Christians say fed up with Najib administration

By
Debra Chong

The Malaysian Insider

March 10, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 — Christians in Malaysia say they are angry and fed-up with the Najib government for what they see as a systematic move to deny their religious rights enshrined in the country’s highest law.

Spurred by the Home Ministry’s latest seizure of 30,000 Malay Bibles that cost US$26,000 (RM78,000) from Kuching port, the churches rallied together and issued a stinging rebuke today against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

They demanded he “prove their (the government) sincerity and integrity in dealing with the Malaysian Christian community on this and all other issues which we have been raising with them since the formation of the Christian Federation of Malaysia in 1985”.

“The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) is greatly disillusioned, fed-up and angered by the repeated detention of Bibles written in our national language, Bahasa Malaysia.

“It is an affront to them that they are being deprived of their sacred scriptures. Many are wondering why their scriptures are considered a threat to national security. All these actions in relation to the detention of the Bibles continue to hurt the Malaysian Christian community,” it said in a statement today signed by its chairman, Bishop Ng Moon Hing.

They demanded the government immediately release all Bibles detained.

The CFM is the umbrella body that represents over 90 per cent of churches in the country.

Malaysian Christians make up close to 10 per cent of the 28 million population; with the biggest numbers based in Sarawak and Sabah, where the main language used by the Bumiputeras in churches is Bahasa Malaysia.

The CFM noted that the federal government has been thwarting all attempts to import Malay Bibles from outside Malaysia since March 2009, “despite repeated appeals which resulted in the prime minister making a decision to release the Alkitab held in Port Klang in December 2009 which was reported to CFM leaders by several Cabinet ministers and their aides.

“This is notwithstanding that the government in its attempt to justify its position against the use of the word ‘Allah’ in the Alkitab, the government had given the assurance that the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia will be freely available, at least in Sabah and Sarawak,” it said.

The Catholic Church had won a landmark judgment on December 31, 2009 that gives it the right to publish the word, but has effectively been barred from doing so pending the government’s appeal.

The group pointed to two separate shipments totalling 15,000 copies that had been seized by Home Ministry officials and left to languish for over a year at Kuching port and Port Klang in Selangor.

CFM said officials at Port Klang have steadfastly refused to release the 5,000 copies imported by the Bible Society of Malaysia (BSM).

“In absolute disregard of this decision, the 5,000 copies of the Alkitab remain detained,” CFM said.

It added that there were other shipments of Bibles and other Christian material before March 2009 that were confiscated by ministry officials that have yet to be returned to their owners.

One such case involves Sarawakian Christian Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, whose personal collection of Christian CDs — bought on a trip to Indonesia — were seized by Malaysian Customs officials at the airport here in May 2008 allegedly for being a threat to national security.

Jill filed to sue the Home Ministry at the High Court here but her case has also been languishing in the courts.

Her lawyer, Annou Xavier, told reporters in Putrajaya that the case was fixed to be mentioned today, but no hearing date was given.

CFM questioned if the government was powerless to act against these “little Napoleons” who substitute their own interests and agenda in place of the prime minister’s directives”.

“We would ask how the government’s transformation programme can be successfully implemented if civil servants can blatantly refuse to obey the prime minister’s order?”

Ng told The Malaysian Insider today that he had personally raised the hold-up of the Bibles with the prime minister during a Christmas open house last year.

“He said he was surprised and told me ‘I need to go back and check but I’ll look into it’,” Ng said, relating his conversation with Najib.

He added that the PM was likely told that the Kuching shipment has been released without knowing anything about the Port Klang shipment.

The Malaysian Insider understands that the first consignment of 10,000 copies detained at Kuching port was released on Christmas last year, after the prime minister stepped in.

Ng said the churches would continue to apply pressure on the Najib administration.

“We will not stop appealing. If we give up, it means the end of our religion,” the head of Malaysia’s Anglican church said.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 10 March 2011, 4:38 pm and is filed under
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Damning Diaspora Data

By
Martin Jalleh

On 4 Oct. last year, PM Najib Razak expressed his concern that the exodus of local talent to developed countries has threatened his vision of transforming Malaysia into a high-income nation by 2020.

Below are some statistics gathered from various sources and highlighted in 2010 to show how serious the brain drain is and the fact that more and more Malaysians are leaving since Najib took over:

785,000 Malaysians are working overseas. Unofficially, the figure is well over 1 million (or even 1.5 million) (Malaysian Employers Federation executive director, Shamsuddin Bardan).

Of those who have left, nearly 40% of them have settled in Singapore; 30% in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries such as Australia, USA, UK, Canada and New Zealand; 20% in other Asean countries and 10% in the rest of the world.

An Australian immigration agency in Perth with offices in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor has reportedly said that the number of Malaysians enquiring about moving to Australia rose by 80% since 2008.

There were only 9,576 Malaysians living abroad in 1960. The number of migrants from Malaysia rose sharply to 1,489,168, a near 150-fold increase over the 45-year period! (World Bank).

The number of Malaysians relocating to Singapore jumped from 120,104 in 1981 to 303,828 in 2000. The number of Malaysian migrants to Australia, meanwhile, shot up to 92,337 in 2007.

140,000 left the country, probably for good, in 2007. Between March 2008 and August 2009, that figure more than doubled to 305,000 (according to a recent parliamentary report).

Companies have complained about the lack of skilled labour in Malaysia and economists have cited this problem as a hindrance in the country’s ability to attract more high-technology industries. About 80% of the country’s workforce have only secondary school education.

Around 350,000 Malaysians, half of which have tertiary education, are working abroad (according to the National Economic Action Council (NEAC) ).

The number of Malaysian researchers, scientists and engineers working overseas exceeds 20,000 with 40% of them in the United States and 10% in Australia.

304,358 Malaysians had migrated from March 2008 till Aug. 2009 compared with 139,696 Malaysians in 2007.

There are around 7,000 plus research scientists, i.e., about 70% of the total in Malaysia, working overseas.

Bird-brained over brain drain

In response to the disturbing diaspora scenario, the government announced in Dec. the setting up of “Talent Corporation” (Talent Corp.) under the 10th Malaysia Plan to attract and retain highly-skilled human capital. Operating under the PM’s Department, it will commence operations in January 2011.

Judging from the statements of the political elite in 2010 and their glaring contradictions of each other, Talent Corp. will eventually meet a fate similar to past attempts such as the ambitious “brain gain” programme of the 8th Malaysia Plan implemented some 10 years ago.

It had a two-pronged strategy: (a) An annual “brain gain” of 5,000 “extraordinary world citizens of extraordinary talent” to “lure the best brains regardless of race or nationality, from Bangalore to California” and (b) Encourage 500 skilled Malaysians overseas every year to return home with their expertise from 2001.

Lim Kit Siang called the ambitious “brain gain” programme an “unmitigated failure” – with Malaysia losing even more talents in the past decade.

Malaysians living abroad have often cited affirmative action policies as hindrances to them returning to their homeland. In response to this Najib said that affirmative action would be made “market-friendly, merit-based, transparent and needs-based” under the New Economic Model.

His deputy Muhyiddin Yassin insisted that the economic plan would protect the Malay agenda. Malay rights groups jumped on the Deputy PM’s bandwagon, Najib backtracked and called the policy a “trial balloon”!

In an article entitled “Treat returnees as real national assets” Khairy Jamaluddin wrote on the “need to offer enough opportunities and scholarships to our top performers all the way through to university and prepare a lucrative and rewarding career path for them so they end up contributing here rather than elsewhere.”

On 16 June 2010, Nazri Aziz was on another wave-length: “Sending overseas students causes brain-drain where some of them won’t want to come back after studying there for a few years. If you keep sending students overseas, when are we going to improve our standards (locally)?”

He also believed that the money saved from the scrapping of the Public Service Department’s (PSD) overseas scholarships will be put to better use in “improving the facilities” of local universities. (Two days earlier, Nazri  had said the government “did not have the “capacity” to finance the studies of the growing pool of bright students in the country”!)

On 24 July 2010, whilst commenting on Talent Corp., respected academician and retired politician Toh Kin Woon said that it may not succeed  because the government has failed to tackle the real causes of the diaspora – “racial discrimination; the lack of an open, democratic space; and declining quality of our country’s education”.

Stripping the government bare of its hypocrisy, Toh said that the “haemorrhage of skills, knowledge and talents” was mainly due to the “continued resort to using race as a tool by power elites at the Federal Government ostensibly to help the Bumiputeras, but whose aim is in fact to nurture cronies. The victims of this race-based policy are the poor and middle class of all ethnic groups.”

The latest government statement on Talent Corp. came from its CEO Johan Mahmood Merican who in an interview with Malaysiakini (2 March 2011) was adamant that its operations “will be based on merit” despite mounting pressure from Malay rights NGOs for the Economic Transformation Programme to cling to policies benefitting bumiputeras.

Will Johan’s assurance turn out to be a big joke one day? Will Talent Corp. be Talent Crap? It is indeed difficult to be optimistic considering the on-going exodus and that very little has changed!

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 10 March 2011, 11:28 am and is filed under
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Dissecting BN’s twin wins in by-election

By
Ong Kian Ming

Malaysiakini

Mar 10, 11

What can we make of the Merlimau and Kerdau by-elections four days after the results were announced? The results were not surprising. Most analysts, including me, had predicted that the BN would win by a bigger majority in both seats.

