Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) - ADAKAH NAJIB AKAN TERPERANGKAP DALAM TPPA?

Islam and the Near East in the Far East, Pages 38-39

Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim Plays the Israel Card

By John Gee

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim dons his coat as he makes his way to a Kuala Lumpur courtroom, May 10, 2010, as his trial on sodomy charges resumed after a long delay. Anwar says the allegations were trumped up in an effort to end his political career and neutralize the threat he poses to the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition. (AFP Photo/Saeed Khan)
SINCE ITS independence, Malaysia has held a position strongly critical of Israel and supportive of Palestinian rights. Media coverage of the Palestine conflict ebbs and flows with its international impact, but tends to focus on Israeli violence and gives a highly sympathetic account of the Palestinians. Because there is not much effort to analyze Israeli politics or society in depth, Israel generally appears two-dimensional and rather undifferentiatedly bad. Malay Muslims, in particular, feel strongly about the issue—and, although in private non-Muslims may not be particularly interested, those in the political arena generally go along with Muslim sentiment.

In this environment, any association of a politician with Israel would be very damaging, and therefore when opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim accused the government of having associations with Israel, he knew he was stirring up a hornet's nest.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has been seeking to rally support around the concept of 1Malaysia, which stresses the unity of the country's diverse peoples. It is presented as a non-partisan idea, but the opposition sees it as a means to rally electoral support to the governing Barisan Nasional coalition, using the banner of patriotism. For its part, the government presents itself as simultaneously upholding Malay rights and trying to preserve tolerance and coexistence among Malays, Chinese and Indians.

Speaking in the Malaysian parliament in March, Anwar claimed that the 1Malaysia idea was derived from that of One Israel, the name of the electoral alliance under which Ehud Barak campaigned in 1999. The similarity is superficial, however. One Israel was not promoted as a concept for the nation as a whole, but for an electoral coalition. It was Barak's attempt to rally support to an Israeli Labor party whose political support was dwindling; he hoped it could gain votes by downplaying the "Labor" name, with its socialist associations, and play to national sentiments as a non-class, non-ideological entity.

Anwar claimed that Israel was given access to channels for influencing Malaysian policies through APCO Worldwide, a consultancy hired by the Malaysian government. The company worked for the Israeli government, he said, and had helped to create the 1Malaysia concept. APCO Worldwide promptly issued a statement denying both claims and saying that Prime Minister Najib had spoken about the 1Malaysia concept before the company was hired by the government.

The Malaysian government was embarassed by the revelation that it had paid APCO 77 million ringgit ($24 million) for its services, but was unapologetic about hiring the company, claiming that the firm was playing a key role in helping Malaysia to build stronger ties with the U.S.

In an April 17 article entitled "Najib Walking a Tightrope on U.S. Ties," Straits Times correspondent Leslie Lopez noted:

"Besides, Malaysia had little choice as Jewish-American firms were among the most effective in lobbying the United States government," Datuk Nazri Aziz, the minister in the Prime Minister's Department, argued earlier this week.

"'In the U.S., there is a lobby culture...So if we want to lobby for something in the U.S. administration, do you think we can succeed if we want to use an Islamic company"' he added."

Nazri's statement to reporters that the government was trying "to make up for 28 years of not-so-good foreign policies under the reign of the two former prime ministers" produced an angry rejoinder from former prime minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the main target of that barb. There is no love lost between the two: in December, Nazri labelled Mahathir's blog "bloody racist" for the attitudes it expressed toward non-Malays.

Anwar's claims against APCO seem to rest on very flimsy evidence. Headquartered in Washington, DC, APCO Worldwide has offices in Tel Aviv, but also in Dubai. Some of its employees are supportive of Israel—but it is not obvious that it differs from other U.S. companies in this respect.

APCO founder Margery Kraus sits on the board of the Teuza Fund, an Israel-based technology venture, where one of her colleagues is Moshe Arens, a former Israeli minister of defense, minister of foreign affairs and ambassador to Washington. Another is Dr. Zvi Meiri, awarded two Israel Defense Prizes for his role in developing major weapons systems for Israel. These are the sort of personalities who hold posts in many Israeli technology companies, given the purchasing power and interest of the military in high-tech weaponry and systems with military applications.

This does not prove very much, however. Kraus doesn't have a track record of showing a special interest in Israel, and her other business associations are with non-Israeli companies. In fact, both her own and APCO's past suggest an interest in making money without being too choosy about business associates. Notoriously, in the 1990s APCO advised the American tobacco company Philip Morris in its efforts to counter the message that "smoking is bad for your health." It is seen by those who seek its services as having a particular aptitude for lobbying on sensitive political issues.

In time, no doubt, it will become known how APCO Worldwide is earning its ringgits.

