Time to realize the true dream of the founding fathers Come on, Malaysia – RISE TO THE OCCASION
WE MALAYSIAN HAVE A DREAM TIME TO REALIZE THE TRUE DREAM OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS
"Our rights come from God, not from BARISAN Government." Not so much.
Anwar Ibrahim's words invite us to consider not just the freedom of speech, religion or choice; but also the freedom from joblessness, hunger or inadequate housing. As long as fellow citizens go hungry, have not a decent place to live, lack medical care, are unemployed or underemployed, receive an inadequate education, are hated for their race, gender or sexual preference, are subject to random violence, or are intimidated out of their right to vote -- they are not truly free
How do we so easily accept that middle class poverty has become the new Malaysian norm? The housing and jobs crisis has fostered a poverty unseen decades --- not just in inner-city , but in suburbs and rural areas crossing racial, age, and gender lines. Nearly one-third of the malaysians middle class, mostly families with children, have now fallen into poverty.
It's time for a righteous indignation toward poverty in America. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "A good indignation brings out all one's powers." It's time to marshal our collective power in an all-out offensive against poverty When people are without hope, democracy is threatened. The country is ominously headed to a point of no return.
Mudslinging, bias reporting, falsifying statistics and engaging the Opposition in uncouth and forceful ways are not going to favour Najib, the prime minister, and UMNO in the long run. Najib being the leader of the ruling coalition should instead engage the Opposition leader in a worthy debate to hammer out the many issues encrusting the nation.
This would be the most cultured manner to do politics in a democracy.
They will express their rage
Despite all the pomp and fair prompted by UMNO the rakyat are yet to be convinced by Najib and his team of leaders. When Mitt Romney and Barack Obama of the US are now seriously debating national issues in a highly cultured manner in their race for the Presidency, Malaysians are left with gutter politics for the rakyat to relish after 55 years of Independence.
Facts, fictions and fables are not allowed to be discerned by the rakyat through fair debates and media reports. It’s all politics of the incumbency and they decide what is best for all.
Threats, violence and lies are texturing the nation’s political landscape with UMNO-led government not doing much to curb this set of symptoms affecting the nation. The nation is riveted with social and economic issues but they go undebated in public for fear that the incumbent government will lose power.
Politics seems to be marred with barbarous media attack and at times violent physical acts on the Opposition that usually go untended by those in command. The rakyat are not at all pleased with this development in the country and they will express their rage through the ballot box in the next general election.
A level-headed political debate
Critics observe that the political climate in the country is not working in favour of the incumbent government.
“The rakyat see Najib and UMNO engaging in ruthless politics. It’s the Opposition now that is getting more sympathy from the rakyat,” said a former UMNO party member in Kuala Lumpur.
“The lies and propaganda spewed out by Najib and UMNO are not convincing the rakyat. The rakyat want to see a sensible debate taking place between the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader,” said a political analyst.
“Najib’s ‘self-gratifying’ mode in politics is not going to work to his advantage. The rakyat are now able to gauge the actual state of affairs affecting them and the nation,” he added.
Apparently, Najib is still not able to convince Malaysians of his leadership and achievements. Beyond that, the rakyat’s perception of him is weighted by personal and political baggage. Unless and until Najib engages Anwar in a level-headed political debate the rakyat cannot be won over with his policies.
The perception of the rakyat is that Najib has actually failed to live up to his promises – answerability, transparency, control of public spending, curbing corruption, reducing crime rates and dipping the burden of high costs of living that is affecting the poor and the middle class. Seemingly, all he has done in his tenure as prime minister are just game ‘walkthroughs’.
For this reason he is now self-doubting and is now at the end of his tether to win the affection of the rakyat. The next general election must be held before April 2013 and time is running short for Najib now.
Sprucing up his image
Najib’s repute locally and abroad is discoloured and for this reason Najib is full of activity in sprucing up his image. And in the process he is wasting taxpayers’ money and is justly earning the wrath of the rakyat.
It was reported that The Guardian has thrown out its journalist, Joshua Trevino, for conflicts of interest and for bringing the media industry into opprobrium.
Supposedly, Trevino had belonged to FBC Media, a public relations company, which had been paid by Najib to portray him in a good light, depict falsely that the country is under favourable circumstances, gloss over all the misdeeds of the government and censure the Opposition leader – Anwar.
Also using taxpayers’ money, Najib has been alleged to have paid overseas public relations companies such as APCO, FBC and CNBC millions of ringgit to promote him and his administration.
Najib and UMNO are at their scrawniest point right now and their despairing bid to retain power at all costs is making the situation worse for the nation.