My prediction of a 4,000-vote majority for the BN in Merlimau was off by 357 votes (3,643 was the eventual majority) and my prediction of a 2,500-vote majority for the BN in Kerdau was off by 224 votes (2,724 was the eventual majority).

As is customary after each by-election, I want to examine the detailed results to find out where I went wrong and where I went right, and then proceed to discuss the implications of the findings.

Merlimau

I begin with Merlimau. I had predicted swings of approximately 6% (Malay), 5% (Chinese) and 45% (Indian) to BN, giving the ruling coalition 74% of the total vote and a 4,000-vote majority.

The eventual share of BN’s vote was 72%, which provided a majority of 3,643 votes. As stated in my prediction piece, because of the relatively even distribution of the non-Malay vote across the seven polling stations in this seat, it is difficult to estimate BN’s share of the vote by ethnic group using data at the polling station or poling stream levels.

Instead, I try to draw conclusions based on the levels and changes in the level of BN support by polling station.

Table 1 shows the levels and changes in the levels of BN support in each of the seven polling stations in Merlimau. It also shows the ethnic composition of each polling station.

A few points are worth noting. Firstly, the polling stations with the largest swings in the level of BN support from 2004 to 2008 are also the polling stations with the largest swings from 2008 to 2011.

These two polling stations – Jasin Lalang and Ladang Merlimau – are also the polling stations with a high percentage of Indian voters – 52.6% and 42.4% respectively.

A polling station which is 50% Indian, a 10% swing in the level of Indian support for the BN will translate into a 5% swing in the total BN support in that polling station.

In a polling station like Jasin Lala, which is 53% Indian, the almost 30% swing in the level of BN support indicates an Indian swing of 50% to 60%, much higher than the 45% I projected in my prediction piece.

The same can be said of Ladang Merlimau, with 40% of Indian voters and a 21% vote swing in BN’s favour.

Little movement among the Chinese

The level of BN support among the Chinese in Merlimau is harder to discern because of the even distribution of Chinese voters across the polling stations.

My best guess, based on the polling stations with more than 15% Chinese and with relatively few Indian voters – Permatang Serai and Pengkalan Samak – and based on Ayer Merbau – the polling station with 31% of Chinese voters, the highest in Merlimau – is that of a small swing back to the BN of 1% to 2%.

The level of BN support among the Chinese in Merlimau is harder to discern because of the even distribution of Chinese voters across the polling stations.

My best guess, based on the polling stations with more than 15% Chinese and with relatively few Indian voters – Permatang Serai and Pengkalan Samak – and based on Ayer Merbau – the polling station with 31% of Chinese voters, the highest in Merlimau – is that of a small swing back to the BN of 1% to 2%.

This is because the increase in BN’s share of the vote in all three polling stations were relatively small. (In fact, one can make the argument that BN’s share of the Chinese vote in Ayer Merbau actually decreased slightly). Certainly, my projection of a 5% swing in the Chinese vote is higher than the actual increase in this by-election.

If the Indian support for BN is estimated to have swung 50% to 60%, and if the Chinese vote swing back to BN was 1% to 2%, we can estimate that the remaining Malay vote swing back to the BN was approximately 3%, half of the 6% I predicted.

An increase in the Malay, Chinese and Indian vote of approximately 3%, 1% and 50% respectively gives us the Malay, Chinese and Indian support levels for BN at 74%, 61% and 82% respectively, delivering slightly over 72% of the popular vote and a vote majority of slightly under 3,700 votes, not far from the actual results.

Kerdau

In Kerdau, BN’s share of popular vote increased to 67.7% from 61% in 2008 and the BN’s majority increased from 1,615 to 2,724.

In an almost 90% Malay-majority seat, an almost 7% increase in BN’s share of the total vote reflects a similar increase in BN’s share of the Malay vote. This is not far off from my estimate of a 6% increase in the share of Malay votes for this seat.

According to Table 2, the increase in BN’s share of the popular vote in the only non-Malay majority polling station – Kerdau – was 13.5%. This increase is consistent with an increase in the Malay (6%), Chinese (10%) and Indian (20%) support for BN in this polling station. The increase in the BN’s share of Chinese support of 10% is higher than my prediction of 5%.

Another interesting point to note is that the percentage of BN support in the three Felda Jengka areas did not shift significantly from 2008.

In fact, BN support actually decreased slightly in Felda Jengka 25 and 22, which is surprising given the supposed commitment offered by BN to solve some of the outstanding Felda issues. Indeed, the increase in BN’s share of the popular vote was far greater in some of the non-Felda Malay majority areas.

Finally, even though the BN’s winning majority of 2,724 votes surpassed its 2004 majority of 2,565, one must take note that BN’s share of the total vote, at 67.7%, is less than the 69.3% it achieved in 2004.

The larger majority is reflective of the increase in the number of voters from 2004 to 2010 of approximately 10%.

Implications

What then are the implications of these two by-elections?

Firstly, the consistent trend of the shift in the Malay vote back to the BN since March 2008 has not changed significantly. The exceptions were the by-elections in Kuala Terengganu and Permatang Pauh. A nationwide swing of approximately 5% in the Malay support for the BN would not be surprising if a general election were to be called now.

Secondly, the swing in the Indian vote back to the BN, which is a more recent phenomenon, continues to pick up steam. Depending on the magnitude of the swing from 2004 to 2008, the expected swing in the Indian support for the BN could be anywhere from 20% to 50%.

Thirdly, the Chinese vote is swinging back to the BN, albeit in small numbers, especially in the semi-rural areas in which the DAP does not have a strong presence.

All these factors lead to the inexorable conclusion that if a general election were to be called now, the BN would probably regain its two-thirds majority, assuming that the status quo remains in Sabah and Sarawak.

But Najib cannot call a snap general election just yet because of uncertainty over the outcomes in Sarawak and because he needs more time to deliver on his economic and political promises, most notably through the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) to ensure that the benefits of these programmes become more tangible on the ground across the different states in Peninsular and East Malaysia.

Sarawak key to Pakatan’s revival

PAS and to a lesser extent, PKR, are currently feeling the pressure to find means to stop the bleeding among the Malay electorate. PAS will inevitably feel the pressure to use Islamic issues, and a non-inclusive manner, to achieve this goal while PKR may find it necessary to dial back some of the rhetoric on replacing the NEP with a more needs based economic policy.

This will inevitably form part of the backdrop of the PAS party elections and I would not be surprised if certain PAS leaders were to push for a more aggressive and explicit policy to promote the ‘Islamic agenda’ within the context of Pakatan.

Pakatan best hope of regaining its lost political momentum lies not in Peninsular Malaysia but in Sarawak, where state elections are anticipated sometime in April or May this year. If somehow, the BN can be denied a two-thirds majority in Sarawak, some of the political pressure within Pakatan to use less inclusive means of campaigning would be lifted.

The focus of the opposition, in many ways, had already shifted to Sarawak prior to these two by-elections. BN’s celebrations too were relatively short lived as the ruling coalition prepares for what will be a very intense and political significant battle in the land of the hornbill.

—-

ONG KIAN MING holds a PhD in political science from Duke University. He is currently pioneering a Master in Public Policy (MPP) programme at UCSI University. He can be reached at
[email protected]
.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 10 March 2011, 6:21 pm and is filed under
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Longing for A Free Mind (Part 1 of 14)

By
M. Bakri Musa

[Presented at the Fifth Annual Alif Ba Ta Conference at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, organized by UMNO Club of New York-New Jersey, January 29, 2011.]

[A nation aspiring for greatness needs leaders with free minds; only they are capable of carving new paths.  The Pak Turut (me too) leaders we have today, content merely to regurgitate what had been programmed in them, will at best only maintain the status quo.  To elect leaders with free minds, citizens too must be free-minded.]

Let me first congratulate Amer Shukri, President of UMNO Club NY-NJ, and Zaid Nabil, President of the Malaysian Students Association here at Stevens, for organizing this Fifth Annual Alif Ba Ta conference.  Despite changes in leadership through graduations and the like that are inherent in organizations like yours, you and your team have demonstrated admirable staying power.  I applaud you, especially the hard work of the organizing committee, and thank you for inviting me again.

            There are other UMNO Clubs much bigger and more established.  At one time the UMNO Club of California counted its members in the hundreds, but the best that they could muster was in organizing gatherings to greet visiting UMNO dignitaries.  Those were occasions less for the exchange of ideas, more for ambitious leader wannabes to ingratiate themselves to senior party members.  So I congratulate you for putting together a substantive program all these years.

            I also applaud you for choosing the bioscience and engineering; you could have chosen an easier path.  Earlier, Dr. Waleed quoted a hadidth to the effect that someone who removes a thorn from a road is serving Allah, for that simple deed would prevent others from injuring their feet, which could lead to infection and possible amputation.

            Take that hadith further.  What if you were to
build
 a road?  Imagine the immense good you would do, or stated differently, how much more pleased Allah would be!  A mother could now bring her sick baby to the hospital faster; that may mean saving a life.  Farmers could bring their produce to market easily and thus improve their livelihoods.  Then consider the remarkable improvement in our health that is so frequently attributed to the miracles of my profession.  In truth it owes more to the marvels of modern civil engineering like central sewer and water treatment plants. Hence my high regards for engineers!

            This year’s theme, “Longing for a Free Mind,” is particularly apt.  I am assuming that you are not here referring to the free mind mapping software, a necessary clarification as I am speaking at a technology institute.

