Archive for July 13th, 2007
Caucus public hearing in BM – let IGP declare police have no objection to media coverage
Posted by Kit in Media, Parliament, Police on Friday, 13 July 2007
The Police should make clear that they are fully responsive to the people’s concerns about crime and the fear of crime by sending representatives to the third Parliamentary Caucus public hearing in Bukit Mertajam (at Jit Sin Chinese Independent Secondary School ) at 10 am on Sunday and declaring no police objections whatsoever to media coverage.
The Malaysian people cannot be blamed for concluding that the reason the second public hearing of the Parliamentary Caucus on Human Rights and Good Governance on “Fight Rising Crime” in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday became a “closed session” which did not allow media reporting, which was a departure from the first public hearing in Johor Baru last Sunday, was because of police pressure.
This is not conducive to the police regaining full public confidence in its mission to fight and reduce crime and the fear of crime.
The Police should welcome opportunities such as the public hearings of the Parliamentary Caucus on Human Rights and Good Governance to allow the people to speak their minds and adopt an open and positive attitude to public criticisms about the failings and failures of the police in its task to reduce crime and the fear of crime.
These criticisms are made not because the people are anti-police and want to indulge in police bashing, but because the people, like the Royal Police Commission which was formed by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in one of his early initiatives when appointed to the highest office in the land 44 months ago, want to have a world-class police service which is efficient and professional enough to make the streets, public places and the privacy of homes safe and secure for citizens, tourists and investors.
Malaysians want the Police to be their friends and protectors and are prepared to give the Police all assistance and support to wipe out the country’s notoriety in crime and fear of crime, which former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam admitted a few days ago is a major disincentive for foreign investment. Read the rest of this entry »
Apologies demanded – Noh Omar for gangsterish conduct and Hishammuddin for racist/baseless insinuation
DAP Members of Parliament will censure the Deputy Education Minister Datuk Noh Omar in Parliament unless he apologises to the Selangor DAP State Chairman Au Yong Han Wah for his loutish and gangsterish conduct at the Education Ministry in Putrajaya yesterday.
Au Yong had accompanied Lim Kim Chung and his wife from Pandamaran, Klang to submit a memorandum to the Education Minister over the punching of their Remove Class daughter, Lim Nien Nie, 13, by her teacher at the Sekolah Menengah Raja Lumu, Pandamaran on Monday.
Noh Omar had acted in a way totally unbefitting and unbecoming of a Deputy Education Minister when he lost control of himself and created a public scene by abusing Au Yong and crumbling and throwing away the memorandum, which had to be picked up by his officer.
I am shocked by Noh Omar’s public misconduct, as I had thought that he would have mended from his previous ways of acting and behaving like a gangster when he was Deputy Internal Security Minister, as he had been assigned to the task of maintaining school discipline.
How could Noh Omar wipe out the menace of school gangsterism when he continues to act and behave like a gangster, setting the worst possible example to students — totally without a proper sense of the public behaviour expected not only of a government officer, but an elected official? Read the rest of this entry »
The Photo I would Really Like to See
Posted by Kit in Farish Noor, nation building on Friday, 13 July 2007
The pranksters have been at it again, though perhaps in the eyes of some, the latest joke came across as being more of a stunt. We are, of course, referring to the now-infamous doctored photo of the Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak that was intended to remind us of an alleged encounter in some mysterious faraway locale which others would presumably hope to forget. Notwithstanding the ruckus that was sparked by the posting of this photo on the internet, the point was made and it was a valid one: If the real photo exists somewhere out there, we would like to see it, please.
Some have raised the question: Why all the fuss over a photo, real or fake? Well, the historian will tell you that photos are of crucial importance for any form of socio-political and historical research. For a long time the documentary worth of photos was downgraded by many scholars. Yet photos do tell us much about the subjects they contain, and in photos we find empirical evidence that helps to underscore the points we wish to make.
Take a walk down memory lane and visit the National Archives if you don’t believe me: While doing research for my book on the history of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic party (PAS), for instance, I was struck by the photos of the PAS general assemblies of the 1960s and 70s. For a start, the few surviving photos of the Dewan Muslimat (Women’s Wing) of PAS dating back then would show that many of the female members of PAS were quite comfortable wearing kebayas at the meetings, and some of them didn’t even wear tudungs. The sartorial shifts that took place not long after are a record of the social changes that took place in Malaysia from the 1980s onwards, which remains of historical importance.
Browsing through photos of Malaysia in the 1960s one also sees another Malaysia that may seem so alien to many of us now: Multi-racial dinner parties where Malaysians of all races and religions were happily eating, drinking and dancing the night away — tango and cha-cha being the favourite dances then. How quickly everything changed when the conservative elements of our society came to the fore in the 1980s, and the parties became decidedly tamer and duller, and the only drinks served in the wine glasses of the 1960s were fanta and pepsi…
Disappearing photos are another interesting phenomena altogether, and if any of you had been browsing through the net during the late 1990s you may have noticed an unreported event that was (and remains) of some importance: Read the rest of this entry »
PM speech to national unity panel
Posted by Kit in nation building on Friday, 13 July 2007
by Dr. Chen Man Hin
True to form, the PM talks on generalities such as we are all Malaysians. However what he did not say was worrying.
He did not say that Malaysians are equal and enjoy equal opportunities.
Did we hear about his views on Bangsa Malaysia? Or that Malaysians are one Bangsa Malaysia without differentiation of Malaysians into Ketuanan Melayu and ordinary Malaysians?
Did he say that there is only a Malaysian agenda and not something that Mmno wants — the Malay agenda?
If he believed in a Malaysian philosophy of a multiracial society that is multicultural and multireligious, then why after 50 years of Merdeka there is still classification of Malaysians into bumiputras and non bumiputras, quotas, racial preferences in politics, economics, culture and religion?
PM was quoted to have said the NEP has removed one of the two prongs of NEP, that there is no more identification of race with economic functions. So why did he not say that there is no more need for the NEP to continure? Read the rest of this entry »
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