Malaysia’s mission impossible: rob a cash machine

Wed Aug 16, 2006 4:25 AM BST

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian bank robbers have botched a second daring attempt to steal a cash machine when an excavator they used to carry out the heist got stuck.

Thieves toiled for almost an hour with a stolen excavator to dig two cash machines out of a bank branch in the northeastern town of Kuala Terengganu on Tuesday.

But they were forced to flee empty-handed when the excavator’s digging arm got stuck in the ceiling of the bank, Malaysian newspapers reported on Wednesday.

A week ago, thieves in northwest Penang state used a rope to tie an automatic teller machine to a truck and haul it through a glass wall and down a flight of stairs — only to discover they had grabbed a cheque-deposit machine by mistake.

In another recent case, thieves loaded a cash machine onto a truck but abandoned it when they discovered it had no cash.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved. 

Source: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-08-16T032525Z_01_KLR297884_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-MALAYSIA-ROBBERY.XML&archived=False

Former Malaysian Leader Accuses Prime Minister of Corruption

Former Malaysian Leader Accuses Prime Minister of Corruption
By Heda Bayron
Hong Kong
14 August 2006

Former Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad (File photo)

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is facing accusations of corruption and nepotism from his outspoken predecessor, Mahathir Mohamad. Some analysts say the growing feud could derail the government in Malaysia.

Former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, says he has proof of corruption in Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s government. He says he will pass the facts to the authorities in due course.
 
“I’ll continue asking questions until I’m answered. There are several other things which I will come out [with] one at a time, evidence of corruption,” Mr. Mahathir said.
 
Mr. Mahathir distributed a letter last week to leading members of the ruling party, demanding a right to speak – something he had often been accused of denying his people of when he was in power.

“If members are only allowed to hear one side of the story, can they pass judgment, can they make a decision?” Mr. Mahathir’s letter said.

In the past few weeks, he also has suggested it was not necessary to wait for elections to depose a corrupt leader, and said the ruling party could survive a leadership challenge.  His comments ratcheted up the tension in the growing feud between Malaysia’s leaders past and present.

Some political analysts say Mr. Mahathir’s accusations could hurt Mr. Abdullah’s credibility and his efforts to fight graft – a key part of his platform for becoming prime minister in 2003.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

Mr. Abdullah, known as “Mr. Clean”, denies the corruption allegations. He rejects accusations that the government awarded contracts to his businessman-son Abdullah Kamaluddin and that his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, has too much influence over policy. Khairy is the deputy chief of the ruling party UMNO’s youth wing.

The quarrel started after Mr. Abdullah scrapped some of Mr. Mahathir’s pet projects, including a planned bridge linking Malaysia and Singapore.  He also reduced high tariffs in the car industry, which had protected the Proton national car from foreign competition. Mr. Mahathir says Mr. Abdullah’s decisions go against the national interest. Mr. Abdullah says they promote it.

“What is wrong, we will put it right. The government has to think. The government has its own perception,” Mr. Abdullah says.

During his 22 years in office, Mr. Mahathir was accused of giving preferential treatment to his children’s companies. But no charges were made in court, and few within the ruling party dared to attack him publicly, as he has now criticized Mr. Abdullah. 

James Chin, politics professor at the University of Malaysia in Sarawak, says it is too early to judge Mr. Abdullah’s anti-corruption drive.

“When Abdullah stepped in, in 2003, I think he was very serious about corruption and he did try to move fairly quickly but I think he has found out that it is a much harder job… I think it would be premature to judge him. He’s only been in power for about three years,” Chin says.

Some analysts see the feud as an extension of the rivalry between Mr. Mahathir’s son Mukriz, and Mr. Abdullah’s son-in-law Khairy, who won the UMNO youth position over rival Mukriz in 2005. 

Chin says the Mahathir-Abdullah dispute could divide the UMNO ruling party. But with no general assembly or elections in the offing, Mr. Abdullah, he says, could ride this out. 

