Archive for July 14th, 2007
UPU appeal result – another disappointment
Email from a candidate who failed in his UPU appeal for placement in one of the public universities. How would you advise our disappointed young Malaysian?
The UPU rayuan result were out and i was expecting some good news after the 1st application where i got rejected, i checked the result this afternoon and was again dissapointed to see “Dukacita dimaklumkan bahawa anda TIDAK BERJAYA dalam Permohonan Rayuan Kemasukan ke IPTA Sesi Akademik 2007/2008”, the same thing i got at 1st where the only different thing is the additional Rayuan word there.
I’m a STPM student with CGPA 2.4 and KK marks of 7/10 (since i don’t have an excellent result, i have already chosen non popular/critical courses and even selected Sabah uni in 3 of my 8 choices, 1st, 3rd and 5th respectively) Since there are some friends who got grades lower than me got their courses (some even get 2 Ds and managed to get an offer) at the 1st application, i thought there will be a chance or at least some for me.
Failing for the 2nd time made me think whether the selection was done at random or something else where lower grades individual get the same equal chances regardless of grades. The selection were based on a person’s luck or the management at the iptas just randomly select from a pool of applicants, after this incident i suppose either 1 or both were actually the reason why there are a batch of misfortunes like myself besides discrimination in the so called abolished quota system and etc. Read the rest of this entry »
Why with pay increase, police cannot assure public they are and feel safer in homes and communities
Posted by Kit in Parliament, Police on Saturday, 14 July 2007
Another shocking crime report in today’s newspapers — “Man dies in bid to foil car theft” (The Star), how a factory worker Tan Chee Wai, 31, was stabbed to death near his home in Taman Seri Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, at 7 am yesterday to prevent four men from stealing a car.
In Johor Baru, a woman was slashed in the early hours of Thursday morning when she was robbed at a petrol kiosk to refill fuel.
The day before in Johor Baru, a Nanyang Siang Pau woman reporter who had told the Johor State Chief Police Officer the previous day that the crime situation in the town was so bad that she dared not come out at night was herself injured when she was a victim of an attempt snatch theft.
Nobody is safe from crime or spared from the fear of crime, particularly in the hot spots of crime in Johor Baru, Klang Valley, Penang and Ipoh — despite the recent increases in police pay and personnel as well as a lot of P.R. by top police officers.
Even the police are not safe in the privacy of their homes, as illustrated by the case of L/Kpl Redzuan Mat Nor, 41, from the Batu Arang police station, who was badly injured when he put up a fight when three robbers broke into his house in Taman Pelangi, Rawang last Saturday. Redzuan was slashed with a parang.
The question all Malaysians are entitled to demand an answer is why the Police cannot give clear-cut assurances that with recent pay increases, the people can be and feel safer in their homes and communities and the public can get better services from the police, with victims or witnesses to crimes treated better by the police? Read the rest of this entry »
Missing RM1.3 billion for the Penang Second Bridge.
Posted by Kit in Good Governance on Saturday, 14 July 2007
by Richard Teo
History has an uncanny way of repeating itself. During Mahathir’s tenure as PM the construction of the North-South Expressway in 1984 was awarded to UEM (owned and controlled by UMNO) on the basis of a design-build-finance and operate concept.
Although the lowest tender bid was $3.2 billion, UEM was awarded the contract. Prior to completion,construction costs escalated to a phenomenal $6 billion. The escalated cost which normally would be borne by the turnkey contractor was underwritten by a govt soft loan.
This effectively meant that a competitive bid for a project which would cost $3.2 billion ended costing $6 billion. Presumably,the toll collection period had to be extended from an initial 15 years to 30 years to accomodate the doubling of the project cost.
The burden for the extra cost was shifted to the road users who now have to content and endure the paying of road toll for an extra 15 years (1988-2018). Later, in exchange for changing the increase in toll rate from every year to every three years, the concession period was further extended for another 12 years(2018-2030).
Had the contract awarded to the lowest bid at $3.2 billion was accepted, the govt would have saved $2.8 billion (or a shorter toll collection peiod of 15 years).
However, with its questionable practice of awarding the contract to a dubious company closely associated wih the ruling UMNO party, the ordinary citizen is bogged down with an additional period of 27 years to pay for the usage of the North-South Expressway.
Come 2007 and the cycle is about to repeat itself again with the award for the construction of the Penang second bridge. There was no tender for the project and it was speculated the bridge would cost RM2.3 billion. However, even before it got started, NST June 24th reported that the bridge would now cost RM3 billion. Read the rest of this entry »
Abdullah should intervene to “Free Nat Now” so that 50th Merdeka anniversary will not start off infamously
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Police on Saturday, 14 July 2007
The Prime Minister and Internal Security Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi must intervene to free Nathaniel Tan immediately to ensure that his administration does not start the slide down the slippery slope of repression to mark Malaysia’s 50th Merdeka anniversary — openly violating his pledges of an open, democratic, accountable and good governance when he was appointed to the highest office of the land 44 months ago.
The secretive circumstances in the first seven hours of arrest of Nathaniel Tan, an aide of Anwar Ibrahim and information bureau staff of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, where his friends, relatives and supporters had to go on a “wild goose chase” to locate his whereabouts with the police initially disclaiming knowledge and refusing to give information about his detention, is a scandal which speaks of a police which has yet to fully accept that the first principle of policing in a democratic system must be policing for the people and not policing to serve the government leaders of the day.
The irregular and illegal circumstances of Tan’s arrest, with the police spiriting him away for seven hours without proper accounting, raises the question as to the actual motives behind the police action.
Is Tan’s arrest the beginning of a clampdown on dissent and criticism particularly in the blogosphere?
Had Tan become a pawn in a trade-off among the powers-that-be in the political and police establishments to close ranks and protect their vested interests in the face of more and more specific and detailed allegations and increasing expose in the public domain of corruption, malpractices and abuses of power involving both the top political and police establishments? Read the rest of this entry »
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