Let Tee Keat tell PAC – which of the three Transport Ministers since 2002 must bear greatest responsibility for the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?

The Malaysiakini headline
“Liong Sik’s memory lapse impairs PAC meeting
” tells it all –  and it was what I had anticipated.

In my statement dated
5th July, 200, I had cautioned Ling
 against competing with his old boss, Tun Dr. Mahathir in a contest of selective amnesia when appearing before probes into their dubious past – as
Mahathir had said  “I cannot remember” or its equivalent 14 times
 during his 90-minute testimony before the Lingam Videotape Royal Commission of Inquiry in January last year.

How many times did Ling say “I cannot remember” or its equivalent in his two-hour appearance before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) inquiry into the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal?

I understand that Ling beat Mahathir’s record of selective amnesia at the PAC inquiry yesterday.  With his PAC testimony, Ling has formally inaugurated the Three Tuns for Selective Amnesia  comprising Tun Mahathir, Tun Ling and Tun Eusuff Chin, the former Chief Justice who said “I cannot remember” or its equivalent 18 times in his testimony before the Lingam Videotape Royal Commission of Inquiry last year.

Ling has made a total  mockery of his current position as
Chairman of the Malaysia Mental Literary Movement (MMLM)
 which had been making a splash of publicity recently about mind mapping and developing brain power through brain exercises, unlimited potential of the human mind, ways to unleash it to the fullest as way as memory demonstrations by both the young and old on their mental literacy and ability to remember things.

Only last week, at the opening of the fifth Malaysia Festival of the Mind at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) in Kampar, Nurlina Suraiya Md Sharif 18 and Wong Wan Jiun 24 impressed the Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin when they successfully memorised and recalled an extensive series of words and numbers.

Or is the mental literacy promoted by Ling includes the mental prowess to both remember and forget things?

After Ling’s testimony, PAC Chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid told a press conference that the former MCA President and Transport Minister maintained that the government’s first letter of support for the PKFZ, signed on the advice of the ministry’s secretary-general and legal adviser, was not a letter of guarantee and did not have financial implications for the government.

If Ling is right, then the whole responsibility for the PKFZ scandal would fall on Ling’s successor as Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy, who signed the other three letters of support which landed the country in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ “scandal of all scandals”.

Did Kong Choy sign the rest of the three letters of support also on the advice of the Transport Ministry’s secretary-general and legal adviser in each instance?

The Malaysian public are entitled to know who are the respective secretaries-general and legal advisers when each of the four PKFZ  letters of support were signed by Liong Sik and Kong Choy from 2003 to 2006.

Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, who will be appearing before the PAC in about four hours at 2 pm, should be able to give the PAC these names and whether the three letters of support signed by Kong Choy were all on the advice of the ministry’s secretary general and legal adviser at the time.

Tee Keat has a most important thing to  tell the  PAC – which of the three Transport Ministers since 2002 must bear the greatest responsibility for the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal or is he taking the position that no one need to be held responsible for the RM12.5 billion PKFZ “mother of all scandals” – another “Malaysia Boleh” phenomenon of a “heinous crime without criminals”?

How could Tee Keat, who only became Transport Minister in March 2008 and whose first public statement is to promise to “tell all” about the PKFZ scandal but which he has reneged till today, be involved in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?

This is a question Tee Keat must enlighten PAC and the Malaysian public – especially his answer to my question yesterday, whether he had given the final  approval in May 2008 for the RM1.2 billion variation order by the PKFZ turnkey developer, Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd or he merely acted as postman of Port Klang Authority (PKA) to transmit the PKA approval to the Prime Minister for payment.

Is it true that the Port Klang Authority (PKA) Board in its meeting of February 2008 did not take the final decision to approve the RM1.2 billion KDSB variation order but referred it to the Transport Minister, although the PKA Board recommended approval.?

 If so, did Tee Keat order a full review as to whether the KDSB’s RM1.2 billion variation order is justified and in order or whether he just approved it blindly by forwarding it to the then Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi?

If Tee Keat gave the final approval for the RM1.2 billion KDSB variation order and had not ordered a review of its accuracy and validity, why not?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 July 2009, 9:57 am and is filed under
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Meeting with Hishammuddin on the need for a new IGP to fulfill Najib’s pledge of “People First. Performance Now” and provide new police leadership and culture to reverse the tide of crime in the past five years

I propose to meet the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein on the need for the country to have a new Inspector-General of Police to fulfill Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s pledge of “People First. Performance Now” and to provide new police leadership and culture to reverse the tide of crime in the past five years.

I will seek confirmation that Hishamuddin is backing Tan Sri Musa Hassan’s renewal for another term as Inspector-General of Police although he failed on all counts in his three years as IGP (one year as IGP and two years as renewal of his term) on what the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission have outlined as the three core functions of an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service – to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and protect human rights.

Musa is now talking about the police giving priority to stamp out street crimes, when this is one of his greatest failures as IGP in the past three years.

I don’t think Musa himself can remember the number of times he had declared an “all-out war against crime” in the past three years which have all ended up in “all thunder but no rain”!

If an IGP with such dismal KPIs on the core functions of the police service could have his term renewed a second time, all the talk of Prime Minister Najib of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” would be totally discredited.

Dare Musa make public his report card of what he had achieved in his three years as IGP in the three core police functions outlined by the Police Royal Commission?

Is Hishammuddin seriously suggesting that none of the other nine top police officers occupying key police positions below the post of IGP are not qualified or competent enough to become the new IGP to provide a new police leadership and culture to roll back the tide of crime in the past five years?

According to the police website, these nine top police officers are:

Tan Sri Ismail bin Hj. Omar (Deputy Inspektor General, Timbalan Ketua Polis Negara)

CP Dato’ Zul Hasnan Najib bin Baharudin (Pengarah Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Narkotik)

CP Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri bin Zinin (Pengarah Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah)

CP Dato’ Abdul Razak bin Bokhari (Pengarah Jabatan Pengurusan)

CP Datuk Seri Ramli bin Shaari (Pengarah Cawangan Khas)

CP Dato’ Hussin bin Hj. Ismail (Pengarah Jabatan KDN/KA)

CP Dato’ Koh Hong Sun (Pengarah Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Komersil)

CP Dato’ Mashuri bin Zainal (Pengarah Jabatan Logistik)

CP Dato’ Mohamad Fuzi bin Harun [Pengarah Pasukan Petugas Khas (Operasi/Counter Terrorism)]

In this connection, why has the government resorted to the unsatisfactory practice of invariably appointing a new Inspector-General of Police from officers who have only one or two years of service left, and even with extension are only likely  to become time-servers rather than visionary leaders without the time frame to carry out any long-term planning and implementation of police reforms?

Do away with any extension for IGPs. Instead, appoint an IGP who would have longer span of service to carry out long-term planning and implementation of police reforms.

The country’s most famous IGP was Tun Hanif Omar who was appointed IGP at the age of 35 in June 1974 and went on to serve with distinction for two decades until his retirement in January 1994. May be 20 years is too long for anyone to become an IGP, but one year or two years are downright ridiculous!

I have been
baffled by reports that the Police Force Commission
, which is constitutionally responsible for the appointment and emplacement of members of the police force, has backed a second extension of the service of Musa as the country’s IGP in September.

I have three questions:

When did the Police Force Commission meet and endorsed Musa’s extension as IGP?

What were the reasons for the Police Force Commission’s decision to back Musa’s extension as IGP, are they in line with the “People First. Performance Now” motto of the Prime Minister, could these reasons be made public and can they withstand public scrutiny?

How can the Police Force Commission recommend the extension of Musa’s service as IGP when Musa is himself a member of the Commission?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 July 2009, 12:25 pm and is filed under
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Parental campaign for option for their children to be taught maths and science in English in primary and secondary students should be respected by Cabinet Ministers and MPs

A parent C.W. Leong today sent me a petition he had started in his son’s school in Subang Jaya canvassing support for parents to be given the option for their children to be taught mathematics and science in English in primary and secondary schools, reporting good response.

This is Leong’s message to all parents who are against the abolishment of teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI):

We are the silent majority.

Our mistake is, we did not lobby loud enough in the first place.

This is a signature campaign to appeal to the Minister of Education, to review the decision to abolish PPSMI,

MOST IMPORTANTLY AT THE SECONDARY SCHOOL LEVEL

Give parents the option to choose English.

This campaign is by parents concerned for their children’s education.

Many parents are doing something similar to this in schools all over the country.

The more action taken, the better will be the results.

Please forward to as many parents as possible, and get as many signatures as possible.

Then send the petition to the address shown in the pdf attachment.

If you feel like handing in personally to the Ministry, by all means do so.

I have received the
pdf file
 he attached as follows:

This is a signature campaign initiated by parents who support the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English (PPSMI).

This is an appeal to the Minister of Education, to review the decision to abolish PPSMI, most importantly at the Secondary School Level.

Give Parents the option to choose English.

Please sign the petition attached, get as many signatures as possible.

Send the cover letter together with the signatures to the Minister of Education as soon as possible.

You may also wish to forward copies of the petition to Tun Dr. Mahathir who strongly advocates the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English.

Send to:

Y.A.B. TAN SRI DATO’ HAJI MUHYIDDIN BIN MOHD. YASSIN

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, MINISTER OF EDUCATION

Deputy Prime Minister’s Office,

Level 4 West Block, Perdana Putra Building,

Federal Government Administrative Centre,

62502 Putrajaya,

Malaysia

Forward to:

YABhg Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad

Yayasan Kepimpinan Perdana

No. 1, Jalan P8H, Precinct 8,

Putrajaya,

62250 Wilayah Persekutuan,

Malaysia

Y.A.B. TAN SRI DATO’ HAJI MUHYIDDIN BIN MOHD. YASSIN

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER, MINISTER OF EDUCATION

Deputy Prime Minister’s Office,

Level 4 West Block, Perdana Putra Building,

Federal Government Administrative Centre,

62502 Putrajaya, MALAYSIA 13 Julai, 2009

Yang Amat Berhormat,

Per: Rayuan Pengekalan PPSMI

Kami, ibu bapa ingin merayu kepada pihak Kementerian Pelajaran supaya mengkaji semula keputusan memansuhkan PPSMI.

