CapitaLand said it will sell its entire 30% stake in Inverfin Sdn Bhd., the owner of the Menara Citibank building in Kuala Lumpur, to a unit of Hap Seng Consolidated Bhd.
CapitaLand will sell the stake for 145.1 million ringgit ($59 million), the statement said. AmSteel Corp., which owns 20% of Inverfin, will also sell its stake, the statement added.
{jcomments on}
Thousands of people have demonstrated in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, against a controversial, decades-old law allowing detention without trial.
Police fired tear gas at protesters as they began a march towards the national palace calling for reform.
Government officials had warned they would crack down on protests. Security forces made dozens of arrests.
Prime Minister Najib Razak said he had already agreed to review the controversial Internal Security Act.
The protest started after prayers finished at the national mosque, when a crowd of about 1,000 marched along one of the city’s main streets.
A second crowd of several thousand came from the opposite direction.
The protesters had planned to submit a petition to the king denouncing the security law.
Malaysia has been through a year of political turbulence as liberals and Islamists try to wrest power from the long-ruling UMNO Malay nationalist party.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Carole Cadwalladr reports from the coolest conference on Earth that attracts a vast web audience
It’s a confusing place, the world of TED. Not just because that for an event which prides itself on its cleverness, it has a name that makes it sound like some sort of football jock, but because, one minute you’re listening to a talk about how an artificial brain is just 10 years off completion and the next you’re thinking, oh look there’s Cameron Diaz. And then, in an unscheduled departure from the timetable, Gordon Brown walks on to the stage.
Even more confusingly, he receives not one standing ovation, but two! They cheer. They applaud. They, actually, whoop. But at TED, I discover, all things are possible – including a belief in an infinite number of parallel universes, in one of which Brown is the most popular man in Britain.
Truly, anything is possible in the universe known as TED. You might see flatscreen TV with no wires, no plug, nothing – one of the first public demonstrations of wireless electricity by Eric Giler. Or a British inventor, Michael Pritchard, turning sewage water into drinking water with a simple plastic bottle which he claims could save two-and-a-half million children’s lives a year. Or you could be queuing up to get into the talk on nuclear fusion (coming to a reactor near you by 2030, according to the British physicist Steven Cowley), and Meg Ryan will step on your toe.
Strange and very confusing, then. Because TED isn’t named after a US football jock, it actually stands for Technology, Entertainment & Design, which was the meat of its business when it was set up, in California in 1984 – heady days which saw the unveiling of the first Macintosh computer. Now, however, it has a far wider, more implausible remit. It aims to bring together ideas that it hopes might just change the world. It’s the kind of rampant hubristic ambition which is all very well in the Golden State, but this is Britain. We do not whoop. We do not holler – although, just possibly, we’re starting to learn.
Because TED came to Oxford last week in its new form, TEDGlobal, an event that will be held annually and costs $4,500 (£2,700) just to attend; accommodation is extra. Even then you need to be invited, or put yourself through a rigorous application procedure, including an essay question, and a system of mysterious positive vetting all designed to ensure you are “curious, creative, playful and open-minded”.
Which sounds distinctly Orwellian. Or at least Freemasonish. Yet everybody who comes to TED loves TED. Apart from a lone British journalist, although even he admits on the last night that he might quite like it. Even a guerilla operation calling itself Bil – which complains that the “unwashed masses” are kept out through the exorbitant price, loves TED – so much so that it hosted its own fringe event, “an open, self-organising alternative to TED”.
Because what TED excels in is amazing ideas, brilliantly presented. And the selection process is all part of what has gone into making it into what has been called “the coolest conference on Earth” and “a Davos of the mind”, although it has also been called “a cultish talking shop” – by the Times, last week – a fact which exercises the man who calls himself its “curator”, Chris Anderson, and who at various points asks the audience if it’s cultish enough for us. It is, actually. Because you do have to be inducted into the TED way of doing things, which someone describes to me as “the conversion process” – all talks are exactly 18 minutes long and there are never any questions from the floor. And it’s all so intense – packed bursts of talks and ideas and strange synthy music from the likes of Imogen Heap for 10-12 hours most days. And that’s before the parties begin.
