Making A Difference

Kian Ming wrote on Jeffrey Sachs being announced at the Royal Professor Ungku Aziz Chair in Poverty Studies in our blog, Education in Malaysia.

Jeffrey Sachs, one of the most influential development economist in the world wrote "The End of Poverty".

Nik Nazmi highlighted the Jeffrey Sachs quoting Robert Kennedy at the end of his book. It's a great (and inspiring) quote, and it certainly deserves a mention here.

Let no one be discouraged by the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world’s ills - against misery and ignorance, injustice and violence… Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written a history of this generation…

It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.

Yes, we certainly can make a difference.

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Double Standards

Further to the earlier post on “The Untouchables” whereby UMNO members are granted immunity for acts of corruption from investigations by the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), which has since been vaguely denied by Datuk Nazri Aziz, the de-facto Minister of Law, there are also ample evidence that UMNOputras are treated very differently from the typical men in the street.

One set of laws is used for legal transgressions by UMNOputras, while, another harsher set of laws are used for the lowly men and women like you and me. The following is highlighted by our community hero, R Nadeswaran, deputy editor at the Sun.

Unapologetic, thick-skinned and recalcitrant Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros, a Selangor state assemblyman was ordered to pay a compound fine of RM24,000 for building his palatial mansion without proper building development plans and approval. The Selangor Special Menteri Besar himself, Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo insisted that it was the maximum penalty under the Road, Drainage and Building Act. Or rather, he didn't care to add, that it was the maximum that he can or will apply to a fellow UMNOputra.

Interestingly enough, earlier this year, five people were charged with carrying out illegal earthworks and development without approval from the local authority in Gombak. They were charged under the Town and Country Planning Act, which carries a maximum penalty of a fine of up to RM500,000 or tow years' jail, or both. And these lot were charged within a short period of three months from the dates in which they were alleged to have committed the offences, how efficient!

Hence, the UMNOputra in Klang gets away with a RM24,000 fine for carrying out earthworks a 40,000 sq ft piece of land to build his palatial mansion worth an estimated RM5-8 million, while other marginalised citizenry gets the proverbial whip.

Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo perpetually claimed that “his hands are tied”. Well, they probably are, for there is a set of unwritten rules and laws (or a lack of it) which applies to his fellow UMNOputras. For you and me? No such luck.

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Reinstate the Local Council Elections!

There's a big ceramah in Klang this evening, organised by the Democratic Action Party (DAP). Thanks to Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros for being the willing participant in demonstrating how patronage politics breeds corruption at all levels of government, to Sdr Teng Chang Kim for highlighting his misdeeds ever since February this year, and to the Sun newspaper bringing the issue to national prominence.

The details of the multi-lingual forum are as follows:

Ceramah: Hapuskan Rasuah! Pulihkan Pilihanraya Kerajaan Tempatan
Tarikh: 9 November 2006 (Khamis)
Masa: 7.30 p.m.
Tempat: Dewan Persatuan Hokkien Klang

Speakers:

• Y.B. Lim Kit Siang (Ketua Pembangkang Parlimen)
• Tuan Azmin Ali (Naib Presiden Keadilan)
• Tuan Khairul Anuar (Naib Pengerusi Keadilan Selangor)
• Tuan Lim Guan Eng (Setiausaha Agung DAP)
• Y.B. Tan Kok Wei (Ahli Parlimen DAP bagi Cheras)
• Y.B. Teresa Kok (Ahli Parlimen DAP bagi Seputeh)
• Y.B. M. Kula Segaran (Ahli Parlimen DAP bagi Ipoh Barat)
• Y.B. Teng Chang Khim (ADUN DAP bagi Sungai Pinang)
• Y.B. Ng Suee Lim (ADUN DAP bagi Sekinchan)
• A. Sivanesan (Ketua Biro Buruh Kebangsaan DAP)

Contact: Philip Tan 016-2058056, Peter Tan 012-3322999

Kemasukan Percuma! Sila hadir beramai-ramai!

[请把这个讯息传给您的亲朋戚友！]

雪州民主行动党主办

反贪腐！惩滥权！还我民主第三票！
时事座谈会

媒介语：华语、马来语、英语、淡米尔语

日期：2006年11月9日（星期四）
时间：晚上7时30分.
地点：巴生福建会馆大礼堂

主讲者：
国会反对党领袖林吉祥
人民公正党全国副主席阿兹敏阿里
人民公正党雪州副主席凯鲁安努亚
民主行动党秘书长林冠英
蕉赖区国会议员陈国伟
士布爹区国会议员郭素沁
怡保西区国会议员古拉律师
双溪槟榔区州议员邓章钦律师
适耕庄区州议员黄瑞林
民主行动党全国劳工局主任西华尼山律师

联络：陈春水 016-2058056, 陈彼德 012-3322999

入场免费，欢迎光临！

That's a lot of big hitters speaking. Too bad I can't be there this evening to watch the excitement ;).

