This statement circulated by Ji Ungpakorn responds to some of the points in this post:
The strange case of Surachai Sa-Darn
Giles Ji Ungpakorn
Surachai Sa-Darn is the latest victim of Thailand’s draconian and ridiculous lese majeste law. He should not be in prison for expressing his point of view. Nor should Da Torpido or Red Eagle and Jiranut, the Prachatai web manager, should not be facing charges for not removing other peoples’ posts fast enough. There are hundreds of people who are in jail or suffering from Thailand’s lese majeste law and there are hundreds of red shirts who are still in jail for demanding democracy. Meanwhile the Thai Prime Minister, various government ministers and the generals, all of whom ordered the killing of 90 un-armed prodemocracy redshirts, are not in jail.
Yet Surachai’s case is not straight forward. He seems to be refusing bail in order to make a political point about lese majeste. All power to him. Yet, he was never part of the campaign to free Da Torpedo or Red Eagle. What is outrageous, however, is the claim by Surachai and Jakrapop, the self-styled Red Siam leaders, that the UDD leadership “did a deal” with the junta to swap their 8 jailed leaders with Surachai. Unfortunately Jim Taylor writing in New Mandala, seems to believe this nonsense ( http://www.newmandala.org/2011/02/25/where-to-now-for-the-udd/ ). The idea that 8 UDD leaders, representing a mass movement which runs into millions, could be “swapped” with Surachai who has a movement of no more than a couple of thousand, is ridiculous. But it is more than that. It is poisonous mis-information and should be condemned.
The UDD leaders who are now out on bail maintain that they want all red shirt prisoners released. They have not turned their backs on other prisoners. It is clear that they have been released on bail in order to pave the way for elections later this year. These elections will be “fixed” by the Democrat Party in various ways (see my article of Steps to cheat in the election? http://redthaisocialist.com/english-article/54-thai-political-crisis/79-thailand-steps-to-cheat-in-the-election.html or the similar articles in the web blog “Political Prisoners in Thailand”).
Unfortunately, Surachai is a charlatan. He wears a red star hat to give him revolutionary credibility from his days in the Communist Party. He has accused Tida from the UDD of not being a true revolutionary when she was once in the CPT. In 2008 he claimed that he was recruiting fighters for an armed uprising. This has now been conveniently forgotten. He refused to support the Red Shirt mass protests in May 2010 and openly criticised the protests and the UDD leadership in the mainstream press just at the time when the military were killing red shirt civilians. He is on record as saying that red shirts should not oppose any future military coup. In a recent radio interview in January 2011 he “explained” that the mass movement could never win and that redshirts needed to build an alliance with Taksin because Taksin had money and red shirts couldn’t win without his money. He went on to state that Taksin wanted a “bourgeois revolution against Thai feudalism”, which he said was like the English Revolution of 1640. He said that “the people” and Red Siam, however, wanted a “liberal democratic revolution” which he claimed was like the French Revolution of 1789 because it abolished the monarchy!
The UDD leadership have never claimed to be revolutionaries and they are careful for obvious reasons, to avoid calling for a republic. We must not forget that the junta tried to justify the 2010 killings by saying that the red shirts wanted a republic. Just because the UDD leaders are not revolutionaries does not means that they are working for the junta or the King. Revolutionaries who want an end to the Thai dictatorship need to work with reformists and especially the mass movement in order to try to win it over to more radical demands.
Both Surachai and Chupong (who broadcasts via the USA) spend their time repeating over and over again that the King is all powerful and can order the military and the judiciary to do anything. Surachai maintains that Thailand is not under a military dictatorship but ruled by the king. Chupong comes from the Prasert Sapsuntorn tradition that broke away from the CPT to cooperate with the military in the cold war. His group uses left-wing words but has a history of supporting the Monarchy and of helping to break strikes. Neither Surachai nor Chupong criticise the military and nor do they see it as a threat to democracy. All they can say is that they hope that the King will “see reason” and grant Thais democracy, like the Monarchy in Bhutan (!) They have nothing to say about concrete demands which red shirts should be raising so as not to be trapped by the coming fixed election. Such demands would include root and branch reform of the military and judiciary, release of all political prisoners, demands that those who ordered the killings be punished and also demands to build a welfare state in order to bring about social justice. In short, Surachai and Chupong are charlatans playing at being revolutionaries. But, never the less, charlatans should not be jailed.
Heres another article by a Malaysian website which often publish articles which condemns and commend the government and is also related on this issue of decrease in crime rate.
[…] has a longer history in Thailand of effectively supporting the monarchy through”understanding” the need for lese majeste r… and even issued a comment praising Abhisit for establishing a committee that has been used to […]
Nice propaganda piece, but still a propaganda piece. I do not really have the patience to counter you point for point but here’s a couple of spanner in your works..
1. Security = Go around Klang Valley. Public roads barricaded off by residents due to security concerns? Developed country? Most readers here at NM have been places and know the difference
2. Price support? – Malaysians should be making a lot higher wages, making actual price support irrelevant
3. Petrol price? – Malaysia is a net exporter – the higher the price of crude oil, the more money it gets. It is call a NET INCOME!
