#KitaLawan protest attracts the angry, the creative and the nonchalant

by Anisah Shukry

The Malaysian Insider

7 March 2015 8:51 PM

Amid the chants of ‘Reformasi’ and ‘Undur Najib’ at today’s #KitaLawan rally outside Sogo in Kuala Lumpur, one tiny, elderly woman could be seen shuffling among the crowd, angrily smacking the banners held up within her reach.

“Stop it!” she cried in Malay, her dark, wrinkled face pulled into a scowl, as she tried to grab a nearby protester. “You’re being a menace!”

Other rally-goers grinned and nudged each other as she prowled around in her baju kurung, her eyes darting back and forth, an odd figure among the sea of Malaysians dressed in black gathered today to protest opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s imprisonment.

Today’s demonstration drew a mixed crowd of Malaysians, with the numbers surpassing the previous rallies held by the same organisers every weekend for the entire month.

With the exception of the woman, the mood among the thousands who turned up today was largely festive, and their spirits remained unperturbed even as the evening wore on and it began raining intermittently.

The creativity of Malaysians was on full display today as an effigy of Najib could be spotted among the crowd, as well as large cardboard puppets depicting a variety of animals.

“It took a week for the 10 of us to create these puppets and banners for this march,” said a man holding up a black-and-white puppet of a crocodile dressed as a judge.

“We are all full-time artists and we felt that we should do our part in contributing to changing society by coming out today. Maybe this demonstration won’t bring any change immediately, but it will eventually happen.”

He said the crocodile was a symbol of the injustice of Malaysia’s courts and how it was not independent, adding that this was proven by the Federal Court’s decision to sentence Anwar to five years jail for sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhari.

Meanwhile, a small boy marched doggedly on among the crowd, his face hidden behind a mask depicting Anwar’s face, and his body covered by a banner urging for re-elections.

“That’s my younger brother, and we are here because we want Najib to step down. My entire family is here, we came from Seremban,” Mashitah, 32, told The Malaysian Insider.

“We represent the young and we are tired of the manipulation of the Barisan Nasional government and their obsession in holding onto power.”

Aside from “Anwar”, “Rosmah Mansor” also made an appearance today as one protester wore a mask depicting the face of the prime minister’s wife. Around his neck hung a sign that read, “Undur Rosmah” (step down, Rosmah).

When asked his name, he merely said, “I am Rosmah” and pointed excitedly to his mask, before pausing to take pictures with his admirers.

As the crowd reached their final destination at the KLCC, their numbers began to dwindle and only a few hundred stayed to listen speeches by the opposition leaders present at the protest.

One youth held back, unconvinced by the speeches, despite having participated since 3pm. He told The Malaysian Insider that he was neither a Pakatan Rakyat nor a Barisan Nasional supporter, but had travelled from Bukit Jalil to Sogo to experience an opposition-led rally in person for the first time.

“I saw the rally being shared on Twitter yesterday, so I decided to just see for myself what it’s like. The newspapers always say that the rallies are bad and disrupt the peace, so I wanted to see if that was true,” said Alex, 21.

“Turns out, the rally is fine, there was no violence, no problem at all. It was really peaceful. But I still think Anwar is guilty and Saiful is gay,” he said with a smile. – March 7, 2015.

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MH370: Mysteries, missteps and mistrust

by Boo Su-Lyn

The Malay Mail Online

March 8, 2015

COMMENTARY
, March 8 — Experts appear no closer to solving the enigma of Flight MH370 one year after the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) jet vanished without a trace, making it one of the world’s biggest plane mysteries.

Contact with Flight MH370, which carried 239 people on board comprising mostly China nationals, was lost less than an hour after take-off from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 12.41am local time en route to Beijing, China, on March 8 last year.

There was no distress signal and two communication systems aboard the Boeing 777 commercial jet were shut down during the flight in what experts believe was a deliberate move.

The transponder — which identifies the plane and transmits its altitude and location to ground controllers — was turned off at 1.21am local time as the aircraft flew into Vietnamese airspace from Malaysian air traffic control over the South China Sea, a vulnerable point noted by aviation experts in a Reuters report as Malaysian and Vietnamese controllers could assume that the plane was the other’s responsibility.

Another unanswered question is why Flight MH370 veered off from its original flight path and turned west back over the Malaysian peninsula.

Malaysian military spotted Flight MH370 over the Straits of Malacca but did not intercept the commercial plane, saying it was not deemed “hostile.” The local military’s failure to intercept Flight MH370 and contradictory accounts from various government officials in the early days of the plane’s disappearance had sparked criticism of Malaysia’s competency in handling the aviation disaster.

The search is now focused underwater on a 60,000 square kilometre section of the southern Indian Ocean off West Australia where the plane is believed to have crashed.

An Inmarsat satellite had picked up several hourly “handshakes” from the plane that showed that Flight MH370 had gone on flying for hours after vanishing from radar screens, suggesting that the jet likely crashed in the deep waters of the vast, forbidding ocean.

Despite the fleet of planes, ships and submarines contributed by 26 countries in the initial search last year after Flight MH370 disappeared, no wreckage or bodies have been discovered in the hunt that is expected to be the most expensive in aviation history.

Lessons learned

The disappearance of Flight MH370 prompted global aviation authorities to push for the implementation of real-time flight tracking.

International news wire the Associated Press reported last Sunday Australian Transport Minister Warren Truss as saying that Australia, Malaysia and Indonesia will lead trials of a new method that will enable airlines to know the position of their planes every 15 minutes, instead of the previous 30 to 40 minutes’ rate. A deviation in the jet’s movement will reportedly lead to tracking every five minutes or less.

The test runs are scheduled under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the United Nations’ aviation arm, but international standards will only be implemented November 2016 at the earliest, according to a Wall Street Journal report last Sunday.

The US paper reported that there is some opposition to improving plane tracking technology due to cost concerns, quoting former US’ National Transportation Safety Board member Richard Healing as saying that there are “a lot of industry people” who do not really think that tracking is a safety feature and who see the disappearance of Flight MH370 as a “one-off event,”

Inmarsat said it is supporting the flight-tracking trial that will assess the effectiveness of aircraft reporting every 15 minutes in airspace over oceans, using a function called the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Contract (ADS-C).

“Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Contract (ADS-C) is a function on an aircraft that broadcasts position, altitude, vector and other information for use by air traffic control facilities for surveillance and by airlines for tracking,” an Inmarsat spokesman told Malay Mail Online in an email interview recently.

“On a per flight basis, the cost of tracking equates to a very small percentage of the total operational costs of an aircraft. Additionally, like other segments of the telecommunications sector, data and voice transmission costs are falling,” the British satellite communications firm added.

Airservices Australia, a government-owned agency in charge of the country’s airspace, has reportedly said that the new flight-tracking method being tested would not necessarily have allowed Flight MH370, whose tracking systems were turned off, to be monitored by air traffic control to the point where it crashed.

“What would have happened while the system is operating, we’d know exactly where the aircraft was. If somebody had turned the system off, we’re in the same set of circumstances as we’ve experienced on the latter part of the flight of MH370,” Airservices Australia chairman Angus Houston, who had led the MH370 search, told the Associated Press.

Despite the baffling nature of the disappearance of Flight MH370, the impact of the plane crash on the local aviation market appears to be minimal.

Aviation analyst Shukor Yusof, founder of Endau Analytics, said the incident has not generally hurt other airlines or Malaysians’ appetite for travel.

“It has affected demand from China for MAS, but elsewhere, it hasn’t affected other carriers. It’s only specific to MAS,” Shukor told Malay Mail Online recently.

“Demand from China has shrunk. It’s better than the first three to six months of last year, but it hasn’t gone to the same level pre-MH370.  I don’t think it’ll ever get back to that level unless and until there’s some closure in terms of the families getting some evidence that the plane had crashed,” he added.

The analyst said MAS planeloads from China and other Asean destinations were down by 30 per cent the first three months after Flight MH370 disappeared last March.

He added that the planeloads have picked up since and that MAS planes flying from China are now half full on good days, but still falling short of previous planeloads of around 80 per cent.

“I do hope they find something for the sake of the families. But it does seem very grim that as the days, weeks and months go by, we may never find it,” said Shukor.

Armchair experts

The disappearance of Flight MH370, which then-Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein repeatedly dubbed as “unprecedented”, dominated the global news cycle for weeks.

US news network CNN, in particular, covered the missing plane 24 hours a day and turned to discussing speculative theories, even something as ridiculous as black holes, amid a lack of new information.

The vanishing of the plane also made aviation jargon like “ACARS”, “transponder” and “handshakes” part of Malaysians’ everyday lexicon.

ACARS, or the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System, allows the plane to send data like engine status and fuel levels, while the transponder transmits to ground radar information like the plane’s identity, altitude and location.

“Handshakes” are identification data sent between the plane and a communications satellite back and forth.

The aviation puzzle spawned a slew of conspiracy theories too, ranging from the US military covering up the disappearance of the jet to the plane being abducted by aliens.

Families’ disbelief

Yet, for all the absurdity of the various conspiracy theories claiming that the plane is hidden in some remote airfield somewhere, some of the passengers’ families and relatives still refuse to accept the deaths of their loved ones.

Without a shred of physical evidence, not even as much as a lifejacket, the families’ irrational belief that the passengers are still alive despite a year of silence is somewhat understandable.