Source: http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-14-voa4.cfm

Penan Logging Blockade Maintained, Malaysia Must Implement Permanent Protections

Action Alert: UPDATED: Penan Logging Blockade Maintained, Malaysia Must Implement Permanent Protections

By Rainforest Portal, a project of Ecological Internet – July 9, 2006
Caption: The Penan protest to protect their rainforests and way of life  (link)

MAJOR UPDATE: Due to international pressure the blockade still stands. The email below has been updated to commend Malaysian authorities for their restraint and to request that the Penan’s last rainforested customary native lands be permanently protected and their land tenure permanently respected.

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Malaysia’s indigenous Penan peoples are again resorting to logging road blockades to protect their native customary land rights and last remaining ancestral rainforest reserves. Logging workers of Malaysian Interhill Logging have already dismantled a Penan logging road blockade near Ba Abang in the Middle Baram region of Sarawak on the Island of Borneo. Now the Police and Federal Reserve Unit are reportedly moving into the Baram region to break a long-standing second blockade erected by the Penan to protect the boundaries of their last remaining large rainforest expanse. There exists great potential yet again in Sarawak for deadly violence against indigenous peoples striving to protect their way of life and rainforest habitats. And Malaysia’s government must be held accountable.This episode is the latest in a quixotic battle that has been waged for over two decades to protect the Penan peoples of Sarawak’s rainforest lands from predatory and often illegal industrial logging by Malaysian logging companies with the government’s blessing. Sadly, the battle for Sarawak’s large, contiguous rainforest wildernesses that were large enough to sustain traditional Penan lifestyles has largely been lost. While once the Penan struggle was the cause celebre of activists around the world, it has mostly faded from the public’s consciousness. Meanwhile the brutal, criminal logging enterprises have largely moved on to other rainforests occupied by indigenous peoples in such places as Papua New Guinea and Cambodia, where the have pursued similar corrupt, violent, immoral and ecocidal tactics. Yet, the Penan’s fight to protect what remains continues.

Their latest plea transmitted by the Bruno Manser Fonds organization of Switzerland reads: “Please support us and stay strongly behind us. Ask the police not to use force against us on our land. We, the Penan communities, will keep on the struggle for our forest for ever.” With this dramatic appeal, the headmen of the Penan communities in the 4th and 5th Division of Sarawak, Malaysia jointly ask politicians, lawyers, NGOs, government officials, the media and the general public to support the struggle for their native customary rights lands and their last remaining forest reserves.

Penan sources report that an unknown number of policemen have been brought to the area and that they were supported by the Federal Reserve Unit, a specially organized police unit trained to quell riots and disperse “unlawful assemblies”. The police are searching the area for the Penan community members, who set up the earlier blockade on 16 June and are currently hiding in the forest. However, no arrests have been made so far.

In a separate development, the Penan community of Long Benali is reporting that another road blockade further up the Baram river is to be dismantled using force. This blockade was established by the Penan in February 2004 to mark their community boundary and to prevent the bulldozers of the Miri-based logging giant Samling from encroaching further into their territory. According to the Penan, Samling intends to build a road up to the Kelabit community of Long Lellang to exploit one of the last remaining primary rainforest areas of Sarawak.

The announcement that this blockade is to be crushed further discredits the global movement to “certify” the environmental sustainability and ethicalness of logging ancient rainforest timbers. Malaysian Timber Certification Council (MTCC) had recently certified Samling Plywood (Baramas) Sdn. Bhd for “sustainable” logging in Penan’s contested indigenous rainforests. This certification of Samling has led to international protests supporting the Penan land rights case against Samling, which has been totally disregarded by MTCC. Now Samling has raised the stakes and is showing further disrespect for the Penan by moving to break their blockade.

Source: http://www.ecoearth.info/alerts/send.asp?id=penan

2005 INVESTMENT CLIMATE STATEMENT — Malaysia

2005 INVESTMENT CLIMATE STATEMENT — Malaysia
Openness to Foreign Investment
The Malaysian government encourages foreign direct investment, particularly in export-oriented manufacturing and high-tech industries, and in “back office” service operations, but retains considerable discretionary authority in approving individual investment projects. The government does permit 100% foreign ownership in the manufacturing sector. However, in keeping with long-standing public policies designed to increase “bumiputera” (i.e. ethnic Malay and other indigenous peoples) participation in the economy, the Malaysian government encourages or requires joint ventures between Malaysian and foreign companies and in many areas limits foreign equity and employment. 