4. While I agree with the need t help the poorer folks, blatant racial discrimination is certainly not in books as OK
Of course (assumming you are who you said you are) certain non-bumis benefited immensely from the discriminatory policies etc… but a lot of middle class kinds from non bumi families have to pawn house and home to put their kids thru college.
Hey Marc, you say our roads and streets are particular safer since 2008. As public security is close to my heart, do you have any published evidence to support your claims that our streets are much safer since 2008 (or as you would say, since Najib came to power)?
[…] impartial. With many cases still inconclusive (including the death of the other foreign journalist Fabio Polenghi), the DSI investigations so far do not help to ease the tensions in this still volatile political […]
By the way, I would also like to know what matters had Dato’ Sri Najib handle wrongly during his time as prime minister. I can’t think of any reason now and would appreciate some feedback on this. 🙂
I am not hired by BN. Just giving my opinion based on his performace. 🙂
Vig, I do agree with you that maintaining good prices are expected of a leader. But if he wants to fast forward the progression of the country to achieve Vision 2020, then he also has the right to increase prices to the level in which all other citizens of other countries are paying for. He can remove all the subsidies for petrol, education and etc and only provide the subsidies for only the really poor income people. Then the ron 95 petrol for sale in Malaysia after it is processed might cost the price of the current selling price of ron 97 – that is if you do not fall under the poor income people because the subsidies will be directly strictly for the needy, just like how it is in most developed countries. So by maintaining such good prices that we are currently paying for in Malaysia, especially essential items, to ALL Malaysians without any criteria certainly deserves some recognition right?
In addition, you mentioned about revamping our justice system, make our government more transparent, allowing Freedom of Speech, stop censoring our freaking internet. In terms of revamping our judiciary system, yes, he has made progress. One of it is the recent increase in lawyer’s fees but they have to finish cases within 3 months, if I am not wrong. So while the lawyer fees are increased, customers will at least be more confident that their cases wont drag on for more than 3 months, whereby it can go on for years in Malaysia. Besides, it is only such an amount u will know u will have to pay, unlike the prior situation which lawyers have two ways of charging: honest lawyers seems to be at a lost when they are honest and charge clients a certain fees for the whole case without taking into account the length of the case while greedy lawyers keep on add in charges to their clients account as their cases get drag. This is just one obvious example in the judiciary system. Next, you talked about making the government more transparent. I think this is one which is lacking in progress, but at least some initial steps have been made – KPI’s have been established, implemented and are consistently kept track on and more reports on the cases, accounts and reports of the ministries are accessible to the public via their official website. In terms of allowing freedom of speech, I believe there is progress here as under his reign, I do not remember anyone getting thrown into ISA yet. I might be wrong though. Even the famous Namewee was only asked to report himself to the police station to give his statement after his controversial video which was suppose to be criticise the government, in which in believe he should not have add in those foul language in his criticism. So yes, there is also obvious progress in the freedom of speech. In terms of censoring our internet, what aspect are you refering to? If you’re talking about websites of the oppositions and criticism websites for the government, then there is none which is censored. But if you’re talking about pornography, then yes, they’re making progress to censor pornographic websites – aint this a good way to prevent kids and even adults from watching these unnecessary video?
Well, I hope I have made some sense here. And I repeat, I do not work for BN nor have any BN representatives ever met me. I’m just a student who reads the newspapers today and is giving a fair judgement without any biases to the leaders. We humans are never satisfied and will keep on picking faults on our leaders. But remember, our leaders too are humans. They cant make everything perfect. As long there is some reasonable progress and some areas in which satisfaction is achieve, and also in a reasonable time frame (Dato’ Sri Najib is in power for only 2 years and all these results and progress definetely deserves a good distinction). Feel free to critise me and point me out if I am wrong anywhere. I’m here to learn to. 🙂
Hey Lim, things like maintaining goods price are expected of a leader. It is his damn freaking job to do that, so he don’t get extra credit for it. What he should be doing is to revamp our justice system, make our government more transparent, allowing Freedom of Speech, stop censoring our freaking internet and the list can go on.
A hilarious way of describing someone whose policy for the last 60 years has been to align himself with the military to overthrow one constitution after another.
We will certainly know pretty soon about what are the contributing reasons that has persuaded Monash University to confer YAB Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak with the Honorary Degree.
While much negative rumours have been circulating both in the local and international public discussions, I personally think that we should just ignore all these rumours and instead focus on and accept the evident contributions that he has done.
One might go on talking about rumours such as how corrupted he is or how he has successfully mastermind his way out of Altantuya’s murder case, but the fact is that I, an ordinary citizen of Malaysia, have seen and felt his evident contributions since taking office as Prime Minister in 2008. I was certainly not a fan of him and the ruling party during the last general elections (I was 19 then though) as public complaints about the supposed ineffective BN government and a surprisingly overwhelming rise of support for the opposition had created a negative impression of Dato’ Sri Najib and his political friends on me. Nonetheless, my perception of him and the BN government has certainly changed.