“I believe he is still alive, still somewhere out there,” Kelly Wen, 30-year-old wife of Chinese national Li who was on Flight MH370, told Malay Mail Online recently.

Another Chinese national, Zhang Yan Ming, whose only daughter was on the doomed flight, said he prays every day for her return.

“With her disappearance, there’s no meaning in my life,” the 68-year-old man told Malay Mail Online.

It is the frustrating lack of answers, with only remote satellite “pings” analysed on paper to indicate the final resting place of Flight MH370, that the passengers’ kin are unable to deal with.

“They cannot just call it an accident,” said Chinese national Li Yue Ha, whose 29-year-old daughter was on the plane.

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MH370 next of kin recall their disbelief at news of missing plane

by Melati A. Jalil

The Malaysian Insider

7 March 2015

United in sorrow, the next of kin of crew members on board Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 gathered tonight for strength and solidarity as they recounted the disbelief and terror they felt one year ago upon hearing that the plane carrying their loved ones had vanished.

“Oh My God, oh my God, oh my God, what’s going on, what’s going on,” was the first thing Melanie Antonio said when she first heard the news of the Beijing-bound jetliner’s disappearance on March 8, 2014.

Antonio, the wife of chief steward Andrew Nari recalled the shock and the speechlessness she felt that morning.

“They said the flight had lost contact and I said, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, what’s going on, what’s going on… seriously that’s what I said because I was shocked,” she told The Malaysian Insider tonight at the One Year Remembrance of MH370 Cabin Crew Families event in Petaling Jaya.

There were 12 crew members, including the pilot and co-pilot, on board the plane that lost contact with civilian radar over the waters off Vietnam as it headed towards Beijing from Kuala Lumpur. The plane then did an air turn back before flying southwards to the Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have ended, and where a massive undersea search is ongoing.

Kelvin Shim, whose wife Christine Tan was the lead stewardess, said he told himself that what he was experiencing could not be true.

“My first reaction was to feel very scared, and I called my mum. I was telling myself, it could’t be me.

He said he was first informed by WhatsApp about a missing plane at around 8.30am on March 8.

“First, I received the information on WhatsApp about an aircraft missing, then later, it was a Malaysia Airlines plane that had gone missing. I knew it was a Beijing-bound flight, but I didn’t know how many flights go to Beijing in one day.”

“After I saw the WhatsApp, I quickly checked whether the flight number was the same with the flight that she boarded,” he said.

With the current search in the southern Indian Ocean expected to end in May, Shim said he hoped the government would continue trying to find the plane.

“If nothing is found, I hope the government would sit down again, analyze all the information, data and continue to search.”

“I’m not sure whether they should search other areas. The world is so big, I can understand that you can’t simply search everywhere, the search is expensive. You have to depend on correct data, then only you search,” he said.

Another spouse of a crew member, Choi Loong Chow, said he last spoke with his wife Goh Sock Lay, at 9.24pm on March 7, before she boarded the plane.

She reminded him to apply for leave from work in April to observe the Qing Ming festival, a time when Chinese clear the graves of their ancestors and pay respect to them.

“That day on March 7, around 9.24pm, she first called me when I had my shower, but I didn’t pick up, so she called me a second time at my other phone. She talked in a very rushed manner, saying, Daddy, daddy…I remind you, we need to go back to Malacca for Qing Ming,” Choi said.

Jacquita Gonzales, the wife of steward Patrick Gomes said the first thing she did after hearing of the plane’s loss of contact was to send him a message.

“That was my first message, Where are you.”

“Right now at this time last year, our spouses were preparing to go on the flight, we were having dinner, right now, almost a year ago. My husband was playing with his grandson on the iPad,” Gonzales said, adding that the memory was still fresh in her mind.

“[If only we could] just press the rewind button,” she said.

The gathering tonight observed a minute of silence.

Gonzales, speaking on behalf of the next of kin of the crew members, then gave a speech thanking several parties, including the Malaysian government, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, then acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, Datin Paduka Seri Rosmah Mansor, and Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin, who had headed a committee for the next of kin.

“Thank you to Malaysia and to every other country that has sent us prayers and wishes, to tell us to be strong, and keep the faith,” she said, adding that they also thanked the search team of MH370.

Hamzah, who attended the gathering tonight, said he decided to be with the next of kin even though he was supposed to be at an Umno meeting in Perak.

“I realise the importance of someone from the government to assure them that the government will always be with them,” he said, adding that he would follow through with the issues raised in the interim investigation report on the plane that is expected to be released on Sunday. As required by international aviation convention, an interim report on any air disaster must be released a year from the incident. – March 7, 2015.

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MH370 pilot’s family lash out as Malaysia prepares to release report on plane’s disappearance

Lindsay Murdoch

Sydney Morning Herald

March 7, 2015

 The family of MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah has lashed out at people who blame him for the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 239 people on board 12 months ago.

“Disgusting … no-one, be you politician, scientist, aviation expert, plane crash investigator, pilot, retired pilot, media or whoever, none of you have the right to blame Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah for any wrongdoing,” Sakinab Shah, the 53-year-old pilot’s elder sister said in a statement to mark Sunday’s anniversary.

Ms Sakinab’s comments come as Malaysia is set to release a report on the investigation into the disappearance of MH370 on Sunday that could shed new light on one of the biggest mysteries in aviation history.

The findings of an investigation team comprising experts from seven countries have been shrouded in secrecy as the anniversary prompted renewed speculation and more wild theories about how one of the world’s most sophisticated aircraft could disappear while flying over the South China Sea en-route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing early  on March 8, 2014.

The report will detail the findings of extensive investigations into the plane, its flight path, crew and passengers and the data that led experts to conclude the plane crashed into the southern Indian Ocean west of Perth.

A key focus of the investigation has been whether someone deliberately switched off the plane’s transponder and communications equipment as the plane was leaving Malaysian air traffic control and entering that of Vietnam.

Captain Zaharie and his co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid have been at the centre of a “rogue pilot theory” – one of the more plausible explanations for the disappearance, despite a lack of motive.

But Ms Sakinab accused the media of pouncing like “hungry starved wolves with their twisted and conniving interpretations” after Nik Huzlan, a retired Malaysia Airlines pilot who knew Captain Zaharie for 30 years, said last week he is convinced that someone in the cockpit caused the plane to cease communications and turn around from its scheduled flight path.

Mr Huzlan said there was nothing to suggest in Captain Zaharie’s past he was capable of such a deed but added “your best friend can harbour the darkest secrets”.

But speaking on behalf of her family Ms Sakinab said her brother, who was married with three children and one grandchild, was a  loving man “who stopped at nothing to render help when it was needed”.

She said her family continue to pray and believe that “no matter how long the night, dawn will still break”.

On the eve of the anniversary Malaysia’s Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai called for international aviation authorities to force improvements in air safety, including making aircraft tamper proof. Mr Liow said Malaysia has improved co-ordination between its military and civilian aviation authorities to avoid confusion and mistakes that plagued the initial search for MH370.

Malaysia Airlines has also started tracking its long-haul flights every 15 minutes or less as part of a trial with other countries, including Australia. Previously Malaysia Airlines tracked its fleet every 30 minutes.

Malaysia is required by the International Civil Aviation Organisation to release an interim report on the anniversary of the disappearance. The Malaysian-led investigation team, set up in April last year, included experts from Australia, the United States,  Britain, China, Singapore, Indonesia and Singapore. It also includes officials from Boeing and British satellite communications company Inmarsat.

An Australian-led search of 43 per cent of a designated high-priority area of the Indian Ocean has found only empty shipping containers and no trace of the plane.

“I think on the balance of probabilities at the moment, the chances of finding it are still good and we should be patient and persist with the search,” said Angus Houston, Australia’s former defence chief who is overseeing the Australian-led effort to find the plane.

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Muhyddin should not have a sudden attack of “cold feet” suffering withdrawal symptoms  but must continue to be bold and forthright to defend public interests and the principles of accountability and good governance in the handling of the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal

The Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy UMNO President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should not have a sudden attack of “cold feet”, suffering withdrawal symptoms from his courageous and commendable  statement on the 1MDB on Friday night, but must continue to be bold and forthright to defend public interests and the principles of accountability and good governance in the handling of the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.

Muhyiddin was denying the undeniable when he said yesterday that his Friday night statement on 1MDB did not  contradict the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

His so-called “denial” that he had contradicted Najib has only drawn further attention to the differences between  Muhyiddin’s seven-para statement and the six-para  PMO Statement on the Cabinet position on  1MDB released after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

A study of the two statements will reach the ineluctable conclusion that  Muhyiddin’s statement was not just “expressing what the cabinet had discussed with regard to the issue (1MDB) but also gone beyond that”, when  was in fact a repudiation of the PMO Statement, smashing it to smithereens.

Had Muhyiddin fully studied and realised the full implications of his Friday night statement when he lent his signature to it?

Firstly, Muhyiddin’s statement in fact questioned as to how the Cabinet could give 1MDB a clean bill of health and integrity, expressing confidence that that no wrong-doing had been committed within 1MDB when, in Muhyiddin’s words, “some of the accusations of wrongdoing hurled at the strategic investment fund were in relation to transactions made since 2009, which were not included in the 2013 accounts audited by Deloitte”.

Exactly, these allegations which included “the joint venture between 1MDB and PetroSaudi International, as highlighted by several news portals recently”, were not under the purview of the latest 1MDB auditors Deloitte, as they happened pre-2013 before Deloitte’s appointment as auditors, and the Cabinet could not rely on Deloitte to reach any conclusion that 1MDB had not committed any wrongdoing pre-2013.

