Site Down

Dear Readers,

Very bad news.

The blog
(blog.limkitsiang.com)
 has been down for three days.

We have just received the following message from our US host server:

“We regret to inform you that during the transfer to the new data centre your account was erased by the data centre before we had time to back it up, we apologies for the inconvenience and all attempts to recover the data was unsuccessful.”

IT Support is checking what is irretrievable.  Thank you for your support and many apologies for the inconvenience.

16th February 2007 (1700 hours)

Happy Chinese New Year.

[Update 16th February 2007 (2100 hrs) – While recovery attempts are being made for the original blog.limkitsiang.com, we will start off with a new blogsite in the meanwhile. This new blogsite
(english.limkitsiang.com)
 directly linked to the previous site is still being tested. – Kit]

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 15 February 2007, 6:48 pm and is filed under
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IT
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Anti-corruption just a PR problem?

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz gave a very novel explanation about the anti-corruption campaign of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi — saying that the government had done a lot to fight corruption but such information was not properly channeled to the public.

Speaking at the World Ethics and Transparency Forum on Monday, Nazri  said a
public relations blitz
 to outline the national drive against corruption and the promotion of integrity is in the offing.

He said the government did not have a good public relations unit to counter criticisms that not enough was being done to stamp out corruption and improve integrity.

If Nazri is right, then the only problem of Abdullah’s anti-corruption campaign is one of P.R rather than one of lack of political will, but Nazri would belong to a very tiny number of people who would resort to such a novel way to wish away the grave problem of corruption in the country.

How will Nazri explain Malaysia’s plunge of seven places from 37th to 44th position in the last three years during the Abdullah premiership from 2003 to 2006 in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) when the five-year National Integrity Plan launched by Abdullah in April 2004 had targeted improvement to at least 30th position in 2008?  Can this shocking plunge in Malaysia’s TI CPI to 44th position (when Malaysia was ranked No. 23 in 1995) be attributed to  poor PR?

Is Nazri’s novel explanation the official position of the Cabinet, the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and the Institute of Integrity Malaysia (IIM) or is it just his personal view?

This is important for if it is the official view of the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the various anti-corruption bodies, then there is nothing more that needs to be done than to engage an expensive PR firm to burnish Malaysia’s image on integrity and anti-corruption.

Malaysia will become an international laughing-stock if the government is serious in trying to reduce  Abdullah’s anti-corruption campaign into a mere  P.R problem when everybody knows that the  the root cause is the lack of political will to create a society with zero-tolerance for corruption.

This is why the 18 “high-profile” corruption cases  involving “big fishes” had been allowed to escape into the South China Sea although there was a lot of fanfare in the early months of the Abdullah premiership that they would be caught and be brought to justice to demonstrate the seriousness of the anti-corruption campaign of the new Prime Minister.

Early this month, the newly-appointed Perak ACA director Samsiah Abu Bakar opened fire against heads of government departments who had ignored corruption among staff.

She said that she would seek clarification from those who had not taken action against such staff.

She said she was shocked when she went through the records as there are some 21 cases dating back to 2001 which had not been attended to, including warnings and suspension of salary.

She said these are cases which could not be prosecuted in court due to a lack of evidence but there were elements of corruption involved.  The ACA subsequently recommended departmental action against the staff concerned.

Samsiah made the statement some two weeks after it was revealed that the Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan had issued a directive to all heads of departments giving them six months to take disciplinary action against corrupt civil servants.

At a meeting of the Chief Secretary with  all directors-general, ACA officials tabled a report on 585 civil servants allegedly on the take between 2002 and 2006.

However, due to lack of evidence, they could not be produced in court.  ACA had recommended that disciplinary action, including demotion, transfer and salary freeze, be taken against those implicated in the cases.

Parliament expects a full report on the actions taken against the 585 civil servants (including the 21 cases referred to by Samsiah) for corrupt practices, though there was not enough evidence to sustain court actions.

In this connection, Parliament will also want to know the number of political leaders at both the national and state government leaders who had been investigated by the ACA and whom the ACA had been satisfied had been guilty of corruption but there was not enough evidence to produce them in court — and whether the ACA had recommended to the Prime Minister, Mentri Besar or Chief Minister  concerned for action to be taken against them, and the number of such political leaders involved.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 February 2007, 9:28 pm and is filed under
Corruption
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Happy Chinese New Year – Stand up for reforms

This should be a meaningful and historic Chinese New Year as it coincides with

the 50
th
 Merdeka Anniversary of the nation and possibly with the 12
th
 general election.

Let

all Malaysians stand up categorically

in the next general election to be held in the next eight to 14 months for national reforms to make
Malaysia
 a world-class competitive nation with the hallmarks of excellence, meritocracy, accountability, transparency, integrity, democracy and justice for all.

These were

the hopes and expectations of Malaysians in the past three years since the March 2004 general election but they have

not been fulfilled.

In many important areas, there were

not only no new starts, the country had gone backwards.

The world will pass Malaysia by if the country cannot find the political will to change course to create world-class institutions especially

Parliament, judiciary, electoral system, local governance, civil service, police, anti-corruption agency and

universities; inculcate among the government and people a first-class mentality and mindset and produce towering Malaysians and not just leading personalities of one race or community.

Wishing all Chinese Malaysians as well as all

Malaysians a Happy Chinese New Year.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 16 February 2007, 8:48 pm and is filed under
DAP
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RM69 mil London Sports Centre – proof of shambolic Abdullah government?

The bursting of the London High Performance Sports Training Centre balloon  in less than a week raises concern whether  the highly-regarded Abdullah administration had in three years  degenerated into a shambolic and incompetent government.

Last Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Sports Development, Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced a  new lease of life for the controversial London Sports Centre, originally slated to cost RM490 million until it ran into quite unanimous opposition  in the country including from Members of Parliament from both sides of the House.

Najib assured that “no additional costs will be incurred” in turning the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre (TARRC) in Brickendonbury into a sports training centre as “we will be using existing facilities”.

Yet the cost for turning the TARRC into a sports training centre instead of a sports complex will be a walloping big  bill of RM69 million for “refurbishments” – which will include building accommodation for athletes and upgrading the fields and equipment all to be ready by April.

However, a Sun exclusive

“Sports centre plan stalled”
by R. Nadeswaran reported that despite Najib’s announcement that the London training centre will be full operational by April, it is likely to be a non-starter.

This is because the East Herts Council, under whose jurisdiction the Brickendonbury centre falls, holds the position that issues covering planning and development encountered in previous applications remain relevant to new proposals  to converting existing buildings to provide accommodation for athletes, installing a football pitch, and extending an existing swimming pool on the site.

The council’s communications officer Nick White told the Sun in an email response to queries that the Brickendonbury site is within the green belt, surrounded by protected woodland.  Some of the buildings are listed.  As all these will need to be taken into account when planning application comes in, the council expect it will be a couple of months before a planning application is submitted.

In view of the stand taken by the East Herts Council, it is unlikely even if planning permission is approved, renovations can be completed by April.

This has led Nadeswaran to ask: who gave the deputy prime minister wrong or false information on the progress of the plans to turn the Tun Abdul Razaak Research Centre in Brickendonbury into a high-performance sports centre and which would be fully operational by April.

This and many other questions relating to the cost and the justification for such a RM69 million sports centre in London — which is likely to cost many times over before the final bill is in — also demand an answer from Najib to prove that he is not leading an incompetent, unprofessional and shambolic Cabinet Committee on Sports Development.

The short sorry history of the RM490 million London Sports Complex turned into RM69 million Sports Centre raises grave questions about the integrity of the  entire decision-making process at the highest Cabinet level.

(Issued Wednesday 14th February 2007)

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 17 February 2007, 1:22 pm and is filed under
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
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Good Governance
,
Sports
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Police afflicted by “close-one-eye” syndrome

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan made a shocking confession when he spoke on “Crime and Changing Social Values in the Malaysian Society” during a seminar at the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday — that the Police is afflicted by the “close-one-eye” syndrome.

Musa lamented  that in the war against crime, the police are at times frustrated by some politicians who want the police to “keep one eye open and one  eye closed”.
(Sin Chew)

This is most shocking. Musa should not be lamenting about the “close-one-eye” syndrome in the police frustrating the campaign against crime. He should have declared as the Inspector-General of Police that he would no more tolerate such “close-one-eye” syndrome, whether caused by interfering politicians, corruption or rogue policemen.

Musa should have gone one step further —  publicly name the  police officials and the “interfering politicians” who had acted  against the public interest in their “close-one-eye” conspiracy to frustrate the forces of law and order.

Both parties in the “close-one-eye” syndrome, whether the police or the interfering politicians, are breaking the law and  committing serious offences in frustrating the police war against crime.

Musa’s lament proved that the Royal Police Commission entrusted with the task of making proposals to create an efficient, incorruptible, professional and world-class police service had been both a waste of time and public resources as well as a great letdown of public expectations — that some 21 months after the Royal Commission Report, public confidence have reached a new crisis point.

This is not only caused by the IGP’s shocking  admission of the “close-one-eye” syndrome in the police war against crime, but also  by escalation in the crime index, which had been vividly highlighted  by the killing of the former top crime buster, former Penang Chief Police Officer, Datuk Albert Mah;  the
burglary
of the house of former CID director Datuk Fauzi Shaari in Shah Alam and the
hijacking
 in Johor Bahru of the  RM3.5 million container truck transporting 10,000 cellphones from a factory in Pasir Gudang.

