Currently, the National Feedlot Corporation issue is getting less and less coverage. The mainstream broadcast media has almost stopped talking about it. Ditto for the mainstream newspapers.

Selena Tay, Free Malaysia Today

The moment the Barisan Nasional federal government succeeds in killing off all the issues brought up by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, it will call for the 13th general glection.

Already, there is widespread rumour that Parliament will be dissolved this month as Pakatan’s last bastion of defence – the cattle saga – is now almost swept under the BN carpet altogether. Coupled with the RM500 cash aid to the low-income group, BN is now riding on a high due to the feel-good factor generated by BR1M (Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia).

However, it must be brought to public attention that applicants in the DAP fortress of Kepong Baru have yet to receive this aid. Is BN denying the cash aid to Kepong Baru voters because BN knows that it can never win in Kepong? DAP’s Dr Tan Seng Giaw has been the Kepong MP since the late 1970s.

Currently, the National Feedlot Corporation issue is getting less and less coverage. The mainstream broadcast media has almost stopped talking about it. Ditto for the mainstream newspapers.

Let us take a step back to September last year before the Feedlot drama came up to the surface. Before presenting the budget on Oct 7, last year, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his Cabinet had already read the Auditor-General’s Report. It is standard practice for the prime minister to first go through the report before the opposition MPs and this practice has been adopted since the mid-1980s.

This way, the BN federal government will have the opportunity to cover up any unsavoury details in the audit report and deny the opposition any bullets with which to shoot the government.

Be that as it may, the audit report should have been on the table of all the MPs on the day of the budget presentation. But this was not the case last year. As the audit report took longer and longer to surface, the Pakatan MPs have already began to surmise that something was amiss and that the BN federal government must have sent the Auditor-General’s Report back to the Auditor-General’s office for amendments to be made. Of course, there was no concrete proof of this – only theories.

But lo and behold! When the report came out 17 days later on Oct 24, the opposition MPs read it with eagle-eyes and pounced on the Feedlot project like a dog pouncing on a juicy bone. This is it! This is what the BN federal government had wanted to hide all along.

Public anger

Therefore, when Najib read the report in September, he would have known that Feedlot would emerge as a problematic issue. Thus, he devised the RM500 cash aid as a weapon to launch a pre-emptive strike on Pakatan and on Oct 7, he announced this cash aid as one of the goodies offered in the 2012 Budget – all because he had already known about Feedlot in advance. This RM500 is a sweetener to dull the senses of the rakyat and to pacify public anger pertaining to Feedlot.

Even the audit report did not mention much about Feedlot except to say that it failed to meet its KPI (Key Performance Index). If not for the whistleblower to whom we owe much gratitude, we would have known next to nothing.

To sum up: the cash aid came about after Najib has read the Auditor-General’s Report and the reason for this cash aid is to nullify the opposition’s attacks which would be sure to follow and also to win over the voters’ hearts and minds. Insidious! It is a two-pronged attack by BN that can be very deadly if the opposition does not play its cards well.

Therefore in the 13th general election it will boil down to cash versus cow. These are the two main issues of the day. Even the PKFZ (Port Klang Free Zone) issue and the Scorpene submarine issue have sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

The BN federal government is doing its utmost to cover up this cattle issue. The lady at the centre of the drama, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, has gone on leave. Najib is careful not to provoke her anger as Umno Wanita, of whom she is the chief, is a very powerful wing because it is in charge of all the “pondok panas” during the polls. (Pondok panas is where one can go to check one’s particulars when there is an election campaign.)

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PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang is a much-changed man from the days when he used to deliver fiery speeches against his political foes. But his announcement not to contest the next general election has caught many by surprise.

“I was given leadership responsibilities at a very young age. I became vice-president (of PAS) in my 30s ... I have been around too long,” he was quoted by the Bahasa Malaysia tabloid as saying.

By Baradan Kuppusamy, The Star

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has dropped a bombshell – he does not wish to contest in the general election.

He has said that if the party insists, he would only contest in one of the two seats he is holding.

“I leave it to the party to decide,” he said in an exclusive interview on Saturday. Hadi, 65, is the Rhu Redang assemblyman and Marang MP.

