Another case of police shooting death involving 18-yr old Mohd Afham – PR proposes to convene another Parliamentary Roundtable on fatal police shootings as well as to revisit Dzaiddin Royal Police Commission Report 2005

Another case of police shooting death has surfaced – and I fully support the demand of the aggrieved mother Sapiah Elah, 52, from Simpang Waha Felda, Kota Tinggi for an independent commission to investigate into the fatal police shooting of her son on Mohd Afham Arin, 18, October 20 last year.

Sapiah said Mohd Afham was a good son who did not have any  previous criminal record.

Mohd Afham, who was believed to be involved in snatch thefts, was riding the motorcycle with 19-year-old Mohd Firdaus Marsani as pillion rider, in Taman Johor Jaya after having dinner.

Mohd Firdaus, who also demanded justice in the case, refuted the police allegation that he had waved a machete at the policemen, thus forcing the policemen to shoot at them in self-defence.

He related yesterday that he and Mohd Afham were chased by three men on motorcycles. He said the three men were in plainclothes and did not show their authority cards, and out of fear  Mohd Afham sped off towards Pasir Gudang with the three men giving chase.

“On reaching a corner near the bridge on the route to Seri Alam, I heard a gunshot from behind followed by two more shots which caused us to fall from the motorcycle,” recalled Mohd Firdaus who managed to flee the scene after falling into some bushes.

He claimed that the death of Mohd Afham who was a student of the Ledang Community College and was undergoing training in Larkin, Johor Bahru, was due to police negligence.

Mohd Firdaus gave a statement to the police on the incident in January but until today had not received any feedback from them.

Only last Wednesday, a police report was lodged by Port Klang operator, 25-year-old Sharil Azlan Ahmad Kamil, who was shot at a roadblock in Shah Alam in April last year.

The Port Klang Northport worker said the bullet slug, which hit his arm and penetrated his ribcage, remains lodged close to his spine. He said doctors told him there was a high risk of him being paralysed if surgery is performed to remove the slug.

Sharil said he was driving back home to Kapar with a friend after a drink at a restaurant in Section 7, Shah Alam at about 12.30am on April 16, 2009 when he came across a police roadblock.

Realising his road tax had expired, he said he panicked and pulled over to evade the police.

Sharil alleged that two plainclothes policemen armed with sticks approached them and on seeing this he turned off at a lane. He said he then heard at least three gunshots fired and he and his friend ducked inside the car to avoid the shots.

However, the last gunshot which went through his car door hit him.

These two accounts of police shootings last year  sound very familiar with  cases of police abuses of firearms and remind Malaysians of the totally inexcusable fatal police shooting of 14-year-old Form III student Aminulrasyid Amzah in Shah Alam in the early hours of April 26, 2010 some 100 metres from his house.

Two weeks ago, just before the Cabinet meeting of 12th May 2010, I sent an Open Tweet to the Prime Minister and all other Ministers asking the Cabinet to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to end the spate of trigger-happy police shootings which have resulted in unacceptable fatalities, and that such a Royal Commission should inquire into all cases of police shootings as well as fatal police shootings from 2005.

The surfacing of the case of the  fatal police killing of  teenager Mohd Afham Arin October 20 last year has strengthened the case for such a Royal Commission of Inquiry, and if the Cabinet reminds blind and deaf to public concerns about deteriorating standards of police efficiency, accountability and professionalism, especially on trigger-happy police shootings, DAP and Pakatan Rakyat will make this a top priority issue in the forthcoming meeting of Parliament beginning on June 7 till July 13.

I will also propose that Pakatan Rakyat convene another Police Parliamentary Roundtable on police shootings inviting participation of NGOs and the civil society during the 22-day parliamentary meeting which also  revisit the the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission Report 2005 and its 125 recommendations to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional and world-class police service focusing on the three core functions of keeping crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 25 May 2010, 11:36 am and is filed under
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Chorus of disapproval against UUCA .

Free Malaysia Today

Mon, 24 May 2010 16:29   . .By Ken Vin Lek

KUALA LUMPUR: Student NGO, Solidariti Mahasiswa Malaysia, today called for the University & University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA) to be repealed with immediate effect.

The call comes in the wake of four University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) students who were charged under Section 15(5)(a) of the act for allegedly for taking party in political activites.

The four are Muhammad Hilman Idham, Muhamad Ismail Aminuddin, Azlin Shafina Mohamad Adzha and Woon King Chai, all political science students.

They were detained by police when they were in Hulu Selangor on April 22 to observe the by election campaign. The four were released after police found no evidence of mischief.

They now face disciplinary action and have been asked to attend a disciplinary hearing on June 3 at the UKM campus.

“Students, as one of the stakeholders of a university, should be given an opportunity to exercise academic freedom in the pursuit of knowledge and excellence,” said the NGO in a statement

“They should not be demonised and punished for exercising their inalienable right to pursue knowledge in their chosen fields.”

“Section 15(5)(a) of the UUCA Act is in direct contradiction with Article 199 of the constitution which guarantees Malaysian citizens above the age of 21 the right to vote in elections.

“It is a form of expression and participation in politics and not recognising that is a blatant disregard and disrespect by the University,” added the NGO.

Suspend UUCA for five year, says Kit Siang

DAP’s Ipoh Timur parliamentarian, Lim Kit Siang, last week, urged the Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to suspend the UUCA Act for five years to demonstrate he has the political will to implement the NEM, which places emphasis on ‘retaining and attracting talent.’

He said UUCA is like a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of university students and stifling their growth, creativity and the pursuit of excellence.

“The BN government is doing the very opposite of what is being espoused in the NEM,” said Lim.

Lim, also questioned the double standard of Umno in forming Umno Clubs for overseas university students and yet prohibit students in local public universities from showing any interest in politics.

Meanwhile, MCA’s vice president Gan Ping Sieu also called for the government to repeal provisions in the UUCA that prohibit students from taking part in political activities.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 25 May 2010, 3:49 pm and is filed under
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Proton  car  prices  in  Saudi  Arabia – raw deal for Malaysians

Letters

By an angry Malaysian

FROM ANGRY RAKYAT …..! TO OWNERS OF PROTON VEHICLES….VERY SAD !!!!

SO NOW YOU KNOW THE ACTUAL VALUE PRICE OF PROTON !!!! CHEAP METAL !!!

1 MALAYSIA SENTIASA DITIPU…

Kenapa Proton tak jual harga macam kat Arab Saudi ?

Apa istimewanya orang Arab?

Kata “Rakyat didahulukan”..

Kenapa orang Arab lebih diutamakan?

Haaaa..Jawapannya ialah..

Pemilik Proton di Malaysia semuanya dah kena tipu…Hahaha

Harga Persona kat Saudi = SR36,100

Harga Gen2 kat Saudi = SR33,600

Harga Waja kat Saudi = SR37,950

1 Saudi Riyal = RM0.94

Maknanya harga Persona kat Saudi = RM33,934 aje

Maknanya harga Proton Gen2 kat Saudi = RM32,256 aje

Maknanya harga Waja kat Saudi = RM35,673 aje

1 Malaysia bayar RM 66,799.97 untuk 1 Waja di Msia! RM31,126.97 lebih MAHAL!

Shouldn’t our Government protects us. Instead we are cheated.. Our hard earnings..!!

We pay for others to enjoy …

THIS IS 1MALAYSIA …UMNO/BN Govt.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 25 May 2010, 3:05 pm and is filed under
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Quality, Quantity, and Equity in Malaysian Education #3

M. Bakri Musa

May 23rd, 2010

[Last of Three Parts]

[Part One discusses the crucial role of workers’ cognitive abilities (language skills, mathematical competency, and science literacy) rather than years of formal schooling in determining and contributing to a country’s economic development. The second part addresses issues of quality, quantity and equity in Malaysian education. In this last part, I recap the experiences elsewhere and the lessons we could usefully learn.]

Clinical Trials in Educational Initiatives

In addressing the issue of equity, we should not be content only with providing what we perceive to be “equal opportunities.” For if the results do not improve equity despite our intervention, then we must have the humility to examine our premise and be prepared to accept that what we thought of as “equal opportunities” are anything but that.

We may think that by making schools “free” we have leveled the playing friend and provided for “equal opportunity,” but if the results do not improve, then we must be prepared to re-examine our premise. It could be that the major constraint is not tuition fees but transportation and other costs. That was certainly the case when I was growing up. Thus to effectively level the playing field we should provide for transportation, especially for those living far away. American schools provide not only free transportation but also textbooks, another major cost item in education. For children of the poor, these schools also provide hot meals. Thus providing a truly “equal opportunity” entails spending more on the poor.

In educating children, we have to be aware of the Matthew effect, or accumulated advantage. This refers to the biblical verse, “For those who have, more will be given … ” (Matthew 25:29). When we provide “equal opportunity” to children on their first day of school, those who are already prepared (as having been to preschool or have parents with superior education) will gain considerably more than those who are not so advantaged, and this gap only widens with time. To effectively overcome this entails giving more to the disadvantaged, for if you continue with your “equal opportunity” you are effectively giving less to the disadvantaged.

The other pertinent observation is that the earlier this added help is given, the cheaper and more effective it would be. Meaning, it would be much cheaper and more effective to give extra help at the preschool than at first year in school; at primary than at secondary school, and at school than at university. James Heckman, the 2000 Nobel Laureate in Economics, have written persuasively on the economic advantages of these early interventions, quite apart from the moral arguments.

