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Juve light up new stadium in style, Roma lose Posted: 11 Sep 2011 08:41 AM PDT Del Piero controls the ball during the Serie A match against Parma at the Juventus stadium in Turin September 11, 2011. — Reuters pic ROME, Sept 11 — Antonio Conte's revamped Juventus outclassed Parma 4-1 in the first Serie A match in their new stadium but big-spending AS Roma boss Luis Enrique suffered an embarrassing loss on his league bow today. Swiss right back Stephan Lichtsteiner got the party started at Juve's 41,000-seat arena, which still does not have an official name after a failure to find a sponsor, when he converted fellow new signing Andrea Pirlo's great dinked pass. Three excellent goals followed in the second half with Simone Pepe blasting home, new midfielder Arturo Vidal scoring spectacularly and ex-AC Milan playmaker Pirlo capping a wonderful debut by again expertly setting up Claudio Marchisio. Once mighty Juve have finished a lowly seventh in the last two seasons as they struggled to recover from their 2006 match-fixing demotion but the new stadium, signings and coach have revived supporter hopes that their glory days could return. "I need to thank all our fans, they kept us going for the whole game and gave the lads a real push. It's been the start that we were waiting for," new boss Conte, who won the 1996 European Cup with Juve as a midfielder, told reporters. Sunday's performance bodes well with Parma's Sebastian Giovinco, co-owned by the hosts, only scoring from the spot late on after Juve's Paolo De Ceglie was dismissed for a professional foul. The only other downside for Juve was a bare-looking pitch in the packed new arena, built on the site of their former Stadio Delle Alpi home and the first ground to be owned by an Italian club. Serie A's first round of matches last weekend were postponed because of a player strike over contracts but the season got underway on Friday when champions AC Milan drew 2-2 at home to Lazio. Napoli won 3-1 at Cesena on Saturday and Inter Milan travel to Palermo later today. Roma, sixth last term, have spent millions on new players since being taken over by American investors but a 2-1 home defeat by Cagliari left new coach Luis Enrique scratching his head. Daniele Conti, son of former Roma stalwart Bruno, grabbed the opener midway through the second half after a mistake by new Roma defender Jose Angel, who was soon sent off for a rash tackle. Moestafa El Kabir added the Sardinians' second in injury time before Daniele De Rossi's consolation. Spaniard Luis Enrique started veteran Roma forward Francesco Totti despite tensions between the pair in close-season but neither he nor the likes of new signing Bojan Krkic could especially threaten. Udinese got over their disappointment in missing out on the Champions League group stages with a 2-0 win at Lecce while Fiorentina beat local rivals Bologna 2-0 in Florence. Among the promoted clubs, Atalanta reduced their six-point deduction for player match-fixing last season by a point after a 2-2 draw at Genoa and Novara levelled late on to draw 2-2 at Chievo. Siena were held to a goalless draw at Catania. — Reuters

With Monza win, Vettel has one hand on title Posted: 11 Sep 2011 07:45 AM PDT Vettel celebrates on the podium after winning the Italian F1 Grand Prix at the Monza circuit September 11, 2011. — Reuters pic MONZA, Sept 11 — Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel had his second successive Formula One world championship almost wrapped up after winning the Italian Grand Prix today. The 24-year-old German, who had started on pole position for the 10th time in 13 races, stretched his overall lead to a mighty 112 points after Australian team mate and closest rival Mark Webber crashed out. With only 150 points remaining to be won from the last six grands prix, Vettel has now won eight races this season and can clinch the title at the next one in Singapore on September 25. McLaren's Jenson Button finished runner-up for the third season in a row at Monza with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, last year's winner from pole, giving the sea of red-shirted fans something to cheer about with third place at his team's home race. Vettel, who took his first Formula One win at Monza with Red Bull's Italian-based sister team Toro Rosso on 2008, let all the emotions flood out on his return to the podium. He now has 284 points to double world champion Alonso's 172 and Button's 167. "When you stand up there you feel so blessed," said Vettel who slowed and swerved across to the pit wall with one finger raised as he crossed the line. "Obviously the first one was very special but to be back here...incredible," he gasped. "I really had a very, very good race car and a fantastic day today. "It's the best podium in the world. The only thing that could make it better is probably wearing a red suit." On a sweltering afternoon in the royal park near Milan, Alonso had the home fans leaping in excitement at the start by seizing the lead, roaring past Vettel with one wheel on the grass, from fourth place on the grid. The Spaniard held his advantage for the first four laps thanks to the safety car, which had to be deployed immediately after Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi lost control of his HRT, skidding across a corner and slamming into Vitaly Petrov's Renault. Germany's Nico Rosberg was also caught in the mayhem, retiring his Mercedes on the spot. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton finished fourth after a thrilling battle with the old master Michael Schumacher, a five-time winner at Monza in his glory days with Ferrari, and then striving in vain to catch Alonso over the closing laps. Schumacher gave no quarter, his defensive driving prompting a frustrated Hamilton to question whether the seven-time champion's moves were legal. That triggered a veiled warning from Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn to Schumacher, reminding him to leave enough space at the Ascari chicane. While Hamilton and Schumacher tussled, Button caught them both napping and passed in quick succession. "I don't know if we could have challenged Sebastian today... it's a pity we had such a poor start," said Button, who qualified third but was sixth at the end of the first lap. Schumacher, with plenty of fans in the throng of flag-waving tifosi flooding onto the finish straight for the podium celebrations, finished fifth ahead of former Ferrari team mate Felipe Massa. Massa was the last unlapped driver on a day when only 15 of the 24 starters finished at the fastest circuit on the calendar. Spain's Jaime Alguersuari was seventh for Toro Rosso and Britain's Paul di Resta, of Italian descent, eighth for Force India. Brazilian Bruno Senna, nephew of the late triple champion Ayrton, scored his first points in Formula One with ninth place for Renault and Swiss driver Sebastien Buemi claimed the final point for Toro Rosso. — Reuters

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Highbrow trumps Hollywood at Venice film fest Posted: 11 Sep 2011 02:47 AM PDT Sokurov receives the Golden Lion award during the closing ceremony of the 68th Venice Film Festival September 10, 2011. — Reuters pic VENICE, Sept 11 — Highbrow trumped Hollywood at the Venice film festival this year, with Russian director Alexander Sokurov's demanding German-language "Faust" taking top prize and Roman Polanski and George Clooney overlooked. Most prizes at yesterday's closing ceremony went to less-than-familiar names and faces, with the exception of rising Irish star Michael Fassbender's best actor award for "Shame". The Silver Lion for best director was awarded to China's Shangjun Cai for his gritty "People Mountain People Sea", best actress went to Hong Kong's Deanie Ip and the jury prize went to Italian immigration drama "Terraferma". Surprisingly overlooked was Roman Polanski's "Carnage", a comedy of manners featuring a stellar cast of Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly. Based on a play and set in real time in a single apartment, Carnage is a stinging critique of middle class mores, but also has plenty of humour including Winslet's memorable projectile vomit scene. Polanski was not able to travel to Venice to present the movie, given the threat of extradition to the United States where he is still wanted for sentencing in a 1977 sex crime case. "Many feel that jury head Darren Aronofsky and his compatriot Todd Haynes, both Americans, lacked the courage to give the victory to a colleague who is not liked in the US" said a commentary in the La Stampa newspaper. While Venice is not a platform for blockbusters, it has proved an effective launchpad for US Oscar contenders like Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" and Aronofsky's own "Black Swan" and "The Wrestler". Festival director Marco Mueller succeeded in attracting a string of A-listers to the red carpet this year after a low-key 2010, although all were bypassed when it came to the prizes. Among the overlooked contenders was Clooney's political thriller "The Ides of March", which was well received and starred Clooney himself as a governor embroiled in scandal during an election race. La Repubblica newspaper's headline said Clooney and Polanski had been "snubbed". "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", directed by Sweden's Tomas Alfredson, slipped beneath the radar despite rave reviews for its adaptation of John Le Carre's classic Cold War spy novel. Gary Oldman shines as George Smiley and Colin Firth and John Hurt also appeared in the surprisingly digestible re-telling of a notoriously complex tale. Faust is the fourth and final instalment in Sokurov's series on corrupting power, and won praise for conjuring up a 19th century world of squalor, stench and chaos in which Faust and a mad-cap Mephistopheles play out their destinies. Some viewers found the dialogue-heavy, German language picture that lasts well over two hours tough going. "Taking highbrow to the edge of slapstick, Sokurov's idiosyncratic adaptation of ... Faust will intrigue some and turn off others," said Hollywood Reporter critic Deborah Young. Faust is a less obvious fit in the series, which started in 1999 with "Moloch", about Adolf Hitler, and took in Vladimir Lenin in "Taurus" and Emperor Hirohito in "The Sun". Outside the main competition, singer Madonna presented her second feature film as director, "W.E.", about a modern-day woman who becomes obsessed with Wallis Simpson and her love for King Edward VIII. And Steven Soderbergh assembled an all-star cast for "Contagion", a story about the spread of disease and fear around the world featuring Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Matt Damon and Winslet. — Reuters