In any event, how can the Cabinet in a briefing lasting less than two hours by interested parties, act as judges, MACC, police and Attorney-General all rolled into one to clear the 1MDB of any wrongdoing?

From Muhyiddin’s statement, it is dubious that the Cabinet had passed a resolution expressing confidence that 1MDB had not committed any wrongdoing.

The Malaysian public are entitled to know whether there was any such Cabinet resolution giving the 1MDB a clean bill of health and integrity, or whether it was just a claim by the PMO Statement.

If there was such a Cabinet resolution, who was the Minister who proposed the Cabinet resolution and the result of the vote, whether unanimously passed or whether a vote had been taken, stating who were the Ministers in support and the Ministers opposing the resolution.

There is also the  question of the validity and legality of such a Cabinet motion, as the Prime Minister was an interested party, being the Chairperson of the 1MDB Board of Advisors.

Did Najib declare his interest,  ask Muhyiddin to take over the  chair and withdrew during the  Cabinet discussion and decision on the 1MDB?

If there was no such Cabinet resolution, how could the PMO tell a lie about what happened in Cabinet, and how many times have the PMO Statements been telling lies?

Secondly, Muhyiddin was clearly contradicting Najib and the PMO Statement when he urged the Public Accounts Committee to start its own investigation on 1Malaysia Development Bhd, without waiting for the auditor-general’s report, as well as asking for an forensic audit to be conducted by the Auditor-General “to ensure there is no corruption in 1MDB transactions”.

In fact, this will be the second proof that the Cabinet could not have “expressed confidence that no wrongdoing has been committed within 1MDB”, when the Deputy Prime Minister is asking for a forensic audit “to ensure that there is no corruption in 1MDB transactions”.

Malaysians are entitled to a clear answer: Did  the Cabinet last Wednesday issue a clean bill of health and integrity to IMDB or not, and if, not how can the PMO Statement be allowed to tell a lie about what transpired in Cabinet?

Muhyiddin’s Friday night statement was clearly in response to reports that Najib and his coterie of 1MDB advisers (clearly excluding Muhyiddin) were considering an exit strategy for 1MDB, which could involve 1MDB being left as a skeletal structure and possibly dissolved under a debt repayment plan in which most of its assets will be sold.

Hence the warning, and rightly, by Muhyiddin in his Friday night statement that there should be neither be a  “bail out” nor  “strip sale” of the firm’s assets to pay off its hefty debts amounting to RM42 billion,  referring specifically to the government suffering a loss if restructuring of 1MDB involve the sales of Tun Razak Exchange and Bandar Malaysia land which had been obtained from the government “on the cheap”.

Clearly, the lines in UMNO and Cabinet are being drawn between those who support Najib’s PMO six-para statement last Wednesday and Muhyiddin’s seven-para statement on Friday night.

For the first time, we are seeing UMNO Ministers like the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Abdul  Rahman Dahlan, the Minister for Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and  Consumerism Hassan Malek, the Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and the Minister for Youth and Sports Khairy Jamaluddin coming out in open public support for Najib and the PMO Statement.

Will there be any Minister who is prepared to ;publicly  back Muhyiddin for his Friday night statement?

For the past six years, 1MDB Scandal has brought Malaysia into great disrepute, both nationally and internationally.

I feel a sense of déjà vu when the Home Minister Zahid Hamidi accused the critics of 1MDB of launching “politically-motived” attacks on 1MDB, the Prime Minister and UMNO as I had to face such accusations when exposing the RM2.5 billion Bumiputera Finance Scandal in 1984 and a string of other financial scandals under Tun Dr. Mahathir as Prime Minister in the eighties and nineties.

I do not know whether Zahid would now include Tun Mahathir among the “anti-national elements” who have  political axes to grind in questioning the 1MDB scandal, but what is very clear is Zahid is himself guilty of the he  hurled against others as it is evident he is motivated by a political agenda of his own in making such  charges against critics of 1MDB.

The 1MDB is a financial scandal affecting the whole nation and the entire citizenry. All Cabinet Ministers must act in the interest of the nation and go beyond ;personal or party consideration.

As the 1MDB scandal is the No. 1 financial scandal in the country, this issue should be addressed in the Yang Di Pertuan Agong’s Policy Address when Opening Parliament tomorrow.

On behalf of the government, the Yang Di Pertuan Agong should announce the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the RM42 billion MDB scandal, and the Prime Minister should also announce relinquishing his post as Finance Minister as it is most  invidious for the Prime Minister to be placed in a situation of having to give blind and total support to the Finance Minister over the 1MDB scandal.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 March 2015, 2:44 pm and is filed under
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Pained by loss, MH370 kin questions Putrajaya’s timing of report release

BY MAYURI MEI LIN

The Malay Mail Online

March 7, 2015

KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — The government’s decision to release an interim report on the first-year anniversary of the missing Flight MH370 tomorrow has drawn flak from at least one family member of the ill-fated plane’s passengers.

Grace Subathirai Nathan, whose mother Anne Catherine Daisy was among the 239 passengers and crew who vanished on March 8 last year, said she was notified earlier today that the report would be released just before the families are to hold a remembrance function for their loved ones.

“We are in so much pain at this time that we still have no news of our loved ones,” the 26-year-old lawyer told Malay Mail Online in a text message through WhatsApp.

“What is the value of releasing this report on the 8th minutes before the official start time of our NOK event?” she asked, using the acronym meaning next-of-kin.

“Can’t they release it on the 9th?” she added.

Malay Mail Online understands that the Malaysian safety investigation team on MH370 under the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 13 will be releasing its interim report and a factual statement tomorrow at 3pm.

Grace said the families had been informed that they would be able to access the documents in a special section for the next-of-kin on the MH370 official website from noon Malaysian time, a scant three-and-a-half hours before their Remembrance Day event at The Square at the Publika shopping complex here.

The event, which was a concerted effort spearheaded by Voice370 that represents the kith and kin of the people on board the jet, is scheduled to kick off from 3.30pm to 6.30pm and will include two live-link sessions to connect with those in Australia, New Zealand and France.

Grace raked over the federal government and the Malaysia Airlines management for allegedly failing to help the families commemorate the first-year anniversary of their loved ones going missing, on top of being callous about the feelings of the families involved.

“[They] did not even assist us with this event. Why are they making it worse for us? Why must they do this to us? Are we not distraught enough as it is?” she said in an emotion-laden statement.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 March 2015, 1:30 am and is filed under
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Setahun sudah MH370

Nomy Nozwir

The Malaysian Insider

7 March 2015

Minggu ini genap setahun saya menulis dalam ruang kolum The Malaysian Insider, saya masih ingat pada mula-mula kejadian pesawat malang MH370, dari Kuala Lumpur menuju Beijing, telah hilang entah ke mana.

Bagi saya, peristiwa kehilangan pesawat ini adalah satu momen yang cukup besar kepada sejarah negara ini, sama seperti peristiwa 13 Mei 1969 atau pemecatan Anwar Ibrahim sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri.

Pejam celik pejam celik, sudah setahun peristiwa besar dalam sejarah negara kita itu sudah berlalu.

Peristiwa itu kita dapat menyaksikan seluruh rakyat Malaysia, tidak mengira agama, kaum, dan semangat kepartian bersatu berharap pesawat malang itu dapat ditemui.

Majlis solat hajat, kempen bakar lilin dan tandatangan sebagai satu tanda rakyat ini bersimpati atas mangsa yang berada dalam kapal terbang itu, serta berharap kapal terbang itu dapat dijumpai.

Sehingga hari ini, usaha untuk mencari pesawat itu masih diteruskan, dengan langkah-langkah aktif dilakukan oleh tentera laut Australia mencari kawasan seluas-luasnya di Lautan Hindi, serta penat lelah para pencari masih belum hilang.

Dari situ, kita lihat terdapat persaingan kuasa besar dalam menghulurkan bantuan, antara China dan Amerika Syarikat, bagi mendapat tempat cengkaman untuk terus memperluaskan empayar masing-masing.

Amerika Syarikat muncul kuasa tunggal besar dunia sejak kejatuhan Soviet pada penghujung 1980an, terus mahu memperkukuhkan kedudukan empayar melalui dasar “Pivot Asia”, sementara China yang mula berkembang pesat ekonomi selepas reformasi Deng Xiaopeng, mula mahu meluaskan penguasaan pengaruh mereka melalui dasar apa yang dipanggil “Silk Road 2.0”.

Melalui peristiwa ini jugalah, kita dapat melihat betapa pentingnya kedudukan strategik wilayah Asia Tenggara dalam usaha untuk memperluaskan empayar mereka.

Kawasan Asia Tenggara sejak dahulu lagi menjadi kedudukan strategik untuk sebuah kuasa besar, Portugis, Belanda, dan British, sebagai pusat perdagangan dan bahan mentah yang strategik yang menjalinkan antara Timur dan Barat.

Hari ini, Amerika sebagai ‘superpower’, hasil kemenangan dari Perang Dingin, mahu meneruskan kelangsungan Pax Americana.

China pula cuba bersaing sebagai satu ’emergence power’ yang mahu menguasai kekayaan di negara dunia ketiga.

Peristiwa MH370 ini jelas sekali begitu penting kerana banyak berlakunya peristiwa yang menentukan geopolitikal di Asia Tenggara.