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Travelling

Hey guys, thanks for coming and visiting despite this being a very new blog :) Your visiting just makes me want to blog more (and for the missus to get upset ;))

I'm overseas at the moment and will only be back in town on Saturday, so if posts are infrequent, do bear with me. ;)

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Omen

I'm not sure whether I'm just reading the newspapers more frequently today, or whether I just remember stuff that are more recent, but I certainly see Omens of things just not going well for our country at the moment, for many many reasons.

The immediate shocker was of course, the gruesome murder of the Mongolian woman who came all the way to a country she isn't familiar with, to seek financial assistance from the father of her 16-month old child. We have heard the stories of such murders of passion before. But the hint of deliberateness, the complicity of the Malaysian police force and the brutal nature in which her body was disposed of certainly makes for bold interpretations by the superstitious.

But it doesn't take an event such as this to provide clear Omens on the fate of the country in the near future, and possibly the governing parties in the next general elections. Other signs are a little more obvious:

• The bitter public and international political feud between the consensual Pak Lah and the venomous ex-premier, Dr Mahathir Mohammed
  
  
• The disappointing conversion of Pak Lah's son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin from an intelligent and progressive reformer into a Malay ultra-nationalist, to the extent of inciting discord between the Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties.
  
  
• The disclosure by various independent and credile studies the irrelevance of the government statistics which was used as a basis for propagating the New Economic Policy (NEP) in perpetuity.
  
  
• Marginalisation of poor Malays and Malaysians through a system of entrench political patronage through the NEP as epitomised by an unrepentent, recalcitrant, and now infamous, Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros. Besides being a state assemblyman, he and his family sit on numerous statutory boards which made decisions representing clear conflicts on interest, abuse of power and privilege. He has acted with total disregard for the law in the process of enriching himself, despite being already many hundred folds richer than the man on the street.
  
  
• The ignominious decline in Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) into the country by 14.3% from US$4.62 billion in 2004 to US$3.97 billion last year. For the first time since 1990, Indonesia managed overtook Malaysia in FDI by attracting US$5.26 billion last year. The nation often ridiculed by our politicians as a tiny red dot down south, attracted more than 5 times what was achieved by Malaysia at US$20 billion.
  
  
• And of course, many many more...
  

Those familiar with Shakespeare's Tragedy of Julius Ceasar will remember sooth-sayer's warnings, the Augerers finding no heart in the beast and his wife Calpurnia waking up frightened due to a horrible nightmare as Omens of his impending assasination. Will Pak Lah and our leaders brush these omens off, dismissing them as hearsay, like Ceasar did to his own folly?

Or should we be like Cassius who refused to accept Caesar’s rising power and deemed a belief in fate to be nothing more than a form of passivity or cowardice, in his conversation with Brutus.

Men at sometime were masters of their fates.
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings (I.ii.140–142)

There may be clear Omens for the country today, but clearly and truly, the fault is not in our stars.

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Alternative Career?

So what do you think? Will I make the cut?

After my 'A' Levels, had I decided not to pursue a university education, a career in fine arts or graphic design would have been my most favoured option. Now, many many years later, with my hands glued to computer keyboards and barely able to hold a pen, I think this option is probably no longer applicable, should I of course, choose to retire from my current position. ;p

The above caricature was drawn way back in 1994, when I first started working in Kuala Lumpur. I was renting small apartment in Cheras then, and it was a daily trawl going home via Jalan Loke Yew from Menara Tun Razak, and I sort of watched with comic interest the traffic police performing their daily duties in hand signals.

I've always dreamt of having my own little art studio at the corner my own little bungalow where I get to spend my post-retirement drawing and painting... well, maybe after my 50s-lah :).

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Big Fish?

Talk about corruption and big fish comes to mind ;)

Well, here's a potential big fish, the question is whether will it get hooked? Malaysiakini reported today that there has been a serious and apparently credible report lodged with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) against the Deputy Works Minister Mohd Zin Mohamed on up to RM10 million worth of illegal foreign funds.

Fruits exporters Mohd Tahir Fazal Mohd had lodged his report on Sept 23 and as of today he has not been interviewed by the ACA. He however has obtained an acknowledgment letter from ACA after four follow-up visits.

