He was the best Prime Minister that we never had..

Tengku Razaleigh: the last Malay gentleman

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Those aligned to Anwar Ibrahim feel I am very harsh towards him. Those aligned to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad also feel I am very harsh towards him. Those aligned to Najib Tun Razak feel I am very harsh towards him as well. And of course, when it comes to Khairy Jamaluddin, he himself feels I am just too brutal.

Those from the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) cringe whenever I write about their party. But they do not really make a big case out of it. They just whisper into my ear that maybe I am being a bit unfair in what I write. Some even tell me, “Fair comment and comments which our leaders should take note of!” Those from the Democratic Action (DAP) say they do not mind that I criticise their party. I do not know whether they are just being diplomatic and are trying to give an impression that they are truly democratic and respect freedom of speech, but I am inclined to take what they say at face value. The Peoples’ Justice Party (keADILan) however does not hold its punches. Its Information Chief has issued a press statement ‘disowning’ me and distancing the party from Malaysia Today. And of course we need not even mention Umno or Barisan Nasional that have been the brunt of my attacks for many long years, long before Anwar was ousted from power and in the days when he was still being touted as the next Prime Minister of Malaysia -- though in my writings in Harakah back in 1996 and 1997 I did say that this would never happen, and also gave my reasons on why I said so.

Some say I am not consistent. They do not know whether I am coming or going. One day I swing one way and, another, the other. They feel that maybe it is because I am a loose cannon -- and a loose cannon is called a loose cannon because it rolls all over the deck, shoots in all directions, and sometimes shoots its own ship as well. A loose cannon is loose only because it is not tied down and would roll in tandem with the roll of the ship.

Nevertheless, whether I am viewed as inconsistent, or a loose cannon, one thing you can be sure of, I am consistently shooting and everyone sooner or later gets shot. That is my consistency. But then there are some who have been spared my attacks -- those I have great respect for and look up to, though many others may not share my view on them.

And who are these people?

There are many -- Fadzil Noor, Hadi Awang, Nik Aziz, Mustaffa Ali, Husam Musa, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Ibrahim Ali, Shahrir Samad, Lim Guan Eng, Ronnie Liu, Dr Siti Mariah, Dr Lo’ Lo’ Ghazali, Dr Hatta Ramli, and many, many more. This list is in fact endless. However, not necessarily in order of priority, today I would just like to talk about Tengku Tan Sri Razaleigh Hamzah. Tengku Razaleigh is one of the few remaining Malay gentlemen as far as I am concerned. And Tengku Razaleigh, as far as I am concerned, became Prime Minister in 1987 but was prevented from taking office due to a brilliant coup launched by the Dr Mahathir Team A camp.

Many say that Tengku Razaleigh has no pendirian (principles). They say he left Umno to form the opposition Semangat 46, then closed the party and rejoined Umno when he realised he was going nowhere as an opposition leader. He rejoined Umno because all he wanted was power and this can only be acquired in Umno, not in the opposition.

Well, first of all, Tengku Razaleigh did not leave Umno. Umno left him. To be exact, Umno was deregistered or closed down and a new party was formed, also called Umno, or rather Umno Baru. It is just coincidental (or maybe intentional) that the new party was also called Umno. It could have been called anything, but the fact that it was called Umno confused many who thought that Umno Baru was still Umno. It is not.

When the new party was formed, Tengku Razaleigh and his group were not ‘invited’ to join it. They were left out in the cold, so Tengku Razaleigh had no choice but to also form another party as a platform to continue with what he was trying to achieve. And he called this party Semangat 46 or ‘the spirit of 1946’ because he still maintained the spirit of Umno which was formed in 1946. If he could not retain the party, he would at least retain the reason or spirit behind why the party was formed in 1946.