In 2005 I attended the TEDGlobal prototype which was fascinating but undeniably elitist. One year later, they put all the talks online and it has become a global phenomenon. More than 300,000 people a day watch a TED talk; a hundred million a year. Since February, the numbers have been doubling. Thousands now watch the entire conference on live-streaming. A brand new translation software has seen 150 volunteers translate 1,000 talks into 150 languages in just a couple of months. Ideas, it seems, are the new rock’n'roll. And TED is its Woodstock.
What it’s done, remarkably, is to turn nerdy, unknown academics into worldwide superstars. A Swedish professor of global health called Hans Rosling has become the Susan Boyle of the academic world. “How many people did he reach before?” asks Bruno Giussani, the European director of TED. “Maybe he had 150 students a year? Now he’s reaching millions. It’s transformed the nature and concept of what it is to be teacher.”
Anderson says it has taken them all by surprise. “We weren’t sure the intensity of the live experience would translate to a four-inch screen, but it just took off and we realised we shouldn’t be thinking of it as a conference any more. It was about ideas spreading. The real audience is online. It’s changed everything.”
In 2005, I listened to speaker after speaker talk about the Creative Commons and how if you open something up to the masses they perform amazing, unprecedented feats. And, in just four years, it is what has happened to TED.
Three months ago, it launched TEDx, self-organised TED events that use the talks as the basis for a live event, and now it’s taken off in 300 cities, from Antananarivo in Madagascar to Kuala Lumpur, and even, later this summer Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds (tedxnorth.com). Anderson, an Englishman who made his fortune as a media entrepreneur, founding Future Publishing which at its peak owned 130 magazines and employed 1,500 people, says that he suspects it’s that “something is missing from the media diet. Beyond ‘if it bleeds, it leads’, and celebrity tittle-tattle, people want to learn new things.”
It’s true, it’s addictive learning new things at TED. There’s Garik Israelian, a spectroscopist who explains why he believes that we will find signs of extraterrestrial life within 10 years. Then there’s Rebecca Saxe’s remarkable talk on the RPTJ region of the brain which, if targeted with a magnetic pulse, can actually change people’s moral judgments.
“Don’t you have the Pentagon calling?” Anderson asks her.
“I do,” she replies. “I just don’t take their calls.”
Then there are the coffee breaks when you find yourself talking to someone such as Peter Vermeersch, a political science professor from Leuven in Belgium, who got 50 poets to rewrite the EU constitution in verse, Steve Truglia who is planning to parachute from outer space, or Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, or one of the TED Fellows, a group of extraordinary young people from around the world who are sponsored to attend including Frederick Balagadde from Uganda who has invented a micro-fluidic chip which could bring HIV diagnostics down from $65 to $10.
But actually, the celebrity tittle tattle’s not bad either. Jonathan from the BBC says he saw a woman walking down the street “and of course I’d have had absolutely no idea who she was except she was wearing a great big name tag on her chest which said: CAMERON DIAZ.”
It’s no wonder the celebs love it. They are the least interesting people in the audience. I completely fail to spot the fact that I’ve been sitting next to two supermodels (Petra Nemcova and Karolina Kurkova). And although there’s a frisson when Oxford physicist David Deutsch walks into the room, Meg Ryan can hang out in Costa Coffee completely unmolested. There’s probably nowhere else on Earth that’s quite as levelling as being a celeb at TED. Even in prison, Paris Hilton managed to upgrade to an executive cell; at TED, if you register late you’re going to be staying in a college room in Keble even if you’re the head of a charitable foundation and married to a multi-billionaire hedge-fund manager, as happened to one woman I chat to.
“I had to carry my suitcase up two flights of stairs!” she says. “I thought I was going to die!”
The competition among speakers is so high that even the British celebs with vaguely intellectual credentials don’t cut it at TED. Alain de Botton pulls it off, but Stephen Fry just hasn’t prepared. At TED it’s not just about what you say, but how you communicate it to the audience, and preparation is key.
“It’s too short for an academic to do their standard 45-minute presentation, and too long to improvise. You have to prepare and have to take a fresh approach,” says Giussani. “It really puts pressure on them.”
