The Private and Public Dimension of our Dismissal

Dr. Azly Rahman

Dr. Mutiara Mohamad

Since we highlighted our plight to the media we have stated that we were dismissed by Universiti Utara Malaysia on two counts; being denied a non-paid leave upon the completion of our studies and refusing to sign the Surat Akujanji. The application for a non-paid leave is a “private” matter explained clearly to the university and the Surat Akujanji issue is a “public” matter of interest. Let us make the two clearer so that the issue of “being ungrateful and not wanting to serve the country” will not arise.

We believe that the public is not interested in reading the following legitimate and personal reasons behind our requests for extensions for our study and then for a non-paid leave till September 2006 upon the completion of our studies. In no particular order of importance, among the reasons are:

– having to endure extreme financial, and economic hardship as a direct aftermath of the Asian Financial crisis of 1997 that happened at the beginning of our studies, in which we were suddenly living below the American poverty line with the loss of 75% of our finances and had to take up   minimum-wage jobs while attending graduate school and supporting our family,

– having a loved one with a terminal illness that consequently resulted in death,

– Dr. Mutiara Mohamad experiencing years of debilitating medical condition in which it has recently culminated in a major surgery,

– undergoing numerous hospital and specialist’s visits when one of our children underwent the diagnosis of the causes of his unilateral loss of hearing,

– undergoing the long process of rigorous requirement of Columbia University doctoral candidacy (90 graduate credits and two comprehensive exams plus a dissertation),

– having to go through the long and arduous process of preparing a Columbia University dissertation report,

– needing several changes of dissertation advisors, and having to coordinate for the  availability of the full dissertation committee for the final defense,

– experiencing the emotional trauma from the September 11, 2001 attacks on The Twin Towers which happened literally in our backyard,

–  enduring the discontinuation of scholarship and all forms of financial aid from UUM towards the end of our studies, and a host of other hardships we finally overcame and persevered even when all means of economic resources have dried out.

In the course of pursuing studies such as a doctoral degree, one had to sometimes battle circumstances beyond one’s control. We are sure UUM have had the experience of dealing with its faculty members caught in similar circumstances. Only perseverance and strength of will will decide if one triumphs against all odds.  We were dismissed for not reporting home when we needed extra time to resolve the economic repercussions due to some of the above issues.

Having reluctantly revealed the “private” reasons, we believe the public is more interested in understanding why we were dismissed for refusing to sign the Surat Akujanji and for asking the university what the last two clauses mean. We failed to get satisfactory answers on how our rights will still be protected by agreeing to sign the letter. We had refused to sign the pledge after being repeatedly asked to do so.

The public is interested in knowing that one can actually be dismissed and lose everything by taking a stand against the letter of the Oath of Loyalty, although one is already confirmed in the job and although the Surat Akujanji was a later addition to existing rules/circular already in place.

The media has picked up the latter as it is a more important issue to the academic community, the students, and the civil servants. It reflects how repressive the oath can be and shows the consequence of not abiding to the pledge.

Despite being terminated, in the Summer (August) of 2006, through the help of the Office of The Ministry of Higher Education, we suggested to UUM how we can resolve this issue by serving the university in a non-traditional way ( e.g. by doing collaborative projects with the institutions we are affiliated with in the United States with UUM, dissertation advisement, lectures, etc.) but our proposal was rejected with no explanation given.  This decision is not in-line with our government’s “Brain Gain” policy.

Had we been given the much-needed non-paid leave, we would by now have already gone back to serve the university. Had we been given the explanation and guarantees that the Surat Akujanji will not criminalize and victimize us as academics with a voice and a stand to make, we would have signed it. Better still, had the letter not existed, the universities will not be seeing a petition sent to the Prime Minister and currently circulated to major Malaysian public universities to have it removed.

We must differentiate between the private and the public dimension of the issue. However, our plight is no longer a private matter because there is a public (universal) dimension to it.  We have lost our jobs in Malaysia as a consequence of among others, our refusal to sign the pledge. The amount the university is claiming from us will take us perhaps five lifetimes to settle. We shall leave the complexity of the issue to our lawyers. It is a personal matter the public is perhaps not interested in reading about.

Nevertheless, we hope the public will appreciate our explanation of the private and public dimensions of the issue. Let us now work on removing the repressive oath of loyalty, so that no academician will be fired for refusing to sign it nor any student will be suspended for asking questions in a public forum and so forth.

It is hypocritical that had we signed the Surat Akujanji, we would not even be allowed to seek and engage outside help (legal or otherwise) for any grievances we have, yet the university has all the rights to do so. Again, we reiterate, although already confirmed in our jobs we were still dismissed for refusing to sign a document that was forced onto us in the middle of our career.

In this letter we have decided to explain the “private” reasons for our request for a non-paid leave so that we may clarify any misconceptions surrounding our dismissal. However, let us now focus on how we should resolve the public issue.

——————————————————————————————————-

Letter to UUM Vice-chancellor, August 2006:

‘Dear Yg. Bhg. Dato’ Dr. Nordin Kardi,

Assalamualaikum wbr.

May this email find you, your family, and your organisation in peace and in the best of health.

My name is Azly Abdul-Rahman, a former faculty member of Universiti Utara Malaysia, Sintok dismissed during the tenure of its previous vice chancellor Allahyarham Dato’ Kol. Professor Dr. Ahmad Fawzi Hj. Basri. My wife Dr. Mutiara Mohamad (both graduates of Columbia University, New York) was also dismissed at the same time. I believe you and the UUM teaching community are well aware of the issue surrounding our dismissal; an issue well-documented in alternative news portals and blogs as well as one being brought up in the Malaysian Parliament during the tenure of Dato’ Shafie Saleh, the previous Minister of Higher Education.

I am currently in Malaysia among others, to resolve the issue with Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Yesterday, accompanied by Tan Sri Haji Ani Arope, Chairperson of Universiti Sains Malaysia, I was granted an audience with Dato’ Professor Dr. Hasan Said, Director-General of Malaysian Higher Education. The meeting was arranged by Tan Sri Hj. Ani, (a man I will dearly remember as one who unselfishly helps others to seek justice). I presented my case surrounding the dismissal, especially our disagreement with the last two clauses which were not clearly explained to us. Just by asking for an explanation to these clauses, we were dismissed, punished, and stripped off of our life-long earned retirement benefits.

Dato’ Professor Dr Hasan Said helped resolved the issue in the most amicable manner and offered suggestions that will possibly end this foreseeable long dispute. I read this as a progressive move by the Ministry, under the promising leadership of Dato’ Mustapha Mohamad.

Dato’ Professor Hasan suggested the following:

1. That I meet with you to resolve the issue and to begin discussing avenues for cooperation in the capacity as a Visiting Professor only if Universiti Utara agrees to ‘reinstate us in that capacity’ or,

2. That I contribute in the capacity of Visiting Professor on a ‘rotational basis’ at Malaysian universities that would have programmess/centers/institutes relevant to the area of expertise I can offer.

Dr Mutiara can offer her services in the area of institutional collaboration and student and faculty exchange programmes between UUM and universities in the United States. She is currently the Director of The Programme in Language Culture, and Professional Advancement at one of New Jersey’s foremost private university. I have been involved in the New Jersey public education and have been an adjunct professor in five different departments in various universities in New York and New Jersey.

I was also, during my two-week stay here in Malaysia, been made aware that you are an educational leader who is open enough to work out peaceful solutions to the issue; unlike your predecessor Dato’ Professor Kol. Dr. Ahmad Fawzi (May Allah Bless his Soul).

Dr. Mutiara and I wish to contribute to Universiti Utara Malaysia in the capacity of Visiting Professors to advice students in the doctoral program and to share the valuable experience we have acquired during our stay here in the United Sates; experience as students as well as faculty members of American universities.

Universiti Utara Malaysia remained in our heart as a place to contribute even though Fate has decreed that the previous vice chancellor (may Allah Bless his Soul) would have a difficult time dealing with the differences he has, especially, with me. I believe the thought of signing the Surat Akujanji especially under him was unimaginable; for fear that we will continue to be victimised when we come home to serve in an educational institution that ought to promote freedom of thought and social justice. I now wish to reconstruct the negative perception I have been holding.

In addition, the proposition voiced by Dato’ Professor Hasan Said during the meeting will eliminate the need for Dr. Mutiara and I to go through the legal and political processes which we foresee will be tedious, complex, complicating, and morally and publicly damaging even to UUM as well as to our Ministry of Higher Education.

I believe we will, by Allah’s Grace and by our own design, be able to avoid such a treacherous route and focus our time and energy in educating the bright young minds in our public universities, consistent with the true meaning of education as a ‘gentle profession that develops the human mind and draws out the best in each and every human being’.

But let potentially destructive things pass and progressive ideas come our way under your wisdom and your leadership.

I hope to hear from you concerning a possible meeting time, at the earliest date possible. I will be leaving for the United States on August 19 (two weeks from today) and would like to resolve this matter before that date.’

ENDS.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 10 August 2007, 3:01 pm and is filed under
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7-month Constitutional crisis over Chief Judge Malaya – CJ must bear responsibility for root-cause

The country is faced with a full-blown constitutional crisis over the appointment of the third most important judicial office in the land, the Chief Judge of Malaya, which had been vacant for more than seven months since the retirement of Tan Sri Siti Normah Yaakob on January 5, 2007.