Kami berharap pihak kementerian akan mengekalkan PPSMI, terutamanya di peringkat sekolah menengah.

Pertimbangan daripada Yang Amat Berhormat amat dihargai.

Sekian, terima kasih.

Yang ikhlas,

Bersama ini dikepilkan tandatangan ibu bapa yang menyokong rayuan ini.

Ibu bapa yang menyokong Pengajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris

Parents who support Teaching of Science and Mathematics in English

Petisyen Rayuan kepada Menteri Pendidikan supaya mengkaji semula keputusan memansuhkan PPSMI, terutamnya di peringkat sekolah menengah.

Petition to appeal to the Minister of Education, to review the decision to abolish PPSMI, most importantly in secondary school.

No.

 Nama/Name

Tandatangan/Signature

NRIC

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

The parental campaign for option for their children to be taught maths and science in English in primary and secondary students should be respected by the Cabinet Ministers, government and MPs.

I am disappointed that the Cabinet yesterday failed to have the political courage to admit that it had made a bad decision the previous week as to come up with the world’s most crazy educational system where students in Form 4 in 2012 will have to switch to Bahasa Malaysia for mathematics and science in the last two years of secondary education, after nine years of learning these two subjects in English – again to switch back to English for the next five or six years for pre-university and tertiary education!

Under this crazy education system, Chinese primary school students who join Form 1 this year after six years of maths and science taught in the mother tongue, will learn these two subjects in English for the next three years, and again forced to switch to Bahasa Malaysia in medium of instruction in Forms 4 and 5, before switching back to English for another five or six years in pre-university and tertiary education for maths and science.

If there is a competition to devise the most exquisite form  of mental torture of Malaysian school-children, those who devise such a crazy educational system of multiple flip-flops in medium of instruction in maths and science will win the  gold prize!

Since former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir started a poll on his blog a week ago for visitors to vote whether they supported or opposed the Cabinet decision to teach mathematics and science in Bahasa Malaysia, as of 3.15  pm today, 96,182 had voted with 86% (82,944) opposed to the move and 14% (13,238) supportive of Bahasa Malaysia.

The reasons which have been given by Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to justify the Cabinet decision to replace English with Bahasa Malaysia as medium of instruction for mathematics and science are most wobbly and totally unconvincing whether in logic or educational principles.

Muhyiddin acknowledged that Mahathir’s vision for PPSMI was more to enable Malaysians to have a better grasp of scientific, technological and mathematical knowledge, but pointed out that “we do not have the means to do it”. (New Sunday Times 12.7.09).

Muhyiddin is wrong. Malaysia has the means to do it and more to join Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan to become the world’s top nations in maths and science – provided we have a Cabinet of broad-minded and far-sighted leaders who are prepared to modify its disastrous PPSMI decision last week, viz:

Abolition of PPSMI from Standard One from all national, Chinese and Tamil primary schools to revert to the use of mother tongue as medium of instruction for these two subjects.

This argument does not apply for children whose home language is the English language or a total immersion education system is adopted with English as medium of instruction.  For this reason, there should be option for parents to decide for their children to be taught in English for these two subjects both for  primary and secondary.

Use of English as medium of instruction for mathematics and science in secondary and tertiary education.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 July 2009, 3:47 pm and is filed under
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The next general election is for Pakatan Rakyat to lose

by
Hussein Hamid

I could write about what Anwar (as in Ibrahim) and what he represents for the many Malaysians who yearns for a Malaysia that is free from corruption, nepotism and all the promises that a ‘Man who would be King’ can promise before his ascent to the throne..but I will not.

I can write about Mahathir and what he has done for our country in the years he has been in power – that he has made Malaysia into a conglomerate that made strange bedfellows of business and politics – where his brand of ‘take no prisioners’ reign tolerated no opposition to his rule – where UMNO and himself was the ruler par excellance…but I will not.

I can write about Pak Lah who came in with a bang and left without even a whimper…but I will not.

I can write about Najib, Rosmah, Altantuya, leaping frogs and things that go bump in the night – but I will not.

I am no card carrying member of the “I am a Melayu/Bumiputra” brigade but I am a Melayu that has benefited greatly from the largeness of UMNO in the years that it has effectively dominated the politics of our country.

The ills that are now so self evident in our country, in the systems that prevails in the country, in the Police, in the failure of so many of our leaders to lead by examples, in the virtual breakdown of our own self belief that we as Malaysians can get a fair deal from our elected leaders is a manifestations of the many years that we have allowed UMNO to appoint leaders who have put self preservation before country. UMNO is the Political Party that the Malays had to have so that in time they will understand that the Politics of greed and avarice will not only bring a country to its knees but also mean the Malays has lost it’s place in a country that they once call their own. That we, as a race, have to pay so heavy a price for the follies of our elected leaders is now a reality.

But the future has overtaken us. The Malays are no longer alone in proclaiming that Malaysia is their country. They are others who have earned that right because over the years they choose to make Malaysia their home. Too many Malays now understand that the division between “them” and “us’ no longer exists. We are one. Together we want change and it will come – but the process of growing up is one of trial and errors, making informed choices of what is the right thing to do for our country and most critical, the tolerance and acceptance and celebration of one another as being different and yet united in wanting what is good for our country and for us.

We have begun the journey. Pak Lah started us on that journey when he unwittingly opened the way towards openness and decency in the way things were done. Anwar was release, the media could and did say things they could not say before, his Ministers, MB’s and UMNO itself were unshackled and were given enough rope to act as they think fit (and in the process, as we had hoped, hanged themselves). The last General Election is in large parts, a result of these changes that was only possible when Pak Lah took his place in our history books – albeit at the expense of UMNO, Barisan and some say, the Malays. But for most Malays it is a small price to pay for our entry into a real partnership with the others in Malaysia as we enter into an era of accountability and responsibility in the Governance of our Country that we now expect from those whom we elect as leaders – be it from Barisan or Pakatan Rakyat.

Pakatan Rakyat will need to negotiate a steep learning curve as it come to terms with what it can and what it cannot do when in power. There will be opportunities to enrich themselves beyond what mere mortals can only dream of and some amongst them will succumb to the temptations. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely – again the heady emotions of wielding power at State level will make anyone salivate at the thoughts of wielding power at the Federal Level – what will they do to make that a reality? Do what UMNO has done? God forbids !! Common sense tells us that ‘good intentions’ alone will not hold Pakatan Rakyat together. What will? The spoils of wars? Much too soon the unraveling of Pakatan Rakyat has started – what we see and hear in public must surely be the tip of the iceberg. The union is too fragile and without cohesion to survive effectively unless there is unity in purpose. I hope I am wrong but this I know. The next election is there for Pakatan to lose.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 July 2009, 5:00 am and is filed under
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Twitter Updates on twitter.com/limkitsiang

MACC now says TeohBengHuat merely a witness,why was he treated like criminal n interrogated from 7pm till 4am? What happened 2criminals?

07/16/2009 10:07 PM

Flowers candles and pictures of TeoBengHock. Assemblywoman for Subang Jaya Hannah Yeoh weeping

07/16/2009 09:56 PM

Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud: MP Kota Raja speaking

07/16/2009 09:53 PM

Crowd getting bigger. Klang MP Charles Santiago spoke. State Assemblyman Weng San speaking. Asked MACC on Khir Toyo.

07/16/2009 09:51 PM

MB Khalid, Excos Teresa, Auyong, Ronnie, MPs Gobind Tony, Nie Ching SAs Jenice Nik Nazmi at the demo. Police light strike force just arrived

07/16/2009 09:37 PM

An instant peaceful multiracial demonstrations by hundreds against unusual death of TeoBengHock at MACC going on now at Shah Alam MACC hqrs

07/16/2009 09:24 PM

Nazri said don’t blame MACC for TeoBengHock’s death at MACC. Should blame b directed at Nazri as Minister in charge or PM Najib himself?

07/16/2009 09:20 PM

Will MACC Chief Commissioner Ahmad Said visit TeohLengHwee family 2explain how BengHock died in MACC? Can MACC disclaim responsibility?

07/16/2009 08:49 PM

Arrogant MACC officer on TV said innocent will be freed n wrongdoers charged. Why not 1 BN Minister Dy Min, MB, CM, Exco treated this way?

07/16/2009 08:38 PM

Spoke 2 aggrieved father,TeohLeongHwee taxidriver in shock  He wants to know what actually happened – like all Malaysians.Blackday 4Malaysia

07/16/2009 08:32 PM

 As 1st MACC n unusual death, acid test 4 MACC, Police n PM Najib. Will Najib order public inquiry inline with “People 1st. Performance Now”?

07/16/2009 08:20 PM

BenHock family/relatives demand justice which is the demand of all justice-loving Malaysians regardless of race/religion. MACC in the dock

07/16/2009 08:17 PM

Kerk in Alor Gajah w BengHock’s parents. BengHock’s mother crying non-stop since told of his death at 5 pm. Family n relatives in shock

07/16/2009 08:10 PM

Puchong MP Gobind Singh Deo phoned from MACC Shah Alam. Police have brought in second forensic team. We r asking 4independent forensic exam

07/16/2009 07:49 PM

Ronnie Liu still at Selangor MACC hqrs.4 3 hrs Selangor DAP Excos MPs Speaker SAs n BengHock’s brother not allowed 2have sight of body.

Thursday, July 16, 2009 18:55

Kerk Kim Hock, exDAP SG n MP is related to BengHock. Phoned n expressed his disbelief n shock. Nationwide outrage. How come MACC!