The reason he gave for this sudden decision is that he has been a YB for 30 years and it was time to make way for younger blood in the party.

“I am from the era of Tun and the second generation after him, until now,” said the Al-Azhar university graduate, referring to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who retired in 2003 after 22 years as Prime Minister.

“I was given leadership responsibilities at a very young age. I became vice-president (of PAS) in my 30s ... I have been around too long,” he was quoted by the Bahasa Malaysia tabloid as saying.

The sentiments expressed by Hadi are commendable, compared to the party’s spiritual adviser Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat who, at 84, still wants to contest and remain active in politics as Kelantan Mentri Besar.

The statement shocked Hadi’s supporters in the party who were unprepared for it.

They were unsure what to make of it as the revelation came in the form of a media interview.

“If the statement had come after a party CWC meeting and after all the party leaders had discussed and deliberated on it, then it would be understandable,” said a PAS CWC member who declined to be named.

“If the party had issued the statement then the members can accept it, but with some reservation,” he said, adding that the statement was “suspect” as it came from a newspaper interview with the party president.

“We have to wait until Feb 12 for a clearer picture,” he said, referring to the monthly working committee meeting scheduled that day to discuss the matter.

Hadi could be playing a political stunt in the face of massive gains the moderate elements in the party led by Nik Aziz and deputy president Mohamed Sabu have made since the 2008 general election.

He might be shaking the PAS tree ... rattling it, so to speak, in the hope that he gains an upper hand especially with PAS under attack from its former Selangor commissioner Datuk Dr Hasan Ali and other ulama in the party.

Hadi has a history of radicalism behind him, as the man leading the ulama faction with his Amanat Hadi Awang that resulted in the kafir-mengkafir issue when he declared that Umno members were not true Muslims.

The issue roiled Malay society in the 80s and 90s before dying off in the late 1990s as PAS exploited the reformasi wave under president Fadzil Nor following the sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as deputy prime minister in 1998.

Hadi took over as party president on Fadzil’s untimely death in 2002 and has been elected uncontested since.

PAS under Hadi played a double-faced strategy throughout the reformasi period, supporting it but at the same time defending its Islamic state policy, a key plank in Hadi’s political strategy.

Led by Hadi, PAS nearly faced demise in 2004 when voters bade farewell to Dr Mahathir and welcomed Tun Abdullah Badawi, rejecting not only Hadi but also his fiery brand of Islam that centred on the setting up an Islamic state.

Throughout the four years since 2004 under Hadi, PAS attacked Abdullah’s Islam Hadhari concept as not the true face of Islam. However, it was the release of Anwar and his ability to identify his grievances with that of the people’s grouses, that tilled the day for PAS.

In 2008, PAS captured Kedah and kept Kelantan and won state and parliamentary seats in other states across the nation, even providing the Mentri Besar (briefly) for Perak.

It emerged a victorious party with Hadi riding on Anwar’s coat-tails. Hadi’s fiery rhetoric receded and he gave way for the moderates to take control of PAS.

His role diminished and Nik Aziz, Mat Sabu, Salehuddin Ayub and Khalid Samad and other moderates rose to control the party.

The culmination of the moderate wave that swept PAS, for the conservatives and for Hadi himself, was the sacking of Dr Hasan, who is now on a roadshow around the country attacking PAS as unIslamic and taunting them to remove the word Islam from the party’s name.

Hadi could be standing on quick sand with the liberals and moderates taking over the party and deciding policy like the sacking of Dr Hasan, which he is forced to follow.

His statement to retire could be to force the issue and to fight his increasing isolation in the party. Hadi is one hardcore radical who has successfully transformed himself into a “moderate” in keeping with the times, especially with a non-Malay following that PAS has earned for itself in its march to rule the country someday.

Or it could be that after exactly 30 years as a YB, he is genuinely tired and wants a way out.

The white ang pow fiasco is likely to haunt MCA right through the next election.

How could an organisation claiming the support of thousands and patronised by no less than a former prime minister plead ignorance about the culture of a community that makes up a major portion of the Malaysian population? And how could a political party claiming to represent that very community allow itself to be caught with its pants down?

