The ABC of Public Trust and Accountability.

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Monday, 07 January 2013 admin-s 

Let us teach UMNO people some ABC. How to conduct oneself in a transparent manner and show people we are committed to the principle of accountability. The UMNO people are going to town ridiculing DAP for making an error in counting the votes for Zairil K Johari and coming out in the open, owning up to the mistake. They would rather keep people in the dark, stealing from the country, making stupid statements when caught.

 

sakmongkol AK47 

A party coming out in the open showing all that its committed to the principle of transparency and more important on accountability is demeaned because of that?  clearly then, it means transparency and accountability do not exist in UMNO’s vocabulary. Deceit and irresponsibility are.

What would UMNO do? Use mistakes to defraud people? It’s better to keep and hide things from people? It’s better not to answer or even pretend not to know, the whereabouts of Puspahanas? Where is that damn thing? The government is not answering despite having given the leeching lady RM27 million of taxpayers’ money. Is Raja Ropiaah milking money on behalf of UMNO?

It’s better to keep quiet and hide from people the whereabouts of the RM207 billion or whatever amount paid by Japan to some 30,000 death railway conscripted laborers? UMNO supports and condones silence and hiding malpractices such as the RM500 million commission earned by middlemen in the purchase of malfunctioning submarines. Or defrauding the people into believing that the proposed west coast expressway breaks new ground in the way piratization privatization is made? Whether the new west coast expressway of 223km costs RM31 million or RM 22 million per kilometer, people want to know what kind of stones and premix go into the building of the road? Why can’t JKR do it and make it toll free too? JKR can make it at probably a fraction of the cost. I am told by some JKR engineers, maybe at RM2.5 billion, much lesser than the soft loan given by UMNO to the contracting company. Are the bridges made of gold?  People want to know how could a person associated with failure to pay debts owning to the Selangor government and having a company with a dismal business record can get the award for the highway?

Read more at: http://sakmongkol.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-abc-of-public-trust-and.html

Non-Muslims can use ‘Allah’, Mat Sabu insists

By Amin Iskandar
Assistant News Editor

January 04, 2013

Source by: The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 — PAS maintains that non-Muslims are allowed to use the word “Allah” to describe their gods, says PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu, in a bid to allay fears among the religious minority that the Islamist party may be reversing its president’s stand ahead of polls.

He insisted that the latest polemic over the use of “Allah” by non-Muslims was limited to peninsular Malaysia and was never an issue among Muslims and Christians in Sabah, Sarawak and the Middle East.

“The PAS’ president had issued the statement in 2010 to not forbid any religious adherent apart from Muslims to use the word ‘Allah’.

“PAS maintains that stand,” the 58-year-old told The Malaysian Insider, weighing in on the religious row after the party information chief Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man issued a statement last month seemingly contradicting his president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s previous remarks on the hot-button topic in mainly Muslim Malaysia.

The leader popularly known as Mat Sabu (picture) noted that Abdul Hadi had already spoken out on the matter three years ago, when the debate first raged.

Abdul Hadi, a respected Islamic scholar, had in a statement dated January 7, 2010 said: “In conclusion, we cannot forbid them from using the word ‘Allah’ among themselves, in their worship and practice, even though the meaning deviates from the original according to our language.”

Many Muslim Malaysians, who form 60 per cent of the 28 million population, argue that the Arabic word is a proper noun that refers exclusively to their god despite a December 31, 2009 High Court judgment saying otherwise, and ruled to allow the Catholic Church to publish the word to describe the Christian god in the Malay section of its weekly newspaper, Herald, which caters to its Bahasa Malaysia-reading congregation who mostly hail from Borneo.

The debate over non-Muslim use of the word was again sparked last month when Tuan Ibrahim publicly remarked that the use of the word “Allah” in the Alkitab, the Malay-language translation of the Bible, would not reflect the original text’s meaning.

