Ungkapan Ketuanan Melayu: Sesuai atau Tidak

Below is my opinion that was emailed to Utusan Malaysia on 29 November, 2008 regarding the issue of "Ketuanan Melayu".

Saya setuju dengan gesaan Presiden GPMS, Datuk Reezal Merican supaya semua pihak lebih rasional dalam isu penggunaan ungkapan "Ketuanan Melayu".

Ungkapan ini bertujuan untuk mengangkat mertabat dan darjat perjuangan orang Melayu tanpa memperhambakan kaum lain dalam proses pembangunan negara dan proses penggemilangan bangsa Melayu. Tujuan ini bukanlah sesuatu yang ganjil, setiap kaum atau bangsa turut mahu mengangkat mertabat dan darjat perjuangan mereka.

Yang menjadi punca perdebatan ialah perspektif yang berbeza di pihak yang lain terhadap konotasi dari ungkapan Ketuanan Melayu ini. Di pihak yang lain, mereka berpendapat ungkapan ini membawa konotasi hubungan tuan dengan hamba - kalau ada tuan kemungkinannya ada hamba.

Jika kita memahami tujuan ungkapan, adalah tidak sesuai bagi sebarang pihak untuk mengatakan ungkapan ini tidak relevan.

Tetapi, adakah ia sesuai dalam sebuah negara pelbagai kaum? Adalah sukar untuk menerangkan tujuan ungkapan ini kepada semua kaum yang lain supaya mereka tidak terasa akan diperhambakan. Perlukah kita menunggu peredaran masa supaya akhirnya ungkapan ini boleh diterima selepas bertahun-tahun memberi penerangan?

Misalnya, di laman web wikipedia yang terkenal di seluruh dunia “Ketuanan Melayu” telah diberi konotasi yang negatif dan takrifan yang kurang tepat.

Sepanjang pengetahuan saya, sebelum tahun 1980an ungkapan ini tidak wujud. Ungkapan ini adalah suatu ungkapan yang baru.

Adakah terdapat ungkapan lain yang tetap mempunyai tujuan yang sama tetapi tidak mempunyai konotasi negatif untuk kaum-kuam yang lain. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka boleh mengambil langkah proaktif untuk menangani isu hangat terhadap ungkapan ini dengan mencadangkan ungkapan lain.

Negara kita amnya sangat toleran, isu hangat ini perlu diselesai dengan semangat kenegaraan yang rasional

ACA Report Made Over Development In George Town World Heritage Site

I had made a report to the ACA, the Bernama report below essentially tells the story.

PENANG, Nov 27 (Bernama)

The Tanjong Division Gerakan Youth today lodged a report with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) over what it claimed to be the Penang government's hasty approval of a high-rise project in the World Heritage Site buffer zone in George Town without the knowledge of Unesco's World Heritage Committee.

Its head, H'ng Khoon Leng, in his written report to the Penang ACA director Latifah Md Yatim, sought an investigation into whether there had been abuse of authority by certain quarters in the approval of the 23-storey condominium project of the Low Yat Group just days before George Town was declared a World Heritage Site, along with Melaka, in July.

He also expressed regret that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng had indicated as reported according to his statement Wednesday that he was prepared to forgo three hotel projects approved earlier for the buffer zone if the condominium project, to be developed by Bintang Holdings, had to be cancelled.

H'ng said Lim said that "if the condominium project is not allowed, then all the other three projects should not be allowed either. It is all or nothing". (reported by NST, Pg 12 in a telephone interview with LGE)

The other three projects are the Rice Miller Boutique Hotel, the Boustead Royale Bintang Hotel and an extension of the Eastern & Oriental Hotel, all of which were approved by the state planning committee early last year.

The Unity, Culture, Arts and Heritage Ministry has given the Penang government one month from Nov 24 to review the projects in the George Town buffer zone in a move to prevent Unesco’s withdrawal of the city’s World Heritage Site status.

Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal had said that he had asked the state government to do several things in the one month, including asking the contractors to ensure that the construction did not have any adverse impact on the site.

A buffer zone of a World Heritage Site is an area around the site which has been identified to protect the visual setting of the site. Development proposals within the buffer zone will be considered for their impact upon the site.

The award of the World Heritage Site status to George Town and Melaka is inter-linked such that any action in either city which results in the withdrawal of the status would automatically affect the other as well.-- BERNAMA

Multi Language Street Name Sign?

First and foremost, the actual aim of DAP is not to promote tourism thru various languages, it was originally a Chinese chauvinistic action by them.

In DAP pre-GE12 gimmick, they hope to win the support of Chinese Penangites by proposing Chinese road signboards. In July 2008, a group of Gerakan Youth members led by Dr Thor Teong Ghee did a tit-for-tat action to redicule DAP into fulfilling their "impossible" promise - putting up additional ONLY Chinese road signboard in Penang.

Luckily, the granting of the World Heritage status by UNESCO to Penang enable a WAY OUT for DAP, by subtlely twisting their originally chauvinistic promise of only Chinese signboard, they CHANGED their proposal into having street name signs in various languages to hide their real aim, intent and proposal. DAP is actually the "leopard that had changed it spots"(refer to today Star, Sat 22, 2008 to understand what I meant).

Eventually, I believe the implementation of the multi languages street name signs may be successful due to the fear of Gerakan Youth monitoring and pressure.

The notes below are taken from my press conference today on Multiple Language Road Signs (or Is It Dual Language Road Signs?)

• As expected the Penang Copycat government copied the previous dual language road sign standard of having English as the subsidiary or second language (see sample pix for Lorong Lumut, a side road off Acheen street). The copycat government solution to the “multiple” language road signs was to replace the smaller English road name positioning on heritage road sign with other language.




• Instead, we have the same street with various different signboards using different subsidiary language situated at different locations. For example, at Acheen Street, the street name with Arabic is at the Carnarvon St end, the Mandarin version is at the junction with Cannon St while the Tamil version is at the junction with Victoria St. Unfortunately, this is DAP level of capability and it took them many months cracking their heads to come up with their best solution.




• However, this is still a dual language road signs, it is not a multiple language road signs. It is nothing new. Dual language road signs exist in other states too.




• In order to have the other non-English subsidiary languages incorporated into this new road sign, it would have meant revising the guideline on road sign board. In revising, they should have also resize the board to enable some additional subsidiary languages to be used although with a smaller font size in respect to the font size of the National Language.




• Where is the original road sign with the English translation? For example, Lebuh Acheh is well-known as Acheen Street, it is missing from the new road sign. I search high and low for the English one, it had been removed. It shows a serious lack of incompetency, another sloppy job as the Asean Culture Centre and Kings of Tennis. Luckily, it is not yet an expensive cost.




• English should be on all the heritage road sign boards. English is one of the foremost international language.




• The peculiarities of the Penang heritage roads require special understanding and handling. The State government should ensure that this is not done half-heartedly and corrupt the localized names by over-simplifying this task. This issue started as a DAP political gimmick to get Chinese votes, Tanjong Youth hope that eventually good results will come out of this due to pressure from Gerakan Youth and others.




• The heritage road's historical information board (by PHT)also need to be improved. It is look like a temporary board and is not attractive. It is more effective in promoting and sharing the history of the heritage roads. However, content-wise it is a very good effort.




• Instead of only the relevant officers and YBs, half the Pakatan Rakyat Aduns attended yesterday GRAND OPENING CEREMONY of the “Lebuh Acheh” road signs. It is shameful that this is the best they can do and the best they can gloat about after nearly 9 months in power. There are many more important and urgent task ahead for the State Government especially maintaining and boosting the economic living of the rakyat. I hope they will not want to be called the ROAD SIGN GOVERNMENT (Kerajaan Jalanan) in the future.

