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 It is not our practice to reply to criticism — or praise — on the articles and commentaries we carry in the CPI website. However the accusations by Malay Mail columnist Rusdi Mustapha warrant a rebuttal. His Monday column ‘Seri Menanti: Daulat Tuanku! What it means’ appearing in the tabloid on Oct 12, 2009, makes a number of unfounded allegations, the most scurrilous of which are: 1. “CPI [is] creating discord among the three major races in the country via its postings.” 2. “CPI should be investigated for inciting racial hatred and for being anti-monarchy in its content.” 3. “CPI is also questioning the special rights of the Malays under the Constitution.” 4. “CPI [is a] Communist Party Initiative operating under the guise of being a legitimate outfit.” There is not a single shred of evidence provided by Encik Rusdi to support any of these charges. A dissection of Rusdi’s article reveals that his call for CPI to be investigated, presumably by the police, appears to be based on two of our translations — we can only assume this since he does not identify which of our content specifically incurred his wrath. Two articles reproduced in CPI The background to these two postings is as follows: The first is an English translation of an article ‘Menyoal seruan 'Daulat Tuanku’ that we published on Oct 5, 2009. This article was originally a Sept 18 posting written in Malay and carried in a blog ‘Suara Keramat Pak Sako’. The author — who uses the pseudonym ‘Pak Sako’ — wrote that the cry 'Daulat Tuanku' is often heard amongst those who support Barisan Nasional when they defend the actions of the Perak Sultan ...” According to Pak Sako, “The reasons for His Highness’ action were not divulged to the public even though it was a sensitive episode involving the democratic rights of the people. Pak Sako essentially questioned, “Is the public not entitled to know the rationale behind his royal command?” It is difficult to fathom how Rusdi can make the quantum leap from Pak Sako’s statement that human beings should use their capacity to think and to question, “even if the subject under scrutiny is felt to be thorny” to then jump to a wholly unfounded conclusion that CPI supports the abolishment of the monarchy and encourages people to kill our rulers.
[Rusdi had written quite preposterously: “You see, there is no difference in tactics between the MPAJA (communist guerrillas during the Emergency) and the CPI: they both want the royalty to be abolished, the MPAJA wanted to kill them and the CPI is also inciting that.”] The second scurrilous allegation contained in the Malay Mail article concerns our publication of writings by Dr Boo Cheng Hau, Opposition leader in the Johor state assembly. Rusdi wrote that “CPI in its website also draws Malaysia as practising apartheid, which we know is not true, because almost half of the country’s good prime land and properties are owned by the Chinese.” CPI had translated an extract of Dr Boo’s adjournment speech (made during the state assembly sitting on Feb 26, 2009) which said that Dana Johor shareholders were upset by the discriminative treatment by Permodalan Johor Berhad. The state agency had repurchased Amanah Saham Johor shares at RM1 per unit. In comparison, the Dana Johor buyback was offered at only 50 sen per unit. Dr Boo had said, “The difference in purchase price between ASJ and Dana Johor can be said to be an apartheid economic policy because of the difference in the treatment given two groups of Johor citizens.” In any case, the affected ASJ and Dana Johor investors are overwhelmingly Umno members with only a small number of MCA and MIC members. In a related article that CPI headlined ‘Apartheid in the Malaysian context’, Dr Boo had explained how “Apartheid was officially defined in South Africa as ‘separate development’. But apartheid is really an elite regime with concentration of power in the hands of a few.” He defines that “Apartheid involves the complete domination of one race over the other – economically, politically and socially.” This Oct 8 article in CPI is a condensed English version. We had earlier carried the full article in Malay on Oct 5 titled ‘Apartheid de facto tidak moral dan perlu dikikis’ (which was our centre’s translation of ‘Immorality of de facto apartheid must go', originally published in Malaysiakini earlier this year). CPI is confident that we have presented the debate on interpreting ‘apartheid’ in a balanced manner. Preceding Dr Boo’s articles, CPI featured on Oct 3 the contrary opinion ‘Mengapa Malaysia tidak seumpama Afrika Selatan’ (Why Malaysia is not like South Africa) thus giving both sides of the debate a fair airing. Similarly, we have carried commentaries that have analyzed the negative and damaging impact of the implementation of the 