Parliament as “House of Leaks” – why Samy Vellu did not foresee it after dramatic inspection 2 years ago?

New Straits Times
front-paged the latest scandal of Parliament as
“HOUSE OF LEAKS”
— barely two years after spending RM90 million to renovate Parliament House.

Works Minister, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, after a dramatic 45-minute inspection yesterday, said about the condition of the roof of Parliament House:

As an architect, I can tell you it is very bad. I don’t want to hide anything from you. There is a lot of work to be done here,” he said at a press conference in the lobby of parliament.

He said the repairs would involve removing concrete slabs, waterproofing the roof and installing concealed ceiling equipment for heat protection.

“The plastic pipes will have to be replaced with class-A cast iron pipes.”

The damaged pipes had resulted in water not flowing off the roof.

Samy Vellu said there was a pile of rubbish, mainly construction waste, on the roof and this had to be removed.

He said there were leaks in five places.

“These could increase to 10 or 15 in the future if nothing is done now.”

Who is at fault?

Samy Vellu said everyone was to be blamed for the leakage.

NST
 reported:

“The Public Works Department is in charge of public buildings. They should have acted and advised the government to carry out repairs.

“The parliament maintenance crew also appears to have been negligent.”

He said a paper on the maintenance work and repair costs would be submitted to the cabinet.

“After this repairs, I want to make sure there will be no more such complaints for the next 20 or 30 years.”

However one party is conspicuously  absent from the list of those who should be blamed for Parliament earning a new infamy of “House of Leaks” — Samy Vellu himself.

Why didn’t Samy Vellu, who prides being an architect, foresee  the “very bad” condition of Parliament roof in his very dramatic inspection two years ago when Parliament first leaked after RM90 million renovation?

I don’t have to say that in developed countries, Samy Vellu would have already “sacked” himself, if the Prime Minister had not done so earlier, after such a catalogue of defective structures in government buildings and public construction projects.

Why isn’t Parliament renovation under purview of the House Standing Committee which had been formed with the specific  responsibility of overseeing “all matters connected with the comfort and convenience and services and amenities available” to MPs?  What is more basic to the comfort and convenience of MPs than a Parliament which does not become a House of Leaks after a RM90 million renovation two years ago?

And what is the cost for the repair of the Parliament renovation and who is going to bear it?  Again the public as the eternal suckers?

                This entry was posted on Friday, 18 May 2007, 12:40 pm and is filed under
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People’s judgment on 2 sexist BN MPs — 6-month  suspension as MP and community service with women groups and full apology to Po Kuan and Malaysian women

The over 300 people who attended the  public forum “Respect Women’s Dignity Towards a 1st World Parliament” at YMCA Hall, Kuala Lumpur last night unanimously agreed that the two sexist Barisan Nasional (BN)  MPs, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan) had been guilty of unacceptable sexual harassment and dishonour of DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan,  shaming Parliament, Malaysian women and the nation’s international reputation with their crude, vulgar, sexist gender-offensive remarks in Parliament last week — compounded by their low farce of  “apology to Po Kuan and all Malaysian women, then only to Malaysian women but not to Po Kuan, and then not even to Malaysian women” on Cabinet day on Wednesday.

The public forum agreed that the suitable penalty  for the duo is the following five-point punishment:

1.	Six-month suspension as  MP.

2.	Six-month community service with women groups.

3.	Donation of the their entire parliamentary allowance during suspension  to women groups.

4.	Full apology to Fong Po Kuan and Malaysian women.

5.	If no full apology, the six-month suspension and community service to be extended to 12 months.

The forum decided that its decision be conveyed to the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, before she meets up with the two errant BN MPs at 10 am  the next day on Friday (18th May).

To implement the five-point penalty, the forum decided that its decision should receive endorsement by the following:

	Cabinet Committee on Gender Equality.

	Parliamentary Caucus on Gender Equality.

	Cabinet.

	Parliament — with a motion on June 18 (the first day of next meeting) to directly mete out the five-point penalties for  the two sexist BN MPs, without any reference to the Committee of Privileges.

The forum also decided on the following:

	Call on the relevant state awarding authorities to strip the two sexist BN MPs of their “Datuk” titles, which had been dishonoured by them.

	Apologies should be tendered by the following who had either supported or condoned the abominable male-chauvinist misconduct of the two BN MPs —

1.	Fadilan Yusuf (BN MP — Petrajaya).

2.	Idris Haron (BN MP — Tangga Batu).

3.	Datuk Shahrir Samad —  BN MP — Johor Baru).

4.	Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz  – Minister in Prime Minister’s Department..

5.	Datuk Seri Najib Razak — Deputy Prime Minister.

	Call on all political parties to adopt Code of Conduct requiring gender-sensitivity as a criteria for selection of candidates for Parliamentary and State Assembly elections.

	Gender-sensitisation programme for all MPs — and the inclusion of the subject of “gender-sensitisation of Parliamentarians” as a specific topic in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) Conference 2008 to be held in Malaysia.

	Gender-sensitisation of Cabinet Ministers.

	Launch of a People’s Parliament movement to spread to all corners of the country the message of the “Respect Women’s Dignity Towards A 1st World Parliament” forum.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 18 May 2007, 8:29 am and is filed under
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Two sexist BN MPs – treating Malaysians as suckers with “apology” which is  really no apology

For the past fortnight, Malaysians have been treated as
suckers
 by Cabinet Ministers  — the most outrageous case being the demand by the Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu for RM22 million to inspect new government buildings in Putrajaya for defects, which did not include a  subsequent and lengthening list of  government building mishaps, such as the spanking new RM290 million court complex in Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur and now Parliament House which has become a  “HOUSE OF LEAKS” barely two years after a RM100 million renovation.

Today, even  the two sexist Barisan Nasional (BN)  MPs, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan), are treating Malaysians as suckers with their “apology” which is really no apology over their gender-offensive male-chauvinist remarks in Parliament last week, directed at  DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan, but which brought shame and dishonour to Parliament, Malaysian women and the nation’s international reputation.

I had not wanted to comment on the case of the two sexist BN MPs today, but when I read Malaysiakini news reports of the alleged
“apology”
of Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar which the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jali had described as a “closure”, I cannot contain my outrage and wrath.

This is because the so-called “apology” of Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar orchestrated by Shahrizat was not only no
“closure”
 of the abominable case of sexual harassment and gender abuse in Parliament last week, but had added “salt to the wound” of Po Kuan, as well as all women and men who want proper closure with  justice done to all aggrieved parties.

After their 45-minute meeting with Shahrizat, Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar said they would like to tender their apologies, if “women were offended”.

However, they destroyed all meaning in their apologies when they defended their words used in Parliament as necessary to defend the government during debates.

They also did not issue a personal apology to Po Kuan.

As if such qualifications were not adequate to destroy all meaning of their apologies, Mohd Said added insult to injury by alleging that “the incident was manipulated by the opposition who pictured it (the incident) negatively, and made it look different from what really happened in the Dewan Rakyat”.

Bung Mokhtar said the incident was blown out of proportion by DAP by highlighting it in the media and dragging along the women’s organizations in the country.

In one fell swoop, both MPs had destroyed all meaning in their alleged apology by justifying their sexist attacks on Po Kuan on the ground that the gender-offensive remarks were uttered following provocation. They went one step further in accusing women organizations of being too gullible and mindless in allowing themselves to be manipulated by the DAP, highlighting the duo’s  contempt for the integrity, commitment and professionalism of women organizations!

The  farce of  “apology to Po Kuan and all Malaysian women, then only to Malaysian women but not to Po Kuan, and then not even to Malaysian women” by the duo on Cabinet day on Wednesday, and their charade of an “apology” which is no apology this morning have proven right the indignation, outrage and resolution of the public forum “Respect Women’s Dignity Towards a 1st World Parliament” at YMCA Hall, Kuala Lumpur last night.

The public forum, which was attended by over 300 people, unanimously agreed that Mohd Said and Bung Mohtar had been guilty of sexual harassment of Po Kuan and had brought shame and dishonour to Parliament, Malaysian women and the nation’s reputation internationally.

They agreed that the
suitable penalty
for the duo is the following five-point punishment:

1.	Six-month suspension as  MP.

2.	Six-month community service with women groups.

3.	Donation of the their entire parliamentary allowance during suspension  to women groups.

4.	Full apology to Fong Po Kuan and Malaysian women.

5.	If no full apology, the six-month suspension and community service to be extended to 12 months.

Mohd Said and Bung Mohtar have now  expanded the list of individuals and organizations they have to proffer their apologies — the  women organisations and their leaders whom they insulted and humiliated this morning with their contemptuous dismissal of their integrity, commitment and professionalism.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 18 May 2007, 4:01 pm and is filed under
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Nazri vs Dompok – Nazri’s double-standards and hypocrisy

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz told today that Tan Sri Bernard Dompok had re
Berita Harian
signed as Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity (PSCI) because the latter was frustrated that Nazri had objected to the PSCI calling the then Director-General of Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor to appear before the Select Committee.  Dompok is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

Berita Harian’s
report
“Dompok kecewa JPN enggan temui PSCI”
 said:

Nazri yang menyifatkan kenyataan bekas pengerusi PSCI terhadapnya semalam sebagai pandangan peribadi berkata, Dompok sepatutnya memahami arahan Kabinet bahawa jawatankusasa seperti itu bukan berperanan sebagai badan penyiasat, sebaliknya hanya mengumpul maklumat daripada orang ramai mengenai sesuatu isu atau masalah.