I first raised the issue of the paralysis of the judicial appointment process for the post of the Chief Judge of Malaya  in Parliament during  the Royal Address debate in  March, and DAP MPs Karpal Singh (Bukit Glugor) and  M. Kulasegaran (Ipoh Barat) and I have continued to demand to know  why the country is still without a Chief Judge of Malaya whenever there was an opportunity in Parliament in the past five months but  without getting any satisfactory answer.

Under Article 122B of the Constitution, the Chief Judge of Malaya “shall be appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister, after consulting the Conference of Rulers”.

The appointment of the new Chief Judge of Malaya has not be able to get past the  Conference of Rulers which have  met twice since the retirement of Siti Normah, reflecting the constitutional crisis over the issue.

When the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who did not attend the recent meeting of the Conference of Rulers held at the end of last month as he was on private holidays overseas, was asked about the issue on his return, Abdullah said “he had proposed a candidate and it was now for the Chief Justice to conclude the appointment”.
(NST 29.7.07)

After the Singapore Straits Times reported that the Conference of Rulers at its meeting last month  had rejected the government’s nominee, New Straits Times quoted Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim as saying that the the vacancy for the Chief Judge of Malaya is expected to be filled by August 31 and that the  identity of the nominee was classified under the Official Secrets Act.

Although Ahmad Fairuz has denied that he had said that the appointment would be made by August 31, I understand that this statement by the Chief Justice is recorded on tape.

But the more important issue is why should the Chief Justice invoke the Official Secrets Act to suppress all reports referring to  the official nominee for the post of Chief Judge of Malaya, whom I understand is one of the most junior Federal Court judges  — as if such a nomination cannot withstand public scrutiny.

When he was appointed Chief Justice in March 2003, I said his greatest challenge was “whether he could institute the structural judicial  reforms to fully restore public confidence in the independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary — and one important issue is the system of appointment of judges”, as “Malaysia urgently  needs  a more transparent process of  judicial  appointment to ensure that the justice administered by the judges is  of superior quality because they are professionally qualified,  persons of integrity and   good character, independent and courageous”.

I called at the time, which I subsequently reiterated in Parliament, for addressing the flaws of   the existing unsatisfactory  system, where the judicial appointments are decided by two persons, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice, viz:

	Selection and appointment procedure not transparent;

	Consultative process is secretive; and

	There is a lack of appraisal of the candidates against pre-determined criteria.

If Ahmad Fairuz had undertaken judicial reforms to introduce the principles of accountability, transparency, meritocracy and integrity  for judicial appointments before involving  the Prime Minister and the Conference of Rulers –  which many Commonwealth countries have already carried out in their reforms to modernize their system of justice –  the present constitutional crisis and impasse of seven-month vacancy for the post of Chief Judge of Malaya would have been averted.

Yesterday, Ahmad Fairuz said the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had the
final say
 on the appointment of the Chief Judge of Malaya.

He said the Federal Constitution stipulated that the Prime Minister consulted him (Chief Justice), while the Yang di-Pertuan Agong consulted the Conference of Rulers on the appointment.

He  said the opinion of the King and the Conference of Rulers are not binding on the Prime Minister.

He said: “The ultimate decider is still the Prime Minister because the King acts on the advice of the Prime Minister.”

I agree that legally and constitutionally, the Conference of Rulers has no right to veto the choice of the Prime Minister on the candidate for the Chief Judge of Malaya.

However, the consultation process in the judicial appointments, whether in the case of the Chief Justice by the Prime Minister, or the Conference of Rulers by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, must be a full, proper and  meaningful process and not just a matter of formality with no meaning or purpose whatsoever.

When consulted, the Conference of Rulers is  duty-bound to give full and  weighty consideration to the subjects raised, including bringing up grave  doubts or  reservations or even asking for  reconsideration of the original proposal if there are very good,  valid  and powerful grounds.

Just to give an example.  Recently, Malaysians have been shocked by series of scandals highlighting a deplorable plunge in standards and performance  in all  departments pertaining to  the administration of justice — whether  sloppy investigation, sloppy prosecution and even sloppy judicial conduct.

New Straits Times
 in a front-page report on 23rd  July 2007
“JUDGES FAIL WRITTEN TEST”
 exposed  the numerous horror stories of miscarriage of justice such as   the accused languishing  in prison just because judges did not provide written judgments and referred to one Federal Court judge with “at least 30 outstanding judgments accumulated from his High Court days that include drug trafficking and murder cases”.

Hypothetically, if this particular Federal Court judge is nominated for the office of Chief Judge Malaya, the Conference of Rulers  would not only be duty-bound but would have very strong  and powerful grounds to raise objections and ask for the reasons for proposing such a nominee and even to ask for a reconsideration by the Prime Minister if the “consultation” process stipulated by Article 122B of the Constitution is to be meaningful at all.

The Prime Minister should inform Parliament by  way of a Ministerial statement when it reconvenes on August 27 the background and reasons for the constitutional impasse with the Conference of Rulers over the appointmernt of the Chief Judge of Malaya and how he proposes to resolve it, fully in line with the principles of accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 11 August 2007, 2:32 pm and is filed under
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PM’s “No more logging licences” does not sound categorical and absolute – more like a “No…but”

The Star
 headline is categorical and unequivocal —
“PM: No more logging licences — ‘Important to maintain current forest'”
.

But close reading of the speech by Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as reported does not convey a categorical and absolute “No” but more of a “No… but”, allowing for exceptions and exemptions in special circumstances.

This is the Star report:

SANDAKAN: No more logging licences will be given out as far as the Prime Minister is concerned.

“I will turn down anyone who comes to me asking for logging licences. If I want to make them happy, I will tell them to ask Musa (Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman), knowing that he will say no too,” said Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Cautioning forest custodians to not simply give out logging licences when opening the RM9.2mil Rainforest Discovery centre about 30km from here, Abdullah said he would not entertain people requesting for logging licences from the states.

He said it was important to maintain the current natural forests as they were important to the eco-system.

I do not think any remark by Abdullah has raised more questions. For instance:

Why “No more logging licences… .as far as the Prime Minister is concerned”? Does this mean that so long as the Prime Minister is not aware, it is ok for logging licences in Sabah to continue to be issued?

Is Abdullah’s “No more logging licences” declaration  for Sabah only or for all states, whether Sarawak or the Peninsular Malaysia states under Barisan Nasional control — and how could this decree be carried out when it is based on Abdullah’s off-the-cuff speech?  Or is it just going to be good media copy to be instantly forgotten or ignored by the various state governments concerned?

Abdullah’s next remark is even more baffling.

He said: “”I will turn down anyone who comes to me asking for logging licences. If I want to make them happy, I will tell them to ask Musa (Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman), knowing that he will say no too.”

Firstly, why not be honest and God-fearing and just tell the truth to all  future supplicants that there is a total ban on the issue of logging licences in Sabah for conservation purposes?  Why sent them off to the Sabah Chief Minister to “make them happy”?

Furthermore, how does he know that the Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman agrees with a total ban on issue of logging licence in Sabah? If so, why is this ban on  new logging licences in Sabah not  announced formally as Sabah state government policy?

Abdullah’s remarks have other implications as well — that in the past, he had acceded to requests for logging licences in Sabah and other states and that the Sabah Chief Minister and other heads of state governments concerned had been instructed to comply with these requests — hence his statement that henceforth “he would not entertain people requesting for logging licences from the states”.

This of course shows the power of patronage of the Prime Minister  who is Umno President, for strictly speaking, the Prime Minister has no business to interfere in  state matters like  the issue of logging licences.

But is  this in line with the National Integrity Plan and good governance which Abdullah had preached on becoming Prime Minister?

Furthermore, in keeping  with the principles of accountability, transparency and integrity, will  Abdullah announce publicly the full list of the state logging licences which he had been instrumental in securing for various supplicants from Sabah and the other state governments since becoming Prime Minister?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 11 August 2007, 3:26 pm and is filed under
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Constitutional crisis (2) – PM’s assurance that CJM nominee not the Federal Court judge with over 30 outstanding judgments from High Court days?

In the modern democratic era of accountability, transparency, integrity  and good governance, the Malaysian public are entitled to information as to the causes of the constitutional crisis and impasse resulting from  the deadlock between the Prime Minister and  the Conference of Rulers over the filling of the  seven-month vacancy of the Chief Judge of Malaya.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should not only provide Malaysians and in particular Members of Parliament this vital information, but also clarify and assure the nation that his nominee for the Chief Judge of Malaya  and the subject of the constitutional crisis with the Conference of Rulers is not the Federal Court judge who have  a backlog of at least 30 outstanding judgments accumulated from his High Court days which have yet to be written and delivered.

When Abdullah launched the National Integrity Plan (NIP)  in May 2004, he said that “the integrity movement is comprehensive covering all levels or sectors of the government and society”.

There is also a section in the five-year plan,  NIP Target 2008, on the enhancement of the administration of justice by the judicial bodies and institutions — a new national commitment on  judicial accountability, transparency and integrity.  The time has come to walk this talk.