Tetapi, persoalan yang tinggal persoalan oleh rakyat Malaysia: apa sebenarnya yang telah berlaku pada malam malang 8 Mac 2014 itu.

Jawapan sentiasa dinanti oleh rakyat Malaysia, sementara itu kecelaruan dan pelbagai spekulasi dicetuskan seolah-olah ada sesuatu yang disembunyikan.

Saya bukan cuba untuk mencetuskan spekulasi, tetapi semakin banyak jawapan yang diberikan, semakin banyak timbul persoalan mengenai peristiwa ini.

Isu seperti manggis dua tan, data terakhir dari pesawat itu, serta radar pesawat di Gong Kedak, Terengganu hanya dapat menemui data terakhir pesawat tersebut ketika berada di Teluk Siam, menimbulkan banyak persoalan.

Mengapa begitu sulit untuk memberitahu cargo manifest, atau mengapa radar tidak dapat membaca kapal terbang itu ke mana arahnya, masih terus ditanya oleh rakyat.

Dan setiap kali dengan isu ini diceritakan, kerajaan negara ini hanya mahu memain sentimen dan terus meniup harapan bahawa pesawat itu akan dapat dijumpai juga.

Kini, sudah setahun peristiwa pesawat malang itu berlalu. Tetapi, apakah ia benar-benar malang akibat kerosakan mekanikal, atau ianya sebenarnya ‘buah catur’ permainan kuasa-kuasa besar?

Beberapa bulan selepas MH370, peristiwa MH17 ditembak di ruang udara Ukraine, tempat dimana Amerika dan Kesatuan Eropah sedang ‘bergusti’ dengan Rusia, sebuah bekas ‘superpower’ Soviet Union.

Apa yang sebenarnya berlaku? Selepas setahun, saya terus bertanya soalan ini.

Yang pasti, saya tidak akan tanya soalan ini kepada Raja Bomoh. – 6 Mac, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 March 2015, 6:42 am and is filed under
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The Mystery of Flight 370 Haunts Families and Baffles Experts a Year After Its Disappearance

David Stout

Time

March 6, 2015

Without a single scrap of debris, the search for the missing jet will likely end soon, taking with it all remaining hope

You can’t blame Jennifer Chong for being a nervous flyer.

Every time she boards a plane, the resident of Melbourne faces the inevitable walk past the cabin’s front row where her husband of more than 20 years, Chong Ling Tan, had been seated on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

Twelve months on from arguably the greatest aviation mystery of all time, Chong says those empty seats can still induce panic.

“I start to think that if anything happened, like a hijacking, then he would be the first one who knows because he’s the one nearest to the cockpit,” Chong tells TIME.

Sunday marks one year since MH370 veered off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and vanished from radar screens. Planes and ships from seven countries have completed more than 300 sorties over vast tracts of the southern Indian Ocean in search for the errant Boeing 777, but not a single scrap of debris has been recovered.

Now just four boats continue to comb a 23,000-sq.-mi. patch of ocean floor 1,000 miles off the coast of Perth, western Australia. Australian authorities are set to finish trawling the designated search area in May.

During a parliamentary address earlier this week, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott acknowledged that officials are beginning to question the value of continuing beyond this point. “I can’t promise that the search will go on at this intensity forever, but we will continue our very best efforts to resolve this mystery and provide some answers,” he said.

But for Chong and hundreds of other distraught relatives, simply giving up translates to abandoning the investigation into how a plane with 239 passengers and crew can simply vanish.

“They’re trying to slowly put the thoughts in the minds of the public and the families, so that they will slowly wind down the search after May because it’s about to money and who’s going to pay,” she says.

Justin Green, a lawyer representing 24 of the victims’ relatives, says the search must continue not just for the families’ sake, but also to improve aviation-safety standards in the future. Green points to the years investigators took to uncover the crucial findings that explained other disasters, such as Air France Flight 447 and TWA 800. “None of the subsequent improvements [to airline safety] would have happened if the countries involved had just given up,” he says.

In late January, Malaysian authorities caught families and aviation experts off guard with a sudden announcement that MH370’s disappearance had been caused by an accident and that no one had survived.

In the absence of facts, myriad theories have surfaced over the past year offering plausible scenarios to explain what transpired. These include that the plane was shot down or driven into the sea by a deranged pilot or passenger. According to experts, no theory can’t be wholly dismissed until concrete evidence proves otherwise.

“With the Malaysian government declaring this an accident, well does that limit or preclude further investigation into these other areas?” asks Mike Daniel, an international aviation-safety consultant based in Singapore. “There’s a difference between an accident investigation as opposed to a criminal investigation.”

Despite talk of halting the investigation or ratcheting down recovery operations, Australian officials remain upbeat that their current search will yield results. “We are cautiously optimistic we’ll find that aircraft,” Martin Dolan, chief commissioner of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, told the BBC this week. “We know we will find that aircraft if it’s in the priority search area.”

However, experts remain divided over where to look for the plane. Are the four Australian search vessels mapping large swaths of the Indian Ocean’s floor even scanning the correct hemisphere? Some even suggest the plane headed north towards the Caucuses.

“The fact that nothing has been found by the way of debris suggests to me that they’re looking in the wrong place,” said Jason Middleton, an aviation professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

The current search zone was drawn up in accordance with calculations based on a number of electronic handshakes MH370 made with a satellite during its last hours of flight. But Middleton argues that these assessments are problematic at best.

“These calculations rely on a whole bunch of issues that are not easily verifiable by outside sources,” explains Middleton. “The science is not demonstrably repeatable.”

But without a shred of evidence, crucial questions will remain unanswered. Why were the transponders deliberately turned off? Why did whoever had control repeatedly change course? Why was there no Mayday call? And why have Malaysian authorities been reticent to release the flight’s cargo manifest in its entirety?

In lieu of answers, the public clamors for new technology to track planes wherever they might be, yet there’s little evidence that any advances could have prevented this mystery, given that existing systems were deliberately scuttled in the cockpit. (Pilots need to be able to turn off all onboard electronics in case of fire.)

“I don’t know really what to believe. It’s just so bizarre to me,” says Chong. “One year later and I’m in the same position with no further answers.”

As the anniversary approaches, Chong says she plans to brave another flight from Melbourne, where she moved two years ago, to Kuala Lumpur to gather with other families and call for the continuation of the search. Without answers, she tries to remain hopeful that the plane will one day be recovered, but admits that it’s difficult at times to convince herself that her husband and his fellow passengers will be found.

“I’m still hopeful that they will be able to find the plane,” she says. “But we don’t know when. Maybe in one year, 10 years or 40 years. I’ll be holding out hope until then.”

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 March 2015, 8:57 am and is filed under
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Why police presence at EC public hearing, asks DAP

by Desmond Davidson

The Malaysian Insider

7 March 2015 8:11 PM

Sarawak DAP has accused the Election Commission (EC) of breaking its rigid “closed door” rule in the public objections to its proposed redrawing of the electoral boundary in Miri with the presence of four police personnel, believed to be from the Special Branch Unit.

DAP Senadin branch chairperson, Eunice Lim questioned why the cops were allowed to take part but barred the public and media from the series of hearings in Kuching and other major towns in the state.

“Why were the SB officers allowed inside the hearing?” she asked.

“Their presence create a sort of fear to those who were making their presentation,” Lim said, referring to an incident last Thursday.

“I did not realise their presence when I was making my presentation,” she said.

“We only came to know about it when my colleague (Piasau assemblyman Alan Ling) spotted the officers sitting with the EC officers before making his own presentation.”

Lim said when Ling asked the EC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof on the matter, he appeared, “from his body language, to be quite surprised”.

She claimed that what was more surprising was when the EC chairman replied: “What’s wrong with that?”, implying that the four were indeed police officers.

Ling then posted the matter on his Facebook page and further stated that with the police presence, the EC should also allowed the public to listen to the inquiry.

“So my question now is, what is wrong with allowing the public to come in and hear the inquiry?

“Is this a form of intimidation towards the presenters? The whole proceeding is not friendly at all,” he said.

Meanwhile, following this incident, Lim said her elected colleagues to Parliament and the state legislative assembly would raise the matter in the two legislatures for answers.

The Parliament convenes next week while the state legislature is expected to sit in May. – March 7, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 March 2015, 6:11 am and is filed under
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Why we must keep searching for MH370

 – Guy Gratton

The Malaysian Insider

7 March 2015

The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 a year ago has led to one of the largest search exercises in history. The 140-tonne aircraft and all its 239 passengers and crew remain missing, and the search continues across 17,000km² of ocean up to 5km deep. For comparison, we knew within 20km where the 50,000 tonne Titanic sank in 1912, in water 4km deep – and even then it took 73 years to find it.

A steel ship is much easier to find than an aluminium aircraft because it has a far larger effect on the earth’s magnetic field and so is easier to detect. More obviously, locating something as big as a cruise liner based on a fairly good knowledge of the location is much easier than finding a much smaller aircraft in a large area of the Indian Ocean.

Why don’t we know where MH370 went, wasn’t it being tracked? Near to major cities and population centres, state air traffic control uses primary radar – which locates objects using reflected radio waves. But radar’s range is only a few hundred miles, and while airliners carry their own radar this is calibrated for detecting storms and mountains, not other aircraft.

