Month: August 2009

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……”

The first thing Datuk Seri Najib Razak should do on his return from his first eight-day leave after becoming Prime Minister is to save the soul of his premiership and do what no Umno leader had dared to contemplate – withdraw Rohaizat Othman as their candidate in the Permatang Pasir by-election.

There can be no dispute that Rohaizat had not been honest and truthful with the Umno and Barisan Nasional leaderships and the 20,290 voters of Permatang Pasir about his being struck off the lawyers’ rolls.

How can a government which claims to give top priority to integrity and the fight against corruption and all forms of misuse of power put up as candidate a lawyer who had been struck off the lawyers’ rolls by the Bar Council for “breach of trust, dishonesty, shown gross disregard of client’s interests” which was “tantamount to a conduct unbefitting that of an advocate and solicitor which conduct as such brings the legal profession into disrepute”?
Continue reading “First thing Najib should do on his return from his first 8-day leave after become PM is to save the soul of his premiership and do what no Umno leader dare to contemplate – withdraw Rohaizat as Umno candidate in by-election”

It is sad and pathetic that neither MCA President Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat nor the Gerakan President Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon dare to dissociate the MCA and Gerakan from the Umno candidate for Permatang Pasir by-election Rohaizat Othman for not being honest and truthful with the Barisan Nasional leadership and the 20,290 voters of Permatang Pasir about his being struck off the lawyers’ rolls.

After the political tsunami of the March 8 general elections last year, where Gerakan and MCA received an unprecedented thrashing in the polls, with a total rout in Penang state, Gerakan and MCA leaders promised to learn the lessons from the electoral debacle.

Gerakan and MCA leaders admitted that they were punished for their servile and subservient role in the Barisan Nasional and pledged that henceforth they were not going to be “yes men” and “yes women” to Umno in Barisan Nasional and would speak out strongly, fearlessly and consistently on what is right and wrong in the Barisan Nasional without being afraid of displeasing Umno “Big Brother”.
Continue reading “Pathetic neither Tee Keat nor Tsu Koon dare to dissociate MCA/Gerakan from Umno candidate Rohaizat for not being honest or truthful with BN leadership and Permatang Pasir voters”

On Monday, July 27 last month, the former third-highest ranking policeman in the nation, former Commercial Crime Investigation Department Director Datuk Ramli Yussoff was acquitted by the Kota Kinabalu Sessions Court on a charge of corruptly misusing his position in having used a police Cessna Caravan aircraft in June 2007 to survey two plots of land in Lahad Datuk unrelated to his official duties.

If convicted, Ramli is liable to be jailed between 14 days and 20 years and fined a minimum of RM10,000.

The very next day, officials from the Deputy Public Prosecutors office in Kota Kinabalu filed notice of appeal in the High Court against the ruling of the Sessions Court judge Supang Lian that Ramli had no case to answer as the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case against him.

I want to ask the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) why it is practicing double standards as it has not even started investigations into the allegation that Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin had corruptly misused his position in having used RMAF Nuri helicopter to officiate Umno division meetings in Sabah last weekend totally unrelated to his official duties.
Continue reading “MACC should explain why it has not started investigations into the corrupt practice of DPM Muhyiddin using RMAF Nuri helicopter to officiate Umno division meetings in Sabah”

By Hussein Hamid

If I am Najib today I will be afraid, very afraid. He lives and works in Putrajaya –surrounded on all sides by Selangor. To all intents and purposes not his kind of State. Immediately to the North is Perak. Big headache and still a grey area. To be avoided at all cost. Penang is a no go area. Kedah too. Perils is so so – better not do anything there that might tip the scales over to the other side. I can go South to Negri Sembilan and Malacca – but if I blink I am going to miss those states. Johor is all clear for now – but Singapore holds too many past memories for Rosmah to allow me to go there unescorted. Pahang should be my safe haven – but with all the clamoring for projects from the ‘faithful’ -big headache too. And do not remind me about the much-delayed University project. I SAID DO NOT REMIND ME OF IT! In Trengganu there are just digging one hole to cover another. After Patrick Lim I was hoping it was going to get better and then that ‘Another Project of Barisan Nasional” the Stadium decided not to cooperate. Malu nak mengadap Yang Di Pertuan Agong. In as far as Kelantan is concern my lips are sealed. Though much is being done to ‘mend ‘ fences with Tok Guru there has been nothing coming back. The least Tok Guru can do is to work with us for Malay Unity but no can do so far.