Although the Chief Justice, Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim is on public record as saying that judges with a backlog of written grounds of judgment would not be considered for promotion and there is a court  directive that judges should complete writing their grounds within eight weeks of a trial if there is a notice for an appeal, it is most shocking that the newspaper report last month that there is a Federal Court judge who has “at least 30 outstanding judgments accumulated from his High Court days that include dadah trafficking and murder cases”
(New Straits Times 23.7.07)
 had not elicited any denial, clarification  or  response from the Chief Justice.

This  begs the question how the judge concerned could be promoted from High Court to the Federal Court and the criteria  used for judicial promotions when he has such a huge backlog of outstanding judgments from his High Court days,  causing grave miscarriages of justice.

The constitutional crisis and impasse resulting from the inability of the Prime Minister’s nominee for the post of Chief Judge of Malaya to get past two meetings of the Conference of Rulers since the retirement of Tan Sri Siti Normah Yaakob on January 5, 2007 is not just a private matter between the Executive and the Conference of Rulers but is also a matter of grave public importance for which Malaysians are entitled to the pertinent  information.

The New Straits Times report of 23.7.07 referred to above is as follows:

Just write it, judges

23/07/2007

New Straits Times

KUALA LUMPUR: Justice is sometimes not done in Malaysian courts even after judgment has been passed.

  There are numerous horror stories of how the accused languished in prison just because judges did not provide written judgments.

  In one case, a man withdrew an appeal against 12 years’ imprisonment and 10 strokes of the rotan on a dadah trafficking charge as his jail term had come to an end while waiting for the appeal to be heard.

  The delay in hearing the appeal had been due to the judge not submitting a written judgment.

  The worst cut of all was that the accused took all the strokes of the rotan at once before leaving jail – knowing that his sentence may have been reduced or overturned on appeal.

  In another case in 1984, an accused charged with trafficking dadah was found guilty in 1988.

  When his case went on appeal to the Supreme Court in December 1993 – a good five years later – the bench substituted the death sentence with 20 years’ imprisonment.

  The judges had felt that the long delay in handing down the written judgment had prejudiced the accused.

  If one thought that these were the worst case scenarios, there’s more.

  A Federal Court judge has at least 30 outstanding judgments accumulated from his High Court days that include dadah trafficking and murder cases.

  How he is going to come up with the written judgments is anyone’s guess, especially as he will also have to provide judgments on cases before the Federal Court.

  This glaring weakness in the judicial system has irked the legal fraternity to the extent that calls are being made to only appoint judicial officers who can deliver written grounds on time.

  One lawyer even suggested that judges who had been issued warnings not to delay written judgments should be hauled up before a tribunal to answer for their recalcitrance.

  The Bar Council says the only solution to this vexing problem is the setting up of an independent judicial commission to appoint and promote judges.

  Its vice-president, Ragunath Kesavan, said the problem could have been arrested early if candidates had been properly vetted before being appointed judicial commissioners.

  “This is why we have been canvassing hard for the need to set up an independent judicial commission to appoint and promote judges,” he said.

  Ragunath said written judgments were critical in the dispensing of justice.

  The council will be sending out a circular soon to get feedback from members on cases where judgments had not been provided.

  This will be forwarded to the chief justice for action to be taken so that judges will put their judgments in writing.

  “We hope that he will also reveal the number of outstanding judgments,” he added.

  Lawyer Karpal Singh said existing procedures on delivering decisions and judgments were indefinite with many judges reserving decisions after a trial.

  “At the next date, they are still unable to deliver (decisions),” he said, adding that he had at least five cases that could not be appealed as judgments were not ready.

  He said some gave decisions without stating reasons.

  Karpal said judges who accumulated judgments simply gave up after some time as they could not recollect the facts of the case.

  “One has to look into the demeanour of the witnesses to better appreciate the facts of the case.

  “This would have been fresh in their mind if judgments were written soon after the trial.”

  Lawyer Gurbachan Singh said prisoners facing capital punishment would be under even greater pressure if their appeals could not be heard because of delayed written judgments.

  He said family members were also left emotionally drained due to the uncertainty.

  Relatives of the accused were sometimes not convinced when told that the appeal process had stalled because the trial judge had not provided grounds for his judgment.

  Gurbachan has two cases where judges passed the death penalty without written judgments.

  “And yet, the two judges who heard the cases, have been promoted to the Court of Appeal,” he said.

  Kuala Lumpur Bar Criminal Practice Committee chairman N. Sivananthan said some judges were causing grave injustice to convicts and to the Attorney-General’s Chambers.

  “One must remember justice is not only for the convicted person but also for the state,” he said.

  He said failure to write or delay judgments for appeal purposes was tantamount to a denial of justice.

  “Whether a judge is brilliant is a secondary point. The primary consideration is that he must provide a judgment for the aggrieved party to enable them to appeal or else the administration of justice is jammed.”

  He said the accused has the right to finality in his or her case and a chance to exhaust all channels of appeal.

  “A person charged with a criminal offence wants his name cleared soon while a party in a civil proceeding wants to enjoy the fruits of the litigation.”

  He said every judge had an important role in taking legal disputes to their natural conclusion.

What happens when judgments are delayed

  A CASE of justice delayed, justice denied? Examples of what happens when written judgments are not provided.

Case No 1:

  A man was convicted of dadah trafficking in the late 1980s and sentenced to death but the trial judge took a long time in providing the written judgment.

  Lawyer Karpal Singh, who appeared for the man, argued before the Supreme Court that the delay had led to manifest injustice.

  The late Tan Sri Hashim Yeop Sani, who led the bench, substituted the death penalty with life imprisonment of 20 years. The accused was freed because of the long remand period and later stay on death row.

 Case No 2:

  Two years ago, former national athletics coach C. Ramanathan won an appeal to clear his name on two molest charges.

  One of the grounds cited was the delay of close to five years for the Sessions Court judge to provide a written judgment.

  He had been charged in October 1994 on two counts of outraging the modesty of two underage girls in 1992 and convicted on Nov 8, 1996. But the grounds of judgment were only made available on Oct 26, 2001.

 Case No 3:

  A desperate housewife wrote to Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim seeking his help to expedite her husband’s appeal over his conviction on a kidnapping charge.

  The High Court in Shah Alam found the husband guilty of the offence on May 16, 2005. She wrote to the top judge in August last year and sent another letter in January this year.

  As a result, the Court of Appeal Registrar sent a letter to the Shah Alam High Court Deputy Registrar in February to prepare the record of appeals, which included the judgment. But there was no reply.

  Counsel Gurbachan Singh, who appeared for the man, sent another letter last week enquiring if the judgment was ready.

  Meanwhile, the judge who heard the case has been promoted. It may now be up to the Chief Justice to decide on the next course of action.

Case No 4:

  In 2000, the High Court in Penang found a man guilty of dadah trafficking and sentenced him to 12 years’ jail and 10 strokes of the rotan.

  An appeal could not be heard as the judge did not make the judgment available.

  The long stay in prison soon came to an end after the deduction of one-third of the sentence on remission.

  His counsel, R.S.N. Rayer, advised his client, who wanted badly to be a free man, to withdraw the appeal. The man took the 10 strokes at one go before his release in 2002.

Backlog will hinder promotion

  CHIEF Justice of the Federal Court Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said on Wednesday that judges with a backlog of written grounds of judgment would not be considered for promotion.

  The top judge said this was one of the factors taken into account before judges were elevated.

  There is a circular that states that judges should complete writing their grounds within eight weeks of a trial if there is a notice for an appeal.

                              (END)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 August 2007, 2:05 pm and is filed under
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Malaysia omitted fifth year in succession – Shanghai Jiao Tong U’s World Top 500 Universities Ranking 2007

Malaysia has been left out of the World’s Top 500 Universities ranking for the fifth year in succession in the

“Academic Ranking of World Universities ARWU 2007”
 just released by the  Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Singapore has two, Australia  17 and New Zealand five universities in the latest world university ranking, which is dominated by US universities with Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley and Cambridge occupying the top four places.

It would have been good news for Malaysia’s 50th Merdeka anniversary to demonstrate the success of  the country’s universities to get out of the rut of mediocrity and return to  the path of excellence and quality if Malaysia had managed to get listed among  the World Top 500 Universities in the ARWU 2007 — but it is clear that all the talk of higher education reform has not borne fruit with the lack of political will to  give top priority to meritocracy and academic excellence to scale  the ranks of world-class universities.

The Higher Education Minister, Datuk Mustapha Mohamad should explain why no Malaysian university has been able to get ranked in the ARWU in the past five years and when he expects Malaysian universities to achieve such international recognition.

The statistics by country for the World Top 500 universities in  the ARWU 2007 are:

USA	         166

UK	 	42

Germany	41

Japan 	32

China		25

Canada	22

France	22

Italy 		20

Australia        17

Netherlands	12

Sweden	11

Spain	             9

South Korea	  8

Switzerland     8

Belgium	  7

Austria             7

Israel		  7

Finland            5

Brazil               5

New Zealand   5

South Africa    4

Ireland             3

Singapore        2

Greece             2

Hungary           2

Poland             2

India                 2

Chile                2

Portugal           2

Argentina         1

Slovenia           1

Turkey              1

Egypt                1

Mexico              1

Total             508

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 August 2007, 4:07 pm and is filed under
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Our education system a big failure

by Richard Teo

Make no mistake. Contrary to what our DPM said in NST on 10th August, our country’s education is one big flop. Najib would be deluding Malaysians to say that the education system was a big success and attribute this success to his father.