To apply Heckman’s insight to Malays, it would be cheaper and far more effective to provide preschools than it is to provide extra matrikulasi classes. Those matrikulasi classes in turn would be cheaper than to provide quotas in employment for Malay graduates. Meaning, providing free preschools and serving hot meals at kampong schools would be far more effective and considerably cheaper than spending billions on GLCs in terms of making Malays more competitive.

Apart from the commitment of resources, there must also be political will. There will be the inevitable obstacles, from the passive and less obvious obstacle as inertia, to more active opposition from those who perceive themselves losing or at least not gaining from the change.

It is to be expected that those who have been brought up under or benefited from the current system to resist change. Thus I have minimal confidence that our present personnel and institutions could effect these needed changes. Thus I would advocate adopting the Thai and South Korean approaches, meaning wholesale importation of the American school system, its curriculum, textbooks and teachers.

Unlike the Koreans however, I would begin at the very beginning, preschool, and then slowly work up the system to primary, then secondary, and later, undergraduate level. Once these youngsters are used to active learning and creative thinking at the preschool, they will not tolerate the rote learning and dogmatic style they would get from their teachers in the upper classes. Those teachers would then have to change. Besides, it is easier to instill new values and approaches on a fresh mind instead of having to have them unlearn their bad habits later at an older age.

Admittedly this would be a slower approach, but it would prove to be more enduring and effective.

I would add a twist or two to the Korean and Thai experiments. One is that the student enrollment at these schools should reflect Malaysian society. The other would be that these schools must provide scholarships (full or partial) equal in value of at least of 5 percent of their tuition income. The schools could then use that funds to balance the ethnic composition of their student body. Even in ethnically homogenous South Korea, there are already rumblings over the inequity of these private foreign schools, what with the poor being excluded.

When MARA started its matrikulasi colleges back in the 1970s, it too adopted the American college semester and other styles. Unfortunately it was only the styles, the superficial aspects not the core. Thus these students had electives, free from having to wear uniforms, and move from class to class. The core however, remains typically Malaysian – dogmatic instead of inquisitive; indoctrination instead of education. A generation later, nothing has changed.

I would also adopt the Rwandan approach of supplying a laptop computer to every primary school pupil. What we learn from that initiative is that those children are very effective in bringing about changes to the rest of the family and on their peers.

The other group I would give free computers would be our undergraduates. Once they have those laptops and our campuses wired, these students would have access to the libraries of the world and more. They could also listen to lectures given at the best universities of the world.

Malaysia has the added problem in that resistance to change in education is often camouflaged under nationalistic flavors. Thus the excuse to rescind the teaching of science and mathematics in English was not based on merit or valid evidence rather on emotional arguments over dubious nationalism. Political will would be needed to overcome such opposition.

This problem is compounded by what economist Timur Kuran refers to as preference falsification, our tendency of saying something publicly what we do not believe personally. Malaysians all abhor corruption, but when stopped by a cop for speeding, our first impulse is to bribe our way out. Preference falsification makes problem solving that much more difficult.

Our leaders keep extolling on the importance of Malay, yet they send their children abroad where the medium of instruction is anything but Malay. When I was growing up, my parents who were Malay school teachers were under tremendous peer and social pressures to take us out of English schools and enroll us in the then newly emerging Malay secondary schools. If Malay teachers did not support these new schools, who would, was the powerful emotional and nationalistic argument.

Blessed my late father, he bravely ignored those pressures. What fortified him, apart from inner conviction, were the actions of Malay leaders. While Tun Razak, for example, was trumpeting the promise and virtues of Malay schools, he was quietly sending his children to Britain for schooling! My father rightly concluded that until those leaders heed their own advice, he too would ignore them! My father also successfully used that argument on many of his fellow kampong folks. Today, their children owe my father a deep debt of gratitude.

After Tun Razak we had Mahathir, the professed champion of everything Islamic. He vastly expanded the Islamic establishment, with Islamic schools and universities as well Islamic ‘research’ institutes and court system. Did he send any of his children to Islamic school or college?

Today we have Najib Razak. He extols us to be glokal, to be liberated from our affirmative action clutches. So let’s see how many of his immediate family members who own and operate enterprises that would be free of cozy, san competitive-bidding government contracts.

The price we paid for Tun Razak’s preference falsification was a generation of bright young Malay minds sacrificed to the altar of Malay educational nationalism. Mahathir’s falsification caused another generation to be wasted through needless pursuit of false religiosity. We will know soon enough the price for Najib Razak’s folly.

Yes, preference falsification is pervasive, powerful, and worst of all, pernicious.

An awareness of all these obstacles should be enough to make a diligent leader humble. A healthy dose of humility is indeed what is required when approaching these problems. I do not pretend to know how the initiatives I offered here would actually work in Malaysia even though they may have worked elsewhere. Ideas that seem brilliant and foolproof in the comfort of the boardroom of a think tank or could withstand the super critical atmosphere of a graduate school seminar room may still flop in the field.

Hence the need to be humble and to think small; we should begin with pilot projects and field trials closely supervised, and then analyze the results. Then when the wrinkles have been ironed out and the necessary modifications made would you expand. Anything less and you would be playing around with precious young minds. That is morally wrong if not criminally negligent. Those precious minds are not expendable.

The brilliant young economist from MIT, Esther Duflo, suggested that leaders adopt the equivalent of a clinical trial before fully implementing any proposal. Clinical trails and double-blind studies are the norms in modern medicine; they enable physicians to advance from leeches to laser surgery.

Consider the examples of school dropout rates and enhancing educational performances, especially at the primary school level and particularly for Malays. There are certainly many brilliant ideas out there, from the giving out scholarships, as the British did way back when, to paying parents for keeping their children in school as Mexico’s Progressa program, to the Australian government rounding up children of aborigines and warehousing them into residential schools so they could live and learn in a more “civilized” environment. The Canadians did something similar to their native children.

The only commonality to all these undertakings, apart from their consequentialness, expensiveness, and massiveness, is that they were undertaken with the best of intentions. The results are also there, except that few are learning or willing to learn from them. The Canadian government to its credit examined its residential school system for the natives in 1996 and concluded using such phrases as, “an inherent element of savagery,” or “kill the Indian in the child.” At least the Canadians were honest.

Things need not be that way. Duflo tackled the perennial problem of school dropouts among African children as a research clinician would a disease. She conducted clinical trials. Among the traditional choices are paying parents, giving scholarships, and providing free books and uniforms. Then she added two non-traditional strategies: de-worming the students, and informing parents on the value of education. Actually both are not that non-traditional. De-worming was actually one of the recommendations advanced by a Malaysian Royal Commission back in 1960 to explain Malay underachievement in education. As for educating parents, that seems intuitive enough.

It turned out that the most effective strategy was to educate parents on the value of education, followed by de-worming the pupils. The conclusion: A healthy and physically vigorous kid is more likely to stay in school than if they are lethargic and worm-infested. This echoes former US Surgeon-General Jocelyn Elder’s observation, “You can’t educate a child who is not healthy, and you can’t keep a child healthy who is not educated.”

Traditional interventions like providing extra teachers, school meals, books or uniforms have minimal positive impact. Interestingly, paying parents has a negative impact.

Even after such a careful trial and we a found an initiative that works wonderfully, we should still not rest on our laurels. As mentioned earlier, good ideas, like good durians, have a shelf life. With changing conditions we must be prepared to continually tweak our programs. We must also be prepared to jettison once wonderful ideas if they no longer work, or that other ideas are better.

Fully residential schools, busing students all over the country to attend these schools were once good ideas; likewise universities’ matrikulasi. Today, they are resource wasting endeavors.

Improving the quality, increasing the quantity, and enhancing the equity of our education system are the necessary prerequisites if we were to have economic growth. Achieve this and a decade hence NEAC would report that our economy is robust because 80 percent of our workers have at least SPM. Such a declaration would reflect well on our economy as well as our workers and system of education.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 25 May 2010, 8:05 am and is filed under
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The destruction of SMILES in the Land Below the Wind

Letters

by
P.S. Nathan

I served as the Timbalan Pengarah Kesihatan (Pergigian) for Negeri Sabah from August 1987 to Nov 1990, In short I was posted from Johore to Sabah to take charge of the Dental Service there.

    In 1985 a Survey of Dental Health of the School Children in Sabah was carried out, and I was part of that team that conducted that  survey. My team covered  mainly the East Coast area of Lahad Datu, Semporna and Padang Tunku area.I was also a member of the Committee that drafted the Survey report, and the Committee made Recommendations for the improvement of the Status of Dental Health of the School Children of Sabah.One of the main recomendations was that all Public Water Supplies should be Fluoridated.

    In 1989 the then Sabah State Government took the most Unfortunate step of ‘discontinuing  the Fluoridation of Public Water supplies in the State of Sabah’ Because “Water” was a state matter, the Ministry of Health could not do anything besides presenting the Report of the Special Committee of the World Health Organisation’ that did indeed recommend the “Fluridation (the optimisation of Fluoride levels) of the Public Water Supplies.That Special Committee of the World Health Organisation also noted that ‘Fluoridation of Public water supplies was the Most Cost-Effective Public Health Measure known to man’.

   Recently I received an e-mail from one of the Dental staff informing  me that there was still no Fluoridation of Water Supplies in Sabah!!….even after a 20 years! That was SHOCKING NEWS to me!….for the following reasons:

 *All the other states in Malaysia have long since enjoyed the Benefits of Fluoridated Water supplies, including Sarawak…Singapore,Hong Kong,Australia, New Zealand etc; have been enjoying the Benefits of Water Fluoridation for some 50+ years now.

     *The Sabah Population has the WORST Dental Health in the Whole of Malaysia!…and the ‘Caries (tooth decay) levels are easily Twice that of the the rest of MaLAYSIA! The Dentist to Population ratio is also the Worst in Malaysia!

