Razaleigh – NEP has expired. Time for New Deal

Speech by Tengku Razaleigh at HELP University College, KL; July 10, 2009

Thank you for inviting me to address you. It’s a pleasure to be here, and to learn from you. You have asked me to talk about Najib’s  First 100 Days, and this lecture is in a series called Straight Talk. I shall indeed speak plainly and directly.

Let me begin by disappointing you. I am not going to talk about Najib’s First 100 Days because it makes little sense to do so.

Our governments are brought to power for five year terms through general elections. The present government was constituted after March 8, 2008 and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s tenure as Prime Minister resulted from a so-called “smooth transfer of power” between the previous Prime Minister and himself that took a somewhat unsmooth twelve months to carry out. During those months, Najib took on the de facto leadership role domestically while Abdullah warmed our international ties. The first 100 days of this government went by unremarked sometime in June last year.

Not only is it somewhat meaningless to talk about Najib’s First 100 days, such talk buys into a kind of political silliness that we are already too prone to.  It has us imagine that the present government started work on April 2 and forget that it commenced work on March 8 last year and must be accountable for all that has been done or not done since then. It has us forget that in our system of parliamentary, constitutional democracy, governments are brought to power at general elections and must be held accountable for promises made at these elections. It leads us to forget that these promises, set out in election manifestos, are undertaken by political parties, not individuals, and are not trifles to be forgotten when there is a change of individual.

It is important that we remember these things, cultivate a more critical recollection of them, and learn to hold our leaders accountable to them, so that we are not perpetually chasing the slogan of the day, whether this be Vision 2020, Islam Hadhari or 1Malaysia. As PR Professionals, you would see my point immediately.  Slogans without substance undermine trust. That substance is made up of policies that have been thought through and are followed through. That substance is concrete and provided by results we can measure.

Whether or not some of our leaders are ready for it, we are maturing as a democracy.  We are beginning to evaluate our governments more by the results they deliver over time than by their rhetoric. As our increasingly well-educated and well-travelled citizens apply this standard, they force our politicians to think before they speak, and deliver before they speak again. As thinking Malaysians we should look for the policies, if any, behind the slogans. What policies are still in place and which have we abandoned? What counts as policy and who is consulted when it is made? How is a proposal formulated and specified and approved before it becomes policy, and by whom? What are the roles of party, cabinet, King and Parliament in this process? Must we know what it means before it is instituted or do we have to piece it together with guesswork? Do we even have a policy process?

The mandate Najib has taken up is the one given to Barisan Nasional under Abdullah Badawi’s leadership. BN was returned to power in the 12th General Elections on a manifesto promising Security, Peace and Prosperity. It is this manifesto against which the present administration undertook to be judged. The present government inherits projects and policies such as Islam Hadhari and Vision 2020. If these are still in place, how do they relate to each other and to 1 Malaysia? How do we evaluate the latest slogan against the fact of constitutional failure in Perak, the stench of corruption in the PKFZ project and reports of declining media freedom? What do we make of cynical political plays on racial unity against assurances that national unity is the priority?

It is not amiss to ask about continuity. We were told that the reason why we had to have a yearlong ‘transfer of power’ to replace the previous Prime Minster was so that we could have such policy continuity. The issues before the present BN government are not transformed overnight with a change of the man at the top.

Let me touch on one issue every Malaysian is concerned with: security. The present government made the right move in supporting the establishment of the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Police in 2004. Responding to the recommendations of the Royal Commission, the government allocated the PDRM RM8 billion to upgrade itself under the 9th Malaysia Plan, a tripling of their allocation under the 8th Malaysia Plan.

Despite the huge extra amounts we are spending on policing, there has been no dent on our crime problem, especially in the Johor Bahru area, where it continues to make a mockery of our attempts to develop Iskandar as a destination for talent and investment.  Despite spending all this money, we have just been identified as a major destination for human trafficking by the US State Department’s 2008 Human Rights Watch. We are now in the peer group of Sudan, Saudi Arabia and North Korea for human trafficking. All over the world the organized cross-border activity of human trafficking feeds on the collusion of crime syndicates and corrupt law enforcement and border security officials. Security is about more than just catching the criminals out there. It is also about the integrity of our own people and processes.  It is above all about uprooting corruption and malpractice in government agencies, especially in law enforcement agencies. I wish the government were as eager to face the painful challenge of reform as to spend money. The key recommendation of the Royal Commission was the formation of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission. That has been shelved.

Royal Commissions and their findings are not to be trifled with and applied selectively. Their findings and recommendations are conveyed in a report submitted to the King, who then transmits them to the Government. Their recommendations have the status of instructions from the King. The recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Police have not been properly implemented. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Video clip might as well not have been conducted, because its findings have been completely ignored. Both Commissions investigated matters fundamental to law and order in this country: the capability and integrity of the police and of the judiciary. No amount of money thrown at the PDRM or on installing CCTV’s can make up for what happens to our security when our law enforcers and our judges are compromised.

Two Royal Commissions undertaken under the present government unearthed deep issues in the police and the judiciary and made recommendations with the King’s authority behind them, and they have been ignored. The public may wonder if the government is committed to peace and security if it cannot or will not address institutional rot in law enforcement and the rule of law.

The reform of the police and the judiciary has been on the present government’s To Do list for more than five years.

I want to reflect now upon where we stand today and how we might move forward. We are truly at a turning point in our history. Our political landscape is marked with unprecedented uncertainty. Nobody knows what the immediate future holds for us politically. This is something very new for Malaysians. The inevitability of a strong BN government figured into all political and economic calculations and provided a kind of stability to our expectations. Now that this is gone, and perhaps gone for good, we need a new basis for long-term confidence. No matter who wins the next General Election, it is likely to be with a slim majority. Whatever uncertainty we now face is likely to persist unless some sort of tiebreaker is found which gathers the overwhelming support of the people.

We need to trust less in personalities and more in policies, look less to politics and more to principle, less to rhetoric and more to tangible outcomes, less to the government of the day and more to enduring institutions, first among which must be the Federal Constitution.

We need an unprecedented degree of openness and honesty about what our issues are and what can be done; about who we are, and where we want to go. We need straight talk rather than slogans. We need to be looking the long horizon rather than occupying ourselves with media-generated milestones.

Those of us who think about the future of Malaysia have never been so restless. The mould of our past is broken, and there is no putting it back together again, but a new mould into which to pour our efforts is not yet cast. This is a time to think new thoughts, and to be courageous in articulating them.

Such is the case not just in politics but also in how the government manages the economy. In a previous speech I argued that for our economy to escape the “middle income trap” we need to make a developmental leap involving transformative improvements in governance and a successful reform of our political system. I said the world recession is a critical opportunity for us to re-gear and re-tool the Malaysian economy because it is a challenge to take bold, imaginative measures. We must make that leap or remain stuck as low achievers who were once promising.

We are in a foundational crisis both of our politics and of our economy. In both dimensions, the set plays of the past have taken us as far as they can, and can take us no further. Politically and economically, we have arrived at the end of the road for an old way of managing things. The next step facing us is not a step but a leap, not an addition to what we have but a shift that changes the very ground we play on.

This is not the first time in our brief history as an independent nation that we have found ourselves at an impasse and come up with a ground-setting policy, a new framework, a leap into the future. The race riots of 1969 ended the political accommodation and style of the first era of our independence. Parliament was suspended and a National Operations Council put in place under the leadership of the late Tun Razak. He formed a National Consultative Council to study what needed to be done. The NCC was a non-partisan body which included everyone. It was the NCC that drafted and recommended the New Economic Policy. This was approved and implemented by the Government.

The NEP was a twenty year programme. It had a national, and not a racial agenda to eradicate poverty and address structural inequality in the form of the identification of race with occupation. It aimed to remove a colonial era distribution of economic roles in our economy. Nowhere in its terms is any race specified, nor does it privilege one race over another. Its aim was unity.

The NEP’s redistributive measures drew on principles of social justice, not claims of racial privilege. This is an important point. The NEP was acceptable to all Malaysians because its justification was universal rather than sectarian, ethical rather than opportunistic. It appealed to Malaysians’ sense of social justice and not to any notion of racial privilege.

We were devising a time-limited policy for the day, in pursuit of a set of measurable outcomes. We were not devising a doctrine for an eternal socio-economic arrangement. Like all policies, it was formulated to solve a finite set of problems, but through an enduring concern with principles such as equity and justice. I happen to think it was the right thing for the time, and it worked in large measure.

Curiously, although the policy was formulated within the broad consensus of the NCC for a finite period, in our political consciousness it has grown into an all-encompassing and permanent framework that defines who we are.  We continue to act and talk as if it is still in place. The NEP ended in 1991 when it was terminated and replaced by the New Development Policy, but eighteen years on, we are still in its hangover and speak confusingly about liberalizing it. The NEP was necessary and even visionary in 1971, but it is a crushing indictment of our lack of imagination, of the mediocrity of our leadership, that two decades after its expiry, we talk as if it is the sacrosanct centre of our socio-political arrangement, and that departures from it are big strides. The NEP is over, and we have not had the courage to tell people this. The real issue is not whether the NEP is to be continued or not, but whether we have the  imagination to come up with something which better serves our values and objectives, for our own time.