            A nation aspiring for greatness needs leaders with free minds.  We can do without the
Pak Turuts
 (“Yes man”) leaders, content merely with echoing and regurgitating what had been programmed in them, encapsulated in their hallowed phrase,
Saya menunggu arahan!
 (I await directives), or the equally servile
Kami menurut perentah!
 (I follow orders).  We cannot aspire to Vision 2020, much less greatness, with such leadership.  What we need instead are leaders willing and capable of paving new paths.  To elect such leaders we need citizens with free minds.

            A free mind can best be illustrated by this story of Mullah Nasaruddin, famed for his effective use of ordinary and often personal examples as teaching materials.

            He was cursed with having a neighbor who was fond of borrowing items from him and then conveniently forgetting to return them.  One day this neighbor came to the Mullah to borrow his donkey.  The Mullah, anticipating the request, had earlier locked the animal away in the barn and out of sight.  Upon hearing the request, the Mullah confidently replied that his donkey had been taken earlier by his brother.  As the disappointed neighbor turned away, he heard the braying of the donkey.  Whereupon he turned around and remarked, “I thought you said your donkey was gone!”

            To which the Mullah replied, “Do you believe the braying of a donkey over the words of a Mullah?”

            If you can accept that at times a donkey can be the bearer of the truth, and a mullah the purveyor of untruth, then you have a free mind.  There are many reasons why we continue believing the mullah despite the donkey braying in our face, and we will explore some of those.

            This conference will address “The Malay Mind,” “The Mind of a Muslim,” “
Minda Mahasiswa
” (The Mind of an Undergraduate), and “The Mind of a Future Leader.”  I could add the legal mind and the mind of an economist, for example.  To me, regardless what minds we are dealing with, it is far more important that they be free.

            This conference’s theme could as well be, “Molding A Merdeka Mind.”  It sounds even more stirring in our national language,
Mengasoh Minda Merdeka!
  It is certainly more evocative than
Ketuanan Melayu
 (Malay Hegemony), or even
Agama, Bangsa, Negara!
 (Faith, Race, Country!).  More importantly, it is also more constructive.  We have been politically free since 1957, but our minds are still not free; we remain entrapped in our old ways.  It is time we liberate our minds, granting them their own
merdeka
 (freedom).

            Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah, better known as HAMKA, described best what a free mind is with his poem,
Nikmat Hidup
 (Life’s Bounty):

Menahan fikiran aku tak mungkin

Menumpul kalam aku tak kuasa.

Merdeka berfikir gagah perkasa

Berani menyebut yang aku yakin.

My translation:

Censoring ideas is not my deal

Nor putting to rest my writing quill.

Fearless are those who dare to think

And put to words their inner being.

I challenge you to pick among our leaders today those who are
Merdeka berfikir
 (free thinking)
gagah perkasa
 (fearless core).

Merdeka berfikir
 alone, courageous and laudatory as that may be, is not sufficient.  You have to articulate and share your thoughts.  It is like a tree falling in the forest; with no one to hear it, will there be any sound?  More importantly, will anyone know?  Thus you must also have the courage to voice your thoughts – berani menyebut.  Today, I am sharing mine with you, at least those present here.  By writing I will extend my reach, “one person speaking to many,” in the words of Prameodya Ananta Toer, now and forever.  Hamka is long gone but his wisdom lives on through his words.

            Writing also imposes a certain discipline.  You have to gather, organize and then present your thought in a logical and attractive fashion so as to interest your readers.  No such restraints exist with talking.  Undisciplined, it can readily degenerate into nonproductive “coffee shop talk.”  I hope to avoid that today.

            My presentation explores the meaning of a free mind and the associated liberating of entrapped ones.  As a physician I am used to viewing problems from the perspective of prevention.  Thus I will also discuss the dynamics of the entrapped mind so that we would never find ourselves in that state again.  I will review some fascinating studies in neuroscience, and the insights gleaned, in so far as they relate to our understanding of the free mind.

            I will conclude by citing examples from our legends and history of individuals with free minds and the remarkable impact they have had on our society.  In the remote possibility that you may not readily identify with them, I will share examples of fellow students like you who dared to have free minds and carve their own paths, and contrast them to their contemporaries who were only too willing to
menurut perentah
.  I hope you can draw some useful lessons.

            I will end with a “Question and Answer” session.

Next:   The Meaning of a Free Mind

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 10 March 2011, 11:24 am and is filed under
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M’sia lost RM135.3 bil in illicit outflow

Malaysiakini

Mar 10, 11

Malaysia recorded RM135.3 billion in errors and omissions (E&O) in its outflow funds for the period 2000 to 2009.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said considering the huge amount of trade transactions with the rest of the world as well as the lack of data for specific goods due to statistical errors or unrecorded transfer of funds, there was bound to be E&O in the balance of payments.

“Malaysia’s financial and economic trading with the world outside is seen in the balance of payments statistics, which is prepared according to a methodology set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF),” he said in his written reply to a question from Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) at the Dewan Rakyat sitting today.

Lim wanted to know the measures taken by the government in the light of a report by Global Financial Integrity (GFI) which stated that Malaysia saw illicit money outflows amounting to RM889 billion from 2000 to 2008 due to corruption and mismanagement.

Najib, who is also the minister of finance said the RM135 billion E&O was less than two per cent of Malaysia’s total trade and about five per cent from total trade if measured by the accepted standard.

“Besides the statistical errors that actually occured, the E&O probably also reflect the unrecorded financial flows carried out through informal channels, which probably include funds arising from illegal activities,” he said.

Bank Negara Malaysia, aware of the increase in the number of unrecorded outflow of funds, has carried out investigations on illegal transfer of funds made by money changers, he said.

To date, the licenses of 50 money changers have been cancelled and eight money changers and their directors have been charged and found guilty in the courts, he said.

“An action plan and new framework of laws for the money changing and remittances industry will be implemented this year to bring about solid growth and development for the industry with good administrative standard and professionalism that will protect the integrity of the industry,” he said.

He said international cooperation and the sharing of information with foreign enforcement agencies including the sharing of investigation details and proof for cross border transactions have been also increased.

– Bernama

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 10 March 2011, 7:37 pm and is filed under
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Wife of Taib’s son seeks share of RM400 mil

Hafiz Yatim & S Pathmawathy

Malaysiakini

Mar 9, 11

The estranged first wife of corporate figure Mahmud Abu Bekir Taib, son of the long-time Sarawak chief minister, is seeking RM300 million of assets which the couple had amassed together in their 19 years of marriage, as well as RM100 million in compensation.

Shahnaz A Majid, who is singer Sheila Majid’s sister, filed the divorce papers at the Kuala Lumpur Syariah High Court last month.

The reasons for the divorce are irreconcilable differences and not having sex (nafkah batin) since 2001.

Her divorce case was called for mention today. However, Abu Bekir (right) was not present.

The court has fixed March 24 for mention of the divorce case, as well as March 15 for mention over her application for mutaah (compensation) and division of joint assets.

She claimed Abu Bekir, who is deputy group chairman of Cahaya Mata Sarawak, began to show changes in 1994, which continued later in 1999, behaving aggressively by assaulting her and shouting abuse.

The couple were married on Jan 9, 1992 and have one son, Raden Murya, 17.

Shahnaz claimed that since 1999, her husband rarely came home and could not be advised, was difficult to contact and was very sociable with other women.

Abu Bekir, she claimed, did not treat her fairly after a marrying a widowed Russian national.

Assets listed

Shahnaz claims the couple own property in residences in many places, thousands of hectares in Sarawak, and land in Bukit Tunku in Kuala Lumpur.

They also have seven luxury cars that include Lamborghini, Ferrari, Bentley and Maserati marques.

Their joint assets include shares in 15 different companies including Cahaya Mata Sarawak and Sarawak Cable Bhd.

The couple also possess assets in the form of savings, Employees Provident Fund, and Amanah Saham Bumiputera units.

However, detailed information on the assets will be presented during the hearing.

Shahnaz is claiming RM300 million in the joint assets accrued during marriage, which she is entitled to.

She also wants her husband to submit the original land titles to the court or her representatives.

Otherwise, she sought that all the assets be sold and she be entitled to half the value of the proceeds.

Shahnaz is represented by lawyer Mohd Rafie Shafie, who said they have not been able to serve the summons on Abu Bekir last month.

“Our representatives could not gain access to the defendant’s house near Sri Hartamas here,” said Rafie.

Therefore, Rafie said they have applied for a court order to send a registered summons to Abu Bekir.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 10 March 2011, 1:06 pm and is filed under
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A clarion call to the Christians in Malaysia

By
Thomas Lee

Enough is enough! The usually docile, meek and temperate Christian community in Malaysia has had enough, and has exploded in anger over what they perceive as their human, civil and constitutional rights being denied and rendered illusory, with the latest seizure of 30,000 Malay Bibles from the Kuching Port in Sarawak.

Several such incidents over the last few years are nothing less than an assault on their God-given rights to worship, and to practice and propagate their faith in their own national language, without any legal restriction or political oppression.

There should no place for such evil bigotry and discrimination towards any religious belief in our country which is founded on the fundamental human right basis of freedom to worship and to practice and propagate one’s faith without hindrance, as enshrined in the Federal Constitution.

Article 8 of the Federal Constitution states that “All persons are equal before the law and entitled to the equal protection of the law”, and “there shall be no discrimination against citizens on the ground only of religion, race, descent, place of birth or gender in any law ….”.

Article 11 provides for every person to have “the right to profess and practice his religion”, and that every religious group has the right (a) to manage its own religious affairs, (b) to establish and maintain institutions for religious or charitable purposes, and (c) to acquire and own property and hold and administer it in accordance with the law.