And it works. Not just in the room, but out in the big wide world. The very first person I meet at TED, beaming like a very small child who has just been given a very large ice-cream, is a firefighter from Sacramento called David Dolson IV. He wants to set up an international burns camp sharing knowledge about best practice in burn treatment and has watched every single TED talk online.
“My buddy introduced me to them and you watch one and it’s a domino effect, you want to watch them all. And so I did. And it just really inspired me to want to do something, you know?”
I do know. Because it’s what everybody says all of the time. David paid more than $6,000 to come to TED out of his own pocket – “and we’re some of the lowest-paid firefighters in the country” – but he’s loving it. So is Maria Popova, a Bulgarian blogger, and a huge TED fan (“Really – they could cut off my left leg and I’d still love it”) who raised the money to come via her followers on Twitter in just six days.
James Purnell, who resigned from the cabinet last month turns up on a day-pass on Thursday. He says he has downloaded dozens of the talks on to his iPhone “and I’m probably even going to pay with my own money to come back next year”. An MP! Paying for something! It’s nothing short of a revolution.
Anderson is always saying that TED is about the exchange of ideas. Ideas Worth Sharing. And if Hollywood stars love TED, then TED returns the favour. The production values are impossibly high. Vast amounts are spent getting it right and the programming shows a Robert McKee-like grasp of plot, triumph over adversity being the Tedster’s favourite.
Elaine Morgan, now almost 90, gives a gripping account of her life-long quest to prove that her theory that humans are descended from an aquatic ape. She has been dismissed as a nutcase for years, but both David Attenborough and Daniel Dennett have recently come around. Most movingly of all, however, is Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier who was smuggled out of Sudan by a British aid worker, Emma McCune, and who is now a rapper. He sings a song called “What would I be if Emma McCune never rescued me?” and it’s impossibly emotional. Hardened CEOs break down and weep; a TED lunch half an hour later immediately votes to give him €10,000 (£8,600).
But then there’s a Dragon’s Den element to TED. The TED Prize, for starters, which awards $100,000 to three people every year to carry out “a wish”. And I’m chatting to Giussani, when Pritchard, the water purifying man, rushes up to him.
“Thank you so much, Bruno! There was me saying, no, I’ve never heard of TED, I haven’t got time, well, humble pie all over my face. It’s been absolutely amazing.”
He had no idea what TED was, he says, “and then I looked online and saw Bill Gates and Bill Clinton and thought, bloody hell. And I practised and I practised and I practised and now I’ve got major foundations coming up to me and saying they think it’s fantastic”.
When I speak to Elaine Morgan, she says in a cracked voice: “I’ve been struggling to get this idea across my entire life, and then to have this reaction! Well, it’s amazing.”
It is, and it’s life-changing not just for Emmanuel Jal, who might finally get the money for the school he wants to build in Sudan, but for those who watch it too. Even Carole Stone, the queen of networkers (“I have 40,000 people in my database”), tells me she has decided to change her life: “I’ve got to do something! I thought it was enough to put people together. But it’s not!”
Then there’s Andy Hobsbawm, who was my TED pal in 2005 and shared my delighted non-comprehension of a David Deutsch talk. I went home; he set up a non-profit foundation, Do The Green Thing. “I had a TED epiphany,” he says. “I just heard all these speakers talking about climate change and I thought what can I do?”
Jesus, Andy, I say. I’ve managed to go to the pub a couple of times. But that’s ideas for you. You never know where they might land. And at TED they’re gushing from the 50 speakers and the 700 audience members, and from there, out on to the internet, and off to everywhere else, landing where they land.
Among Ted’s “most favourite” talks:
Ted 2006: Sir Ken Robinson makes a case for creating an education system that nurtures creativity and champions a radical rethink of our school systems.
www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Ted 2008: Neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few would wish for: she had a massive stroke and watched as her brain functions – motion, speech, self-awareness – shut down one by one.
www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
Ted 2006: A Swedish professor of global health, Hans Rosling, debunks myths about the “developing world”, a talk that culminates in him swallowing a sword.
www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html
TED is owned by a non-profit foundation and devoted to “ideas worth spreading”. It now includes science, culture and development. At its main conference in California, speakers have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, and Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. TedGlobal will be held annually in Oxford, and the talks posted online at ted.com.