“Keputusan Kabinet jelas… jawatankuasa itu hanya buat perbicaraan awam iaitu mengumpulkan maklumat, bukannya menyiasat kes yang ditimbulkan.

“Apa yang perlu mereka buat adalah iklankan dalam akhbar bila dan tempat mereka mahu buat perbicaraan awam untuk membolehkan orang ramai datang memberikan pandangan terhadap masalah atau isu.

“Jika dia (Dompok) tidak dengar cakap Kit Siang, tak jadi masalah, tetapi dia nak jadi badan penyiasat, kita tak setuju,” katanya.

Nazri owes PSCI, Parliament and Malaysians answers to three questions:

Firstly, why is he interfering with the autonomy of Parliament and the PSCI to conduct its own affairs, as if he is a Super-Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, more powerful than the Select Committees, their members and Chairmen;

Secondly, from Nazri’s statement, it is clear that the Cabinet has arrogated to itself  powers to direct  Parliamentary Select Committees how it should function — which makes a mockery of Parliamentary independence and accountability of Cabinet to Parliament;

Thirdly, why his double-standards and hypocrisy in opposing  the ACA Director-General being invited to appear before PSCI while not objecting to the earlier appearance of  Customs Director-General  before the  committee?

In  July last year,  the  Customs Director-General Datuk Abdul Rahman Abdul Hamid  appeared before the PSCI to explain alleged questionable practices involving in the auctioning of confiscated luxury cars which had been raised in Parliament by the Barisan Nasional MP for Jasin, Mohd Said Yusof.

Can Nazri explain why he did not object to the Customs DG appearing before the PSCI but took such a truculent stand to prevent the then ACA DG, Zulkipli in having to appear before the PSCI on serious allegations of corruption in the ACA which had been made by whistleblower and former ACA Sabah Director Mohamad Ramli Manan.

At the first instance, both Zulkipli and Ramli had publicly stated their preparedness to appear before the PSCI  to tell the whole truth with both claiming that they had nothing to hide.

Why then did Nazri coerced BN members on the PSCI to backtrack on their earlier decision to hold hearings for Zulkipli and Ramli resulting in the farce of the on-off-on-off PSCI hearing for Zulkipli and Mohamad Ramli — which seriously damaged the credibility and integrity of the PSCI?

Was it because Zulkipli could not back out of the PSCI hearing after publicly stating that he was prepared to attend as he had nothing to hide, and he needed Nazri’s help to extricate him from having to attend the PSCI hearing?  If so, what had Zulkipli to hide?  And what had Nazri to hide, in order for him to help the then ACA Director-General to hide from the PSCI?

The President of Transparency International, Malaysia, Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam has called on Dompok  to reconsider  his resignation and urged the government to take “tough disciplinary action” against the National Registration Department for defiance of the PSCI in refusing to attend Tuesday’s hearing pertaining to the issue of false identity cards in Sabah.

There are two problems here: Firstly, the NRD’s refusal to attend PSCI hearing on integrity and good governance on the issue of identity cards in Sabah in particular with reference to the grave problem of extraordinary increase of foreigners in Sabah through false documentation appears to have the support of Nazri and other Cabinet Ministers.

Secondly, even if Dompok is prepared to reconsider his resignation as Chairman of PSCI, it is not clear that the Cabinet would agree to his continuing to serve in this capacity.

It would appear in the test of strength between Nazri and Dompok, the former is having an upper hand.

Undoubtedly, Dompok’s resignation as PSCI Chairman has precipitated a grave crisis in already-plummeting confidence, both national and international, in the political will of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to “walk the talk” to fight corruption and promote integrity.

This is a very ominous way for Malaysia to celebrate our 50th Merdeka anniversary.

Before the start of the March meeting of Parliament, , the Prime Minister had urged Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club (BNBBC) members to perform “something extraordinary” to bring back the glory days of parliamentarians in line with the country’s 50th anniversary celebrations this year.

Is this “something extraordinary” the subversion of Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity to the whims and fancies of the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs or the dishonouring of women MPs, Malaysian women, Parliament and the nation with crude, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive statements in the House?

I call on Abdullah to give his personal attention to Dompok’s resignation as PSCI Chairman as well as the need to ensure that the  PSCI have clear powers to function effectively without interference from any Minister or sabotage from any department or agency  to carry out its terms of reference to help implement the National Integrity Plan.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 19 May 2007, 3:08 pm and is filed under
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Six reasons why fake apologies and “dishonourable closure” by two sexist BN MPs must be rejected

Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil yesterday accepted the apologies  of the two sexist Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan) for their crude, derogatory,  sexist and gender-offensive remarks in Parliament last week, saying that it was the
“closure”
 her Ministry wanted.

All Malaysians also want a “closure” to the 10-day parliamentary scandal and national shame precipitated by  two BN  MPs who were guilty of sexual harassment of DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan with their sexist and male-chauvinist remarks, which  also brought shame and dishonour to Parliament, Malaysian women and the nation’s international reputation.

However, it must be a honourable closure and not the most  shameful and dishonourable closure orchestrated by Shahrizat yesterday, where both Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar went through
another  farce
 of proferring an apology which on examination was really no apology at all  — a counterfeit coin or a fake apology!

Firstly, both the duo flaunted their lack of sincerity in wanting to make any apology.  They pointedly refused to offer a personal apology to Po Kuan, even a fake one!

When he returned to Kota Kinabalu yesterday, Bung Mokhtar said he had been directed by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to apologise to Malaysian women, conspicuously omitting reference to Po Kuan.

Secondly, there was no remorse or contrition in making the apology, even to Malaysian women.  Both tendered their apology “if women were offended” — implying that there was nothing wrong with their remarks but with women if they were offended!

Thirdly,  they justified  their sexist and male-chauvinist attacks at Po Kuan on the ground that they were necessary to defend the government during debates.

Mohd Said said in his
prepared statement
that the duo “were only defending Barisan Nasional because the Opposition had belittled, and intentionally made unfounded, baselss claims”.

He declared: “In that situation, it is the responsibility of Barisan representatives and government supporters to defend the leadership and the Government”.

Fourthly, the above statement was as good as a declaration that they would have no hesitation in repeating their crude, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive remarks in similar circumstances in future if they deem it necessary to defend the Barisan Nasional and the Government

Fifthly, both had lied when they claimed that they had been “provoked” to make the crude, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive attacks on Po Kuan.  The video footage of this disgraceful parliamentary conduct is up on YouTube, Google and many blogs. On YouTube alone, which received a four-and-a-half star rating, it was viewed more than 41,700 times.

All can see that when Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar made the crude, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive remarks, neither Po Kuan nor any  DAP MP was out to insult them or was making “unfounded, baseless claims”, as they were legitimately trying to raise in the House the scandal of Parliament leaking again after a RM90 million renovation less than two years ago!

Both Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar made the sexist attacks on Po Kuan when there was no provocation —  when totally unprovoked!  If both of them could tell such a bare-faced lie when the video footage is available for all to see, how could anyone believe in any of their claims and statements?

Sixthly, they had added insult to injury in humiliating Malaysian women when Mohd Said alleged  that “the incident was manipulated by the opposition who pictured it (the incident) negatively, and made it look different from what really happened in the Dewan Rakyat” while Bung Mokhtar said the incident was blown out of proportion by DAP by highlighting it in the media and dragging along the women’s organizations in the country.

Here, the duo were not only  justifying their sexist attacks on Po Kuan but have gone  one step further in accusing women organizations of being too gullible and mindless in allowing themselves to be manipulated by the DAP — another example of the duo’s  contempt for the integrity, commitment and professionalism of women organizations and women leaders!

For these six reasons, the fake apologies of Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar must be rejected for this is a most dishonourable closure as  both BN MPs have added salt to the wounds of Po Kuan, Malaysian women, Parliament and the nation’s reputation!

This was why the 1,200 people who attended the Cheras DAP Dinner in Kuala Lumpur last night unanimously by show-of-hands rejected the fake apologies of Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar.

I call on all political parties, in particular MCA,  Gerakan, MIC, SUPP and Sabah BN component parties  and their wanita and youth wings, NGOs and Malaysians to make clear their rejection of the “fake apologies” of Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar for their sexism and male chauvinism in Parliament last week and to demand for their proper punishment

The public forum “Respect Women’s Dignity Towards a 1st World Parliament” at YMCA Hall, Kuala Lumpur on Thursday night adopted a five-point penalty for Mohd Said and Bung Mohtar, viz:

1.	Six-month suspension as  MP.

2.	Six-month community service with women groups.

3.	Donation of the their entire parliamentary allowance during suspension  to women groups.

4.	Full apology to Fong Po Kuan and Malaysian women.

5.	If no full apology, the six-month suspension and community service to be extended to 12 months.

I call on all political parties, in particular MCA,  Gerakan, MIC, SUPP and Sabah BN component parties  and their wanita and youth wings, NGOs and Malaysians to take a common stand in a nation-wide campaign to support this five-point punishment for the two errant BN MPs.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 19 May 2007, 3:02 pm and is filed under
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Was May 13 naturally orchestrated?

