Author: Kit

Investigations into the serious corruption allegations against the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director general Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor is getting even more curiouser and curiouser by the day.

The attempt by ACA’s former Disciplinary Management Centre chief and currently ACA Negri Sembilan director, Halim Ibrahim to publicly exonerate the ACA chief by revealing details of Zulkipli’s various declaration of assets in public service is not only most unusual, unprecedented but questionable.

Is the ACA trying to derail and sabotage task force investigations into serious corruption allegations against ACA chief by unilaterally releasing unverified information about Zulkifli’s assets declarations? Continue reading “ACA trying to derail task force investigations into ACA chief’s corruption allegations?”

When Philosophy meets Religion
Azly Rahman
[email protected]

-An Invitation to a Virtual Interfaith Dialogue

Humanity cannot live by bread or rice alone – it needs transcultural philosophy as a foundation of morality.

The philosophical dimension of religion can be more powerful than its institutional and ritual. It should be through the philosophy of religion that one can explore the essence of the dialogue between what Hassidic philosopher Martin Buber calls, the “Thou and the I”, the Ultimate Self and the Ultimate Reality, or between Man and Creator. This is what is meant by the transcultural nature of mystical discourse. Those familiar with Buber’s philosophy will agree that the idea of the dialogical “I-Thou” contains a profound statement of Man’s ontological vocation, a transcultural-philosophical view can best be an avenue which can appeal to educational philosophers intending to explore universality in mystical thoughts.

For societies struggling to understand the potentials of an interfaith dialogue, this idea can be a good starting point for a powerful discourse. Continue reading “When Philosophy meets Religion”

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA)’s former Disciplinary Management Centre chief and currently ACA Negri Sembilan director, Halim Ibrahim did a most unusual thing for the ACA yesterday — publicly exonerating the ACA Director-General Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor by revealing details of Zulkipli’s various declaration of assets in public service. (New Sunday Times)

Zulkipli had made the declaration on three occasions since 1988.

The first declaration, approved in 1999, was when Zulkipli was Johor police chief.

The second declaration on Sept 14, 2003, was said to be approved by the then Chief Secretary to the Government on March 25, 2004.

The third declaration was sent to the Public Service Department on July 7 last year.

Halim said Zulikipli listed five properties — none in Pagoh, Johor, and no business interests –in his declaration of assets to the department.

I do not wish here to dwell on the details of Zulkipli’s three declarations of assets publicly disclosed by Halim.

While welcoming such publication, ACA should as a matter of policy and principle adopt an open and transparent culture and not be selective in releasing information to suit the needs of its masters, whether political or bureaucratic. Continue reading “ACA DG Zulkipli’s three declarations of assets do not tally with two vettings stated by PM”

On Tuesday (27.2.07), the mainstrream media carried screaming headlines: “Shocking find in UKM study on female delinquents” (Star) and “Study: Troubled teens having sex” (New Straits Times) for the Bernama report “Most Female Students With Disciplinary Problems Admit To Having Sex”.

This is the Bernama report:

Most Female Students With Disciplinary Problems Admit To Having Sex
By Syed Azwan Syed Ali

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (Bernama) — A Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) study has revealed a shocking finding about high-risk female students with most admitting to have had sexual intercouse.

In the study conducted by UKM’s Children and Youth Psychology specialist Dr Khaidzir Ismail, all the 887 high-risk female students except for one confessed to have had experienced the “pleasure of the flesh”.

The three-month High-Risk Female Youth Profile Study which ended last December, had 20 students with disciplinary problems from each school, ranging from Form One to Form Five, as its respondents.

“It is sad and shocking to find all except one of the respondents admitted to having experienced sex. This is a painful finding but it is a reality that we have to accept,” he told Bernama at his office in Bangi, near here, today.

It is understood that the study was a state government initiative to deal with the deterioration of moral values among female youths in the state.

From the findings of the study, the state government aims to formulate a special training module to promote high moral values among girls.

Khaidzir said the study also found that the female students, aged between 15 and 16, were at a high risk of being involved in various disciplinary problems like trying to lose their virginity.

