Victoria Institution contoh sekolah satu aliran

Dipetik dari sini.

GAGASAN 1Malaysia tidak mungkin terlaksana tanpa penubuhan sekolah satu aliran. Bagaimana mungkin ia terjadi jika 12 tahun kanak-kanak berada di satu tempat iaitu: 1 tahun di peringkat prasekolah, 6 tahun sekolah rendah dan kemudian 5 tahun di sekolah menengah.

Bayangkanlah betapa akrabnya hubungan antara kaum jika sejak berumur 6 tahun mereka dapat bergaul mesra sehingga tingkatan 5 ketika mereka berumur 18 tahun.

Inilah ramuan atau formula paling mujarab untuk membentuk bangsa Malaysia tanpa mengira kaum dan agama.

Pemimpin-pemimpin politik yang mewakili tiga kaum terbesar di negara ini iaitu Melayu, Cina dan India mestilah jujur dan komited mahu benar-benar melahirkan bangsa Malaysia yang bersatu padu.

Janganlah hanya mementingkan kaum masing-masing tanpa mengutamakan kepentingan negara. Kita amat kecewa apabila anak-anak pergi ke sekolah yang berbeza, ibu bapa dan guru juga terpisah mengikut kaum kerana memilih sekolah yang berbeza atas kepentingan kaum masing-masing.

Sebenarnya model Sekolah Wawasan yang pernah dicadangkan oleh mantan Perdana Menteri, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad adalah model sekolah satu aliran yang paling praktikal.

Sebenarnya orang Cina dan India pun amat berminat dengan sekolah satu aliran ini tetapi para pendidik di kalangan kaum-kaum tersebut yang mempunyai sentimen perkauman yang amat menebal yang menentang idea yang baik ini.

Lihat sahaja Sekolah Victoria Institution (sekolah VI) yang merupakan contoh terbaik Sekolah Satu Aliran di negara ini.

Lihat sahaja semua ibu bapa dari kaum Melayu, Cina dan India berlumba-lumba mahu menghantar anak-anak mereka belajar di sekolah itu.

Lihat sahaja bagaimana mesranya pelajar-pelajar dari ketiga-tiga kaum bergaul mesra dan bersaing secara sihat dalam pelajaran.

Guru-guru, staf juga mempunyai komposisi ketiga-tiga kaum ini. Begitu juga dengan Persatuan Ibu Bapa dan Guru juga diwakili oleh ketiga-tiga kaum.

Lihat sahaja betapa seronoknya pelajar bergaul mesra semasa bersukan dan apa juga kokurikulum yang lain.

Sekolah VI ini juga cemerlang dalam akademik. Mengapa semua ibu bapa dari kaum Melayu, Cina dan India amat berminat dengan sekolah VI ini sedangkan ia adalah model sekolah satu aliran?

Kerajaan terutamanya Menteri Pelajaran wajar mengkaji model sekolah VI ini dan menjadikannya sebagai asas atau model untuk membentuk sekolah satu aliran di negara ini.

Setakat ini sekolah VI amat popular dan menjadi rebutan pelajar serta ibu bapa daripada semua kaum.

Mengapa sekolah VI sebagai sekolah satu aliran begitu berjaya dan dan mendapat sokongan semua kaum ?

SEKOLAH SATU ALIRAN
Kuala Lumpur

Saya bersetuju dengan pendapat dari pembaca di atas. Mengapa kita harus menidakkan para pelajar kita untuk bergaul dengan pelbagai kaum? Saya juga berpendapat, sistem sekolah satu aliran perlu diterapkan kepada lapisan sekolah rendah dahulu. Ini penting kerana di usia begitulah mereka akan lebih mudah merasa selesa dengan kawan-kawan dari pelbagai warna kulit. Contoh sekolah rendah kebangsaan yang bermutu tinggi sewaktu ketika dahulu adalah Sekolah Rendah Sultan Hishamuddin berdekatan dengan Bank Negara dan juga Sekolah Rendah St. John di Bukit Nanas.

Untuk membentuk Orang Malaysia yang cintakan negara dan rakyatnya, mereka perlulah bergaul antara satu sama lain dahulu, lebih lebih lagi dari kecil lagi.

Kita mendengar banyak keluhan dan kritikan serta cemuhan dari mereka yang menentang sekolah satu aliran di mana mutu pendidikan yang tidak bagus menyebabkan perlu wujudnya sekolah vernakular.

Ini mudah diatasi dengan membuat kajian menyeluruh terhadap sistem pelajaran kita sebagaimana yang telah dibuat lebih 50 tahun dahulu. Laporan dari penyelidik bebas mampu membuahkan cadangan-cadangan bernas yang boleh menyelesaikan masalah yang dihadapi di dalam sekolah kebangsaan rendah dan menengah.

Jika mereka mengatakan bahawa mereka perlu mengekalkan budaya kaum masing-masing, hujah ini tidak masuk akal kerana kaum-kaum mereka di negara-negara lain tidak sedikit pun belajar di sekolah-sekolah vernakular malah, ada sekolah-sekolah vernakular di negara tersebut dilarang penubuhannya. Yang ada, cuma sekolah kebangsaan di negara masing-masing. Rakyat mereka belajar mengenai satu sama lain dengan lebih dekat dengan cara begini.

Ada yang menjadi negara maju kelas pertama tanpa wujudnya sekolah vernakular di negara tersebut. Oleh itu, apa sebabnya mahu diteruskan juga sekolah vernakular di negara Malaysia ini?

Mungkin juga negara ini tidak jadi maju kerana wujudnya sekolah vernakular? Manakan tidak? Apabila para pelajar tidak dapat duduk semeja dan mengenali satu sama lain, mana mungkin mereka dapat mentadbir negara ini dengan baik apabila mereka memerintah negara ini apabila dewasa kelak? Adakah kita akan menjadi maju jika ditunggangi oleh permasalahan sebegini?

Ini akan menjadi lebih kronik di dalam masa 10 tahun akan datang apabila para pelajar sekarang menjadi pemimpin muda di dalam parti politik masing-masing.

Mereka yang ingin menegakkan sekolah vernakular hanyalah mereka yang muflis idea dan masih berfikiran di tampuk lama. Ironisnya, kebanyakkan mereka yang menyokong sekolah vernakular, tidak pernah pula belajar di sekolah tersebut. Ini terjadi kerana mereka ini penyokong tegar puak pembangkang.

Hanya kerana membenci kerajaan, mereka menentang semangat harmoni yang akan terbit dari sekolah satu aliran. Orang jenis apakah ini? Ya, orang yang tiada sifat malu dan tiada pendapat bernas untuk melahirkan Orang Malaysia yang bersatu padu dan harmonis.

Mereka hanya mahu mencipta api kebencian supaya rakan-rakan mereka dapat memegang kuasa. Barulah puas hati mereka.

Yang menjadi mangsa adalah – impian untuk melihat rakyat yang mendokong ke arah Rukunegara dan Perlembagaan Malaysia.

Adalah penting agar kajian terperinci dilakukan untuk meningkatkan mutu pembelajaran di dalam sekolah kebangsaan. Ini perlu dilakukan segera.

Akta Pendidikan 1996 juga perlu digubal secepat mungkin. Jika Menteri Dalam Negeri, Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein mampu menggubal semula akta yang penting seperti Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri, nescaya Timbalan Perdana Menteri yang juga Menteri Pelajaran Malaysia terlebih mampu untuk mengembleng tenaga menggubal Akta Pendidikan kita yang berkecamuk itu.

Jika Menteri Pelajaran malas untuk pening kepala mendokong aspirasi Orang Malaysia untuk melihat anak-anak mudanya bersekolah di dalam sistem satu aliran, maka serahkanlah jawatan tersebut kepada orang lain yang lebih kuat jatidirinya.

Masa untuk duduk bersimpuh, tertunduk malu seperti anak dara di dalam Kabinet sudah berakhir. Inilah masa untuk tunjukkan sifat kepimpinan yang sebenar! Terima kasih.

Blog aggregators

Just a simple notification.

If you’re in need of social-political blog articles, I find these two blog aggregators as the best reference points out there:

1) http://tersenarai.blogspot.com/

and

2) http://thesakmongkoljournal.blogspot.com/

The former is operated by a blogger named Kenn while the latter is operated by Dato’ Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz from the Sakmongkol AK47 fame.

I will be deleting my current blogroll and institute these two as the must visit sopo (social-political) blogsites for all readers.

Thank you.

Criminalising War

Update 28/10/2009 with pictures:

Malay Mail has more stories and pictures here.

Tan Sri Razali Ismail moderating the first session

Among of the things the Article 2 of the UN Charter mentioned are:

Article 2

The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in accordance with the following Principles.

1. The Organization is based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
2. All Members, in order to ensure to all of them the rights and benefits resulting from membership, shall fulfill in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the present Charter.
3. All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.
4. All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

_____________________________________

Original article:

How do you feel about WAR?

Is it justifiable when hundreds of thousands of innocents are killed just to satisfy a First World’s delusions? If a person is murdered by someone, it is a criminal act. But Bush and Blair’s administrations killed hundreds of thousands innocent victim during the War on Iraq in 2003 onwards.

Collateral damage?

Are we just going to stand still and wait for another war to happen?

These are some of the questions that will be asked in the War Criminal Conference and Exhibition held by Perdana Global Peace Organisation this coming Wednesday, 28th October 2009 till Saturday, 31st October 2009 in PWTC, Kuala Lumpur.

Check out this website.

Admission is free. Do come.

I will be there.

Liverpool’s latest revelation

Liverpool FC’s latest revelation is not in the form of a young prodigy unearthed from their academy like we have seen decades ago with the likes of Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard or Robbie Fowler. Nor would it be a bargain purchase of a remarkable player which became a talismanic name like Kevin Keegan, Alan Hansen or Sami Hyypia.

No, Liverpool’s latest revelation is -  it has no ambition.

“Liverpool never aspired to win trophies. They have no ambition whatsoever.”

It has no ambition to win the league. It has no ambition even to build a bigger stadium.

Liverpool the football team in itself, is sadistic in nature. It loves to inflict pain on to itself.

In an after-match interview yesterday, Rafael Benitez admitted -

Liverpool have staged miracle survivals in the group stages of Europe before – and will need another one now.

Benitez recalled: “We have come back before – and we can do it again. We now must be ready for the next match. I have confidence that we have the quality to overcome these problems.

Why on earth would you want to make life difficult for yourselves? Four defeats in a row is not the mark of a football giant. The problem with Liverpool lies with it’s sense of harping too much on its own historical success.

They are too overconfident. And they do it overtly. They brag about strengthening the team when in actual fact, it  has the tradition of disintegrating a successful line-up everytime they come near to win the league.

Take for instance, the treble winning year of 2001. They had a successful run in to win 5 cups (League Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Cup, Charity Shield and European Super Cup), but failed tremendously in the succeeding years. They even came 2nd behind Arsenal.

But whatever they did next defies logic. Usually, whenever we want to beat our competitors, we would strengthen our team by adding a couple more big names without losing the current squad.

But Liverpool doesn’t seem to get this. They thought, strengthening a squad means, REPLACING a player, not adding a player.

Just look at Manchester United. When Cristiano Ronaldo left, they filled his position not only by buying Antonio Valencia, they also bought Gabriel Obertan as back-up. Michael Owen also joined in as an added measure to increase firepower. One player leave, add two or three more. This is how we say ’strengthening the squad’. It’s a matter of simple physics.