Was May 13 naturally orchestrated?

by Azly Rahman

Perhaps it was. That would be the answer to the event that has become embalmed as a semiotic of racial conflict. Perhaps it wasn’t planned. We need more interpretations of this event. If we ban more books on this, we are afraid of holding a mirror to our history and ourselves.

If we encourage our youth to explore the roots of the bloody conflict, we will have a better generation of thinkers. No more “Ketuanan Melayu, China, India,” or whatsoever notions of self-aggrandisement –just the simple act of opening the dialogues of peace.

But was May 13 planned? I have some thoughts.

It has to happen when and because the lid of authoritarianism was lifted. It was the British lid that brought some kind of stability to the lowest of the lower class of Chinese, Indians and Malays.

Root of the conflict

May 13 was naturally orchestrated as a rude conclusion to the violence brought about by the system of capitalist exploitation; a system that operated successfully at various levels. At the top of the pyramid is the British ruling class, next came the Malay aristocrats and feudal lords or the sultans who collaborated unwillingly with the British robber-barons, The Sultans played the role of obedient tax collectors and managers of the industrial age capitalist system of production, run on the ideology of Oriental Despotism. At the lowest rung, true to the feudal production system, are the indentured serfs and the local padi cultivators.

The traditional/hereditary rulers were successful in making sure the rakyat in each state produces cheaply and sell their labour at dirt-cheap price in order for the feudal production system to continue to survive – so that the system could continue to fill the coffers of the British Empire and at the same time help enrich the local chieftains.

May 13 was a symbolic breakdown of this system of oppression — a radical protest against a feudalist-turned-aristocrat-prime minister who served the British well, after being educated in the ways and mannerism of the colonialists. British ideology of imperialism and race superiority/white supremacy couched in “scientific language of Oxford and Cambridge and royal academies this and that” were taught to the natives who would be rulers, so that the panopticon-synopticon matrix of colonialism may prevail.

May 13 was not merely a natural occurrence in the matrix of international capitalist production but a phenomena that occurred in many a society that undergo the stages of economic growth on the one hand and the stages of political conflict on the other. Combining these two, the race riots is a semiotic — political economic phenomena of deconstruction of socio-economic illusioned-stability — a contradiction in the capitalist mode of production. It was a coup d’etat of society against its own internal notion of progress.

It has a similar fundamental character of the pre-Roosevelt Socialist revolt of the 1930s, Paris Uprising of the 1960s, Iranian Bloodless Revolt and Revolution of the late 1970s, the Los Angeles Riots of the 1990s, the Jakarta burn-down of 1998, and the Paris Riots of 2005. In all these, the roots lie in the growth of the underclass and the problem of economic injustices and criminalisation brought about by neo-colonialist strategies of the ruling elite. Dehumanization is a fertie ground for inner repression.

May 13 may have the manifestation of a race conflict, but essentially it is one whose underlying force of mass anger lies in the clash of suppressed classes of varied ethnic origin.

Interpretation of the incident has merely been few. Tunku Abdul Rahman wrote about it to explain why it occurred and how he was part of the problem and solution in one. That was an official historical narrative — a government’s view of what transpired. Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Malay Dilemma offered another interpretation from his point of view, explaining why it happened and what transpired between the Tunku and him. That was another official explanation.

But again, I reiterate, the more interpretations of the incident the better — so that we may have many explanations and find patterns in the meaning of these explanations. One must however be equipped in the understanding of the complex interplay between technologies of control, the economics of oppression, the sociology of mass anger, and cybernetics of conflicts, the archaeology of mass cultural repression, the genealogy of the feudal-oppressive-matrix, and the ideology and power/knowledge dimension of communicative and propagandistic systems — all these — in order to understand the “Butterfly Effect” of May 13 1969.

May 13, 2009?

Maybe it is too early to predict or too dangerous to be Nostradamus-ising or soothsaying or be playing the numerology game of anticipatory politics. Or maybe there will not be a race riots as we are now glued to our television sets and sucked into the abyss and black hole of the Internet, unable to plan for a peaceful revolution nor be ready for any natural occurrence ala May 13, 1969.

Maybe our brain cells have died a natural death out of decades of being fed with the “feel-good” ideology broadcast through radio and television. Or maybe we have been systematically programmed to amuse ourselves to death through a system of mass consciousness and euphoria that has been telling us to be happy with what we have, while the super rich and powerful amongst us continue to rob the nation in broad daylight through a conspiracy with outside forces in the form of investment arms and tentacles.

I still think that the bloody riots of May 13 was an orchestrated natural disaster — something our forefathers of Merdeka/Independence crafted as part of the cultural logic of late capitalism.

We can only know the answers through books we do not ban. Let us stop this pathetic policy of book banning.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 19 May 2007, 6:25 am and is filed under
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Chia Kwang Chye should not condone the sexism of Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar

Gerakan Secretary-General and Deputy Information Minister, Datuk Seri Chia Kwang Chye, should not condone the two sexist Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan) for their incorrigible sexism in Parliament if he dare not openly castigate the duo for their dishonesty and fake apologies to bring about a dishonourable closure to the nation-wide furore over their crude, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive remarks in Parliament last week.

Chia said yesterday that as Mohd Said and Bung Mohtar have apologized, everybody should stop raising the issue anymore.
(Guanming)
.

This is most shocking and shows that one of the problems of Barisan Nasional leaders when they become Ministers or Deputy Ministers is their surrender of the sense of justice and their faculties to differentiate between right from wrong.

Surely, Chia is aware of the patent dishonesty of the duo in making fake apologies which compounded the original offence they committed, and which cannot be accepted at all by right-thinking and justice-loving Malaysians.

I would urge Chia to reconsider what he said yesterday and openly withdraw his statement asking everyone to stop pursuing the issue purportedly on the  ground that the apologies of the two are acceptable.

Just imagine what would have happened if it was a DAP MP  who made the crude, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive remarks against a woman  BN MP.  There is no doubt that he would have been referred immediately to the Committee of Privileges and a severe punishment of one to two years suspension without allowance would have been meted out unless a full,  unconditional  and acceptable apology is tendered — and I would say, rightly too!

There should not be hypocrisy and double-standards in upholding the honour of Parliament and gender equality and dignity.

I call on Chia to initiate action to ask for a meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council to convey the disgust of Malaysian women and men at the fake apologies of Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar and to demand that both must be penalized with at least six-month suspension as MP, six-month community service with women groups and the forfeit of their parliamentary allowance during this period to be donated to women groups.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 20 May 2007, 9:32 am and is filed under
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Parliament as “House of Leaks” – heads must roll in PWD and Works Ministry, or Samy’s head should roll

Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak has asked the Public Works Department (PWD) to
explain to the Cabinet
on why no request was made for allocations to repair the roof when Parliament House underwent an extensive RM90 million renovation in 2005.

Four  questions immediately come to mind:

Firstly
, will the reference to the Cabinet of the scandal of Parliament as “House of Leaks” end up as unsatisfactorily as last week’s reference to it of the outrage of sexism in Parliament where  two Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs,  Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan) made  crude, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive remarks in Parliament last week, bringing  shame and dishonour to DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan,  Parliament, Malaysian women and the nation’s international reputation — resulting in fake apologies which are really no apologies at all?

Secondly
, why the extraordinary departure from  the principle of Ministerial responsibility with  PWD  going over the head of the Works Minister to report directly to the Cabinet, when such a report is customarily and by convention  made  to the Cabinet  by the Minister responsible for the department, namely Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu as Works Minister?

Has  the Cabinet has lost all confidence in the capability of  Samy Vellu to perform effectively as the Works Minister and to bear full and  direct responsibility for  PWD in Cabinet, especially as Samy Vellu’s is completing his 20 years as Works Minister in shame and ignominy with a helter-skelter of collapse of government buildings and public constructions, whether falling ceilings,  cracked walls, air-conditioning breakdowns or power disruptions in spanking brand new buildings or renovations  costing hundreds of millions of ringgit!

Or is Samy Vellu utterly fed up with the disgraceful  performance of PWD and he is washing his hands to dissociate himself from its failings, leaving  PWD to directly explain to the Cabinet on the latest scandal of Parliament as  the “House of Leaks”?

Whatever the reason, the time has come for the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to terminate Samy Vellu’s long tenure as Cabinet Minister, spanning 27 years and six months,  with 20 years as Works Minister  short of  five months.

Thirdly
  Najib –  who will be chairing the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday as Abdullah will be making his fifth official visit to Japan since taking over as Prime Minister –  does not seem to have been properly briefed about the background and history of the Parliament renovation.

Najib  said yesterday  that if repairs to the Parliament roof had been included in the RM90 million “massive one-year interior restoration and renovation” in 2005, the leaking roof problem now could have been avoided.

