We are law-abiding patriots
Posted by Kit in nation building on Monday, 20 August 2007, 2:33 pm
by Dr. Chen Man Hin
Malaysians have proven to be patriotic since merdeka in 1957, and are now asking that the Constituion be respected and honoured.
On Saturday, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in a speech to the 2007 Youth Patriotism Congress at PutraJaya, called on the people to be patriotic and warned not to play with fire when speaking on sensitive issues.
It can be said that at least half the populatioon are born on and after Merdeka. they form the active adults who have demonstrated loyalty to the country by being law-abiding citizens.
They are questioning why they should be discriminated since Merdeka. Now at the 50th merdeka anniversary they are asking to be treated equally as citizens of the country in accordance with the Constitution. Read the rest of this entry »
Negarakuku rap — end the persecution mania and listen attentively to the legitimate grievances sung by Wee
Posted by Kit in nation building on Monday, 20 August 2007, 2:02 pm
When Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister 45 months ago, he invited Malaysians to speak up and pledged to “hear the truth, however unpleasant”, from the people.
Wee had acted on Abdullah’s invitation and spoken up about the injustices and wrongs in Malaysia 50 years after Merdeka so that the country could be improved to become a better nation capable of competing with the rest of the world.
Instead of a “thank you” from the Prime Minister, Wee is now the target of a sledgehammer attack by the entire government machinery led by a cohort of Umno Cabinet Ministers orchestrating a campaign to demonise, criminalize and crush him.
The very spectacle of the entire state machinery led by Cabinet Ministers to crush a 24-year-old undergraduate for his rap on internet conjures an image of shame for Malaysia on the occasion of the 50th Merdeka anniversary, both nationally and internationally.
Is the campaign to demonise, criminalize and crush Wee, with irrational, excessive and outrageous demands of prosecutions under the National Anthem Act, the Sedition Act and even the Internal Security Act, the stripping of citizenship, the cancellation of passport and extradition of Wee from Taiwan to Malaysia, the signal of the end of another one of Abdullah’s reform pledges when becoming Prime Minister 45 months ago — to “hear the truth” from the people?
As I informed the Malaysian Dialogue in Petaling Jaya yesterday afternoon, Wee can be faulted for his rough language, irreverent expression and lack of sensitivity when touching on religious matters, but he cannot be accused of being unpatriotic, disloyal or guilty of the capital crime of treason or sedition.
Wee had done what very few Malaysians had done, taking the national flag Jalur Gemilang with him when he went overseas to study, and waving the national flag when his multi-national university sports team won a game, showing his pride and love for the nation.
Which Umno Minister or leader demanding for a pound of flesh from Wee for his Negarakuku rap had such love and pride for the country as to take the national flag with him or her when going overseas? Read the rest of this entry »
Caliphate Anyone?
Posted by Kit in Farish Noor, Religion on Monday, 20 August 2007, 8:04 am
By Farish A Noor
Communities have their own ways of dealing with crises of all kinds: structural, institutional, functional or cultural. But what is even more interesting is to see how each community, or sections within each community, deals with such crises and the antidotes that are offered as the panacea for all that is wrong in the world.
In such a depoliticised world bereft of ideologies that are taken seriously and political vocabularies that work, the trend seems to be to offer culturalist solutions to problems that are fundamentally structural-economical. Hence the return to the politics of authenticity and nostalgia that we see all around us lately: As the ravaging effects of globalisation make themselves felt and seen around us, so many communities seem to have retreated to the protective blanket of cultural essentialism, falling back on unreconstructed myths of the past or equally vacuous notions of collective purpose that often deny the contingencies of individualism and personal agency.
In the Indian subcontinent the reaction of the Hindu right was to show two fingers to globalisation via recourse to a politics of nostalgia couched in terms of a politicised myth of Indian greatness and uniqueness. In the Far East the discourse of ‘Asian values’ was the foil used to fend off calls for democratisation, transparency and reform. Why, even in the West the fall-back position of claiming a singularly unique Western civilisational origin seemed the immediate refuge for those who could not cope with the
provincialisation of Europe in an increasingly plural and cosmopolitan world where movement of capital and ideas was becoming commonplace.
