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“Never” suspend Myanmar from ASEAN – Hamid’s statement most deplorable and reprehensible

I am totally flabbergasted by the statement of the Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar that ASEAN will never suspend Myanmar despite its bloody crackdown on mass protests after his meeting with the United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari yesterday.

Hamid’s declaration is most deplorable and reprehensible as it has undone the “revulsion” statement of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers in the United Nations last month over the violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations in Myanmar, given encouragement to the Myanmar military junta’s hardline position and undermined Ibrahim Gambari’s diplomatic efforts to kickstart a political dialogue in Burma for national reconciliation and democratization.

Malaysia’s public position that Myanmar will never be suspended from ASEAN under any circumstances will only strengthen and harden the Myanmar military junta in its defiant and unrepentant responses to the international outrage at its bloody repression of peaceful dissent, shrugging off international action to punish it for its crackdown of the saffron revolution last month, even as Japan cut aid and European nations widened sanctions.

Even if the Malaysian government is currently of the view that Myanmar should never be suspended, let alone expelled, from ASEAN whatever egregious violations of human rights and democratic freedoms of the people of Burma are committed by the Myanmar military junta, why was it tactically necessary for Hamid to make such a public statement at a time when every lever should be applied to single-mindedly impress on the Myanmar military junta the unity and weight of regional and international opinion that it should respond positively to United Nations initiatives for a political dialogue for national reconciliation and democratization in Burma and to end all human right violations. Continue reading ““Never” suspend Myanmar from ASEAN – Hamid’s statement most deplorable and reprehensible”

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Haider Panel on Lingam Tape – greatest service to cause of justice is to resign en masse

Sin Chew Daily and China Press reported today that the Haidar Panel into the authenticity of the Lingam Tape, which was supposed to meet for the second time today, has postponed its second meeting indefinitely.

China Press reported that the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA)’s inability to complete its investigations into the Lingam Tape as the reason for the postponement of its second meeting today, which was fixed when the Haidar Panel met for the first time on October 3.

It is three weeks since the Haidar Panel’s appointment by the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak on Sept. 27 to complete its terms of reference within a month. The Haidar Panel took one week to prepare for its first meeting on Oct. 3, after which it went into hibernation for two weeks leaving all the legwork to the ACA.

China Press reported that the next meeting of the Haidar Panel may be on Oct. 27, the last day of its one-month life tenure.

In the past fortnight, the three-man Haidar Panel disappeared from public view completely upstaged by the two-act histrionics of the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, viz:

  • Firstly claiming that witnesses and whistleblowers are protected by the law, even offering plastic surgery to give “a new identity or even new look” for the person or persons who took the Lingam Tape, only to find subsequently that there is no such Witness Protection Act or Bill; and
  • Secondly claiming that he will ask the Cabinet to provide protection for the people behind the recording of the Lingam Tape, only to announce after the Cabinet meeting that there would be no such protection.

Continue reading “Haider Panel on Lingam Tape – greatest service to cause of justice is to resign en masse”

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Who lied? Zam or Pak Lah?

Who lied? Was it the Information Minister, Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin or the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi himself?

On Friday, 6th October 2007, speaking at the Gerakan National Delegates Conference, Abdullah called on “leaders, especially those in Barisan Nasional” to tell him the truth and to stop “be in a state of denial”.

He exhorted:

“Tell the truth, even if it is painful.

“The prime minister must have the courage and readiness to listen even to the worst stories, whether it is related to the country or himself. Never allow yourself to sink in a hole of denial and feel that everything is alright.”

Four days later, on Wednesday 10th October 2007, Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin summoned top media editors to a special briefing and in the name of the Prime Minister, laid down the law that

  • Abdullah’s pledge to “hear the truth” does not apply to the media as it was restricted to Barisan Nasional leaders and government officials; and
  • the Prime Minister’s repeated pledges to “listen to the truth” did not mean that the media have the green light to “practice unrestrained reporting”.

It is a reflection of the deplorable state of press freedom in Malaysia that no mainstream media had protested or written about Zainuddin’s violation of a free press, especially under a Prime Minister who had pledged greater openness, accountability, transparency, integrity and good governance!