Wireless@Penang - Lack of Political Will and Vision (Part 1)

The action of the Penang state government to bulldoze thru the Wireless@Penang shows a clear lack of political will and vision. Lim Guan Eng and co. had jumped in and join the wireless broadband bandwagon advocated by the Federal government.

Trying to be the leading state in Malaysia for the implementation of Wimax demostrates this lack of political will and vision - it had easily succumb to the pressure of the profiteers, etc.

This lack of political will and vision signify that the DAP government is no better that the BN government. In fact, it is weaker, while BN propose, the DAP or Pakatan Rakyat merely followed foolishly.

This government lack the ability to generate, to invent, to create and to formulate new ideas and policies.

It's political mandate will be short.....

P.S: I attended the Wireless@Penang forum, it was merely another "sandiwara". If the forum was genuine, then expert opponents to telcos and wifi should also be invited. It was a lame effort to hide the government unaccountability and lack of
transparency.

Big Bang Bomb - Kings of Tennis

On 11th of November 2008, I scheduled a press conference with the media on 12th November 2008 regarding the Kings of Tennis event. The purpose were to urge the Penang State Government to extend full support to the organizers and to urge Malaysians to come out and give this world class event its full support.

As a Penangnite (politics is secondary on this), I was concerned after reading the postings and comments in various blogs especially HC Foo's Tennis Blog and after reading an article regarding the lack of support from the Penang State Government in the Star.

Unfortunately, our original intention was not to be. It was already too late, instead it became a press conference solely to criticize the Penang State Government. The report in Sun newspaper in more accurate while Star reports of what I actually said was not accurate at all, however it is irrelevant now.

The main reason for criticizing the State Government was because its a norm to provide FULL support towards tourism event in the past. In the past, it was a usual practice to have meetings with all relevant government departments, NGOs, etc to ensure the success of tourism events. It was also a norm for the previous State Government to assist in the promotion and securing of sponsorship.

Anyway, now it became a political issue. Penang Gerakan Youth handed over a memorandum with the following questions to the political secretary of Lim Guan Eng, at the compound of the State Legislative Assembly this morning.

1. On Sunday, 9^th November 2008 as reported in the Star, the organizers complained that there was a lack of support from the DAP State Government. Did the DAP State Government gave an endorsement of full support to the organizer?

2. Was there any written contract or verbal contract between the DAP State Government and organizers?

3. Did the State Government confirms officially that Penang is willing to be the host state and if yes, when did the government confirmed its willingness to be a host state?

4. If the DAP State Government confirmed its participation as the host state and give its full endorsement, what steps and actions were taken by the DAP Penang State Government to ensure the success of this world class event?

5. Realizing the recent failure of the ASEAN Culture Centre event, why did the DAP State Government continue to took a lackadaisical attitude towards promotion of tourism events such as the Kings of Tennis?

6. What is the estimated cost to repair all the damages to the Esplanade field and when will the repairs be completed?

7. If MPPP failed to recover compensation from the organizers for the restoration of Esplanade field, will the DAP State Government provides the necessary fund to bail out from this debacle?

8. On what ground, the DAP Government waived the full RM2000000 bank guarantee needed for the organizers to set up structures at the Esplanade?

9. Why was the RM200000 rental for the usage of Esplanade field not paid? Did the State Government waive it?

10. According to the MPPP President, YDP Dato’ Zainal Rahim, as reported in various newspapers, he is baffled and said that MPPP never approved the use of Esplanade field and the construction of the tennis stadium. If so, who gave the approval and permission to use the Esplanade field and allow the construction of the tennis stadium?

11. What are the current criteria use by the DAP State Government to consider events for endorsement? In view of these shameful failures, will the DAP State Government established new guidelines and criteria to prevent such reoccurrences?

12. What remedial and corrective actions will the DAP State Governments take to restore the damage reputation of Penang as a venue to host international events caused by the failure of The ASEAN Culture Centre and the Kings of Tennis events?