The increasing public perception is that the police have lost control of its most important function and duty to keep crime low and protect the personal safety and property of Malaysians, investors and visitors especially in the Visit Malaysia Year 2007.

With public  confidence in the police at a new crisis low, there can be no more delay in the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) as an effective external oversight mechanism to ensure that the Police  stay loyal to their mandate and  public expectations that it transforms itself into an efficient, incorruptible, professional and world-class police service which excels in the three core police areas  of keeping crime low, fight police corruption and respect human rights.

An immediate announcement by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on the IPCMC is the only effective way left to restore public confidence in the police — but it must be an IPCMC which has not been watered down in terms of functions and powers as proposed by the Royal Police Commission as to be a meaningless body like Suhakam.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 17 February 2007, 3:10 pm and is filed under
Police
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HPAIR Conference  07 in Beijing

Email from Sri Ram Krishnan:
“Wishing you a happy CNY. Hope all is well during this period.  I need a small favour, again.  HPAIR 07 (the conference which you helped me publicize last year) has just been finalised and I have forwarded the publicity flyer with this email. I would appreciate if you could put it up on your blog so that Malaysian students can be part of the two conferences again.

“Btw, last year we had quite a number of Msian students! Much better than 05..thanks partly to you and other bloggers out there!

“p.s : I am not the chairperson anymore but helping the organising committee at harvard and in china as much as I can.  as usual, any questions out there regarding hpair can be forwarded to me. – Sriram Krishnan
”

—————————————————————

HPAIR CONFERENCES 2007

ACADEMIC CONFERENCE

—————————————————————

DATES: August 17-20, 2007

LOCATION: Beijing

WEBSITE:
http://www.hpair2007.org/aconf/

FINAL APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 15th, 2007

The Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) invites you to participate in our annual summer student conference in Asia.

HPAIR is a partnership between the students and faculty of Harvard University, offering a sustained academic program and a forum of exchange to facilitate discussion of the most important economic, political, and social issues relevant to the Asia-Pacific region.

HPAIR’s international conference has emerged as the largest annual Harvard event in Asia and the largest annual student conference in the Asia-Pacific region, attracting a wide variety of distinguished speakers and future leaders as Harvard’s student outpost in Asia. Past speakers at our conferences include former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung, Singapore President S.R. Nathan, Secretary-General of ASEAN Ong Keng Yong, and former Japanese Finance Minister Heizo Takanaka.

Both delegates and papers are welcome! Applications for both are online and located at
www.hpair2007.org/apply/

The theme will be Engaging Asia: Discourse and Dialogue

——————————————————

 WORKSHOP TOPICS

——————————————————

Our HPAIR 2007 workshops will focus on the following six topics:

-Economic Growth in Asia and its Effects on Society -Comparative Notions of Leadership -Understanding Security Issues in East Asia -Inequality and Social Policy in Asia -Asia’s Information Society -Popular Culture in Asia

In addition, HPAIR Academic Conference will offer delegates opportunities to participate in field trips, visits to our host schools, and gala dinner.

—————————————————————

BUSINESS CONFERENCE

—————————————————————

Engaging Asia: Collaboration and Competition August 24th — 26th, 2007 Hong Kong, Grand Hyatt and Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre

(HKCEC)

Co-hosted by the University of Hong Kong.

WEBSITE: http://www.hpair2007.org/bconf/ FINAL APPLICATION DEADLINE: March 15th, 2007

The Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) is a collaboration between the students and faculty of Harvard University, offering a sustained academic program and a forum of exchange to facilitate discussion of the most important economic, political, and social issues relevant to the Asia-Pacific region.

The HPAIR Business Conference annually brings together hundreds of international students and young professionals to interact and learn from the most prominent leaders from the world of business, government and law.  Featuring over 30 speakers from local and overseas, 300 international delegates and a roster of world class sponsors, the HPAIR Business Conference promotes discourse on the critical issues influencing Asia’s dynamic business landscape.

Past speakers have included the following prominent leaders in business and finance:

Victor Fung, Group Chairman Li & Fung Group Liu Mingkang, Chairman of the People’s Bank of China Frank-J?rgen Richter, Director of the World Economic Forum Philip Murphy, former President of Goldman Sachs Asia

Plenaries:

–          Made in China: The Competitive Advantage

–          Pan Asian Integration: Economic Growth and Foreign Investment

Panels:

–          Acres of Diamonds: Asia’s Outstanding Entrepreneurs and How to Find Them

–          Capital Rules: Risk, Reward and Innovation in Asia’s

Financial Institutions

–          Selling News, Selling Fun: Media and Entertainment in Asia

–          Home-grown Dragons: How Asia’s Family Firms became World Leaders

–         Asia (TM): Building a Brand in Asia

–          Global Investors: Asia’s Capital Working at Home and Abroad

–          Law in the Boardroom, Law on the Streets: Corporate

Governance and Regulation

–          Bright and Green: The Future of Energy, Infrastructure, and the Environment

Workshops:

–          Mergers and Acquisitions

–          Consumer Branding

–          Law and Regulation

–          Managing and Recruiting Talent

The HPAIR Business Conference now invites all university students to apply to participate as conference delegates. Graduate students, post-graduate students and professionals are also welcome to apply as a regular delegate.

If you would like to know more about HPAIR 2007 Business Conference, please go to
http://www.hpair2007.org/bconf/
 for more information.

Online applications are now available.

For any inquiries about HPAIR, please feel free to email
[email protected]

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 22 February 2007, 9:46 am and is filed under
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CJ Fairuz’s poor taste in equating Judicial Appointments Commission to “nudity”

The response of
Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim
 likening proposal for an independent judicial commission on appointment and promotion of judges as akin to nudity rather than transparency is ill-advised, in poor taste and reflect badly  on the office of Chief Justice.

Ahmad Fairuz may be unhappy with the proposal of an independent judicial commission to oversee the selection and promotion of judges, but he should realize that this proposal pre-dates his appointment to the top judicial post in the land  and meant to enhance public confidence in the system of justice and  in that context,  there is nothing personal against any personal holder of the office.

Ahmad Fairuz should not have questioned  the motives of those who had made the proposal, such as the Bar Council and several prominent lawyers, posing the rhetorical question:

“Are we to allow whoever has cases in court and who lost to decide on the fate of judges?”

He ignores the support of retired judges for the proposal.

While claiming to welcome any memorandum on the proposed  independent judicial commission, Ahmad Fairuz made clear his opposition when he told the
New Straits Times
in Kota Baru after chairing a meeting with Kelantan judges yesterday:

“I started (as the Chief Justice) in 2003 with accountability and integrity. We have been transparent.

“But transparency should have its limits. Don’t tell me when we are transparent, we have to be nude. That is not transparency, that’s nudity.

“You want everything to be absolute? There is no such thing as absolute freedom or absolute transparency.

“That’s the way I look at things.”

In the first place,  it is absolutely wrong and  inapt to categorise the proposal of an independent Judicial Commission as an exercise in nudity rather than transparency, especially when this judicial reform had been adopted by other countries such as Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Secondly, the proposal for a Judicial Appointments Commission was not made only during Fairuz’s  tenure as Chief Justice.

I for one had been calling for a new system of judicial appointments to ensure transparency, top-quality judges  and a world-class justice system since the nineties — ever since the country was plunged into a series of  crises of confidence in the independence, impartiality and integrity of the system of justice lasting for over one-and-a-half decade since the 1988 arbitrary sacking of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President and two Supreme Court Judges, Tan Sri Wan Suleiman Datuk George Seah.

My arguments for judicial reforms especially in the system of appointments are as valid today as when I made them since the nineties, viz:

1. That Malaysia needs a more transparent process of judicial appointments to ensure that the justice administered by the judges will be of superior quality because they are professionally qualified persons of integrity and good character, independent and courageous; and

2. The continuing flaws of the present system of judicial appointment, which depend on the decisions by two persons, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice, include:

	Selection and appointment procedure not transparent;

	Consultative process is selective;

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

When the United Kingdom introduced a new system of judicial appointments which is open to public scrutiny  in recognition that the confidence of both the public and the legal profession in an independent judiciary is of the first importance, nobody least of all the UK judges objected to the indignity of being subjected to an exercise in  “nudity”.

Apart from the statutory qualifications for judicial office, two fundamental principles underpin the new UK system of selecting candidates for judicial appointment, viz:

	Appointment is strictly on merit.

	Significant weight is attached to the independent views of members of the professional community (judges and members of the legal profession) as to suitability for appointment.

Chief Justice Fairuz should demonstrate he is reform-minded and not just supporter of reform in rhetoric by leading judicial reforms with a new judicial appointment process which is more transparent and is open to public scrutiny to restore the confidence of both the public and the legal profession in an independent judiciary.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 22 February 2007, 3:30 pm and is filed under
Court
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14 RM70,000 Ops Sikap XII watchtowers worth only half or less?

Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu has denied the allegation of the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan that  five of the 14 traffic
watchtowers are unsafe
for use — with one each in Selangor, Penang, Perak, Malacca and Negri Sembilan.

Sin Chew Daily
reported with photograph on Thursday that the watchtower built at Tampin-Gemas Road  16km was so fragile and unsafe that it had been abandoned for the safety of the traffic policemen on duty.

It  was first reported on 12th February 2007 (with photograph)  that 14  manned watchtowers will be built in accident-prone stretches of federal, state and municipal roads for use durings Ops Sikap 12.

Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy had announced that the Cabinet had approved close to RM1 million to build the first 14 watchtowers in Peninsular Malaysia on roads where nine out of every 10 fatal accidents occur, and that each tower is expected to cost the Public Works Department about RM70,000.

On the same day, I received the following  SMS from someone from the construction industry:

“Today’s NST page 8 prime news says 14 watch towers to cost government RM70k each is grossly over-priced. “

When I SMSed back to ask what would be the proper price range for such watchtowers, back came the reply:

“25 — 30k with transport and installation costing 5k a piece.”

Bearing in mind the scandal of the RM30,000 Kung Fu Chinese primary school (Muar) repair contract where only RM3,000 value of work was delivered,  what is the “leakage” in the nearly million-ringgit worth of 14 watchtowers?

After the lesson of RM3,000 value of work actually delivered  for RM30,000 school renovation project, there should be audit for everyone of the 14 traffic watchtowers built for Ops Sikap XII as to whether they are safe and  each really worth RM70,000 for the  safety of traffic policemen and road users.

Although the 14 traffic watchtowers is a comparatively minor construction project as compared to mega-projects running into tens or hundreds of millions or even billions of ringgit, the safety of the traffic policemen and road users are at stake and this matter should not be taken lightly.

Let there be transparency and accountability as to how and to who the contract or contracts had been awarded to.

It is of course not for Samy Vellu to conduct  any such an audit. I call on the Auditor-General to immediately dispatch a team to audit the construction and cost of the 14 watchtowers and make a public report.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 23 February 2007, 3:02 pm and is filed under
Good Governance
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Snoop squads – remove Rosol as Terengganu  Exco and Islam Hadhari Committe Chairman

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi went out of his way during his visit to Indonesia to
“shoot down”
a move by the Terengganu state government to set up a “snoop squad” or “informers” who would be rewarded for reporting “immoral activities”.

Stating his disapproval of such moves by religious authorities, Abdullah told them to stop policing the morals of Muslims and  concentrate on tacking
various urgent issues
facing them.

The issue at stake is not so much  about Terengganu state government attempting to set up a moral “snoop squad” or “informers”, but the credibility and legitimacy of the Prime Minister’s authority.

Why there is yet another attempt at moral policing, and this time under the auspices of the Terengganu Islam Hadhari Committee, despite the previous attempts in Malacca and Selangor  to have either volunteer “snoop squads”  or Mat Skodeng which were disbanded after the federal government had made known its disapproval as well as the international furore  following the scandalous khalwat raid of an elderly American couple in Langkawi in Kedah?

From the statements given by the Terengganu Islam Hadhari Committee  chairman,
Datuk Rosol Wahid
in the past two days,  it is clear that the Terengganu state government or at least Rosol  is not very convinced by Abdullah’s directive or reasons.

This is because despite Rosol’s denial about a Mat Skodeng squad, he maintained that
“We only have informants who are volunteers to provide information to enforcement officers of the state Religious Affairs Department”.

Abdullah rightly
rebutted
 this, pointing out that there was not much difference between spies and informers.

Abdullah should find out why after more than three years of his introduction of the concept of Islam Hadhari, it is still equated by the various religious authorities whether at national or state level with moral policing as to justify the repeated attempts to set up “snoop squads” or encourage “moral spies”.

Abdullah must remove Rosol Wahid as Teregganu State Exco  and Islam Hadhari Committee Chairman to restore his credibility, authority and even legitimacy because of Rosol’s defiance or just  lack of understanding of his directive to end all “snoop squads” or “moral informers”.

The Mat Rempits, despite or because of the support of Umno Youth leaders Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein and Khairy Jamaluddin, have grown to be an even worse national menace, not only to the Muslim community but to all Malaysians.  What are the various religious authorities doing before the Mat Rempit menace careens out of all control?

Corruption has worsened during the past three years despite the pledge that  anti-corruption would be the centerpiece of the  Abdullah administration, as reflected in the seven-point plunge in Malaysia’s ranking in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index from No. 37 in 2003 to No. 44 in 2006.

Are the various religious authorities prepared to give top priority to fight corruption and abuses of power  in their programmes in  response to the Prime Minister’s  advice that they should be tackling more urgent issues?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 23 February 2007, 1:20 pm and is filed under
Religion
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A kink to login to  the blog

A regular poster emailed the following complaint:

It seems impossible to login into your blog (for posting of comments) by reason of technical difficulties ie the recurrent appearance of message : ‘Your session has expired.ERROR: Invalid Username – Username: xxx'”

I also  had this problem at first when the temporary blogsite,
English.limkitsiang.com
was switched back to
blog.limkitsiang.com
 two days ago.

I was advised to clean up the cache.  If using  Explorer browser, for instance, go to
Tools
,
Internet Options
,
Delete Cookies
, and
Delete Files
.  The problem vanished.

I emailed back to the poster suggesting he try out the same method. This is his reply:

“Your suggestion to clean up the cache, via Tools, Internet Options, Delete Cookies, and Delete Files actually worked! I can’t believe or understand it.

“Now no more recurrent appearances of the message : ‘Your session has expired.ERROR: Invalid Username’ – Username, which paved the way for username and password to be log-in resulting in the ‘login’ window for postings for each thread to appear below it.

“On your question whether you should put up an announcement, I think there is no harm if you just advise those encountering such a problem, if they do encounter it, to clean up the cache as you suggested.

“As  I don’t see a number of regular posters posting their comments, it is well nigh possible more than a few are affected.

“Many people are unaware that as they use the computer, cookies and files are automatically stored up, which appear to obstruct the smooth transition to and operation of your new Word Press publishing platform. And we don’t know how common is this problem. Unless those affected drop a line to you, there’s no way they can communicate this problem via your blog because they (like me) can’t log in.

“But If they do e-mail, it is also possible that it may be retoured for being possibly wrong address as you will notice that your email address in the new word press blog is printed as
[email protected]
 – there are two (2) l l for ‘Lim’ which I expect should be one ‘l’ only.”

I thank this poster for pointing out the incorrect blog email. The above exchange is for the benefit of posters who are frustrated by the same kink blocking their login to the blog – just clean up the cache and delete  the cookies.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 24 February 2007, 6:15 pm and is filed under
Announcement
,
IT
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Arsenal training at Brickendonbury — Did Najib lie?

After chairing the meeting of the  Cabinet Committee for Sports on February 8, 2007 Deputy Prime Minister  Datuk Seri Najib Razak  announced a RM68.7 million
“refurbishment”
of the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre (TARRC) in Brickendonbury, London into a high-performance sports training centre to be fully operational in April.

Najib said agreement “in principle” had been reached with Arsenal to train the national under-16 football team, which will be the first to use the London centre.

The
Weekend Mail
, in its first issue after its suspension, carried a report raising the question whether Najib had lied.

This is the report,
“TRAINING STINT FOR NATIONAL UNDER-16 FOOTBALL TEAM – Arsenal says it’s unaware of proposal”
 by Rizal Hashim:

THE proposed Malaysia-Arsenal joint-venture to equip the country’s young footballers with the necessary weaponry to raise their game has been thrown into doubt after it emerged that no formal discussion had been held between the two parties.

This was confirmed through an e-mail response from the communications department of Arsenal to Mailsport on Friday.

“I am afraid we are not able to provide you with answers to your questions or an official club comment, however, I can confirm that the club does not know about the proposed arrangement and furthermore, we have no involvement in any such project,” the statement said.

Upon further investigation, Mailsport discovered the only discussion on the subject was held at Arsenal’s state-of-the-art training centre in Hertfordshire, between a five-man recce team from Kuala Lumpur and the centre manager, Sean O’Connor, just before the Cabinet Committee on Sports Development’s announcement on the proposed stint on Feb 8.

NSC director-general Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz declined to comment but FA of Malaysia general secretary Datuk Seri Dr Ibrahim Saad confirmed the only formal contact between the two parties took place when the high-powered group was taken for a tour of the training centre recently.

Ibrahim, who was a member of the five-man team, said the Sports Ministry were in a better position to explain because the proposed stint was part of the Government’s agreement with the powerful European football bloc of G-14, which among others, was to pave the way for Malaysian teams to train with members of the pressure group.

Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein, one of the most influential figures in British football, is also the G-14 chairman.

Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said was not available for comment.

Ibrahim said the arrangement was mooted because of the centre’s proximity with the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre in Brickendonbury, which will be converted into a high-performance training centre.

“We spoke to the training centre manager, O’Connor, about the idea and he told us to discuss with the Arsenal management,” said Ibrahim.

Apart from Ibrahim, completing the five-man team were Ramlan, NSC board member Philip Chan and NSC officials, Mej Muhammad Abdul Rani and David Chiam.

The proposed stint for the national Under-16 team was disclosed by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak after chairing a two-hour Cabinet Committee for Sports meeting in Putrajaya on Feb 8.

Ramlan was quoted by New Straits Times on Feb 9 as saying that the English Premiership giant had agreed in principle to the project.

An independent website on the Olympic Games 2012, insidethegames.com, claimed the idea was shrouded in mystery. It can be accessed at www.insidethegames.com/php/free_newsletters.php, while a newspaper, Hertfordshire Mercury, in their issue dated Feb 16, claimed the 13-time English champions had no knowledge of the agreement.

“We have no knowledge of this training camp or these proposals. I can categorically say that we have not been approached by the Malaysian Government,” an Arsenal spokesman told the paper.