What of Islam and the Muslim world? Well the answer to that was given a week ago in Indonesia where a massive rally was held in the stadium of Jakarta, organised by none other than the Hizb’ut Tahrir (HT) movement of Indonesia who had invited their fellow HT activists from all over the planet, to re-affirm their determination to overturn the dominant paradigm of the modern nation state, wage war against the evils of Secularism and democracy, and to restore the fabled Caliphate as the sole and primary political agent on the Muslim landscape. Read the rest of this entry »
MCA and UMNO — From “brothers” in Alliance to “master and slave” in Barisan Nasional in five decades?
Posted by Kit in Constitution, nation building, Politics on Sunday, 19 August 2007, 9:06 am
The Chinese night editions this evening, front and inside pages, are dominated by news of the MCA Youth annual general assembly in Malacca this morning with the cover photograph of the entire MCA Youth Central Committee members on stage standing up to wave copies of the Malaysian Constitution when the MCA Youth leader Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said that instead of brandishing the keris to make a point, it is better to wave the Federal Constitution.
In blaring headlines, the newspapers quoted the eight words of “ren bu fan wo, wo bu fan ren” in relation to Liow ‘s speech when he said: “We in MCA and MCA Youth won’t be easily bullied by others, ren bu fan wo, wo bu fan ren; ren ruo fan wo, wo bi fan ren. In the BN family, we are brothers, there is no master and slave, there is no question of who is being scared of who or whom should kowtow to whom,”
The Chinese saying is a warning of retaliation when one is offended.
But the high-point of the whole proceeding was that the Umno Youth deputy leader, Khairy Jamaluddin, who attended the MCA Youth annual general assembly instead of the youth leader, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, did not understand a single word of Liow’s fierce speech and warning as this part of the MCA Youth leader’s speech was completely omitted in his Bahasa Malaysia delivery.
This immediately raises the question whether the whole proceeding was just a “sandiwara” for the Chinese media and Chinese audience.
Liow made a good point that instead of brandishing the Malay keris, one should wave the Federal Constitution to defend and uphold one’s fundamental rights as entrenched in the Constitution, the Merdeka social contract and the Malaysia Agreement which brought Sabah and Sarawak into the federation.
But the place to wave the Federal Constitution is not at the MCA Youth Assembly with the Umno Youth deputy leader not understanding what all the “show” was all about, but in the Cabinet and Parliament and at a time when fundamental nation-building principles and rights were being unilaterally, arbitrarily and unconstitutionally undermined! Read the rest of this entry »
Kennysia’s free campaign video tip to Jeff Ooi
Thanks Jiun for pointing me to Kenny Sia’s free campaign video tip for Jeff Ooi.
As Jiun said, the blog www.kennysia.com has just put up a post on the recent crackdown on bloggers as well as a youtube video song entitled “jeff Oois campaign video”.
Jiun wrote:
“His (kenny sia) blog has a huge readership among the young of msia, recent net research shows he is among the top 5 bloggers in malaysia, while he has always posted non serious stuff, this is the first time he is posting a political piece
“hope you can spare some time to read the piece and watch the video, i find it hilarious and im sure the young voters of msia love it too”
I agree. Video most hilarious indeed. Very creative, Kenny. No hesitation to commend it to all and sundry. Over to Jeff.
China formula for transformation to a world economic power — Can Malaysia emulate?
Posted by Kit in nation building on Friday, 17 August 2007, 2:30 pm
by Dr. Chen Man Hin
In 1977 when China launched the four modernisations in industry, agriculture, science and technology and military defence by Deng Xiao Peng, China’s GDP (gross domestic product) was only US$253 per person.
In 2006 the GDP per person had risen to about US$2000.
China is now a world economic giant in fourth position after USA, Japan and Germany.
In 2004, the gross domestic product of China was estimated to be US$2 trillion as compared to US$12.5 trillion for USA.
In 2006, its foreign currency reserves was US$1 trillion, most of which are in US bonds. If this was withdrawn, it would trigger a world economic chaos.
World economists predict that China would overtake the USA as the world’s largest economy in 2035 to become the world economic superpower. Read the rest of this entry »
Inept/irresponsible mishandling of Meng Chee Negaraku rap confirms Mahathir’s indictment of “half-past-six Cabinet”
Posted by Kit in nation building on Friday, 17 August 2007, 1:50 pm
The Cabinet’s inept and irresponsible mishandling of undergraduate Wee Meng Chee’s six-minute rap music video on Negaraku in creating a new and major cause of national dissension especially among the young generation of Malaysians on the occasion of the nation’s 50th Merdeka anniversary has vindicated former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s epithet of a “half-past-six Cabinet”.
