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Book on Gerakan stirs controversy – even before launch

Anil Netto
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book on Gerakan

A book on Gerakan by Neil Khor and Khoo Kay Peng has stirred controversy – even before it can be launched.

“Non-sectarian politics in Malaysia: The case of Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia” has already ruffled the feathers of certain quarters.

Respected Gerakan stalwart Toh Kin Woon, a life member of the party and currently director of Seri, penned the foreword to the book.

Writes Kin Woon:

…the authors of the book, explain how since joining the Barisan Nasional (BN), Gerakan has increasingly lost its multi-ethnic character. It is increasingly perceived by many outside the party to be just another Chinese-based party. This book describes that slow but near fatal process both for the party and for non-sectarian politics in the country.

The grave-vine has it that the book has already upset certain quarters within Gerakan, which is due to hold party elections in October. From what I hear, there have been attempts to throw a spanner in the works ahead of the book launch.

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“Oil Palm World Music Festival”: What rainforest?

Anil Netto
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Those of you who checked out the Rainforest World Music Festival in Sarawak on 13 July 2008 may have noticed a protest by about 60 indigenous people. They staged a peaceful 30-minute candle-light vigil demanding recognition of their land rights.

Plainclothes police quickly moved in….

Click here to read more at the What Rainforest blog.

The encroachment into native customary lands by oil palm plantation firms is a huge problem in Sarawak. This is after the lands have been logged. The displacement of natives deprives them of their livelihoods in the forests besides threatening the natural habitat.

If you were there at the music festival, share with us what you saw of the protest.

Anwar to contest in Kulim: Pas assures full backing

Anil Netto
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Anwar enters the hall in Kulim to a hero’s welcome

  • Anwar publicly announces he will contest in Kulim “barring obstacles”
  • 8,000-strong multi-ethnic crowd greets his announcement with thunderous applause
  • Hadi assures Anwar of Kedah Pas’ full backing
  • DAP to assist in campaign as well

Anwar Ibrahim was given a hero’s reception in Kulim, Kedah during an emotional night when he announced that he would contest a by-election here barring obstacles. In doing so, he has raised the stakes considerably.

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“Someone” is dam upset in Sarawak

Anil Netto
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“Someone” appears to have had his feathers ruffled in Sarawak. Apparently, this “someone” in Sarawak is upset with “someone” in Penang – apparently an activist who has hit out at the 12 more dams in the pipeline in Sarawak. (Hmm, I wonder who that could be…)

See: It’s madness: nuclear plan, 12 dams, undersea cables

Anyway, this “someone” in Sarawak should be interested to know that it is not just one or two “someones” over here who think his dam-building frenzy sounds cuckoo. Only 2 per cent of you in a poll on this site (to which over 500 of you have responded so far) think that the plan for 12 more dams in Sarawak is just what Malaysia needs right now. In other words, 98 per cent of you seem to think the plan to increase capacity by 600 per cent “tak masuk akal” (doesn’t make sense).

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Speaker praises PKR back-bencher Sim’s speech

Anil Netto
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PKR back-bencher Sim Tze Tzin (Batu Uban Pantai Jerejak) has delivered a visionary speech in the Penang State Assembly that received praise from the Speaker.

Speaker Abdul Halim Hussain described Sim’s speech as people-centric, reports theSun today.

Sim made several suggestions to promote sustainable urban development including those which this blog has been advocating:

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Floods in July: Ecological disaster in Sibu?

Anil Netto
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Sarawak Voice sent in this comment which I thought I should highlight:

Talk about the dams in Sarawak? Hmm, apparently it seems that the government created an ecological disaster! My hometown is in Sibu, Sarawak (at the delta of the Mighty Rejang River) (and you) can clearly see the effects (of) logging, jungle clearing and hydro dam development up river.

Once a clean river now muddy and the river is getting shallow due to the mud that was washed from upriver. Even now at this moment, as I am typing this, we are experiencing floods! Yeap, floods in the month of July….

Read the details in this piece from The Borneo Post:

Troubled waters

Numerous efforts have been made to implement a flood mitigation plan for Sibu town but without any concrete follow-up action to date, residents complain they have been living in fear of floods whenever it rains for too long

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It’s madness: nuclear plant, 12 dams, undersea cables

Anil Netto
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What on earth are our energy planners thinking of?

First of all, we have 40 per cent reserve capacity in the peninsula. TNB is now paying capacity charges for electricity it buys from the independent power producers which it doesn’t need.

Then, there is the plan to transmit a huge chunk of the electricity from the Bakun Dam from Sarawak over to the peninsula via undersea cables. But hold on, the submarine cables, which would be the world’s longest, would now cost RM15 billion. Alamak! So how? Sime Darby has already pulled out from the project.

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Superficial “populist gestures are like free meals”

Anil Netto
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Ever since the new PR government took over Penang, we have seen several populist measures introduced. On the face of it, these measures appear good. Rather than squandering funds or handing them over to cronies, benefits in cash or kind are actually handed to the rakyat. So I agree, it is better than handing them over to the cronies.

But I have a couple of reservations. These are one-off payments that don’t bring lasting benefit. They are also superficial – in that the sums handed over to each of the rakyat are too negligible to make much difference to their lives. It’s like handing bags of rice to the poor. Once the rice is finished, what then? It feels good to hand over goodies to the poor, but once we have handed over these goodies, which are used up in no time, what happens? We invariably forget about the poor – until the next occasion we start feeling generous and charitable again.

Each allocation for superficial populist gestures carries with it an “opportunity cost” – which means it deprives the state of funds for more meaningful future projects that would really empower the poor. Such projects would include affordable housing for the poor, scholarships for poor students, affordable higher education, access to affordable quality health care, literacy programmes, skills training and loans for small businesses.

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You got to hand it to him…

Anil Netto
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If you are feeling down and out and if you think your problems are insurmountable, let Tony Melendez inspire you.

Anwar locked in a battle of wills

Anil Netto
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This is something I wrote today:

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Opposition leader unfazed by new sodomy charges
Analysis by Anil Netto

PENANG, Jul 22 (IPS) – Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia’s de facto opposition leader, is locked in a political battle of wills with ruling coalition leaders and determined to wrest federal control despite fresh charges of sodomy brought up against him.

Anwar hopes that parliamentary defections from the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Alliance) will enable the three-party opposition People’s Alliance to seize power by Sep.16 — but so far there has been little to show. For the full article, click here.

Here are a few other articles you might find relevant or interesting:

In ‘Conquering and vulnerable: Anwar’s predicament and ours’, Khoo Boo Teik looks at how Anwar has come to personify many dissident, even conflicting tendencies. His two different images – that of a conquering political leader and frequently disabled politician – capture society’s current predicament. We have moved towards more open dissent; and yet we are unsure if we can really achieve a more open political system.

One article that has struck a chord among many Malaysians – judging by how widely it is being circulated on the Internet, including on Facebook – is Farish Noor’s ‘The boring yet necessary thing called Governance’.

Finally, Dr Chris Anthony, a practising surgeon, takes a look at whether proper procedure was followed during Anwar’s medical examination in “Was Anwar stripped and measured?”

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