In fact, Zainuddin’s summoning of the top media editors to direct them what to print and what not to print would be completely unthinkable in the past 50 years of the nation’s development, as no Information Minister would have such temerity to regard himself as the Comptroller-General of the Press. Continue reading “Who lied? Zam or Pak Lah?”

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Zam the “Minister for Truth” ala-Orwell’s 1984 in Abdullah administration?

It is five days since last Wednesday’s extraordinary briefing to the country’s top editors by the Information Minister, Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin that the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s pledge to “hear the truth” does not apply to the media as it was restricted to Barisan Nasional leaders and government officials — and three days since the public revelation of such a “directive” by Malaysiakini in an exclusive report on Friday.

As there had been no clarification or correction by the Prime Minister to such a briefing by Zainuddin, who specifically told the editors that he was acting under Abdullah’s instructions to convey to the media that the Prime Minister’s repeated pledges to “listen to the truth” did not mean that the media have the green light to “practice unrestrained reporting”, I feel compelled to pose in Parliament when it reconvenes next week the following question:

Does Abdullah want Zainuddin to be his “Minister for Truth” ala-Orwell’s 1984, exemplar of “doublespeak and doublethink” in his administration?

George Orwell’s novel 1984 painted a totalitarian country paralleling Stalinist Russia and Hitlerian Nazi Germany, where there is incessant brainwashing and re-education in a society saturated by doublethink and doublespeak.

There is a Ministry of Peace which concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and Ministry of Plenty with starvation.

Is Malaysia on the occasion of Abdullah’s fourth anniversary as Prime Minister heading in the direction of the “doublethink and doublespeak” of Orwell’s 1984, starting with the directive to the editors that the Prime Minister’s pledge to “hear the truth” does not apply to the press or the public at large? Continue reading “Zam the “Minister for Truth” ala-Orwell’s 1984 in Abdullah administration?”

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Practical Policies, Not Party Politics

by M. Bakri Musa

[In a recent private e-mail to me, a reader chastised me for being “NATO” (No Action, Talk Only). He intimated that if I really loved Malaysia, I should come home and contest the elections. As many readers share his sentiment of me, I post my reply to him. His original letter, in the usual rojak style of Malay liberally interspersed with English, follows.]

Dear Johan:

Thank you for taking your valuable time in sharing your thoughts with me.

My retort to your “NATO” (No Action, Talk Only) accusation is simply this: Been there, done that! However, such a tart response would not do justice to a diligent reader like you who has, by your own admission, bought all my books!

As for my returning home, I served Malaysia on my own accord (no scholarship or other contractual bonds) for nearly three years way back when. It was at a time when my presence (at least initially) doubled the number of Malay surgeons in the country! Although I was proud of my achievements during my brief tenure there, I soon discovered that I would have fewer headaches if I were to stop banging my head against the bureaucratic wall. So I left.

I have returned many times since. On each trip, instead of bringing trinkets for my nieces and nephews, I brought boxes of books to donate to my village school library. On one occasion, the principal proudly displayed to me the mound of books that I had donated over the years. She proudly drew my attention to the fact it was significantly bigger than a similar gift from the World Bank! Continue reading “Practical Policies, Not Party Politics”

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Proton-Volkswagen deal – “a buyer’s market”

GERMAN MEDIA FRENZY OVER POSSIBLE VW-PROTON ALLIANCE
Wednesday, October 10, 2007; Posted: 02:06 AM

FRANKFURT (Germany), Oct 10, 2007 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) — Germany’s print and broadcast media, not to mention the specialised trade media, have been churning out reports over the past few days about an impending deal between Wolfsburg-based giant carmaker Volkswagen (VW) and Malaysia’s national car company Proton (KLSE:5304).

Germany’s leading dailies such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt and the Handelsblatt have been speculating that VW may finally be on its way to forming an alliance with Proton, by either acquiring a 20 per cent stake in Proton or forming a joint venture company which would include Proton assets.

Later, VW might increase its stake in Proton to 50 per cent. An indication to this effect was given by VW head Martin Winterkorn himself in a recent interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, when he said that VW would “move in that direction”.

VW’s acquisition of Proton will strengthen the German carmaker’s position in Southeast Asia.

But VW, according to Winterkorn, would like to see the risks minimised and is also interested in Proton’s extensive network of dealers and agents.