Firstly, since taking over office, I have felt that Dato’ Sri Najib has made sure that the prices of petrol and other essential goods has maintain at a reasonable and affordable price to all Malaysians despite the rise of global oil and food prices. Notably, if my memory does not fail on me, he came into office with a record high price of petrol at RM2.70 and has subsequently reduced it to the current price of RM1.90 for the ron 95 petrol. Before its current price of RM1.90, he had actually reduced it to about RM1.75 and the increment of petrol prices made available to Malaysians went up 5sen and 10 sen only (unlike the time during prior prime minister Tun Badawi which skyrocketed from RM1.90 to RM2.70). The prices of essential food such as chicken and vegetables have also maintain at reasonable prices. It is often those who are above the poverty level, and particularly those who are rich, are seen continuously complaining about the prices controlled by the BN government, even though the BN government had done their best to make it affordable and reasonable to the public. Maybe their complaints might be on why the ron 97 petrol has gone up so high to the current price of RM2.50. In my opinion, what Dato’ Sri Najib and co has done is actually rationally understandable. As a prime minister, he should channel his efforts in maintaining an equal level of income distribution, and this is reflected in his efforts to maintain low prices of oil for the general public and only increasing the high grade ones that are used by people who are driving Merc Benz, BMW and other luxurious cars. Even international car manufacturers such as Honda and Toyota have came out and announce the compatibility of their cars using ron 95, but unfortunately, many spoilt and ignorant Malaysians who own these cars still refuses to use ron 95 and are continuing to use ron 97, and thereby still remain in a complaining mode about the government.
Secondly, there was a feeling of personal touch that has been expressed by Dato’ Sri Najib. In particular, I had received an SMS sent by him and his family during the recent Chinese New Year to send his regards and best wishes to me and my family. While many might think that this is just one of his gimmicks to gain public support, I personally think that this method is actually a good way to obtain his goal. No other prime ministers or any other ministers in the Malaysian history has massively spammed the mobile phones of its citizens with warm regards and well wishes. Even though I don’t know him or have not even seen him in person (which one day I hope I could), such an act has already made me feel that he is one which is close to the public. Since taking office (please note that this is not done before the elections but it is after the elections), he has organised many public forums and public meeting sessions and was actually present to hear our (public) opinions and ideas on how to improve the growth and progress of the country in those events – we do not see our very top leaders being so open and wanting to hear our opinions after the general elections in the past. He has even gone all out to sit the various public transportations and visit many public areas and put into action plans to improve the public transportation and public areas (it is certainly a big problem in Malaysia, but it has considerably improve since Dato’ Sri Najib’s administration eg routes of buses which is proper and accessible to the public, more regular checks on bus drivers and operators).
Thirdly, the roads on the street is actually much safer since 2008 as there are more police patrolling on the roads and there are more police booths in the streets. Evidence of crime rate has also shown much decrease in the crimes committed in the public in Malaysia.
Fourthly, Malaysia has performed remarkably well during the recent and aftermath of the global economic crisis. While many people are losing their jobs in other countries, Malaysian citizens are observed to have still be in their jobs. Only unreasonable parasite Malaysians who expect bonuses and pay increases during good times and are not willing to stick with their employers and accept a little pay cut during the bad times are the ones who are losing their jobs. It should also be noted that the layoff of many people published in the newspapers are actually those foreign labourers (eg Indonesians who were working in Malaysian multi-national factories), which was an effort to reduce the workforce of many companies. Malaysians who were reasonable and had a filial affection to stick by their employers were generally not retrenched during this supposingly hard time. In addition, the GDP during the economic crisis was actually quite good during the crisis as it was at 4%, 1% less than the normal expected 5% growth during normal times, and after the crisis, it is currently expected to reach 6% for 2011 (from 4 to 6% in just 1 1/2 year after the crisis).
Fifthly, Dato’ Sri Najib has not only taken good care of Malaysians residing in Malaysia, he has also shown that he is a good father who also takes care of his children who are overseas. The recent turmoil in Egypt has caused much concerns for parents who have children studying there. Without any doubts, Dato’ Sri Najib immediately issued instructions to Malaysian airlines companies to fly our Malaysian students in Egypt back to Malaysia and all expenses are borne by the government (even though it is actually from the taxes that I am paying when I am buying products such as food from McDonalds and also from my parents income tax).
Sixthly, Malaysia has always been generous to victims of natural disasters overseas. No matter whatever disaster it is, you will always see the Malaysian government sending over their aids in manpower, essential items and money to those countries. It is notable that there are many natural disasters occurring in recent years (some might say that these events are signs of 2012, which I think its just some hype craze just like the craze before the millennium) and it has been obvious at how much help that has been instructed by Dato’ Sri Najib and co to aid those unfortunate victims of the various natural disasters.
