Is MACC prepared to submit to a public inquiry to establish that it is not any manner responsible for the “black blog” set up in past week to defame DAP Selangor Excos with lies, half-truths and doctored documents

Suspicions abound as to who are responsible for the “black blog” which had appeared  anonymously in the past week to defame DAP Selangor Excos, Ronnie Liu and Ean Yong Hian Wah, accusing them of corrupt practices, based on lies, half-truths and doctored documents.

One suspicion is the MACC or MACC officers, in order to deflect public outrage over the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock at the MACC Headquarters on July 16, 2009.

As Professor Dr. Shad Faruqi of the of the Faculty of Law, UiTM wrote in the Star “
Ferreting out the Facts
” today, many questions cry out for answers about the Teoh’s mysterious death at MACC, including:

After Teoh was released, did he make any telephone calls which could give some pointers to the time of his death? Was his handphone seized? Was his handphone tampered with? Were the injuries on his body the result of the fall or of prior abuse by himself or by others?

Did he die because of the fall or was he already dead when his body plunged to the floor below? Did no one hear the sickening thud of his body falling nearly 10 floors?

There are other questions – Was Teoh released by MACC as claimed at 3.45 am on May 16? If so, why was Teoh’s handphone still detained by MACC when Teoh is only a witness and not a suspect? If Teoh’s handphone was still in custody of MACC, isn’t this proof  that Teoh was still in the custody of MACC? Isn’t this further proof that Teoh was in the custody of MACC when he met his death, either before or after the plunge from MACC 14th floor?

These and many other questions demand answers which the public have only confidence if they are probed by a Royal Commission of Inquiry.

Shad Faruqi had been exploited by the  Barisan Nasional mainstream media a few days ago to support the contention of the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail that an inquest is a “must” for probing the causes of Teoh’s death.

I am glad Shad Faruqi has come out with a strong article to disabuse the  Malaysian public of such a misperception in his Star column today, where he dismissed  the Attorney-General’s contention against a Royal Commission of Inquiry as “not convincing” and supported the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry thus:

On the peculiar facts of this case, a Commission would have been most appropriate because of the legitimate expectations of the people created by assurances and proposals from many top politicians.

Commission personnel are generally of very high ranking and may arouse greater confidence than a junior judicial officer whether a magistrate or a Sessions judge.

This is not to imply, however, that magistrates cannot do justice or act impartially. There are many excellent subordinate court judges and their judicial conduct is often of higher quality than that of many superior court judges.

What is crucial is that justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done. Public scepticism is acute because despite considerable passage of time, no decisive evidence seems to have emerged.

There is a major conspiracy to deflect public outrage at Teoh’s mysterious death at MACC and the refusal of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to heed family and public demands to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to get to the bottom of the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death.

One such tactic was to turn Teoh’s death into a racial issue, with a “thief shout thief” twist by alleging that the public outrage was an attack on a Malay or Malay-controlled institution – the MACC. In actual fact, public outrage at Teoh’s mysterious death directed at MACC had nothing to do with race as nobody regarded MACC as a Malay or Malay-controlled institution. Criticisms and demands for accountability from MACC are solely on the basis that MACC is a Malaysian institution!

Another tactic is to accuse Teoh of unspeakable crimes, which is most disgraceful on the part of  the mass media and internet sites concerned.

Another tactic is the appearance of “black blogs” spreading lies, half-truths and doctored documents like the one currently defaming Ean Yong and Ronnie accusing them of corrupt practices.

If those behind the “black blog” are honest and honourable people, why are they so cowardly as to have to  hide under anonymity.

But what is clear is that the “black blog” have powerful connections and backers, even from those in the Barisan Nasional mainstream media and among supposedly upright and honourable journalists who are directly or indirectly doing the dirty work of disseminating the “black blog” on a regular basis.

Suspicion is great that the MACC or MACC officers involved in the appearance of  the “black blog”.  Is MACC prepared to submit to a public inquiry to establish that it is not any manner responsible for the “black blog” set up in the past week to defame DAP Selangor Excos with lies, half-truths and doctored documents?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 3:59 pm and is filed under
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Is Ong Tee Keat just “crying wolf” in the MCA “Ong-Chua” power struggle or is his revelation of death threat to him and BN-underworld politico-business“dark forces” compromising Cabinet decision-making for real?

MCA Vice President and Health Minister, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai thinks he is being smart when he is being downright foolish.

He thought he had found a very clever way to respond to my lodging a police report on Monday to protect Ong Tee Keat’s life from death threat revealed repeatedly in the public by the MCA President himself.

What Liow does not seem to be able to grasp is that my police report is not just to protect the life of the MCA President, but that of a Minister and all members of the Cabinet as Ong had revealed multiple serious crimes being committed not only because of the death threat to him but also about “dark forces” of politico-business underworld combined with Barisan Nasional elements to compromise and suborn government decision-making process all the way to the Cabinet.

It is therefore not just a matter of concern solely to MCA leaders and members but a public issue concerning the integrity of the government and Cabinet which must be the concern of every public-spirited Malaysian citizen.

Why is Liow completely unconcerned that Ong has received a death threat and Ong’s serious allegation of “dark forces” of politico-business underworld and Barisan Nasional elements to coerce and arm-twist Cabinet Ministers?

Has Liow information that all this is just a big bluff, that what Ong said was untrue and just propaganda in the “Ong-Chua” power struggle in MCA, and need not be taken seriously as far as personal security is concerned?

If so, what Ong had done is the height of irresponsibility and Ong should apologise to the people and nation for such irresponsible and despicable conduct completely unbecoming of a MCA President and Cabinet Minister.  In fact a MCA President and Cabinet Minister who could tell such lies about death threat from the underworld when it was completely untrue should resign forthwith in disgrace!

Liow said Johore MCA is prepared to lodge a police report on behalf of DAP on underworld elements in Johore DAP.

I do not know what the DAP Johore Chairman Dr. Boo Cheng Hau had actually said, but I have told him by phone today that if he had said that there were underworld elements in the DAP, he should lodge a police report. If he had not actually meant that, he should make the necessary clarification.

Unlike the MCA and MCA leaders, the DAP in our 43-year history had nothing to do with underworld elements as we derive our support fully and completely from the people.

MCA is different. After all, it was Ong when he was MCA Youth chief who publicly made the allegation in 2003 about “black gold” politics in MCA, and in particular that certain MCA leaders had connections with triad characters and that there were even MCA leaders with “triad” backgrounds.

“Black gold” politics is no ordinary criminality involving a few individuals but a national and systemic curse and threat to society as it is a fusion of organized crime with corruption to subvert the political system, economic system, the rule of law and social justice.

Has “black gold” politics in MCA degenerated to a state that the MCA President and Cabinet Minister could be threatened with death by the underworld and the integrity of the Cabinet compromised with the suborning of its decision-making process?

Let Ong and Liow tell Malaysians – is Ong’s allegations of  death threat and underworld-BN politico-business “black gold” phenomenon for real or is Ong just crying “wolf”?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 5:09 pm and is filed under
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Najib – turn the first stone to find out the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s unusual death at MACC by respecting the family’s wish and set up Royal Commission of Inquiry

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has not turned a stone in the past 13 days although he promised the Teoh Beng Hock family yesterday that “no stone will be left unturned” to find the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s mysterious death at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Shah Alam on July 16, 2009.

I met the Teoh Beng Hock family members, father Teoh Leong Hwee 62, elder brother Teoh Beng Kee, younger sister Teoh Lee Lan and fiancée Soh Cher Wei at the Shah Alam court complex for Teoh’s inquest this morning, and they told me that the Prime Minister conveyed his condolences and explained the Cabinet decision to set up two separate inquiries, one an inquest by a magistrate into Teoh’s death and the other a Royal Commission of Inquiry into MACC’s investigative techniques.

In the press today, it was reported that Najib told the family that the findings of the inquest would also be considered as input for the royal commission of inquiry and that the two-prong approach would hopefully arrive at the truth in a fair and just manner.

This is putting the cart before the horse, as the international best practice in developed Commonwealth countries dealing with unusual or mysterious deaths which have become subjects of public concern and even international attention is for high-powered and wide-ranging public inquiries to be held and for its findings to be considered as input for inquests , and not the other way round.

A case in point is the Hutton inquiry into
Dr. David Kelly
’s mysterious death in the United Kingdom in 2003.

Kelly, a Ministry of Defence scientist, was found dead after appearing before a parliamentary committee investigating the political scandal of the UK war against Iraq as he was accused of leaking sensitive information to the British Broadcasting Corporation.

A judicial inquiry headed by a judge,
Justice Hutton was established to inquire into the causes and circumstances of Kelly’s death
.

The inquest into Kelly’s death by the Oxfordshire Coroner was adjourned while the inquiry proceeded. The inquiry reported on 28th January 2004 and the Oxfordshire Coroner announced in March 2004 that the inquest would not be reconvened.

Clearly, the Prime Minister who is not a lawyer has been misled by the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, who does not seem to know about international best practices in such cases in other Commonwealth countries.

What about the other Cabinet Ministers who are trained in law – could they be so easily misled on a legal matter by the Attorney-General?