'special position' provision of the Constitution for the Malays – not 'special rights' as wrongly stated by Rusdi. The public has a right to open discussion about the pros and cons of how this constitutional provision is being implemented and on the ways and means to correct policy abuses or lapses. We shall continue to carry articles dealing with the implementation of policies on the 'special position' of the Malays as the subject is of public importance and of interest to a wide constituency of Malaysians, including Malays. CPI’s so-called ‘inciting hatred’ activities Our centre translates writings into Malay which we believe would be of interest to readers who may otherwise not read them in English, and vice versa. It is all part of our commitment to provide data, information and views that will raise the level of consciousness of Malaysians and help bring about the changes necessary to make a better society. Our translations of the Pak Sako and Dr Boo pieces are based on our belief that they contain important perspectives that deserve a wider audience. These translations were also undertaken with permission from both authors. The bloggers annual gathering, co-organized with the National Alliance of Bloggers, is another major activity engaged in by the CPI. In fact, Ahirudin Attan, the present group editor of Malay Mail himself headed the organizing committee of the event — a joint effort between CPI and All-Blogs of which Ahirudin, better known as Rockybru, is pro-tem chairman. The keynote speaker at this year’s bloggers forum held in May was none other than Dr Mahathir Mohamad who operates Malaysia’s most visited personal blog. Rusdi Mustapha’s article imputing that CPI is an anti-national organization is not only lacking in fact but is also full of fancy. It is aimed at rabble-rousing that imperils participants online who are presenting rational arguments to advance critical thinking and knowledge in our society. McCarthy-like witch hunt Finally, his charge that the CPI is a “Communist Party Initiative operating under the guise of being a legitimate outfit” is not only totally without any basis but is a reflection of his blinkered demagoguery and hateful attempt at demonizing. The situation today is that the Cold War has ended and the days of labeling organizations as ‘communists’ and seeking to burn them at the stake are long over. Recently, the Barisan National Youth and the Communist Youth League of China established a permanent secretariat to “facilitate continuous bilateral programmes to promote a stronger bond between the two entities”. It was the former BN Youth chairman Hishamuddin Hussein who sealed the initiative that is now being carried forward by his successor Khairy Jamaluddin (The Star, Oct 13). The CPI heartily approves of these linkages. The China connection is only one of many formal links that the BN, the government and other public and private organizations in the country have with communist or communist-affiliated parties or organizations from around the world. We think that these links are important and useful, not only in terms of the economic, financial and similar benefits they bring to Malaysia but also in opening up our minds to the diversity of intellectual and ideological viewpoints from around the world. Who is inciting hatred here? Encik Rusdi seems unaware of current developments and seeks to tar CPI with the ‘communist terrorist’ brush. Perhaps he may want to train the gun-sight of his next Malay Mail article on Hishamuddin, Khairy and the BN Youth. That may give his column more brownie points from the ultra-nationalistic ideologues that he seems to be making his pitch towards. In the same vein of understanding diverse approaches to systems of government applicable to countries in different stages of development, we think that Pak Sako and Dr Boo’s works tracing the feudalistic history of our country, and the economic history of South African apartheid, have their correct place in our website. We gave the space to Pak Sako to present his considered analysis. Most unfortunately, the Malay Mail provided Rusdi a platform to hallucinate and demonize about imaginary plots to kill kings. CPI's position We hope that Encik Rusdi Mustapha and the Malay Mail will realize their mistake in the baseless accusations against the CPI as contained in the article written by Rusdi and disseminated by the Malay Mail. We call on Encik Rusdi and the Malay Mail to withdraw the vexatious, vindictive and defamatory accusations contained in the article and also for them to issue an appropriately worded public apology on the matter. Dr Lim Teck Ghee (CEO and director of Centre for Policy Initiatives
Kuala Lumpur, Oct 15, 2009)
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Dr. Lim Teck Ghee 
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