Mr PM - What Actions Had Been Taken Against the Two-Racist Headmistresses ?

Kuching
Tuesday, 21st September 2010

On 24th August 2010 and republished on 2nd September 2010, I wrote in Bukittunggal.com about the three teachers who made racist remarks against the Chinese and Indian primary school students in Kedah, Perak and Johor.
These three teachers, two of them were headmistresses and one a discipline teacher. According to the fact of the case, the problem started with Siti Inshah Mansor, a Johor school principal, who said in a speech at her school that:

“Pelajar-pelajar Cina tidak diperlukan dan boleh balik ke China ataupun Sekolah Foon Yew. Bagi pelajar India, tali sembahyang yang diikat di pergelangan tangan dan leher pelajar nampak seakan anjing dan hanya anjing akan mengikat seperti itu.”

“Chinese students are not needed and can go back to China or Foon Yew School. As for the Indian students, the prayer strings that they wear around their wrists and necks make them look like dogs and only dogs are chained up like that.”

A few days after that incident, the Kedah  headmistress hurled similar slurs at her Chinese pupils after she found them eating during the fasting month - on the basis that they were disrespecting Ramadan.

On 27th August 2010 one visitor to Bukittunggal.com reported that a discipline teacher from SMK Anderson in Ipoh Perak name Kamarulzazaman had uttered the racist remarks against the Indian students about cutting their neck and wrist strings.
Of all the three cases, few police reports were lodged by the parents against the two headmistress but the case in Perak, no action had been taken as the case had been covered-up  by the school authority. The discipline teacher was allowed to go back to his disciplinary job.

Until Today What Actions Have Been Taken By The Government

Just before Hari Raya, Deputy Prime Minister had announced the setting-up of the Special Task Force to probe the two incidents. The government was expected to announce the findings of a special task force after the Hari Raya holidays but so far the government had not made any announcement.
Not only DPM failed to take action against two headmistress for hurling racial slurs at their non-Malay pupils, one of them has returned to work at her Kedah school.
And for the police report  made by the parents, no follow-up actions were taken by the police but instead, they grilled namewee for  exposing the matter in the youtube.

Lim Kit Siang wrote in his blog :

“The school principal in Kedah has returned to her posting although the parents and the Malaysian public have been given to understand that she would be transferred away – as if nothing serious had happened, making a total mockery of Najib’s “zero tolerance for racism” declaration.”

Kit Siang added "All eyes will be on the Cabinet meeting tomorrow – not only on whether the Cabinet would take a stand to ensure that the two school principals who had made racial slurs against their students in school should be severely punished as an example to all education officers, but whether the Cabinet would at long last give full endorsement to Najib’s 1Malaysia policy with every Cabinet Minister declaring support for the 1Malaysia policy to create a Malaysian nation where every Malaysian regards himself or herself as Malaysian first and race second."

If PM Najib is serious about his 1Malaysia concept, he must take the matter seriously by taking appropriate actions against the two headmistresses.

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AGI IDUP AGI NGELABAN

Teoh Beng Hock Inquest-Investigating Officer and Chinese Translator Grilled By Gobind Singh Deo

Kuching
Tuesday, 21st September 2010

The contents of a controversial note ending with the words zai jian (which means either “goodbye” or “see you again” in Chinese) and said to be written by political aide Teoh Beng Hock were made public for the first time at the coroner’s court.

The note, written in Chinese with two phrases in Bahasa Malaysia on a piece of A4 paper, was tendered to coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas yesterday through investigating officer ASP Ahmad Nazri Zainal.

The note, purportedly written before his death, read: Ou Yang, They have taken my computer without making copies of the documents. The target is all the while you. Sorry. Pretending to know but actually not knowing and consequently you have been dragged in. I said “mendapat lulusan YB” (getting YB’s permission), they insisted on typing “mengikut arahan YB” (following YB’s instructions). I can’t help you. Apology. Sorry. I am very tired. Goodbye

The note purpotely found in Teoh's bag

Translation of the note in Bahasa Malaysia

ASP Ahmad Nazri told the court that he found the note among Teoh’s belongings on July 17 last year.

