Let Parliament weigh merits of TPPA, PAS urges Putrajaya

Putrajaya must allow Parliament to debate the merits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) before committing the country to the controversial and secretive trade deal, PAS information chief Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said today.

Saying the agreement could have far-reaching effects on the country’s ability to chart its own economic course, Tuan Ibrahim said it was vital to pore over the details of the treaty while the country still possessed the leverage to negotiate.

“The TPPA must be presented and discussed in the Parliament from the angle of ‘Why should Malaysia overturn and reject TPPA?’ before any decision is made,” he added.

Putrajaya should also not proceed with the agreement until no further evidence is found to support its rejection.

Tuan Ibrahim said the move last week by ratings firm Fitch to downgrade its outlook on Malaysia’s sovereign debt from “Stable” to “Negative” meant it was doubly vital for the country to parlay with others discussing the deal while it could still do so.

“Malaysia’s economic standing is getting weaker, thus the government is not in a position to negotiate and they need to ensure TPPA will benefit the country overall,” he said in a statement today.

Mooting a special parliamentary debate on the issue, the former Pahang assemblyman suggested that ex-leaders of the country and former Bank Negara governors be invited to present their opinions on the TPPA along with economic experts.

PAS’s main point of contention with the TPPA was the Investor-to-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clause that would allow foreign firms to bring member states to court if public policies are made against their interests.

Tuan Ibrahim hypothesised that in a scenario of economic crisis and sharp devaluation of the ringgit, Malaysia may lack the financial resources to contest such lawsuits in an international court.

“This is unfair to small countries that are involved in TPPA,” he said.

Last month, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad levelled the same criticism, among others, against the TPPA, saying Malaysia would lack the expertise to fend off such lawsuits.

“They will have the best lawyers, lots of them. We will exhaust all our funds to pay our less experienced lawyers. At the end we will lose and pay indemnities and fees running into billions. And we will continue to pay until we comply. And when we comply we will lose more money,” Dr Mahathir predicted then.

The TPPA is a free trade agreement that has been negotiated by the US, Malaysia and nine other nations as part of the larger Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership since 2010.

Critics allege that the agreement has since been co-opted by powerful corporations to allow them to trample over existing consumer, worker and environmental rights in signatory countries.

Although it is not definitively known how much — if any — of the allegations are true, the secretive nature of the negotiations continues to provide a fertile breeding ground for such speculation.

The 19th round of the TPP negotiations is scheduled to be held from August 22 to 30 in Brunei. 

'Address urban woes or we'll lose more in GE14'

Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin has urged party leaders to work to address the concerns of urbanites or face risk losing more seats in the 14th general election.

At a buka puasa event organised by Federal Territories Umno, he said that the woes range from bread and butter issues to matters like human rights and corruption.

"If we do not fulfil our responsibilities, take things for granted and merely pray for support, then maybe we will not be able to maintain our present position," he said.

Muhyiddin said Umno realises that for better educated urban residents, one of the biggest issues is corruption.

"Corruption is a problem which urban dwellers pay attention to and expect the government to, as well.

"How we deal with corruption is something they want to know as they believe corruption is a cancer to society and a government who cannot overcome this cannot fulfil its other responsibilities," he said at the Al-Imam As-Shafie mosque in Taman Maluri.

He said, other than that, Umno must also help solve issues like the rising cost of living and house prices as these burden urbanites the most.

He said the urban residents are a window to the electorate in the rest of the nation, as people of all walks of life and different regions congregate in the city.

'ABU means Allah Blesses Umno'

Meanwhile, Federal Territories Umno chief Tengku Adnan Mansor said that the previous general election results show that Malays are with Umno, allowing the party to raise its number of Parliament seats from 79 to 88 seats.

"When we see (the graffiti) ABU, it actually means Allah Berkati Umno (Allah Blesses Umno) and we see in the Kuala Besut by-elections, Allah Bersama Umno (Allah Was With Umno)," he quipped.

ABU is an oft-cited graffiti around Kuala Lumpur, meaning Asalkan Bukan Umno (Anything But Umno), and has morphed into an organised anti-BN movement.

Meanwhile, Tengku Adnan in his speech also told Muhyiddin that Federal Territories Umno will support party president Najib Abdul Razak and Muhyiddin to retain the top two Umno posts.

"But as for the three vice-presidents' posts, I cannot guarantee as when I check on the ground, many want to see a contest for the post," he said.

However, he said, the Putrajaya division which he leads will vote for a status quo for the top five posts.

Tengku Adnan, who is also Putrajaya MP, also urged Umno members to remain united despite the party polls in October.

"We are on the right track, but the problem is that we like to fight among ourselves," he said.