Policies are limited mechanisms for solving problems. They become vehicles for abuse when they stay on past their useful life. Like political or corporate leaders who have stayed too long, policies that overrun their scope or time become entrenched in abuse, and confuse the means that they are with the ends that they were meant to serve. The NEP was formulated to serve the objective of unity. That objective is enduring, but its instrument can come up for renewal or replacement. Any organisation, let alone a country, that fails to renew a key policy over forty years in a fast-moving world is out of touch and in trouble.

There is a broad consensus in our society that while the NEP has had important successes, it has now degenerated into a vehicle for abuse and inefficiency. Neither the Malays nor the non-Malays approve of the way it now works, although there would be multiracial support for the objectives of the NEP, as originally understood. The enthusiasm with which recent reforms have been greeted in the business and international communities suggests that the NEP is viewed as an obstacle to growth. This was not what it was meant to be.

It was designed to promote a more equitable and therefore a more harmonious society. Far from obstructing growth, the stability and harmony envisaged by the NEP would were to be the basis for long term prosperity.

Over the years, however, and alongside its successes, the NEP has been systematically appropriated by a small political and business class to enrich itself and perpetuate its power. This process has corrupted our society and our politics. It has corrupted our political parties. Rent-seeking practices have choked the NEP’s original intention of seeking a more just and equitable society, and have discredited the broad nation-building enterprise which this policy was meant to serve.

Thus, while the NEP itself has expired, we live under the hangover of a policy which has been skewed from its intent. Instead of coming up with better policy tools in pursuit of the aims behind the NEP, a set of vested interests rallies to defend the mere form of the NEP and to extend its bureaucratic sway through a huge apparatus of commissions, agencies, licenses and permits while its spirit has been evacuated. In doing so they have clouded the noble aims of the NEP and racialized its originally national and universal concerns.

We must break the stranglehold of communal politics and racial policy if we want to be a place where an economy driven by ideas and skills can flourish. This is where our daunting economic and political challenges can be addressed in one stroke. We can do much better than cling to the bright ideas of forty years ago as if they were dogma, and forget our duty to come up with the bright ideas for our own time. The NEP, together with the Barisan coalition, was a workable solution for Malaysia forty years ago. But forty years ago, our population was about a third of what it is today, our economy was a fraction the size and complexity that it is now, and structured around the export of tin and rubber rather than around manufacturing, services and oil and gas. Forty years ago we were in the midst of the Cold War, and the Vietnam War raged to the north. Need I say we live in a very different world today. We need to talk to the facebook generation of young Malaysians connected to global styles and currents of thought. We face global epidemics, economic downturns and planetary climate change.

We can do much better than to cling to the outer form of an old policy. Thinking in these terms only gives us the negative policy lever of “relaxing” certain rules, when what we need is a new policy framework, with 21st century policy instruments. We have relaxed some quotas. We have left Approved Permits and our taxi licensing system intact. We have left the apparatus of the NEP, and a divisive mindset that has grown up around it, in place. Wary of well-intentioned statements with no follow-through, the business community has greeted these reforms cautiously, noting that a mountain of other reforms are needed. One banker was quoted in a recent news article as saying: “All the reforms need to go hand in hand..Why is there an exodus of talent and wealth? It is because people do not feel confident with the investment climate, security conditions and the government in Malaysia. Right now, many have lost faith in the system.”

The issues are intertwined. Our problems are systemic and rooted in the capability of the government to deliver, and the integrity of our institutions. It is clear that piecemeal “liberalization” and measure by measure reform on a politicized timetable is not going to do the job.

33.What we need is a whole new policy framework, based on a comprehensive vision that addresses root problems in security, institutional integrity, education and government capability. What we need to do is address our crisis with the bold statecraft from which the NEP itself originated, not cling to a problematic framework that does little justice to our high aspirations. The challenge of leadership is to tell the truth about our situation, no matter how unpalatable, to bring people together around that solution, and to move them to act together on that solution.

If the problem is really that we face a foundational crisis, then it is not liberalization of the NEP, or even liberalization per se that we need. From the depths of the global economic slowdown it is abundantly clear that the autonomous free market is neither equitable nor even sustainable. There is no substitute for putting our heads together and coming up with wise policy. We need a Malaysian New Deal based on the same universal concerns on which the NEP was originally formulated but designed for  a new era: we must continue to eradicate poverty without regard for race or religion, and ensure that markets serve the people rather than the other way around.

Building on the desire for unity based social justice that motivated the NEP in 1971, let us assist 100% of Malaysians who need help in improving their livelihoods and educating their children. We want the full participation of all stakeholders in our economy. A fair and equitable political and economic order, founded on equal citizenship as guaranteed in our Constitution, is the only possible basis for a united Malaysia and a prerequisite of the competitive, talent-driven economy we must create if we are to make our economic leap.

If we could do this, we would restore national confidence, we would bring Malaysians together in common cause to build a country that all feel a deep sense of belonging to. We would unleash the kind of investment we need, not just of foreign capital but of the loyalty, effort and commitment  of all Malaysians.

I don’t know about you. I am embarrassed that after fifty years of independence we are still talking about bringing Malaysians together. I would have wished that by now, and here tonight, we could be talking about how we can conquer new challenges together.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 11 July 2009, 11:39 am and is filed under
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Cabinet’s decision on PPSMI last Wednesday is as disastrous as the Cabinet decision in 2002 to rush headlong into implementing PPSMI from Std. One for all national, Chinese and Tamil primary schools without any preparation or research whatsoever

The Cabinet decision last Wednesday on PPSMI (Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik – teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English) is as disastrous as the Cabinet decision in 2002 to rush headlong into implementing PPSMI from Std. One for all national, Chinese and Tamil primary schools without any preparation or research whatsoever.

Now, Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, in justifying the Cabinet’s latest decision on PPSMI has made the shocking revelation that before  the PPSMI was launched six years ago, there had been neither  discussion or  approval by the Cabinet nor discussion with the parents.

Several current Ministers were in the 2002 Mahathir Cabinet, including the present Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, DPM Muhyiddin himself, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Information, Communication and Culture Minister, Datuk Seri Rais Yatim, and they as well as the leaderships of Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC,  SUPP and other Barisan Nasional component parties  should all explain how they could permit such a far-reaching decision affecting the future generation of Malaysians to be taken in so haphazard and irresponsible a manner!

I agree that the Cabinet decision on PPSMI last Wednesday came as “a bombshell to many, especially those in the urban areas”.

Just before Najib’s Cabinet reshuffle on April 10, the then Education Minister Hishamuddin was expected to have proposed the reversion to mother tongue for mathematics and science only at primary level, while retaining PPSMI at the secondary level.

As many had said, the complete reversal of PPSMI at both primary and secondary levels “has come as a real surprise”, as it is sheer political expediency which makes no educational sense whatsoever.

For instance, last Wednesday’s Cabinet decision means that Malaysia will have the most crazy educational system, where students in Form 4 in 2012 will have to switch to Bahasa Malaysia for mathematics and science in the last two years of secondary education, after nine years of learning these two subjects in English – again to switch back to English for pre-university and tertiary education!

Ministers who want millions of Malaysian students to go through the crazy system of nine years of mathematics and science in English from Std. 1 to Form 3, followed by two years in Bahasa Malaysia in Forms 4 and 5, and switch back again to English for pre-university and tertiary education must have their heads examined as to whether they are fit to be in Cabinet in the first place!

This is why MCA and Gerakan Ministers like Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon are trying to wriggle out of the crazy decision, by agreeing in the Chinese media  that mathematics and science should continue to be taught in English in Forms 3 and 5 after 2012.

Unfortunately, this was not the decision taken by the Cabinet, of which both of them are part!

Why then did Ong and Koh agree to the Cabinet decision last Wednesday that mathematics and science should revert back to Bahasa Malaysia from English for Forms 4 and 5 from 2012, as clearly explained by the Education director-general Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom in post-Cabinet meetings and interviews?

When can Malaysian trust MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP as well as Umno Ministers not to make foolish and crazy decisions sacrificing the interests of  future generations of Malaysians?

The Cabinet on Wednesday should undo the various disasters of its decision on PPSMI last week, including:

Endorsing the call of Parents Action Group for Education (Page) that schools should be given the option to teach science and mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia or English or in one’s mother tongue;

Revert to the use of English as medium of instruction for mathematics and science in secondary schools;

A flexible education approach that takes into account the urban-rural gap as well as the weaknesses of students, particularly in rural areas in proficiency in English, mathematics and science; and

The important principle that advanced students should not be held back because of students who lagged behind academically.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 July 2009, 1:18 pm and is filed under
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Chaining The Children of the Poor

by
M. Bakri Musa

The ancient Chinese bound the feet of their baby daughters so they would grow up with deformed tiny feet, thus limiting their mobility and participation in life outside the little world of their homes.  These women would then be totally dependent on their men.