Najib was wrong when he said it was a RM90 million  “massive one-year interior restoration and renovation” of Parliament in 2005.

As the Government did not intend to relocate the Parliament building to the federal government administrative centre in Putrajaya, the Cabinet approved on July  18, 2001 an allocation of RM41.8 million for renovation of Parliament House to upgrade the facilities and provide better comfort to Members of Parliament of both Houses.

The Public Works Department was instructed to draw up plans for the renovation and upgrading of facilities at the tower block and the main block of the Parliament building. Work began in November  2002 and the renovation was scheduled to be completed within 12 months.

How could
Samy Vellu
now say that the renovation of Parliament building did not include repair of the roof as it was not damaged then?

In the event, the Parliament renovation took three years to complete and at double the original costs.

Even now, nobody is very sure what were  the costs of the Parliament renovation.

It was only when the roof of the Dewan Rakyat sprung a leak in April 2005, forcing parliamentary proceedings to a halt with water pouring into the chamber disrupting the power and communications systems, that conflicting claims about the renovation costs surfaced.

The Speaker, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah had at the time cited the cost of Parliament renovation as RM60 million, which was backed up by Samy Vellu — but which conflicted with the RM85 million figure quoted by Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, in response to my query in May 2004,  as the total cost of renovation with R57 million already spent.

Later in May 2005, the Dewan Rakyat House Standing Committee was informed by the PWD of the true costs of Parliament renovation – from the original RM49,625,000 to RM85 million (with RM74.5 million spent so far) and a new tranche of expenditure totaling RM14 million awaiting Treasury approval, which would bring the total cost of Parliament renovation to RM99 million!

The total costs of the Parliament renovation would have now exceeded RM100 million and it is most regrettable that a detailed  itemizing of its RM100 million renovation has not  been given to MPs.

When the renovated Parliament first sprung its first leak in April 2005, Samy Vellu made a dramatic inspection on his return from an overseas visit and declared that the  Parliament leak was  “a small problem”  despite drenching the Dewan Rakyat chamber and bringing its proceedings to a halt — quite similar to his  recent arrogant and complacent remark after Parliament turned into a  “House of Leaks” on May 9 that leaks after RM100 million renovation is “common!

Why is Najib unaware of this  background to the trouble-prone Parliament renovation?

Fourthly
, why had the House Committee, under whose jurisdiction the matter of  Parliament renovation falls directly under, been completely sidelined without any role whatsoever?

At least, the House Committee had a meeting immediately after the first Parliament “leaks” in April 2001, but there are no signs of any House Committee meeting to address the second Parliament “leaks” on May 9, 2007.

Why have MPs been treated as strangers in their own institution, when MPs through the House Committee should be intimately involved in all decision-making with regard to Parliament renovation?

The Parliament Building had stood for over forty years from 1962 without any leaks but after renovation costing some RM100 million, it has shamed Parliament and the nation with two major leaks in the past two years.

It marks a terrible erosion of  Malaysian standards and culture, and it is a national disgrace that such plunge in standards and benchmarks, which would have been unthinkable in the first 45 years of national independence,  is now regarded as commonplace and no cause for surprise!

With  Parliament stamping an international notoriety as a  “House of Leaks” — heads must roll in PWD and Works Ministry or let Samy Vellu’s head roll before Parliament reconvenes on June 18  to end the third-world culture of impunity and usher a new era of  first-world responsibility.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 20 May 2007, 5:26 am and is filed under
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Parliament on fire? DR House Committee must come out of hibernation

The Dewan Rakyat  House Committee under the chairmanship of the Speaker should come out of its hibernation and hold an emergency meeting to take ownership of the many deplorable problems of Parliament House to address and resolve them.

There is a proposal that the Public Works Department should be responsible for the maintenance of  Parliament House. This seems to be a sensible proposal but the decision should first be made by the House Committee which is responsible for ensuring that MPs enjoy proper facilities to enable to function properly, before the matter is taken to the Cabinet for endorsement.

Cabinet Ministers must learn to understand the meaning of parliamentary autonomy and independence as well as the doctrine of separation of powers among the Executive, Parliament and the Judiciary.

Works Minister, Datuk Seri Samy Vellu said that the PWD had carried out a lot of repairs on the building but there was recurring damage owing to absence of maintenance.

For instance, he said, each time the clothes hangers on the toilet doors were replaced, they went missing.

This is indeed most shameful, as it is most unthinkable that such gross indiscipline and thievery should be so rife in Parliament House, which should be the heart of a  national campaign to fulfill the dream of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi  to have “First World Infrastructure, First World Mentality” in Malaysia.

But what should be a matter of grave concern is that Samy Vellu’s revelation of such gross indiscipline and rife thievery is news to everyone, as this is the first time I am hearing it, and clearly the House Committee of Dewan Rakyat knows nothing about  it as it had not met at all for  such a report to be presented.

If there is such gross indiscipline and rife thievery as to damage the facilities meant for MPs, then this should be the first task of  the Dewan Rakyat  House Committee to restore minimum discipline in Parliament.

Apart from leaking roof, the Speaker, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah has expressed a new fear over the electrical wiring which  could result in a short-circuit and Parliament House catching fire.

If such a worst scenario should happen, with Parliament on fire, it would indeed be international news which is  “Shame of Shame” for the Malaysian Parliament.

The House Committee of the Dewan Rakyat must meet next week itself to present a comprehensive report to Parliament when it reconvenes on June 18 as to what is actually wrong with the Parliament Building and what is being done about it.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 20 May 2007, 9:57 am and is filed under
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Rakyat who have made Bangsa Malaysia a reality…

by SK Chua

As a true blue Malaysian born and bred here all my 55 years, I have no doubt that this is the country for me and for my kids.

I was 17 years old and in the hometown of Pontian, Johor  when the May 13 incident happened. Our parents’ only concern at that time was my elder brother’s safety in Ceras at the Technical Teachers’ Training College (fondly known as T3C).

Back then there was no email and our parents had to wait for him to call back the next day to tell us he was safe. He told us there was no problem at all at the dormitory and that all students, Malays, Indian and Chinese were like a family to one another and he could not assure us enough that whatever was happening out there was not going to affect their closeness under the same roof.

We believed him. Even in Pontian, we had neighbours and friends of different race and faith living next to each other but we never looked at one another as adversary.

Such spirit of co-existing as one citizen of the land existed back then. And I am convinced that it still exists today.

It is the politicians and the Umnoputras who are undermining these strong fundamentals which we, the Raykat have striven so hard to achieve after so many years.

It is the greedy politician who, after having tasted the sweetness of “success” and material enrichments that they are prepared to undermine the peace and the understanding among the races, to achieve their goal and wealth accumulation.

I was from the service industry. I had Malay partners and staff. Everyone worked hard to ensure the company remained profitable.

Then the politicians got greedy. They “robbed” us all of our income. They started imposing draconian rules that made it difficult or impossible for us to carry on.

We had to stop the partnership and go separate ways. But we remained as friends even till this day. We visited each other during Hari Raya or Lunar New Year, we attended our children’s wedding, we comforted each other during bereavement. We never forget that we are all colleagues and most of all, Malaysians.

These so called Yang Berhormats are the cause of all the renewed hatred among the races.

They might not be able to influence us, the older generation, but they are affecting the mindset of the young ones.

Unable to comprehend the old situation, our youths are hating one another due to the slanted reporting by the mainstream media. They look at one another with suspicion now. They regard the opposing race a threat to their well being.

It is the “Raykat” who have made Bangsa Malaysia a reality, not any of these hotshot politicians. They could continue to plunder the country and there’s nothing much the “Raykat” could do about it. But they must STOP this sowing of the seeds of hatred among us because in no time, there won’t be anything to plunder from!

(SK Chua penned the above in response to Dr. Azmi Sharom’s column in
The Star
, as follows:)

Of silly rules and a Bung-ling jester

BRAVE NEW WORLD

By AZMI SHAROM

It would be nice to take politicians down a peg or two every now and then to remind them that they are where they are because of us.

LIFE, as M. Nasir once sang, is like a rollercoaster. You have your ups and you have your downs. Sometimes you cry and sometimes you laugh like a loon. Just ask Sheffield United and West Ham United supporters. The past couple of weeks have been a little like that.

Maybank’s instructions that all the law firms working for them must have a bumiputra component in their make-up made me pretty annoyed.

Yes, it is fundamentally unfair to the lawyers who happen to be born non-Malay; yes, it is doubtful that they have the authority to make such a request; but what really irritated me is that this is the very sort of thing that undermines affirmative action.

Affirmative action is meant to give a leg up to those who need it. No one can deny that thirty years ago there were very few Malay lawyers around. The NEP has done a lot to fix that. We can debate the rightness of the NEP some other time.

My point is that there are plenty of Malay lawyers now, and many of them got to where they are because they got government scholarships to go abroad or they were let into local universities under the quota system.

Bung: Had incurred the wrath of women’s groups by making an off-colour ‘joke’ about a fellow MP’s menstrual cycle

What Maybank tried to do is in fact saying that despite all the help that these men and women obtained, they still need help now. This is exactly the sort of thing that makes people mad. Just how much of a leg up does one need?

