Archive for August 19th, 2010

BN party backs boss on ‘Umno bad for 1M’sia’ stand

Free Malaysia TodayThu, 19 Aug 2010
By Dominic Legeh

PENAMPANG: Barisan Nasional component party Upko is standing by its president Bernard Dompok, who was labelled as irresponsible by Sabah Umno.

Upko secretary-general Wilfred Madius Tangau said it was unfortunate that Sabah Umno liaison deputy chairman Salleh Said Keruak could not read the “pulse of the people” well.

He was commenting on Dompok’s remark that Umno was a hindrance to the promotion of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s 1Malaysia concept, which he said was spot on.

“The fact is, this burning question is not in the mind of Dompok alone, but is a pertinent question in the mind of the grassroots including those of BN component party leaders. We support fully what our president has courageously stated publicly,” he said in a press statement. Read the rest of this entry »

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Porntip the most trusted individual in all of Thailand

From http://www.lifestyleasia.com/articles/culture_4/readers-digest-trust-survey_4336.htm

Conducted in October 2009, the survey found Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunan to be the most trusted individual in all of Thailand while Doctors were the most trusted group.

Most Trusted Individuals: This survey found that out of 80 individuals Thailand’s renowned forensic pathologist and director of the Forensic Science Institute, Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunan was ranked as the most trusted individual of the year. She was followed by Phra Ajarn Alongkot Dikkapanyo, the head monk at the famous Buddhist AIDS temple, Wat Phra Baht Nam Phu, Dr. Sumet Tantivechakul, secretary general of the Chaipattana Foundation, Phra Promkunaporn (Prayut Payutto) acclaimed spiritual leader and winner of an UNESCO Prize for Peace Education, and Phanya Nirunkul media tycoon who was the fifth most trusted individual. Read the rest of this entry »

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DAP supports Anwar’s call for proof of allegation of the existence of an alternate constitution to replace the current one to erase special rights of the Malays and the position of Islam as the official religion

DAP supports the call by Parliamentary Opposition Leader and Ketua Umum PKR Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for proof of the allegation of the existence of an alternate constitution to replace the current one to erase special rights of the Malays and the position of Islam as the official religion.

This allegation by the Perak Mufti Tan Sri Harussani Zakaria is a very serious and inflammable one and should not be made without proof.

This allegation has already been the basis of a very alarmist front-page Utusan Malaysia headline “Elak perang besar” on Tuesday and an incendiary article entitled “Benar, ‘perang besar’ boleh berlaku di Malaysia” yesterday.

DAP leaders had never heard or known of such an alternate constitution.

Any such an alleged alternative constitution could not have emanated from Pakatan Rakyat as the component parties of PKR, PAS and DAP had reaffirmed commitment to the fundamental principles of the Malaysian Constitution in a common platform last December.
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What will they do about racism now?

By Kee Thuan Chye

COMMENT Let’s wait and see what action will be taken against Siti Inshah Mansor, the principal of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra, Kulai, for the racist remarks she allegedly made at the Merdeka celebrations in her school.

The police will be concluding their investigations soon, under Section 504 of the Penal Code. If they have a case, Siti Inshah could be charged with provocation, which carries a maximum imprisonment of two years, a fine or both.

Meanwhile, DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang has called for her to be sacked. MCA president Chua Soi Lek calls for her to be transferred to a desk job and given counselling. How generous of Chua.

If she did what she is said to have done, she should instead be drawn and quartered, like in the good old days. Or have her head put in a cangue – you know, like in the Chinese movies, where the head and hands are locked up within a square wooden contraption.

Or she should be given the Japanese treatment – force-fed water while someone jumps on her bloated tummy, or hung from a tree by her thumbs, and displayed publicly for all to see that this is what happens to racists.
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E-census error – how can it happen?

Letter by Chuah Siew Eng

Dear Editor,

I wish to draw to the attention of the public of a possible glitch in the e-census. An answer I clicked for the category “religion” revealed to be different in the PDF copy I printed. Thinking I may have made a mistake, I reviewed my answers and confirmed that it was not my error. When I sought an explanation, the supervisor of the census takers for my area confirmed receiving another complaint over the same problem two weeks ago, adding that she had reported the problem to the Statistics Department. If that were true, why wasn’t it corrected for a whole two weeks? How many more people would have unwittingly assumed the computerised process would record their answers faithfully, as I almost did were it not for a note at the final page prompting a PDF check before submitting the form?

While my problem was eventually rectified (I received a polite call from the Department asking me to try the e-census again and this time it recorded what I inserted), I wonder whether it has been truly corrected in a fresh form.
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Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #28

By M. Bakri Musa

Chapter 4: Modern Model States

Don’t Cry For Argentina (Cont’d)

Argentineans today must be wondering where they had gone wrong. How could they mess up such a wonderful country? With such promising attributes and rich resources, it would take a real effort to screw things up. The Argentineans did not accidentally stumble their way down; they must have deliberately taken that path of self-destruction.

I deliberately choose this Latin American country as a negative example, of how not to proceed; or how to mess things up royally. To see how far Argentina had fallen, a cursory review o f its history would suffice.

In the early 20th century Argentina enjoyed a standard of living much higher than that of Western Europe. Capital and labor poured in to tap the country’s wealth. United States too had a massive influx of European immigrants at that time. Unlike America however, Argentina did not have a dominant culture into which the immigrants wished to assimilate. Thus the Italians in Argentina pretty well maintained their own culture and value system, as did the Spaniards and other Europeans.
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