The Teoh family told me at the inquest this morning that they thanked  the Prime Minister and appreciate his meeting them at Putrajaya yesterday, and Najib’s reply to  the family that if it is not satisfied with the findings of the inquest, he was prepared to consider the family’s request at that time to establish  a full and comprehensive Royal Commission of Inquiry.

The Teoh family told me that after full consideration of the  explanations by the Prime Minister and  taking account the reasons which had been extensively canvassed in the public domain on the respective pros and cons of an inquest and a Royal Commission of Inquiry, the Teoh family  maintained their call on the Prime Minister to set up a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death.

I fully agree with the Teoh family. Najib and the Cabinet should abandon “the government knows best” culture and listen to the voices not only of the family but all right-thinking Malaysians who want justice and the truth in a full no-holds-barred inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s mysterious death at MACC headquarters.

For this reason, Najib and the Cabinet should review its decision last Wednesday, suspend the inquest proceedings and immediately establish a full Royal Commission of Inquiry headed by an eminent and credible Chairman to inquire into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death.

Najib assured the Teoh family that “No stone will be left unturned” in finding out the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death at the MACC headquarters. Up to now, Najib has not turned a single stone as in the ordinary circumstances, an inquest would have been held into a mysterious death as required by law even without Cabinet decision. The Cabinet has done nothing which the law had not provided for the normal course of events.

Let Najib “turn the first stone” to find out the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death by setting up a Royal Commission of Inquiry latest at the  next Cabinet meeting on  Wednesday, August 5,2009. Are MCA Ministers led by Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, Gerakan President Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon, MIC, SUPP and right-thinking Umno Ministers prepared to stand up and be counted on this issue?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 29 July 2009, 2:26 pm and is filed under
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Could the PKFZ project become a RM12.5 billion “mother of all scandals” if the three Transport Ministers and four PKA Chairmen – all from MCA – had not been equally incompetent and negligent as the PKA managers from day one?

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman blamed the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal on “
a group of incompetent people
” from day one. (
NST
)

The ad hoc committee on corporate governance probing the PKFZ fiasco, headed by Transparency International chairman Datuk Paul Low Seng Kuan, denounced the PKA Board members for “gross negligence” in failing to discharge their fiduciary duties diligently, resulting in the
RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal
.

Both Azmi and Low are only half right. Could the PKFZ project become a RM12.5 billion “mother of all scandals” if the three Transport Ministers (Ling Liong Sik, Chan Kong Choy, Ong Tee Keat) and four PKA Chairmen (Ting Chew Peh, Yap Pian Hon, Chor Chee Heung and Lee Hwa Beng) – all from MCA – had not been equally incompetent and negligent as the PKA managers “from day one”?

Yesterday, the second Transport Minister mired in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal, Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy appeared before the PAC in its inquiry into the PKFZ scandal, ensconced by a lawyer and two aides as well as lugging a box of relevant documents, giving the impression as if he is appeared as an accused in a public inquiry.

Chan created PAC history in 52 years in being the first to appear with counsel before a PAC hearing. Why was this necessary and why did the PAC Chairman allow Chan to appear with counsel? This is indeed most extraordinary and even self-incriminating.

Even more extraordinary was that Chan produced an opinion from a Queen’s Counsel in the UK that the three Letters of Support which he had signed in support of PKFZ were not letters of guarantee.

How much did it cost Chan to get the opinion of a Queen’s Counsel for him to go to the PAC with it to back up his argument? Easily over 10,000 sterling pounds i.e. RM60,000 to RM100,000.

Why didn’t Chan get a Queen’s Counsel opinion when he was the Transport Minister in 2007 to convince the Cabinet that his three Letters of Support were not government “Letters of Guarantee” for the RM4 billion bonds raised by the PKFZ turnkey developer, Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd. (KDSB) as Malaysian taxpayers would have been spared being victims of the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal?

In 2007, the Cabinet was advised by the Attorney-General and Treasury that the four Letters of Support to KDSB to raise RM4 billion bonds were implicit government guarantees to the bond market..

As a result, the Cabinet gave retrospective approval for the four unlawful and unauthorized Letters of Support, one issued by Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik in May 2003 and three by Chan, creating the RM4.6 billion liability for the government in the bailout of PKFZ which is now set to become a RM12.5 billion scandal.

What is most shocking is that Chan did not formally table the opinion of the Queen’s Counsel to the PAC but only referred to it orally. This is most improper and irregular and Chan should be recalled to formally table the opinion of the Queen’s Counsel, so that it becomes part of the documentation of the PAC report in its inquiry into the PKFZ when submitted to Parliament.

As reported in the New Straits Times, Azmi said the PAC is expected to table its findings on the PKFZ scandal in the Dewan Rakyat by October when the House resumed its sitting. It will also prepare a report for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to revisit the project and look into certain areas which were not touched by the commission in its earlier investigation.

Azmi has got his parliamentary responsibilities as PAC Chairman all wrong. His duty as PAC Chairman is to report to Parliament and not to MACC or even the government. His job is to ensure that the PAC report and recommendations on the PKFZ scandal is first tabled in Parliament and not to submit any report to the MACC or elsewhere.

It is then for Parliament to decide whether to accept the PAC findings and recommendations, including whether the PAC report should be forwarded to MACC for necessary action, or whether to reject the PAC report because it is unsatisfactory and unacceptable.

In the latter circumstances, Parliament should invoke its full powers to hold an inquiry of the full House into the PKFZ scandal, should it arrive at the conclusion that the PAC report falls far short of parliamentary standards and expectations.

In which case, all the witnesses who had appeared before the PAC, including the current and previous Transport Ministers, Tee Keat, Kong Choy and Liong Sik can be recalled.

Azmi should not forget that PAC is delegated by Parliament to inquire into the PKFZ scandal and Parliament must decide whether to accept its findings and recommendations before further follow-up action is taken on the PAC report.

This point must be emphasized especially in a case of such great public interest and controversy like the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal.

As Parliament is reconvening on Oct. 19, and two weeks notice is required for a motion to accept or reject the PAC report on the PKFZ inquiry, Azmi should ensure that the PAC report on the PKFZ is circulated to MPs by end of September to allow MPs time to study it and decide whether a special motion on the PAC report on the PKFZ scandal should be moved – although formally, the PAC report would only be tabled in Parliament on Oct. 19 itself.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 30 July 2009, 11:09 am and is filed under
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Politics, Power and the Violence of History

By
Farish A Noor

The guillotine, it ought to be remembered, was originally conceived of as a safe, clean, efficient and ironically ‘humane’ method of murdering people when it was first introduced. Dubbed the ‘revolutionary razor’ when it was first used to execute the enemies of the state at the outset of the French revolution, it was seen as an improvement and advancement from the age of neo-feudal rule where the despotism of the King of France was manifest in the macabre and gruesome spectacles of public violence that were enacted in the kingdom against those who were seen as the enemies of the regime.

In time however it is clear that even this mode of public execution has been inscribed with negativity and regarded as a brutal way for the state to express its power in the public domain. Robbespiere, Danton, Saint-Just were all victims of the same mode of state violence that they had originally supported and promoted, and it is ironic that Robbespiere and his contemporaries met their end at the same guillotine that they had used to execute their enemies earlier.

The tale of the guillotine is an apt reminder of the historical impasse that Muslim societies are in today, and how the dream of political Islam is now
turning onto itself and demonstrating its internal unsustainable contradictions in no uncertain manner. In his landmark study of the regimes of violence and punishment before, during and after the Iranian revolution of 1979, Darius Rejali notes that the Iranian revolution – despite its distaste for all things secular, western and modern – was nonetheless a modern enterprise that was couched in the same secular, materialist and modernist premises it sought to distance itself from.

Today the Muslim world is witnessing an internal pluralisation on a scale that is unprecedented. Modern developments ranging for mass rural to urban migration, the urbanisation of Muslim societies (Iran was the most urbanised Muslim country in the world at the time of the Iranian revolution in 1979), mass education accompanied and aided by the rise in Muslim literacy levels, the availability of off-the-rack communications technology etc. have all conspired to create a Muslim global community that is wired up, networked, integrated and which lives in a virtual time-space that is forever present and immediate.

Yet despite these material advances that have been furthered by the march of global capital and its attendant technologies, there remains a huge disconnect between the material-economic life of Muslims and their social-cultural-religious realities.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that Muslim normative social, cultural and legal discourse has remained by and large stuck in the past, harking back to an age of Empire where Muslim power was dominant and where the epistemology of Empire – to paraphrase the term made popular by Ebrahim Moosa – remains the defining epistemic standard by which all utterances in the public domain are made. It is partly thanks to this disconnect that we witness the manifold contradictions that now exist in the Muslim world, where even the most materially and economically developed Muslim states may still cling on to an understanding of Muslim law and  legal-social praxis that is out of date, if not outright medieval.

A case in point in the present furore in Malaysia – long since regarded as one of  the most economically developed Muslim countries in the world and a model for other developing Muslim states in South Asia and Africa – where a Muslim woman  (Kartika Sari Dewi) has been sentenced to whipping by the Shariah court for the  offence of drinking alcohol in public. It is not often that such news reports reaches the wider global community for the simple reason that Malaysia has long since  cultivated its image as a ‘model Muslim state’ for others to emulate and prides itself with the role it wishes to play as the cultural bridge-builder between the Western and Muslim worlds.