Last but not least, efforts (not just talking or pure lip servicing to the public) to promote national unity and racial tolerance have been particularly active during Dato’ Sri Najib’s time as prime minister – the 1Malaysia concept being the most notable. He has instructed and organised inter-faith meetings to discuss about ways to improve racial tolerance and how to create an understanding an respect on the sensitive issues of each race. While many Malaysians and even foreigners think that these efforts are pure bullshit and it will not work, I personally dare these people to come up with better ideas to improve national unity and racial tolerance which is deemed to be more effective to them. I guess many Malaysians, especially the non-bumiputeras, would be saying about why not the government scrap off the bumiputeras rights off for a start. Well, to me, and I feel that most educated Malaysians would also agree of, is that such rights are actually a form of indirect aid to help those who are less capable of making a decent living and to ensure that these people are able to support their family and be accepted in the workforce. There is much stereotype in many companies in Malaysia that the bumiputeras are not as productive as the non-bumiputeras and etc. This small bunch of rotten apples have made life difficult to the rest of the bumiputeras and has made many of them unemployed and are unable to get jobs in the city. Is it necessary for them to have a disable physical outlook before gaining your agreement for the government to provide them with aid? The answer should be no because these people are not in any way disable physically or mentally, but they are opportunity disabled due to the stereotyping perceptions of Malaysians about these bumiputeras. It is time for us to act as citizens of a developed country (that’s our aim by the way, going from a developing country to a developed country) by changing the way we perceive people, give each of them a fair chance to learn and prove their worth without taking into account the private characteristics of people (eg race, religion, looks, education level and etc), and subsequently accept and commend them for their success in delivering results. Even if they don’t deliver, opportunities and chances to reammend and improve should be fair to each individual without any biases on the natural humane and conscious grounds that not everyone is perfect and everyone deserves an equal chance to make things right.
So in conclusion, I personally urge people out there to recognise the evident contributions of Dato’ Sri Najib and put aside all those unproven juicy rumours as it is always the end-result and those that are evident that matters the most. We should also give a fair judgement on what he has actually and evidently done and not judging and comparing it with non-evident rumours about him. You wouldn’t want people, for example your parents, to not acknowledge your efforts eg not acknowledgeing the good results in your studies, just because they heard rumours about you cheating in exam when actually you were not and were not even suspected for it, right? Besides, Monash University is a highly reputable university with a prestigious worldwide reputation of research and academic excellence, and I am pretty sure that they will not jeapordise such good name of the university by awarding the Honorary Degree without any concrete grounds. Rumours about their money-making agenda in my opinion is totally misguided as for a university to create more global contributing citizens, it must first have as much resources as possible to provide the much needed services such as the latest and updated research materials and equipments and a larger funding to researchers to conduct their research on a bigger scope and scale and to equipped its students to be able to contribute to the global progression in the future.
p/s: I am a proud 22 year old Malaysian, ex-supporter of the opposition, a non-bumiputera, and is an advocater for rationally accepting the evident contributions and results of people without any biases ie judging people nakedly without taking account of their past, race, religion, educational background and etc. And also please pardon me on my less imperfect English – as the Monash motto says ‘Ancor─Б imp─Бro’ – I am still learning. 🙂
The UDD’s lack of intent to tackle the contentious 112 and the constitutional framework in which this is embedded for instance has not gone unnoticed by the masses.
The UDD has basically said that ‘it doesn’t do politics’… only ‘movements’… so clearly there is a need for another political party that will, mirabile dictu I, too, (almost) agree with Vichai N, stand for
(1) to uproot the miltary’s political influence and
(2) to cancel article 112, and to
(3) reinstate and amend the 2540 Constitution.
Splitting the red shirt vote between Puea Thai and, let’s call it the NLD-th, is not a problem. Coalitions rule. And without faction number 3, as it’s been styled Puea Thai, will not have the strength alone to prevail.
In the fullness of time the opportunists/morons can fade away and those dedicated to democracy in Thailand prevail.
Having set him up, although Abhisit’s fumbling response was even beyond his own wildest dreams, Robert Amsterdam dutifully delivers the coup de gr├вce : http://robertamsterdam.com/thailand/?p=600.
It’s the very problem that some of us have been warning about for far too long. The left has damaged itself by being part of the pro-Thaksin movement. To put it bluntly, if you sleep with the pigs you will end up smelling like them too.
In 2006 there was a chance for some in the left to take a principled stand. It would have been to still argue against the coup, but not to roll themselves into the Thaksin financed red-shirt movement. I understand how tempting it must have been seeing Thaksin money recruiting taxi drivers, Isaan peasants and such to the cause, to feel that joining such a movement would give the left a chance of recruiting so many more to their cause.
If we learn anything from history, it should be in this case, that opportunism seldom works. For every October 1917 power grab there are far more disasters. Try and find someone from the left in Iran today. They supported the revolution but were killed off by the religious right as soon as it succeeded. I wonder what Thaksin will do with the left if he manages to return. One thing I would definitely forget is any reform of the LM laws under him.
Surachai didn’t pull away, he was chasing away from the UDD by the 3 amigo even before the March rally.
