Zam sindir Khairy

Kenyataan,
Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin,

di sidang akhbar
11 Mac 2008

Tsunami politik telah mematahkan suatu percubaan untuk mengambil alih kepimpinan Negara oleh golongan muda yang dibuat secara terurus dan terancang menerusi Pilihan Raya Umum ke-12 untuk perubahan politik secara drastik.

Ini adalah kerana tuhan masih sayang kepada kepimpinan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dan juga Timbalannya Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak dan juga UMNO.

Maka itu, tsunami politik ini adalah satu hikmat yang memberikan pengajaran yang cukup besar kepada kepimpinan Negara dan golongan ini.

Apa yang perlu dilakukan oleh semua ahli UMNO sekarang ini ialah memberikan sokongan kepada Presiden UMNO, Datuk Seri Abdullah dan juga Timbalannya Datuk Seri Mohd Najib, untuk kembali mengukuhkan UMNO dan meletakkan UMNO kepada jalan yang benar, yang selama ini sentiasa mengimbangi pengorbanan golongan tua dan inspirasi serta idealisme golongan generasi muda.

Sekarang bukan masa untuk menuding jari atau menuduh sesiapa atas apa yang telah berlaku, tetapi keutamaan perlu diberikan kepada usaha untuk menjernihkan suasana dan mengembalikan kepercayaan rakyat kepada UMNO.

Jadi ditoleh ke belakang dalam sejarah Malaya dan Malaysia, setiap tragedi politik yang menimpa UMNO dan rakyat, ianya membawa hikmah, membuka fikiran dan penggemblengan semula kepimpinan UMNO dan kesedaran rakyat bagi muhasabah diri dan meletakkan semula kepimpinan UMNO kepada jalan yang dihasratkan oleh rakyat, sekalipun ianya adalah sesuatu yang amat berat untuk dilakukan.

Sesungguhnya saya percaya, kepimpinan UMNO ini adalah lebih mementingkan negara dan rakyat dan menganggap tanggungjawab ini adalah lebih besar dari kepentingan diri, keluarga dan juga harta.

Sebagai konklusinya, bagi saya apa yang berlaku dalam Pilihan Raya Umum ke-12 ini merupakan satu nikmat dan rahmat yang amat besar kepada masa hadapan negara, dan secara khususnya kepada UMNO.

(Berikut berita di halaman dua Utusan Malaysia, 12 Mac 2008)

Cubaan golongan muda ambil alih kepimpinan gagal

KUALA LUMPUR 11 Mac – Bekas Menteri Penerangan, Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin hari ini mendedahkan ada golongan muda telah membuat percubaan untuk mengambil alih kepimpinan negara secara terurus dan terancang melalui Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-12.

Bagaimanapun, menurut beliau, cubaan untuk membuat perubahan secara drastik tersebut gagal berikutan tsunami politik yang berlaku pada pilihan raya umum itu.

Zainuddin yang diminta menjelaskan dakwaannya itu bagaimanapun enggan mengulas lanjut. Sebaliknya beliau meminta wartawan jangan membuat provokasi terhadapnya.

“Saya tidak akan jelaskan dengan lebih lanjut, biarlah pembaca (orang ramai) menilai sendiri kenyataan saya ini,” katanya pada sidang akhbar terakhirnya di Kementerian Penerangan di sini hari ini.

Zainuddin menjelaskan, tsunami politik itu yang menyaksikan Barisan Nasional (BN) gagal memperoleh majoriti dua pertiga adalah satu hikmah yang memberikan pengajaran yang cukup besar kepada kepimpinan negara dan golongan muda tersebut.

Katanya, Tuhan masih sayang kepada kepimpinan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dan juga timbalannya, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Beliau memberitahu, apa yang perlu dilakukan oleh semua ahli UMNO sekarang adalah memberikan sokongan kepada Presiden UMNO dan timbalannya.

Katanya, sokongan itu penting bagi mengukuhkan kembali UMNO dan meletakkan parti utama kaum Melayu itu pada landasan yang betul.

“Selama ini parti UMNO sentiasa mengimbangi pengorbanan golongan tua dan inspirasi serta idealisme generasi muda.

“Sekarang bukan masa untuk menuding jari atau menuduh sesiapa atas apa yang telah berlaku, tetapi keutamaan perlu diberikan kepada usaha menjernihkan suasana dan mengembalikan kepercayaan rakyat kepada UMNO,” katanya.

Ketika ditanya mengenai kekalahannya di Parlimen Sungai Petani, Zainuddin berkata, beliau kalah kerana para pengundi Cina tidak ramai keluar mengundi.

