Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman should give an assurance that the government would stop waste of public funds which end up in greater national embarrassments like the “strangest” cloak-and-dagger Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) seminar “Governance and Rule of Law in Malaysia” featuring the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in Washington yesterday.
I agree with the former United States Ambassador to Malaysia John R Mallot who had described the seminar as the “strangest” he had attended in Washington DC. The reasons for such an appellation would include:
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Seminar Panellists – Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail and former Chief Justice and now head of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisory panel Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad who were billed to appear with Minister in Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz never showed up. Nazri told the seminar he did not know where the two were in Washington.
The presence of the Abdul Gani and Hamid would have reinforced criticisms of the lack of progress in judicial and institutional reforms to restore international confidence in the independence and integrity of key national institutions. This is why I had publicly gone on record to criticize Abdul Gani’s participation at the CSIS seminar as his first duty is to carry out the duties of the Attorney-General independently and professionally to ensure national and international confidence in the administration of justice rather than to join in government’s international roadshows to win foreign hearts and minds that there is the just rule of law and a truly independent judiciary in Malaysia.
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Seminar pronounced “off the record” – The last-minute conversion of the CSIS seminar into an “off-the-record” session gave it a cloak-and-dagger character that what Nazri said in his speech and Q & A cannot stand public and international scrutiny. Mallot said that it was “unusual” for the session to be off-the-record, which is “very rare for a Washington think-tank”.
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The two hour seminar was cut short by one-third of the time – starting 10 minutes late and ending 30 minutes earlier.
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Dismal crowd – one account put it as about 40 people.
Has the Malaysian government achieved its purpose in the CSIS seminar in convincing Washington opinion about the justice, propriety and justification for the Anwar Ibrahim Sodomy2 prosecution and persecution?
From all accounts, the answer must be an unequivocal “No”. The “strangest” cloak-and-dagger CSIS seminar in Washington is not coup for the new Malaysian Ambassador to Washington, Jamaluddin Jarjis but a major blot in his record book.
The Najib government should learn from the embarrassment and ignominy of the “strangest” cloak-and-dagger CSIS seminar in Washington yesterday – that the only way for Malaysia to escape the international opprobrium and condemnation for the Anwar Sodomy2 trial is to drop the charges against the Parliamentary Opposition Leader and Prime Minister-in-waiting Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
#1 by k1980 on Thursday, 25 February 2010 - 8:12 pm
The last-minute conversion of the CSIS seminar into an “off-the-record” session
Will Anwar’s trial also be converted into an “off-the-record” one?
Altan’s, Kugan and TBH’s deaths also onverted into an “off-the-record” deaths?
#2 by yhsiew on Thursday, 25 February 2010 - 8:41 pm
If the government has failed to convince its own people that Anwar is guilty of Sodomy, then it should not take the case to Washington because the chances of getting outsiders (non-Malaysians) to believe the accusation will be nil.
If I were John R Mallot, I would have asked the Malaysian government, “Why do you want the Americans to believe the accusation since even your own people do not believe it?”
#3 by yhsiew on Thursday, 25 February 2010 - 9:01 pm
Here is a scene at the CSIS seminar:
http://media1.malaysiakini.com/242/678514ef7978838f22a8853553b593d8.gif
#4 by yhsiew on Thursday, 25 February 2010 - 9:44 pm
John R Mallot said he and his government would not be convinced that Sodomy II trial is a fair trial as the prosecutor side has refused to submit evidence to the defendant side although the law in Malaysia requires the evidence to be submitted to the defendant side. He said he wanted to ask Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail several questions. However, the latter did not turn up.
#5 by lopez on Thursday, 25 February 2010 - 10:08 pm
this is in their blood, all this while ….the notion that “nobody knows where bolihland is” cannot comes to rest.
ever since one ni kam poo, started phrasing that notion…all thick skin clowns jumps into the band wagon…and perhaps have their names in history.
It doesnt matter.. even it is bad publicity or image as long as they can do their part to show where is bolihland.
Anyway…the trip will be excuse to take a trip over the seas…hey these days …it is tough to get an excuse for free trip .
it is just one SICK matter to another SICK matter…just hope it will SICK enough to retire them once and for all…..see you GE
#6 by undertaker888 on Thursday, 25 February 2010 - 10:43 pm
these three stooges know they are all crooks. umno crooks. they do not dare to face the onslaught of questions awaiting them. that’s why these patahi and hamid got cold feet. they tuck tail and run, while nazri declared off-the-records.
bully the rakyat they dare lah. when at international level, they all become pussycats. all highest order hypocrites.
they know, they know what they are doing are wrong in this country. but due to their love for money are willing to sacrifice the sanctity of this country for cash. now they tuck tail and hide in washington.
pari@h dogs.
#7 by esstelle on Thursday, 25 February 2010 - 11:04 pm
Tun Abdul Hamid came by after Nazri had left. He sat at the panelists’ table during the 10 minutes talk by the MACC Chief.