“PAS’ stand is that the Bahasa Melayu Bible should replace the ‘God’ term with ‘Tuhan’ and not ‘Allah’ to mirror the actual meaning of the original text,” he said in a statement issued just a day after Christmas.

Tuan Ibrahim said both Christians and Muslims could be confused when the word “Allah” is used in the Alkitab.

He was responding to an earlier statement issued by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) ally, Lim Guan Eng, who had raised the controversial “Allah” issue in his Christmas message urging the federal government to lift its ban on the word published in the Malay bibles shipped in to Sabah and Sarawak, who form the bulk of Malaysia’s 9.2 per cent Christian population.

In recent years, the Christian and Muslim religious communities have been engaged in a tug-of-war over the word “Allah”, with the latter group arguing that its use should be exclusive to them on the grounds that Islam is monotheistic and the word “Allah” denotes the Muslim god.

Shipments of the Alkitab, the Malay-language Bible catering to the Bahasa Malaysia-speaking Bumiputera Christians, were blocked or confiscated at ports, before the government finally bowed to pressure and released them in 2011.

A legal tussle over the use of the word “Allah” remains unresolved, with the Catholic Church still barred from publishing the word in its weekly newspaper, despite winning a High Court decision on December 31, 2009.

This is due to the Home Ministry filing an appeal in 2010 against the High Court’s decision, which has since stagnated in the courts as no date has been set for its hearing.

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had said yesterday the PR pact will meet on January 8 to discuss the issue further.

In final leg before polls, Bersih to train Malaysians to spot GE13 fraud

By Clara Chooi
Assistant News Editor

January 01, 2013

Source by : The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — Fraudsters will have to tread carefully during the 13th general election as thousands of extra pairs of trained eyes will be helping the Election Commission (EC) and the police spot electoral fraud and political violence when polling day arrives.

Apart from the polling and counting agents appointed by each electoral candidate inside every polling station, a new breed of observers will be trolling the EC camps outside and in the nearby areas while voters decide who should rule Putrajaya next.

These are Bersih 2.0’s “citizen observers” — ordinary members of the public out to cast their own ballots on that crucial day, but armed with special training from local election experts on how to spot possible fraud and what to do with that information.

Read more :http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/in-final-leg-before-polls-bersih-to-train-malaysians-to-spot-ge13-fraud/

Singapore 6th, Malaysia 36th best nation to be born in 2013, survey shows

By Debra Chong
Assistant News Editor
January 03, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — Singapore jumped to the sixth best place to be born in the world this year while Malaysia was 36th, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) index of 80 nations that attempts to measure which country provides the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life.

Southeast Asia’s third biggest economy hopped up two rungs from the 38th spot it occupied 25 years ago, when the EIU —- a sister company to the influential Economist business and current affairs magazine — first ran its “Where-to-be-born” index in 1988, edging out other nations in the region except for Singapore.

 
A quarter century later, the Lion City has shot to 6th place, up from 36th out of 48 countries in 1988 when it tied with East Germany before the Berlin Wall crumbled.


File photo of a tourist takes a picture of his companions in front of Merlion Park in Singapore. The island republic is a better place than Malaysia to be born, according to a new survey. - Reuters pic


Thailand ranked 50, the Philippines which placed 24th in 1988 dropped to 63, tying with Sri Lanka, while Vietnam and Indonesia took 68th and 71st positions respectively.   


Malaysia drew 6.62 out of a 10-point scorecard in the study of life-satisfaction survey, which seeks to quantify how happy people say they are based on a list of 11 economic and socio-political indicators such as a country’s income per capita, cost of living, human rights, life expectancy and literacy and education levels.

However, the methodology used to crunch up the numbers for its statistics has also changed from when the index was introduced.

In 1988, the Economist graded a total of 48 countries for bonus points on cultural poverty, what it called the “philistine factor”; and the degree to which a country is deemed to be “irrevocably boring” in spite of its virtues and which it described as the “yawn factor”.

In an accompanying article linked to the “Lottery of life” feature published in its January 1 online edition, the Economist explained that the study calculated life-satisfaction based on a 2006 Gallup Poll of 130 countries.