In Liverpool’s case, after the success in Europe and the league in 2001, they ’strengthened’ the team by letting go the able Jari Litmanen, club captain Jamie Redknapp and Nicolas Anelka. And how did they strengthen the team? By acquiring El Hadj Diouf and Bruno Cheyrou.

In 2005, after we won the Champions League, we ditched Vladimir Smicer and Dietmar Hamann just to get Momo Sissoko!

4 of the 5 European Cup trophies

Acquiring lesser number of players is not what we call strengthening the team. What more, the players that you bought are mediocre at best. But this is what Liverpool seems to do every year. When success is within the grasp, they made a backward step the next season thinking that this is the best way to win trophies.

Xabi Alonso, one of the best passer of the ball was sold to Real Madrid last summer. In his place, Liverpool bought Alberto Aquilani – a midfielder of unknown quality. Granted, he has yet to prove his potential. But replacing Alonso with just ONE player is not the way to beat your competitors.

Acquiring just Glen Johnson also proves to be a costly mistake. Especially after we lost Steve Finnan and Alvaro Arbeloa. Both are good right defenders. When Johnson was injured before the game against Lyon last night, the overconfident Benitez had to field a youngster by the name Martin Kelly!

Since when Liverpool had to scrape the barrel just to field an inexperienced youngster in an important European Championship game? Oh right, when they sold their dignity to a couple of American new owners.

A strong team needs to have a magnificent reserves bench.

Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Javier Mascherano want to play with the best there is. One look at the teamsheet for the past 3 games, one wonder whether Liverpool is really a conquering European giant.

Without those three, Liverpool is just an average team. A back-up for Torres is Andriy Voronin and David Ngog? You got to be kidding me. A back-up for Aquilani is Lucas Leiva? Who is this guy? A lightweight when compared to Alonso. Liverpool had the chance to get Owen for free but egomaniacs within the management had made the transfer impossible.

The team that we see now is the product of a self delusional management. Liverpool is now languishing 8th in the premiership and yet they still want to muster a feeble attempt to stay relevant. Wishing against hope that they could win against Manchester United this weekend. Benitez had the audacity to say that SHOULD they win this upcoming game, they will only be 4 points apart from the league leader.

Even if they could win, Liverpool will never win the league because the team’s lack of depth will continuously haunt them throughout the season. And a loss would definitely make Benitez  living in a borrowed time.

The plan for a new stadium was hatched to ignite and propel Liverpool into the realms of Santiago Bernabeu and Old Trafford. But what kind of owners this club has when new loans acquired to build the stadium is being used to finance business deals in America instead? In the end, not a brick has been laid out and yet the loan has to be serviced.

Sadistic people have short life spans.

Luck has always favoured Liverpool FC. I can testify to this. But with this kind of mentality the management has, the Lady Luck will not smile on you this time.

Bill Shankly is not amused

Happy Deepavali to all!

Another year has gone by and we at Jebat Must Die at wordpress dot com would like to wish everyone who had graced this blog, a very HAPPY DEEPAVALI tomorrow. Have a blessed weekend with your loved ones! Thank you.

BOC – Disloyalty has its price

Recently there was a story splashed over the mainstream media about the plight of ex Malaysians unable to get citizenship as a British citizen due to a faux pas in the UK immigration law and also the misrepresentation of an obscure clause in the old colonial law which stated that those who were born in Melaka and Pulau Pinang before 1983 are given the status of British Overseas Citizens.

There was a confusion there. A British Overseas Citizen (BOC) is not equivalent to a British Citizen. A  BOC do not have the right to live in the UK. Perhaps, those fools who tore up their Malaysian passports thought that it would be better off being a British citizen than being a Malaysian based purely on the fact that they thought it would be better living with their former colonial masters.

But first off, I need to alert Utusan Malaysia on their recent headline which I feel is totally wrong:

What! Utusan calling these unpatriotic souls as our 'warga'?!

Let me be clear on this one.

Those who gave up their Malaysian citizenship, is no longer fit to be called Malaysians.

It is a definitive act of unpatriotism. You do not get along with the majority of the people here. Maybe because you do not know how to integrate. You resent the fate that befalls you. You loathe the country because of it hence, you do not love this country. That is why you disown it from your heart.

You  then swore your allegiance and loyalty to another country. This NegaraKu is no longer your Negara. How much clearer you want it to be? Certainly, those who ‘tore up their passports and set off for Britain in the belief they could claim citizenship‘ in the UK are no longer Malaysians. So, why is Utusan calling them as our citizens?

Coming back to the issue at hand, any attempt to facilitate the return of these ungrateful lot into THIS COUNTRY should be stopped. Anifah Aman, in his capacity as the Foreign Minister had erred in his opinion that this lot are not unpatriotic.

Why do we want to welcome them back with open arms?

They even bad mouthed Malaysia by stating to a foreign news wire that ‘Ethnic Chinese in the two regions that were part of a British colony in the former Malaya, wary of discrimination under an independent nation dominated by Muslim Malays, had sought assurances they could resort to residing in Britain.’

Here we go again.. more Malay bashing by these former Malaysian chinese in a foreign media.

I guess all their well to do cousins who are still residing here should just pack their bags too then. Maybe they can follow your footsteps and work in restaurants all over the UK as well.

Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein said that:

“people who had renounced their Malaysian citizenship would be treated the same way as any foreigner when they applied for it.

And it could be even harder as their applications would cast doubts on their intentions and loyalty to the country, he added.

Hishammuddin said it was sad that there were people who renounced their citizenship without understanding the severity of their action.

“When they realise that the situation in the other country was not what they had hoped for, it is not easy to reverse their decision. I hope that people can take this as a lesson.”

When Hishamuddin was the Education Minister, I found him very meek in facing certain issues. But here he had made the right statements. It is the government’s job to ensure the security aspects of the nation. We can’t simply give away our citizenship to any Tom, Dick and Harry especially when this Tom, Dick and Harry found this country not good enough for them in the first place.

People must not treat citizenship in vain. It is not as a TESCO card where they give it away at the counter.

Therefore I found it quite odd for a member of a Bar Council – Edmund Bon to arrogate himself as the security expert when urging the government to take back these stateless people.

He stated:

if the British government did not want to take them, then the best solution would be for the Malaysian government to give them back their citizenship.

“If they are willing to apply for Malaysian citizenship and can prove that they were born here and were Malaysian citizens before, then the government should take them back.”

We should just take them back???

Whoa! Wait a minute. Why should we bear the responsibilities of a mess created by the British? The less unpatriotic people we have in this country, the better.

Edmund Yeo, a Malaysian citizen who is an elected councillor in Ealing, West London, says that only the British government can now resolve the dilemma.

“The British government gave them that right, they were born and you called them BOC in Malaysia… and now you want to remove yourself from this problem, that’s not right,” he told AFP in his office near London’s Chinatown.

Ben Scaro, an Australian lawyer who advocates their cause, says the situation became messier as cases were left unresolved for years, and letters sent in 2005 told applicants they could not proceed unless they showed they had lost Malaysian citizenship.

As a result, a large number of BOCs including Dee renounced their Malaysian citizenship — a process that is extremely difficult to reverse.

“The British Home Office effectively orchestrated the BOCs’ statelessness,” Scaro said.

There you have it.

Malik Imtiaz concluded his assessment over these stateless ‘Malaysians’ (stateless people should be the correct noun) when he said:

“If a Malaysian has gone through the renunciation process and followed the procedure, then the person is no longer a Malaysian citizen,” prominent lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar told AFP in Kuala Lumpur.

“Of course, Malaysia would not allow the citizen to renounce its citizenship without having another citizenship but as far as the government is concerned the British Overseas Citizenship, as its name implies, is another citizenship.

Being a part of a country is a big thing. Malaysia is your home and you should do all that is necessary, as guided by the Constitution, to make it your home.

Immigration director-general Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman, had made a profound statement which all Malaysians should adhere to -

“Think through before concluding that the grass is greener on the other side, because once you want out, you stay out“.

Being disloyal to your own country has its price. Please do not take that road.

But, if you really want to renounce your citizenship, then of course, I feel that the government should just let you go. The less unpatriotic people we have, the better remember? In fact, to facilitate your departure, a friend had proposed a “Reverse Patriotism Act”. Please do not be alarmed. It was made in jest.

If you do not know the ways on how to become a Malaysian, or you forgot the path every Malaysian decided to make  at the birth of our nation, Demi Negara wrote an interesting article on what it takes to be one. You can read it here.

Food for thought on elections

After reading my good friend’s A. M. Ubaidah’s comment in my previous article, I had some sort of an epiphany.

What I am writing below may not be my definite way of thinking but I pose this dilemma for the readers to chew upon.

Voters can be quite finicky with their choice of wakil rakyat in a by-election. Either they will vote for you. Or, they won’t. Chances are, their minds have been made up long before the voting day.

Some will vote a candidate because of the party the candidate represents. Some will vote due to the sheer charisma of the candidate. Some will vote because they hate the other candidate or the party that particular candidate represents.

Nevertheless, all can agree that voters’ choice is the most democratic outcome of getting their representative to the state assembly.

Suara rakyat, suara keramat. Agree?

Whoever the candidate is, his or her credentials will be solidified due to the fact that he is appointed and voted in by the rakyat to be their representative.

Hence, as I see it presently, whatever the background of the candidate, it will not matter to these voters. That is why, we see people like Loh Gwo Burne, Anwar Ibrahim and Nazri Aziz get voted in by their constituents.

One is a do-nothing, the other was a convict for abuse of power, the other one is… oh well, you can just see for yourself. Nevertheless, the fact is, people still voted them in. We have many other instances of lowly qualified characters being voted in by the people.

If suara rakyat is suara keramat, then who are we to question the credibility of the wakil rakyats?

Therefore, if Isa Samad is nominated by BN, and if he wins the by-election, then who are we to ridicule Umno and BN for fielding a tainted candidate?

The winner is the voters’ choice. Why would some people want to disparage whatever the people have chosen? Afterall, the people are actually the common folk like you and me. The rakyat. The one with the suara keramat.

Think about it.

Thank you.

Road fatalities – Do we even care about our loved ones?

Update 28th September 2009:

261 Fatalities Recorded Throughout Ops Sikap

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 (Bernama) — Ops Sikap that was launched on Sept 13 and which ended yesterday, saw 261 fatalities recorded throughout the period.

According to a statement from Supt Rasdi Ramli from the Bukit Aman public relations department, there were 23 fatalities yesterday from the 931 accidents reported.

From the total, motorcyclists accounted for 12 of the 23 deaths while car accidents claimed eight while another three were pedestrians.

Municipal roads once again registered the highest number of accidents yesterday with 388 cases followed by Federal roads (284), state roads (152), highways (68) and other roads (39).

Police had also issued 9,826 summonses yesterday.

– BERNAMA

Apparently, we Malaysians do not cherish our own lives nor the livelihood of our loved ones. The total fatalities this year is so much higher than previous years. Exactly one month ago, I posted the Malaysian Unite For Road Safety campaign to instill awareness on road safety. Malaysians need to take the initiative and drive safely on the road from now on. Has it fell on deaf ears?

Nevertheless, I wish the best for the families of the deceased and hopefully they will persevere with the fate that had befallen them. Thank you.