Malaysia: Muslim Laws And Corrupt Politicians

July 11, 2006

Malaysia: Muslim Laws And Corrupt Politicians

Malaysia claims to be a “moderate Muslim country”, but is also practises one of the most corrupt and bizarre travesties of religious freedom imaginable. It claims to be “enlightened”, but the policies of its two main parties are based on discrimination against non-Muslim minorities. One of these, UMNO, is in Malaysia’s ruling so-called “Barisan Nasional” coalition, while the other, PAS, is formerly influential within the states’ electorate.

UMNO is currently more successful politically than PAS. Its name stands for United Malays National Organisation, and in the Barisan Nasional coalition, it has ruled without interruption since Malaysia’s Independence on August 31, 1957. UMNO hold to the principle of the “ketuanan Melayu” an ideology which states that the Malay people, who are all regarded as “Muslim” under Malaysia’s Kafkaesque legal system, are the original and defining populace of Malaya, and thus should have special status and privileges.

The PAS party has lost a lot of ground recently, losing control in all of Malaysia’s 13 states except Kelantan, but is still the next largest party in Malaysia, in terms of votes. Led by Tuan Guru Haji Abdul Hadi Awang, the PAS party was first registered on May 31, 1955. Formerly called Persatuan Islam Se-Malaysia, it now calls itself Parti Islam Se-Malaysia. PAS wants to have an Islamic government which rules the entire country, irrespective of ethnic or religious belief, under the principles of Sharia law.

Surprisingly, with their extremist ideology, UMNO have made strange bedfellows in the Barisan Nasional coalition, by joining with MIC, the Malaysia Indian Congress, which has been in existence since 1946, and also MCA, the Malaysian Chinese Association, which has been the second largest partner in the Barisan Nasional coalition since 1996. There are ten other smaller parties in the Barisan Nasional, whose name means “National Front”.

Few Indians or Chinese are Muslims, but for the government to remain coherent, it must woo these substantial minorities. However, the problems within Malaysia’s constitution, and its laws on the treatment of non-Muslims, give many Hindus and Chinese cause for concern.

Malays comprise 50.8% of the population of 26 million, followed by Chinese 23.8%, Indigenous 10.9%, Indian 7.1%, and non-Malaysian citizens 6.8 %.

In terms of religion, according to US State Department figures, 60% of the population is Muslim, with Buddhists comprising 19.2%, Christians 9.1%, Hindus 6.3%, and Confucianism 2.6%. The other faiths comprise only 2.8% of the demographic.

Malaysia makes it compulsory for every citizen to be issued with a national identity card at the age of 12, and on this card is written the details of one’s religion. In a move which is simultaneously racist and Islamist, all Malays are automatically registered on these cards (called MyKad) as Muslims.

The details of the cards are held with the National Registration Department (NRD), whose director-general is Abdul Halim Mohamed, who runs his department like something from George Orwell. No person is allowed to change their faith from Islam and have their MyKad changed accordingly, unless their change of faith has been approved by the Sharia Courts.

And as we have described earlier, no-one has ever been given permission to leave Islam by these courts, apart from one 79 year old Buddhist Malay, Nyonya Tahir and that happened AFTER she had died.

Recently the NRD has announced that if anyone does not carry their identity card at all times, they will be liable of a fine of from 3,000 ringit ($822) to 20,000 ringit ($5,478), or even face three years in jail, states The Star. Apartheid South Africa could not have outdone this move.

Abdul Halim Mohamed said: “Our officers found a few hundred people who did not carry the identity document. The main excuse given by people who did not carry the MyKad was that they had left it at home. gnorance of the law is no defence. We are now warning people… carry your MyKad.”