I can go to Sabah and Sarawak – but if you got no ammunition to give them – no can talk. And just because they ‘saved’ Barisan in the last election does not mean they can ask for the PM’s post. Melawan tauke lah!
Continue reading “The end is near?”

Barisan Nasional candidate for Permatang Pasir by-election Rohaizat Othman has said that he would heed Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s advice to make a statutory declaration to protect himself from accusations made by various quarters.

The two questions Rohaizat must answer are:

• Whether he was found guilty of “serious misconduct” including “breach of trust, dishonesty, shown gross disregard” of the client’s (Penang Small Rubber Plantation Holders’ Co-operative Society) interests “tantamount to a conduct unbefitting that of an advocate and solicitor which conduct as such brings the legal profession into disrepute” and struck off the Roll of Advocates and Solicitors by the Chairman of the Advocates and Solictors Disciplinary Board Tan Sri Khalid Ahmad Sulaiman on 7th March 2008, which was upheld by the High Court; and

• Whether a statutory declaration can clear Rohaizat of his “personal conduct” resulting in his being struck off the lawyers’ rolls?

Continue reading “Can a statutory declaration clear Rohaizat of the “personal misconduct” resulting in his being struck off the lawyers’ rolls for breach of trust and dishonesty?”

DAP condemns the arson attack on a Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) vehicle today.

As reported by Malaysiakini, four Molotov cocktails were thrown at the Klang MACC office at around midnight, destroying a four-wheel drive vehicle belonging to Selangor MACC.

MACC officers only realized the damage to the vehicle, a Nissan X-Trail, when they reported to work this morning.

There must be a full and thorough investigation to bring to book the culprits from whatever quarter responsible for the arson as no rational Malaysian regardless of race, religion or political affiliation wants to see any degeneration of Malaysia into growing lawlessness. Continue reading “DAP condemns arson attack on MACC vehicle and advises Nazri against making baseless insinuations of DAP involvement”

By Hussein Hamid

I am a nice person. I normally mind my own business and it does take quite a lot to rattle me or to get me up tight over anything. I prefer to walk away from any confrontational situation because life is to short to get aggravated over things that do not concern my family or me. Unfortunately this Azmi Anshar, one of those reporter ‘who is almost a writer’ working with NSTP has managed to upset me again. The first time was a couple of weeks ago when I ‘ter’ – that’s Bahasa for accidentally – when I terbaca what he wrote about TBH and MACC. I read only the first paragraph of what he wrote because even that much made me wonder what sort of a pretentious prick would write like that. In the first paragraph I had to reach for the dictionary four times! He has done it again today.

Again I am not going to read more then the first paragraph – that I have done and now I will say my piece. This was his headline:

DAILY DISPATCHES: Pakatan politicians want MACC to operate without element of surprise
2009/08/19
Azmi Anshar
Continue reading “Azmi Anshar…syok sendiri”

By Martin Jalleh

You will be remembered as the bespectacled ever-smiling woman in a blazing yellow dress, whose fire within burned brightest in the dark night of a brutal dictatorship that made your nation bleed to near despair – it was (in your very own words) “a country that has lost its faith in its future”.

You captured their imagination by your conviction and reignited their courage after being crushed and cowed by a cruel dictatorship fro 20 years. It was a nation that was crudely known as having “60 million cowards and one son-of-a-bitch”.

You inspired your “people without a soul” (Jose Rizal) with your selfless and single-minded spirit and stirred in their hearts a simple message of hope that resulted in a synergy called “People Power” that would eventually spread to other nations and served as a model of non-violence.
Continue reading “When Courage’s Other Name Was “Cory””

The 52nd National Day is just ten days away but never before in the nation’s 52-year history have preparations for National Day celebrations been marred and threatened by so many black clouds – the A (H1N1) pandemic which has claimed 67 lives and the almost daily barrage attacking Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept in the exploitation of the race and religious cards by Umno leaders.

What is quite incredible is that the person leading the campaign of race and religion representing an open repudiation of Najib’s 1Malaysia concept is none other than the Deputy Prime Minister and Umno Deputy President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, as illustrated by his utterances in the Permatang Pasir by-election campaign.