You are already qualified lawyers, for goodness’ sake. Act like one. Work hard and go out there and prove that you are just as good as any other lawyer.

It is true that Maybank made a hasty withdrawal from their position because of the public outcry (which goes to show that public outcries do work).

But the damage has been done.

This episode has shown that a major Malaysian institution was set on having a race-based affirmative action policy in a situation where it is totally uncalled for.

This does not bode well for us either in terms of race relations, or for the economic well-being of the country.

When are they ever going to understand that without a merit-based system as a genuine aspiration we will all suffer, because when the best are not doing the best work, we get nothing but mediocrity.

But life is about balance, and before the froth started to drip on my T-shirt something really amusing happened.

Now, a lot has been written about the MPs who think that making jokes about a fellow parliamentarian’s menstrual cycle is the height of Dewan Rakyat wit. Those pieces have been very, very angry. That is perfectly understandable.

I, on the other hand, think that what Bung (oh, how apt a name) did — although not what he said — was great.

All right, before I get furious e-mails from women (and sensitive men in touch with their feminine side), please let me explain myself. I am one of those people who think that politicians are given far too much respect.

After all, they are only where they are because of us. It would be nice therefore to take them down a peg or two every now and then to remind them of this fact.

This would normally be the job of satirists and the like and could take the form of the written word or stand-up comedy or even television puppet shows. Unfortunately, we don’t have very much of that in these parts.

In Shakespearean plays, the fool plays an important role. As he frolics and clowns around, underneath the silliness he is actually the voice of reason.

By virtue of his being seen as merely a joker, he gets away with saying truths that others may not dare to. In this way, the King’s shortcomings are oft exposed and he is shown to be a fool himself.

We don’t have many people who can play the Shakespearean fool in Malaysia, someone who can show up those in power. But with clowns like Bung in our Parliament, we don’t really need to, as they are more than capable of being fools themselves.

And what wonderful comedic support he has, too.

When one of their fellows said a totally despicable thing and then gets off scot-free, many cheered. Oh, how they cheered.

Hurrah, one of us has made a “joke” that we would be ashamed to make in front of our mothers, but never mind, he got let off. Hip, hip, hurrah!

Or what about the woman MP who defended this jester Bung? I simply must remember my best period joke to tell her if we were ever to meet. I am sure she will find it humorous and in the best possible taste.

Indeed, Bung the fool has plenty of supporting players to make that comedy stage we call our Parliament a truly funny place indeed.

How I laughed. And I think I can hear the world laughing along with me.

Dr Azmi Sharom is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 20 May 2007, 5:47 am and is filed under
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ASEAN MPs back Po Kuan – censure Mohd Said/Bung Mokhtar

ASEAN Members of Parliament attending the International Conference of Japanese Diet Members and ASEAN Parliamentarians on
“The International Symposium of the Way to Democratise Burma”
 in  Tokyo today agreed at the sidelines  that sexism in Parliament  by two Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan) are an affront and outrage  to all ASEAN MPs and ASEAN women and  deserve fullest  condemnation by all ASEAN Parliamentarians and ASEAN civil society

ASEAN MPs  are very distressed by the rank sexism in the Malaysian Parliament on May 9 when Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar  made crude vulgar, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive remarks at the woman MP for Batu Gajah Fong Po Kuan.

This was more than  a  shame and dishonour  to Po Kuan, Malaysian Parliament, Malaysian women and Malaysia’s international reputation.

It was  also an affront and outrage to all ASEAN MPs and ASEAN women and deserves the fullest condemnation by all ASEAN Parliamentarians and ASEAN civil society as sexism has no place in a progressive ASEAN.

This was why there was also  global affront and outrage, with  MPs and State Legislators attending the GlobalPOWER (Partnership of Women Elected/Appointed Representatives) 2007  Conference in Washington May 7 — 11, 2007 being  the first global response to the “sexist and demeaning statements that male Members of Parliament in Malaysia made to their women colleagues”.

The GlobalPOWER 2007 statement, issued  by woman Parliamentarians from four  continents, i.e. Asia, North America, Europe and Africa  who attended the Conference, pledged that they  “stand in solidarity with our sisters in the Parliament of Malaysia and demand that the Parliament censure the Members who verbally insulted and denigrated their colleagues”.

The GlobalPOWER 2007 statement said:

“We declare that these remarks are an affront not only to our sister, the Honorable Fong Po Kuan and other women MPs in Malaysia, but to all women elected officials worldwide, to the women of Malaysia and, indeed, to all women worldwide.

“The failure of the leaders of Parliament to take action to censure the offending Members makes the entire Parliament complicit in this behavior.  The failure to act further implies that this sexist behavior is acceptable and will continue to be tolerated and condoned by Parliament.  This is unacceptable to all of us who, as Members of Parliament, stand in solidarity with our sisters in Malaysia and worldwide.”

It is most regrettable and deplorable that 12 days after the unacceptable exhibition of male chauvinism in the Malaysian Parliament, there has been no proper and honourable closure of the disgraceful incident and the two errant MPs  had been able to get away with their deplorable conduct with impunity.

ASEAN MPs  agree that the seeming apologies which the duo  had made last Friday merely added insult to injury, as they were not genuine  apologies at all on close examination but back-handed justification of their unacceptable sexist conduct.

There was not only no remorse or contrition on the part of  the duo for their sexual harassment of Po Kuan and insult to women of Malaysia, ASEAN and the world, they stubbornly made clear their intention to repeat their irresponsible  conduct if the same set of circumstances presented themselves again!

In the era of information and communications technology, the people of ASEAN are now in a borderless world. ASEAN will be celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.  Both these factors must be inspiration for ASEAN MPs to come together to express the ASEAN community spirit for justice, fair play, freedom, solidarity and respect for women, children and family.

The Po Kuan case will be the first for ASEAN MPs to act and declare that an affront to and attack of a woman MP in one ASEAN country because of her gender is an affront and attack on all women and men MPs in ASEAN and deserves the fullest denunciation of the ASEAN Parliamentary community and civil society.

A joint statement will be issued  by ASEAN MPs in Tokyo tomorrow demonstrating support and solidarity with Po Kuan.  Among those who have declared support for the joint statement are Senator Aquilino Pimentel, Philippines Senate Minority Leader, Indonesian MP Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, Cambodian MP Son Chhay and former Thai MP Buranaj Smutharaks.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 21 May 2007, 4:49 pm and is filed under
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Of Repentance and Penitence

Of Repentance and Penitence

by Dr. Oh Ei Sun

Sabah Times

These few weeks were indeed packed with events and commemorative days.  Last week we celebrated, among other’s, Teacher’s Day, which has become a national occasion when we pay tribute to not only teachers, but indeed all those who undertake the tough and often thankless job of educating the precious minds of the country.

As the son of a teacher (my mom was a school teacher for 34 years), and as a teacher myself, Teacher’s Day is for me a day of reflection on the state and future of education, not so much for the much-vaunted national development effort, but in developing wholesome characters in millions of precious young minds.  And perhaps a brief lesson in history from another part of the world could help.

In 1957, just a few weeks after Malaya attained its independence, another smaller-scale, but no less momentous event took place in the provincial town of Little Rock, the capital of the state of Arkansas in the United States.  Nine young black men and women were escorted by US Army personnel to attend Little Rock Central High, a hitherto all-white school.

The past entrenched racism of the American South would be a subject for future writing.  It suffices to mention here that for almost a century after the liberation of black slaves in the US, officially sanctioned racist treatments abounded primarily in the American South.  The images of separate toilets for “White” and “Colored” still haunt us today.  Most schools there were either exclusively white or black, with far superior teaching resources reserved for the former.

The US Supreme Court, in its landmark 1954 case, Brown v. Board of Education, declared such segregated school systems unconstitutional, and ordered that schools should be integrated.  Nevertheless, many local school systems and residents, mostly in the South, were still resistant to such change.

In 1957, nine black students registered for Little Rock Central High.  When the news spread, some white residents organized protests near the school.  Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas, no friend to the black civil rights movement, ordered Arkansas National Guard to join in and block the entrance of these students into the high school.  It created a national uproar and shook the conscience of a nation.

President Dwight Eisenhower, after failing to persuade Governor Faubus to stand down, ordered federal troops from the elite 101st Airborne Division to escort the “Little Rock Nine” to school everyday.  The immortal image of the young men and women walking to school flanked by federal troops has since become a milestone in the American black struggle for equal treatment.

The “Little Rock Nine” saga epitomizes the “true” emancipation of black people in the American South.  It crystallizes the lofty ideal that enshrined in the American Declaration of Independence, that “all men are created equal, and they are endowed… with certain inalienable rights, and among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.  The federal troops who performed their duties admirably were also deserving of praises, for they braved the intimidating crowds to ensure that nine fellow black citizens have their life and liberty protected, and could pursue their future happiness free of fear by receiving the same quality of education as their white brethrens.

But the American federal government, under President Eisenhower, should receive the most accolades for acting swiftly and courageously to use public tools to protect the legitimate rights of their minority citizens.  It enshrines one of the basic tenets of true democracy, that the rule by the majority must be tempered by respect for the minority.