Lady Gaga to perform in New York City’s Times Square on New Year’s Posted: 10 Sep 2011 05:38 PM PDT US pop star Lady Gaga is set perform live from New York's Times Square this New Year's Eve. — AFP pic NEW YORK, Sept 11 — This New Year's, New York's Times Square is likely to become a sea of Little Monsters as Lady Gaga rings in 2012 with a live performance. Announced Thursday, the pop star will headline this year's 40th annual edition of the US television program Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on ABC-TV, her first time appearing on the show. Black Eyed Peas star Fergie will return this year as co-host to additional performances aired from Los Angeles. Last year's performance lineups included Jennifer Hudson, Willow Smith, Ne-Yo, Avril Lavigne, Drake, and La Roux. Taio Cruz and Ke$ha took the stage in Times Square during last year's show. Also in the US, NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly airs on NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, and Bravo. UK music fans can tune in to Jools Holland's Annual Hootenanny on the BBC, featuring live musical performances. To stay informed of New Year's concerts, keep an eye on artists' websites or on ticketing sites such as ticketmaster.com and livenationinternational.com. — afprelaxnews.com

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Britain lifts ban on gay men giving blood Posted: 10 Sep 2011 07:49 PM PDT LONDON, Sept 11 — Britain said Thursday it was lifting a ban on gay men giving blood providing they have had not had homosexual intercourse within a year. A lifetime ban on blood donation by men who have had sex with another man was introduced in Britain in the 1980s as a response to the spread of AIDS and HIV. But a review by a panel of leading experts and patient groups found it could no longer support their permanent exclusion. However, men who have had anal or oral sex with another man in the past 12 months, with or without a condom, will still be barred from donating blood, the Department of Health said. The experts considered the risk of infection being transmitted through blood, the willingness of potential donors to comply with the selection criteria and improvements in testing donated blood. The change brings the criteria for men who have had sex with men into line with other groups who are deferred from giving blood for 12 months due to infection risks associated with sexual behaviour. These include women who have slept with a man who has had sex with another man, people who have slept with prostitutes and those who have had intercourse with anyone who has injected themselves with drugs. The announcement was welcomed by human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, but he said it fell short of lifting the ban on gay men who always use condoms. He said: "Although the new policy is a big improvement on the existing discriminatory rules, a 12-month ban is still excessive and unjustified." Tatchell, who launched the first campaign against the lifetime ban in 1991, added: "Most gay and bisexual men do not have HIV and will never have HIV. "If they always have safe sex with a condom, have only one partner and test HIV negative, their blood is safe to donate. "They can and should be allowed to help save lives by becoming donors." — afprelaxnews.com

Modern Bhutanese ‘embarrassed’ by phallus art Posted: 10 Sep 2011 07:43 PM PDT In this picture taken on August 20, 2011 Bhutanese Tshewang Nidup poses in front of his house adorned with phallus drawings on the outskirts of Thimphu. Rare in the modernising national capital. — AFP pic THIMPHU, Bhutan, Sept 11 — In the insular Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, the phallus is an ancient symbol commonly painted on houses to ward off evil spirits, but it is increasingly rare in the modernising national capital. The demise of this traditional motif, still seen all over in rural areas, points to profound changes underway in a country that has gone to extraordinary lengths to shield its unique local culture from outside influence. The first foreign tourists arrived as recently as 1974 and television was banned until 1999 out of fear of the impact of Western values on a nation that has never been colonised, despite its vulnerable position between