Radar only takes you so far

Beyond radar range we use secondary surveillance radar or SSR, this is built upon a World War II technology called “IFF” or “Identify Friend or Foe” and receives a coded signal from a ground station or another aircraft, then transmits back another coded signal which can include identity, position, altitude and speed. MH370 was equipped with ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast): a state-of-the-art secondary radar technology, detectable by ground stations and other aircraft.

Most accidents will cause power to the transponder to fail, but there are two more systems in the event of an emergency. Underwater, the flight data recorder (the “black box”) emits an audible beacon for about 30 days. When on the surface Emergency Locator Transmitters transmit location for 1-2 days by radio. Throughout the flight, there’s also an automatic maintenance messaging system called ACARS which works through a satellite communications antenna.

In the case of MH370, while the transponder and ACARS had been shut down, the satellite antenna continued to respond to hourly handshake signals. This suggests that the disappearance of MH370 was caused by unlawful interference – but probably not by the captain. Why? If you asked a commercial pilot to commandeer an unfamiliar aircraft and fly it somewhere undetected, they would disable the ACARS, transponder, and radios – but without more detailed type knowledge probably wouldn’t disable the more obscure satellite communications antenna.

As the person on board with the greatest systems knowledge was the captain, this makes him an unlikely candidate for a hijacker. Also, with more than 18,000 flying hours (the minimum to command an airliner is 1,500) and an examiner’s qualification on the Boeing 777, he was capable of flying anywhere Asia and landing safely without assistance.

This suggests that if anyone was flying the aircraft, it probably wasn’t him. That said, this is only my opinion: Captain Zaharie Shah was in the right place after all, and had allegedly made no social plans after March 8, 2014. That could be taken as suspicious.

The fact we have any idea where the aircraft was headed at all is due to brilliant mathematics by engineers at Inmarsat. They analysed the satellite handshake signals – not normally used for navigational purposes – and came up with an approximate flightpath, ending about the same time the aircraft fuel would have been expected to give out. That narrowed the search area to “only” 17,000km². They didn’t find the needle, but they offered a clue as to in which haystack it could be found.

To track or not to track

There have been calls from many quarters for tracking systems to be fitted to commercial aircraft that cannot be turned off, or for detachable, floating location beacons as fitted onto some military aircraft. It’s important that these don’t endanger the aircraft – I’ve had to turn off a transponder in-flight following a systems failure, so this isn’t a hypothetical concern. But creating transponders unable to threaten the aircraft is a solvable problem.

This will be expensive, but airlines won’t complain so long as it is mandatory: regulations that affect all competitors equally will just add a little to the cost of all airline tickets. Unions worry that some options – for example transmitting flight data by satellite link – could grow into an “spy in the cockpit” for management to monitor them, but the same concern was resolved with flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders by making use of the data without the crew’s permission illegal for any purpose other than safety.

Ultimately, we must keep looking. It’s not acceptable that an aircraft with 239 people on board can simply vanish. We must find out why – not to allocate blame, as that doesn’t really matter: indeed if it’s known that blame will be allocated people are less likely to cooperate with any inquiry. What matters is learning how to avoid similar accidents in the future.

For this reason, if no other, it remains vital that we find MH370, and when found, the evidence retrieved and analysed. – The Conversation, March 7, 2015.

* Guy Gratton is visiting senior research fellow at Brunel University London.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 8 March 2015, 6:32 am and is filed under
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Auditor General Ambrin must buck up as six-day inaction on investigation into 1MDB dereliction of duty

The Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang must buck up and get on with his work and responsibility as the six-day inaction on investigations into the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal is a major dereliction of duty.

Malaysians want to know why the Auditor-General has not swung into immediate action to investigate into the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history after the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had directed him on Wednesday to independently verify 1MDB’s accounts

Malaysians can still remember the poor and unacceptable reasons given by Ambrin last November why he was not auditing 1MDB accounts.

This was what Ambrin said on November 12, 2014 at a media session in Kuala Lumpur in conjunction with the third series of the auditor’s report 2013:

“My answer is as far as their accounts are concerned, it has already been audited by one of the big four (audit firms), so there is no reason why we should ask them to open up their books because auditing financial statements is very laborious (with) examination of documents and things like that.”

Ambrin was rightly flayed in the media for “passing the buck to The Big Four”, and “lectured”  that if auditors were infallible, there would be no financial scandals in the world.

Ambrin, as Auditor-General,  was also subjected to the humiliation of being reminded of the  big financial scandals despite employing leading audit firms, viz:

*Enron which was audited by Andersen;

*Malaysia’s BBMB which was audited by Touche Ross (later swallowed up by Deloittee who happen to be 1MDB’s current auditor), and the fact that Deloitte was the auditor in the Transmile scandal;

*Lehman Brothers, the golden boy of investment banking that went spectacularly bankrupt in 2008 despite having Ernest & Young, one of the Big Four, as auditors.

The 1MDB had in fact gone through three of the “Big Four” in the space of five years – first Ernst & Young, who resigned without signing a single set of accounts; then KPMB which resigned in late 2013 without signing off the accounts; and now Deloitte.

Have the reasons for the resignation of two of the Big Four as 1MDB auditors been explained to the Cabinet on Wednesday, resulting in the Cabinet expressing confidence that no wrongdoing had been committed within 1MDB?

Apparently not, or the Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy UMNO President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin would not have rushed out a statement on Friday night, specifically pointing out that “some of the accusations of wrongdoing hurled at the strategic investment fund were in relation to transactions made since 2009, which were not included in the 2013 accounts audited by Deloitte”!

This would be Ambrin’s most challenging and onerous task as Auditor-General for he would in fact be auditing the Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister  and not just the 1.4 million civil servants in his series of Auditor-General’s Reports up to now, and in the process deciding the future of the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia!

This is in fact one potent reason why Najib should immediately relinquish his portfolio as Minister of Finance, to reduce the conflict-of-interest complications in the 1MDB scandal.

But this can be no excuse for Ambrin’s failure to swing into immediate action to audit the 1MDB accounts in the past six days, and his inability to announce the scope and terms of reference of audit investigations into 1MDB and the time frame as to when he would complete the audit.

Or is Ambrin’s inaction in the past six days simply because he had not received any written instruction from the Prime Minister despite the PMO statement issued after Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that “As a further step, the Prime Minister informed Cabinet that he has instructed the Auditor General to independently verify 1MDB’s accounts.”

From the PMO statement, the Auditor General should have received written instructions from the Prime Minister before the Cabinet meeting last Wednesday to vet the 1MDB’s accounts, unless the PMO was not stating the truth!

Or are we having a replay of  what happened  with regard to the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS), where it was publicly announced that a Working Committee for follow-up on the Report had been established, but  Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who was announced as Chairman of the RCIIIS Report Working Committee, did not receive his letter of appointment until some two months later.

Will Ambrin have to wait for two months before he received the Prime Minister’s instruction to verify the 1MDB accounts?

In fact, the question that should be posed is whether  Ambrin had to wait for Najib’s instruction to conduct an audit of 1MDB accounts?

The answer is No. There should be no dilly-dally by the Auditor-General who should immediately swing into action to audit the 1MDB accounts, whether he receives written instruction from the Prime Minister or not.

The same applies to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Is  the PAC Chairman, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamad going to listen to the Prime Minister, who wants the PAC to wait for the Auditor-General’s audit of 1MDB or the Deputy Prime Minister, who wants the PAC to investigate the 1MDB accounts immediately?

Nur Jazlan and the PAC members do not have to listen to the Prime Minister or the Deputy Prime Minister,  but should be guided by their parliamentary mandate and responsibility spelt out in the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders 77 (1)(a) to conduct examination of “the accounts of the Federation and the appropriation of the sums granted by Parliament to meet the public expenditure”; SO 77 (1) (b) “such accounts of public authorities and other bodies administering public funds as may be laid before the House” and SO 77(1)(d) “such other matters as the Committee may think fit, or which may be referred to the Committee by the House”.

It is clear that the PAC has full powers under Standing Orders 77 to examine the 1MDB accounts if it “thinks fit” – i.e. if the UMNO, MCA and Gerakan members in the PAC are prepared to put national interests above party and self interests, and agree with the five Pakatan Rakyat MPs on the PAC to launch an immediate investigation into the 1MDB accounts!

But are  the UMNO, MCA and Gerakan MPs sitting on the PAC prepared to put national interests above everything else, in resolving on an immediate PAC investigation of the 1MDB accounts?

                This entry was posted on Monday, 9 March 2015, 6:32 pm and is filed under
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Auditor-General’s assurance of professional audit of 1MDB most welcome although public confidence have not been helped by contradictory or uncharacteristic  statements by MACC and Police

I welcome the promise by the Auditor-General Tan Sri Ambrin Buang that his department will call up any individual necessary even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak in completing an independent audit on strategic fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

The Auditor-General’s assurance of professional audit of 1MDB and not to be swayed by extraneous considerations is most welcome, although public confidence that the various authorities would adopt  a professional, accountable and responsible approach in the handling of the  1MDB scandal had not been helped by contradictory or uncharacteristic statements by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Police.

Suddenly, there seems to be a  competition among the various departments to show courage and eagerness to investigate the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak himself – as not only Ambrin does not rule  out such possibility, even the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar pointedly said that Najib would be one of the targets of investigation by a three-agency task force to probe the 1MDB scandal.