#8 by johnnypok on Thursday, 25 February 2010 - 11:39 pm
“Kala-bulu”
#9 by c730427 on Thursday, 25 February 2010 - 11:54 pm
MALAYSIA-BOLEH!! (umno Version)
#10 by gofortruth on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 12:13 am
This disgraceful UMNO gomen BULLY the rakyat; BULLDOZE the opposition and now try to BULLSHIT on Obama’s head.
#11 by singa pura pura on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 12:21 am
What? An UMNO seminar in DC on ‘Governance and Rule of Law in Malaysia’. Waste not your time, our time and our money. Let us give you a chronicle which you can deliver at the next seminar if you choose to go out again against our advice. We trust your participants will identify better with this piece.
“Many say, the evils that yet fester on this Land today, could be traced back to that abomination that clasped its deadly terrors around the heart of the country some three decades ago. The hour of the Beast had come. It was said, no living man could ever harm it, nor would the Gods ever touch it; the Creature must pass from life to death, from this Land to the infernal world, on its own. In the aftermath of its deadly grasp and the anarchy that was unleashed upon the Land and its people, each independent institution and arm of government was mutilated and enslaved. One by one, they were brought down to their weeping knees, shivering and naked before the throne of the Beast. A darkness dropped over the Land, and a tide of blood and pus washed through its every pore, from shore to shore. Every free man and woman was shackled by the neck and branded on their bosom with an ambigram that read ‘M’ no matter what the angle at which it was looked upon. An iron-winged vulture stood on every watchtower of the Land and no man or woman dared to even chance a fleeting glance at them. These were indeed vile creatures of carnage. The Beast was the Supreme Lord of the Land and it was worshipped by its army of diabolists. All the Knights of the Land who rallied against the Beast were defeated in battle; maimed, devoured. One particular Knight of great mettle was captured, skinned and crucified upside down, but the Angel of Heaven was merciful upon him. The spinous scar of the ambigram upon his chest was healed and replaced with his true insignia. It now reads ‘Good Lion’. The other Knights of great courage were weeded out and herded into secret torture chambers. Most of them were never seen again. A handful did emerge from those dungeons of torment but it was said that their skin was no longer attached to their bodies. Thence, their every bone, sinew and flesh belonged to the beast, and they did his bidding with mindless obedience. It is they and their new generation of younglings that continue to terrorise the Land and its people. The last flicker of hope in the hearts of men was almost extinguished, when in a moment of impossible courage, one fallen Knight moved a finger. He had been left for dead. The chief canidae of the Beast had crushed his bones and thrown him into the metal-clad dungeons of death in the realm of Bambuseae River.”
The saga continues.
#12 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 1:34 am
How much did the Malaysian government pay CSIS to organise semianr for 40 pax?
USD40,000 or USD400,000? So how much did it work out per pax?
How much did it cost the government to bring the entire circus to US – JJ, Nazri, Hamid, Patail?
Total sunk cost equal to ?????
What a stupid way to throw away good money in some silly sinkhole! Is this part of Najib’s People First Performance Now program? Yikes!
#13 by monsterball on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 2:48 am
Non stop condemnation for Sodomy2 and obviously an unfair trial…all said in details by local and foreign professionals…all fell into deaf ears of UMNO BARU ministers.
All must condemn Anwar to avoid defeat and go to jail..with the country governed by PR.
That’s the real truth.
The repeat of a kangaroo court trial shows how desperate UMNO BARU is to put Anwar in jail…away from 13th GE.
This sickening political trial does not seem to shame any UMNO ministers.
Worst of all…MCA..Gerakan….MIC..have proven what low class stooges they are…all mute and silent..no comments…no defending an innocent man…and treat Anwar like a terrorist..a sworn enemy…when millions of Malaysians supports Anwar as a true harmless..unselfish Malaysian.
How bunkum and nonsense is “1Malaysia”.
#14 by boh-liao on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 4:02 am
Based on d accounts, d UmnoB-led gomen did not dispel (but rather confirmed) d general belief dat M’sia has d most appropriate international country code of MAL (= malaise, malfunction, malas, etc)
#15 by chengho on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 8:41 am
“that the only way for Malaysia to escape the international opprobrium and condemnation for the Anwar Sodomy2 trial is to drop the charges against the Parliamentary Opposition Leader and Prime Minister-in-waiting Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim ”
Kit-u should take over Anwar position in the parliment , why not? and appoint Monsterball as your PA , i don’t think so , Guan Eng may not agree..
#16 by Bigjoe on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 8:42 am
Yes its a waste of money but that is not really what we should worry about. What we should worry about is that we expected it and it still happened.
In other words, we rakyat already had and have an expectation that these things could and will happen, we hope the govt realise its foolish to even try and we are both unable and unwilling to be as cynical as they are. In short we indulge our officials AND they in turn do not appreciate it.
In other words, both the UMNO/BN are at a crossroads and so are we. Its already proven that they have not changed even after Najib took over and remember it was suppose to start changing under Badawi. Look down the chain of command of UMNO/BN and its not going to change.
