Archive for July, 2007
Mainstream media ban on Najib’s “717 Declaration” – to save MCA for jettisoning Merdeka social contract?
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Politics, Religion on Friday, 20 July 2007
On July 17, 2007, Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak declared that Malaysia is an Islamic state driven by the fundamentals of Islam and not a secular state. He even went out of his way to emphasise that Malaysia had “never been a secular state”.
Next day, Wednesday, July 18, 2007, just before the Cabinet meeting, MCA President and Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting spoke to Najib about the latter’s “717 Declaration”.
What really transpired nobody would know, but the result is there for all to see — the ban on all mainstream media on comments on Najib’s “717 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic State and had never been a secular state.
Did the idea of the ban and blackout of all mainstream media on comments on Najib’s “717 Declaration” emanate from the MCA or did it come from Najib?
Is the ban on all mainstream media from reporting comments on Najib’s “717 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic State designed to salvage MCA from the political fall-outs in being a party to the jettisoning of the Merdeka “social contract”?
This is not only a cowardly and undemocratic act, the gravest blow to press freedom in the 45 months of Abdullah premiership, but a great disservice to the integrity of the Merdeka social contract agreed by the forefathers of the major communities as the cardinal basis of nation building — a secular Malaysia with Islam as the official religion.
The solution is not to ban the press and deny Malaysians the right to speak up to defend the Merdeka social contract which had also been the life-work of the three first Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein, but for Najib to retract his “717 Declaration” and the Cabinet to reaffirm the Merdeka social contract that Malaysia had never been conceived as an Islamic state but as a secular state with Islam as the official religion. Read the rest of this entry »
Independent inquiry – whether Najib negligent in not phasing out Nuri helicopters earlier
Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, announced yesterday that the Cabinet had decided that the Nuri helicopters be phased out within three years and that an international tender for new helicopters would be called in the next few months.
The Nuri helicopters would still be used pending the arrival of new helicopters.
He said: “They are the only aircraft available to carry out operations. We can’t stop using them.”
The air force has more than 20 Nuri helicopters aged between 30 and 40 years.
“We pray that such accidents will not happen again,” Najib said, adding that no one could guarantee such incidents would not recur.
Such an explanation is neither satisfactory nor acceptable to the public or the bereaved families of casualties of Nuri helicopter crashes, who must bear a life-long doubt whether their loved ones would still be alive if the authorities concerned had fully discharged their duties to ensure that the Nuri helicopters were fully safe and air-worthy.
When eleven RMAF lives were lost in two RMAF Nuri helicopter crashes in Sabah in March 1997, DAP had called for the most thorough inquiry into the airworthiness of all Nuri helicopters. Read the rest of this entry »
Great letdown – Cabinet failure to reaffirm Malaysia is a secular and not Islamic state
Posted by Kit in Constitution, nation building, Religion on Thursday, 19 July 2007
I was waiting for the Cabinet to issue a policy statement after its meeting yesterday to clarify and correct the pronouncement by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Tuesday that Malaysia is not a secular state but an Islamic state driven by the fundamentals of Islam.
But there had been total silence from the Cabinet after its weekly Wednesday meeting yesterday.
The Cabinet failure to reaffirm that Malaysia is a secular and not an Islamic State is a great letdown bringing to the very fore the question whether the upcoming 50th Merdeka anniversary celebrations is to commemorate 50 years of a secular Malaysian nation or the beginning of a Malaysian Islamic State!
Some MCA leaders have made noises in the media that Najib’s declaration that Malaysia is an Islamic state and not a secular state flies in the face of “numerous documents, including the Reid Report, the Cobbold Commision and a 1988 Supreme Court decision” but why was there not a single one of the four MCA Ministers, as well as the Gerakan, MIC, SUPP, PBS and other non-Muslim Barisan Nasional (BN) Ministers who dared to raise this important subject to ask for a public Cabinet reaffirmation that Malaysia had always been conceived to be a secular and not an Islamic State?
Is this to be another MCA “sandiwara” — using low-level officials to question Najib’s statement that Malaysia is an Islamic and not a secular state while top MCA leaders assured the UMNO leadership of their support in Cabinet and the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council?