Thanks Tarrin, that explains it. Do you know what reasons the UDD leadership gave for expelling Surachai from the protest?
Also do you know what ideology Surachai, and I guess Red Siam follow? I read he wasn’t one of those who gave himself up in the 80s, he was captured. Is he Maoist or closer to the Vietnamese communists, or has he changed totally from his youthful beliefs? I do wonder when I see his Mao cap.
Where does this leave the left in relation to the UDD leadership? Did Weng support the expulsion of Surachai? Is there a left-right split in the red-shirts? If so is the right the Thaksin supporters and the Phue Thai MPs who have financial support from the Thaksin camp?
Returning to your comparison with Mandala. Of course it should be pointed out that Nelson Mandala didn’t seem to be tied to old South African Communist Party/ANC beliefs when he was finally released from prison. Both he and the world had moved on by then. It would be a shame if Surachai still thinks the answers lie in a little red book.
While Malaysia is not like Egypt, Tunisia or Libya, a growing number of Malaysians in the State of Sarawak are becoming restless because of the non-action by the Gov’t, whether at federal or state level, to resolve alleged corruption, nepotism, and land garbs in the State. History has repeatedly told us that these are the seeds of revolution. Yet, those same Malaysians in the State do not want chaos and bloodshed. They are in a catch 22 situation. And with the State elections coming soon, there’s no telling what’s going to happen in the political arena.
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Where to now for the UDD?
This statement circulated by Ji Ungpakorn responds to some of the points in this post:
Najib to receive honorary degree from Monash
Najib must be really pleased by Marc’s glowing, although rosy assessment of Najib’s 1Malaysia.
But not a bad tour de force for a budding BN politician.
Najib to receive honorary degree from Monash
Heres another article by a Malaysian website which often publish articles which condemns and commend the government and is also related on this issue of decrease in crime rate.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/drop-in-crime-rate-brings-relief-to-society/
Amnesty’s silence on lese majeste
[…] has a longer history in Thailand of effectively supporting the monarchy through”understanding” the need for lese majeste r… and even issued a comment praising Abhisit for establishing a committee that has been used to […]
Najib to receive honorary degree from Monash
Hai Mr. Lim,
Nice propaganda piece, but still a propaganda piece. I do not really have the patience to counter you point for point but here’s a couple of spanner in your works..
1. Security = Go around Klang Valley. Public roads barricaded off by residents due to security concerns? Developed country? Most readers here at NM have been places and know the difference
2. Price support? – Malaysians should be making a lot higher wages, making actual price support irrelevant
3. Petrol price? – Malaysia is a net exporter – the higher the price of crude oil, the more money it gets. It is call a NET INCOME!
4. While I agree with the need t help the poorer folks, blatant racial discrimination is certainly not in books as OK
Of course (assumming you are who you said you are) certain non-bumis benefited immensely from the discriminatory policies etc… but a lot of middle class kinds from non bumi families have to pawn house and home to put their kids thru college.
Najib to receive honorary degree from Monash
Hey Marc, you say our roads and streets are particular safer since 2008. As public security is close to my heart, do you have any published evidence to support your claims that our streets are much safer since 2008 (or as you would say, since Najib came to power)?
Who killed Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi?
[…] impartial. With many cases still inconclusive (including the death of the other foreign journalist Fabio Polenghi), the DSI investigations so far do not help to ease the tensions in this still volatile political […]
Najib to receive honorary degree from Monash
I think Lim Weng graduated from Monash.
Najib to receive honorary degree from Monash
By the way, I would also like to know what matters had Dato’ Sri Najib handle wrongly during his time as prime minister. I can’t think of any reason now and would appreciate some feedback on this. 🙂
Najib to receive honorary degree from Monash
I am not hired by BN. Just giving my opinion based on his performace. 🙂
Vig, I do agree with you that maintaining good prices are expected of a leader. But if he wants to fast forward the progression of the country to achieve Vision 2020, then he also has the right to increase prices to the level in which all other citizens of other countries are paying for. He can remove all the subsidies for petrol, education and etc and only provide the subsidies for only the really poor income people. Then the ron 95 petrol for sale in Malaysia after it is processed might cost the price of the current selling price of ron 97 – that is if you do not fall under the poor income people because the subsidies will be directly strictly for the needy, just like how it is in most developed countries. So by maintaining such good prices that we are currently paying for in Malaysia, especially essential items, to ALL Malaysians without any criteria certainly deserves some recognition right?
