Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

Just as we had predicted in the previous commentary , three weeks ago about the ineffectiveness of the Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC) and the number of grievances of EAIC which has been put forward by its chief executive officer Nor Afizah Hanum Mokhtar, she has been shown to the exit door today. Nor Afizah has been removed from EAIC as a CEO with immediate effect and transferred to a non-grade position in the Attorney-General's Chamber (AGC). The transfer notice did not specify the reason of her removal or what actual position she would assume in the AGC as it only stated an instruction to her to report to AGC for work on 1st July 2013. No successor was named for her position in EAIC as well, despite the fact that the commission has been overloaded with many unresolved cases. It shows that since from the beginning and the inception of the EAIC, the so-called integrity commission has been a political window dressing in order to avoid the actual proposed est...

Since when did our words, comments, criticisms, talks or whatever we do became an insult to the royalty? Recently, we could see and hear many political radicals, extremists, racist and those who are taking advantage on the royalty are continuously calling for a law or some kind of treasons Act to be in place to punish anybody who "insults" the king, queen, agong, agung, sultans, pemerintahs, undangs, maharajas, emperors, empress, tengku mahkotas, raja mudas, princes, crown princes, or whatever you can name up there which are in bright colours. Are these radical, extreme and racist politicians taking advantage on the royalty? Are all these absolute irresponsible politicians trying to make use of the royalty to justify their political stands and personal agendas? Since the last two general elections, we had observe that a race-based dominant political party form the ruling coalition has been losing our people's support, and they are attempting to put all the blame onto...

Naib-presiden Umno dan menteri dalam negeri yang baru, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi hari ini berkata kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) menolak terus cadangan pembentukan Suruhanjaya Bebas Aduan dan Salahlaku Polis (IPCMC) oleh kerana wujudnya pertindihan dengan undang-undang yang sedia ada. Katanya lagi, contoh beberapa pertindihan tersebut adalah seperti Akta Pencegahan Rasuah (Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia - SPRM), Akta Kanun Jenayah, Akta Kesalahan-kesalahan Di Luar Negeri dan sebagainya. Untuk memastikan IPCMC tersebut tidak ditubuhkan oleh kerana tekanan pergerakan hak-hak sivil dan parti-parti pembangkang, kerajaan BN dan menteri dalam negeri tersebut menggunakan alasan yang sedemikian rupa bagi mematahkan terus tekanan tersebut. Alasan tersebut sememangnya tidak dapat diterima rakyat jelata. Jika sekiranya terdapat sebarang pertindihan undang-undang yang sedia ada dengan cadangan pembentukan IPCMC, selaraskanlah undang-undang tersebut dengan lebih teratur agar kesemua bentu...

MCA kini sedang berdepan dengan gelak ketawa daripada orang ramai akibat daripada perbuatannya yang mengikat diri mereka sendiri. Selain daripada itu, ramai di antara kita juga mula percaya bahawa para pemimpin MCA tidak boleh hidup tanpa jawatan-jawatan kerajaan. Di dalam persidangan agung tahunan MCA yang diadakan pada tahun 2011 dan 2012, para perwakilan parti tersebut telah meluluskan satu resolusi untuk tidak menerima sebarang jawatan dalam kerajaan jika sekiranya parti tersebut gagal menunjukkan prestasi dan pencapaian yang memuaskan di dalam pilihanraya umum yang ke-13 (PRU13). Dan pada ketika itu, apabila ditanya sama ada hanya jawatan menteri kabinet sahaja akan ditolak, presiden MCA Dr Chua Soi Lek dengan lantang menjawab, bahawa penolakan jawatan kerajaan jika sekiranya MCA gagal mencapai kemenangan besar di dalam PRU13, adalah daripada peringkat menteri, timbalan menteri, setiausaha politik, majlis mesyuarat kerajaan negeri (exco), lembaga pengarah GLC, lembaga pelaw...