Tengku Razaleigh never intended to make it big in the opposition. But now that he was heading what was an opposition party meant he had to work with the other opposition parties. And he knew, as an opposition, he would never achieve what he set out to do. But the opposition was all he had at that moment of time so he had to make the best of it under the circumstances. Dr Mahathir did this too when he spent almost three years outside Umno soon after the 13 May 1969 race riots. And Anwar is doing this now as well. But whether it is Tengku Razaleigh, Dr Mahathir or Anwar, all their roots are in Umno and Umno would be eventually where they have to return to. Tengku Razaleigh did. Dr Mahathir did. And, come a point of time, Anwar too will have to do the same.

So Tengku Razaleigh, just like Dr Mahathir before him, after a stint in the opposition, rejoined Umno. That was what it was all about. The name ‘Semangat 46’ was a tell all. Semangat 46 was all about the spirit of Umno. In fact, the ‘Semangat 46’ name was not the first choice. This name was chosen only because the name ‘Umno Malaysia’ was rejected by the Registrar of Societies. And the Registrar rejected the name to allow Umno Baru to use the name, which was submitted for registration later, after they rejected the ‘Umno Malaysia’ name.

It would have been foolish of anyone in thinking that Tengku Razaleigh was committed to the opposition and had no aspirations to return to Umno. PAS knew this, and that is why they kept Tengku Razaleigh and Semangat 46 at arm’s length. They knew that the PAS-Semangat 46 relationship was not a marriage but a mere flirtation and a temporary affair. And that is why the relationship was merely cordial at best, and suspicious at worse, and did not last.

Did Tengku Razaleigh rejoin Umno because of the fallout with PAS? Did Tengku Razaleigh rejoin Umno because he saw he had no future in the opposition? And did Tengku Razaleigh rejoin Umno because all he wanted was power? If he did, then he could have negotiated better terms for his return to Umno.

There were already murmurings that Anwar had started to make his move on Dr Mahathir and that the Prime Minister was going to make his countermove to thwart the attempt to oust him. In fact, many thought that Dr Mahathir brought Tengku Razaleigh back to Umno so that he could remove or neutralise Anwar and replace his deputy with Tengku Razaleigh. Tengku Razaleigh could have placed himself in the position to replace Anwar as the number two once Dr Mahathir makes his move. But Tengku Razaleigh did not and instead the job went to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi -- so all the assumptions about Tengku Razaleigh were misplaced.

When Tengku Razaleigh decided to take on Abdullah for the Umno Presidency -- he in fact received enough support to qualify -- all the divisions were instructed to not give Tengku Razaleigh any nominations. Those that remained stubborn were nipped in the bud. For example, one Kelantan division chief who persisted in nominating Tengku Razaleigh for president received a bankruptcy notice at midnight on the eve of his division meeting. No court delivers a bankruptcy notice at midnight. But this time it did because there was going to be a division meeting the next morning and they wanted to disqualify the division chief from attending the meeting whereby he would nominate Tengku Razaleigh for president.

Tengku Razaleigh was robbed of his nominations to contest the Umno presidency, as he was robbed of the presidency almost two decades before that. But he did not protest. He did not kick up a fuss. He did not go into a rage and tear Umno to pieces. He took it in his stride like a gentleman. Winning or losing is not important. How you play the game is. Others can play the dirty game. But he will not bring himself down to their same level by also playing dirty.

And that is why today I wanted to talk about Tengku Tan Sri Razaleigh Hamzah, one of the few remaining Malay gentlemen, probably the most misunderstood Malaysian politician. Maybe another time I will talk about some of the others and why I place them on my list of people I respect. If you were to ask me today who I think should be the Prime Minister of Malaysia, I think you know what that answer will be.

The above article is from Raja Petra Kamaruddin's Malaysia-Today.net

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wmfirdaus writes..

Almost 2 years ago at SOAS, someone I knew very well agreed to chair a talk by a prominent ex-member of UMNO who hails from the northen state of Penang.Maybe some would say it was very rude of him as the chairperson to direct his own question towards the speaker, ie the politician.But it was almost towards the end of the talk, and he could not hold himself from such privelege to ask the speaker spot on about certain issues.Well, maybe he was also annoyed that no body in the floor were giving a tough time for the speaker as everyone, as many would have expected in such a talk, to be pro opposition party members in London or just some freedom loving people of the nation ( including the SB’s who attended it I presume).So most questions were really just an oppurtinity for the speaker to slam back at the government and some people (as expected from him I guess)

The speaker asked two controversial questions, but I will spare you the privilege of only one of them.