The Economist explained that its index also calculates the EIU’s economic forecasts to 2030 — roughly when children born this year will reach adulthood.

In the 2013 index, Switzerland beat out all other nations, including the United States as the last world superpower, as the best place for babies to be born.

Australia ranked runner-up, followed by the Scandinavian countries Norway (3), Sweden (4) and Denmark (5) while New Zealand, the Netherlands, Canada and Hong Kong rounded up the rest of the top 10.
Nigeria limped in last as the worst place for a baby to be born this year.

Malaysia had emerged as the world’s 51st happiest nation out of 156 countries surveyed and second to Singapore in Southeast Asia, in the World Happiness Report released by the United Nations last April.

“Political freedom, strong social networks and an absence of corruption are together more important than income in explaining well-being differences,” the UN report stated then.

“At the individual level, good mental and physical health, someone to count on, job security and stable families are crucial,” it added.

Down to the wire

Malaysia’s elections
Banyan Asia
by R.C. | KUALA LUMPUR
The Economist
Dec 19th 2012

ALL year, it seems, Malaysia has been on a war footing. For elections, that is—and thankfully, rather than anything more martial. The country operates on a Westminster-style parliamentary system, so the prime ministers’ five-year term does not officially end until early next summer. Nonetheless, Najib Razak and his people have been talking up the chances of going to the polls before then pretty well continuously over the past 18 months or so, which keeps everyone guessing.

Now, with the end of the year in sight and no further announcements, it seems that Mr Najib will take this down to the wire. Given that he can only go to the country after Chinese New Year next February, most people expect him to plump for the latest date he can in the electoral calendar, which would be about late March or early April.

His supporters say, why rush? With a generally favourable economic outlook, tame state media and all the advantages of incumbency, there is no reason why Mr Najib can’t enjoy the rest of his term of office without worrying about the 13th general election. After all, he has a bit of history on his side, to put it mildly—the ruling political alliance, Barisan Nasional (BN), has never lost a general election since independence in 1957.

His critics, however, detect signs of nervousness about the outcome—mainly, the endless indecision about when to go to the polls. Indeed, all the evidence suggests that this will be the closest race in Malaysia’s history, even more so than the last general election in 2008. On that occasion, the BN lost its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time, thus losing its powers to make changes to the constitution. Just as bad, five of the 12 contested state legislatures were won by the opposition, compared with only one in the previous election. Mr Najib knows that to placate his hardline critics within the BN he has to not only win, but win big. They want the BN to claw back most of what the party lost last time. It’s a tall order.

With so much at stake, every vote counts…but only if every vote is counted. Democracy activists and other election-watchers are concerned that many of the criteria for a free and fair election have not been met by the government and the government-appointed Election Commission.

Over the past few years the campaign for open and fair elections has been led by Bersih (meaning “clean” in Malay), a loose coalition of civil-rights and human-rights NGOs and others.

The head of Bersih, Ambiga Sreenevasan, sounded gloomy last week about the prospects for this election. “It will be the dirtiest election we have seen for a long time”, she warned. She points to the more overt signs of this, such as “increasing political violence” (at political rallies, for example) and more subtle signs such as “constant reports of discrepancies on the electoral roll in west Malaysia.”

Having campaigned for very specific improvements to the conduct of elections, Ms Ambiga says that the authorities have take action only with respect to the proposal that voters be marked with indelible ink (and even then not entirely to her satisfaction). On everything else, such as the neglected right of all sides to enjoy equal access to the media, Ms Ambiga says that the electoral authorities “give me and Bersih no reason at all to believe that anything will change before the election”.

