DPM Najib, Ex-PM Tun Mahathir and RPK To Go Live On Al Jazeera

Country's Deputy Prime Minister, YAB, Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and prominent blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin ( RPK ) will be appearing live on Al Jazeera's Riz Khan starting tomorrow. Najib and Dr Mahathir are expected to talk on Malaysia's current political situation and the global economics crisis. Najibg will appear on 1st of December @ Monday at 10.00pm while Tun Mahathir will be interviewed on the 4th of December @ Thursday at 10pm. RPK will be comming on live on the 3rd of December at the same time. For those who are interested can call in live during the show at +1 202 275 2360 or email your questions to Riz Khan - riz@aljazeera.net ( who will be conducting the interview).

Huan Cheng Guan Eyes Gerakan Vice President Post

Press Statement By Huan CHeng Guan :

Due too the support and encouragement from grassroot, I will be offering myself as a candidate for the Vice President in the upcoming Gerakan AGM which is to be held on 11th Okt 2008. Currently i am holding the position as Vice Chairman for the National Youth and also Central Committee members. Gerakan now is at the lowest ebbs and it need changes to rejuvenate the party. gerakan also need leaders with political will and brave to speak out. I urge the delegates to come out in full force and vote for a change in Gerakan. There are many leaders who are endorsing their preferred candidate for the top post and i hope the delegates will be allowed to vote freely and there should be a clean election.

Huan Cheng Guan

Raja Petra Arrested Under ISA

Breaking News : 1.15pm

Marina Lee AbdullahRaja Petra Kamaruddin ( RPK ) has been detained under the Internal Security Act. 10 police personnel came to their home in Sungai Buloh at about 1.10pm to arrest him. RPK, is believed to have allowed comments on his website that criticize Prophet Muhammad and Islam and in an article "Not all Arabs are descendants of the Prophet. This is the second arrest of Raja Petra, who is also part of the Selangor royal family, has been detained under ISA, which allows for indefinite detention without trial, the first one was in 2001. RPK was released after 2 months of arrest. The family is yet to engage a lawyer at press time.

MCPX

Gerakan Reps Quit BN Youth In Protest

Athi Veeranggan | Sep 9, 08 5:49pm
http://malaysiakini.com/news/89375

Penang Gerakan Youth leader Huan Cheng Guan has quit with immediate effect as state Barisan Nasional Youth chief, to protest the disrespect shown to his party’s acting head Koh Tsu Koon by several Umno members yesterday.

They had torn up and trampled on a photograph of Gerakan acting president Koh Tsu Koon at the Penang Umno headquarters.Three other Gerakan Youth leaders - vice-chairperson Yew Khean Siang, secretary Oh Teong Keong and assistant-secretary Heng Thee Wey - will submit their resignations to the state BN secretariat tomorrow. Yew is the BN state Youth vice-chairperson, while Oh and Heng are members of the BN Youth committee.

Huan, who is currently in Taiwan, conveyed a message via SMS to BN national Youth head Hishammuddin Hussein this morning. He said he would not tolerate Koh being subjected to “such humiliation and utter contempt” by segments within Umno. “It’s too much for me to take. How could they tear down my leader’s photo and step on it? I have tendered my resignation as Penang BN Youth chief with immediate effect,” the former Batu Kawan parliamentarian told Malaysiakini via SMS.

Huan, who is on a study tour of Taiwan with 49 BN MPs in his capacity as executive secretary of the Backbenchers Club, also rejected calls by certain Gerakan leaders for him to abandon the trip and return immediately. “As the executive secretary, I'm duty-bound to be in Taiwan to co-ordinate the tour. I would be irresponsible to abandon it and return home now,” he explained. Huan, who has to relinquish his leadership of Gerakan Youth this month due to his age, had recently announced that he would contest the post of state chairperson in the upcoming party polls.

‘Dismayed by Umno’

The other Gerakan Youth leaders said they were resigning because they were dismayed by the ineptness of Umno and BN top leaders in reining in Bukit Bendera Umno division head Ahmad Ismail. “Ahmad is going on and on with his seditious remarks and threats to disrupt the harmony within BN and among Malaysians. His supporters tore down and stepped on our party leader’s portrait. But Umno and BN leadership are still hesitating to act against him,” said Oh. Ahmad’s supporters had verbally abused reporters and torn down Koh’s portrait in the meeting hall during yesterday’s press conference.

Ahmad had also told Gerakan to get out of BN and warned Chinese Malaysians not to mimic American Jews who not only sought to control the country's economy but also its political power. He has invoked a national backlash for his reportedly racist remarks by calling Chinese Malaysians “immigrants squatting in the country” during the Permatang Pauh by-election campaign. Meanwhile, Kampung Kolam state assemblyperson Ng Wei Aik (left) lodged a police report at the Jalan Patani station in George Town today against state Umno secretary Azhar Ibrahim for saying that the “Sin Chiew journalist ought to be shot if her article causes another May 13”. The statement was reportedly made during an earlier press conference by Ahmad, held last Friday. Ng said Azhar’s threat amounted to criminal intimidation and he wants the police to probe the Umno leader without fear or favour.