Original article (28 August 2009):

Malaysian Unite For Road Safety.

This is the name of the campaign that will be launched on 9th September 2009. I believe the date 090909 is very appropriate because the number 999 symbolises number you call in an emergency.

Since Malaysia has one of the highest road fatalities in the world, this indeed, is a national emergency situation. With an average 18 people died on the roads every day, it is about time a bottom up approach like this is started. No longer can we just rely on top down approach where the government would try to cultivate good driving values through demerit points, summonses, advertising billboards etc.

In this campaign, the public themselves will give pledges to uphold road safety during the course of their journey. With the festive season just around the corner, I think the public should raise their hands and pledge now to uphold good driving behaviours.

This campaign aims to achieve 250,000 pledges so if you would like to make a pledge and support this campaign, please visit their website at www.090909.org.my.

As someone who had lost a few dear friends due to road accidents, I am supporting this campaign wholeheartedly.  I have raised my hand and made a pledge that I, among other things will not text message while driving. I am the biggest culprit in that really.

So please join other Malaysians and support this campaign. We want to save lives, and it should begin with us. Thank you.

Redemption in Bagan Pinang

On the 23rd September 2009, I tweeted that Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad should announce his willingness not to contest in the Bagan Pinang by election. This would see to it that his magnanimity ultimately defines the man. By taking the initiative and volunteering himself out of the candidacy, he will portray himself as an Umno leader not so hard-up with power; a trait which many perceive as extinct in the recent years.

As the top man in Telok Kemang division, he must lead by example and be cognisant of his colourful yet tainted past. He was found guilty of money politics and was suspended from being an Umno member for 3 years.Yes sure, he had done his time. He had lost his vice-presidency. He lost the incumbency of being the head honcho in Negeri Sembilan. His reputation suffered. He lost friends, etcetera… etcetera.

Now he feels that this by election will be the vehicle for his comeback. Many think that should he win this by-election (and there is indeed a strong undercurrent that BN can win this particular one), it will be some sort of a redemption for this feisty man who had been the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan for 22 years (1982 to 2004).

If he is aware of all the baggage that comes with his track records, he would intelligently opt for the aforementioned strategy. He should even announce that he will work tirelessly to ensure that whoever is the candidate of this by-election would win it handsomely.

But this is not to be.

Apparently, the Telok Kemang Umno Wanita Chief and the Division leader of Seremban chipped in their views and supported Isa Samad’s candidacy.

It seems that all of his followers want him to contest in this by-election. They don’t seem to get it. On the very same day, the Telok Kemang Youth Head even said:

“I don’t see how Isa’s record can be a liability to Umno and the Barisan Nasional (BN) in the Bagan Pinang by-election”.

Isa Samad will be a liability for BN because even IF he wins Bagan Pinang, it will be a pyrrhic victory due to the fact that BN nationwide has to contend with several allegations:

1) Umno still have to rely on a tainted leader,

2) Talent pool in Umno is non-existent,

3) Umno is not serious in purging bad apples, and

4) Umno has not changed its ways.

And who will take the most hit? Indeed, your very own Umno President.

Yes, no doubt that Isa Samad has contributed a lot to the development of Negeri Sembilan. Nobody can deny this. Negeri Sembilan was one of the fastest growing state back in the 90’s. Of course, many people can see that Isa Samad is one of the most faithful member in Umno where eventhough after he was caught and suspended, he is still loyal to the party. Even when BN was bashed left, right and centre, he remains a loyalist.

Unlike some who quickly headed towards the exit door to comfortably sleep with the enemy as soon as things did not go their way, Isa Samad’s attitude should be made an example to all BN members.

Too bad he chose not to pursue the logical next course of action, which is to publicly abstain himself from being nominated. As  Tun Dr Mahathir said it last weekend:

“Isa would endear himself to all”.

Not just to the people in Bagan Pinang, but all over the country. So forget what the Youth Head was talking. Forget what the Wanita Chief had said.

They must listen to the views of the common people.

One regular commentator by the name Shah had this to say regarding this issue:

Again not sure where to place my disgust. Just a short note on the Bagan Pinang by-elections. With members insisting on nominating Isa Samad and Isa Samad (Ex MB AND Minister) shamelessly agreeing, I have nothing much to say except that these are such people that brings the downfall of UMNO and BN. After all that have happened, after all that has been said they remain clueless. Continuing to show their arrogance and complete disregard for the people.

Unless a miracle happen and that the leadership being sensitive to the people do not agree to nominating Isa Samad (which will result in the members that want Isa to probably sabotage the by-elections) it will be RIP UMNO and BN.

If it is another repeat of the Permatang Pasir fiasco I am aghast and …………. (speechless)……………

Ironically, Isa Samad has the support from one person who had shamelessly sleeping with the enemy. Zaid Ibrahim in his blog article, literally gave his support for Isa Samad to contest!

Zaid who is now representing a party which is against all the alleged corrupt practices in Umno had actually given his unequivocal support for Isa despite the latter’s tainted past.

I guess birds of a feather flock together.

Zaid made fun of certain factions in Umno who are trying to tell the leadership not to nominate Isa Samad as the candidate and instead, he is asking the Umno leadership to respect the wishes of the voters in Bagan Pinang.

He set aside all the money politics in Umno and brushed it off as a non issue. Of course, being one who was suspended by Umno for money politics as well, Zaid has no qualms in seeing Isa Samad constesting in this by-election. Is he preparing the justification of his own candidacy in the next general election too?

How hypocritical for him to chide Umno for money politics but at the same time, trying to absolve Isa Samad for the same offence.

When there are Umno members desperately trying hard to cleanse Umno from corruptive elements, here we have a member of the opposition whitewashing an Umno leader of money politics. No wonder the opposition finds it hard to identify the best candidate for the role of their Prime Minister.

Now, how could BN win Bagan Pinang?

If Isa Samad wants to find redemption, he should throw his support behind the candidate that he had helped to identify in order to gain maximum firepower.

As the divisional leader of Telok Kemang, it is incumbent upon him to ensure the victory of Bagan Pinang by-election no matter who the candidate is. If he is as strong as his supporters had said, if he has the support of the people in Bagan Pinang, then it should be no problem for him to help attain this victory.

It is his KPI as the Ketua Bahagian Umno Telok Kemang to deliver the victory. If he is not the candidate, and BN could still win this, then Umno and BN in its entirety can say that regardless who the candidate is, BN still have the support from the people. The Permatang Pasir debacle involving Rohaizat Othman can be construed as the failure of the candidate; not the party.

Umno should realise that it can get stronger if they make this simple analysis:

Could BN win the Permatang Pasir by-election even if it was not Rohaizat being the contestant? Why not?

If it still no, then no matter who the candidate for several by elections to come, BN can never win anything.

Remember, Isa Samad can only get his redemption if he helps in winning the Bagan Pinang by-election; not as a candidate, but as the force behind it. He can be the bigger man in this, or he can be small by balking and sabotaging the by-election should he not be selected as the candidate.

The choice is his and the Umno members in Telok Kemang.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2009

Puisi Aidilfitri

Ranjau yang panjang menggamit datang ku kembali
Berulang kembali saat kita nanti
Pertemuan yang mengeratkan silaturrahim
Tuluskanlah damai cinta pun bersemi

Ku hulurkan tangan padamu semeriah hari raya
Di hari raya kita dipertemukan

Aidilfitri mengulangkan kejayaanmu
Menjulang bangsaku teguh dan berdiri
Budi dan jasamu tak mungkin dapat ku membalas
Tunggu akhir hayat kau tetap ku kenang

Sepanjang perjalananku engkau setia meneman
Rasanya tidak akanku tinggalkan lagi

Semalam sudah pun kita rasa berjauhan
Rindu dan dendam memuncak dah lama
Terhurai jernih airmata sedih mengalir
Mengenang mereka yang dahulu pergi

- Wings

Yeah, I know it’s corny using Wings’ song as my Aidilfitri’s message but  Wings do have really poetic and melancholic lyrics in most of their songs.
Anyway, without further ado, I would like to wish everyone Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri and maaf zahir & batin.  Seperti mana di tahun lepas,

sekali lagi saya menyusun sepuluh jari memohon maaf atas keterlanjuran kata dan perbuatan, yang menyinggung perasaan para pembaca Jebat Must Die dan atas segala kesilapan saya yang telah berlaku disepanjang ‘perkenalan’ kita selama ini.

Sekian, terima kasih

Ikhlas dari,

JMD sekeluarga.

Behind the formation of Malaysia

I thought my previous article was clear enough on the importance of 31st August as the date where Malaysia achieved it’s independence.

It is important not only as a platform to unite the various people in Malaysia but also as the focal point of our own spirit of patriotism. In other words, the seeds of patriotism should be conceived from one exact date of our independence.

But some felt otherwise and opined that Malaysia should only be recognised from 1963, not 1957. In that sense, whatever country we had in those early 6 years was irrelevant. Is this reasonable? Yes, you can celebrate 16th September but why must you ridicule 31st August?

Some argued that Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak should owe no gratitude at all to Malaya (at that time). They reasoned that they were already an independent state and that this country was established solely due to their own freewill when they joined to form Malaysia. But the fact of the matter is, Singapore, Sabah and Sarawak couldn’t even achieve independence without the help of the Federal Government of Malaya especially through the main driving force behind its formation – Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Please read Tunku’s own writings below on the background story behind the formation of Malaysia. Maybe then people will understand the value of 31st August 1957 over this entire region.

Taken from his book ‘Political Awakening’, I hope people will be awakened to the fact that petty arguments over which date is more important could never replace the insurmountable force of a united country and its unified people.

Chapter 14

THE BIRTH OF MALAYSIA

The year 1959 was one of the most successful and delightful years in the history of Malaya. Everything seemed to go well for the nation. So well it was that I as a leader of the party and the Government had a foreboding that something might go wrong because the year was much too good to be true. I declared myself ‘the happiest Prime Minister in the world’. Money poured into the country, business boomed, new industries grew up, and there was complete peace and harmony in the country.

And curiously enough it was a year which we could say was almost free of serious crimes, our fame spread abroad, and we made many new friends, and enhanced our reputation, so much so that the people in our neighboring States of Singapore, Sabah, Sarawak and Brunei made contacts with us with the request to join the Federation of Malaya. After all, according to them, the administration of all these States was run by the same British administration. Therefore it was easy, and only natural for these States to merge with Malaya.

On May 27, 1961, I was invited by the Foreign Press Association to a lunch in Singapore, and in the course of my speech I mentioned the need for the merger of these States – Singapore, Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei – with Malaya, little thinking that what I had to say would be given worldwide publicity. On June 3, 1961, the Prime Minister of Singapore, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, made a speech in support of my proposal to form the new State which would include Singapore, the Borneo States and Brunei.

In October 1961, the Malayan Parliament supported unanimously my proposal to form Malaysia. Umno at its meeting on November 4, 1961 in Kuala Lumpur agreed with the formation of the new State of Malaysia (Melayu Raya). This led me to London where I had a profitable discussion with the British Prime Minister who declared his support for the formation of Malaysia.

He suggested, however, that before we could make an official decision we had to ascertain the views of the people living in these territories of Singapore, Sarawak, North Borneo and Brunei. A commission would be appointed by both governments to ascertain the views of the people. Britain should be allowed to continue to maintain its defense base in Singapore.