He said a Malaysian Anti-Corrup­tion Commission officer had shown him Teoh’s bag that was found on the sofa on the 14th floor of the MACC office in Plaza Masalam.

ASP Ahmad Nazri brought the bag to his office and began listing the items found in it on July 17.

He said he listed down the “important items” and left out the others.

He added that he also did not list down the note written on the white A4 size paper.

However, Teoh’s family lawyer Gobind Singh Deo questioned the authenticity of the note.

ASP Ahmad Nazri said the handwriting on the A4 paper note was compared with the Chinese handwriting on a voucher and notebook found in Teoh’s bag.

However, he did not know whose handwriting was on the voucher and notebook.

To a question by Gobind, ASP Ahmad Nazri said he did not verify the handwriting on the voucher and the notebook.

Gobind: Isn’t it important (to investigate the handwriting on the voucher and notebook)?

ASP Ahmad Nazri: Yes

Gobind: If it is important, why didn’t you certify the handwriting on the voucher and notebook?

ASP Ahmad Nazri: It did not cross my mind.

Court interpreter Ting Chin Kin, who translated the controversial note into Bahasa Malaysia, was questioned over certain words in the letter.

It was pointed out in court that the Chinese words zai jian in the note were translated as selamat tinggal (goodbye) in Bahasa Malaysia.

However, when Gobind produced a Chinese-English dictionary and asked Ting to read out the definition of zai jian, she read out: “See you again.”

Counsel Tan Hock Chuan, who represented the Government, then asked Ting why she chose to translate the words zai jian as selamat tinggal, to which she replied that the Chinese words could mean either see you again or selamat tinggal.

Azmil fixed Oct 14 for the inquest to be continued.

Teoh, 30, the political secretary to Selangor executive council member Ean Yong Hian Wah, was found dead the morning after he was taken to the state MACC office in Plaza Masalam here for questioning on July 15 last year – over alleged irregularities in the disbursement of funds.

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Nazri’s replies to Awang Selamat's Alahai Nazri

Kuching
Tuesday, 21st September 2010

Awang is caught in the time warp of those days where government MPs do not only not engage them but hate and dislike them in all circumstances. Awang will never understand this because he is not an elected MP, put in the House by the voice of the people. Anyway did Awang ever think of how five PKR MPs could cross and be independents, if not for the civility shown by me to them as parliamentary affairs minister? The number of crossovers to the independent caucus has exceeded the single MP from Pasir Mas, this so-called Malay Hero worshipped by Awang.

I have read the comments by Awang Selamat on me in his column. I want to make some clarifications lest readers be misled into thinking what he wrote is correct.

Firstly, I am never afraid to be criticised by the opposition. I would like Awang to come to Parliament and see and hear for himself the vitriol and attacks I received whilst defending the Government on issues related to the Prime Minister’s Office.

In my 33 years in politics, I was never spared by anybody who makes criticisms against me — including the recent comments by Awang. I don’t know about Awang himself, because I don’t even know who he is. I hope he can be a man like me and prove that he is not scared of criticism by coming out in the open and not hiding behind the pseudonym that he uses.

I am also not anti-Dr Mahathir (Mohamad). To me, so far he is the best prime minister I have served. However, as an ex-premier, there is so much left to be desired.

Awang should get out of his time warp and face the fact that I am now in the government as a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and not vice versa. So it is Tun Mahathir who is criticising the Government and not the other way round.

Of course anybody, regardless of who criticises the government, will receive relentless attack in defence of the Government by me just as I had done in the past when Tun Mahathir and Tun Abdullah (Ahmad Badawi) were the prime ministers.

Having said that, I want Awang to know that I am always sure who my boss is. It’s not (Lim) Kit Siang nor (Datuk Seri) Anwar (Ibrahim) because they are not prime minister of Malaysia, the chairman of BN or president of Umno.

