Archive for December 1st, 2008

Muhyiddin’s ultimatum to Zaid – rise of exclusive, intolerant and petty-mindedness in Umno leadership

Posted by Kit in nation building on Monday, 1 December 2008

I am surprised by the outburst of the Umno vice president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in Kota Kinabalu yesterday, excoriating former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, for attending an opposition function, accusing Zaid of “disloyalty to Umno” and demanding an explanation from Zaid or to face disciplinary reprisals!

I am very disappointed because Muhyiddin is the Minister for International Trade and Industry as well as the favourite in the contest for Umno Deputy President and therefore Deputy Prime Minister-designate next March – and should be an example of inclusive thinking and greater openness and tolerance instead of being very exclusive, intolerant and petty-minded in a country we want to market to the world as Instant Asia!

It is a major setback for the Bangsa Malaysia concept as it illustrates the sad fact that exclusive, intolerant and petty-mindedness have displaced inclusive thinking and greater openness and tolerance in the mind-set of Umno leaders 51 years after Merdeka!

Is “loyalty to Umno” so brittle and fragile that it must be invoked against any Umno member for attending an opposition function?

I attended the official opening of the new Umno Building at Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur in the eighties. Was my “loyalty to DAP” ever in doubt for attending an Umno function? Read the rest of this entry »

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Still no PAC report on Eurocopter inquiry – will Azmi emulate Indian Home Minister and resign?

Posted by Kit in Corruption, Defence on Monday, 1 December 2008

On November 11, Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid had promised that the PAC report on its inquiry into the RM1.6 billion Eurocopter deal would be tabled in Parliament “in two or three days”.

How can Azmi’s interpretation of “two or three days” be so elastic as to stretch to three weeks, and there are still no signs of the PAC report on its inquiry into the Eurocopter deal although it is now close to 50 days since Azmi first made the public announcement that the PAC would investigate into three scandals which had shook Parliament and the country – the Eurocopter helicopter, Bank International Indonesia (BII) and the high speed broadband (HSBB) deals?

I had intended to table a motion to debate the PAC report on its inquiry into the Eurocopter deal with Parliament having to make the final decision whether to accept or reject the PAC report and recommendations, but this PAC report must be tabled in Parliament latest by Wednesday, 3rd December 2008 so that I could give the necessary 14-day notice required for a motion to be debated on the last parliamentary sitting of the current budget meeting on December 18.

It is useless for Azmi to table the PAC report on the Eurocopter inquiry after December 3 because it would not be possible for MPs to give the requisite notice to debate it as a specific motion. Read the rest of this entry »

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