In addition, you mentioned about revamping our justice system, make our government more transparent, allowing Freedom of Speech, stop censoring our freaking internet. In terms of revamping our judiciary system, yes, he has made progress. One of it is the recent increase in lawyer’s fees but they have to finish cases within 3 months, if I am not wrong. So while the lawyer fees are increased, customers will at least be more confident that their cases wont drag on for more than 3 months, whereby it can go on for years in Malaysia. Besides, it is only such an amount u will know u will have to pay, unlike the prior situation which lawyers have two ways of charging: honest lawyers seems to be at a lost when they are honest and charge clients a certain fees for the whole case without taking into account the length of the case while greedy lawyers keep on add in charges to their clients account as their cases get drag. This is just one obvious example in the judiciary system. Next, you talked about making the government more transparent. I think this is one which is lacking in progress, but at least some initial steps have been made – KPI’s have been established, implemented and are consistently kept track on and more reports on the cases, accounts and reports of the ministries are accessible to the public via their official website. In terms of allowing freedom of speech, I believe there is progress here as under his reign, I do not remember anyone getting thrown into ISA yet. I might be wrong though. Even the famous Namewee was only asked to report himself to the police station to give his statement after his controversial video which was suppose to be criticise the government, in which in believe he should not have add in those foul language in his criticism. So yes, there is also obvious progress in the freedom of speech. In terms of censoring our internet, what aspect are you refering to? If you’re talking about websites of the oppositions and criticism websites for the government, then there is none which is censored. But if you’re talking about pornography, then yes, they’re making progress to censor pornographic websites – aint this a good way to prevent kids and even adults from watching these unnecessary video?
Well, I hope I have made some sense here. And I repeat, I do not work for BN nor have any BN representatives ever met me. I’m just a student who reads the newspapers today and is giving a fair judgement without any biases to the leaders. We humans are never satisfied and will keep on picking faults on our leaders. But remember, our leaders too are humans. They cant make everything perfect. As long there is some reasonable progress and some areas in which satisfaction is achieve, and also in a reasonable time frame (Dato’ Sri Najib is in power for only 2 years and all these results and progress definetely deserves a good distinction). Feel free to critise me and point me out if I am wrong anywhere. I’m here to learn to. 🙂
Najib to receive honorary degree from Monash
Hey Lim, things like maintaining goods price are expected of a leader. It is his damn freaking job to do that, so he don’t get extra credit for it. What he should be doing is to revamp our justice system, make our government more transparent, allowing Freedom of Speech, stop censoring our freaking internet and the list can go on.
The Great Constitutional Monarch
A hilarious way of describing someone whose policy for the last 60 years has been to align himself with the military to overthrow one constitution after another.
Najib to receive honorary degree from Monash
To Lim Weng Marc,
Are you hired by BN?
Should the International Conference on Thai Studies be held in Thailand?
I agree with Fisherman that going would not be worth the risk of Andrew’s arrest.
No-one can deny that this risk threatens even now.
The elected leadership of ICTS therefore surely has a duty of care not to expose any member to that threat ?
That being so, the electyd leadership should declare an immediate boycott.
End of fuss,
Doug Miles
Najib to receive honorary degree from Monash
We will certainly know pretty soon about what are the contributing reasons that has persuaded Monash University to confer YAB Dato’ Sri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak with the Honorary Degree.
While much negative rumours have been circulating both in the local and international public discussions, I personally think that we should just ignore all these rumours and instead focus on and accept the evident contributions that he has done.
One might go on talking about rumours such as how corrupted he is or how he has successfully mastermind his way out of Altantuya’s murder case, but the fact is that I, an ordinary citizen of Malaysia, have seen and felt his evident contributions since taking office as Prime Minister in 2008. I was certainly not a fan of him and the ruling party during the last general elections (I was 19 then though) as public complaints about the supposed ineffective BN government and a surprisingly overwhelming rise of support for the opposition had created a negative impression of Dato’ Sri Najib and his political friends on me. Nonetheless, my perception of him and the BN government has certainly changed.
Firstly, since taking over office, I have felt that Dato’ Sri Najib has made sure that the prices of petrol and other essential goods has maintain at a reasonable and affordable price to all Malaysians despite the rise of global oil and food prices. Notably, if my memory does not fail on me, he came into office with a record high price of petrol at RM2.70 and has subsequently reduced it to the current price of RM1.90 for the ron 95 petrol. Before its current price of RM1.90, he had actually reduced it to about RM1.75 and the increment of petrol prices made available to Malaysians went up 5sen and 10 sen only (unlike the time during prior prime minister Tun Badawi which skyrocketed from RM1.90 to RM2.70). The prices of essential food such as chicken and vegetables have also maintain at reasonable prices. It is often those who are above the poverty level, and particularly those who are rich, are seen continuously complaining about the prices controlled by the BN government, even though the BN government had done their best to make it affordable and reasonable to the public. Maybe their complaints might be on why the ron 97 petrol has gone up so high to the current price of RM2.50. In my opinion, what Dato’ Sri Najib and co has done is actually rationally understandable. As a prime minister, he should channel his efforts in maintaining an equal level of income distribution, and this is reflected in his efforts to maintain low prices of oil for the general public and only increasing the high grade ones that are used by people who are driving Merc Benz, BMW and other luxurious cars. Even international car manufacturers such as Honda and Toyota have came out and announce the compatibility of their cars using ron 95, but unfortunately, many spoilt and ignorant Malaysians who own these cars still refuses to use ron 95 and are continuing to use ron 97, and thereby still remain in a complaining mode about the government.