The online report is available at www.hertsessexnews.co.uk/ news/mercury/hertfordshire_mercury/2007/02/16/gunners%20on %20target%20to%20train%20 malaysian%20team.lpf

The Arsenal training centre, covering 143 acres, boasts of impressive facilities, which include six changing rooms, a steamroom, a swimming pool with adjustable floor, gymnasium, treatment rooms, massage baths, a restaurant and excellent pitches.

Ibrahim believed FAM technical director Robert Alberts, the driving force behind the Arsenal Soccer Schools in Malaysia, and an agent representing the interests of G-14 and the Malaysian Government, had been given the mandate to negotiate with Arsenal.

The sports facilities at TARRC are expected to be operational by April but a Malaysian daily recently reported that the plan to convert TARRC into a sports centre had hit a wall because an application for permission to renovate the centre had yet to be submitted to the local authority.

What has Najib and the Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman got to say?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 24 February 2007, 8:18 pm and is filed under
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Why the difference of RM6.4 billion or RM9.85 billion in MITI and UNCTAD figures for  2006 FDIs

For the past two weeks, Malaysians had been fed with the news that good economic times are back,  with the country drawing a record RM20.2 billion in foreign investment in manufacturing, a record 2006  trade volume  breaching RM1 trillion, rocketing share prices, a strong ringgit and rising foreign reserves.

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had denied that an imminent general election is on the cards because of the slew of good economic news to generate a “feed good euphoria” reminiscent of the  period before the 2004 general election.

Although the next general election will not be held in the next few months, everyone would expect  the holding of early general elections in the next eight to 14 months before April 2008, when Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would regain his civil liberties including the right to stand for elections at the end of his  five-year disqualification from the date of his prison release.

But are the good economic times back for the people of Malaysia? If so, a little-noticed announcement on Chinese New Year’s Day has sent out a very different message.

On February 18, 2007,
Bernama
 reported that  the government had scrapped its earlier plan to extend the textbook loan scheme to all school students, both at primary and secondary level, from next year.   Deputy Education Minister, Datuk Noh Omar was quoted as saying that the move was scrapped as the ministry would incur an extra sum of over RM100 million yearly.

When the government has to cancel the textbook loan scheme for all students because it cannot afford the additional expenditure of RM100 million, it strains credibility to believe that the government and the country is aflush with funds.

Malaysians have been told in the past fortnight that the country is back on the global investment map, in reversal of the gloomy news in the past few months that Malaysia is in danger of dropping out from the radar of foreign investors because of increasing lack of international competitiveness, whether in efficiency of public service, quality of education, good governance, transparency and integrity.

The United Nations Conference Trade and Development (Unctad) World Investment Report 2006 last October revealed unflattering figures about Malaysia for the year 2005,  viz:

	Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Malaysia dipped to US$3.97 billion in 2005  from US$4.62 billion in 2004;

	For the first time since 1990, Indonesia managed to overtake Malaysia in drawing FDIs. Inflows to Indonesia surged by 177% to US$5.26 billion in 2005. Indonesia  registered a 177 per cent  hike in FDI from US$1.89 billion in 2004 to US$5.26 billion in 2005, while Malaysia suffered a 14.3 per cent shrinkage of FDI.

	As a whole, FDIs to South, East and South-East Asia reached a new high of US$165 billion in 2005, a 19% increase over 2004, with China (US$72 billion), Hong Kong (US$36 billion) and Singapore (US$20 billion) as the biggest receipients of FDIs in 2005.

Ten days ago, the Minister for International Trade and Industry, Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz gave a glowing picture of foreign investments for last year, with one mainstream newspaper declaring: “Malaysia is back on the global investment map”.

She announced a record RM46 billion achieved last year — RM20.2 billion of approved foreign investments in manufacturing as compared with RM17.9 billion in 2005 and RM25.8 billion in domestic investments compared with RM13.1 billion in 2005.

Rafidah’s FDI figures however do not tally with the latest Unctad figures released in its
“Number 1, 2007 Unctad Investment Brief”
 which has given an even lower estimate for FDI for Malaysia for 2006 as compared to 2005.

In its
preliminary estimates of FDI inflows in 2006
, Unctad figures for Malaysia see a shrinkage of 1.6 per cent to US$3.9 billion from US$4.0 the previous year, while  FDIs for the whole region of “South, East and South-east Asia” register an increase of 13.1 per cent from  US$165.1 billion in 2005 to US$186.7 billion, with Thailand recording a 114.7 per cent increase  from US$3.7 billion in 2005 to US$7.9 billion and Singapore a 58% increase from US$20.1 billion in 2005 to US$31.9 billion.

The Prime Minister  should explain the  RM6.4 billion difference in MITI’s  FDI figure of RM20.2 billion (or US$5.7 billion)  for 2006 and UNCTAD’s preliminary estimates of US$3.9 billion  (RM13.8 billion) for the same year.

This difference would increase to RM9.85 billion if we take into consideration two qualifications to the MITI figures released by Rafidah:

Firstly, the figures are for approved FDI figures for the year which are very different from actual FDI inflows for the year. For instance, for 2005, approved FDIs in manufacturing was RM17.9 billion (US$4.71), but actual FDI inflow into the country was US$3.97 (RM15.1 billion) — a shortfall of RM2.8 billion.

Secondly, the FDIs in manufacturing represents only 75% of total FDIs, which will bring the difference between FDIs for manufacturing as approved and actual inflows for 2005 to RM6.6 billion.

On the same  basis that some 75 per cent of FDI inflows in 2006 was for manufacturing, then the difference between MITI and Unctad figures  for FDI inflows for manufacturing would increase further to RM 9.85 billion — which is no small figure.

A full and proper explanation for these different set of FDI figures should be given to the people in keeping with the government’s pledge of accountability, transparency and good governance.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 24 February 2007, 10:46 am and is filed under
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How Samy Vellu can transform from Dracula to saint

Works Minister and MIC President, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu is both incensed and very hurt.

This came across powerfully in the  exclusive interview  he gave for New Sunday Times today,
“‘Works Minister, still smarting over being accused of ‘going for blood’, says… ‘I’m no Dracula'”
.

He showed his feelings in the very first question of the interview, when he was asked about his “outburst about not being ‘the bad boy’ of tolls”, as follows:

Q: Your outburst about not being “the bad boy” of tolls took many by surprise. All kinds of allegations have been levelled at you over the years regarding toll hikes, so why did you react that way?

A: There’s pressure being applied now by the opposition. They were trying to paint a picture that I make all these decisions to bring hardship to road users and the people, which is not true.

I had wanted to say it for a long time, so I did it on that day (Feb 11), because, the previous day, Lim Kit Siang (the Opposition leader) had used a word which was really hurtful.

Lim Kit Siang said I was going for blood. He was indirectly saying I’m a Dracula. Only a Dracula goes for blood. A man and politician of his age and experience should be more cultured when he talks about other people.

First, let me state that “Dracula” had never entered my mind when in my
statement of 3rd February
 I had demanded to know why Samy Vellu was “suddenly so ‘bloodthirsty’ as to want four Opposition leaders, namely Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and Tian Chua of PKR, Ronnie Liu of DAP and Dr. Hatta Ramli (PAS) jailed for at least a year under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) for revealing that the government had guaranteed profits to Litrak in the Lebuhraya Damansara-Puchong (LDP) concession agreement?”

My
statement
continued:

What have the four done that they must be treated like ‘highway robbers’ and must be made to  suffer the  most severe form of punitive punishment, of being jailed for at least one year, if they are charged under the OSA and found guilty of unauthorized communication of an official secret?

Have they done anything akin to sabotage or imperil the national economy, subvert the national security or undermine national stability?

I do not believe that Samy Vellu, even in his most creative best, would be able to make out a prima facie case that the four Opposition leaders had done any of these terrible things in connection with the publication of the Litrak LDP concession agreement.

I went back to the news reports as to what was revealed about the Litrak LDP concession — that the LDP concession

	was “lopsided and not done in the best interest of the people”.

	allows the concessionaire to continue collecting toll irrespective of whether the company is reaping profits or making losses.

	that the government has very little power under the agreement as the  concessionaire can continue to collect toll regardless of how much collection it has made.

Are these revelations so earth-shattering   as to shake the government, society and nation to their very roots as to require invocation of a draconian and repressive law to jail the four for a minimum term of one year each?

In fact, astute Malaysians would have guessed the lopsided contents in the concession agreements and privatization contracts, even without sighting them.

The question is what has made Samy Vellu so ‘bloodthirsty’ that he is behaving as if he has usurped the powers of the Attorney-General or had arrogated to himself the powers of a Super Attorney-General on toll concessions and OSA prosecutions?  Why is he demanding his pound of flesh, muttering that ‘they will have to pay the price’?

Samy Vellu should know that anyone charged and convicted under the OSA would be mandatorily jailed for a minimum of one year, regardless of whether the offence is grave or trivial, or the motive — whether it is to betray the country by selling national defence secrets or in the exercise of the  highest form of patriotism to uphold accountability, transparency and integrity and to expose corruption and abuses of power.

This was because Samy Vellu is one of the few remaining Cabinet Ministers responsible for the most  shameful, undemocratic, repressive, draconian and pernicious pieces of legislation in the land  –  the 1986 amendment to the Official Secrets Act imposing a mandatory minimum  one-year jail sentence on conviction, regardless of the gravity of the offence or the noble motivation for the disclosure.

