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Joceline Tan is wrong in this article.

What PKR has done in Selangor is not just good governance, but also visionary. By separating the party from the state in Selangor, PKR has leapt ahead of other parties. The party administration must be separate from the state administration. These two serve different roles. They must not be mixed.

It is unfortunate that the changes were actually made by PKR out of necessity, not because of principle. The challenge now therefore is to see if the new Selangor PKR chief will stay out of the affairs of the state.

The role of PKR Selangor, now led by Azmin Ali, must be to strengthen the PR administration of Selangor under Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. Azmin must sedar diri and realise that he is there to strengthen Tan Sri Khalid. If Azmin instead weakens Tan Sri Khalid, then it is Azmin who does not understand his role.

Filed under: Malaysia, Politics

Nampaknya isu Hasan Ali masih tak habis lagi. Dalam Malaysiakini hari ini ada kecaman baru pula terhadap beliau.

Hasan Ali sekali lagi cuba menjadi hero. Kali ini beliau mahu menjadi hero untuk pegawai-pegawai kerajaan, agar para pegawai ini tidak dibuli oleh SELCAT. Sebelum ini beliau cuba menjadi hero orang Islam apabila mahu menyekat penjualan minuman keras.
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Filed under: Malaysia, Politics

It seems like there is a new philosophy to manage our finances – When faced with difficult times and you don’t have money, you must borrow and continue spending. Always stay in debt, and only balance your books if possible. If it is not possible to balance your books, then that is fine, really.

Hang on, wasn’t it excessive borrowing that caused the credit crunch?

Budget Deficit Due To Govt Spending To Revive Economy & Confidence
PUTRAJAYA, Sept 11 (Bernama) — The government’s budget deficit has been brought about by the lead role it takes from the private secctor in stimulating and reviving the people’s confidence in the economy during difficult times, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said.

During recession the private sector dare not invest and hence the government needs to invest slightly more to boost the people’s confidence, particularly investor confidence, in the country’s economy.

” Our country’s philosophy on deficit budget is that during difficult times we have to spend slightly more to bring confidence in our economic system,” he told Bernama after breaking the fast with staff of the Public Private Partnership Unit in the Prime Minister’s Department on Thursday night.

The government has projected the budget deficit to hit 7.6 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year, the highest level since 1987 due to the fiscal stimulus packages totalling RM67 billion in November last year and March this year.

Nor Mohamed said: “ In difficult times we need to spend slightly more and this causes a deficit.”

“Our philosophy is okay. In good times, we reduce the deficit. If possible, we have a balanced budget,” he said when asked to comment on the World Competitiveness Report 2009/10 released on Tuesday by the World Economic Forum.

According to the report, Malaysia fell three notches to 23rd spot due to the deficit budget, among others.

For instance, during the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis, the government had to spend more, resulting in 5.5 per cent higher deficit in the 2000 budget but after the economy recovered, the government took measures to reduce the deficit year-by-year from 2000 till 2007 until it dwindled to 3.2 per cent.

” This showed we are careful and very prudent,” he said.

Nor Mohamed said during the recessionary period last year and this year, the government also had to spend slightly more and after the economy recovered, the deficit level would come down.

” We’ve our own ways of managing the economy. It’s not an issue. The people who wrote the World Competitiveness Report on Malaysia’s position should see our track record.

” Eventhough we spend slightly more during recession, we will reduce the deficit when the economy recovers.

” We will adopt the same approach this time and in the years ahead if our economy slips into recession,” he added.

– BERNAMA

Filed under: Malaysia, Politics

I would like to invite you to an open dialogue, details as follows:

Main speaker: Khalid Samad MP

Date: Saturday 11 July 2009

Time: 2pm, for 2.30pm start to 4.30pm.

Venue: Hyde Park Suite, Holiday Villa Hotel, 37 Leinster Gardens, London W2 3AN (click here for map)

Chair: Wan Saiful Wan Jan, Director General, Malaysia Think Tank

In this moderated dialogue, Khalid Samad MP will elaborate his ideas and thoughts on PAS, Pakatan Rakyat, and the future of Malaysian politics.