Secondly, there was a feeling of personal touch that has been expressed by Dato’ Sri Najib. In particular, I had received an SMS sent by him and his family during the recent Chinese New Year to send his regards and best wishes to me and my family. While many might think that this is just one of his gimmicks to gain public support, I personally think that this method is actually a good way to obtain his goal. No other prime ministers or any other ministers in the Malaysian history has massively spammed the mobile phones of its citizens with warm regards and well wishes. Even though I don’t know him or have not even seen him in person (which one day I hope I could), such an act has already made me feel that he is one which is close to the public. Since taking office (please note that this is not done before the elections but it is after the elections), he has organised many public forums and public meeting sessions and was actually present to hear our (public) opinions and ideas on how to improve the growth and progress of the country in those events – we do not see our very top leaders being so open and wanting to hear our opinions after the general elections in the past. He has even gone all out to sit the various public transportations and visit many public areas and put into action plans to improve the public transportation and public areas (it is certainly a big problem in Malaysia, but it has considerably improve since Dato’ Sri Najib’s administration eg routes of buses which is proper and accessible to the public, more regular checks on bus drivers and operators).
Thirdly, the roads on the street is actually much safer since 2008 as there are more police patrolling on the roads and there are more police booths in the streets. Evidence of crime rate has also shown much decrease in the crimes committed in the public in Malaysia.
Fourthly, Malaysia has performed remarkably well during the recent and aftermath of the global economic crisis. While many people are losing their jobs in other countries, Malaysian citizens are observed to have still be in their jobs. Only unreasonable parasite Malaysians who expect bonuses and pay increases during good times and are not willing to stick with their employers and accept a little pay cut during the bad times are the ones who are losing their jobs. It should also be noted that the layoff of many people published in the newspapers are actually those foreign labourers (eg Indonesians who were working in Malaysian multi-national factories), which was an effort to reduce the workforce of many companies. Malaysians who were reasonable and had a filial affection to stick by their employers were generally not retrenched during this supposingly hard time. In addition, the GDP during the economic crisis was actually quite good during the crisis as it was at 4%, 1% less than the normal expected 5% growth during normal times, and after the crisis, it is currently expected to reach 6% for 2011 (from 4 to 6% in just 1 1/2 year after the crisis).
Fifthly, Dato’ Sri Najib has not only taken good care of Malaysians residing in Malaysia, he has also shown that he is a good father who also takes care of his children who are overseas. The recent turmoil in Egypt has caused much concerns for parents who have children studying there. Without any doubts, Dato’ Sri Najib immediately issued instructions to Malaysian airlines companies to fly our Malaysian students in Egypt back to Malaysia and all expenses are borne by the government (even though it is actually from the taxes that I am paying when I am buying products such as food from McDonalds and also from my parents income tax).
Sixthly, Malaysia has always been generous to victims of natural disasters overseas. No matter whatever disaster it is, you will always see the Malaysian government sending over their aids in manpower, essential items and money to those countries. It is notable that there are many natural disasters occurring in recent years (some might say that these events are signs of 2012, which I think its just some hype craze just like the craze before the millennium) and it has been obvious at how much help that has been instructed by Dato’ Sri Najib and co to aid those unfortunate victims of the various natural disasters.
Last but not least, efforts (not just talking or pure lip servicing to the public) to promote national unity and racial tolerance have been particularly active during Dato’ Sri Najib’s time as prime minister – the 1Malaysia concept being the most notable. He has instructed and organised inter-faith meetings to discuss about ways to improve racial tolerance and how to create an understanding an respect on the sensitive issues of each race. While many Malaysians and even foreigners think that these efforts are pure bullshit and it will not work, I personally dare these people to come up with better ideas to improve national unity and racial tolerance which is deemed to be more effective to them. I guess many Malaysians, especially the non-bumiputeras, would be saying about why not the government scrap off the bumiputeras rights off for a start. Well, to me, and I feel that most educated Malaysians would also agree of, is that such rights are actually a form of indirect aid to help those who are less capable of making a decent living and to ensure that these people are able to support their family and be accepted in the workforce. There is much stereotype in many companies in Malaysia that the bumiputeras are not as productive as the non-bumiputeras and etc. This small bunch of rotten apples have made life difficult to the rest of the bumiputeras and has made many of them unemployed and are unable to get jobs in the city. Is it necessary for them to have a disable physical outlook before gaining your agreement for the government to provide them with aid? The answer should be no because these people are not in any way disable physically or mentally, but they are opportunity disabled due to the stereotyping perceptions of Malaysians about these bumiputeras. It is time for us to act as citizens of a developed country (that’s our aim by the way, going from a developing country to a developed country) by changing the way we perceive people, give each of them a fair chance to learn and prove their worth without taking into account the private characteristics of people (eg race, religion, looks, education level and etc), and subsequently accept and commend them for their success in delivering results. Even if they don’t deliver, opportunities and chances to reammend and improve should be fair to each individual without any biases on the natural humane and conscious grounds that not everyone is perfect and everyone deserves an equal chance to make things right.
