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NS mishaps and disasters – whistleblower Zulkarnain sacked instantly

Two news reports today do not inspire confidence that the trouble-prone national service (NS) training programme has learnt from all its weaknesses, defects, blunders, mishaps and disasters, including 12 trainee deaths in the past three years, viz:

  • The failure to notify the second batch of 35,046 trainees two months before they are to report for training on March 18, as announced in November last year. Instead, notification was only issued three weeks before March 18. (Sin Chew Daily)
  • The Star report “NS camp chief gets the boot” on the sacking with immediate effect of Camp commandant Zulkarnain Abdullah after he criticized the management of the three-star Kisana Beach Resort National Service (NS) camp in Kelantan, which had been described as “camp hell” by the first batch of trainees there. The most recent case of national service trainee death, Prema Elenchelian, 18, from Cheras Perdana, Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 27 is from the camp. Zulkarnain alleged that he was sacked for protecting the health, safety and welfare of the 400 trainees and criticizing the shabby conditions of the resort’s management company, Rimbun Kisana Development Sdn. Bhd.

The instant sacking of “whistleblower” camp commandant Zulkarnain does not inspire confidence that the National Service Training Department is prepared to give top priority to the interests and welfare of the national service trainees as compared to the profiteering camp and resort managements.

Zulkarnain, who received his dismissal letter from the NS Department on Thursday evening and was barred from attending the NS closing ceremony marking the end of the first NS programme this year, is clearly being punished for the New Straits Times report of the same day, “Trainees say it’s hell but company begs to differ”. Continue reading “NS mishaps and disasters – whistleblower Zulkarnain sacked instantly”

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PSC Integrity meeting on Monday – Zulkipli and Ramli should voluntarily attend

The Monday (March 12) meeting of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity (PSCI) will be held as fixed although with an altered agenda.

The March 12 meeting had been decided by the PSCI at its meeting on 27th Feb. 2007 to hear the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general, Datuk Zulkipli Mat Noor and former top ACA officer and “whistleblower”, Mohamad Ramli Manan on serious allegations of corruption in the ACA; but the Chairman of PSCI, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, had on Thursday arbitrarily and unilaterally made a shock announcement of its cancellation in view of police investigations against Zulkifli and the filing of lawsuits by Ramli against his former boss and several government agencies.

I had faxed a protest to Bernard yesterday asking that the PSCI meeting on March 12 should be held as scheduled to hear Zulkipli and Ramli or to reconsider whether to hear the duo and the Select Committee’s role in the latest developments raising fundamental questions about national integrity, in particular in ACA and Police.

As the March 12 meeting to hear Zulkipli and Ramli was the formal decision of the PSCI meeting on 27th Feb. 2007 – the second day of its meeting to deal with issues concerning the scourge of the false identity card rackets in Sabah – any cancellation of the March 12 meeting could only be made by the PSCI itself and not unilaterally and arbitrarily by any one person.

Bernard has agreed that the PSCI meeting on Monday should proceed as scheduled to consider whether Zulkipli and Ramli should appear before the Select Committee. A new notice from Parliament informing all MPs on the PSCI of the Monday meeting had been sent out yesterday.

Although the invitation to Zulkipli and Ramli to the Select Committee meeting on Monday had been cancelled earlier and they had accordingly been informed, both of them should voluntarily attend the PSCI meeting in Parliament on Monday to honour their public undertaking of their preparedness to appear and tell all about the serious corruption allegations in the ACA. Continue reading “PSC Integrity meeting on Monday – Zulkipli and Ramli should voluntarily attend”