Let Muhyiddin answer whether he is for or against Najib’s 1Malaysia concept and if he supports the 1Malaysia concept, why is this not the primary theme of Umno/Barisan Nasional in the Permatang Pasir by-election instead of a campaign line which is the very opposite repudiating everything that 1Malaysia stands for?
Continue reading “Is Muhyiddin for or against Najib’s 1Malaysia concept and why 1Malaysia concept is not the primary theme of Umno/BN in Permatang Pasir by-election?”

By Tunku Abdul Aziz

When Merdeka was granted half a century ago, we inherited a number of items of unfinished business, the most critical of which was the urgent necessity to create a united Malayan nation and, soon afterwards, a Malaysian nation.

The late Tom Harrison, the famous curator of the Sarawak Museum, described Malaysia as “a tangle of peoples” in an article published in the Malaysian Outlook, a small journal I edited in Australia in 1963, in a fit of patriotism. “Konfrontasi” was in full swing then, and, given the dangerously unpredictable and volatile behaviour of Bung Karno of Indonesia, our future as a nation was by no means assured.

Harrison was not thinking so much about the Malays, Chinese and Indians of the Malay peninsula, but rather the often forgotten peoples making up the many different tribal and ethnic groups with their many different customs, religious beliefs and languages inhabiting Sabah and Sarawak. Almost overnight, they found themselves the citizens of a new and, to them, somewhat vague political creation called Malaysia. The Kadazan Dusuns, Bajaus, Punans, Penans, Kayans, Muruts and various others, I fear, still remain very much outside our consciousness, even after more than four decades of Malaysia. Need I say more about this serious lapse of memory? What national unity are we talking about without them?
Continue reading “Some unfinished business: Untangling the peoples of Malaysia”

It is a great relief that there has been no single case of fatality from A (H1N1) flu pandemic in the past 24 hours after a meteoric rise in the past week, totaling cumulative death toll of 67 as of yesterday in a matter four weeks since the first case of fatality.

The question remains however how Malaysia has swiftly joined the world’s top eight countries with the highest death toll from A (H1N1) flu pandemic in less than a month, chalking up a cumulative death toll of 67 after United States (482 fatalities), Argentina (404), Brazil (379), Mexico (163), Australia (118), Chile (112), Thailand (97) and tying with Canada (67) for eighth place?

In a matter of four days, the cumulative death toll in Malaysia had increased by eight fatalities, moving it up from world’s ninth placing with 59 deaths to eighth placing with 67 fatalities, while in other countries the mortality rates have stopped or slowed considerably, like Chile which had registered 105 deaths last weekend, with Thailand remaining static at 97 while Canada had increased by one fatality during this period.
Continue reading “How and why has Malaysia swiftly joined the world’s top eight countries with the highest death toll from A (H1N1) flu pandemic in less than a month?”

By Hussein Hamid

Time and time again we have been told that the last 50 years have seen unprecedented growth and development for Malaysia – more development and material progress then at any time of our history. Our technical and scientific skill has increased to allow our country to be a developed country in the global context. Yes – unprecedented growth as compared to what? Compared to the last 500 years of our history? If it has been so why not work towards the development and growth of our country for the next 50 years? Why does the Government of Barisan Nasional instead concern itself with the control of our society in which we live in and in ways and means of ensuring itself a lengthy stay in Government?

Is it not now than at any other moment of our history that we should concern ourselves with morality and ethics? That statesmanship and government must be for the well being of our people?
Continue reading “Common sense in Politics?”

Death toll from the A (H1N1) continues to mount unchecked and relentlessly, adding three more fatalities to a grand total of 67, the latest victims being a 71-year-old man, a 10-year-old girl and a 33-year old woman.

There has been considerable confusion emanating from the Health Ministry, for instance, whether a national health emergency due to the killer pandemic has been declared, as reported by some media, and what it implies.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said a health curfew would only be considered if the mortality rate goes above 0.4 per cent. He said the country’s mortality rate for A(H1N1) flu is currently between 0.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent.

It is clear that the Health Minister has no real notion of what is the current mortality rate for A(H1N1) as the statement that the current mortality rate between 0.1 per cent and 0.4 per cent is quite meaningless. Continue reading “Najib should convene an all-party conference involving all MPs and State Assembly members to launch a national emergency campaign in view of worsening A (H1N1) pandemic”

Bernama today headlined “No one accorded special treatment by MACC” on its report quoting the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Chief Commissioner, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan as saying that everybody who is investigated by the MACC for corruption is treated the same regardless of whether the individual is an ordinary person or a politician.

Ahmad Said said politicians, whether they were from the opposition parties or the government, were also treated the same.

