Screenshots

Police State Ver 2.0

Police are in an unenviable position. They are law enforcers and yet they can be a stifling tool to gag democracy. At least this appears to be the case in Malaysia.

Two critical events happened soon after Raja Petra Kamarudin was reined in for alleged sedition.

One, you have a series of police reports lodged against lawyer and MP Karpal Singh for allegedly making seditious remarks over appointments of civil servant.

Two, even the mainstream newspapers are now being probed allegedly under Official Secret Act (OSA) for publishing the findings of the Royal Commission on the Lingam Tape before it was made public. Remember, a jail sentence is mandatory under OSA.

In the second case, as reported in the media, it was none other than the Prime Minister's Department that has lodged the police report against the newspapers, purportedly The Star, The NST and Berita Harian.

It is not known whether Sin Chew Daily, and even the Bar Council website, will be dealt the same OSA probe as both have also published the findings before there were made public yesterday.

This wobbling Abdullah Administration must remember that investigative journalism must thrive in this country if democracy is of any meaning. Bare the facts and let the people decide, what is there to hide?

I concur with Wong Chun Wai, though we often differ in our views, that the findings of the commission are not prejudicial to national security because the proceedings were opened to the public.

What the Press had done was basically having "scoops", expose that is said to have irked certain members of the commission and Cabinet members. The latest round of police reports by the PM's Office just signifies the usual knee-jerk responses from Putraya if past records are used as benchmarks.

Are the government and the Commission so worried that our Press now has the means to get hold of the critical information and set it bare? If so, then, they must have got the priotity upside down. The Government and the Commission must be reminded that, backdropped against the current lowest ebb of public confidence over the BN government and the jucidiacy, their job is to restore the public's trust in them.

It's absolutely wrong for them to invoke OSA to kill the messenger.

Apart from selling the Commission Report at RM542, it should be published online in this day of the world. There should be free access to information if we are not a Police State.

Read Chun Wai's blog, Malaysian Insider and Rocky's Bru for context.

Let them fight. Consumers will gain

On the Right: AirAsia raps MAS over deals.

On the Left: MAS boss: I have no time to debate Tony Fernandes

There's market efficiency when there is keen competition in any industry. Let them fight for their respective market share and let the consumers benefit from it.

Monopoly should be dead.

Planted question, prepared answer... and a Dorothy Dixer?

UPDATED VERSION. Dorothy Dix (November 18, 1861 – December 16, 1951), Malaysian style?

What makes the one-and-a-half hour daily Oral Q&A session interesting is that after the pre-sent question by the MP is answered orally, supplementary questions -- to a maximum of three -- are usually allocated to each question. The ministers or their deputies usually have to answer the supplementary questions off the cuff and on-the-fly.

This is the tough part for the ministers as, unlike the original question which gave the ministry staff sufficient notice to prepare for the answer, supplementary questions are "ambush" by nature and they are asked on the spot by MPs who are chosen at random by the speaker. An ill-prepared minister will be grilled and embarrassed in full blast. The Hansard had had sufficient casualties on this.

However, when Amirsham A Aziz, former Maybank chief and currently Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, answered the supplementary question by the SIL by reading off a 2-page prepared text, head bowed and seemingly oblivious to his surrounding, the House screamed of a "planted question and a prepared answer". Or a planted question with a crony's answer.

"It’s really our equivalent to Paula Abdul commenting on a song that had yet to be sung," said Joan Lau in Malaysian Insider, describing how the minister was "caught out doing something stupid".

"You see, ministers and their deputies are not supposed to know beforehand what a supplementary question will be," she added.

Malaysiakini has the whole story. Some say the Parliament House is now a 4th Floor, and a non-American, non-Australian Dorothy Dixer had reared her head.

UPDATES:
- theSun: Amirsham was meat to the prey
- Kit: (Talking bunkum), KJ comes to Amirsham’s rescue
- NST: Locked, loaded or planted, it’s all just too confusing

Continue reading "Planted question, prepared answer... and a Dorothy Dixer?" »

Clintonique Najib

Najib Abdul Razak, in his capacity as the Defence Minister and Deputy PM, yesterday was besieged by the Opposition's incessant questions on the alleged commision payments involving deals in the purchase of the €1.084 billion Scorpene submarines from France, the Sukhoi jets from Russia, continous deaths in the NS programme, and the inevitable... the (murder in Malaysia of the) Mongolian woman.

Visibly irritated, Najib finally said, "saya tidak pernah mengenali apatah lagi berjumpa dengan wanita itu".

The sentence was so uncanny that Clinton-Lewinski immediately came to mind.

'I didn't have sex with that woman' is quite a memorable line in years to come.

Moving house... ( 4 )

So, we have Anifah Aman, the younger brother of Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, as deputy prime minister under Pakatan Rakyat?

The man was quoted as saying in theSun: Anifah: Once the defections start, there's no stopping. He did not discount himself from moving house, (caveat) "if it is in the best interest of the people".

Apparently, the lure of the 20% oil royalty offer by Pakatan Rakyat, deliverable or not, is a big carrot for the rabbits.

Meanwhile, horse-trading continues though Abdullah Badawi has found a temporary respite, at least for now.

'Pajak' bus system is illegal

My first oral question was answered in written form just now.

QUESTION:

YB TUAN JEFF OOI CHUAN AUN (JELUTONG) minta Menteri Keusahawanan dan Perkembangan Koperasi menyatakan sama Lembaga Perlesenan Kenderaan Perdagangan (CVLB) merestui sistem ‘pajak’ yang dikendalikan oleh syarikat-syarikat bas awam di Pulau Pinang.