• “We’re going to build a realistic model of the human brain within the next 10 years … and if we build it right, it will speak.”
Henry Markram, director of the Centre of Neuroscience and Technology in Lausanne, Switzerland
• “Spectroscopy can change this world. In 15 to 20 years we will discover a spectrum like ours and an Earth-like planet.”
Garik Israelian, an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
• “Batteries suck! 40 billion disposable batteries are being thrown away each year.”
Eric Giler, CEO WiTricity, who demonstrated a TV powered by wireless electricity.
• “Eighty per cent of the global trade in food is controlled by just five corporations.”
Carolyn Steel, architect and author of The Hungry City
• “Ipod liberalism” doesn’t exist. “There’s an assumption that if you give people enough connectivity and enough devices, democracy will inevitably follow. It doesn’t.”
Evgeny Morozov, fellow of the Open Society Institute, New York, originally from Belarus.
• “The World Health Organization estimates between 150 million and one billion people would see their lives change if they had glasses.”
Joshua Silver, professor of physics of Oxford University, and inventor of self-adjusting glasses that require no optometrist.
• “People say, ‘I like the theory but I think it’s wrong because everyone I talk to says it’s wrong and they can’t all be wrong.’ Well, yes they can!”
Elaine Morgan, author of The Aquatic Ape
• “The next time you see someone driving a Ferrari, don’t think they are greedy, think they are vulnerable and in need of love.”
Alain de Botton
By Robin Brant
BBC News, Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia’s New Economic Policy is not new, it has been around for almost 40 years.
But in his first 100 days in office, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak has been forced to tackle the government’s most controversial policy – one that gives special treatment to the majority Malays.
It was meant to help people like Azban. He is 37, with a wife and two young children. He works in a ticket office at a train station.
I met him as we waited for the lift at the government-built tower block where he lives, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.
The estate is rundown, with water pouring down from a spill higher up.
But it is better than the wooden house he used to live in before he left his village for the capital city.
For decades the NEP has ensured preferential treatment for people like Azban: special access to jobs, housing, education and loans – all because they are Malay.
Malaysia is made up of three main ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and Indians.
The Malays make up the majority – just. The Chinese and Indians have been in this country for centuries but some Malays still regard them as foreigners.
Patronage politics
The NEP was born out of race riots in 1969.
The aim of the policy was to tackle an imbalance between rich businessmen, mostly Chinese, and the poor, who were mostly Malay.
At the time government figures claimed that Malays controlled less than 3% of the economy.
"I think the people of this country realise and understand and agree that the Bumi [Malay] population of this country needs to be supported"
Syed Amin
Malay Chamber of Commerce
Ramon Navaratnam was one of the team of government economists who helped draw up the NEP.
"The principle was, have an expanding cake, with more balance and equity provided for Malays or the underprivileged – of all races it was supposed to be."
But he said the noble aims were soon displaced by the politics of patronage.
"Some politicians got smart about it and wanted to allocate special reservations and shares and stocks and contracts to Malays, and very often it went to the wrong Malays, who had no clue about business."
Forty years on the Malays, who are also known as Bumiputra, which means "son of the soil", have grown in economic power.
According to government statistics they control 20% of the economy, but that is still some way off the target of 30%.
It may have been an effective political tool but many people, such as Syed Amin from the Malay Chamber of Commerce, see it as a failed project.
"There is no point in saying that we have achieved some measure of success just because we have trained a few Bumis in being professionals" he told me.
He thinks the Malays still need special help.
"I think the people of this country realise and understand and agree that the Bumi population of this country needs to be supported."
‘Still in development’
Tucked away in an exhibition centre on the top floor of a shopping mall was an event for small and medium sized enterprises.
I got there just as it opened. Some stalls were still setting up.
After a 15-minute walk around I had been pitched security systems, help on setting up a toll free 1-800 number and numerous franchise opportunities.
The event should have been a haven for entrepreneurs, to come to promote their business and to share ideas.
For years in Malaysia entrepreneurship has always been associated with the Chinese.
