Sports betting licence NOT approved

24 Jun The STAR : Sports betting should be legalised to recognise the rights of non-Muslims, said Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim. The social rights of Malaysian non-Muslims were contained in the Federal Constitution, he said......“Whatever the Government’s taxes (from sports betting), use that fund for the good of the non-Muslim poor. The Muslims do not have to touch it,” he told a press conference yesterday.

Rais Yatim is insulting all the non-Muslims with such statement. He's also implying that gambling is a given right of all non-Muslims. Dear Minister, not all non-Muslims gamble.
I suggest this weekend you hop down to the nearest 4-D, Sports Toto sales outlets and just judge for yourself how many Muslims go inside these sales outlets to buy their bet tickets. Do not be suprised it will be 50 % , which so closely match our country's racial composition. At same time, find the nearest kopi-tiam or warong near these outlets and see for yourself how many Muslims are there drinking kopi-oh while discussing the upcoming results. Do not be shocked if you see them openly displaying such betting sales tickets. This is an open secret - Muslims also bet and gamble in our country. Even though there are signage in these outlets  barring sales to Muslims, this was never enforced. Do we ever read hear actions being taken against Muslims buying such bet tickets ??
This is not the first time you have issue such irresponsible statements. I do understand your purpose  - trying to find another way to gain political mileage and show that you do "care" for rights of the non-Muslims. You are wasting your time. I suggest you spend more time to seriously look into how you can improve Malaysia broadband performance - allow me to remind you Malaysia ranks 102 out of 152 countries - we are in the bottom 50's inspite of our so called Multi-Media Super Corridor initiatives. Refresh your memory at my blog here if  you need to.

25 Jun The STAR :  The government will not be issuing a sports betting licence to Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced on Friday night.
The Prime Minister said although the government had in principal approved the licence, it decided not to proceed with it after taking into consideration the feedback from all layers of the community.....“This was discussed at the (supreme council) meeting and the council supported the decision unanimously,” he told a press conference after chairing the meeting on Friday night.
27 Jun The STAR : The Government will stick to its decision not to legalise sports betting in the country, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.
The Prime Minister said although some parties were in favour of granting a licence to Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd, most were against the move.
“The issuance of a licence to legalise sports betting is no longer an issue as a decision has been made. We always listen to the people’s wishes and put their interests above all,” he said.


Kudos to our PM Najib for taking this stand. This is something that you have done right this time. 
However I am surprised you said that this decision was make after discussion at UMNO's supreme council meeting. I view this negatively as shouldn't such a major issue should also involve the other major component parties in your coalition - MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP ?? I do recall that  MCA, MIC and PPP leadership had supported sports betting with some restricted control mechanism.  Again you are showing that UMNO  don't respect and care about the view of your other BN partners. I don't even remember you calling any meeting with them to discuss this issue .There is  always talk and consensus that Barisan Nasional is actually Barisan UMNO. You have now proven this point . Well done ! 
So it is not surprising that your strongest opposition,  the  DAP has now question you : "Does this mean that the Umno supreme council decides all government policies, and not the cabinet comprising all the BN component party leaders? Where is the power sharing concept that was supposed to one of BN's main principles?"

Your supporter ,  our dear ex PM Dr Mahathir must be very disapointed with you now. Did he call you to express his displeasure about your decision. It was just only a day ago he said “If I were still in the Government, I would approve the license for sports betting,”. The rakyat knows that Dr Mahathir is a strong supporter of  Datuk Vincent Tan's and is an  open secret that Vincent Tan's business empire had grown through his close alliance with Dr Mahathir . 

There had been speculations that Vincent Tan will sue the government if he does not get his sports betting license. So will he ??? 
Just check up the local blogs - there are already speculations that Vincent Tan could be compensated in other means - perhaps some new "skyscraper and mega" projects will be given to his Berjaya group ? So he will still win as this is only a temporary setback.

So dear Najib - please prove us wrong that you have make this decision rightly based on your judgment of what is morally and ethically right.