I am not too sure Awang knows who his boss is because he undermines the 1 Malaysia policy of the prime minister and promotes the narrow racism of (Datuk) Ibrahim Ali who is not even an Umno member. Awang should be asking himself the question he posed to me.

Being civil to the opposition is the right thing to do in a democracy, because just like me, they are also elected by the people. Of course, Awang is caught in the time warp of those days where government MPs do not only not engage them but hate and dislike them in all circumstances.

Awang will never understand this because he is not an elected MP, put in the House by the voice of the people. Anyway did Awang ever think of how five PKR MPs could cross and be independents, if not for the civility shown by me to them as parliamentary affairs minister?

The number of crossovers to the independent caucus has exceeded the single MP from Pasir Mas, this so-called Malay Hero worshipped by Awang.

Incidentally, Umno has never asked or needed for Ibrahim to help us but the association with him will only cause us to lose votes.

Tun Mahathir himself told us about his loss in Kota Setar Selatan seat — a 90 per cent Malay majority parliamentary constituency — in 1969 to Yusof Rawa, where it was reported that Tun said he didn’t need Chinese votes. There is a lesson to be learned from this.

Of course, Awang will never understand because not only has he never offered himself as a candidate for the General Elections but readers don’t even know who he is.

Politicians like me who has stood for four general elections and won clearly have to be very careful in what we say and not be reckless like Awang. We need to muster all the votes regardless of race and we do not stay in the comfort zone as Awang does.

He can write and say anything irresponsibly and recklessly, knowing that he will never be punished by the voters.

That is why, Awang, if you asked what my agenda is, I think even school children will know that it’s to win the next general election and that Datuk Seri Najib (Razak) remains as prime minister of Malaysia.

I do hope that Awang also has the same agenda, unless of course his boss is somebody else. Finally I would advise Awang to stick to what he does and knows best and not try to meddle in national politics, of which he has shallow knowledge and zero experience.

He should concentrate in increasing his paper’s dwindling readership. It speaks volumes of their poor standards and performance when Utusan has to refer to the news report of the new electronic alternative media when it should be the reverse.

That will be his KPI and the measurement of his success in the field that he claims he represent well.

Mine is, of course, to win the Padang Rengas seat for Barisan Nasional in the next General Election regardless whether I am a candidate or not. Until then we shall see.

And yes I am a Malaysian first and Malay next. Does any bigot have a problem with that? - (Nazri Aziz is the Minister in the PM's Department)

This article was originally published in Malaysia Chronicle

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SOLID SUCCESS – BAKUN DELIVERS ON REQUIREMENTS

Kuching
Tuesday, 21st September 2010

News publications have been chewing over the figures as Bakun waits to be flooded and have come to some inevitable, long-predicted conclusions.

Firstly, the Dam has no genuine economic purpose. Sarawak already has more electricity than its impoverished population can afford to use and the plans to send it to Malaysia by undersea cable was a fantasy by technology-illiterate ministers.

Secondly, the dam will actually make electricity more, not less expensive for ordinary Sarawakians, as existing power plants will be shut and Sarawak Hidro are desperate to claw back some of the RM 7.3 billion costs.

Thirdly, the public worker pension funds, which were arm-twisted by politicians into funding the dam to the tune of RM 5.75 billion, are now left facing an appalling loss. This means either a whole generation of hard-working public servants (teachers, nurses, clerks, firemen etc.) will now lose their savings for old age, or the Malaysian taxpayer (the next generation of workers) will have to find the extra money to bail them out.

Pensioners’ loss is Taib family gain

plenty of cement and steel

Therefore the all-round conclusion has been that Bakun is a monstrous, multi-billion dollar disaster. Southeast Asia’s greatest ‘White Elephant’ foisted onto Malaysia Peninsular by Sarawak’s ‘Chief Executive Officer’ Abdul Taib Mahmud. Perhaps, it is speculated, at least tourists will come to visit such an appalling example of state planning gone spectacularly wrong?

However, these commentators are neglecting to point out that from the point of view of Mr Taib’s personal finances and those of the Taib family, the Bakun Dam has been a stunning success.