This was what happened when former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mdohamad made the unilateral, arbitrary and unconstitutional declaration that Malaysia was an Islamic State at the Gerakan national delegates conference on Sept. 29, 2001 — the “929 declaration”. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Malaysia Going Down the Road of Pakistan?
Posted by Kit in Farish Noor, nation building, Religion on Wednesday, 18 July 2007
The recent announcement made by the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Tun Razak, to the effect that ‘we (Malaysia) are an Islamic state’ is mind-boggling to say the least. Speaking during a conference in Kuala Lumpur on the theme of ‘The Role of Islamic States in a Globalised World’, the Deputy Prime Minister claimed that Malaysia has ‘never been affiliated’ to a secular position that that Malaysia’s development ‘has been driven by our adherence to the fundamentals of Islam’. (Bernama, 17 July 2007)
One cannot help but wonder if this was a case of a cynical historical revisionism at work, for there is ample historical data to show that the opposite was the case, and that the forefathers of the Malaysian nation — from Tunku Abdul Rahman to his own father Tun Razak and Hussein Onn — were keen to ensure that Malaysia remained a constitutional democracy where the state would play the role of honest broker and govern a Malaysian public that was multi-racial and multi-confessional.
Furthermore the claim that Malaysia is an Islamic state is far-fetched to say the least according to the criteria of traditional Islamic legal orthodoxy and normative Muslim standards of ethics. Would an Islamic state condone the use of laws like the ISA that allow for detention without trial, or laws like the OSA and the Sedition Act? And does Islam explicitly talk about the need to create faith rehabilitation centres where Muslims and non-Muslims are interned to ‘convert’ them to the right (re. State-defined) practices of Islam?
The comments made by the Deputy Prime Minister would suggest a totalising discourse that fails to take into account the pluralism that is at the heart of the Malaysian nation and nation-building project. When he states that ‘we have always been driven by our adherence to the fundamental principles of Islam’, is he referring to the entire Malaysian population that includes not only Muslims but also Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and peoples of other faiths? Or by the term ‘we’ is he referring to the oligarchy of Malay-Muslim elites who man the helm of UMNO and the ruling National Front alliance that governs the country?
It is therefore not surprising to think that this was yet another case of a Malay-Muslim politician playing to the Malay-Muslim gallery the way that so many other Malay politicians have done in the past. After all, the declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic state was made earlier by former Prime Minister Mahathir; and it was also Mahathir and his former Deputy Anwar Ibrahim who spearheaded the Islamisation programme in Malaysia in the 1980s, taking the country further from its secular constitutional roots and towards a more communitarian register on the basis of Malay-Muslim identity politics.
At this crucial stage in Malaysian history where the Constitution has all but been forgotten, it would be wise to reflect on the mistakes made by other Muslim leaders elsewhere who have brought their countries to the brink of ruin by playing the ‘Islam card’. One country that comes to mind is Pakistan, which today is black-listed as a den of terrorism and has been cast as a pariah state internationally. Yet Pakistan’s slippery slide towards violent sectarian religious politics was not started by conservative Mullahs or even the military dictator General Zia ul Haq, but the secular leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Read the rest of this entry »
Nuri helicopters – is it right to risk lives of air force personnel if Defence Minister and VVIPs find them too dangerous to use?
The country grieves with the families of the six crew members of the S61-A4 Sikorsky Nuri helicopter who perished in a crash in Genting Sempah on Friday, which resulted in a massive five-day search operation involving about 1,600 search and rescue personnel.
The casualties were: Capt Nor Azlan Termuzi, 29, from Kuala Lumpur; co-pilot Capt Nor Intan Asykeen Mohd Arof, 27, from Butterworth; air quartermaster Flight Sergeant Khusnizam Ariffin, 34, from Kelantan; avionics technician Flight Sergeant Mohamad Azmie Md Yassin, 35, from Batu Berendam, Malacca; airframe technician Leading Aircraftsman Saifulizam Alias, 28, from Muar, Johor; and engine technician Leading Aircraftsman Muhammad Ridzuan Ahmad, 27, from Pokok Sena, Kedah.
