Archive for April 19th, 2008

5 DAP MPs did not submit a single question for Parliament – apologies

Posted by Kit in DAP, Parliament on Saturday, 19 April 2008

I was taken aback when Chong Zemin put up the post that a blog had disclosed that there are 29 MPs who did not submit a question for the coming parliamentary meeting starting at the end of the month, and that five of them are from DAP.
The five DAP MPs cited are:

• Charles Anthony Santiago – Klang

• Er Teck Hwa – Bakri

• Hiew King Cheu – Kota Kinabalu

• John Fernandez – Seremban

• Dr. P. Ramasamy – Batu Kawan

I have checked with the five DAP MPs and they have confirmed the mistake of missing the deadline for the submission of questions, i.e. April 8, 2008, for the month-long inaugural meeting of the 12th Parliament starting on April 28 – although they would still be able to take part in the supplementary question stage of the daily 90-minute question time.

The Party had reminded DAP MPs not to miss the deadline for questions and lose the opportunity to pose questions in the first meeting of Parliament (an important aspect of the work of Opposition parliamentarians) but mistakes are still being made.

Work pressures as new elected representatives, lack of experience with parliamentary standing orders and breakdown of communications have contributed to the five DAP MPs not fielding a single question for the first meeting of the 12th Parliament.

These are not acceptable excuses as voters in the March 8 “political tsunami” have high expectations of DAP MPs and they have the right to expect the new batch of Opposition MPs to live up to a higher benchmark of parliamentary performance and to subject them to scrutiny. Read the rest of this entry »

186 Comments

Goodwill ex gratia payments to Anwar, Guan Eng, Syed Ahmad Idid and Operation Lalang ISA detainees?

Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Judiciary on Saturday, 19 April 2008

(Speech at the DAP Teluk Intan Public Ceramah/Consultation with DAP MPs, State Excos and State Assembly members at Teluk Intan Municipal Hall on Friday, 18th April 2008 at 9 pm)

When the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi announced on Thursday night the payment of unspecified “goodwill ex gratia payments” to the six wronged judges in the 1988 judicial crisis, Tun Salleh Abas, Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin, Tan Sri Wan Hamzah Mohamed Salleh, Datuk George Seah and the late Tan Sri Eusoffe Abdoolcader and Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Pawanteh, he skirted the “rights and wrongs” and the “legality and morality” of the Mother of Judicial Crisis which plunged the country into two decades of judicial darkness.

The victims of the 1988 Mother of Judicial Crisis and the ensuing two decades of judicial darkness, with three of the four chief justices during the period, Tun Hamid Omar, Tun Eusoffe Chin and Tun Ahmad Fairuz compounding the travesties of justice by the judicial system, were not just the six wronged judges in 1988 but also included innocent, high-minded, idealistic and patriotic Malaysians who want the best for the country. In fact, a whole generation of Malaysians were victims of the 20 years of judicial darkness!

Will the Prime Minister extend goodwill ex gratia payments to the other victims of the two decades of judicial darkness like former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and former High Court judge Datuk Syed Ahmad Idid Syed Abdullah Idid (the first whistleblower from the judiciary with his 112 allegations of corruption, abuses of power and misconduct against 12 judges in 1996) as well as to the 106 Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees in the 1987 Operation Lalang? Read the rest of this entry »

62 Comments