Yet this is the same Malaysia where books are banned on a regular basis, where the state-employed morality police regularly raids homes and public spaces to morally police the private lives of citizens, where the religious authorities see fit to pronounce judgements on all matters ranging from sexuality to the use of witchcraft, and where authors like Karen Armstrong are allowed to speak at conferences hosted in the capital while their books are banned and not allowed to be sold or read in the same country.

Furthermore it should be noted that in Malaysia today where political Islam has  made an impact thanks to the constant political instrumentalisation of Islam by the two main Malay-Muslim parties UMNO and PAS, the public domain has been increasingly defined by Islam (of a politicised variety) and has shrunk as a consequence. Despite the heated political contestation between the two parties, neither PAS nor UMNO have shown any willingness to engage with other Islamist/Muslim actors and agents, be their alternative Muslim intellectual groups, NGOs, lobby groups, Muslim minority faith communities (such as the Shias or Ahmadis) and Muslim women’s groups.

It is telling that in the case of the sentence of whipping meted out to Kartika Sari Dewi in July 2009, both UMNO and PAS leaders claimed that the judgement was in keeping with Islamic law and ethical norms. The PAS leader Dr. Lo’ Lo’ Ghazali – who initially expressed her reservations over the judgement – later reversed her stand and came out in support of the Shariah judge who had meted out the punishment of whipping thus:

“When the Shariah Court passed the sentence I was shocked not by the decision but by the boldness of the judge. I congratulate him for it.”

On both sides of the political divide, the leaders of UMNO, PAS and the state’s religious authorities maintain that the punishment was in accordance with Islamic legal norms and ethical values; that the punishment was not intended to physically harm or mutilate the condemned but rather to ‘reform her’ through the ‘symbolic’ act of publicly whipping – and thereby humiliating her; and that such forms of public humiliation and punishment were carried out to maintain and police the ethical standards of society and to safeguard public morals.

In short, as was the case of the guillotine of the revolutionaries, the public act of whipping someone in public was presented as ‘humane’ and meant to serve the utilitarian needs of society as a whole and to maintain a sense of social order and cohesion – albeit through a regime of social policing, public humiliation, sanctioned (and therefore legitimate) state violence and social conditioning. This was yet another instance where Muslim law and social policing was and is understood in terms that deny the rights of the individual and the sanctity of privacy, private agency and the right to personally conduct one’s life on the basis of one’s own personal judgement.

To compound the matter further, practically none of the major political parties of the country have spoken out against the judgement, for fear of appearing to challenge the primacy of the Shariah court and legal system when it comes to the policing of the private morality and private choices of Muslims in particular. It would appear as if despite the hype and talk of how Malaysia is such a developed country in material-economic terms, its religious laws have evolved in a completely different direction from the march of capital in the country. What is more, with the exception of a small minority of dissenting voices emanating from Muslim lawyers, scholars and human rights activists, it would appear as if the normative ethical and moral standards of Malaysians – Muslims and non-Muslims alike – have been set by those whose moral standards are based on a legal and moral vocabulary that is traditionalist, essentialised and bound by scripture.

The legal reasoning that has gone into the justification of the sentence meted out to the condemned in this case – as with the legal reasoning that has informed so many other instances of moral policing, book banning, marginalisation of minorities – is one that is rooted in history, but that history happens to be one that is defined mainly by conservative scholars who have opted to highlight the evolution of only one stream of Muslim legal thought, the conservative tradition. Muslim power and politics in Malaysia as in so many other Muslim countries is understood and foregrounded with history as its springboard, but we need to ask, which Muslim historical tradition is being used to justify the present-day policing of Muslims all over the world? And are there no other alternative historical traditions that we can consult? Where, in short, is the history of progressive Islam in the midst of all this sound and fury?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 30 July 2009, 5:00 am and is filed under
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Tiong Lai – do not be like ‘Nero playing fiddle while Rome burns” only interested in playing MCA politics despite mounting deaths from dengue and H1N1 epidemics

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai should not be like “Nero playing fiddle while Rome burns” only interested in playing MCA politics despite mounting deaths from dengue and H1N1 epidemics.

The influenza A (H1N1) has claimed a fourth casualty in Malaysia – 20-year-old woman who died of “severe community acquired pneumonia” at 9.40 am on Tuesday at the Malacca Hospital, after suffering from the flu for 11 days.

On the dengue front, two more deaths have occurred this year, a 77-year-old man from Sipitang, Sabah and a 45-year-old female teacher from Ampang, Selangor who died last week.

Since January this year, there have been 26,446 cases and 64 fatalities Liow seems to have forgotten what he started six months ago, when he declared an all-out war against dengue, which recorded the highest number of 49,335 dengue cases and 112 lives last year – 50 per cent of whom were preventable deaths.

Now, Malaysia is heading towards an even higher incidence of dengue cases and fatalities than last year.

What type of “an all-out declared war against dengue” is Liow as Health Minister waging?

Liow should be taking leave from his MCA party duties to be an effective commander-in-chief in an all-out war against dengue and H1N1 epidemics but he seems to have lost interest in the dual war against dengue and H1N1 and instead more interested to play political psy-war games in MCA, not only against MCA Deputy Chairman Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek but also against the DAP.

Liow led the MCA response to my lodging a police report on Monday to protect Ong Tee Keat’s life from death threat revealed repeatedly in the public by the MCA President himself as well as multiple serious crimes by “dark forces” of politico-business underworld combined with Barisan Nasional elements to compromise and suborn government decision-making process all the way to the Cabinet as alleged  by Ong.

I am still waiting for Liow to explain why he is completely unconcerned that Ong has received a death threat and Ong’s serious allegation of “dark forces” of politico-business underworld and Barisan Nasional elements to coerce and arm-twist Cabinet Ministers.

Has Liow information that all this is just a big bluff, that what Ong said was untrue and just propaganda in the “Ong-Chua” power struggle in MCA, and need not be taken seriously as far as his personal security is concerned?

If so, what Ong had done is the height of irresponsibility and Ong should apologise to the people and nation for such irresponsible and despicable conduct completely unbecoming of a MCA President and Cabinet Minister. In fact a MCA President and Cabinet Minister who could tell such lies about death threat from the underworld when it was completely untrue should resign forthwith in disgrace! Liow said Johore MCA is prepared to lodge a police report on behalf of DAP on underworld elements in Johore DAP.

I told the  DAP Johore Chairman Dr. Boo Cheng Hau yesterday that if he had said that there were underworld elements in the DAP, he should lodge a police report. If he had not actually meant that, he should make the necessary clarification.

Unlike the MCA and MCA leaders, the DAP in our 43-year history had nothing to do with underworld elements as we derive our support fully and completely from the people.

MCA is different. After all, it was Ong when he was MCA Youth chief who publicly made the allegation in 2003 about “black gold” politics in MCA, and in particular that certain MCA leaders had  connections with triad characters and that there were even MCA leaders with “triad” backgrounds.

It is most disappointing that Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein could not distinguish between his duties as Home Minister from that of an Umno and Barisan Nasional political leader.

The MCA-owned Star reported that Hishammudin said after the weekly post-Cabinet meeting that the police have been asked to investigate claims that certain politicians were involved in secret societies in Johore as such activities could tarnish the image of local representatives throughout the country.

He said: “Such practices can lead to a breakdown of the highest institutions in the country and work against everything we have striven to achieve in the country in the 50 years since independence.”

Hishammuddin was clearly referring to Johore DAP. But has he nothing to say about Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat’s even more serious allegation of a Cabinet Minister given a death threat by secret society elements and the “dark forces” of politico-business underworld combined with Barisan Nasional elements to compromise and suborn government decision-making process all the way to the Cabinet?

I will ask in Parliament why Hishammuddin could “behold the mote in thy brother’s eye but consider not the beam that is in his own eye”.

His father, Tun Hussein Onn, the third Prime Minister of Malaysia, would not be guilty of such double standards.

Tun Hussein would have immediately and fully understood of the great national threat posed by “black gold” politics – which  is no ordinary criminality involving a few individuals but a national and systemic curse and threat to society as it is a fusion of organized crime with corruption to subvert the political system, economic system, the rule of law and social justice.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 30 July 2009, 3:27 pm and is filed under
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Was Teoh Beng Hock pulled up by his jackets and trousers/belt and pushed out of 14th floor MACC hqrs?

Before last Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, the family and the Malaysian public were assured by the four MCA Ministers and the Minister each from Gerakan, MIC and SUPP that they would support in Cabinet the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh Beng Hock’s mysterious death at Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters in Shah Alam.

In the event, these seven Cabinet Ministers from MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP disappointed the Teoh family and justice-loving Malaysians by agreeing to the most unsatisfactory formula of dividing the inquiry into two parts – an inquest into Teoh’s death and a Royal Commission of Inqury into MACC’s interrogation techniques.

This created an nation-wide uproar which even ordinary MCA, Gerakan, MIC and SUPP ground leaders and members fully participated, for they just cannot understand why their party leaders in the Cabinet could be so insensitive to what basic justice and fair play demand – a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death.