     *I estimate that in the last 20 years some 300-350,thousand Permanant Teeth have probably been Extracted among the school going population of Sabah.\  and probably another 700,000 Milk teeth extracted,among the Children of Sabah!!…and maybe another One Million teeth among the rest of Sabah’s Population!

    I doubt if anyone in his right senses would consider this Dental Care because such astounding levels of Extractions can only mean the destruction of SMILES of the people of the ‘Land Below the Wind’!!

    So here I am a non-Sabahan, e-mailing this appeal, hoping to highlight the URGENT Need to Re-Think, and re-introduce the ‘Fluoridation’ of ALL Public Water Supplies in the State of Sabah,as soon as possible. I think that WE Owe the Children of Sabah at least this Social Responsibilty and to Help Them Keep Their Smiles for Life!!

   So let us stop this destructive Health Care, Stop the Pain, The Blood, the Tears, and the anguish, that has been going on for far too long!!

 Let us l not let down the some 450,000 School Children of Sabah .

   I would also like to draw attention to an article entitled “Towards a State of Toothless Citizens” that appeared in Daily Express, Sabah sometime in the year 1988/89  on this same problem. Unfortunately nothing seems to have changed since then.

      This message must be got across to the very  people that would really matter – the politicians of Sabah and the people of Sabah.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 25 May 2010, 8:17 am and is filed under
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An inspirational story

Letters

by Justin Hong

I was 18 in 1997, I came home half completed my high school in England because my father was bankrupted.  He was a contractor bankrupted because the licensee, Taib’s uncle defaulted on paying royalty to the Government.  Pocketed all the money my father gave.

Together with 6 of my friends we went to Komat in Sama Jaya to look for jobs as they only required MCE; to help out the family.

The HR lady was an Iban,  on our  turn she refused to give us application forms and demanded our qualifications.  Without even understanding us, we were turned away.  On further enquiry from us, she said, the 250 posts were all filled.  It was 10.25am and the application counter just opened at 9.30am.  Asked the guard to show us out.

Komat repeated publication for the posts for another week. We went back again and again were rejected. This time she asked us to look for jobs in China.

My uncle promptly help the six of us to look for jobs from his contacts. Ironically, we all ended up in Shenzhen China, working in a micro circuitboard plant.

We were trained by some American to be testers as we know English. We did well, so well that within 4 years,  we developed a special test using Argon emission from induced current. Testing the board even more thoroughly  and 40+ times the efficiency we were doing.

After a few months of trial, the company decided to subcontract all their circuit board testing to us using the new testing system and they got the test done at a fraction of the cost doing it manually.

Within 3 years, we are testing all the circuit board of all the companies in Shenzhen then.

BELIEVE ME, WE ARE EACH NETTING 2 TO 3 MILLIONS USD A YEAR.

We spread to include contracts in a lot of companies of China, US, Germany and Finland.

We now employ 7600 people and 1600 from Sarawak. Bumiputra or non-bumiputra who made the grade we are after.

Why I am writing this?

Today my company has been operating in Penang for 6 months. We are employing 200 people.

I was conducting interviews for senior staff for the jobs. One of the people that came in for the interview was the same  Iban lady from Komat 10+ years ago. The lady who turned me away. The lady who told me I was not eligible for the job. The lady who told me the posts were filled when yet to select the first applicant of 250 and the lady who asked me to go to China to look for a job.

I had the satisfaction to tell her all these if I wanted to. Instead I listened to all her talk about how great she had done in her former employment and now she  was out on a huge VSS. How well she will do for me with her experience and how much she would like to work for a Chinese boss. She said she is the daugther of an influential bumiputra man and her husband is doing well in business. I let her rave on with her diatribe.

Finally, when she realised she the one doing all the  talking and I was not even asking questions, she stopped.

Finally I said, I know her. She was shocked, for now I was properly suited up and not in T-shirt and jeans like the first time we met.

I simply said I like to thank her for asking me to go back to China to look for work. I did, I made it and what she is seeing today and the brochure I placed infront of her is in fact the SUCCESS from disgust and disappointment of being a Malaysian Chinese!!

She was murmuring to herself.  I told her, she will get a job from me but not as the senior HR, not as the assistant HR but as an assistant to the assistant HR. She was shocked, happy and almost cried. Then she  confessed that her husband was a bankrupt and her 3 children had to be in the care of her sister.

I told her, she meant nothing to me,  her race meant nothing to me and what she had done also meant nothing to me. The insults, the frustrations and the anguish of  a young man trying to help his father. I told her she would be  treated like everyone. She must get her job done or she’d be out like anybody. I told her, I do not care for YBs, bumi policies or business  opportunities in Malaysia. I do not need Malaysia.  I CAME BECAUSE I AM BEGGED TO COME, BY THE GOVERNMENT OF MALAYSIA.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 26 May 2010, 8:54 am and is filed under
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Despite feverish attempts to refurbish the image of MACC on many fronts in recent days,  it has not been able to improve one jot of  public confidence …

The New Straits Times today carried the screaming front-page headline:
“MACC steps in – probe under way into Sime Darby’s losses”
but nobody is impressed, not least when less than a week earlier the MACC Deputy Commissisoner Datuk Mohd Shukri Abdul said the commission will let Sime Darby complete its internal investigation first.

Shukri said: “If Sime Darby doesn’t have the experience on how to pinpoint corruption, they can ask for MACC’s help.”

He said MACC will open an investigation file into the financial affairs of the conglomerate GLC if any element of corruption is suspected in its massive billion-ringgit losses in its third quarter results.

What happened in the past week? Did Sime Darby ask for MACC’s help or did MACC discover “element of corruption” in the massive billion-ringgit losses in Sime Darby’s third-quarter?

Or is MACC just thirsting for cheap publicity and front-page headlines hoping to impress the Malaysian public with publicity stunts rather than professionalism and concrete results?

If billion-ringgit corporate losses are themselves justification for the MACC to open an investigation file, has MACC opened any investigation file into the mega-losses of the Bakun dam project – as it is reported to have incurred total cost overruns of RM1.7 billion?

And what about all the other  billion-ringgit government, GLC or corporate losses?

I am not against MACC initiating investigations into the mega losses of Sime Darby with its history of some RM3.5 billion write-offs to date, but the Malaysian public are tired of all the MACC displays of “lighting and thunder but no rain”  – purportedly to go after “big fishes” and mega-scandals but ending up completely empty-handed.

This MACC escapade is the latest MACC effort on many fronts in recent days to refurbish its image, but public confidence in it had not increased one jot as it has not been able to prove that it could be really independent and cease to be the Umno/BN catspaw as in its first 17 months of existence.

For instance, the MACC claims that it is prepared to record private investigator P. Balasubramian’s statement in connection with the C4 murder of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu and that it was the private investigator who had been the cause of the delays have been rubbished by Balasubramaniam’s lawyers.

In the process, Shukri’s earlier  statement that MACC would meet Balasubramaniam “anywhere he felt appropriate” and not only at Malaysian embassies abroad was exposed and debunked.

Now that MACC has been offered an all-expenses paid – flights and accommodation – trip to interview and record Balasubramian’s statement in London from July 3 to 12, MACC cannot continue with their “tai chi” game as this will be another critical  test of its independence, professionalism and integrity.

It is indeed sad and pathetic that the MACC and the several supervising committees did not realise how ridiculous they were in their proposals  to rebrand MACC to win public confidence when the MACC was itself a purported attempt to rebrand its predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency, and to start off on a completely new page in terms of public confidence.

As it turned out, the MACC is even worse than  ACA in terms of public confidence in its independence, professionalism and integrity – highlighted by the mysterious death of DAP aide Teoh Beng Hock at the MACC headquarters and the MACC record of declaring war on Pakatan Rakyat instead of declaring war on corruption!

The suggestions by the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board must take the cake in exposing the dismal failures of the MACC after 17 months.

The Board has proposed that the Federal Constitution be amended to create an Anti-Corruption Service Commission for the appointment, confirmation and promotion of the members of the anti-graft body and that the MACC Chief Commissioner should be accorded a position equivalent to the inspector-general of police.

At a time when public confidence in the efficiency,  independence, impartiality, professionalism and integrity of major national institutions are at the lowest point  – in particular for the offices of Inspector-General of Police and even the Chief Justice – the Board’s proposals have only highlighted the disease afflicting the key national institutions  without prescribing the proper remedies.

But the biggest blow to the pretensions of independence, professionalism and integrity of MACC had been delivered by none other than former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who had openly admitted that “vote-buying” had been prevalent during UMNO’s  triennial elections, accusing  “practically everyone” elected into the UMNO supreme council of using such means.

Mahathir said: “So you can say that Umno central committee is actually made up of corrupt people.”

What has MACC got to say and do about Mahathir’s admissions?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 26 May 2010, 1:03 pm and is filed under
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Musa Hitam should make public the full report of Sime Darby task force on the cost overruns of its energies and utilities division tomorrow

Sime Darby Chairman Tun Musa Hitam should make public the full report of the Sime Darby Task Force on the cost overruns of its  energies and utilities division tomorrow and should not withhold any information from the Malaysian public, as they are the ultimate shareholders of the GLC conglomerate.

Sime Darby had earlier promised on its website  that “all relevant disclosures” will be made with the world’s biggest-listed palm oil producer’s third quarter results tomorrow (May 27) but what Malaysians want is not a second-hand account but the full uncensored report of the Task Force on its energies and utilities division’s “difficulties and challenges, especially with regards to operational efficiency and project management”.