The latest Nuri helicopter crash — the 17th in 40 years and claiming 72 lives – has again raised questions about the safety and airworthiness of the Nuri helicopters.
It is most heart-rending to read of the account of Hashidee Murshin Hassim, 29, a childhood friend of Captain Nor Azlan Termuzi, of how the pilot in the fatal crash had a “fear of flying Nuri”.
Azlan, who had been a pilot for 11 years, had been flying the Nuri on the Sungai Besi-Kuantan route for the past two years.
The New Straits Times in its report “Captain feared flying Nuri” quoted Hashidee as saying that Azlan had told him that “he would rather drive a truck to Kuantan, because he felt safer”.
According to the NST report:
For each flight, Hashidee said, Azlan would always rely on the assurances given to him by the helicopter technician.
“He was even thinking of quitting the force, but his contract with them was the only thing that stopped him as he would have to fork out RM49,000 for breaching it,” he said.
“Everytime he flew the Nuri he would call to tell me that he was taking off and upon reaching Kuantan, he would call me again.
“This time, he never called me back.”
It is a very serious reflection of the shocking state of morale in the air force when Nuri pilots are living in literal fear of flying the helicopter. Read the rest of this entry »
Challenge to IGP – implement Royal Commission proposal of minimum 20% decrease of crime index in 12 months
The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan has his tenure as the top police cop renewed when it expires in September but when will he get serious about the rising crime and commit the police to an immediate Crime Reduction Plan whose improvement could be openly monitored on a monthly basis?
When the Royal Police Commission submitted its final report in May 2005, it said that Malaysia’s reputation as a safe country was “seriously dented” by the “dramatic increase” in the incidence of crime in the past few years and that “Malaysians in general, the business sector and foreign investors grew increasingly concerned with the situation”.
The Royal Commission warned that “if the trend continues, there would be major social and economic consequences for Malaysia”.
The Royal Police Commission was referring to the “dramatic increase” in the crime index from 121,176 cases in 1997 to 156,455 cases in 2004, which registered an increase of 29 per cent in eight years.
As a result, the Royal Police Commission proposed a sustained nation-wide drive against crime “until crime levels have reached a point considered no longer alarming”.
Although the Royal Police Commission did not spell out what were the crime levels considered “no longer alarming”, it proposed an immediate target of “a minimum 20 per cent decrease in crimes” within the first 12 months after the Report.
As the Royal Police Commission must be aware of the police target of reducing the crime index by five per cent a year, it would be safe to assume that to the Royal Police Commission, a “no longer alarming” crime index would be a 20% reduction of crime incidence in the first 12 months after the Royal Commission Report followed by a five per cent annual reduction of the crime index.
This would mean that for 2005, there would be a 20% decrease of the crime incidence of 156,455 cases of 2004 followed by a 5% annual decrease in 2006 and 2007 — which will work out to 125,164 cases in 2005, 118,905 cases in 2006 and 112,960 in 2007.
How has the Police fared since the Report of the Royal Police Commission in reducing crime, whether according to the benchmark of the Commission of a minimum 20% decrease in the first 12 months or the police’s own target of an annual reduction of the crime index by five per cent?
Far from being brought to levels which are no longer “alarming” to citizens, tourists and investors, the crime index after the Royal Commission Report had increased by leaps and bounds – shooting up by 9.7 per cent from 156,455 cases in 2004 to 171,604 in 2005, and a further 15.7 per cent in 2006 to 198,622. If there is an annual 5.11 per cent increase for 2007 as reflected for the first six months of the year, then the total crime index would reach a record-high of 208,772 cases!
Instead of reducing the crime incidence of 156,455 cases in 2004 to a level “no longer alarming”, crime incidence is set to break the 200,000 mark this year — which would be a hefty increase of some 30% of the crime incidence of 2004! Instead of bringing down the crime incidence to 112,960 in 2007, it is set to break the 200,000 mark — a shortfall of nearly 80%!
