ELECTION NOT ERECTION!

ELECTIONS NOT ERECTIONS!

If any party wishes to form the government than they must first be elected and it can never be through any other means and certainly not being erected by any court or any laws. Governments are elected and not erected.

And you don’t need three or five panels of blockheads to interpret this plain and simple fundamental of democracy unless you are not one. You want to rule? Than stand for election as you can’t be a government through erection.

No! Power grab or butt grab also will not do it and nobody can do it not the police or the judges or even superman or dire straits. Governments are elected through a democratic process of an electoral vote by the citizens. Plain and Simple.

Any other method means that you are a cheat and a thief!

No Money For Scholarship?

800 straight A students had their application for Public Services Department scholarship rejected. (theStar reports yesterday)

Every year we hear this kind of rubbish from the Barisan National government, they tell you that their priority is to develop human capital and they talk about uplifting the quality of education in this country.

These are our brightest and the future of the nation and should be given the best education opportunity available as they will be the foundation towards the future of our nation.

Why are we having such difficulty and creating a so much dissapointment and stress for these students and their families? Are we short of money? Don't have enough funds? If that is so than just downsize some of the mega projects like the multi billion underground cable project from Bakun.

And i don't understand this distribution formulas of scholarship, what criteria? what ethnic quota? Oh yeah and the best part is only 10% of scholarship goes to the undrprivilege! Can't afford to give all our straight A students a good scholarship?

Thought we have been sending people to outer space and now we can't afford to send our brightest students to universities?

News report HERE

LUCRATIVE MINISTERS

Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman press remarks in Washington is a big joke and an embarrassment to the country!

Out of no where he suddenly blurted out the story of the Prime Minister Najib Razak’s involvement in the Mongolian murder when nobody ask him and it was not a subject matter at all with the press when it was all about Ang San Su Kyi of Burma the current news of the day.

And the best part is that he announces to the world that he has been offered a very lucrative post of Deputy Prime Minister by Anwar Ibrahim and called it a “VERY LUCRATIVE” position and there you go… all these umno guys thinks about is money and to him the position of deputy prime minister is very lucrative! Anyway dream on Mr Foreign Minister, you are not even close to ministerial material and you fancy a "lucrative" post of deputy prime minister?

Mr Foreign Minister if you could allow me to educate you a little bit, first and foremost the word lucrative means profitable and money making. Secondly any position of ministership is a position of responsibility and integrity and the appointment is to serve the people and the nation and not about getting rich or money. With Ministers like this Najib don’t need enemies.

All that the reporter from Reuters Mr Mohammed’s question was whether Secretary Hilary Clinton raised the issue of Anwar’s case of sodomy is politically motivated with the foreign minister in the meeting and there goes as when they hear the name “Anwar” the minister lost all bearings and was unable to focus on the question at hand.

I cant understand what he is driving at and see if you can as the Q&A below.

Below is an extract of the question and answer;

Mohammed from Reuters;

QUESTION:
Secretary Clinton, Opposition leader – or opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim faces charges again, and I believe a trial later this summer, on charges that the State Department itself in the annual human rights report said are politically motivated. Did you raise his case specifically in your meeting today?

And, Mr. Minister, if you would care to comment on that case and specifically on the American position that the charges against Mr. Ibrahim are politically motivated.

ANSWERS:
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, we raised rule of law issues and the larger questions concerning the institutional reforms that Malaysia has been pursuing. We’re on record as to our opinion as to that particular case, and I think that speaks for itself.

FOREIGN MINISTER ANIFAH: I’d like to address the comment on Anwar Ibrahim. You know, we have utmost faith in our judicial system (I don't know and who is we? Certainly not me and with all my friends). And recently, as late as a few days ago, the court has declared that the chief minister of a particular state which comes from the opposition as election of a chief minister which is a rulings against the government (What???). And insofar as Anwar Ibrahim is concerned, (inaudible) he – we know him very, very well (Does he?). And he has – more or less, what he has said, especially overseas, most of the things are untrue; for example, like the involvement of our honorable prime minister and the murder of a Mongolian citizen. And he has repeatedly said before the elections that he will provide evidence and yet, until today, he has not given anything. (Did Anwar said that? And how to provide evidence when so many Statutory Declaration by witnesses all went missing and the use of the internal security act on RPK in order to silence him.)