In fact, the IGP’s announcement has detracted  the credibility of the Auditor-General’s statement that his department’s audit would not exclude an investigation into the Prime Minister, for who would believe the IGP’s claim when he had been guilty of kid-glove treatment to BN Ministers and leaders, letting off  the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Datuk Ismail Sabri for the  most racist and seditious incitement in calling on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businessmen and allowing the former Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Mashitah Ibrahim to enjoy impunity and immunity for spouting heinous  lies to incite religious hatred, conflict and tension in plural Malaysia.

In contrast, the IGP had  shown neither  mercy nor respect for  Pakatan Rakyat leaders, and the treatment meted out to Selangor State Exco Member, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad as if he is a common criminal is the most  telling indictment of the IGP’s partisan bias and double-standards.

But there is another contradiction, as  just a few hours before Khalid announced yesterday a three-agency task force comprising members of the police force, MACC and the Attorney-General’s Chambers to probe 1MDB,  the MACC Chief Commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamad had declared that the MACC would wait for the Auditor-General’s report on 1MDB before starting its own probe.

One  issue which deserves the Auditor-General’s  immediate attention is the conflict-of-interest situation, not over the Auditor-General submitting its report to PAC, but from the Prime Minister also being the Chairperson of the 1MDB advisory board and Finance Minister.

As Auditor-General,  Ambrin should focus and advise  on  whether the Prime Minister continues to be caught in a conflict-of-interest situation in doubling up as Chairman of the 1MDB advisory board and Finance Minister.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 10 March 2015, 4:12 pm and is filed under
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It’s time for women to liberate women

– Dyana Sofya

The Malaysian Insider

8 March 2015

The ‘Wake Up To A Good Cause’ campaign by Marie Claire Malaysia and the Women’s Aid Organisation is meant to raise awareness and give every woman who has ever suffered abuse a voice while raising funds for one of the country’s most established NGOs dedicated to empowering abused women.

One in every three women in this world have suffered from some form of abuse. Meanwhile, about 39% of Malaysian women have been physically, mentally or emotionally abused. Although physical abuse is usually more obvious, the same can’t be said for mental and emotional abuse.

Ironically, even this very campaign to end violence and abuse against women has found itself the target of online abuse in the social media by certain quarters. An uproar has erupted in the last few days over the campaign simply because it depicts pictures of women posing as if they had just gotten out of bed. I am not sure about some, but I am sure everyone else sleeps in a bed.

Instead of focusing on the purpose of the campaign, these “abusers” prefer to denigrate women who are working towards a good cause. Strangely enough, some of these comments even come from women themselves.

One such example is the statement by Puteri Umno, whose information chief Haryaty Hamzah condemned my taking part in the photo shoot by saying that it was “obscene” to “exploit my body” for the cause.

Such a comment from a wing that is supposed to represent young, professional women in Umno is extremely disappointing, as the photos of the women featured in the shoot were far from suggestive and no different from what is seen in everyday advertising. Is she suggesting that women are not allowed to take decent and creative photos to promote causes that help women? Such campaigns are not restricted to models only as the organisers sought to feature inspirational women.

Obviously, Puteri Umno prefers to judge a book by its cover, and by doing so only further oppress women rather than liberate them. If innocent and unrevealing photos suggest inappropriate behaviour to them, then perhaps it is they who are the problem. It is such a shame that they cannot channel their resources and energy into raising awareness and helping to solve real women’s issues instead of disparaging those who are actually trying to contribute to a good cause.

Unless we break out of the patriarchy and chauvinism that currently pervades our society, we will never truly empower the better half of our population. Any attempt to silence such efforts is only regressive. Take for example, India’s banning of the controversial BBC documentary, India’s Daughter, about the gang-rape and murder of a young girl in Delhi. In the film, one of the men convicted and sentenced to death for the 2012 rape and murder had said “a girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy”. Such a statement may appear shocking, but the truth is that such attitudes are far more commonplace than we may like to think.

Closer to home, controversial columnist Ridhuan Tee made a similar comment in an article he wrote last month, in which he said that women were motivating men to commit rape by “exposing and flaunting” their bodies. It is exactly this kind of disrespect for women that we need to combat and eradicate. However, we will never do so if women themselves do not respect and take ownership of their own bodies.

As for the documentary, the ban by the Indian government actually prompted the BBC to air the documentary earlier than planned, as it felt that the film represented “an important account of an event that galvanised Indian opinion to ensure such tragedies are not repeated”. I commend the BBC for putting their foot down on the issue, because until and unless violence against women is exposed, we will never address this problem that has become endemic in our part of the world.

I would suggest that my sisters in Puteri Umno could learn a thing or two from watching the documentary themselves. Perhaps after doing so they may learn the need to respect and protect women’s rights in order to help create a society that is free from violence against women.

Happy International Women’s Day! – March 8, 2015

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 10 March 2015, 5:07 am and is filed under
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Joseph Pairin invited to forum on “How many are REAL Sabahans –  Report on RCI Report on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah” in Kuala Lumpur on Monday 16/3 to present his blue-print to resolve once and for all the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants Nightmare

I have written to the PBS President and  Sabah Deputy Chief Minister, Tan Sri  Joseph Pairin Kitingan, who is also Chairman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) Working  Committee, inviting him to a forum in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, 16th March 2015 for him to present his blueprint to resolve once and for all the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants Nightmare.

Ten months have passed since the RCIIIS presented its report to the Yang di Pertuan Agong and the Federal Government, and more than three months have passed since the RCIIIS report was made public in Kota Kinabalu, but up to now, nothing has been done to resolve the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants nightmare.

In fact, it would not be wrong to say that despite the Cabinet decision to establish  the RCIIIS in February more than three years ago in February 2012, and the submission of the RCIIIS Report to Putrajaya10 months ago, there had been no concrete measure  to break the back of the 45-year problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah apart from the establishment of ESSCOM and ESSZONE as a result of the Lahad Datuk Intrusion in February/March 2013.

Pairin is no stranger to the issue of the 45-year Sabah Illegal Immigrants Nightmare, as he had been as long in active politics in Sabah as the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah.

In fact, it is not too far from the truth to say that Joseph Pairin’s rise and fall in Sabah politics were  both related to the Sabah illegal immigrants nightmare – his rise as the Sabah Chief Minister in 1985 when the newly-formed PBS caused a political shock in Malaysian politics  in sweeping Parti Berjaya out of power in 1985 and his overthrow as Sabah Chief Minister after a decade, precisely because of the success of the Project IC and various fraudulent and unlawful schemes to confer citizenship and  right to vote to illegal immigrants, many of whom just recently arrived from their foreign lands.

If there is anyone in Sabah and Malaysia who has the most experience with the nightmare of illegal immigrants in Sabah, associating both his political rise and fall because of this one issue, it is Joseph Pairin Kitingan himself – and I do not think there is any politician in Sabah and Malaysia who had signed and sent more memorandum, representation and reports on solutions to  the problem of illegal immigrants  to the Federal Government in the past four decades.

This was why I was utterly shocked when I read in the press about the speech by Joseph Pairin at the Tawau Parliamentary Chinese New Year celebrations on March 1 that the RCI Working Committee of which he is Chairman welcomes proposals from individuals, NGOs and political parties on how to resolve the illegal immigrants issue in Sabah.

What proposals does Joseph Pairin want with regard to the  solution to Sabah’s illegal immigrants nightmare which he had not himself proposed  over four decades of active political leadership which included 30 years as PBS President, second Huguan Siou or Paramount Leader of the KDM community, ten years as Sabah Chief Minister and the last eight years as Deputy Chief Minister and now Chairman of the RCI Working Committee for three months, in which capacities  he had dealt with all the proposed solutions to end once for all the Illegal Immigrant nightmare in Sabah.

It must be very humiliating that it was reported yesterday that his parliamentary constituency of Keningau had the most number of foreigners possessing fake MyKads.

The problem is not  the lack of solutions but the lack of  political will to enforce the laws in the land and to eradicate the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah once and for all.

The people of Sabah and Malaysia want Joseph Pairin to do one final service  – to use his position as RCI Working Committee and Deputy Chief Minister to ensured that the authorities have the political will to resolve once for all the 45-year illegal immigrants nightmare in Sabah.

Otherwise, the RCIIIS and his appointment as RCI Working Committee Chairman are only the latest sleight-of-hand and  trickeries of those in authority, whether in Putrjaya or Kota Kinabalu,  to delude Sabahans into thinking that the problem of illegal immigrants is being resolved, when nothing of the sort is being done as in the past four decades and more.

The Monday forum in Kuala Lumpur on the RCIIIS Report will be an occasion for Joseph Pairin, either personally or through his representative, to present his blueprint to end the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah.

The other panellsits of the Forum, entitled “How many are REAL Sabahans – Report on the RCI Report on Illegal Immigrants in Sabah” are:

1.	Dr. Chong Eng Leong – the one-man authority on the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah;

2.	Peter Saili , former Political Secretary to the Ministries of Finance, Agriculture and  Communications;

3.	Lim Kit Siang, DAP Parliamentary Leader; and

4.	Rafizi Ramli – MP for Pandan and PKR Vice Chairman/Secretary-General.

Moderator: Sangeet Kaur Deo.

The forum will be held at Lim Lian Geok Hall, 89-91 Jalan Maharajalela, Kuala Lumpur  on Monday, 16th March 2015 at 8 pm.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 10 March 2015, 1:53 pm and is filed under
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Khalid’s ‘Twitter policing’ gets home minister okay

BY EILEEN NG

The Malaysian Insider

11 March 2015

The Twitter habits of Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar got an endorsement from the home minister, who said today using the social media platform to make announcements did not break any laws.