Apart from the Ministers, there was little endorsement for an inquest, as illustrated by the massive support of tens of thousands of people who attended the Teoh Beng Hock memorial meetings in seven states in the week after the previous Cabinet meeting, calling for a comprehensive Royal Commission of Inquiry.

The Malaysian public had expected the Cabinet yesterday to take into account the virtually unanimous views of the ordinary Malaysians for a comprehensive Royal Commission of Inquiry into Teoh’s death, but the whole nation was again disappointed that there was no review of the earlier Cabinet decision.

The four MCA Ministers led by its President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, the Gerakan Minister and Gerakan President, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon as well as the  MIC and SUPP Ministers who had earlier expressed support for RCI into Teoh’s death should explain why they failed yesterday to ask the Cabinet to broaden the scope of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death.

If the scope of the Royal Commission of Inquiry is widened to cover the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s death, then the inquest which had a preliminary start in Shah Alam Court yesterday, could be stood down to await outcome of the RCI inquiry – as is the practice in other Commonwealth countries with similar legal systems with  regard to public inquiries into unusual deaths which attract great public concern and interest.

Nanyang Siang Pau today quoted an unnamed Minister as saying that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, while briefing the Cabinet on his visit to the Teoh family on Tuesday night, had expressed the hope that the Teoh family “would not be misled by other people”.

Did Najib make such a statement in the Cabinet? Who is Najib referring to? Why is the Minister afraid to speak on record rather than doing so anonymously? Is it MCA President Ong Tee Keat or Gerakan President Koh Tsu Koon.

Let the Minister come out into the open to identify himself.

There are more and more mysteries surrounding Teoh’s unusual death at MACC headquarters exactly two weeks ago.

At the inquest yesterday, the lead counsel representing the Attorney-general, Tan Hock Chuan furnished the team of lawyers representing the Teoh family, headed by Gobind Singh Deo a bundle of documents including post-mortem, forensics, toxicology and criminology reports, closed-circuit television (CCTV) clips and DNA samples.

Conspicuously missing from the bundle is the 10-page statement given by Teoh Beng Hock to the MACC. When will the lawyer team of Teoh’s family be given this important document?

The mysterious circumstances of Teoh’s death at MACC takes on a new dimension with the emergence of anonymous “blackblogs” making baseless, defamatory and scurrilous attacks on Selangor DAP leaders and supporters, with the latest going completely overboard in accusing Kajang Municipal Councillor Tan Boon Hwa and Lee Wye Wing of being Teoh’s murder just because of their earlier refusal to provide their DNA sample for legitimate reasons nothing to do with Teoh’s death.

However, because of these lies on the “blackblogs”, both Tan and Lee have agreed to give their DNA sample as they have nothing to hide.

The lies, half-truths and doctored documents like the one on the blackblog, http://t4tbh.blogspot.com/, deserves no credence whatsoever.

However, sometimes in lies there could be found some nuggets close to truth.

I refer to the following account on this black blog:

“The DNA of strange people found on Teoh’s belt and the back of his jacket shows that Teoh was pulled up by his jacket and trousers / belt and pushed out the window.

”This means that Tan Boon Hwa and Lee Wye Wing grabbed Teoh by his jacket and trousers/belt and threw him out the window.

”The Police must arrest Tan Boon Hwa and Lee Wye Wing for the murder of Teoh Beng Hock”

Removes the lies about Tan Boon Hwa and Lee Wye Wing, but has the purported account of Teoh’s murder any ring of truth? It appears to be written by someone who might know what actually happened and who caused Teoh’s death.

Was Teoh pulled up by his jackets and trousers/belt and pushed out of the MACC’s 14th floor window? Was Teoh dead or alive when he was pushed out of the window? And who are these people concerned?

Only a Royal Commission of Inquiry and not an inquest can satisfy public confidence that there will be a full and no-holds-barred inquiry into the causes and circumstances of Teoh’s mysterious death at MACC headquarters.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 30 July 2009, 2:43 pm and is filed under
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A(H1N1) and Dengue killer epidemics – Tiong Lai should take leave from MCA party duties to lead a 24/7 national campaign, resign as Health Minister or take leave as Health Minister so that a “full time” Health Minister can provide leadership

It is shocking that instead of leading the national war against the double epidemics of A(H1N1) and dengue, the Health Minister, Datuk
 Liow Tiong Lai is leading the national blame game with the MCA-owned Star
 putting him on the front-page headline news blaming “the lack of vigilance by members of the public and even some doctors”.

Let me tell Tiong Lai. Don’t blame others. If you want to blame somebody, blame yourself for failing to provide the needed leadership to mobilize Malaysians to fight the double epidemics as Health Minister.

Liow does not seem to be a Health Minister who is confronted with the two killer  epidemics, with A(H1N1) claiming four deaths and recording a total number of 1,302 cases while dengue has killed 64 and recorded 26,446 cases since January, set to break even last year’s worst dengue epidemic of 49,335 cases and 112 casualties.

The worse is yet to come for both deadly epidemics.

At a recent briefing to the National Influenza Pandemic Task Force meeting (July 27, 2009), Dr Tee Ah Sian, director of communicable diseases of WHO, painted a possible scenario for the Malaysian A (H1N1) pandemic.

For our 27.7 million population, if simply 20% are at risk and exposed, then some 5.5 million people will contract the A (H1N1) flu. Based on other serious influenza statistics, if 2% to 9% require hospitalisation then, some 110,000 to 500,000, respectively, would need hospital care.

If the case fatality rate is estimated to be from 0.1% to 0.5%, then some 5,500 to 28,000 of infected patients would die, respectively.

In the latest updates of the most seriously ill patients identified and confirmed infections, the global case fatality rate has risen from the 0.4% to 0.66%.

As Health Minister facing such a possible national catastrophe, Liow should fully focus all his time and energies to lead and mobilize Malaysians to combat the A(H1N1) and dengue epidemics,  even on a 24/7 basis, doing nothing else but getting the two killer epidemics under control.

But Liow is not doing this as he is more engrossed with the MCA internal power struggle between the MCA President Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and the MCA Deputy President Datuk Dr. Chua Soi Lek, ignoring his responsibilities as Health Minister who should be spending every ounce of his energy and every second of his waking hours on the two killer epidemics!

Liow should seriously take leave from all MCA party duties so as to be able to concentrate fully and completely on combating the A(H1N1) and dengue epidemics or he should resign and  let another person take over as Health Minister who is prepared to completely focus on the two killer epidemics until they are brought under check.

Yesterday, my blog received a typical complaint by a distraught parent, viz:

On the Influenza A(H1N1): I find that what the minister of health and the DG of MMC say is not what is being practiced at the government hospitals.

My girl is sick since Monday night and has been to 2 private clinics three times, and one clinic, the Dr. said to wait for three days for the antibiotic to take effect.

As she continued to have high fever, and as advised by the Dr in the 2nd private clinic, today she went to Malacca Hospital.

After waiting for three hours, she finally gets to see the Dr. only to be told to wait another three days, and new medicine issued. When asked, they said she did not have to undergo the swab test. This inspite of the several cases of the A(H1N1) at her university in Bukit Beruang.

Dato’ Seri Liow is quoted as having said that all those with symptoms should undergo the swab test. However, sad to say, the message is not going to the ground level, where a totally different stance is being taken. They call it the ‘mitigation phase’.

I ask: What if three days or one week is too late? (My girl is underweight and not terribly strong.) Is that how the other deaths occurred?

Why minister and DG say one thing, but hospitals and IMR not listening? Does it surprise you then that the number of cases are escalating day by day?

DG of MMC today said the people are not doing enough. I was informed by a doctor in private practice that countries like Hong Kong are doing a great job in containing this pandemic. Why Malaysia cannot do? How many more deaths is it going to take?

Over to you, Liow. If Liow is not prepared to go “full time” as Health Minister to spearhead the national war against these two killer epidemics and wants to continue to dabble in the MCA power struggle, and also not prepared to resign as Health Minister, he should take leave as Health Minister from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak  so that a “full time” Health Minister can take over the battle against the two killer epidemics.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 31 July 2009, 3:06 pm and is filed under
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As there is a clear and present conflict-of-interest, Azmi should belatedly stand down and disqualify himself from conducting the PAC inquiry into the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will be guilty of gross incompetence if it should come to the conclusion that the
RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal
 is all due to the project being “managed by a group of incompetent people from day one” and nothing more.

This appears to be the present line of thinking of the PAC Chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid who told the media after the PAC meeting on Wednesday, which was attended by former Transport Minister Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy with his retinue of a lawyer and two aides, that “In general, the huge project was managed by a very incompetent group of people” from day one.

Could the ballooning of the PKFZ scandal from RM1.088 billion in 2002 when Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik was Transport Minister,quadrupling to RM4.63 billion in 2006 under Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy as Transport Minister, and now set to mushroom to become a RM12.5 billion scandal under Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat as Transport Minister all because of management by “a very incompetent group of people” from day one?

Was there no heinous criminality in cheating, criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of public funds resulting in the RM12.5 billion PKFZ “mother of all scandals”, five times bigger than the biggest financial scandal which  kicked off the 22-year premiership of Tun Dr. Mahathir – the  RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal 25 years ago?

Is this the nation’s most “heinous crime without criminals” in 52 years since Merdeka?