It has made more and more Malaysians, particularly the young generation, disgusted with the MCA, Gerakan, Umno and other Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders who are unable to differentiate between the important from the less important issues.
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi confirmed that the Cabinet on Wednesday discussed at length (“kita bincang lama” — Utusan Malaysia) Meng Chee’s public apology to the government and Malaysians for his rap video because it was “an important or big issue”. (Sun)
Nobody can fault the Cabinet for discussing Meng Chee’s Negaraku rap video clip, but when Ministers had no time for bigger and more important national issues, Malaysians have a right to demand to know why the country does not have a more dedicated, competent, professional and more patriotic Cabinet!
The country is at present drowned by a plethora of bigger and more important national issues than Meng Chee’s six-minute Negaraku rap video which should have been the focus of the Cabinet attention last Wednesday, such as:
- The failure of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet to make the 50th Merdeka anniversary really meaningful by “walking the talk” in the past 45 months to deliver the pledge of a clean, incorruptible, efficient, accountable, trustworthy, just, open and democratic administration which is prepared to “hear the truth” from the people;
- The RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal, the breach of Abdullah’s pledge of no mega-billion-ringgit bail-outs and the top-most question among Malaysians – why no one had been arrested or brought to book for the biggest financial scandal in the start of any Prime Minister.
- The shocking comment by the nation’s most famous Inspector-General of Police and Deputy Chairman of the Royal Police Commission, Tun Hanif Omar on Sunday that 40 per cent of the senior police officers could be arrested for corruption without further investigations based “strictly on their lifestyles” and the total lack of action by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) in the past 27 months to arrest a single one of the 1,400 out of the 3,502 (i.e. 40 per cent) senior police officers from the rank of Assistant Superintendent to Inspector-General of Police since the publication of the Royal Police Commission Report.
- The unilateral, arbitrary and unconstitutional revision of the Merdeka social contract and Malaysia Agreement on the fundamental nation-building principles agreed by the forefathers of the major communities on the attainment of Independence half-a-century ago.
- Malaysia’s continued omission from the World’s Top 500 Universities ranking for the fifth year in succession in the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2007 just released by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
- The constitutional crisis and impasse with the Prime Minister’s nominee for the post of Chief Judge of Malaya unable to get past two meetings of the Conference of Rulers since the retirement of Tan Sri Siti Normah Yaakob on January 5, 2007, raising the question whether the Conference of Rulers is mere rubber stamp or has important check-and-balance role to ensure good governance.
Did the Cabinet on Wednesday have time for these bigger and more important national issues than Meng Chee’s six-minute rap video, and if so, why there had been no proper public accounting of the Cabinet decisions? Read the rest of this entry »
Scarf Issue in IIUM
Posted by Kit in Education, nation building on Thursday, 16 August 2007, 4:06 pm
An email from G on the perennial problem of dress code for non-Muslim graduates for the International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) convocation:
With reference to the above subject matter, I would like to direct your attention to the following url:
http://www.iiu.edu.my/convo/dress30.php
*particularly on the “Notes”.Ms Fong (Po Kuan) and DAP had fight fiercelessly for non-Muslim females’ rights in IIUM, which resulted to the change of dress code from compulsory wearing of tudung to optional (even though we still need to wear a small bandana). However, this changes does not seem to take effect on the dress code on non-muslim female during the Convocation, as pointed out bluntly in the abovementioned website.
I believe, convocation ceromony is one of the “proudest” moment for every parent. However, for a non-Muslim parent to witness this precious moment while their child is wearing a tudung with a string hint of alien religion, is upsetting and embarassing. So, should they absent from the ceromony as how the University suggest? Or, put down their pride to cheer for the child?