Fantasies of achievements that the economy is improving and crime rate is dropping and resorting to fake Merdeka55 tweet-up to confuse the rakyat are just too much for the rakyat to swig. To the rakyat they have come to realise that Najib’s triumphs are mere illusions.
The misapprehensions created by this ignominy have made the rakyat sceptical of any statistics pertaining to the economy and crime proffered by the government.
Racial unity under UMNO-led Barisan is just another delusion. Apparently, racial unity is now more noticeable in the Opposition camp than in Barisan. Political observers feel that Najib and UMNO are by design using race and religion to divide the nation to frenziedly stay in power.A flip-flop leader Najib Don't Throw Acid on Islam's Face
I bet you didn't know these two recent stories:
A 49-year old female in New Yorksuffered burns on more than 50 percent of her body because her father poured acid on her face and body.
A 29-year-old female in Montreal suffered burns on more than 70 percent of her body. Why? Her boyfriend doused acid on her face during a fit of anger, literally melting her skin away.
You didn't know these stories because acid attacks are pigeonholed as a "Muslim problem." And in these cases, neither the victims, nor the assailants, were Muslims. It issuggested that 99.9 percent of such attacks occur in the Muslim culture. Check out thenews about the above victim in New York. It ends with a link to an Afghan acid attack story. Talk of being suggestive.
That suggestion, however, is flat out wrong. More than 80 percent of all acid attacks are committed against women. Granted, in some cases women have also committed these crimes against other men and/or women, but majority of them were retaliatory. Therefore, men are the common denominator -- not Islam.
A WHO report remarked: "Apart from Bangladesh, acid violence has been reported in Afghanistan, Cambodia, China, India, Jamaica, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa and Uganda. There have also been a few isolated cases in Europe and North America."
"Acid violence is a worldwide phenomenon," said the Acid Survivor Trust International, the largest European organization helping the victims of acid attacks, "that is not restricted to a particular race, religion or geographical location." According to estimates, more than 1,500 people in 20 countries are victims of acid attacks every year.
Sorry guys, but saying that acid attacks are unique to the Muslim world is like saying that rage, rape, revenge, resentment is -- and men are -- unique to the Muslim world. It doesn't work that way.
Some jokingly insist: "American men probably got the idea from the Muslims." That's a bad joke for two reasons. It's insensitive and inaccurate. According to the New York Times, a Brooklyn man threw acid on his "exceedingly good looking" landlady's face in 1890s.
The truth is that almost no sizable race, religion, country or custom is immune from this vile crime.
Take Columbia. A South American Spanish speaking country that recently reported up to 100 acid attacks a year. The country's population is 95 percent Christian and less than 1 percent Muslim. So would you blame the Christian or the Spanish culture?
Consider Cambodia. Located close to Vietnam, it reported approximately 100 acid attacks over a two year period. More than 95 percent of the country practices Buddhism with less than 2 percent Muslims. So much for Nirvana (a state of ultimate peace) I guess.
Or look at India. While actual numbers are much higher, a Cornell University study asserts that there were 153 acid attacks reported just in the Indian media from 1999 to 2010. The country is 80 percent Hindu, 13 percent Muslim and 2 percent Sikh (who are also not immune to such attacks). Many cases have been reported from Hong Kong and China. Even in Israel, a small country, a teacher and two students were burned when a Jewish family decided to bring the feud to school by throwing acid on their faces.
Count it all and you end up with approximately 5 billion people, adherents of five of the world's largest religions, spanning over five continents.
Yes, the rate of acid attacks remains higher in the Muslim majority countries but that's true for the rates of polio, illiteracy, poverty and corruption too, suggesting an alternate hypothesis.
That hypothesis, according to psychologists, is the despicable desire to inflict permanent disfigurement, not death, upon the victim. And the feelings of rage, revenge, resentment in the background of self-righteousness, poverty, illiteracy and false pride are largely responsible for such desires. Let's see if this hypothesis resonates with our minds.
Rage caused permanent blindness for Victor Riesel, a famous journalist, when a gangster threw acid at him in New York City in 1956.
Perhaps the paradigm of rage-revenge was at play when women in Arizona, Cleveland andChicago suffered similar attacks in recent years.
We don't know if it was resentment or an attempt to gain sympathy when a woman in Washington State was caught with a self inflicted acid attack.
And the vitriolic self righteousness -- which has already burned people at the abortion clinics in the states of Texas, Louisiana and Florida during 1998 -- continues to threatensimilar clinics in England.