And also just for the information of the audience here that, you know, he also said that he will form a government on 16 September and he has changed the dates many time. And he was trying to entice the members of parliament. And I was personally offered to jump into the oppositions and offered a very lucrative position ($$$), and also to be told it’s like a deputy prime minister (In your dreams). And these are not known to the world at large. And he has started, you know, trying to buy into other, you know, legislative members (I don't know?). And I think what he is doing – he has not accepted the result of what – the last elections. And we have lost five states and we willingly and accept the people’s verdict. And all the time we leave it to the people to decide, and which, on the other hand has not been able to accept (What gibberish..).


And it’s also my concern and that of our government that it is what he has been doing overseas to tarnish the image of Malaysia, which impinge trade and indirectly and directly, you know (Still I don't know), bring hardship to the people of Malaysia, which he said he’s very, very concerned about. And therefore, it is our wish and hope that he will respect the democratic system in Malaysia, which is very open and which, I think, we have conformed to the wish of the people (The people says No to ISA). And we have repeatedly told him that if he believes that he is the rightful prime minister, or his party has been sidetracked, then it is – wait for the next election. And he has continuously gave wrong impressions and accused all the government officials of being corrupted, which is part and parcel of the system (inaudible) (OK.. do you mean to say that corruption is part and parcel of the system?). And the people have rejected him in Malaysia, and is a proof that he has not been able to accept. (Er..? The people of peninsular Malaysia or West Malaysia which is the majority of people in Malaysia have actually rejected Barisan National and UMNO who have only managed to garner 47% or more accurately less than 50% of the popular vote in the peninsular)

What minister ??? Is he speaking a foreign language?

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER

April 27, 2009

Dato' Sri Mohd Najib Bin Haji Tun Abdul Razak
Pejabat Perdana Menteri
Blok Utama
Bangunan Perdana Putra
Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan 62502 Putrajaya
Malaysia

Re: Human Rights in Malaysia

Dear Prime Minister,

Congratulations on your April 3, 2009, appointment as Malaysia's sixth prime minister. As you know, Human Rights Watch, a nongovernmental human rights organization that monitors human rights in more than 70 countries around the world, has long raised human rights concerns in Malaysia with your predecessors.

We especially welcome your expressed "intention to uphold civil liberties" and your "regard for the fundamental rights of the people of Malaysia." To that end, we urge your government to take specific measures to bring Malaysian law, policy, and practice into line with international human rights standards.

We urge that your government promptly ratifies core international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and begin the process of bringing domestic law into conformity with these international instruments.

We further urge that you and your government give priority to the issues of arbitrary and preventive detention, freedom of expression, protection of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, and ending impunity for security forces. In the pages that follow, we discuss these issues in detail and offer specific recommendations.

Arbitrary Detention

The state of emergency in effect in Malaysia since the 1960s has been used by previous governments to violate fundamental human rights. Under the emergency, the Malaysian government enacted emergency ordinances permitting the government to pass broad and ambiguous laws that bypass judicial processes and review and effectively permit indefinite preventive detention. The Internal Security Act (ISA) is the most notorious of such laws and violates a number of international human rights standards, including the right to be free from arbitrary detention, the right to due process and to a fair trial, the presumption of innocence, as well as rights to freedom of expression and association.

Previous governments have justified use of the ISA by referring to multi-ethnic tensions. While Human Rights Watch recognizes that multi-ethnic tensions are a legitimate concern of any government, 51 years after independence, the government should not lose sight of the fact that Malaysia has a well-developed criminal justice system fully capable of dealing with multi-ethnic tensions, threats to its security, and other ill-defined activities without recourse to the extra-judicial ISA.