Instead, it was aimed at keeping the public informed on the police’s actions and was not politically motivated or out to scare anyone, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.

Police have always acted professionally, maintained law and public order, and set out to detect and eradicate crime without fear or favour, he said today.

“As such, PDRM uses Twitter to inform the public on actions taken on matters which can cause worry among the public, and the successes achieved by PDRM,” he said, using the Malay acronym for the Royal Malaysian Police Force.

“Such announcements do not contravene current laws and regulations and it is quick and easy to spread to the public,” Ahmad Zahid told Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Gelang Patah) in a written reply.

The minister said police took a serious view of those who used the micro-blogging site to influence and incite people, and called this a threat to national security.

Last month, Khalid said it was “appalling” that critics were firing the police for using Twitter.

“To accuse the Malaysian police of using Twitter to intimidate critics is most inappropriate and to charge that we use the medium as an extension of the arm of archaic and draconian laws is uncalled for,” he had said in a statement.

Critics, including opposition politicians and lawyers, have accused Khalid of using his Twitter account to intimidate dissenting voices  by issuing warnings “on a whim” about what and who could or could not be published.

Khalid’s use of Twitter to warn Putrajaya’s critics had also attracted the attention of US daily The New York Times, which accused Putrajaya of using draconian and archaic laws to sideline and intimidate its critics for decades.

It added that the latest cases came with a modern twist with Khalid using his Twitter account to issue warnings and to order his subordinates to track and investigate dissenters.

Lawyers for Liberty executive director Eric Paulsen had previously expressed concerns with Khalid’s self-appointed role as the “Twitter police”.

He added that it was shocking the “Twitter policing” was often done at the behest of pro-Umno cybertroopers and trolls, who would identify tweets that were critical of the government and tag the IGP, urging him to take action.

“Needless to say, it is unbecoming for the IGP to be seemingly taking instructions from pro-Umno cybertroopers and trolls when he should be neutral when dealing with them whose work is obviously politically motivated and done in bad faith,” Paulsen said.

In January, Paulsen was arrested by the police for allegedly accusing the Department of Islamic Development (Jakim) on Twitter of spreading extremism through Friday sermons.

Paulsen tweeted on January 9: “Jakim is promoting extremism every Friday. Govt needs to address that if serious about extremism in Malaysia.”

Khalid, who uses the handle @KBAB51, warned of action against the activist. Paulsen was later picked up and charged last Thursday with sedition.

Khalid also announced that several Pakatan Rakyat leaders and others who criticised the government and judiciary over Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s conviction would be investigated for sedition.

Among them are PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli and DAP’s Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming. – March 11, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 March 2015, 12:08 pm and is filed under
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Removal of Free Anwar petition an error, says US embassy

The Malaysian Insider

11 March 2015

The White House made a mistake when it removed a petition posted on its website urging the Obama administration to free jailed opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, said the United States Embassy in Malaysia.

It said today that the White House standard fraud checks indicated a high number of anomalous signatures on a petition related to Anwar’s imprisonment, but because of the multiple petitions on the issue, it had mistakenly taken down the free Anwar petition.

“There were multiple petitions related to this issue, and after follow-up assessment, The White House determined that the petition it removed was not the one that contained fraudulent signatures,” the US embassy posted on its Facebook page.

“To account for the error, the White House has since re-enabled the petition titled ‘Make the Release of Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim from Prison a Top Priority for US Policy Toward Malaysia’, and is extending the deadline to account for the time lost while the petition was disabled. No signatures were removed.”

It said the White House later determined that the fraudulent signatures existed in the petition ‘Respecting the Sovereign Nation of Malaysia’, and had temporarily disabled it from the website.

“Respecting the Sovereign Nation of Malaysia” is a counter-petition that states Malaysians are “outraged” by the White House’s statement expressing its disappointment with Anwar’s sodomy conviction. The petition urges the US to “stop interfering in Malaysia’s judiciary and rule of law”.

“On March 9, White House standard fraud checks indicated a high number of anomalous signatures on the petition titled ‘Respecting the Sovereign Nation of Malaysia’,” wrote the US embassy.

“After a follow-up evaluation, the White House has disabled the petition while it removes a number of signatures that violated the We the People Terms of Participation.”

It said once the invalid signatures are removed, the White House will re-enable the petition, extending the deadline to account for the time lost while the petition was disabled.

The counter-petition has since been restored to the website this morning, but with only 12,070 signatures.

“The White House regularly evaluates a variety of factors for indications of potential fraud, but to ensure it never removes valid signatures, it investigates thoroughly to identify the clear-cut cases of fraud, which takes time,” said the US embassy.

“The White House will continue to evaluate signatures on all petitions for fraudulent activity.”

The Free Anwar petition has received 108,291 signatures at the time of writing.

For the petition, which was submitted to the White House on February 10, to be successful and receive a response from President Barack Obama’s administration, it has to reach 100,000 signatures by tomorrow.

The petition was started by former US ambassador to Malaysia John R. Malott, who submitted it to the site soon after the Federal Court on February 10 found Anwar guilty of sodomy and sentenced him to five years in prison. – March 11, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 March 2015, 11:54 am and is filed under
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The Najib administration has become a hydra-headed government with Ministers  and heads of departments giving  different stands on a whole variety of issues

The Najib administration has become a hydra-headed government with Ministers and heads of government giving different stands on a whole variety of issues.

The present meeting of Parliament is providing multiple examples of a hydra-headed government.

For instance, the Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi in a written answer to the DAP MP for Kulai, Teo Nie Ching, said police have completed investigations on incendiary statements by Umno leaders, the Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob and the former Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr Mashitah Ibrahim and are waiting for further instructions from the Attorney-General.

A total of 32 police reports were lodged against Ismail over his call for Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses as a way to force down the prices of goods while ten police reports were lodged against Mashitah, who had said that Chinese people had burned the Quran in a religious rite in Kuala Kedah, which was a downright lie as it never happened.

But while the Home Minister said that the Police are waiting for instructions from the Attorney-General, another Minister, the  Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, cleared Ismail Sabri of any offence or any crime!

In a written reply to the DAP MP for Taiping, Nga Kor Ming, Shahidan defended Ismail’s statement  claiming that Ismail’s call was “directed to all races and not certain races” – which flies in the face of Ismail’s original statement, which was a very explicit, clear-cut and unmistakable statement calling on Malay consumers to boycott Chinese businesses.

If the Prime Minister’s Department is defending and exonerating Ismail’s racist statement, why is the Home Minister indulging in the rigmarole in  Parliament with his written answer  that the Police are waiting for instructions from the Attorney-General?

This is not the only example from yesterday’s Parliament that the Najib administration has become a hydra-headed government.

In a written reply to my question, Zahid endorsed the twitter-happy Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar  who used the social media platform to make announcements of police actions and investigations.

Zahid said Khalid’s twitter habits were aimed at keeping the public informed on the police actions and were not politically motivated or out to scare anyone.

Can Zahid cite a single instance where Khalid had tweeted about police action against UMNO/Barisan Nasional leaders whether Ismail Sabri, Mashitah Ibrahim or even Zahid himself?

If Zahid is unable to cite a single instance, and all Khalid’s tweets were directed at Pakatan  Rakyat leaders and NGO activists, this is irrefutable proof of the IGP playing with twitter to harass and intimidate PR leaders and NGO activists as part of a  politically-motivated campaign.

Khalid was clearly abusing his powers by using his tweets to announce police action against PR leaders and NGO activists, as he was  in the process, as good as passing judgment that the PR leaders and NGOs activists had committed offences even before any police investigation had been commenced and the case referred to the Attorney-General for instructions.

Even if the Attorney-General decides on prosecution, an accused is still innocent until proven guilty, but the IGP had already jumped the gun, not once but thrice, in deeming a person guilty of crime firstly, before police investigations commenced; secondly, before the  Attorney-General’s instruction to prosecute, and thirdly, before the court’s conviction (subject to appeal process) had been delivered!

Is this how a conscientious and responsible  Inspector-General of Police in a country which really respects and upholds the rule of law and a just administration of justice should behave himself?

For such grave transgressions, the Home Minister should have  called up the Inspector-General to put him on a correction course.

But how is Zahid to try to discipline Khalid when Zahid had himself been guilty of gross indiscipline and offence, even in breach of the Official Secrets Act,  of writing the infamous letter to Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) vouching for the integrity of an alleged Malaysian gambling kingpin Paul Phua standing trial in Las Vegas, Nevada in direct contradiction to the police’s earlier communication with FBI?

The Home Minister and the IGP seemed to be trapped in a “Catch 22” situation where neither one can impose authority or correct the other, as each is aware of the other’s vulnerability!

The has resulted in the most ludicrous ministerial reply when the DAP MP for Segambut, Lim Lip Eng was told by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Shahidan Kassim that  information relating to Paul Phua is a “huge secret” classified under the Official Secrets Act and that the government has no plans to reveal it.

In the first place, how does Shahidan know that any information relating to the international gambling kingpin Paul Phua is a “huge secret” under the OSA?

If so, why is Zahid allowed to violate the “huge secret” in his infamous letter to the FBI, without authority, sanction or knowledge from the Police, the Foreign Ministry, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister?

Furthermore what are the criteria for classifying a secret as a “huge secret” under the OSA?