Malaysians want to know the bottom-line, in particular (i) whether  Sime Darby has a history totalling some RM3.5 billion write-offs; if so, why and what is being done about it; and (ii)  whether Sime Darby has incurred more than RM1 billion in cost overruns from carrying out a civil works contract for the Bakun hydroelectric project, with one estimate putting the total cost overruns at RM1.7 billion; and whether it is true that the government has agreed to reimburse around RM700 million to Sime Darby, leaving the group with around RM1 billion to deal with.

Musa should know that for the first time in his public career, his reputation for credibility, accountability, transparency and integrity is on the line, with commentators castigating him and the Sime Darby Board members as having “zero integrity and zero credibility”.

Musa should be able to understand not only shareholder, but public disgust and anger as one of the country’s bluechips have overnight transformed  from a “overperform” to “underperform” stock, and the term GLC (Government-Linked Company) is fast gaining  a new meaning – “Government-Losing Concern” – thanks to Sime Darby!

The responsibility on public accountability and transparency does not rest solely on Musa’s shoulders but also on that of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

This is why Najib should present a preliminary White Paper  on the Sime Darby fiasco when Parliament reconvenes on 7th June, explaining in particular what it meant to the ten-year GLC  Transformation Plan since 2004.

Instead of growing GLCs to drive the country’s economic growth, the GLCs are becoming public burdens as  “Government Losing Concerns” retarding the country’s plan to become a high income country to  escape the decade-old middle-income trap.

The GLC Transformation Plan sets out a GLC Transformation Manual, KPIs or key performance indicators with 10 initiatives and multi-coloured books like the Red Book on procurement practices and the Purple Book on optimizing capital management practices.

How can Sime Darby be saddled with such astronomical losses if it had followed the Transformation Manual and the ten initiatives which includes efforts like how to improve board effectiveness, laying down procurement guidelines and how to improve operations.

Or hadn’t  Sime Darby followed the Transformation Manual and its multi-coloured books.

Either way, both Musa and Najib owe the Malaysian public a full and satisfactory explanation.

`

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 26 May 2010, 3:27 pm and is filed under
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‘Clueless’ SUPP comes under heavy DAP fire

Free Malaysia Today

Thu, 27 May 2010

KUCHING: The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), the oldest Chinese-led political party in the state, has come under blistering attack from the DAP for its lies.

DAP state assemblyman for Sentosa Chong Chieng Jen said SUPP should stop making excuses for its loss in Sibu and accept that it has lost touch with its voters.

“I am shocked. The SUPP is still clueless as to why it lost and Wong Soon Koh (SUPP Sibu chief) is making baseless and unbelievable accusations against the DAP, ” he said in a statement.

Chong was referring to comments by Wong, who is also State Finance Minister II, in his winding-up speech at the Sarawak State Assembly sitting on yesterday.

He said SUPP and Wong had no clue that Sibu citizens were fed up with 47 years of abuse and corruption by the Barisan Nasional state government.

“Wong claimed DAP was now extremely rich and could fly over campaigners to Sibu for the by-election.

“Let me enlighten him. Nearly all DAP campaigners, be they Members of Parliament, state assemblymen or ordinary members, took care of their own expenses without burdening the party.

“To save expenses, most of them stayed either with party members in Sibu or in low-budget hotels.

“Unlike BN leaders, we do not fly first class, nor stay at five-star hotels which are paid for by the federal or state government. Under the pretext of carrying out their government duties, these BN leaders are obviously campaigning for the SUPP candidate,” he said.

‘SUPP, BN overstayed welcome’

Chong also took Wong to task for accusing DAP of deploying “dirty tactics” to win the Sibu by-election on May 16.

“We were not the ones using dirty tactics. BN had full control over the 3Ms – money, media and machinery – and they used them blatantly. BN was handing out cash liberally to entice voters.

“Wong has the cheek to accuse DAP of dirty tactics..,” he said, adding that the opposition’s win was simply a statement that both SUPP and BN had overstayed their welcome and had failed to defend the Sarawak’s 18-point agreement to join Malaysia and a key clause which guaranteed freedom of religion.

He also blasted for saying that DAP had intimidated the voters.

“DAP does not have the ability or power to intimidate. We are the victims of both intimidation and injustice because it is BN which has full control over the Election Commission and the police force,” he said.

Chong warned that SUPP and BN’s continued denial of the real reasons for its loss in Sibu will only result in a greater setback, come the state election.

“SUPP in BN failed the people. BN’s oppressive policies, rampant corruption, nepotism and cronyism are the reasons they lost Sibu,” he said.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 27 May 2010, 4:02 pm and is filed under
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DAP says cuts cannot be limited to subsidies

Malaysian Insider

By
Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

May 27, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — DAP’s Tony Pua grudgingly admitted today that cutting subsidies could lower Malaysia’s debts, but he said the cuts will only be successful if leakages from graft and help for big corporations are plugged first.

“I feel that in general, the points raised were agreeable. But at the same time, these plans can only be put into motion if other conditions are first met.

“He (Datuk Seri Idris Jala) was quite naughty when he said that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) agreed with lowering subsidies. We agree to it but with conditions,” DAP National Publicity Secretary Tony Pua said shortly after he attended a government open day on rationalizing cutting subsidies.

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP told The Malaysian Insider that while the government has outlined ways in which to gradually lessen subsidies, other “main causes of debts” had not been carefully addressed.

According to Pua, the issue of subsidies was a small problem compared to the actual cause of Malaysia’s huge deficit problem.

“The focus right now is too restricted to subsidies to the man on the street. The focus is too much on dealing with subsidies to the man on the street. We need to look at two key aspects,” said Pua.

The DAP man claimed that the main cause of debts was due to huge government expenditure where major problems of wastage of funds and corruption remained unsolved.

“The main cause of debts is government expenditure… this has been admitted by the Auditor-General amounted to RM28 billion. This is the often quoted figure of waste by the government.

“(Besides that) we see things like the giving out of interest free loans to private companies like Syabas, those are examples which must be addressed. Subsidy is only one of the smaller factors,” said Pua.

He reiterated points that DAP and PR had brought up during the last Parliamentary session where there have been “gross leakages” in government procurement contracts. Malaysians were also not granted proper access to some government tenders.

The government said earlier today that it will save RM103 billion over the next five years if it starts to cut subsidies now.

Idris, who is in charge of the Government Transformation Plan (GTP), said  Malaysia had a whopping RM362 billion debt and must start reducing subsidies amounting to RM74 billion last year to avoid becoming a bankrupt nation by 2019.

According to the minister, the government had spent a total of RM74 billion on subsidies last year.

Idris outlined areas in which the government could slash its spending on in order to increase the country’s per capita income.

Areas which have been identified include fuel, food and infrastructure as well as tolls.

“The government subsidy bill, it is not just about the amount of money to the man on the street, it is also amount of money given to big corporations, crony companies, if you like.”

“I think IPPs (Independent Power Producers) was highlighted quite well up there, they take about RM13 billion in gas subsidies per year. Compare that against food subsidy bill, RM3.4 billion. Where should the government be focusing their attention on?” said Pua.

Pua stressed that more money could be saved if the government stopped doling out cash to giant corporations.

“A lot of plans proposed today can only take place after certain benchmarks are achieved. You cannot increase electricity rates without first dealing with fat profits IPPs are making.

“If you increase the burden on the people but you maintain the billions of profits for IPPs that would be a very unfair policy, (then)you are creating an additional burden,” he said.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 27 May 2010, 7:53 pm and is filed under
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Educational absurdity in Hulu Selangor

by
Azly Rahman

“If we win this by-election, you can come to Kuala Lumpur the next day to look for me. I will write a personal letter to approve the money and it will be transferred to the school board’s account. If we lose, don’t have to come.”

– Najib Abdul Razak, Prime Minister of Malaysia

If these words quoted in Lim Kit Siang’s blog were uttered and they were true, we have reached the highest level of idiocy in charting the future of Malaysian education. How much shame must we parade in our desperation to win this or that election that is a theater of the absurd anyway?

The essential question is, how dare we use education – the only means for social and economic progress for ALL races – to bribe voters!

We hear all too often now that education is being prostitutionalized in the name of political gains. That gentle profession and a noble enterprise, from the Latin educare (drawing out the potentials) have been overused in election campaigns. From rice to roads, credit cards to cruises, youth facilities to new universities – all these have been used as political baits throughout our history.

We are in a pathological condition. Education and the building of educational institutions must be a non-partisan endeavor. As the philosopher John Dewey would say, education is the only means for social and educational progress and the teaching of thinking will bring the child to any dead places, so we must take heed of this notion of education for all. Education must become a vehicle for the development of a critical citizenry, regardless of who is in power, as the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire would say.

Have we no shame when we say that only if the people vote for this or that party, money will flow to the children of that community? Have we no sense of understanding of human rights and dignity when we deliberately create apartheid system of education through preferential treatments by virtue of who votes for us?

Denying children’s rights

We are denying children the right to be intelligent when we use programs of the gifted and talented as political tool and as means to punish electorates. We are denying at-risk youth alternative educational settings that will give them hope and vision when we are merely interested in their potential as paid hooligans during election campaigns.

In the United States it does not matter which government is in power, the approaches to educating the future generation differ only in the emphasis towards making the schools perform better. Whether it is Ronald Reagan’s (right) NCEE report of “A Nation at Risk,” Bill Clinton’s Goals 2000, George Bush’s No Child Left Behind, or Barack Obama’s Race to the Top – all these have the goal of grand scale inclusiveness, the ideology and modus operandi might differ. In them, these are the mandate given to each state to implement standards of excellence to make society better. Never have I heard, as an American educator myself, this or that school denied of funding by virtue of the community’s political leaning. It would be a Supreme Court case if a school district is denied money due to the teacher union’s endorsement of this or that candidate in the gubernatorial race, for instance.