            In rescinding the policy of teaching science and mathematics in English, the government is likewise binding the intellectual development of our children.  They and future generations of Malaysians would grow up with warped intellect.  They would then be totally dependent on the government, just as ancient Chinese women with tiny feet were on their men.

            My friend and fellow commentator Azly Rahman has a more apt and colorful local metaphor; we are condemning future generations to the Pekan Rabu economy, capable only of selling pirated versions of Michael Jackson albums.  That would be the extent of their entrepreneurial prowess and creative flair.  They are only subsistence entrepreneurs and ‘copy cat’ creators.

            Make no mistake about it.  The government’s professed concerns for the poor and those from rural areas notwithstanding, reversing the current policy would adversely and disproportionately impact them.  The rich and those in the cities have a ready escape; the rich through private English classes, urban children from the already high levels of English in their community.

            The most disadvantaged will be the poor kampong kids.  That means Malay children.  Thus we have the supreme irony if not perversity of the champions of Ketuanan Melayu actively pursuing a policy that would ensure Malay children be perpetually trapped economically and intellectually.  I thank Allah that I grew up at a time when the likes of Muhyyuddin were not in charge of our education system.  Otherwise I would have been trapped in my kampong.

            The idiocy of the new move is best illustrated by this one startling example.  In 2012 when the new plan will be implemented, students in Form IV will be taught science and mathematics in Malay, after learning the two subjects in English for the past nine years.  Then two years later when they will be entering Sixth Form or the Matriculation stream, they will again have to revert to English.

            Pupils in the vernacular schools would have it worse.  They would learn the two subjects in their mother tongue during their primary school years, then switch to Malay for the next five while in secondary school, and then switch again, this time to English, in Sixth Form and university!

            Had these policymakers done their homework and diligent downstream analysis, such idiocies would not crop up.  Then again this is what we would expect from our civil servants.  They have been brought up with their minds bound up; they cannot think.  They have depended on others to do the thinking for them.

            Najib Razak’s flip-flopping on this major national issue eerily reminds me of similar indecisiveness and lack of resolve of his immediate predecessor, Abdullah Badawi.  No wonder he supports Najib in this policy shift.  Najib should not take comfort in that, unless he expects a similar fate as Abdullah’s.  Abdullah was kicked out by his party; with Najib, it would be the voters who would be kicking him out.  Public sentiments are definitely against this policy switch.

Failure of Policy Versus Failure of Implementation

The cabinet reversed course because it deemed the policy did not produce the desired results.  However, in arriving at this pivotal decision the cabinet failed to address the fundamental question on whether the original policy was flawed or its implementation ineffective.

            It just assumed the policy to be flawed.  Muhyyuddin and his senior officers relied heavily on the 2005 UNESCO Report which suggests that “‘mother tongue first’ bilingual education” may (my emphasis) be the solution to the dilemma of members of minority linguistic groups in acquiring knowledge.

            Muhyyuddin and his advisers seriously misread the Report.  It was concerned primarily with the dilemma at the societal level of members of a linguistic minority having to learn the language of the majority (“national language”) versus the need to maintain linguistic diversity generally and minority languages specifically.  UNESCO was rightly concerned with the rapid disappearance of languages spoken by small minority groups.  The report was not addressing specifically the learning of science and mathematics.

            Malay language is not at risk of disappearing; it is the native tongue of literally hundreds of millions.  To extrapolate the UNESCO recommendations for Malay language is a gross oversimplification and misreading of the report.

            The UNESCO Report does not address the issue of when and how best to introduce children to bilingual education.  Later studies that focused specifically on the pedagogical and psychological aspects instead of the sociological and political have shown that children are quite capable of learning multiple languages at the same time.  Even more remarkable is that the earlier they are exposed to a second language the more facile they would be with that language.  They would also learn that second language much faster; hence second language even at preschool.

            The acquisition of bilingual ability at an early age confers other significant cognitive advantages.  These have been documented by clinical studies with functional MRIs (imaging studies of the brain).  Malaysia should learn from these more modern studies and the experiences of more advanced societies, not from the UNESCO studies of backward tribes of Asia.

            The other basis for the cabinet’s decision was ‘research’ by local half-baked and politically-oriented pseudo academics.  They should be embarrassed to append their names to such a sophomoric paper.  The quality is such that it will never appear in reputable journals.  As for the Ministry’s own internal ‘researchers,’ remember that they came out within months of the policy’s introduction in 2003 documenting the ‘impressive’ improvements in students’ achievements!

            The one major entity that would be severely impacted by the cabinet’s decision is our universities.  Yet our Vice-Chancellors have remained quiet and detached in this important national debate.  They have not advised the cabinet nor lead the public discussions.  Again that reflects the caliber of leadership of our major institutions.

            Had the cabinet decided that the policy was essentially sound but that the flaws were with its implementations, then measures other than rescinding it would be the appropriate response.  This would include recruiting and training more English-speaking teachers and devoting more hours to the subject.

            What surprised me is that when Mahathir introduced the policy in 2003, he was supported by his cabinet that included Najib, Muhyyuddin, Hishamuddin, and over a dozen of current ministers who now collectively voted to reverse the policy.  Likewise, the policy was fully endorsed too by UMNO’s Supreme Council then.  Like the cabinet, many of those earlier members are still in that body today.  Yet today the Council also voted to disband the policy.  Muhyyuddin, Hishamuddin and the others have yet to share with us why they changed their minds.  The conditions that prompted the introduction of the policy back then are still present today.  This reversal will do not change that.

            Najib, Muhyyuddin and Hishamuddin are “lallang leaders,” they bend with the slightest wind change.  Unlike Margaret Thatcher’s famed resolve of “This lady is not for turning,” with Najib, Muhyyuddin, et al., all you have to do to make them undertake a U turn would be to blow slightly in their faces.  Blow a bit harder and they would scoot off with their tails between their legs.  These leaders will never lead us forward.

            This reversal will not solve the widening achievement gap between urban and rural students.  The cabinet has yet to put forth new ideas on ameliorating that problem.  So, just as ancient Chinese women were physically handicapped because of their bound feet, rural or more specifically Malay children will continue to be intellectually handicapped by their warped and small minds, the consequence of this policy shift.  Perhaps that is the real objective of this policy reversal, the shackling of the intellectual development of our young so they will forever be dependent on their ‘leaders.’

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 July 2009, 3:34 am and is filed under
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Hishammuddin should explain why he is supporting the renewal of Musa Hassan as IGP who had led a losing war against crime despite trebling of police allocations to RM8 billion in 9th Malaysia Plan as compared to 8MP

In his Hundred Day address yesterday, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak identified six key areas for his administration to focus on, viz: crime prevention, combating corruption, providing greater access to quality and affordable education, improving the quality of life for the poor, improving rural infrastructure and upgrading public transportation in the medium term.

It is shocking that after 100 days as Prime Minister, Najib as nothing whatsoever  to say on two of the six key areas of his premiership, namely crime prevention and combating corruption, sending out the unmistakable message that they rate very low in his order of priorities and debunking the claim that they rank as the top two items of the six key areas for his administration to focus on.

Despite giving a “blank” message of what he intend to do about fighting crime, the Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan could join in the paeans of praise for  the new Prime Minister, as Musa is quoted by New Sunday Times today, saying:

“The police have done their best to tackle crime in the country and we will not let up in our efforts.  From January until now, crime has been reduced by four per cent. What’s important is to address street crime such as snatch thefts and wayside robberies.”

This is a meaningless statement from the IGP, especially one who had fought a losing war against galloping crime in the past five years, with the national crime index of 156,315 cases in 2004 (which the Police Royal Commission had described as intolerably high which would only frighten off investors and deprive Malaysians of their fundamental rights to be free from crime and the fear of crime) to shoot through the 200,000 barrier in 2007 and 2008!

This is not the only reason why the country should have a new IGP and why Musa’s lobbying to get his term which expires in September to be renewed for another term should be denied.

Other important reasons why the country needs a new IGP to provide new leadership and vision towards creating a world-class police force are:

(i)	Musa’s failure to fully  implement 125 Police Royal Commission recommendations particularly to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) to create an  efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police force to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights

(ii)	Parliament responded to Police Royal Commission Report and tripled police allocations in the Ninth Malaysia Plan to RM8 billion as compared to the previous five years under the Eighth Malaysia Plan – but Musa failed to deliver a world-class police service which could keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights.

I understand that Musa’s effort to get his term as IGP renewed for another term after September has got the support of Hishammuddin.

The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein should explain why he is supporting the renewal of Musa Hassan as Inspector-General of Police (IGP) when the latter had led a losing war against crime despite the trebling of police allocations to RM8 billion in the Ninth Malaysia Plan as compared to the previous five years under the Eighth Malaysia Plan and why he is against the appointment of another top police officer to be the No.1 Policeman in the country.

