Day: August 23, 2009

The newly-created Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) could not have a more disastrous beginning.

Instead of fulfilling its promise to be even better than Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), in just a matter of months of its operation MACC s is now regarded by Malaysians as even worse than the previous Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) it replaced.

The 42 MACC Panel members of the five oversight committees are all distinguished and honourable Malaysians, but they seem to have forgotten why they have been appointed as custodians of public confidence in the MACC.

Before MACC deviate even further from its statutory objectives and the 42 MACC members stray away from the raison d’etre for their existence and appointments, they should recall the injunction bestowed on them at the official launching of the MACC and the five MACC oversight committees by the then Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at a glittering ceremony at the Putra World Trade Centre on February 24, 2009 attended by about 2,000 guests including ministers, chief ministers, mentris besar, ambassadors as well as representatives from MACC counterparts from Fiji, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia.
Continue reading “The 42 MACC Panel members should hold emergency meetings to find solution to the MACC’s crisis of confidence”

By Tunku Abdul Aziz

Malaysia is blessed in that there is a law for every situation; you name it and we have it all.

Tragically, the mountains of statutes have done nothing more than to earn for us an international reputation of being an overregulated and an underenforced country, with the usual, predictable consequences.

In short, we have already become a first rate country run, generally speaking, by a third rate one race-dominated public service and who have, by their general attitude to their work, made it impossible for Malaysia to be taken seriously.

We have, at the same time become a reactive, finger-pointing society whenever the inevitable happens. Both on a personal as well as at institutional level, we have developed a propensity for “blame thy neighbour” into a fine art form.
Continue reading “The art of blaming thy neighbours”

By Hussein Hamid

Death

The dead cannot cry out for justice; it is a duty of the living to do so for them. Lois McMaster Bujold,

When am I going to die? To those that I will leave behind what comfort is there for them in my going? I do not know. But for Teoh Beng Hock those that he left behind can find some comfort in his passing for in death he has achieved what he would find it hard to achieve in living.

They can take comfort because in his dying he has opened our eyes to the unfairness of how our own Government treats its own people. He has opened our heart to allow all Malaysian to stand together to mourn his passing and by so doing we have become stronger and more committed to being one people – all Malaysian.
Continue reading “The dead cannot cry……”