The refusal to allow the Christians in the country to use certain Bahasa Malaysia words in their publications is a direct infringement of their constitutional right to freedom of religious worship and practice. As patriotic citizens of the nation, the Christians in Malaysia should automatically have total access to use the complete vocabulary of the national language. There is no such thing as the monopoly of certain words by any particular group.

The seizure of the Malay Bibles on the contention that they contain several Bahasa Malaysia words deemed incongruous for use by the Christians is an infraction of their constitutional rights as legitimate loyal citizens, and a direct transgression of the universal human right provisions of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted on 10 December 1948.

It is definitely wrong, unconstitutional, even immoral, when a certain section of the citizenry is denied and deprived of their human and constitutional rights based on the unilateral action of some bias and racist extremist civil servants.

The Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM), an umbrella body that represents over 90% of churches in the country, is surely justified in publicly challenging the Barisan Nasional federal government to explain the latest seizure of the Malay Bibles at the Kuching Port, and questioning its sincerity and integrity in dealing with the fiasco and other similar related issues over the last few years.

What then should the Christians in Malaysia do in the face of such an oppressive political tyranny, in which their freedom to practice their faith is being undermined?

First of all, as Christians, we believe in the power of divine intervention, so we must unite in unceasing prayer before the throne of grace to seek God’s help. A nationwide non-stop prayer vigil should be organized by the various churches to pray for the nation and its leaders. Individual Christians on their own should also set aside a day each week to fast and pray.

Secondly, the Christians must be united in their stand to defend their human and constitutional rights, to curb and prevent any breach or dilution of such fundamental rights. They should give steadfast and strong support to the CFM and church leaders in their negotiation with the authorities on the matter. At the same time, the CFM and its leadership should be resolute and unwavering in their stand, without fear or favour. Those who are afraid and not willing to risk the prospect of being detained for standing up should step down from the leadership positions.

Thirdly, the churches should start holding talks and forums to inform and educate their members on the issues affecting them. Pastors should preach and teach on biblical subjects such as Christian responsibility in society. For too long, the Christians, including the pastors and church leaders, have been basking in their comfort zone within the four walls of their churches, with nary a concern about their rights being eroded or tramped on. The time has come for the Christians to emerge from their spiritual slumber to play a more vocal and visible role as loyal citizens of the nation. They should mobilize themselves to campaign and vote for those who are righteous, just, honest, fair, humble, competent, and incorruptible to serve as their representatives in Parliament and the various state assemblies.

Finally, Christians who are qualified and willing to serve the nation in the socio-political arena should offer themselves as candidates for election to Parliament and the various state assemblies. We need Joseph who became the prime minister of Egypt and saved the country from famine and economic disaster, Moses who fought for the liberation of those oppressed slaves of Egypt, Daniel who stood firm for his faith in the face of religious persecution, David who served as King and unified the nation, Nehemiah who served as a high government official and used his position to help rebuilt Jerusalem, John the Baptist who was beheaded for exposing and condemning the immorality of Herod, and the apostle Paul who exercised his citizenship rights to stand up for his faith. Of course, the prime example is the Lord Jesus who challenged and spoke out against the hypocritical Jewish religious leaders and the oppressive Roman political authorities, and was crucified.

The clarion call to the Christians in Malaysia today is to join with all other Malaysians of like vision and mission to partcipate in an active national service to bring about the transformation of the nation to a new and better Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 11 March 2011, 10:41 am and is filed under
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Education in multicultural Malaysia

by
Azly Rahman

Malaysiakini

Mar 9, 11

Q:
 Being a multicultural society that Malaysia is, how should our education system be designed? Or, should it be designed at all?

A:
 Education is a deliberate attempt to construct human beings who will participate in society as productive citizens. The question whether our education system should be designed or not is quite irrelevant when education, schooling, training, indoctrination, and the spectrum of ways by which the child is “schooled” are all based on intentional design.

Schooling is the most contested terrain in any society; it is a battlefield or a conveyor belt for the creation of human beings. We go back one step before the question of design. In a multicultural society, who should be entrusted to design schooling – politicians or philosophers of education trained in the study of political economy and anthropology and alternative historicising?

Are those designing our schooling system equipped with the varieties of philosophical perspectives in education? We have essentialism, progressivism, romanticism, cultural rejuvenation, social reconstructionism, spiritual capitalism, technicism… or even cultural revolution.

These philosophies call for a different perspective of what a human being is and how to draw out the potentials in each and every human being. Hence the Latin word “educare”, from which education comes from, meaning “drawing out”.

My question for all of you: What philosophy of education will be suitable for a multicultural society such as Malaysia? And how do we translate such a philosophy into praxis (Paulo Freire, “Cultural action for freedom”).

Q:
The current design has created an eco-system wherein parents can choose between national schools, vernacular schools or Islamic schools. Is this healthy for nation building? The older model of primary education was with the strategic intent of laying the foundation for nation-building. Is that agenda now being sacrificed?

A:
Choices emanate from how society has evolved, in this case Malaysia as a capitalist society with choices in education and schooling. We must consider what “nation-building” means in the context of schooling. Nation means one people, from the French scholar Ernst Renan. The kind of nation we want to create depends upon the schools we build.

How does one build an “American” school? It depends on the people’s understanding and degree of the embodiment of the constitution of the United States and how America sees itself as a nation of immigrants, wherein schooling that separates religion and the state complicates less the process of “nation-building”.

“All men are created equal, endowed by the Creator the inalienable rights …”, says the preamble to the US constitution. Every morning one hears these words in unison, across America in all classrooms, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic unto which it stands as one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all…”

The meaning of 1Malaysia

What does 1Malaysia mean, not as an evolving concept that has undergone some kind of dialectical materialistic treatment and the cyclical theory of knowledge (thesis-anti-thesis-synthesis) but a branding, sloganising, hollow-fying concept of forced “oneness” pushed into public discourse and into public sphere?

What does a truly Malaysian school mean? Herein lies the evolution of ideological apartheid, especially in our public school system. Where is the locus of control? How are race-based ideological battles fought in this terrain? Herein lies the separate schools Malaysians build.

Q:
 But, should schools be seen as a tool for nation building at all? Isn’t it the “nation-building” agenda that has created a divided society that we have now? Can nation-building not be simply the of sharing national values of some universal form that prepares student for a globalised world?

A:
On schooling and nation-building; this is a question of the post-70s era in which the debates on nationalism, pluralism, socialism, national-socialism or even cosmopolitanism or millennialism rage.

Countries or states were jumping onto the bandwagon of perceiving education from a post-colonial or neo-colonialist lens, arguing for the maintaining the race and ethnicity dimension of social and economic progress.

The creation of the precursor to the BN in the form of the Alliance Party in 1955 and subsequently, the dominance and hegemony of this race-based coalition party has enabled the creation of an education system based on race consideration.

Q:
If given a choice, would parents choose schools based on the medium of instruction or would they choose quality? In other words, if choice is given in a multicultural society, would that cause society to break down further?

A:
Multiculturalism is not an option, radical multiculturalism as an educational philosophy is even not an option. I may sound like Plato, Kung Fu Tze, Jean Jacques Rousseau or Marx – as “deterministic” – but there is a sense with phenomenological evidence in this country that this society is breaking down and we must seek solutions through education.

Consider these issues as I conclude: The protest over the selected reading Interlok, the rise of NGOs promoting dangerous ultra-nationalism, the suppression of free speech on campuses, the proliferation of indoctrination on campuses through the work of governmental outfits such as Biro Tata Negara, and the list goes on …

But what is multiculturalism? Broader than what many of us here have conceived: “Many cultures”, “many world views”, “multiple perspectives”, “multiple ways of knowing” – and to bring human beings from a variety of cultures of ability and disability to enable them to reach their fullest potential – the children of all races, physically, emotionally, technologically, emotionally challenged, the culturally deficient, and many more – all these to be brought into the process of being “educated through schooling” so that each may learn, prosper and grow as critical, creative, ethical human beings who will use their knowledge and power to transform others and not to plunder and oppress.

We need to embark on a long-term project of radical education transformation based on radical multiculturalism as our philosophy.

DR AZLY RAHMAN, who was born in Singapore and grew up in Johor Bahru, holds a Columbia University (New York) doctorate in International Education Development and Masters’ degrees in the fields of Education, International Affairs, Peace Studies and Communication. He has taught more than 40 courses in six different departments and has written more than 300 analyses on Malaysia. His teaching experience spans Malaysia and the United States, over a wide range of subjects from elementary to graduate education. He currently resides in the United States.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 11 March 2011, 7:55 am and is filed under
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Religious bigotry on the rise again under Najib’s 1 Malaysia policy

By
Dr Chen Man Hin
, DAP life advisor

The seizure of 30,000 Christian Bibles printed in Malay and imported into Malaysia is a serious breach of religious freedom. This is a glaring example of the failure of Najib’s promise of a better Malaysia for all, irrespective of race, culture and religion.

Reliable sources say that the Bibles do not contain any philosophy or teachings which are any different from the Bibles used in the country for centuries, since Christianity came into the country whether in the Peninsula or in Sarawak and Sabah.

It would appear that the Bibles were seized because the authorities consider the use of the word ‘Allah’ in the bibles was prohibited and therefore seditious. This is religious bigotry on the part of some fanatics in the muslim community.

ALLAH is the name of the God of the Christians and Muslims in Arab countries for centuries. They invoke the name Allah when they pray and, freely when they greet each other.