So in conclusion, I personally urge people out there to recognise the evident contributions of Dato’ Sri Najib and put aside all those unproven juicy rumours as it is always the end-result and those that are evident that matters the most. We should also give a fair judgement on what he has actually and evidently done and not judging and comparing it with non-evident rumours about him. You wouldn’t want people, for example your parents, to not acknowledge your efforts eg not acknowledgeing the good results in your studies, just because they heard rumours about you cheating in exam when actually you were not and were not even suspected for it, right? Besides, Monash University is a highly reputable university with a prestigious worldwide reputation of research and academic excellence, and I am pretty sure that they will not jeapordise such good name of the university by awarding the Honorary Degree without any concrete grounds. Rumours about their money-making agenda in my opinion is totally misguided as for a university to create more global contributing citizens, it must first have as much resources as possible to provide the much needed services such as the latest and updated research materials and equipments and a larger funding to researchers to conduct their research on a bigger scope and scale and to equipped its students to be able to contribute to the global progression in the future.
p/s: I am a proud 22 year old Malaysian, ex-supporter of the opposition, a non-bumiputera, and is an advocater for rationally accepting the evident contributions and results of people without any biases ie judging people nakedly without taking account of their past, race, religion, educational background and etc. And also please pardon me on my less imperfect English – as the Monash motto says ‘Ancor─Б imp─Бro’ – I am still learning. 🙂
Where to now for the UDD?
Unprincipled opportunists… Puea Thai are morons as well?
The UDD has basically said that ‘it doesn’t do politics’… only ‘movements’… so clearly there is a need for another political party that will, mirabile dictu I, too, (almost) agree with Vichai N, stand for
(1) to uproot the miltary’s political influence and
(2) to cancel article 112, and to
(3) reinstate and amend the 2540 Constitution.
Splitting the red shirt vote between Puea Thai and, let’s call it the NLD-th, is not a problem. Coalitions rule. And without faction number 3, as it’s been styled Puea Thai, will not have the strength alone to prevail.
In the fullness of time the opportunists/morons can fade away and those dedicated to democracy in Thailand prevail.
And the UDD can watch… and ‘move’, I guess.
Abhisit is a pom
Having set him up, although Abhisit’s fumbling response was even beyond his own wildest dreams, Robert Amsterdam dutifully delivers the coup de gr├вce : http://robertamsterdam.com/thailand/?p=600.
Abhist was a toff.
Where to now for the UDD?
Jesse R – 11 Simon – 13
It’s the very problem that some of us have been warning about for far too long. The left has damaged itself by being part of the pro-Thaksin movement. To put it bluntly, if you sleep with the pigs you will end up smelling like them too.
In 2006 there was a chance for some in the left to take a principled stand. It would have been to still argue against the coup, but not to roll themselves into the Thaksin financed red-shirt movement. I understand how tempting it must have been seeing Thaksin money recruiting taxi drivers, Isaan peasants and such to the cause, to feel that joining such a movement would give the left a chance of recruiting so many more to their cause.
If we learn anything from history, it should be in this case, that opportunism seldom works. For every October 1917 power grab there are far more disasters. Try and find someone from the left in Iran today. They supported the revolution but were killed off by the religious right as soon as it succeeded. I wonder what Thaksin will do with the left if he manages to return. One thing I would definitely forget is any reform of the LM laws under him.
Where to now for the UDD?
Tarrin – 14
Surachai didn’t pull away, he was chasing away from the UDD by the 3 amigo even before the March rally.
Thanks Tarrin, that explains it. Do you know what reasons the UDD leadership gave for expelling Surachai from the protest?
Also do you know what ideology Surachai, and I guess Red Siam follow? I read he wasn’t one of those who gave himself up in the 80s, he was captured. Is he Maoist or closer to the Vietnamese communists, or has he changed totally from his youthful beliefs? I do wonder when I see his Mao cap.
Where does this leave the left in relation to the UDD leadership? Did Weng support the expulsion of Surachai? Is there a left-right split in the red-shirts? If so is the right the Thaksin supporters and the Phue Thai MPs who have financial support from the Thaksin camp?
Returning to your comparison with Mandala. Of course it should be pointed out that Nelson Mandala didn’t seem to be tied to old South African Communist Party/ANC beliefs when he was finally released from prison. Both he and the world had moved on by then. It would be a shame if Surachai still thinks the answers lie in a little red book.
Lessons from Egypt for Malaysia
While Malaysia is not like Egypt, Tunisia or Libya, a growing number of Malaysians in the State of Sarawak are becoming restless because of the non-action by the Gov’t, whether at federal or state level, to resolve alleged corruption, nepotism, and land garbs in the State. History has repeatedly told us that these are the seeds of revolution. Yet, those same Malaysians in the State do not want chaos and bloodshed. They are in a catch 22 situation. And with the State elections coming soon, there’s no telling what’s going to happen in the political arena.