For a person to leave their faith, if that faith is Islam, is a virtual impossibility. We have been mentioning the case of Lina Joy, an ethnic Malay, who converted to Christianity. She applied to the National Registration Department in 1997 to have her Muslim name, Azlina Jailani, changed to her Christian one, and to have her faith changed from Islam to Christianity. The NRD finally allowed her to have a new name, Lina Joy, in 1998, but refused to acknowledge that she had changed her faith. The NRD said that Lina Joy could only be classified as a Christian if that change was approved by the Sharia courts (called Syariah in Malaysia). And this being her Catch-22, no apostasy from Islam has ever been accepted by these courts.

She was told in April that the highest court in Malaysia would listen to her appeal, but her case is currently underway, and the signs are not good.

I have been collecting all the published details of her current court tribulations when a verdict is finally announced, but the signs so far are not favourable.

It seems that Malaysia’s Sharia Courts are fearful that if one person leaves Islam, then the floodgates will open, and everyone will want to leave. Currently, the way the Sharia courts are treating other Muslim apostates, such as Kamariah Ali (pictured, below, left), any person with any sanity would not tolerate the Sharia court’s abuses of human rights and manipulation of the country’s contradictory constitution.

Yesterday, news agency Bernama reported that a claim was made on Sunday (9 July) by a “Mufti” Seri Harussani Zakaria, that there are 100,000 apostates from Islam at present. This announcement has caused consternation in government, with Dr Abdullah Mohammad Zin, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, asking Haryssani to substantiate his claim.

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) has been asked to investigate these claims, and to draw up a report.

Yesterday, the Guardian published an article by Stefanie Khaw, which discussed the worries tha some in Malaysia are having about the spreading Islamization of Malaysia. Many of the issues, such as Lina Joy, and the constitution, we have already covered extensively.

But Ms Khaw reports that even some judges are starting to question the “creeping Islamisation” of Malaysia’s court system. Anuar Zainal Abidin, a former chief judge, said: “There is a lot of [Islamic] influence, which I’m not happy about. Just because [the sharia courts] decide on the question of apostasy, it doesn’t mean that they have final jurisdiction.”

The article notes the declining appeal of the Islamist party PAS:

In the last federal election, the party saw its parliamentary representation collapse from 27 seats to five. The ruling Barisan Nasional party won 12 of 13 states, displacing PAS in Terengganu and almost defeating it in its northern heartland of Kelantan.In response to the disappointing results, the PAS deputy president, Nasharudin Mat Isa, said: “We want to change the image of the party and increase our appeal to the non-Muslim, non-Malay Chinese and Indian minorities. We still want an Islamic state. But we want to discuss it in the context of universal values and rights, good governance, and justice issues.”

Even though PAS states it wishes to appeal to non-Muslims now, it still wants to introduce Hudood ordinances, which would include Sharia punishments such as hand amputations for theft, and stoning to death for Muslims who commit adultery, or Zina.In Kelantan, the only state in which PAS has any influence, the party recently has tried to allocate state funds to bribe the indigenous non-Muslim peoples within Kelantan. The “Orang Asli” have lived in Malaysia since long before Muslims arrived on the land in the 14th century, and they have an animist religion, which reveres shamans more highly than imams and priests. This minority is to be wooed with gifts of four-wheeled drive vehicles and cash, but most tellingly, these bribes are to be given not to the Orang Asli themselves, but to the imams who convert them.

There is widespread political corruption on a state level, and also on a city council level. We have reported on how Hindu temples, some of which have been existence for more than a century, are being demolished by Islamist city councils. Christian churches too have been demolished. The reasons given for such wanton acts of religious bigotry are distractions, such as claims that land deeds have not been registered. In the case of the two temples which have stood for more than 100 years, there are no land deeds available.

But in the upper echelons of power, corruption in Malaysia is still rife. Today, AKI reports that several ministers within the ruling Barisan Nasional have been running up enormous parking and other traffic fines, and have only now been shamed into paying them.

