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Why is A (H1N1) death rate in Malaysia four times the global case fatality rate?

Health Minister, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai should explain why Malaysia’s A (H1N1) death rate is four times the global case fatality rate.

Malaysia’s death toll from A (H1N1) flu has topped 56 since the first fatality three weeks ago.

Below I have calculated the mortality rates for the following countries, based on reported number of confirmed H1N1 cases, as of 13 August 2009. Some countries like Singapore have ceased to report on total cases, where their current reports are on the number of patients still receiving treatment in hospitals. Some countries have yet to report their most updated total number of cases, hence I have given their numbers as of the date in brackets below. The number of deaths are as of 13 August.

The following are a comparison of Malaysia’s A (H1N1) flu fatality rate with other countries based on confirmed cases and deaths made public yesterday:
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Is Muhyiddin not interested in the truth as to whether the Transport Minister or the BNBBC Chairman is lying or whether both are lying?

The Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin seems to be totally unconcerned and uninterested as to the truth in the Ong Tee Keat-Tiong King Sing expose, whether the Transport Minister or the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers’ Club (BNBBC) is lying or whether both are lying?

Muhyiddin is more concerned about the “image of the government and the Barisan Nasional” and want both Ong and Tiong to stop “washing dirty linen in public” rather than promote the cause of the commitment of the Najib premiership to integrity and good governance.

Does Muhyiddin want the Ong-Tiong “dirty linen” to be buried again and for both Ong and Tiong just to shut up, pretend nothing had happened in the past few days of shocking exposes, so that everything can get back to “normal” as before?
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30-member MACC task force into PKFZ scandal – public inquiry needed why MACC (previously ACA) failed to charge anyone although the first report on PKFZ was lodged some four years ago

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has announced a 30-member task force to investigate corruption in the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

In announcing this, MACC Deputy Commissioner Datuk Abu Kassim Mohamad said the MACC task force would investigate the findings of an earlier special task force set up to probe the legal and financial aspects of the controversial project – the 370-page report with 2,500 appendices made by the special task force comprising Skrine partner Lim Chee Wee, PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services (PwCAS) managing director Chin Kwai Fatt and PwCAS senior executive director Lim San Peen.

The special task force found that there was possible fraud, unsubstantiated claims and over-charging by Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd, the PKFZ turnkey developer, ranging from RM500 million to RM1 billion.

The immediate response of everyone reading Abu Kassim’s announcement is the question why the MACC (and previously the Anti-Corruption Agency) had failed to charge anyone for the PKFZ scandal although the first report on the PKFZ scandal was lodged with the ACA some four years ago!
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DAP does not insult Islam or any religion and does not condone any DAP leader or member in insulting Islam or any religion

Deputy Prime Minister and UMNO Deputy President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin is recklessly making great political capital out of a mistake made by PAS spiritual leader and Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, completely oblivious of the harm it can do to the cause of national unity, inter-religious harmony and in particular Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept.

With screaming headlines today like “DAP hina Islam: Nik Aziz di bidas” (Utusan Malaysia), “’Nik Aziz jual Islam untuk politik’ – Muhyiddin selar pemimpin Pas halalkan tindakan DAP” (Berita Harian), “Muhyiddin in disbelief over Nik Aziz’s stand” (NST), the Barisan Nasional-controlled mainstream media have fanned and incited racial and religious sentiments in two ways:

  • That DAP insult Islam; and
  • That Nik Aziz condoned DAP insulting Islam.

These are downright irresponsible and inexcusable tactics which can only incite racial and religious sentiments and the latest proof that Umno Ministers and leaders are the greatest threat to Najib’s 1Malaysia concept, as instead of tamping down irresponsible utterances which can arouse racial and religious hatred and animosity, they are doing their utmost in the opposite direction in inciting greater inter-racial and inter-religious discord.
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Multimedia Super Corridor vs. Multicultural Supra Conquistadora

By Azly Rahman

There is an ongoing and intensifying war between Barisan Nasional and the Pakatan Rakyat. And the country is watching. It can both be a healthy and an unhealthy educational process. The war is to win the hearts, minds, and souls of Malaysians as we await another ritual of Malaysian democracy: the 13th. General Elections. Like the war between the Israelis and the Palestinians it has been a long 50-year war between Malaysia’s forces of hegemony and of counter-hegemony.

Hegemony, borrowing the Italian Marxist thinker, Antonio Gramsci who wrote on the Fascist government of Mussolini, is a condition of subtle and total control — of the mind, media, machinery, and materials projected as a form of “intellectual and moral leadership” of the ruling party whose developmentalist agenda follows that of the Fordist paradigm of post-industrial revolution.

Malaysia’s ruling regime, particularly in the time of its fourth Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, has survived on hegemony and the language of vision and utopianism its developmentalist agenda fuelled by informational and communication technologies, architectured through physical installations such as Cyberjaya, Putrajaya, and the Petronas Twin Towers – all these are iconic/signs-symbols-signifiers of ultra-exclusive-Malay ideological dominance.
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