Black 505: 3 pemimpin AMK didakwa Selasa ini

Tiga pemimpin Angkatan Muda Keadilan (AMK) menerima saman hadir ke Mahkamah Majistret Kuala Lumpur pada 6 Ogos depan atas tuduhan melanggar Akta Perhimpunan Aman 2012.

Ketua AMK, Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, timbalannya, Khairul Anuar Ahmad Zainuddin dan naib Mohd Nazree Mohd Yunus menerima saman itu selepas memberi keterangan di ibu pejabat polis daerah Dang Wangi pagi tadi.

Menurut Shamsul Iskandar, mereka akan didakwa di bawah Seksyen 4(2)(b) atas tuduhan berhimpun di tempat larangan di perkarangan Masjid Al-Rahman, Universiti Malaya pada 26 Jun lalu sewaktu himpunan 'Blackout 505'.

Sebelum itu, Khairul Anuar dan Mohd Nazree pagi ini hadir ke ibu pejabat polis daerah Dang Wangi untuk memberi keterangan dipercayai berkaitan penglibatan mereka dalam perhimpunan Black 505.

Kedua-duanya menerima notis pada 12 Julai lalu, untuk hadir memberi keterangan pada hari ini.

Mereka memberi keterangan di bawah Seksyen 4(2)(b) Akta Perhimpunan Aman 2012.

Mohd Nazree yang ditemui pemberita di pintu masuk IPD berkata beliau percaya arahan tersebut ada kaitan dengan penglibatan mereka dalm perhimpunan tersebut pada 26 Jun lalu.

Kedua-dua pemimpin AMK itu kemudiannya memasuki IPD itu yang ditemani peguam A Jeyaseelen kira-kira jam 11.15 pagi.

Shamsul Iskandar yang juga ahli Parlimen Bukit Katil pula masih belum tiba sewaktu Khairul Anwar dan Mohd Nazree memasuki IPD itu

Ahli mahu menantu Hadi dihadap ke JK disiplin

Seorang anggota seumur hidup PAS membuat aduan kepada Jawatankuasa Disiplin berhubung kenyataan anggota Majlis Syura Zaharuddin Muhammad, yang juga menantu presiden, kerana menuduh terdapat sabotaj dalaman secara terbuka.

Dalam surat yang dihantar hari ini yang salinannya diberikan kepada Media, Zulhazmi Shariff menggesa jawatankuasa displin menyiasat kesahihan dakwaan Zaharuddin yang dikatakan berlaku semasa pilihan raya umum lalu.

Bagaimanapun, jika ia ternyata tidak benar, penuduh patut dikenakan tindakan kerana mencemarkan imej parti di mata masyarakat, kata Zulhazmi.

Pengamal undang-undang itu mencadangkan Zaharuddin disiasat bawah fasal 82(1)(g) perlembagaan PAS, berkaitan tindakan yang menyalahi dan merugikan kepentingan parti.

Beliau merujuk tulisan Zaharudin di Facebook yang menjawab laporan sebuah portal berita yang mendakwanya mempengaruhi Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang menandatangani watikah calon PAS Kota Damansara, yang kemudiannya menyebabkan pertembungan dengan PKR.

"Berdasarkan tulisan tersebut sangat jelas, terang dan nyata bahawa Saudara Zaharudin Muhammad menyebut dan membuat tuduhan terbuka bahawa ada unsur-unsur sabotaj dalaman semasa pilihan raya umum ke-13, malah usaha sabotaj tersebut bertujuan menjatuhkan presiden dan timbalan mursyidul am (Datuk Haron Din).

"Ini adalah suatu tuduhan yang berat secara terbuka yang boleh menyebabkan pelbagai spekulasi buruk terhadap mana-mana pimpinan PAS mahupun ahli-ahli biasa PAS dan secara tidak langsung memberikan imej negatif terhadap PAS sendiri,"

Muhyiddin lurches to the right after quiet spell

COMMENT Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin 'fast draw' reaction to the most recent instance of an alleged insult to Islam was badly off the mark.

From remarks he made at a breaking of the fast function last Tuesday, he appears to have concluded that the video on YouTube that shows a woman cleaning her dogs while posting a Hari Raya greeting was a man and a non-Muslim.

The person in the offending video turned out to be a Muslim woman who is now under police remand.

The misperception by the DPM could readily be excused if not for what Muhyiddin proceeded to say after noting that "non-Muslims are insulting our religion."

He stated the premise for why non-Muslims ought not to insult Muslims: "Muslims do not insult the religion of non-Muslims such as Christianity and Hinduism."

He's right.

Muslims do not insult the religions of non-Muslims for the simple reason that they have too much respect for their own to want to do down that of others.

But the DPM has been misinformed or has simply forgotten that this general attitude of Muslims has been sporadically repudiated by people associated with his party, Umno.

