Day: December 6, 2012

By Kee Thuan Chye
Malaysian Digest
6th December 2012

Three men in a coffeeshop with nothing much to do.

DOGOL: Hey, Ragang, you think Sabah will fall to the Opposition this coming GE?

RAGANG: I don’t know.

LUNCHAI: You don’t know? You Sabahan and you don’t know?

RAGANG: I not God.

DOGOL: Umno is now praying to God to win the GE. Najib told the members at their general assembly last week, better pray hard!

LUNCHAI: As if God will side any political party.

DOGOL: God does not take sides, so to call on God to help Umno and BN win is itself ungodly.

LUNCHAI: Hahaha! You’re right! Continue reading “Can BN Lose Sabah? Boleh Bah Kalau …”

— Alan Wong
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 06, 2012
DEC 6 — I was reading about the recently concluded Hay Festival of Literature and Arts in the Bangla Academy at Dhaka and the protesters who felt the event, which focuses on English literature, shouldn’t be hosted at the venue.

Though the protesters in Bangladesh had better reasons to object in comparison, the planners of Hay in Dhaka:

“…went to great lengths to ensure due homage to local culture and history, as the opening ceremony presented classical Indian dances performed to Bangla poems, and ended with a jatra, a form of folk dance-drama. Out of 41 panels, at least 15 were in Bangla, and the stage was taken by four times as many Bangladeshi writers as foreign ones. The Bangla panels found equal room for new poets, like Trimita Chakma, who writes in the minority Chakma language. And the event marked the time at Hay that women outnumbered men on stage.”

Closer to home, there’s the Singapore Writers Festival, which began in 1986. Before anybody starts talking up the lack of local culture there, just look at these names.

Which is probably why I felt the podcast about the George Town Literary Festival devoted too much time on the grouses of an allegedly “fed-up Penangite”. Continue reading “From one ‘Penangite’ to another”

— Kunjuraman Karuppan
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 06, 2012

DEC 6 — You get worried about the old country sometimes. From rather nonsensical statements made by so-called authorities to unquestioning reporters, one gets the feeling that most of Malaysia is mediocre, and stupid.

The latest is a course on avoiding corruption for parliamentarians by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers next year, says PEMANDU director D. Ravindran.

While you are at it, Mr Ravindran, how about a course for those in the august Dewan Rakyat to stop lying or using foul language. Perhaps even potty training?

What, these MPs are kids is it? They are stupid? They don’t know right from wrong? How hard is it to stop corruption? Stop taking money for favours. Stop doing favours that will give advantage to one party over another.

How hard is that, Mr Ravindran, that you are quoted as saying the following by a news portal, “So, for the first time, we are going to teach our parliamentarians what is right to take and what is not right to take.”

I mean, if the MPs don’t know what constitutes corruption, then Malaysia is in a lot of trouble. Then the MACC has been useless, and is that what you are saying, Mr Ravindran? Continue reading “Avoiding corruption course for MPs? Nonsense”

In the recently released Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2012, Malaysia’s ranking improved from 60 out of 183 countries in 2011 to 54 out of 176 countries in 2012.

While Malaysians may take some comfort in this temporary arrest in Malaysia’s steady decline in our CPI ranking, one must keep in mind that this ranking of 54 is still worse than Malaysia’s ranking of 43 out of 179 countries in 2007 and far worse than the ranking of 33 out of 102 countries in 2002 (See Table 1 below).

Table 1: Malaysia’s CPI ranking, score and total number of countries in sample, 2001 to 2012

Year	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Ranking	36	33	37	39	39	44	43	47	56	56	60	54
Score	5	4.9	5.2	5	5.1	5	5.1	5.1	4.5	4.4	4.3	49
Total No. of Countries	91	102	133	145	158	163	179	180	180	178	183	176

Indeed, one should not take too much comfort in the fact that Malaysia improved in the ranking because it overtook ‘luminaries’ of ‘clean’ government such as Jordan, Namibia, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Indeed, many developing countries that have far lower per capita GDP compared to Malaysia continues to do better than us in the CPI rankings including Rwanda (50), Bhutan (33) and Botswana (30), not to mention the newly industrialized economies (NIEs) in Asia namely South Korea (45), Taiwan (37), Hong Kong (14) and Singapore (5). Continue reading “Malaysia’s CPI Rank has improved from 60 out of 183 countries in 2011 to 54 out of 176 countries in 2012 but three main thrusts of the Fighting Corruption NKRA still have gaping holes”

On the way to Yong Peng from Kuala Lumpur tonight, I came across the news report that the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Attorney-General’s Chambers will hold a course on avoiding corruption for parliamentarians next year.

The Pemandu director D Ravindran, who is in charge of the anti-corruption section of the National Key Results Areas (NKRA), is quoted as saying:

“The Government Transformation Plan 2.0 (GTP 2.0) has the commitment of both the MACC chief commissioner Abu Kassim Mohamad and the AG (Abdul Gani Patail), who will both be conducting the course for our lawmakers.

“So, for the first time, we are going to teach our parliamentarians what is right to take and what is not right to take.”

Speaking on the sidelines of the launching of the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index 2012, Ravindran said the course would include information on what constitutes corruption, and the codes of conduct and best practices to avoid it.

The MACC and the AG’s Chamber should not be barking up the wrong trees as they should know where the priorities in fighting corruption, especially grand corruption, should lie.

Let me tell MACC and the AG’s Chambers that the urgent priority in the battle against graft in Malaysia is for MACC and AG’s Chambers to conduct a course on corruption for the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, Mentris Besar and Chief Ministers particularly Sarawak and Sabah as well as top government officers including the Attorney-General, Tan Sri Gani Patail himself, if Malaysia is serious in its war against “grand corruption”. Continue reading “Urgent priority for MACC and AG’s Chambers to conduct course on corruption for PM, DPM, Cabinet Ministers, MBs and CMs particularly Sarawak and Sabah and top government officers including AG himself if Malaysia is serious in war against “grand corruption””