The American educational system has of course come a long way since the infamous days of the “Little Rock Nine”.  In American campuses today, students from various nationalities, including those from Sabah, can be seen mingling with and learning from each others.  And the American culture is one of “no shame in apology”.  Most Americans today are aware of the evil of racism, of judging and treating people simply based on color, sex or religion.  They repent their past, sometimes overly so, and they try to pay penitence by doing their best to right the wrongs.

Today the sculptures of the “Little Rock Nine” stand proudly in front of the Arkansas State Capitol.  In 1999, they received the prestigious Congressional Gold Medals.  In 1996, they appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show face to face with some of the white students who tormented them back then.  The American sense of repentance and penitence is simply astounding!

The same, alas, could not be said about at least some of our local politicians.  After nonchalantly offended the feminine dignity of a fellow MP, and despite heavy criticisms from all circles here and abroad, the two offending MPs meekly offered at worst “no apology” and at best only lame ones.  And this only after first withdrawing and re-issuing the so-called “apologies”!

What kind of convoluted, half-hearted, excuse-ridden, blaming-others gibberish are these?  Not a single word was meant to assuage the offended feelings of the victimized MP!  Let me get this straight:  If you insult Dr. Oh’s manhood, you should apologize to all men but not Dr. Oh in particular, is it?  What kind of warped view of social discourse is this?

And it is equally cheeky and offensive of them to drag the government into the picture, proclaiming that they were merely defending the government in uttering those offensive words.  O, so the end justifies the means, is it?  Can you imagine Tony Blair defend his government in Parliament by making fun of his female colleagues?  What kind of negative message is this sending to our young impressionable children?  “Hey, as long as you think it is for a good cause, you may use offensive words, go ahead, just do it!”

I humbly submit and hope that the quality of our government does not stoop to the level of these offending MPs.  I am heartened to learn that after this inglorious issue was first publicly discussed in Sabah (in this very column) last Monday, at least two female assistant ministers in the state government (led by the same coalition as that at the federal level) came out to unequivocally condemn the offending MPs.

And media and NGOs are again being made scapegoats.  Is it not the media’s rightful role to report the shameful incident and to reflect the indignant views of the general public?  Is it not the proper function of the women’s NGOs to advocate their related causes and to register their displeasure over such offensive acts?  Some people are in serious need of lessons in democracy again, and I am willing to offer them.

In many other developed parts of the world, when people make a mistake, they admit it wholeheartedly and apologise unreservedly.  Then they try to make amends for their wrongs, individually and as a society (as in the later, celebratory treatment of the “Little Rock Nine”).  This kind of noble stance unfortunately has not taken roots in our local culture.  We still have much to learn about repentance and penitence.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 21 May 2007, 5:06 am and is filed under
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A simple and dignified wedding celebration spoiled  by the presence of the State Mufti

by Richard Teo

Like many Malaysians, I was particularly enthralled when the Raja Muda, Raja Nazrin Shah in a speech some time ago declared that “Malaysians of all races, religions and geographic locations need to   believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have a place under the Malaysian sun”.

For such pearls of wisdom to flow from a regal figure is extraordinary especially when we compare to the diversive speech by our erstwhile politicians in a political meeting sometime ago.

However, like many others, I feel disappointed that the simple and dignified wedding celebrations was tainted by the presence of the State Mufti, Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria who was given a prominent role in conducting the wedding ceremony.

This religious head who is Perak’s State Mufti should have been charged and imprisoned for inciting racial riot at a Catholic church. His malicious intent to cause racial disharmony was  deliberate. From his pulpit he announced to his shocked congregation that a mass conversion was about to take place in a Christian church.

His infuriated Muslim congregation marched to the Catholic Church and almost cost a riot. Fortunately, an ulgy incident was averted when it was found that the conversion was for a group of Indian girls.

A few months earlier the same Mufti announced to a shocked Muslim audience that there were 100,000 Muslims apostates. Of course he could not back his assertion with any statistics.

Raja Nazrin Shah’s speech and message to Malaysians would have been an unequivocal inspiration had his father the Sultan dismissed this mufti who have caused so much harm and discord among its various races.

How could the Crown Prince expect his subjects to believe his message when in his regal presence is a man who have sown so much discord?

Malaysians in general truly applaud the Crown Prince for his caring and inspiring message but what good are those messages if words are not matched with deeds?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 22 May 2007, 5:34 am and is filed under
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Leaders of 5 original ASEAN nations should join call for Aung San Suu Ky’s release

The cause of democratization in Burma is a hard nut to crack and it is so easy to give way to despair as there does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel after years and decades of sacrifice and struggle by the people of Burma for democracy, freedom and justice, with many tempted to dismiss  it as a “lost cause”.

Burma has in fact been described as the world’s longest-running civil war that has lasted nearly 60 years and sent millions fleeing into Thailand and displaced 500,000 people in Myanmar — a period that saw the tragedy of the transformation of once Asia’s rich country into a basketcase.

Developments in Myanmar can both be interpreted as signs of weakness or consolidation of the repressive, ruthless and mendacious military junta, whether it be the abrupt relocation of the national capital from Yangon to Nay Pyi Taw, about 390 kilometres north of Yangon in November 2005 or the construction of four vast hydro-power dams on the Salween River which have already destroyed 232 villagers in the country’s resource-rich east,  drove 82,000 people from their homes, triggering a new wave of forced labour  and  devastating Salween’s ecosystem.

National and international attention is now focused on the date next week, May 27, when the latest period of detention of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi ends after having spent more than 11 of the past 17 years under some form of detention.

Would the Myanmese military junta, which has ruled Myanmar in various guises since 1962, ignored international calls for her release on May 27 and extend her detention as happened last year?

Last week, 59 former heads of state and government took the unprecedented step of issuing an Open Letter to the Myanmar military junta, calling for the immediate release of the  Burmese Opposition leader and the world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The signatories to the Open Letter included not only  former U.S. presidents Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr and Bill Clinton, former Prime Ministers like  Margaret Thatcher  and John Major (United Kingdom),   Kjell Bondevik,  Gro Harlem Brundtland and Thorbjorn Jagland (Norway), Poul Rasmussen (Denmark), Paavo Lipponen (Finland), Goran Persson (Sweden),   Brian Mulroney and  Kim Campbell (Canada), Lionel Jospin (France), Mary Robinson (Ireland), Maria Soares (Portugal) but also distinguished Asian personalities, including former  Presidents Cory Aquino and Fidel Ramos (Philippines), Nobel Prize Prize Laureate Kim Dae Jung (South Korea),  Abdulrrahman Wahid and Megawati Sukarnoputri (Indonesia), Chandra Shekar (India) but also  former Prime Ministers, Junichiro Koizumi (Japan), Chuan Leekpai (Thailand), Benazir Bhutto (Pakistan), Lee Hong-Koo (South Korea), V.P. Singh (India) and  Ung Huot (Cambodia).

Malaysia provides the “surprise of surprises” in the Open Letter by 59 former President and Prime Ministers –Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad who  was also a signatory although he was the man solely responsible for admitting  Myanmar into ASEAN exactly a decade ago with a total failure in ASEAN’s “constructive engagement” policy with Myanmar.

Leaders of ASEAN,  particularly from the five original ASEAN nations –  Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and  Singapore — should  use their collective influence with the Myanmar military junta  to publicly call for the immediate and unconditional  release of Aung San Suu Kyi.

If the Myanmese military junta continues to be impervious and contemptuous of regional and international opinion, and Aung San Suu Kyi is served with another extension of her detention next Monday, ASEAN governments, Parliaments and civil societies should make their condemnation loud and clear.

However difficult the long road to restore democracy in Burma, there can be no capitulation in the  cause until final victory is achieved.

The next half-year will be very challenging and critical times because of two factors:

	The 40th ASEAN Anniversary and 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore in November 2007, which will adopt the ASEAN  Charter with the critical question  of whether it will provide for sanctions against an   ASEAN member country for being a rogue state completely heedless of the ASEAN spirit and mission; and

	Whether a resolution on Burma could secure support to be presented to the  United Nations Security Council later this year, now that it has passed the first hurdle of being accepted as an agenda of the Security Council.

I hope the Japanese Parliament, Government and Civil Society can play a more pro-active role in promoting democratization in Burma.

Japanese Parliamentarians formed a cross-party caucus in support of democracy in Burma almost a decade before the formation of the AIPMC,  as the Diet Members’ League in Support of Democracy in Myanmar (GIREN)  was formed in the early nineties. However, its influence  has dwindled from its heyday when it had the support of over 200 Japanese Parliamentarians to the present score of some 40-odd Parliamentarians.

Japan has more Prime Ministers than any other country in Asia but there is only one signatory in the Open Letter  of 59 former heads of state and government calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi – Junichiro Koizumi.

