Utusan Melayu, the history?

Sejak kebelakangan ini, surat khabar Melayu tempatan -- Utusan Melayu telah terlibat dengan pelbagai isu politik yang melebihi fungsinya sebagai media massa untuk menyampaikan maklumat.

Kini, Ahli Parlimen Seputeh, Cik Teresa Kok telah memfailkan satu guaman fitnah terhadap Utusan Melayu dan seorang pengarang iaitu Mohd Zaini Hassan menuntut untuk RM30 juta sebagai gantirugi yang dikatakan menyebabkan beliau ditangkap dan dipenjarakan sebanyak 7 hari di bawah Akta Sekuriti Dalaman ("ISA").

Menurut laporan,beliau menuntut RM30 juta untuk satu artikel yang bergelaran "Azan, Jawi, Jais, UiTM dan ba-alif-ba-ya" yang diterbitkan oleh Utusan Malaysia pada 10 September 2008 yang dikatakan sebagai dengan niat jahat untuk menfitnah beliau.

Utusan Malaysia atau sebelumnya Utusan Melayu yang ditulis dalam jawi mula diterbitkan di Kuala Lumpur pada sekitar 29 Mei 1939 setelah ibu pejabatnya dipindah dari Singapura ke Malaysia.

Sebagai sebuah surat khabar kebangsaan Melayu, Utusan Melayu telah menjadi medan untuk menuntut kemerdekaan dan mengalakan idealisme bahasa dan sastera Melayu.

Dalam sejarah Malaysia, adalah dipercayai bahawa hanya wujud sekali sahaja demontrasi dan mogok yang melibatkan wartawan Melayu dan pekerja mereka iaitu pada sekitar tahun 1961.

Tindakan mogok ini yang mengambil masa lebih kurang 100 hari bermula pada tahun 1961 apabila para pekerja Utusan Melayu mogok demi mempertahankan kebebasan media dan berita.

Pada masa itu, Utusan Melayu yang kerap mengkritik Perdana Menteri pada masa itu, Tunku Abdul Rahman telah mendapati bahawa Ketua Editor dan CEO surat khabar tersebut yang bakal dilantik merupakan ahli UMNO.

Tokoh terkenal dan wartawan seperti Said Zahari, Usman Awang, Abu Zaki Fadzil, Awamilarsarkam dan lain-lain lagi telah dikatakan terlibat dalam tindakan mogok ini demi mempertahankan kebebasan media.

Antara sebab-sebab lain yang dikatakan menyebabkan tindakan mogok ini adalah polisi yang dikenakan terhadap wartawan dan pekerja Utusan Melayu di mana mereka dipercayai bahawa polisi tahun 1959 yang bakal dikuatkuasakan oleh ahli UMNO terlibat bakal menjejaskan kemerdekaan wartawan dalam menjalankan tugas mereka.

Untuk mempertahankan kebebasan media dan surat khabar mereka, adalah dikatakan bahawa Said Zahari telah memimpin wartawan-wartawan dan pekerja-pekerja kilang penerbitan membantah perlantikan ahli UMNO yang berkenaan dan meminta agar orang yang tidak mempunyai latar belakang politik dilantik sebagai Ketua Editor dan CEO.

Adalah tuntutan mereka agar pihak pengurusan menyelesaikan masalah berkenaan sebelum 21 Julai 1961 atau mereka akan mogok.

Pada 21 Julai 1961, mereka telah memulakan mogok yang bertahan sebanyak 93 hari dan berakhir pada 21 Oktober tahun yang sama.

Semasa mogok, mereka mendirikan khemah di luar pejabat Utusan dan menjaga di situ. Pada mulanya, mereka yang menyertai mogok cuba menghalang pekerja yang berniat bekerja untuk memasuki pejabat, walaubagaimanpun, mereka kemudiannya berhenti tindakan sedemikian.

Setelah lebih kurang satu bulan, Said Zahari telah dihalau ke negeri Singapura di mana beliau kemudiannya dikatakan telah ditahan sebagai banduan politik di situ.

Ada yang kata bahawa beliau telah diarahkan balik ke Singapura semasa dalam perjalanan balik ke Kuala Lumpur setelah melawat pekerja Utusan di Singapura yang menyertai morok yang berkenaan.

