Author: Kit

As the third annual policy speech of the Abdullah premiership, the Royal Address is a disappointment as it offered neither new policy initiatives nor any legislative programme for the delivery of the Prime Minister’s pledges of an efficient, clean, incorruptible, accountable, transparent, just, democratic and progressive administration which is overdue by 40 months.

Last week, I had publicly urged the Prime Minister to come personally to Parliament on Question Time yesterday to answer the question asking him “to give a progress report on his reform pledges in the past 40 months, highlighting the reasons for the failures/shortfalls and how he could assure Malaysians disappointed that he had failed to ‘walk the talk’ on his reform agenda”.

This is because of the widespread and deep disappointments among Malaysians at the failure of the Prime Minister to live up to the high hopes of Malaysians to “walk the talk” to honour the pledges of reform agenda he had made when coming into office.

This question was “personal to holder” and could only be answered by the Prime Minister himself, as it concerns the pledges he had made when he became Prime Minister and during the 2004 general election for which he won an unprecedented 91% parliamentary majority. It could not be delegated to another Cabinet Minister, whether the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Nazri Aziz or even the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

But this was not to be. Although Abdullah urged Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club (BNBBC) members on Monday to perform “something extraordinary” to bring back the glory days of parliamentarians in line with the country’s 50th anniversary celebrations this year, no return of such “glory days” is conceivable firstly, when the Barisan Nasional has a suffocating 91% parliamentary majority and secondly, the Prime Minister stays away from Parliament even on questions directed at him personally.

I believe that the four previous Prime Ministers, from Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn and Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad would not have stayed away from Parliament and delegated away the answer to such a “personal to holder” question.

The Prime Minister’s absence is most telling — for it is as good as an admission that he has very little to show to Parliament and the nation about honouring his reform pledges and agenda in the past 40 months — or he would not have allowed any other Minister to answer the question. Continue reading “Neither new policy initiative nor legislative programe for the new year”

I know I am going against the grain of government thinking in asking Parliament to give serious attention to blogs by Malaysians, especially when the Internal Security Ministry has just warned the mainstream newspapers in the country against quoting and publishing “anti-government articles” from online portals and blogs.

The clarification by the Internal Security Ministry’s Publications Control and Al-Quran Texts Unit senior officer Che Din Yusof who sent out the warning to mainstream newspapers that his letter was a “request” and not a “directive” does not wash, when newspapers were also reminded that condition 11 of their publishing permit required them to “follow and not act against” such directives issued by the ministry.

Che Din has said that the Internal Security Ministry does not want the newspapers to get the people to believe everything that comes from blogs and the Internet portals.

Is it the business of the Internal Security Ministry to get the people to believe mainstream media and disbelieve blogs and Internet portals? Isn’t this a violation of the Bill of Guarantees proclaimed to the world by the Malaysian Government when launching the Multi-Media Super Corridor in 1996 — in trying to influence the mainstream media and the people at large to disbelieve blogs and Internet portals?

In fact, isn’t the government turning its back to the knowledge-based economy and the information and communication technology in adopting such an anti-blog and anti-Internet portals mindset and culture? Continue reading “Abdullah govt’s anti-blog and anti-Internet Portals mindset/culture”

I am very concerned that in Paragraph 15 of the Royal Address, the government regards “excellence” as a goal to be achieved in 13 years’ time in 2020, when it should have been a constant and unbroken standard of both public and private service from Independence half-a-century ago.

The most meaningful way for the nation to celebrate our 50th Merdeka Anniversary is for the government to end the denial complex and recognise that driving over a million talented, creative and enterprising Malaysians from our shores in the past four decades because of discriminatory policies is one of our greatest nation-building failures and to summon a national resolve to end the root causes of such continuing brain drain.

Let no one stand up to say that the over a million talented, creative and enterprising Malaysians who had been driven from our shores in the past four decades because of discriminatory policies are unpatriotic, disloyal and anti-national, for if such an argument is to be accepted, then those who had been responsible for the discriminatory policies which caused such a costly brain drain to the country would be even more unpatriotic, disloyal and anti-national.