The worst culprit, according to Malaysiakini, is labour minister, S Samy Vellu, of MIC, who has amassed 143 fines worth a total of 17,460 Malaysian ringgit, about 3,754 euros or $4,781.94. The foreign minister, Syed Hamid Albar of UMNO has gathered 121 fines totalling 15,200 ringit (3,268 Euros or $4,163), closely followed by the human resources minister, Fong Chan Onn, of MCA, who has run up 115 traffic fines worth 15,230 ringit (3,274 Euros or $4,171).

A few weeks ago, it was revealed that the prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (pictured, top left), had gathered 11 unpaid fines between 29 June, 2002 and 3 August, 2005. He has since apologised and paid these. He claimed ignorance of the fact that he had five cases of speeding against him, four for obstructing traffic and two for parking on the wrong side of the road.

Irrespective of the obvious personal flaws of the politicians within the Barisan Nasional coalition, there is also a strong element of Islamism within the government. The Islamic Family Law Bill was pushed through parliament on December 22, before it had been given time to be discussed.

The Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2005 (IFL 2005) allows a man to apply for the matrimonial home to be sold and the proceeds divided. It also allows, under Section 107A, for a husband to gain an injunction preventing a wife or former wife disposing of her “assets”. Section 23(9)(b) also means that if a Muslim man chooses to divorce, or to marry a new bride, he can lay claim to a share of his existing wives’ assets.

The bill was widely condemned as discriminatory, was pushed into law by the Prime Minister’s department, who had had invoked the whip, and after complaints, was briefly suspended, and then placed back on the statute books. Women’s groups, and even Marina Mahathir, the daughter of Mahathir Mohammed, the previous ruler of Malaysia, condemned this law for making the lives of women in Malaysia more difficult.

The minister who had pushed this bill through the Senate was Nazri Abdul Aziz of the UMNO party, the de facto law minister. In March he alarmed many by threatening any non-Muslim who criticised Islam under the Sedition Act, making any critic of Islam liable to a fine of up to up to 5,000 ringgit or $1,370, and three years imprisonment.

Aziz strongly disapproves of any tampering with the controversial clause in the country’s constitution, which states that any issue which falls under the jurisdiction of the Sharia court can not be interfered with by the civil or high court. This clause, Article 121 (A), was introduced in 1988, and caused untold problems for non-Muslims and would-be apostates.

The sharia courts declared last year that a Hindu national mountaineering hero, was a Muslim. Manian Moorthy had fallen out of a wheelchair and was in a coma when the courts announced that he was a Muslim, and Lt Corporal Moorthy was not in a position to defend his position. As a result of the Sharia courts’ claims, when Moorthy died his wife Kaliammal had to petition the High Court to allow her husband to be buried as a Hindu.

Kaliammal swore that her husband had never become a Muslim, that he ate pork, yet despite her pleas, Justice Mohammad Raus Sharif said that he could do nothing as Article 121 (A) prevented him from intruding on an area ruled upon by the Islamic courts.

As a result, Kaliammal had to see her husband’s body be taken away. She was too upset the actual burial, where her Hindu husband was interred as a Muslim in a Muslim graveyard on December 28.

The protection of Islam, even to the extent of persecuting those who wish to leave it, is ingrained in Malaysia’s laws, and upheld by many of its politicians. Many states have adopted a controversial Control and Restriction Bill, which allows fines of 10,000 ringit or $2,653 and terms of imprisonment for up to one year for anyone guilty of “persuading, influencing a Muslim to leave Islam for another religion.”

The Sharia Courts operate in all the states of Malaysia, and one woman, Kamariah Ali, appealed to the same High Court, on the same day as Kaliammal Moorthy, to the same Justice Mohammad Raus Sharif, to have her renunciation of Islam accepted by the law. Sharif gave the same answer to her as he had given to Kaliammal – he could do nothing. Kamariah Ali (pictured, left) had renounced Islam in 1999, but she is still having to face the Sharia courts, who refuse to accept her conversion.