Tun Razak, the father of Najib was the culprit responsible for the current malaise facing the present education system. As the Education Minister, he abolished the English medium of education and introduced the Bahasa Melayu medium. In one stupendous decision his action caused the loss of one generation of English-speaking students.

Prior to the abolishment of the English medium of education we were the envy of many countries in Asia. Foreign tourists who went to the most remotest part of our country were pleasantly surprised that practically everyone they met could converse in the

Queen’s language. That was in the early fifties.

Today, even top government civil servants and the judiciary can hardly string two words of English. Is this how we define success in our education system? If this is Najib’s definition of success then either he is blind to the pathetic state of the education system or he is totally oblivious to what is happening in the country.

On reflection it would be fair to say that the failure of the education system gave a life -line to vernacular schools.

Prior to the change in the medium of education from English to Bahasa Melayu, vernacular schools were closing down for lack of student enrolment. Slowly but surely many of the vernacular schools were decimated.

However to be fair it was not the change in the medium of instruction that caused the popularity of vernacular schools. It was the slow and not subtle degeneration of the National Schools to religious schools that caused the mass exodus of Chinese and

Indians to their respective vernacular schools.

Today, remnants of the failure of our education remains like a sore thumb.Teachers and headmasters of one race dominate every school. Not ordinary teachers but staunch religious teachers who never miss an opportunity to extol the virtues of their religion.

Every morning and every recess, prayers are recited and non-Muslims students are expected to tolerate such feverish display of religiosity.

Today, our education system churns out 80,000 unemployed graduates. All of them bear living testimony of a failed education system. And yet our DPM has the gall to say that our education system is a big success. Wake up Najib. No matter what yardstick you use, the education system  is a big failure.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 12 August 2007, 2:47 am and is filed under
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Chan Kong Choy and RM4.6b Port Klang Free Zone scandal – explain, Royal Commission of Inquiry or resign as Transport Minister

Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy should resign as Transport Minister if he is not prepared to break his four-year silence on the RM4.6 billionh Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal or secure Cabinet approval on Wednesday to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry  to bare all the facts about the scandal.

Since becoming Transport Minister 2003, Chan had studiously ignored queries about the multi-billion ringgit malpractices and cost overruns at the Port Klang Free Zone, which had ballooned from a RM1.1 billion “self-financing”  project which did not require a single sen of public funds to a  RM4.6 billion scandal requiring government bail out using taxpayers’ monies.

As the latest
Sun
 expose on the PKFZ scandal revealed today, “
red tape, political meddling, inaccurate minutes and attempted tax evasion real reasons Port Klang Free Zone deal collapsed”
.

Sun reporter R. Nadeswaran said in his commentary,  “Bring PKFZ culprits to book”:

It was then the biggest financial fiasco in the country’s history — the Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal of the Eighties which prompted the government to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry.  The amount involved was less than RM2 billion.

Today, we have on our hands a scandal that would put the BMF affair in the shadows. More than RM4.6 billion has been spent on the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), and behind the massive expenditure is an intrigue of family deals, demands, interference by politicians and government officers with vested interests, attempts at tax evasion, gigantic cost over-runs, unauthorized payments, influence peddling, cloak-and-dagger operations, and above all, a total lack of transparency and accountability and care-a-damn attitude by the key personalities involved.

When Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister, he had promised an end to such scandals of corruption, abuses of power, malpractices and total unaccountability.

As I said at the Muar DAP Dinner on Saturday night, the whole weight of government machinery should be brought to bear to bring to book all the crooks and criminals responsible for the RM4.6 billion Port Klang Free Zone scandal, diverting RM4.6 billion of public funds which could be better used to improve the livelihood of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans from the lower income groups, instead of the recent government obsession to persecute and demonize a 24-year-old student from Muar, Wee Meng Chee for his six-minute video-clip Negarakuku speaking unpleasant truths and  which had attracted over a million visits on YouTube.

It will appear that for the first time in Barisan Nasional history, the first major scandal to erupt in a new premiership will come from a Ministry headed by a MCA Minister.

This makes it even more compelling that Chan must come clean on the whole RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal,  have a Royal Commission  of Inquiry or resign his Cabinet post.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 August 2007, 5:04 pm and is filed under
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Demonisation of Wee Meng Chee dampening national  mood for 50th Merdeka anniversary

The extreme over-reaction and concentrated  attacks by UMNO Ministers and leaders against Wee Meng Chee for  the “Negarakuku” rap video-clip  should immediately end before further dampening and damaging  the national mood for 50th Merdeka anniversary celebrations.

There were  many among Chinese-speaking Malaysians, including youths,  who did not agree with some of  his rough language and irreverent expressions when they saw Meng Chee’s rap  for the first time, although his articulation of the ordinary rakyat’s dissatisfactions and frustrations at police corruption, civil service bureaucracy, discrimination against Chinese education and insensitivity of the authorities struck a deep chord and found great resonance.

However, when Meng Chee became the target of a systematic attack of Umno and media demonisation, with  one UMNO Minister after another including  the Education Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister  jumping  on the bandwagon to paint as an ogre and  “traitor” as if he  single-handedly threatens the very fabric, stability and integrity of plural Malaysia, there is full rally of  support for Meng Chee for nobody buys the canard that Meng Chee was unpatriotic, disloyal, anti-national, anti-Islam,  anti-Malay or was attempting to be seditious to incite hatred and ill-will between the races or religions.

I just did a search on youtube where the Negarakuku  rap had been put up by dozens of various people although Meng Chee had removed it on his website. There had been over 1.2 million access on the youtube, with the top two sites registering  768,231 and 164,849 visits respectively.

Is anybody suggesting  that the overwhelming majority of the Malaysian visitors of youtube for  the Negarakuku rap are unpatriotic and seditious in wanting to incite  inter-racial and inter-religious ill-will and hatred in our country?

If so, then there is nothing to celebrate the 50th Merdeka anniversary as the nation would have failed dismally in  the five decades of nation-building.

In fact, Meng Chee’s rap was his expression of his patriotism and love for the country, to make it a better country for all Malaysians.

Meng Chee may be faulted for his rough language or irreverent expressions but these cannot be equated with being unpatriotic, disloyal or seditious.

If Meng Chee is alleged to have shown disrespect to the National Anthem, why are UMNO Ministers and leaders talking about prosecution under the Sedition Act, the Internal Security Act or even stripping Meng Chee of his citizenship when the National Anthem Act provides for a RM100 fine or one month’s jail sentence for  the  offence of disrespect to the national anthem?

But was there disrespect to the national anthem and the national flag?  Was Meng Chee disrespectful of the national flag when he wrapped himself with it? If so, why was the late Malaysian star Sudirman honoured for wearing the Jalur Gemilang as a stage costume in a concert as a mark of his patriotism?

Why should there be double-standards in the expression of patriotism through  the use of the national flag?

The extreme over-reaction and demonisation of Meng Chee is most deplorable, including demands for the stripping of Meng Chee’s citizenship and the cancellation of his passport.

Extremist demands for the stripping of a person’s Malaysian citizenship had not been heard for the past four decades because it was one of the four sensitive issues entrenched in the constitutional amendment in 1970  and which could not be questioned — viz, Malay Rulers, Article 152 on National Language and other languages, Article 153 on special provision for Malays and citizenship rights.

Will the Police arrest and the Attorney-General prosecute all those who have called for the stripping of citizenship of Meng Chee  under the Sedition Act, whether they are Umno leaders in government or otherwise?

Meng Chee is in good and patriotic company when he gave voice to the people’s frustrations on corruption and bureaucracy.  The
Sultan of Selangor, Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah
 was reported in the Star today   as calling for immediate action to check corruption, bureaucratic red tape, race problems, religious intolerance, the brain drain and crime.

Yesterday, the former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar wrote  about corruption and the rot in the police, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers in his Sunday Star column entitled “The Fence That Eats The Rice”.

These were also the subjects of the Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Nazrain, in his recent speeches.

Meng Chee should be commended for speaking out against such social injustices and national ills at such a young age  instead of being pilloried, demonized and threatened.

Meng Chee should rub off  the rough language and irreverent expressions and develop greater sensitivity  but clearly he is no traitor and the cause of Malaysian nation-building is not served with the continuation of the orchestrated demonisation and persecution of Meng Chee by Umno Ministers and leaders.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 August 2007, 1:38 pm and is filed under
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Hanif’s “pagar makan padi” indictment – 50th Merdeka anniversary only meaningful if IPCMC announced before August 31

The verdict is now in 27 months after the Royal Police Commission Report in May 2005 to create an incorruptible,  efficient, professional and world-class police service to reduce crime, eradicate corruption and respect human rights — a police force which is not only more rotten than before Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi became Prime Minister, but with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers equally tarnished for  “Harap Pagar, Pagar Makan Padi”!

This harsh judgment was not made by Opposition leaders and NGO critics of government, but by a venerable pillar of the establishment,  the former and  longest-serving Inspector-General of Police and Deputy Chairman of the Royal Police Commission,  Tun Hanif Omar in his
Sunday Star
column with a title which is an indictment on all the three “vital institutions” —
“THE FENCE THAT EATS THE RICE”
!

