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The Year in Pictures

A look back at 2008, with commentary by Times photo-
graphers.

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Israel's Deadly Assault on Gaza

Pictures: Spectrum

Compelling images from 2008, as published in The Sunday Times Magazine

• World in 2008

  Dangerous times

  Simon Tisdall: It was a year in which we moved closer to the abyss
  

Malaysia's International Business Environment 1984

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Assessments and predictions of Malaysia's political climate made at conference of "International Business Environment" in April 1984 at Magdalen College,Oxford University.

Malaysia:

Malaysia must still be regarded as one of the more stable members of ASEAN.It is prosperous and, despite the effects of the global recession, is likely to become more so in the later 1980s and 1990s.

Nevertheless there are constitutional, religious and socio-economic problems to face.None pose an immediate threat to the country's relative stability; but, as with any multi-racial, multi-lingual and predominantly Islamic nation with a wide gulf between rich and poor, conditions exist for long term tension.

The country's medium term outlook is dominated by three major concerns:

--firstly, the delicate constitutional balance between elected politicians and the Sultans.There are likely to be continuing conflicts between progressive democrats and those who believe that certain powers should remain with the traditional rulers;

--secondly, the recent rapid growth in the influence of Islam overlaps the constitutional struggles.The Islamic movement is notionally headed by the Sultans and other traditional rulers.Decisions which cause affront to the Sultans could inflame Islamic passions already smouldering under the influence of global Islamic revival.

--thirdly, there is a long term threat to Malaysia's comparative serenity stemming from the complex and ambitious economic reorganization launched in 1971, the New Economic Policy.The NEP has its main target a massive increase in public ownership by the Malay (or bumiputra) community.By 1990, the NEP architects say, bumiputra participation in the economy should be at least 30%--a target which non-Malay critics say is too high.But the firm implementation of the policy suggests that some of the targets will be realized.After 1990, though, any further favouring of the bumiputras might exacerbate tensions between the racial groups--a spectre which, since the 1969 race riots in Kuala Lumpur, remains at the back of all Malaysian ruler's mind.

Cut the theatrics,Anwar,and let Malaysians get on with their live.

Cut the theatrics, Anwar, and let Malaysians get on with their live

By : Tunku Abdul Aziz

IT seems to me that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is suffering from paranoid delusions. His preoccupation with what he sees as political conspiracy against him is doing his reputation and credibility, such as it is, enormous damage.

To compound the growing cynicism about his version of events, he has not, to date, been able to produce any verifiable evidence to support his contention.

As far as I am concerned, and for all practical purposes, his claim of victimisation at the evil hands of the authorities is just so much political posturing, and has to be viewed, sadly, as a ploy to gain sympathy for his cause and confuse the gullible in our midst.

And there are many who see a conspirator in every nook and corner, in much the same way that Americans, at the height of McCarthyism, looked under the bed before retiring for the night, half expecting to find a communist lurking there.

While Anwar expects the highest standards of proof in others, he is somehow both careless and cavalier about his own. He has made the preposterous accusation that the charge of sodomy brought against him by his former aide is part of a diabolically clever plot to stop his prime ministerial ambitions dead in their tracks.
That, too, must remain a matter for conjecture unless it can be proved otherwise. Many Malaysians await Anwar’s irrefutable evidence with bated breath.

Does he not realise that many people can, and will, draw their own conclusions about the real reason behind his persistent refusal to give his blood for the purpose of a DNA test?

Let us get that over and done with so that the police can make a quick determination as to whether or not he had been maliciously accused of something he is innocent of.

Readers will no doubt recall that when he was in custody 10 years ago, he accused the authorities of administering arsenic to poison him.

All very dramatic, and the world was understandably aghast and shocked by that revelation.

Independent tests done in Australia, however, proved negative. Anwar showed absolutely no remorse about his having blackened his country’s good name and reputation.

On the premise that there is one law for all, no one should reasonably expect normal police criminal investigation procedures to be set aside or compromised on the spurious ground of a lack of trust in the police. What is the evidence for this?

Anwar, for all his political savvy, now runs the risk of being likened to “the boy who cried wolf” — once too often.

He should submit himself voluntarily to the DNA test, and if need be, under an independent expert observer group if this would help.

The police have been more accommodating in his case than I have seen in some others. And if he is innocent of the charge against him, there is “nothing to fear, but fear itself”.

Conspiracy or no, even Anwar must know that the devil is in the detail: how does he propose to seize power except by resorting to unprincipled political machinations and manipulations?

He has to show that he has not totally abandoned his moral and ethical principles and this is the only way that he will ever recover the moral and intellectual high ground that he once occupied.

The moral support of right thinking people everywhere that he could at one time take for granted is beginning to wear thin.

What has happened to the mass exodus to his camp of ethically deficient political malcontents from The Land Below The Wind, across the South China Sea, that he predicted with an almost messianic zeal and prophetic certainty to help him topple the government and transform the nation?

He has done our Sabah politicians grave injury to their reputation. They have proved that they stand by certain personal values and standards of ethical behaviour.

I cannot imagine anything baser and more grotesque than attempting to corrupt and seduce perfectly decent and honourable parliamentarians to betray the trust of the voters who had put them there in the first place to represent them in their constituencies.