He asked the speaker the following..

“ on the Friday of the UMNO General Assembly 1987, when you knew that almost half of the party delegates already gave their votes to tengku razaleigh, and when you knew that there were some vote buying during the recess of the assembly during the Friday prayers, and yet yourself as the leader of the UMNO youth at that time decided to support the Dr. M as the candidate for Party President. And now after what has happened lately, you are saying all this things against him when it was you who had made it all possible as the youth leader in 1987 and supported him. Had you chose to support Tengku Razaleigh back in 1987, for all we know, you could have been the Prime Minister yourself now!”

I think that was his question.He was quite ‘gelabah’ I suppose, and there was a short silence after he finished this second question.

The speaker took his time to elaborate on the first question.And then he stopped for a while, probably thinking the best answer to give the speaker on the second question.The speaker said

“oh well Mr Speaker, you re Kelantanese, that’s why you supported Tengku Razaleigh”.. this was to the laughters of the people on the floor.He then continued on the more serious note.

“ Maybe at that time I thought Dr M had a better vision of Malaysia, and that was why I supported him…. “

The chair person and the speaker remain good acquiantance I presume.But the morale of the story is simple. In politics there s never a straight answer nor a straight path to anything.if we were to look back at the people whom, unlike the speaker above, supported Tengku Razaleigh in the General Assembly, one of them even ended up being the Prime Minister!

How ironic.One supported a Doctor and almost became a Prime Minister. The other, supported a malay prince and is now the Prime Minister.

Let it all come flowing out now..for the betterment of the people?

 

Q & A with Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

Q: Can you describe your relationship with the present administration? It looks very fragile.

A: When I decided to step down, I gave an undertaking that I would not involve myself in politics and not interfere with the Government. On the other hand, of course, there were certain things the incoming Government promised to do but did not. In fact, the incoming Government reversed many of the decisions made while its leader was in the (previous) Government.
There were no objections and we agreed fully with all the proposals. And I would have thought that they would be carried out. I understand of course that new leaders want to have an impact and make their mark during their time in power. The times may change, but what was undertaken before would have to be carried out, and new things can be introduced. So the decision not to keep to promises was not mine.
Of course I made my undertaking publicly. The leader of the new Government did not, but the fact is that promises were made on both sides. So if I have to comment, I think I have the right to comment. At present I support the Government, but if they do what I consider to be wrong and nobody seems to be able to voice their opposition, then I will have to stick my neck out.
Sticking my neck out is very familiar to me. I’ve done it many times within the country and outside. So I will again stick my neck out for it to be chopped.

Q: Do you regret quitting?

A: No. One cannot tell exactly what a person will do after he is out of your control. So I thought I made a good choice. I wouldn’t know if, had I picked somebody else, these things would not have happened. They might very well have happened.

Q: Is this your biggest blunder?

A: I have made many blunders in my career. I helped many people up, only for them to stab me in the back. So it is a common trait for me. I’m in the habit of choosing the wrong people. But the present Government can do a good job if they want to. The means are there but if they come under the influence of people who have other agendas, then I can’t help.

Q: Who are you referring to?

A: It is up to the Press to know. You know more than I do.

Q: But during your time the media was controlled and constrained.

A: During my time the Press was quite free. I admit there were certain restrictions because we live in a multiracial society where there are a lot of sensitivities. So we tell them not to stir up racial hatred or we’ll take action against them. You must remember many newspapers printed in the country have not complained to me about being censored. Harakah and Rocket condemned me all the time; they break the law as distribution is for members only. I did not act on them as they did not stir racial hatred.

Q: Pak Lah backstabbed you?

A: Minor bruises, like saying I finished all their money when I know full well it has never been as rich as it is now. Having chosen him as my successor... in fact he was not the first choice, he was second, as he didn’t have the highest vote. Najib had. I chose him and I expect a degree of gratitude. But I was told that I had been involved in megaprojects and finished the money, and nobody has the money now.

