we are living in a state of emergency

so said thierry rommel, the EU envoy to malaysia.

oh yeah! apart from foreigners like michael backman, we need one like thierry rommel too. for sure though, our gomen do NOT share this viewpoint. mark my words, soon you’ll hear about all the MPs coming out to attack rommel for being a busybody.

well, this time, rommel, who is the european union’s commission envoy to malaysia said that malaysia is living in state of emergency.

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia is living under an effective state of emergency, an EU envoy said on Tuesday, after police used tear gas and water cannon at the weekend to break up the biggest anti-government protest in a decade.

"Today, this country still lives under emergency," the European Commission’s envoy to Malaysia, Thierry Rommel, told Reuters by telephone on the last day of his mission to Malaysia.

Rommel’s remarks, extraordinarily blunt for a diplomat, chime with a chorus of criticism from opposition parties and some non-government groups about the way the government handled the protest, which it called an illegal assembly of troublemakers.

do you agree with rommel? that’s not all he said.

"It’s not a secret that elections are not fair," he said, noting complaints from electoral reform group Bersih, organiser of Saturday’s protest, that election campaigns were too short and that the media was biased toward government campaigning.

"There’s a significant part of the population that feels their voice is not really heard because of the way elections are managed," he added. "They feel locked out."

now do you agree with rommel? see, a foreigner even knows that our election is not fair!

some of you might remember several months back rommel had also said something that get the gomen all riled up.

He said Malaysia’s "Bumiputra" policy of affirmative action, which favours majority ethnic Malays, distorted trade because it allowed the government to award state contracts to Malay businesses without clear, competitive tender procedures.

It also fostered corruption, he added.

"The extension of Bumiputra-based discrimination and preference in public procurement — which is massive in the Malaysian economy — has worked to the disadvantage of foreign players in particular and has become a vehicle for officially acknowledged corruption…," Rommel said.

"It is public knowledge that local Malay vested interests, with powerful political or administration connections, want to see this mechanism maintained."

i sure agree with him 101%!! thumbs up, rommel! continue to speak up about malaysia!

UPDATED:
in another interview from bloomberg (of which the above picture was taken from), he mentioned again about malaysia’s race-based policies.