DATO HASSAN ALI DAN POLITIK PAS DAN DAP

AGAK mengherankan dalam Dato Hassan Ali diserang bertubi-tubi oleh pemimpin-pemimpin DAP, pemimpin-pemimpin PAS menyepi seribu bahasa.

Hassan Ali memperjuangkan isu utama penjualan arak di kawasan Melayu. Bukankah ini yang dilakukan di Kelantan dan Trengganu?

Kebisuan PAS adalah membingungkan.

Adakah Hassan mahu dibakar macam sate demi politik. Ini tidak betul dan politik yang tidak berprinsip. Akhirnya PAS yang rugi bila satu-satu pemimpinnya dijadikan kambing hitam oleh DAP yang ternyata lebih licik dan teratur kepimpinanya.

The Press And Politics in Japan (Lihat Komen Saya Diakhir Atikel Ini)

Let the rising sunlight in

Sep 24th 2009 | TOKYO ,The Economist

A change of government threatens the cosy ties between media and mandarins

Illustration by David Simonds

EVERY night the Yomiuri Shimbun building in Tokyo begins to shake. From The Economist’s office on the eighth floor it feels, for a moment, like an earthquake. But it is just the world’s biggest-selling newspaper cranking up the printing presses in the bowels of the building for tomorrow morning’s edition. A different sort of tremor has rattled the Yomiuri in the past week. The government of Yukio Hatoyama came into office on September 16th, vowing that it wanted to shake up some of the power structures in Japan that had helped its defeated rival, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), hold sway for half a century.

The main target is the bureaucracy, which has wielded extraordinary power from its bunker-like compound in Tokyo. But one of the bureaucracy’s levers of control has been the press, which critics say has too often enjoyed a relationship of mutual back-scratching with the mandarins.

So when Mr Hatoyama took office, threatening to ban regular press conferences by bureaucrats in a bid to lessen their sway, the battle lines were drawn. It took just a day for the Yomiuri to hit back. In an editorial, it acknowledged that Mr Hatoyama had a right to wrestle power back from civil servants—but not, it said, at the cost of the media’s access to information. “We want the Hatoyama administration to reconsider its decision to muzzle bureaucrats,” the newspaper said.

The skirmish may appear small, but it has important ramifications. As Takashi Uesugi, a campaigning freelance journalist puts it, Japan’s equivalent of America’s military-industrial complex is the “bureaucracy-media complex”. But taking on both the bureaucracy and the media at the same time could expose the new government to a war on two fronts.

The power of the bureaucracy dates back centuries, when it comprised members of the samurai elite who were encouraged to administer, rather than fight. In the past 50 years, bureaucrats helped develop the industrial policies that turned Japan from post-war collapse to the second-biggest economy in the world.

The mandarins’ reputation has faded during the economic hardship of the past 20 years. But Takashi Inoguchi, a political scientist, believes the samurai strain has persisted. He likens the bureaucracy to a Roman legion that will protect itself in tortoise-like formation. “Its spirit and mental framework remains that of the warrior,” he says. “It is very determined, very patient and organisationally very strong.”

The media, meanwhile, give the civil servants an unusually direct line of communication with the outside world. Newspapers have a circulation of 68m copies a day, the highest in the rich world, and in each ministry they are part of a system known as the “kisha club”, or press club, which dates back to the 19th century and encourages intimate contact between the mainstream media and the bureaucracy.

In the past the clubs, whose members are self-selecting, have been criticised for closing ministerial press conferences to foreign correspondents, internet reporters and freelancers (whom they often disparage as “gossip-mongers”). The system breeds information-sharing and discourages scoops. Critics say it stifles the sort of investigative reporting badly needed after Japan’s incestuous politics under the LDP.

Even some leading lights of the mass media acknowledge that change may be overdue. Yoichi Funabashi, editor-in-chief of the Asahi Shimbun, and one of Japan’s most respected journalists, welcomed Mr Hatoyama’s unprecedented decision to allow a handful of magazine and internet journalists to his inaugural news conference: “Now the dam has broken.”