It was only after Samy Vellu had lost out in the public argument for his “bloodthirstiness” in wanting the four Opposition

“whistleblowers” jailed for at least one year under the OSA while being blissfully unconcerned of similar breaches of the OSA by the concession companies, equity analysts and rating agencies which had freely made use of “official secrets” in the highway concessions to publicly flog their shares, loans and bonds that the Works Minister reacted with a lot of hurt and angst.

In another statement, I had described this as a most deplorable and retrograde  government and Ministerial  mindset which is only interested in using the  OSA against whistleblowers who had acted  in the public interest  but not against  profiteers for personal and private gain.

Now, Samy Vellu wants to fly the standard of a reformer and advocate for government openness, accountability and transparency over his efforts in the Cabinet to declassify the highway concessions.

Let me tell Samy Vellu that he cannot make the transformation from “Dracula” (his own term and not mine) to a saint unless he publicly apologises for his earlier “bloodthirstiness” in demanding that the  four Opposition leaders be jailed for at least one year for “blowing the whistle” about the lopsided Litrak LDP concession.

This act of remorse and contrition must be followed up by his public advocacy, starting in the Cabinet, that all OSA investigations and proceedings,  including against the four Opposition leaders over the toll concession, should be halted until the OSA is phased out and replaced by a Freedom of Information Act.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 25 February 2007, 10:38 am and is filed under
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ACA Zulkipli must establish his integrity or be removed immediately

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general, Datuk Zulkipli Mat Noor should appear before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity to clear all doubts that he is qualified to continue to helm the anti-corruption agency.

I will propose at today’s meeting of the Parliamentary Select Committee that Zulkipli be summoned to appear at an emergency meeting  to respond to various serious allegations which had been made against him, ranging from corruption to sexual crimes, which must not remain unrebutted so as to salvage the credibility, legitimacy and authority of the ACA.

If Zulkipli is not prepared to appear before the Parliamentary Select Committee to establish his integrity in an emergency meeting, he must be removed as the ACA head.  The Cabinet  should put this item on the top of its agenda at its meeting tomorrow.

Malaysiakini
 yesterday reported these allegations which were filed last year by former ACA officer Mohamad Ramli Manan to the then inspector-general of police Mohd Bakri Omar.

In the July 4, 2006 report, Ramli named the ACA chief – who is a former top cop – and referred to him as ‘B1’.

“As you are aware, B1 was a member of your police force and his last appointment there was as Sarawak chief police officer. It has come to the knowledge of the ACA that B1 was a very corrupt senior police officer and had amassed substantial property and assets through corrupt practices,” he told Mohd Bakri in his report.

Ramli claimed that in 1997 – when Zulkipli was Johor police chief – the ACA had then learnt that he was “in possession of properties disproportionate to his known source of income” and had indulged in “immoral and criminal” activities.

Apart from this, Ramli also disclosed that the police had allegedly investigated Zulkipli in connection with a sexual crime following a report filed by a housewife with the Dang Wangi police station in Kuala Lumpur.

Following this report, he said the housewife had also filed additional reports with the police in Negri Sembilan’s Mambau and Kuala Lumpur’s Segambut as well as Dang Wangi for alleged assault and use of criminal force.

“There were also evidence of interference by B1 in the course of the police investigation wherein witnesses were threatened not to cooperate,” said Ramli.

Ramli also claimed that the ACA director-general owned several business interests and properties, including six houses in Pagoh, Johor.

He said the ACA learnt that the police had investigated Zulkipli for allegedly misusing government vehicles to carry out regular checks on these properties and business interests.

According to the report, these allegations were well-known in the police circle and several police officers had also offered evidence of B1’s corrupt activities to the Police Royal Commission two years ago.

“As a senior ACA officer, I have to categorically state that B1’s continued presence in the civil service, notably in ACA, whose main duty is to eradicate corruption, is a security threat to the country,” the report added.

Ramli expressed hope that the police would launch a thorough investigation into the allegations.

In the final paragraph of his report, the former ACA officer stated that it was on record that he had informed the relevant authorities, including the organisation he had worked for, regarding these allegations since 2003. However, these were ignored.

“I have to state that this is my last act of national duty since I am going into compulsory retirement. The ACA being a very important public institution should be supported by all and sundry and see that it discharges its national duty in the best interest of the public and country,” said Ramli, who retired soon after he filed the report.

The ‘first information report’ which  was also sent to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the attorney-general, the auditor-general and director-general of the civil service, was made public yesterday by the chairperson  of Movement for Democracy and Anti-Corruption (Gerak) Ezam Mohd Nor at a press conference yesterday.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 27 February 2007, 10:15 am and is filed under
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Judicial accountability – will the Altantuny murder trial be brought forward from March 2008?

Last week, when making his controversial,  ill-advised and ill-considered comment likening the proposal  for an independent judicial commission on appointment and promotion of judges as akin to
nudity
 rather than transparency, the Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim claimed that he was both an  advocate and practitioner of judicial accountability and transparency.

Ahmad Fairuz said:  “I  started (as the Chief Justice) in 2003 with accountability and integrity.  We have been transparent.”

I have three questions for Ahmad Fairuz concerning accountability and integrity of the Chief Justice.

Firstly,  will the Altantunya Shaariibuu murder trial set for hearing in March 2008  be brought forward in line with the maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied” as well as his earlier statement that the March 2008 trial date is “too far off”?

The Star in a front-page headline of 6th January 2007
“March 7, 2008: Altantunya murder trial — TOO LONG A WAIT”
quoted the
Chief Justice
:

“The date is too far off. But we are appointing 16 new judges. Hopefully the trial can be brought forward.”

Secondly, what has happened to his public undertaking  on his appointment as Chief Justice some four years ago in 2003 to recast the Judges’ Code of Ethics to restore public confidence in judicial independence,  impartiality and integrity.

The Judges’ Code of  Ethics was promulgated in  1994  to establish standards for ethical conduct of judges and enhance public confidence in an independent, fair and competent judiciary to deliver justice to all Malaysians, but the  chief wrecker of the 1994 Judges’ Code of Ethics was none other than its author, the then Chief Justice, Tun Eusoff Chin, who violated and discredited  the Code of Ethics by his own   judicial misconduct  and impropriety, to the extent that he left the high judicial office in disgrace.

When he became Chief Justice, Ahmad Fairuz committed himself to recast the Judges’ Code of Ethics but nothing has been heard about it although almost four years have passed.

I had in May 2003 called on the Chief Justice to initiate a nation-wide debate as to why the  Judges’ Code of Ethics had  failed  in the previous  nine years to enhance public confidence in the independence, fairness and competence of the system of justice in Malaysia  and how it could be revamped.

In keeping with the principle of public accountability of the judiciary, I had also asked that  Malaysians be told as to how the Code of Ethics had worked or failed to work in the previous  nine  years, how many complaints had been  received each year under the Code of Ethics, the number of judges who had been investigated and the outcome of such investigations.

I had stressed that the recasting of the Judges’ Code of Ethics must deal with its  three major defects:

	Absence of  satisfactory and accountable  mechanism for public complaints of  breaches of the Judges’ Code of Ethics;

	The Code of Ethics had not been satisfactorily formulated so as to deal in a more comprehensive manner with all instances of  judicial improprieties and misconduct as illustrated by the many judicial controversies and scandals; and

	How breaches against the Judges’ Code of Ethics could  be invoked against the Chief Justice himself.

Has the Chief Justice reneged on his commitment to recast the Judges’ Code of Ethics to fully restore public confidence in the  independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary?

Thirdly, why the post of Chief Judge of Malaya had not been filled for nearly two months since the retirement of Tan Sri Siti Normah on 5th January 2007.

The excuse that it will take some time to fill the position of the Chief Judge of Malaya because the name of the candidate had to be forwarded to the Prime Minister who would advise the Conference of Rulers on the appointment and that the Conference only meet once in three months is completely unacceptable, as it is known at least six months in advance when the position would definitely fall vacant — when Siti Normah was given a six-month extension (which cannot be further extended) when she turned 66 on July 6 last year.

It reflects poorly on the efficiency and professionalism of the Chief Justice that he cannot ensure a smooth transition for high judicial appointments so that  a new Chief Judge of Malaya was able to take over from Siti Normah on her retirement on 5th January 2007.

At present, Ahmad Fairuz is the Acting Chief Judge of Malaya. Is this proper and even constitutional?  Will Malaysia one day have a Chief Justice who even trebles  up as Acting President of the Court of Appeal as well as Chief Judge of Malaya?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 27 February 2007, 7:37 am and is filed under
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Let’s de-segregate our schools

Let’s de-segregate our schools

Azly Rahman

“School is not preparation for life, but school is life,” wrote American pragmatist philosopher John Dewey.

We need to begin a national project of desegregating schools. I propose that all schools and educational institutions now catering to one particular race – be they Malay, Chinese, Tamil, Kadazan or Iban – must be integrated systematically and reorganised along the principles of multi-cultural education.

We must create a new breed of bumiputera – the neo-bumiputera class.

I do not see any other way we can become a truly multi-cultural nation and create an egalitarian society based on the way we currently organise our educational institutions. We may have a grand design that will take to the year 3000, but without a conscious effort to educate students to become critical, creative, ethical and futuristic radical human beings, we will drown in the wave of globalisation.