Although the Japanese Government has commendably improved its position  at the United Nations from the previous abstention to current support of Burma as an agenda on the United Nations Security Council, more is expected of Japan because of its important global position, such as:

	Support in United Nations for a resolution on Burma to be tabled at the Security Council;

	Review of its ODA aid assistance to the Myanmar military junta to ensure that it is not instrumental in an  increasingly repressive regime spurning all calls for democratization and national reconciliation; and

	Extending annual aid assistance of US$100 million  to pro-democracy movements and groups worldwide  to keep alive the beacon of hope for democracy in Burma.

(Speech in Japanese Diet at the International Conference  of Japanese Diet Members and ASEAN Parliamentarians  on “The Way to Democratize Burma”  in Tokyo on Monday, May 21, 2007)

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 22 May 2007, 9:50 am and is filed under
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Two sexist BN MPs – Cabinet must step in  tomorrow to reject their fake apologies

The Cabinet tomorrow must step in to  make clear that the two sexist Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs, Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (Jasin) and Datuk Bung Mokhtar Radin (Kinabatangan)’s fake apologies  are unacceptable and support civil society’s demand for six-month suspension as MP and community service with women groups as punishment for the duo, with parliamentary allowances for this period donated in their entirely to women organizations.

It will be a most  adverse reflection on the Cabinet and government if Cabinet Ministers endorse the fake apologies by the duo, including accepting the report of the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, who had clearly failed to stand up for gender respect, sensitivity and equality in her eagerness to resolve the controversy — even if it was in the form of fake, insincere and dishonest “apologies”.

If Shahrizat had not realized that she had been bamboozled by the two BN MPs with their fake apologies, she should have realized it by now in the face of very critical and even hostile public comments at her failure to do justice to repair the grave wrong done in Parliament by the sexism of the two BN MPs — bringing shame and dishonour to DAP MP for Batu Gajah, Fong Po Kuan, Malaysian women, Parliament and the nation’s international reputation — as well as women in ASEAN and the world!

In the mishandling of the latest instance of  sexist and male-chauvinist outbursts by the two BN MPs in Parliament, Shahrizat is becoming an even  bigger issue than Mohd Said and Bung Mohtar.

Shahrizat has still got  a  final chance to make amends to redeem her respect among Malaysian and global women — by being frank with the Cabinet that the issue is becoming even bigger because of the fake apologies of the two errant BN MPs, and  asking the Cabinet to step in tomorrow to reject the fake apologies and support civil society’s demand for six-month suspension as MP and community service with women groups as punishment for the duo.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 22 May 2007, 10:16 am and is filed under
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2 sexist Malaysian MPs condemned – joint statement by ASEAN MPs

Joint Media Statement by ASEAN MPs (and former MP)  from the Philippines,  Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia in Tokyo on Tuesday, 22nd  May 2007:

Sexism by two male MPs in Malaysian Parliament on May 9 an affront and outrage  to all ASEAN MPs and ASEAN women — deserves fullest  condemnation by all ASEAN Parliamentarians and ASEAN civil society as sexism has no place in a progressive ASEAN

We, the undersigned ASEAN MPs (and former MP) attending an  international conference in Tokyo have decided to issue the following joint statement:

We are very distressed by the rank sexism in the Malaysian Parliament on May 9 when two male MPs made crude vulgar, derogatory, sexist and gender-offensive remarks at the woman MP for Batu Gajah Fong Po Kuan, which have been regarded as a  shame and dishonour  to Po Kuan, Malaysian Parliament, Malaysian women and Malaysia’s international reputation.

It is more than that — it is also an affront and outrage to all ASEAN MPs and ASEAN women and deserves the fullest condemnation by all ASEAN Parliamentarians and ASEAN civil society as sexism has no place in a progressive ASEAN.

In fact, it is also a global affront and outrage, which was why MPs and State Legislators attending the GlobalPOWER (Partnership of Women Elected/Appointed Representatives) 2007  Conference in Washington May 7 — 11, 2007 was the first global response to the “sexist and demeaning statements that male Members of Parliament in Malaysia made to their women colleagues”.

The GlobalPOWER 2007 statement, issued  by woman Parliamentarians from four  continents, i.e. Asia, North America, Europe and Africa  who attended the Conference, pledged that they  “stand in solidarity with our sisters in the Parliament of Malaysia and demand that the Parliament censure the Members who verbally insulted and denigrated their colleagues”.

The GlobalPOWER 2007 statement said:

“We declare that these remarks are an affront not only to our sister, the Honorable Fong Po Kuan and other women MPs in Malaysia, but to all women elected officials worldwide, to the women of Malaysia and, indeed, to all women worldwide.

“The failure of the leaders of Parliament to take action to censure the offending Members makes the entire Parliament complicit in this behavior.  The failure to act further implies that this sexist behavior is acceptable and will continue to be tolerated and condoned by Parliament.  This is unacceptable to all of us who, as Members of Parliament, stand in solidarity with our sisters in Malaysia and worldwide.”

It is most regrettable and deplorable that 12 days after the unacceptable exhibition of male chauvinism in the Malaysian Parliament, there has been no proper and honourable closure of the disgraceful incident and the two errant MPs  had been able to get away with their deplorable conduct with impunity.

We fully agree that the seeming apologies which the duo  had made last Friday merely added insult to injury, as they were not genuine  apologies at all on close examination but back-handed justification of their unacceptable sexist conduct.

There was not only no remorse or contrition on the part of  the duo for their sexual harassment of Po Kuan and insult to women of Malaysia, ASEAN and the world, they stubbornly made clear their intention to repeat their irresponsible  conduct if the same set of circumstances presented themselves again!

In the era of information and communications technology, we are now in a borderless world. ASEAN will be celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.  Both these factors must be inspiration for ASEAN MPs to come together to express the ASEAN community spirit for justice, fair play, freedom, solidarity and respect for women, children and family.

Let the Po Kuan case be the first for ASEAN MPs to act and declare that an affront to and attack of a woman MP in one ASEAN country because of her gender is an affront and attack on all women and men MPs in ASEAN and deserves the fullest denunciation of the ASEAN Parliamentary community and civil society.

We endorse as an acceptable ASEAN formula the five-point penalty for the two recalcitrant MPs as proposed by the public forum “Respect Women’s Dignity Towards a 1st World Parliament”  in Kuala Lumpur on 17th May 2007, viz:

1. Six-month suspension as MP.

2. Six-month community service with women groups.

3. Donation of the their entire parliamentary allowance during suspension to women groups.

4. Full apology to Fong Po Kuan and Malaysian women.

5. If no full apology, the six-month suspension and community service to be extended to 12 months.

Signed:

Senator Aquilino P:imentel

(Senate Minority Leader, Philippines)

Nursyahbani Katjasungkana

(MP — Indonesia)

Lim Kit Siang

(Parliamentary Opposition Leader — Malaysia)

Son Chhay

(MP — Cambodia)

Buranaj Smutharaks

(Former MP — Thailand)

Tokyo

22nd May 2007

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 23 May 2007, 9:50 pm and is filed under
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Educational Discrimination of a Different Kind

Educational Discrimination of a Different Kind

by Nathan Petrus

An issue which is commonly blogged about is educational discrimination on ethnic lines.

With such volatile competition, it is no wonder that another form of educational discrimination is normally ignored by the masses…

This is none other than discrimination by educational stream.

The following quote tells all:

“At lower secondary, students who score a string of As are considered suitable for the Science stream and the rest are placed in the Arts stream.” –
NST Report

‘Tis indeed a sad but true fact in our country that the Arts stream is seen as a receptacle for “second-grade students”. The world of education in Malaysia is divided into those in the Science and Arts streams, with the former being exalted far above the latter. All students who do well in the PMR are siphoned off to the Science stream, while those regarded as less academically-capable are sent to the Arts.

The notion that the Arts is less academically-rigourous than the Sciences has no basis whatsoever. To be frank, it’s a load of rubbish.
Yet many Malaysian parents continue to steer their children in the direction of engineering and medicine (with its related counterparts: dentistry and pharmacy). [it should be noted that most do not aspire for their children to be real scientists, with the exception of the field of biochemistry, which has received much press and government propaganda] And what of economics, sociology, anthropology, literature, history, et al? These are for the less intelligent, the less gifted… in other words the lower-class of the educational pyramid.

It evades me how and why this unacceptable state of affairs could come to being. Indeed, it has become a system that discriminates against those who are intelligent, but are more suited for the Arts. They have been told from the moment they step into school that physics is the realm of geniuses (Newton! Einstein! Hawking!), while literature is for idiots (or weirdos like Shakespeare, Chaucer and T. S. Eliot). [And what about Philosophy? It’s no wonder that there are zero faculties for the study of this vital subject in our local universities. For shame! For shame!]

But for sure, the infamous Dasar 60-40 (60-40 Policy) of the Ministry of Education has contributed to this completely flawed system. The unimportance of Arts to the policy makers is evident in their dismissal of the stream as only worthy of 40% of all upper-secondary students, while 60% must be channeled to the Almighty Science. My secondary school principal was so proud of the school’s policy of 100-0. Yes, there was no Arts classes in Form 4 and Form 5 in my school, and that was something to boast and celebrate about.

We now face the same question as Lenin, “What is to be done?”

First, we must reverse the damage of the ridiculous 60-40 Policy. By forcing more students into the Sciences, we have spat on one half of the whole world of education. Equality of the streams is vital for our survival!