People will tell you, it is not what the Malays are good at.
At one stall Wan Azmalizam gave me a quick demo on what she referred to as "our little baby".
It was a bulky in-car GPS system. "Still in development," she told me.
The kit was made in Japan, but the software is Malaysian.
The firm she works for is NaviMap, a Malay-owned company, with almost 100 staff on the books.
She thinks Malay entrepreneurs like her need more than encouragement from the government.
"Do Bumis still need extra help with money, over Chinese and Indians" I asked.
"Still need special help, yes," she replied.
Changes afoot
Malaysia’s export dependent economy is suffering.
Exports dropped by almost 30% in May, compared to a year ago. A recession is looming.
At the same time the government is trying to rebuild support after a poor showing in last year’s general election.
Just over 100 days into his tenure, Prime Minister Najib Razak has racked up a raft of changes.
Some rules guaranteeing Malay ownership have been dropped.
Nur Jazlan supports it. He is a young reformist MP from UMNO, the main government party.
"For the last 10 years the government has tried to grow the economy with the Bumiputra policy and obviously it hasn’t worked," he said.
He thinks the past decade has exposed an inherent weakness in the NEP.
"Obviously those rules are not important anymore. Maybe, in a worst case scenario, they may be an impediment to foreign investors coming into the country."
Popularity surge
Malaysia’s prime minister has no intention of completely ditching special treatment for the Malays.
Preferential access to places in universities, new housing developments, cheap money and civil service jobs remains.
But Najib Razak wants to win back the support of non-Malays.
He knows there must be change if Malaysia’s economy is to compete with neighbours which are quickly passing it by.
The initial signs are mixed. His reforms have been met with a surge in public support.
A recent opinion poll suggested his popularity had jumped by 20%. Around 65% of people questioned were pleased with him.
The markets have not mirrored that though.
In spite of the liberalisation measures, Malaysia’s financial markets have barely moved.</p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Manchester United has signed up Senegalese striker Mame Biram Diouf, scuppering Arsenal’s chances of recruiting him.
The 21-year-old ace will be in Manchester next week for a medical but then loaned back to Norwegian club Molde before returning to England permanently in January.
According to The Sun, Old Trafford manager Fergie revealed the signing at a [...]
• Co-ordinated attacks on neighbouring buildings
• Killers checked in and made bombs in rooms
The menace of international terrorism returned to Indonesia when explosions ripped through two luxury hotels in Jakarta, killing eight guests and injuring at least 50 others.
Two suicide bombers who had checked in as hotel guests triggered the blasts, which occurred within minutes of each other at the neighbouring JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in the Indonesian capital’s business district.
Two Australians and a New Zealander were reportedly among the dead, and the wounded included 18 other foreign nationals from the US, Australia, Canada, India, the Netherlands, Norway and South Korea. The Foreign Office said it had no indication of any British casualties.
The attack forced Manchester United, who are on a pre-season tour of south-east Asia, to cancel a friendly fixture against an Indonesian XI in Jakarta on Monday. The team, currently in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, had planned to stay at the Ritz-Carlton this weekend.
Investigators say the bombers had checked in to the Marriott on Wednesday and assembled the bombs in a room on the 18th floor, where an unexploded device was found after the blasts. CCTV cameras recorded the moment of the Marriott blast; grainy images show a man pulling a bag on wheels across the lobby before the flash of the explosion.
The bombs went off in the hotels’ restaurants during breakfast. Witnesses reported seeing bloodied bodies being carried away moments after the explosions, which turned the facades of both hotels into masses of twisted metal. Others said they had seen hundreds of guests, most of whom appeared to be westerners, emerge dazed from the Ritz-Carlton as plumes of thick smoke engulfed nearby buildings and restaurants. “There were bodies on the ground, one of them had no stomach,” said a local man.”
The attacks came as Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, appeared to be re-establishing itself as a tourist destination. They were the first in the country since 2005, when 20 people died in blasts on the resort island of Bali.