But he also emphasised in the interview that VW was “nowhere even near a due diligence”. He would first see what concessions Malaysia had to offer.

However, German industry pundits said that VW could afford the luxury of waiting longer while the Malaysian side could not.

Indeed, VW will insist that the Malaysian government provides a “soft landing” cushion to compensate it against any losses at Proton for, at least, three years. Continue reading “Proton-Volkswagen deal – “a buyer’s market””

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Abdullah the new patron saint for “the truth that is not the truth”?

The Information Minister, Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin was among the Umno Ministers joining Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at the Prime Minister’s Hari Raya Open House at the Putra World Trade Centre yesterday.

When I shook hands with him, wishing him “Selamat Hari Raya”, I remarked that he has become the spokesman for “the truth that is not the truth”.

Zam knew I was referring to Friday’s Malaysiakini report “Zam to media: No need to tell PM the truth”:

Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin has told editors not to play up negative news because Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s pledge to “hear the truth” does not apply to the media.

Zainuddin said this during a one-hour meeting on Wednesday at the RTM headquarters in Kuala Lumpur with the country’s top editors.

The country’s information czar is one of two top government officials to hold meetings with the media top brass this week.

Yesterday, chief secretary to the government Mohd Sidek Hassan in another meeting urged media organisations to avoid emphasising on news deemed negative against the government, such as the 2006 Auditor-General’s report.

According to sources, Zainuddin began the meeting by declaring that he would frequently meet editors to advise them about national issues.

However, he stressed that he would only “advise and not give warnings”.

The information minister claimed that he assumed the new role under the instructions of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Zainuddin then explained that Abdullah’s often repeated pledges of “listening to the truth” were only restricted to government officials and Barisan Nasional leaders so as to assist the cabinet in making decisions. Continue reading “Abdullah the new patron saint for “the truth that is not the truth”?”

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Organ transplantation…brain death and financial implications (3)

Letters
by FK-506

In reply to Carpe Diem’s cherry picked quotes to the letter, ‘Organ transplant: Are we on the right track?’, the writer’s attempts to endorse this country’s nascent transplant program by trying to downplay key issues in any transplant program — financial implications and controversies surrounding brain death is reprehensible.

Quote : “… … … ..it isn’t quite right to place patients on VADs which have a limited life of their own into patients, not knowing if they are ever going to get a heart. This cannot be ethically correct.”

“Is it more ethical to deny me this option, based on not knowing whether I will get a heart in time, if the expertise is available and I am more than willing?”

For how long and at whose cost? Is Carpe going to pay this out from his or her own pocket? Clearly this person doesn’t realize the economic costs of such programs on government expenditure, unless of course, Carpe thinks that it is the state’s moral duty to transplant everyone with end-stage heart failure, liver failure, renal failure, etc. Chua Soi Lek moaned only last year that the MOH couldn’t afford to pay the RM900 million pharmaceutical bill for patients being treated by the Ministry. But miraculously he today is quoted to have said that the Cabinet, which has never shown respect for tax-payers money, is willing to provide even up to a billion ringgit for a transplant program. Incredible. Where is the set of priorities? Why don’t the cabinet approve the billion ringgit so that patients get better care, better follow-ups, better education programs, home nursing and of course better medicines, so that less patients end up in heart failure, renal or liver failures.

The age old idiom “prevention is better then cure” must hold true for this country based on the economy that we have unless Carpe is advocating American style healthcare, in which case, I would like to suggest that the technology be kept going but all transplants be borne by private funds. And I do hope Carpe fathoms the economic consequences of transplant programs. I hope he/she realized what happened to Barnard’s pioneering transplant work at Groote-Schur in South Africa. Transplant programs were immediately shut down by incoming President Nelson Mandela in 1994 when he realized that precious and limited health resources that could be used for Soweto’s populace suffering from cholera, typhoid, malaria and an AIDs incidence of almost 14% in some provinces, were being channeled to a glamorous transplant program. Are we in Malaysia any different if the startling statistics provided by our own MOH are anything to go by? In Sabah alone, even decades after independence, we have still not eradicated malaria and TB.

Quote: “Merican howled that what SJMC and Tan did were improper as ignorant patients may “not have been briefed about complications”. Tan, who pioneered liver transplant techniques at King’s College, London, of course left, preferring to base himself in “less ethical” Singapore, leaving Merican to focus on traditional medicine back here in Malaysia.”