Disparity in the treatment

Defeated BN candidate for Shah Alam in last May's general election Zulkifli Noordin has insulted Hinduism and Umno-owned Mingguan Malaysia columnist Ridhuan Tee Abdullah has derided the same religion, both in episodes that made the news in the last half year or so.

Zulkifli has apologised but Ridhuan has not expressed contrition.

Neither has been rapped across the knuckles by their superiors that would have caused a watching public to be reminded anew that Muslims are disinclined to disrespect the religious beliefs of non-Muslims.

More incendiary than either Zulkifli's or Ridhuan's derisions of Hinduism were Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali's ( right ) threat to burn Malay Bibles that carried the term 'Allah'.

All three departures from general Malay/Muslim decorum with respect to the religions of non-Muslims escaped censure by the authorities that have latterly gone after the blogging couple Alvivi and dog trainer Maznah Mohd Yusof, who was supposed to have uploaded an alleged insult to Islam on YouTube .

This disparity in the treatment accorded individual miscreants has understandably raised the hackles of non-Muslims who feel that their sensitivities can be slighted with impunity whereas violation of Muslim ones' merit swift and deterrent punishment.

Education Minister Muhyiddin's warnings over a perceived propensity among some non-Muslims to insult Muslims comes on the heels of his criticism of United Chinese Schools Committee's Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong) which has expressed opposition to the National Education Blueprint 2013-2015 his ministry formulated and is slated for introduction from next month.

Education is an issue that's rife with contention. Generally, people lack belief their children can obtain a good education in government schools. For that reason they place their kids in vernacular ones.

Attesting the inefficacy of government schooling is the fact that large numbers of graduates of this stream are unemployed. Parents queue up to get their children into vernacular schools, especially Chinese language ones.

Silent on 'shower room' canteen

The recent incident like the school in Sungai Buloh that required non-Muslim pupils to have their food during recess time near where its shower rooms are located only reinforces the mistrust with which government schooling is viewed, particularly by non-Malays.

The reduced intake this academic year of non-Malay students, many with standout results, into government universities only confirms the suspicion of non-Malays that the government presence in national education is inherently flawed.

Against this backdrop is it any wonder that the Dong Zong, the body mainly responsible for the preservation of a system of preparatory schooling that parents clamor for their children to enter, is opposed to the blueprint?

Muhyiddin has painted Dong Zong's opposition as having to do with ethnocentrism and chauvinism when it is more nearly self-preservative and redolent of well-founded suspicion of government-inspired moves in education.

The education minister was conspicuously silent on the contretemps over the Sungai Buloh school. Had he been vocal in his displeasure at the impropriety of recess time arrangements for non-Muslim pupils during the month of Ramadan, his criticisms of Dong Zong's opposition would have carried moral heft.

All this begs the question of why after a period of relative quiet following the general election last May, the Umno No 2 who in the last four years has treaded a path of Malay rights assertion in the teeth of national conditions that called for an inclusive rather than exclusive vision, is once again tub-thumping on volatile issues.

Likely, he's shaping up for a run at the No 1 post after a brief period of doubt about the viability of the option - hence the quiet.

He seems to have shed that lull but with stances that pay little heed to the results of GE13 which, overall, were more encouraging to exponents of an inclusive than exclusive vision.

In sum, it would be better for the country to have Muhyiddin quiescent than questing.

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.

Najib's response shows gov't not serious about Fitch

MP SPEAKS Najib Abdul Razak's immediate response to Fitch Ratings' revision of Malaysia's outlook to negative does not give confidence that the government views the matter seriously.

The prime minister tried to make light of the negative revision by pointing out that Fitch still "affirmed our rating". He said a negative element "is just the revision of our outlook but that depends on the move the government would make".

While Najib, who is also the Finance Minister, did highlight that "it is a concern that we share as a government and we would seek to address those concerns", the lack of gravity of the response does not give Malaysians and investors any comfort that real concrete actions will be undertaken.

It should be emphasised that this isn't the first "warning" by Fitch Ratings although it is the most serious action taken by the global ratings agency to date. In August 2012, Fitch has already warned that Malaysia's "fiscal trends may eventually lead to some form of negative rating action".

In November 2012, Fitch further reported that "Malaysia's public finances are a weakness relative to rating peers and offer limited scope for counter-cyclical fiscal stimulus at the current rating level... While this has not hindered the public sector's capacity to contribute to GDP, which grew 5.2 percent year-on-year in the third quarter according to Bank Negara Malaysia Friday, the growing is concerning."

Of biggest concern to Fitch then was "the increasing reliance on off-balance sheet funding could potentially call into question the meaningfulness of the 55 pecent of GDP federal debt ceiling."

The "off-balance-sheet funding refers to Malaysia's penchant to provide of guarantees to government-linked borrowers which does not officially count as federal government debt. In reality, if both official government debt and government guaranteed debt are put together, our debt to GDP ratio will be a much higher and worrying 68.9 percent, as opposed to the official 53.7 percent.