(Speech 2 at the meeting of DAP State Secretaries, Organising and Publicity Secretaries at Crystal Crown Hotel, Petaling Jaya on Sunday, July 12, 2009)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 July 2009, 3:41 am and is filed under
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Najib should not try to re-invent the wheel on KPIs for the police to reduce crime as all he needs to do is to use the 2005 Police Royal Commission Report to set the KPI benchmarks in the fight against crime

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, should not try to re-invent the wheel on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the police to reduce crime as all he needs to do is to use the 2005 Police Royal Commission Report to set the KPI benchmarks in the fight against crime.

In his one-hour interview aired live on TV last night, Najib tried but failed to respond to criticism that he is not serious about combating crime, although he had listed it as the first of the six key areas he want his administration to focus on.

Najib claimed that with the six key result areas spelt out, the government would be more focused as the yardsticks had already been identified.

He added:

 “For example, in reducing the crime rate, we have to identify exactly which sort of crime, and by how many per cent we want to reduce it.

“We have to set a high target, but not too high that it is unrealistic. If the target is too low, then the people would think the KPIs are meaningless.”

Former Chief Justice, Tun Mohammed  Dzaiddin and Tun Hanif Omar (who were Chairman and Deputy Chairman respectively) and the other 15 Commissioners of the Police Royal Commission set up by former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service
 must be very frustrated to read Najib’s comments, as it meant that all the great work done by the Police Royal Commission for their detailed recommendations and benchmarks for a world-class police service had gone to waste.

If Najib is a bold, innovative and reformist Prime Minister, he would be setting up another Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Police to examine why the Police had failed to benefit fully from the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission Report and recommendations to perform three core functions to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights.

Instead, Najib is putting the clock back by saying that what is necessary to reduce the crime rate is first to “identify exactly which sort of crime and by how many per cent we want to reduce it”.

Who give Najib such terrible advice if not the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan?

Najib and every Cabinet Minister should declare their stand whether they agree that a bold decision is needed to stop the galloping crime rate in the country by having a new IGP instead of extending the term of Musa in September.

I said in Parliament that there are 100 reasons why Malaysia needs a new IGP but the following primary reasons suffice:

Terrible advice to Najib on his Hundred Day Address about combatting crime;

Failure to fully  implement 125 Police Royal Commission recommendations esp. establishing IPCMC to produce an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police force to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights

Led losing war against the rising crime index, which had worsened from 156,315 cases in 2004 to shoot through the 200,000 barrier in 2007 and 2008.

Parliament responded to Police Royal Commission Report and tripled police allocations in 9th Malaysia Plan to RM8 billion as compared to 8th Malaysia Plan – but Musa failed to deliver.

I will like to know what is the stand of the Barisan Nasional component parties whether Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP, PBS and others that Musa’s wish to have his IGP term renewed a second time should be denied as Malaysians deserve a new IGP to restore their fundamental rights to be free from crime and the fear of crime.

Are Umno, MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP, PBS and other BN Ministers prepared to take a stand in Cabinet that the country needs a new IGP?

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 July 2009, 3:33 pm and is filed under
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Pas win with bigger majority in Manek Urai by-election will be a clear and unmistakable signal to Najib that his Hundred Day performance and goodies are just not good enough and people expect meaningful reforms in his next 100 Days

I just returned from Manek Urai in Kelantan where I attended the last Pakatan Rakyat ceramah at Kampong Perial last night, which saw a record ceramah crowd for the by-election campaign.

The prognosis is most favourable and a Pas win with bigger majority in Manek Urai by-election than the general elections last year will be a clear and unmistakable signal to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak in two senses:

That together with the people in the West Coast in Peninsular Malaysia as demonstrated in the three by-elections after Najib became Prime Minister, i.e. Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambu and Penanti, the people in the East Coast stand as one in their solid support for Pakatan Rakyat in the nation-wide demand for political change; and

That Najib’s Hundred Day performance and goodies are just not good  enough and people expect meaningful reforms in his next 100 Days.

The voters of Manek Urai have a historic mission tomorrow. In the 1978 general elections, when PAS was nearly smashed to smithereens by Umno winning only two State Assembly seats in Kelantan after Pas  was thrown out of Barisan Nasional and a period of emergency rule, Manek Urai was one of the two.

In 1978, the voters of Manek Urai were the “saviours” of PAS but tomorrow, the voters of Manek Urai have the mission to be the “saviours” of Malaysia in paving the way for another historic political tsunami in the next general elections for the ending of Umno political hegemony and Barisan Nasional rule at the national level.

Najib’s absence in the Manek Urai by-election is most significant for it is a barometer of Umno’s lack of confidence that it could win in Manek Urai despite the Umno and Barisan Nasional’s politics of 3M – money, mass media and (Federal government) machinery.

If Umno has the possibility of winning the Manek Urai by-election, Najib would have been in the forefront of the Umno by-election campaign in Manek Urai.

It is most regrettable that the Umno and Barisan Nasional by-election commander-in-chief Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had resorted to the old politics of money, inducements and ransom to win voters in Manek Urai when he should be spearheading the new politics of ideas.

As reported by the Star report “Golden offer to voters”, Muhyiddin offered “a new deal to turn Manek Urai into a new development area in Kelantan provided Barisan Nasional wins tomorrow’s by-election”.

The Deputy Prime Minister said the “offer” was not confined to physical development but would also encompass the social and economic well-being of the people.

Muhyiddin said a bridge, estimated to cost between RM7 mil and RM10 mil, would be built to connect the old and new sections of Kampung Manek Urai, which were separated by a river.

Muhyiddin said Manek Urai would be considered “a golden area” of choice by the Barisan Nasional federal government for development of commercial farming of oil palm, rubber, vegetables and other crops – on the condition that Barisan won the by-election.

If this is not the old corrupt politics of bribery and buy-and-sell votes, I do not know what is. It is most deplorable that in the new era of integrity, the new Deputy Prime Minister should resort to such disreputable methods of electioneering.

Muhyiddin should have set a good example of new politics by  telling the voters of Manek Urai that regardless of whether Umno wins or loses in the by-election, the Barisan Nasional federal government would respect the right to development of the people in Manek Urai and  would build a new bridge for the area.

Muhyiddin may have even violated the laws, both electoral and MACC – but nobody believes that we have the institutional independence in the country for impartial investigations and actions to be taken.

At the minimum, Muhyiddin should publicly apologise for resorting to such old politics of electoral corruption.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 July 2009, 4:51 pm and is filed under
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Will Najib call for general elections in November this year if he could crank up his popularity rating to 80 to 85%?

I am quite intrigued by the following
Sunday Star
report
“11 goodies at 11.11am on July 11”
 on Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Hundred Day Address as Prime Minister yesterday, viz:

KUALA LUMPUR: It was the Prime Minister’s 100th day in office but it was the number 11 that took prominence.

His first 100 days fell on July 11. He announced 11 people-friendly measures, starting his speech at 11.11am.

Two minutes before that, Najib was already on stage to deliver his speech.

He smiled when the master of ceremony politely called on him to hang on for a while because, said the MC in jest, the speech text had gone missing.

At exactly 11.11am, Najib started delivering his 50-minute speech.

It would appear that “11” is Najib’s favourite or even magic  number, just as it is known that “13” is the favourite number of former Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

If Najib is so enamoured with the number “11”, is it likely that he might call the next general elections in November this year?

Is this so impossible? I do not think so.  When to call the next general elections to secure  his credibility and legitimacy as Prime Minister must be the  foremost question in the minds of  Najib and his strategists since April 3 when he took over from Abdullah – whether to call for early general elections or to serve out the rest of the term, which is less than four years!

Najib has been able to celebrate his Hundred Days as Prime Minister with a popularity rating of 65% although he polled a dismal 45% a month after he became Prime Minister and a lowly 42 per cent just before taking over the premiership from Tun Abdullah on April 3, 2009.

Chalking up a jump of 20% percentage points in his popularity rating in six weeks is quite an achievement, and if Najib could crank up his popularity rating in the next two months to achieve 80 to 85 per cent popularity rating, he would be sorely tempted to dissolve Parliament to call for early general elections – even in November this year as he should know that the longer he waits, the greater the likelihood of his popularity rating starting to plummet especially if he cannot deliver on his catalogue of promises like his predecessor.

In four short years, Abdullah’s popularity rating plunged from an stratospheric high of over 95% in 2004 to 45 per cent in 2008,  swinging from an unprecedented Barisan Nasional general election triumph winning over 91 per cent of the parliamentary seats to an unprecedented Barisan Nasional debacle losing two-thirds parliamentary majority as well as five state governments!

Najib is not confident he has majority support, not only among the people but even among Umno and Barisan Nasional MPs.

This is why he dared not ask for a motion of confidence in the recent Parliament, as he is not sure how many Umno and Barisan Nasional MPs would vote against such a confidence motion in him – as it could range from a handful to sufficient numbers to despatch him from being the Prime Minister to become the Parliamentary Opposition Leader!

With the boost in his popularity rating in the recent Merdeka Centre poll from 45% to 65%, is Najib confident enough to ask for a confidence motion when Parliament reconvenes on Oct. 19?

Or would he seriously consider calling for general elections in November if he could crank up his popularity rating with a further slew of goodies, which he knows are ephemeral in effect and cannot have sustainable impact after one or two years?