Azmi said Chan had appeared before the PAC armed with legal views from local and Commonwealth legal experts.

I stand corrected but I understand that the opinion of a Queen’s Counsel from UK in support of Chan’s position was  not tabled at the PAC meeting, in which case, how could it be appended as an official document to the PAC report on the PKFZ inquiry when the PAC report is submitted to Parliament?

What about the opinions of all the other local and Commonwealth legal experts? Have they been tabled officially at the PAC meeting so that they could be included as an appendix to the PAC report for study by MPs?

Azmi said the battery of local and Commonwealth legal experts had given opinions  that Chan’s three Letters of Support to PKFZ turnkey developer Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB) to raise some RM4 billion of bonds were not government guarantees but mere support letters for the project.

Will the PAC seek opinion from a Queen’s Counsel from UK that Chan’s Letters of Support were in fact implicit government guarantees and which were so regarded by the bond market?

Azmi said that although the two former Transport Ministers, Kong Choy and Liong Sik who had appeared before the PAC, had denied that the four Letters of Support they issued were  government guarantees, these were only the opinions of both of them.

The PAC is calling the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail to give his opinions on the two Ministers’ four Letters of Support at the next PAC hearing on August 12.

The PAC inquiry into the PKFZ scandal is taking on the character of a farce as Azmi as a Cabinet Minister in 2007 was not only privy but accepted the Attorney-General’s opinion that the four Letters of Support were implicit government guarantees for the RM4 billion bonds raised by KDSB in the bond market for PKFZ project, and Azmi was also party to the Cabinet’s subsequent decision to retrospectively approve the unlawful issue of the four Letters of Support by Liong Sik and Kong Choy and the subsequent Cabinet decision on a  RM4.6 billion bail-out of PKFZ.

Azmi should vacate from the chair of PAC Chairman to testify at the PAC hearing why he and other Cabinet Ministers agreed with the Attorney-General’s opinion  in 2007 that the four Letters of Support were implicit government guarantees for which the Cabinet had to give retrospective approval.

Other Cabinet Ministers in the 2007 decision for the RM4.6 bail-out of the PKFZ project should also be summoned to appear before the PAC inquiry to explain their support for the RM4.6 billion bailout of PKFZ.

There is a clear and present conflict-of-interest on Azmi’s role as PAC Chairman and former Minister when the Cabinet decided in 2007 on the RM4.6 billion PKFZ bailout – which was why I had earlier suggested he should disqualify himself from conducting the PAC inquiry into the PKFZ scandal, allowing the PAC Deputy Chairman Dr. Tan Seng Giaw to take over the inquiry.

Although late, it is still the proper thing for Azmi to do as it is never too late for him to stand down and disqualify himself from chairing the rest of the  PAC inquiry into the PKFZ scandal.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 31 July 2009, 11:00 am and is filed under
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Penan Starvation: People First, Performance Now?

by
Augustine Anthony

Time and again I have said that our country is a land of milk and honey but we now suffer a well entrenched system of governance that betrays its own people.

The news report in Utusan Online under caption “Lebih 3,000 Penan kebuluran” is one by product of a system failure.

Malaysia is seen on many occasions as a generous contributor whenever there are calamities around the world. Some of the aids that are despatched are laudably swift, perhaps within days or weeks of such calamities.

Of course we welcome such generosity of Malaysia. But what about our own backyard?

It is reported that more than 3,000 Penan natives from 5 settlements numbering about 264 families are in starvation for the last three months.

What is even more disturbing is the fact that the Deputy Minister of Rural and Regional Development in announcing the plight of the Penan natives had even revealed that some of the natives had resorted to eating wild plants.

It is also reported that the cause of the starvation is the destruction of the natives’ padi plantations by wild monkeys.

Read more
here
.

This revelation beckons many disturbing questions.

How is it that more than 3,000 natives in settlements endure starvation for the last three months without being noticed by a long chain of government officers from various departments including the health authorities?

What were the Rural and Regional Development Ministry officers doing all this while?

Why blame the monkeys for such starvation? Are the monkeys convenient scapegoats for the indiscriminate destruction of forests in Sarawak by those who are in the logging businesses and those who earn a living by destroying the forests?

What is happening to the land including the forests around these settlements that had resulted in a great numbers of monkeys suddenly destroying the padi cultivation?

Why the sudden mass movement of monkeys in search of food in these areas?

Of course now attempts are made to channel food supplies and other needed items to the affected natives but it must not stop there. We need to find out what is the real reason for this tragic unfolding of event.

Those responsible for this reckless omission to care for the need of the starving people and those who brought about this disaster unto the Penan natives must be severely dealt with.

It is only then people will have some sense of assurance that the system of governance is improving for the sake of people’s well being.

Another test for our Prime Minister’s slogan “People First, Performance Now”

                This entry was posted on Friday, 31 July 2009, 1:07 pm and is filed under
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Will recruitment of Rela personnel to help police to keep streets safe be a cure which is worse than the disease if Rela personnel are not sensitized about the importance of human rights?

Home Minister, Datuk Seri
Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday that the best from the civil Defence Department and Rela have been enlisted to help police
 keep the streets safer and that 254 – 115 from the Civil Defence and 139 from Rela – had been shortlisted from 1,000 applicants last week.

The recruitment of Rela personnel to help police to keep streets safe raises public fear whether Rela human rights abuses against immigrants will now extend to ordinary Malaysians.

Rela human rights abuses have become so notorious not only locally but also internationally that human rights organizations local and abroad have called for Rela’s disbandment.

The Malaysian Bar for instance had at its annual general meeting in 2007 unanimously called for Rela’s disbandment as it had attracted much public outcry over maltreatment of migrants with allegations of torture and even the causing of death by volunteer RELA personnel who receive payment of RM80-00 for each undocumented migrant they managed to catch.

Internationally, the Human Rights Watch had also called for the immediate dissolution of Rela for being responsible for numerous cases of illegal detentions, unlawful use of force and extortion.

The almost half a million Rela volunteers authorized by the government  to help maintain public order, primarily through the apprehension of undocumented  migrant workers have often been in the eye of public storm and outrage because of their unnecessary use of force and illegal policing practices.

Allegations against Rela abuses can be summed up thus – fully uniformed, armed, and unaccompanied by police or immigration officers, they break into migrant lodgings in the middle of the night without warrants, brutalize inhabitants, extort money, and confiscate cell phones, clothing, jewelry, and household goods, before handcuffing migrants and transporting them to detention camps for “illegal immigrants.”

Hishammuddin’s reference to “the best from Rela’” being enlisted to help police keep the streets safe does not inspire confidence as by the “best”, Hishammuddin does not mean their having the necessary mindset of being sensitive to the human rights of Malaysians.

Today’s Star explained what Hishammuddin meant by enlisting the “best” from Rela, as Rela director-general Datuk
Zaidon Asmuni revealed that police have rejected more than two-thirds of the 500 personnel offered by Rela
 to assist in crime prevention after most were found to be overweight and unfit to undergo Police voluntary reserve training.

Zaidon said that only 142 out of the 500 were chosen to undergo the two-week training stint while the rest were rejected due to poor fitness.

But have these Rela personnel been given the proper training so to have the requisite mindset and grounding not only to keep the streets safe from crime but protect the residents from human rights violations?

The unending catalogue of deaths in police, immigration and even MACC custody like Teoh Beng Hock, A. Kugan and R Gunasegaran  raises grave question about the failure of the authorities to sensitise all police and enforcement agencies and personnel  about the paramount importance of their role to respect and protect human rights.

Although the Prime Minisiter, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has announced the reduction of the street crime rate by 20 per cent in the next 18 months as the first of his six National Key Result Areas (KRAs), Hishammuddin seems to have totally ignored the critical importance of concepts of democratic and community policing which is the only surety that the authorities have not come up with a cure which is worse than the disease with the recruitment of Rela personnel to help the police to keep the streets safe from crime.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 31 July 2009, 12:52 pm and is filed under
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Each new day is the dawn of a new horror….

by
Hussein Hamid

I know that in the last UMNO meeting chaired by Dato Onn before he left UMNO, he wanted to know who was going to take his place as leader. Nobody was prepared to answer Dato Onn’s question. He then turned to Tun Razak and asked: “Adakah awak yang hendak menjadi Ketua Umno?”. Tun Razak replied: “Belum sampai masa lagi untuk saya nak jadi Ketua UMNO – tapi saya ada satu orang yang saya fikir layak …ya itu Tunku Abdul Rahman” and so it came to pass that Tunku became UMNO’s President.

I obtained the above information from just five minutes of surfing the internet. Now what has this got to do with Najib son of Tun Razak? Very simply this – through the internet we know what you have done in the past, what you have done while you were with MINDEF and what you are doing now. We know about your personal life, your social life and your political life. If you had known then about the internet and that you would one day be Prime Minster of this country you might have done some things differently. With hindsight so would we and be better people.

and now to the present….

Swigert: ‘Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here.’

Duke: ‘This is Houston. Say again please.’

Lovell: ‘Houston, we’ve had a problem. We’ve had a main B bus undervolt.’