We may have a hardware worth RM23 billion and a software plan in hand, but without a mind-ware powerful enough to help develop governors of a future republic of virtue and social justice, our schools will continue to be better camps for totalitarianism.

However, as the great Brazilian educator Paulo Freire might say, there is a philosophy of hope, we can all explore.

I want to share the beauty of an effective philosophy of education that ought to now be experimented at a different level – true to our nation’s commitment to create a Bangsa Malaysia.

It is a system that has benefitted many and produced excellent individuals that are now the movers and shakers of our economy. We have great professors, politicians, scientists, lawyers, corporate figures, surgeons, entertainment gurus, and even rocket scientists from a system that has helped the poorest of the poor ‘bumiputeras’. I am talking about the Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) system.

I believe that education is not all about following blindly but making changes and creating alternate realities. I believe that we must put the best resources we have into creating a new breed of Malaysian who will destroy the barriers of race and class.

Education at all levels must be desegregated and all forms of protectionist policies and strategies of racial containment must be abolished. If we failing to do, we will see increasing erosion of race relations. I believe, too, that education is about extending a helping hand to those less fortunate.

Progressive education

The MRSM of the 1970s especially was a good experiment in human capital revolution and social engineering. It had great dedicated teachers – Malays, Chinese, Indians, Americans – who served selflessly. May God bless them.

Not only was I a child of the MRSM ‘experiment’ and a ‘product’ of the New Economic Policy (NEP), but I went on to teach in the college for several years, consulted for it when I went on to teach in university, and wrote papers on it. Twelve years ago, I even went on write a PhD proposal for Stanford University on MRSM and I still keep in touch with friends from the college. It is a good system that worked in the early years but lost its essence decades later.

MRSM taught its early students how to think critically and creatively, not to kowtow to leaders who abuse power and who are corrupt to the core. The philosophy was to create leaders, not followers. It was meant to transform the nation into an ethical polity, not destroy it beyond repair.

Because it is such a good system of education, because my interest is in the colour-blind profession of education, because education knows no discrimination based on colour, creed, or racial origin, and because the NEP and MRSM, in their hidden curriculum taught me about humanism more than racism, I think I have a better perspective now.

I believe the early MRSM philosophy can and should be used to educate the nation toward economic advancement and racial tolerance. MRSM should promote radical multi-culturalism, and produce great thinkers and doers and movers and shakers of all who call Malaysia their home and motherland. It should create leaders who are ethical, life-long learners, lovers of wisdom, and who will work for the poor of all races. After all, the government that funded MRSM is one for all races.

Not an elitist enterprise

We can no longer have segregated schools if we are to survive as a nation. This is the reality I have learned as I explore further the meaning of education. Looking at poverty and economic development in America, especially in New York city (Harlem, the Bronx, etc,) has taught me what is possible, humane, and socially just for children of all races.

Our children and grandchildren must be taught that education is not an elitist enterprise that only serves the rich and the privileged. The children of all races, especially from families of the abject poor must be taken out of their dehumanising condition, given the privileges of the bumiputera, educated by the best and brightest teachers who do not hold any prejudices, and groomed to become the ‘new bumiputera’ who will be committed to establish a new republic of virtue and social justice.

Imagine children of the poor of the newly arrived immigrants of different ethnic groups and faith, coming together in a system that teaches them what a living democracy means and about religious tolerance and peaceful solutions. Dare we create this new breed of bumiputera, with the mind of a 5th century BC Athenian?

I believe Islam and all religions do not approve educational apartheid. We need to ride the wave so that we may not be drowned in a tsunami of our economic contradictions. Therefore, let the successes of MRSM be replicated to help children of all races succeed.

In the early 1970s, MRSM had great teachers of all races who taught many what humanism means. In a similar vein, we must work together to gradually but surely dismantle schools and educational institutions that perpetuate the hegemony of one race over others.

Let us think of declaring educational segregation as unconstitutional. The US Supreme Court ruling of Brown versus Board of Education taught Americans what humanism in education means.

Dare we create a new Malaysian social order?

Dr. Azly Rahman,

Educator & Adjunct Professor;

Foundations of Civilizations, Education, & Politics

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 27 February 2007, 12:00 pm and is filed under
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Anatomy of a traffic disaster

ANATOMY OF A TRAFFIC DISASTER

by Z. Ibrahim

The Federal Highway, first envisioned in 1965 following separation of Singapore from Malaysia, became the main artery to serve the entire Klang Valley conurbation when Malaysia decided to make Port Klang its premier port then.

Opened in 1967, the Highway itself has undergone multiple metamorphoses to cater for the ever increasing population and industries on either side of the highway.

There was a period in the 80s’ when traffic jams to KL used to start at the Berkeley Gardens and a significant portion of Klang residents who worked in KL had to be on the road by 5am. The original 4-lane highway soon outlived its purpose despite the building of multiple interchanges in Petaling Jaya.

In 1992 Plus Expressway Berhad upgraded the entire highway to a 6-lane highway with toll plazas at Batu Tiga and Sungai Rasa. The highway handles such great volumes of traffic at any time of the day that jams can be quite difficult to predict as even minor mishaps have known to cause traffic to back-up on either side of the highway for miles.

To overcome these jams new expressways were built to not only relieve the burden on the Federal Highway but to ensure that cargo meant for the ports reached them on time.

The New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE) stretching from Bukit Raja near Klang town to Jalan Duta in Kuala Lumpur was completed and opened to traffic in 1990.  The NKVE was further complemented when the 17.5km Shapadu Highway or the North Klang Straits Bypass Highway (NNKSB) linking North Port to Bukit Raja was opened.

The Shah Alam Expressway (KESAS) connects West Port  to Sri Petaling and construction began in 1995 and Phase 1 (Seafield-Sri Petaling) was completed in 1997 and Phase 2 (Seafield-Pandamaran) in 1998. Incredibly enough the NKVE and KESAS highways have no direct interchanges to the Federal Highway and despite the addition of the New Pantai Expressway, residents in Klang especially South Klang cannot avoid the Federal Highway to reach their homes after work and this has now become an unbelievable daily nightmare.

At 5pm, after you pass the UITM campus the dreadful jams begin at the Sungai Rasa Toll complex. The six-lane highway narrows down to the original 4-lane Federal Highway of yesteryears at Taman Berkeley. The traffic from the upgraded Jambatan Kota can back-up for five kilometers or more as traffic crawls at this point.

You would have thought common sense would prevail and either this stretch would have been upgraded or development on either side curtailed till the highway can cope with traffic … but this is Klang where as the Zakaria Mat Deros affair has shown

… ..anything goes.

The Berkeley section of the “highway” is now choked with not only incoming traffic from KL but also from hundreds of motorists and customers who attend functions and gatherings at the Hokkien Association Building and two Chinese seafood restaurants on either side of the highway which have been miraculously given licenses to operate.

In addition three completed condominium complexes, the Regency, Dynasty and Pelangi condominiums all exit at this section and worse still the “highway” now has to contend with the new but still not completely open giant Centro office complex. Shophouses and residential homes are being built at the old Chinese Maternity Hospital site over and above the already existing Government Clinic Complex – all still within this stretch. If you think this is incompetent town planning there is unfortunately more… .

New Threat –  Prima Klang Avenue Office Complex

As you crawl past the upgraded Jambatan Kota and pass the MPK building on your right and the Land Office Complex on your left, the “highway” suddenly takes an acute turn. On your left at this turn what used to be Bukit Kota has now been slashed to make way for Klang’s newest office complex — Prima Klang Avenue.

This complex spanning more then 4 acres and “perched on the highest point of Klang” with “four-storeys of shops and six-storeys of offices”  apparently offers “an exciting mix of shops comprising food and beverage stores, entertainment outlets, fitness centre, banks and an entire level dedicated to automotive showrooms. Wide frontage and spacious corridors create a pleasant environment for leisure and relaxation.

All these come together to make Prima Klang Avenue an innovative one-stop hub, complemented by a scenic landscape with relaxing and majestic water features” … or so says the developer in his brochures.

The complex of course offers ” easy access via Jalan Jambatan Kota and Jalan Kota, the center of the business areas, putting it nearby the Klang Municipal Council, Klang District Office, banking institutions and PUAS, as well as a walk away from the upcoming new government administration offices.”

No doubt this will add up “to a steady traffic flow of some 400,000 people a day in this vibrant business area.” !! Scheduled for completion in mid-2008, Prima Klang Avenue promises to be the pulse of the heart of Klang town. Does the MPK know the consequences and ramifications of 400,000 people ending up at this critical part of the highway hardly a kilometer after Jambatan Kota and 300 meters before the Port Klang/Banting interchange?

You don’t have to be an Einstein to realize that traffic will virtually stall for motorists who slow down to gain entry into this new complex. Worse still the sharp curve is currently already a frequent site for traffic mishaps, what more with traffic flowing in and out.

Even if the developer had been overly optimistic and only 100,000 people converge at the complex and assuming that only 5% come in cars, that is 5,000 cars for the allocated 800 car park-lots the developer has reserved. The spillover to the highway will paralyze the KL-Klang Highway.

This would  mean traffic which already now backs up to the Sungai Rasa toll gate will now be backing up to UITM.  This would also mean that Klangites will either have to spend an additional hour or more on the road trying to get home or leave office two hours later just so this complex can be built at this spot where traffic is narrowed down?

You might just as well close the bridge down! Approving and building such a huge complex at this juncture of the highway is akin to building a pesticide factory next to the Klang Gates Dam!

