UK Calls On Malaysia to Accept Election Monitoring And Condemns Fake News and Boundary Laws! A SARAWAK REPORT EXCLUSIVE

 THIS REPORT IS TAKEN DIRECTLY FROM SARAWAK 

REPORT

  

 19 April 2018

Ann Clwyd holds UK FO to account over dealings with Najib

Following a visit to KL the UK Foreign Office Minister Mark Field has made a stinging condemnation of Najb’s latest moves to fix the election and to suppress criticism through his so-called ‘Fake News’ law.

Answering questions tabled at the end of March by the veteran Malaysia-watcher Ann Clwyd MP on Tuesday evening, the Minister, who has responsibility for matters relating to Britain and Malaysia, called on Malaysia to accept external election monitoring in the up-coming election, something the Malaysian Prime Minister has consistently refused to allow.

Although couched in the usual diplomatic language, the responses by the Minister represent an unprecedented put-down by the British Government, which has till this point remained one of Najib’s most solid allies as global corruption scandals have unravelled.

Clwyd had asked whether the British Secretary of State had made representations on the potential effect on freedom of speech of the Fake News law in Malaysia; the effect of the latest gerrymandering of constituencies on the veracity of the general election and what over-all assessment the minister had made of the political situation in Malaysia in the run-up to general elections?

In his response to the first point, Mark Field expressed Britain’s formal concern and disapproval not only over the Fake News law itself, but also the way it was undemocratically forced through in a matter of hours, without meaningful scrutiny or due process.  He went on to pointedly confirm that the UK is working together with other European nations in the EU to monitor the situation closely:

“The UK regularly highlights its firm commitment to freedom of speech and expression. I am concerned about the potential effect that the new Anti-Fake News Bill could have on freedom of expression in Malaysia, and about the fact that this Bill was passed without meaningful public consultation or debate. We are monitoring developments closely, working with EU and other foreign partners and stand ready to make any necessary representations.”

Shunned By The Commonwealth?

Meanwhile, Najib Razak has notably failed to present himself at the key biennial Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in London this week.  The last minute no show means that Malaysia has effectively ruled itself out of taking over as the Chair of the next summit in 2020, which till this point had been expected to take place in KL.  

Foreign Office Minister Mark Field

It represents an enormous blow to Najib, who coverts international recognition, and Sarawak Report has surmised that in the wake of the 1MDB scandal, followed by Najib’s hardline measures to protect himself, the situation had simply become too embarassing for other Commonwealth nations to accept. 

In his second answer, responding to the outrageous re-delineations again rushed through in a violation of due process by Najib, Field revealed that he had himself visited KL the previous week and it seems impossible not to conclude that these matters were not discussed during those meetings.  The outcome appears to have been the decision to drop Najib as the prospective Chair in waiting for CHOGM 2020:

“​On my visit to Malaysia last week, I heard about concerns related to the electoral boundary changes introduced by the Election Commission. We will be monitoring their impact, and have discussed the importance of free and fair elections with the Malaysian government at the highest levels.”

Field went on to reveal that Britain has now formally urged the Malaysian Government to accept external observers, something Najib Razak has doggedly refused to allow, despite persistent requests from the opposition parties and NGO campaigners, in particular the internationally respected clean election group, Bersih:

​”We continue to follow the political situation in Malaysia closely. During my visit to Kuala Lumpur last week, I heard about the recent changes to constituency boundaries and the passing of the Anti-Fake News Bill. I recognise that there are concerns related to both issues. The UK continues to stress the importance of free and fair elections and open and vibrant political debate. We have also encouraged Malaysia to invite external election observers, in advance of the 9 May election. [Answers FCO Mark Field 17th April]

Malaysia’s caretaker government may continue its course for the remainder of this election period, denying the undeniable and criminalising honest reporting and criticism online.

 However, voters need to realise that outside of their propaganda bubble, the rest of the world has got the measure of Najib Razak and blackballed his kleptocracy, presenting very severe consequences of loss of trust in the wider nation were he to persist in power post May 9th.

Other interesting posts:
 http://kluangmanexpress.blogspot.my/

https://youtu.be/_ArLWCl-34g

 https://youtu.be/f2-VwVwIEao

PAS MAY REPLACE MCA & GERAKAN IN BARISAN - POST GE14

PROBLEMS MOUNTING ON THE BN.

Whilst Hadi Awang tries to rid the BN of both MCA and Gerakan, he may be digging his own grave too and in the process do irreparable damage to BN.

Is he taking advantage of Najib's position. 

It is no secret that PAS has struck accord with UMNO at its own expense.

PAS will work as spoiler in Malay seats to split the Malay vote which it assumes will favour UMNO,and that  could have been the case in a number of seats in the country prior to Mahathir throwing his weight behind Harapan.

PAS has also overplayed its importance because its previous victories especially in Perak, Penang, Selangor and even in the other states was not merely on Malay votes but on the non Malay vote in a huge way as  it was in Pakatan. PKR supporters are PKR supporters, moreover the urban Malay does not support the PAS Agenda and more so the Chinese,  in fact many of the non urban Malays too except for the people of Kelantan and some in Trengganu do not subscribe to the PAS agenda.

All moves seems to be wrong.

The support of the Kelantanese has more to do with a tribal mentality, since long before and even after independence the Kelantan Malays who are actually descendants of Yunannese (people of southern China) can trace their ancestry to Yunan and even  Cambodia if they really do DNA testing, and that is a historic fact, these people considered the rest of the Malays from the peninsular as 'Orang Asing,'   as the remaining Malays in the Peninsular had their roots in the Indonesian Islands. Accordingly they voted PAS which had its base in Kelantan.