The crux of Mohd Tahir’s complaint against Mohd Zin is that the deputy minister had allegedly received illegal foreign funds up RM10 million since 2000 through Dhaka-based company Silkways Cargo. Mohd Zin, the member of parliament for Sepang, co-owns the company with Bangladeshi partners.

When asked to substantiate this claim, Mohd Tahir said the relevant documents had been submitted to the ACA, while his lawyer Damiam Pheny claimed that a copy of the ledger was in his possession.

From what has been highlighted, it appears that ACA is dragging its feet... or is it?

Way back in 2004, the then Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Dr. Rais Yatim in early 2004 announced 18 big fishes were to be netted and prosecuted to usher in Pak Lah's clean-up campaign. More than 2 years later, and 6 spots down the Transparency International World Anti-Corruption rankings, it would appear that the fishes got away scot free.

What the rakyat will like to see now is for this case to get investigated fairly and speedily to ensure that guilty parties, if any, are prosecuted and punished. It is high time for Pak Lah to restore public confidence in his reform pledge to make anti-corruption the centrepiece of his administration.

Or will it be like the movie Big Fish, where Pak Lah's legacy will be just be marked by a series of tall tall tales?

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Selangor Special

"Selangor different from other states," so says the Menteri Besar of Selangor, Datuk Mohd Khir "hati lapang" Toyo.

Therefore, state assemblymen in Selangor should be allowed to retain their municipal councillorship. Otherwise, given the immense bureaucratic red tape existing in the local governments, the assemblymen would have "difficulty channelling the people's grouses to the local government."

You see, in other states, the local councils are more efficient, therefore, it isn't necessary for their state assemblymen to be part of the local government. Selangor, however, is "different from other states".

It is after all the only state in Malaysia which has declared itself a "developed state", more developed than New Zealand, better education system than Singapore and less corrupt than Belgium. So, Selangor is different. The Menteri Besar himself admitted:

"Selangor is developing and there are many complaints on infrastructure, such as on potholes, clogged drains and non functioning streetlights. It would be more difficult if they (state assemblymen) are outside (the council)," he told reporters after attending [a] Hari Raya open house.

But that's contradicting himself, I hear you say. No, in Selangor, it's different. Selangor is a "fully developed developing state".

In such a state, the local councillors, being appointed based on their positions in Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties are unelected in nature. Hence, they have absolutely no interest in "infrastructure [issues], such as potholes, clogged drains and non functioning streetlights". Only the duly elected state assemblymen, who under normal circumstances should be involved with state legislation in a developed state will go down to the nitty gritty and concern themselves with whether your rubbish gets collected daily.

But then the Selangor Menteri Besar's hands are tied for the Federal government banned local government elections many many years ago, so it's really not his fault. After all, he blamed the Federal Government for regulations requiring appointment of local councillors from the pool of local BN party division position holders instead of the appointment of the appropriate professionals who actually know their stuff.

Of course it doesn't matter that the inconsequential Housing and Local Authority Ministry and Minister from the inconsequential party corrected the Menteri Besar's understanding of the Local Government Act

You see, that's because Selangor, the developed developing state is different. The Menteri Besar of Selangor himself stated so, so it must be so.

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The Untouchables

The de-facto Minister of Law, Datuk Nazri Aziz effectively stated that UMNO-law is more powerful that the country's laws. As reported by the Star:

The Anti- Corruption Agency cannot investigate cases of political corruption or money politics because these offences are confined to political parties and not public transgressions, said Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz. The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said political parties were associations for members only, hence positions in such organisations were not public posts.

“...the ACA can’t come in because this (money politics) has nothing to do with the public. It does not affect the public in the sense that it does not involve public projects or public funds... Members are immune from action outside the party (for wrongdoings within the party). That’s my opinion. I may be wrong but I tabled the law (Anti-Corruption Act) in Parliament. That’s my understanding of it.”

There you have it. Crimes committed by UMNO leaders and members - bribing, stealing, fraud, thuggery - as long as they are confined within the political organisation, is free from Malaysia's criminal laws. They are the Untouchables.

Defending his stance today in the Malaysiakini, Datuk Nazri said that the immunity to graft laws "is because the party’s standards are higher than those stipulated in the Anti-Corruption Act 1997."

Err... umm... well if dinner parties are against UMNO disciplinary rules, then by all means, let the UMNO disciplinary committees take care of it. However, if money exchanged hands, how can the disciplinary committees take precedence over the country's laws? Has the supposedly more powerful committees locus standi in sending the "guilty" to jail or strip them of their ability to hold public office?

With our Ministers taking an open stance ruling UMNO party is immune to the country's laws, it is no wonder the country continued to slip in the Transparency International's (TI) world corruption index, from 37th in 2003 to 39th last year to 44th in the just released rankings.