Less understanding members of the media, however, may turn against Mr Hatoyama. Papers such as the Yomiuri, with a circulation of 10m, have longstanding ties to the LDP; its boss, Tsuneo Watanabe, was considered one of the party’s kingmakers. The press also has its eye on a scandal in which Mr Hatoyama admitted that his fund-raising organisation listed fictitious individual donations, including from dead people. This may return to trouble him.

Yet he would surely be foolish to leave the kisha club alone. His party won the election in August by a landslide partly because it promised more open government. The Japanese are keen to see an end to the murky back-room compromises in which elected officials took office, but bureaucrats were in power. If the press remains complicit with that system, Mr Hatoyama’s promise to end the status quo in Japan will be all the harder to achieve.

PENDAPAT SAYA:

Memang berat tanggungjawab seorang pemimpin. Kadang-kadang berhadapan dengan situasi ditelan mati emak, diluah mati bapak. Seorang pemimpin perlu adil dan tegas dalam menangani sesuatu masalah. Apa yang perlu dibuat jalankanlah dengan bijaksana. Rakyat masih mahu parti yang memerintah sekarang meneruskan khidmatnya. Rakyat tidak mahu seorang pemimpin alternatif yang bersikap petualang yang mahu jadi PM dengan apa cara pun dan berkiblatkan kepada suatu kuasa asing yang dikuasai oleh kaum Yahudi berjaya dalam agenda jahatnya berjaya mendapat kuasa. Cuma ia yang mencapai cita-cita jahatnya, rakyat tidak semestinya mendapat apa-apa munafaat dan kebaikan.

Singapore's Armed Forces Buildup - The Need to Avoid Confrontation Within ASEAN

IKIM VIEWS

By Suzalie Mohamad, Fellow, Centre of Syariah, Law and Political Science, IKIM -The Star

Singapore’s armed forces buildup suggests it could be an outpost in the security chain the US is building around China, and this is contrary to the spirit of Asean, of which it is a member.

A LEADING US international intelligence agency recently published a significant report defining US-Singapore military cooperation and highlighting Singapore as one of the US’ prime regional strategic alliances and recipients of military assistance.

It also highlighted the objective of this cooperation.

Singapore owns the most modern armed forces in this region. With US military cooperation, support and guarantee, Singapore is equipped with the most advanced military equipment in the world.

According to military experts, Singapore’s military buildup is the best in terms of tactical-technological advancement in South East Asia.

The article Singapore’s Military Buildup: US Assists City-State to Improve Defences to Deter China specifically mentions that the continuous modernisation of Singapore’s armed forces is meant to become the key link in the security chain that the US is building around China.

The cooperation is viewed as a move to deter China.

Mark Helprin, an analyst from the Claremont Institute asserts that China is more dangerous than the Soviet Union(Russia?).

The weakening of the US economically and militarily is giving rise to a new centre of power.

The US economy, mismanaged and drained by its global wars on terrorism, is increasingly dependent on Chinese trade imports and on Chinese holdings of US treasury securities.

China is the biggest preserver of the US dollar with US$825bil (RM3tril) worth.

Princeton University Professor Chris Hedges said if Beijing decided to abandon the US bond market, even in part, it would have a serious effect on the value of the US currency.

Consequently, it would lead to the collapse of the US$7tril (RM25tril) US real estate market, and there would be a wave of US bank failures and huge unemployment.

This psychological threat creates fear in the White House. Thus the buildup of security chains around China is deemed necessary. Japan, Australia, Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia have already taken their place in the anti-China security chain.

Singapore being an advanced and developed country within South East Asian is deemed important in the US deterrence policy towards China.

Singapore’s military spending doubled to US$8bil (RM28bil) in 2008. With such an allocation, its armed force is well positioned to acquire the sophisticated weapons and technologies it needs.

Many strategic analysts believe that with such an arsenal, Singapore is able to destroy enemies on the ground, pre-emptively seize strategic territory and intervene quickly and effectively in Indonesia, Malaysia and other likely trouble spots in the contested South China Sea.

Like Israel, which lacks strategic depth and is outnumbered by potentially hostile neighbours, Singapore’s defence strategy is two-fold: build an offensive-minded security force that can strike at potential enemies before they harm it, and seek the support and protection of the US.

Besides Singapore, the US is also continuously seeking other potential strategic allies in the region like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

It is also raising the prospect of a return to Subic Bay in the Philippines.