These are the questions which have been haunting and hounding Najib and his advisers and will continue to haunt and hound them until they decide on when to call the 13th general elections in Malaysia.

(Speech at the meeting of DAP State Secretaries, Organising and Publicity Secretaries at Crystal Crown Hotel, Petaling Jaya on Sunday, July 12, 2009)

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 July 2009, 3:26 am and is filed under
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Hishammuddin must present his case why he and the Police Force Commission back Musa Hassan’s extension for IGP

Malaysian Insider reported yesterday that the Police Force Commission, which is constitutionally responsible for the appointment and emplacement of members of the police force, has backed a second extension of the service of Tan Sri Musa Hassan as the country’s Inspector-General of Police in September.

The commission comprise members who are top current and retired civil servants and the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein.

Hishammuddin should present his case to the Malaysian public why he and the Police Force Commission backs Musa’s extension for IGP, when Musa has such a dismal record as the nation’s top police officer when judged by the Police Royal Commission Report which submitted 125 recommendations to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional world-class police service with the three core functions to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights.

One hundred reasons could be advanced why Musa should not have his extended term of IGP renewed in September as he had failed in all the three core functions spelt out by the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights.

Can Hishammuddin’s reasons to support Musa’s extension as IGP so strong and incontrovertible that they can withstand the most rigorous public scrutiny or are they so weak and flimsy that Hishammuddin dare not make them public?

Bernama today reported Musa as saying that the police will give priority to stamping out street crimes, in line with the government commitment to reduce crime and corruption. He said drastic measures would be taken to address the problem to ensure public safety and security.

Why did Musa only wake up from what should be the No. 1 responsibility of the police when he is lobbying for another term of IGP?

Musa’s belated awakening of the urgent need to check and roll back the galloping crime in the country, particularly street crimes, is too little and too late – at least four years too late after the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission Report in May 2005!

Let me refresh Hishammuddin and Musa to the Dzaiddin Royal Police Commission report in May 2005 which had expressed alarm at the “high incidence of crime”, when it noted:

“The incidence of crime increased dramatically in the last few years, from 121,176 cases in 1997 to 156,465 cases in 2004, an increase of 29 per cent. The increase seriously dented Malaysia’s reputation as a safe country. Malaysians in general, the business sector and foreign investors grew increasingly concerned with the situation. The fear was that, if the trend continues, there would be major social and economic consequences for Malaysia. A survey of 575 respondents from the public carried out by the Commission clearly demonstrates the extremely widespread concern among all ethnic groups and foreign residents. Between 82.2 per cent and 90 per cent of the respondents, or 8 to 9 persons in every 10, were concerned with the occurrence of crime.”

The Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission recommended an immediate action plan and target to reduce the incidence of crime by a minimum of 20 per cent within 12 months of the Report’s acceptance and implementation.

Instead of a reduction of a minimum of 20 per cent, i.e. bringing the incidence of crime to 125,172 cases in 12 months from 154,465 cases, crime galloped and shot past the 200,000 barrier to reach  209,582 cases in 2007 and 211,645 cases in 2008.

This means that in the four years from  154,465 cases in 2004, the crime index soared by 39% to reach 211,645 cases in 2008 – totally contrary to Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission target proposing a 20% reduction of the crime index  within 12 months!

If this is not a failure, what is it? If IGP Musa is not to be held responsible for this failure, who else?

In September 2006, I had congratulated Musa for his appointment as IGP but he has failed the nation and people.

Musa is lobbying for another term of as IGP. Does he know or understand the concept of democratic policing, as enunciated in the Commonwealth Human Rights Report on Police Accountability in 2005 and the United Nations International Police Task Force Report 1996? But this is another long story and another sorry tale by Musa as IGP.

Is the Royal Malaysian Police so short of quality officers that there is not a single serving top police officer who could be entrusted with the baton of IGP?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 2:33 pm and is filed under
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Ong Tee Keat should not provide third example of his being “Hero outside, Coward inside” by securing Cabinet agreement tomorrow to modify its PPSMI decision last week by allowing optional use of English to teach maths and science in secondary schools

MCA President and Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat should not provide a third example of his being “Hero outside, coward inside” by securing Cabinet agreement tomorrow to modify its PPSMI decision last week by allowing optional use of English to teach mathematics and science in secondary schools from 2012.

I stand by my strong criticism of the Cabinet decision yesterday for the PPSMI decision, particularly for secondary schools from 2012, when I said that Malaysia will have the world’s most crazy educational system, where students in Form 4 in 2012 will have to switch to Bahasa Malaysia for mathematics and science in the last two years of secondary education, after nine years of learning these two subjects in English – again to switch back to English for the next five or six years for pre-university and tertiary education!

I challenge any Minister or even several Ministers at one time to a public debate in any language, whether Bahasa Malaysia, English or Chinese who dare to defend such a crazy system of nine years of mathematics and science in English from Std. 1 to Form 3, followed by two years in Bahasa Malaysia in Forms 4 and 5, and switch back again to English for the next five or six years of pre-university and tertiary education; how they could impose such a crazy educational system on millions of Malaysian students, even turning them into “guinea-pigs” not once but twice in their educational process!

Would these Ministers want their children to go through such educational turmoil and madness as to become guinea pigs twice in their primary, secondary and tertiary education?

I believe I can get majority support for my statement that those who want to impose such an educational system, requiring students to study the two subjects in English for nine years, then switch to Bahasa Malaysia in Forms 3 and 4, and switch back to English in pre-university and tertiary education for the next five to six years must have their heads examined as to whether they are fit to be in the Cabinet in the first place!

Ong Tee Keat should not provide a third example of being “Hero outside, Coward inside” on the Cabinet’s crazy decision on PPSMI.

Ong has already provided two such examples:

His heroic boast “outside” Parliament when he returned from his junket to the Paris Air Show  last month that he welcomed a full debate and prepared to face any questions in Parliament on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal when he finally appeared in the second week of Parliament on June 22 to make his Ministerial statement. But once “inside” Parliament, he became a coward and refused to allow any question or interruption in his eight-minute “Ministerial non-statement” which did not reveal anything new on the PKFZ scandal.

His “heroism” in exposing, and rightly, the RM30,000 “leakage” in the renovation SJKC Kung Yu in Muar in 2006, but his cowardice to “reveal all” about the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal. How many times is the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal compared to the scandal of the RM30,000 “leakage” in renovation of a Chinese primary school? It is the astronomical 416,666 times!

It is no use Ong, the other three MCA Ministers, and even Koh Tsu Koon, claiming that English should continue to be used as medium of instruction for maths and science in Forms 4 and 5 from 2012, when they were full parties to the Cabinet decision last Wednesday to turn the Malaysian education system into a crazy 9-2-5/6 system, with students going through nine years of the two subjects taught in English, two years in Bahasa Malaysia in Forms 4 and 5 and then reverting to English for five or six years of pre-university and tertiary education in maths and science.

Other modifications of last week’s PPSMI decision Ministers from UMNO, MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP, PBS and other BN component parties should decide tomorrow include:

Immediate implementation of the abolition of  PPSMI “One Size Fits All” disastrous experiment for all national, Chinese and Tamil primary schools for schools which are ready for such reversion to use of mother-tongue medium of instruction in the two subjects, particularly all the Chinese primary schools in the country; and

Endorsing the proposal of Parents Action Group for Education (Page) that schools should be given the option to teach science and mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia or English or in one’s mother tongue.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 10:55 am and is filed under
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Time for Pakatan Rakyat to set up a disciplinary committee to restore public confidence in PR cohesion, coherence, discipline, unity and common sense of purpose

In responding to my blog “
Will Najib call for general elections in November this year if he could crank up his popularity rating to 80 to 85%?
”, the Prime Minister, Datuk  Seri Najib Razak said at a meet-the-people session in Jitra he had no plans to announce snap elections at the function but remained very ambivalent as to whether he would go the full term or hold early general elections.

As he said that he “read an email sent by an opposition leader”, let me clarify that I never sent him any such email.

In my blog, I had asked whether Najib would call general elections in November this year (which seemed to be his personal auspicious number like No. 13 for his predecessor, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) if he could crank up his popular rating to 80 to 85% from a dismal low of 42% just before taking oath as Prime Minister on April 3, 45% a month after becoming PM and a jump to 65% two weeks before his First Hundred Days as PM.

What I find significant in Najib’s response is that he did not rule out the possibility of snap general elections.

Of course Najib being enamoured with the number “11” could also mean general elections in November this year, 2010 or 2011.

I am quite optimistic about the Manek Urai by election in Kelantan today, as there is  strong likelihood that Pas will win with a bigger majority than during the general elections last year – which will be an unmistakable message that the people in the East Coast stand solidly with the people in the West Coast in Peninsular Malaysia in supporting Pakatan Rakyat to bring about historic political changes in the country, as evident in the previous by-elections in Permatang Pauh, Kuala Terengganu, Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau and Penanti after the political tsunami of the March 8, 2008 general elections.

Hard work for Pakatan Rakyat will begin after the Manek Urai by-election result tonight.

