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Ijok by-election: Khir Toyo arrested and charged for corruption if ACA independent

Khir Toyo arrested and charged for corruption if ACA independent

Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Khir Toyo would have been arrested by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and charged for corruption in connection with the Ijok by-election in Selangor if the ACA is an independent and professional body.

This is because even before the Ijok by-election nomination tomorrow, money politics to buy votes have started with the announcement by Khir Toyo of RM36 million for various development projects in the Ijok constituency.

Instead, the ACA had acted “blind, deaf and mute” to such money politics and corrupt practices to buy votes in the by-election.

This is what I said in Parliament this evening during the winding-up of the Prime Minister’s Department in the committee stage debate of the 2007 Supplementary Estimates.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Nazri Aziz disputed my charges as being unfair to the ACA and openly asked the ACA officers on duty in Parliament to take note of my strictures. I stood my ground. Continue reading “Ijok by-election: Khir Toyo arrested and charged for corruption if ACA independent”

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Continuing family tragedy of trio forcibly separated in three different locations

Continuing family tragedy of trio forcibly separated

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Revathi Masoosai/Siti Fatimah’s 100-day detention for Islamic rehabilitation which ends today has been extended by the Malacca Syariah Court for another 80 days.

Revathi’s husband, Suresh Veerapan was informed by Malacca Syariah Court officials that her detention at the Faith Rehabilitation Centre in Ulu Yam has been extended by 80 days.

When Suresh Veerapan asked for the reasons, an official told him “she did not cooperate during the 100-day stay” which ended today.

His demand for a copy of the court order on the extension was denied. Revathi was not brought to the Malacca court from Ulu Yam in Selangor. Dozens of relatives were waiting to see her.

Revathi, who suffers from asthma, had told her husband last week that she was not taken to a doctor although she was sick.

It is sad and tragic that this heart-rending tale of the father, mother and baby girl being forcibly separated into three different locations by law and religion had not been resolved today, despite a memorandum by DAP MPs to the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last week.

The following Associated Press report furnishes a backgrounder to this continuing tragedy: Continue reading “Continuing family tragedy of trio forcibly separated in three different locations”

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Another din and pandemonium in Parliament because BN Ministers/MPs cannot stand “hard” questions

Another din and pandemonium in Parliament this morning during question time simply because Barisan Nasional (BN) Ministers and MPs cannot stand hard questions.

The original question was from a BN Sabah MP, Edmund Chong Ket Wah (Batu Sapi) who asked the Higher Education Minister “to state that out of the 20 local public institutions of higher learning, how many are listed on the Academic Ranking of World Top 500 Universities”.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Higher Education Ministry, Datuk Dr. Adham Baba gave a tepid and colourless reply, who dared not address the problem of higher education in the country, failing to mention a single international university ranking.

This was followed by two supplementary questions by BN MPs which only enabled Adham to skirt the problem of decline and fall of academic quality of Malaysian universities.

In my supplementary question, I said that while Adham had said that Malaysia will use the National University of Singapore as a benchmark for public universities in the country, I pointed out that the University of Malaya had started out at par with the University of Singapore until the seventies in terms of international recognition for academic excellence and university quality.

However, Malaysia has slipped back to the international academic backwaters, as illustrated by the following international rankings: Continue reading “Another din and pandemonium in Parliament because BN Ministers/MPs cannot stand “hard” questions”

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Hishammuddin’s keris-wielding disqualifies him as a symbol of national integration

Hishammuddin keris-wielding disqualifies him as a symbol of national integration

The Sun is the only English and Bahasa Malaysia newspaper to report my questioning the Education Minister and UMNO Youth leader, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussin for his infamous keris-wielding in Parliament yesterday.

Hishammuddin was answering the query during Question Time on “the effectiveness of Students’ Integration for Unity programme since it was put into practice and whether the programme has achieved its objective”.

I had prefaced my supplementary question with the observation that Hishammuddin was “well-known” for his keris-wielding incidents in the context of extremist and communal demands in utter disregard of the rights and sensitivities of all races in a plural nation to the extent that he had been asked when he was going to use the keris, forfeiting his credibility and legitimacy as a symbol of national integration; and whether he would apologise for the keris-wielding incidents.

This set off a pandemonium in Parliament with Umno MPs creating a din to drown out my question, leading me to observe that UMNO MPs dared to defend the “keris-wielding” in the context of extremist and communal demands but dared not be questioned on the rightness of their actions in Parliament. Continue reading “Hishammuddin’s keris-wielding disqualifies him as a symbol of national integration”