Masalah jerebu yang melanda negara kita ini berlaku hampir pada setiap tahun. Ianya sudah menjadi seakan-akan seperti suatu perayaan ulangtahun ataupun suatu upacara wajib yang perlu dilaksanakan pada setiap tahun. Semua warga Malaysia sudahpun mengetahui dengan jelas dari manakah jerebu itu berasal. Ya, ianya daripada negara jiran, Indonesia. Persoalan yang ayik kita inginkan penjelasan adalah, kenapa kerajaan pusat di Putrajaya masih gagal mengambil sebarang tindakan yang drastik bagi menangani masalah jerebu ini yang telah berlaku sekian lama, kalau tidak silap, sudah berlanjutan lebih daripada satu abad. Yang menyebabkannya, siapakah pemilik ladang dan syarikat yang terlibat, sipemilik syarikat tersebut, nama syarikat-syarikat yang terlibat, bukannya pihak kerajaan tidak mengetahui kesemuanya ini, bahkan soal siapakah yang terlibat secara langsung, semuanya sudahpun dikenalpasti. Dan setelah kesemua si penjerebu ini telah dikenalpasti, kenapa masih tidak ada tindakan yang ...

When the results of the 13th general elections (GE13) was announced, the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had managed to spring a bigger surprise over its rival, ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) by having increased its parliamentary and state seats nationwide. As the opposition coalition and their supporters were overjoyed, BN leaders, particularly from Umno then aimed their salva at the Chinese community, alleging that the Chinese has revolted against the BN government by not supporting the ruling coalition, thus immediate called the GE13 results as a typical "Chinese Tsunami". From there, Umno leaders continuously attacked the Chinese community and had urged the government to avenge their defeat on the second largest ethnic in our nation. And until yesterday, it was still Umno's claim of the "Chinese Tsunami". Umno leader wanted to remind the other ethnics every day that it was the Chinese who are against the other ethnics. However, if yo...

When MCA national organising secretary Tee Siew Khiong decided to abide by the the Sultan's "titah perintah" and accepted the state executive councillor's position in Johor, MCA president Chua Soi Lek then let known to everyone that Tee has gone against the resolution made in the MCA annual general assembly affirming that the party should not accept any government or government-related position if the party performs badly in the general elections. As the result of Tee's obedience to the Sultan, he has to resign from all his party positions at the national, state, divisional and branch levels. In the recent MCA central committee meeting, it has also decided that Tee's party membership would be suspended for three years. Tee then responded that the decision made by the party leadership was a kind of double-standard. Later, the news of MCA vice-president Ng Yen Yen (who is also the former tourism minister in the previous cabinet) had accepted the appointme...

The 13th general elections (GE13) has concluded since last month. Barisan Nasional (BN) got the slimmest majority it had never experience before, while Pakatan Rakyat (PR) increased their inroads dramatically this time since 1969. Then, when Chinese-based BN component parties, like MCA, Gerakan and SUPP performed badly in the last GE13, their big brother, Umno had started their blame game by smashing the Chinese community for making life like a hell for the BN and its race-based component parties. First, it was BN chairman Najib, who said it was terrible Chinese tsunami, then former premier Mahathir joined the chorus by citing the tsunami was a tragic one, followed by the rest of the Umno leader who kept drumming up their hate sentiments against the Chinese community by repeating the words nationwide blaming the Chinese community for their reduced majority in the parliament and state legislative assemblies. And recently, controversial Perlis Umno warlord and newly appointed mi...

According to the racist and extremist group, Perkasa vice-president Zulkifli Noordin, it would be treasonous to put the Elections Commission (EC) and the appointment of its chairman, deputy chairman and commissioners under the parliament's purview because, according to him the appointment of these EC members are based on the Yang Di Pertuan Agong's prerogative according to the Federal Constitution. Is this guy really telling the truth, only told the half truth or has he lied in actual fact? In this case, let us look at the provision of the Federal Constitution which constitutes the EC. Under Article 114 (1), it states that "The Elections Commission shall be appointed by the Yang Di Pertuan Agong after consultation with the Conference of Rulers and shall consist of a chairman, a deputy chairman and five other members". It is absolutely correct. But, the Perkasa vice-president had failed to further mention on the rest of the provisions under this Article 114 whic...

