Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

By Grace Leong Singapore's reputation as a financial hub was at stake as the authorities investigated a maze of transactions passing through the banking system here in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) controversy. The result of the Republic's most extensive probe to date: A total of $29.1 million in penalties slapped on eight errant banks and the conviction of five people linked to Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho. Three of the five have been banned either for life or a minimum of 15 years from Singapore's securities industry, while another has been banned for 10 years. Three more face three- to six-year bans. The authorities stress that the scale of the review has been unprecedented, spanning hundreds of thousands of transactions involving many shell firms and people operating in the United States, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Luxembourg and Malaysia. But it may not be over yet, given the complexity of the case. The Monetary Authority of Singapore noted that its fin...

My article was earlier published in TheAntDaily.com on 29/3/2014 During the Chinese New Year celebration last January, Seputeh Member of Parliament (MP) Teresa Kok published a comedy video clip alleging blatant corruption, power abuse and mismanagement in the government. The reactions by Umno supporters and pro-Umno NGOs, combined under the so-called Coalition of Muslim NGOs, were fast, furious and even crude. They staged various demonstrations and slaughtered chickens in public to threaten Kok and accused her of insulting the Malays and Islam. At several protests held by these groups, they even offered a RM1,200 reward to whoever who could slap Kok and produce evidence to show it. Kok lodged a police report on the slap threat but Home Minister and Umno vice-president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the slap threat was not an offence, indirectly telling police to disregard the police report by the DAP leader. This means, to Umno, slapping or any attempt or thre...

Earlier, the BN government has decided to please our people by repealing the Emergency Ordinance (EO) and the Restricted Residence Act. The repeal of these two laws were further affirmed by the police that the crime rate of our nation has dropped, thanks to the "hard work" of the policemen out there in "curbing" the crimes. Out of the sudden, the newly sworn in BN government with its new home affairs minister in place, they had decided to enact a new law to replace the old EO and also incorporating some of the  provisions of the other repealed laws. The BN leader reason that the crime rates has been on the rise again, blamed the release of many EO detainees had also resulted to the immediate increase of the crime spree in the streets and many more excuses. And at the same time, both the recently retired inspector-general of police and the newly appointed inspector-general of police (IGP) has been insisting that the crime rate has dropped despite being questione...

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...

Umno vice-president and home affairs minister Hishammuddin Hussein warned that more political ceramah disruptions are likely to take place in the soon-to-be 13th general elections (GE13). Well his statement in his capacity as the home affairs minister, taking charge of the police force and the public safety is such an unbecoming and he does not demonstrate his professionalism as a government minister. He is instead demonstrating his action more in the interest of his party rather than to the nation and our people at large. Obviously, we are very certain that everyone of us knew since from the beginning most of the Opposition political events and ceramahs are being disrupted by members of the Barisan Nasional (BN), particularly of those from Umno and its NGO-ally Perkasa. Just look at what happened to the Opposition campaign team who are on their rounds peacefully trying their level best to inform our people the actual political, social and economic situation of our nation. Their c...

We were gravely surprise and shock to see that there were about 15 policemen being dispatched to the editorial office of Malaysiakini.com recently to investigate an article published in the online news portal written by a contributor named Steve Oh in support of Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar's statement on the "no compulsion in religion" made in a seminar. What? Why did the home affairs ministry need as many as 15 policemen (most of them of officer's rank) to investigate just a piece of article contributed by a commentator? We want to ask the superior of these 15 policemen, if he is overly politically motivated in mobilising such a big team to probe the article. A blatant wastage of public fund and taxpayers' money. We are certainly confident that most of us would remember the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) mentioned that the police force has been really short of manpower in pursuing their crime fighting effort which had resulted to the crime rate i...

The recent report made by the Auditor-General has been released. The report was actually being withheld from being released to the members of parliament. It was only released at the last minute when members of parliament complained of not getting the copies in time for their study and review. The Auditor-General's report had mentioned everything, from the various power abuses, mismanagement, corruption, missing funds, disbursement of allocations to shopping sprees. What next? Why hasn't the prime minister take the report seriously and initiate the necessary actions in order to curb such negative elements as soon as possible? Why isn't the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) take their initiatives to step in and take whatever action they could according to the law to book all those culprits to the law? MACC would definitely respond by saying that no report has been lodged and therefore an investigation file could not be opened to address all those misdeeds. So...

We were all wondering, why is it not wrong for Umno to smuggle RM40 million into the party's account in Sabah? Well, it was mentioned by Umno president Najib Razak that the RM40 million smuggling into Sabah Umno has no basis. Then the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) too confirmed that there's nothing wrong with the said questionable financial activity in Sabah Umno and therefore, no investigation papers needed. What is this? It is clearly a money laundering activity is going on in Sabah in order to help finance the state Umno's activities or whatever illegal channels over there. We are wondering why is the MACC saying that there's no case at all on such unlawful activity? Suara Inisiatif Sdn Bhd (Suaram) has been faithfully sending its annual reports to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) yearly and also dutifully paid its dues and taxes to the government every year. And yet Suaram is now being persecuted by various quarters such as the CCM...