We were brought up in a belief that (at least I worship this), a must for convocation is the “Cap”. Perhaps for a Muslim, wearing a tudung with a funny looking band over it is proud. but for non-Muslim, the Cap is almost everything. To wear it when receiving the roll, throw it to the air after completion of convocation, take family photo wearing the Cap, hanging it in the living room..the Cap signifies a huge and respective
moment!During our 49th Convocation, a top student refused to attend the convocation simply because she opposed strongly for the wearing of tudung. The consequences were for her to give up the some awards. This year, the student who is a named and expected Best Student Award recipient refused to attend the ceromony for the same reason. Read the rest of this entry »
Bukit Gantang carnage – Kong Choy pointing finger of blame at everybody except himself
Posted by Kit in Good Governance, Transport on Thursday, 16 August 2007, 9:06 am
Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy is pointing the finger of blame at everybody for the latest Bukit Gantang road carnage which killed 20 and injured nine except himself — when such horror road fatalities are not supposed to happen after the Kuala Lipis bus crash which claimed 14 lives and injured 26 people 45 months ago.
The Kuala Lipis road carnage happened in the first month of the premiership of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on 31st November 2003 and was the cause of a national hue-and-cry starting from the Prime Minister who demanded action by Chan to ensure that such tragedies do not recur.
Since then, there had not only been the road carnage at Km229 of the North-South Expressway near Bukit Gantang on Monday, but also the Nibong Tebal bus crash in July last year which left 11 dead and 35 injured among those on their way to the St. Anne’s Feast in Bukit Mertajam.
During the nation-wide hullabaloo led by the Transport Minister over the Kuala Lipis road carnage 45 months ago, I had warned the Prime Minister that his administration must learn from the expensive lessons of the past as to why the country had failed to end the road carnage on Malaysian roads which had wrought such great emotional and socio-economic havoc in terms of loss of human lives and economic costs to the community for the past 13 years.
I had expressed fears that “the latest bout of high-profile government and public concern about the high traffic accident rate and fatalities would not be another short-lived but quickly-forgotten “wonder” as had happened many times since 1990. Read the rest of this entry »
50th Merdeka: Now, everyone can be a Bajau!
Posted by Kit in nation building, Sabah on Thursday, 16 August 2007, 1:46 am
by – Product of the System
An Unbooked Pregnancy
A 42-year-old lady presents with strong contraction pains at 3am. Of Filipino descent and speaking no Bahasa Malaysia, she was unable to provide any valuable clinical history pertinent to her current pregnancy.
In addition, she did not seek any antenatal care. A multiparous lady with 12 other children, she gave birth uneventfully but her premature 31-week baby developed breathing complications from his immature lungs.
He was referred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Likas, where he was treated for the next 48 days with costly first-line medications and neonatal supplements. Further investigations revealed congenital syphilis contracted from his mother.
Unable to settle the five-figure hospital bill, the father paid a meagre RM 10.00, vowing to settle the outstanding amount on their next clinic visit.
Seen in the clinic one month later, the couple returned with their child and – brand new Malaysian ICs. Declaring themselves now to be Malaysian Bajaus, they were absolved of all their hospital debts and spirited onto the red carpet of Bumiputeraship.
A Neglected Child
A frail 3-year-old Indonesian boy was admitted for severe dehydration from a two-week history of infective diarrhea.
The second youngest of 14 children, the family lives in a 5m X 8m stilt house built over sea water, aptly known as kampong air. They draw water and electricity from illegal connections made stealthily to the homes of local Sabahans.
Domestic waste and human excrement are disposed off by open sea dumping and drop latrines. On examination, the child was drowsy in hypotensive shock and was severely malnourished.
Over a period of 4 weeks, he was given intensive care and nursed back to health with adequate rehydration and total parenteral nutrition costing RM 1,000 per day.
Upon discharge, the parents swore themselves to be Bajau, flashed newly-minted Mykads and laid claim to the privilege of free healthcare.
From pendatang tanpa izin just a month ago, they’ve become warganegara Islam and are therefore eligible to the broad spectrum of bumiputera privileges under UMNO’s New Economic Policy.
The child went back to the family home, where he nonchalantly resumed his daily routine of waddling barefooted in the filthy mud of kampong air littered with human excrement.
A Jobless Lad
An unemployed 28-year-old man was admitted after a freak road accident. After a heavy alcohol binge, he went on a terror joyride with a friend equally under the influence.
He suffered a grade 3 open fractures of both his right forearm bones with multiple tendon and nerve cuts. He underwent a complicated and costly emergency surgery, the first of many to come.
Over the next two months, he underwent repeated reconstructive procedures — readjustments of metal fixator, wound debridements and skin flaps.
He was seen in the clinic a week after discharge whereby he now professes to be a Bajau. His outstanding hospital bills were consequently declared null and void. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Express Rail Link Sdn. Bhd empowered by law to clamp cars and levy fines?