Thankfully, the perpetrators are not getting a free ride anymore -- even in Muslim countries. Since Bangladesh introduced death penalty for throwing acid in 2002, according to Morrison and Rahman, acid attacks have dropped from an estimated 500 in 2002 to fewer than 100 in 2010. In Iran, acid attacks are now considered a capital offense. The Oscar winning documentary "Saving Face" has exposed these heinous crimes in Pakistan where acid attack are now punishable with life imprisonment.
Muslim men should realize: Staying indifferent to these crimes happening in Muslim countries is like allowing someone to douse sulfuric acid on Islam's face.
And all men could help by raising awareness about these crimes and demanding stricter legislation, instead of blaming Islam.
Najib has been labelled as a flip-flop leader by many critics, as he has changed his stand on many issues to shore and buttress himself up as a popular leader. The MAS-Air Asia contentious share swap carved for the benefit of the country's aviation industry and for the revival of MAS has to be ditched when the strong MAS workers’ union objected to the move.
The Public Service New Remuneration Scheme (SBPA), which was introduced on Jan 1, 2012, was obliterated, while the previous Malaysia Remuneration System (SSM) was brought back with ‘some improvements’. On the face of it, the workers’ unions in the country are too copious for Najib to handle.
So when it comes to ‘numbers’ it means ‘votes’ and Najib shivers, goes flip flop and then caves in. Najib has no choice but to accommodate to the demands of the many workers’ unions in the country to save him from tumbling in the next general election.
The Cabinet is inopportunely led by an utterly weedy and flummoxed Najib. Najib, who earlier seemed to agree with most of the Internet users that the controversial section 114A of the Evidence Act needs further review, initiated the move for the Cabinet to discuss the matter.
But this was checkmated by his infectiously ambitious deputy who chaired the Cabinet meeting to discuss the matter and Najib had no choice but again to cave in. This is an intimation that Najib is in trouble within UMNO.
No tangible moves
The rakyat see no tangible moves made to curb corruption, financial leakages and cronyism that have affected the country. Najib is perceived as a leader who lacks the political will to handle these issues and this deportment of his will affect Barisan’s chances of retaining power in the next general election.
In fact Najib has defaulted on many promises to the rakyat. For this reason, his Merdeka slogan, ‘Janji Ditepati’ (Promises Fulfilled) – purportedly coined by the Information, Communications and Culture Minister who will be best remembered in the future for his hand-kissing exploits of senior UMNO leaders – is an affront to the rakyat.
Heaping on the one-sided media and demonising the Opposition is making Najib none the wiser, neither has this made him popular. Only a serious open debate with Anwar will prove Najib's capability and convince Malaysians of his aptitude, political and economic acumen.
Otherwise, Najib is just living in illusions trusting so much that he can buy almost anything with taxpayers’ money including ‘popularity’. Najib’s rhetorical artifices are not going to make him popular as the rakyat are able to discern the real situation in the country – which in reality is not as pleasant as daubed by Najib and UMNO.
Exercise of prudence
Small things matter in politics. The rakyat know that Anwar, if he becomes the next prime minister, is not going to waste RM12 million ringgit a year to pay for electricity bills and RM1.9 million a year to pay for the water bills by staying at Seri Perdana, Putrajaya.
Anwar has vowed that if he is voted in to become the prime minister he will choose to stay in his humble home in Segambut. Prudent management of the country is what Anwar is in quest of. This exercise of prudence can also be readily witnessed in the four states run by the Opposition after the 2008 general election – Penang, Selangor, Kedah and Kelantan.
High inflation, rising costs of living and when prices of almost everything have spiralled out of control Najib has lost his momentum in steering the country out of the mess. Under Najib, Malaysia recorded a government debt to GDP of 52.60 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product in 2011. This is worrying the nation.
Generally, government debt as a percent of GDP is used by investors to measure a country’s ability to make future payments on its debt, thus affecting the country’s borrowing costs and government bond yields.
When lavishness is not Anwar’s way it has expediently become the attribute of Najib and his government. There thus need to be an open debate on the many issues affecting the nation. Nevertheless, critics opine that Najib is avoiding a political debate with Anwar for fear that the latter will have a considerable edge over him. It’s possible that Najib may simply not be able to take on perky Anwar.
Let the best man win
However, without an open debate UMNO would not be able to convince Malaysians of Najib’s or Anwar’s ‘popularity’. Najib has no choice but to take on Anwar in a national debate to demonstrate his competence.
Anwar bashing by the media, alleged police intimidation of the Opposition, Perkasa’s approach to barbaric politics, violent acts against the Opposition and the exploitation of trivial issues to denounce the Opposition and the numerous other foul means used by the ruling party to demonise Anwar and the Opposition do not seem to work in Najib’s, UMNO’s or Barisan’s favour.