Whose idea is this and how is Klang going to face the resultant traffic nightmare?  Or is there a proposed massive tolled ring road complex to take traffic away from this area?

This cannot be possible as there are no roadworks taking place anywhere nearby and if there were plans indeed for such a traffic dispersal scheme, this complex would already be open next year.

It appears that we have learned nothing from the Zakaria Mat Deros incident. How ironical? Selangor’s eighth Menteri Besar, the late Dato Harun Idris once lived in the bungalow right on top of this hill as the District Officer of Klang but was later found to be technically corrupt and jailed for misappropriation of funds, the amount of which is going to be miniscule in comparison to the losses this country is going to face once this project is ready by this chopped up hill.

Our civil servants possibly know that this project is going to cost the economy that goes through Port Klang billions, not to mention the hardship it is going to cost the people who stay in Klang and commute to KL/Shah Alam daily but they do not have the administrative will nor courage to stand up to their political masters.

But residents of Klang who pass by this project daily are resigned to the fact that no one in the end will be accountable for the ensuing traffic disaster and as always the average man on the street will end up paying the price.

Location Plan

Proposed Complex by the side of the hill fronting KL-Klang Highway

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 6:53 pm and is filed under
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Blog cannot be viewed from Internet Explorer 7

TJY emailed to say that this blog cannot be viewed from Internet Explorer 7.  There have been other complaints which seem to zero down to the same cause, such as the following from Shirley of UK:

“Still unable to access your blog. Managed to access the main page but  only  part of it. Even then unable to read as only the top of page is visible.”

Later Shirley emailed: “Internet Explorer was the problem. Problem solved when switched to Mozilla Firefox.”

Anyone with any ideas as to how the problem can be resolved with Internet Explorer 7?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 10:15 am and is filed under
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Blog kink with IE6 & 7 resolved

Thanks to Chengkhoon, the
blog kink with IE6 & 7
has been resolved.

This is
Chenkhoon’s
solution:

“Line 38 of the css file (style.css) contains the following line:

“filter: Shadow(color:white, strength:0, direction:0);

“This is proprietary IE6 code. Removing the line will solve the problem.”

Many thanks Chengkhoon, on my part as on behalf of so many visitors who had faced problems of accessing the blog with IE6 or 7. Most appreciated. Also thanks to all who given their suggestions to resolve the problem.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 9:41 pm and is filed under
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“Neo-bumiputeraism” – clarification

Clarification on an idea called “neo-bumiputeraism”

(Follow-up to article
“Let’s de-segregate our schools”
)

– Azly Rahman

‘Bumiputera’ is a problematic word. A word that conveniently equates race and religion as inseparable. To say that a Malay is generally a Muslim and hence a ‘bumiputera’ and therefore have special rights and privileges is an imprecise way of explaining a concept. It is an old-school approach to defining that word.

We must find ways to enrich the concept better so that it will become inclusive. Who toils for the soil? Labour, more than language, seems to be more a more linguistically just way to look at the definition of bumiputera and how we will go about the peaceful evolution process.

We need a premise for this process though. Let’s begin with this phrase:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident and Divine-ly sanctioned that All Malaysians are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator the inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, happiness, justice and social equality…  and we shall resoundingly declare that from now on we will be constructed as equal and be called ‘the new bumiputera’…”

Sounds like a Rousseauin, Lockean, and Jeffersonian ideal locked in one, with a Malaysian ethos as its foundation. Sounds like what the Quran, Bible, Bhagavad Gita, Sutras, Puranas, Tao Te’ Chng, Granth Sahib and Tibetan Book of the Dead would advocate.

That can be our premise for this radical change.

We must do something different to ourselves if we are to move to the next level of evolution as Malaysians.

Let us reconstruct the old concept of ‘bumiputera’ so that we will have a better foundation in preparation for a redefinition in the Federal Constituition – so that the constitution can now protect all rather than the few. Isn’t democracy for the powerful few only good for plutocracy?

Yes – who is a ‘bumiputera’? After 50 years this term should have evolved and changed. The base and superstructure, the ideology and material foundation, and the body and spirit of this nation-state called Malaysia have changed.

The old definition has run its course. It is fine to see this as the right time to change. We must remember that words get refined and redefined in the course of history. Ask any linguist in Universiti Malaya or Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Words like democracy, freedom, justice and equality get reconceptualised after every social revolution. Words like Malays, Indians, Chinese, East and West Malaysians used as classification systems are good during the colonial period and in the early years of independence. They have lost their connotative and denotative power as we approach our 50th year of independence.

Language is reality – words become flesh, inscriptions become institutions.

Wec need to redefine what ‘bumiputera’ means, so that we will not be forced to sing more propaganda songs composed by those in the Biro Tata Negara.

After 50 years of Merdeka, aren’t we all bumipu
tera now?

Keep up the good work with this difficult dialogue.

Dr. Azly Rahman,

Educator & Adjunct Professor;

Foundations of Civilizations, Education, & Politics

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 2:57 pm and is filed under
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Zulkipli and Ramli’s date with Parliamentary Select Committee – March 12

Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) Director-General Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor
 has responded to very serious allegations of “being a very corrupt senior police officer who had amassed substantial property and assets through corrupt means”  made against him by a former top ACA officer, Mohamad Ramli Manan while still in service in July last year before his retirement on December 8, 2006.

Zulkipli told
New Straits Times
:  “Let the law take its course”.

He said  that the allegations were “part and parcel of the agency’s operations”

He added:

“There are a lot of challenges in our line of work. Some (people) may be happy, some, of course, may not. The bottom line is justice must be done.

“In this context, certainly I do not want to get involved in matters, issues or allegations that have the tendency to belittle or tarnish the good image of an individual.”

Apart from the “Let the law take its course” statement, Zulkipli’s comments are not helpful at all in throwing light on the very serious corruption allegations which had been made against him by Ramli.  The ACA head seems to  have mastered the art of making statements  which mean nothing at all.

While the law must undoubtedly be allowed to “take its course”, the immediate concern of all Malaysians serious about the pledge of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when he became the fifth Prime Minister and during the 2004 general election campaign to give top priority to anti-corruption is whether Zulkipli can continue to helm the ACA with these serious corruption allegations hanging over his head.  Or whether the ACA will be further incapacitated with such a person as its head.

This is one of the reason why the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity yesterday fixed March 12 for Zulkipli and Ramli to appear before it  to address the  issue whether it is proper for Zulkipli to continue to helm ACA.

Despite the Prime Minister’s commitment to give top priority to anti-corruption in his administration, and the National Integrity Plan five-year  objective to improve Malaysia’s Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from No. 37 in 2003 to at least No. 30 in 2008, the ACA had been fighting a losing battle both against corruption and to restore national confidence that the ACA is no more a “paper tiger”.

Zulkipli has failed as ACA head to spearhead the clean-up of corruption in the Abdullah administration, which is reflected by Malaysia’s seven-point plunge in the TI CPI  from No. 37 in 2003 to No. 44 in 2006, for which he should have been summarily removed for dereliction of duty.

In fact, former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has made the very serious indictment that corruption under his successor has “appeared above the table” as compared to his 22-year administration.

Zulkipli said yesterday that Ramli’s charges were “baseless” and that prior to his appointment as ACA director-general, he had been vetted and cleared by both the ACA and police.

This raises the usefulness and effectiveness of such vetting process and  the “integrity clearance” by the ACA and the Police — not only for top civil service positions but even for Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, Chief Ministers, Mentris Besar, State Ministers and Excos.

Is it because the process to issue a bill of integrity for top office-holders is unsatisfactory and defective that the ACA has been such a failure on the anti-corruption front in the past three years, with its inability to net and bring to court  the 18 high-profile personalities promised in the early days of the Abdullah administration, why the ACA has not been able to produce any results despite considerable publicity of various ACA investigations, whether concerning the scandals involving APs, MRR2 or the mega gambling debts of former Sabah Chief Minister, Datuk Osu Sukam?

Malaysia will become an international laughing-stock if the ACA has a director-general who has serious corruption allegations swirling over his head.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 28 February 2007, 11:33 am and is filed under
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PM’s CNY present – RM70 billion Bursa Saham losses by small investors

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had a special Chinese New Year message for Malaysians in the first two days on the Chinese New Year on February 18 and 19, 2006 — to enter the stock market to “ride on the momentum” of the good economic times.

This was his common theme at the Gerakan Chinese New Year open house in Kuala Lumpur on the first day of the Chinese New Year and at the open house of the Penang Chinese Chamber in Penang on the second day of the Chinese New Year.

Abdullah pointedly said that the Bursa Saham composite index, which was at the time at a high of more than 1,258 points, could surpass the 1,350-point level following positive indicators of the country’s economic growth — namely the trillion ringgit total trade last year, the increasing foreign and domestic investments and and the rising ringgit.  (
New Straits Times 21.2.07)

There had been widespread skepticism about the slew of “good economic news” which had been trotted out by the government in the previous two weeks, particularly about foreign direct investments which clearly conflicted with statistics released by the
United Nations Conference Trade and Development (Unctad)
— raising the question as to why there is a difference of between RM6.4 billion to RM9.8 billion in the statistics released by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and Unctad on 2006 FDIs into Malaysia.