Setelah kehilangan ketua mereka, campurtangan daripada pihak polis juga menyebabkan pengikut-pengikut yang terdiri daripada pekerja dan wartawan berpecah belah. Atas dasar pihak pengurusan yang bersedia untuk menerima mereka yang mogok dan membayar gaji mereka telah menyebabkan mereka yang mogok berpecah pandangan dan apabila khemah-khemah mereka dirosakkan, pihak jawatankuasa mogok terpaksa menghentikan tindakan mereka.

Adalah dikatakan bahawa pihak politik masih menguasai surat khabar ini sehingga hari ini.

Rujukan: terbitan Strategic Info Research Developmen - Kuasa Rakyat- tradisi yang tidak berhenti
- laman web yang berkenaan di bawah carian "Utusan Melayu" atau "Utusan Malaysia".

Is Malaysia located in another planet? Are we talking about planet earth?

Under the backdrop of the current global financial crisis which is originated from the US and spread to the Europe and now starting to affect the other parts of the world including Asia.A simple analysis of Malaysia 2009 economic outlook from the perspective of an ordinary working man.

As we all know that Malaysia’s major revenue sources are from the export of the crude oil and crude palm oil, specifically the crude oil export contributed nearly 40% to 46% to the nation’s revenue.

The US is still the leading export market of Malaysia, followed by European Union, South East Asia and the fourth is Japan.Overall manufacturing products accounted for 75 percent of Malaysia's total exports followed by crude oil and other minerals at 14 percent and agricultural products at 9.5 percent, as at 31 December 2007. While the exports of electrical and electronic goods accounted for 44 percent of total exports, with the US is the biggest consumption market.

For the last two weeks, the stock markets worldwide had been experiencing the severe bottomless spiral southwards. Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur Composite Index , year to date, had been tumbling more than 30% since the early of the year 2008.

What the above statistics tell us?

As at 11 October 2008, the global crude oil price was tumbling to below USD 80.00 per barrel as compare to its record high of above USD 140.00 per barrel, while the crude palm oil price was recording below RM 2000.00 per tonnes for December 2008 order as compare to its record high of above RM 4000.00 per tonnes. This means that the country is going to experience the budget deficit if the government is not intending to review its already presented 2009 National Budget. We must be questioning where would be the funding sources for the mega projects such as the Iskandar Malaysia (formerly known as Iskandar Development Region or IDR) and the other Economic Corridor Region?The Iskandar Malaysia and the other Economic Corridor Regions had been hailed as the major engine of the Malaysian economic growth in the future.

The consumers' confidence level in US and the Europe had been dipped into the decades low following the subsequent collapse of their banking and financial institution. This will have huge impacts onto our export. With the external demand reducing, the manufacturing companies will abandon their existing expansion plan and tightening their budget. While the fear of massive manpower laid-off in the manufacturing sectors will soon dominate the Malaysian market. Then the possible rising of the unemployment rate will certainly pose a significant impact to the social instability which had been ailed by the political instability since Malaysian historical 308 political Tsunami.

The severe bearish market had dampened the households’ confidence level and their spending sentiment. They will finally tightening their belts and cut back on consumption. Hence, the slow growth of the domestic consumption.

With the internal and external negative development, we might tend to ask where the country’s economy is heading to?

The globalization seeds had long been taken root in this world for decades. This means, nowadays, the economies of the countries across the continents, in breadth and depth, are interconnected and interdependent.

Yet lately, we still heard our country’s leaders unanimously expressed confidence that Malaysia’s economy is still resilient given the current global financial crisis. They boasted that the country have a stronger economic fundamentals, sufficient foreign reserves and sound financial and banking system.

Hullo, Is Malaysia located in another planet of the universe? Not in planet earth?

Equality, Justice, Issues and Policies

Today, in Sin Chew Daily (13 October 2008, Monday) headline, is the statements by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on the topic that UMNO needs to make changes and that there should be review of the economic policies and distributions of the wealth in the Country.

It was stated that UMNO must make the changes on the distribution of the country's wealth, review the issues that were perceived to be injustice (to certain quarter in the society) including education, language, religion, judiciary, execution of law and so on.

In life, we recognize that all of us are different, whether it is in physical forms such as the colour of the skins, the height and weight of our bodies, or in our spiritual forms such as the way we think, the religion we believe in and the culture that we practise.

In a society or even a country, we are also different through the systems we practise, the laws that we uphold and the language that we used.

All of us are different, there is no doubt about it.