This brain drain problem must be given utmost importance and priority to stem a new exodus of emigration of Malaysian talents, both Malay and non-Malay. Continue reading “Who is more unpatriotic, disloyal and anti-national?”

I have quoted extensively because the brain drain in the past four decades of over a million talented, creative and enterprising people — although there are those who would say it is double this figure — must be regarded as a national disaster and not just a personal or family tragedy.

The world has moved into the knowledge economy where the foundation of a nation’s power are more likely to rest on brains rather than brawn, on the creativity, energy and talent of its people rather than on the size of its population and the extent of its territory.

I submit that it is the brain drain of Malaysia’s precious human capital in the past four decades which had been the principal reason why the nation had failed to achieve the full potential of our excellent economic advantages and rich resource endowments at Independence. Continue reading “Million-Malaysian brain-drain – a national disaster”

Po Kuan’s blog also evoked responses about real life trials and tribulations such as the posting by Taja Enjok:

I know Mr. A for the past 9 years. He was a clerk and his wife is a general worker. They have 2 sons. It was around that time their eldest son failed to make it into any of the IPTA. His eldest son decided to join a private college for a twinning programme. Meanwhile he worked part-time to finance his studies. Then came the final year. Both father and son couldn’t save enough for the overseas fees and expenses. The father remembers what he learned during his school days.

? ? ? ? ? ?

? ? ? ? ? ?

Others give son chest full of gold.
I teach son only one classic.

Classic given a modern interpretation:

People give their children wealth.
I can only afford to give them education.

Mr. A went for optional retirement. This enabled him to obtain his gratuity and thus finance the eldest son’s final year. As he is still strong, he took up part-time job to support his younger son’s secondary education. Fortunately the younger son got a place in the IPTA. Otherwise it could have been his wife’s turn to make the sacrifice.

And this posting from K.S.Ong:

Malaysia’s loss is US’s gain. Not many people have the stamina to struggle against an entrenched system of discrimination. Yet, I believe there are growing number of people, especially young citizens of all races who are growing weary of our racially based political parties and the discrimination in the name of helping the majority race. Continue reading “More blog wisdom on Malaysian diaspora for MPs”

The second comment, by firstMalaysian:

My son left the country to pursue his Bachelors degree in BioMedical Engineering and is currently doing his PhD in a foreign land, without any scholarship or any recognition from his own homeland. He was given every assistance and opportunity from a foreign university to pursue his PhD and he is in the midst of a breakthrough in his research. Certainly, a Malaysian born scientist in the making and his students and professors in the foreign land called him a Malaysian and he is proud to be one but whenever he steps down at KLIA, he felt the difference, he is a second class Malaysian. There is an identity crisis back home.

In the foreign land, he has helped many Malaysians irrespective of ethnic background to excel and he loved to see Malaysians excel, whether Chinese, Indians or Malays. He was Malaysian first in a foreign land but in Malaysia, it is ethnic origin first.

This brain drain will continue

Another comment, Cool Man:

Reports of ethnic-minority students with near-perfect STPM results not getting a place at the local university have become the norm, and yet objections are often ignored – the government claims that it is a fair game for all.

Personally, I had no choice but to go overseas to study, and my parents had to spend their entire pension savings on financing my undergraduate degree in Australia. After graduation, most of my Malaysian classmates chose to either stay in Australia or work in Singapore, where equal opportunities and fair competitions give them better job prospects.

Before coming to the London I did my masters degree in Singapore, where I met many Chinese Malaysians in this situation. Most of us would like to return to Malaysia, but we know that research prospects for minorities are limited. No matter how talented we are, it seems we still have to travel outside our country to seek opportunities.