Thursday, July 16, 2009 18:52

Spoke 2BengHock elder brother BengKee 33 who rushed over from his workplace in ShahAlam. BengHock from Alor Gajah is 2register 4wedding tmr

Thursday, July 16, 2009 18:43

Imagine MACC investigating “corruption” over cars n cows n a death in MACC custody takes place! Is this acceptable?Let there be no cover up!

Thursday, July 16, 2009 18:15

Anwar n other Pakatan Rakyat leaders will also be at Selangor MACC Shah Alam hqrs at 10 am MACC must prove it has not become another monster

Thursday, July 16, 2009 18:12

Will take 1st flight from Penang tmr n be at Selangor  MACC Shah Alam hqrs 10 am to find out more about TeoBengHock’s death in MACC custody

Thursday, July 16, 2009 18:10

What was MACC investigating 2 take a life? RM12.5b PKFZ scandal?No. Alleged state assembly rep constituency allocations!

Thursday, July 16, 2009 18:04

How did Sel Exco/Serdang SA Ean Yong Hian Wah’s political secretary Teo Beng Hock in custody at 14th fl Sel MACC Hqrs died from fall?

Thursday, July 16, 2009 17:37

At Shah Alam MACC now are Sel. Exco Auyong, Ronnie Liu, Speaker Teng Assemblyman Swee Lin. Is MACC acting outside the law?

Thursday, July 16, 2009 17:24

For 90 minutes,not a single MACC officer in Selangor MACC Shah Alam hqrs 14th floor would confirm or deny whether there is death in custody

Thursday, July 16, 2009 17:23

Am in Penang or I would have rushed over to MACC Selangor hqrs in Shah Alam. Awaiting full report of tragedy. What has this country come to?

Thursday, July 16, 2009 17:05

Is there now the first case of death in custody, not police but MACC? If so, heads must roll!

Thursday, July 16, 2009 17:03

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 July 2009, 7:04 pm and is filed under
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Doing the nation a favour, the Najib way

by Augustine Anthony

First it was Yb Lim Kit Siang and now  Yb M. Kulasegaran joining the concern few leaders of the opposition that prime minister Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak’s popularity is a warning to the bickering politicians within the opposition  to  put aside their  differences and present a united and strong opposition or face irrelevance.

Beyond the warring ruling and opposition parties, it must be noted that the approval rating for the prime minister in reality augurs well for the nation as a whole for various reasons among others.

That such high approval rating of 65% within the first 100 days and the need to maintain a continuing rise in the approval rating of the prime minister throughout the period leading to the 13th general election will from now onwards be keenly observed by Malaysians.

Failure to maintain the status quo or to better it will lead the general public to view the prime minister as being unable to bring lasting reforms to our oversized and pregnant civil service that is often perceived as lacking the needed integrity and efficiency. This does not and will not benefit the ruling Barisan Nasional government in their quest to retain power.

In order to maintain 65% or more percentage of approval rating, the prime minister must now continue to introduce and implement policies that will benefit the majority of the people. We are only at the announcements stage that must be met with delivery soon. Good news for the people I should think.

One must also remember that this approval rating is for the prime minister alone and not for the entire Barisan Nasional lawmakers. The performances of many of them certainly need acute improvements. The prime minister cannot stand alone. Any unpopular and non performing members of the ruling party must now match and equal the approval rating of the prime minister. It is a daunting task for Barisan Nasional and a stressful expectation for the people.

We should never forget that the approval rating is also a reflection of the maturity and rapid growth in the political awareness and intelligence of the demanding Malaysian voting population.

In one such stroke of brilliance, the Malaysian voting population had “killed many birds” two of which are noteworthy:-

The ruling government must now continue to deliver and deliver more, in fierce and urgent manner and this can only be done by revamping the entire delivery system of our civil service saddled with many administrative dead woods that remain a major stumbling block in our push to be declared as a developed nation.

This approval rating is also seen as the people relaying a gentle reminder to the opposition parties that they must now compete with Barisan Nasional to better serve the people and that they will only be voted in if they can position themselves as an efficient, effective and viable alternative.

The final analysis is that a prosperous nation requires effective and ethical administrators and a competent opposition that will maintain an ever watchful eye on the ruling elites.

In a country where there is now an increasing demand for a greater competency, accountability and transparency, such competition among the political parties and their leaders will only benefit the nation.

May the best man dance with the ‘bride’.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 17 July 2009, 9:03 am and is filed under
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Teoh Beng Hock’s first death in MACC custody defining test for MACC and Najib’s commitment to accountability, transparency and rule of law

The first death in Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) custody, Teoh Beng Hock, political secretary to DAP Selangor State Exco and Seri Kembangan Assemblyman, Ean Yong Hian Wah, is the defining test for the MACC as to its independence and professionalism as well as for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s commitment to accountability, transparency and the rule of law.

The heartless, cruel and insensitive statement by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz on Teoh’s death has aggravated the outrage of ordinary Malaysians regardless of race and religion demanding full accountability and transparency as to how an idealistic political activist who is to register his civil marriage the next day could take his own life after oppressive overnight questioning allegedly from 6 pm to 4 am by the MACC as a witness and not as an accused!

Nazri said he was informed by the MACC that Teoh was released earlier yesterday morning, and he should have gone home instead and asked:  “
How would we know that he would jump out of the building
” (
PDF
)?

He said Pakatan Rakyat should not blame MACC for Teoh’s death.

My three responses are:

Firstly, how did Nazri know that Teoh “jumped out” of the 14th floor of the building?

Secondly, it is not just Pakatan Rakyat but the overwhelming majority of Malaysians who blame MACC for Teoh’s death for the simple reason that Teoh was in the custody and premises of MACC when he plunged to his death from the 14th storey MACC office, and after being subjected to an unusual and oppressive overnight interrogation by MACC from 6 pm to 4 am when he was not a suspect but only a witness;

Thirdly, if MACC is not to be blamed for Teoh’s death, is the blame to be directed to Nazri as the Minister responsible for MACC or to Prime Minister Najib himself?

As I told the Selangor MACC Director Ja’afar bin Mahad this morning, unless MACC can come out with a convincing and satisfactory explanation for Teoh’s death, MACC’s present story disclaiming responsibility does not sell and public perception throughout the country is that this is the first case of MACC custody death, which will do irreparable damage to what is already a very poor image of MACC after six months of operation.

I am very disappointed by the meeting at MACC Shah Alam headquarters this morning between Pakatan Rakyat leaders, namely Parliamentary Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng, Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and myself with Ja’afar.

Ja’afar said he was instructed not to say anything as Teoh’s death is under police investigations.

It is most regrettable that MACC Deputy Commissioner Datuk Abu Kassim Mohammad was not present at the meeting in Shah Alam although I had fixed the appointment with him yesterday over phone. This is blatant irresponsibility coming from the No. 2 in MACC.

Parliament had set up the MACC to wipe out the corrupt and not to murder any Malaysian – and the onus is on MACC to prove that it has not deviated from the parliamentary and national objectives of the MACC to spearhead the war against corruption instead of its declaring war against the Pakatan Rakyat as the catspaw of UMNO/Barisan Nasional.

When the MACC Bill was introduced in Parliament last December, Abu Kassim said that under the new legislation, five bodies will closely watch over the MACC to ensure its transparency and integrity.

These five bodies are: Anti-Corruption Advisory Board; Special Committee on Corruption; Operations Review Panel; Corruption Prevention and Consultative Panel; and a Complaints Committee.

Abu Kassim publicly declared at the time that with these five scrutinizing bodies, the MACC would not be accused of being the “lapdog” of the government as its predecessor the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) had been accused in the past.

But this has proved to be a empty rhetoric, as half a year after its establishment, MACC has proven to be even worse than ACA in being the “lapdog” of the Barisan Nasional government especially in the blatant manner it has declared war on the Pakatan Rakyat, particularly in Selangor!

The five MACC scrutinizing bodies, particularly the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board and Special Committee on Corruption should just disband if they are totally impotent to check the MACC deviations and abuses of power so early in its establishment.

Najib has just completed his First Hundred Days with a redound in his popularity rating, but he is heading for the doldrums if he condones any cover-up in the first death in MACC custody in the case of Teoh.

The first thing Najib should do on his return from his trip overseas for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting is to announce the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry to conduct a full public inquiry to get to the bottom of Teoh’s extraordinary plunge to death from the 14th floor-MACC Building in Shah Alam yesterday.

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Friday, 17 July 2009, 3:19 pm and is filed under
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Which is better, learning maths and science in Bahasa Malaysia or in English?

By Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP life adviser

THE CRUX OF THE PRESENT CONTROVERSY IS WHICH IS BETTER, TO STUDY MATHS & SCIENCE IN BAHASA OR TO STUDY MATHS AND SCIENCE IN ENGLISH?

So as not to confuse the issue, it is necessary to point out the fact that all are agreed that Malaysian students must study Bahasa Malaysia and be fluent with the language.

It is also generally accepted that students should study English as it is the common language in the world and it is the language of commerce, diplomacy, of business and in science and technology.

For some mistaken rationale, the Ministry of Education has after months of debate and dialogue decided that students should use Bahasa to teach Maths and Science in secondary schools.

This has caused considerable disbelief and distress among many parents who prefer to have their children learn Maths and Science in English. They want their children to fit into the new world which has become global, and where English is the currency acceptable in most countries and in most fields of human endeavour.

In the new world, Science and Technology is the wave of the future. The industrial age is now replaced by the age of knowledge. In the field of knowledge, world libraries and the internet use the English Language as the primary language of communication. It is a sad fact that the libraries of Malaysian universities have failed to provide adequate Bahasa Malaysia reading material in Science and Technology for our university students.

Their parents are very much aware that their children can have a better chance to equip themselves with science and technology if they are well versed in the English language.

SINGAPORE IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE VALUE OF ENGLISH TO MASTER MATHS AND SCIENCE.