Stanley Koh, Free Malaysia Today

Perkasa’s insulting gesture at the expense of the Chinese community last Sunday provoked spontaneous public outrage that was directed at both the Malay rights group and MCA.

The anger – which was expressed mostly online – as well as the factual details of the incident at Perkasa’s Chinese New Year open house, were largely ignored by the mainstream media, including of course the Star, which is MCA’s mouthpiece.

Netizens have dragged out both Perkasa and MCA and condemned and dusted them down in thousands of comments all over the Internet.

How could an organisation claiming the support of thousands and patronised by no less than a former prime minister plead ignorance about the culture of a community that makes up a major portion of the Malaysian population? And how could a political party claiming to represent that very community allow itself to be caught with its pants down?

Ignorance was only one in a range of excuses offered by Perkasa. It has also said it had to use white envelopes because it ran out of red ones for the ang pows it distributed at the function.

It has also tried to redeem itself by saying that the taboo of using white envelopes – which the Chinese associate with funerals – could not be so great since the guests accepted them. Most critics accept none of these explanations. And who can blame them, given the racist posture that Perkasa has adopted since its inauguration?

Referring to the plea of ignorance, one critic said the Perkasa boss once worked in a Chinese conglomerate, implying that the excuse was either a lie or a display of stupidity. “Moreover, he is a Member of Parliament with Chinese voters in his constituency.”

It was equally shocking to the Malaysian public that a MCA divisional leader who supported the controversial event had the temerity to claim innocence and ignorance of his party’s stand against the extremist group.

The Tiew factor

Dr Colin Tiew, who serves on the MCA Seputih liaison committee, headed a delegation of 50 people to the open house in Kampung Baru and delivered a speech. Netizens quickly identified him and exposed him by circulating his photograph at lightning speed across cyberspace.

Tiew has since claimed that he was a “victim” and said he was willing to apologise “if” Perkasa had hidden political motives in organising the event. He also denied making remarks in support of Perkasa when he took the stage, saying he was merely translating Ibrahim Ali’s speech.

To make matters worse, MCA’s Seputih division is helmed by Chai Kim Sen, who serves MCA Youth as its secretary-general, while Tiew is also chairman of MCA’s Seri Desa branch.

Chai issued a press release that condemned Perkasa but ignored the Tiew factor.

The incident was in fact a bad omen for Chai, who is tipped to be a candidate in the coming general election.

But controversy is nothing new to MCA Seputih. During the campaign for the 1999 general election, MCA candidate Dr Sua Chong Keh earned his place in the hall of infamy for a crude and sexist remark he made against DAP’s Teresa Kok.

He said: “I am a man; so I stand. She is a woman; so she squats.” Voters told him what they thought about the remark by electing Kok with a 5,200-vote majority.

The recent episode has caused yet another wound that voters are unlikely to forget.

Tiew has claimed ignorance of a lot of things. Is he also unaware that Perkasa has, more than once, crossed swords with MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek? It was only recently that Perkasa’s Syed Hassan Ali publicly humiliated Chua by asking him to watch his mouth when speaking about Islamic beliefs.

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Starting with the cowhead stomping episode, that got out of hand because of the perception of approval by the authorities, to the church burning and the latest pig’s head incident, we seem to be spiralling down towards a violent and menacing future.

By David Anandarajoo Free Malaysia Today

Like everybody else, I am subjective. And because I am subjective, I am also sensitive when discussing race, religion, politics and women when I am in mixed company.

I am as old as this country, born a little after August 1957, and have seen and experienced the best and the worst a plural society has to offer to the rest of the world.

The latest incidents where a pig’s head was thrown into two mosques, one in Rawang and the other in Sentul, must stand out as the nadir of moments in our half a century as an independent nation.

What could the perpetrators gain by this utterly stupid act of desecrating a house of worship?

These are acts of cowardice aimed at causing maximum damage to the very fabric of a plural society.

The finger pointing has already started, the rumour mills are now working overtime, theories as to who did it will be spun fast and quick and the blame will fall on everybody for a myriad of reasons.

Of course, someone will say Perkasa is to be responsible for handing out white ang pow packets during their CNY open house.