Continue reading “Blogs on Malaysian diaspora raised in Parliament”

I fully agree with the Royal Address that national unity is the most important issue for our country. Whether the country has succeeded in forging greater unity among the diverse races, languages, religions and cultures in Malaysia should in fact be the primary yardstick in the assessment of the success or failure of half-a-century of nation-building and nationhood.

Fong Po Kuan, DAP MP for Batu Gajah, has a blog she named “Chamber of Thoughts”. Her latest entry is a three-part blog, “My Friend, An American Now”. It is a heart-rending story in the continuing creation of a Malaysian diaspora which has happened to more than a million Malaysians in the past four decades — whether to uproot and migrate overseas and later to take up foreign citizenship.

Although human migration is a common phenomenon in human history and prehistory, the migration of over a million Malaysians in the past four decades was more because of push rather than pull-factors, with the country losing many of her best talents and human resources stunting and undermining Malaysia’s achievement of her full potential in national development and international competitiveness.

Malaysia on her 50th anniversary would have been a more developed and more competitive nation if more than a million of the most talented , enterprising and resourceful Malaysians had not been driven away from our shores in the past four decades because of unfair discriminatory nation-building policies and measures by myopic politicians.

After nearly four decades of such self-inflicted injuries, the heart-rending story which Po Kuan blogs should have come to an end with the abandonment of unfair discriminatory policies among Malaysians.

But this is not the case. It would appear that the “Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish” reflex and mentality to the problem of emigration of Malaysians, though not publicly stated as in the seventies and eighties, is still quite prevalent today.

There is not much that can be done about the pull-factors of human migration but a government which refuses to address the problem of the push factors, which are the result of the failures of just and good governance, cannot claim to be a good government.

Po Kuan’s three-part blog should be a must reading for all MPs. Her blog, and my blog on Sunday which had drawn attention to the heart-rending account “My Friend, An American Now”, elicited many responses articulating the pain, agony and tribulation which had driven over a million talented, creative and enterprising Malaysians away from our shores only to benefit other countries. Continue reading “Blogs – must reading for MPs”

I rise to express appreciation of the Yang di Pertuan Agong for his maiden Royal Address to the joint session of both Houses of Parliament yesterday.

In keeping with the conventions of the Malaysian constitution and constitutional monarchy, the Royal Address is not the personal speech of the Yang di Pertuan Agong but the policy presentation of the government-of-the-day for the next 12 months — and this is illustrated by the formal presentation of the government policy speech by the Prime Minister to the Yang di Pertuan Agong before the delivery of the Royal Address.

This is why an amendment to the Motion of Thanks for the Royal Address — which is very common and frequent in other Commonwealth Parliaments whether in the United Kingdom, Australia or India – is not a personal slight or attack on the person or office of Yang di Pertuan Agong but a proposal of amendment to the government’s policy presentation contained in the Royal Address.

This is also why two days have been set aside in the 10-day debate for Ministers in the winding-up stage to defend the different aspects of the government policy presentation contained in the Royal Address.

As the Royal Address is the government’s policy speech for the coming year, it is most extraordinary for Cabinet Ministers to be indulging in self-praise and self-flattery in giving glowing tribute to the Royal Address after its delivery, as if Cabinet Ministers are ignorant about the constitutional convention of the Royal Address being the government policy presentation for the year.
Continue reading “Royal Address and Cabinet ignorance”

The Sun’s front page headlined it: “On/off/on/off — INTEGRITY PANEL SHIES AWAY FROM GRAFT INQUIRY” while Malaysiakini’s heading for its report yesterday was “Committee cancels ‘ACA hearing’ again” with the following story:

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity today voted to call off a hearing involving Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general Zulkipli Mat Noor and whistleblower Mohamad Ramli Manan.

Explaining the decision, committee chairperson Bernard Dompok told reporters after a 40-minute meeting with committee members that it was due to “new circumstances” surrounding the issue.

The 12-member committee, by a majority vote, decided not to hear Zulkipli and Ramli for the time being until the pending court cases are disposed of.

Ramli recently filed a suit against several relevant parties for back payments of his wages and pension.