Q: Are you engineering the early departure of the PM?

A: No, I’m not capable of that. When he does the right thing, I would have nothing to say or I would support him, but if he does the wrong thing and undermines national interest, then I will have my say.

Q: Are you trying to remove him?

A: I can’t have him removed. It is for his own party to remove him. For Umno to remove him. I’m not helping or going around campaigning and telling people to please remove this man. But I’m supportive of Umno, my party.

Q: Any confidence in the present management?

A:If he keeps on doing the wrong things, I cannot be confident so I’ll keep watching. But it must be something substantial before I pass my comments. Simple things people do, like getting contracts, I will not say anything.

Q: Malaysia has sold sand to Singapore before.

A: Yes, sand was sold to Singapore in small quantities and used for reclaiming areas that didn’t affect us. Once it did, we had to put a stop to it.

Q: Has corruption increased since you retired?

A: Some people think there is more now than before. I don’t have the statistics on corruption during my time or now.

Q: Is Putrajaya not developing since you retired?

A: Putrajaya was built largely on Petronas funds. Petronas made a profit of RM50 billion last year and RM80 billlion this year. Petronas has a lot of money. Petronas can build if you want them to. Of course, it is 100 per cent owned by the Government and pays taxes of RM53 billion. Considering their total income, their inland revenue tax is about RM55 billion. This year it made RM83 billion and spent RM13 billion to subsidise petrol prices for the public, and it still has about RM70 billion, of which it will pay tax of RM30 billion and still have RM40 billion.
Petronas belongs to the Government, so to say the previous Government spent all the money is not supported by the facts.

Q: People are complaining the economy is slower than before.

A: A lot of people are complaining that the economy is not moving at the same rate as before. But the figures show otherwise. So I’m glad for the people who say it is moving. We need to have a breakdown of figures to see if we are looking at the wrong indicators.

V for Virdaus?

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me Firdaus.

Anniversary and shiites

Anniversaries and birthdays are really important days.I just don't understand why ppl sometimes don't make a big deal out of it.its disheartening for me to know someone who s husband is away from home the night of her wedding anniversary.I think there s just no excuse for it.i mean, for arguments sake, even if ure already married for 24 years,not only is it not a reason for you to think that u can get away with it,now is really the time to make things better,not becos u promised her that you re going to live and die for her,no not becos of that,but becos its the right thing to do and its your wife's god given right that you re there with her on your wedding’s anniversary night.

 

Yesterday evening I went to City Circle gathering, and this weeks topic was a debate on Islam and its competabillity with Liberalism.I thought the introduction speech given by the 3 speakers were quite good, they had Alice Kneen  from Magdalene college Cambridge Uni representing the so called liberals, Richard Stone who is the President of Alif-Aleph , a society/trust working towards coalition of British Muslims and British Jews as minorities in UK, and Asim Sidiqui himself, as the chairman of city circle. Ive always wanted to attend their event for the past 9 months, but I always had other excuses.But when Bro Wan Saiful told me about this weeks event, I had no more excuses in my pocket to show him! The talk was ok lah, wasn’t controversial, maybe because the people attending it didn’t have the patience to not be too emotional ( yes the Muslims). Alice was going on and on about how Liberalism, whos core value is liberty, could never have Muslims as part of its so called social system, and the fact that Muslims in Britain actively participated in the last council elections doesn’t mean that theres cohesion in the community.Confused?

 

I don’t think id be able to elabore much about the talk.Maybe you could find better bloggers talking about Islam and Liberalism by just googling it.The Q and A was not as ‘stimulating’ as far as brother Wan was concerned, and I was not in the room for a long time as I stumbled upon an old friend of mine, Mustafa Fields who is a leader for the Ahlul Bayt group, which represents the Shiites Youth and Students in the UK.