Asia leads the world for having the best students in science and maths, as shown by the 2007 report by TIMSS (TRENDS IN INTERNATIONAL MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE STUDY) .

The international educational scores for 2007 show that Asian countries top the ranking with 1. Chinese Taipei 2. S Korea 3. Singapore 4. Hong Kong 5. Japan 6. Hungary  7. England  8. Russia,  9. United States and 10. Lithuania.

Sadly, Malaysia came in a distant 20th position in Mathematics, compared to 10th in 2003. (see attachment)

The Ministry of Education should look to Asian countries for solutions to the issue of Maths and Science for students in Malaysia.

Learn from our closest neighbour Singapore which took first position in TIMSS 2003 and 3rd position in TIMSS 2007. Singapore teaches maths and science in English.

No one is questioning the sovereignty of Bahasa Malaysia. Maths and Science can be taught in any language, but parents’ choice should be respected.

To join the new global age of a knowledge society it would be in the best interest of Malaysia to encourage students at secondary schools to learn Maths and Science in English.

This is very true for rural and kampong students who can benefit immensely by learning maths and science at secondary schools. We want them to be in the mainstream of global advancement, and empower them with Science to take a rightful place in a knowledge society.

Ensure Malaysia will join the ranks of top asian countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, rather then being in the company of third world countries, by allowing Maths and Science in English in Secondary schools from Form 1 to Form 5.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 17 July 2009, 5:00 am and is filed under
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A sobering thought

by Hussein Hamid

At what stage in his tenure as Prime Minister did Mahathir decided that the end justifies the means? When he did that he threw away accountability and responsibility of his actions to the people. It is one thing for a businessman to take chances in making his business decisions because the consequences of his actions, good or bad, will be for him and him alone to bear – and another when the consequences of your actions affects the nation. There must have come a time when Mahathir had some self doubts as to the rightness of his decision making process – he was wrong with Musa, with Anwar, with Pak Lah.  He was wrong with Eric Cheah, Abdullah Ang, Tajuddin Ramli. He was wrong about Privatization…or if you want to be tedious – the implementation of it was flawed. But what I would want to pin him to is that he was the one who brought the culture of materialism into the UMNO physce and in so doing, into the Malay consciousness – and by default, into the minds of the people. When you decide that the acquisition of material wealth is the path you want to take in your life, then whatever you do from then on, will reflect the importance of that choice in your life…and that my friend has been the undoing of UMNO and the many other things that is now wrong with our country. No longer will decency, family values, religion, honour, duty to country and all those values that hold together the fabric of society be considered important. Look at Khir Toyo – what need is there for him to acquire and flaunt such trappings of wealth with his new found wealth (while he was MB) with such haste. Did it ever occur to him that there would be questions asked or has the actions of other leaders that went before him precluded the need to hide his ill gotten gains? Greed is good? Yes Proton, KLCC, KLIA, the many many Highways that were built, and so many mega projects etc etc all these are Mahathir’s legacies…
but the actual costs to the nation is too much for us to bear. When we sit at the
kedai kopi
 we talk about how we could get our hands on some AP’s, how to secure that ‘negotiated’ tender for the mega project, how the brother of a certain political secretary could have got himself two Brabus. The list is endless but always the underlying factor is the acquisition of material wealth…and for that Mahathir we hold you responsible. The end does not justifies the means – not when it is ultimately the majority of the people who will pay for the excesses of a few. Now who will have the task of making things right?

I sat down with me, myself and I to ponder this. We need to look beyond Mahyudin. Najib is already PM – a fait accompli. Mahuyuddin will want his time as PM too – but beyond that is still open season. I said that maybe further down the line, a Chinese might become the PM. Myself said that if Obama is President of the US of A then why not a non Bumi as our PM?….but Me said that it was not constitutionally possible for that to happen – but he could not come up with specifics. Then we looked at each other and realized what we were saying. “A Chinese or Indian as PM of Malaysia? Where got
Jalan
?”  Yes we have begun to think the impossible. Yes my friends we need to start thinking about things we have never thought before if we are to enter into the 21st Century. The world is changing around us – we want and need what is best for our country. We need the best in our country to lead us – we deserve nothing less.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 July 2009, 4:39 pm and is filed under
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Justice for Beng Hock Memorial Vigil

Venue : Stadium Kelana Jaya

Date : 19 July 2009, Sunday

Time : 4.30pm

Attire : Black

Enquiries: 03-79578022

Top Pakatan Rakyat leaders, NGOs leaders will be present

(
Sticky post – scroll down for new posts
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View
DAP’s Point of Interest
 in a larger map

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 July 2009, 12:23 pm and is filed under
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LKS wants to meet Najib at the first available opportunity after his overseas trip

Note: This fax was sent at 9.38am

18hb Julai 2009

Y.A.B. DATO’ SRI MOHD. NAJIB BIN TUN HAJI ABDUL RAZAK

Perdana Menteri Malaysia

Pejabat Perdana Menteri,

Blok Utama, Bangunan Perdana Putra,

Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan,

62502 PUTRAJAYA.

Menerusi Fax (603-8888 3444) & Emel (
[email protected]
)

YAB Dato’ Seri,

Per: Meminta satu perjumpaan dengan YAB segera

Saya menulis untuk meminta supaya satu perjumpaan dengan YAB boleh diaturkan secepat mungkin selepas kepulangan YAB dari lawatan ke luar negara.

Ini adalah mengenai isu kematian misteri salah seorang pembantu Exco Negeri Selangor, En Teo Beng Hock, di sekitar Ibu Pejabat Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia (SPRM) Selangor semasa memberikan penerangan di pejabat berkenaan pada hari Khamis, 16 Julai 2009. Insiden ini telah mencetuskan perasaan takut dan curiga orang ramai terhadap kebolehpercayaan SPRM khasnya dan pihak penguatkuasa kerajaan amnya dalam menjaga kepentingan rakyat dan negara.

Diharap YAB akan mengizinkan permintaan ini.

Sekian, terima kasih.

Yang benar,

Lim Kit Siang

Ketua Parlimen

Parti Tindakan Demokratik

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 July 2009, 7:33 pm and is filed under
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Najib should emulate his father Tun Razak and appoint a new IGP still with four or five years of service brimming with ideas to plan out and implement police reforms

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should start the new practice of appointing a new Inspector-General of Police still with four or five years of service brimming with ideas to plan out and implement police reforms instead of the current practice of appointing senior police officers left with one or two years’ service more interested about post-retirement arrangements.

This issue becomes very pertinent at a time when the Prime Minister must appoint a new IGP or give Tan Sri Musa Hassan a second extension as IGP.

Musa’s Hassan further extension as IGP is highly objectionable for two reasons:

Firstly, it makes nonsense of Najib’s pledge of “People First. Performance Now” and his commitment that his administration gives top priority to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), when Musa’s KPIs as IGP in the past three years are one of dismal failure.

If proof is needed, just look at the crime situation today as compared to the scenario and targets worked out by the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry in 2005.

In fact, under Musa, Malaysians are even more unsafe from street crimes now than when he became IGP in September5 2006.  Can Musa or the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein prove me wrong.

I am prepared to have a public debate with Musa or Hishammuddin to substantiate my statement that Musa had failed as IGP as he flopped badly in all the three core functions highlighted by the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission of Inquiry as most important – to keep crime low, to eradicate corruption and to protect human rights.

Secondly, the re-appointment of Musa for another term of IGP cast an adverse aspersion on all the senior police officers, as if there is not a single one out of the eight top police officers occupying key police positions below the post of IGP who are qualified or competent enough to become the new IGP to provide a new police leadership and culture to roll back the tide of crime in the past five years.

According to the police website, these eight top police officers are:

Tan Sri Ismail bin Hj. Omar (Deputy Inspektor General, Timbalan Ketua Polis Negara)

CP Dato’ Zul Hasnan Najib bin Baharudin (Pengarah Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Narkotik)

CP Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri bin Zinin (Pengarah Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah)

CP Dato’ Abdul Razak bin Bokhari (Pengarah Jabatan Pengurusan)

CP Datuk Seri Ramli bin Shaari (Pengarah Cawangan Khas)

CP Dato’ Hussin bin Hj. Ismail (Pengarah Jabatan KDN/KA)

CP Dato’ Koh Hong Sun (Pengarah Jabatan Siasatan Jenayah Komersil)

CP Dato’ Mashuri bin Zainal (Pengarah Jabatan Logistik)

CP Dato’ Mohamad Fuzi bin Harun [Pengarah Pasukan Petugas Khas (Operasi/Counter Terrorism)]

Najib should be bold to do what is right for the country. Just emulate his father, second Prime Minister Tun Razak and do he would have done in the circumstances.

Tun Razak would never have entertained the notion of extending the services of IGPs for Tengku Razaleigh is right when he criticised the deplorable practice of  “extensions becoming routine”.

In his blog, Razaleigh wrote:

Of late there has been a tendency for the Government to routinely extend and re-extend the service of top civil servants scheduled for retirement.

Extension of service is meant be an extraordinary measure. It is in danger of becoming the norm. This is bad practice.

Among the reasons which Razaleigh had rightly argued against such extensions are:

It politicizes the leadership of a service that has its own processes and criteria for promotion. Those extended become, in effect, political appointees with rather  cosy relations with the political bosses who determine these extensions.

Public servants owe their allegiance to King and country, not to politicians. It is by an accumulation of bad practices like this that the once independent ethos of the civil service has been eroded.

It is highly disruptive in a system that promotes by seniority. Promotions are log-jammed all the way down the line.  People are not developed on schedule, and their pay and prospects are retarded. Those near retirement lose out on seniority and the  pension that they would otherwise have retired with. An extension for one favoured official means a promotion freeze, with all the career frustration this entails, for hundreds of others down the line.