“Saya mengakui kekalahan saya juga disebabkan saya tidak banyak berkempen di kawasan tersebut,” katanya.

Namun, beliau menggunakan pendekatan tersendiri iaitu bertemu rakyat secara lebih dekat bagi mengetahui permasalahan mereka.

PM a 'lovable teddy bear'

Among those missteps, analysts said, Mr Abdullah ignored Malaysia's widening poverty gap and increasing cost of living. He appointed his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin as an adviser. And when the southern state of Johor was struggling after floods in 2006, Mr Abdullah was in Perth to inaugurate his brother's curry restaurant.

M'sian PM 'failed to gauge public anger'

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA'S prime minister may have made his biggest political blunder by calling early elections that only exposed public anger over simmering racial tensions and his perceived missteps.

Mr Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sworn in on Monday for a new five-year term in office, following a stinging defeat by his ruling coalition in general elections. Mr Abdullah is rejecting calls to step down, but analysts say Saturday's poll results will place Mr Abdullah under pressure to resign.

"He misread the signs. A lot of people were voting against Badawi," said Mr Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, a human rights lawyer and political commentator. "He became the face of the mismanagement of the country."

Mr Abdullah's National Front coalition lost its two-thirds majority in the 222-member parliament for the first time in four decades, winning only a simple majority of 140 seats.
The opposition gained control of five of Malaysia's 13 states and a third of its parliament in the biggest electoral upset in the country's history.

The results were seen as a verdict against a string of perceived missteps by Mr Abdullah, 68, and his failure to fulfill promises made ahead of the 2004 elections, which the National Front won in its biggest victory ever.

Among those missteps, analysts said, Mr Abdullah ignored Malaysia's widening poverty gap and increasing cost of living. He appointed his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin as an adviser. And when the southern state of Johor was struggling after floods in 2006, Mr Abdullah was in Perth to inaugurate his brother's curry restaurant.

Mr Abdullah also has faced criticism for remarrying less than two years after his first wife died of cancer and engaging in public displays of affection with his new wife.

'At a time when the country is crumbling around us we have to watch his lovey-dovey going-ons with his wife,' said Mr Malik.

"People don't want to see a lovable teddy bear. They want a tough leader." Mr Abdullah's next big test will come later this year when he faces the general assembly of the United Malays National Organisation, the largest party in the National Front coalition. A date has not yet been set.

"The reality is that there will be tremendous pressure within Umno for him (Abdullah) to step down," said Ms Bridget Welsh of the Johns Hopkins University, a Southeast Asia expert who was in Malaysia to monitor the polls.

Former longtime leader Mahathir Mohamad already has called for Mr Abdullah's resignation, saying he had 'apparently made the wrong choice' when he hand-picked Mr Abdullah to succeed him in 2003.

Dr Mahathir's son Mukhriz, an active member of Umno, joined the call. 'The message is clear from the results of the elections. That's the voice of the people. We have to respect it. It is a very humbling experience and points to dissatisfaction of the prime minister's leadership,' he said.

The Front's formula for success all these years was simple. It is a coalition of 11 small parties and three major ones that represent Malaysia's main ethnic groups - the majority Muslim Malays who make up 60 per cent of the 27 million population, the Chinese at 25 per cent and Indians at 8 per cent.

Traditionally, Malays have voted for Umno, the Chinese for the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Indians for the Malaysian Indian Congress.

The power-sharing arrangement has worked as long as the three races believed only their parties could look after their respective communities' interests. But the minorities have become increasingly disappointed with their parties.

The Chinese and Indians are angry about an affirmative action programme known as the New Economic Policy that has given Malays preference in jobs, education, business, housing, finance and religion since 1971.

They also worry that their religious rights are being eroded by the government. Several Indian temples were destroyed by authorities last year, purportedly for illegal construction, and many courts presiding over religious disputes ruled in favor of Muslims.

Ordinary Malays also are unhappy, many charging that the benefits of the New Economic Policy are being reaped only by rich and well-connected Malays.

Repressive police tactics have further aggravated racial tensions. In October, officers dispersed thousands of people with tear gas and water cannons at a street protest for electoral and judicial reforms.

A month later, Indian demonstrators were chased away by police when they held a rally to protest discrimination. Five of their leaders were jailed under a law that allows indefinite detention without trial.

These tensions were tapped by the opposition parties, which for the first time set aside their ideological differences and came together to pose a united challenge. They countered National Front propaganda in government-controlled media with campaigns on the Internet.