India and China. On the outskirts of Thimphu, Tshewang Nidup is proud to have two metre-high (three-foot) penises painted either side of the front door of his home next to a river that runs through the sleepy capital. "The penis as a symbol became important because we believe that if you have the phallus then evil will be warned off," explained the 46-year-old father of six, whose young family wander around oblivious to the graphic imagery. The history of the phallus in Bhutanese culture stems from a mythical figure called Drukpa Kunley, known as the "Divine Madman", who is said to have roamed the country seducing women and fighting evil during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Tibetan holy man, warmly adopted as a national saint by the Bhutanese, is said to have used his member to perform all manner of tricks, including flying and spewing fire. "He came and subjugated demonesses by using his penis," explained Nidup, a devout Buddhist and co-author of a book on Bhutanese proverbs. "He would meditate and develop inner heat that turned his phallus into a hot iron bar that he used to burn them." As a result, in rural areas the male organ features as paintings or carvings on homes as a sort of tribute, as well as a guard against evil and protection from infertility. In Thimphu, however, where a construction boom of apartments and shopping centres is transforming the steep-sided valley that cradles the city, attitudes have changed. "I think people here feel a bit embarrassed," explained Dasho Karma Ura, a researcher at the Centre for Bhutan Studies think-tank. "The people in the cities are much more influenced by what would be appropriate images in the West. They don't see these sort of things elsewhere," he told AFP. Preservation of the national culture is one of the four pillars of Bhutan's famed approach to development which sees the country target "Gross National Happiness" instead of economic development measured by Gross National Product. Citizens are required to wear national dress at government offices, meditation has been introduced in public schools and religious festivals are widely supported. Tourism has been deliberately restricted to reduce its impact on the environment and society, with foreign visitors required to pay a minimum of US$200 (RM601) a day and travel with local guides. "I notice that my own generation to our children's generation we can see change," says Karma Tshiteem, the secretary of the Gross National Happiness Commission, a state agency that vets and proposes policy. "The change is particularly pronounced in urban centres like Thimphu," he said, adding that consumerist attitudes that make buying a bigger car the overarching priority are creeping in. The biggest influence for him is something the country kept at bay until just 12 years ago. "The greatest impact is taking place through the TV. We have 40-50 channels for less than 10 dollars. It's the kind of values that come with the sitcoms and all those sort of programmes." On the streets of the capital, citizens in traditional dress mingle with youngsters in shiny new trainers and baseball caps. Shops selling arrows for enthusiasts of archery, the national sport that is avidly followed, stand next to video game parlours packed with youngsters drinking Coke and using Facebook on their mobile phones. On any Saturday night in the Department of Sound nightclub, hundreds of teenagers and twenty-somethings dance, smoke, flirt and drink in scenes familiar in Tokyo, Hong Kong or any other modern Asian city. Ura from the Centre for Bhutan Studies says the change in attitude to the phallus in Thimphu, which is luring increasing numbers of job seekers, underlines the growing divide between young and old, as well as urban and rural Bhutan. An estimated 70 per cent of Bhutanese still live off their land in villages perched high in the valleys of the Himalayas. Many areas are still only accessible on foot. In many of these areas, wooden phalluses are still used in "lewd and irreverent" rural festivals, while others are positioned in fields to protect animals, Ura says. "Usually people don't realise what they have lost. Only afterwards they do. The culture of Bhutan which is influenced by Buddhist values is something that is very valuable to be preserved," he explains. The public display of the male organ remains a positive influence, he argues, reminding people of the dangers of temptation and the unnecessary domination of affairs by men, as well as the commonplace existence of sexual activity. Tshewang Nidup, looking out from his vantage point on the edge of Thimphu across pristine mountain forests and glacial meltwaters, worries that too much change is coming to Thimphu. "Visitors should come sooner rather than later. In 10 years time, it will be ruined," he says. — afprelaxnews.com