Is the information on Paul Phua more of a “huge secret” than all the other information under the OSA, including respectable characters like members of Cabinet, Parliament and the civil service?

Silence by Shahidan or even the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on this issue of the “huge secret” under the OSA can only undermine public confidence in the credibility and integrity of the Federal Government.

The Najib administration has been make a fool of itself with the hydra-headed replies in Parliament.

For instance, when  the Foreign Minister, Datuk Anifa Aman  in a written reply to DAP MP for Batu Kawan, Kasthuri Patto defended the appointment of Datuk Shafee Abdullah as Malaysia’s representative at the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission of Human Rights (AICHR), he said Shafee has an “institutional memory” on human rights.

Is Shafee’s “institutional memory” on the suppression and repression of human rights or on  the promotion and protection of human rights?

It is indeed sad that Shafee, who had not distinguished himself as a human rights champion in Malaysia, is touted for his “institutional memory” to justify his qualification to represent Malaysia on AICHR!

If all the human rights NGOs in Malaysia disagree that Shafee has the “institutional memory” to protect and promote human rights, will the Malaysian Government replace Shafee on AICHR?

But the answer which must take the cake for being most hilarious  is the answer by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Nancy Shukri to DAP MP for Bakri Er Teck Hwa that Shafee is being paid only RM1,000 for his services as the prosecutor by fiat in the Anwar Ibrahim Sodomy II case at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court stages.

The RM1,000-answer has raised eye-brows throughout the country and not just the legal and judicial community as there are those who believe that going by Shafee’s rates, his services as prosecutor by fiat at the Court of Appeal and Federal Court would have been in the million-ringgit bracket.

The hydra-headed character of the Najib premiership is also illustrated by the many scandals in the country – with the Cabinet Ministers  clearly not on the same page on the scandal of Zahid’s infamous letter to FBI vouching for the character of the international gambling kingpin Paul Phua.

This is also the case of  the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history, the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.

In fact, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister are clearly at loggerheads over the 1MDB scandal, although Muhyiddin Yassin is subsequently trying to paper over the cracks after his repudiation of Najib’s PMO Communications Unit statement after the Cabinet meeting last Wednesday.

How long will Najib’s hydra-headed government last?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 11 March 2015, 5:56 pm and is filed under
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Something is really “rotten in the state of Denmark” when the twitter-happy IGP can chop and change on an important issue on police investigations into the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal

On February 10, former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad quoted Shakespeare’s Hamlet on “something is rotten in the state of Denmark”, and this sense of “rottenness” in Malaysia is increasingly exacerbated with passing weeks and days.

When the twitter-happy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar can chop and change on an important issue on police investigations into the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal, something is really rotten in the “state of Denmark” in Malaysia.

 On Monday, 9th March, the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar caused quite a media sensation when he announced a high-powered three-agency special task force to investigate the biggest financial scandal in the nation’s history, the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal comprising the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

But Khalid, who said the task force would even investigate the Prime Minister, was contradicted by the MACC Chief Commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamed who said on the same day that the MACC would wait for the Auditor-General’s report on 1MDB before starting its own probe.

The MACC Chief Commissioner seemed to be unaware of  the three-agency task force on 1MDB which Khalid said was formed the previous week.

The IGP and the MACC should clarify whether there is such a three-agency special task force on the 1MDB or whether it only existed in the imagination of the IGP.

But strangest of all, the very next day, Tuesday, 10th March, Khalid backtracked and announced that the special task force would only start their investigations into the 1MDB after the Auditor-General had completed his scrutiny and uncovered discrepancies and wrongdoings.

What happened to Khalid’s bravado the previous day about even investigating the Prime Minister, as he had declared:  “Every report lodged, we will open investigation. When there is an offence committed, we will proceed with an investigation.”

Khalid must have established a world record for police chiefs with his “bravado” down the drain in less than 24 hours!

Surely Khalid knew on Monday that the Prime Minister had informed the Cabinet last  Wednesday that he had instructed the Auditor-General to audit the 1MDB accounts.

Can Khalid enlighten the Malaysian public the reason for his back-tracking within 24 hours?

This is not the only sign of the worsening rottenness of governance in Malaysia.

Another illustration will be the “bail-out or no bail-out for 1MDB” drama, with Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin courageously declaring last Friday that there should be no bail-out of 1MDB, which is contradicted by Second Finance Minister Husni Hanadzlah who admitted in Parliament that the government has set aside RM950 million “standby credit” for 1MDB.

I agree with the PKR Secretary-General and MP for Pandan, Rafizi Ramli that the “standby credit” is just another name for bailout.

For this reason, I also agree with veteran newsman Kadir Jasin that Muhyiddin “must stick to his guns, or he would be seen as not being credible”.

The rottenness in Malaysia reached a new level when the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Abdul Zahid Hamidi could say that there was a  stack of support letters which had been written by other Ministers to justify his infamous letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to vouch for the integrity of the international gambling kingpin :Paul Phua standing trial in Las Vegas.

What we have are not only a stack of infamous Ministerial support letters, but mansions full of Ministerial skeletons!

In a written reply in Parliament,  the DAP MP for Segambut, Lim Lip Eng was told by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Shahidan Kassim that  information relating to Paul Phua is a “huge secret” classified under the Official Secrets Act and that the government has no plans to reveal it.

In the first place, how does Shahidan know that any information relating to the international gambling kingpin Paul Phua is a “huge secret” under the OSA?

If so, why was Zahid allowed to violate the “huge secret” in his infamous letter to the FBI, without authority, sanction or knowledge from the Police, the Foreign Ministry, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister?

Furthermore what are the criteria for classifying a secret as a “huge secret” under the OSA?

Is the information on Paul Phua more of a “huge secret” than all the other information under the OSA, like the stack of Ministerial support letters which Zahid has promised to “tell all” in Parliament?

Silence by Shahidan or even the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on this issue of the Zahid-Phua “huge secret” under the OSA and the other “huge secrets” of other Ministers can only undermine public confidence in the credibility and integrity of the Federal Government.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 March 2015, 5:57 pm and is filed under
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Yet again, Malaysian varsities not among world’s top

BY ANISAH SHUKRY

The Malaysian Insider

12 March 2015

Malaysian universities have once again failed to make the cut in the latest Times Higher Education (THE) World Reputation Rankings 2015, with too few scholars citing the country’s tertiary institutions as being among the best in the world.

The list of the world’s 100 most prestigious universities released today includes two Singapore varsities, and is based on the largest survey of leading academics across the world, said THE rankings editor, Phil Baty.

“As long as academics cite them as being among the very best universities in the world, they will appear in the rankings,” Baty told The Malaysian Insider in an email.

“Unfortunately, not enough scholars around the world named any Malaysian university in sufficient numbers for them to make the top 100. Singapore had two top entries – NUS (National University of Singapore) in 24th place and NTU (Nanyang Technological University) in the 91-100 band.”

Malaysia has never been featured on the list, which is in its fifth year, despite Education Minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh’s recent statement that the country’s universities are world class and on par with varsities in Britain, Germany and Australia.

But unlike Malaysia, those three countries were singled out by THE as having among the highest number of institutions in the World Reputation Rankings 2015.

The US had the most number of institutions at 43, followed by the United Kingdom (12), Germany (six) and Australia (five).

Harvard University tops the list again in this year’s ranking, followed by Cambridge University and Oxford University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology dropped to fourth place from second place last year, and Stanford University edged to number five.

NUS and NTU are the only Southeast Asian institutes that have made the list, but NUS dropped from 21st place to 24, while NTU remained in the 91-100 band.

Other Asian universities in the top 50 of the World Reputation Rankings are the University of Tokyo (at 12th place), Tsinghua University, China (26), Kyoto University, Japan (27), and Peking University, China (32).

“This ranking is very simple and very powerful. It is based purely on subjective judgment. But it is the expert subjective judgment of those who know most about excellent teaching and research – leading academics from all around the world. And their opinion matters deeply,” said Baty (pic, left) in a press release.

“A university’s global academic reputation is vital – it not only influences investments and funding decisions, but more importantly, it helps a university to develop and nurture its single greatest asset: its student and academic talent.”

The 2015 results were drawn from 10,507 survey responses from published senior academics who reported an average of 15 years working in higher education, said THE.

In his reaction, DAP MP for Serdang, Dr Ong Kian Ming said he was not surprised that Malaysia failed to make the cut.

“I think this is a good reminder to our Education Minister II, Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh that our Malaysian universities are still nowhere near world-class status, despite his recent comments that Malaysia has a world-class education system,” said Ong.

“Datuk Seri Idris conveniently refers to the QS University Rankings where Malaysia has universities in top 300, but in other rankings like THE, it seems that Malaysia is not even recognised.

“I think that Idris should focus on further improving the gains that have been already made by public universities, but he must also admit that we are nowhere near world class status.”

In the QS World University Rankings released last year, Universiti Malaya (UM) was at number 151 while Universiti Kebangsaan Malaya (UKM) was ranked 259th.

The ranking also put Universiti Teknology Malaysia (UTM) at number 294, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) at 309 and Universiti Putra Malaysia at 376.

Last year, Baty expressed disappointment that UM and UKM did not submit data for another of its rankings: the annual World University Rankings 2014-2015, effectively missing out on the opportunity to be assessed against other universities in the world.

The full list of the 2015 Times Higher Education World Reputation survey can be viewed here. – March 12, 2015.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 12 March 2015, 8:41 am and is filed under
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