In the end, the Indian and Chinese minorities abandoned the National Front in droves. MCA, the Chinese party, won only 15 of the 40 seats it contested, and the Indian MIC won three out of nine.

Umno won only 78 seats compared to 109 in 2004.

Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim campaigned on a platform that urged people to look outside race-based politics. Although the opposition parties are also identified by race, they have agreed to build a multiracial alliance where all races will be treated equally.

'What is crucial now is how the opposition works as a coalition,' Ms Welsh said. 'The mandate given to them has created a national opposition for the first time.' -- AP

Tahniah! Tahniah! Tahniah!

Saya tak sangka, keputusannya membingungkan dan sama sekali luar jangka. Bagaimanapun ...

TAHNIAH

TAHNIAH

TAHNIAH

Editorial saya tentang gejala ini -- satu kenyataan tentang kejutan dan kebingungan...

Islam & Pluralisme (himpunan)

Berikut catatan blog, berita, surat pembaca & sedikit latar belakang isu pengharaman buku, khususnya korban terkini Islam & Pluralisme. Halaman ini boleh juga dicapai melalui majalah web REPUBLIK KATA.

Forum bahas larangan buku baru
Malaysia Bodoh.com
Forum MISG Online
Forum Tempur Politik Maya KMU

Siaran media
>>> "Islam & Pluralisme" diharamkan: MEGC minta penjelasan (5 Feb)
>>> Maklumat asas buku "Islam & Pluralisme" (5 Feb)

Blog (bahasa Melayu)
Kecek-kecek soal pengharaman Islam & Pluralisme (31 Jan)
Bila Muslim tidak kompeten (1 Feb)
Hadhari haram (1 Feb)
Sial, kenapa? (1 Feb)
Di sebalik pengharaman ‘Islam & Pluralisme’ (2 Feb)
Kempen Sapere Aude! - Jangan Haram Buku 1 (2 Feb)

Pengharaman buku: Satu lagi projek Islam Hadhari! (3 Feb)
Pupuk tradisi ilmiah, bukan sikap bebal (3 Feb) oleh Anwar Ibrahim
Perlu haram buku? (4 Feb)
Buku haram (4 Feb)

Blog (English)
Banned books in Malaysia (Daniel Pipes, 29 Jan)
11 more books on Islam banned (30 Jan)
On the dangerous topic of Islam and haram (30 Jan)

The opposite efffect of book-banning ( 1 Feb)
Book banning: Another project by Islam Hadhari! (3 Feb)
So, we are more FREE? (Rocky Bru, 7 Feb)

Protest against Malaysian book ban (31 Jan) must read

Berita/news/surat/letters
11 buku Islam diharamkan kerana fakta menyeleweng (29 Jan)
Ministry bans 11 books about Islam (29 Jan)
Malaysia bans 11 books on Islam (30 Jan)

11 books banned: What hadhari? (Merdekareview.com, 4 Feb)
Kenapa perlu KKDN haramkan buku? (Harakahdaily.net, surat, 6 Feb)
Book ban: the two faces of Islam Hadhari (Malaysiakini.com, letter, 11 Feb)
Book ban: who are we to question gov't? (Malaysiakini.com, letter, 13 Feb)

Di mana boleh dicari? Want to get a copy?
Toko Buku Faisal
Silverfish Books
Institut Kefahaman Islam Malaysia (IKIM)

Bacaan latar/background reading
Senarai Penerbitan Haram (KKDN - senarai lengkap tahun 2000-2008)
Tujuh buku diharamkan kerana sentuh kesucian Islam (12 Nov 2007)
KDN Haram 18 Penerbitan Cemar Islam (18 Jan 2007)
Jawatankuasa Penapisan Peraku Haram 11 Buku, 4 CD (16 Feb 2006)
Jawatankuasa Penapisan Penerbitan Berunsur Islam (1 Jul 2005)
Bahagian Penyelidikan (Larangan Buku) JAKIM

>>> Wawancara bersama Al-Mustaqeem: Gerakan reformisme, kebebasan pendapat & pendidikan Islam (Jun 2007)
>>> Authorities ban films, books, television talkshow (Feb 2007)
>>> They Still Ban Books and Shackle Minds? (May 2005)
>>> Manuscripts Don't Burn (Bloggers Against Book Banning)
>>> Malaysia: Restrictive Laws in a Parliamentary Democracy (Amnesty International, 1999)

Catatan isu pengharaman buku di blog ini (komentar)
Fiqh Perempuan (15 Nov 2007)
Kamasutra (19 Jan 2007)
Mayat (buku) (19 Jun 2006)