With official overseas election observers (apart from ASEAN) apparently considered unnecessary by the government, Bersih is setting up its own “citizens-observers’ campaign”. Mr Ambiga says that they need 30,000 observers, but expect to get only 10,000. Bersih will train them. They might soon be busy people

Malaysia’s Education Disaster: The power to change the system is in our hands

by Koon Yew Yin

As election day comes closer, we will be asked for reasons as to why we should want to change the Barisan Nasional Government (BN). When the question is put to me, I tell people that there is no need to enumerate three, four or five reasons. One reason alone is sufficient for Malaysians to elect a new government.

The reason is that the BN has ruined our educational system and put us back at least one generation in our educational standards and standing.

When the country became independent in 1957 our educational system was acknowledged to be amongst the best in the region. Today, after the introduction of NEP policies in education, we are scraping the bottom of the barrel in our standards of educational achievement at all levels.

 BN’s Record

Whether it is in primary, secondary or tertiary education, the rot is clear. Half literate primary school products that cannot write or speak properly in either English or Bahasa and drop out early; secondary students with abysmal standards in Mathematics, Science and other core subjects; tertiary students who are provided with university degrees but in fact are unemployable except in the civil service.

This is the disastrous outcome of BN rule. This is the result of the politicization of the educational system and UMNO’s cynical use of it as a political and racial football.

Whether it is with regard to mission schools or vernacular or SRJK schools; teaching of science and mathematics; teaching of English; appointment of administrators and heads of schools; the curriculum; examinations; vocational education; funding and allocations – UMNO has inserted its racial and political agenda to debase and corrupt the system.

If readers think that I am over critical of the BN, let me provide two pieces of evidence on the disaster in our education.

The first is from the Government itself. According to the national education blueprint (Preliminary report, Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025, pp, E4-E5)

• Malaysia was ranked in the bottom third of 74 participating countries of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009+.

• 60% of the 15-year-old Malaysian students who participated in PISA failed to meet the minimum proficiency level in Mathematics, while 44% and 43% did not meet the minimum proficiency levels in Reading and Science respectively

• A comparison of scores shows that 15-year-olds in Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Shanghai are performing as though they have had three or more years of schooling than 15-year-olds in Malaysia

• Low achievement standards in TIMSS (Maths and Science): far behind first tier; now comparable to countries such as Indonesia

• By 2007 (last published cycle) 18% and 20% of our students failed to meet the minimum proficiency standards in Maths and Science.

The conclusion of the Blueprint is shocking. Not only are the gaps between Malaysia and other countries in our region growing, international assessments also revealed that Malaysian student performance is declining in absolute terms.

This damning conclusion – that we are going backwards in our education standards and achievement – shows that the problem is not a new one. It is a long standing crisis which the BN has successfully concealed from Malaysians thanks to media manipulation and its diversionary focus on language and Chinese school issues.

But it is no longer easy to fool Malaysians thanks to the internet media and the availability of international assessment results.

Hence the latest educational scandal in which the Ministry of Education is accused of lowering the maths and science standards for the PMR and SPM examinations to artificially increase the pass rate does not shock me in the least.

Such efforts have been taking place for the past thirty years, especially in the public universities. How else then to account for the hundreds of thousands of graduates who are unemployable?

My Personal Experience

The second piece of evidence is one derived from personal experience. For several years now, I have been providing scholarships to poor young Malaysians so that they will be able to go to the university to improve their life and career opportunities. Below are examples of letters I have received from two applicants requesting for financial assistance (details of my scholarship program are available from http://english.cpiasia.net/).

What is important to note is that although these are written by pre-university students, the level of English language competency attained is lower than that of a primary student during my time.

Sadly, they are not isolated cases – in fact they are typical of students who have been through our educational system and whose decline in standards has been due to BN rule.

Ambiga: Bersih’s ‘citizen observers’ will be non-partisan

By Clara Chooi
Assistant News Editor
December 20, 2012 

Ambiga said Bersih’s ‘citizen observers’ will comply with global standards for domestic election monitoring.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Bersih 2.0 has chided the Election Commission (EC) for labelling it “partisan”, insisting to the agency that its “citizen observers” will comply with global standards on election monitoring, which list non-partisanship as a requirement. 