Hanif’s article is even more condemnatory of the rot in the police force than the Royal Police Commission report when everyone should be singing praises for a reformed police after the implementation of the Commission’s 125 recommendations to create an incorruptible, efficient and professional world-class police service.

Instead this is what Hanif wrote yesterday:

I briefed the Royal Commission that police corruption was so extensive that a very senior ACA officer had confided in me and another top retired police officer that 40% of the senior officers could be arrested without further investigations — strictly on the basis of their lifestyles. One state police chief had a net worth of RM18mil. My friend and I had watched the force getting deeper and deeper into the morass of corruption. ..

“I could not help telling the ACA officer that he really had his work cut out for him and that his fight against corruption was the most important fight facing the country but I hoped that he could effectively stamp out this corruption without destroying our PDRM which had done such yeomen service to the nation.

But what has the police to show in the follow-up to the Royal Police Commission Report?

Hanif lamented that although the Police Royal Commission Report was made public two-and-a-quarter years ago, “yet PDRM has still not burnished its image”.

He wrote:

It is still mired in controversy. Need I say why? It is so clearly divided into at least two groups at the top and, consequently, affects the officers below. That is why one group carries out arrests of alleged crime kingpins and the other group and the ACA have allegedly interrogated the arresting officers in the belief that the first group is eliminating the informants of the other group.

“Whom can we believe when one group is headed by the IGP and the other by a police director backed by the Deputy Minister of Internal Security? They are at opposite poles. Both the IGP and the Deputy Minister of Internal Security have allegations of corruption thrown at them but both have been investigated by the ACA, the content of the reports to the AG we do not know. What we know is that the AG has absolved both of them. So, between the two, whom are we to believe?

That is why the IPCMC is so important — so that we have an instrument to get to the truth. By not letting the IPCMC see the light of day after such a long study by the AG speaks volumes of the AG’s understanding of the seriousness of the problem and its effect on the criminal justice system. The AG himself has lost his credibility for this recalcitrance and for his “defeats” in recent high profile cases as well as for some high profile cases not seeing the light of day after so long in his hands: and this is disastrous because his Chambers is the second other vital institution in the criminal justice system.

So, whither go our vital institutions? The ACA is another vital institution. It is its abject failure to act hard against the highly corrupt at the very top levels all these years that has allowed this pervasive corruption culture to thrive and grow within the public sector. Let me say it here: you will not stamp out corruption by only giving talks or by tackling only the lower rankers. The lower rankers are emboldened by the top-level corruption that could get away.

All the heads of these three “vital institutions” must hold their heads in shame at such a sweeping and most valid condemnation by the most famous IGP in the country.

What has the Inspector-General of Police got to say for crime and corruption getting worse than even before the establishment of the Royal Police Commission 45 months ago?

What has the ACA director-general got to say for the failure to arrest and prosecute a single top police officer  in the past 27 months although “40% of the senior officers could be arrested without further investigations — strictly on the basis of their lifestyles”?

What has the Attorney-General got to say for his total lack of professional commitment in procrastinating on the IPCMC issue for over two years, refusing to submit an  IPCMC  Bill to  Parliament?

But there are other persons who should also hold their heads in shame at Hanif’s indictment yesterday — the Prime Minister and the entire Cabinet.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is in danger of becoming the worst Minister in charge of police in the 50-year history of the nation, with galloping crime and rampant corruption.

Instead of being one of his greatest achievements, the Royal Police Commission will become one of his greatest baggages unless Abdullah is prepared to be a hands-on Minister to ensure the full implementation of the Commission’s 125 recommendations to create an incorruptible, efficient and world-class police service.

Let all Malaysians send a clear message to the Prime Minister — the 50th Merdeka Anniversary celebrations will only be meaningful if he summons the political will to check the worsening rot in the three “vital institutions” of the Police, Anti-Corruption Agency and Attorney-General’s Chambers by announcing the formation of IPCMC before August 31!

                This entry was posted on Monday, 13 August 2007, 11:01 am and is filed under
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ACA – why not even  one out  of 1,400 senior police officers who could be nabbed for corruption in past three years?

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should table the Sunday Star article of the country’s most famous Inspector-General of Police, Tun Hanif Omar,
“The Fence that Eats the Rice”
 excoriating the underperformance and failures of the three “vital institutions” of the state, the police, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers at the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.

In his column, Hanif said he had briefed the Police Royal Commission, of which he was Deputy Chairman, “that police corruption was so extensive that a very senior ACA officer had confided in me and another top retired police officer that 40% of the senior officers could be arrested without further investigations — strictly on the basis of their lifestyles”.

He wrote:

One state police chief had a net worth of RM18mil. My friend and I had watched the force getting deeper and deeper into the morass of corruption.

It was the daily talk and the butt of gibes on the golf courses that embarrassed retired police officers no end; yet even we were stunned by this revelation and its implication. Would the force we had served for so long and which had given us so much experience and such great pride for what we had built it into, be destroyed in the expected ACA action?

I could not help telling the ACA officer that he really had his work cut out for him and that his fight against corruption was the most important fight facing the country but I hoped that he could effectively stamp out this corruption without destroying our PDRM which had done such yeomen service to the nation.

Hanif’s fear that the PDRM would suffer great damage in a campaign to “effectively stamp out corruption” has proved to be completely misplaced, as the culture of impunity for the corrupt among the high and mighty continued to reign supreme and  there was not a single one of the 1,400 senior police officers “who could be arrested without further investigation strictly based on the basis of their lifestyles” who had been arrested and prosecuted since the publication of the Royal Police Commission Report in May 2005.

The Royal Police Commission reported that the PDRM had an establishment of 90,256 police personnel in 2004,  and there would be a total of 3,502 senior police officers for all ranks above the inspector, viz:

IGP 	   	    1

DIG	 	    1

CP	 	    6

DCP		  18

SAC I		  27

SAC II	  	  56

ACP		148

SUPT		376

DSP		792

ASP	        2,077

Total 	        3,502

If “40% of the senior officers could be arrested without further investigations — strictly on the basis of their lifestyles”, we are talking about a staggering figure of 1,400 out of the 3,502 senior police officers from the rank of Assistant Superintendent to Inspector-General of Police.

Is the Cabinet tomorrow prepared to demand explanation  from the ACA why it  had failed to nab for corruption  a single one of the 1,400 senior police officers “who could be arrested without further investigation strictly based on the basis of their lifestyles” despite the Prime Minister’s top priority to eradicate corruption in the past 45 months?

Or will Cabinet Ministers be mortally frightened to ask the ACA such a question, for fear that the same indictment could be applied to the Cabinet –  that many of them could be arrested without further investigations, strictly on the basis of their lifestyles?

The Cabinet would have failed in its duties if it shied away completely from Hanif’s indictment of the three “vital institutions” in his Sunday Star column, for the final responsibility for the unchecked rot in the police, the ACA and the AG’s Chambers must finally be borne by  the Cabinet under our system of Cabinet government.

If the  Cabinet is patriotic, it cannot  abdicate from its responsibility tomorrow  to do what is right and proper for the country in the midst of celebrating the  50th Merdeka anniversary, and all the Ministers cannot find refuge in the role of the traditional three monkeys of having eyes that see not, ears that hear not and mouth the speaks not.

The right, proper and patriotic thing for the Cabinet to do tomorrow is for it to make  two policy decisions which will make the 50th Merdeka anniversary celebrations really historic,  meaningful and memorable to all Malaysians — to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) as recommended by the Police Royal Commission and to make the   ACA fully independent from the Prime Minister’s Department,  answerable only to Parliament and not beholden to the political masters of the day.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity will be holding public hearings to get public feedback on their views and concerns about corruption and the National Integrity Plan in Ipoh  tomorrow (Perak State Assembly 10 am) and in Alor Star on Thursday (Kedah State Assembly 10 am) — which are opportunities for the Malaysian public to come forward to speak their minds on the problems and challenges of corruption and integrity in Malaysia 50 years after Merdeka.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 11:41 am and is filed under
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RM4.6b PKFZ scandal:Why Pak Lah breaking another pledge – no mega bailouts?

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
has said that he would ask the Transport Minister, Datuk Chan Kong Choy to explain why concerns by Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) addressed to Chan over the progress of the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) were not entertained.

This was his response to the
Sun’s front-page report
 yesterday that Jafza pulled out of the PKFZ deal because of political interference, bureaucracy and breaches of the management agreement signed between Jafza and the Port Klang Authority (PKA).

Jafza executive chairman Sultan Ahmad Sulayem and its senior vice president (international operations) Chuck Heath wrote to Chan on March 11 and May 29 last year respectively but received no replies.

Chan must not only  explain his role in the pull-out of Zafza from PKFZ, the Transport Minister must publicly explain and account for the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, now leading to a RM4.6 billion  government bail-out of the project when the originally RM1.1 billion PKFZ  had started as a “feasible and self-financing” project which would not require a single sen of public funds.

Yesterday,
  when addressing some 1,200 delegates including ministers, menteris besar and chief ministers attending the National Asset and Facility Management Convention, Abdullah said action should be taken against those in the public sector who were responsible for maintaining public buildings when public buildings fall apart.