“The study also found that the problems committed by these students were due to external pressure like coming from broken homes where their parents were having difficulties in coping with life,” he said.

The study also revealed that apart from having sex, most of the respondents took drugs and were involved in pornography, secret societies, vandalism and truancy.

Khaidzir said most of these high-risk female students had low academic achievement and self-esteem, and poor communication skills, self-control and problem-solving capability.

— BERNAMA

The Selangor Mentri Besar, Datuk Seri Dr. Mohd Khir Toyo repudiated the UKM study, commissioned by the Selangor state government, the same day, calling it “rubbish”.

These developments have rightly provoked a very strong reaction and email from BPR, flaying Khir and condemning Dr. Khaidzir for violation of ethical code of conduct of a local psychologist, as follows: Continue reading “Only one of 887 problem “schoolgirls” did not have sex – Khir and UKM psychologist flayed”

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director of investigations, Mohd Shukri Abdul told the Sunday Star that the ACA “has begun investigating the senior politician who allegedly accepted more than RM5 million to assist in freeing several suspects detained under the Emergency Ordinance (EO)”.

Mohd Shukri said “they have identified the politician and also the witnesses allegedly involved”.

I am baffled by the latter statement, as what is there for the ACA to “identify” when the “senior politician” was named in the allegations posted on the Internet revealed by the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan in the Star report yesterday which first broke the story.

In yesterday’s Star front-page report, “Freedom for RM5m”, Musa said at least two websites had posted allegations and details of involvement of “a high-ranking politician”, who was allegedly paid at least RM5 million to free suspects from detention under the Emergency Ordinance (EO).

Although Musa said that two websites carried these allegations, I have only seen one of them which named the “senior politician” who is a Deputy Minister.

As reported by the New Sunday Times, the Deputy Minister is alleged to have been involved “in the improper release of three men suspected of being in a secret society and other illegal activities, including loan sharking, extortion, prostitution, assault and gambling”.

Although the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuki Seri Najib Razak has said that nobody was above the law and those who broke it would face action, his statement had been undermined and even contradicted by the Deputy Internal Security Minister, Datuk Foo Ah Kiow who denied (Sin Chew) that there had been any improper political influence to free suspects from detention under the Emergency Ordinance.

As the Deputy Minister alleged to have been paid at least RM5 million for the improper release of three suspects under the Emergency Ordinance has been named in the website referred to by the Inspector-General of Police, the Deputy Minister concerned should step forward publicly to declare his innocence. Continue reading “RM5 million for freedom from EO detention – Deputy Minister alleged must go on indefinite leave until cleared”

Cel emailed about a huge factory explosion in Shah Alam last Thursday:

On March 1st, there was a huge factory explosion in Shah Alam. However, after searching through the local newspapers for news about it for the past two days, we’ve found none. There was no mention of anything regarding that incident.

Here are the video footage of the explosions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ngxDZ4oNHs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br5nWm3BDo8&eurl=

Dear sir, if you want to post this in your blog, please don’t reveal my name or e-mail address. Thanks.

Anyone who knows anything about this mysterious explosion in Shah Alam?

The Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim dropped a bombshell at the swearing-in ceremony of eight new judicial commissioners in Putrajaya on Thursday when he exposed gross judicial misconduct in the judiciary, including:

• Judges who accept bribes;
• Judges who were often seen socializing with lawyers, prosecutors and corporate figures while hearing their cases in court; and
• Judges who were “constantly angry and foul-tempered”.

Ahmad Fairuz may have to step down as Chief Justice for tarnishing the image of the judiciary if he is not prepared to take action and substantiate his grave charges of judges accepting bribes or guilty of misconduct in acting unethically in socializing with parties while hearing their cases.

The Chief Justice had used the plural when he “hit out at judges who accept bribes”. Had he initiated action against “judges who accept bribes” under Article 124 of the Federal Constitution for the establishment of the judicial tribunal to remove these “rogue judges” or at least lodged police reports against them for full investigations to be started?