Hence despite the warnings given a year earlier, the Najib administration hasn't taken the necessary steps to correct the fiscal shortcomings in the federal government finances. Instead the reverse happened and As a result, Malaysia's issuance of off-balance sheet debt accelerated to 15.2 percent of GDP by end-2012 from 9 percent at end-2008. This is a drastic increase to nearly RM150 billion in 2012 from RM96.9 billion in 2010.

Failure of Najib's ETP

The above actually points to the failure of Najib's Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), where "Public Finance Reform" was one of the key 'Strategic Reform Initiatives' launched in 2010.

Among the key policies to be put in place are 'Expenditure Control' and 'Transparent Procurement'. The latter includes "eliminating incompetent suppliers/ service providers" and "value management". The ultimate objective was to reduce the government's budget deficit to 3 percent in 2015.

The outcome of the above initiatives however was for the government to channel development expenditure to off-budget measures, to paint a false perception of financial prudence. This is because the off balance sheet financing or contingent liabilities are not reflected as government debt and hence isn't included in the budget deficit calculations.

As an example, despite the RM50 billion MRT project being financed entirely by the government via debt instruments, not a single sen of the borrowings raised are considered official federal government debt despite the guarantees provided. Since such borrowings are excluded from deficit calculations, the official budget deficit figures give a false healthy picture of our public finances.

If the prime minister is really believes that the Fitch warning "is a concern that we share as a government and [the government] would seek to address those concerns", then the most important measure that he must agree to is to recognise all off-balance sheet loans and contingent liabilities as federal government debt in the upcoming Budget.

Only then Malaysians can see the true picture if the Najib administration has the political will to cut down our real budget deficit, instead of just providing a feel-good statistic that does not incorporate hidden debts. Najib does not reform the budgetary process, then we fear the ultimate consequence of not just a "negative outlook" but an actual downgrade of our sovereign ratings.

Stop harassing dog trainer, says Ambiga

Since news of her canine Hari Raya video broke, Maznah Mohd Yusof, or better known as Chetz, has become a household name.

The 38-year-old Muslim dog trainer received death threats, the imam in her neighbourhood allegedly attempted to assault her and the police have arrested her.

She is now being held for investigation under the Penal Code and Sedition Act.

Commenting on this, former Bar Council president S Ambiga expressed concern over the harassment faced by the dog-trainer in the hands of the police.

"I am deeply worried for her safety as well as about the threats she has been receiving," she added.

Ambiga, who is also Bersih 2.0 chairperson, said it was up to the individual whether one agreed or disagreed with the video.

"My concern, however, is related to the over-the-top responses to Maznah's video," she told Media.

On a sarcastic note, Ambiga also noted the expeditious manner in which the police had swung into action over the three-year-old video.

The speed and efficiency shown in this case, she added, were a far cry when dealing with cases of corruption and abuse of power involving ruling politicians.

"This is what disgusts many right-thinking Malaysians," she stressed.

Muhyiddin 'misleading the public'

Ambiga also took a swipe at Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin for jumping the gun on the video controversy by suggesting that it was the work of a non-Muslim.

But she disagreed with the call by certain quarters to probe the deputy prime minister for sedition.

"I am not fan of the Sedition Act. I will not advocate the use of this Act against anyone," she explained.

However, Ambiga said she was appalled that the deputy prime minister made such a provocative statement .

"He has not withdrawn or apologised for it. I find this alarming.

"As the deputy prime minister, he should know that failure to retract an erroneous statement is tantamount to misleading the public," she added.

Far from calming the situation, Ambiga lamented that political leaders were inflaming the situation.

"There is an overwhelming concern among Malaysians... one needs to only look at the events over the past one week or so to know why there is this sense of unease.

"Heartbreaking incidents of violence, murder and the fanning of religious sentiments do not augur well for the future of this nation," she said.

No leadership from Najib

In an obvious reference to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's protracted silence since the conclusion of the 13th general election, Ambiga said the situation was deteriorating due to a lack of leadership.

"It seems like we are adrift with no sense of direction. Our leaders seem more preoccupied with winning their respective party elections.

"How can one win in the party polls by being extreme, unfair, unjust, racist and selective is beyond me, and what does that say about your party?" she asked.

According to Ambiga, since the last general election, the victors were behaving like the losers.

"There is a total absence of leadership. Why do they contest in the elections if they don't want to lead?

"The quality of the cabinet save for one or two members leaves much to be desired but the prime minister keeps quiet and allows the members of this cabinet to speak (on his behalf).

"I find it offensive that we have to wait until after the party elections to see some leadership," she added.

Print 0 46 false false false EN-MY X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0cm; mso-para-margin-right:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}