Let Abdullah start off  this culture of responsibility with the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, and bring to book all public officials, from Cabinet level downwards, who were  responsible for the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal — or is this going to be a repeat of a bigger RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Finance Scandal more than 20 years ago of “a heinous crime without criminals”?

If Chan as Transport Minister must bear full responsibility for the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, then an example must be made  with his resignation or removal from Cabinet — as otherwise, all the talk about public accountability and responsibility under the Abdullah administration are just hot air without  credibility.

In this case of the RM4.6 billion PKFZ scandal, Abdullah himself must explain why he is breaking another pledge when he became Prime Minister of no mega-billion-ringgit bailouts.

Unless and until a powerful public case could be made as to why Abdullah should start off a new cycle of mega-billion-ringgit bails-outs, the Prime Minister must remove the Whip in Parliament and allow Members of Parliament from Barisan Nasional the freedom to reject the RM4.6 billion PKFZ bailout  package when it is proposed in Parliament in the forthcoming meeting starting on August 27.  This is because MPs who voted for the RM4.6 billion PKFZ bailout will be assuming full personal responsibility for the scandal as well.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 2:12 pm and is filed under
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University Myanmar Sabah

Parents of students in the University Malaya Sabah (UMS) Medical School have expressed grave concerns about the quality of lecturers and teaching being provided to the extent that  UMS is being referred to as “University Myanmar Sabah” because of the large number of lecturers from Myanmar with questionable qualifications to fill up the acute shortage of lecturers for the Medical School.

This is one complaint that I have received:

Recently, there has been a series of news reports quoting both the Federal Health Minister Datuk Chua Soi Lek and the Director General Datuk Dr Ismail Merican, lamenting over the questionable quality of some of our doctors. (Sin Chew Daily  7.8 2007 p 5  and 10.8.2007)

This is the same concern that many parents of the UMS Medical School students and lecturers now have with the presence of a large number of Myanmar lecturers, whose qualifications are said to be rather questionable.

The following is a recent conversation  with a concerned lecturer of the University Malaysia Sabah (UMS) Medical School who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Q: Currently, how many lecturers are there in the UMS Medical Faculty, and how many of them are foreigners?

A: There are around 41 lecturers and 2 medical officers.  Out of 41 lecturers, there are 19 Burmeses, 4 Indian nationals, 1 Iraqi and 1 Indonesian Chinese.  Two medical officers are also Burmeses.

Q: Is it true that some of the lecturers are not qualified or whose qualifications are doubtful and not recognized by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC)?

A: The University has the right to employ any expatriates to be their lecturers regardless of their qualification if the university is short of people with the required expertise. Their qualifications might be doubtful, but then with the request of the university, ‘special consideration’ is granted by MMC.  Malaysian system is very ‘interesting’.  If you are a foreigner and your degree is not recognised by MMC or JPA, you can still be employed and recognised as a specialist by the Ministry of Health (MoH) or any university as a contract employee.

Unfortunately if you are Malaysian but your degree is not recognised by MMC or JPA, you absolutely have no chance to be employed as a specialist by the MOH or any of the local university.

Normally for any expatriate to be employed by MOH or any university, they must have first obtained/granted clearance from JPA first.  Once they have the JPA clearance, they could then apply for the work permit in their home country prior to coming to Malaysia.

However, these expatriates can get employed directly under UMS as a ‘temporary staff’ while waiting for JPA clearance.  Once these expatriates have their JPA clearance, they can then have their temporary status convert to a full three year contract.

There is a case of a “specialist”  from Myanmar who  came to UMS as a ‘temporary staff’ six months ago.  He was recently discovered to have committed fraud by submitting false documents in his application to UMS. This inevitably gives rise to a series of questions like:

	How could someone with false documents get employed by UMS as a ‘temporary staff’ and whether UMS made an effort to conduct a background check on the applicant before they hire someone?

	  Does UMS have a vetting committee before they employ someone?  How could someone with a false document could bypass JPA and start teaching our medical students?  How could someone not registered with MMC be teaching our next generation of hope?

	Most of the Burmese doctors do not even  speak proper English.

Q: Is it true that the clinical facilities at the Faculty are also very much lacking.

A: School of Medicine in UMS is lacking both facilities and teaching manpower.  About the facilities, we are currently allocated with a very small ‘teaching space’ in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) in Kota Kinabalu.  As we all know, QEH is a small and congested hospital with intensive admission.  The patients are sleeping along the pathway and nurses station.  There is really not much room for teaching.

The UMS Medical School has a small, temporary clinical year teaching site just opposite the QEH car park. But the State Health Director has given her ultimatum of taking it back at the end of 2007.  Basically the UMS Medical School will be losing its only teaching site in QEH at the end of this year. This is rather sad indeed in view of the fact that the Medical School has spent RM1 million on this site for the past 2 years and it is going to be flushed down the drain soon.

The Medical School is currently short of manpower for a few reasons:

1.	The Ministry of Health is not deploying any experienced doctor to any university while young doctors cannot leave MOH, thus leaving most of the MOH pensioners applying for the job.

2.	Lack of cooperation from the State Health Department.  It takes many months for State Health Department to give their blessing for any UMS staff to work in QEH.  There are just too many red tapes and too much paperwork. Apparently the MoU between MOH and UMS does not exist.  Unlike in other universities (UIA, UPM and others), they are very good smart partnership.

3.	There is incompetent projection from Medical School. Many QEH doctors are reluctant to join UMS because of incompetent projection from the Medical School.  First, no doctor is currently allowed to start their clinical work in the QEH, many QEH doctors are also wondering why.  Second, one year ago, there was one UMS staff working in HQE.  Unfortunately, one of staffs from HQE in the same department committed medical negligence. However, that staff from QEH did not face any disciplinary action. Instead, the innocent staff from UMS was sacked from HQE without any explanation.  The QEH staffs are very reluctant to join UMS because they are afraid that they may be a victim for their fellow colleague’s mistake.  The UMS Medical School did nothing to fight for their poor staff. Hence, why do you think anyone in his or her right frame of mind would want to join UMS?  Would you join a company which does not give you any welfare?

4.	Sabah is too far from West Malaysia and most of the West Malaysian are reluctant to come here.

Q: How many students are there in the Faculty now, and when is the graduation for the first batch of students?

A: There are 220 students.  First batch is 30 students who will be graduating next year.

Q: How would you describe the situation in the faculty  and who is responsible?

A: Well, the boat is fast sinking but the Boss continues to live in his own fantasy. In as far as I’m concerned no one else except for the Dean of the Medical School who is Prof Dr Osman Ali who  should be blamed for all the mess in the Medical School.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 August 2007, 12:32 pm and is filed under
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Is Express Rail Link Sdn. Bhd empowered by law to clamp cars and levy fines?

by Richard Yeoh

This morning, when I parked my car at the KL Sentral aeroport departure kerbside for 3 minutes to drop off someone to take the ERL aerotrain to KLIA, I was confronted by a worker who insisted on clamping my car despite the fact that I was about to move off.

I had to seek the intervention of a supervisor who insisted that ERL SB was entitled to clamp cars stopped at the kerbside. According to him, cars will only be released upon payment of a RM50 fine. In my case, fortunately the supervisor had the sense to use his discretion to release my car, but not without argument. They even had the temertiy to issue me a “summons” which I shall be happy to fax or scan to you.

This action raises various issues:

1. Is ERL authorised by law to take such action? Is the driveway in front of KL Sentral private property under ERL jurisdiction? Is ERL the proprietor of the driveway?

To the best of my knowledge, even the Police, DBKL and MBPJ do not resort to such action unless the vehicle is causing obstruction.

I noticed that even city police usually allow a grace period of 5-10 minutes before cars are summoned for parking offences.

2. How can ERL take such action when there are no clearly-visible warning signs?

3. Is this the way to encourage travellers to use the aero-train to KLIA?

Would appreciate your readers’ views on this.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 2:42 pm and is filed under
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Merdeka Dialogue: Whither Bangsa Malaysia?

50 years ago, we were promised democracy. We were promised justice. We were promised equality. We were promised to be treated with human dignity. We were promised freedom.

In 1963, we became Malaysians and the notion of a Bangsa Malaysia was born. This was given form and substance by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his Vision 2020 that set out 9 challenges for Malaysians to achieve a developed country.

No mention is made of Bangsa Malaysia by the Abdullah administration. Is the concept of Bangsa Malaysia still important or relevant in the light of failed promises in our original social contract?

The DAP is holding a Dialogue in conjuction with the 50th Merdeka Anniversary celebrations this coming weekend.