It contradicts our talk of developing talent. It cannot be that no replacement good enough could be found from among the swollen ranks awaiting promotion.

We are on our way to creating cults of personality in a service that used to pride itself on impersonal professionalism. Feudal expectations of indefinite incumbency, justified by manufactured media approval, are being imported from the Executive into the civil service. There is a reason why bureaucrats are rotated regularly. Since Ancient China people have understood that officials too long incumbent are tempted to carve out empires for themselves.

In fact, Tun Razak was the one who appointed the youngest and the most famous IGP in the nation’s history, Tun Hanif Omar who was appointed IGP at the age of 35 in June 1974 and went on to serve with distinction for two decades until his retirement in January 1994. May be 20 years is too long for anyone to become an IGP, but one year or two years as IGP are downright ridiculous!

Up to now, Hishammuddin who is Chairman of the Police Force Commission in his capacity as Home Minister is unable to explain why he and the Police Force Commission supports Musa for another term as IGP when his term expires in September.

Can Hishammuddin answer:

When did the Police Force Commission meet and endorsed Musa’s extension as IGP.

What were the reasons for the Police Force Commission’s decision to back Musa’s extension as IGP, are they in line with the “People First. Performance Now” motto of the Prime Minister, could these reasons be made public and can they withstand public scrutiny?

How can the Police Force Commission recommend the extension of Musa’s service as IGP when Musa is himself a member of the Commission?

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 July 2009, 12:02 pm and is filed under
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Najib will lose credibility and wipe out all the popularity ratings he clawed back from 45% to 65% just before end of his First Hundred Days if there is no Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh Beng Hock’s extraordinary plunge to death  from 14th floor MACC hqrs

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak should be forewarned that he will lose credibility and wipe out all the popularity ratings he clawed back from 45% to 65% just before the end of his First Hundred Days if there is no Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Teoh Beng Hock’s extraordinary plunge to death from 14th floor Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Shah Alam on Thursday.

Any refusal to establish a RCI into the unusual death of the political secretary to DAP Selangor State Exco and Seri Kembangan Assemblyman, Ean Yong Hian Wah, will be regarded by a very skeptical public that the Najib administration is not prepared to come clean in the first case of death in MACC custody, occurring on the 105th day of Najib as Prime Minister.

After the scandal of the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s “black eye” while in police custody in 1998, which  Anwar was accused of having inflicted on himself, there is just no public trust that the police can be depended on its independence, impartiality and professionalism when dealing with politically high-profile cases – like the present Teoh case.

Who will believe Teoh, 30 would commit suicide by leaping from the 14th floor of MACC headquarters when he is to register his marriage to teacher Soh Cher Wei, 28 the next day and that  Soh is two-month pregnant?

Now, taxi-driver Teoh Leong Hui and his wife Cheong Sui Hua, 56, have lost a beloved son, Soh a husband and the unborn child a father!  Who is responsible for such a despicable and dastardly deed?

Kajang municipal councillor
Tan Boon Hwa, had recounted his ordeal when questioned as a witness by the MACC
, how two MACC officers used questionable interrogation techniques in trying to extract false confession from him, pressuring him to deny that he supplied 1,500 national flags for a Merdeka function at the Sri Kembangan state constituency.

During the interrogation, the MACC officers used the ‘good cop, bad cop’ technique; initially being polite but later switching to verbally abusing him and making him to stand for four hours between 10pm to 2am.

Tan was questioned on the same day Teoh Beng Hock was also interrogated by MACC.

Tan said he  was threatened with physical violence, with one officer pointing to his forehead and allegedly saying, “You don’t lie. This is my place. I can hit you. Believe me!”

During interrogations, he said other officers would randomly walk into the room to mock his poor command of Bahasa Malaysia and used derogatory terms such as “
Cina bodoh
” (stupid Chinese) and asked him if he was a Chinese citizen.

The worst intimidation, Tan said, were threats to his family which he described as “mental torture”.

Tan said:”They said that if I don’t ‘tell the truth’, they will take away my wife and there would be no one to care for the children. But I did not give in.”

When  he was released the following day (Thursday) at about 1.30pm, Tan said he was asked by MACC staff not to make an issue over their interrogation technique.

But Tan had to speak up after the shocking and mysterious death of Teoh.

What Tan said has the shocking ring of truth as all those who had been subjected to rough, strong-armed and even physically violent interrogation by police and other enforcement agencies can testify. But why has MACC become a new monster on the Malaysian national scene, acting completely outside the law?

What did Teoh go through during the interrogation by MACC officers if Tan had to go through such rough and Gestapo-type of interrogation techniques when both are just witnesses and not suspects?

Where did MACC officers get the authority to use such Gestapo interrogation techniques?

Will the two MACC officers who subjected Tan to subject interrogation be suspended immediately pending investigations?

Will the MACC officers who subjected Teoh to the unusual interrogation for a witness, as to be questioned from 6 pm on Wednesday to 3.45 am on Thursday (on MACC’s own account) be suspended immediately for gross abuse of powers, apart from the actual circumstances leading to the mysterious plunge to death from 14th MACC hqrs?

Will the MACC Chief Commissioner, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan resign in shame at such MACC scandals?

MACC is on trial. Police is on trial. Most importantly, Najib’s new premiership is on trial.

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 18 July 2009, 11:01 am and is filed under
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I will ask Anwar and Hadi to come along to impress on Najib why for the sake of the credibility of MACC and his premiership, there is no option but for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh Beng Hock’s unusual death from plunge from 14th  floor of MACC hqrs

Yesterday morning, I sent an urgent fax to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak asking for a meeting at the first available opportunity on his return from overseas over the unusual plunge to death of Teoh Beng Hock, political secretary to DAP Selangor State Exco and Seri Kembangan Assemblyman, Ean Yong Hian Wah from the 14th floor of Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on Thursday.

I made clear in my fax that the purpose of the meeting is to discuss Teoh’s unusual death in MACC custody which has created nation-wide anger and outrage from Malaysians regardless of race, religion or political affiliation apart from a handful of top MCA, Gerakan, MIC and UMNO leaders.

If I meet Najib on his return from overseas, I will impress on him that the MACC after six months of creation is on trial, the police is on trial and most important of all, Najib’s premiership is on trial in their handling of Teoh’s unusual death and public anger as to how a healthy, vibrant and idealistic young political worker could enter the MACC hqrs as a witness in its investigation only to end up as a corpse in a plunge from the 14th floor of the building.

I am prepared to meet Najib even at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) when he returns from abroad tomorrow.

If Najib agrees to meet, I will ask the Parliamentary Opposition Leader and Parti Keadilan Rakyat  Malaysia Ketua Umum Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and the PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang to come along to impress on Najib why for the sake of the credibility of MACC and his premiership, there is no option but for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh Beng Hock’s unusual death from plunge from 14th  floor of MACC hqrs.

Public confidence in the Cabinet is not enhanced by the schizophrenic and self-serving reactions given by Ministers to Teoh Beng Hock’s death.

I was impressed yesterday that the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was moving away from his earlier dismissal of calls for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh Beng Hock’s death when he said yesterday that requests for a Royal Commission of Inquiry would be discussed in the next Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

But what is most disappointing are the public positions taken by two Cabinet Ministers, one by the Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and the other by the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat.

After keeping a thunderous silence on Thursday and Friday, Ong has come out with a wishy-washy position that the Cabinet will “explore” whether there should be a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh’s death.

What is there to “explore”? What the public want is that Ong and the three other MCA Ministers, as well as Gerakan President, Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon should take a firm stand in Cabinet that a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh’s death should be set up – and that there is no two ways about it.

If on Teoh’s death, Ong and his team of four MCA Ministers and Koh cannot convince the Cabinet to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry, what is the use of their remaining in the Cabinet?

Such a  firm and uncompromising stand must be taken after the shocking statement by Hishammuddin yesterday, who said that the establishment of a royal commission to investigate Teoh’s death should not be done hastily as police investigation into the case was still at the preliminary stage.

Are the MCA and Gerakan Ministers prepared to speak the truth in the Cabinet on Wednesday and convey the total lack of confidence of Malaysians from all racial and religious groups in any political investigation into high-profile cases of deaths in custody – after the outrageous case of Anwar’s “black-eye” scandal while in police custody in 1998, when the police accused Anwar of “self-inflicted” “black-eye” wounds?

Muhyiddin was misleading the public when he said that only the Cabinet can decide on whether there could be public independent inquiry into Teoh’s death.

The Prime Minister has the power to make such a decision and make an announcement even before a Cabinet meeting – which was what former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi did on Monday, 28th November 2005 on touch-down at the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Subang when he returned from the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Malta, announcing an independent public inquiry into the nude ear-squat police scandal ahead of any Cabinet meeting!

Is Najib going to be even less decisive than his predecessor, Abdullah on the need for an  independent public inquiry into scandals involving key enforcement agencies like the Police or MACC, which go to the root of public confidence in the credibility, legitimacy and integrity of the entire administration and his premiership?

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 July 2009, 1:01 pm and is filed under
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Let Us Clean Up The Police Force And MACC To Make Malaysia Safe For Our Children

by
Lim Guan Eng

I do not know Teoh Beng Hock.

But now every Malaysian who reads will know who is Teoh Beng Hock – his open pleasant face, his distraught fiancé and his twisted body lying grotesquely on the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) building imprinted indelibly in our minds.

I vaguely remembered meeting him once. He was one of the many idealistic, bright and young Malaysians who joined the DAP after the political tsunami on 8 March 2008 that transformed our political landscape.

Teoh wanted to participate in the flowering of democracy and forge the real changes that promised equal opportunity, good governance and justice. Teoh wanted to be part of this amazing transformation shaping his country and future. He wanted to serve the public, through his position as a personal assistant to a Selangor State EXCO member.

This wish to serve has tragically cost Teoh his life, taking him away from his loved ones. Denying his parents of a son, his fiancé of her husband and his unborn child of a father.