The movement’s co-chairman, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, said the use of citizen observers during polls is a practice that has been accepted and used in many countries abroad, including Indonesia.

“We understand what they are saying that we should be well-organised and not interfere with the polls process. Certainly, that is not our intention,” the renowned lawyer told The Malaysian Insider.

“We are providing training for our observers and we will comply with global standards for domestic election monitoring,” she said when contacted yesterday.

The standards referred to by Ambiga are enshrined in the “Declaration of Global Principles for Non-Partisan Election Observation and Monitoring by Citizen Organisations and its Code of Conduct”.

The declaration was commemorated at the United Nations on April 3 this year by the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors, an international network that connects some 150 organisations worldwide. In Malaysia, Bersih 2.0, the Malaysian Voters Union and the National Institute for Democracy and Electoral Integrity (NIEI) signed on to the declaration.

Ambiga said the purpose behind calling for citizen observers was not to manipulate the results of the polls but to offer Malaysians an active role in protecting their own vote.
She pointed out that any member of the public could sign up as a citizen observer, irrespective of their political leaning.

“We made the call publicly... everyone can sign up for training,” she said.

Wan Ahmad raised the possibility that Bersih 
may have a certain agenda to protect its partisan interests.

Agreeing, Maria Chin Abdullah, a Bersih 2.0 steering committee member, said there was nothing partisan
about urging Malaysians to come
forward and participate in the polls process of their own country. 

 
“We are merely asking citizens to take
a stand on the fraud that has been happening. It’s their right, after all, to see that their votes are protected… we are not telling them who to vote,” she said.

Ambiga also said the very reason behind the initiative, also known
as the “Jom Pantau” campaign, had stemmed from Bersih 2.0’s lack of confidence in the EC’s commitment to reforms.

“Rather than attacking us, they should actually be focusing on cleaning up their act for the elections.

“Why do they seem to be so nervous about our independent observers?” she asked.

“Frankly, I would really like to make this call to all members of the EC who have chosen to remain silent — we will hold each and every one of them responsible for how the coming elections are run.

“I urge the commissioners to search their conscience and ask themselves if this is an acceptable state of affairs for Malaysia and if they are fulfilling their constitutional duties to the people,” she said.

The EC questioned yesterday the ability of Ambiga to ensure all “citizen observers” in her Bersih 2.0 electoral watchdog group obey the law and steer clear of fouling up the polls regulator’s work.

EC deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar was reported by a Malay news portal as saying Bersih 2.0 was formed along partisan lines and that it was possible the group may have a certain agenda to protect its partisan interests.

He told Sinar Harian Online that while the prominent legal expert, who is co-chairman of the electoral reform group, is seen to be familiar with the law, he asked: “But is she capable of taking care of members involved in the Jom Pantau PRU13?”

Wan Ahmad said the EC acknowledged the right of citizens to monitor the election process for any possible fraud that may arise, but said they must not disturb the work of the authorities and EC.

“We want to give a reminder so that Bersih 2.0 that launched this campaign will not disturb this election’s affairs,” he told the news portal.

Bersih 2.0 has already launched its “Jom Pantau” and “Jom 100” but Ambiga said on Monday that these campaigns will be expanded next month to keep the pressure on the authorities.

Palm oil refiners heave a sigh of relief

Source by: New Straits Times
by Rupa Damodaran

Three options on how to reduce high palm oil stocks

Source by: New Straits Times
by Hanim Adnan

RM100 CPO price drop to lead to RM1.8b fall in annual trade surplus

Source by, The Edge Malaysia

Business & Market 2012

Written by Kamarul Anwar of theedgemalaysia.com Monday, 10 December 2012 16:20

KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 10): A RM100 drop per tonne in palm oil prices would lead to a RM1.8 billion reduction in Malaysia's trade surplus on an annual basis, according to a report by Barclays Capital (BarCap). Read more ......

http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/business-news/226827-rm100-cpo-price-drop-to-lead-to-rm18b-fall