Someone actually wrote about the episode, in a letter. In the letter, the writer describes how he has lived among the Chinese and has many Chinese friends. Yet he did not know handing out white packets was only done at Chinese funerals!

It says a lot.

After living so long with and having Chinese friends, it must be concluded that this person has never been to a Chinese funeral. One wonders how deep or superficial his friendship must be.

Is this where we have arrived after 54 years of independence?

In my years at school, and I studied at a mission school, I had friends who were Chinese, Malays and Indians and none of us ever thought of one another as belonging to a particular race or religion.

We were just boys and the ‘enemy’ were the members of the opposite sex. What May 13 did was to make us more sensitive to one another’s religious proclivities, traditions,habits, rituals and taboos.

More than just tolerance

But we recovered soon, got on with life, some went to colleges and universities, made a life and some a name for themselves in the various professions that they chose.

But, there was one singular thread that bound us all together. No, much to the chagrin of the powers that be, it was not tolerance.

Tolerance means that we put up with one another…sometimes with difficulty. We were genuinely ‘in like’ with one another.

None of imposed our faiths or religious peculiarities on the other fellow. We knew instinctively what was right and wrong in the presence of the others.

We respected each other.

History has clearly shown that religion has often been linked directly to the worst examples of human behaviour ever imagined.

It is sometimes trite, but nevertheless sadly true, to say that more wars have been waged, more people killed, and these days more evil perpetrated in the name of religion than by any other institutional force in human history.

In school, we studied about the wars that brought the world almost the brink of total destruction.

No, that could never happen in our Malaysia…we were not that stupid, we knew.

We had a passion for one another’s companionship, we read voraciously, we went to our libraries, we played games together, football, cricket and hockey.

We were not just tolerant. There was no need to be. Because we mixed so well with one another, we knew what was taboo and what wasn’t.

Today, you even have to have courses on socio-cultural do’s and don’ts in our society.

I can’t seem to understand why.

The best course, during the genesis of our nation, was social intercourse with the other fellow’s community, family and friends.

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Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz (FMT)

Sometime ago I met The Economist correspondent Dr Richard Cockett who asked me whether Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak will succeed in his transformation ideas.

I said, Najib will not suceed. And why not? Because Umno won’t let him succeed.

Take the case of his New Economic Model (NEM). Nowadays we hardly hear about it. In the 2011 Umno general assembly, Najib did not even mention it.

Instead he devoted much of his speech sounding very combative and full of vehemence. What he did at the time was to actually retrograde to Umno cavemen politics – stick and stones.

So how is he going to push his tranformation agenda? Knowing Najib, he will revert to the ‘old’ tested ways of ‘patronage’.

He will select cronises and push through his economic agenda by giving directly negotiated projects masked by seemingly transparent methods.

The ‘chosen few’ will be recommended by the “man who can walk on water” (former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad).

Najib’s ideas rejected

If you recall, in the 2010 Umno general assembly, all Najib’s big ideas were rejected and thwarted by Umno delegates.

They were obviously mirroring the general objection to Najib’s adventurist ideas which were his alone and most probably, scripted by expensively paid consultants.

His idea of 1Malaysia with the hazy notions of inclusiveness and outward readiness was immediately rejected by the delegates who insisted on a “Malay first” policy on everything.

So what 1Malaysia is Najib talking about?

Najib’s plans to transform the economy and especially that of the Malays through his NEM founded on hazy notions of affirmative policies based on free market economics and affirmative policies based on merits were met with howls from delegates who insisted on the continuation of NEP-like policies.

In the end, Najib was left standing alone and could only muster his last trump card to claim high pedestal, and that is that he is the son of Tun Razak (second prime minister).

No one can dispute that. Genetically he is, but culturally, he isn’t. Najib doesn’t have the leadership qualities of Tun Razak.

Najib up against Umno wall

How can he push his liberalist economic agenda through a mindset accustomed to patronage?

Will the Umno warlords, who have only known survival through the party’s patronage system allow an anointed successor, even if he is the son of Tun Razak, to dismantle a system that has provided them with succor?

Now, that would be suicidal.

Read more at: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2012/02/02/umno-warlords-will-not-let-najib-succeed/