George Town OCPD Azam Abdul Hamid said the police would probe Ng’s complaint without double standards. Sin Chew Daily has stood by its article and the journalist who wrote it.

Penang Barisan Nasional Youth Chairman Quits Post

Breaking News :

Former Batu Kawan Member Of Parliament, Huan Cheng Guan had just tendered his resignation as Penang Barisan Nasional Youth Chairman a moment ago. He is currently in Taiwan with the MP's study trip team. Huan had already inform Dato Seri Hishamuddin who is the National BN Chairman.

Sms Sent To Press :
To All Media Friends,

For your info, I have tendered my resignation as Ketua pemuda barisan Nasional with immediate effect because under such circumstances and situation it is not appropriate for me to hold unto the post. I have informed Dato Seri Hishamuddin in his capacity as Ketua Pemuda BN Malaysia. presently i am in Taiwan, study trip with MP.Thank You.

From, Huan Cheng Guan, penang Gerakan Youth Chief

Bar Council Defends Decision To Hold Weekend Forum

It was supposed to be a Bar Council forum on Sedition Act but the dominant topic was Saturday's rowdy demonstration by a group of Muslim protesters who forced the Conversion to Islam forum to shut down. Panelists and participants agreed on one thing — the decision to hold Saturday's forum was right because it was timely and important to address a very problematic issue. Panelist HR Dipendra said the council should have been more careful in choosing the topic for the forum, in order not to be seen as provocative. "I checked in every blog that protested against the forum and they just talk about conversion to Islam and it ends there," said the lawyer. Although he believed there was no need for the organiser to apologise to anyone as the forum was timely and suitable, it was a question of "packaging the product".

Lecturer Wong Chin Huat saw the issue from a different perspective, arguing that the protest was a reflection of a competition among three Malay-based parties — Pas, Umno and Parti Keadilan Rakyat. He said Some leaders or members of the three parties feel the need to out-Islamise each other. While Lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar who was also one of the speakers said the actions by the protesters should not be interpreted as the view of the majority, as the 300 protesters who were outside protesting do not represent the majority Muslims or Islam.

Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan defended her decision to end Saturday's forum earlier, saying that the safety and security of everyone in the hall was the organiser's responsibility. On Saturday, protesters from various Muslim organisations gathered outside the Bar Council building to oppose a forum to discuss conflict in family law arising from conversion of one party to Islam. The forum which was supposed to end at 1pm abruptly ended a little before 10am. Meanwhile, Sisters in Islam issued a statement to protest the extreme actions by Muslim NGOs and political parties in halting the forum, as well as to condemn the throwing of Molotov cocktail at Ambiga's former house and planting of two kerosene bombs in front of the Bar Council office. They said such violent acts only give a bad image of Muslims and Malaysian society surely does not tolerate these extremist or terrorist actions, the police should not have bowed to the aggressive tactics that forced the abrupt termination of a peaceful and mature dialogue.

According to SIS, many Muslim lawyers and Muslim participants supported the dialogue and did not regard the forum as insulting or challenging Islam. The group also said Dr Naim Mokhtar who is Syarie Prosecutor for Federal Territory's Islamic Affairs Department and former Syariah High Court judge and Dr. Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad the Director of the Syariah Law and Political Science Centre and Senior Fellow of the Institute for Islamic Understanding of Malaysia had agreed to be the panelists for the forum but pulled out at the eleventh hour. The fact was that based on the programme, three of the five panelists were Muslims. SIS was disappointed with political parties that championed human rights and freedom of speech as they had failed to practise what they preach and they have acted against their own manifesto, promised to the people, in the last general election."

SAPP MP's To Move No - Confidence Motion On Pak Lah

Breaking News
( Source : Malaysiakini.com )
http://malaysiakini.com/news/84637

Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) led by outspoken former chief minister Yong Teck Lee today announced that it would move a noconfidence motion against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when Parliament resumes on Monday. The announcement was made at the party headquarters in Kota Kinabalu at 2pm. SAPP who in recent months has questioned Abdullah's policies towards Sabah and the federal government's inability to solve the illegal migrants' problems in the state. The party has two members of parliament and four state representatives

MCPX

This appeared to be the opening move by the BN component member which may see the Sabah-based political party eventually leaving the coalition. Political commentators pointed out that even if the party pulled out of BN to join Pakatan, the defection of the two MPs would not be sufficient for rock Abdullah's BN. Anwar needs 30 MPs to derail Abdullah and BN from power. However, Sabah sources claim that other BN coalition partners would follow SaAPP out of BN if the party starts the exodus.

( Full Report To Follow )