 

I knew Mustafa through our political networks among Muslim students in UK.A while back I wrote a letter to some friends, ( edited for this blog ) but maybe it is important for Malaysian Muslims in particular to open up their eye on getting to know more Shiites. I was told that there are many lectures in UIA and UM are shiites by conversion, ( the 12 imam shiites group) its just that they don’t disclose themselves.well I don’t blame them.Look at how they are being treated in London!

 

Note for abbreviations used.

ISOC: Islamic Societies in Universities in Uk and Ireland

FOSIS: Federation of Students Islamic Societies in UK and Ireland – the national body of all ISOCs representing almost 70,000 muslim students

MCB: Muslim Council of Britain- the coalition of all muslim and islamic organisations in UK. (ill write about them later,attending their AGM tomorrow)

 

 

From: wmfirdaus
Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2006 4:49 AM
To:
Subject:

Importance: High

 

Dear Friends,

 

I hope this email will clarify many myths on our previous discussion.

 

Myth No. 1: Shiah do not want to unite with sunnis

 

Lets not talk about the isocs above,but the point of the matter is simple.As far as unity is concerned, the AB’s are very clear on this point.They should only be one main body representing Muslim students on campus,shiah or non shiah , and that is FOSIS.As a matter of fact, I wouldlike to remind those salafis out there that shiah has been in Isocs and in FOSIS long long way since the 1970 and the 1980’s.Its just that back then, the people who were in control of the Islamic Societies ( yes you know how im talking about) were reasonably enough not to kick their praying stones out of the isocs prayer room, and pushing the patience to the limit.

 

Shiites students in general ALWAYS supports Sunni Muslim students organisation.as a matter of fact, i know many ISOC execs in this country who are shiites.its just that because their isoc don’t neglect them as others do ( or kick their stones) that’s why they can live in peace.

 

I don’t buy this argument that this shiites are doing this and that to divide us.It is those among us the sunnis who are to arrogant to accept diversity which are causing the problems.Well, as much as u wish that East London or Wembley would be like Mecca or Medina, maybe u ought to accept that its just gonna be East London, or maybe a little bit more like Baghdad..for that matter.

 

 

Myth No.2 : If we allow shiah to have their own society, why don’t we allow for sufis to have their own Mawlid Soc.

 

 

Who are we to tell people whether they should or should not have societies? Furthermore than that, do you not think that some groups ( ie sufis,salafis,and not to mention the ‘Ikh’ ) are also doing this on Isocs?Of course its easier for this group like this Salafis in london taking over all the ex polytechnics unis around london, and trying to make them llots as salafi as possible.Of course, as much as we would disagree with this, people wouldn’t put too much of an issue on it because no one thinks that Salafi or sufi or ‘Ikh’ as non muslims..

 

Hence, the real problem.Which is that some of us actually believes that this shiites people are actually non muslim, and that they are even WORSE than those real nonmuslims out there because they think that this Shiah are bringing a deviated version of islam..

 

It is because of the above prejudice that shiites are being treated worse than others.And it does not surprise me that after 30 years of integration in Islamic societies under FOSIS, as their number increase ( and the number of this hardhitting salafi s and shiite haters also increase) in ISOCs, both sides can neither feel or believe in integration.May I remind you, that Shiites and sunni problem usually occur only on campuses where the numbers of both sides are very high.( hence, London based iSocs and some other major city isocs)

 

Believe you me, if the sunnis in Isocs treat this people nicely, they would have no reason to have their own different isoc.One shiite sister who is a london ISOC sisters exec said to me that in her islamic society she didn’t felt threatened as how her friends are in some other London unis.the numbers of Shiite in her university are quite high, but I guess the fact that u have clever muslims in this particular London University does help to produce more reasonable muslims (sunnis and shiites)

 

 

Myth No.3 : Shiites wants to have their own Friday prayers???

 

“When Shia students pray in Jamat behind a Sunni imam, they don't actually make the intention of praying in jamaat, but of praying individually and then they just perform the actions at the same time as the imam. Similarly they don't have the intention of being at jummah. Therefore, once you start down this slippery slope of let the Shias have this, and let the Sunnis do that, you'll end up having complete separation on most things, and so in effect you will have two societies, with the Shias having separate Jamats, and different Jummah times, and everything else.”