Everyone of us are asking, why is the Polis Di Raja Malaysia (PDRM) getting worst and the crime rates are even on the rise? Everyone of us are now demanding the explanations from the government and the many members of the PDRM high command. In fact, the PDRM top officials manning the high command should also ask themselves now. Even the home affairs minister should also ask why the PDRM's performance had worsen? Many PDRM officials and personnel had instead blamed our people for being anti-police and listening to much to "rumor mongers" who are out to tarnish the PDRM's image. First of all, why do we want to be anti-police and listening to rumors on the bad side of the PDRM? Reports and evidence had already proven that the entire PDRM is really in a bad shape. The many deaths that the PDRM personnel had caused for decades. We do not have to remind the people about the total numbers. Everyone of us remember. Even the brutality (or should we say violence) as demo...

The Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC) has already failed, even prior to its inception because they lack of the necessary funding and manpower to work out its roles and responsibilities for the public. Besides, having the EAIC directly under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Department (PMD) has in fact put the integrity commission in a way that it has been seen as not independent and has no power to act on its own because EAIC is only a sub-department under the PMD hierarchy. Apart from that, the  EAIC's oversight responsibilities covers about 19 different enforcement agencies nationwide, plus some sub-enforcement units within certain government departments and agencies. Asides, EAIC also did not possess the prosecuting and enforcement powers to enable the commission to demand for the hearing of a reported case and all the subjects of the integrity in question to be summoned for a case hearing session without fail. The other issue is, who will effec...

During any special occasions be it the birthday of the rulers or whatever events that extends its invitations to the royals to attend or to officiate, the rulers would be definitely given the opportunity to give his speech to the public prior to the commencement of the occasion or event. Well, certainly it would be surely against the protocol if the invited royal subject is not provided with an opportunity to present his speech or "titah". The question here is, did the Sultans and the King actually write their own speeches? And the subsequent question here is, did the Sultans and the King have the sufficient time to write or edit their own speeches given to the fact of their full-packed of functions and events that they need to attend or to officiate every day, every hour, every minute and every second. So, doing all these speech writings are in fact the responsibilities of the private secretaries and press secretaries of the Sultans and the King. And the appointment of ...

Everyone of us know that why there is an insistence in calling for the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) despite already having the one Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission (EAIC) in existence in dealing with such. Well, even the best known and no-nonsense chief executive officer (CEO) of the EAIC, Nor Afizah Hanum knows what is wrong with the current situation. Correct us if we are wrong. Currently, the EAIC is really short of manpower in carrying out its responsibilities. The EAIC has only one investigation officer which was seconded from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Previously, EAIC has six investigation officers in its roll call but it was eventually withdrawn and returned to MACC. Therefore, we suppose the EAIC do not even have sufficient staffs to call for a hearing or public inquiry sessions. Basically, the EAIC cannot perform its duties and responsibilities effectively with having only one invest...

Recently, the prime minister and Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Najib Razak had announced that the currently tainted Elections Commission (EC) would be shifted out from the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Department and put under the watch of the parliament. Asides from this move, the prime minister also mentioned that a special parliamentary committee which would comprise of members of parliament (MPs) from both side of the political divide would be selected to oversee and scrutinise the functions of the EC and its operations. We applaud the move made by Najib to move the EC out from his ministry, by having it under the jurisdiction of the parliament. However, we are still doubtful of his moves. Why? Because, based on his previous pledges to repeal some repressive laws and to reform some of the worst performing agencies, what he did are getting rid of the old ones and replaced them with the new ones with the same old features on them. This is only like changing those t...