating the negotiations between the Philippine government and the MILF since 2004. It also led an international team of peacekeepers monitoring a ceasefire between the two sides. But in November 2008, Kuala Lumpur pulled out its forces from Mindanao amid fighting between the MILF and the Philippines military. It expressed frustration over the slow progress in the peace negotiations. Peace talks between the two sides have been suspended since August 2008 when MILF rebels launched a series of deadly attacks in Mindanao, which triggered fighting with the military. More than 200 people were killed in the hostilities, which also forced more than 500,000 people to flee their homes. The guerrillas launched the attacks to protest a Supreme Court decision stopping the signing of a key agreement between the Philippine government and the MILF, which would have expanded a Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao. The government eventually scrapped the agreement, and called for continued talks with the MILF to come up with a new deal. But the MILF is insisting that the agreement was already signed and should be implemented.

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Southeast Asia

Malaysian PM: Send Muslim boat people back

2009-02-27

Malaysia's prime minister has called for Myanmar's Muslim boat people to be pushed back if they attempt to land on any Southeast Asian shores in search of asylum, according to newspaper reports Friday. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi also took swipes at Myanmar and Thailand on the Rohingya issue, which has escalated into a major problem for the region and one of concern internationally. Thousands of the stateless Rohingya have fled Myanmar as well as refugee camps in Bangladesh in recent years, but their plight was only highlighted recently when hundreds were believed to have drowned after being pushed out to sea by the Thai military. "But if we cannot be firm we cannot deal with this problem. We have to be firm at all borders. We have to turn them back," Abdullah said in an interview with the English-language Bangkok Post. The Malaysian leader arrived at this beach-side resort Friday for the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-nation bloc that includes Myanmar. While the Rohingya issue is not part of the official agenda it appears to be taking up substantial time during sideline discussions at the three-day conference. Thai Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya said Myanmar has agreed to take some of the refugees back but gave few details and said the process would be "difficult." The Myanmar delegation has yet to make a public comment on the issue. The Rohingyas — not recognized as a distinct ethnicity by Myanmar's government and denied full citizenship — number about 800,000 in that country. Hundreds of thousands have fled to Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Middle East, and many rights groups have expressed concern that they will be abused if forced to return to Myanmar. Myanmar's consul general in Hong Kong, Ye Myint Aung, earlier this month described Rohingya people as "ugly as ogres" in a letter to media and diplomats. Kasit, the Thai foreign minister, said ASEAN would work with Myanmar and Bangladesh to determine if the tens of thousands of Rohingya scattered around ASEAN countries come from Myanmar. Asked about a timeframe he said it would be "difficult" because of the large numbers involved. "Myanmar says they will take them back if it can be proven they are Myanmar people of Bengali origin," Kasit said. He said the Myanmar government recognizes the Bengali, an ethnic minority group found mainly in Bangladesh, as one of the country's 135 ethnic groups. But Abdullah expressed frustration in his interview with Myanmar's unwillingness to take the boat people back. "Of course, we know they come from Myanmar (Burma). When we ask Myanmar, they ask: 'Are you sure they are our people? What evidence have you got?'" he said. ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said work would soon begin "to define the issue with the Myanmar authorities of who these people are, how to refer to them and how to categorize them and how many of them and how we can help them."

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Southeast Asia

HIV carriers shouldn't marry: Malaysia official

2008-12-23

HIV carriers should not be allowed to marry, in order to avoid having sick children, a top Malaysian politician was quoted on Monday as saying. "Somebody who is very sick like that should not be allowed to get married," Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, chief minister of northern Perak state was quoted as saying by New Straits Times newspaper. "If there's any breeding, sorry for having to use that word, the embryo will also carry the same virus. So that is even more unfair because you are actually passing that disease on to the child." He had been asked to comment on a statement by an official of the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia that Muslims who test positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, would still be allowed to marry. An aide to Nizar, who is a member of the opposition Islamist party Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), said the minister was referring to both Muslims and non-Muslims. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was quoted last week as saying all Muslim couples in peninsular Malaysia must undergo HIV screening before getting married. The debate on the right of HIV/AIDS carriers, especially Muslims, to marry comes as mostly Muslim Malaysia is struggling to allay concerns of a rise in hard-line Islam. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said last month Muslims are allowed to do yoga but without chanting, reversing an outright ban that had caused a flap in the country. The government has also threatened to shut down a Catholic newspaper for using the word "Allah", saying it could inflame the country's Muslim population. Politically dominant ethnic Malay Muslims form about 60 percent of the population of roughly 26 million, while the ethnic Indian and Chinese minorities include Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians. While new HIV infections in Malaysia dropped to 3,452 in 2008, compared to 6,756 in 2003, infections among women through normal sexual intercourse rose from 5.02 percent of total cases in 1997 to 16.3 percent last year.