Teoh is not the only one. Before him there were many others, Indians Malays and Chinese but he was the first DAP member to die so cruelly.

I am still in a state of shock and am terribly upset at the MACC for allowing this to happen when Teoh was under their custody. Much as we know the evil that lurks within our security agencies, we are still shocked at such acts of depravity. Whilst the many officers are decent human beings, it is always the few criminal elements that shatter any belief that our security forces can protect us or genuinely fight corruption.

We can ask the police why they are wasting public resources to arresting PR leaders and members but not focusing their energies on criminals threatening our safety. We can ask the MACC why they are interrogating hapless personal assistants over a few thousand ringgit for 11 hours till 3.45 am(who are not even suspects) but not applying the same harsh approach on those named in the RM 12.5 billion Port Klang Free Trade Zone scandal. We can also ask why the police and MACC allow themselves to be used as political weapons of BN.

But I choose to ask what wrong has Teoh done to deserve this? He did not steal or kill, he was only trying to do his job to serve and change Malaysia.

Which is perhaps why I cry but there are no tears!

Nothing said or done would ever wipe out the tears of Teoh’s loved ones. But if there is one duty we can do is to stop the deaths. To make sure that there are no more bright, young and idealistic Malaysians like Teoh dying in the hands of police or MACC.

This is one duty that all Malaysians whether fathers or mothers, sons or daughters must undertake. That we must clean up the police force and the MACC to make Malaysia safe for our children.

I still see Teoh’s crooked body lying there so helplessly in the MACC building. Like all Malaysians, we feel sad that we got to know Teoh Beng Hock after his death. But the memory of his ultimate sacrifice shall reside in our minds for the rest of our lives. And his dreams of a better Malaysia shall live in our hearts as long as we breathe.

Teoh Beng Hock Rest In Peace!

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 July 2009, 7:12 am and is filed under
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Musa Hassan given 48 hours to announce that he will not seek another renewal of term as IGP or a parliamentary and civil society roundtable for a new IGP to create a safe Malaysia would be convened

I am giving Tan Sri Musa Hassan 48 hours to announce that he will not seek another renewal of term as Inspector-General of Police and will give way to a current serving police officer or a Parliamentary and Civil Society Roundtable for a new IGP to create a safe Malaysia will be convened.

The reasons why the country needs a new IGP would have the support not only of the Malaysian public at large, but also the majority of the police personnel, and would include the following:

Failure of Musa in Key Performance Indicators (KPI) as IGP in the past three years, in all the three core police functions to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and protect human rights. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that under Musa, Malaysians are even more unsafe from street crimes now than when he became IGP in September 5, 2006.

The re-appointment of Musa for another term of IGP cast an adverse aspersion on all the senior police officers, as if there is not a single one out of the eight top police officers occupying key police positions below the post of IGP who are qualified or competent enough to become the new IGP to provide a new police leadership and culture to roll back the tide of crime in the past five years.

I am going one step further, and am asking the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to emulate his father, the second Prime Minister Tun Razak to appoint a new Inspector-General of Police still with four or five years of service brimming with ideas to plan out and implement police reforms instead of the current practice of appointing senior police officers left with one or two years’ service more interested about post-retirement arrangements.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 July 2009, 2:10 pm and is filed under
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Nazri: An unrepentant boor

By Tunku Abdul Aziz

Accustomed as I am to Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz’s often outlandishly over the top and predictably uncharitable innuendoes about people and their integrity, coupled with imputations of improper motives, I was, for all that, flabbergasted to read an account in the New Straits Times of Thursday, July 16, 2009 about Nazri resorting to slanderous language, obviously intended to damage and harm the reputation and standing of three well-known public figures, Tun Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Hanif Omar and Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman, currently Chairman of Suhakam.

Nazri of all people should not be too quick off the mark to denounce the trio or any one else for that matter as “crooks” because I expect he himself would be the last to claim that he is a person of complete moral rectitude and that he has not once offended against the code of ethics of his chosen profession, if one could dignify the practice of politics as a profession, in the best sense of the word.

Before I go on, let me say that Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz has always been kind and courteous to me, a gesture I greatly appreciate and happily reciprocate. I write this more in sorrow than anger.

I would not normally give two hoots about Nazri’s boorish and tiresome behaviour, but when he has the gall to go out of his way to blacken the good name of a distinguished former civil servant and a fine gentleman of great honour and integrity, then I feel duty bound to say that his remarks are clearly beyond the pale. I cannot claim to know the other two gentlemen as well as I have known Hanif, but that does not mean that I am not equally saddened by Nazri’s totally uncalled for remarks about them. Nazri has overstepped the bounds of common decency.

In calling Hanif a “crook,” Nazri has strayed into the realm of intellectual dishonesty. As a minister of the crown, he owes it to them whom he described as “crooks” to justify his unkind and indefensible outburst. However, based on the man’s history of intransigence, it would be totally out of character were he to acknowledge that he had wronged these pillars of society by his mindless utterance. Being sensitive is obviously not his strong point.

Any one who has had the privilege of knowing Hanif will readily understand why he continues to be held in such high esteem long, long after he had retired as the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), a position that in his time represented complete and utter dedication, personal and professional honesty and integrity in discharging his duties and responsibilities. It is worth reminding ourselves that it was not for Tan Sri Hanif, as he then was, to go cap in hand to ask for an extension of contract. He offered voluntarily to step down on at least three occasions, and each time his request was turned own by the Prime Minister of the day.

He was the last of that special breed of distinguished Malaysian IGPs who maintained the honour and prestige of the Royal Malaysia Police. He was without any doubt the most outstanding Malaysian IGP to have served this country.

With possibly one exception, his successors have generally been a disgrace to the King’s uniform. A harsh judgement, perhaps, but I stand by my opinion.

AN EXTENSION FOR THE IGP?

And all this leads me to a consideration of whether the Najib administration should give in to pressure from certain quarters to renew the current IGP’s contract. The Prime Minister I am told keeps his ears close to the ground, and if this is true, then no doubt he must be aware of the sentiments of the overwhelming majority of concerned Malaysians about Tan Sri Musa Hassan’s continued service with the Royal Malaysia Police. No IGP in recent memory has been pilloried to the extent that Musa has been, and for very good reasons. The public perception of both the man and the service he leads has been anything but complimentary.

Najib, the self-anointed reformer, makes some hard choices on a whole range of issues on a daily basis, but in the case of the nation’s IGP, he must listen to what the people are saying. What they are saying is that they do not have any confidence in the ability of the police under the direction of the IGP to confront the country’s criminal elements decisively. The do not believe that the IGP has what it takes to keep this country safe. They fear for their safety, and based on the current state of affairs, this is understandable. Police crime statistics are fine as far as they go, but they are no comfort to those who find themselves crime victims with no prospect of getting police protection in a timely manner.

In short they would like to see a change in the top police leadership. The police must surely have a succession plan. I do not believe that no one is ready to step into Musa’s shoes? What, heaven forbid, if Musa should fall under a bus?

After all, we do have a Deputy IGP, all ready and able, waiting in the wings for the cue to perform. By the law of averages, he cannot be worse that his superior. To extend the IGP’s contract given the prevailing mood is to fly in the face of public opinion. Public opinion does matter.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 19 July 2009, 2:09 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia no longer “Tanah Melayu”

By Azly Rahman

Today is July 19, 2009, 40 years after the May 13, 1969 tragedy.

I dedicate these notes to Teo Beng Hock, a young Malaysian who ought to be an inspiration to many wishing to call Malaysia home.

Because we have agreed to become a country rooted in a social contract that ought to give equality, equity, and equal opportunity to all who have given up their natural rights in exchange for “citizenship” and the rights of the State to tax them (with or without representation), we must recognize that Malaysia is for Malaysians.

This will be the most humane perspective we ought to work towards in holding. What is needed is a system of check and balance that will ensure that each generation of Malaysians will progress without the trappings of mistrust, hatred, and institutionalized racism.

But first, we must all fight for the installation of this reality. Political will that will move this agenda of ethical liberalism must be harnessed and be made the driving force for social, cultural, educational, and psychological change.

The idea of “Tanah Melayu” must be reflected upon — of its relevancy and whether it is a kind of ideological thinking that will help develop a culture of peace or help nurture inter-racial hatred.

Communal politics is an old school thinking that cannot survive the wave of cosmopolitanism; just like the any idea that could not survive the inevitability of historical change propelled by changes in material condition and consciousness.

In Malaysia, the days of communal politics are numbered, however well it is packaged and propagandized. Multiculturalism, and in fact radical multiculturalism, or better still radical marhaenism is the next wave. Institutions that promote racism must be deconstructed and abolished; institutions that are funded by the ruling regime to ensure the hegemony of this or that race. Dismantle them before they become yet another layer of complexity in our consciousness; a layer that hides the structural violence inherent in a system of racism and false consciousness called “nationalistic history”.

The only permanent thing is change, as the Chinese philosopher and mystic Lao Tzu said. Man has no nature, what he has is history, said the Spanish philosopher Ortega Gasset.

And there will be beauty in this change if we know how to destroy the beast within.

I am reproducing an essay I wrote sometime ago on “Ketuanan Melayu”

——————————————————–

A Malay view of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’

Azly Rahman | Feb 4, 08 2:51pm

‘O people! Your God is one and your forefather (Adam) is one. An Arab is not better than a non-Arab and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab, and a red (i.e. white tinged with red) person is not better than a black person and a black person is not better than a red person, except in piety. Indeed the noblest among you is the one who is deeply conscious of God.’ – a saying of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him)

‘Malaysia – to whom does it belong? To Malaysians. But who are Malaysians? I hope I am, Mr Speaker, Sir. But sometimes, sitting in this chamber, I doubt whether I am allowed to be a Malaysian. This is the doubt that hangs over many minds, and … [once] emotions are set in motion, and men pitted against men along these unspoken lines, you will have the kind of warfare that will split the nation from top to bottom and undo Malaysia.’ – Lee Kuan Yew, now Senior Minister, Republic of Singapore

Instead of defining Ketuanan Melayu as ‘Malay superiority’ which is quite meaningless, philologically inaccurate, and philosophically arrogant, I think the word ‘dictatorship’ is closer in meaning. As you read this piece, please refrain from value judgment and from bring trapped in the prison-house of language pertaining to the word ‘dictatorship’.