Date: 19 August 2007 (Sunday)

Time: 2.00pm

Venue: Crystal Crown Hotel, Petaling Jaya

The panel of distinguished speakers include:

*
Tunku Abdul Aziz
, former President, Transparency International Malaysia

*
Datuk Param Cumuraswamy
, former Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, United Nations

*
Yeo Yang Poh
, former Malaysian Bar Council Chairman

*
Lim Kit Siang
, Parliamentary Opposition Leader

*
Lim Guan Eng
, DAP Secretary-General

Following the session, a dialogue will be conducted with the participants hosted by another distinguished panel (subject to change):

M Manogar
, President, Malaysian Tamil Education & Research Foundation

Haris Ibrahim
, Human Rights Lawyer

Jeff Ooi
, Prominent Malaysian Blogger

Oh Ei-Sun
, East Malaysian Socio-Political Analyst

To ensure sufficient seats allocation, please register in advance with Lim Swee Kuan (03) 79578022 or via email at limsweekuan(at)gmail.com.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 6:49 am and is filed under
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The Medical Mafia and ‘University Myanmar Sabah’

by LKT

I refer to your letter
“University Myanmar Sabah”
where the author lists various problems with the administration, staffing and ultimately blames the Dean, albeit prematurely, for the shortcomings of this Medical Faculty.

As long as there is a need for doctors and a concomitant maintenance in the rise of standards or medical technology exists, the evolution or expansion of medical schools here in Malaysia must be encouraged contrary to the opinions of some of your readers that a number of of these facilities ought to be shut down.

Development of local-based medical universities is critical if we are going to keep costs down and maintain standards instead of sending our bright but financially underprivileged children to such institutions based in Indonesia and Russia which did not have the benefit of a British educational input which has helped this country on previous occasions to have word class standards in medical care.

In 1962, when Thumboo John Danaraj was appointed the Foundation Dean to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, he proposed that the Medical Faculty should have its own hospital.

Up to the 1950’s, the Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore, which was known previously as King Edward VII College of Medicine had been the only medical school in Malaya and Singapore. The output of doctors at that time was small: 60 per year forcing many Malaysians to go overseas to seek undergraduate medical education.

Construction of the faculty building began in July 1963 right through March 1967 when the first wards were opened culminating finally in the completion of the Paediatric, Maternity and Rehabilitation Units which became functional in March 1968.

On 5th August 1968, the University Hospital was officially opened by the Agong. University Malaya had a world class Faculty and Hospital. But what of the lecturers?

T.J. Danaraj had no qualms bringing in the best lecturers he could afford and most of these lecturers originated from the Indian subcontinent, some of whom are still with the University. The country had not enough doctors let alone lecturers and in the initial years the University Hospital had to depend on a large expatriate population to help establish this school.

Although the working capital for this Malaysian medical icon came from both the Ministry of Education and Health, trouble was already brewing at the Ministry of Health, known those days and even sometimes today as the “Medical Mafia” which wanted to have the final say in all things medical in this country. They refused initially to recognise housemanship at the UH as part of the 4-year compulsory service until there were widespread protests by UH doctors.

But things were much worse at UKM with almost daily skirmishes between the MOH and UKM lecturers, nurses and students at clinics, wards, operating theaters and even corridors as to whose hospital or turf it was at the General Hospital Kuala Lumpur until the then Dean, Khalid Kadir, had to literally beg Anwar Ibrahim for money to set up the current HUKM.

Similarly when the MOH put up their new hospital at Kubang Krian, wanting to move their old hospital which frequently had to face floods, there was a stand-off between USM and the MOH, both of whom wanted the hospital. Tengku Razaleigh had to step in at that time and gave preference to USM renaming the hospital to HUSM.

Primary and secondary specialties, facilities and equipment at the UH, HUKM and HUSM are certainly better then any MOH hospital because they are independent and have that extra edge having better educational and research facilities.

Universities having to face this nightmare apart from University Sabah Malaysia are UITM which till this day “shares” a hospital with Selayang but its lecturers are not given clinical or operating rights in that hospital.

Hospital Serdang is built on UPM land but is run by the MOH and almost everything the Dean decides is overturned by MOH’s Hospital Director. UNIMAS which is supposed to share Hospital Umum Sarawak is literally treated like a leper when it comes to utilization of the hospitals facilities.

UIA shares the Kuantan GH with the MOH but is constantly scuppered when it attempts to upgrade services. IMU gets along at Seremban GH only because its President is a previous DG of Health.  But all the other private medical colleges like Manipal in Malacca, Perak College of Medicine at Ipoh and AIIMST at Sungai Petani run “medical schools”.

How this is possible is beyond comprehension. A student only becomes a good doctor if he/she sees many cases and reads around the subject. Lecturers who are virtually stopped from seeing patients because of this turf war, no matter how good they are, can only do so much. A surgical lecturer cannot show a student what a hernia repair entails and how the patient is followed up if they are not involved. Medical education is an apprenticeship. It always has been and will always will be.

Teaching of our students, our own children, should be every doctor’s responsibility and joy, for they are our future. But this horrendous personal interests coupled with animosity and a rivalry without basis by the MOH is wreaking havoc for medical education in this country.

It was proposed to the Higher Education Minister, Mustapha, last year that general hospitals be turned over to medical schools and money be further invested into these hospitals to upgrade services and research. But the MOH talked him out of it.

We may be nearing our 50th year of independence but if you had the opportunity to work in Sabah, you would have discovered that diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis are not yet eradicated, let alone dengue.

Many state governments want to upgrade health services in their own states very badly for health is one way you can show people directly that you care which is why they clamor for a medical school. But not everyone understands the reasons why development of these schools are sometimes stunted unlike Indonesia and India where medical colleges rapidly mushroom all the time.

Having a medical school is certainly a great impetus to advance healthcare. Having expatriates is not the problem. It is the third world mentality of our civil service at the MOH that is dragging this country’s healthcare down the tubes.

Chua Soi Lek and Ismail Merican may lament the questionable quality of some of our doctors but they are greatly responsible for the current state of affairs. The government, in particular, the Higher Education Ministry must step in and must take alternate advice instead of being subservient or cowed into believing that the MOH are the authority.

Education must take precedence if we are serious about providing proper healthcare to Malaysians and this can only happen if this “ship with two captains” syndrome is eradicated.

Failure to do so would further condemn our nascent medical schools to closure, forcing our prospective medical undergraduates, as during the period of the singular King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore, to go to Indonesia, Ukraine, Russia and countries which didn’t have the benefit of our once premier health care standards.

T.J. Danaraj was visionary, even in the 50’s when he foresaw that in the Malaysian setting, a medical faculty must have its own hospital.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 6:37 am and is filed under
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Wee Meng Chee – will Umno Ministers/leaders now apologise to Malaysians offended by their extremist reactions?

Wee Meng Chee, 24-year-old undergraduate, has issued an open apology  to Malaysians offended by his six-minute Negarakuku video rap, which as of  this morning, has been accessed more than 1.5 million times on YouTube sites put up by  others as  Meng Chee had removed the video clip from his blog several days ago.

Three  questions that immediately arise are:

	Will UMNO Ministers and leaders who have persecuted and demonized Meng Chee by making irresponsible, extremist and seditious statements, and even demanding the stripping of Meng Chee’s citizenship,  now publicly apologise to all Malaysians offended by them;

	Will Umno Ministers who had been guilty of keris-waving in circumstances and context contemptuous of the legitimate sensitivities and rights of all Malaysians publicly apologise to all Malysians offended by them?

	Will MCA Ministers and leaders publicly apologise for failing  to draw attention of the Umno leaders to the expression of patriotism by  Meng Chee in articulating the frustrations of the ordinary rakyat at police corruption, civil service bureaucracy, discrimination against Chinese education and the insensitivity of the authorities  — which is the reason why his rap video had  struck such a deep chord among Malaysians particularly  among the young generation?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 15 August 2007, 2:16 pm and is filed under
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50th Merdeka: Now, everyone can be a Bajau!

by – Product of the System

An Unbooked Pregnancy

A 42-year-old lady presents with strong contraction pains at 3am. Of Filipino descent and speaking no Bahasa Malaysia, she was unable to provide any valuable clinical history pertinent to her current pregnancy.

In addition, she did not seek any antenatal care. A multiparous lady with 12 other children, she gave birth uneventfully but her premature 31-week baby developed breathing complications from his immature lungs.

He was referred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Likas, where he was treated for the next 48 days with costly first-line medications and neonatal supplements. Further investigations revealed congenital syphilis contracted from his mother.

	Unable to settle the five-figure hospital bill, the father paid a meagre RM 10.00, vowing to settle the outstanding amount on their next clinic visit.

Seen in the clinic one month later, the couple returned with their child and – brand new Malaysian ICs. Declaring themselves now to be Malaysian Bajaus, they were absolved of all their hospital debts and spirited onto the red carpet of Bumiputeraship.

A Neglected Child

A frail 3-year-old Indonesian boy was admitted for severe dehydration from a two-week history of infective diarrhea.

The second youngest of 14 children, the family lives in a 5m X 8m stilt house built over sea water, aptly known as kampong air. They draw water and electricity from illegal connections made stealthily to the homes of local Sabahans.

Domestic waste and human excrement are disposed off by open sea dumping and drop latrines. On examination, the child was drowsy in hypotensive shock and was severely malnourished.

	Over a period of 4 weeks, he was given intensive care and nursed back to health with adequate rehydration and total parenteral nutrition costing RM 1,000 per day.

Upon discharge, the parents swore themselves to be Bajau, flashed newly-minted Mykads and laid claim to the privilege of free healthcare.

From pendatang tanpa izin just a month ago, they’ve become warganegara Islam and are therefore eligible to the broad spectrum of bumiputera privileges under UMNO’s New Economic Policy.

