UEC RECOGNITION: RENEGING ON PH ELECTION PROMISE IS PATENT DISHONESTY

Press statement by Kua Kia Soong, SUARAM Adviser 16 July 2018

Through all this pussyfooting over the recognition of the UEC by the PH government, does it not make you wonder how the PH election manifesto was drafted, such as who took part in the drafting and how it was endorsed by the PH leaders? One would have expected that the person they would finally appoint as the Education Minister to be in the committee to study the UEC before they endorsed it…

Well, from the backtracking that we have seen since GE14 and the utterances of PH leaders especially by the new Education Minister, you would think that the supposedly democratic process through which the manifesto was drafted and eventually endorsed did not amount to much. Was the PH election manifesto just “a piece of paper” to be ripped apart after the elections?

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DON’T LET DR M PRIVATISE OUR NATIONAL ASSETS AGAIN

Press statement by Kua Kia Soong, SUARAM Adviser 14 July 2018

The common mythology is that Dr Mahathir came back from the “twilight of the gods” to save Malaysia from the kleptocrat Najra. Methinks he has a bigger agenda, an agenda that had been skewed by his successors, Badawi and then Najib. Who would have missed the fact that his attacks on his successors had started from the moment Badawi did not follow his agenda? His recent adverse remarks on Khazanah and how it has deviated from its original goals of temporary ownership of companies on behalf of Bumiputras has raised new fears that he is going to privatise Khazanah and take us back to the days of Mahathir style crony capitalism. We hope he will prove us wrong…

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FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IN ‘NEW’ MALAYSIA

Press statement by Kua Kia Soong, SUARAM Adviser 12 July 2018

What a breath of fresh air it was to read activist lawyer Fadiah Nadwa Fikri’s thought provoking musings (“Don’t kiss the hands that beat you”) on the meaning of freedom and dignity and the levels of social constraints that still shackle us despite the illusion of democracy when we vote once every five years. Her thoughts are the stuff of academic discussions in institutions of higher learning of substance anywhere in the world and one would hope, also in ‘new’ Malaysia.

Unfortunately, we hear that Fadiah is under investigation over this same article deemed “seditious” (sic) for questioning the royal institution. She has been summoned to appear at the Brickfields police station after a report was lodged over her article and we have learnt that the police are investigating her under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

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SACRIFICING CHINESE SCHOOLS AT THE ALTAR OF THE DEBT MOUNTAIN

Press statement by Kua Kia Soong, SUARAM Adviser 29 June 2018

The announcement by Education Minister Maszlee Malik to halt the construction of eight Chinese primary schools (SJKCs) that had already been approved by the previous administration because of supposed financial constraints is totally unacceptable. Is this his own opinion or is this a Cabinet decision? In a government committed to inclusion and transparency what possible rationale could there be for putting the brakes on such a small yet critically important project?

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