Malaysians are now a mature lot. The more Najib and UMNO are into this weighted and ‘self-gratifying’ modus operandi the more support Anwar and the Opposition will garner. The rakyat are not interested in hearing intently concocted political, social and economic tales and fables using the one-sided media to favour Najib and the ruling coalition.
No Malaysians will fall into this evil trap set by Najib and UMNO.
They very much desire for a decent debate between Najib and Anwar to take place before the next general election – to be held any time before April 2013. Let the best man
The newest political app for Election 2012? The status quo. Although we've seen dramatic changes in campaigns' use of technology since the first websites in 1996, the 2012 campaigns are focusing more on existing platforms. Those first websites were essentially tightly controlled carbon copies of campaign promotional materials: positions on the issues, how to donate, and how to get involved (offline). In 2000 both campaigns integrated dynamic features on their websites. In 2004 Howard Dean's supporters used Meetup.com to create an entirely new form of campaigning. In 2008 we saw Facebook, Twitter, and texting as the newest ways to communicate with voters.
But the growth, novelty, and innovation that have occurred every cycle appear to have slowed somewhat in 2012. This is evident from a report recently released by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. In some ways the candidates are using technology differently from 2008, but in many other ways they are quite similar.
What surprised me is that the Romney team lags behind the Obama team in overall digital activity. I figured, given McCain's low online profile compared with Obama's in 2008, that Romney would have created a more visible and active presence. But the report demonstrates that Romney still lags far behind Obama in nearly every measure, much like McCain did in '08. For example, the Obama website maintains a focus on targeted constituencies (like African Americans, women, and young Americans) much as he did in 2008, but the Romney site did not have any voter constituencies listed until July, and now it has only 10 compared with Obama's 18. Perhaps the biggest differences appear on Twitter, where the Obama campaign averaged 29 tweets a day during a two-week period in June, while the Romney camp averaged only one. But the fact that 16 percent of Obama's tweets were retweets suggests that this isn't necessarily a full immersion into Twitter's potential.
In 2008 the McCain and Obama teams differed much more dramatically in their use of technology. That Twitter was barely even on the playing field at the national level in 2008 (it was launched in 2006) made Obama's use of it all the more novel. McCain, on the other hand, famously admitted in a New York Times interview that he often had staff go online for him, and that he was working to become more computer-literate. So McCain's use of technology appeared that much less authentic, whereas Obama's appeared both authentic and savvy. Although there is no conclusive evidence that technology won Obama the 2008 election, many scholars certainly agree that it played some role, particularly for certain segments of the population like young people. Indeed, as Pew reported shortly after Election Day 2008, 66 percent of young voters supported Obama, making the gap between youth and other voters larger than in any presidential election since 1972.
This is why in 2012 I expected to see technological novelty and authenticity as the primary strategy from the campaigns. So it's somewhat surprising that their use of technology isn't exactly pushing the envelope. Obama is definitely continuing on his path of demonstrating technological savvy, with videos and apps, and with Facebook and Twitter. And 42 percent of Obama's blog posts originated from citizens. Many of the others were written by staff but included quotes from citizens. This does demonstrate an increase in citizen interactivity on these sites, yet the dialogue still exists in a controlled environment.
In addition to citizen interactivity on Obama's blog, there have been at least two innovations that are unprecedented and have come to us via the newest technology developed since 2008: the app. Mitt Romney released "Mitt's VP" so supporters could be the first to know his pick for vice president. The app, like Obama's, can also collect data about users to further the trend toward microtargeting messages to voters. But the Obama campaign not only has an app for supporters, with the usual information about issues and events, but also one for campaign organizers. The "Canvass" section of the "Obama for America" app provides information about voters in specific neighborhoods, and those voter responses are then sent to campaign headquarters. This could indeed transform the business of field organizing, making it more streamlined and effective.
But even these innovations are still tightly controlled and are not so much about allowing a robust dialogue among voters as about collecting data about them. Will presidential candidates ever fully embrace technology that allows citizens to voice their opinions about the campaigns? Or is it simply too much of a risk? The trends we see in the 2012 campaign so far suggest the latter. The campaigns' need for control still trumps the need to be tech-savvy in a world where one outrageous comment from a voter on a candidate's Facebook page can quickly become fodder for cable news. I believe we can expect to see some additional innovations from the campaigns between now and Election Day, but I don't count on them fully embracing the interactive potential of the Internet as a virtual public sphere for citizen dialogue.
No comments:
Post a Comment