If we continue to see, at every election campaign money is being promised only if votes are being given, we have become an immoral nation of peoples that do not care for the next generation of children.

Already we have educational institutions entrenched in race and the propagation of racial superiority – at a time when we trumpet to the outside world our “Malaysian-ness”. We not only have elite schools for one race, expensive gifted and talented schools for one race, universities for this or that race only, and grants and scholarships for only one race – when all these are supposed to coming from a ‘1Malaysia’ government in which the taxpayers are of all races.

Already we are seeing more seed of racialization of education and the apartheid-ization of schooling planted in order to further the agenda of race-based politics. The “one-school-fits-all” (“satu sekolah untuk semua”) movement/campaign is also deeply suspect – which ideology will hegemonize, which culture will be made dominant, and what will be the nature of “nationalism and patriotism” shoved onto the minds of the young.

These are serious questions we need to ask ourselves as a nation – how have we politicize and prostitutionalize education? What will be the political, social, and cultural implications of this game we are letting politicians play? – game that reflect out pathological state of mind as we continue to see our institutions crumble; no longer able to withstand the weight of our contradictions.

What then must we do?

We do not have time to entertain ethnocentric politics anymore; our society has been fragmented into classes of rich and poor, marginalizing people of all races to newer character. All forms of race-based politics in this century of postmodernity, flux, and shifting ideologues – is racist in nature, racism for the convenience of control and the furtherance of unseen violence masked as ‘progress and civility’.

We must go back to the study of educational philosophies rather than advance the practice of educational prostitutionalization.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 27 May 2010, 12:56 pm and is filed under
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Proposal for a Parliamentary Caucus on Crime and Security to help Hishammuddin and Police to restore to Malaysians their fundamental rights – safe neighbourhoods, safe streets, safe homes and safe schools

In the past two weeks, the Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein kept reminding the country that the street crime rate and the crime index have fallen by 39% and 15% respectively in the first quarter of the year, well beyond the 20% and 5% target set by the end of the year.

For  the first quarter of last year 9,984 cases were reported while during the same period this year it went down to 6,158 cases.

Hishammuddin’s statement was repeated in a major local newspaper today.

There should be a sense of joy and relief that Malaysia is becoming a safer country, which is not only a fundamental right of Malaysian citizens and the most basic  duty of any competent government in a civilized society,  but also important in enhancing our international competitiveness to attract foreign investments so that Malaysia can take the quantum leap to escape the decade-long middle-income trap to become a developed high income country.

However, such a national sense of relief and joy  is distinctly missing in public response and reaction to Hishammuddin’s repeated announcements in the past fortnight of a sharp drop of street crime rate and crime index in the first quarter of the year  – to the extent that Hishamuddin’s announcement had to be repeated  in a major national daily today.

Why is this so?

Malaysians are not niggardly in according praises when they are due and I have no doubt that Malaysians will not be stingy in singing praises for the police if they now feel safe and secure, for themselves and their loved ones as well as their property, whether in the streets, public places or the privacy of their homes.

The reason why such praises are absent is very simple – there is no national  sense of joy or relief despite Hishamuddin’s repeated announcements of police statistics of the crime National Key Result Area (NKRA) of the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) for the simple reason that Malaysians do not feel that they have now safer cities,  safer streets and  safer homes.

In recent months, whether to influence police crime statistics or otherwise, there appears to be a reluctance on the part of the police to receive police reports. In my visit to  Tawau early this month, I was told of a case where the police told a robbery victim that he need not lodge a report until the robber had been caught.

When Hishammuddin first became Home Minister last April, he commissioned opinion polls on the Home Ministry official website, which came out  with three findings:

?

*97% or 9,729 out of 10,060 respondents felt unsafe because of the high crime rate, with only 1% or 89 respondents felt safe and 2% or 242 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

?	*95% or 8,883 out of 9,319 respondents felt that the safety of the people was not guaranteed as compared to 3% or 248 respondents who felt it was still guaranteed, with 2% or 188 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

?	*94% or 8,743 out of 9,261 respondents felt that government had not done its best to ensure that the safety of the people was at the best level with 2% or 185 respondents felt that the government had done its best, and 4% or 333 persons “uncertain”.

Hishammuddin “rubbished” these findings when I asked him in Parliament.

If the Home Minister himself refuses to accept the validity of the opinion polls conducted by the Home Ministry’s official website, why should Hishammuddin expect Malaysians to accept at face value his statistics that  the street crime rate and the crime index have fallen by 39% and 15% respectively in the first quarter of the year, particularly when Malaysians do not feel comparatively safer as compared to last year?

One eloquent index whether Malaysia is becoming a safer country is whether there is mushrooming or reduction in the number of  private guarded-and-gated communities, where Malaysians have to be burdened with an additional  expenditure to have safer neighbourhoods when this is basic law-and-order responsibility of the Police and Government.

Now Malaysians have woken up to another shock – that on top unsafe cities, unsafe neighbourhoods, unsafe streets, unsafe homes, there is now unsafe schools as revealed by a recent Star expose on a “terror school” in Rawang where school gangs in the secondary school make it hell for the 3,000 students, together  with the shocking  revelation of the case of a 14-year-old girl being repeatedly raped by several  of her classmates in various locations of the school over a three-week period.

The time has come for the formation of a  Parliamentary Caucus on Crime and Security to help Hishammuddin and the Police to restore to Malaysians their fundamental rights – safe neighbourhoods, safe streets, safe homes and safe schools.

I will make this proposal when a Parliamentary Roundtable on Democratic Policing is held.

I will discuss the idea of a  Pakatan Rakyat initiative  to convene a Parliamentary Roundtable on Democratic Policing with Parliamentary Opposition Leader  Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PAS President Datuk Seri Hadi Awang when I attend the Parti Keadilan Rakyat Congress in Kota Baru on Saturday.

It is timely that another Parliamentary Roundtable on Democratic Policing be held, dealing not only with the current public concerns about the alarming rate of trigger-happy police shootings and fatalities, like the 14-year-old Aminulrasyhid Amzah in Shah Alam on April 26 and 18-year-old  Mohd Afham Arin in Johore Bahru in October last year, but also  to revisit the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission Report 2005 and its 125 recommendations to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 27 May 2010, 11:57 am and is filed under
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Barring Sports Betting In Penang

Penang Wesak Day Message By Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng In Komtar, George Town On 28.5.2010

Penang State Government Directs The Two Local Councils MPPP & MPSP To Exercise Section 101(v) Of The Local Government Act To Bar Sports Betting In Penang Given By BN To Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd.

In the spirit of peace and tranquility, I wish a very happy Wesak day to all Buddhists in Penang and Malaysia. On this auspices day, we are reminded of the teachings of Lord Buddha who among other things has preached enlightenment and tolerance.

The Penang Government in conjunction with Wesak Day celebrations would like to express our intent to promote a healthier and more responsible lifestyle for Penang families. We are concerned at the excessively high number of draws -12 draws or special draws conducted weekly by the three gaming companies licensed by the BN government, which should be reduced.

The Penang state government is not opposed to betting or gaming outlets in Penang. However we are concerned at the excessive number of draws and special draws being conducted by these licensed operators have placed a very heavy burden on many families. Many of the breadwinners feel obliged to ‘chase’ after each draw with all three operators resulting in substantial loss of income to the family and their children.

Therefore, in order to discourage the excessive number of draws and special draws as well as to promote a healthier social fabric, the Penang state government has decided to reject the application of the new sports betting licensee, Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd or other related parties to conduct the sports betting business in Penang.

Under the Local Government Act Section 101(v), the local council is empowered to deal with issues concerning the municipality’s safety, health and convenience.

The Penang government believes in the right of the people to partake in gaming activities and hence will not ban the number of gaming shop of activities.

However, the Penang state government feels that the number

of draws and special draws should not be too excessive and  be reduced  so that they do not become addictive and destructive to our healthy lifestyles.

Penang state government is not in favour of the BN Federal Government decision  early this month to award the sports betting license now in the interest of protecting the Malaysian social fabric and reducing the negative economic impact on them. We will be writing to the sport betting concessionaire to inform them of the Penang government’s decision.

Penang State Government shall direct the two local councils MPPP & MPSP to exercise section 101(v) of the Local Government Act to bar sports betting in Penang given by BN to Ascot Sports Sdn Bhd.

Once again a very Happy Wesak Day to all Penangites and Malaysians.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 May 2010, 2:50 pm and is filed under
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Najib’s qualification  instead of endorsement of Idris Jala’s warning that Malaysia could become next Greece and go bankrupt unless it saves RM103 billion in next five years to reduce the nation’s huge debt  proof of lack of political will to address subsidy syndrome

Four  things stand out in yesterday’s Subsidy Rationalisation Lab Open Day of the 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme (GTP) where  the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and CEO of Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu),  Datuk Seri Idris Jala made his presentation on the country’s proposed five-year subsidy rationalization roadmap.

Firstly, the absence of Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, the Minister in charge of the 1Malaysia GTP and Chairman of Pemandu.  Why is he on leave in the United States on such an important event in the Government Transformation Programme or is he seriously considering, according to reports quoting Gerakan sources, relinquishing the post as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department after the humiliation in the last meeting of Parliament where he dared not stand up to vouch for what 1Malaysia stands for – that he is Malaysian first and Chinese second?

Secondly, Idris’ failure to address the root causes of the national economic crisis instead of just dealing with its symptoms.