In Malaysia the Christian natives praise Allah when they pray and when saluting each other in every day life. To them Allah is part and parcel of their religion, culture and lifestyle. In the Peninsula there are also thousands of Christian workers from Sabah and Sarawak who go regularly to churches and pray to Allah regularly.

It is hard to understand why local Muslims are so conservative on the issue. It is time for Malaysian Muslims to move on, and embrace reforms like their Muslim brothers in the Arab countries of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and others.

INTERFAITH COUNCIL. This is an important issue which should be taken up by the interfaith council, and arrange for a dialogue of all the faiths to reach a common understanding.

Why 1 Malaysia has failed to promote religious understanding. It is because PM Najib announced that his 1 Malaysia does not subscribe to PLURALISM in the country. Does he imply that Islam is the big brother, and the other religions are on a lower plane.

If pluralism is not accepted, the whole concept of unity in a multiracial, multireligious society would be undermined. A united multireligious society means that the religions are equal and live together with perfect harmony and understanding.

Mr Prime Minister, please take note if you are sincere in promoting equality and unity for a better and prosperous Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 11 March 2011, 4:01 pm and is filed under
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Seizure of 35,000 Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia – another example that Najib is not master in his own house and the hollowness of 1Malaysia?

Is the continued seizure of 35,000 copies of the Bible in Bahasa Malaysia – 30,000 copies in Kuching Port and 5,000 copies in Port Klang – another example that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri  Najib Razak is not master of his own house and the hollowness of his 1Malaysia policy?

It is three days since the Christian Federation of Malaysia (CFM) has come out with a statement expressing that it is “greatly disillusioned, fed-up and angered by the repeated detention of Bibles written in our national language, Bahasa Malaysia”.

The CFM Chairman Bishop Ng Boon Hing and its executive committee in a joint statement on Thursday revealed the power of the “Little Napoleons” in the bureaucracy which could even thwart and veto the Prime Minister’s order for the release of the Christian scriptures in Bahasa Malaysia.

Why has there been no action by Najib to ensure that his order to release the 5,000 Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia held in Port Klang since March 2009 are complied with without any more delay or hassle?

Instead, we have a Home Ministry official justifying the seizure of the Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia on the ground that it was based on a Cabinet decision made a quarter of a century ago in 1986.

However, despite the Cabinet decision in 1986, there had been no insuperable  problem with the import of Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia for the next two decades.

The Prime Minister in 1986 was Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad but it was during the premiership of Tun Abdullah that the 1986 Cabinet decision became a most polarising issue, not only in Peninsular Malaysia but extending to Sabah and Sarawak as well, seriously undermining national unity and harmony.

Are the concerns and fears that Malays may be proselytised to become Christians if Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia are allowed really valid and genuine as to justify the  belated implementation of the 1986 Cabinet decision two decades later?  Can the authorities furnish statistics of how many Malays were converted to Christianity in the two decades from 1986?

It would appear that although Najib is the Prime Minister, he is working under the shadow of the fourth Prime Minister whose 1986 Cabinet decision has greater power and authority than the order from the current Prime Minister.

The prohibition of the use of Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia for Malaysian Christians, particularly those who are educated in the Bahasa Malaysia medium in the national education system, makes double mockery of Najib’s 1Malaysia’s nation-building policy as well as the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.

Now, even the authority of Najib as Prime Minister is under question – whether he is master in his own house or beholden and subject to the fourth Prime Minister for a Cabinet decision made 25 years ago which should not have been made in the first place.

It is a test of Najib’s authority as Prime Minister, his commitment to 1Malaysia Policy and the constitutional guarantee of freedom religion whether the Prime Minister could ensure the release of the 35,000 Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia in  Kuching Port and Port Klang without any more delay or hassle.

(Media Conference Statement in Sandakan on Saturday, 12th March 2011 at 3 pm)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 12 March 2011, 5:54 pm and is filed under
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Why Joseph Pairin not giving his support as first Huguan Siou Tun Fuad, if alive today, would have fully endorsed Sipaun’s statement that life in Sabah before Malaysia was “very pleasant and good”

I just came across the latest attack on former Suhakam Vice Chairman and former Sabah State Secretary Tan Sri Simon Sipaun for his completely innocuous and patriotic statement recently that “life in Sabah before in Malaysia was very pleasant and good”.

Earlier, two Umno Tawau divisions had lodged police reports against Sipaun for the grave crime of sedition for making such an innocuous and patriotic statement when plumbing his memories of life today, 47 years after formation of Malaysia, and before.

Umno has now escalated its campaign to demonise and criminalise Sipaun for his statement, as the Sabah UMNO Youth leader, Azman Ruslan, has intervened alleging that Sipaun’s remark was “tantamount to questioning the wisdom behind Sabah’s decision to join the formation of Malaysia”.

Nobody except the most politically jaundiced could come to  such a ridiculous conclusion. There is nothing wrong for Sipaun to give his views, based on his own memories,  that life in Sabah was better and  more pleasant before the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

No rational person would jump to the baseless conclusion that Sipaun was being unpatriotic or disloyal in opposing Sabah’s decision 47 years ago to form Malaysia or is now advocating Sabah’s secession from Malaysia.

It is the persons who make the irrational leap to such a conclusion as to make such baseless accusation to criminalise Sipaun who are really guilty of sedition, and against whom the police should take action and not against Sipaun.

The only real question at issue is whether there is any basis for Sipaun to make his statement comparing life in Sabah today and the times before formation of Malaysia.

Let us consider what Sipaun had said, viz:

“Life in Sabah, in those days called North Borneo, as I remember it, before Malaysia, was very pleasant and good, to say the least. Admittedly there was no development that we see today, but even Malaya at that time was no better. There was no racial problem, mixed marriages were very common, and that is why we have so many peranakan in Sabah. If Sabahans are now conscious of racial and religious divide, it has been imported from semananjung. There was no illegal immigrant, there were no cases of Sabahans losing citizenship status while foreigners get it without much difficulty. There were no repressive and draconian laws, such as Official Secrets Act; Datuk Dr. Jeffrey is very familiar with this, Internal Security Act, sometimes referred to as ISA or “I Simply Arrest”,  the Printing Presses and Publications Act, the Seditious Act, the Police Act, and the four Proclamations of Emergency; we are still under emergency as of today even though the conditions for having emergency proclamation is no longer there, there was not quarrelling over dead bodies, the composition, and I spent three years of my career in the civil service before Malaysia, the composition in those days of the civil service was reflective of the racial makeup of society. It was multi-racial, meritocracy was practised. Corruption and ketuanan Melyau, we never heard of it. And the thing continues. How not to miss Sabah before Malaysia.”

Can the above statement by Sipaun qualify as sedition?

If so, it will be the best proof that life in Sabah today is even worse than life in the state before the formation of Malaysia in 1963 – to the extent that innocuous and patriotic comparisons of life today and what it was 47 years ago could be classified as criminal and seditious!

Sipaun had made the comparison not to advocate secession or oppose Sabah’s decision on the formation of Malaysia in 1963 but to advocate change, reform and good governance in Sabah and Malaysia.

Azman alleged that Sipaun’s statement was “a blatant disrespect to the founding fathers of?Malaysia”, especially to the late Tun Mohd Fuad, the first “Huguan Siou” or paramount leader of the Kadazandusun.

The Sabah Umno Youth leader cannot be more wrong.

Firstly, what Sipaun’s said represented the voice of all genuine Sabahans, and not just Kadazandusun community.

Secondly, I have no doubt that if Tun Fuad is still alive today,  he would have fully endorsed Sipaun’s sentiments and embraced him as a great son of  Sabah and a patriotic Malaysian.

The only question is why the present Huguan Siou Datuk Seri Joseph Pairin Kitingan had not come forward to fully endorse and embrace Sipaun for his truthful, courageous and patriotic sentiments.

(Speech at DAP Sabah dinner gathering in Penampang on Friday, 11th February 2011)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 12 March 2011, 11:33 am and is filed under
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Death toll of ‘ten thousands’ predicted in Japan

500,000 forced to evacuate; shelters low on supplies

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Monday, March 14, 2011

By Barbara Demick

SENDAI, Japan – Japanese authorities say thousands might have died in the massive earthquake and tsunami, which left many survivors stranded or shivering in makeshift evacuation centers that were running low on supplies today.

In Miyagi, one the three hardest-hit prefectures, at least 10,000 were killed, police spokesman Go Sugawara told the Associated Press late last night. Only 400 people had been confirmed dead in Miyagi, which has a population of 2.3 million.

Elsewhere, about 1,800 people were confirmed dead yesterday – including 200 bodies found along the coast. About 1,900 were injured, and more than 1,400 were missing.

More than 500,000 people have been forced to evacuate from quake- and tsunami-affected regions, Kyodo News reported.

Televised reports showed hundreds of thousands of hungry survivors huddled in darkened emergency centers, cut off from rescuers, aid and electricity. At least 1.4 million households had gone without water since the quake struck, and about 1.9million households were without electricity, Kyodo reported.

“We have no choice but to deal with the situation on the premise that (the death toll) will undoubtedly be numbered in the ten thousands,” Naoto Takeuchi, head of the Miyagi prefectural police, told a Kyodo reporter during a local disaster task-force meeting.

There were dramatic rescues of tsunami survivors yesterday, including a 60-year-old man who had been waiting for help since he was swept out to sea Friday.