If Ahmad Fairuz had not initiated any action against “judges who accept bribes”, then the Chief Justice would be guilty of being a party to the commission of serious crimes which would not be compatible with his continued tenure as the highest judicial officer of the land. If he could not substantiate his allegation of judges accepting bribes, then he had made a most reckless and irresponsible statement seriously tarnishing the image of the judiciary.

Furthermore, what action had Ahmad Fairuz taken against judges for the judicial misconduct and unethical behaviour of “often seen socializing with lawyers, prosecutors and corporate figures” while hearing their cases in court or for “being constantly angry and bad-tempered”? Continue reading ““Judges who accept bribes” – Ahmad Fairuz must take action or step down as Chief Justice”

Malaysian universities are still in the international backwaters with the country fighting a losing battle to enhance international competitiveness in the quest for academic excellence and university quality.

For the fourth year in succession, Malaysian universities have been omitted in the January 2007 Webometrics Ranking (WR) of 3,000 Premier Universities, based on their commitment to Web publication and to the Open Access initiatives.

The National University of Singapore tops the Asian universities in the WR, ranked No. 139 internationally, with the Nanyang Technological University ranked No. 18 among the top Asian universities. Chulalongkorn University of Thailand has again confirmed that it is recognised internationally as in various recent world universities rankings as of superior quality to all the 17 Malaysian universities.

The top 25 Asian universities in the latest WR are:

Top Asian Universities

Asia Rank University World Rank

1 National University Singapore 139
2. National Taiwan University 150
3 Keio University 152
4 University of Tokyo 157
5 Beijing University 190
6 Chinese University of Hong Kong 216
7 University of Hong Kong 218
8 Kyoto University 239
9 National Chiao Tung University 300
10 Tsinghua University China 336
11 Seoul National University 337
12 University of Tsukuba 338
13 HK Univ of Sc & Technology 362
14 Korea Adv. Inst of Sc & Tech 365
15 Nagoya University 367
16 Tokyo Institute of Technology 368
17 Tohoku University 376
18 Nanyang Techl Univ Spore 450
19 National Cheng Kung University 468
20 City University of Hong Kong 470
21 Chulalongkorn University 505
22 Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ 511
23 National Sun Yat Sen Univ 513
24 United Nations University 522
25. Zhejiang University 529

The country distribution of the top 500 WR Premier Universities are: Continue reading “Malaysian universities out of international radar – 4th year omitted in WR 3,000 Premier Universities ranking”

Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor and former top ACA officer and “whistleblower”, Mohamad Ramli Manan’s full preparedness to appear before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity (PSCI) on March 12 is most commendable.

Zulkipli told Bernama that he was ready to appear before the Parliamentary Select Committee on March 12 with detailed evidence against the serious corruption allegations made against him, declaring: “I have the confidence and courage to face the problem because I believe in God and only a person with guilt needs to be afraid.”

Ramli in his interview with the New Straits Times “vowed to tell all” to the Select Committee, declaring: “There is nothing to hide. I will be there.”

Zulkipli and Ramli should honour their public undertaking “to tell all” to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity as any refusal or reluctance by anyone of them to do so will immediately be an adverse reflection on his credibility and integrity.

The Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan and the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patil should also appear before the Select Committee to explain the reasons for the dilatory and unsatisfactory investigations into the serious corruption allegations against Zulkipli in the past ten years. Continue reading “Corruption allegations against ACA DG – AG and IGP should also appear before PSCI”

This is email from Heng:

Lately, many Telecoms Malaysia customers are forced down their throats to have a new voice mail message service without even the customers requesting for it. I believe this is part of a scheme to meet the so called KPI of the GLC’s. This service is a nuisance to many customers. The calling party shall be charged for futile calls and the receiving party shall be billed for retrieving the messages.

I hope as a YB, please look into this issue or if this is a minor issue to you as you have to handle other major national issues, please get someone to handle this issue for the benefits of Telecoms Malaysia customers.

What say you?