Posted by Kit in Good Governance on Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 2:42 pm
by Richard Yeoh
This morning, when I parked my car at the KL Sentral aeroport departure kerbside for 3 minutes to drop off someone to take the ERL aerotrain to KLIA, I was confronted by a worker who insisted on clamping my car despite the fact that I was about to move off.
I had to seek the intervention of a supervisor who insisted that ERL SB was entitled to clamp cars stopped at the kerbside. According to him, cars will only be released upon payment of a RM50 fine. In my case, fortunately the supervisor had the sense to use his discretion to release my car, but not without argument. They even had the temertiy to issue me a “summons” which I shall be happy to fax or scan to you.
This action raises various issues:
1. Is ERL authorised by law to take such action? Is the driveway in front of KL Sentral private property under ERL jurisdiction? Is ERL the proprietor of the driveway?
To the best of my knowledge, even the Police, DBKL and MBPJ do not resort to such action unless the vehicle is causing obstruction.
I noticed that even city police usually allow a grace period of 5-10 minutes before cars are summoned for parking offences.
2. How can ERL take such action when there are no clearly-visible warning signs?
3. Is this the way to encourage travellers to use the aero-train to KLIA?
Would appreciate your readers’ views on this.
Wee Meng Chee – will Umno Ministers/leaders now apologise to Malaysians offended by their extremist reactions?
Posted by Kit in nation building on Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 2:16 pm
Wee Meng Chee, 24-year-old undergraduate, has issued an open apology to Malaysians offended by his six-minute Negarakuku video rap, which as of this morning, has been accessed more than 1.5 million times on YouTube sites put up by others as Meng Chee had removed the video clip from his blog several days ago.
Three questions that immediately arise are:
- Will UMNO Ministers and leaders who have persecuted and demonized Meng Chee by making irresponsible, extremist and seditious statements, and even demanding the stripping of Meng Chee’s citizenship, now publicly apologise to all Malaysians offended by them;
- Will Umno Ministers who had been guilty of keris-waving in circumstances and context contemptuous of the legitimate sensitivities and rights of all Malaysians publicly apologise to all Malysians offended by them?
- Will MCA Ministers and leaders publicly apologise for failing to draw attention of the Umno leaders to the expression of patriotism by Meng Chee in articulating the frustrations of the ordinary rakyat at police corruption, civil service bureaucracy, discrimination against Chinese education and the insensitivity of the authorities — which is the reason why his rap video had struck such a deep chord among Malaysians particularly among the young generation?
Merdeka Dialogue: Whither Bangsa Malaysia?
Posted by Kit in Announcement, nation building on Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 6:49 am
50 years ago, we were promised democracy. We were promised justice. We were promised equality. We were promised to be treated with human dignity. We were promised freedom.
In 1963, we became Malaysians and the notion of a Bangsa Malaysia was born. This was given form and substance by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his Vision 2020 that set out 9 challenges for Malaysians to achieve a developed country.
No mention is made of Bangsa Malaysia by the Abdullah administration. Is the concept of Bangsa Malaysia still important or relevant in the light of failed promises in our original social contract?
The DAP is holding a Dialogue in conjuction with the 50th Merdeka Anniversary celebrations this coming weekend.
Date: 19 August 2007 (Sunday)
Time: 2.00pm
Venue: Crystal Crown Hotel, Petaling Jaya
The panel of distinguished speakers include:
*Tunku Abdul Aziz, former President, Transparency International Malaysia
*Datuk Param Cumuraswamy, former Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, United Nations
*Yeo Yang Poh, former Malaysian Bar Council Chairman
*Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition Leader
*Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary-General
Following the session, a dialogue will be conducted with the participants hosted by another distinguished panel (subject to change):
M Manogar, President, Malaysian Tamil Education & Research Foundation
Haris Ibrahim, Human Rights Lawyer
Jeff Ooi, Prominent Malaysian Blogger
Oh Ei-Sun, East Malaysian Socio-Political Analyst
To ensure sufficient seats allocation, please register in advance with Lim Swee Kuan (03) 79578022 or via email at limsweekuan(at)gmail.com.
The Medical Mafia and ‘University Myanmar Sabah’
by LKT
I refer to your letter “University Myanmar Sabah” where the author lists various problems with the administration, staffing and ultimately blames the Dean, albeit prematurely, for the shortcomings of this Medical Faculty.