However, when the Prime Minister openly urged Malaysians to enter the stock market “to ride on the momentum” in expectation of the KLSE rising above 1,350 points, small investors cast aside their doubts, reservations and skepticism and entered the stock market in a big way after the Chinese New Year holidays,  lifting the KLCI to close at 1,283 points last Friday — with the Star yesterday carrying the screaming headline
“KLCI poised to break record”

for this week.

KLCI did “break record” in the past two days, but of a different kind – suffering the biggest drop in five years yesterday, plunging by 35.79 points to 1,237.08 and another 40.63 points to 1,196 points at the close of market today.

Yesterday, RM38.38 billion of market capitalisation was wiped out in  one day while RM31.07 billion was wiped out today.  The bulk of the RMRM69.45 billion losses in the past two days have been borne by the small investors who had been persuaded by Abdullah to enter the market to “ride on the momentum” for KLCI to surpass 1,350 points.

The unusual Cabinet meeting tomorrow should cushion the massive losses suffered by small investors who acted on the Chinese New Year advice of the Prime Minister to enter the stock market to “ride on the momentum” to surpass 1,350 points for the KLCI  and who bear the brunt of the massive RM70 billion losses in the stock exchange in the past two days.

(Speech at the Pasir Pinji DAP Branch Chinese New Year reception in Ipoh on Wednesday, 28th February 2007)

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 March 2007, 11:39 am and is filed under
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Sack Zulkipli as ACA DG for telling lie that he had been cleared of serious corruption allegations

The case of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) Director-General,  Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor is getting curiouser and  curiouser  – panning out even to raise serious questions about the efficiency, competence and credibility of the Police,  the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

Firstly,
the Sun
today in its front-page headline story,
“Papers with AG — Police resubmit investigation file on ACA chief to Attorney-General”
 reported the disclosure by the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan that Kuala Lumpur police investigated the complaints on sexual crimes and assault allegedly committed by Zulkipli against a housewife in 1997 and later submitted investigation papers to the AG’s Chambers.

However, as the AG had not reverted to the police on the next course of action, a fresh submission was made yesterday.

The
New Straits Times
in its front-page report
“GRAFT AND SEXUAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS – SPEED UP PROBE ON ACA CHIEF — Attorney-general tells IGP”

tells quite a different story.

NST quoted the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail that Zulkipli was cleared years ago of a claim of sexually abusing a woman after a thorough investigation into the sexual assault allegation in  July 1997.  The police investigation papers (IP) were submitted to the AG’s chambers on Oct. 24, 1997, and the AG’s Chambers found there were no grounds to prosecute Zulkipli, and the case was filed as “No Further Action” (NFA) needed.

Secondly, on the serious corruption charges against Zulkipli, the IGP was conspicuously silent but the NST reported Gani as saying that he had told Musa “to speed up the investigations into these allegations”.

Gani said the investigations would include checks against the asset declaration made by Zulkipli — “We compare these asset declarations to how one pays or finances one’s properties”, which would include “checks on the financial position of one’s family members to ascertain their contribution to the household income”.

Here Zulkipli is caught “red-handed” telling a lie that he had been cleared of serious corruption charges made against him, as he told the NST in its report yesterday: “Zulkipli called the charges ‘baseless’ and said prior to his appointment as director-general, he had been vetted and cleared by both the ACA and police.”

Was Zulkipli cleared by the police of the serious corruption charges  referred to by former top ACA official Mohamad Ramli Manan in his 4th July 2006 police report against Zulkipli as “a very corrupt senior police officer who had amassed substantial property and assets through corrupt practices”?

Clearly, the police had not cleared him or Gani could not have instructed  the IGP to “speed up” the investigations.  There is  also the question as to why the police had sat on the investigations into the serious corruption allegations against a senior police officer for seven long years, to be instructed by the Attorney-General to re-open the seven-year-old investigations into the serious corruption allegations against Zulkipli.

What is indisputable however is that Gani’s disclosure has exposed Zulkipli as publicly telling a lie that he had been cleared by the police with regard to the serious corruption charges against him.

For this public lie alone, Zulkipli should be immediately sacked  as ACA Director-General to restore badly-shattered confidence in the ACA — a decision which the unusual Cabinet meeting tomorrow should take without any more procrastination or indecisiveness.   By telling a  lie that he had been cleared of serious corruption charges, Zulkipli had lost all authority, credibility and legitimacy to continue as ACA head.

Had the ACA  exonerated  Zulkipli of the serious corruption charges to clear the way for his appointment as ACA Director-General  in 2001, re-appointment in 2004 and further extension of his tenure in 2005?  Who is to answer from the ACA?

When  the ACA Director-General is accused of serious corruption charges, who and how is he investigated by the ACA when the agency  is completely subordinate to him?

There are other questions crying out for answer:

If the police had not been aware  that the Attorney-General’s Chambers had decided on NFA on the sexual charges against Zulkipli, how could the police clear Zulkpli of the sexual allegations as alleged by the ACA director-general?

How could Zulkipli be cleared for the important and sensitive appointment of ACA Director-General, and to be repeatedly extended in his term of office,  when he is under such a cloud of serious corruption allegations?  What has the Cabinet and the Prime Minister got to say?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 1 March 2007, 1:24 pm and is filed under
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Corruption allegations against ACA DG – AG and IGP should also appear before PSCI

Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general
Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor
and  former top ACA officer and “whistleblower”, Mohamad Ramli Manan’s full preparedness to appear before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity (PSCI) on March 12 is most commendable.

Zulkipli told
Bernama
 that he was ready to appear before the Parliamentary Select  Committee on March 12 with detailed evidence against the serious corruption allegations made against him, declaring: “I have the confidence and courage to face the problem because I believe in God and only a person with guilt needs to be afraid.”

Ramli in his interview with  the New Straits Times “vowed to tell all” to the Select Committee, declaring: “There is nothing to hide. I will be there.”

Zulkipli and Ramli should honour their public undertaking “to tell all” to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity as any refusal or reluctance by anyone of them to do so will immediately be an adverse reflection on his credibility and integrity.

The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri  Musa Hassan and the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patil should also appear before the Select Committee to explain the reasons for the dilatory and unsatisfactory investigations into the serious corruption allegations against Zulkipli in the past ten years.

Gani had said that he had instructed the police to
“speed up” investigations
into the serious corruption allegations against Zulkipli, while Musa has proposed
a task force
comprising members from the police, ACA and the AG’s chambers to investigate into the serious corruption allegations against Zulkipli.

Musa’s proposal is quite extraordinary to say the least, raising many vexing questions, including:

	If the investigations are  related to serious corruption allegations against Zulkipli in connection with his tenure as Johore Police Chief from 1996, why had such investigations taken ten long years without any outcome. Had there been any abuses of power and improper interference with the investigations in the past 10 years?

	If the investigations into   the serious corruption allegations are related to Zulkipli’s tenure as ACA director-general, why is the police involved to the extent of the IGP proposing a task force comprising the Police, ACA and AG’s Chambers to conduct the probe?  This raises the question which I posed yesterday — “When  the ACA Director-General is accused of serious corruption charges, who and how is he investigated by the ACA when the agency  is completely subordinate to him?”

	If investigations into serious corruption allegations against a top police or ACA officer must involve three departments, viz. Police, ACA and AG”s chambers, must similar multi-agency investigations be involved if the subject is a  Minister, Deputy Minister, Chief Minister or Mentri Besar?

	The IGP’s proposal for a tripartite task force comprising the police, ACA and AG’s chambers to investigate into the serious corruption allegations against Zulkipli is most extraordinary as it would open the way for the AG’s chambers to be involved in criminal investigations apart from admitting lack of confidence that the police itself is capable or competent to conduct such investigation on its own.  Is it  proper and desirable for the AG’s chambers to set the  precedent usurping or sharing  police functions of criminal investigations?

The appearance of the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police before the Select Committee will  help throw light on these vexing questions, and I will propose at  the Select Committee meeting of March 12 that a special meeting be held for both to appear before it.

The comment by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department,
Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz
is most inappropriate.

Nazri said Zulkipli will not be asked to take leave of absence or even be suspended while investigations into the allegations are ongoing –  and that this is provided  under the General Orders (GO) governing the conduct of civil servants.

Nazri is the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of the ACA and it is most unfortunate that he seems to be totally impervious to the imperative that the ACA director-general must be placed in a special category in such circumstances — that he must not only be clean and incorrupt but must be seen and perceived to be clean and incorrupt if the ACA and the country’s anti-corruption campaign are  not to be reduced into a joke and a laughing-stock.

For this reason, not only no one who is tainted by corruption allegations should be appointed to the position of ACA director-general, once serious corruption allegations of corruption are made against the ACA director-general, he should be replaced and  transferred to another posting until the full outcome of the investigations.

Nazri should be making such a proposal instead of defending a most inappropriate status quo pertaining to the office of ACA director-general.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 2 March 2007, 10:07 am and is filed under
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Telecoms forcing new voice mail message service down your throat?

This is email from Heng:

Lately, many Telecoms Malaysia customers are forced down their throats to have a new voice mail message service without even the customers requesting for it. I believe this is part of a scheme to meet the so called KPI of the GLC’s. This service is a nuisance to many customers. The calling party shall be charged for futile calls and the receiving party shall be billed for retrieving the messages.

I hope as a  YB, please look into this issue or if this is a minor issue to you as you have to handle other major national issues, please get someone to handle this issue for the benefits of Telecoms Malaysia customers.

What say you?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 2 March 2007, 6:47 am and is filed under
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