Dari Malaysiakini

Datuk Seri Najib Razak digesa menunaikan janjinya untuk memberi ruang lebih bebas kepada pengamal media arus perdana dan internet seperti seruannya tidak lama selepas dilantik perdana menteri.

Jawatankuasa Melindungi Wartawan (CPJ), sebuah NGO pemantau kebebasan akhbar yang berpangkalan di New York, membuat gesaan itu dalam suratnya kepada Najib semalam.

Sambil menyifatkan hasrat awal perdana menteri untuk melihat kebebasan akhbar sebagai “isyarat positif untuk reformasi”, CPJ menyampaikan keprihatinannya selama ini berhubung ruang terhad untuk pengamal media di Malaysia.

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The Economist

MAY 15 — When three legislators in Perak, one of five of opposition-ruled Malaysian states, switched sides in February, overturning a narrow majority in the 59-seat assembly, Umno was cock-a-hoop. After a big electoral setback last year, the long-dominant Umno was at last taking the fight to the opposition, led by its nemesis, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister. Loyalists credited the defections, reportedly induced by the threat of corruption probes, to the bare-knuckle tactics of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, since sworn in as prime minister in place of the mild-mannered Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Taking back Perak was just the start, Umno snarled.

Perak was indeed the start of something, but not the rollback of Malaysia’s opposition, as foreseen by Umno and its ruling coalition partners. Instead it has snowballed into a constitutional crisis that reveals the wobbly underpinnings of a democracy yet to be tested by a handover of power at the federal level. On May 7, amid scuffles at Perak’s state assembly, Umno’s man was installed as mentri besar. Scores of people were arrested, including the speaker of the House, who was bundled away by plainclothes police. He had objected to the takeover as it had never been put to a vote in the assembly.

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From The Malaysian Insider
By Edmund Bon

MAY 15 — We hope that judges should endeavour to write their grounds of decision and take delight in this aspect of judicial work as a matter of personal pride and satisfaction and not as a burden. Failure on the part of judges to write their grounds of decision will certainly undermine their authority to insist upon magistrates and presidents of Sessions Courts to write theirs. If the practice of not writing grounds of judgment is widespread the system of administration of justice will tumble down. (per Salleh Abas LP in Wong Chee Hong v Cathay Organisation (M) Sdn Bhd [1988] 1 CLJ (Rep) 298 at 300.)

As a matter of course, judges should write and give reasons/grounds for their decisions (usually known as “Alasan-Alasan Penghakiman”).

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Rencana ‘The Malay Dilemma’ ini merupakan hasil tulisan wartawan terkenal Ian Buruma dan bakal diterbitkan di dalam majalah antarabangsa The New Yorker (edisi 18 Mei 2009). Untuk muat turun versi PDF, sila klik pada pautan di bawah:

The Malay Dilemma (PDF version)

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By Ian Buruma

KUALA LUMPUR, May 15 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s voice was barely audible above the background din of chattering guests and a cocktail-bar pianist at the Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Anwar — who had rebounded from six years in prison on corruption and sodomy charges to become the best hope for a more democratic, less corrupt Malaysia — speaks softly. He is still under constant surveillance, he said.

Sensitive political business has to be handled in other capitals, Jakarta, Bangkok or Hong Kong. Security is a constant worry. Intelligence sources from three countries have warned him to be careful. “I’m taking a big risk just walking into this hotel to see you, but what can I do?” he murmured. “It’s all too exhausting. But, you know, sometimes you just have to take risks.”

This was the same Anwar Ibrahim, one struggled to remember, who was once at the heart of the Malaysian establishment: the Minister of Culture in 1983, the Minister of Education in 1986, the Minister of Finance in 1991 and a Deputy Prime Minister in 1993. He was poised to succeed Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. And then he got overconfident. Starting in the summer of 1997, when the Malaysian currency and stock market lost more than half of their value in the Asian financial meltdown, Anwar did something that Dr Mahathir found unforgivable.

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From The Malaysian Insider
By Shannon Teoh

IPOH, May 15 — V. Sivakumar, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) appointed speaker of the Perak state assembly, will file a suit at the Ipoh High Court at 11.30am today against Datuk R. Ganesan, who is Barisan Nasional’s (BN) choice for speaker, which could determine who legitimately holds office as head of the state’s legislature.

The latest legal challenge will add to the state of confusion which has crippled the administration of Perak since BN’s power grab in February, and places more pressure on all parties to agree to fresh polls as a way out of the quagmire.

The speaker’s position is crucial as he controls assembly proceedings and for BN, it could mean convening an assembly to pass a vote of no-confidence in Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin, rendering the current court case over who is the legitimate mentri besar academic.

Perak DAP chief and Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) legal coordinator for the Perak crisis, Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham, told The Malaysian Insider that Sivakumar will file a personal suit against Ganesan for bringing unauthorised persons into the May 7 assembly.

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Masa                                                  Program

5.30 – 6.30 Petang           Hi–Tea – Sg. Semambu (Belakang Shell)

7.15 – 8.30 Malam           Solat dan Kuliah Maghrib – Masjid Padang Ibu

8.40 – 9.45 Malam           Solat dan Kuliah Isyak – Masjid Berapit

10.00 – 11.00 Malam       Ceramah Kelompok – Mukim 9, Tanah Liat

11.00 – 12.00 Malam       Ceramah Umum – Kg Tok Elong

*Penceramah umum termasuk YB Dr Hatta Ramli dan Sdr Mustafa Kamil Ayub

PEJABAT DATUK SERI ANWAR IBRAHIM