Idris warned that unless Malaysians bite the bullet and wean off subsidies to save the government RM103 billion in five years to reduce the nation’s deficit and huge debt, Malaysia could become another Greece and go bankrupt in nine years.

Although Idris said the government would focus on big ticket items such as fuel, electricity and toll to achieve the savings, he failed to focus on the biggest ticket items – corruption, mismanagement, extravagance and lack and accountability.

When corruption, mismanagement,  extravagance and lack of accountability cost the government  from RM10 billion to RM28 billion a year, what credibility has the government to talk about slashing subsidies affecting the rakyat  when it has nothing to show to end the rampant and worsening state of corruption, the gross abuses of power and public funds like indiscriminate issue of APs and various forms of “piratisation” in the name of privatization?

Thirdly, the coincidence of the release of GLC conglomerate Sime Darby’s  third quarter results, ending March 31, 2010, recording a net loss of RM309 million mainly due to its energy and utilities division; admission that for the nine months ended March 31, 2010, the total provision for four projects namely Qatar Petroleum project, the Maersk Oil Qatar project, the MOQ Marine project and Bakun dam amounted to RM1.3 billion; but no answer as to whether Sime Darby had incurred  cost overruns for the Bakun contract amounting to RM1.7 billion and that the government has agreed to reimburse around RM700 million to Sime Darby, leaving the GLC with around RM1 billion to deal with.

With more questions than answers as to how the global conglomerate changed the meaning of “GLC” from Government-Linked Company to Government Losing-Concern with its billion-ringgit losses, raising grave questions about accountability, transparency and integrity, this is not the best backdrop to convince Malaysians that the government has the political will to set a good example to slash expenditures to save the country from the fate that befell Greece.

But the fourth item is most telling of all – in less than 12 hours of Idris’ apocalyptic speech  that Malaysia can go bankrupt by 2019 if the government fails to cut its burgeoning subsidy bills, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak played down and distanced himself from Idris’ warning.

Najib said after the Umno Supreme Council meeting last night that  the figures quoted by Idris were merely based on Pemandu’s studies and there is no firm decision by the government.

He said  more studies were needed before subsidy cuts could be introduced.

He said: “We are still waiting for information and feedbacks from the rakyat on this.

“Idris’ remarks are just estimates… When it comes to matters which involve the well being of the people, we will consult the rakyat first.”

One can envisage that Idris would not have been discussed in very flattering terms in the Umno Supreme Council meeting.

Najib’s qualification  instead of endorsement of Idris’ warning that Malaysia could become next Greece and go bankrupt unless it saves RM103 billion in next five years to reduce the nation’s huge debt  is  proof of the lack of political will of the Najib administration to address subsidy syndrome.

Are we back to square one before Idris’ apocalyptic warning yesterday morning?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 May 2010, 9:40 am and is filed under
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Sibu result reflects growing Christian vote

Malaysian Insider

By
Debra Chong

May 28, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, May 28 — DAP’s surprise win in the recent Sibu by-election was the latest message being sent to the Najib administration that it needs to buckle down and deal with the “Allah” issue sooner rather than later.

The party made a special appeal to the Christian voters, citing the need to prevent Putrajaya from regulating the ways and language of worship for non-Muslims, after a landmark court ruling on Dec 31 that allowed the word “Allah” to be used by all.

The rise in a conscious Christian vote came after churches in Muslim-majority Malaysia reported a growth spurt, and leading the pack was the 82-year-old Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB), an evangelical movement that worships mainly in Bahasa Malaysia, the national language.

Its sphere of influence is growing fast, particularly among the Orang Asli tribes in the Malay peninsula, said the Christian Fellowship of Malaysia (CFM), an umbrella body that represents voices from both the orthodox churches and evangelical groups.

CFM general secretary Tan Kong Beng credits SIB’s growing appeal to “cultural affinities” between the local indigenous community and those from the Borneo interior.

First set up in Sarawak in 1928 and regarded as a relatively young church, the SIB has been making inroads into Peninsular Malaysia in the last two decades.

Some 30 SIB congregations have been set up in the peninsula to date, with more on the way.

Tan sees the SIB evangelists from Sabah and Sarawak to be more empathetic with the Orang Asli groups and so better able to build a closer rapport with the locals.

“Urban West Malaysians are very different from the Orang Asli,” Tan told The Malaysian Insider.

He explained that English — commonly used in the city and town churches — proved a challenge to those living in the rural areas.

The Bumiputera generally speak in their own native tongues, or the national language with outsiders, he said.

The SIB community in neighbouring Shah Alam have been making regular visits to a remote Orang Asli village the next state over for the past few months, its pastor Richard Samporoh told The Malaysian Insider.

The church has a dedicated Orang Asli ministry, made up mainly of young working adults and university students who visit the tribespeople and provide a range of social-welfare services, such as basic health checks and free tuition classes, making the indigenous more receptive towards the church.

But even as the church expands, so have its problems.

SIB church leaders from both sides of the South China Sea complained of the home ministry’s increasingly heavy-handed treatment towards the church and its members, prompting them to file several lawsuits against the government.

Earlier this year, a group of Orang Asli Christians in Pahang sued the government for refusing to supply water and electricity to their village church.

The Jahut from Kampung Kubang Pasu lost the case at the Temerloh High Court but were appealing the decision.

Next week, the High Court here will attend to a suit filed by Sarawakian SIB member, Jill Ireland Lawrence Bill, who sued the home ministry for seizing her personal religious books and CDs, allegedly because they contained the word “Allah”, which may “confuse” Muslims.

Pastor Jerry Dusing, who heads the Sabah SIB, said the confiscation of Christian books remains a problem in Malaysia.

He, too, has filed a similar suit against the government for confiscating an imported shipment of Malay Bibles three years ago. The court will hear his case later next month.

Pastor Danil Raut, president of SIB Semenanjung, related that the indigenous tribes in Sabah and Sarawak have been using the controversial “A” word in their worship since before Independence.

His fellow SIB member, Alfred Tais, who also sits on the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF) committee, explained that the Bumiputera Christians were upset because they perceived the government’s restrictive policies as a violation of the Federal Constitution and the terms laid out in the agreements for the Borneo states to join the peninsula to form Malaysia.

The ruling Barisan Nasional government had tried to play down the issue, only to have it backfire on them, as seen by the way Sibu — where over half the electorate were Christian — voted earlier this month.

The secular DAP, which had been placed as the underdog in that by-election, had mounted an aggressive campaign, arguing the right of non-Muslims to use the “A” word.

“We’re not creating it to be a hot topic but… we can’t control public sentiment,” Dusing told The Malaysian Insider just before the polls, highlighting Sibu’s extraordinarily large Christian voter population.

“To us it is a hindrance to be able to practise our religion freely. The Christian community is concerned that our Bible is placed under internal security. Books that teach positive religious values placed under restrictions.

“We hope the government will take a sensible attitude towards this problem,” he said.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 May 2010, 7:48 am and is filed under
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S’wak BN shell-shocked by Sibu defeat

Malaysiakini

Terence Netto | May 27, 10 1:31pm

COMMENT  It’s now the turn of Sarawak’s BN leaders to display symptoms of election shell-shock.

Following DAP’s victory in the Sibu by-election, the trauma suffered by Sarawak’s BN chapter, hitherto so confident as the numerically superior component of federal BN’s safe electoral deposit in Borneo, displayed itself in unmistakable ways.

A couple of opposition representatives, hauled before the rights and privileges panel of the state assembly for misconduct at previous sittings, were last week meted out suspensions disproportionate to their reported misdemeanors.

No doubt, this can be attributed to Sarawak BN’s knee-jerk reaction to its defeat by DAP in a former safe haven.

A combination of punches straight to the nose of the opposition in the state assembly is one thing; following that with persiflage on what caused Sarawak BN’s defeat in Sibu is another.

First, it was the turn of Abang Johari Openg (left), state minister for housing, to provide the excuses for defeat.

“Provocative tactics” allegedly employed by Pakatan Rakyat leaders had caused the defeat of the SUPP candidate, claimed the state minister for housing and urban development.

By provocative tactics, Abang Johari meant the raising of the ‘Allah’ issue.

This supposedly stirred the feelings of Sibu’s Christians, hitherto content to read and use the word for the deity in their Bahasa Indonesian bibles, but during the election campaign abruptly aroused to agitated levels by its apparent proscription on the Peninsula and the government’s alleged destruction of 5,000 bibles employing that risible term.

Astir, Abang Johari would have us believe, these feelings rose to high dudgeon, a level enough to prompt a majority of the electorate’s 53% Christians to vote for the DAP candidate in preference to the SUPP nominee.

The latter party’s hapless president, George Chan, had in the last days of the campaign decried the raising of the issue as an example of politicians from the Peninsula dragging an issue peculiar to their region to contaminate an otherwise pristine political arena in Sarawak.

In other circumstances, Sarawak’s BN politicians have been known to lament the Peninsula’s apparent lack of empathy with their state’s concerns.

But in this case, the forging of a common cause over the ‘Allah’ issue was denounced as “dirty tactics”, derogatory of Sarawak’s dignity and reflective of Peninsula politicians’ deviousness.

Watch out Pakatan!

This boilerplate was given a further dose of the asinine by James Masing, the Parti Rakyat Sarawak leader and state minister of land development.

It’s not easy to unravel the tangled strands of his diatribe against the campaign methods of Pakatan, voiced in the Sarawak state assembly the other day.

But essentially, it floated the notion of the Dayak as ‘noble savage’ whose placid façade is rubbed the wrong way by the ‘provocative’ campaign tactics of opposition politicians from the Peninsula.