As a step towards a merger, Sabah formed Usno (United Sabah National Organisation) under the leadership of Tun Datu Mustapha Datu Harun. Usno represented the people of all races and tribes living in Sabah. The Sultan of Brunei, Sir Omar Saifuddin, came to Kuala Lumpur to tell me how pleased he was that Malaysia was to be formed, and I could expect Brunei to be the first to join in. Me Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore was all the time behind this move because Britain would not give Singapore freedom except with Malaysia. Sarawak on the whole was most enthusiastic., but the people had internal problems. There were many communists in Sarawak, and there were some members in the Chinese community who preferred to remain under British rule. But it was agreed that we should not rush inot this new Malaysia concept without having first a referendum to ascertain the views of all the people.

In July, 1961 the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association held a meeting in Singapore to discuss the formation of Malaysia. At this meeting Sabah and Sarawak proposed that a solidarity consultative committee be formed immediately to discuss Malaysia. Prominent members of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association consisting of the representatives of all the States of Malaya, the Borneo States, Singapore and Brunei were appointed.

This committee would take into account of every point raised at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and would make sure that the Malaysia plan which had risen so suddenly would not go wrong. This committee met four times in Jesselton, Kuching, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. At all these meetings the committee submitted their report on the progress of the Malaysia plan from the respective States. In general all the States supported Malaysia, and proposed that the need for the formation of Malaysia and their support should be widely publicized.

A memorandum was put up in Singapore on February 3, 1962 signed by the chairman of this committee, (Tun) Ahmad Fuad (Donald Stephens). Brunei was represented by Datuk Setia Pengiran Ali as observer. The Sabah representative was (Tun) O.K.K. Datu Mustapha Datu Harun; Sarawak: Teo Cheng Hoe; the Federation of Malaya: Khir Johari; and Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew.

On January 16, 1962 the British and the Malayan Governments agreed to appoint a commission headed by Lord Cobbold to investigate the wishes of the people of Sabah and Sarawak, and prepare the constitution of Malaysia. The two States promptly issued a white paper for the benefit of the Cobold Commission so that it would understand beforehand the feeling of the people of these two States with regard to Malaysia.

The Cobold Commission took two months to carry out their work, and they received many thousands of letters from associations, from tribes, from individuals and political parties, from workers’ unions, religious organizations, and members of councils/assemblies. Everybody who wished to offer their opinion either for or against Malaysia, was invited to send in their letters to this Cobold Commission. In June 1962 the commission submitted their report, favouring Malaysia. As a result of the unanimous support, a delegation of representatives from the States of Singapore, Sarawak and British North Borneo were invited to meet the British Government’s representative, at a conference with Lord Landowne, the Minister for the Colonies, as the chairman, and Tun Abdul Razak as a deputy.

Independence Day and Malaysia Day

In 2008, Najib Tun Razak said this:

NAJIB: Gov’t does not agree to Sept 16 being made public holiday

The federal government is not agreeable to the suggestion by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim that Sept 16 be made a public holiday in the five states under Pakatan Rakyat.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said there should only be one National Day for the country.

“We have chosen the date as our independence day. Having another date will give rise to all kinds of interpretation, polemic and this is not healthy to national integration.

“This is our stand; we give importance to unity and national integration,” he told reporters after launching the Chery multi-purpose vehicle here today.

Malaysia celebrates its National Day on Aug 31 every year.

Anwar had suggested that Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor and Kelantan — all of which are under Pakatan Rakyat — declare Sept 16 each year as a public holiday to commemorate the formation of Malaysia.

Penang and Kelantan had accepted the proposal while the three other states were still considering it.

Another year has gone by and we Malaysians are still stuck in this polemic of which date is more important to us. Let me put things into perspective.

The US, a country where Anwar is closely affiliated to, had made 4th of July every year to unite the people in celebrating its independence. Many did not know that on the 4th of July 1796, only 13 states of the former American colony gained independence.

The last state, Hawaii, became the 50th state in the US after it joined them on 21st August, 1959.

But did they celebrate their independence day on 21st August every year? No. If they did, that means, the US is only 50 years old. Even younger than Malaysia.

Some say it is more appropriate to put more importance to 16th September as it is more relevant to the nation’s formation as a whole. I tend to disagree.

Independence day is to commemorate the day all of us achieved freedom from our colonial masters. And it is not only the feeling of freedom from the British rule. It also encompassed the sense of liberation from all the centuries of being ruled under the Portuguese and the Dutch as well.

Finally, on that day, we could chart our own future, instead of being told what to do from the powers in Lisbon, Amsterdam and finally, in London. If not for the endless sacrifices made by the people who fought for our freedom, our independence might come much, much later. Perhaps in 1984, like Brunei’s.

You can also ask any Americans why they lay greater importance to 4th of July instead of 21st August and the answer would be along the line of the things I stated above.

To lay greater importance to 16th September over 31st August would greatly diminish the value of work, time and struggle that our forefathers had invested in.

Does Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat prepare to lose that? Is he willing to steal the original independence day from the country?

To make matters worse, they had cleverly disguised this into 1Malaysia concept. Truth be told, integration can only be felt when there is ONE interpretation of what and when is our Independence Day.

This act of thievery which is aimed only to increase confusion and friction among the people towards their own history.

And please bear in mind (and this is super important), without 31st August 1957, there can never be 16th September 1963. Without the grueling hardship and sacrifices of the people in the past to ensure  independence in 1957, there can never be Malaysia as it was in 1963. This is the lesson that needs to be told to the younger generation. A lesson which the despicable opposition and all its portals like Malaysian Insider, Malaysian Today and MalaysiaKini trying hard not to extol to our younger generation.

To them, whatever the forefathers had achieved back then should just be thrown to the dustbin.

We can go to any pro opposition blogs and see the stark difference in how they wish their 31st August. Most of them chose to write condescending articles and criticism about the fate of Malaysia on its 52nd birthday. Can you find any of the pro opposition blogs with articles that have anything good to say about Malaysia on that day? Besides the usual government bashing and how shitty the conditions of their livelihood were, is there anything patriotic we can take away from? Do you love your country more after reading their articles? Or do you resent your country even more? Is the correct patriotic attitude being promoted by those blogs?

I have no qualms if people want to celebrate 16th September as Malaysia Day but to  make it  even grander than 31st August or to disown 31st August completely and make it an orphan is simply an act of treason in my books. Please look at how the US citizens celebrate their Independence Day. They are united in their pride for the country regardless how despicable they find their leaders.

Hawaians, Californians, Texans, New Yorkers etc all see 4th of July as the birth of their country. 50 states come together to celebrate ONE DATE as the uniting factor in the spirit of their patriotism. We only have 13 states and still being thrown into disunity just because a few opposition leaders want to gain some political mileage?

The opposition needs to be responsible in what they are promoting. You will reap what you sow in the future and it may not be to your liking.

The Government’s performance review – reminder

This is just a gentle reminder that in approximately 3 weeks time, the government is up for its 6 months review. On 9th October 2009, Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak’s ministerial cabinet will be 6 months old.

The Cabinet line-up was given much hype back in April this year as it was the first test of Najib’s mettle as the newly minted 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The Cabinet promises much hope that things will be better this time around. One of the biggest announcement accompanying the announcement of his new Cabinet is the introduction of KPIs.

He stated that “he would be personally involved in assessing the performance of all his ministers every six months”.

We sure would like to know how he assess his ministers objectively come this 9th October and also the results of their report cards.

Hopefully all bloggers can help him in assessing his ministers by then.

And since Datin Sri Rosmah is seen as part of the team, we should evaluate her performance for the past 6 months too (I believe this could be a surprise package – as she is the only one who is seen to have done some extra mileage for the people).

On that note, can’t wait for October to come. I am sure there will be a lot of interesting read for this one.

To all Ministers, sorry to rain on the Aidilfitri parade ya.

Sleep well.

Ekuinas’ role in Najib’s politics

Last July, the setting up of Ekuinas was announced by the Prime Minister, Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak. Last week, the top management of Ekuinas finally announced their arrival to the scene.

In July, I wrote an article asking 5 relevant questions:

1. Since Ekuinas will not be audited by the Big 4 firms and its books will not be opened to public, who will given the task to manage the monies in Ekuinas?

2. What are the operating agreements or the management agreements between the parties involve in the overall management of the fund? And how much are the commissions and the management fees?

3. Who are the consultants employed for the incorporation of Ekuinas?

4. Who will be the members in its Investment Committee Board?

5. Will EPF/Petronas money be used to finance Ekuinas?

All these questions derived from the hope of not wanting to see another blunder. We do not want to see a case where even a RM2 company can get huge chunk of investment which in the end is just another facade for money laundering by cronies. As the consequence, the objective of achieving an increase in bumi equity will fail yet again.

Last weekend, the Chairman and the CEO of Ekuinas gave a few glimpses on how Ekuinas will operate. In case anyone forgets, the real reason for its existence is ‘to boost Bumiputera participation in the economy’.

This is in line with the massive economic reforms and the FIC deregulation which had canceled out the 30% equity requirement of Bumiputera shares in any new listing.

Interesting to note that Najib had swiftly repealed this old economic mechanism with immediate effect. With only 18% bumiputera equity holding, I wonder whether this equity percentage could stay put at 18% without any intervention from the revamped FIC for the past 70 days.

As Ekuinas will only make its first investment in 6 months, I believe the Bumiputera equity holding will further decrease within this 250 day-period of ‘doing absolutely nothing’.

Now, the objective of Ekuinas is to boost the participation of Bumiputera in the economy by investing in Bumiputera companies with high growth potential. As the government saw that the Bumiputera equity owners often cashed out their shares as soon as they received them, then this method (giving pink forms etc) of achieving a respectable Bumiputera national equity holding may not be feasible anymore.

I totally agree.

But can Ekuinas successfully replace this micro level mechanism with a macro level approach instead? Can Ekuinas increase the participation of Bumiputera well above this 18% barrier? Can they push it up to 30% and beyond?

Since any new listings no longer required to have 30% bumiputera equity requirement, and the fact that the new SC  public spread requirement in IPOs will further decrease the bumiputera holding from 25% to 12.5%, Ekuinas will have to shoulder much burden with regards to increasing the Bumiputera equity holding.

Reading Najib’s proclamation of economic reforms, there was no other mechanism besides Ekuinas that could compensate the sudden loss of opportunities for the Bumiputeras. When previous mechanism of wealth generation was abused by a few, it seems that the fate of many will now suffer as the consequence. Everything that the Prime Minister announced at that time was to the immediate detriment of Bumiputera asset ownership. Read this again please.

Yes, we all know that he wanted more Bumiputeras with quality than just quantity. But is Ekuinas the only solution? With the MECD abolished and most of the agencies under it were either absorbed or transferred to other ministries, one could not help but wonder whether there were any wisdom put to it.

The MECD was a one stop centre for all business issues involving and affecting the Bumiputeras. When all of its agencies were absorbed to 8 other ministries, how efficient would each of those director generals in supervising the achievements of the bumiputeras in order to create an overall Bumiputera Commercial and Industrial Community (“BCIC”)?

To me, it would make more sense to have one ministry to concentrate in the grand objective of creating the BCIC (in Malay, it is called Masyarakat Perdagangan dan Perindustrian Bumiputera).

MITI for instance has a more global outlook with regards to the Malaysian economy. Can the minister and his officials in charge be able to focus in a more localised issue that plagues these ex-MECD agencies?