We are different in all ways, that is the fact and the easiest way to proof is the different fingerprint that we all have and the different genes that we carried.

According to the Biblical story, men in the city of Babel, was a city that united humanity, where all spoke a single language and share the same goal. It was said that they wanted to build their city with the tallest building that would have top of the tower in the heavens. This Tower of Babel was dedicated to the glory of men. God saw what people have done and gave each a different language to confuse them and scattered the people throughout the earth.(Refer Genesis 11:1-9 ).

We are different and yet we all seek for equality. In the famous Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson in 1776, it was stated that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

No doubt, there will never be equality amongst gender on the basis of physical strenghts and hormon difference. No doubt there will never be equality to chances as each one has his/her own destiny and there is no equality in democracy politics where the one with the majority voters will have control over the government especially when a candidate come from the majority ethnic group in that society.

In short, the dominant (in numbers) will always prevails. However, we cannot say that it is wrong as logic will draw to the same conclusion. The minority should adapt to the needs of the majority. It would be against the norm if ten person needs to learn the language or styles in living of one in order to communicate (the question of why many should submit to one arise). As such, the dominant in resources, knowledge, weapons, technology and wealth will always take precedent over the rest.

It was with this principle that our laws were made. The dominant should have the biggest shares first before the minority can be given the rest. Even the Darwin theory doesn't put equality as a part of nature. It was always about balance and not equality. For example, Arthur needs to eat 2 pizza per meal while Bob needs to eat 1 pizza per meal, to give 1 1/2 pizza in equal will be a waste in resources for Bob and suppression of needs to Arthur. There will never be equality.

To overcome the principle of the dominant comes first, the human civilizations adopt the principles of justice and equality. It was with these principles that all needs of the society be controlled and the basic needs of all be provided but not until the suppression leads to revolutions or war.

The idealogy of having a just and equal society is necessary to maintain stability and sustainable progress. However, it is always easier said than done. For the dominant UMNO to give up its rights when it is still gigantic cannot bring anything except chaos. The only option available is to increase the size of the cake and reduce the ratio of growth of the dominant and to bring up the minority. Only changes at the right timing will we have the dominant remaining relevant but would not be ignorant to the needs of the minority.

Only at the right timing will our society progress on merits and all these depends on policies that the government is willing to take and make. All said and done, it will require a lot of political wisdom should Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin intends to ensure a sustainable and progressive Malaysia. However, if he manage to do so, there will be no distance between him and the premiership.

Forum (5) - Press Release

马来西亚青年运动（青运）总会属下之社会与青年研究组与网络部落客 —“大国论坛”首次联办的第五次社会论坛圆满结束。

论坛主持人陈俊铭律师感谢所有参与者的踊跃出席及感谢当晚的主讲人 --- 陈政豪律师与李健杰先生的知识分享。

青运与大国论坛所举办的社会论坛首要目标是鼓励社会人士进行知识与经验分享并藉此平台引导社会青年关心时事与国势发展。

陈政豪律师在主讲“马来西亚家庭法”时强调，夫妻双方同意离婚与单方面申请离婚的其中一项差异是双方同意离婚的法律程序是不需要把婚姻破裂的原因公诸于世。

李健杰先生在讲解 “ 投资信托 --- 真相、迷思与策略时强调运用公积金（EPF）的好处” 。他解释利用公积金去投资信托基金是利用一笔额外资金去投资而投资的服务费最高仅是3%,远比市场的 5-6%服务费低。此外，运用公积金去投资的数额若在当事人被宣布破产时也会回归公积金局管辖而不会被接管。只要公积金第一户口在30岁时（依照公积金条例） 超过RM23,000.00 ， 40岁时超过 RM49,000 及50岁时超过 RM95,000均可提出所超出的数额去投资。

秉持着分享知识与透明社会的概念，青运总会属下之社会与青年研究组与大国论坛将于每个月举办不同课题的社会论坛并进行交流。主办单位将于10月18日（星期六）晚上8时于雪兰莪蒲种进行第六次社会论坛。罗玉忠先生将主讲“在中国的生意机会 --- 我的经验” 与傅瑞丝小姐将主讲“在印尼的生意机会 --- 我的经验”。大众受邀出席，入场免费。研讨内容将以华语为主并在有必要时使用其他语言为辅。

欲知详情请联络：俊铭 012-356 9168 或游览www.magnificentnationforum.blogspot.com