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Prepaid recipe for chaos Posted: 10 Sep 2011 07:16 PM PDT SEPT 11 — Recent moves by telcos to pass on the government service tax to consumers have come in from heavy criticism from the government, including the prime minister, who says that the move will adversely impact a public already under pressure from the increase in food prices and overall inflation. While it is undeniable that the move will have a disproportionate impact on lower income groups as they constitute the primary prepaid mobile user base, it might be worth the while to examine who really is at fault here. The tax is imposed by the government on certain categories of service providers in Malaysia, from hotels, restaurants, private hospitals, golf courses, massage parlours, architects, lawyers and accountants to of course telecommunication service providers including Astro. In 2007, the threshold of RM150,000 under which service providers were exempt from paying service tax was abolished and from 2008, irrespective of quantum of business, tax has to be paid if applicable. It seems odd that a tax imposed by the government to raise revenue to the tune of approximately RM5 billion in 2011, which impacts a broad spectrum of service providers from small independent professionals to large corporations, is now being selectively opposed by the same government because of its negative impact on consumers. It is not as if the government is waiving a tax it has imposed in order to alleviate the burden on the rakyat. It is expecting one particular category of service providers to voluntarily absorb the tax while still expecting them to give six per cent of their revenue to the government. By what rationale are mobile prepaid users more vulnerable to those who eat in restaurants or those who watch pay TV or take golf lessons? Why is a tax imposed by the government itself now being opposed by the same government? If the government is really serious about this, it should follow its own business friendly precedent of providing compensation to toll road operators in exchange for preventing their scheduled toll rate hikes. The global world of business that Malaysia is actively courting to help it achieve developed nation status by 2020 is a world that thrives on certainty of operational rules. When a patently unfair change of the rules is imposed on one business, it negatively impacts the perception of the country in the eyes of the international business community as a whole. In this scenario, the recent statement by the Information minister that telcos should reconsider their decision to pass on the service tax to consumers as some of them had been reaping profits of RM800 million to RM1.2 billion a year is patently absurd. If the government is going to say that excessive profits are bad, it should stop bashing communist ideology as vehemently as it has been doing recently. The goal of any business is to make money. By the minister's logic, that is a bad thing. Is the government anti-capitalist now? In any case there is a kind of self correction built into the capitalist revenue model. Rising prices can lead to erosion in demand. Specifically in the case of telcos where base services are commoditised and price driven, it is not inconceivable that one of the players may unilaterally absorb the service tax to gain competitive advantage and all others are forced to follow suit. But this kind of ill considered, knee jerk response from the highest echelons of power bodes ill for the future of the Malaysian economy. If the government is really serious about limiting the impact of rising inflation and slowing consumption, there are a range of policy options available to it, including suspending the collection of service tax across the board for a limited period if it so desires. In any case, if my Hotlink bill remains the same, can my Astro bill also go back to pre-service tax levels? * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Doing the walking so others can run Posted: 10 Sep 2011 04:23 PM PDT SEPT 11 — News that Safee Sali and Safiq Rahim are to get trials with Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers in the upcoming weeks have excited Malaysian football fans around the globe. In fact, I dare say that this is the most excited we have been since the days of Mokhtar Dahari and R. Arumugam. And some of us can't even remember that far back — or were even around, at that!  The last time our national football team qualified for an international event — the Moscow 1980 Olympics — we ended up not going because we boycotted the event due to the actions of the then-communist Soviet government. (Okay I know it was in protest of the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union... but the Soviet government was a communist government, and communists are so topical these days…) The current national team line-up is something we should quite rightly be excited about. After the forgettable 1990s, mired by scandal and bribery, and a somewhat confused decade following that, it's nice to have a squad we can cheer on with the full knowledge that whatever the score line is, they have indeed given their all.  