We are referring to the recent four "mat rempits" or should we say the four stooges who has been welcomed by Teluk Bahang Umno state assemblyman Dr Hilmi Yahaya and confirmed that they are three PAS members and a DAP member who had earlier joined a 300 mobs of "mat rempits" who demonstrated against the Penang state government demanding for a race track for them to have their motorcycle racing. The first thing we would like to ask, will they ever dare to protest and demand in BN-ruled states demanding for the same, i.e. race tracks? Perhaps we will know where will they end up in the end if they do so. The three PAS members, maybe disgruntled with their party leadership, while the lone DAP member who had only joined the party after the 2008 general elections. Were these guys all opportunist merely trying to voice their frustrations on their party leaders because they could not get what they want? A membership or affiliation to a political party does not mean that th...

Just immediately after the Sarawak state legislative assembly was dissolved to pave way for the state election, former child rapist and ex-Melaka Umno chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik admitted that his business partner Datuk Shazryl Eskay, Perkasa’s treasurer Datuk Shuib Lazim and himself were collectively the mysterious “Datuk T” who were behind the Monday’s screening of a sex video purportedly featuring PKR Advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim with an unidentified woman. Congratulations to Umno on their well-planned game to cripple Pakatan Rakyat's and their election machinery. But everyone knows that this will not deter the strength and spirit of the Pakatan leaders in Sarawak in facing the upcoming Sarawak state election. Even if their plot and conspiracy is well-planned, we wish to stress that this kind of work is not a genius one, politically. It is certainly an outdated and uncivilized kind of dirty political foul-play in order to bring one's opponent down at a...

The minister in the prime minister's department in charge of law Datuk Nazri Aziz had recently said that the victim of the snatch theft who pursued one of the two robbers to his death might be charged in the court for murder. According to Nazri, the law is the law and victim would also have to face it as she had committed a "murder". So what is Nazri really trying to translate here? Is he saying that it is also wrong for a robbery victim to defend oneself? Is Nazri also trying to say that the victim had failed to call the police to assist her in going after those snatch thieves? Where were the police when she was robbed in daylight and needed help so desperately? She has to fend for herself when these robbers robbed her of er belongings and she also might have been killed if she were to be unlucky on that day. And whenever something had gone wrong, the police top brass are quick to give lame excuses that they are short of manpower, this and that, and so on. Well, you do n...

When Teoh Beng Hock, the political assistant to a Selangor State Executive Councillor was found murdered at the Selangor MACC headquarters in Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam, the prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is also the Umno president promised the Teoh family that the magistrate's inquest on Beng Hock's murder will take two weeks and the most two months. But it is already one year now! According to Najib, the Teoh family could meet him again if they are not satisfied with the inquest and when Najib was requested to provide a guarantee letter to the family, he simply ignored them and had since continue to avoid the family's grievances despite their request to meet him again earlier. Besides, the MACC had also played a vital role in preventing key witnesses, particularly a renown Thai pathologist Dr Porntip Rojanasunand to testify in the inquest. Earlier, the MACC had also pledged to give its full cooperation in order to ensure the smooth running of the inquest but to...

Recently the Umno-led BN federal government had announced several subsidy cuts to be implemented very soon. According to the prime minister who is also the Umno president, the implementations will be carried out very soon. OK, we would like to ask the prime minister, does your subsidy cutting plans includes reforms on how the government spending is running? Just a little and simple example, are you really able to get rid of the "one calculator costs about RM250/unit" cases which were found blatantly wild in various government departments and agencies? The other thing, is Najib able to get rid of all those Umno dominated contract jobs? A syndrome that all government contracts must be awarded to Umno branch and division chairmen. Because these Umno leaders who handle government contracts does not usually come clean. About 98 percent, or should we say almost all Umno contractors who got the contracts awarded to them do not really perform those jobs on their own. They again subco...

A man, believed to be a police special branch officer, was detained by DAP's security personnel when he was caught red-handed recording the proceedings of the party's national convention at the Syuen Hotel here today. According to party insiders, the man had sneaked into the control room for the ballroom where the function is being held and had managed to record at least eight sound clips of the entire convention's proceedings since 10am this morning. Perak DAP chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham lambasted the police for their act of intruding on the people’s privacy. “It is not about whether or not we were discussing secrets during our convention but about the fact that the police have absolutely no respect at all for the privacy of others. “Under the law, a person who enters the convention or meeting of a private organisation is clearly committing trespass,” he said. The police is spying on a private meeting mean only for party members. This is gravely wrong, a disgrace and a pub...

DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh refuted the allegation by Selangor police chief Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar that Penang Chief Minister and DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng refused to cooperate with police in giving a statement last Saturday. Karpal said Lim had prior to that requested that he be supplied a copy of the police report before giving his statement under Section 112 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC). "The Chief Minister had made it very clear that he was not refusing to make the statement but required a copy of the police report," he said, adding that the police report would ensure whatever he said would be the truth as he was bound to state the truth. Karpal said that under Section 193 of the Penal Code for giving false evidence or fabricating false evidence, and under Section 203 for giving false information, the offender could face a jail sentence or a fine or both. "It is necessity in law, for a police officer recording a statement under Section 112 (o...

Malaysiakini reports that the United States has put Malaysia back on the blacklist of countries trafficking in people after removing the country from the list last year. So, what is the Home Affairs Ministry under Hishammuddin Tun Hussein doing all these while ? We know what happened. The ministry is busy mobilising its security forces to curb democratic and political activities rather than putting them to fight the rising crimes in our nation. Just because the opposition coalition is gaining its influence and its popularity is on the rise, they used the security forces to curb their influences by arresting, harrassing, threatening and imprisonment. Even lighting a candle or wearing black t-shirt is an offence right now. Is democracy dying and the crime rate is going up right now ?