Hiromitsu Shinkawa was spotted by rescuers at 12:40p.m. local time nine miles offshore by the crew of a Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyer, according to Jiji Press.

Shinkawa, from the devastated city of Minamisoma, was conscious and in “good condition,” officials said.

“I ran away after learning that the tsunami was coming,” Shinkawa told rescuers, according to Jiji Press. “But I turned back to pick up something at home, when I was washed away.”

The tsunami submerged about 5,000 houses in Rikuzentakata, a port city of about 20,000, and most of the 7,200 houses in Yamada, Kyodo reported. In Otsuchi, the tsunami swept away the town office.

Foreign search-and-rescue teams arrived in Japan yesterday, and 88 governments and six international institutions have offered assistance with recovery efforts, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

Adding to the misery were a series of more than 40 punishing aftershocks, three of magnitude 6 or more yesterday.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 70 percent probability of a magnitude 7 quake in the next three days.

Officials of Tokyo Electric Power Co. said they will begin rationing power today to the 45 million people they serve to prevent Tokyo and nearby prefectures from experiencing massive blackouts, Kyodo reported.

The power rationing is expected to continue through April, Kyodo reported.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan told reporters yesterday that his country faces its most difficult challenge since World War II, and he called on his people to unite in the face of a devastating earthquake and tsunami and potential nuclear crisis.

“This is the toughest crisis in Japan’s 65 years of postwar history,” Kan said in a televised news conference. “I’m convinced that we can overcome the crisis.”

Kan said 100,000 soldiers will be deployed to help quake victims.

Analysis: Japan quake impact seen deep and long

Mon Mar 14, 2011

By
Kristina Cooke and Natsuko Waki

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) – Japan’s already weak economy faces deeper damage than initially thought from the triple blow of a devastating earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster, and risks prolonging its sluggish recovery.

At worst, forecasts from some economists suggest the world’s third largest economy is in danger of slipping back into recession.

The hit to growth from Japan’s worst crisis since World War 2 is likely to exceed that of the 1995 Kobe earthquake, when industrial output fell but overall output remained strong, analysts said — a downgrade from their first estimates after Japan was hit on Friday by its largest earthquake on record.

This time the yen is stronger, hampering exports, and Japan’s debts — twice the size of the $5 trillion economy — are much bigger. It also faces a major power problem.

Rolling power blackouts begin on Monday, which will lower production. Car and semiconductor factories and oil refineries in the north-east region are closed. And Japan may raise taxes to pay for relief work, reducing consumer spending.

“We now expect the Japanese economy to take longer than we expected to exit its current soft patch owing to the earthquake and tsunami,” Nomura analysts Takahide Kiuchi and Okazaki Kohei wrote in a note to clients.

Nomura expects the economy, which shrank late last year, won’t shake off its lull until the third or fourth quarter.

In contrast, some analysts initially had seen a return to growth in the April to June period.

Nissan Motor halted output at all its four domestic assembly factories and said restarting them could depend on whether it can get parts, one of many companies unsure of how quickly they can get their plants back up and running.

Power supply also is critical factor in estimating the loss to the nation’s productive capacity. Nuclear power plants are offline, and officials are grappling to control the damage and radiation leakage.

Ward McCarthy, chief economist at Jefferies in New York, called this development troubling. “It just increases uncertainty at a time when uncertainty is already high,” he said.

“If power production output is damaged in a sustainable fashion, that could have a durable impact,” said Michala Marcussen, head of global economics at Societe Generale.

Export-dependent Japan already faced vulnerabilities. The European debt crisis, an oil price spike and a still fragile recovery in the United States have all posed challenges.

Add to that a potential drop in Japanese consumption, said Brendan Brown, head of economic research at Mitsubishi UFJ. Consumers will be “under influence of squeezed incomes and trauma,” he said.

This will feed into global growth through Japan’s trade.

“The primary effect on the world economy will be on big trade partners in Asia, including China and Korea,” said Brown.

WATCH CREDIT RATINGS

Providing at least some relief for officials, credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service suggested on Monday that it sees no sign of a fiscal crisis in Japan. A day earlier it said the “temporary” fiscal impact would not be a big factor as it ponders whether to downgrade the country’s credit ratings.

Japan was downgraded by Standard & Poor’s in January, given the lack of a plan to fix public finances, and Moody’s has warned it may do the same.

There are some positives. Some economists said the huge influx of government spending needed to repair the damage could help the Japanese economy eventually shake off its long period of sluggish growth and falling prices.

“The question is: does this finally push them out of the deflationary spiral and allow them to get their economy back on track, or does it push them deeper down?” said Sharyn O’Halloran, a professor of political economy at Columbia University.

After the 1995 Kobe earthquake, there was a big drop in industrial output, but the economy grew strongly that year and the effects of rebuilding gave it another boost in 1996. Back then, oil prices were hovering around $17-21 a barrel while the yen, key to exporters, was around 100 per dollar when the quake hit.

Currently with oil prices just off 2- year highs above $100 and the Japanese currency at a stronger 82 per dollar, the impact from these two factors alone will be more adverse.

Japan’s gross domestic product shrank by an annualized 1.3 percent in fourth quarter. A Reuters poll published before the quake showed it was likely to expand 0.5 percent in Q1, or roughly 2 percent on an annualized basis.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch estimates the quake-hit areas account for up to 7.8 percent of Japan’s GDP, compared with 12.4 percent from the regions affected by the Kobe earthquake.

The bank expects the hit to GDP to be at least 0.2-0.3 percentage point, although a relatively large amount of spare capacity may offset the production loss.

The yen rose sharply following the Kobe earthquake as Japanese companies repatriated capital, a pattern which may gather momentum in the coming week.

The Bank of Japan offered to pump a record $183 billion into the banking system on Monday to stabilize markets after the quake.

The central bank may also ease monetary policy further at its meeting on Monday. With interest rates virtually at zero, the most likely option is for the BOJ to top up the 5 trillion yen pool of funds it put in place last year to buy assets ranging from government bonds to private debt — a factor that could weigh on the yen.

Nomura said the BOJ could increase the scale of its asset purchases to 8-10 trillion yen.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 14 March 2011, 7:24 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #56

By
M. Bakri Musa

Chapter 7:  Enhancing Human Capital

Enhancing Human Capital Through Education (Cont’d)

Malaysian schools today are a far cry from their earlier days.  At the recent Third International Mathematics and Science (TIMS) assessment, Malaysia stood way behind South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore.  But our leaders are not embarrassed by such comparisons; they keep harping on how Malaysia is the “center of educational excellence” – for the Third World.  Malaysian leaders eagerly compare the nation to the likes of Zambia and Malawi so they can pat themselves heartily.  When you cannot measure up, why, simply change the yardstick!  Or choose a less competitive league.

            Malaysia should do to its ministry of education what the Russians did to the former Soviet empire:  dismantle the massive ossified structures; decentralize its immense authority; and privatize its myriad activities.

            That would require a formidable change in mindset, and I do not see any movement in that direction.  Nor do I expect the current personnel to even think along those lines; they seem stuck in the old mold.  Education in Malaysia has less to do with educating the young but everything to do with politics and cultural symbols.  The main preoccupation of the political leadership is that the ministry be under someone UMNO considers able to resist the demands of non-Malays, especially the Chinese.  Thus political credentials rather than managerial smarts or academic talent become the operative criteria for appointment.  The appointees in turn are aware of this and exploit the position to further their personal political goals.  Anwar Ibrahim used the ministry to propel himself to be deputy prime minister, and Musa Mohammad’s predecessor, Najib Razak, is guilty of the same blind political ambition.  No surprise then that Malaysian schools and colleges have deteriorated.

            The deterioration is apparent on many fronts.  Apart from the abysmal performance at TIMS, there are other internal indicators showing that the schools and universities are a mess.  Everyday one reads in the local papers of teachers being assaulted and schools vandalized.  In 2001 the examination papers of students were stolen, and then dumped at some roadside.  The invigilator apparently left them in his car that was later stolen.  Such lax disciplines are evident among administrators, teachers, and students.  Visit any school on any day and chances are the headmaster is absent, in a meeting off campus.  The teaching profession no longer attracts the best and brightest partly because the pay is embarrassingly low and teachers given no respect.  A fish hawker earns more than the average teacher.  Teachers lament that they cannot do much disciplining as their headmasters are constantly overruling them.

            Powerful parents in turn intimidate these headmasters.  No surprise then that there are hundreds of vacancies for teachers.

            The dropout rates especially in the primary schools are horrifying.  This is most pronounced in rural areas and among Bumiputras and the poor.  In an attempt to reverse this, the government plans to make primary schooling compulsory.  I would have preferred it first study the reasons for the appallingly high dropouts rate and address them.  Those problems will not magically disappear by making schooling compulsory.

            Education is a state monopoly in Malaysia, at least until the mid secondary level (Form V).  Malaysians have no choice but to send their children to public schools.  There are many private schools but Malaysians are not allowed to attend unless they get special dispensation from the minister.  Wealth alone will not get you one otherwise there would be a flood of young Malaysians at these excellent schools.

            Malaysians in Johore have a choice, and many are expressing their lack of confidence in local schools by sending their children to the much superior schools in Singapore.  Observe on any given school morning, droves of buses and cars full of school children heading south.

            Beyond Form V the government no longer exercises controls.  Once freed from the strictures of the ministry, parents desert the system en mass as seen by the figures of students sitting for public examinations.  In 2001 over 320,000 students sat for the Form V examination (SPM), but only about 40,000 sat for the Form VI (given after two years of additional schooling).  Either the students drop out after Form V, or more than likely they opt for private colleges rather than continuing with the government’s Form VI.  Not surprisingly, private institutions are booming in Malaysia to meet this new need.