Dompok said the committee also took into consideration the issue raised by lawyer Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, who is representing former land and cooperative minister Kasitah Gaddam.

“The committee also took into account the concerns raised by the defence counsel for Kasitah Gaddam where the said counsel is contemplating citing Ramli for contempt,” he added.

Last week, Shafee told the Kuala Lumur High Court that the statements made by Ramli, who is the former ACA Sabah director, in his exclusive interview with malaysiakini could potentially prejudice his client’s corruption trial.

Last Monday, the committee had deliberated on the matter and the majority of its members were of the view that the hearing would not be considered subjudice. Continue reading “Should I continue to serve on PSCI?”

RM9 BIL DOUBLE-TRACKING PROJECT — PENNY WISE POUND FOOLISH
Z. IBRAHIM
Klang

I refer to the report stating that the Government now intends to go ahead with the RM9 billion double-track electrified railway which it earlier shelved 3 years ago. That this project is being revived so close to the elections only seems to increase rumors that the ruling party needs the money for the elections in the form of kickbacks. The project itself is poorly thought through.

KTM since British colonial times has been running services on meter-gauge tracks. Meter gauge tracks were basically designed at least during those days for industrial use and in Malaysia’s case — to transport tin.

However we failed to modernize and completely neglected our rail services in favour of road transport and continued using these meter gauges even for our passenger services.

In most parts of the world passenger services started running on standard or broad gauge.

To achieve decent transit times between KL and Penang etc, double tracking on a meter gauge will be slow and clearly will not be competitive.

Obviously this is a half measure as it seems the project is trying to avoid investing in rolling stock as would be the case if standard or broad gauge are adopted instead.

Simply put you cannot run a train fast if your tracks are not broad enough for stability at high speeds. For you to achieve speed and stability you need standard or broad gauge. Continue reading “RM9 billion double-tracking project – penny-wise and pound-foolish”

Hi Kit Siang

I’m not sure if you’ll be reading this, or even why exactly I’m writing to you; but like other times after reading about the happenings in Malaysia through your blog, I am saddened and moved from deep within.

Allow me to introduce myself. I was born in Johor, in 1983 – making me 24 years of age this year. From a young age, from primary (or standard one) I studied in Singapore. Instantly, this placed me into a group of ‘forgotten Malaysians’ of which I still belong to today – do read on. I did not study in Singapore by choice, my parents decided to see put me there when I was 7, because being part of the Malaysia school system when the British system was employed -they were alarmed by the perceived drops in the levels of education in Malaysia at that time – and they really wanted me to grow up speaking good English…and Singapore was the closest country to have its curriculum in English at that time. I’m sure you can appreciate the incredible irony in Malaysia reversing on its decision years ago and teaching Math and Science in English now. And while I am most capable of invoking my own commentary and discourse on the subject and others like it, I shall resist the urge and refrain from doing so on this occasion, as I nevertheless will find myself doing throughout the rest of this email – as each instance of the incredulous policies and politicians that dominate our country come up.

But I digress. I studied in Singapore a full ten years, travelling DAILY from Johor Bahru, not residing in Singapore because, I guess, my parents wanted me to retain my unique Malaysian identity and “Malaysianess”. I do not have fond memories of my time in the country, although I did well at school, I guess, I dislike autocratic and freedom-curbing societies where the rights of the individual are sacrificed for the whims of the elected collective in the name of nation-building. That is not to say I do not understand the need for such measures at certain times – but I suppose I do not function well in countries where such practices are the norm.