The Pakatan Rakyat leadership council will have to address a host of problems in the Pakatan Rakyat, many of which are self-inflicted ones,  which had been fully exploited to create the public perceptions that Pakatan Rakyat is losing momentum and in terrible disarray.

The Pakatan Rakyat leadership council meeting on Friday will be a most important one after the  foundation meeting establishing PR after  the political tsunami of the March 8 general election last year.

Pakatan Rakyat must take a grip of itself if it is not to disillusion its members and the Malaysian people looking for political change and national renewal,  erasing public perceptions of the great difference between Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional.

One great difference between Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional must be the way internal and  inter-party differences are addressed.  In the Barisan Nasional, they are handled on the basis of two factors – “fear” of Umno, the Big Brother and Big Bully, by the other BN component parties; and “greed” so that unhappiness of the other BN component parties can be pacified with the distribution of goodies and even bread crumbs.

Such a modus operandi to resolve internal and inter-party differences has no place in Pakatan Rakyat, where differences will have to be resolved on the basis of equality, mutual respect and commitment to agreed common principles.

Internal and intra-party differences in Pakatan Rakyat cannot and should not be swept under the carpet but they must be ventilated and resolved in a manner which do not cast Pakatan Rakyat in a poor light as a quarrelsome, undisciplined and divided lot, which could only damage and destroy public confidence and support.

Time has come  for Pakatan Rakyat to set up a disciplinary committee to restore public confidence in PR cohesion, coherence, discipline, unity and common sense of purpose.

This is a subject among many others which the Pakatan Rakyat leadership council will have to address on Friday.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 4:26 pm and is filed under
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Will Tee Keat ask Cabinet to lift “immunity” for prosecution of two former Transport Ministers for the unlawful issue of four “Letters of Support” which has landed the nation in a RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?

MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat yesterday complained about the “topsy-turvy” world of corruption where those who order e investigations into corrupt practices become the “accused” while the  corrupt continue their wrongdoings scot-free with impunity from the law (Sin Chew).

Instead of talking in riddles, can Ong return to his former characteristic style of direct, frank and forthright speech and explain whether he is complaining two things – the injustice of being an “accused” although he had ordered full  investigations to expose the very bottom of the
RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal
 while those responsible for mega-corruption are allowed to go scot-free enjoying impunity from the law?

If so, then let Ong answer two things:

why after repeatedly promising the nation that  he would  “tell all” about the PKFZ scandal and that those responsible for the “mother of all scandals” would be exposed and brought to book, why did he limit the scope of the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) investigations into the PKFZ scandal to the Port Klang Authority (PKA) level instead of going all the way even to the Cabinet level?

Who are these corrupt in the PKFZ scandal who continue to go scot-free to enjoy impunity from the law?

I had not withheld my praises for Ong when he exposed the RM30,000 “leakage” in the renovation SJKC Kung Yu in Muar in 2006, but I will not be sparing in my criticism of Ong for spearheading a cover-up of the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal by limiting investigations to PKA and PKFZ levels – cordoning off all inquiries into the higher reaches of the decision-making process on the PKFZ scandal, especially the Cabinet level.

Last month, Wall Street swindler Bernard Madoff was handed a 150-year jail sentence, the maximum sentence possible and the forfeiture of his over US$170 billion in illegally obtained assets whose ruined victims lost homes, inheritances, stock portfolios and life savings in one of the biggest financial scams of all time.

But in Malaysia, those responsible for the series of mega financial scandals in the past three decades, including the PKFZ “scandal of all scandals”, have all gone scot-free enjoying impunity from the law.

If Ong is really serious in wanting to stand out as the first MCA Minister who takes an uncompromising stand against corruption and all forms of misuse of power, is he prepared tomorrow to ask the Cabinet to lift “immunity” for prosecution of two former Transport Ministers Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik and Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy  for the unlawful issue of four “Letters of Support” which has landed the nation in a RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?

Ong is to appear before the Public Account Committee on Thursday in the PAC investigation into the PKFZ scandal.

Is Ong prepared to “tell all” to the PAC about the sorry tale of the PKFZ scandal going back to its genesis a decade ago, including every decision taken by the  Cabinet right from the very beginning, or is he going to tell PAC that he is bound by the Official Secrets Act and cannot divulge any information about the Cabinet decisions and discussions on the PKFZ, whether the present or the past?

There is no use of Ong appearing before the PAC only to tell it that he cannot say anything about Cabinet decisions on the PKFZ scandal, going back to the very beginning.

Ong should get full clearance from the Cabinet tomorrow for the declassification of all Cabinet decisions, papers and memorandum about the PKFZ so that the PAC has all the facts necessary to make its PKFZ inquiry useful and meaningful.

I will decide after Ong’s appearance before the PAC on the PKFZ on Thursday  whether to continue my daily questioning of Ong on the “mother of all scandals” in Malaysia!

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 12:45 pm and is filed under
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Empathy and Myopia: How Malaysians No Longer Understand One Another

By
Farish A. Noor

Malaysia is once again landed with yet another predictable mini-controversy (as there are too many controversies at the moment, this one has been relegated somewhat) involving a report that was purported written by two Muslims for the magazine al-Islam. The report was written by the two Muslims who claimed that their intention was to investigate the allegations that Muslims were being converted to Christianity in the country, but the cause of the controversy lies in the fact that the two writers chose to pretend to be Christians and took part in Christian rituals of worship in the Church. For many Christians the most offensive aspect of the investigation lay in the claim that the writers took part in the rituals without revealing who they were, and that they consumed the holy wafer/bread of Christ, then spat it out, and photographed the remnants of what they had consumed later.

Now of course this begs the obvious question: How would Muslims had reacted if some non-Muslim journalists had done the equivalent; to enter a mosque, take part in rituals, photographed them, and then published the report in some journal?

In response to the clamour of complaints that have been issued, the authorities now claim that the two writers will be investigated, and if found guilty of carrying out acts detrimental to public order may even be imprisoned. This would not, however, address the key issue which is this: Have levels of emphathy and understanding in Malaysian society dropped to such an extent that someone could even contemplate doing such a thing without considering its wider impact on society and the consequences to others and themselves? Could the writers of the article not even consider the potential offence that they might have caused by assuming a fake identity only to take part in rituals they did not believe in; and did they not realise that this might have been seen as outrageous by others?

Empathy – the ability to put oneself in the shoes of another, no matter how different that other person is – and to share the pain, joy, hopes and aspirations of others is one of the variable factors that hold societies together. An alienated society that does not communicate with the various streams that flow within the broader mainstream is a society that is in danger of losing tough with itself and growing more fragmented and alienated in time. That is the juncture that we have reached in Malaysia, despite talks of national unity and one-ness.

Here again we need to look back to the structural and institutional factors that may account for this lack of empathy among Malaysians.

For a start, a quick look at our urban landscape will tell us that the shared public spaces that ought to mark out the contours of our public domain are rapidly deminishing. Our public parks and playgrounds are being replaced by shopping malls and condomeniums, and the shared spaces where young Malaysians may meet, interract and form lasting childhood friendships are being lost and eroded in time.

To compound matters further, our manifold multi-streamed educational system that still allows for different vernacular streams has also eroded the shared public domain where young Malaysians can meet and interact across the divide of ethnicity and language. Is it a surprise that some Muslims can walk into a Church to write a report as was done by the two writers today? After all, when we look at the social landscape of Malaysia at the moment there is precious little in terms of space where genuine inter-ethnic communication (and by this I mean meaningful communication, not ordering a pizza) can take place. The absence of a national educational system for all means that young Malaysians are growing up in not one but several Malaysias that are growing apart. I would not be surprised if the two writers were themselves from such a background, and had had little contact with non-Muslims in their lives.

This absence of a shared public domain where there is the recognition of different subjectivities is one of the factors that is compounding the problem of nation-building and that is why we as a nation remain fragmented and unable to empathise with one another. And in case Malaysia’s Christians are so offended by the article that was written for al-Islam (which it was, in this writer’s opinion) then they should spare a thought for the Muslim minorities who live among us too, such as the Shias and Ahmadis who have for decades now been branded apostates, deviants, heretics and outsiders within. I was informed recently that in our school exams today Malaysian Muslim children are even asked to identify the groups that are considered devaints/apostates, in a systematic and institutionalised manner of generating a sense of alienation and radical difference with others.

If this is the sort of social and educational landscape that we now inhabit and have to work with/in, how can there be the sort of empathy that is required for citizens to recognise the common humanity they share with others? Worse still in the present-day context of Malaysia, such strategies of deliberate Othering and alienation have become institutionalised by and through the educational process, as in the case of the exam questions for Muslim kids who are told to identify other Muslims as outsiders and deviants against the norm.