Najib, YOU now have ‘a main B bus undervolt’ problem. If you think this is a problem just think ahead. All regrets about these problems you now have will vanished once the GE looms ahead…..then it will be strictly a case of survival. This entire 1Malaysia thing will not be of help then. Here in Malaysia it would seem that everyday is the dawn of a new horror for you.

We know about your ties with Razak Baginda and the payment of over Ringgit 500 million as a  “project services provider” in the deal with Armaris for delivery of two new Scorpene and one refurbished Agosta submarines to the Malaysian Navy. What we do not know is what are the ‘services’ provided for that would be worth  Ringgit 500 million?

We know about Altantuya Shaaribuu. Sirul Azhar Umar and Azilah Hadri confessed that they bundled her away from Baginda’s house and drove her to a state forest, shot her dead and blew up the body with military explosives. Immigration records of Altantuya had been deleted. Witnesses have dropped from sight including Balasubramaniam Perumal, who said in a sworn statement that the Mongolian woman was your mistress. He retracted his allegations the next day in a hastily convened news conference, and then disappeared, along with his wife and three children. Why?

We know that Baginda, who was charged as an accomplice in the murder of Altantuya received an SMS message from you “I wil see the Inspector General of Police at 11am today…The problem will be solved. Be cool.” True enough, in October a judge ruled that Baginda has no case to answer.

All that Teoh Beog Hock  did was to assist MACC in their investigation. He was ‘cooperative’ and he ended up dead? We are not saying that it was your fault but we are blaming you because it happened under your watch as Prime Minister.

Despite the advisors and ‘sahabats’ that you now have around you none have been able to make you understand what it is that you need do to win the hearts and mind of the people. Who will do so?

I can. Lim Kit Siang can, Karpal Singh can. Even Anwar Ibrahim can  – and they will do so despite the fact that if you are able to win the hearts and minds of the people if would mean that you are knocking another nail into their coffin. They will all say the same thing.

Scrap the ISA. You do that and there will be an immediate increase in you popularity ratings from 65% to 75%…and they will be happy – for what you did what was right. But what about the “subversive elements” in the country? Najib you have the Special Branch, PDRM, the Army, MACC, the Judiciary System and an AG who will take instructions from you. You have many other instruments of State that you could use to ‘manage’ these subversive elements. Yes Pakatan Rakyat will claim that they made you abolish the ISA – but that still will not overshadow the

fact that it was Najib Razak who returned freedom to the Rakyat by the abolishment of the ISA. No Najib, abolishing the ISA will not be a ‘brave’ political decision – (‘brave’ in political terms would normally mean ‘suicidal’ lah….) it will be the right thing to do.

After abolishing the ISA work on doing the right thing over the PKFZ issue. Expose it for what it really is – and we all already know what it really is – jobs for the boys, another ‘selup tangan dalam poket’ situation and money for MCA and UMNO leaders and their cronies. Do the decent thing and go after them. Put the fear of God into MCA and the easier it is for you to ‘manage’ them.

There are other things you can do.

It would not be a good idea to appoint JJ as the ambassador to USA. We know what he has been up to when he was in TNB and his extra curricular activities. Can you imagine what the CIA and FBI will have on him once he starts his shenanigans in Washington? They will have him by the balls and you know what they say – once you have anybody by the balls, his heart and mind will follow. He cannot compromise the dignity and integrity of our country. Do not take the chance. If you insist on doing so then be prepared for another horror to come at the dawn of another day sometime in the future.

Change the IGP – the public poll conducted by your cousin Hishammuddin already tells you what the public wants done – again you can be seen to be making the right decision.

Perak? The people are already forgetting what has happened – do the right thing there. We know that you cannot call an election because Barisan will lose. The next best thing? Let the court decide – but expedite the process and adhere to the court decision.

Change the CJ. This guy is not only an UMNO lackey but he also did an illegal act (naughty boy !!) when he married that Hayati without his wife’s consent. Of course not having his wife’s consent must have been his excuse for going over the border.  It was okay for my ex banduan friend Amri to do so but then Amri was doing it for the pleasure of the flesh. Must have been love for the soon to be CJ. When he goes it can be seen as the first decisive and ‘brave’ step you are talking to

clean up the Judiciary. Again that ‘brave’ word…

You know that Kampong Buah Bala situation in Penang – solve it and you will have wrong footed Hindraf, Pakatan and MIC all put together. Though I know that wrong footing Samy the Velu does not count for much in the times that we are now living in.

Anwar – do not prosecute him. He can do more harm to you during a trial then if he was to be allowed to take PKR down the course it is now on. PR already have problems within its rank – he will have enough problem trying to sort things out there – putting him on trial will just give him a welcome distraction and rally his supporters to a common cause – i.e. putting you out of business…and this Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan does not have the ability to withstand the mental pressure he will be under during the course of the trial. This guy is a lightweight. Do not pit him against Anwar. Bodoh punya kerja.

What else can you do? I can mention few other things on the home front – but I think fair is fair  – let us not get too personal. It would be fair for me to say that what I have outlined so far will be more then enough to put you as numero uno in this country of ours…and who knows, you might even begin to enjoy being our PM as Pak Lah was inclined to do..…until the next GE comes onto the horizon. For now you do all this and you will surely see changes even as early as the Permatang Pasir state by-election …I kid you not.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 1 August 2009, 6:30 am and is filed under
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Himpunan ISA 1/8/09 – KL lockdown

Reference:

http://twitter.com/limkitsiang

http://malaysiakini.com/news/109707

http://twitter.com/insider_latest/

http://twitter.com/edgemy

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 1 August 2009, 1:43 pm and is filed under
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So who has ‘Misunderstood’ the ISA?

By
Farish A. Noor

It is now being claimed by some that the Internal Security Act has been ‘misunderstood’ by a significant section of the Malaysian public, and if only they can be made to ‘understand’ it they would come to realise that it is after all a good tool that ought to be kept in the coffers of the state.

That such a claim can be made today is interesting, for at least it makes the concession that there are enough Malaysians out there who reject the manifold uses and abuses of the ISA so as to warrant the call to have it abolished, or at least so radically revised that it cannot be abused further. However we are left with the question: Who, exactly, has ‘misunderstood’ the ISA? The Malaysian public or the politicians who run the country?

Lest we forget, let us remind ourselves of what the ISA is all about. The ISA document describes exactly the sort of security threat that it is meant to deal with, and it identifies these threats as military and pseudo-military threats to the nation. It regards as dangerous groups that accumulate and distribute arms, uniforms, banners and flags. In short it is a law that was and is designed to deal with para-military and militia threats to the country that may come from underground terrorist groups or hidden armies that have been set up with the purpose of conducting war against the legitimate state of Malaysia.

Over the decades however we have seen countless Malaysian citizens of all walks of life rounded up under the ISA, ostensibly for the sake of public safety and security. Journalists have been detained ‘for their own safety’. Academics, activists, social workers, religious leaders, students and politicians alike have been the victim of this law. It is for this simple reason that the Malaysian public now feels that the interpretation of the ISA law has far exceeded its limit, and that it has been abused for politically instrumental ends.

Proof of this comes in the form of the many Malaysian politicians who today stand as members of Parliament or the various state assemblies of the land, who were themselves victims of the ISA in the past. If indeed these politicians were real threats to national security, would they have been elected by the Malaysian electorate? The fact that they were voted to represent the people means that the people at least do no see them as security threats, so who does?

This brings us back to the question of who exactly has ‘misunderstood’ the ISA. There is no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the Malaysian public wishes to see blood and mayhem in our streets. Most Malaysians would agree that if some nutter wishes to fly a plane into the KLCC complex or plant a bomb in Parliament such a lunatic has to be apprehended immediately in order to save lives.

But what the Malaysian public objects to is when laws such as the ISA are interpreted at whim by politicians who take liberties with its meaning and import, and when laws such as the ISA are used as the most convenient tool to silence the legitimate political opposition in the country.

Furthermore we all know that the ISA remains as an odd colonial relic from the  past, which has been discarded or replaced with laws that are more just and humane in many other postcolonial societies. Yet in Malaysia today – a country where moral policing has become normalised and where a woman is about to be whipped for drinking beer – the ISA is but the tip of an iceberg of routine state control and policing that has gone too far.

Malaysians all want a safe and stable country where everyone can live their lives in ease and safety, but perhaps the time has come to reject not merely the laws but rather the abuse of the law that allows for detention without trial for people who have neither armed themselves or formed guerrilla groups to threaten the Malaysian nation-state. Unless and until the powers-that-be understand this simple fact that ought to be evident even to a child, we would argue that it is the ruling elite who have ‘misunderstood’ the ISA and what it is meant to do. And for that reason, one understands why Malaysians from all walks of life now want us to move on from the despotism of the past and to discard such laws that have been abused for so long, too many times.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 1 August 2009, 4:30 am and is filed under
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Strange mainstream media behaviour about Tee Keat lodging police report for threat to him – prominent even front-page treatment in Chinese press but totally ignored in English and Bahasa media

It is indeed a strange behavior of the mainstream media today – prominent even front-page treatment in Chinese newspapers on the police report lodged by MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat about a threat to him but totally ignored by English and Bahasa Malaysia media (even by MCA-owned Star)!

Why is this? A Cabinet Minister and leader of the third largest Chinese political party in the world receiving threat or death threat but not newsy enough to be reported in the English and Bahasa Malaysia mainstream media, even by MCA’s own Star newspaper?