 

This is the MOST ridiculous nonsensical thing that I have heard about the shiites. Come on guys, do you really think this is baghdad? Do u really think they are out there to prove to us so much that there are different and that they don’t want to be under the United Islam banner?Seriously man, think about it. We re not in a situation where the Sunni minorities are overulling a shiites majority or vice versa, we re at a situation that we are in country where we are all minorities and that all of us who are reasonable should know better that to have to Jumaah is the most ridiculous idea of all! For goodness sake, you ve a united Jewish community and a united Christian congregation or church and whatever and we cant even agree to pray with the shiites??As a matter of fact, it’s really is an insult to them, and I say them as our brothers in Islam (although some of you might disagree with this) if you really think  that they believe in disunity.. They march together with us on many rallies, and they are in the same front with us on many things like palestine, just because some of them got disgruntled and kicked out of ISOC and setup some new Society, that doesn’t mean that to have another jumaah across the country is their vision!

 

OK maybe some of you will point out that many shiahs actualy pray jumaah in their own mosque and stuff, but hey, doesn’t the holy arab man travelled 20 miles of Birmingham area just to go to an arab based mosque in central brummyland just because the mosque behind his house speaks urdu in his khutbah( and hence,less hollier than the holy arab)Remember guys, for every one finger u point at the other side, there 3 more finger which points back at you!its easy to point out to others peoples mistake, while not realising one at our own backyard.Or just infront of us.

 

Myth 4: There s no way Sunnis and Shiah can integrate fully.

 

Someone told me that in MCB, they always have 2 congregationof prayers at MCB meetings,one for sunnis and one for shiah.But when a brother who s name I will not disclose came into MCB, all he did was to bridge the gap by doing one simple thing, which is to fulfll the special request of the shiah.You must be thinking what is this special request? Or maybe you re thinking, why did this brother adhered to the request of this so called ‘non sunnis’ !

 

I was told by this person that the shiites, one of the main rules in their congregation prayers is that the IMAM must read a full verse after the Alfatihah, meaning if the IMAM starts by reading the 1^st verse of albaqarah, then he MUST go through untill the 3^rd Juzu before they can do Ruku’!

 

Anyways, maybe the above is something new for you,( it was for me at least), but back to the story, the request by the shiah was that the brother must fulfill the above rule.

 

I must say that it is amazing that it took a non british muslim (Jordanian/Palestinian) to unite the british muslim in MCB on such a small matter, and alhamdulillah, I am told that since then, they only prayed one congregation in MCB meetings simply because the IMAM read short surahs after the alfatihah, hence fulfilling the request of the shiites.

 

I will not dwell on why this never happened before in MCB since 1997,but im sure the fact that sometimes we muslims, we are just too hard on those whom we think are different.And further to that, in the case of British muslims, the fact that you do not see yourself as of equal to each other, Sunnis v Shiah, Pakistanis v Arabs, Bangladeshis v Pakistanis and so on, all this stupid problems of the ummah in London and in UK in general will never get solved.

 

It only takes a few of us Muslim students leaders to educate the many others out there that our internal problems should be the least of our problems.How many times must we be reminded that the other minority communities are united, but at the end of the day,the active muslims in britain keeps failing to be honest to themselves, embrace each others difference, and unite.Unity is not about being in MCB, but its about telling your communities through the different mosque you control that look, we re in Britain, live up to the difference and that difference between Sunnis and Shiah is less of an issue compared to our ummahs struggle in UK.

 

I would like to end by just saying that I personally believe that FOSIS is the best place for all of you british muslims, either you are Pakistani,Bangladeshi,Arab or Sunni or shiiah or salafi or sufi or whatever, to LEARN to accept and UNDERSTAND each others difference.The old guards in MCB today never had this chance, they never went through British universities and ISOCs where they had to learn to accept all this differences, but you guys have a different challenge today.Its not fair for you to kick the shiah out or for you to sideline them.Sit withthem, understand their difference.Im sure MANY of us do not even know the full details of the difference between a sunni and a shiah.The idea that just because our fathers and our uncles at the East London mosque  keeps on telling us that the guy whos praying with stone on his forehead is kuffar,well this is the problem.We have to uall unites as MUSLIM students who believe in the prophet and in Allah, and no one, be it a shiah, a salafi, a wahabi, a sufi, an ‘Ikh..’, a HT, or even a majnun, to be excluded.