No group has claimed responsibility, but analysts believe they were the work of Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamist militant group that advocates an Islamist super-state spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, the southern Philippines, southern Thailand, Singapore and Brunei. The group carried out a bombing at the Marriott in 2003 in which 13 people died, and is blamed for over 50 other attacks in Indonesia in the last decade. They include the October 2002 bombings of two nightclubs in Bali in which 202 died, mainly westerners.
Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, condemned the attack as “cruel and inhuman” and vowed to hunt down the perpetrators. Yudhoyono, who was reelected last week, has been credited with bringing peace and stability to a country that had become a target for Islamist militants.”[The bombers] do not have a sense of humanity and do not care about the destruction of our country, because this terror act will have a wide impact on our economy, our business climate, our tourism, our image in the world and many others,” he said.
Australia warned its citizens to reconsider plans to travel to Indonesia, and urged those already there to exercise “extreme caution.” Britons have been advised not to go there unless absolutely necessary.
The Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said he was “sick in the stomach as I think all Australians would feel sick in the stomach. Australians accounted for 88 of the victims in the 2002 attacks on Bali.
“This is an assault on all of us and we are dealing with some very ugly people here,” Rudd said. “Very, very ugly people … and dangerous.”
President Barack Obama said: “These attacks make it clear that extremists remain committed to murdering innocent men, women and children of any faith in all countries.”
Manchester United’s four-match Far East tour is in jeopardy after bomb blasts hit the Indonesian hotel they were due to stay in on Monday.
The squad arrived in Kuala Lumpur ahead of their match against a Malaysia XI but their clash with an Indonesia All Star side has been cancelled.
At least nine people were killed and 48 injured in the attacks in Jakarta.
The Premier League champions are also lined up for two friendlies in South Korea and China.
A United statement said: "Following the explosions in Jakarta – one of which was at the hotel the team were due to stay in – and based on advice received, the directors have informed the Indonesian FA that the club cannot fulfil the fixture in Jakarta on the 2009 Asia tour."
Monday’s match in Jakarta had been a 100,000 sell-out with the club now having to decide how to reorganise the tour.
"We are working on a revised itinerary outside Indonesia with the promoters and we will make a further announcement when these decisions have been made," the statement added.
"We are deeply disappointed at not being able to visit Indonesia and thank the Indonesian FA and our fans for their support. Our thoughts go to all those affected by the blasts."
New signing Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs were among a 22-man squad that flew out from Manchester to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
The first two blasts in Jakarta’s central business district happened at about 0730 (0030 GMT) with Jakarta police saying a number of foreigners were among those who died.
Indonesia has not witnessed such atrocities for nearly six years.
Attacks on two nightclubs in Bali in October 2002 killed 202 people, many of them Australian, while the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, one of the two hotels targeted on Friday, suffered a bomb attack in August 2003 in which 13 people were killed. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Police in Malaysia have said they will release nine Christians mistakenly accused of trying to convert Muslim university students to Christianity.
A university security guard wrongly thought they were handing Christian pamphlets to Muslims, police said.
Trying to convert Muslims to another religion is forbidden in Malaysia, though Muslims may proselytise.
Members of religious minorities have complained that their rights are being ignored in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
The nine Christians, five students and four friends from Hong Kong, were arrested late on Tuesday at Universiti Putra Malaysia in Serdang, near Kuala Lumpur.
District police chief Zahedi Ayob said they had been distributing questionnaires to other Christians, not Muslims, as security guards at the university had believed.
Religious disharmony investigation
The arrests followed a controversy last week centring on two journalists who wrote about hiding their Muslim identity in order to receive Communion at a Roman Catholic church.
One of the journalists said they were investigating reports that Muslims had committed apostasy by attending prayers or Communion at the church, but that they found no evidence of this.
A Christian priest complained about the article, published in the Malay-language magazine al-Islam.
Police said officials were investigating whether the two men had caused religious disharmony, a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
Religious issues are highly sensitive in Malaysia, which has a 60% Muslim population. Christians, Buddhists and Hindus make up most of the rest of the population.
Religious freedom is guaranteed by law, but minority groups have accused the Muslim Malay majority of trying to increase the role of Islam in the country. </p
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
M’sia needs to work harder and faster if it does not want to be left
behind: Analyst
William Pesek
Those wondering where Malaysia is headed should keep an eye on Mr Tony
Fernandes.