He said: “Everybody is the same and no one is accorded special treatment.”

My response and the response of overwhelming majority of Malaysians to Ahmad Said’s statement is – Tell it to the Marines!

Ahmad Said’s claim that “no one is accorded special treatment in MACC” qualifies for the champion trophy for the year for any “Believe it or not?” competition for the category of a statement made by a public officer with the least public credibility!
Continue reading “Ahmad Said’s claim “No one accorded special treatment by MACC” – Tell it to the Marines!”

As Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should stop playing “Jekyll and Hyde” on Malaysian nation-building and in particular with Prime Minister’s Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept.

Yesterday, Muhyiddin played Dr. Jekyll by talking like a Malaysian statesman, telling the National Level and International Invitation of Student Leaders’ Unity and Integration Gathering at Persada Johore by reminding Malaysians that the country’s biggest challenge would always be in maintaining unity and racial harmony among its people from various ethnic backgrounds.

He added: “It is the same foundation on which the 1Malaysia concept was based on which Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak implemented it to establish Malaysia as a united country, where its people readily accepted and respected one another and shared success and prosperity.”

But the for the past week, Muhyiddin was playing Mr. Hyde, launching a vitriolic attack on Pakatan Rakyat by remorselessly and relentlessly spearheading an Umno campaign to crank up communal sentiments starting with his repeated charge that Parliamentary Opposition Leader and PKR chief, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is “a traitor to the Malay race” (with Umno divisions mobilizing all over the country to support Muhyiddin in calling Anwar a Malay “traitor”), as well as other baseless and mischievous allegations that PAS has betrayed Islam by working with DAP and that DAP had insulted Islam by working with PAS! Continue reading “Muhyiddin – stop playing Jekyll and Hyde with Najib’s 1Malaysia”

The first question that must be asked right from the beginning of the Permatang Pasir by-election is whether the voters can trust a candidate who could even mislead his own political party about his disbarment by the Bar Council from practicing as a lawyer?

Various explanations have been given by Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders about the Umno/BN candidate Rohaizat Othman being struck off the rolls by the Bar Council and the revocation of his practicing licence as a lawyer.

Umno vice president and Penang Umno liaison chief Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said Rohaizat’s licence was revoked in 2003 following problems incurred by the former partner in the legal firm.

Zahid said:
“The Bar Council’s decision must be respected by the lawyers registered under it. Legally, Rohaizat is probably innocent, but morally, it can be questioned by his opponents.” (The Sun 17.8.09)

The New Straits Times of the same day also reported Zahid’s defence of Rohaizat as follows:
Continue reading “Why Rohaizat should honourably withdraw as a candidate in the Permatang Pasir by-election”

By Bosco Anthony

It is pointless for the Malaysian Chinese Association members to openly display their full support for their embattled leader Ong Tee Keat. It is further a fealty display by the Star Publication to make such news hit the front page of its publication on 17.08.2009.

Why is it so? It is clearly apparent with the announcement made by Mohd Shukri Abdull of the MACC that all political investigations will be suspended, with immediate effect, that is as of 15.08.2009.

The civil society is capable of reading in between the lines, of what that statement means. Do not doubt or insult our intelligence.

On 16.07.2009 a life was stamped out over an investigation of a paltry sum of some 2000 or so Ringgit. Now we have before us unexplained expenditure which runs into the hundreds of millions as stated by Azmi Khalid the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee.

So as Reinhold Niebuhr stated: “ EVIL IS NOT TO BE TRACKED BACK TO THE INDIVIDUAL BUT TO THE COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOR OF HUMANITY”.
Continue reading “Would Ong Tee Keat’s Deeds Reveal The Collective Behavior of The Barisan Government”

Dear all,

Not all who gets H1N1 gets pneumonia BUT all who died of H1N1 gets pneumonia.

So, we should focus on how we can prevent pneumonia if we get H1N1…..
not how to prevent H1N1.

For those high risk group, getting pneumococcal vaccination is one of the defense mechanism we could use against dying from H1N1. You might still get H1N1 but at least you have a 30% lower risk of dying from H1N1.

Studies have shown here that 30% of H1N1 pneumonia related deaths are due to Streptococcus pneumoniae. Getting yourself vaccinated means you have eliminated 30% of the possible risk of dying from H1N1 pneumonia.
Continue reading “Pneumococcal vaccination limits H1N1 death”