Re-imagining a World Beyond Capitalism and Communism

by Arundhati Roy   

Here in India, even in the midst of all the violence and greed, there is still hope. If anyone can do it, we can. We still have a population that has not yet been completely colonized by that consumerist dream.

We have a living tradition of those who have struggled for Gandhi's vision of sustainability and self-reliance, for socialist ideas of egalitarianism and social justice. We have Ambedkar's vision, which challenges the Gandhians as well as the socialists in serious ways. We have the most spectacular coalition of resistance movements, with their experience, understanding and vision.

‘Flag-burning sultan’ says Sulu army fake

If the authorities allow the armed intruders in Lahad Datu
to leave peacefully, it only shows that the government is
 involved in this drama.

LAHAD DATU: A claimant to the North Borneo Sulu Sultanate is opposing the claim of the Sulu armed group that Sabah is their ancestral homeland.

“My family is the rightful owner to the throne,” said the 45-year-old Lahad Datu businessman Abdul Rajak Aliuddin who has proclaimed himself as the Sixth Sultan of North Borneo.

The controversial Rajak, who was once detained and charged for burning the Sabah flag and raising the North Borneo Sultanate flag with the red lion symbol, said based on history the Sulu armed group led by Raja Muda Azzimudie Kiram has no rights to Sabah or North Borneo.

Isu di Lahad Datu tak ubah seperti kes Sauk: Mat Zain

Seorang bekas pegawai tinggi polis berkata rakyat sepatutnya menuntut agar kumpulan warga asing bersenjata yang dikepung pihak berkuasa di Lahad Datu, Sabah ditangani dengan keras seperti tindakan ke atas kumpulan al-Maunah dalam insiden tahun 2000 di Sauk, Perak.

Bekas Pengarah Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Kuala Lumpur Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim memberi alasan, situasi yang berlaku di Kampung Tandou, Lahad Datu itu tidak banyak berbeza dengan peristiwa di Bukit Jenalik itu.

Sulu sultan rejects MILF peace deal

Reuters
Posted at 02/20/2013 3:16 PM | Updated as of 02/20/2013 8:40 PM

MANILA, Philippines - The sultan of Sulu region on Wednesday rejected the peace deal between the Philippines and Muslim rebels, and said he will not ask his men to pull out from Malaysia's eastern state of Sabah.

About 100 armed men have occupied a village in Sabah in the stand-off with police.

Security analysts had warned that the historic peace deal signed by the Philippine government and Muslim rebels last October to end 40 years of conflict in the Philippine south risked stirring instability by alienating powerful clan leaders.

Social activist Azlan injured in brutal attack

LATEST ATTACK: A wounded Azlan lies
on the ground surrounded by members of
 the public and police. Part of the broken
bat can be seen next to him.

KUCHING: Self-proclaimed social activist Azlan Abdullah sustained suspected multiple fractures when he was attacked by men armed with baseball bats yesterday.

The attack occurred around noon in front of a serviced apartment at Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, where the 53-year-old resides, and the incident comes nearly a year after he was badly wounded in a similar incident.

This time around, witnesses reported that three men -each carrying a bat– rushed out of a black Toyota Hilux parked by the roadside and attacked Azlan as he was standing by the front steps of the apartment.

“It looked as if it was planned as the men rushed out the moment they saw him,” said a male witness who asked not to be named.

Sulu Sultan heirs to ask US help on Sabah

Malaysia won’t compromise sovereignty in standoff with armed Filipinos

The heirs of the Sultan of Sulu are considering asking the help of the United States in the ongoing standoff between government forces and armed Filipinos in a Sabah village, over which Malaysia says it won’t compromise its sovereignty.

“The American government has a record of always protecting the rights of its citizens, unlike our government here,” former senator Santanina Rasul, one of the heirs who lays claim over Sabah, which is located on the northern portion of the island of Borneo, said.

 

The Sabah standoff from Phillippines media's point

There is more to the ongoing standoff between Malaysian forces and some 300 armed men holed up in a coastal village in Sabah than meets the eye.  The latter are Filipino nationals, though they identify themselves as members of the “Royal Security Forces of the Sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo.”  They have announced that they sailed to Sabah to reclaim their rightful homeland.  Heaven forbid that any harm should befall them.  For, that will play right into the hands of those who, for some reason or other, wish to derail the current peace effort in Mindanao and foment a rift between Malaysia and the Philippines.

Jeffrey Asks if Lahad Datu Standoff a Charade to Scare Voters

Does the government led by BN trying to divert voters attention?

By Junior Fendi 
KOTA KINABALU: The State Reform Party suspects that the Barisan Nasional government is trying to gain political mileage from the Lahad Datu standoff, using it to scare the people into voting for the BN in the coming general elections.

 

“It is even possible that this is an elaborate BN military strategy choreographed to achieve that purpose,” its state chairman, Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan said in a statement. “This new form of fear mongering makes sense knowing BN’s desperation in wanting to hold on to power in the light of the ruling coalition’s lowest level of popularity and support at the moment.”

 

Where’s the logic, Hisham?

If the current soft 'handling' of the incursions by armed Filipinos
into Lahad Datu is any measure, then it is clear that Sabahans'
safety is inconsequential to the federal government.

It is an irony how promptly Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein ordered the arrest and deportation of Australian Senator Nick Xenophon while 100 armed Filipinos in military fatigue were being handled with kid gloves by the police and Special Branch officers because they had “links” in Sabah.

Xenophon arrived solo and unarmed but was considered a security threat. But in Lahad Datu, some 100 “soldiers” from the alleged Royal Sultanate of Sulu Army who were armed with “M-14, M-16, M203 and Armalite assault rifles” were considered friendly, “not militants” and “not a threat”.

‘Don’t harm my followers in Sabah’

A supposed heir to the Sulu sultanate wants the Malaysian
government not to harm his followers and wants the
Philippine president to peacefully settle their claims to Sabah.

ZAMBOANGA CITY: A supposed heir to the throne of the sultanate of Sulu province has called on Malaysia not to harm the sultanate’s followers holed out in Lahad Datu.

Sultan Raja Mohammad Ghamar Mamay Hasan Abdurajak said that Sabah rightfully belongs to the sultanate of Sulu and North Borneo and he wants President Benigno Aquino to peacefully their claims.

He also said that those who were rounded up by Malaysian security forces are natives of the sultanate and should be accorded their rights to the oil-rich Malaysian state near the Philippine province of Tawi-Tawi.