Can Sabri Ismail of the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry be tasked to add franchise development and promotion and vendor development programme into his portfolio as well as taking charge of cooperative development, the Cooperatives Commission of Malaysia and also the Cooperative College of Malaysia?

All the agencies above are vital components in developing the BCIC. Yet he already seems to have his hands full just to counter any consumer products’ price hike.

Raja Tan Sri Arshad Raja Tun Uda (left) and Abdul Rahman Ahmad

I am not criticising Ekuinas for its role in creating quality wealth among Bumiputeras. I believe, it is in good hands especially since the Chairman and its CEO have enough credibility to make it an effective GLC.

I am only criticising the lack of serious effort in compensating/replacing the cancellation of several mechanisms that had relatively proven to be successful, with nothing more than a GLC which will increase only a fraction of the economic wealth of the Bumiputeras.

They are already losing ground and yet the government seemed to be heavy-footed with its proactive actions. The cost of losing 250 days by doing nothing could never be easily gotten back.

That is why, if we look at the current situation, Ekuinas has the unenviable job of trying to increase the wealth of the Bumiputeras to a better level than the 18% we have now. How long will we eventually see the success of Ekuinas? Two years? Five years? Ten years?

How long is the contract of its CEO? Is Ekuinas going to increase the Bumiputera equity holding to 30% before 2013? Is this its KPI?

Ekuinas’ Chairman even said that “through Ekuinas, Bumiputera corporate equity ownership will be institutionalised to ensure New Economic Policy objectives are met on a sustainable basis”.

How can Ekuinas ensure that the NEP’s objectives of eradicating poverty and restructuring the society so that racial identification through economic activities is eliminated, will be met? I don’t think Ekuinas’ roles and responsibilities encompass such huge parameters. Not many Bumiputeras are involved in unlisted companies in the first place.

Another important question is, will Najib still be the Prime Minister in 5 years time?

Naturally, the next Prime Minister may want to discontinue Ekuinas altogether. After the FIC has been repealed and  potentially Ekuinas be thrown to the abyss, what is in store for the BCIC next?

Discarding a few mechanisms and then putting all your eggs into one small basket like Ekuinas without thinking about other prevailing risks is suicidal.

Hence, when Ekuinas is pressured to do something that is beyond its reach and scope, transparency and corporate governance issue kicks in. And the 5 questions at the start of this article may be relevant still.

Especially when we were told that its Investment Committee Board will look at each investment in a case by case basis.  This is understandable. But how strong is the willpower of this Board with regards to any political interventions in its decision-making?

One thing for sure, the CEO promised all of us that:

“In the private equity world, there’s a need sometimes to keep certain information private and confidential for the purpose of competitiveness.

“We’re cognisant of our responsibility that the fund is from the Government and the public, and will ensure sufficient disclosure for transparency”.

Note that the opposition-aligned Malaysian Insider craftily snipped the second paragraph from its reporting in order to create malicious commentary along with its already one sided headline.

Anyway, the PM is playing dangerous politics if he is not taking into consideration all the future scenarios. In the effort to show how liberal he is to the relevant parties, he may end up being a persona non grata to the millions of people who rely on him the most.

It will be far less dangerous and even a positive risk for his political survival if he institute various action plans to further strengthen the BCIC. With the 2010 budget going to be announced soon, we shall see how he prioritise his agenda.

—————————————————

Addendum:

The blogger Hidup Tuah wrote extensively about the Government’s unit trust fund – Permodalan Nasional Berhad. I believe PNB could have strategised its policies better than the one they are currently implementing. The articles can be read here.

Laman citra Satu Sekolah untuk Semua

Kempen Satu Sekolah untuk Semua telah dipelopori oleh warga Demi Negara sedikit masa dahulu dan ianya telah membuka pelbagai reaksi dari masyarakat umum. Hari ini, sebuah laman citra yang dicipta khusus untuk mengetengahkan inisiatif tersebut sambil mendedahkan kepada rakyat Malaysia akan objektif, cadangan dan faedahnya telah muncul sempena Hari Merdeka 2009.

Jebat Must Die bersetuju dengan objektif kempen ini kerana ianya telahpun diketengahkan oleh Almarhum Tunku Abdul Rahman sejak dulu lagi di mana, beliau telah mengkritik mereka yang mahu mengasingkan sistem pembelajaran masing-masing dari aliran kebangsaan.

Sistem pelajaran di dalam satu aliran membolehkan integrasi nasional dijalankan dengan lebih mudah kerana para pelajar kita boleh berinteraksi dari peringkat awal dengan lebih kerap di antara satu sama lain. Memupuk semangat muhibbah hendaklah dari peringkat muda.

Anak-anak kita dapat mempelajari budaya dan adat resam rakan-rakan mereka dengan lebih dekat agar mereka dengan mudah merasa selesa. Ini membolehkan mereka menerima perbezaan antara komuniti yang sedia ada kerana telah mengenali antara satu sama lain sejak kecil lagi.     

Oleh itu, sudah sampai masanya kita serius untuk mencapai tahap keharmonian yang tulen bagi seluruh rakyat Malaysia.

Usahlah kita terhegeh-hegeh, tercungap-cungap dengan konsep kabur seperti 1Malaysia, Bangsa Malaysia ataupun Malaysian Malaysia jika anak-anak kecil pun dihantar ke sekolah berasingan mengikut kaum masing-masing. Inilah adalah perkara pokok yang membuatkan polarasi kaum makin menular. Hairan sungguh kerana para pemimpin negara tidak kira kerajaan mahupun pembangkang seakan-akan buta akan perkara ini.

Genggam bara api biarlah sampai jadi arang.

Jika Bapa Kemerdekaan kita pun mengkehendaki Orang Malaysia bersatu di dalam satu aliran pembelajaran, mengapa kita mesti berdegil untuk menidakkan perpaduan nasional?  

Sila layari www.satusekolahuntuksemua.wordpress.com untuk mengetahui dengan lebih lanjut mengenai usaha ini. Terdapat banyak cabang di dalamnya yang dikira amat berguna kepada pelayar laman citra ini.

Jika anda menyokong usaha ini, sila paparkan logo dan alamat laman citra tersebut di dalam laman citra anda.

Terima kasih.

___________________________

Artikel terdahulu mengenai satu sistem pelajaran boleh dibaca di sini, di sini dan di sini.

Sesi parlimen yang akan datang telah bersetuju untuk berbincang akan keperluan meminda Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) dan lain lain akta. Saya syorkan supaya Akta Pelajaran 1996 juga di pinda untuk membolehkan sistem pelajaran kita bersatu di dalam satu aliran seperti yang dicadangkan oleh kempen di atas.   

2009 Merdeka Day!

In a few hours time, we will celebrate our 52nd anniversary of our independence from colonial powers.

We are fortunate in the sense that Malaysia fared relatively well as compared to other countries and we are grateful to be alive and living in peace and harmony with one another. Just look around you. Look at your neighbours. We are thankful that we are not at each other’s throats.

Lets forget politics for the next 24 hours and think like ‘Orang Malaysia’. 

Selamat Menyambut Hari Merdeka!

Only for you, Malaysia.

____________________________________

Previous article from a year ago can be read here.

Note that the correct pronunciation of Malaysia is Malay-si-ya.

Not Malay-sye or Malay-sher.

Letter from good MACC officers accusing the bad MACC officer

The mysterious letter which suddenly appeared and was given to Gobind Singh on Tuesday afternoon drew a lot of attention from the public.

Gobind did not state who had given him the said letter. All he said was, and I quote from the opposition aligned The Malaysian Insider:

Gobind said the letter was handed directly to him late Tuesday afternoon, just as he was leaving the court here.

So, who actually gave Gobind the letter when he was about to leave the court? If we know the person who sent this letter, surely it will direct us to the authors of the letter.

So, if we follow the trail from the person who handed all the way to the writer, we can now establish who had actually written it. Surely Gobind is curious as to who had composed that letter. Everyone is.

This is important when the issues described in the letter are discussed and cross-referenced in the court of law.

Don’t get me wrong. I love it when this letter appeared. Thank God it did.

If we throw away a pertinent point such as credibility (where we neglect the existence of real, actual persons representing the accusations in the letter), the writings in it had actually cleared up a few things with regards to the current inquest on the death of Teoh Beng Hock.

First and foremost, I am happy to note the MACC as a whole is not a murdering pack of Malay officers bent on killing the chinese (as alluded by DAP leaders and also racist commentators in several opposition portals like Malaysian Insider and Malaysia Today and also some from this very own blog).

I have written in my past article that it would be silly to accuse the MACC to murder Teoh Beng Hock, especially when there inquest had not even started yet. I wrote that there are a few scenarios that could have explained his death besides the usual ‘MACC the murderer’. I also wrote that the propaganda of the racist DAP had far too easily trying to divert attention by accusing the MACC as a mass murdering government machinery.

But now the letter had proven otherwise.

There are indeed many MACC officers doing their honest work in this government institution. Thank God they have clear conscience to tell the truth albeit through this anonymous letter.

Therefore, the assertions that all government officers in all government institutions are no more than a bunch of murdering hooligans on a killing spree are not true at all. Kudos to the MACC as a whole.

This letter in a way had pointed out who the bad apples are. As we all know, in any barrel of apples, there are bound to be a few.

Secondly, the letter had in a way accused the MACC State Deputy Director, Hishamuddin Bin Hashim as the main officer in charge of interrogating Teoh Beng Hock a few hours before his death.

It made great effort to tell us that Hishamuddin always hold the belt of anyone he is interrogating and lifting that person many times during the interrogation.

This is new to all of us. The person writing this must be someone who had seen Hishamuddin doing this many times. But again, without knowing who the writer of this letter is, it is hard to see this as a real fact.  Nevertheless, lets assume for now, it is true – that this is an insider information.

Regardless, the logical thing to do now is to perform another DNA check on this officer so that we can now be extra certain that the DNA of Male 1 identified by the experts were indeed to be Hishamuddin’s (just like how the letter suggested to do). Perhaps now we will know that there were physical contact between one of the MACC officers and Teoh Beng Hock during the inerrogation.

The letter however, did not tell us that it was Hishamuddin who caused the death of Teoh Beng Hock. Indeed, as suggested by The Malaysian Insider, the letter ‘does not say how Teoh actually died, which is the subject of the ongoing magistrate’s inquest’.

Instead, it had inadvertently told the public that Hishamuddin has got nothing to do with Teoh’s death.

How?

Well, the letter said that this officer, Hishamuddin left the building at 6.10 in the morning. The letter specifically said that he left the building at 6.10am but without punching out his punch card (MACC office still using punch card? How retro is that?)

This is what the letter said:

“Kami mengesyaki berdasarkan maklumat yang diperolehi bahawa TP tidak mengetuk kad perakam waktunya (punch-card) semasa beliau hendak balik daripada pejabat pada 16hb Julai 2009, jam 6.10 pagi. Ini penting kerana ia boleh membuktikan bahawa TP adalah orang yang terakhir melihat Teoh. Persoalannya, kenapa beliau tidak mengetuk kad perakamnya sedangkan beliau adalah seorang yang selalu mengetuk kadnya. Untuk rekod, beliau adalah seorang yang teliti dengan kad perakamnya.”