Kamariah has been imprisoned for “belittling Islam”. Her husband, Mohammed Ya, was also imprisoned for “belittling Islam”, a sentence that took a toll on his health. He died when he left prison. The Terrenganu state Shariah Courts, which would not allow him to leave Islam in life, would not grant him the right to buried in a Muslim ceremony when dead. He was buried in the grounds of the SKy Kingdom sect’s compond. He, like Kamariah Ali, belonged to his sect, which welcomed Christians, Buddhists and Hindus. The Sharia courts issued a fatwa declaring the Sky Kingdom sect to be “heretics”.

Article 121 (1A) clearly violates other clauses in the constitution, such as Schedule IX, List II, which limits the scope of the Syariah courts to “persons professing the religion of Islam.” Kamariah Ali renounced Islam, but the Shariah courts refuse to accept this. She must return on August 20 to here her fate.

Article 11 of the constitution gives citizens the right to profess and practise any religion they choose. Article 3(1) of the constitution states that ‘other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation.

But because of Article 121 (1A), combined with the sheer bloodymindedness of the National Registration Department and the Sharia courts, Lina Joy, Kamariah Ali, and others are pushed judicially from pillar to post. If Islam was so good a religion, then it would not need to enforce itself with such tyrannical zeal. The Koran states “there shall be no compulsion in religion.”

But only a system which rules by force and bullying can morally stick to the course which is being followed in Malaysia. And as we all know, Islam is a religion which does not allow human rights, or any rights, if those contradict the tenets laid out by a desert-dwelling caravan raider from the 7th century wastes of Arabia.

Further reading:

Kamariah Ali/Lina Joy: Islamic Court Places Woman’s Faith On Trial by WR

Kamariah Ali: Lonely Widow’s Battle To Leave Islam by WR

Re: Nyonya Tahir and Lina Joy: Muslim Court Allows Apostate To Be Buried As Buddhist by WR

Re: Kaliammal Moorthy, Kamariah Ali: Malaysia: Widow Of Hindu Buried As Muslim Gets Benefits by WR

Re: Temple Desecration: Islamic Authorities Destroy More Hindu Temples by WR

US State Department document, from November 18, 2005, entitled Malaysia: International Religious Freedom Report 2005

Source: http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/002537.html

Malaysia : Country profile

Country profile: Malaysia

Malaysia boasts one of south-east Asia’s most vibrant economies, the fruit of decades of industrial growth and political stability. Its multi-ethnic, multi-religious society encompasses a majority Muslim population in most of its states and an economically-powerful Chinese community. OVERVIEW Consisting of two regions separated by some 640 miles of the South China Sea, Malaysia is a federation of 13 states and three federal territories. It is one of the region’s key tourist destinations, offering excellent beaches and brilliant scenery. Dense rainforests in the eastern states of Sarawak and Sabah, on the island of Borneo, are a refuge for wildlife and tribal traditions. Malaysia made the transformation from a farm-based economy Ethnic Malays comprise some 60% of the population. Chinese constitute around 26%; Indians and indigenous peoples make up the rest. The communities coexist in relative harmony, although there is little racial interaction. Although since 1971 Malays have benefited from positive discrimination in business, education and the civil service, ethnic Chinese continue to hold economic power and are the wealthiest community. The Malays remain the dominant group in politics while the Indians are among the poorest. Malaysia’s economic prospects remain healthy, although it faces fierce competition from its neighbours, and from China and India. Free trade talks with the US are under way. The country is among the world’s biggest producers of computer disk drives, palm oil, rubber and timber. It has a state-owned car maker, Proton, and tourism has considerable room for expansion. But it also faces serious challenges – politically, in the form of sustaining stability in the face of religious differences and the ethnic wealth gap, and, environmentally, in preserving its valuable forests. Malaysia’s human rights record has come in for international criticism. Internal security laws allow suspects to be detained without charge or trial. FACTS