So either we the rakyat have to change or we wait for the world to force change on both UMNO/BN and us. Are we really that pathetic? No. Look at Khalid Ibrahim, Zaid Ibrahim, Khalid Samad, even Anwar Ibrahim, Nik Aziz, even Mustapha Ali, Hadi Awang etc. – they have come so far already. Yes the degree of change is so radical that these leaders have done so much already and we should not expect them to make the incredible entreprenurial leap to change the rest particularly groups like Perkasa.
But the fact of the matter is we don’t need to change the rest of the people or Perkasa. We need to make the likes of JJ, Nazri, Muhiyiddin and Perkasa fail. Its time to go negative on them. They are way too confident of themselves and not very good. This seminar is an example. What were they even expecting to happen? And if you ask me, no one is in charge. All feudal behaviours that are repeated every day all over the UMNO/BN organisation.
Deprive the feudal system resources and get them to act who they are and the whole system will fall..
#17 by Black Arrow on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 9:35 am
1Malaysia is just empty talk. These three stooges are all part of Stupidity, Inc.
On an off-topic, PM just said Malaysian economy is going to do very well this year. More bull as usual.
#18 by Comrade on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 9:45 am
What a failure!
A waste of time and money
More like a holiday adventure
For those on the planned journey
#19 by Godfather on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 10:15 am
Gani Patail (if he had actually shown up):
“Our system provides for checks and balances. The defence is always given the benefit of the doubt, like all democratic systems. Nobody is immune from the law, not even the prime minister. If he is a material witness, then there will be no objections to him being subpoenaed to testify. We also have a system of discovery, just like yours. Whatever evidence we say we have, the defence has the right to that evidence.”
“Our judges are impartial. They go according to the law, the constitution. They will not be coerced by anyone, including the government of the day. Our federal court composes of the most experienced legal minds in the country, all selected on merit, and subject to intense scrutiny by the prime minister himself.”
JJ, Nazri, Zahrain all stood up to give Gani a standing ovation. The rest wondered which planet these UMNO people all came from.
#20 by undertaker888 on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 11:55 am
we should appoint chengho as b@ll licker. So one day maybe we will have a trial on najib mensaifulkan chengho’s a$$.
#21 by limkamput on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 12:19 pm
For whatever that was achieved, frankly no one cares. At least many of these got a free holiday in DC within lots of generous allowances thrown in.
#22 by limkamput on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 12:19 pm
sorry repost: For whatever that was achieved, frankly no one cares. At least many of these got a free holiday in DC with lots of generous allowances thrown in.
#23 by ringthetill on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 2:35 pm
Disgraceful! They can only be ‘jaguh kampung’ (small time, village champions). Back home they behave like big bullies.
#24 by ReformMalaysia on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 7:04 pm
…..“Governance and Rule of Law in Malaysia” featuring the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in Washington ///!!!…
That is the very same the Nazri who prescribed someone from another religious faith -that you can call your god ‘Ali” in East Malaysia and the same god should be called “Ahmad” when you are in West Malaysia !
What can be expected from him? Syed Hamid Alba is in the same league with him – where he ordered a journalist detained under Internal Security Act without trial ‘for her own security’ when he was the Home Minister under former PM Abdullah Badawi……
#25 by ReformMalaysia on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 7:26 pm
And Seminar Panellists – Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail a- billed to appear with Minister in Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz never showed up.???
Perhaps he his avoiding the seminar attendees and foreign medias from asing him why a double-standard being practiced by him(the Attorny General in Al-Islam Case where –
two Al Islam journalist has written that the had sneaked into a Catholic church in Ipoh last year and participated in the Holy Communion, by pretending to be Catholics.
After Mass, the two claimed they spat out the bread, which is an act of desecration, which is an act of desecration.
Their act is an offence under Section 298A (1) of the Penal Code for causing disharmony, disunity or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion.
However despite of having a proof beyond reasonable doubts, the Attorney-General’s Chambers has told the police that no further action will be taken against the two journalists.
So a selective prosecution has being practised by AG..
How can we ensure a justice when the rule of law is not applicable to everyone in the country?
The act of selective prosecution has send a wrong signal to certain people that there are ‘above the law’ if they meet the ‘certain criteria’ and being a friend of ruling party -UMNO?
#26 by lopez on Friday, 26 February 2010 - 8:55 pm
save our money, dont waste on clowns who just want cheap publicity.
USe the same money to repair our school system.
Pay the whole MOE out and go back to basics….start with ABC…..oops i must be out of my mind,,,dont blame me , my school system did not teach me collectly.
#27 by OmegaMan on Sunday, 28 February 2010 - 1:30 pm
They know that world opinion and Malaysians in general are dead against the wrongful persecution and prosecution of DSAI and their sinister attempts to create mayhem on the religious and race issues just did not work according to plan. They had insulted the intellegence of the people and took us for granted for far too long. To show them our disdain, contempt and disgust can be viewed throughout the alternative media by our completely negative and hard hitting comments.
What do you think they will attempt next, huh?