Archive for July 21st, 2009

Eve Open Letter to PM & Cabinet – Form three Royal Commissions of Inquiry, on Teoh Beng Hock’s death, the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal and to propose a blueprint to roll back the crime wave of the past five years to create a safe Malaysia

YAB Prime Minister,
YAB Deputy Prime Minister,
YB-YB Ministers.

Form three Royal Commissions of Inquiry, on Teoh Beng Hock’s death, the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal and to propose a blueprint to roll back the crime wave of the past five years to create a safe Malaysia

YABs and YBs,

It is seven hours since the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak returned from his overseas trip this morning, closeted with top police officers for half an hour immediately on his touchdown at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 11.15 am.

However in the past seven hours, there has been no announcement by Najib of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock, 30, the political secretary to Selangor DAP State Exco and State Assemblyman for Seri Kembangan, Ean Yong Han Hwa who went to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Shah Alam to co-operate in its investigations but end up as a corpse at the MACC Hqrs last Thursday 16th July 2009.

Malaysians regardless of race or religion are deeply disappointed because the Prime Minister is not prepared to be as decisive as the former Prime Minister, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who had announced an independent public inquiry into the police nude ear-squat scandal on his touchdown at the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Subang on Monday, 28th November 2005 on his return from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta, well ahead of any Cabinet meeting!

Could it be that the Prime Minister, who is using all the latest Internet gadgets to take the pulse of the people on a 24/7 basis, being the first Malaysian Cabinet Minister and Prime Minister to use the twitter, had not been properly informed of the nation-wide shock, grief, anger and outrage at the unnecessary sacrifice of Teoh in MACC?

Hadn’t the Prime Minister been informed by all the MCA, Gerakan, MIC and even UMNO Ministers – as well as his new political secretary Dr. Oh Ei Sun – that it is not only the MACC and the Police which are on public trial, the very credibility, integrity of legitimacy of his premiership is also on trial?
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Nazri would do the country a greater service to warn New Straits Times group editor Zainul Arifin to stop his outpouring of communal poison which undermines Najib’s 1Malaysia motto and his credibility as Prime Minister

The de facto Law Minister, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, seems to have found a new hobby. He is merrily issuing warnings against all and sundry, regardless of whether he has any basis for such warnings or not. Probably Nazri should be labelled Minister for Warnings.

Nazri warned me not to turn the death of Teoh Beng Hock into a racial issue. Teoh, the political secretary to Selangor DAP State Exco and State Assemblyman for Seri Kembangan Ean Yong Han Hwa died mysteriously on Thursday after plunging from the 14th floor of MACC on Thursday after going to MACC to co-operate in its investigations.

As a de facto Law Minister, Nazri should not act in any lawless manner. I challenge him to substantiate his warning by citing an instance where I have turned Teoh’s death into a racial issue?

If he can’t, is Nazri prepared to be gentleman enough to apologise for his baseless and unfounded warning?

I have dedicated my entire life to the ideal of a united, harmonious, peaceful, just and prosperous Malaysia and have approached Malaysia’s multi-faceted problems from the perspective of a Malaysian nationalist – and not from the vision of a Chinese, Malay, Indian, Kadazan or Iban chauvinist.

I regard Teoh’s death as an indictment of the Malaysian system of governance and not a racial problem.
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The Court of Appeal’s “outline of reasons” in Anwar Ibrahim v P P – a critique

By NH Chan

I must apologize for the delay in giving this critique. The Court of Appeal gave its decision on July 1. I received the “outline of reasons” from Ngan Siong Hing only last Friday, 17 July 2009. Without him supplying me with a copy of the judgment of the Court of Appeal I would not be able to write this critique. Also as I do not have access to a law library I depend a lot on his generosity to get the legal material that I need to write my essays for ordinary people to understand what the judges are talking about. This is to enable the common people of this country to judge the judges for themselves.