That Merican howled is a fact. It is also a fact that K.C. Tan announced in the media that he was not willing to work in the ethical environment imposed on him. But the end result of this entire episode was clear. Malaysia’s liver transplant program in the private sector, supported quite earnestly by the media even then, was dead in the water. No RM30 million, 100 million or 1 billion ringgit boost to this program, although it was led by a Malaysian surgeon and the incidence of patients requiring liver transplants were equally a concern. Even private donations collected to help patients in this program were ultimately taken over by the Ministry. Why the double standards? Was it because K.C.Tan was a private surgeon working at a private hospital? Or was it due to something else? Yes the insinuation is direct. I am sure readers can make their own conclusions. Continue reading “Organ transplantation…brain death and financial implications (3)”

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Hari Raya message – four things to make Hari Raya on 50th Merdeka anniversary most meaningful

Hari Raya this year coincides with the nation’s 50th Merdeka anniversary.

Celebrating this year’s Hari Raya on the occasion of the nation’s 50th Merdeka anniversary will be most meaningful if there is a national resolution and government political will to achieve four things:

  • A low-crime Malaysia where everyone, whether citizen, tourist or investor can feel safe again in the streets, public places and the privacy of the homes and where the fundamental rights to be free from crime and fear of crime are not just empty and meaningful words.
  • Zero tolerance for corruption, abuses of power and financial scandals.
  • Restore national and international confidence in a truly independent judiciary and a just rule of law, which will go a long way to enhance Malaysia’s international competitiveness which has suffered considerable erosion in recent years; and
  • A Malaysian national consciousness and identity transcending racial, religious or political differences.

Selamat Hari Raya to all Muslims in Malaysia.

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Reply to ‘Organ transplant: Are we on the right track?’ by FK-506

Letters
by Carpe Diem

I would like to comment on the letter by FK-506. However I will try to focus on rebutting factual inaccuracies in his letter, rather than comment on his insinuations and innuendos as my interpretations of his statements may be flawed.

Quote : “………..it isn’t quite right to place patients on VADs which have a limited life of their own into patients, not knowing if they are ever going to get a heart. This cannot be ethically correct.”

Whether this is ethically correct or not depends on the patient’s wishes, the facilities available and expert opinion. Unfortunately this is one area where opinions matter. An individual may consider it mental and physical torture to be hooked to a machine with no definite end in sight, but another may consider it a lifeline to a possibly better future. Is it more ethical to deny me this option, based on not knowing whether I will get a heart in time, if the expertise is available and I am more than willing?

Quote : “Merican howled that what SJMC and Tan did were improper as ignorant patients may “not have been briefed about complications”. Tan, who pioneered liver transplant techniques at King’s College, London, of course left, preferring to base himself in “less ethical” Singapore, leaving Merican to focus on traditional medicine back here in Malaysia.”

Well I have no love for traditional medicine, but I don’t see how this case affects the current scenario. Anyway, if I am not mistaken the issue against KC Tan then was on unrelated living donors. Please correct me if I am wrong. Continue reading “Reply to ‘Organ transplant: Are we on the right track?’ by FK-506”

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Lingam Tape – end the rigmarole of Nazri flip-flops, lameduck Haidar Panel and Cabinet micro-managing of inquiry

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has done a triple flip-flop in four days.

On Sunday, he said that the probe into the Lingam Tape will come to a dead end if the witnesses who can verify it do not come forward to establish its authenticity.

He also assured witnesses and whistleblowers of “full government protection, including a change of identities if necessary”, declaring: “I guarantee that we will protect the sources. Trust the government to do so.”

However when he found that the Witness Protection Act or Bill which he had quoted as authority for such protection does not exist, Nazi said on Tuesday that he would present a strong case to the Cabinet to provide protection for the people behind the recording of the Lingam Tape.

He said: “The panel’s investigation will not be able to progress if the protection is not provided. We will not then be able to get to the bottom of this. The panel will be rendered useless.”

However, Nazri sang a different tune after the Cabinet meeting yesterday.

He said: “We will assist but first we have to establish what type of protection these people want.