	The child went back to the family home, where he nonchalantly resumed his daily routine of waddling barefooted in the filthy mud of kampong air littered with human excrement.

A Jobless Lad

	An unemployed 28-year-old man was admitted after a freak road accident. After a heavy alcohol binge, he went on a terror joyride with a friend equally under the influence.

He suffered a grade 3 open fractures of both his right forearm bones with multiple tendon and nerve cuts. He underwent a complicated and costly emergency surgery, the first of many to come.

Over the next two months, he underwent repeated reconstructive procedures — readjustments of metal fixator, wound debridements and skin flaps.

	He was seen in the clinic a week after discharge whereby he now professes to be a Bajau. His outstanding hospital bills were consequently declared null and void.

A Promiscuous Husband

	A 56-year-old man from Pulau Gaya presented with high fever associated with severe headache and was found to be jaundiced on examination.

He has three wives and 16 children, none of whom were schooling. Confessing to a long habit of extra-marital sexual activities, further diagnostic work-up confirmed HIV, Hepatitis C, and syphilis. A series of scans were required to exclude HIV-related cerebral toxoplasmosis and liver cirrhosis from chronic hepatitis C.

A fisherman by profession, he was unable to pay for the scans. He pleaded for three days after which his wives presented at the hospital with a Mykad fresh from the stoves of Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara.

	Yes, here in UMNO’s Sabah, everyone can be a Bumiputera Bajau — the Indonesians, Filipinos and Pakistanis too.

Corruption in a league of its own

It is increasingly incredulous to believe that that the BN government had any genuine intention to root out the cancer of illegal immigration in Sabah.

While Singapore, Australia and the United Kingdom are harvesting the skill, talent and services of the truly cemerlang, gemilang and terbilang of Malaysian shores, UMNO’s Tanah Melayu is instead proactively inflicting itself with infectious diseases and serious crimes with the most uneducated, unskilled and unimmunized imports from neighbouring Philipines and Indonesia.

Far from the lame excuses given by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, the crux of the issue is not an unmanageable coastline, but an insatiable greed for power and wealth among the Barisan Nasional politicians.

Corruption has reached its highest degree in the state of Sabah. Here, citizenship has become a priceless commodity that can be bought and sold at the whims and fancies of UMNO.

Even as the local Kadazandusun Murut (KDM) population remains trapped in a vicious cycle of poverty and illiteracy, Filipinos, Indonesians and even Pakistanis are masquerading as Bajaus, purchasing Malaysian ICs and a lifetime of bumiputera privileges for a meagre sum of RM 100.

These overnight bumiputeras have already overtaken the locals in sheer number and brute strength in Lahad Datu, Kota Belud, Semporna, Likas, Sandakan and Tawau. Pulau Gaya is virtually a mini-Philipines in Malaysian waters. Its notoriety for violence is such that even the armed forces fear to tread.

While the sociodemography of Sabah has already undergone a politically-maneuvered radical transformation, the true folly of BN’s Project IC is only beginning to show.

Corruption kills, literally

Already, Sabah is infamous for being the land most endemic with tuberculosis, thanks to these non-immunized illegals. In 2006, Sabah added a feather to its cap when it clinched the unenviable title as the state with the highest number of newly diagnosed HIV cases.

The overwhelming prevalence of highly infectious diseases among illegal immigrants is consuming our limited human and financial resources. Sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, syphilis, hepatitis B, C and gonorrhea are now spreading like wild fire.

So are infective diarrhea and other environmental illnesses, many thanks to our Project IC citizens utilizing our rivers and seas like a gargantuan natural sewage tank. The battle on vector-borne infections like dengue and malaria is virtually lost.

While Health Inspectors impose fines and summonses on local citizens for harboring pockets of potential Aedes breeding sites, the unhygienic and wholly-filthy settlements of the UMNO’s prized immigrants are conveniently overlooked.

The whole effort of vector control is but an exercise in vanity and exhibitionism.

In the name of so-called humanity to these supposed under-privileged people, the Health Ministry has vicariously deprived our very own citizens of services that they paid taxes for.

Foreigners form at least 30%-50% of patients in government hospitals and clinics, stretching our health resources so thin that Malaysians have to contend with suboptimal care.

In the hospitals, it is not uncommon for our own local citizens to be dumped onto the floor while their Project M counterparts occupy proper beds.

It is also not infrequent for illegal immigrants to receive intensive care and ventilator support at the expense of equally ill Malaysian citizens that could have otherwise been saved with the proper facilities.

	As cheap Filipino cigarettes and unpurified alcohol become easily available especially to our young children, Sabah can expect an epidemic of respiratory diseases and alcohol-related illnesses in the very near future – if not already. At present, clinicians are already witnessing lung cancers and alcoholic liver disease among Sabahans at an age as young as 24 years.

The whole set-up makes no sense. It seems as though there is a concentrated effort to appease these particular group of people. Is humanity really the reason behind the Malaysian Ministry of Health’s peculiar and unconditional generosity to illegal immigrants or is there a politically-savvy ulterior motive?

As the Malay peribahasa goes,
 kera di hutan disusukan, anak di rumah mati kelaparan
.

A tickling social timebomb

The street kids of Kota Kinabalu, Sabah are already a notorious state entity. Unkempt kids who should be studying instead spend their days peddling cigarettes and alcoholic brew or merely roaming about begging for cash in eateries and places of interest.

In recent years, their numbers have taken an exponential rise. The social consequences will be damning when these street children grow up to become unemployed and unemployable young men.

Rape, murder, home break-ins and petty thefts are already daily affairs in Sabah, in tandem with the increasing number of foreigners.

The flea markets throughout Sabah tell a great detail of their side activities. Stolen items ranging from shoes and t-shirts to handphones and lap tops are sold brazenly in broad daylight, uncannily oblivious to the law enforcers but not to the locals who fall victim to these unschooled, idle youngsters.

The press of Sabah provides a daily painful reminder. The local Daily Express dedicates a whole page on crime in Sabah, much of it involving foreigners.

While money and assets lost can be re-earned and regained, the lives and dignity of murder and rape victims can never be restored.

Many a family has been torn apart in more subtle ways. Young, unschooled foreign ladies form the bulk of commercial sex workers throughout Sabah. Once blissful families are destroyed by the husbands’ extramarital affairs with the literally cheap foreign girls, many of them barely past teenage. A pregnant mother of five was recently found to have contracted HIV/AIDS from her husband’s chronic infidelity with Filipino guest relations officers from the many karaokes throughout Sabah.

A state conspiracy

Far from even attempting to control the entry and proliferation of foreigners in Sabah, the UMNO state and federal governments are in effect vigorously wooing these people.

The Customs Department gladly issues and renews work permits without any proper check on the person’s background and current health. As a result, even someone with active pulmonary tuberculosis can resume working and spreading their Mycobacterium in Sabah.

The National Registry Department freely issues birth certificates to any foreigner born in Sabah, a first big step before full bumiputera-ship in later life. Mysteriously, such documents are issued only to Muslim foreigners. The predominantly Catholic East Timorese and occasional Catholic Filipino are somehow denied such documents.

The State Health Department makes Sabah even more homely to foreigners by offering virtually free healthcare. Chemotherapy, total parenteral nutrition, CT/MRI scans and major surgeries are all provided without any obligation for the costs to be settled. In other words, foreigners receive equal access to healthcare like any other bona fide Malaysian citizen.

BN’s actual stand in the issue of illegal immigration is fully revealed in times of elections. Local Sabahans find themselves sidelined as foreigners who do not speak a word of Bahasa Malaysia suddenly possess voting privileges. Such allegations fly like wild fire in each election season but needless to say, were never investigated or followed up by the Election Commission.

The State Land Office too, panders to UMNO’s aspirations. Much land has been taken from the locals and allocated to Project IC citizens. These distressed voices of the needy and lowly locals will probably never be heard as their own Kadazandusun Murut leaders cave in to the love of money.

Not a Generalization

	This article in no way implies that all immigrants are partakers of hooliganism. As with every issue in life, there are two sides to a coin and no blanket statement can ever be justified.

Nevertheless, unlike the UMNO politicians, the daily experiences of the man-on-the-street do not lie. The threat and menace of foreigners in Sabah and Malaysia in general can never be understated and downplayed.

	In Sabah particularly, the feared “reverse-takeover” has only begun, with the Barisan Nasional firmly seated in the director’s chair.

The End is Imminent

Charity as they say, begins at home. The BN government can show more generosity and charity to our locals in areas of hardcore poverty like Kota Marudu and Ranau instead of quietly strengthening and empowering the Project IC beneficiaries.

With a muted media and a money-pacified Parti Bersatu Sabah, UMNO will inexorably remain as the supreme master of Sabah for quite some time to come.

Backed by a steady supply of loyal, overnight Muslim bumiputeras who potentially double up as useful Mat Rempits when the need arises, the peace-loving local population is increasingly hapless.

The biggest losers are none other than local non-Muslim population who stands in UMNO’s way of establishing an Islamic state.

There will come a day where the Sabah we once knew ceases to exist.  That is the day when a MALPHILINDO version comes into existence. That, I believe, will be a dream come true for UMNO.

Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan, fellow genuine citizens. Selamat Hari Malaysia too.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 16 August 2007, 1:46 am and is filed under
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