Pak Lah, the rakyat has voted overwhelmingly for you in the last elections, in part due to the reforms which you promised to eradicate corruption. It has been three years, and to quote TI, "there is a perceived lag between the formulation of new policies in Malaysia and the actual implementation of these policies on the ground."

Do you hear us, Pak Lah?

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Rock the Vote!

Wah... I thought there were already a lot of issues to write about for Education in Malaysia. But having started this blog on anything else, the number of posts I could be making will really make me a full-time blogger! But before I go into the issues of the day, I thought it's worth mentioning the post by Nik Nazmi on "Rock the Vote!"

In the US, Rock the Vote is a popular effort using music to get young Americans to register to vote. I know a lot of my school and college friends do not bother registering to vote as well. Maybe we need a Malaysian ‘Rock the Vote’?

Regardless of your political opinion, even if you think that none of your views are represented by the exisiting parties or even if you feel the Malaysian electoral system is so skewed - you should just register to vote. You never know that you might suddenly feel the urge to vote during the elections. Registering is easy - go to your nearest Post Office and bring your MyKad.

You can only register based on your MyKad address. So if you work in Pasir Gudang, Johor but your MyKad is still registered to your Sungkai address, then you can only vote in Sungkai. Alternatively, you can change your MyKad address first.

Remember, we get the government we deserve. So make sure you have a say in that democratic process!

Don't procrastinate further, get registered and let's Rock the Vote in about a years' time! ;p

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Shooting Crows

These paragraphs from a International Herald Tribune article on crows (yes, the noisy black birds) in Singapore absolutely cracked me up. ;)

Crows are everything that Singapore is not, and they are not welcome here - raucous, undisciplined, dirty and disorderly.

They are the most annoying pest in this highly regulated city state of four million people, and unlike the human population, they do not respond to government campaigns and directives. So they have to be shot.

Kah! kah! kah! ;)

And according to IHT, "[t]he problem is that - also unlike Singaporeans - they breed fast."

How crows in Singapore ended up in IHT, I have to wonder. Unless it's actually a double entendre on the other type of crows from China (乌鸦) bugging Singaporean men. ;)

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Mat Sallehs are "Vultures"

While attention will certainly be focused on the Sultan of Johor's caustic remarks on the Causeway, I am more shocked by the xenophobic nature of his comments.

[The Sultan] said the building of the Causeway was to deliberately prevent ships from passing local waters, resulting in the development of Keppel Port in Singapore instead. “The Causeway has to be removed to allow ships to pass,” the Sultan said before launching the multi-billion [South Johor Economic Region (SJER)].

In his address the Ruler, who was clad in a T-shirt, said he would not “give face” (bagi muka) to the foreigners (Mat Sallehs) and urged the people not to hold them in high regard. He also reminded locals and their children to be wary of them as they were “vultures”.

More than RM17bil is expected to be initially pumped into the 2,217sq km project, which is 2.5 times the size of Singapore and 48 times that of Putrajaya. The Federal Government had committed RM4.3bil under the 9MP to kickstart work on security, infrastructure, drainage, river management and traffic improvement. On top of that, Government-linked agencies are reported to be making another RM3.4b worth of investments.

No project that size can succeed without foreign investment. Even the Menteri Besar of Johor has admitted as much.

The South Johor Economic Region (SJER) development plan is likely to attract RM60bil in foreign direct investments (FDI) within the next 10 years.

He even boasted that the development in South Johor may even outstrip Singapore's within a couple of years. “The multi-billion-ringgit South Johor Economic Region (SJER) project may even surpass Singapore’s development in the next six or seven years.”

How are we ever going to attract that sort of investment quantum if we tell our citizens to regard Mat Sallehs as "vultures"? As it is, there are plenty of concern that the only companies likely to benefit from SJER are really the construction companies.

...compared to the orderly [Singapore], from which it is separated only by a narrow waterway, the shabby state capital Johor Bharu has struggled to shrug off a reputation for crime and disorder. Scores of ugly concrete pillars bristle from the seabed alongside the failed JB Waterfront Lot 1 shopping complex, which was part of a [RM6.3 billion] planned mega-development but now lies empty.

The eyesore acts as a warning to investors that despite the big talk, other new projects in the state could suffer a similar fate.

Thankfully, with all due respect, the Sultan of my home state is only a constitutional monarch. Otherwise, his comments might have just spelt the death knell for Pak Lah's first mega-project to spur economic growth in Malaysia.

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"How to Set Pak Lah Free?"

