Day: May 9, 2010

What a shame! After the farce of the Selangor Chief Police Officer’s stolen official car, which was returned by the thief in panic after two days with an apology note for stealing the wrong car, a Deputy Minister has lost his car.

Will the Deputy Minister get his car back like the Selangor CPO with an “apology note” too left on the dashboard of the car abandoned on the roadside?

Most unlikely. I understand the Deputy Minister concerned is Senator A. Kohilan Pillai. He is unlikely to be as lucky as the Selangor CPO for the simple reason that he cannot strike fear among the thieves and handlers of stolen goods of “hell to pay” that the Selangor CPO could!

The twin episodes of the different fates of the two stolen cars of the two VIPs would make excellent butt of jokes and would definitely be good for laughs if not for the serious security crisis in the country which they highlighted.

If it is so easy for the official cars of the Selangor CPO (though “returned” with apology note in two days) and the Deputy Foreign Minister to be stolen, what is safe in the country?
Continue reading “Hishammuddin should apologise for his insult to Malaysian women on Mother’s Day blaming women’s “chattering” for exaggerating the crime problem and demonizing the police”

Hishammuddin rails against police-bashing
By Shannon Teoh | The Malaysian Insider May 09, 2010

LONDON, May 9 — Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein last night urged Malaysians to defend and not demonise the police force, now under increasing public pressure to reform after the two recent shootings of teenagers.

The Home Minister also said that instead of constantly attacking the police, the public must support the force as it was one of the institutional pillars that formed the spine of the country.

“I want to assure everybody, that the morale of the police also has to be safeguarded and balanced. Clear demonisation does not help anybody,” Hishammuddin told some 100 students at the Malaysian Students Department here.

“Malaysia is in transition. In times of change, there is always a tendency to demonise these institutions without basis, without study, discussion and understanding,” he said of institutions such as law enforcement and the judiciary.
Continue reading “Crime Wave – Hishamuddin blames it on “chattering women””

By Adib Zalkapli | The Malaysian Insider

SIBU, May 9 — DAP candidate Wong Ho Leng today made solving the “Allah” issue as his major campaign message in the Sibu by-election.

“If elected, I will call upon the prime minister and home minister to immediately cease the legal dispute with the Christian churches over these matters to protect the freedom of religion in Malaysia for non-Muslims,” said Wong.

The Sarawak DAP chairman reiterated his party’s stand for Barisan Nasional (BN) candidate Robert Lau to make his stand about the ban on non-Muslims using the word “Allah”.

“Lau cannot take an ambiguous stance on the Allah issue anymore, otherwise the people of Sibu, especially the non-Muslims will not trust Lau to speak up for them in Parliament,” the Bukit Assek assemblyman told a press conference here.

About 53 per cent of the 55,000 voters in the Sibu constituency are Christians.
Continue reading “Ho Leng promises to solve ‘Allah’ row”

Sibu4Change

Both Sarawak and Malaysia are at the crossroads. We deserve and need better state and federal governments. Sibu has the unique and historic opportunity to set the tone for the future and be the beacon of hope for Sarawak and Malaysia.

Sarawak, with the largest land mass in Malaysia and an abundance of natural resources such as oil and gas, is languishing in the bottom half of all the states in Malaysia when it comes to poverty levels.

In 2009, the total estimated revenue of the state was RM3.726 billion. We have timber, palm oil, gold and many other natural resources.

Yet, more than 70% of longhouses do not have access to electricity and many do not even have treated piped water. Until today, there are no roads to many Sarawak villages. The people of Sarawak are among the poorest in Malaysia because of low pay, poor employment opportunities and a business environment which is monopolized by selected individuals.
Continue reading “Sibu4Change manifesto”

By Tunku Abdul Aziz

An old English friend of mine, the late Humphrey Ball, the Malacca lawyer, once described Malaysia, his adopted country, as a morning glory — a reference to “a climbing plant with flowers shaped like trumpets that open in the morning and close in late afternoon.”

Having lived among us for so long, he was used to putting up with our little foibles, and if he was irritated by them, he kept his feelings very much to himself. Humphrey was the quintessential English gentleman.

We were having breakfast and it was a lovely morning and the city looked splendid. In between another cup of tea and a round of toast and marmalade, he surveyed the Kuala Lumpur skyline from the veranda of the Selangor Club and declared that from his experience, many of the state of the art concrete and stainless steel structures that were jostling for breathing space in the ever expanding concrete jungle of Malaysian towns and cities would go the way of all the other buildings he had seen in this country — in wreck and ruin within a few years.
Continue reading “1 Malaysia: Another morning glory?”