Day: November 15, 2007

Breaking News

Malaysia’s Application To Set Up HPTC In Brickendonbury Rejected

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 15 (Bernama) — The East Herts Council Development Control Committee has rejected the Malaysian government’s application to set up a High Performance Training Centre (HPTC) at the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre (TARRC) in Brickendonbury, Britain.

The National Sports Institute director-general, Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz, said the decision was made at the council meeting in Bishops Startford, Herts, on Wednesday night (Thursday morning in Malaysia).

“With the decision, we now have to prepare a report to be submitted to the Cabinet Committee on Sports headed by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak for their guidance on the next course of action,” he said in a statement. Continue reading “Brickendonbury Sports Complex – British local authority says “No””

On Tuesday, Malaysians saw on CNN the spectacle of the implosion of the 16-storey 1,000-room New Frontier casino-hotel, collapsing the second resort that opened on the Las Vegas Strip half-a-century ago with 1,000 pounds of explosives.

It was a spectacular engineering feat to behold, the precisely-planned and delicately-balanced demolition operation — to give way to a US$2 billion, 3,000-room megaresort Las Vegas Plaza, featuring a 500-ft tall Ferris Wheel similar in size to the famous London Eye, set to open in 2011.

Malaysia has also our own implosion on the same day, but it was a most shameful and ignominous one – the collapse of the RM4.5 million Perak State Park Corporation’s two-storey administration building on a hillslope on the edge of Tasik Banding in Gerik.

Star said the structure “collapsed like a house of cards” while New Straits Times said the complex “collapsed into a heap of rubble”.

Malaysia’s very own implosion was no spectacular engineering feat but spectacular building failure and government negligence. Continue reading “Malaysia “implosion” very different from Las Vegas “implosion””

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz announced yesterday that three senior ministers have been appointed to study the three-man Haidar Panel report on the Lingam Tape on the perversion of the course of justice on fixing of judicial appointments and court judgments.

Nazri said that the three Ministers, i.e. Home Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, Culture and Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Rais Yatim and he himself, were given the task by the Cabinet due to their legal background and because all three had been in charge of law affairs in their ministerial portfolios and to make recommendations on the appropriate action to be taken at the next Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

The Cabinet had also decided that each minister be given a copy of the report.

Two questions immediately come to mind.

Firstly, why wasn’t the Haider Report made public immediately? Why must Cabinet Ministers read the Haider Report first, to find out whether it is good or bad for the government, before deciding whether it should be made public?

We should follow the best international practices of countries which fully practice accountability, transparency and integrity where such inquiry reports, whether by Royal Commission or inquiry committees, are made public at the same time they are submitted to the appointing authorities — to show that the government has nothing to hide, regardless of the findings.

Secondly, why should there be another three-man Ministerial Committee to study the Report of the three-man Haider Panel on the Lingam Tape? One does not need to have any legal background or experience in Cabinet in charge of law affairs to decide what is right and proper to be done on a question of accountability, transparency and integrity, not only about the Lingam Tape revelations about the perversion of the course of justice on fixing of judicial appointments and judicial decisions but the urgent need for judicial reforms. Continue reading “LingamGate – Give Rais’ book “Freedom under Executive Power in Malaysia” to all Cabinet Ministers”