As highlighted in my post in Education in Malaysia, I was invited as a panelist in a Young Malaysians' Forum on the 9th October, to discuss how we can "set Pak Lah free". Here's the text of my 10 minute speech on what I thought. You can also listen to a podcast version of it here in KLStream.com.

"Unlike many of Pak Lah's critics, I am one who has til today believe that he is a good man with a kind, sincere and noble heart. However I must say that I have almost lost total faith in him as a leader and administrator. It appears that his rise to the very top is an accident of sorts for he has shown a total absence of political cunning to ensure that his noble objectives for Malaysia gets achieved.

I lost faith when he took 4-6 months to decide on an unshuffled cabinet revamp. I would have expected that Pak Lah was taking his time to find the political means to weed out the deadwood. but he obviously took his time and kept the nation guessing to change nothing. Or alternatively, he tried and failed to change, giving in to reactionary forces.

This brings us back to the underlying theme of tonight's forum. As a novice political scientist, having studied politics as part of my university degree, change in a country is often met by both resistance and demands by opposing forces.

Let me give an example. For those familiar with the old Soviet politics at the end of the Cold War when Gorbachev came into power. He tried to change the corrupt and decaying Soviet Union under a totalitarian regime with his policies of perestroika (economic reform) and glasnost (openness). However, he had a difficult time facing two equally powerful forces.

First, he met with resistance from the reactionaries who wanted to keep the status quo. At the same time, he was criticised and opposed by impatient progressive forces who thought the pace of change was too slow. Political instability finally resulted in the creation of many new new independent and autonomous nations, and the break up of Soviet Union.

While i don't think you'd find Malaysia breaking up, the political circumstance is similar. Pak Lah was elected overwhelmingly as an agent of change for a better Malaysia. However, many powerful incumbents resistant to change and possibly even at risk to prosecution fought hard to ensure that Pak Lah is kept in chains. Being the consensual 'Mr Nice Guy' obviously enables the reactionary forces to secure the necessary compromises to maintain their grip on power and severely retard the reform processes.

While the bulk of my life since primary school i would never contemplate on joining the government or governing political parties, there was a short moment of a couple of months where i thought that Pak Lah's government might be woth joining, like Kay Peng here. That moment has since passed, not because i think Pak lah is a bad man, but that the reactionary forces appears way too strong for him to handle.

So how do we set Pak Lah free?

The only way in which we can ensure that progressive forces win the battle of Pak Lah's will is to ensure that young Malaysians like you and me be active, in our own ways, in speaking up about what we want. And in the elections within the next 18 months, we need to let our voices be specifically heard to ensure we vote in Members of parliament who will protect our desire for a better Malaysia.

If Pak Lah has his hands & legs shackled such that he is unable to stand up to the reactionary forces in our government, then we must do it for him. And if Pak Lah wins the next elections as well as retains the UMNO presidency for another term, which i think he will although not easily, we may have helped him by eliminating some of the deadwood in parliament. At the very least, there will be some major black eyes, whereby Pak Lah can see clearly for himself who is wanted, and who isn't.

In the last elections, i believe that the public has given Pak Lah too big a margin of victory. Instead of giving him the unlimited political capital to restructure and reform the cabinet, it paralysed him into indecision and compromise with the reactionary forces who themselves won comfortably.

Hence the only way to save Pak Lah's reforms and set him free is for us to speak up, be social and politically aware, highlight injustice in our blogs and the media. Only then will Pak Lah know that there are young Malaysian progressive forces are in support of his vision. If he doesn't realise that by the next elections, then make sure that he does after that."

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Meet the Family

Tony, Ting & Totto, Bangkok (Oct 2006)

That's me, my wife and the kid. Sawadeekap! :)

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Hello!

Most of you who have found your way here at the moment, probably did so through knowledge of the other popular blog which I maintain at Education in Malaysia. Well, this will become my very own personal blog, in which I will blog on all stuff not necessarily education related.

As the title of the blog suggests, this is where I can blog on all the other stuff which interests me - philosophy, politics and economics, which as you may already know are the subjects I read for my degree. I will also of course, write about possibly more personal stuff, to possibly give a better background to myself, my history and my family and hopefully through this blog, we will get to know each other better. ;p

Anyway, this blog is still pretty much under construction and hence it has not been publicised as yet. Tinkering with all the design, colour preferences, font-size etc will take a bit of time, so I'd like to thank you for your patience. In addition, I'm not sure if time will permit me to keep both blogs very active, hence you may have to wait til my early retirement (hopefully not too long away), before you get frequent posts here.

I'm however, happy to have finally started this new blog, which has been playing in my mind for the longest time. Hence, here's a toast for family and friends, for community and country. ;p

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