But what is shocking is that no one in police or government regards such a huge jump in the crime incidence as alarming or a threat to the quality of life of Malaysians, tourism and investment despite the alarm sounded by the Royal Police Commission at the 2004 crime index. Read the rest of this entry »
Slaying an Immortal Tiger: Malaysia’s New Economic Policy
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, NEP on Wednesday, 18 July 2007
by Azly Rahman
The New Economic Policy (NEP) owes it genesis to a vision that sought to redistribute wealth among Malaysia’s races and create a Malay middle class. Today, there are a significant number who believe that most of the benefits have gone to upper and upper-middle class Malays. As a whole, a vast swath of the Malaysian middle-classes remain relatively poor. It is the urban lifestyle has brought this group to such a level – like America’s middle-class, they are riddled with credit card debt and face rising costs of living.
The NEP created the country’s own Rockefellars, Vanderbilts, and Carnegies (dynasties of the ‘old money’), as it continues to create its own versions of Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, and Warren Buffet (newer dynasties of ‘new money’). In tandem, there are a growing number of millionaire Chinese and Indians that have benefited from the truncated structure of the NEP.
The NEP has also overseen the growth of a larger class of poor across all ethnic groups too, with Malaysia witnessing the rapid growth of an urban poor who live below the poverty line. Hypermodernity and rapid industrialisation, in the hunt for huge profits through expensive real estate projects have also engendered waves of immigration from Indonesia and Bangladesh, adding to the complex social dynamic in Malaysia’s urban centres.
The NEP was quite ill conceived to begin with, although in fairness, it was not meant to continue indefinitely unlike what one observes today. It was premised upon the principles of ethnic segregation and a leg-up for the most disenfranchised community – the majority Malay-Muslim population. A noble policy then, affirmative action was also the dominant philosophy of human development in the 1960s and 70s.
Today, the NEP can hardly be appended to noble intentions. The only Indian and Chinese individuals that continue to support it are either found in political parties that are aligned to the ruling coalition, the Barisan Nasional or to those Chinese and Indians who rely on government patronage for contracts and tenders. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia an Islamic state – Najib repudiating first three PMs on meaning of Merdeka social contract
Posted by Kit in Constitution, nation building on Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Is Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak repudiating the Merdeka “social contract” and the stand of the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn with his statement today that Malaysia is “an Islamic state with its own interpretation”?
Najib’s explanation that “as an Islamic state, it does not mean that we don’t respect the non-Muslims” and that “The Muslims and the non-Muslims have their own rights (in this country)” is no assurance at all, when there is unilateral, arbitrary and unconstitutional revision of the fundamental principles of nation-building agreed by the forefathers of the major communities on the founding of the nation that whilst Islam is the official religion of the Federation, Malaya and later Malaysia is not an Islamic State, whether of the PAS or Umno variety.
This cornerstone of nation-building was best spelt out by Bapa Malaysia and the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, at the 80th birthday celebrations organized by the Barisan Nasional in his honour on 8th February 1983, where Tunku pointedly said Malaysia should not be turned into an Islamic state, that Malaysia was set up as a secular State with Islam as the official religion which was enshrined in the Constitution.
Tunku said:
“The Constitution must be respected and adhered to. There have been attempts by some people who tried to introduce religious laws and morality laws. This cannot be allowed.
“The country has a multi-racial population with various beliefs. Malaysia must continue as a secular State with Islam as the official religion.”
Tunku’s stand that Malaysia was not and never conceived by the Merdeka Constitution to be an Islamic State was endorsed by Tun Hussein when the third Prime Minister celebrated his 61st birthday five days later.
There can be no doubt that this fundamental position that Malaysia was never conceived to be an Islamic State would also have been endorsed by Tun Razak if he had been alive in 1983 to celebrate Tunku’s 80th birthday and comment on his speech, as there had been no dispute whatsoever in the first three and even four decades of nationhood that Malaysia was a secular and not an Islamic state. Read the rest of this entry »
Public forum – No to a Police State in Blogosphere
Posted by Kit in Announcement on Tuesday, 17 July 2007
Nathaniel Tan, a 26 year old dedicated blogger, a Harvard University alumnus and an aide to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was arrested under the Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) over allegations that he had documents linked to Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Johari Baharom’s alleged involvement in corruption.