This, then, is the root of our problem today and the revelation of the report in al-Islam is just the tip of the iceberg. If we are worried about the impact that such reports may have on inter-religious understanding in the country, we ought to be more worried about the social environment that produced such reporting in the first place, and which sustains the readership of such divisive material. We are, in short, in a mess.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 July 2009, 5:54 pm and is filed under
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Parliamentary roundtable to be convened in fortnight on whether Malaysia should have a new IGP to roll back the tide of crime

A parliamentary roundtable of Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat MPs, NGOs, civic organisations and stakeholders will be convened in a fortnight on whether Malaysia should have a new Inspector-General of Police to provide new leadership to roll back the tide of crime in the last five years and present a new image of  democratic policing as well as who among the serving top police officers should be handed the baton of IGP.

To lobby for a second renewal of his term as IGP, Tan Sri Musa Hassan is now talking about the police giving priority to stamping out street crimes, when he should be explaining what success he had done as IGP since his first appointment in September 2006 as well as his two-year extension from September 2007 in rolling back the tide of crime, especially street crimes, in the country!

In fact, street crimes became worse in the nation’s history during Musa’s tenure as IGP in the past three years and on each of the three core functions which the Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission had outlined as the priority tasks of the police force – to keep crime low, eradicate corruption and uphold human rights – Musa failed in everyone of them!

When Musa was first appointed IGP, I publicly congratulated him in a statement dated 8th September 2006, stressing that “the question uppermost for Malaysians is whether Musa’s promotion would make any difference in the law-and-order situation in the country – whether they can look forward to  a safe and low-crime Malaysia, which must be regarded as the most fundamental of all human rights of Malaysians but which will also affect Malaysia as a investment centre, tourist destination and international educational hub for foreign students”.

When Musa was given a two-year extension as IGP on the expiry of his term in September 2007, Musa declared that he would make the criminals “fear the police, every second of their lives”.

Musa failed miserably on both scores, as today, it is not the criminals who fear the police “every second of their lives” but in many instances, the other way round.

As the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and the Police Force Commission had given their backing for Musa’s second extension as IGP, have they considered Musa’s failed KPIs in fighting crime, with the  crime and the fear of crime situation worse than the pre-Dzaiddin Police Royal Commission period  before 2004 although police pay rise had  since increased by some 50% with the trebling of police allocations to RM8 billion under the Ninth Malaysia Plan as compared to the previous Eighth Malaysia Plan?

The crime situation became so bad under  his tenure as IGP that it was  not only the ordinary Malaysians who felt unsafe whether in the streets, public places or the privacy of their homes, even serving and former top police officers became victims of crime – like the former Inspector-General of Police, Tun Haniff Omar and the former Penang Chief Police Officer, Datuk Albert Mah who was killed in his Petaling Jaya home in an  armed robbery  both in 2007,as well as the unprecedented cases of the Johore Baru South OCPD Asst Comm Zainuddin Yaakob tied up and robbed at knifepoint in his house in Johore Baru in May 2009 and the Tawau acting OCPD Supt Ramli Ali Mat who was stabbed in his house in Tawau in a burglary attack by five men in January this year.

The time has come for full national consultation and discussion on the police force the country needs 52 years after nationhood,  whether Musa’s renewal for another term as IGP going into the fourth and fifth year as the No. 1 top police officer in the land is the answer to the problem of endemic crime as well as a police force capable of understanding the modern concepts of Democratic Policing.

Furthermore, whether there is none among the serving top police officers who could be handed the baton of Inspector General of Police.

Those who are interested in attending the Parliamentary Roundtable on whether Musa should have his term as IGP extended further or whether the country needs a new IGP from among the current crop of top police officers should contact their respective MPs for further details.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 July 2009, 11:41 am and is filed under
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Slim majority in Manek Urai – Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders must go back to drawing board to sustain public confidence, support and hope

Although the formidable Umno challenge has been fobbed off, the slim Pas majority in Manek Urai by-election in Kelantan yesterday is nonetheless a shocker.

It is a salutary warning to Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders who think that Pakatan Rakyat can indulge in the luxury of excesses and internal strife, mistakenly believing that Pakatan Rakyat is riding on such an irresistible political wave that it could not possibly lose in any by-election or in the next general elections.

Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders must go back to the drawing board to sustain public confidence, support and hope which suffered grievous blows particularly in the last month.

Pakatan Rakyat’s string of by-election victories in Permatang Pauh, Kuala Terengganu, Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau and Penanti have fed a false sense of security and worse, the notion of the inevitability of Pakatan Rakyat victories in the next general elections.

If Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders do not immediately pull themselves up by the bootstraps, public confidence, support and hope will be the major casualties.

The Pakatan Rakyat leadership council meeting this Friday can be a turning point. The slide in public confidence must be acknowledged, checked and arrested.

An immediate mechanism must be established to end the internal haemorrhage  from self-inflicted wounds arising  from inter and intra party differences irresponsibly aired in public instead of seeking to address and resolve them in Pakatan Rakyat  channels, demonstrating a lack of cohesion, coherence, unity, discipline and common sense of purpose which can only redound in  the loss of public support and confidence in Pakatan Rakyat.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 July 2009, 3:25 pm and is filed under
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The one question Ong Tee Keat must answer at the  PAC inquiry into PKFZ scandal tomorrow  –  whether he, and not Port Klang Authority,  gave final approval for the RM1.2 billion KDSB variation order after he became Transport Minister

When Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat appears before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) inquiry into the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal in Parliament tomorrow, he should clear the air whether he had given approval for the RM1.2 billion variation order by the PKFZ turnkey developer, Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd or he merely acted as postman of Port Klang Authority (PKA) to transmit the PKA approval to the Prime Minister for payment.

Ong had earlier confirmed the authenticity of his correspondence which appeared on Internet last month, showing that on 10th May 2008, he had written to the Prime Minister seeking approval for RM1.2 billion payment to KDSB as variation order for the PKFZ project.

In his initial  response from Paris during his junket to France to escape parliamentary accountability and responsibility, Ong defended the letter saying that he was merely relaying the PKA board’s decision approving the RM1.2 billion variation order to the then Prime Minister, Datuk Seri (now Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Ong said: “I was then into my ministerial job for less than two months and the PKA board’s decision was made even before my time. Besides, the PricewaterhouseCoopers had not even started their position review work.”

He added that the variation order was approved by the PKA board in 2008 and had written to him asking him to write to Abdullah to apply for the additional funding.

He noted that at that time PKA was also at risk of defaulting payment as the deadline to meet its financial obligations was approaching.

Ong’s was caught red-handed telling an untruth that he was merely acting as postman in forwarding PKA Board’s decision to the Prime Minister, as  the contents of his May 10, 2008 letter was very clear in stating otherwise, as Ong wrote to the Prime Minister:

“6. Oleh yang demikian, saya pohon pertimbangan serta kelulusan YAB Datuk Seri ke atas perkara seperti tersebut di perenggan 3(i) dan 4.”

Perenggan 3(i) dan (4)
 referred to KDSB’s RM1.2 billion variation order.

I was at first shocked that Ong regarded the post of Transport Minister as just a postman or delivery boy for PKA without any ministerial responsibility to ensure that the RM1.2 billion variation order demanded by KDSB for PKFZ was proper and legitimate.

He seemed to have forgotten that one month before he endorsed the RM1.2 billion KDSB variation order on May 10, 2008, he had publicly declared in early April 2008 that he would “tell all” about the PKFZ scandal, how the project had ballooned to RM4.6 billion (before anyone knew that the scandal could balloon further  to RM12.5 billion)  – yet one month later, Ong could merrily endorse another RM1.2 billion PKFZ development cost variation order without batting an eyelid!

What is even more shocking has yet to come.

I have now been told that the PKA Board in February 2008 had not taken the final decision to approve the RM1.2 billion KDSB variation order but had referred the whole matter to the Transport Minister for a decision, although the PKA Board recommended approval but the decision was to be taken by the Transport Minister.

If so, then the decision to approve the RM1.2 billion KDSB variation order – which is even higher than the original cost of the PKFZ project as it was estimated to cost RM1.08 billion in 2002 – was taken by none other than Ong himself, although his two predecessors as Transport Minister, Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik and Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy had played their deplorable roles in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal.

This is the one question Ong Tee Keat must answer at the  PAC inquiry into the PKFZ scandal tomorrow  –  whether he, and not Port Klang Authority,  gave final approval for the RM1.2 billion KDSB variation order after he became Transport Minister and on what basis.

Let Ong give direct, full and frank answer on this question without equivocation whatsoever, producing all relevant documentation to the PAC – or Ong will have to face a censure motion in Parliament.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 July 2009, 1:23 pm and is filed under
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An Open Letter to a Muslim Journalist “Spy”

Saudara,

I just read that recently you and a friend visited one of the churches that I belong to. I was surprised that you had to do it in disguise. You should have told the Catholic community there that you were coming and we would have given you a grand welcome.

Such was the experience of the MP for Shah Alam, Khalid Abdul Samad from Pas, who was even given a standing ovation when he visited and had a dialogue with the parishioners of the Church of the Divine Mercy in Shah Alam last year.

Some time back I was attending a Mass (Catholic worship) in a Catholic church in Petaling Jaya and was very moved by the presence of a group of Muslim students together with their Muslim professor who had taken them there as part of their “exposure programme”.  None of them were converted.