At present, Singapore allows the US Pacific Naval Command to use its port for repair, replacing the role of Subic Bay which was closed in the 1990s.

Australia and Japan have already entered strong agreement with the US in the anti-China security chain.

US involvement in Singapore’s armed forces has led Singapore to become a big power partner of the US anti-China security policy in the Asia Pacific.

Undeniably, this kind of relationship sidesteps the Asean spirit to remain neutral and free from geo-political intimidation and interference.

Singapore’s effort to modernise its fighting forces, working to better integrate its force with that of the US and Australia and other regional militaries, and being located at one of the world’s most strategic checkpoints – both economically and militarily – will likely see it emerge later as a front-line outpost in the escalating military confrontation between the US and China.

It is time now, for peace loving countries in this region to reject this kind of engagement.

Any process towards war must be blocked by any means. Malaysia should take the lead to mobilise member states of Asean to realise the spirit of non-confrontation and mutual cooperation.

The military policy and strategy that encourage arms race and suspicion must be avoided at all means.

My personal view on the Singapore Armed Forces buildup is that it is targeted at Muslim countries in ASEAN, namely, Indonesia and Malaysia for obvious reasons. Singapore needs more land for its bursting population. The China factor given by the US intelligence agencies are red hearing to divert our attention from the truth.

Bangladesh -Negara Yang Kuat Islamnya Tapi Mempunyai Ekonomi Yang Dhaif - UPDATED 20.09.2009

Saya sekarang ini berada di Chittagong , bandar pelabuhan Bangladesh yang terbesar dan bandar kedua besar selepas Dhaka.

Penduduk Bangladesh berjumlah 140 juta orang. Dhaka, ibu negerinya mempunyai 15 juta orang penghuni sementara Chittagong pula 10 juta.

Pada tanggapan saya negara ini amat kuat berpegang kepada agama Islam tapi keadaan ekonomi agak dhaif. Dari nama-nama orang yang kita jumpa kekuatan Islam nyata kedapatan. Umpanya pada nama-nama mereka. Banyak yang mempunyai nama yang baik-baik seperti Abu Bakar Siddique, Umar Al Khatab, Haqqul Islam, Hidayyatul Islam Nur Yakin, Nur Islam, Suhail, dan nama sahabat seperti Bilal, Abu Hurairah, Annas ibn Malik dan sebagainya.

Pegangan kepada agama Islam yang kuat kuat dan kental dikalangan masyarakat di sini teryata begitu sekali. Boleh dikatakan semua peringkat umur samada remaja, umur pertengahan(middle age) dan orang tua-tua beriktikaf di mesjid-mesjid dengan bersungguh sepanjang bulan Ramadan lebih-lebih lagi pada sepuluh hari Ramadan yang terakhirakhir. Malam tadi misalnya merupakan malam ke duapuluh tujuh Ramadan mesjid adalah penuh dengan maknusia yang tidak tidur semalaman sampai pagi untuk mendapatkan Lailatul Qadar (Malam Seribu Bulan). Mereka yang dapat malam tersebut amalan 1,000 bulan atau amalan 83 tahun. Bayangkanlah mereka disini telah melakukan amalan ini tiap-tiap Ramadan sepanjang hayat mereka. Betapa bertuahnya kehidupan mereka. Walaupun miskin tapi iman mereka kuat.

Amat menakjubkan amalan dan ibadat mereka ini. Perkara ini mungkin ada berlaku di setengah mesjid dan surau di Malaysia. Tetapi tidak meluas seperti disini.

Ini adalah pengalaman baru kepada saya. Ia amat meninggalkan kesan yang mendalam kepada hati sanubari saya yang tidak akan dapat saya lupakan sehingga ke akhir hayat saya.

Walaubagimanapun Bangladesh adalah negara yang dhaif. Pendapatannya adalah dari pengeluaran pakaian yang di jahit dan diekspot ke Amerika dan Eropah. Kedua adalah pendapatan dari tenaga maknusianya yang bekerja di negara seperti Malaysia dan Singapura. Mereka ini akan menghantar duit balik ke negara mereka. Tentera Bangladesh juga kerap bertugas dengan Pasukan Pengaman Bangsa-bangsa Bersatu. Ini turut membiayai perbelanjaan negara.