Anyway, the writers of the letter knew that Hishamuddin had gone back from the office that morning. They actually saw him going back home although he did not do the obligatory punch-out. It is quite peculiar for them to say that. Because, this immediately absolves Hishamuddin from ever been at the point of TBH’s death because according to experts, TBH time of death is from 8am to 9.30am.

Hmmm..  as we all know, one of the last person to see Teoh Beng Hock was Tan Boon Hwa and this was admitted by the latter who made the declaration that around 6am to 6.30am, he saw Teoh Beng Hock looking ‘tired and quiet’ in the pantry.

What do you think? Has the letter, purportedly written by a group of MACC officers, had somehow told us that Hishamuddin could be free of any accusation that he murdered Teoh Beng Hock? Many are using this letter to further strengthen their claims that MACC killed a member of the opposition.

The existence of this letter so far had only revealed to us that:

1) there are good officers with clear conscience in the MACC – the MACC is not an institution of pure evil

2) Teoh Beng Hock’s death could not be certain by this letter

The letter still could not determine how did Teoh Beng Hock die, when did he die,  and why did he or other people want him to die.

Which now leaves us with the expert opinion of pathologists, investigators, coroners and toxicologists which had all pointed to the fact that Teoh Beng Hock could have committed suicide around 8am to 9.30am. The evidences are too many too ignore.

Note that the experts are there for a reason. They have the experience, the knowledge and the technical skills to ascertain the cause of death and how the person had died. Too bad these days, the public especially the opposition supporters think they have more expertise in forming opinion than the experts themselves.

However, there is also one big point of contention in the letter when it had seriously accused Hishamuddin of tampering with the crime scene i.e. the window on the 14th floor of Plaza Masalam.

It stated:

“Kami mendapat maklumat bahawa TP telah mengarahkan pegawai bawahannya untuk mengelap/mengesat kesan cap c(j)ari pada tingkap tingkap yang dipercayai tempat Teoh jatuh. Ini terbukti apabila pihak polis tidak menjumpai apa0apa kesan cap jari baru atau lama pada tingkap tersebut. Persoalannya, kenapa TP mengarahkan untuk bertindak sedemikian?“

Now, I find this piece of information quite odd because in the Inquest, we were told that there were fingerprints near the window. The investigators at the crime scene were grilled by Gobind himself at that time and it was revealed that there were as many as  8 fingerprints near the window sill.

Now if Hishamuddin had asked his subordinates to wipe clean the window, how come there are still fingerprints? Okay, lets give the benefit of the doubt that the subordinates had wiped the window halfheartedly (because these probably were the subordinates with conscience and good heart we mentioned earlier).

But how come the window, as testified by the investigators in the inquest as dirty and dusty? The reason why they cannot figure out the fingerprints was because of the dusty and dirty window sill.

Hence, there is a contradiction there. MACC officers had to wipe off the window for any fingerprint traces and yet, the dust and dirt on it remained untouched as what was claimed by the investigators.

Mind boggling.

Lastly, people had said that the letter uses the letterhead of the MACC. The opposition aligned Malaysia Today did not reveal to us how this letterhead looks like. What a pity. I sure would like to see how does the whole letter looks like as compared to just the body shown in the Malaysia Today website. Then, we can compare the letterhead from the letter to the official letterhead of the MACC.

Anyway, like I said earlier, I am glad this letter came out.

Too bad the letter had focused more on something unrelated to how Teoh had died but instead began to accuse Khir Toyo and his corruption shenanigans.

But it is still okay. We now have an information about Khir Toyo’s corruption practices (what’s new anyway?), that Hishamuddin  supposedly has assets beyond his means and he was caught in a “khalwat” raid early this year.

As the regular readers know, this blog is not fond of any corruption practices. Be it by the Umnoputras or the opposition. If they have evidence, please do a thorough investigation. Too bad that the letter was written by anonymous people. If it wasn’t, the person who wrote this letter can appear in court and nail Khir Toyo once and for all.

However, Khir Toyo had denied the allegations contained in the letter. I guess somehow, this drama from the opposition and the accused party will still go on for quite some time.

Kit Siang, look at your own backyard first

A veteran of Machiavellian politics, Lim Kit Siang defended one of his DAP subordinates in an article entitled-

“Why has Najib condoned the Umno-inspired hysteria and gunning for Loke Siew Fook for insulting the Perak royalty and Islam when these allegations are completely groundless?”

It is not surprising at all because by now, almost everyone who are well versed with the racist approach of the opposition will recognise that whatever the opposition (including their bloggers) do, it cannot be criticised at all.

Moreover, the opposition in particular the DAP, is the party with the most frequent attempt to ask for an apology from everyone. You must apologise this, you must apologise that.

(Anwar Ibrahim meanwhile is trying to make it to the Guinness Book of World Records with the  highest amount of lawsuits one man could attempt in his lifetime!)

Of course, as is the norm with conceited and self-centred people, they in turn have never apologised for any slander, wild accusations or public condemnation they had thrown to their political rivals. Ultra kiasu and bigots like them could never lower themselves to apologise to the people they consider beneath them. Right?

For instance, in the latest debacle involving Jeff Ooi and JIM recently, a blogger called Lawyer Kampung had put it rather aptly when dealing with these type of people. He said:

By the way YB Jeff, a retraction of the statement does not mean you are absolved from all possible blame in making such statement. You may not mean it but it does not take purpose and intention in a statement like that to offend the people, especially if you are a politician and a public figure. There is a secret in order to avoid situation like that in future, if I may say so, and it is call tact. But I know that you know that too YB, being a politician, the Chief of Staff of Penang state government and all.

To offer a bare denial together with (an oversimplify) statement retraction, not apologizing and further threatened to sue as if trying to sweep everything under the carpet in one desperate move, is not the level of finesse one would expect from a politician, a leader and public figure such as yourself in a delicate situation such as this. Forgive me YB for repeating, it is all about being tactful.

In other words, those who live in a glass house should not throw stones.

But they threw it again nevertheless!

Earlier, in one of my replies to a commentary concerning the death of Teoh Beng Hock, I stated something like this:-

All these are tactics used by the opposition to create instability. It is not surprising because as soon as TBH was discovered that fateful afternoon, all fingers pointed to MACC and most of the comments in Malaysia Today and other scurrilous websites brought out the racist tendencies in them and accused the Malays as killing the chinese. But when Berita Harian tried to point out the real issue and defended the MACC from all these vile racial attacks, BH in turn was labeled as racist by the opposition leaders and a few opportunists (like Art Harun) WITHOUT taking into account the underlying current in the blogosphere. It is ironic that when the opposition kept telling the people to boycott the mainstream media and read their own alternative media, they in turn READ the MSM on daily basis in order to throw opportunistic criticism but failed to monitor their own web media. That is pathetic.

Yes, throwing opportunistic criticisms is what the opposition (and their bloggers) are good at. Just look at what Lim Kit Siang had said recently. I took the liberty to copy paste parts of his article below. Lets look at his title first -

“Why has Najib condoned the Umno-inspired hysteria and gunning for Loke Siew Fook for insulting the Perak royalty and Islam when these allegations are completely groundless?”.

In the first place, it was Lim Kit Siang’s own colleague in Pakatan who had started criticising Loke Siew Fook. Zulkifli Noordin in his post called ‘Biadapnya Pemuda DAP’ had criticised Loke Siew Fook for wrongly condemning Dr Ridhuan Tee Abdullah.

The crux of the matter is, in any religion, a child born out of wedlock is frowned upon. This was the contention of Zulkifli and Dr Ridhuan. However, Loke Siew Fook was trying to gain political mileage by trying to be the champion in this issue. A racist opportunist will never let a chance get away, especially when it is about condemning anything about the Malays.

True enough, a Pakatan blogger by the name The Mighty Pen picked up Siew Fook’s article and condemned not only Dr Ridhuan but also Islam.

Note that The Mighty Pen with the address sjsandteam in wordpress was a high traffic blog which prior to its cowardly self-demise, was linked to most of the Pakatan Rakyat blogs. They cheered this particular blog everytime a vulgar article appears on it. That is why it could garner more than 4 million hits in about a year (some of the Pakatan Rakyat bloggers have deleted this blog from their blogroll list, but you know who you are).

The fact is Kit Siang, why are you and your Pakatan supporters condoned this type of scurrilous blog who had published a lot of vile articles and abusive accusations?

Examples of these articles can be sampled here, here, here and here.

Hence, when Kit Siang said,

“What has the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak joined in the Umno-inspired hysteria and gunning for DAPSY chief and MP for Rasah Loke Siew Fook for insulting the Perak royalty and Islam when these allegations are completely groundless?

This morning, Najib directed the relevant authorities to investigate Loke.

In directing the relevant authorities to investigate Loke without any background or preliminary check as to whether the DAPSY chief had make such grave allegations on his blog, and talking about offences under the Sedition Act, Najib is acting most irresponsibly as Prime Minister as he was in fact helping to fan the Umno-inspired hysteria that there is a systematic attack on Islam and the royalty”.

Obviously the Prime Minister is reacting to questions about people who had insulted Islam in blogs. In Utusan, Najib clearly had said that the blog which had insulted Islam will be investigated. He never said that Loke particularly had insulted the Perak Royalty and Islam.

People who are guilty know that they are guilty. That is why they are often afraid of shadows. Hence, they would go to great lengths just to sidestep the issue altogether. The real issue is, why hadn’t Kit Siang chastise The Mighty Pen and other bloggers of Pakatan Rakyat for being hysterical in attacking Islam and the royalty all this while?

Those who live in glass houses should never throw stones. That is why they opted to the same tactic stated by Lawyer Kampung above. And it is happening again!

Kit Siang further wrote:

Loke has today lodged a police report at Dang Wangi Police Station, Kuala Lumpur, denying unfounded allegations and lies spread by certain blogs and SMS that he had made scurrilous and seditious statements in his blog insulting Islam and the Perak royalty.

This is clearly part of the latest gameplan of a master strategy by Umno to tarnish the image of DAP and DAP leaders as anti-Malay and anti-Islam in a larger political conspiracy to break up and destroy Pakatan Rakyat.

Of course they will make a police report. After condemning Dr Ridhuan about something which Dr Ridhuan said was indeed true in all religion, Loke diverted the attention by saying that he is not responsible to the comments made in his blog. As a blogger, I believe it is your responsibility to moderate your commentary section from any vile attacks on sensitive subjects in Malaysia. But instead of apologising for this oversight, Kit Siang and Loke asked for an apology from the BN instead!

And what Umno gameplan are they talking about? It was Zulkifli Noordin who had highlighted the abuse first (we should thank him for that – or else, God knows what this Might Pen would have written in the future). All this pandemonium came from the opposition themselves.

It is you who had started belittling the royalty within your blogging community, it is you who had insulted Islam in the first place, you were the ones who are dealing with the crooks in the underworld (and admitted by your own people nevertheless),  it is you who could not keep your promises etc,  and now, you are blaming other people for your own folly?

Please do not blame other people when you are very much guilty of your own undoing.

But they still do not realise this. Kit Siang demanded arrogantly:

Now that Loke has openly denied the wild allegations, will Najib issue a public retraction of his directive to the relevant authorities to investigate Loke and censure the Umno leaders who had irresponsibly tried to gain political mileage from the lies, including Umno Ministers and Deputy Ministers like the Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Deputy Minister for International Trade and industry Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir and Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Zambry Abdul Kadir?

These Umno Ministers and leaders must be very desperate of publicity that they have to jump on lies and falsehoods to get into the news in the Barisan Nasional-controlled mass media.