You see we are not an underground church nor do we function in a clandestine manner. Our hearts are on the holy and not on the hideous. We even pray for Najib the PM, though I feel we do not pray enough for the Opposition. We also pray for people like you who do more harm than good to the name of your religion of peace, tolerance and compassion.

Further, what takes place in Catholic churches is highlighted in our in-house newspaper which was quite unknown to the whole population and whose readers formed an insignificant number – until the Government decided to prevent it from using the word “Allah”. Alas, the Herald should thank the Government for making it so well-known today.

Religious Misfits

It is a pity that you have gone through so much trouble to “investigate” under guise what is going on in Catholic Churches or that “Muslim teenagers were being converted to Christianity in Kuala Lumpur’s churches every Sunday”. You should have gone directly to the Special Branch, which sends it officers to visit our churches occasionally. Surely they will be able to tell you that you would be

only wasting your time!

As for the information that Muslims are being driven in droves into Catholicism (which you have concluded to be “false” in your article) it has been a fallacious and stale rumour for quite some time, spread by those who have an obsession and paranoia or by the increasing number of lower echelon zealots or “Little Mullah Napoleons” running riot with their brand of religion.

In Feb. 2006, the Mufti of Perak, Haji Harussani Haji Zakaria, claimed that 250,000 Muslims (of which 100,000 were Malays) had apostatized themselves, while 100,000 more had submitted applications to do so. Of course he was unable to substantiate his claim because it was false.

In Nov. 2006, about 500 Muslims protested in front of the Catholic Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Ipoh following a SMS wherein the same Mufti had disclosed that about 600 Muslim students of the Ungku Omar Polytechnic were to be baptized by national mariner Azhar Mansor!

The church was not converting Muslims but instead was holding the First Holy Communion Mass (one of the rites of initiation to the faith) for 98 Catholic children, many of whom were traumatised by the sight of a threatening mob. Imagine the very unfortunate impression the young Catholics would have got of Islam and of Muslims.

The mufti who had proven to be more of a misfit, was not man enough to own up. He blamed it on an SMS sent out by a woman! Why no action was taken against the mufti, and why the authorities remained mute (on both occasions) over his “mischief” remains but a mystery. You must have been motivated by the mufti.

If indeed the Catholic Church has the conversion of Muslims as its hidden agenda, it would surely have started converting hundreds or even thousands of impressionable young Muslims through its Catholic Mission schools which have existed for as long as 100 years, But no such thing has ever happened.

The Muslim classmates and friends that I had in St Michael’s Ipoh are still good and respected Muslims today, and such was their appreciation and respect for the La Salle Brothers that they made sure that their children in turn would attend a La Salle school or a Convent!

Sacrilegious

Sadly, your disrespect knew no bounds. You chose to abandon all human and religious decency with impunity as a journalist and a Muslim. Under pretense of being a Catholic you participated in the church service and even partook of the Holy Communion (a white and sacred wafer) strictly meant only for Catholics.

You consumed the white wafer which Catholics hold as very sacred and treat with utmost reverence,  and both of you spat out the remnants, photographed it and published the picture in an article entitled “
Tinjaun Al Islam Dalam Gereja:Mencari Kesahihan Remaja Murtad
” which was published in the May 2009 issue of the
Al Islam
 magazine.

I shudder to think of what could happen if the reverse took place — if for instance two reporters from the Herald were to enter a mosque disguised as Muslims, partake of the rituals and desecrate something which the congregation considers very sacred.

I can imagine Khairy Jamaluddin leading a group of Umno Youth thugs and burning the effigy of the Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur and even threatening to set fire to a few churches, and Zulkifli Nordin rousing up a mob and invading the Herald’s office and demanding that it be shut down for good; or certain Muslim NGOs insisting that the two journalists be jailed under the ISA!

It makes me wonder how does a “creature” like you exist in this country?  Are you the product of the educational, social or even religious system or process created by Bolehland’s leaders (also read as “Umno”) over the past 30 years?

How is it possible that you could blatantly trespass into a place of worship, violate its sanctity, insult its adherents, even publish your transgression and completely ignore the implications and consequences (will there be any)? What gives you such audacity?

It all points to the reality of you being a cog in Umno’s machine – a political party that has politicised religion for its survival by creating unfounded insecurities amongst Muslims and a distrust of other religions. Meanwhile it dominates, dictates, decides and even defines what non-Muslims can and cannot discuss, deliberate on, and display in print.

Najib’s 1Malaysia is really Malaysia in one big mess!

As I join my Catholic brothers and sisters in forgiving you (a Catholic duty we are reminded of!), I also pray that you will feel the full weight of God’s wrath upon you.

I feel sad for the many good Muslims in this country who have a respect for peoples of other faiths, for not only have you insulted Catholics but you have insulted them too. Islam would do well without religious misfits like you!

Martin Jalleh

(15 July 2009)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 July 2009, 12:49 pm and is filed under
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First case of death-in-custody in MACC HQ

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

————————————————————————————————

Malaysiakini.com

Jul 16, 09 5:10pm

Teo Beng Hock, 30, an aide of Selangor state executive councillor Ean Yong Hian Wah, has plunged to his death at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Selangor headquarters in Shah Alam.

Teo’s body was found on the rooftop of a building next to the towering block which houses the MACC headquarters.

He was believed to have jumped from the 14th floor of the tower block where MACC Selangor is located.

Yesterday, Teo was taken to the MACC headquarters for questioning in relation to a probe concerning several Pakatan assemblypersons.

When the news broke, Pakatan leaders, including Ean, rushed to the building.

Other DAP leaders who are at the MACC headquarters included Ronnie Liu, Teng Chang Khim and Tony Pua.

Both Liu and Teng, after having waited for over one hour at the building, confirmed that Teo had died.

————————————————————————————————

Malaysiakini.com

Jul 15, 09 4:12pm

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) raided the offices of two Selangor Pakatan Rakyat elected representatives, including a member of the state cabinet.

The duo – both from DAP – are Seri Kembangan assemblyperson and state exco Ean Yong Hian Wah and Kampung Tunku assemblyperson Lau Weng San.

According to Ean (left in photo above), a six-member MACC team raided his service centre in Seri Kembangan at around 12.30pm.

Three hours later, the team also raided the Selangor DAP chief’s exco office located in the state secretariat building in Shah Alam.

The raid is related to MACC’s probe on seven Pakatan Rakyat Selangor state reps in relation to the use of state funds in their respective constituencies.

The MACC team left Ean’s office around 3.45pm, only to return some 10 minutes later.

This time, the MACC officers confiscated a laptop belonging to Ean’s political secretary Teo Beng Hock as well as a desktop computer, which were sent to the Selangor MACC headquarters in Shah Alam.

Teo was also taken to the headquarters to assist in the investigation. He was accompanied by Kota Alam Shah representative M Manoharan, who acted as Teo’s lawyer.

“The team leader, known only as Mohd Anwar, told me that he left earlier because he was uncomfortable with the presence of many journalists at the scene,” said Ean, who is state exco in charge of new village development and solution for unlicensed factories.

“He also said that all Selangor assemblypersons will be investigated but I am not sure if this also includes those from BN,” he added.

Ean also said that the officers failed to provide any identification before conducting their investigation and refused to reveal the complainants who had lodged the report against the state representatives.

“However, when asked what was the investigation based on, they only said, ‘we have received instructions from the top’,” said Ean.

Apart from Ean and Lau, the other five Pakatan reps being probed are Teresa Kok (Kinrara), Hannah Yeoh (Subang), Elizabeth Wong (Bukit Lanjan), Dr Cheah Wing Yin (Damansara Utama) and Edward Lee (Bukit Gasing).

Earlier Ean lambasted the move, alleging that the investigation and raids were ‘politically motivated’.

Previously, the commission have quizzed several people, including the personal aides of five assemblypersons – Ean, Lau, Kok, Wong and Yeoh.

Selangor state representatives are given RM500,000 each every year to fund community programmes in their respective constituencies.

Lau: More states reps on the list

Speaking at a press conference later, Lau said that his aides at his service centre in Petaling Jaya were questioned by the MACC officers at about 12.30pm while he was attending the state assembly sitting in Shah Alam.

Upon hearing the news, he went to his Kampung Tunku office at around 1.30pm and told the MACC officers that he would cooperate with the investigation.

“I showed all my community programmes documents to them,” he said.

Lau added that all documents pertaining to the use of state funds are kept in the land office.

“The land office is very strict when it comes to claims for our community programmes. In fact, in our submission (for the claims), we need to attach photos (as evidence of community programmes held) to our forms before it is being sent to the land office,” he said.

According to Lau, it is also learnt that similar investigations will be carried out on Pakatan representatives in the Gombak area of Selangor.

He further brushed off suggestions made by Kok previously who claimed that MACC were targeting Chinese elected representatives.

“I think they are targeting all Pakatan reps, regardless their races,” said Lau.

Wong, who is also a state exco, said that she and her office have yet to be investigated by the MACC officers.

“Although I welcome any investigation carried by them, I would also like to know what happened to our complaints made against BN state reps who have misused state funds,” she said.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 July 2009, 5:45 pm and is filed under
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