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Southeast Asia

Malaysia's Anwar says close to being PM

2008-09-17

Malaysia's opposition alliance claimed on Tuesday that it had enough support in parliament to oust the government, but Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi rejected the declaration and accused the opposition of "political lies." "We have enough strength to form the government.

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Southeast Asia

Anwar to take oath as Malaysian MP

2008-08-28

Malaysia's opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, is set to be sworn in as a member of parliament two days after a landslide by-election win marked his return to mainstream politics. Anwar, a member of the Keadilan (Justice) party, won a decisive victory on Tuesday in a contest for Permatang Pauh, a constituency in his northern home state of Penang. Pandikar Amin Mulia, the speaker of Malaysia's lower house of parliament, said Anwar will be formally sworn in as legislator on Thursday. This will allow Anwar, a former deputy prime minister and finance minister, to attend the tabling of the annual budget in parliament on Friday by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Malaysia's prime minister. His return to mainstream politics after a decade is expected to boost the opposition voice in parliament led by a loose coalition known as Pakatan Rakyat, or People's Alliance.

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Southeast Asia

Anwar capping a comeback in Malaysia

2008-04-13

When he emerged from prison four years ago, Anwar Ibrahim was a weakened and gaunt figure all but written off by the Malaysian political elite. On Monday, Anwar, resurgent and confident after leading opposition parties to their strongest gains in a half-century, will celebrate his political rehabilitation in front of an expected crowd of thousands of supporters at a soccer stadium in Kuala Lumpur. During his nearly four decades in politics, Anwar, 60, has gone from being a radical Islamic student leader to deputy prime minister and then Malaysia's dissident-in-chief, imprisoned after a highly politicized trial. A ban on holding political office, imposed by the judge who in 1999 sentenced him to six years in prison for abuse of power, expires Monday, allowing Anwar to pursue the job he has coveted: prime minister. "There's no rush," Anwar said in an interview at his office. "I don't need to be prime minister tomorrow." Yet he and his allies have done anything but dawdle since capturing five of Malaysia's 13 states in the March 8 elections. The governing coalition won an uncomfortably slim 51 percent of the vote in that election, and Anwar says he is wooing defectors - he needs only 30 members of Parliament to cross over to bring down the federal government. He also recently forged a pact among the three main opposition groups called the People's Alliance to jointly govern the states they control. The opposition's gains have thrown the United Malays National Organization, which has governed Malaysia since its independence in 1957, into disarray. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the prime minister, is fighting for his political life. UMNO delegates from his home state of Penang, which the opposition captured in the March election, have called for him to step down, as have other influential figures inside the party, including Mahathir bin Mohamad, the long-serving former prime minister. Since his release from prison, Anwar has rarely missed an opportunity to call for "accountability and good governance" in Malaysia, where dissidents are regularly jailed without trial, students are banned from politics and government contracts are handed out to friends and allies of those in power. He says his goal now is to put this rhetoric into action. Although Anwar is a Malay Muslim and his coalition includes a conservative Islamic party, one of the first major initiatives of the People's Alliance was the approval of a giant, modern pig farm for the Chinese community. Muslims consider pigs unclean, and the decision has been enthusiastically attacked by the governing coalition. Anwar says he and his allies are trying to prove that they can reach decisions on the country's thorniest issues. "We will defend that," Anwar said of the pig farm. "Even relatively contentious issues of the Muslims we are able to deal with." Anwar still needs to win over detractors from all three major ethnic groups, who call him a chameleon and say that his transformation from Islamic radical to champion of ethnic minorities smacks of expediency. Anwar has long cultivated a diverse group of friends and allies, including Paul Wolfowitz, the former World Bank president; Al Gore, the former U.S. vice president; Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister; and leaders from across the Muslim world.

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Southeast Asia

Malaysia ruling coalition suffers surprise upset

2008-03-09

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Malaysia’s opposition threatened on Saturday to hand the ruling coalition its biggest upset in 40 years by winning the northern industrial state of Penang, putting the prime minister’s political future at risk. The multi-racial National Front coalition is almost certain to get a majority and form the government at the federal level, but it was as yet uncertain of retaining the two-thirds majority it has held for most of its five-decade-long rule. ‘It’s bad. They have lost Penang,’ a source close to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told Reuters just two and a half hours after polling booths closed at 0900 GMT. ‘It’s a perfect storm,’ he added. ‘Big guns are falling all over the place.’ The chief minister of Penang conceded defeat and said he would hand over power to the opposition, one of the state’s opposition leaders said. ‘He has contacted the governor. He respected the wishes of the people and hoped there are no untoward incidents,’ said Chow Kon Yeow, head of the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) in Penang, which was set to lead the new government in the state.