ANSWER:

Tuan Yang Dipertua,

Untuk makluman Ahli Yang Berhormat, selaras dengan peruntukan Seksyen 39 Akta LPKP 1987 (Akta 334) sistem pajak atau pindah milik, serah hak, membenar mana-mana orang mengguna kenderaan arau memberi perkhidmatan kenderaan yang dilesen adalah tidak dibenarkan kecuali dengan keizinan Lembaga Pelesenan Kenderaan Perdagangan (KPKP).

In short, the 'pajak' system used by certain bus companies in Penang, brought in during the previous Penang state government and endured by Putrajaya, is essentially illegal.

I will forward the official answer given to me to the Penang government for next step.

Moving house... ( 3 )

Let's count the eggs now that they are hatched.

In GE2008, the BN won 140 seats, while opposition parties won an unprecedented 82 seats. The Opposition now outweighs the BN backbenchers 82-77.

These are what the BN has in political capital, pointing to the fact that Ketuanan Umno is still dominant and minority groups could do nothing to strike a ground-rule change in the incumbent's political system:

- Umno (79 seats)
- MCA (15)
- PBB (14)
- SUPP (6)
- PRS (6)
- SPDP (4)
- UPKO (4)
- MIC (3)
- PBS (3)
- SAPP (2)
- Gerakan (2)
- LDP (1)
- PBRS (1)

And now, this is why the Sabahan politicians are considering themselves as the King Makers of Malaysian politics -- they helped Umno to retain absolute power, but they get the crumbs when it comes to payback time, counted in the currency of ministerial posts and pork barrel economics that come with it.

Another Sabahan leader has put it in a crass and crude manner: You move into the bungalow, but you are given room next to the toilet.

EXPIRY DATE. On the other hand, the King Makers do have an expiry date, Quote Yong Teik Lee of SAPP on why he set an August deadline for Abdullah:

"The fasting month will be September, Hari Raya in October and Umno elections in December. I think the maximum we can go is August for our issues to be settled. After December, Sabah will be forgotten again.

We in Sabah, will go back to our subservient role, quietly go on with our lives, or it will explode, other players will come in. Other players will come into the Opposition, people from outside the BN will take the forefront, not us."

What is left unsaid is that Umno will come after the 'disloyal' component parties once the tai ko puts its house in order after the party election by the end of the year. BN/Umno should have a file on each of them. That's why I said should Operation Moving House take place, it has to be swift and clinically decisive.

In the final analysis, Umno is the dominant party in the 14-party BN coalition. It's a fact. As the tai ko in the Ketuanan Umno agenda, the 62-year-old party occupies 22 ministers' posts in a Cabinet of 27 members -- not forgetting that Umno commands and controls a whooping 81% of the Cabinet representation though it only contributes 56.4%, or 79 out of 140, of the seats collectively won by BN component parties.

Is this BN's "power-sharing" formula that Ong Ka Ting is talking about? The more it changed the more it remained the same for Malaysian politics, or so it seems.

But there is a way to drastically reduce, if not totally remove, Ketuanan Umno in Malaysia. Hijrah to where political tsunami has resulted!

Astro, Proton, BN... New thinking?

Has AK decided to take ASTRO private?

Has the Government decided to end protectionism that crippled Proton?

And learn from BN how to finish RM500k in less than 60 days?

It's a long, tedious process

UPDATED VERSION. Today is the last day to present individual speeches in a motion to thank the Agong for the Royal Address. The queue is long and the House passed a motion earlier today to sit till mid-might to accommodate every member to speak.

Speaking time has been reduced from 30 minutes to 20 minutes, and now 15 minutes. As we rotate between BN backbenchers and the Opposition, and there are three components in the Opposition, it means each of my party colleagues will have to wait for an hour before one is called up by the Speaker to speak.

As at 8.05pm, I am still waiting. So are PJ Utara, Bukit Bendera, Klang, Kota Melaka, Parit Buntar, Balik Pulau, Batu, among others.

UPDATES: As at 10.48pm, I am still waiting for my turn to speak alongside PJ Utara, Bukit Bendera, Balik Pulau, Seputeh, among others.

UPDATES: As at 11.19pm, I am still waiting for my turn to speak alongside PJ Utara, Bukit Bendera, Balik Pulau, Seputeh, among others.

UPDATES: As at 11.51pm, just as I am still waiting for my turn to speak alongside PJ Utara, Bukit Bendera, Balik Pulau, Seputeh, among others, Minister in the PM's Office in charge of Parliament raises a motion to adjourn the sitting to 10.00am tomorrow. The Speaker promises to allow the unspoken to speak after Q&A time. Will it also be 10 minutes or more?

And a 3rd-Party Update... here.

Moving house... ( 2 )

It's real. The hijrah should include several BN MPs from the Peninsula.

However, save for certain individuals, it's likely to be less party-hopping as en masse party pull-outs from BN, and formation of new parties in Sabah, will be less politically damaging though no less politically controversial, Little Birds told Screenshots.

The Moving House programme, involving at least three political parties, looks imminent from my vantage point right now.

However, Little Birds said, Operation Moving House will face a setback should defections among Perak state assemblymen into the BN basket, ~~poised~~ orchestrated to enable Abdullah to wrestle the state back into his fragile administration, happen at break-neck pace in the next few days

In a way, I concur fully with a fellow MP from PAS of the view that should Moving House happen, it should be swift and clinically decisive. Or else, let the ballot box decide in 2013.