The case of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) Director-General, Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor is getting curiouser and curiouser – panning out even to raise serious questions about the efficiency, competence and credibility of the Police, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

Firstly, the Sun today in its front-page headline story, “Papers with AG — Police resubmit investigation file on ACA chief to Attorney-General” reported the disclosure by the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Musa Hassan that Kuala Lumpur police investigated the complaints on sexual crimes and assault allegedly committed by Zulkipli against a housewife in 1997 and later submitted investigation papers to the AG’s Chambers.

However, as the AG had not reverted to the police on the next course of action, a fresh submission was made yesterday.

The New Straits Times in its front-page report “GRAFT AND SEXUAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS – SPEED UP PROBE ON ACA CHIEF — Attorney-general tells IGP” tells quite a different story.

NST quoted the Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail that Zulkipli was cleared years ago of a claim of sexually abusing a woman after a thorough investigation into the sexual assault allegation in July 1997. The police investigation papers (IP) were submitted to the AG’s chambers on Oct. 24, 1997, and the AG’s Chambers found there were no grounds to prosecute Zulkipli, and the case was filed as “No Further Action” (NFA) needed.

Secondly, on the serious corruption charges against Zulkipli, the IGP was conspicuously silent but the NST reported Gani as saying that he had told Musa “to speed up the investigations into these allegations”.

Gani said the investigations would include checks against the asset declaration made by Zulkipli — “We compare these asset declarations to how one pays or finances one’s properties”, which would include “checks on the financial position of one’s family members to ascertain their contribution to the household income”.

Here Zulkipli is caught “red-handed” telling a lie that he had been cleared of serious corruption charges made against him, as he told the NST in its report yesterday: “Zulkipli called the charges ‘baseless’ and said prior to his appointment as director-general, he had been vetted and cleared by both the ACA and police.” Continue reading “Sack Zulkipli as ACA DG for telling lie that he had been cleared of serious corruption allegations”

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had a special Chinese New Year message for Malaysians in the first two days on the Chinese New Year on February 18 and 19, 2006 — to enter the stock market to “ride on the momentum” of the good economic times.

This was his common theme at the Gerakan Chinese New Year open house in Kuala Lumpur on the first day of the Chinese New Year and at the open house of the Penang Chinese Chamber in Penang on the second day of the Chinese New Year.

Abdullah pointedly said that the Bursa Saham composite index, which was at the time at a high of more than 1,258 points, could surpass the 1,350-point level following positive indicators of the country’s economic growth — namely the trillion ringgit total trade last year, the increasing foreign and domestic investments and and the rising ringgit. (New Straits Times 21.2.07)

There had been widespread skepticism about the slew of “good economic news” which had been trotted out by the government in the previous two weeks, particularly about foreign direct investments which clearly conflicted with statistics released by the United Nations Conference Trade and Development (Unctad) — raising the question as to why there is a difference of between RM6.4 billion to RM9.8 billion in the statistics released by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) and Unctad on 2006 FDIs into Malaysia.

However, when the Prime Minister openly urged Malaysians to enter the stock market “to ride on the momentum” in expectation of the KLSE rising above 1,350 points, small investors cast aside their doubts, reservations and skepticism and entered the stock market in a big way after the Chinese New Year holidays, lifting the KLCI to close at 1,283 points last Friday — with the Star yesterday carrying the screaming headline “KLCI poised to break record” for this week. Continue reading “PM’s CNY present – RM70 billion Bursa Saham losses by small investors”

Thanks to Chengkhoon, the blog kink with IE6 & 7 has been resolved.

This is Chenkhoon’s solution:

“Line 38 of the css file (style.css) contains the following line:

“filter: Shadow(color:white, strength:0, direction:0);

“This is proprietary IE6 code. Removing the line will solve the problem.”

Many thanks Chengkhoon, on my part as on behalf of so many visitors who had faced problems of accessing the blog with IE6 or 7. Most appreciated. Also thanks to all who given their suggestions to resolve the problem.