Khalid Samad is PAS Member of Parliament for Shah Alam. He was recently appointed as a member of the Opposition’s Cabinet Committee monitoring the Prime Minister’s Department and the Ministry of Transport. Khalid created controversy recently when PAS Shah Alam, of which he is head, proposed that the group Sisters in Islam should be banned, which he later clarified as a mistake. Khalid was also one of the 10 PAS MPs who signed the open letter rejecting ‘unity government’ proposition.

On 27 March 2008, Khalid became the first elected Muslim Member of Parliament to step into the Roman Catholic Church of the Divine Mercy, Shah Alam, since it was completed in 2005. He spoke about his ideas and Islamic principles. The congregation gave him a standing ovation.

When studying at Leeds University in the 1970s, Khalid was active in the group Suara Al-Islam. Seeing that PAS under Dato Asri was heavily influenced by Malay nationalism, members of Suara Al-Islam tried to register Parti Negara Islam (Islamic State Party) upon their return to Malaysia, but their application was rejected in 1981. Khalid joined PAS in 1983, after the party committed itself to the concept of “leadership by ulama” (kepimpinan ulama)

Light refreshments will be served. We encourage a donation of at least £5.00 per person (optional only) to help cover costs, which will be collected at the door.

For further information, please contact Wan Saiful Wan Jan (wansaiful@gmail.com / 07920 132233) or Khalid Samad’s office via blog@khalidsamad.com.

See also: www.khalidsamad.com

Filed under: Malaysia, Politics

Scroll to minute 2.20 onwards and look at the frustration and anger.

Apa buat sampah ni? Takdak moral!

Filed under: Malaysia, Politics

PAS is obviously not homogenous. There are more than one school of thought in the party. The two most obvious schools are the conservatives and the “more-liberals”. I hesitate to call the latter “liberals” as many of them stop short of believing in classical liberal ideas. But they are definitely more liberal than the conservatives.

And I also hesitate to use the term “ulama group”. There are those who are not religiously educated but still hold to a conservative worldview. In reality, some of the ulama are just a subset of the conservatives, and not all ulama are conservatives.

Anyone who denies the existence of ‘jamaah dalam jamaah’ in PAS is, to put it bluntly, either ignorant or lying. ‘Jamaah dalam jamaah’ exists in PAS. Fullstop.

It is not just the conservatives and the more-liberals. If we take a step back we will find that there also those labelled as “ex-IRC” (Islamic Representative Council) or “ex-JIM” (Jamaah Islah Malaysia), those who came from ABIM, the Jamaat Tabligh, the Sufis and followers of individual leaders.

But the concept of ‘jamaah dalam jamaah’ is something that the conservatives have tried to curb for so long. They say that the existence of ‘jamaah dalam jamaah’ is wrong, un-Islamic, and dangerous for the party. Of course the arguments are peppered with religious logic. This concerted effort to curb the spread of ‘jamaah dalam jamaah’ have been so successful such that, among some people in the party, being accused of participating in a ‘jamaah dalam jamaah’ becomes a big hurdle for their political career progression. Just ask those who were formerly with JIM.

(Please forgive me for repeatedly using the term ‘jamaah dalam jamaah’. Here I am discussing a very specific concept in PAS such that if I were to translate it into English – i.e.: “groups within the party” – the message I am trying to convey may be lost in translation)

Conservatives’ success

Without doubt the most established ‘jamaah dalam jamaah’ is that of the conservatives. They successfully institutionalised their group within the party, forming the Majlis Syura Ulama and the Dewan Ulama. Even the Dewan Pemuda now looks more like a youthful Dewan Ulama, after conservatives won many top posts.

The conservatives jealously guard their power base. Take the recent party elections. The conservatives conducted what could have been one of the most two-faced campaigns in the history of any political party in the world.

Read more at WauBebas.org

Filed under: Malaysia, Politics

Just finished watching the speeches at Kongres PKR via TV Antara. Anwar’s was the last one. Of course, there are many interesting things that was said. But what attracted my attention was the fact that they played “The Final Countdown” as the background song to Anwar coming onto the stage and leaving. A good choice.

Filed under: Malaysia, Politics