Is it a farce and all-in-the-know in the media business know that it is a charade – to be played up in the Chinese media but ignored in the English and Bahasa Malaysia media?

This is the first question that intrigued me when I saw the various media coverage of Ong’s police report of a threat to him.

Otherwise, news of Ong’s report to the police would have been good for a laugh, as I had on Monday lodged a police report in Petaling Jaya to protect Ong’s life as well as to ensure that “dark forces” of politico-business underworld combined with certain Barisan Nasional elements do not extend their tentacles to suborn government decision-making all the way to the Cabinet.

Before I lodged the police report, I had given Ong 48 hours to do so himself which he failed to do.

With my police report, Ong is caught – hence the belated story of his lodging a police report on the same day as myself that he had received a threat in the form of a note sent to his house warning “Watch Out”.

But this is not the death threat he talked about when interviewed by
Sin Chew Daily
on 16th July 2009, where he said:

Q: You said you were threatened by people. How did they do it? And by whom?

A: Someone tried to deliver a message through some friends in the secret society, saying that if some day I suddenly disappear from this world, I should know why this has happened.

Who are this “someone” and who are the “some friends in the secret society” who delivered the message that Ong would “disappear from this world” and Ong “should know why this has happened”?

Ong need not produce any names for the “Watch Out” note sent to his house, but he must name names of the “someone” and the “some friends in the secret society” for the delivery of the death threat that he would “disappear from the world”.

Why didn’t Ong lodge a police report about the death threat to him that he would “disappear from the world”?

Or are these just figments of Ong’s imagination – which appears to be the attitude of the Ong Tee Keat camp in MCA, including the three MCA Ministers and seven Deputy Ministers who came out with a most unusual collective statement to support him, as none of them thought it important or real enough to lodge a police report to protect Ong’s life.

Can Ong throw light on  the “someone” who issued the death threat to him and the “some friends in the secret society” who delivered the death threat that “he would disappear from this world”?

If not, the people can draw their own conclusions about the truth or otherwise of the latest MCA drama, although the MCA leaders aligned to Ong have already acted in clear disbelief of the death threat to Ong by not reporting any police report for two weeks.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 1 August 2009, 11:40 am and is filed under
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Why was health, in particular the war against two killer epidemics – A(H1N1) and dengue – excluded from Najib’s National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) announced last week?

Health Minister, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai cannot be serious about his ministerial commitment to provide the best health services in the country when the health front, in particular the war against the two killer epidemics of A(H1N1) and dengue are excluded from the National Key Result Areas (NKRAs) announced by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak last week.

In fact, it is not only Liow but also the Minister for KPIs, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon who should also explain why the Prime Minister’s short-term targets for six NKRAs had excluded health, especially with the country facing two killer epidemics.

There have been 69 new locally-transmitted influenza A(H1N1) cases reported on Thursday, bringing the total number in the country to 1,371 with four deaths so far.

At a recent briefing to the National Influenza Pandemic Task Force meeting (July 27, 2009), Dr Tee Ah Sian, director of communicable diseases of WHO, painted a possible scenario for the Malaysian A (H1N1) pandemic.

For our 27.7 million population, if simply 20% are at risk and exposed, then some 5.5 million people will contract the A (H1N1) flu. Based on other serious influenza statistics, if 2% to 9% require hospitalisation then, some 110,000 to 500,000, respectively, would need hospital care.

If the case fatality rate is estimated to be from 0.1% to 0.5%, then some 5,500 to 28,000 of infected patients would die, respectively.

In the latest updates of the most seriously ill patients identified and confirmed infections, the global case fatality rate has risen from the 0.4% to 0.66%.

On the second killer epidemic front, dengue has killed 64 persons and recorded 26,446 cases since January – set to break even last year’s worst dengue epidemic of  49,335 cases and 112 casualties.

As the worst in Malaysia on both killer epidemics are yet to come, the Cabinet next Wednesday should censure Liow’s deplorable ministerial performance and announce the  seventh NKRA on the short-term targets in the war against these two killer epidemics.

In the past two days, I have received numerous public complaints about the government’s handling of the A(N1H1) epidemic as well as the quality of hospital services, like the following three from Malacca, Kuching and Johore Baru: –

(1)  Malacca – On the Influenza A(H1N1): I find that what the minister of health and the DG of MMC say is not what is being practiced at the government hospitals.

My girl is sick since Monday night and has been to 2 private clinics three times, and one clinic, the Dr. said to wait for three days for the antibiotic to take effect.

As she continued to have high fever, and as advised by the Dr in the 2nd private clinic, today she went to Malacca Hospital.

After waiting for three hours, she finally gets to see the Dr. only to be told to wait another three days, and new medicine issued. When asked, they said she did not have to undergo the swab test. This inspite of the several cases of the A(H1N1) at her university in Bukit Beruang.

Dato’ Seri Liow is quoted as having said that all those with symptoms should undergo the swab test. However, sad to say, the message is not going to the ground level, where a totally different stance is being taken. They call it the ‘mitigation phase’.

I ask: What if three days or one week is too late? (My girl is underweight and not terribly strong.) Is that how the other deaths occurred?

Why minister and DG say one thing, but hospitals and IMR not listening? Does it surprise you then that the number of cases are escalating day by day?

DG of MMC today said the people are not doing enough. I was informed by a doctor in private practice that countries like Hong Kong are doing a great job in containing this pandemic. Why Malaysia cannot do? How many more deaths is it going to take?

(2)  Kuching – My daughter had fever, sore throat and cough after visiting KL and Malacca. We brought her to a private hospital in Kuching and she was given antibiotics and sent home.

At night, she developed high fever, chills, headache and nose block and I was horrified after searching on the internet that she was displaying symptoms of H1N1. We went back to the hospital and was advised to go to SGH, as they did not have the checking facilities.

At the SGH, it was chaotic with babies and other cases all waiting to be seen at the same place. They were totally unprepared, understaffed, and one staff was angry to see us waiting at the H1N1 area, shouting, “another one? I haven’t even eaten”.

We were told they were at the “mitigation stage”. When I asked what that means, it means the H1N1 is too prevalent, they are treating it as the normal flu. They would not be doing any blood test, or throat swab. We were told to quarantine ourselves, continue taking the private hospital medication, and they would only treat us if we have blue lips, vomiting blood or have difficulty breathing!

They said this direction came from up.

Today, I read in the news paper, 14 new cases discovered. I wonder how do they know when they don’t conduct checks?

This Government is a joke!

(3)  Johore Baru – I been to 3 general hospitals in JB and waited 4 months to diagnose that I have a kidney stone that is too big and needed urgent surgery. Worst is that I have to wait until end of the year to get it removed (because, all booked), they say they will put a tube for temporary measure.

Last 2 weeks, I have got it removed in Private Hospital with only 2 days upon diagnosis & the stone is bigger than my thumb.

Story behind on general hospital in JB:

unable to diagnose (first hospital after 3 days hospitalised)

Send to second hospital then subsequent third hospital, stayed for 13 days for antibiotics then only send for MRI… unfortunately, it broken down, have to wait another one & half month (for it to get parts to fix it), after MRI, says that that particular hospital do not have urology specialist (whole of Johor, only got one hospital for it).

Upon presenting letter, straight given another month of appointment (the place is cramp like…cannot describe). on the said appointment (although having the MRI scan) need to go for x-ray, then says comeback 3 more weeks.

After 3 more weeks, they says, it is dangerous need surgery but unfortunately have to wait until end of the year.

Come on, is the doctor incompetent? or other circumstances (equipments, hospital utilities etc) render them unable to work properly….Motto…’LET’s Wait until their life in on a thread, then, send for as Emergency case’

Liow should personally respond to these three complaints from Malacca, Kuching and Sarawak.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 1 August 2009, 10:38 am and is filed under
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IGP Musa – play hardball with murderers, robbers, rapists, Ah Longs and gangsters but not with teenagers and peaceful, patriotic advocates for abolition of ISA

The
four-day remand of 16-year-old
 Faizudin Hamzah who was arrested in yesterday’s anti-Internal Security Act (ISA) for four days is outrageous, deplorable and underlines the biggest human rights problem in Malaysia – that the greatest violaters of human rights  are often the police and the law enforcement agencies.

It is very clear from yesterday’s proceedings that it was the police and not the peaceful and patriotic advocates for abolition of ISA who provoked breaches of peace and created disorder, precipitated by the  indiscriminate police firing of tear gas and chemically-laced water cannon on all and sundry.

The Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan must be told in no uncertain terms by the  Cabinet on Wednesday – play hardball with murderers, robbers, rapists, Ah Longs and gangsters but not with teenagers and peaceful, patriotic advocates for abolition of ISA.

Otherwise, the entire Cabinet must bear responsibility for the IGP playing
hardball with teenagers and patriotic Malaysians who peacefully advocated removal of draconian laws like the ISA instead of with hard-core criminals.

There can be no justification for the arrest and another four-day remand for Faizudin Hamzah or the indiscriminate mass arrest of 589 persons including 44 women and 40 underaged in yesterday’s peaceful gathering in Kuala Lumpur of tens of thousands of Malaysians for the abolition of ISA.