At the end of my high school studies in Singapore, I made the decision to return to Malaysia. To study at a private college in KL. I had tried on past occasions when I was in high school, to do so, only to find out that I was not eligible to do so because I did not take Bahasa Melayu as my primary subject. As a result of studies in Singapore, where English was the medium of instruction and Mandarin was my ‘mother tongue’, I cannot speak fluent Malay to this day nor do I have the ability to write in it. Therefore, according to some quarters, I am not considered Malaysian. But was I to blame? I remained in KL a full 3 years, was one of the top students at my college for a worldwide course, until it was time for me to pursue my education overseas. Continue reading “Class of “forgotten Malaysians””

Stop glorifying Mat Rempits!
ILLUMINATIONS
Azly Rahman

The (North Pole Free Fall) expedition is among the latest controversial moves by Umno to engage youths, especially mat rempit, in a series of baffling activities… . This includes a 50,000-strong carnival gathering which never took off, a road trip tainted by sex and booze allegations and a proposed programme to reward mat rempit for nabbing snatch thieves

— Malaysiakini newsreport March 10, 2007

Again and again we are sending a wrong message to the children of tomorrow concerning what good behavior for our youth should be. Wrong model.

Why are we allowing UMNO Putera to glorify Mat Rempits and reward them with something they do not deserve? Don’t these youth leaders know what education means and how to educate these ‘damaged’ youth? We do not understand what being “fair but firm” means in educating troubled youth. Worse, we do not understand the root cause of why children fail in school but graduate to become Mat and Minah Rempits or “Alongs” and all kinds of human beings alienated by the system we built together.

The 50,000 strong gathering, the name-change to Mat Cemerlang, the proposed drag race circuit, and now the North Pole jump — what are these for in the name of ‘education for good citizenship’? How many will 50,000 mat rempits multiply into in a decade? What will be the consequence for our nation already falling apart from corruption and mismanagement?

We need more than just quick fix solution to the issue of ‘juvenile delinquency’ that is getting out of control. We need a “zero-tolerance policy” on “rempitizing behaviors”.

Don’t the ministry of education know what the taxpayers want for the education system? Why not spend money preparing good teachers to prepare good curriculum and teaching strategies to deal with the children of the Millennium generation? Why not spend money making sure that all schools meet the minimum standards of technology, resources, safety, and teacher competency? Why not beef up the “rempit division” of the police force?

Why continue to arrogantly trumpet pseudo-humanistic approach to curing the disease of rempitism when there are better long-lasting ways we can employ to make sure students do not become what they shouldn’t be becoming? Continue reading “Stop glorifying Mat Rempits!”

Po Kuan blogs a heart-rending story in the continuing creation of a Malaysian diaspora which has happened to more than a million Malaysians in the past four decades — whether to uproot and migrate overseas and later to take up foreign citizenship.

Although human migration is a common phenomenon in human history and prehistory, the migration of over a million Malaysians in the past four decades was more because of push rather than pull-factors, with the country losing many of her best talents and human resources stunting and undermining Malaysia’s achievement of her full potential in national development and international competitiveness.

Malaysia on her 50th anniversary would have been a more developed, equitable and more competitive nation if more than a million of the most talented , enterprising and resourceful Malaysians had not been driven away from our shores in the past four decades because of unfair discriminatory nation-building policies and measures by myopic politicians.

After nearly four decades of such self-inflicted injuries, the heart-rending story which Po Kuan blogs should have come to an end with the abandonment of unfair discriminatory policies among Malaysians.

But this is not the case. It would appear that the “Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish” reflex and mentality to the problem of emigration of Malaysians, though not publicly stated as in the seventies and eighties, is still quite prevalent today.

There is not much that can be done about the pull-factors of human migration but a government which refuses to address the problem of the push-factors, which are the result of the failures of just and good governance, cannot claim to be a good government. Continue reading “Malaysian diaspora contd – Po Kuan’s blog”

A final-year student from the Faculty of Arts and Social Science, University of Malaya complained that a workshop purportedly to impart soft skills was actually a direct-sales commercial programme.

This is the email:

I’m a final year student from Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Unversity of Malaya. I had a disappointment and felt been cheated with what had happened yesterday (17th March 2007) and I would like to tell you here.

Yesterday, all the final year students from the Faculty of Arts and Social Science were told to attend a workshop called ‘Bengkel Pendedahan dan Penilaian Kemahiran Keusahawan’. It is a soft skill program which is set by the government to improve our presentation skill in the future.