 

 

I congratulate you if you have read this far.insya allah, the future of the British muslims rest upon your shoulders.

 

 

Firdaus the radical middle way ‘ikh….’

 

 

 

 

 

Trial of the year?

Shafee Abdullah, Cyrus Das, Tommy Thomas and Cecil Abraham are the top guns in Malaysia’s commercial litigation.I just don’t understand whats the big fuss about Cherie not being given leave to appear in our Federal Court.Just let her appear lah! Whats the fear anyway, plus it’s the solicitors themselves who said that Cherie isnt too well verse with commercial law.So why so takut?

For those in the unknown, Cherie Blair QC is the wife of the PM Tony Blair and she is one of the top barristers in the WORLD!

It would have cost Fawziah Holdings at least around RM4000 per hour for Cherie to represent them!

Actually, people should be more concerned about who is this Fawziah Holdings that Cherie Blair is even considering to come all the way down from London to represent the company! J

Im looking forward to go back for such a show in the Federal court! Maybe KPUM (www.kpum.org.uk) should tag along.

Choo Kean, what say you?

---

From: Firdaus [mailto:wmfirdaus@hotmail.com]

Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 3:42 AM

To: 'Malaysian_lawyers@yahoogroups.com'

Subject: Trial of the year??

Importance: High

Wow! That’s what I call the trial of the year! Shafee,Cyrus,Tthomas and Cecil! Why wont they have Cherie on board? Im sure neither of the quartet would have any problems isnt, after all, she isnt the best anyway for commercial lit, ( or so they say below J ) Can we not tape this trial for usage in law school?

Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is acting for Metramac, Das for Fawziah Holdings, Tommy Thomas for Halim and Datuk Cecil Abraham for Daim.

Senior federal counsel Datuk Umi Kalthum Abd Majid will appear for the A-G's Chambers

Nation

Thursday June 1, 2006

Cherie Blair faces objections

By CHELSEA L.Y. NG, M. MAGESWARI and CECIL FUNG

PETALING JAYA: No way, Cherie!

That is the reaction of the Attorney-General’s Chambers and all other parties involved in the Metramac legal saga towards Cherie Blair's application to appear in our Federal Court in two weeks.

It is learnt that the chambers has filed an objection against Blair’s application on the grounds that her expertise is “not unavailable” here. The papers were filed at the Appellate and Special Powers division of the High Court yesterday afternoon.

Toll concessionaire Metramac Corporation Sdn Bhd, which was ordered by the Court of Appeal on Jan 12 to pay Fawziah Holdings Sdn Bhd RM65mil for loss of advertising rights, filed a similar objection on Tuesday.

Businessman Tan Sri Halim Saad also filed an objection yesterday. It is learnt that former finance minister Tun Daim Zainuddin will be filing his objection today.

Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail said his Chambers had been served with the application to admit the wife of the British Prime Minister as an advocate and solicitor here for construction firm Fawziah Holdings Sdn Bhd on an ad hoc basis.

“We will appear in court this Friday (tomorrow) and we are making an application,” he said when contacted yesterday.

Bar Council chairman Yeo Yang Poh said the body had also been served with a copy of Blair’s application.

“We are still studying it and we will provide our view on Friday. We will study it objectively. The fact that she is somebody famous will not be a factor,” said Yeo.

In their originating motions, Metramac and Halim said Blair did not fulfil the requirement of the Legal Profession Act 1976 as she did not possess the “special qualifications or experience” with regard to the matter.

“It is indeed preposterous for the respondent to now contend that it needs the assistance of a Queen’s Counsel (QC) from the United Kingdom to argue issues which it considers trite law,” said lawyer Peter Justin Skelcy of Cheah Teh & Su, the solicitors for Metramac.