ANATOMY OF A TRAFFIC DISASTER
by Z. Ibrahim

The Federal Highway, first envisioned in 1965 following separation of Singapore from Malaysia, became the main artery to serve the entire Klang Valley conurbation when Malaysia decided to make Port Klang its premier port then.

Opened in 1967, the Highway itself has undergone multiple metamorphoses to cater for the ever increasing population and industries on either side of the highway.

There was a period in the 80s’ when traffic jams to KL used to start at the Berkeley Gardens and a significant portion of Klang residents who worked in KL had to be on the road by 5am. The original 4-lane highway soon outlived its purpose despite the building of multiple interchanges in Petaling Jaya.

In 1992 Plus Expressway Berhad upgraded the entire highway to a 6-lane highway with toll plazas at Batu Tiga and Sungai Rasa. The highway handles such great volumes of traffic at any time of the day that jams can be quite difficult to predict as even minor mishaps have known to cause traffic to back-up on either side of the highway for miles. Continue reading “Anatomy of a traffic disaster”

Clarification on an idea called “neo-bumiputeraism”
(Follow-up to article “Let’s de-segregate our schools”)

– Azly Rahman

‘Bumiputera’ is a problematic word. A word that conveniently equates race and religion as inseparable. To say that a Malay is generally a Muslim and hence a ‘bumiputera’ and therefore have special rights and privileges is an imprecise way of explaining a concept. It is an old-school approach to defining that word.

We must find ways to enrich the concept better so that it will become inclusive. Who toils for the soil? Labour, more than language, seems to be more a more linguistically just way to look at the definition of bumiputera and how we will go about the peaceful evolution process.

We need a premise for this process though. Let’s begin with this phrase:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident and Divine-ly sanctioned that All Malaysians are created equal and that they are endowed by their Creator the inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, happiness, justice and social equality… and we shall resoundingly declare that from now on we will be constructed as equal and be called ‘the new bumiputera’…” Continue reading ““Neo-bumiputeraism” – clarification”

Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) Director-General Datuk Seri Zulkipli Mat Noor has responded to very serious allegations of “being a very corrupt senior police officer who had amassed substantial property and assets through corrupt means” made against him by a former top ACA officer, Mohamad Ramli Manan while still in service in July last year before his retirement on December 8, 2006.

Zulkipli told New Straits Times: “Let the law take its course”.

He said that the allegations were “part and parcel of the agency’s operations”

He added:

“There are a lot of challenges in our line of work. Some (people) may be happy, some, of course, may not. The bottom line is justice must be done.

“In this context, certainly I do not want to get involved in matters, issues or allegations that have the tendency to belittle or tarnish the good image of an individual.”

Apart from the “Let the law take its course” statement, Zulkipli’s comments are not helpful at all in throwing light on the very serious corruption allegations which had been made against him by Ramli. The ACA head seems to have mastered the art of making statements which mean nothing at all.

While the law must undoubtedly be allowed to “take its course”, the immediate concern of all Malaysians serious about the pledge of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when he became the fifth Prime Minister and during the 2004 general election campaign to give top priority to anti-corruption is whether Zulkipli can continue to helm the ACA with these serious corruption allegations hanging over his head. Or whether the ACA will be further incapacitated with such a person as its head. Continue reading “Zulkipli and Ramli’s date with Parliamentary Select Committee – March 12”

TJY emailed to say that this blog cannot be viewed from Internet Explorer 7. There have been other complaints which seem to zero down to the same cause, such as the following from Shirley of UK:

“Still unable to access your blog. Managed to access the main page but only part of it. Even then unable to read as only the top of page is visible.”

Later Shirley emailed: “Internet Explorer was the problem. Problem solved when switched to Mozilla Firefox.”

Anyone with any ideas as to how the problem can be resolved with Internet Explorer 7?

Let’s de-segregate our schools
Azly Rahman

“School is not preparation for life, but school is life,” wrote American pragmatist philosopher John Dewey.

We need to begin a national project of desegregating schools. I propose that all schools and educational institutions now catering to one particular race – be they Malay, Chinese, Tamil, Kadazan or Iban – must be integrated systematically and reorganised along the principles of multi-cultural education.