Even after the APCO allegations, Anwar still had one more accusation to make about Israeli links, saying he had police documents showing that two Israeli former military intelligence officers entered the Malaysian federal police headquarters in 2008 and had access to the police communication system. They were said to work for a technology company registered in Singapore but with a parent company in Israel. A company hired by the police to upgrade its computer system was reported to have subcontracted work to a company that employed the two Israelis. Anwar named the company as Asiasoft. Again, the government denied the charges.

While Anwar's claims did arouse public interest, there was also a fair amount of skepticism about why he was making them at this time—following as they did a series of defections from his Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) to the government, and just ahead of a key parliamentary by-election to fill a seat previously held by the PKR.

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John Gee is a free-lance journalist based in Southeast Asia, and the author of Unequal Conflict: The Palestinians and Israel.

Anwar & Najib 'bincang sulit' di Jakarta hari ini ??? 

 

"The Malaysian Insider melaporkan, Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak dan Anwar akan berada di Jakarta hari ini, terdapat kemungkinan diadakan pertemuan yang mungkin akan membantu perdana menteri mengelakkan persaingan di Parlimen dan partinya sendiri selepas keputusan buruk PRU13.

Laporan itu juga menyebut pertemuan itu telah cuba diaturkan semenjak sekurang-kurangnya seminggu lalu, ketika Najib hampir pasti dicabar dalam pemilihan Umno tahun ini dan berkemungkinan akan berhadapan dengan usul undi tidak percaya selepas Parlimen mula bersidang pada 24 Jun.

Difahamkan, Menteri Dalam Negeri Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, yang rapat dengan kedua-dua pemimpin, telah ditugaskan untuk mengaturkan pertemuan tersebut."

...____________ ...

Ketua Umum PKR, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim kini berada di Bali untuk bertemu Presiden Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY).

"Saya di Bali bersama Presiden SBY," katanya ringkas melalui media sosial Twitternya, pagi tadi.

Sebelum ini, The Malaysian Insider melaporkan, Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak dan Anwar akan berada di Jakarta hari ini, terdapat kemungkinan diadakan pertemuan yang mungkin akan membantu perdana menteri mengelakkan persaingan di Parlimen dan partinya sendiri selepas keputusan buruk PRU13.

Laporan itu juga menyebut pertemuan itu telah cuba diaturkan semenjak sekurang-kurangnya seminggu lalu, ketika Najib hampir pasti dicabar dalam pemilihan Umno tahun ini dan berkemungkinan akan berhadapan dengan usul undi tidak percaya selepas Parlimen mula bersidang pada 24 Jun.

Difahamkan, Menteri Dalam Negeri Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, yang rapat dengan kedua-dua pemimpin, telah ditugaskan untuk mengaturkan pertemuan tersebut.

Beliau kini berada di Jakarta untuk lawatan dua hala.

“Pertemuan telah diaturkan dengan Najib sebelum Anwar berjumpa Presiden Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pada Sabtu,” kata sumber kepada The Malaysian Insider.

Pembantu bagi kedua-dua pemimpin tidak mahu bercakap mengenai pertemuan tersebut akan tetapi sumber mengatakan kedua-duanya mempunyai kepentingan bersama untuk mengelakkan pencabar lain untuk jawatan perdana menteri.

Dalam pada itu, laporan itu juga menyebut Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah telah bertemu dengan ahli-ahli Parlimen BN untuk berbincang mengenai percubaan beliau mengambil alih kepimpinan dalam Dewan Rakyat yang mempunyai 222 kerusi sementara timbalan kepada Najib Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin mungkin menjadi pencabarnya dalam pemilihan Umno hujung tahun ini.

Kebanyakkan penganalisis politik mengatakan Najib terlalu popular, lebih dari partinya, untuk hilang jawatan dalam kerajaan dan parti.

Sementara itu, Ahli Jawatankuasa Pemilihan Umno akan memulakan siri jelajah untuk menerangkan kaedah baru pemilihan parti berkenaan mulai hari ini.

Setiausaha Agungnya, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor berkata, ia bertujuan memberi penerangan kepada setiap anggota di peringkat akar umbi.

"Menerusi kaedah baru itu akan diwujudkan hari pencalonan untuk jawatan tertinggi parti dan hari pemilihan," katanya.

Beliau yang juga anggota jawatankuasa itu berkata, semakan senarai calon akan dibuat sebelum nama-nama tersebut diumumkan untuk membolehkan kira-kira 150,000 anggota di peringkat cawangan dan bahagian membuat pengundian.

Baru-baru ini, Najib selaku Presiden Umno mengumumkan pemilihan Umno kali ini akan dilaksanakan dengan mengguna pakai perlembagaan baru parti yang membuka peluang kepada hampir 500,000 anggota di peringkat akar umbi menentukan pucuk pimpinan parti.

AMUKANMELAYU - Pusing dan semakin berbelit kemelut POLITIK MALAYSIA. Hanya Ketetapan IMAN yang akan dapat MEMBENDUNG tipu muslihat KAFIRUN dan TALIBARUTnya.