The whole case can be understood just by readings 418A(l) and (2) and s376(l) and (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Power corrupts

David Pannick in his book Judges, OUP, 1987, wrote, p 76:

In all societies throughout history, judges have occasionally been adversely affected by their power. An early example occurs in the biblical story of Daniel and Susanna. Two elders of the community were appointed to serve as judges. They saw Susanna walking in her husband’s garden ‘and they were obsessed with lust for her’. When she resisted their advances they falsely accused her of infidelity to her husband. ‘As they were elders of the people and judges, the assembly believed them and condemned her to death.’ A young man named Daniel protested that an enquiry should be made into the judges’ allegations. He accused them of giving ‘unjust decisions, condemning the innocent and acquitting the guilty’. Under his careful cross-examination, the judges were proved to be liars: Daniel and Susanna in The Apocrypha.

The English Bench has had its fair share of bad judges. . . .In the seventeenth century, the Bench ‘was cursed by a succession of ruffians in ermine [most notably Jeffreys and Scroggs (Sir William)], who, for the sake of court [royal] favour, violated the principles of law, the precepts of religion, and the dictates of humanity’: John Lord Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors (5th edn, 1868), vol 4, p 416.

The misuse of power from whatever quarter it may come

In The Family Story, Butterworths, 1981, Lord Denning said, p 179:
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Dr. Mahathir ‘s Priorities are all Wrong!

by Dr. Toh Kin Woon

I refer to the latest posting in Dr. Mahathir’s blog, in which he criticized the non-Malays for asking for more concessions from state policies.

In response to these demands, the current Prime Minister has liberalized rules pertaining to equity ownership in some services’ sub-sectors and promised to set up a scholarship based purely on merit, beginning from next year.

Dr. Mahathir has found all these to be unacceptable, as they are tantamount to the government helping the relatively better off non-Malays taking even more from the relatively poorer Malays.

To substantiate his point, he went on to assert that non-Malays now own around 50% of the share capital while Malays own only 20%, far from the target set in the New Economic Policy of 30%.

I find Dr. Mahathir’s arguments to be objectionable on 3 grounds. Read the rest of this entry »

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MACC – prove that you are not even worse of a lapdog of Barisan Nasional government than ACA in the past!

On 11th December 2008, the New Straits Times carried a report “Abu Kassim: Lapdog tag won’t stick any more” on the new Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to replace the discredited Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA).

This is the NST report:

KUALA LUMPUR: Five bodies will closely watch over the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to ensure its transparency and integrity.

They are the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board; Special Committee on Corruption; Operations Review Panel; Corruption Prevention and Consultative Panel; and a Complaints Committee.

With the five scrutinising bodies, Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) deputy director-general Datuk Abu Kassim Mohamed hopes that the MACC would not be accused of being the lapdog of the government as the ACA had been accused of thus far.

“The difference here is accountability. Now, they (critics of the ACA) say we are accountable to the prime minister and the Prime Minister’s Department, although we are only accountable to him when it comes to the agency’s budget.

“With five independent bodies scrutinising the MACC, no one can say we are accountable to the prime minister. Which other agency do you know of has to answer to five such bodies? Even the ICAC (Hong Kong’s Independent Commission on Anti-Corruption) has only four scrutinising bodies,” he said during a recent briefing on the MACC.
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What is the use of MCA, Gerakan and MIC Ministers remaining in Cabinet if three of the four major Barisan Nasional component parties in Peninsular Malaysia could be overruled on a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh Beng Hock’s mysterious death at MACC?

MCA President Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat has finally said that the four MCA Ministers support the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock, 30, the political secretary to Selangor DAP State Exco and State Assemblyman for Seri Kembangan, Ean Yong Han Hwa who went to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Shah Alam to co-operate in its investigations but end up as a corpse at the MACC Hqrs last Thursday 16th July 2009.

Gerakan President Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon has also finally declared yesterday that Gerakan supports the establishment of a RCI into Teoh’s death.

MIC President, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said yesterday that MIC Minister for Human Resources Dr. S. Subramaniam will support in Cabinet the proposal to set up a RCI.

So far, the only Minister and Barisan Nasional component party to openly declare opposition to the establishment of a RCI into Teoh’s death is Datuk Peter Chin, Minister of Energy, Green Technology and Water from SUPP.
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