Second, I propose the setting up of schools in the vein of the Maktab Rendah Sains MARA (MARA Science Colleges), but dedicated to the study of the arts. Yes, it is time that we have Maktab Rendah Sastera MARA (MARA Arts Colleges). If seperate institutions are unfeasible, then we should introduce arts subjects in these institutions. [Implicit in this proposal is the opening of these institutions to non-Bumiputras, but that is a issue that needs an article of its own.]

Lastly, and most importantly, we must rid ourselves of the stigma against Arts students. It is now the case that a student is automatically looked down on if he or she divulges that he or she is studying Arts. Parents must cease from discouraging their children from pursuing Arts subjects. Teachers must do the same for their students.

Let us hope that it is not too late. The time is ripe for a counter-revolution!

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 23 May 2007, 2:48 am and is filed under
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RM100 million Parliament “House of Leaks” – Is Abdullah heading a shambolic administration?

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in Tokyo  yesterday that the  Public Works Department (PWD) is responsible for maintenance of government buildings and there should be no
“finger-pointing”
 whenever a defect occurs.

Abdullah said: “I’ve told Samy Vellu that the PWD was responsible for matters related to maintenance, don’t quarrel among yourselves, it’s embarrassing.

“It’s alright if you want to talk it over and carry out the repairs jointly …what’s the point of quarrelling with each other to the extent of the people knowing.

“If there’s something wrong, talk to each other, cooperate and do it quietly… what’s the point of quarrelling in the newspapers, one says they’re responsible, the other says it’s your problem.

“Already people are unhappy with what has happened, who is to take responsibility and who is responsible have also become a public issue, two agencies quarrelling…this is not good.

“Whoever is responsible must have the sense of responsibility to make sure what it was responsible to do. It takes action, it carries out its responsibility.”

While the first public reaction is one of relief that the Prime Minister has finally broken his “elegant silence” on the RM100 million Parliament leaks, the latest in the litany of government building and public construction defects, Malaysians’ concern  and even alarm about the effectiveness of the Abdullah premiership has not been addressedl

This is because  Abdullah’s comments have only served to aggravate increasingly widespread  public disquiet about the shambolic administration and the lack of effective  and dynamic government  leadership in the country, with many questions jostling for answer, such as:

	Why has Abdullah taken two full weeks before making his first public comment on the RM100 million Parliament leaks on May 9 and six days after Samy Vellu blamed everybody but himself for Parliament becoming “House of Leaks”?

	Why has the Prime Minister have  to go all the way to Tokyo to make his first comment on the two-week-old RM100 million Parliament leaks scandal?

	Why has Abdullah still maintained his “elegant silence” on a direct consequence of the RM100 million Parliament leaks scandal –  the sexist  “bocor” scandal of the two  Barisan Nasional MPs, Mohd Said and Bung Mokhtar   who had compounded their offence of sexual harassment of DAP MP for Batu Gajah Fong Po Kuan and dishonour of Parliament, Malaysian women and the nation’s international reputation with fake apologies to the Women, Family and Community Development Minister, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

In the past few days, apart from Parliament’s leaking roof, the Speaker, Tan Sri Ramli Ngah has expressed a new fear over the electrical wiring which could result in a short-circuit and Parliament House catching fire.

More and more Malaysians are asking whether the recent litany of government building and public construction defects are symbolic of a systemic collapse of the government machinery under Abdullah’s premiership, resulting in an increasingly shambolic administration.

In Tokyo yesterday, Abdullah said he was impressed with the maintenance culture of the Japanese people who are known for their efficient maintenance practices, cleanliness, public courtesy and high civic-consciousness.

He believed that the 14,000 Malaysians, who have studied in Japan, would have been “influenced” to emulate the noble cultures of the Japanese in their daily lives.

Are the 26 million Malaysians to await for the return of all the 14,000 Malaysians currently studying in Japan before we can arrest and reverse the slide towards a shambolic administration and systemic government collapse?

Abdullah gave the impression that the maintenance culture is an alien concept to Malaysians, when such shambolic administration and systemic collapse of the government machinery as illustrated by the spate of government building and public construction mishaps were  not only unheard-of but would have been completely unthinkable in the early decades of independent nationhood.

What has gone so terribly wrong in the past five decades of nationhood in terms of the quality, standares  and professionalism of governance, both public and private?

It is not enough for Abdullah to break  his “elegant silence” to lecture Samy Vellu to stop “finger-pointing” about RM100 million Parliament leaks as  Malaysians want to know whose heads will roll for the scandal or has Malaysia a Prime Minister whose writ does not run in his own shambolic government?

The impression that the Abdullah’s writ does not run in his own administration was reinforced by his answer in the Dewan Negara yesterday, where he asked members of parliament and senators to tick off people who smoke at
Parliament House which has been gazetted as a non-smoking premises
.

The Prime Minister said the ban on smoking was gazetted under Regulation 11 (1) (h) of the Tobacco Revenue Control Regulations 2004, which clearly states that smoking was prohibited at any government premises.

“If you find there are people still smoking inside Parliament House, they’re smokers who don’t obey regulations.

“I’m seeking your cooperation to tick off these hardcore smokers to respect the ban.”

Is the Prime Minister aware that Ministers and Deputy Ministers are among the chief culprits in turning parts of Parliament into “smoking chambers” despite the 2004 gazette of Parliament as  non-smoking premises?

Had he ever directed members of his  Cabinet and administration to set the example in ensuring that Parliament is a model of “non-smoking premises” in the country?

Had he ever directed the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department with specific responsibility for Parliament, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, to monitor and penalize members of the Cabinet and administration for violating the “non-smoking” gazette in Parliament?

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 23 May 2007, 4:41 am and is filed under
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Cabinet got time for Manchester United but no time for Building Bridges Inter-faith Dialogue

The Prime Minister,
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
is again on an international tour to preach to foreign audiences  his message of inter-civilisational, inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue, understanding, goodwill and peace.

Speaking two days ago  at the
Meiji University
in Tokyo, where  he was conferred an honorary doctorate, Abdullah said  that dialogue between cultures and civilisations has now become another pre-condition to achieving the global goals of peace, security and prosperity.

He said dialogue could bridge the gap and generate greater understanding between cultures and civilisations especially between the West and the world of Islam.

He said: “This dialogue is essential to expose and establish the fact that Islam is a religion which espouses universalism, not exclusivity. Islam is a religion which does not make any distinction between race or culture.”

The university had specially requested Abdullah to speak on Islam and Islam Hadhari for his keynote address on “Bridging the Gap Between Cultures and Civilisations”.

It is sad and even pathetic however that the Prime Minister’s international message is being ignored locally, even by his own Cabinet.

The Tourism Minister, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor has confirmed that the Cabinet yesterday again discussed Manchester United’s July visit to play in Malaysia — the second time the issue was raised in two consecutive weekly meetings.

Malaysians are very concerned that the Cabinet has a very misplaced sense of priorities when it has absolutely no time at all in its last two meetings  for the issue of the last-minute cancellation of the international Islam-Christianity Interfaith “Building Bridges” Conference to be chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams,
“Humanity in Context: Christian and Muslim Perspectives”
 on May 7 — 11, 2007.

Why didn’t the Cabinet take note of the grave  damage to Malaysia’s international reputation as  model of inter-religious harmony, goodwill and harmony and the credibility of the Prime Minister as moderate Muslim leader and advocate of inter-religious and inter-civilisational dialogue caused by  the last-minute cancellation of the Islam-Christianity Inter-faith Conference and its continuing as  an international sore point against Malaysia?

On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri
Najib Raza
k said that one of the comments International Advisory Panel (IAP) members — many of whom are renowned academicians and industry experts – who met last week over the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was that Malaysian students are perceived to be incurious who lack a “questioning culture” and are too passive.  “They also lack questioning skills, are not too curious and too readily accept facts told to them”.

Are Malaysian students to be blamed for such “incurious and unquestioning culture” when this is the direct result of the national educational and political system — and such passive attitude which “too readily accept facts told  to them” is best illustrated by  the Cabinet at the top of the national pile.

Why was there not a single Cabinet Minister who dared to be “questioning” enough  to inquire about the last-minute cancellation of the Building Bridges Inter-faith Conference when this was  the favourite theme of the Prime Minister in international forums and when the Conference had been planned for the past one year with  prior and specific clearance and approval by the Prime Minister’s Department?

Abdullah had said publicly that the  Building Bridges Inter-faith Conference had not been cancelled but postponed as it clashed with “some urgent matters” of the Prime Minister  that coincided with the dialogue.

What are these “urgent matters” which justified the last-minute cancellation of the Interfaith Conference?

What are the new dates given by the Prime Minister for the “postponed” Building Bridges Conference 2007?  Or will it be “postponed indefinitely” until after the next general election, with no guarantee or certainty that the 2007 Conference  would be held in Malaysia at all?

It is sad and a national tragedy that the  present Cabinet seemed determined to prove former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad right again and again that it is a “half-past six Cabinet”!

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 24 May 2007, 8:52 am and is filed under
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