The official position that detention under the ISA is preventive, acknowledges that the government cannot, or has chosen not to, prosecute detainees for alleged crimes but rather extends executive power at the expense of the judiciary.

Throughout its long history, the ISA has been used to punish and silence peaceful political opponents and government critics. It has become an unfortunate and deeply embedded feature of a Malaysian political climate that stifles free expression, association, and peaceful assembly. Recent ISA political detainees include Raja Petra Kamaruddin, founder and editor of Malaysia's most popular website;

Read More HERE

Malaysia Bull-Shit The UN Human Rights Council?

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Public Statement
AI index: ASA 28/001/2009

13 February 2009

Malaysia falls short in fulfilling its promises to the UN Human Rights Council

The Malaysian government should fully implement the recommendations issued by the UN's Universal Period Review (UPR) Working Group in Geneva today, Amnesty International said.

The Working Group will adopt recommendations on Malaysia made during the country’s review by theHuman Rights Council on 11 February.

Some of the key recommendations included calls for repealing or amending the Internal Security Act (ISA) and guaranteeing freedom of expression, information and religion. Many countries also identified Malaysia’s poor record in addressing human rights abuses against refugees and migrant workers.

Amnesty International welcomed Malaysia’s engagement with the UPR process, but noted that Malaysia had fallen short of many of its commitments to the UN Human Rights Council when it applied to become a member in 2006.

In 2006, Malaysia pledged itself to “the promotion of a free media, including in cyberspace, as well as the encouragement of vibrant and active civil society”.

“Malaysia has failed to uphold these pledges to respect human rights, including its commitment to promote a free media, particularly the Internet. Bloggers have been charged under the vaguely worded provisions of the Sedition Act,” said Donna Guest, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific deputy director.

At least 50 people are detained indefinitely without charge or trial under the Internal Security Act. These include five leaders of the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) who as prisoners of conscience should be released immediately and unconditionally, Amnesty International said.

Amnesty International also said that the government should speed up police reform and oversight. On 20 January, 22-year-old Kugan Ananthan died in police custody. His family and others who had seen his corpse alleged that he had been tortured to death. In December 2008 27-year-old B Prabarka claimed that police beat him, splashed boiling water on his body, and threatened to hang him.

“For Malaysia the real test of the UPR process will be whether it implements changes that have a real impact on the protection of human rights in the country.

As a member of the Human Rights Council, Malaysia should follow through on its promises and take the lead in respecting, protecting and promoting human rights in the Southeast Asian region,” Guest said.

Declining Education Standard of Malaysia

In one of the sit down beer chat with the guru "zorro" we were discussing about the deteriorating quality of education in our beloved Malaysia as we used to be one of the top producers of talent in this part of the world which is evident from our many overseas travel where we meet top executives in international organisations and corporations. Somehow we love to reminisces of the good old days where the nation is the leader of the region.

It is actually out of concern for the future, if we do not have quality education of international standard than we will no longer be able to produce the talent like we used to and as our chat went further it also brought about the proficiency on the use of english as an international medium of communication in the world of commerce where we now find it quite lacking in the young graduates from our local universities.

Now where do we stand today in terms of education standards, we used to be in the top 100 a long long time ago and sad to say today our best university is ranked no. 230 out of 500 universities being graded and that is University Malaya.

Today we have countries like Thailand, Mexico, Brazil, argentina and South Africa ranked way up above us.

The top unis in asia in 2008 are University of Tokyo ranked no.19 and 2nd is University of Kyoto ranked no.25 and 3rd is University of Hong Kong no.26 (in 2007 they were no.18).

National University of Singapore is 4th in Asia and no.30 in world ranking. Autralian National University is no.16 in world ranking.

Australia has 7 universities in the top 100, japan has 4 universities and both the small island of Hong Kong and Singapore has 2 universities in the top100. Even China has 2 unis in the top100.

The top 100 to 500 rankings of world universities go HERE.

TOP 100 UNIVERSITIES

Malaysia in Recession?