The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein should see to it that all those arrested, including all women and underaged, are released today or he would be failing in his duty as Police Minister.

Suhakam – the Human Rights Commission – should convene an emergency meeting to hold a public inquiry into the gross human rights abuses by IGP Musa in orchestrating the latest blot on  the human rights record of the Malaysian police, with 5,000-police personnel mobilized against defenceless, peaceful and patriotic Malaysians who want a better, safer and more democratic Malaysia instead of being used to fight  and arrest criminals to keep the streets, public places and the privacy of homes safe for Malaysians, tourists and investors.

The Suhakam Commissioners should not fail in their statutory duty to protect and promote human rights. They cannot remain mute and blind to the blatant  and systematic police violation of human rights in the Kuala Lumpur streets yesterday – in the full sight of the world!

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 2 August 2009, 4:09 pm and is filed under
Najib Razak
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Musa Hassan wreaking personal vengeance against me and other Pakatan Rakyat leaders for the Parliamentary Roundtable last week calling for a new IGP to create a safe Malaysia

I come straight from Kuala Lumpur where this afternoon tens of thousands of Malaysians of all races participated peacefully in a mammoth gathering to demand the repeal of draconian laws, in particular the infamous Internal Security Act (ISA).

For the first time in 43 years in  politics  under six Prime Ministers from Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir, Tun Abdullah and Datuk Seri Najib Razak, I experienced first-hand today the indiscriminate police use of tear gas and its corrosive effects.

Is this an indication that the Najib premiership is going to be the most  draconian of all Prime Ministers since Merdeka in 1957?

It was clear that the cause of breach of peace and public disorder in Kuala Lumpur today was not the peaceful tens of thousands of Malaysians who merely wanted to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Prime Minister that draconian laws like the ISA must be removed from the statute books, but the police who indiscriminately fired tear gas and chemically-laced water cannons at the  peaceful masses, in utter disregard of human rights of Malaysians to freedom of speech, expression and assembly.

The police has announced that a total of 438 people had been arrested including  37 women and 38 juveniles.

This is a great shame to the police and the new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein as they had outdone  the black chapter of the May 7 Day of Infamy in the Perak illegal power grab, where the  legitimate Perak Speaker V. Sivakumar  in Speaker’s robe and Speaker’s chair was physically dragged of the Perak State Assembly, with mass arrests of 64 people on that day.

They have even outdone the notorious Operation Lalang mass arrests in October 1957 when 107 people were detained under the crackdown.

But the P:olice want to do even more.

The Police have announced that they are looking for me and other Pakatan Rakyat leaders like Parliamentary Opposition Leader and PKR chief, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PAS President, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang.

Clearly, the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan is wreaking his personal vengeance against me and other Pakatan Rakyat leaders  as last week I had convened on behalf of Pakatan Rakyat a Parliamentary Roundtable which resolved, with the unanimous support of PR MPs and NGO representatives who attended,  that Malaysia needs a  new IGP to create a safe Malaysia and  demanded that Musa Hassan should not be given a second renewal of term of service as IGP in September.

(Speech by DAP Parliamentary Leader and MP for Ipoh Timor Lim Kit Siang at DAP Kuantan DAP Branch dinner in Kuantan on Saturday, 1st August 2009)

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 2 August 2009, 7:53 am and is filed under
Human Rights
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Najib Razak
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Can Hishammuddin wipe out the endemic crime in Johore Baru’s Fleet Street (Jalan Maju) within a month and wipe out JB’s notoriety as the capital of crime by end-2010 in an expanded NKRAs in fighting crime?

Nanyang Siang Pau today reported that its photo-journalist Loh Chen Chiang is the latest victim of snatch theft in Johore Baru’s “Fleet Street”, Jalan Maju (known also as News Bureau Street) yesterday. He lost a laptop and a 3G adaptor.

He is the fourth Nanyang Sian Pau journalist-victim in the locality within two years – the other three being Tan Sion Yen, Woo Kek Ching and  Soh Xin En.

There have been at least 22 victims from snatch theft from the various  newspaper offices in the locality, as four Chinese and one English newspapers, Nanyang, Sin Chew, Guangming, China Press and the Star (as well as the circulation office of New Straits Times) are located in Jalan Maju while other newspapers like Kwong Wah and Oriental Daily have their offices nearby.

It is sad and a terrible commentary on the crime situation in Johore Baru that reporters not only report on the galloping incidence of crime, particularly snatch theft in the Johore capital, but are often themselves the victims of these crimes – as if to provide more realistic coverage with first-hand victim reports!

The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein hails from Johore Baru but he seems to be blissfully unaware that Johore Bahru has become the capital of crime in Malaysia – with everyone in Johore living in fear of crime and the incidence of crime.

Can Hishammuddin wipe out the endemic crime in Jalan Maju in Johore Baru within a month, to make it as the safest street in Johore Baru to liberate Johore Baru journalists from the omnipresent fear of crime?

Can Hishammuddin wipe out the notoriety of Johore Baru as the capital of crime by the end of next year and ask the Cabinet to expand the National Key Result Areas (NKRA) for fighting crime by end-2010 to include wiping out the notoriety of Johore Bahru as the capital of crime in Malaysia?

Hishammuddin’s record and legacy as a Home Minister will depend on his ability to declare war on crime and to roll the tide of crime in the past five years rather than establishing a dubious record of declaring war on defenceless peaceful patriotic Malaysians who exercise their human rights to free expression and assembly to demand the abolition of
draconian laws like the Internal Security Act
.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 3 August 2009, 4:07 pm and is filed under
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Does Tiong Lai agree with WHO estimates that  some 110,000 to 500,000 people in Malaysia  need hospitalization in A(H1N1) outbreak with 5,500 to 28,000 deaths?

The A(N1H1) death list has shot up by another two victims from four to six –
an 11-year-old boy who died at 8.30 am at Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Baru yesterday
 and a
10-year-old girl from Bagan Seri who died at the Bagan Seri Health Clinic
 at 3 am on Friday.

In New Sunday Times yesterday, the Health director-general Tan Sri Dr. Ismail Merican warned that the influenza A(H1N1)
outbreak is getting serious and about to break out of its present “cluster” level into a community disaster
.

There have been 39 reported new cases of H1N1, all involving Malaysians – bringing the total number of H1N1 cases so far to 1,429.

It is shocking and outrageous that at a time when the country is facing the onslaught of two killer epidemics, A(H1N1) and dengue, they are not the No. 1 priority concern of the Health Minister, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai who abdicated his responsibility as Health Minister
to Dr. Ismail on the day-to-day management of the two killer epidemic outbreaks and  to the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin at the macro level as Muhyiddin is the chairman of the inter-ministerial committee for H1N1.

All this abdication to allow Liow the time and energy in the past crucial weeks to go round the various states in the country with the MCA President, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat to prop up Ong’s stocks in the MCA power struggle with MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek which is why there are people who liken him to “Nero who plays with the fiddle while Rome burns”!

There are already grumblings that Liow is proving to be the country’s  worst MCA Health Minister, definitely in the past 15 years when his two predecessors were Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek and Datuk Chua Jui Meng.

Liow should prove these critics wrong and the first thing he must do is to out of the sidelines and stop being a bystander in the national war against the two killer epidemics, by assuming responsibility as  the commander-in-chief in the battle against A(H1N1) flu  and dengue epidemics.

At a recent briefing to the National Influenza Pandemic Task Force meeting (July 27, 2009), Dr Tee Ah Sian, director of communicable diseases of WHO, painted a possible scenario for the Malaysian A (H1N1) pandemic.

For our 27.7 million population, if simply 20% are at risk and exposed, then some 5.5 million people will contract the A (H1N1) flu. Based on other serious influenza statistics, if 2% to 9% require hospitalisation then, some 110,000 to 500,000, respectively, would need hospital care.

If the case fatality rate is estimated to be from 0.1% to 0.5%, then some 5,500 to 28,000 of infected patients would die, respectively.

In the latest updates of the most seriously ill patients identified and confirmed infections, the global case fatality rate has risen from the 0.4% to 0.66%.

Liow should state publicly whether he endorses the WHO estimates and  warning that some 110,000 to 500,000 people in Malaysia  would have to seek hospitalization in the A(H1N1) outbreak and that there could be as many as  5,500 to 28,000 deaths from the deadly flu.

If not, what are Liow’s own figures and statistics. If Liow confirms that the Heath Ministry endorses the WHO’s dire warnings, then what contingency plans have Liow , the Health Ministry and the entire government devised to deal with a national calamity that could claim from 5,500 to 28,000 lives?  What is he doing to ensure that these WHO estimates are proven wrong?

The second thing that Liow should do to take ownership and responsibility to spearhead the war against the two killer epidemics is to get the Cabinet on Wednesday to include targets in the war against two killer epidemics, A(H1N1) and dengue, as the seventh National Key Result Areas (NKRA)?

The Gerakan President and Key Performance Index (KPI) Minister, Tan Sri Koh Tsu Koon should give his full support in Cabinet on Wednesday to include the targets to win the war against the two killer epidemics in the NKRAs by the end of next year – with monthly as well as six-monthly targets.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 3 August 2009, 11:32 am and is filed under
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