Nathaniel was released after four days’ detention.
To demonstrate our solidarity with Nathaniel who has been dealt with great injustice, to show our steadfast refusal to let the Government curb the democratisation impact of blogs and the Internet, and to voice our displeasure at the OSA, we are organising a forum with invited speakers from across the civil society with details as follows:
Venue: KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
Date: 19th July 2007 (Thursday)
Time: 7.30 pm
Admission is Free; Bring Friends
The panel of Distinguished Speakers include:
Nathaniel Tan, Blogger & Aide to PKR Advisor
Jeff Ooi, Protem Vice-President, All Blogs Malaysia
Harris Ibrahim, Lawyer & Founder of The People’s Parliament
Nurul Izzah Anwar, Special Assistant to PKR Advisor
Lim Guan Eng, Secretary-General of DAP
Tony Pua, Economic Advisor to DAP Secretary-General
Chairperson: Soon Li Tsin, Journalist & Blogger
Worsening crime index — 8.2 cases of rape a day in first 6 months this year as compared to 4 cases in 2003 and 6.7 cases in 2006
Last Monday in Parliament, I received an answer from the Prime Minister and Internal Security Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that the crime index had registered a 8.7 per cent increase in the first five months of this year as compared to the corresponding period last year, i.e 87,582 cases from Jan. to May 2007 as compared to 80,756 cases for the period last year.
Five days later, the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan updated the crime statistics showing that for the first six months of the year, there had been a 5.11 per cent increase in the crime index as compared to the corresponding period last year. i.e. 106,236 cases from Jan. to June 2007 as compared to 101,073 cases for the period last year.
From Abdullah and Musa’s statements, we can deduce that the average monthly crime incidence for the first five months of this year was 17,516 cases (87,582/5), while the crime incidence for June was 18,654, i.e. the crime incidence in June was 6.5% higher than the monthly average crime index recorded in the first five months of the year.
Malaysians must speak up and make clear that they find it completely unacceptable that the crime index keeps climbing up, reflecting an ever-worsening situation with regard to crime and the fear of crime in the country defeating the very purpose of the establishment of the Royal Police Commission in 2004 to have a world-class police service and reduce crime in the country.
In the first six months of this year, there were 1,507 cases of rape as compared to 1,186 for the corresponding period last year — an increase of 27.1%. This works out to 8.2 cases of rape per day in the first six months of this year as compared to four cases a day in 2003 and 6.7 cases a day in 2006 — another shocking index of the worsening crime and fear-of-crime situation in the country, bearing in mind the high percentage of unreported cases of crime. Read the rest of this entry »
Release Nat Tan now – “investigate then arrest” and not “arrest then investigate”
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, IT on Monday, 16 July 2007
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi must respect human rights and end police abuses of power of “arrest then investigate” and insist that police adhere strictly to “investigate then arrest” procedures.
Abdullah should order the immediate release of blogger, PKR webmaster and aide to Anwar Ibrahim, Nathaniel Tan to send a clear message that his administration and the police under his watch respect human rights, one of the three core functions delineated by the Royal Police Commission in its Report and 125 recommendations to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service.
Police abuses of power were manifest when they first let it be known that Tan was arrested in connection with the doctored photograph purportedly showing Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak with his confidante Razak Baginda and the murdered Mongolian woman Altantunya Shaariibuu.
Then there was talk about action against Tan under the Penal Code before the Official Secrets Act (OSA) was trotted out as the reason for Tan’s continued remand.
And most incredible of all, the subject of the OSA action was the anonymous website on the RM5.5 million corruption allegations against Deputy Internal Security Minister, Datuk Seri Johari Baharum.
It is not only Johari who would want to know the identity of the person or persons responsible for the anonymous website which posted the corruption allegations against Johari — and there are allegations that the anonymous website could originate from within the police itself. Read the rest of this entry »
Crime and fear of crime worse than before Royal Police Commission period
Posted by Kit in Parliament, Police on Monday, 16 July 2007
Two common threads of the three public hearings of the Parliamentary Caucus on Human Rights and Good Governance on “Fight Rising Crime” held in Johor Baru the previous Sunday, Petaling Jaya on Wednesday and Bukit Mertajam yesterday are:
- Drastic shortfall in the two major objectives of effective policing, firstly, to prevent, reduce and detect crime; and secondly, to provide safety and security for law-abiding citizens and their families.