What kind of message is Anwar sending to the people of this country, and in particular to the young people now beginning to take an interest in political issues?

Dislodge the government by all means, if this is your purpose in life, but there is a time and place as provided under our electoral process.

The place is the ballot box, and the time is the 13th general election.

This is all part of our democratic system and what business have any of us to bring about a change of administration outside of the legal electoral framework?

I am well aware of the opposition song-and-dance about what they claim to be a defective electoral system before every election. But this constant refrain about the unfairness of it all is muted, now that the same defective process that they used to vent their spleen on with demonic vehemence has catapulted them into power in five states.

I suppose even they must now admit that it has not been that bad, after all, for those who were not expected to pick more than a few crumbs off the floor.

Anwar has made great play of his having to remove his clothes for his medical examination and implied that he was being singled out for special treatment.

I am assured by my doctor friends that it is normal procedure for certain types of examination. Many of us have been through this and we were none the worse for wear.

In my own case, on my visit to Israel two years ago, I was asked very politely to remove all my clothes by airport security.

More than at any time in my entire life, faced with the prospect of having to bare all, and not even paid for it in front of total strangers, I remembered my mother, thinking how right she had been to remind my brother and I always to wear clean underpants!

Like Anwar, I did not like the strip act one little bit, but unlike him, I did not kick up a fuss and neither did I call a press conference to denounce this “barbaric” practice against a senior United Nations official which was what I was at the time.

If I had been gripped by paranoia, I suppose I would have seen the whole exercise as being specially devised to humiliate me, a Muslim.

It was a security requirement and I respected their right to do everything possible in the interests of their country’s security.

Anwar should desist from involving the international community in what is essentially a simple case. He somehow feels that the United States, the European Union and Japan should fight a proxy war against his country to shield him from the due process of law of his country.

I do not claim, naturally, to speak for other Malaysians, but there are people I know personally who are beginning to suspect his motives. It is poetic justice.

We must all take responsibility for our actions, and if we feel that we have been defamed or otherwise unfairly accused, we should place ourselves in the hands and at the mercy of the courts.

Anwar should submit himself to the country’s criminal justice system like the rest of his fellow Malaysians and lead by example.

He is, after all, according to his supporters, a prime minister-in-waiting. I hope they are not holding their breath.

We are all getting a little sick and tired of the “Anwar factor” that is turning out to be an absolutely unnecessary distraction at a time when we need to get on with our lives

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UMNO:A Ship Without Rudder

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Is UMNO a political party or a family business or some kind of monarchy system where retiring leaders can appoint their own successors to take over their positions.

Why not abolish the party elections and let the new system takes over and allow everyone from the President down the line to branch chief to nominate their own successors.IT WOULD BE GOOD FOR THE PARTY as there is no need to have an AGM and waste money time and again to conduct its annual affair.

First to the fore was the Prime Minister and President of the party who named his deputy Najib Tun Razak as his successor but needs 2 years for Najib to understudy him before he can confidentally hands over the baton to him.Najib has yet to reach a level of competency to be prime minister.

Than something even more absurd came out of the coconut shell a couple of days ago.Former Minister of Trade and Industry and Wanita Chief of the party Rafidah Aziz announced that her successor is Sharizat Abdul Jalil and that she would be handing over to her in mid 2009, but first, following in the footsteps of the Prime Minister, she must contest in the party elections in December, just six months before she hands over the job. It shows that Sharizat is wee bit smarter than Najib, needs only six months to understudy her boss.

Well, they say great minds think alike, only fools differ.I am not sure whether this is still applicable in today's modern and technological era.It is probably redundant because as we all know the world has progressed much due to people wanting to be different.The scientists,engineers,doctors and most every profession in this world have people that necessitate them to be different from his fellow men to achieve greater height in new discoveries and inventions.

It appears that UMNO has become directionless.It is unable to reinvent itself or make sacrifices for salient changes.It's like a ship that has a captain and a compass but lost its rudder in a storm and drifting aimlessly towards no known direction.

Do you really need to stand for an election just to hold the position for six months? The great minds that think alike didn't see that the fools that differ can read the minds of insincerity and self-servitude. How can the rank and file in the party be enlightened to be servile to party principles and democratic process when the heads apathetically show total disregard for its compliance.

The use of thuggery and violence in jockeying for position has become appallingly vicious.

In Perak a branch committee member was clobbered with a golf club by a fellow committee member upon discovering that his elder brother was not nominated to stand as deputy chairman of the Gopeng UMNO division.In Batu Manikar Labuan police were called in to restore calm and order when a fight almost broke out at the branch meeting.In Sabak Bernam Selangor former Menteri Besar Khir Toyo and his only challenger for the divisional head post are both claiming to have asked ACA to investigate money politics.

All these are not for God and country but for a ride on the gravy train, the exclusive domain of the chosen few.

The one that takes the cake is the report to ACA against the President Abdullah Badawi and Deputy President Najib Tun Razak for alleged abuse of power.The report was lodged by former Youth exco member Datuk Mazlan Harun.Some are probably making trouble for the President to be used as excuses to jump ship when time is opportune to do so.

The party seems to be riotously out of control and Abdullah appears powerless to deal with the thugs, goons and bullies in the party.

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