“If it is anonymity, it can be arranged. If it is security, it can be arranged, but we have to know.”

It is most shocking that Nazri could be so ignorant that what the informants want is full immunity from any prosecution, protection from persecution and victimization from the powers-that-be and that there should be no cover-up of the Lingam Tape scandal of perversion of the course of justice with judicial appointments and judge-fixing.

Nazri said the Cabinet had decided to assist the Haidar inquiry panel investigate the Lingam Tape in whatever way it could. If the panel had difficulty getting those behind the video clip to come forward to be interviewed, it could ask for the government’s help.

“If the panel faces difficulties in concluding investigations, it could submit a report to us and we will assist in whatever way possible.”

It is outrageous that three weeks after the disclosure of the Lingam Tape, the Cabinet is still studiously avoiding the core issues of the Lingam Tape scandal on judicial misconduct and perversion with the course of justice — focusing all the attention on the authenticity of the Lingam Tape which could be established through forensic voice and tape analysis. Continue reading “Lingam Tape – end the rigmarole of Nazri flip-flops, lameduck Haidar Panel and Cabinet micro-managing of inquiry”

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Congrats to Sheikh Muszaphar as Malaysia’s first angkasawan

Congratulations to Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor as Malaysia’s first angkasawan, orbiting in space to the International Space station — 360 km above the earth.

It is a feat Malaysians can feel proud.

We must however ensure that Malaysia can follow up and take a quantum leap in advances in science and technology and not be like Saudi Arabia, which sent the first Muslim into space more than two decades ago in 1985 in the United States space shuttle Discovery but the desert state has little to show in terms of building a science and technology research and development sector beyond oil and petrochemicals.

The government must also learn from the mistakes of the programme to send the first Malaysian to space, as it had been mired in controversy at almost every stage, from its genesis, conception and selection as well as its transparency and accountability.

The lift-off programme last night would have been more fitting the nation’s 50th Merdeka anniversary if an inter-faith prayer session had been held to give blessings for a successful launch as Malaysia is sending a Malaysian who is a Muslim into space and not a Muslim who happen to be a Malaysian.

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Burma’s Monks: Ethics is not confined to Books and Temples

By Farish A Noor
The Other Malaysia

By now the international community is fully aware of the recent developments in Burma, a country that has been under military rule and isolated from the rest of the globe since 1963. The images of Burmese Buddhist monks taking to the streets and defying the armed might of the Burmese junta and its security apparatus reminds us of familiar scenes dating back to the 1980s, and echo the democratic revolutions we have seen elsewhere in Asia, including China, since then.

While the fate of Burma and her people hang in the balance, the protest of the monks — many of whom happen to come from ordinary Burmese families with scant political protection themselves — teaches us a vital lesson and is a model for many progressive theologians and religious activists to follow. It is sometimes said that in the post-Enlightenment age we live in there is little concern for religion and that religion has no place in society. Worst still, the political instrumentalisation of religion for clearly divisive and sectarian ends has further added scepticism for many who believe that religion is best kept out of politics and the public domain, where it has often been abused. (A view that many would concur with). Unfortunately today any talk of religious ethics is often met with images of Bible-thumping evangelists talking of holy wars and moral crusades, angry bearded fanatics burning books and nosey neighbours spying on what the people next door are doing. Are religion and ethics destined to remain forever trapped in the nonsensical and pointless debate over who is holier and who wears his or her religion on the sleeves? Has religion nothing to say on pressing issues of the day such as fundamental political rights and liberties, democracy and rule of law? Continue reading “Burma’s Monks: Ethics is not confined to Books and Temples”

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Lingam Tape – Nazri’s histrionics powerful reason why RCI needed

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, is up to his histrionics again — yesterday claiming that he will ask the Cabinet today to provide protection for the people behind the recording of the Lingam Tape.

This was 48 hours after Nazri had declared “No Source, No Case”, castigated the people behind the Lingam Tape as liars if they dared not come forward to co-operate with the Haidar Inquiry Panel to determine the authenticity of the Lingam Tape on the ground that witnesses and whistleblowers are already fully protected under the various laws of the land, although he subsequently admitted that he had made a mistake when referring to the non-existent Witness Protection Act or Witness Protection Bill.