- Worsening crime situation and a palpable fear of crime which have gripped Malaysians in the hot spots of crime in the country, like Johor Baru, Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Klang, Penang and Ipoh even worse than before the establishment of the Royal Police Commission 42 months ago.
The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassa and the top police leadership must explain why crime and the fear of crime situation are worse than pre-Royal Police Commission period before 2004 although police pay rise has increased up to 42%?
That the crime situation gotten worse rather than better is illustrated by the latest batch of crime statistics given by Musa on Saturday, where he announced that the crime index in the country had shot up by 5.11 per cent in the first six months of this year as compared to the same period last year. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s Politics Without Mercy
Posted by Kit in Farish Noor, nation building on Monday, 16 July 2007
One of the paradoxes of politics in developing countries is how uneven that development can be at times: From Latin America to the Far East, the political culture of many a developing country betrays all the signs and symbols of a stunted politics arrested by the competing demands of modernity, feudalism and primordial values that pre-date the modern era.
Witness the development of the cult of leadership in so many countries, from North Korea to Libya and Iraq during the time of Saddam, where every bare space was utilised to promote and project the image of the ‘great leader’, said to be loved by millions. North Korea remains at the top of the league when it comes to the culture of leader-worship, where even the bad haircut of their leader-for-life has been passed down as an iconic image of the unreconstructed Cold War era.
Among the developing countries of the world, Malaysia ranks highly in the eyes of many. So high, in fact, that during his recent visit to Malaysia former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan waxed eloquent about the virtues of this modern majority-Muslim state, commending the government for its record in development and praising the ‘moderate’ Islamisation programme of the current Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Many keen observers of Malaysian politics, however, were taken askance by the comments of the former Sec-Gen of the UN. While it cannot be denied that Malaysia looks outwardly as a prosperous nation with a booming economy, close observation of what has been happening there for the past few years would throw some of Kofi Annnan’s praises into doubt. Read the rest of this entry »
Brickendonbury the answer to end the slaughter of Malaysian football?
“Another bashing” (Sunday Star) and “ANOTHER HUMILIATION” (New Sunday Times) — screaming headlines for Malaysia’s 5-0 thrashing by Uzbekistan in the Asian Cup Group C match yesterday after the earlier 1-5 thrashing by China.
But is Brickendonbury the answer to end the slaughter of Malaysian football — with the national Under-15 football squad leaving for London tonight, according to the following Bernama report yesterday: Read the rest of this entry »
IGP – Admit “fear of crime” as a new threat which police must target to wipe out in battle against crime
Posted by Kit in Parliament, Police on Sunday, 15 July 2007
One common thread of the three public hearings of the Parliamentary Caucus on Human Rights and Good Governance on “Fight Rising Crime” held in Johor Baru last Sunday, Petaling Jaya on Wednesday and Bukit Mertajam this morning is the palpable fear of crime which have gripped Malaysians in the hot spots of crime in the country.
Fifteen years ago, there was crime but “the fear of crime” had not surfaced in the country.
Today, in Johor Baru, Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Klang, Penang, Ipoh, the “fear of crime” have come into the lives of Malaysians making them ever fearful about their own safety and those of their loved ones in the streets, public places and even when at home, gravely degrading the quality of life of Malaysians.
Up to now, the Police have only admitted to the problem of crime but not the “fear of crime” haunting and hounding the lives of Malaysians in the hot-spots of crime. If the police is not even prepared to admit that “the fear of crime” is as real and big as the problem of crime in the hot spots of crime in the country — inter-related but separate problems – how can the police successfully reduce and wipe out the “fear of crime”?
As a first step to effectively fight crime and the fear of crime, the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan should openly admit that the “fear of crime” is a new threat which the police must target to wipe out in the battle against crime, with regular monitoring of the success of police performance on two separate measures – to reduce crime and the fear of crime. Read the rest of this entry »
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 »
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 »
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