To dictate connotes to tell, which connotes to narrate. To narrate means to weave a story based on an ideology. To ideologise means to encapsulate. To encapsulate means to be trap. Dictatorship, here might also mean an entrapment. Instead of acknowledging one’s freedom to rule, one is acknowledging being in an entrapment – and to rule out of that condition. This is a form of false consciousness.

Words, as a literary theorist Raymond Williams might say, must also be contextualised/situated within the economic condition they emerge in. Marx’s famous dictum that human beings’ existence is defined by the economic condition they are in and that this condition is already predetermined. This is a deterministic view of human history.

I first read heard the phrase Ketuanan Melayu in the mid-1980s from a book by one Malik Munip. I was reading his work, at the same time reading Lim Kit Siang’s ‘Malaysia in the dangerous 80s’, to get a sense of the argument. I was an undergraduate reading Literature, Education and International Politics.

I also heard that Malay students were discouraged from reading Kit Siang’s work and encouraged to read ‘Ketuanan Melayu’. I love banned books and books that others tell me not to read. There is a sense of intellectual challenge to be able to read banned books.

I read Mahathir Mohamad’s ‘The Malay Dilemma’ and Syed Husin Ali’s ‘Malays: Their Problems and their Future’ and Syed Hussein Alatas’ ‘The Myth of the Lazy Native’ at the same time. Again, to get a sense of balance.

I read Malaysian official publications on economic outlook, juxtaposing them with a close reading of analyses on the political-economy of the Malaysian capitalist state.

I read the work of Freud and Marx to see where some of the major authors of the Frankfurt School of Social Research are going with their arguments on totalitarianism. I read the Quran and the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, and the Mahabharata to see where the arguments on race superiority lie and what the fate of humankind will be.

The idea of social dominance and racial superiority might all be primarily about economics, if we are to read the history of the development of ideologies of superiority. But my question is – who has the right to claim that this or that land belongs to this or that group of people. At what point does culture and citizenship meet and negotiate the issue of egalitarianism? When does ‘the truth of one’s culture’ reach its limit and the question of ‘the truth of citizenship’ dominate?

This is a very complex question Malaysians must answer after 50 years of Independence. We must open up the dialogue on this issue.

Lyrical propaganda

Let us look at how the idea of ketuanan Melayu is disseminated to the young. One way is through indoctrination camps in which songs are used.

Over the decades, perhaps millions of Malay students like me were taught the dangerous propaganda song, ‘Anak Kecil Main Api’(A Child Plays with Fire). One verse concerns the power of the Malays::

… kini kita cuma tinggal kuasa

yang akan menentukan bangsa

hasil mengalir, ke tangan yang lain

pribumi merintih sendiri…

My loose translation of this 1980s propaganda song by the Biro Tata Negara reads:

… political power is what we are only left with

one that will determine the fate of our nation

wealth of this nation flows into the hands of others

sons and daughters of the soil suffer in solace…

I do not think we have a clear understanding of what the lyrics mean. I doubt if the songwriter even understand what a ‘people’s history of Malaya’ means. It is a song based on racist intents; its lyrics penned by one who does not have a good grasp of the political-economy of Malaysian history, let alone the latest advances in the field of psychology of consciousness.

The training programes that encapsulate the theme of this song are meant to instill fear of the Malays, not of others but of themselves, and to project hatred onto other ethnic groups without realising who the enemy of the Malays really are.

Using relaxation techniques to bring the brain waves in the alpha and state (conducive for suggestive and subliminal messages), trainees were put under ‘half-asleep’ conditions to get the ketuanan Melayu message to colonise the consciousness. The technique pioneered by Russian brain scientists Barzakov and Lozanov in the1970s, called ‘suggestopedia’, is used to instill the deep sense of fear for oneself and hatred of others.

History is a complex syntagmatic pattern of interplay between technology, ideology, culture, inscription and institutionalisation not easily reduced to simplistic lyrics as such sung to the tune of pre-war German-nationalistic-sounding compositions.

History is about the complex evolution of the ruling class which owns the technologies of control. As Marx would say, at every epoch it is the history of those who own the means of production that will be written and rewritten. The winners write history, the losers write poetry or study anthropology, some would lament.

Back to the lyrics. After 50 years of independence, who is suffering in Malaysia? Who has become wealthy? Who has evolved into robber barons? What has become of our judiciary system, our universities, our city streets, our sense of public safety and security, our schools, our youth, and our entire socio-economic arrangements at the eve of the 12th general election. How has the idea of ketuanan Melayu contributed to this state of affairs?

Language of power and ideology is at play in those lyrics. The definition of ‘bumiputera’ is at play. It has become a problematic word in this age of deconstructionism; an age wherein as the poet WB Yeats said, “the centre cannot hold”.

Rock musicians will recall the Scorpions’ famous song ‘Winds of Change’ to serenade the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beginning of the breakdown of the Soviet Empire. We have to face the ‘wrath’ of the word.

Put an end to Ketuanan Melayu

For Muslims in Malaysia, this saying by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is familiar: ‘Your descent is nothing to be proud of. Nor does it bring you superiority. O people! All of you are the children of Adam. You are like equal wheat grains in a bowl … No one has any superiority over anyone else, except in religion and heedfulness. In order to consider someone a wicked person, it suffices that he humiliates other people, is mean with money, bad-tempered and exceeds the limits…’

I would say that ketuanan Melayu is a dangerous concept that is threatening race relations. It is an arrogant interpretation of selective history; of a history that is largely benefiting those who profits from the ideology.

Those promoting this concept are not well-versed in the matters of philosophy of history. I do not think thinking Malays these days subscribe to the idea of ‘Malay dominance and dictatorship’. If there is a ketuanan of one race, then the rest are ‘slaves’ and ‘serfs’ and ‘sub-citizens’, if we are to analyse it from the point of view of ‘Master-Slave’ narrative?

As a Malay wishing to see the withering of and an end to the concept of ketuanan Melayu and the birth of a new consciousness that will respect the dignity of all races and the humility of all ethnic groups, I call upon Malaysians to continue to be critical of any attempt by any race to project their own sense of false superiority that would only breed dangerous ethnocentrism bordering on xenophobia.

We should work together to deconstruct all forms of race-based political arrangement and work towards establishing a new order based on a more egalitarian economic design that takes into consideration the basic needs and dignity of all races.

We should teach our schoolchildren how to deconstruct such sense of racial superiority, through the teaching of not only tolerance but social egalitarianism – via peace education strategies. We will have a lot to gain for generations to come.

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 July 2009, 8:33 pm and is filed under
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MCA, Gerakan, MIC Ministers must speak up to get support of UMNO Ministers in Cabinet on Wednesday to censure Berita Minggu and Mingguan Malaysia and in particular New Straits Times editor-in-chief Zainul Arifin

The Cabinet has a heavy responsibility when it meets on Wednesday as a result of the extraordinary death of  Teoh Beng Hock, 30, the political secretary to Selangor DAP State Exco and State Assemblyman for Seri Kembangan, Ean Yong Han Hwa who went to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Shah Alam to co-operate in its investigations but end up as a flying corpse from the 14th floor MACC Hqrs the next day.

I am not asking the Cabinet to decide on the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh’s death as I expect the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to announce the establishment of the Royal Commission of Inquiry tonight on his return from abroad – if he has  ears close to the ground to  keep close touch with the pulse of the nation.

I do expect the Cabinet to address several important issues which have cropped up as a result of Teoh’s death, the public outcry of rage and outrage as well as the reactionary reactions to such legitimate nation-wide feelings and responses.

One such reactionary reaction is the distortion, manipulation and incitement of  the most  racist and communal discord in the country as illustrated by articles in Berita Minggu and Mingguan Malaysia yesterday.

For instance, the  New Straits Times group managing editor Zainul Ariffin in his article “Kematian  Teoh timbulkan pelbagai spekulasi politik” made the most irresponsible allegation against DAP and Pakatan Rakyat of  harbouring the agenda to weaken Malay-controlled institutions like MACC.

DAP has never regarded the MACC or its predecessor the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) as a Malay institution. I have always regarded it as a Malaysian institution and criticized it of any failings not because it is a Malay-controlled institution but because it is a Malaysian institution.

Is Zainul suggesting that the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal is a Chinese scandal because three MCA Ministers and four MCA Port Klang Authority Chairmen are now implicated in it?

Not at all.  Just as PKFZ scandal is a Malaysian scandal and not a Malay, Chinese, Indian scandal, the scandal and outrageous death of Teoh is a Malaysian scandal and not a Chinese, Malay, Indian, Kadazan or Iban scandal.

Zainul Ariffin has made a most racist and irresponsible statement, completely unbecoming of a top journalist heading a national daily.

MCA, Gerakan, MIC Ministers must speak up to get support of UMNO Ministers in Cabinet on Wednesday to censure Berita Minggu and Mingguan Malaysia and in particular New Straits Times editor-in-chief Zainul Arifin.

As Zainul is editor-in-chief of Umno’s flagship newspaper group, the News Straits Times, Umno leaders must not only dissociate themselves from Zainul’s racist article and even take disciplinary action against Zainul, Umno leaders must publicly apologise for Zainul’s racist and communal article.