Are Ahmad Zahid, Mukhriz and Zambry going to be gentlemen enough to publicly apologise to Loke for making baseless imputations and allegations against him, even to the extent of demanding that Loke be detained under the Internal Security Act and be charged under the Sedition Act?

My dear Kit Siang, how about if you apologise to the people of Malaysia for condoning abusive and vulgar blogs that had impinged on the sensitivities of Malaysians. Mind you, not all Malaysians can stomach all this racist approach towards attaining power like you all are doing since half a decade ago.

When you are attacking everything Malay and Islam in the Pakatan blogosphere, do you expect the Malays to keep quiet? True enough, Umno with one of its party agenda of defending the Malays will naturally react defensively to such attacks.

Please do not act like an innocent victim everytime the Malays are defending their dignity against such insults in your blogs (this blog also has a fair share of disgusting comments which ridicule the Malays).

Of course, being delusional and self righteous are the trademarks of any Pakatan Rakyat people. They could not see beyond their bigoted views that they were the ones who made racism more pronounced. We can still remember how arrogant this people were when they did not accept Najib’s sincere apology over a remark made by a Penang Umno leader some time ago.

I have never heard anyone so pompous and contemptuous all my life. There was no element of humility at all.

Remember, when you demand an apology from other people, look into your backyard first. People do read what is written in your scurrilous blogosphere too. People do read books which are seditious in nature which had made a mockery of our race relations. You reap what you sow Kit Siang. Stop being dumbfounded about it.

Perfecting 1Malaysia

There are a lot of discussion in the media about the 1Malaysia concept. Basically, it is  a rebranding exercise of ‘Semangat Muhibbah’ inculcated in the 80’s. This is confirmed by Datuk Seri Najib himself in his maiden parliamentary session as the Prime Minister.

Nevertheless, he had specifically listed 8 main values of this rebranded concept, which are:

i) Culture of excellence

ii) Perseverance

iii) Humility

iv) Acceptance

v) Loyalty

vi) Meritocracy

vii) Education

viii) Integrity

Using his own words, 1Malaysia “is not a new concept or formula. Rather, the ultimate goal of 1Malaysia, which is national unity, has been the main vision of our country’s leaders before me, and has been interpreted in various shapes and forms over the span of five decades of Independence. If we truly study it, what has changed is the approach and implementation according to the ever-changing times and generations. In other words, 1Malaysia is a concept to foster unity amongst the multi-ethnic rakyat of Malaysia, substantiated by key values that every Malaysian should observe.”

Every now and then we have people who would try to give their own interpretations on what the Prime Minister is promoting. 1Malaysia has been hijacked by politicians who only want to serve their self interests. Some say it is Malaysian Malaysia. Some say it is a concept of assimilating all the people.

This blog will do none of that. This article will neither interpret according to my own opinion what 1Malaysia is or isn’t nor will it try to arrogate any suppositions of what 1Malaysia should be.

However, this article will try to relay a potential weakness in 1Malaysia where hopefully, it can be overcome so that it can truly achieve the ultimate goal stated above.

Obviously, 1Malaysia is a very good concept. But currently, that is what it really is – a concept. Throw in a few nice words like Principles of Precision or Principles of Unity and you will definitely get the audience mesmerized with the slogan.

For instance, Najib stated that the Principles of Unity is mainly constituted with values such as acceptance and nationalistic principles. But what are those actually? He said that nationalistic principles are built upon the Federal Constitution and the Rukun Negara while acceptance “indicates a state of mind that you are embracing something positively”.

He thinks “it’s important for us to migrate from this concept of mere tolerance to acceptance. Acceptance in the sense that you are ready to accept things. If you’re willing to accept things, if you embrace things willingly, then I think your capacity to look at things in a more positive manner is much better than mere tolerance”.

He also thinks “that’s important because then you don’t have any baggage and you’re not weighed down by any negative pre-conceived notions and you’re willing to look at the best the person can offer”.

Okay fair enough.

But how do we apply these nationalistic principles and the principle of accepting one another to all Malaysians? How do we inculcate the values? How do you put patriotism into the hearts of Malaysians? What are the steps to ensure that everyone accept one another?

He provided us with the goal of 1Malaysia and its strategies. But he failed to provide us with the processes. The ‘how to’. The step by step action plans. Although his concept and the strategies are much better than the hollow Malaysian Economic Agenda, what he was saying was merely ’sastera’ or literature or in a more relevant phrase, ‘bahasa politik’.

In order to attain credibility, Najib must exert stronger evidence that he is doing something rather than to simply talking about everything rhetorically. We want facts. We want figures. We want to see a concrete resolution on how he plans to achieve national unity. Importantly, we want to see results.

The concept 1Malaysia is oddly naked without a definitive national policy which could propel the country towards that goal.

Without a definitive national policy which embeds all the strategies of 1Malaysia, the risk of this concept being interpreted by egocentric people and politicians to their own whims and fancy is quite high. We see it happening as soon as the concept was launched.

To institute a change without knowing the proper path and the correct trajectory towards its goal is lunatic.

Merely trying to contextualise a heavy concept into several pieces of articles is not enough. Any good concept must always have its underlying execution plans. Look at the New Economic Policy or Vision2020 or even the Misi Nasional. Each policy had complimented the overall aim which is towards achieving national unity and prosperity. Each policy in return, is accompanied by specified tasks which act as enablers in order to achieve specified targets which eventually will guide the nation to fulfill the overall aim.

For instance, take one of the values in 1Malaysia below – Education. Najib wrote passionately about it.

Education

Education and knowledge are important prerequisites for any nation to succeed and throughout history we’ve realized that the only empires that have survived are the empires of the mind, particularly in the present context. An empire built on military strength have not survived and cannot survive. So when you talk about education and knowledge, it must be seen in a holistic context. It must be integrated with values as well. You must have a society which places education and knowledge at the apex of everything. Not only the government, but society as a value. For example, the culture of reading. If you just rely on formal text books, you’re not going to gain as much as you ought to. But if you have this culture of reading, this habit of reading, whether through books or through the internet then you are able to open up the Malaysian mind. And I’d like to see the Malaysian mind more and more opened up.

We are constrained by the fact that we have different [education] streams in the country. We don’t have one stream, as such, we don’t have one national stream. Even the national stream has been redefined to include the vernacular schools. It is both a strength as well as a problem and a challenge for us because we won’t have the opportunity for Malaysians to grow up together through one school in a physical sense, but they will be compartmentalized. 95 per cent of Chinese will go to Chinese schools, 97 per cent of malays will go through the sekolah kebangsaan or national schools. So we will not have the opportunity. But what we can do is to ensure that there are opportunities for us to interact by looking at the curriculum and emphasizing on common values, so that even if we are physically separated, but if we are imbued with the same value system, hopefully at some point in time, we will converge. When we converge, in the physical sense, we will be able to appreciate each other better.

Good literature.

We can see several noble aims in the above paragraphs. So what do we do next Mr Prime Minister?

Even the last two statements seemed to be consoling oneself and shying away from the responsibility of bringing the principle aim of the 1Malaysia concept into fruition.

It does not make sense when you are extolling the aim of 1Malaysia but at the same time, be reticent on how we can achieve it.

It is about time that Najib review all the national policies to reflect on the aim of 1Malaysia and its strategies . Malaysia needs a new all encompassing mother policy which can be suited at all times.

Honestly, the mother policy we have now – Vision2020, is inadequate to face the challenges ahead. It was conceptualised during the advent of an economic boom and all of its strategies and implementation plans centred around the belief that Malaysia will achieve national unity and a developed country status without being cognisant of any economic or political downturns.

Hence, in order for 1Malaysia to be successful in its aim, a definitive policy that takes into account all the potential risks as well as opportunities addressed in the concept of 1Malaysia should be thought of. We no longer can rely solely on 10th Malaysia Plan or its subsequent plans.

We need a better policy that will mold Malaysia into a very resilient country which can blaze through rough times and shine brighter during the good times.

Singapore, Israel,  Switzerland and Indonesia  all have mother policies which are revolving around their national security.

As we lay more importance to national unity rather than national security, I am proposing a brief framework which I believe should be the main principles of this mother policy. We shall call it the ‘National Resilience Policy’ for the time being.

As the name implies, the aim of this policy is to ensure that the nation is able to be resilient at all times. Whenever it faces external or domestic problems, there are strategies and action plans that can be instituted so that the nation can sail through the charted or uncharted waters till the year 2020 and beyond.

The main principle of this policy is inspired by Sun Tzu’s Art of War. Whereby, in order to gain ground, an army must strategise to acquire the area they wish to conquer, fortify it, and then move forward to gain more grounds. It is unwise to move further forward if the current position cannot be sustained.

Hence, the model for national resilience (in other words, do not crack under tremendous pressure) is:

1) To achieve

2) To sustain

3) To progress – to select new targets in order to achieve them

4) Repeat step (1)

National resilience should be built upon 3 platforms that encapsulate an unending cycle like the above. This tried and tested framework enables the country to be in a cycle of progressive nation building which would eventually change this country into a strong and a fully developed nation by 2020 and beyond.

Within each of this platform, all aspects of the nation’s governance will be covered. It is imperative however that the original aim of 1Malaysia and Vision2020 permeates within each areas.

Social welfare, defence, economy, human capital, religion, social harmony, education, business, agriculture, technology etc. should be taken into account.

For instance, our pursuit in eradicating hardcore poverty. All know that we aim to achieve 0%  hardcore poverty by the year 2010. Actual plans had been taken by the government and its ancillary agencies to achieve this aim. This incidentally followed closely with the first platform. When the target has been achieved, proper steps have to be taken in order to sustain this 0% target so that in the next wave of economic downturn, this 0% will not rise again.

All the activities and action plans within this 2nd platform must ensure that the target achieved earlier will not budge should any untoward factors decided to come crashing through our doors.

To ensure that we progress to a better future, the 3rd platform enables us to chart our next course of action through identifying new targets within the ambit of each areas. In the case of poverty, after we have solidified our position of 0% extreme poverty, the next logical step would be to eradicate poverty totally.

The Government then has to implement steps and initiatives which could raise the livelihood of the poor and improve their income levels. Consequently, this come back into the 1st platform. The cycle continues when new steps of strengthening and sustaining this new target are implemented so on and so forth.

When our fundamentals are strong, nothing is impossible. Any stress testings can be endured successfully.

Coming back to the area of education, since our aim is national unity, and its tenets are enshrined in the Constitution and the Rukunegara, coupled with the fact that even 1Malaysia concept is also propagating one stream education, the target of the National Resilience Policy should constitute plans to set up a more streamlined national education. This should be the main impetus in the 1st platform above. Within the 2nd and 3rd platforms, PPSMI could be reinstated and higher quality of education can be provided respectively.

We know that the task of creating a comprehensive policy of this magnitude is humongous. But as we all know, nothing can be gained without perseverance and culture of excellence. As we have the best brains within the country, the technocrats, Oxbridge graduates etc., this mother policy should not be a difficult task to develop. Moreover, this policy is a live document where its model framework enables it to be running in perpetuity.

Apart from the above, if we are serious in attaining what we deemed as our Elusive Dream, then any concept that we propagate must seriously be followed by good and well structured implementation plans. Otherwise, the aim can never be perfected.