            The universities are no better, although quantitatively Malaysia has done well.  While there were no universities in1957, today there are over a dozen.  Newspapers carry almost daily headlines about new universities being set up or planned.  To some this represents progress, until one actually visits one of these new establishments.  They are nothing more than glorified community colleges.  Or in the words of former Deputy Prime Minister Musa Hitam, “kampong campuses!”  The country is not so much as providing quality education for its young as expanding the job market for administrators and professors.

            Malaysia keeps setting up universities as if that is an easy endeavor, and the results show.  This does not stop the authorities from constantly bragging about their experience building new universities.  It reminds me of the wise observation of Dr. Willy Mayo (of Mayo Clinic fame) who said to the effect that some surgeons keep repeating the same mistakes a hundred times, and call that experience!

            The quality of the faculty and students too are wanting, indicating that it is a failure of the system.  Choose any criterion, and the woeful inadequacy of the academic staff is apparent; from the percentage having terminal qualifications to their productivity as measured by published works.  The only way for academics to have pay raises or be promoted is to accept administrative positions.  These are usually given not to promising scholars or researchers but those politically connected.

            Malaysian academics are not given the necessary support either in clerical staff or research funding.  Many professors do not have personal computers or ready Internet access.  Few are given the opportunities for sabbatical leave when they could recharge their intellectual juices.  Promotions are still largely determined by factors other than academic excellence.  Peruse the resume of deans and vice-chancellors.  With very few exceptions they are individuals singularly lacking in scholarly achievements.

            The quickest way to oblivion for academics in Malaysia is for them to publish papers or essays even mildly critical of the government.  Academics have been fired for being too independent; a few incarcerated, courtesy of the ISA, for commenting on “subversive” topics.  The reverse is also true.  The quickest path to the top is to write toadying articles praising the system or better still, individual political leaders.  Thus the specter of one local economist of no particular renown or achievement urging universities to teach “Mahathirism.”  His views, not surprisingly, received widespread laudatory coverage in the local media.

            The system is aggravated because the minister makes all senior academic appointments.  And if he does not value scholarly excellence, chances are his appointees too would also share that view.  Which is why the leadership of Malaysian universities is in the hands of the less-than-intellectually talented.  There are many brilliant young Malaysian scientists and scholars, but they are stuck in some remote corner of academia and ignored.

            Local undergraduates are not much better.  There is the matter of selection as the brighter ones and those who can afford it chose private colleges or have gone abroad.  But still there are many brilliant students who end up at local public institutions.  Here the universities have failed them.  Because local courses are taught only in Malay, the intellectual universe of the students is very confined.  Reading materials and references in Malay are limited.  Local graduates also suffer in other ways for their lack of English proficiency.  Few end up at leading graduate schools, and private employers shun them. Locally minted PhDs rarely secure post-doctoral appointments at leading centers abroad.

            In early 2002 Malaysian newspapers highlighted the plight of nearly 25,000 graduates who could not find jobs.  Nearly all of them were Bumiputras and graduates of local universities.  This raises the fundamental issue:  Are they unemployed or simply unemployable?  With the former, the answer would rest with the greater economy; with the latter it would be with the educational system.  It is hard to imagine with the nation enjoying near full employment and having to import hundreds of thousands of foreign workers that these graduates would have difficulty finding jobs.  It is my contention that the educational system has done a poor job of making its products employable.  These graduates are simply unemployable.  Had they had been given a broad-based education and been fluent in English, mathematically competent, and familiar with IT, employers would grab them.  Malaysian universities must bear the heavy blame for this problem.  At present the only avenue of employment for liberal arts graduates of local universities is with the government.  They have absolutely no skills that would be useful or needed in the private sector.

            Had Malaysian universities follow America’s lead and made their curriculum more broad and liberal, then local graduates would have greater transferability of skills and thus flexibility in the marketplace.  Leading American universities for example, mandate a year of English, laboratory science, and mathematics for all their students.  Malaysia still has the British hangover of too early and too narrow a specialization both at high school and university.

            For the past few years the regional publication (now defunct) Asiaweek carried an annual survey of Asian universities.  Already in that short space of time we see a steady decline in the ranking of local institutions.  In the first survey in 1997, Malaysia’s leading and oldest university, the University of Malaya (UM) was ranked 11th; two years later it dropped to 27th; and in the last survey (2000) it felled to 47th.  Meanwhile Universiti Kebangsa’an (National University) made the list once at the very beginning, and then dropped out of sight.  Only Universiti Putra Malaysia improved its standing – from 69th in 1999 to 52nd in 2000.  One can argue with the criteria used by Asiaweek, but there is no mistaking the trend.  Of course the typical Malaysian response is, well, we are still ahead of Papua New Guinea!

            To its credit the government, despite vocal opposition from UMNO, recently permitted the setting up of private universities and colleges.  Most of these institutions are nothing more than puffed up tutoring centers.  Not even in the most stretched meaning of the word could they be called colleges.  Still there are a few outstanding ones like Sumway, Inti, and Taylor, together with local branches of some foreign universities that are attracting top students and providing real alternatives.  To date these institutions are the exceptions.  The ministry still monitors private institutions closely; their permit is conditional upon their satisfying the ministry.  Because of this leash, Malaysia fails to attract quality foreign universities from setting up satellite campuses locally.  Unlike Singapore that has the likes of Johns Hopkins, Malaysia attracts only the East Anglia and Ulu Australia universities.

            Malaysia justifies its tight control on local schools and colleges on the grounds that they serve as more than just educational institutions.  They have important social roles in integrating students to enhance national unity.  But that goal can be achieved without tightly controlling and thus stifling the institutions.  The present system, despite its stated noble intentions, fails to produce much-needed social integration of students.  Non-Malays choose to attend national-type (vernacular) rather than national (Malay) schools.  Private colleges cater primarily to non-Malays.  Unchecked these unhealthy trends would undermine national unity.  Malaysia should insist that all its institutions, private and public, have a student body reflective of the general society.  The government can help achieve this by giving scholarships to Bumiputras to attend private institutions and by giving grants to those colleges who subscribe to this common objective.  American universities that receive federal funding have student bodies that are reflective of the larger society.  They are finding that diversity has an added educational bonus – students are exposed to different cultures and viewpoints.  In this globalized age, this could only be an advantage.

            The present system must be improved.  This is best achieved by first doing away with the present mindset of total control and the attendant burdensome centralization.  Further, there must be a greater role for the private sector in education at all levels.

Next:   Revamping Schools and Universities

                This entry was posted on Monday, 14 March 2011, 12:16 pm and is filed under
Bakri Musa
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Hey Presto! Suddenly no need Cabinet decision

Twitter updates from
@limkitsiang

Tuesday, 15 March, 2011 20:06

6 hours ago, no approval – Cabinet 2discuss it on Friday
http://bit.ly/d4tsbb
 DPM denies approval for Bible release (TMI)

Tuesday, 15 March, 2011 20:10

Hey Presto! suddenly no need Cabinet decision
http://bit.ly/d4tsbb
 Government orders release of Malay bibles (TMI)

Tuesday, 15 March, 2011 20:16

What’s behind sudden change of mind re Bible in BM? Constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion? PM’s credibility? Nil! Its Swak Elections!

Tuesday, 15 March, 2011 20:22

Najib Muhyiddin starts Swak election campaign Sat. Malay Bible controversy will spoil their campaign. Will Swak Assembly dissolve on 19th?

Tuesday, 15 March, 2011 20:28

I welcome release of 35k copies  Malay Bible. Shd not b detained in 1st place. What is d lesson of the saga? Stand firm on const rights!

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 15 March 2011, 10:25 pm and is filed under
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Japan steps closer to a full-blown nuclear catastrophe

By
Steven Mufson

The Washington Post

Monday, March 14, 11

Japan stepped closer to a full blown nuclear catastrophe Tuesday after the third explosion in four days appeared to have damaged equipment inside the reactor, apparently creating a path for the escape of radioactive materials, and a fire broke out at a separate reactor where spent fuel and hydrogen ignited. Tokyo Electric Power Co., owner of the seaside nuclear complex, ordered the evacuation of all but the 50 most essential workers and the Japanese Prime Minister addressed the nation urging people within 19 miles to stay indoors and remain calm.

Officials from Tokyo Electric Power, the plant owner, said the 6:14 a.m. explosion took place in the unit 2 reactor at or near the suppression pool, which collects water and radioactive elements from the containment vessel.

Experts said that, unlike the two previous explosions that destroyed outer buildings, this one might have damaged valves and drain pipes, possibly creating a path for radioactive materials to escape.

The explosion — more serious than the earlier blasts — was followed by a brief drop in pressure in the vessel and a spike in radioactivity outside the reactor to levels more than eight times what people ordinarily receive in a year, the company said. Tokyo Electric, which over the weekend said it had 1,400 people working at the complex, said it was evacuating all nonessential personnel, leaving about 50 people there.

Prime Minister Naoto Kan told the nation Tuesday morning that radiation had spread from the reactors and there was a very high risk of further radioactive material escaping. He urged people within 19 miles of the plant to remain indoors. He urged calm.

But Kan also said a fire had broken out at a fourth reactor unit.