The funny thing is that you still get quite a few topics from people asking that "Is Malaysia in recession?" or "Can we avoid a recession?" or "Are we in recession yet?".

As far as i am concerned, we have since many months ago gone into an economic recession despite what the government is trying to deny otherwise, and i can never comprehend what or where is the problem by explaining the fact that we are in recession? The proclaimation of an official economic recession allows the people to be forewarned and to take the necessary steps to brace for tougher times ahead. A timely official announcement of a recession can also initiate early planning and actions to counter the impact of a slowdown in economic activity. It is only prudence and a reflection of good governance.

Look at the chart above and you will see that the GDP contraction started in the 2nd quarter of 2008 and throughout every other quarter. The global growth chart actually shows you that global growth was already slowing down way back in the middle of 2006 and that is why NBER declared the US in recession in 2007 (read further below). The signs were already written in the stars.

The world is in recession and why not Malaysia?

This denial is beyond my understanding.

DEFINITION

It has been a general consensus among economist in the definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters or six months of GDP contraction or decline.

The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) is the authority for the confirmation or announcement of an economic recession in the US. And in fact the NBER had earlier announced a recession in the US on the 1st December 2008 (GO HERE).

The NBER definition of an economic recession is "a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales."

INDICATORS

Lets look at some indicators as shown above are the Industrial Production indicators which is on a downtrend since the beginning of January '08 and the alarm should be ringing much earlier way on before the world stock market crash of Oct'08. I don't expect our government to be able to forsee this global economic crisis to happen but lets not be in denial.IMPACT

The general impact of any recession is hardship brought about by loss of income by the working class and losses of business profit and insolvency. Lets look at the official figures of retrenched workers totalling to about 28,000 workers as at March '09 (chart above) although some thought that the numbers are much higher as the official figures does not take into consideration of Malaysians working overseas or those working in Singapore and it is estimated that just those retrench workers from Singapore alone is more than the official numbers of 28,000 and many numbers have been thrown around and you can't blame people for guessing as there are no statistic available.

The function of any good government is to assist the affected workers and to provide relief and alternate arrangement towards the welfare of its people as families of the old and young from the lower income group will be most affected.

FINANCIAL PRUDENCE

The financial prudence of a government is to save and create reserves during good times so that when times like this comes around you have some savings and real cash which will be more efficient in tackling the economic downturn.

The chart above shows the government financial position which shows a deficit forecast for year 2009 amounting to RM 53.8 billion. So we don't have enough money, do we? Now the question is how will the deficit be financed and how much time is required to raise the needed funds to finance such a huge budget? (Note: O.E. = operating expenditure D.E = development expenditure)

Well above all else lets look on the bright side that this recession is not something new and as good times and bad times comes and go, so just sit tight hold back a bit and work your ass off if you are still having a job so that your productivity contributes towards the profitability of your organisation and than better times will come around again and you will stand to gain from it.

Read earlier post on the recession HERE

Johor Bahru in Real Bad State

This just goes to show how bad the crime rate is in Johor Bahru even the police chiefs get robbed, you know its real bad when the police get robbed or are they victims of their own folly.

OCPD robbed at knife point

JOHOR BARU: Johor Baru South OCPD Asst Comm Zainuddin Yaakob was tied up and robbed at knife point in his house here early yesterday.

ACP Zainuddin: The intruders tied him up.

The OCPD, in his 40s, who was home alone, had a shock when at least three men surprised him at about 5.45am.

The suspects, all believed to be Indonesians, tied him up and ransacked his home.

The intruders then fled with some cash and valuables.

ACP Zainuddin managed to free himself and contact the police. He later lodged a report at the Tampoi police station.

State CID chief Senior Asst Comm (II) Datuk Amer Awal said the suspects managed to enter the OCPD’s house through the back door.

“The OCPD was not harmed and so far we have detained three men in connection with the case,” he said, urging those with information to contact the police hotline at 07-221 2999 or the nearest police station.

~~~~~~~

With the recession in Johor Bahru biting in, the people of JB are worried over the crime rate in this southern city.