At first, from the workshop title, I thought it was an entrepreneur course that gives us some guide line on what entreprise is all about. There were 2 talks in the morning session, and some programmes and activities in the evening. Pertaining to the talk, they invited a company called ‘Aznita Mgt (M) Sdn. Bhd. to talk about financial industry perspective. To me, it was only a DIRECT SALES program. During their talks, they had told us it is pointless and useless to study so hard, no use to be a teacher, doctor or lawyer, as the money earn is much lesser if compare to them. They can live in a big house and drive luxury cars.

In the second part of the speech, actually the person who gave the talk is the husband to the first person who gave speech. They are from the same company. In this session, he told us about his product, Amcash. It is related with the insurance product. He talked about how good the product is. For instant, if we invest in Amcash, we can obtain scholarship every 3 years, the payer will get insurance benefit and so on. We had a very bad impression about those speech. Continue reading “Imparting soft skills or promoting direct sales?”

Every March, the Yang di Pertuan Agong will officially launch Parliament with a Royal Address which spells out the government’s programme for the new year.

The Royal Address is not the personal speech of the Yang di Pertuan Agong but the policy presentation of the government-of-the-day for the next 12 months.

The official opening of the third session of the current 11th Parliament will be on Monday (19th March) by the new Yang di Pertuan Agong for the first time, and Malaysians are entitled to know whether the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will redeem his failures in the past 40 months to “walk the talk” of reform agenda to spell out the government’s policy initiatives and legislation programme for the coming year to finally deliver his reform pledge.

Let me touch on three areas which should be top priority in the Abdullah government’s policy initiatives and legislation programme for the coming year, if Abdullah is to retain credibility and even legitimacy for his unprecedented 91% parliamentary majority in the March 2004 general election.

Firstly, announce a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and why corruption had worsened in the past three years instead of improving — as reflected not only by the seven-placing drop from No. 37 to 44 in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) from 2003 to 2006 but also the latest corruption survey last week of Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) that Malaysia is perceived to be more corrupt than the previous year and that Malaysia would soon lose out and be overtaken by China and India in anti-corruption rankings.

The Royal Address on Monday should also incorporate the Abdullah premiership’s commitment to introduce legislation to confer full autonomy to the ACA, removing it from the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister’s Office and making it fully independent and answerable only to Parliament. Continue reading “Royal Address Monday – will PM redeem failures of past 40 months to “walk the talk” of reform?”

Living in Kasar Times
by Farish A. Noor

Its quite rare for a talcum-powdered, linen-clad bloke like me to get angry in public, and so I write this piece with a hint of embarrassment to begin with. During one of my antique hunts around Central Market recently, I experienced something that raised my blood pressure high enough to warrant an article being written about it.

While trawling through the mountains of made-for-tourists kitsch that passes as contemporary Southeast Asian folk art and handicrafts (nursing the futile hope of actually chancing upon something worth buying, in vain), I overheard a conversation among some young kutu types.

They were looking at some wayang kulit puppets hanging by the door of one of the shops in the market, and pointing to the figures of the Mahabharata heroes Yudistira and Arjuna, two of the five Pandawa brothers of lore.

The punk-headed kutu said to his skin-headed friend with a ring in his nose: “Apalah hero wayang ni. Kurus, ramping macam mak nyah lah. Tangan tak de muscle pun, macam mana nak jadi hero? Nampak macam bapok saja!”

Under normal circumstances I would have let such an untutored remark pass. If Malaysians can’t be bothered to read a little bit more about their own culture and history, then why should we feel offended when tourists say similar things and think similar thoughts?

Who would care to explain to the kutu braders why the heroic figures in the Nusantara rendition of the Mahabharata were and remain so slender, so fine, almost feminine? And even if I had set up my soapbox to deliver an impromptu lecture of Southeast Asian masculine aesthetics, who would have listened?