If the latter persist, the Dayak, especially the Iban, predicted Masing (right), would respond with the aggression that lurks beneath his veneer of civilisation brought on by the development of Sarawak and the urbanisation of the natives.

In Masing’s view, it’s not the plunder of their native customary rights land by the plutocracy that holds sway in Sarawak and other issues that would rouse the Dayak to indignant battle; it’s the ‘provocative’ campaign tactics of the opposition that would sooner do that.

Next time, the oppositionists unleash their brand of campaign tactics, the Dayaks will uncork their bottled-up aggression, says Masing. Watch out Pakatan!

It is apparent Umno’s denial syndrome on the Peninsula has become contagious.

The defeat in Sibu was enough to suggest that the parent body and its state chapter are afflicted with the same malady whose remedy is dislodgment – hook, line and sinker.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 28 May 2010, 6:05 am and is filed under
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DAP: Pakatan perlu adakan kajian prestasi separuh penggal

Oleh
G. Manimaran
 | The Malaysian Insider

KOTA BARU, 29 Mei — Pakatan Rakyat (PR), yang mencipta sejarah dengan menguasai lima kerajaan negeri dan menafikan Barisan Nasional (BN) majoriti dua pertiga di Parlimen dua tahun lalu, perlu mengadakan kajian separuh penggal prestasi mereka.

Justeru, idea agar diadakan kajian separuh penggal itu membabitkan prestasinya sejak Mac 2008 akan diutarakan pada mesyuarat kepimpinan PR

Selasa depan, kata Penasihat DAP Lim Kit Siang.

“Kami akan membincangkan idea agar diadakan kajian separuh penggal kerajaan negeri Pakatan Rakyat selepas dua tahun memerintah,” kata Lim pada sidang media bersama pemimpin-pemimpin PR di sini hari ini.

“Kita sudah memerintah selama dua tahun dan ada baiknya kita melakukan kajian separuh penggal ini… masa yang sesuai untuk menilai prestasi kerajaan negeri… pendekatan, cara… untuk melihat prestasi dari segi aspirasi, harapan rakyat,” kata beliau.

Pandangan itu disokong oleh Setiausaha Agung PAS Datuk Mustafa Ali yang berkata, “kami akan membincangkannya.”

Sidang media itu diadakan selepas majlis perasmian Kongres Nasional Keenam PKR di sini. Presiden PKR Datukn Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail menyampaikan ucapan dasarnya.

Lim berkata kajian separuh penggal itu akan melibatkan keempat-empat kerajaan negeri yang masih diterajui PR iaitu Kelantan, Pulau Pinang, Kedah dan Selangor.

Perak yang dikuasai PR telah jatuh ke tangan BN awal tahun lalu.

Lim yang juga anggota Dewan Rakyat berkata, bagi tujuan itu PR boleh mengambil perkara-perkara yang ditekankan oleh Wan Azizah dalam ucapannya.

“Ucapan Wan Azizah adalah paling komprehensif, tepat pada masanya dan sesuatu yang mengejutkan,” kata Lim.

“Saya rasakan kita boleh mengambil beberapa perkara yang dibawa oleh Presiden (PKR) dalam ucapannya,” katanya.

Mengenai rasa kecewa Angkatan Muda Keadilan (AMK) bahawa PR tidak melaksanakan Dasar Bersama dengan efektif, Ketua Umumnya Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim berkata:

“Angkatan Muda memberikan beberapa cadangan supaya mematuhi beberapa dasar yang telah diputuskan oleh kepimpinan Pakatan.

“Perkara itu sebagaimana dikatakan tadi, akan dibincangkan dalam mesyuarat Selasa ini.”

Mustafa pula berkata, PR perlu diberikan masa kerana baru dua tahun memerintah tiga negeri kecuali Kelantan.

PR yang mengadakan konvensyen sulungnya Disember lalu telah meluluskan Dasar Bersama.

Bagaimanapun Ketua AMK Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin berkata PR gagal untuk melaksanakan kandungan Dasar Bersama dengan efektif dan menyeluruh.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 29 May 2010, 7:55 pm and is filed under
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Inspector-General of MACC: Have we gone mad?

By
Tunku Abdul Aziz

The very idea that the headman of the MACC be accorded a status equivalent to that of the Inspector-General of Police was so hilarious that I, a grown man, was driven to sobbing uncontrollably before I doubled up, laughing my head off. I have, in my lifetime, been through many strange and unusual situations, but I must confess to a sense of incredulity that members of the Anti-Corruption Advisory Board headed by former Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad were prepared to risk their collective reputation by putting this recommendation forward. It is absurdity personified.

The other recommendations, including the establishment of a statutory commission on appointments, and the need to have interrogation rooms equipped with CCTV cameras, must rank as among the most facile suggestions ever made by a group of people who lay claim to expert knowledge and experience of a level considered sufficient to justify their being appointed to the advisory board.

In the event, by their earth-shattering recommendations, they have confirmed what I have known all along: they know nothing about fighting corruption or, for that matter, the chief commissioner, if he had to be “advised” on what equipment was needed to be put in place to make the interrogation process more open and transparent, then he has no business to be there in the first place. I make no apology for using the word interrogation in relation to the methods adopted by the MACC when dealing with witnesses. The word interview is yet to be part of the MACC’s corruption fighting lexicon.

The recommendation to equate the head of MACC with the Inspector- General of Police not only shows a pathetic lack of understanding on the part of the advisory board of the duties and responsibilities of the Inspector-General of Police and the officers under his command and control in the overall scheme of national security and public order priorities, but also insensitivity to the intelligence of the public. To believe that an untried jumped-up middle-rank public servant barely able to keep his head above water in the job is on par with the head of the Royal Malaysia Police (PDRM) is the height of fantasy. This is similar to proposing that the head of Rela be given the same status as the Chief of the Malaysian Armed Forces Staff.

The PDRM is an organisation with a 200-year tradition of public service. Admittedly there have been some hiccups along the way in its long history of protecting life and property, but it has been through several baptisms of fire, and not once has it been found wanting whenever the nation needed it desperately. The makeover from the ACA to the MACC has not resulted in any marked improvement in its performance. It is the same old wine in a brand-new Waterford decanter. The wine is still the same, not fit for the table.

My advice to the MACC chief commissioner, for what it is worth, is not to let his ambition exceed his abilities which have yet to be tested and proven. Until Malaysians are absolutely convinced that the organisation he has inherited by default, not his fault, naturally, can be relied upon to carry out its duties in the public interest, and thereby earn their respect and confidence, he will have absolutely no credibility or clout. A senior member of his staff has been to see me, of his own volition, for some advice. He is not happy with the ethical and moral dilemmas he has had to face under the present leadership, and it appears that unless staff morale is attended to sensibly and quickly, the chief commissioner’s tenure could be problematical.

So, as we have seen, public confidence, without which he might just as well close shop, is not a commodity that can be bought in a supermarket. He has to earn it the hard way; persuading the government to dress him up to look like a poor imitation of the Inspector-General of Police is not going to help him succeed in his job. People have yet to see the colour of his money, in a manner of speaking. He can say what he likes about doing a great job, but people want results. They are his judges, and on present showing he is seen to be long on self-publicity and rather short on productive effort. I know from inside information he has been busy hiring spin doctors to tart up his image and that of his organisation. Don’t throw good money after bad because public trust and confidence will not return no matter how much money is spent on cosmetic surgery.

MACC’s much touted independence is under close public scrutiny. I am told, again on the internal grapevine, that he insists that every MACC function must have a minister present. MACC should not have too much to do with ministers as this could cause embarrassment should it have to arrest them for corruption. But I suppose MACC’s independence stops short of calling corrupt ministers to account, and so everyone is a winner except the nation.

I see that the MACC director of investigation is probing the labyrinth of commercial networks and dealings in search of “elements of corruption”, as he puts it, in the Sime Darby affair. The director of investigation is a fine man, extremely good at preparing slides for Powerpoint presentations but he would not know where to begin. It is a job for trained forensic accountants from the big audit firms with international connections. I know what the outcome will be — there is no evidence of corruption. Remember the Perwaja episode?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 29 May 2010, 3:16 pm and is filed under
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Vote BN for bankruptcy, warns Pakatan

Malaysian Insider

By
Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani

May 29, 2010

KOTA BARU, May 29 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders used dire forecasts of a gloomy future if there are no subsidy cuts to warn that voting for Barisan Nasional (BN) in the next general election would lead the country to bankruptcy.

A government minister this week had predicted Malaysia could be bankrupt by 2019 if it does not begin to cut subsidies for petrol, electricity, food and other staples, which cost RM74 billion last year. But the Najib administration is waiting for public feedback before deciding on actual cuts.

DAP leader Lim Kit Siang said it was not subsidies but BN’s corruption and abuse of power that has led the country to current financial crisis.

“I cannot imagine if DAP, PKR or PAS had made the announcement that country will be bankrupt by 2019. If we did, Umno would have labelled us as anti-nationalist and traitors. We probably would have been locked up in ISA and given free food.

“Remember Vision 2020? We were supposed to become a developed nation by 2020 but unfortunately one year before 2020, we are already bankrupt,” he told a crowd last night in Tanah Merah, a two-hour drive from the Kelantan state capital.

Lim was one of many PR leaders in the state speaking at ceramahs ahead of the PKR convention this weekend.

Thousands of people had slowly filled the football field in Tanah Merah to hear the PR leaders, with supporters of all ages coming with families and straw mats sitting in between the two goal posts across the field.

Surrounding the field were stalls bustling with people buying goods, from traditional medicine to perfume. There were also children zigzagging through the crowd selling peanuts and refreshments.