The new setbacks came on the heels of a difficult Monday at Fukushima Daiichi unit 2. Utility officials there reported that four out of five water pumps being used to flood the reactor had failed and that the other pump had briefly stopped working. As a result, the company said, the fuel rods, normally covered by water, were completely exposed for 140 minutes, hastening the partial meltdown of them that most experts think is underway.

According to a report by the Kyodo news agency, the fifth pump was later restarted, and seawater mixed with boron was again injected in a desperate bid to cool the reactor, but the fuel rods remained partially exposed and ultra-hot. On Tuesday morning, Tokyo Electric said that 2.7 meters of the rods were still exposed.

The other four pumps were thought to have been damaged by a blast Monday that destroyed a building at the nearby unit 3 reactor, Kyodo reported. That blast, like one on Saturday at unit 1, was caused by a buildup in hydrogen generated by a reaction that took place when the zirconium alloy wrapped around the fuel rods was exposed to steam at 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that injections of seawater into units 1 and 3 had been interrupted because of a low level in a seawater supply reservoir, but the seawater injections were later restored.

A commercial satellite photo of the complex showed piles of debris on top of units 1 and 3, which raised new fears about the condition of the pools where spent fuel is stored, especially at unit 1, where a design by General Electric placed the pool on top of the reactor but below the outer structure, which was destroyed. But the ability of workers to assess the damage was hindered by fears that another explosion might occur.

Last March, 1,760 tons of spent fuel were stored in the six pools — 84 percent of capacity, according to Tokyo Electric.

After Monday’s explosion at unit 3, Japanese government officials were quick to assert that it did not damage the core containment structure, and they?said there would be little increase in radiation levels around the plant. But the explosion prompted Japan’s nuclear agency to warn those within 12 miles to stay indoors. The blast also injured 11 people, one seriously.

The string of earthquake- and tsunami-triggered troubles at the Fukushima Daiichi plant began Friday, when a loss of grid power (caused by the earthquake) followed by a loss of backup diesel generators (caused by the tsunami) led to the failure of cooling systems needed to keep the reactor cores from overheating.

The IAEA reported that Japan has evacuated 185,000 people from towns near the nuclear complex. The agency said Japan has distributed 230,000 units of stable iodine to evacuation centers from the area around the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini nuclear power plants. The iodine has not been administered to residents; the distribution is a precautionary measure.

The ingestion of stable iodine can help to prevent the accumulation of radioactive iodine in the thyroid.

The U.S. 7th Fleet said Monday that some of its personnel, who are stationed 100 miles offshore from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, had come into contact with radioactive contamination. The airborne radioactivity prompted the fleet to reposition its ships and aircraft.

Using sensitive instruments, precautionary measurements were conducted on three helicopter aircrews returning to the USS Ronald Reagan after conducting disaster relief missions near Sen-dai. Those measurements identified low levels of radioactivity on 17 crew members.

The low-level radioactivity was easily removed from affected personnel by having them wash with soap and water, and later tests detected no contamination.

The political fallout spread all the way to the United States and Europe. German Chancellor Angel Merkel said Monday that she was suspending a deal that would have extended permits for 17 aging nuclear plants.

Many nuclear experts also called for a tougher scrutiny of U.S. plants, noting that the Japanese nuclear crisis exposed the limits of human ingenuity and imagination and pointed to the possible failure of the best-laid backup plans.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer and director of the Nuclear Safety Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a conference call that in certain respects, the U.S. nuclear plants are not as prepared as the Japanese ones for a catastrophic power outage. After the earthquake and tsunami knocked out the electrical grid and backup generators, the Japanese engineers switched to batteries that could last for eight hours, he said.

“In this country, most of our reactors are only designed with battery capacity for four hours,” Lochbaum said. “Many of our reactors are in a situation where earthquakes, or hurricanes in the gulf, or ice storms in the northeast, or a tree in Cleveland, can cause an extensive blackout.”

The 2003 blackout that affected 52 million people across the upper Midwest, New York and parts of Canada was triggered when overheated wires sagged into trees in northeastern Ohio. Nine nuclear units switched to diesel backup generators, which are the size of locomotives without wheels.

Despite the cascade of equipment failures at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, some nuclear experts noted that the fuel rods there, whose temperature could have risen to as high as 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, would lose some of their heat over the next few days and would probably remain encased, even in the worst-case scenario, in a secondary containment structure with several feet of steel and concrete walls.

But the new explosion raises new questions. With it impossible to see into the reactor vessels, officials were in large part speculating about what is happening inside by using a variety of gauges and indicators.

“Let’s hope they can get these reactors under control,” said Richard Lester, head of the department of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “They’re not there yet.”

Prime Minister Naoto Kan told the nation Tuesday morning that radiation had spread from the reactors and there was a very high risk of further radioactive material escaping. He urged people within 19 miles of the plant to remain indoors. He urged calm.

But Kan also said a fire had broken out at a fourth reactor unit.

The new setbacks came on the heels of a difficult Monday at Fukushima Daiichi unit 2. Utility officials there reported that four out of five water pumps being used to flood the reactor had failed and that the other pump had briefly stopped working. As a result, the company said, the fuel rods, normally covered by water, were completely exposed for 140 minutes, hastening the partial meltdown of them that most experts think is underway.

According to a report by the Kyodo news agency, the fifth pump was later restarted, and seawater mixed with boron was again injected in a desperate bid to cool the reactor, but the fuel rods remained partially exposed and ultra-hot. On Tuesday morning, Tokyo Electric said that 2.7 meters of the rods were still exposed.

The other four pumps were thought to have been damaged by a blast Monday that destroyed a building at the nearby unit 3 reactor, Kyodo reported. That blast, like one on Saturday at unit 1, was caused by a buildup in hydrogen generated by a reaction that took place when the zirconium alloy wrapped around the fuel rods was exposed to steam at 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported that injections of seawater into units 1 and 3 had been interrupted because of a low level in a seawater supply reservoir, but the seawater injections were later restored.

A commercial satellite photo of the complex showed piles of debris on top of units 1 and 3, which raised new fears about the condition of the pools where spent fuel is stored, especially at unit 1, where a design by General Electric placed the pool on top of the reactor but below the outer structure, which was destroyed. But the ability of workers to assess the damage was hindered by fears that another explosion might occur.

Last March, 1,760 tons of spent fuel were stored in the six pools — 84 percent of capacity, according to Tokyo Electric.

After Monday’s explosion at unit 3, Japanese government officials were quick to assert that it did not damage the core containment structure, and they?said there would be little increase in radiation levels around the plant. But the explosion prompted Japan’s nuclear agency to warn those within 12 miles to stay indoors. The blast also injured 11 people, one seriously.

The string of earthquake- and tsunami-triggered troubles at the Fukushima Daiichi plant began Friday, when a loss of grid power (caused by the earthquake) followed by a loss of backup diesel generators (caused by the tsunami) led to the failure of cooling systems needed to keep the reactor cores from overheating.

The IAEA reported that Japan has evacuated 185,000 people from towns near the nuclear complex. The agency said Japan has distributed 230,000 units of stable iodine to evacuation centers from the area around the Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini nuclear power plants. The iodine has not been administered to residents; the distribution is a precautionary measure.

The ingestion of stable iodine can help to prevent the accumulation of radioactive iodine in the thyroid.

The U.S. 7th Fleet said Monday that some of its personnel, who are stationed 100 miles offshore from the Fukushima Daiichi plant, had come into contact with radioactive contamination. The airborne radioactivity prompted the fleet to reposition its ships and aircraft.

Using sensitive instruments, precautionary measurements were conducted on three helicopter aircrews returning to the USS Ronald Reagan after conducting disaster relief missions near Sen-dai. Those measurements identified low levels of radioactivity on 17 crew members.

The low-level radioactivity was easily removed from affected personnel by having them wash with soap and water, and later tests detected no contamination.

The political fallout spread all the way to the United States and Europe. German Chancellor Angel Merkel said Monday that she was suspending a deal that would have extended permits for 17 aging nuclear plants.

Many nuclear experts also called for a tougher scrutiny of U.S. plants, noting that the Japanese nuclear crisis exposed the limits of human ingenuity and imagination and pointed to the possible failure of the best-laid backup plans.

David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer and director of the Nuclear Safety Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a conference call that in certain respects, the U.S. nuclear plants are not as prepared as the Japanese ones for a catastrophic power outage. After the earthquake and tsunami knocked out the electrical grid and backup generators, the Japanese engineers switched to batteries that could last for eight hours, he said.

“In this country, most of our reactors are only designed with battery capacity for four hours,” Lochbaum said. “Many of our reactors are in a situation where earthquakes, or hurricanes in the gulf, or ice storms in the northeast, or a tree in Cleveland, can cause an extensive blackout.”

The 2003 blackout that affected 52 million people across the upper Midwest, New York and parts of Canada was triggered when overheated wires sagged into trees in northeastern Ohio. Nine nuclear units switched to diesel backup generators, which are the size of locomotives without wheels.

Despite the cascade of equipment failures at the Fukushima Daiichi complex, some nuclear experts noted that the fuel rods there, whose temperature could have risen to as high as 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, would lose some of their heat over the next few days and would probably remain encased, even in the worst-case scenario, in a secondary containment structure with several feet of steel and concrete walls.

But the new explosion raises new questions. With it impossible to see into the reactor vessels, officials were in large part speculating about what is happening inside by using a variety of gauges and indicators.

“Let’s hope they can get these reactors under control,” said Richard Lester, head of the department of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “They’re not there yet.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 15 March 2011, 12:01 pm and is filed under
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