I cursed my luck for not being able to find a single decent piece of nyonya jewellery instead…

But one month on, events have prompted me to go back to that episode. Like some pathetic gesture of trying to regain lost time, I regret that I had not stood my ground and defended the slender arms of dear ol’ Arjuna, he of the long eyelashes and warm pouting lips.

I regret the fact that I had not defended the value of halus against the unwavering, relentless, smelly tide of kasar and kasarism instead. For indeed, we live in kasar times.

Signs of kasar-ness are all around us today: Politicians lose their cool and reach for their daggers, shouting slogans of blood and triumphalism as soon as they see a microphone.

Powerful men on the make assume that their powers are so limitless that the mansions they build have to reflect their largess as well, to the point where their homes rival the palaces of kings both in size and vulgarity.

Arguments are no longer met with counter-arguments, but with lawsuits or death threats instead. So much for our beloved ‘Asian values’ that are supposed to be ever so halus, refined and sophisticated. Continue reading “Living in Kasar Times”

Nanyang Siang Pau has reported that the National Service Training Council at its meeting yesterday had recommended that the national service training programme should not be made compulsory for girls.

It has taken three long years for the National Service Training Council to take up my public call to the Cabinet in April 2004 that if the Cabinet was not prepared to suspend the national service training programme, although it was “half-baked, ill-conceived and premature” from poor conception, formulation and execution right from the beginning, the least the Cabinet should do was to make the national service training programme voluntary for girls, allowing parents who wish to do so to immediately withdraw their daughters from the programme and bring them home.

The call followed the spate of fights, sexual harassment (including rape) and breakdown of discipline in the national service programme. I had also pointed out at the time that out of 1,000 national service trainers, only 15 per cent were women when the ratio of male and female trainees were almost equal.

But this call three years ago fell on deaf ears, including women Cabinet Ministers and the National Service Training Council.

Public confidence in the national service training programme has continued to plummet in the past three years because of the unending incidents, mishaps and disasters including avoidable deaths of trainees, to the extent that quite a substantial number of parents would agree with the sentiments of the letter-to-the editor in the Malay Mail yesterday:

“I would gladly be slapped with the RM3,000 fine rather than be compensated the same amount for the untimely death of my son or daughter.”

Some 365,000 18-year-olds would have undergone the three-month national service training programme by September this year since it was launched in 2004, and over RM2 billion of taxpayers’ money spent.

The National Service Training programme should be a model of transparency and integrity with a full public accounting of the more than RM2 billion spent in the past four years to prove that every sen had been honestly used for the welfare of the trainees. Continue reading “RM2 billion spent on National Service – be a model of integrity”

Former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad yesterday denied allegations that he was behind the move to “cold storage” former Sabah Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director Mohd Ramli Abdul Manan for investigating a minister, Tan Sri Kasitah Gaddam.

In an earlier interview with Malaysiakini, Ramli said he believed that it was the former premier who ordered him to be transferred out of Sabah and was put in “cold storage” at the ACA headquarters in Kuala Lumpur for investigating allegations of corruption involving former land and co-operative development minister Kasitah Gaddam.

He said he moved out of his post as Sabah ACA chief soon after he and his team of 15 officers had completed the probe on Kasitah Gaddam.

This is from Ramli’s interview with Malaysiakini:

Q. Was the ACA happy with the investigation?

They were not happy because a lot of political figures and a government company were involved.

Q. What happened after you finished your investigation?

We file it to the ACA headquarters.

Q. Who gave the orders to move you out of Sabah?

I think (it was ex-Prime Minister Dr) Mahathir (Mohamad) because when I ask them (ACA officers), they said it was orders from high up. That was in 2000.

A few Sabah ministers went to see Mahathir but I have no proof (of that). I asked ‘why are you all treating me like this’, and they said orders from the top. Who else? And they were afraid to put me in an important position (after that). Why were they afraid?