As a reward for their performance, trials with teams in the top two tiers of the English league is fair dinkum. They are talented players, but the state of our league means it is highly unlikely that scouts from top leagues would be filling the stands.  In getting these well-deserved trials, however, we have had to play a bit of nudge, using connections to open doors previously somewhat locked. It is no mere coincidence that Safee and Safiq are getting trials with two clubs that have a distinct Malaysian connection: Cardiff City is owned by Chan Tien Ghee, and QPR's new owner is Tony Fernandes — both proud card carrying Malaysians.  In fact, the presence of Malaysia in the English league is quite significant, even before Chan's and Fernandes' forays into the ownership market. If you take a look at the kits worn by the referees, sown on their shirts are Air Asia (until 2009) and Tune Group (from last season) logos — yes, Malaysian companies. "How rich are your people?" asked a colleague of mine not too long ago, having noticed the increased Malaysian presence in the English game. I'll save my rant of an answer for another day, but suffice to say that when you take the British owners of out the equation, others in the same class include Roman Abramovich, Lakshmi Mittal, Shaikh Mansour Zayed and Carson Yeung. No lightweights there. Ownership of premiership clubs — and football clubs, at that — can be a revolving door, and as more and more businessmen see sports clubs as an investment, it would not be too long before another fad strikes their fancy and they take their pennies somewhere else. I am not saying that Chan and Fernandes are only in it for the short haul; far from it for me to conjecture upon that, but rather, I am saying that there is no certainty that they will forever be owners. And once they cease to be the concierge to open doors for our footballing talent, where will our football be?  We need a long-term plan in developing the internationalisation of our football that would allow us to achieve consistent success, as opposed to flashes in the pan that are too quick to burn out. As it is, QPR manager Neil Warnock quite rightly pointed out that even if Safee and Safiq impress premiership or championship clubs, getting work permits for them may be quite a wrangle. Work permits are issued only to players from countries ranked 70 and above in the FIFA rankings. Given that we are currently ranked 146th out of 203 in the latest rankings, we are closer to the bottom than we are to the magical number 70!  Additionally, what is the point for us to have one or two Malaysians plying their trade in the European leagues if the bulk of our national squad are still hovering at the same level? And so, with a longer time frame in mind, I am arguing that we need a long-term plan that allows exposure of our players to local SEA leagues in the first instance. Safee Sali has led the way in this respect, having signed on with Pelita Jaya this year. As more and more of our players ply their trade in leagues in South-East Asia, they are bound to catch the eye of scouts from higher-ranked Asian teams and leagues, such as the South Korean, Japanese, Chinese or Arab leagues. Only when we have proved our mettle in Asia would European leagues look our way – and quite rightly so.  If you think about it — Park Ji Sung did not go to Manchester United via a deal done through Korean owners of Premiership clubs. He plied his trade at his university club, Myongji University before catching the eye of Japanese club Kyoto Purple Sanga (yeah, I don't get the names of these Japanese clubs either) before going to PSV Eindhoven and then Manchester United. Similar parallels can be drawn from the careers of various Asian players who have played or are playing in top European leagues, such as Kazuyoshi Miura, Hidetoshi Nakata and Keisuke Honda.  There are many benefits to sending our players abroad – even if at first, abroad refers to countries Air Asia would fly you to for less than RM50. For one, there is the mental strength of being away from home – harder than you think, and homesickness afflicts even the best of players.  Second, the exposure to an international set of players would benefit how we adapt to players with different physiques, among other things. Whilst at Pelita Jaya, Safee came across players from Brazil, Uruguay, Mali, Cameroon, South Korea and Japan to name a few. Granted, they aren't quite national squad players, but that's got to be better than facing the same old Malaysian faces week in week out.  We can't be ranked 70th in a fortnight – unlike university rankings, you can't manipulate your standing by tweaking the variables measured. In football, all is down to 90 minutes on the pitch. But with a long-term plan I think we'll get there, if not beyond. I honestly do.  And yes, I actually think my proposal is half decent. Do you reckon this this will get me my dream job of as the Malaysian football overlord (or overperson, if you wish to be politically correct)? If so, TalentCorp... where are yoouuu? I'm only half kidding. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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PAS cabar Umno buat pendirian Malaysia tidak pernah dijajah Posted: 11 Sep 2011 02:04 AM PDT Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat (tengah) menyambut Pesuruhjaya Tinggi Australia ke Malaysia Miles Kupa pada majlis rumah terbuka Aidilfitri anjuran PAS, hari ini. - Foto oleh Jack Ooi GOMBAK, 11 Sept — PAS mencabar Umno menyatakan pendirian berhubung kenyataan Majlis Profesor Negara (MPN) bahawa negara ini tidak pernah menjadi tanah jajahan British dan tidak dijajah oleh mana-mana kuasa asing lain. Menurut Ketua Penerangan PAS Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, selaku kerajaan pusat yang memerintah negara sejak 54 tahun lalu Umno yang kini diterajui Datuk Seri Najib Razak harus menyatakan pendirian parti itu. "Umno harus nyatakan pendirian berhubung kenyataan MPN bahawa negara tidak pernah dijajah kerana implikasinya cukup besar... implikasi awam dan implikasi akademik. "Umno perlu nyatakan pendirian sama ada sokong atau menentang kenyataan MPN itu, Umno tak boleh duduk diam kerana mereka adalah pemerintah, kita cabar Umno nyatakan pendirian. Kalau betul negara tidak pernah dijajah, kita minta sambutan Hari Pahlawan pada 16 September ini dibatalkan," katanya kepada The Malaysian Insider ketika ditemui di Hari Terbuka PAS sempena Aidilfitri di Kolej Universiti Islam Zulkifli Mohamad, Taman Melewar di sini. Tegas Tuan Ibrahim, sejak isu itu dibangkitkan jurucakap MPN Profesor Datuk Dr Zainal Kling beberapa hari lalu, Umno masih belum mengeluarkan sebarang kenyataan balas. "Umno tak bagi apa-apa kenyataan lagi, apa yang dikatakan MPN itu adalah perkara penting, ia memberi implikasi yang besar kepada negara. "Kalau Umno masih berdiam diri dan tidak mahu jawab kita boleh anggap Umno tidak bertanggungjawab," katanya. Jelas beliau, mata pelajaran Sejarah di peringkat sekolah juga akan menjadi masalah sekiranya fakta sejarah negara tidak tepat. "Bagaimana dengan murid-murid sekolah yang mahu ambil UPSR nanti, mereka jadi keliru. "Walau bagaimanapun Umno perlu jawab dan nyatakan pendirian mereka dalam hal ini," katanya. Selain Zainal, beberapa pakar sejarah seperti Profesor Emeritus Tan Sri Dr Khoo Kay Kim dan Prof Dr Ramlah Adam menegaskan negara tidak pernah dijajah British. Sebaliknya mereka mengatakan bahawa kehadiran British adalah berasaskan perjanjian dengan raja setiap kerajaan dan pegawai British ditugaskan menjalankan pentadbiran dengan kedaulatan tetap pada raja. Penelitian The Malaysian Insider ke atas ucapan dan tulisan bekas perdana menteri dan perdana menteri sejak 1957 menunjukkan perkataan penjajahan British dan negara kolonial ada digunakan.

Mahathir: Subjek sejarah di sekolah kurang tepat Posted: 11 Sep 2011 12:32 AM PDT ALOR SETAR, 11 Sept ─ Subjek sejarah yang diajar di sekolah-sekolah dilihat kurang tepat kerana tidak mempunyai latar belakang perjuangan kemerdekaan, kata bekas perdana menteri Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Beliau berkata subjek itu tidak begitu tepat kerana salah satunya cerita mengenai peranan Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj yang memperjuangkan kemerdekaan negara tidak banyak disebut dalam silibus subjek berkenaan. "Ramai daripada generasi muda tidak begitu faham dengan sejarah dan asal-usul negara kerana ada percubaan untuk mengubah sejarah daripada fakta kepada khayalan," katanya di sini hari ini. Malah sejak kebelakangan ini muncul polemik baru sama ada negara ini dijajah oleh British ataupun hanya memperoleh naungan kuasa Eropah tersebut. Dipetik Bernama Online. Dr Mahathir (gambar) berkata, kerana itulah kerajaan perlu menumpukan apa sebenarnya berlaku supaya tulisan tentang sejarah negara tidak dipengaruhi oleh kepentingan politik semasa. "Bukan mengkaji semula sejarah tetapi perlu balik kepada benda yang benar. Sejarah sudah berlaku dan kita tidak boleh ubah sejarah dan apa yang berlaku dahulu... berlakulah," kata perdana menteri keempat ini. Kelmarin, Menteri Pengajian Tinggi Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin berkata sukatan pelajaran subjek sejarah peringkat sekolah akan dikaji semula selepas didapati beberapa fakta sebelum ini tidak lengkap dan terdapat percanggahan fakta mengenainya hasil kajian ahli falsafah dan teologi negara, Tan Sri Prof Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas di dalam buku terbarunya 'Historical fact and fiction'. Dr Mahathir berkata sekarang ini generasi muda menganggap bahawa perjuangan untuk kemerdekaan itu perkara biasa kerana mereka dilahirkan dalam sebuah negara yang sudah merdeka dan makmur. "Jadi mereka (generasi muda) menganggap bahawa dalam mana-mana negara pun akan berlaku demikian, tapi kalau kita buat lawatan ke negara-negara lain yang mencapai kemerdekaan semasa kita mencapai kemerdekaan, kita akan dapati bahawa mereka tak dapat bangunkan negara mereka seperti Malaysia," katanya.

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