Perhaps no one personifies the promise of Asia’s 10th-biggest economy
better than the 43-year-old entrepreneur. In 2001, he created a budget
airline, beating the odds in an industry dominated by government-linked
companies. AirAsia has been turning heads ever since.
Airline magnate Aristotle Onassis once said the key to succeeding in
business is knowing something others don’t. Mr Fernandes knew that not
only were Asians ready for no-frills carriers, but so were investors.
Mr Fernandes is often called South-east Asia’s answer to Mr Richard
Branson. It seems highly appropriate, then, that the two men teamed to
launch AirAsia X, a long-haul budget carrier that made its maiden flight
this month. Mr Branson’s Virgin Group is among its key backers.
For all his success, Mr Fernandes is a microcosm of why Malaysia’s economy
isn’t on the upward trajectory it could be.
Politicians’ efforts over the years to protect the turf of Malaysia
Airlines (MAS) backfired, leaving Kuala Lumpur lagging behind in the race
for Asia’s travel hub. Malaysia has tied one hand behind its back to help
national champions at the expense of the bigger picture.
“I’m asking this for national interest, not MAS’ interest or that of
anything else,” said Mr Fernandes of his battle to fly from Kuala Lumpur
to Singapore. “The consumers have suffered enough.”
Politicians continue to dither over another national champion:
State-controlled carmaker Proton Holdings. While talks on an alliance with
Volkswagen AG are progressing, the saga is a reminder that Malaysia’s
leaders are wasting time the nation doesn’t have.
In Proton’s case, the exercise is about finding a partner to help revive
sales and return the 24-year-old company to profit. Yet this, like Mr
Fernandes’ fight to expand his innovative airline, is emblematic of how
politicians often don’t grasp that Malaysia’s place in Asia is rather
tenuous.
Malaysia is a remarkable place with incredible potential. Its economy has
achieved great things in the 50 years since independence from Britain.
Once a tropical backwater, Kuala Lumpur is now a modern, skyscraper-filled
city home to the world’s second-tallest buildings, the twin Petronas
Towers.
Yet, the next 50 years will arguably be harder than the last. It wasn’t
one of the original Asian tigers, but Malaysia became one over the years.
However, “the world is moving ahead at a rapid pace and it won’t wait for
Malaysia”, said Mr Razlan Mohamed, chief executive of Malaysian Rating
Corp. The nation “needs to work harder and work faster”.
Ms Chrisanne Chin from MIMS Business School, Malaysian Institute of
Management and INTI University College, puts it this way: “It’s not so
much what Malaysia is lacking, but that China, India, Vietnam and even
Thailand and Indonesia have improved so much they are capable of
leapfrogging Malaysia in another five years because of specific
comparative advantages, from low costs to human capital to technology.”
Human capital is a particular concern. The government needs to do more to
train the leaders of tomorrow and import the talent that companies need to
thrive. It also has to win more of the foreign direct investment flowing
elsewhere in Asia.
There is much backslapping about how the US$147-billion ($213-billion)
economy may expand 6 per cent this year and 6.5 per cent next year. The
real picture can be found in the World Economic Forum’s latest
competitiveness survey, in which Malaysia slipped two spots to 21st place.
A huge obstacle for Malaysia is something that can barely be discussed: A
37-year-old affirmative-action programme favouring the predominant Malay
community.
It alienates non-Malays, limits foreign investment, stifles competition
and keeps the economy from moving toward a meritocracy. Yet, it is a
third-rail issue. Most Malaysians won’t even discuss it without first
looking around to see who is listening.
A sense of political drift doesn’t help. Four years in office, Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has spent more time trying to solidify the
influence of his political party – the United Malays National
Organisation – than bringing Malaysia’s economy to the next level.
For a glimpse of the future, one could do worse than ask Mr Ramon
Navaratnam, president of anti-corruption group Transparency International
Malaysia and author of the book, Where to, Malaysia?, who has this to say:
“The future is bright, but only if we are honest with ourselves that we
have a lot of difficult work to do … Otherwise, we will see the rest of
Asia pulling ahead and Malaysia walking in place.”
William Pesek is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are
his own.