“I state that although the applicant does possess impressive credentials and is an eminent QC, she does not specialise nor has she distinguished herself in the particular areas of law that will be adjudicated upon before the Federal Court.”

Skelcy added that there were ample senior counsel in the country with the skills and expertise necessary to advance Fawziah Holdings’ case in the Federal Court.

“Datuk Dr Cyrus Das (Fawziah Holdings’ lead counsel) is an experienced senior counsel and frequently appears before the Federal Court and the Court of Appeal,” he said in an affidavit supporting the motion.

Halim’s lawyer Jason Wee Heng Loong said in an affidavit that as far as Blair’s experiences in commercial cases were concerned, “she seems to have only appeared in seven reported cases, hardly an outstanding achievement for a barrister of 30 years' standing and a QC of 11 years' standing.”

He contended that Blair had no special qualification and experience on Indian case laws, something which Halim would rely on in his application before the Federal Court to expunge all references made against him in the Jan 12 Court of Appeal judgment.

On June 14, the Federal Court will hear the final appeal by Metramac against the Court of Appeal order.

The Federal Court will also hear applications by Daim and Halim on the same day to expunge all references made in relation to them during the handing down of the Court of Appeal judgment.

Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah is acting for Metramac, Das for Fawziah Holdings, Tommy Thomas for Halim and Datuk Cecil Abraham for Daim.

Senior federal counsel Datuk Umi Kalthum Abd Majid will appear for the A-G's Chambers

Earthquake in Yogja!

From: Firdaus [mailto:wmfirdaus@hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 2:13 AM
To: 'supremecouncil@mailman.ukec.com'; 'students@ukec.com'
Cc: 'UKEC Committee Mailing List'; 'Christopher Tock'
Subject: Indonesian Earthquake Appeal URGENT
Importance: High



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5032458.stm

I will try to make this as short and as simple as possible.As many of you might be aware of, the situation in Indonesia is getting worse by day with the volcano eruption expected to come in days, no one could predict the extent of the problem in Yogjakarta, Indonesia for the coming weeks.

I think we the Malaysian students in the UK have a duty to help our Indonesian neighbours, and we ought to at least do something to

1. inform our malaysian students in UK and Ireland about the situation

2. encourage them to donate to the charities doing work in Indonesia supporting it.


I know some of you are still having exams, while some have finished your exams, but I think one must always have time for situations like this.As a union of malaysian students, we ought to galvanize our so called students network to inform and try to help the situation.So lets start by our ownself and by our own Malaysian Society.So how to donate?

There are many charities in UK doing online donation, so maybe you can start with that.For example, one of the charities which I am quite familiar with, Human Appeal International (HAI) has an online donation website of which makes it very simple for us to donate.Just visit the website and key in your email, and you will be guided through the rest of the process.

http://wwwhumanappeal.org.uk/donations/donations.php

I just tried it just now and it works fine.One advantage about HAI is that they already have a team in Indonesia since Acheh incident, and because it’s a UK charity, its easier to donate using debit cards.Or if you are going to make a collection in your university or among the local community,after the collection, you can bank in the monies collected and get a cheque for it.All cheques should be made payable to 'Human Appeal International' and sent to the following address:


Human Appeal International Victoria Court 376 Wilmslow Road Fallowfield, Manchester
M14 6AX UK

If you don’t want to donate through HAI,its fine, but do find a charity of your preference, and DONATE!

For the Malaysian Society people, it would be up to you how you would like to organise it for your malaysian society.I know it would be difficult for you to do something huge, but im sure to encourage your malaysian soc members to spend 5 minutes to donate online should not be a problem.


Think about it.How much did you last spend for a new pair of shoes? How much was your lunch at Covent Garden last weekend? How much was your movie ticket for Da Vinci Code? And what about those weekly Crispy Cremes?

And we think twice to donate 10 pounds for people dying in Indonesia, our own neighbour?


Oh well, I shall say no more.But remember the old saying, sikit sikit lama lama jadi bukit?


In solidarity,
Firdaus