Much of the RM 5.75 billion siphoned out of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (KWAP) by this project has gone gushing straight into the Taib bank accounts – and then presumably straight on out of the country to fund their private foreign investments.

CMS saved from bad business judgements by Bakun

Researchers have long since detailed how it was the decision to revive the Bakun Dam project, after it was shelved during the Asian Financial Crash, that rescued Cayha Mata Sarawak (CMS), the business the Taib family ‘privatised’ from the state into their own pockets, in the late 1990s.

By 1999, CMS, which had over-stretched on ambitious projects, was facing terrifying losses of RM 787 million. The Chief Minister (whose late wife and two sons owned most of the shares of this ‘public’ company) was even more alarmed as the share price collapsed as a result. The ‘CEO of Sarawak’ was facing personal bankruptsy, since most of his family company’s borrowings were based on the value of these CMS shares.

Environmental catastophy - an area the size of Singapore has been stripped bare for flooding

So it was the political decision by the Malaysian government to pour RM 1.6 billion of taxpayers’ money into Bakun (a sum which has since escalated to 7.5 billion and rising) that saved the Taibs’ from ruin (and kept BN in power in Sarawak). Everyone knew that the Chief Minister would award his own company the lions share of the contracts for this glorious mega-project (CMS specialises in producing cement and steel) and that the company would go from strength to strength.

Endless profit to be made

The Chief Minister does not miss a trick when it comes to making money and Bakun has gone on to provide wonderful further opportunities for abuse of public trust. Thus, his own company CMS has now gone on to further establish itself as the biggest private customer of the publicly owned venture that it built.

The company has done a deal with Rio Tinto Zinc (despite the horror of environmentalists) to build a vast aluminium smelter to soak up Bakun’s excess power. This consortium is currently playing hardball with Sarawak Hidro, the Federal government body in charge of the dam, to get a preferential deal for electricity. This at a time when Taib is negotiating on behalf of the State of Sarawak to buy the project off the Federal Government.

This means clever Taib has set himself up as the biggest client of the state venture that, as Finance Minister and Chief Minister, he is going to be entrusted with managing of behalf of the interests of the taxpayer! As far as conflict of interest goes that is about as big as it gets!

Aluminium smelters - get ready for the pollution

Meanwhile, Sarawak Report wonders whether his business partner, Rio Tinto Zinc, has considered dusting off its own ethics book on this issue, and leafing through to the section on doing business with corrupt tyrants?

Clearly, the opportunity to move politically sensitive and highly polluting aluminium smelting plants out of Australia, where the mineral is mined, and into Sarawak is tempting. Taib, of course, plans to cover the whole of this once pristine rainforest state with filthy foreign industries to foul up what remains of the dammed up river basins – the so-called Sarawak Corridor of Energy.

However, while the Chief Minister regards himself impervious to criticism and bullet proof at the ballot box (no fool like an old fool), the business executives at Rio Tinto have learnt the hard way about the dangers of deals such as these. Their local back yard environmentalists in Australia may be happy to see them move off, but the global environmentalists will be only too ready to hold such actions to account. And the native peoples of Sarawak are not that happy either, to put it gently.

Moveable inconvenience – displaced people at Sungai Asap camp, Bakun

No benefit to Sarawak

Citizens of Sarawak have also learnt the hard way that the jobs from dirty industries such as these will go to foreign workers and the money will go straight back out again. They know that ’Progress and Development’ , Taib-style means environmental destruction, land seizures and poverty for the many and vast riches for….. well Taib.

All of which explains why the multi-billion dollar plan to go on building pointless dams across the whole of the rest of Sarawak, displacing tens of thousands more indigenous people and destroying vast areas, while appearing to be the strategy of a mad man makes enormous economic sense personally to Abdul Taib Mahmud.

This is because China has agreed to invest US $11 billion to do it. Most of that money he reasons will go to him and after that who cares that the people of Sarawak will be in debt to China and therefore under China’s control for ever more?

Original article was published in Malaysia Report

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