We must create a new breed of bumiputera – the neo-bumiputera class.

I do not see any other way we can become a truly multi-cultural nation and create an egalitarian society based on the way we currently organise our educational institutions. We may have a grand design that will take to the year 3000, but without a conscious effort to educate students to become critical, creative, ethical and futuristic radical human beings, we will drown in the wave of globalisation.

We may have a hardware worth RM23 billion and a software plan in hand, but without a mind-ware powerful enough to help develop governors of a future republic of virtue and social justice, our schools will continue to be better camps for totalitarianism.

However, as the great Brazilian educator Paulo Freire might say, there is a philosophy of hope, we can all explore.

I want to share the beauty of an effective philosophy of education that ought to now be experimented at a different level – true to our nation’s commitment to create a Bangsa Malaysia.

It is a system that has benefitted many and produced excellent individuals that are now the movers and shakers of our economy. We have great professors, politicians, scientists, lawyers, corporate figures, surgeons, entertainment gurus, and even rocket scientists from a system that has helped the poorest of the poor ‘bumiputeras’. I am talking about the Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) system. Continue reading “Let’s de-segregate our schools”

The Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) director-general, Datuk Zulkipli Mat Noor should appear before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity to clear all doubts that he is qualified to continue to helm the anti-corruption agency.

I will propose at today’s meeting of the Parliamentary Select Committee that Zulkipli be summoned to appear at an emergency meeting to respond to various serious allegations which had been made against him, ranging from corruption to sexual crimes, which must not remain unrebutted so as to salvage the credibility, legitimacy and authority of the ACA.

If Zulkipli is not prepared to appear before the Parliamentary Select Committee to establish his integrity in an emergency meeting, he must be removed as the ACA head. The Cabinet should put this item on the top of its agenda at its meeting tomorrow.

Malaysiakini yesterday reported these allegations which were filed last year by former ACA officer Mohamad Ramli Manan to the then inspector-general of police Mohd Bakri Omar.

In the July 4, 2006 report, Ramli named the ACA chief – who is a former top cop – and referred to him as ‘B1’.

“As you are aware, B1 was a member of your police force and his last appointment there was as Sarawak chief police officer. It has come to the knowledge of the ACA that B1 was a very corrupt senior police officer and had amassed substantial property and assets through corrupt practices,” he told Mohd Bakri in his report.

Ramli claimed that in 1997 – when Zulkipli was Johor police chief – the ACA had then learnt that he was “in possession of properties disproportionate to his known source of income” and had indulged in “immoral and criminal” activities.

Apart from this, Ramli also disclosed that the police had allegedly investigated Zulkipli in connection with a sexual crime following a report filed by a housewife with the Dang Wangi police station in Kuala Lumpur. Continue reading “ACA Zulkipli must establish his integrity or be removed immediately”

Last week, when making his controversial, ill-advised and ill-considered comment likening the proposal for an independent judicial commission on appointment and promotion of judges as akin to nudity rather than transparency, the Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim claimed that he was both an advocate and practitioner of judicial accountability and transparency.

Ahmad Fairuz said: “I started (as the Chief Justice) in 2003 with accountability and integrity. We have been transparent.”

I have three questions for Ahmad Fairuz concerning accountability and integrity of the Chief Justice.

Firstly, will the Altantunya Shaariibuu murder trial set for hearing in March 2008 be brought forward in line with the maxim that “justice delayed is justice denied” as well as his earlier statement that the March 2008 trial date is “too far off”?

The Star in a front-page headline of 6th January 2007 “March 7, 2008: Altantunya murder trial — TOO LONG A WAIT” quoted the Chief Justice:

“The date is too far off. But we are appointing 16 new judges. Hopefully the trial can be brought forward.”

Secondly, what has happened to his public undertaking on his appointment as Chief Justice some four years ago in 2003 to recast the Judges’ Code of Ethics to restore public confidence in judicial independence, impartiality and integrity. Continue reading “Judicial accountability – will the Altantuny murder trial be brought forward from March 2008?”