As long as there is a need for doctors and a concomitant maintenance in the rise of standards or medical technology exists, the evolution or expansion of medical schools here in Malaysia must be encouraged contrary to the opinions of some of your readers that a number of of these facilities ought to be shut down.
Development of local-based medical universities is critical if we are going to keep costs down and maintain standards instead of sending our bright but financially underprivileged children to such institutions based in Indonesia and Russia which did not have the benefit of a British educational input which has helped this country on previous occasions to have word class standards in medical care.
In 1962, when Thumboo John Danaraj was appointed the Foundation Dean to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, he proposed that the Medical Faculty should have its own hospital.
Up to the 1950’s, the Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore, which was known previously as King Edward VII College of Medicine had been the only medical school in Malaya and Singapore. The output of doctors at that time was small: 60 per year forcing many Malaysians to go overseas to seek undergraduate medical education.
Construction of the faculty building began in July 1963 right through March 1967 when the first wards were opened culminating finally in the completion of the Paediatric, Maternity and Rehabilitation Units which became functional in March 1968.
On 5th August 1968, the University Hospital was officially opened by the Agong. University Malaya had a world class Faculty and Hospital. But what of the lecturers?
T.J. Danaraj had no qualms bringing in the best lecturers he could afford and most of these lecturers originated from the Indian subcontinent, some of whom are still with the University. The country had not enough doctors let alone lecturers and in the initial years the University Hospital had to depend on a large expatriate population to help establish this school.
Although the working capital for this Malaysian medical icon came from both the Ministry of Education and Health, trouble was already brewing at the Ministry of Health, known those days and even sometimes today as the “Medical Mafia” which wanted to have the final say in all things medical in this country. They refused initially to recognise housemanship at the UH as part of the 4-year compulsory service until there were widespread protests by UH doctors. Read the rest of this entry »
RM4.6b PKFZ scandal:Why Pak Lah breaking another pledge – no mega bailouts?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Good Governance, Transport on Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 2:12 pm
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has said that he would ask the Transport Minister, Datuk Chan Kong Choy to explain why concerns by Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) addressed to Chan over the progress of the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) were not entertained.
This was his response to the Sun’s front-page report yesterday that Jafza pulled out of the PKFZ deal because of political interference, bureaucracy and breaches of the management agreement signed between Jafza and the Port Klang Authority (PKA).
Jafza executive chairman Sultan Ahmad Sulayem and its senior vice president (international operations) Chuck Heath wrote to Chan on March 11 and May 29 last year respectively but received no replies.
Chan must not only explain his role in the pull-out of Zafza from PKFZ, the Transport Minister must publicly explain and account for the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, now leading to a RM4.6 billion government bail-out of the project when the originally RM1.1 billion PKFZ had started as a “feasible and self-financing” project which would not require a single sen of public funds.
Yesterday, when addressing some 1,200 delegates including ministers, menteris besar and chief ministers attending the National Asset and Facility Management Convention, Abdullah said action should be taken against those in the public sector who were responsible for maintaining public buildings when public buildings fall apart.
Let Abdullah start off this culture of responsibility with the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, and bring to book all public officials, from Cabinet level downwards, who were responsible for the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal — or is this going to be a repeat of a bigger RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Finance Scandal more than 20 years ago of “a heinous crime without criminals”?
If Chan as Transport Minister must bear full responsibility for the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, then an example must be made with his resignation or removal from Cabinet — as otherwise, all the talk about public accountability and responsibility under the Abdullah administration are just hot air without credibility.
In this case of the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, Abdullah himself must explain why he is breaking another pledge when he became Prime Minister of no mega-billion-ringgit bailouts. Read the rest of this entry »
University Myanmar Sabah
Parents of students in the University Malaya Sabah (UMS) Medical School have expressed grave concerns about the quality of lecturers and teaching being provided to the extent that UMS is being referred to as “University Myanmar Sabah” because of the large number of lecturers from Myanmar with questionable qualifications to fill up the acute shortage of lecturers for the Medical School.
This is one complaint that I have received:
Recently, there has been a series of news reports quoting both the Federal Health Minister Datuk Chua Soi Lek and the Director General Datuk Dr Ismail Merican, lamenting over the questionable quality of some of our doctors. (Sin Chew Daily 7.8 2007 p 5 and 10.8.2007)
This is the same concern that many parents of the UMS Medical School students and lecturers now have with the presence of a large number of Myanmar lecturers, whose qualifications are said to be rather questionable.