Pada umumnya jumlah penduduk yang menjadikan kota-kotanya sesak dengan maknusia. Perbandingan yang boleh saya berikan ialah kawasan Chow Kit Road yang penuh sesak dengan maknusia. Cuba gambarkan seluruh Kuala Lumpur penuh sesak seperti keadaan Chow Kit Road. Penuh sesak dengan dengan maknusia. Dhaka ada 15 juta orang sementara Chittagong pula 10 juta.

Sebaliknya Kuala Lumpur penduduknya baru sebanyak 3 juta maknusia. Itu pun banyak aduan mengenai infrastrukturnya seperti jalan yang sesak dan banjir kilat. Kita kena bersyukur dengan keadaan negara yang kaya dengan sumber alam dan jumlah penduduk yang kecil.

Sebagai bandingan Indonesia ada 250 juta penduduk, Filipina lebih kurang 80 juta, India 1.2 billion dan Bangladesh 140 juta. Di negara-negara ini kalau diambil 10% dari penduduknya yang teratas memang elit, mewah dan kaya raya. Anak-anak mereka belajar di Amerika dan Eropah. Bersekolah di Sekolah Antarabangsa(International Schools) . Kemudiannya pergi ke universiti luar negeri dengan perbelanjaan sendiri. Boelh bertutur berbagai bahasa.

Jumlah kelas menengah dalam masyarakat negara-negara ini adalah kecil. Mungkin kelas menengah adalah antara 10 hingga 20%. Kelas menengah terdiri dari para profesional seperti doktor, jurutera arkitek, pegawai tinggi kerajaan dan general tentera dan ketua polis.

Yang lainnya sebanyak antara 50 hingga 60% adalah golongan miskin yang kais pagi makan pagi dan kais petang makan petang petang. Mereka terpaksa membuat dua atau tiga kerja untuk menampung kehidupan mereka.

Diperingkat bawah sekali ialah miskin tegar yang mungkin anak-anak mereka tidak cukup makan yang secukupnya dan tidak pula bersekolah. Jadi mereka tidak akan dapat keluar dalam kepompong kemiskinan mereka (forever caught in the vicious circle of their poverty). Mereka ini adalah sumber kepada masalah sosial seperti kemurtadan, gangterisme, penagihan dadah dan sebagainya.

Kebelakangan ini makin bertambah banyak unsur-unsur dan masalah sosial. Banyak orang Islam yang telah menjadi murtad oleh sebab kemiskian. Saya mendapat tahu gerakan mengkristiankan orang Islam telah pun mula menular di negara ini. Gereja memang diketahui mempunyai banyak dana dan ada perancangan yang rapi dalam gerakan mereka. Mereka sedang memberi fokus kepada negara-negara Islam terutama yang banyak penduduknya miskin.

Apakah tindakan kita mengatasi masalah ini? Ia satu masalah yang besar kepada umat Islam sedunia. Alim ulama, pakar ekonomi dan ahli bijak pandai yang sayangkan sesama Muslim perlu duduk berbincang. Ada banyak negara Islam yang kaya raya. Mereka mempunyai tanggungjawab dan amanah keatas kekayaan negara mereka. Pemimpin-pemimpin ini perlu merancang untuk memberi bantuan sistematik kepada saudara seagama dengan mereka. Kekayaan yang diberikan oleh Allah adalah amanah kepada mereka. Adalah kehendak dan tuntutan Allah supaya mereka membantu saudara mereka yang miskin dan dhaif.

Kegagalan berbuat begitu akan mengakibat ramai lagi umat Islam yang akan murtad.

Mereka ini(pemimpin-pemimpin negara Islam yang kaya) akan ditanya dan berhadapan dengan Allah di Padang Mahsar mengenai apa yang mereka lakukan keatas amanah dan kekayaan yang diberikan kepada mereka didunia ini.

Akhir sekali saya sekeluarga mengambil kesempatan untuk mengucapkan SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDIL FITRI DAN MAAF ZAHIR DAN BATHIN kepada semua para pembaca setia yang beragama Islam yang mengikuti blog ini. Salam hormat dari saya hamba Allah yang kerdil.