• Population: 25.3 million (UN, 2005)
• Capital: Kuala Lumpur
• Area: 329,847 sq km (127,355 sq miles)
• Major languages: Malay (official), English, Chinese dialects, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam
• Major religions: Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Christianity, Sikhism
• Life expectancy: 71 years (men), 75 years (women)
• Monetary unit: 1 ringgit = 100 sen
• Main exports: Electronic equipment, petroleum and liquefied natural gas, chemicals, palm oil, wood and wood products, rubber, textiles
• GNI per capita: US $4,960 (World Bank, 2006)
• Internet domain: .my
• International dialling code: +60

LEADERS Head of state: Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin Syed Sirajuddin Syed Putra Jamalullail was installed as Malaysia’s 12th king during a glittering ceremony in 2002. King Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin He is the traditional ruler of Malaysia’s smallest state, Perlis, a rural province in the far north bordering on Thailand. He is a former student at Sandhurst military academy in Britain and a keen supporter of Tottenham Hotspur football club. The king’s role is largely ceremonial, although he is nominal head of the armed forces and all laws and the appointment of every cabinet minister require his assent. Under Malaysia’s constitutional monarchy, the position of king is rotated every five years. Malaysia’s first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, himself a prince, devised the system after independence in 1957 to spread power among the sultans and rajas who had ruled over fiefdoms on the Malay peninsula for hundreds of years. Prime minister: Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Mr Abdullah began a new, five-year term in March 2004 after his coalition government won a landslide victory in parliamentary and regional elections. Correspondents said the victory boosted his chances of pushing through reforms, including a promise to stamp out corruption. But his critics say the pace of change has been slow. PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi promised reforms In 2006 his government unveiled a multi-billion-dollar plan intended to tackle rural poverty and promote growth. Its goal is to help Malaysia achieve developed nation status by 2020. Abdullah Ahmad Badawi succeeded Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister in October 2003, when Asia’s longest-serving elected leader retired after 22 years in power. He is a former deputy premier who held defence, foreign affairs and education portfolios under Dr Mahathir. On taking office he faced a strong political challenge from opposition Islamic fundamentalists and inherited the task of overseeing one of the region’s most vibrant economies. In contrast to his predecessor, Mr Abdullah has been described as self-effacing. He has been called the “Mr Nice Guy” of Malaysian politics. Mr Abdullah was born in 1939 in Penang. His father was a founding member of Umno, Malaysia’s ruling party. After gaining a degree in Islamic studies he worked in the civil service before being elected to parliament in 1978. Malaysia has been ruled by a coalition, the National Front, since independence. The United Malays National Organisation (Umno) is the biggest grouping in the alliance, which includes Chinese and Indian parties. Deputy prime minister, defence minister: Najib Razak Finance minister: Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Foreign minister: Syed Hamid Albar MEDIA Malaysia has some of the toughest censorship laws in the world. The authorities exert substantial control over the media and restrictions may be imposed in the name of national security. The government is keen to insulate the largely-Muslim population from what it considers harmful foreign influences on TV. News is subject to censorship, entertainment shows and music videos regularly fall foul of the censors, and scenes featuring swearing and kissing are routinely removed from TV programmes and films. The TV sector comprises commercial networks and pay-TV operations. Around a quarter of TV households subscribe to the Astro multichannel service. Two more pay-TV operators, MiTV and Fine TV, entered the market in 2005. TV3 is a leading national private, terrestrial broadcaster. State-owned Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) operates two TV networks and many of the country’s radio services. Private stations are on the air, broadcasting in Malay, Tamil, Chinese and English. Newspapers must renew their publication licences annually, and the home minister can suspend or revoke publishing permits. Some web sites, such as Laman Reformasi, close to former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, freeMalaysia and Malaysiakini, have attracted official criticism. The press New Straits Times – English-language daily The Star - English-language daily Business Times – English-language daily The Malay Mail – English-language daily Malaysiakini - English-language, online news serviceTelevision Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) – state-run, operates TV1 and TV2 networks TV3 - commercial network ntv7 – commercial network 8TV – commercial networkRadio Radio Television Malaysia (RTM) – state-run, operates some 30 radio stations across the country and external service Voice of Malaysia Time Highway Radio – private Kuala Lumpur FM station Era FM – private FM stationNews agency Bernama - state-run Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1304569.stm