The following is a recent conversation with a concerned lecturer of the University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Medical School who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Q: Currently, how many lecturers are there in the UMS Medical Faculty, and how many of them are foreigners?
A: There are around 41 lecturers and 2 medical officers. Out of 41 lecturers, there are 19 Burmeses, 4 Indian nationals, 1 Iraqi and 1 Indonesian Chinese. Two medical officers are also Burmeses.
Q: Is it true that some of the lecturers are not qualified or whose qualifications are doubtful and not recognized by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC)? Read the rest of this entry »
ACA – why not even one out of 1,400 senior police officers who could be nabbed for corruption in past three years?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Police on Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 11:41 am
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should table the Sunday Star article of the country’s most famous Inspector-General of Police, Tun Hanif Omar, “The Fence that Eats the Rice” excoriating the underperformance and failures of the three “vital institutions” of the state, the police, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.
In his column, Hanif said he had briefed the Police Royal Commission, of which he was Deputy Chairman, “that police corruption was so extensive that a very senior ACA officer had confided in me and another top retired police officer that 40% of the senior officers could be arrested without further investigations — strictly on the basis of their lifestyles”.
He wrote:
One state police chief had a net worth of RM18mil. My friend and I had watched the force getting deeper and deeper into the morass of corruption.
It was the daily talk and the butt of gibes on the golf courses that embarrassed retired police officers no end; yet even we were stunned by this revelation and its implication. Would the force we had served for so long and which had given us so much experience and such great pride for what we had built it into, be destroyed in the expected ACA action?
I could not help telling the ACA officer that he really had his work cut out for him and that his fight against corruption was the most important fight facing the country but I hoped that he could effectively stamp out this corruption without destroying our PDRM which had done such yeomen service to the nation.
Hanif’s fear that the PDRM would suffer great damage in a campaign to “effectively stamp out corruption” has proved to be completely misplaced, as the culture of impunity for the corrupt among the high and mighty continued to reign supreme and there was not a single one of the 1,400 senior police officers “who could be arrested without further investigation strictly based on the basis of their lifestyles” who had been arrested and prosecuted since the publication of the Royal Police Commission Report in May 2005.
The Royal Police Commission reported that the PDRM had an establishment of 90,256 police personnel in 2004, and there would be a total of 3,502 senior police officers for all ranks above the inspector, viz:
IGP 1
DIG 1
CP 6
DCP 18
SAC I 27
SAC II 56
ACP 148
SUPT 376
DSP 792
ASP 2,077
Total 3,502
If “40% of the senior officers could be arrested without further investigations — strictly on the basis of their lifestyles”, we are talking about a staggering figure of 1,400 out of the 3,502 senior police officers from the rank of Assistant Superintendent to Inspector-General of Police. Read the rest of this entry »
Chan Kong Choy and RM4.6b Port Klang Free Zone scandal – explain, Royal Commission of Inquiry or resign as Transport Minister
Posted by Kit in Good Governance on Monday, 13 August 2007, 5:04 pm
Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy should resign as Transport Minister if he is not prepared to break his four-year silence on the RM4.6 billionh Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal or secure Cabinet approval on Wednesday to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to bare all the facts about the scandal.
Since becoming Transport Minister 2003, Chan had studiously ignored queries about the multi-billion ringgit malpractices and cost overruns at the Port Klang Free Zone, which had ballooned from a RM1.1 billion “self-financing” project which did not require a single sen of public funds to a RM4.6 billion scandal requiring government bail out using taxpayers’ monies.
As the latest Sun expose on the PKFZ scandal revealed today, “red tape, political meddling, inaccurate minutes and attempted tax evasion real reasons Port Klang Free Zone deal collapsed”.
Sun reporter R. Nadeswaran said in his commentary, “Bring PKFZ culprits to book”:
It was then the biggest financial fiasco in the country’s history — the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal of the Eighties which prompted the government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry. The amount involved was less than RM2 billion.
Today, we have on our hands a scandal that would put the BMF affair in the shadows. More than RM4.6 billion has been spent on the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), and behind the massive expenditure is an intrigue of family deals, demands, interference by politicians and government officers with vested interests, attempts at tax evasion, gigantic cost over-runs, unauthorized payments, influence peddling, cloak-and-dagger operations, and above all, a total lack of transparency and accountability and care-a-damn attitude by the key personalities involved.
When Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister, he had promised an end to such scandals of corruption, abuses of power, malpractices and total unaccountability. Read the rest of this entry »
Demonisation of Wee Meng Chee dampening national mood for 50th Merdeka anniversary
Posted by Kit in Corruption, nation building on Monday, 13 August 2007, 1:38 pm
The extreme over-reaction and concentrated attacks by UMNO Ministers and leaders against Wee Meng Chee for the “Negarakuku” rap video-clip should immediately end before further dampening and damaging the national mood for 50th Merdeka anniversary celebrations.
There were many among Chinese-speaking Malaysians, including youths, who did not agree with some of his rough language and irreverent expressions when they saw Meng Chee’s rap for the first time, although his articulation of the ordinary rakyat’s dissatisfactions and frustrations at police corruption, civil service bureaucracy, discrimination against Chinese education and insensitivity of the authorities struck a deep chord and found great resonance.
However, when Meng Chee became the target of a systematic attack of Umno and media demonisation, with one UMNO Minister after another including the Education Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister jumping on the bandwagon to paint as an ogre and “traitor” as if he single-handedly threatens the very fabric, stability and integrity of plural Malaysia, there is full rally of support for Meng Chee for nobody buys the canard that Meng Chee was unpatriotic, disloyal, anti-national, anti-Islam, anti-Malay or was attempting to be seditious to incite hatred and ill-will between the races or religions.
I just did a search on youtube where the Negarakuku rap had been put up by dozens of various people although Meng Chee had removed it on his website. There had been over 1.2 million access on the youtube, with the top two sites registering 768,231 and 164,849 visits respectively.
Is anybody suggesting that the overwhelming majority of the Malaysian visitors of youtube for the Negarakuku rap are unpatriotic and seditious in wanting to incite inter-racial and inter-religious ill-will and hatred in our country?
If so, then there is nothing to celebrate the 50th Merdeka anniversary as the nation would have failed dismally in the five decades of nation-building.
In fact, Meng Chee’s rap was his expression of his patriotism and love for the country, to make it a better country for all Malaysians.
Meng Chee may be faulted for his rough language or irreverent expressions but these cannot be equated with being unpatriotic, disloyal or seditious. Read the rest of this entry »
Hanif’s “pagar makan padi” indictment – 50th Merdeka anniversary only meaningful if IPCMC announced before August 31
Posted by Kit in Corruption, globalisation, Police on Monday, 13 August 2007, 11:01 am
The verdict is now in 27 months after the Royal Police Commission Report in May 2005 to create an incorruptible, efficient, professional and world-class police service to reduce crime, eradicate corruption and respect human rights — a police force which is not only more rotten than before Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister, but with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers equally tarnished for “Harap Pagar, Pagar Makan Padi”!
This harsh judgment was not made by Opposition leaders and NGO critics of government, but by a venerable pillar of the establishment, the former and longest-serving Inspector-General of Police and Deputy Chairman of the Royal Police Commission, Tun Hanif Omar in his Sunday Star column with a title which is an indictment on all the three “vital institutions” — “THE FENCE THAT EATS THE RICE”!
Hanif’s article is even more condemnatory of the rot in the police force than the Royal Police Commission report when everyone should be singing praises for a reformed police after the implementation of the Commission’s 125 recommendations to create an incorruptible, efficient and professional world-class police service.
Instead this is what Hanif wrote yesterday:
I briefed the Royal Commission that police corruption was so extensive that a very senior ACA officer had confided in me and another top retired police officer that 40% of the senior officers could be arrested without further investigations — strictly on the basis of their lifestyles. One state police chief had a net worth of RM18mil. My friend and I had watched the force getting deeper and deeper into the morass of corruption. ..
“I could not help telling the ACA officer that he really had his work cut out for him and that his fight against corruption was the most important fight facing the country but I hoped that he could effectively stamp out this corruption without destroying our PDRM which had done such yeomen service to the nation.
But what has the police to show in the follow-up to the Royal Police Commission Report?
Hanif lamented that although the Police Royal Commission Report was made public two-and-a-quarter years ago, “yet PDRM has still not burnished its image”.
He wrote: Read the rest of this entry »