It is simply never enough if we just try profusely to explain what 1Malaysia is. Needless to say, whether it is the concept of 1Malaysia, Bangsa Malaysia or even Politics of Empathy, the politicians must inspire the people with specific ways on how to achieve whatever it is they are aiming for. If not, it will merely be just that – a good piece of literature.

Thank you.

MACC and DAP: Finding the inconvenient truth

I believe a lot has been said about the tragic death of Teoh Beng Hock.

He was a witness of an MACC investigation pertaining the alleged misappropriation of funds by the Seri Kembangan state assemblyman, Ean Yong Hian Wah.

Apparently, MACC sniffed several corruption practices within the administration of the Selangor Government. This should not be a surprise to all as this serious allegations had been brought up non other than members of parliament from Pakatan Rakyat itself; namely MP Wee Choo Keong and MP Azmin Ali.

Both saw it fit to state that some of the exco members in Selangor are involved with the criminal world of organised crimes and underworld elements. The latter even suggested that most of the Selangor members are not fit to govern and should be replaced!

In his blog, Wee Choo Keong stated :

Personally I’ve had and continue to receive many complaints from the Pakatan Rakyat members and business communities in Selangor that the office of a certain exco member had been and is continuing to be used as a meeting place for people connected with the “underground business activities.” This is an open secret within the Selangor State’s administrative office.

Today, a DAP assemblyman in Johor revealed that the Johor DAP is being infiltrated by the secret society members. This is very disturbing as the trend seemed to be widespread and not only occurs in the state of Selangor.

The assemblyman, Dr Boo Cheng Hau related:

He said he believed north Johor DAP has members with underworld background and he was once forcibly stopped from attending a party meeting in the area by people claiming to be party members.

Boo said they were from north Johor told him he was not welcome on their turf, and told him to take care of only his area (constituency) as other areas were none of his business.

He said he had also received complaints that some new branches have recruited members who are linked to the underworld.

This showed that certain people in the party are using secret societies to strengthen their positions, he said, adding that what they were doing was extremely dangerous. – The Sun.

I believe he is aware of what is besieging his party and I also believe that his concerns about the underworld rearing its ugly head in the party are genuine.

Hence, with top 3 politicians within the Pakatan Rakyat showing concerns and making revelations to the public about the underworld powers behind the DAP, should there be any reason the MACC not to make any investigations?

Or, do we honestly believe MACC should not make any kind of effort into these allegations?

Well, do we?

If we do believe that MACC should investigate, how then should MACC approach the case?

As we ponder on, I would like to clarify a few matter here regarding the MACC and Teoh Beng Hock.

Firstly, Teoh Beng Hock was a witness of a corruption investigation by the MACC. He was not a suspect.

The public should be aware that there are several kinds of witnesses.  During my days as an investigative auditor, there are actually 4 types of witnesses which we will encounter during a criminal investigation:

1) A cooperative one. Voluntary giving statements and evidences as and when asked by the fact-finding interviewers.

2) A passive one. Involuntary and often withhold evidence.

3) A difficult one. Will not cooperate at all with the interviewers. Sometimes they will not tell the truth.

4) A witness cum suspect. They will be treated differently as criminal suspects would have different sets of rights and laws that govern them. For instance, they can be hold in custody in a certain period of time before a  criminal charge is brought against them.

The other issue that needs to be highlighted is that there are no set rules on how to extract information from witnesses. Meaning, there are no fixed laws or procedures that governs the rights of a witness. The witness is not a suspect, therefore, he has the rights of a free man. He can come and go anytime he wants.

That is why, witnesses under interrogation by the MACC can be called upon many times to shed more light on the investigation.

The ex MP for Serdang, Yap Pian Hon was interrogated by the MACC from 8pm to 6am just to shed some light into a corruption case.

Khir Toyo went up to the MACC office many times to give further assistance to the MACC on his own corruption case. At one point, he was there at odd hours just to cooperate with the MACC.

Now, there is this question on why witnesses are sometimes being called upon at odd hours of the day by the MACC.

Here, common sense takes centrestage.

There are 3 reasons why witnesses will be called to divulge information. MACC will act promptly upon receiving leads and would straight away call the witness so that:

1) the corruption acts will still be fresh in the memory of the witness. The witness may not remember what had happened if he was only called upon a month after a report has been made.

2) the witness will not be influenced/threatened by external parties. Imagine if the MACC made appointment with a witness for a session in two weeks time. That will give ample time for anyone to exert influence to the witness.

3) the risk of the witness disappear or go out of the country or unavailable will be reduced.

Bear in mind, all witnesses are called upon to be at the MACC office on voluntary basis. They are not suspects. That is why Teoh Beng Hock was never remanded or ‘be in custody’ of the MACC. He was a free man throughout the interrogation session.

He even had a late night supper with the MACC officers outside the MACC premise on the night of his death. Hence, all these assertions that he was in custody and he was subjected to a ‘grueling marathon’ and sleep deprivation are not true at all.

If eating at a nasi kandar restaurant at midnight and going back at 3.45am is grueling then RPK should have pity on all the auditors of a Big 4 firms where they go home exactly at that time during the long months famously known as the ‘peak period’.

Besides, sleep deprivation kicks in if you had not have enough sleep for more than 5 days.

If MACC is labeled as torturing Teoh by not letting him to sleep until 3.45am, then I believe many employers are subjected to imprisonment for torturing their workers. How many of us had stayed up late till wee hours in the morning just to finish a project?

Anyway, I am digressing.

What is important to know is that Teoh Beng Hock, went there willingly and had cooperated in a fact-finding session with the MACC.

He was allowed to go back home by 3.45am but instead, on his own freewill, loitered around the MACC office and had a conversation with Tan Boon Wah, a Kajang municipal councillor up until 6am.

This was admitted by Tan Boon Wah himself.

Unbeknown to many of us, the MACC had actually called 3 persons that night. Besides Teoh Beng Hock and Tan Boon Wah, a contractor by the name Lee Wye Wing was also called. He is the technical advisor of WSK Services. He came in as a witness as his name was reported to the MACC. Allegedly, he was the beneficiary of the many projects initiated by DAP Selangor particularly in Sg. Pelek.

He was also in contact with Teoh Beng Hock moments before he died. The reason why his name did not appear in the newspaper was the fact that he immediately flew to China as the body of Teoh Beng Hock was discovered the next day.

Fortunately, the police got hold of him for questioning the moment he returned from China a few days ago.

These two persons, Lee and Boon Wah are the key witnesses to the investigation of the death of Teoh Beng Hock.

Since the DAP played racial card and showed their racist sentiments towards the Malays and accusing the MACC as the murderer of Teoh Beng Hock, it is naturally logical for any level headed people to admit that any persons seen last with the victim should automatically be a suspect. But that’s just me. Perhaps I saw too much CSI series.

Barely a day after TBH passed away, the DAP wasted no time in finger pointing who the killer is (picture taken from Teo Nie Ching's blog)

Tan Boon Wah on the other hand made contradictory statements over a certain period of time. He admitted to have met the deceased in the wee hours of the morning. To make a police report over false imprisonment had very much contradict his own admission that he ‘hung-out’ at the pantry or even went to the toilet without any escort. Remember, only a suspect is treated with handcuffs and an escort anywhere they go. But not a witness.

Tan Boon Wah

Now, it is known that pathologists found traces of DNA on Teoh Beng Hock’s back. The police is making the normal investigation procedure by acquiring the DNA samples of all the persons connected to the case. According to  sources, all the MACC officers had voluntarily gave their DNA samples.

Guess who refused to assist the police in trying to find a piece of the puzzle? There are two persons who, till this date refused to acquiesce to the police request.

They are Tan Boon Wah and Lee Wye Wing.

What kind of persons who do not want to cooperate with the police? Are they not interested in letting the public know the truth? Why are they sabotaging the investigation with their unwillingness to cooperate?

I believe if such situation persists, the public will never know what had happened that night.

The DAP is harping on continued uncooperative stand with regards to the on going investigation but at the same time crying out for the government to be transparent about the whole incident.

This tactic by the DAP in rallying racist sentiments among its supporters by accusing the government as racist and chinese killer is a well known modus operandi by the opposition to gain support.

The DAP and the opposition are guilty for their heinous act of accusing Tun Abdul Razak, Datuk Harun Idris and Tun Dr Mahathir as the architects of the racial riot in 1969.

They are also guilty of accusing the current Prime Minister of uttering damning words of ’soaking the keris with chinese blood’ when it was apparent that what they accused was without any shred of evidence.

Both of the accusations above was rebuked without even a whimper of protest or rebuttals from the opposition.

And yet, was there any apology by the racist leaders within Pakatan Rakyat? There was nothing. Only vile arrogance.

I specifically put the word vile because only people with insidious nature would stir hatred among the chinese towards the malays using that kind of way.

Where is your dignity? Obviously the quest for power knows no bounds in human decency.

Teoh Beng Hock’s death was tragic. It was unthinkable.

He could have been pushed (hence traces of another person’s DNA was found on his back). If there was any struggle, the pathologists will definitely find signs of induced trauma on the skin especially when rigor mortis sets in. This is where cooperation from those two people who were last seen with Teoh Beng Hock is vital.

The police will just have to counter check their DNA, together with the DNA samples of all the MACC officers in order to get a clearer picture.

It could have been a freak accident where he accidentally tripped over an open window while peering out.

He could have also committed suicide.

Cases of witnesses committing suicide right after being interrogated by the police or anti-corruption agencies are not new.

Even in Hong Kong, where its anti-corruption agency is arguably one of the best in the world (ICAC is the role model of MACC by the way), had numerous cases of suicides after the witnesses were interrogated by its officers.

Was the pressure by the MACC during a interrogation session so great that he was willing to commit suicide right after he was released? Assuming the interview session was so torturous, the moment he was released and be free, he jumped out from the window?

What do normal people do after a supposedly ‘grueling’ session is concluded? Would you jump out of the window? What would trigger this sort of reaction?

If I was the MACC, when a witness had willingly divulged all evidences pertaining an allegation of corruption, would it not be imperative to take care of this witness? He will surely be called upon during a future corruption trial to pin the perpetrator of the said crime. Therefore, what benefit will MACC get from Teoh Beng Hock’s death?

Nevertheless, people are more interested to lay blame on the MACC as a simple way to divert attention. What are these people diverting from?

The simple matter of the truth. I mean, the real truth.

What good is a prolonged inquest or Royal Commision which many say will be independent when the MACC had been unfairly victimised by the opposition from the very beginning?

The real victim here is Teoh Beng Hock and his family members. They have the right to know the real truth. Even when the truth will hurt. But in order to get to the bottom of it, everyone must give their utmost cooperation. The real truth is when we have found out the reasons and the ‘hows’ of Teoh Beng Hock’s untimely death.

After the inquest being postponed to 5th August, the only people who get the benefit are the criminals. The ones who are involved in corruption behind this tragic case.

For every single day this matter been sidestepped, the corrupt will benefit more and more.

Instead of the MACC investigating the corruption allegation, it is now the MACC who is being investigated. Then who is monitoring the corruption activities now especially when more than 20 MACC officers are being subpoenaed and the lead officer being reassigned?

People lose focus by the drama that is unfolding. The ones that was alleged by Wee Choo Keong and Azmin Ali as having involvements with the underworld are smiling secretly right now.

Dr. Boo Cheng Hau was right in raising his concerns. We should be concerned too.