In the present situation PAS support is not for BN as a whole but only for  UMNO.

Hadi has big plans for himself in the future and so he is willing to sit this one out, assist UMNO at this elections and then come in big time during the next elections possibly before 2022, if he lives that long. If he wins a parliamentary seat which he may not, he is hoping for a ministerial posting of significance as a return favour for his role in helping Najib and that is IF the BN can win.

For any new party to  join Barisan there must be a consensus from all member parties on  admitting the new member, and the parties in his way will be the MCA and the Gerakan that is, if they win their respective seats this time around, if they don't he'll get Najib to shut them up and gain the consensus for PAS to join BN.

For this to happen for PAS, MCA must lose and they'll carry out that operation in a subtle way to ensure that both Gerakan and MCA are nothing but passengers on the BN train, and that too third class passengers, MIC is no threat to no one in the BN, they'll say 'yes' to Najib for everything.

PAS has now set that operation in motion, it has fired the first salvo on none other than the President

Worried?  No where to run?

of the MCA who is already on a very shaky wicket in Bentong.  The PAS candidate  for Pelangai state seat Abdul Hamid Bahatim has openly stated, that Liow Tiong Lai will not win the Bentong seat this time around, he has implied that PAS will nto support Liow,  Pelangai is one of four seats under the Bentong constituency.

Other PAS sources tell us that this is actually a conflicting statement, and that we  can expect this from a good number of PAS candidates as they prepare to get rid of Hadi Awang and his gang from PAS after the elections, holding them responsible for the PAS performance at the 2018 elections.

Both the MCA and the Gerakan look doomed even before it begins, and both Najib and Hadi have overplayed and over estimated  the importance of PAS,  a party that used to lose its deposit in most of the seats it stood for in the states of Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, Penang and Pahang. The East Malaysian states was a no, no territory for this party that once claimed to be "God's Party."

Najib in his desperation is trying a lot of things, and each thing he tries something new it is really counter productive.

PAS like the BN was counting on a poor voter turnout by having the elections on a Wednesday, in fact initially most Malaysians felt that way.

Now more than ever more and more Malaysian are determined to come home to vote. One young Malaysian who had fallen for the "Undi Rosak"  and  was determined not to come over with his wife to vote because he said, "there is really no choice"  he has now changed his mind.

This is what that young Malaysian is now saying, " this is most certainly an attempt to 'steal the elections', Najib clearly knows his chances are better with a poor voter turnout, and it was proven so in Teluk Intan at the last General elections. This is cheating, and I hate cheats,  I have now changed my mind I am coming back and most certainly so," and this voter is working in East Java.

Crowds at Harapan ceramas in the rural heartland of Malaysia now taking place are proof of the peoples want for change, there is no money being dished out here , there are no big project talks, there is only talk of gross mismanagement by this government that has caused Malaysians to become poorer and there are huge and eager crowds, especially to hear Tun Dr. Mahathir, what is even more surprising is the large number of Malays at Lim Kit Siang's ceramas. Malaysians are looking united, the non Malays are cheering Mahathir and the Malays are cheering Lim Kit Siang.

MALAYSIANS HAVE GONE POORER OVER THE YEARS.
What most of the ordinary Malaysians fail to realise is that they are earning much less now then they did five years ago, the value of their ringgit has shrunken compared to its value on the same  day that is 17th April 2013 (five yeas ago), then  the Malaysian Ringgit stood at 3.030499 to the US$.

Today it is 3.88756 at time of writing and that is a difference of 28.2 %, even if your wages rose by 6 percent annually during that period you would have received a 25 percent increase over the years, that is 3.2 percent short that means you are actually earning 3.2 percent than you did in 2013, and this is further compounded by the rise in price of essential goods, the 6 percent GST,  the phenomenal increase in the price of petrol, the rise in standard of living the impossible to purchase price on housing the rise in rentals and more. \

All Malaysian have actually got poorer and over the years with even more taxes to come if you give the BN a mandate we'll all land much much more poorer, the GST will certainly go up again because that is the Najib model, he is dependent on the GST, and yet at the same time he has not given the people an account fo where the GST has been spent and how it is benefiting us.

Hospital charges have gone up, medicine is expensive with some hospitals asking patients to go buy their own medicines, price of rice and other essentials have gone up and all he'll tell you is that,  "no the price has not gone up it is just that the subsidy has been removed," but what about the GST what has it done for the ordinary Malaysian.

Now to add insult to injury we have just discovered that this government may have waived millions in GST from the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) project handled by the China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) a contract signed by Najib for which there have been accusations that the amount of money agreed upon for this contract is phenomenal. 
In today's Malaysiakini report Amanah vice- president Husham Musa has urged Putrajaya to reveal the amount of GST collection it has waived for CCCC.

At  the end of the last elections Najib asked one very impertinent question, he asked, "Apa lagi Cina mahu,"  he was referring to the Malaysian Chinese wanted, they wanted nothing other than to exercise their right to vote, a right they had given the Barisan over many years till he Badawi and Njib misused their position and did not govern as expected. 

Now I think he was talking about China, so after asking "Apa lagi Cina mahu?"  he has given them the  GST I suppose.  Not to  our Malaysian Chinese they are our brothers, he was talking about the China Chinese and I am just wondering if they gave him anything in return for the GST waiver.