(
Media Conference Statement (2)  at the Teoh Beng Hock funeral in Alor Gajah on Monday, 20th January 2009 at 9.30 am)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 July 2009, 6:18 pm and is filed under
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Najib should stop MACC war against PR and direct it to return to its original purpose of declaring war against corruption and focus on mega corruptions like RM12.5 billion PKFZ and RM24 million Istana Khir Toyo scandals

Right-thinking and justice-loving Malaysians regardless of race, religion or political beliefs must ensure that Teoh Beng Hock, political secretary to DAP Selangor State Exco and Seri Kembangan Assemblyman Ean Yong Hian Wah, should not die in vain.

Firstly, what has happened to Malaysia 52 years after Merdeka that a young, healthy, vigorous and idealistic political activist could enter the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in Shah Alam to co-operate with its investigations to end up as a flying corpse from the 14th floor MACC Hqrs?

The MACC Chief Commissioner, Datuk Ahmad Said, after two days of silence, made a heartless statement that MACC should not be blamed for Teoh’s death, ignoring the fact that Teoh was in MACC premises when the tragedy occurred.

What is even more outrageous is that in his statement, Ahmad Said showed no remorse, compassion or sympathy  whatsoever for the death of Teoh.

Is a person who is so cold-blooded and totally bereft of the milk of kindness fit to head the MACC?

We want the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to hear the nation-wide outrage, anger and demand for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh’s death.

The people do not want to wait until Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting to discuss whether to have a Royal Commission of Inquiry but want Nazri to announce the setting up of such a Royal Commission of Inquiry when he returns from abroad tonight.

The MACC had deviated from its original objectives to eradicate corruption in Malaysia.

Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is acting like “thief shout thief” when he accused DAP and Pakatan Rakyat of “politicizing” the death of Teoh.

If anyone is guilty of politicizing MACC and causing Teoh’s death, it is Umno and Barisan Nasional which have turned MACC into its catspaw to persecute the Pakatan Rakyat.

MACC was formed to declare war against corruption. Instead, it declared war against Pakatan Rakyat.

Najib should stop the MACC war against PR and direct it to return to its original purpose of declaring war against corruption and focus on the mega-corruptions like RM12.5 billion PKFZ  and RM24 million Istana Khir Toyo scandals.

Ahmad Said should resign as MACC Chief Commissioner or the Cabinet on Wednesday should immediately suspend him from office.

(Media Conference Statement at the Teoh Beng Hock funeral in Alor Gajah on Monday, 20th January 2009 at 9.30 am)

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 July 2009, 4:16 pm and is filed under
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Nation mourns for Teoh Beng Hock

Leaving PJ now for Alor Gajah for Teoh Beng Hock’s last journey.

Nation and all right-thinking people mourn for Teoh Beng Hock.

Even more, they mourn for the country and people.

Nation in shock, grief and anger – greater shock, grief and anger than four days ago when the dastardly deed was committed.

Let us transform our shock, grief and anger into People’s Power to change Malaysia so that there will not be another Teoh Beng Hock and death in custody, whether MACC, Police or any other government agency in Malaysia.

Teoh Beng Hock

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 July 2009, 6:43 am and is filed under
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Priority of Packaging Over Performance – Najib Razak’s First One Hundred Days

By M. Bakri Musa

I would have expected that the successor to the incompetent and do-nothing Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has minimal difficulty shining as the bar had been lowered substantially.  Yet despite that, Prime Minister Najib Razak has failed to impress us in his first 100 days.  His priority is packaging over performance.

 Najib may be more poised, his voice less grating, and he stays awake in meetings (Tun Mahathir gave him top marks for that!), but in content and performance, he is of the same bottom-league kayu belukar quality as Abdullah, and far from the sturdy meranti quality we long yearn in our leaders.  Abdullah lasted slightly over five years; it took time to see through his vacuity.  Now sensitized, voters are less tolerant and less forgiving of incompetence.  Najib will have an even briefer tenure.

Najib’s two signature and high profile initiatives in his first 100 days are his 1Malaysia.com.my website and his micromanagement of Perak’s legislative politics.  The first illustrates Najib’s slick packaging; the second, the empty content and inept performance.

Najib’s website is professionally designed and maintained.  It makes full use of the new media including Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. Unfortunately its contents do not reflect the man.  When I surf the websites of Tun Mahathir, Lim Kit Siang or Anwar Ibrahim, I know that what is written reflects the person, right down to the tone and style of writing.

 I do not get that sense with 1malaysia.com.  It is written as if from a third person perspective instead of being personal, the very reason for having a blog.

Of course I do not expect Najib Razak to write his own speeches; he has other important things to do like running the country. I do expect him however, to be on top of his speechwriters, and to do the final reading and make the necessary editorial changes so those speeches would truly represent and sound as if they emanated from him. He has to leave his imprint.

At the same time I expect his speech writers to be professional enough to study their subject’s favorite expressions and writing mannerisms, as well as style of speaking, so the final product would sound and look as if it had been from the man himself.

 Not only is the style and tone of 1Malaysia.com divorced from Najib, so too is the content.  When someone asked him what the 1Malaysia concept meant, Najib was unable to articulate it coherently.  He was unable to relate his “1Malaysia” concept with his party’s pursuit for a ‘unity government,’ for example.

 If his 1Malaysia website was meant to symbolize his “One Malaysia” vision, then it has failed miserably.  Little wonder that his government had to launch a massive public relations exercise just to publicize his “1Malaysia” concept.  Malaysians are still fuzzy about the content.  I doubt very much that Najib himself understands what ‘1Malaysia’ means.

Far from being his guiding vision, Najib’s “1Malaysia” is nothing more than the slick concoction of his highly-paid pubic relations personnel.  It is just another slogan, again the triumph of packaging over performance.  Expect Najib’s “1Malaysia” to have the same as if not shorter shelf life than his predecessor’s Islam Hadhari.

Perak’s Mess

As for Najib’s political and leadership skills, his handling of Perak’s legislature’s politics is illustrative.  There was no shortage of superlatives or praises effusive enough to describe his ‘coup’ in engineering the fall of the Pakatan government.  Today, barely a few months later, Najib is desperate to distance himself from that still evolving mess.  He is not in the least (or no longer) interested in trumpeting his earlier ‘triumphant’ role.

If all the Perak mess did was to soil Najib’s already mediocre reputation, I could readily overlook his central role in it.  Unfortunately we are not yet even near the end of the full ramifications of that crisis.

To date the episode has exposed the ineptness of the state civil service and the Royal Malaysian Police, as well as ensnared the sultan.  Commentators are now not in the least shy in criticizing the sultan, and often in very harsh and rude terms.  They are also throwing the sultans’ own words uttered when he was chief justice back at him.  Sultans are not used to eating their own words.

That was not all.  That crisis also exposed what had been obvious to many and for so long, the thinness of talent in our political class.  The sight of Speaker Sivasankar being literally dragged out of the Assembly Hall has now become and will forever remain the iconic image of the country’s political leadership.

That case (or cases, as apart from the contested Chief Minister’s post, there is the Speakership that is still to be litigated) is still winding its way through the court system.  Already that series has exposed the glaring inadequacies and mediocre qualities of our judges.  The exception was the initial trial judge, Justice Aziz Rahim, who had his written judgment delivered within days of his decision and whose legal arguments were the model of wisdom and scholarship.

As for the Appeals Court judges who reversed Justice Aziz Rahim’s decision, we would expect them to be a class above trial judges.  Instead their written judgments when finally released weeks later, were not only tardy but did not address the pertinent issues raised by the trial judge.  I would expect each of the three appellate judges to outdo each other in presenting a well reasoned and erudite judgment considering that this is not only a high profile case but one that would be cited frequently in future.  It is also a case that is sure to be headed for the highest court.  Obviously they were not eager and perhaps embarrassed of their judicial logic and decision.

Such are the caliber of our judges, Justice Aziz Rahim excepted.  How on earth were they selected, let alone promoted?  Their inadequacies would have remained hidden if not for the Perak political fiasco.  At least on that count, we could thank Najib.

Elsewhere I wrote that Najib’s predecessor Abdullah Badawi served a useful function as “practice Prime Minister.”  His sheer ineptness emboldened citizens to speak out and criticize him specifically and other leaders generally.  Previously Malaysians, like most Asians, were a dutiful bunch, hesitant to criticize their leaders, mistaking that to be an expression of disloyalty.  Abdullah Badawi, not intentionally of course, changed all that.  He made Malaysians more assertive.  At least on that point we could thank him.

Abdullah Badawi was our ‘practice’ Prime Minister.  He gave us ample opportunities to practice developing and acquiring the courage to criticize our leaders.  As we would say in the kampong, Abdullah’s role was as a main-main Prime Minister.

Abdullah was a ‘play-play’ Prime Minister; Najib serves a different function.  He is our ‘sacrificial zinc anode’ Prime Minister.  Boat owners are aware of the importance of the sacrificial anode.  By installing that you preferentially divert the corroding effects of the sea water to that anode, thus protecting the other elements on your boat, like its props.  When the anode is corroded you would simply replace it.  It is much easier and considerably cheaper than having to replace your eroded props.

Najib Razak is our metaphorical sacrificial zinc anode.  He attracts all that is evil, brings out all that is corrupt, and exposes all the incompetence.  Then when the nation has been cleansed, its evils, corrosions and incompetence accreted upon Najib, we can dispose of him.

So far Najib has served well as our sacrificial anode.  The important thing about this sacrificial anode is to know when to dispose it.  Keep it too long and it would spread the corrosion to other vital parts of the boat.  The next general election is as good a time to get rid of Najib Razak and the party he leads, time to dispose our national sacrificial anode.

 It is sad but not inappropriate to use the sacrificial anode metaphor for Najib.  Like many, I would have preferred that he be the skipper of our ship of state.  However, if you do not have what it takes to be the skipper, and you do not even have the weight to be ballast, then I suppose being a sacrificial anode is still better than being dead weight.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 20 July 2009, 11:19 pm and is filed under
Bakri Musa
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Najib Razak
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Perak
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