However, if various laws already provide protection to the maker or makers of the Lingam Tape, why is it necessary for Nazri to ask the Cabinet to provide protection for the people behind the Lingam Tape recording?

Furthermore, why ask the Lingam Tape makers to come forward to co-operate with the Haidar Panel when Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said that the Panel is not supposed to call witnesses and must rely on the Anti-Corruption Agency and the Police in their deliberations?

At least Nazri has one quality which has so far been absent from other Ministers, the humility – some will say the “temerity” – to admit that he was wrong, although it is not clear what is the wrong of wrongs which Nazri is admitting to, whether in mistakenly claiming that there is a Witness Protection Act or Bill which are non-existing, or mistakenly claiming that the various laws already provide adequate protection for the maker or makers of the Lingam Tape to enable them to surface publicly to give information to establish its authenticity. Continue reading “Lingam Tape – Nazri’s histrionics powerful reason why RCI needed”

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Petition – Petronas’ corporate responsibility for the violent repression of saffron revolution

Letter

by Daniel Chong

PETITION FOR PETRONAS TO ASSUME CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY IN THE CURRENT CRISIS IN MYANMAR

As you have highlighted in your blog, things are not well in Burma and for me it is not good that the corporations are able to keep silent while the people, NGOs and governments are making all the headlines in the press.

I think Burma is our little version of Afghanistan (important pipelines, warlords, refugees, drugs…) Its unsettling that we the neighbours have adopted a “close one eye” mentality.

Please have a look at this petition I wrote. If you support it, I hope you can make a mention of it in your blog. If not could you forward it to someone who might?

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/20/petition-for-petronas-to-assume-corporate-responsibility-in-its-business-dealing-in-myanmar Continue reading “Petition – Petronas’ corporate responsibility for the violent repression of saffron revolution”

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Transplantation in Malaysia – are we on the right track?

Letters

by FK-506

As motorists on the NKVE scrambled to let pass the police outriders followed by a Perdana with an IJN logo with a host of other ambulances heading towards Subang Airport on Wednesday afternoon, many suspected the heart that 14 year old Tee Hui Yi so badly required after being placed on an ventricular assist device (VAD) for almost 12 months may have finally arrived. And indeed it had as she had her transplant done almost the same night courtesy of an unfortunate 15 year old accident victim who was declared brain dead at Ipoh General Hospital.

The miracle was all the more phenomenal as Tee Hui Yi’s predicament was highlighted only the day before on the front pages of the New Straits Times. Sadly she is said to have suffered a “hyperacute rejection” of her transplanted heart and had a second one put in which IJN happened to get from a patient from JB. Two hearts all in a day for one patient when none was available for almost a year. Miracles and coincidences do happen just like the statue of Virgin Mary crying blood sporadically in various churches around the world on Christmas. Hopefully Tee Hui Yi’s saga will finally end with her recovering fully.

Tee Hui Yi apparently developed viral myocarditis at the age of two and progressed to end stage heart failure. The indication for the expensive bridge to a natural heart in the form of the artificial ventricular assist device was presumably the failure of medical therapy in not being able to maintain her circulation optimally anymore on conservative therapy. In simple terms, for a future, she would need a heart. The VAD was just a stop gap. But in Malaysia this bridge to a heart or for that matter any other organ can be exceptionally long, arduous and occasionally a bridge just too far, leaving in its trail thousands dead on waiting lists. Continue reading “Transplantation in Malaysia – are we on the right track?”

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Lingam Tape – Nazri’s lame excuse and test for Cabinet tomorrow

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz has admitted that he was wrong and that there is no Witness Protection Act.

He claimed that what he meant was that whistleblowers were already protected under various laws which offered some protection to witnesses, like the Anti-Corruption Act, Criminal Procedure Code, Evidence of Child Witness Act and Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.

It is clearly a very lame excuse. But it has not released Nazri from the onus of justifying two outrageous statements he made on Sunday:

Firstly, his ‘No Source, No Case” assertion — that if the maker or makers of the Lingam Tape “don’t co-operate, then the authenticity of the Lingam Tape cannot be determined and this will prevent the (Haider) Panel from discharging its responsibility. As such, it is important for them to reveal the source, failing which, we can only conclude that they are lying.”

Secondly, “The witness will be accorded full protection by the government… a new identity, a new location, even a new face. So what is there to be afraid of?”