Q. Like (ACA chief) Zulkipli (Mat Noor), attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail is also from Sabah.

That was what I told the police officer (who was investigating the Zulkipli case). Gani Patail should not be involved in the (Zulkipli) case because they (Abdul Gani and Zulkipli) are quite close.

Both were recruited by Mahathir. At that time, Gani Patail was the deputy public prosecutor (DPP) and Zul was the Special Branch chief in Sabah. Continue reading “Ramli’s “cold-storage” for investigating Kasitah – Mahathir should agree to appear before PSCI to promote culture of integrity”

OF LITTLE NAPOLEONS… ..THE HEALTH MINISTRY AND… ..THE SULTANAH BAHIYAH HOSPITAL IN ALOR STAR

AHMAD SOBRI

It is appalling that the Malaysian public had to witness yet again another squabble between the Works Minister and Health Minister about the unending controversy of the still uncompleted new Alor Star General Hospital.

Earlier, the Deputy Minister of Health Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad apparently accepted blame on behalf of the Health Ministry saying delays were necessary so infrastructural changes could be made to accommodate the latest technological changes in medicine.

Not so, said the Health Minister Chua Soi Lek still insistent that the Works Ministry with its changing contractors were to blame for the mess. Samy Velu, obviously peeved with the finger-pointing, sarcastically accepted blame for the delays,

In Operation Desert Storm, shortly after Iraqi troops rolled into Kuwait in 1990, the United States deployed to Saudi Arabia more than 20,000 medical personnel to provide medical care to coalition forces.

The medical infrastructure for the war included 50 to 500-bedded combat zone fleet hospitals deployed in various parts of the war zone. The scope of treatment available at these facilities mirrored fully-staffed hospitals in the United States. The first 500-bedded Fleet Hospital was built in just 16 days, with the help of Navy Construction Battalion Units complete with operating rooms that can handle general surgical cases, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, orthopaedic surgery, intensive care units and radiological facilities.

These facilities were further supported by 1000-bedded hospital ships, each of which were equipped with 50 trauma stations that form the casualty receiving area, 12 operating rooms, a 20-bedded recovery room and 80 intensive care beds. The entire medical network comprising 60 hospitals and infrastructure to take in both military and civilian casualties was ready in three months so war against Saddam Hussein could commence.

This level of efficiency appears to elude our health planners and hospital builders in Malaysia. Granted we are in peace time and all these hospitals are Malaysia’s version of “super-hospitals” designed to last us generations, it still doesn’t absolve the persons involved in this muddle for wasting hard-earned tax payer’s money. Continue reading “Of Little Napoleons…the Health Ministry and… the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Star”

More bad news for the country and the 40-month Abdullah premiership on the anti-corruption front, although some media, whether intentionally or otherwise, seems to be presenting it as a plus and positive for Malaysia.

The Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) 2007 corruption table in Asia, which is released every year based on a poll of expatriates working in Asia on their perceptions on corruption, is bad and grim news for all Malaysians concerned about national integrity, good governance and international competitiveness.

In a grading system with zero as the best possible score and 10 as the worst, Malaysia was ranked sixth in Asia with a score of 6.25 by PERC Corruption Asia 2007.

In 1996, Malaysia was ranked No. 4 with a score of 5, a reflection of the relentless deterioration of the corruption problem in the country over the years.

As the PERC annual corruption ranking is one of the polls used by Transparency International (TI) for its annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI), this is very bad news as the PERC 2007 Corruption Table is a forewarning that Malaysia is heading south towards No. 50 placing in TI CPI 2007 on the occasion of Malaysia’s 50th Merdeka anniversary this year.

There are many grim warnings from the 2007 PERC Corruption Table (Asia) that Malaysia is losing out in our international competitiveness because of our failure to enhance our good governance indicators, particularly in the war against corruption.

It will not be long before Malaysia slips further in the Asian and international corruption rankings, as we are also losing out to China and India. Continue reading “Corruption ranking – Malaysia heading south: No 50 in TI CPI 2007 on Malaysia’s 50th national anniversary?”