The bustling night bazaar proved to be an ironic backdrop to arguments that the country’s economy is broken and needs reforms.

Lim declared that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s New Economic Model (NEM) is an admission that the country has been in an economic stagnation for the past 10 years.

“Yes, we do believe that we must gradually reduce the country’s subsidies but how can we be certain that the proposed formula will solve the problem because these are only the symptoms. The core problem is the years of corruption practised by the Barsian Nasional government.

“Therefore, the first step is not to abolish subsidies but abolish all forms of corruption!” he said.

The government also announced that slashing subsidies for petrol, diesel, gas, electricity, sugar and flour, among other staples, would save the government RM103 billion over the next five years.

Lim also dared Najib to a “dollar to dollar” challenge.

“I challenge the prime minister and BN government that the country can save RM103 billion if the government abolishes all forms of corruption and misuse of powers. This is because a study has shown that the country has been losing RM10 billion to RM28 billion every year through corruption. So does Najib have the political will?” asked Lim.

PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Umno’s misuse of state funds has forced the government to legalise gambling.

“Back then, they said that they cannot legalise gambling because it was against but today they are legalising because Umno has no money. Their excuse is that they need to legalise betting to help curb illegal gambling. Something must be wrong with their heads.

“The world today is upside down, we have a Muslim government that wants to legalise betting but we have Chinese who are against it. They don’t understand that the poor people will suffer. This is why we are against Barisan Nasional. They have no principles,” he said.

Anwar also ridiculed Najib, saying that his political foe is misleading the public.

“Now they want to take back our subsidies because the country is heading towards bankruptcy. The prime minister had earlier announced that the economy was making a strong recovery but now our country is near bankrupt?

“They should fight against corruption but not take away the subsidies. They only know how to take. They take away land and seize oil away from Kelantan. They are just thieves,” he said.

He said the government must remove commissions and not subsidies.

“Every year the country loses RM20 billion from what? From commissions made from building houses, stadiums and buying submarines. Whose money is this? That is our money! We should eliminate commissions and not subsidies because subsidies affect the poor and not the rich,” he said.

PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat condemned the government for sanctioning betting because it was against Islam.

“They say that they want to legalise betting so they can monitor gambling. How you can expect a man to supervise another man? It is like asking a cow to supervise another cow. Who can control man? Only Allah,” said the Kelantan mentri besar.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 29 May 2010, 8:36 am and is filed under
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Is Najib backing off from support for NEM to become an even bigger Flip-Flop PM than Abdullah?

The meek and timid response of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to the ferocious and incendiary rejection of the New Economic Model by the Perkasa-led Malay Consultative Council raises the question whether Najib is backing off from the NEM to become an even bigger Flip-Flop PM than his predecessor Tun Abdullah.

Najib’s statement that the NEM is not the Government’s “final stand” but merely the “trial balloons” of a group of experts making suggestions from the global market’s perspective is a greater commentary on Najib’s leadership qualities than on the NEM proposals.

The NEM was launched by Najib two months ago with great fanfare as a defining moment  in the nation’s development path, to take the quantum leap from the nation’s decade-long economic stagnation and escape from the two-decade middle-income trap to become a developed high-income country – but it appears that it may end up more as a defining moment in the grave failings of the year-old Najib premiership.

Right from the very beginning, the NEM courageouslty admitted that Vision 2020 is not  possible without economic, social and government transformation – and the NEM was presented as one of the four key pillars to unleash Malaysia’s growth potential, drive change,  propel Malaysia to become a high income advanced nation with inclusiveness and sustainability and achieve Vision 2020.

NEM warned that almost all economies of East Asia are poised to achieve high economic growth in this decade but Malaysia runs the imminent risk of a downward spiral and faces the painful possibility of stagnation.

It admitted that the implementation of the NEP, which “has reduced poverty and substantially addressed inter-ethnic economic imbalances”, has engendered rent-seeking, patronage, opague government procurement and “pervasive corruption”.

It warned: “We are not developing talent and what we have is leaving.The human capital situation in Malaysia is reaching a critical stage.”

The NEM delivered the dire warning:  “We must act now before our position deteriorates any further”.

But the biggest challenge for the NEM is whether there are “political will and leadership to break the log-jam of resistance by vested interest groups and preparing the rakyat to support deep-seated changes in policy directions”.

Will Najib fail in the first NEM test of political will and leadership as predicted by the NEM itself?

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 30 May 2010, 12:16 pm and is filed under
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Sibu by-election – the “Incredible Hulk” warning  after the “Barbarians at the gate” speech

Malaysiakini commentator Terence Netto  hit the nail on the head when he wrote a commentary entitled “
S’wak BN shell-shocked by Sibu defeat
“.

This explained the “
Barbarians at the Gate
” speech of SUPP Chairman, Datuk Dr. George Tan and the ensuring “Incredible Hulk” statement  by Parti Rakyat Sarawak President Dato Sri Dr. James Masing, which is reproduced below.

When will the Barisan Nasional leaders particularly those from Sarawak come out of their denial syndrome and wake up to the true meaning and implications of the historic 516 verdict of the voters of Sibu in the Sibu by-election?

Don’t make Incredible Hulk angry, opposition told
 | The Borneo Post

May 26, 2010, Wednesday

KUCHING: Minister of Land Development Dato Sri Dr James Masing yesterday warned Peninsular Malaysia-based opposition parties to watch their step and refrain from practising rowdy politics in Sarawak. He said Sarawakians had had a glimpse of such behaviour among opposition leaders in the Batang Ai by-election but that was short-lived.

However, he said, during campaigning for the Sibu by-election Sarawakians had witnessed the full-blown rowdy behaviour of West Malaysian opposition leaders and their local counterparts.

Warning the opposition that such political rowdiness could break down social order in the country, he said they should not force Sarawakians to defend their territory against the rowdy antics of politicians from outside.

“Don’t make the Incredible Hulk angry. He is a very peaceful man but when he’s angry you better watch out. So don’t make him angry because you will not like him if he’s angry,” Masing told reporters during a break of the State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting yesterday after delivering his ministerial winding up speech.

“Please don’t come to Sarawak using that kind of tactics. These are alien to us and don’t do that because you may touch something which may not be very helpful to us. There is anger around us,” he warned.

He said Pakatan Rakyat (PR), comprising the Democratic Action Parti (DAP), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), should learn from the May 13 incident and to ensure the ugly tragedy would not repeat itself.

“May 13 was when the Bumiputera were about to lose the power to control the state, so don’t start it. There’re certain things that we don’t go into. This is one thing we should understand. They should not encroach into one’s sacred areas because that will be a danger.

“I am just giving you a warning. Don’t do it. There must be certain areas that we play by and do it slowly. You must ask yourself why May 13 happened.

“Unfortunately there was a move along that direction, but please do not, if that happens we are going to have problems,” he cautioned.

While the people of Sarawak were very friendly, he said, when disturbed and provoked they too could be rough.

Earlier, in his speech, Masing said that the opposition should never assume that Sarawak politicians were incapable of being tough and fight back when forced to do so.

“The Dayaks, especially the Ibans, in this house, may look placid and timid, but if you touch our raw nerves and abuse our dignity and pride, we will fight back,” he stressed.

He said it was therefore, advisable for peninsulabased politicians to learn the history of Sarawak so that they know who the Ibans were and what they did to their enemies in the old days.

“The civilised world may have dulled the Ibans’ sense of aggression against those who wish them ill – but it can re-emerge and when it does it will not be pleasant.

“Malaysia has been peaceful for the past 50 years because we acknowledge and respect these societal holy grounds and understanding.

Whatever our political dreams are for ourselves or for our party, please, never forget those understandings less we fall into the abyss of anarchy.” He said when social order broke down, no one would benefit – not even members of the opposition.

“Therefore, it is my hope that in the midst of our struggle to get elected, or in our effort to score political points, we should not let our emotions get the better of us,” he said.

Commenting on the same issue, Housing and Urban Development Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg said opposition parties from Peninsular Malaysia had been very provocative during the Sib by-election.

“If you start to do something which is provocative then other people will react.

So the best is to have certain atmosphere where everybody follows the game according to the rules.

“Surprisingly in the Sibu by-election there seemed to be some changes in the way they (opposition) campaign.

For the first time, in that by-election, I saw people travelling in a car with microphone,” he said.

Abang Johari said he had gone through seven elections but that was the first time he saw such a thing and it was only of late that he had witnessed the new and rowdy trend of campaigning.

However, he said, whether the Oppositions’ campaigning tactics were unlawful was up to the Election Commission (EC) and other relevant authorities to deal with.

Masing is Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president while Abang Johari is deputy president of Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB).

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 30 May 2010, 5:00 am and is filed under
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Call for convening of all-party conference to condemn the Israeli attack on Freedom Flotilla, killing at least 15, on a humanitarian aid-and-medicine mission to Gaza

(Media Statement in Kota Kinabalu on Monday, 31st May 2010)

DAP calls for the convening of an all-party conference to condemn the Israeli attacks on Freedom Flotilla, killing at least 15, on a humanitarian aid-and-medicine mission to Gaza.

There can be no conceivable excuse for the use of lethal force by the Israelis against against the mercy mission to Gaza, which is a clear breach of international law on international waters.

It is most horrifying that Malaysian lives could be lost.

The all-party conference, which should be convened within 24 hours, should express the anger and outrage of Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation at the atrocity committed by the Israeli forces against the unarmed Flotilla and civilians and demand an international tribunal for such crimes against humanity.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 31 May 2010, 6:59 pm and is filed under
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