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Southeast Asia

Malaysia: Islamic party fields non-Muslim candidate

2008-02-24

(AKI) – Malaysia’s conservative Islamic party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), has broken a 61 year old taboo and fielded a non-Muslim as one of its candidates. Kumutha Raman, a 29-year old law graduate, was presented to local media on Thursday. She will contest the Tiram state seat under the banner of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat, a coalition between PAS and the People's Justice Party (PKR), formed to challenge the ruling Barisan Nasional. Barisan Nasional is the government coalition controlled by prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). PAS’s election choice is the latest in a series of overtures aimed at attracting non-Muslim votes at the election scheduled for 8 March. Known for its strict Islamic policies, PAS has recently dropped its call to turn Malaysia into an Islamic state and is instead campaigning for better quality of life and racial equality. Its manifesto calls for the national oil and gas company Petronas to be placed under parliamentary control, lower prices of fuel and food, and free education up to university level and free healthcare. Taqiyya. The election comes at a low point in Malaysia’s inter-racial relations with Indian and Chinese minorities increasingly showing signs of displeasure with the country’s pro-Malay laws. At the previous election, held in 2004, the hard-line PAS called for the creation of an Islamic state and proposed harsh laws such as amputating the limbs of thieves and stoning adulterers to death. Its radical Islamic stance scared some members of the Muslim community and the party suffered badly, losing control of Terengganu state and only retaining control of Kelantan with a very slim majority. At a national level, PAS won only seven parliamentary seats, which represented a significant decrease from the 27 parliamentary seats it had won in the 1999 general election. It plans to contest 65 of the 222 seats in the forthcoming ballot. Almost 11 million of Malaysia’s 27 million people are eligible to vote. Voting is not mandatory, and recent voter turnouts have typically ranged between 70 and 75 percent.

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Southeast Asia

Malaysia offers to help Thai Muslims

2008-02-11

Malaysia has offered to work with Thailand’s new government to aid Muslims in the restive south, which has been wracked by an insurgency for more than four years, state media reported Sunday. It's the nature of the "aid" you've been sending to the south that's part of the problem. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he looked forward to meeting his new Thai counterpart Samak Sundaravej to discuss how to help locals and restore peace to the area, which he said would benefit both countries. “We have expressed our willingness to cooperate with Thailand to help the Muslims in the south,” along the border with Malaysia, Abdullah was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency. “I want to discuss this with the new Thai prime minister. I think it is a good thing that we give attention to the situation in southern Thailand.” More than 2,900 people have been killed since the unrest broke out in January 2004 in the south, which was an autonomous Malay Muslim sultanate until mainly Buddhist Thailand annexed it in 1902, provoking decades of tension.

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Southeast Asia

Non-Muslims worry as Malaysia scraps Taoist statue

2008-01-08

A Malaysian state's refusal to allow the construction of a giant Taoist statue is making the country's non-Muslim minority increasingly insecure about their religious and cultural rights, politicians said Tuesday. Ethnic Chinese community leaders began work in 2005 to build a statue of Mazu — the Taoist goddess of the sea who is believed to protect fishermen and sailors — in the coastal town of Kudat in Sabah state on the northern tip of Borneo island. State officials ordered the project halted in June 2006, citing objections to its location. This sparked a protracted dispute that recently escalated after Chong Kah Kiat, a prominent Sabah politician, sought a court order to reverse the state government's decision. "The Chinese no longer feel secure and they no longer trust the government," said Chong's lawyer, Ansari Abdullah, who is also a key state opposition leader. "They feel there has been an encroachment on their religious and cultural rights." Opposition activists expect the spat to hurt support for Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's ruling coalition in Sabah — traditionally one of the federal government's strongholds — in general elections widely expected by mid-2008, Ansari said. The Mazu statue on privately owned land in Sabah was to have become the world's tallest, standing at 32 meters (108 feet). Sabah media have said the objections to it were based on an Islamic cleric's claim it could offend Muslims because it was considered too near a mosque. Granite carvings made by craftsmen from China had been shipped to Sabah and a 1 million ringgit (US$300,000; €200,000) platform was built before the stop-work order was issued, according to Chong's petition filed in Sabah's High Court last month. Some ruling coalition leaders representing non-Muslim minorities have pledged support for the project, saying it would be a major attraction for tourists from Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. "If you are part of the community belonging to the Buddhist and Taoist faiths, you will feel frustrated because (this is) a legitimate project," V.K. Liew, president of the Liberal Democratic Party, a ruling coalition member, told The Associated Press. State officials have suggested an alternative site, but activists insist there is nothing wrong with the current one. The High Court has not scheduled a hearing for Chong's petition.

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