Firstly, what right has he to decide how the Haider Panel Inquiry is to operate? Or has the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak passed the buck of the Haidar Panel Inquiry as too hot a potato to Nazri as the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department? Continue reading “Lingam Tape – Nazri’s lame excuse and test for Cabinet tomorrow”

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Violent repression of “saffron revolution” – an ASEAN failure and responsibility for which ASEAN nations must make amends

Foreign Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar yesterday called on the military junta in Myanmar to begin immediate talks with pre-democracy supporters led by Aung San Suu Kyi to discuss the future of Myanmar before the international community “piles on the pressure”.

While Hamid’s call is welcome, the question must be asked as to what ASEAN is doing to pressure the Myanmar military junta to conduct itself not only as a responsible member of the international community but also of ASEAN in terms of the most minimal respect for human rights and democratic freedoms for its people.

After admitting Myanmar as a member for a decade, ASEAN cannot just wash its hands of any responsibility for what had happened in Burma and just “pass the buck” to the international community to “pile up the pressure”.

Since the brutal and violent repression of the “saffron revolution” two weeks ago, ASEAN government leaders have been using stronger language than before against the Myanmar military junta, starting with the expression of “revulsion” by the ASEAN foreign ministers at the United Nations over the killings and suppression of the monks-led peaceful protests.

Just stronger language however is grossly inadequate to the brutal and bloody crackdown of the monks-led peaceful protests in Burma if it is not matched with action.

The Myanmar military junta was admitted into ASEAN ten years ago in the teeth of regional and international opposition on the ground that the ASEAN constructive engagement policy with the Myanmar military junta would pave the way for national reconciliation and democratization in Burma.

In the past ten years, the ASEAN constructive engagement policy has turned out to be a one-way unconditional engagement with the Myanmar military junta, yielding no results whatsosever. It has now been totally discredited by the violent repression of the “saffron revolution”, with troops quashing the peaceful protests with gunfire. Continue reading “Violent repression of “saffron revolution” – an ASEAN failure and responsibility for which ASEAN nations must make amends”

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K-Economy is the way to achieve a united, progressive and prosperous Malaysia

by Dr. Chen Man Hin

The world has evolved and Malaysia is now gripped by globalisation together with other countries. This is the reality

We see that the countries which are successful are the developed countries who have adopted policies which promote progress and development.

There are certain markers which define a developed country.
,
Firstly all of them practise democracy, social justice, rule of law, no racial bias, and an education based on knowledge, science and high technology.

Their economy is a K-Economy, which is open with free trade and is highly competitive.

Singapore is an example of country which has adapted to the demands of a global world. It has high standards for all the markers of a globalised country

These are the statistics of global markers for Singapore and Malaysia: Continue reading “K-Economy is the way to achieve a united, progressive and prosperous Malaysia”

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Lingam Tape – has Nazri let the cat out of the bag how to end all inquiry?

Has the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, let the cat out of the bag — that there would be no further inquiry into the Lingam Tape if its authenticity could not be fully determined with the maker of the tape showing and owning up?

New Straits Times front-page headline has put it most bluntly: “NO SOURCE, NO CASE — SAYS NAZRI”

If the whole idea is to stymie any full inquiry into the serious allegations of the Lingam Tape about the perversion of the course of justice concerning the fixing of judicial appointments and the fixing of court decisions, this is as good a stratagem as any.

Of course, even if the makers of the Lingam Tape show up, there is no guarantee that it would be followed up with a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam Tape and the rot of the judiciary in the past 19 years since 1988.

I am completely baffled by Nazri’s reference to the Witness Protection Act (Star, Sun) which he said assured protection to the person or persons who took the Lingam Tape. New Straits Times reported him as referring to the Witness Protection Bill, “tabled recently in Parliament” — which is untrue, as no such bill had been tabled in Parliament.

I had been pressing for a Whistleblowers Protection Act to give meaning to a national campaign to expose corruption, misuse of funds, government scandals, criminal breach of trust and all forms of malpractices and abuses of power but the government had been dragging its feet and there are no signs that the government is ready to present a Witness Protection Bill to Parliament. Continue reading “Lingam Tape – has Nazri let the cat out of the bag how to end all inquiry?”