Gerak Budaya invites you to a book launch, Najib’s First 100 Days – No Honeymoon by Oon Yeoh
This book will be launched by Tunku Abdul Aziz, a senator and former president of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International.
Date: August 12, 2009 (Wednesday)
Time: 8.00pm – 10.00pm
Venue: Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
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The death, while under the care of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, in mysterious circumstances of Teoh Beng Hock last week promises to weaken further the already fragile public confidence in the government and its agencies in our country.
Regaining public confidence will not be a walk in the park for the government given its abysmal record of dealing with deaths in police custody. The government should never have adopted such a patently careless and cavalier attitude when dealing with matters of public concerns. The loss of trust in the government and its agencies is extremely unfortunate because by doing the “right thing” they could have earned and retained our respect, confidence and gratitude.
The initial handling of the Beng Hock “death in custody” case by the MACC could hardly be described as professional and this has fuelled a million and one speculations. All this is extremely unfortunate, but understandable. People simply do not trust the very organisations that are supposed to protect them anymore and, for many, the suspicion they harbour is based on their bitter personal experience of official encounters with the country’s enforcement agencies. Can the government fairly blame the people for feeling angry and resentful with the way the police, and now the MACC, apparently conduct their work?
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Malaysian Insider
JULY 23 — The death, while under the care of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, in mysterious circumstances of Teoh Beng Hock last week promises to weaken further the already fragile public confidence in the government and its agencies in our country.
Regaining public confidence will not be a walk in the park for the government given its abysmal record of dealing with deaths in police custody. The government should never have adopted such a patently careless and cavalier attitude when dealing with matters of public concerns. The loss of trust in the government and its agencies is extremely unfortunate because by doing the “right thing” they could have earned and retained our respect, confidence and gratitude.
The initial handling of the Beng Hock “death in custody” case by the MACC could hardly be described as professional and this has fuelled a million and one speculations. All this is extremely unfortunate, but understandable. People simply do not trust the very organisations that are supposed to protect them anymore and, for many, the suspicion they harbour is based on their bitter personal experience of official encounters with the country’s enforcement agencies. Can the government fairly blame the people for feeling angry and resentful with the way the police, and now the MACC, apparently conduct their work?
I have never hidden my true feelings about the MACC. I have been critical of this organisation which, a few months ago, I described in my weekly Sin Chew column, as OLD WINE IN A NEW BOTTLE. I wrote in my opening paragraph:
“What a waste of public funds! The creation of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission will go down in history as a feeble and pathetic final clutch at the straws by a sitting duck prime minister best remembered for his inexhaustible supply of good intentions but with nothing to show for them. The MACC was hastily conceived against a murky background of a web of duplicity and deceit. It was a desperate attempt at deluding the people of this country and the world anti-corruption community that the Abdullah Badawi administration still had a lot of fire in its belly to make corruption a high risk and low return business. The whole process was nothing more than a charade, a sleight of hand that we have come to expect from this government. In the meantime corruption continues to be in robust good health.”
I also touched on the much hyped “Hong Kong model” upon which the new corruption fighting machine is apparently based — the less said the better about this. It is clear for all to see that the MACC falls far short of the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption’s template on at least two counts. The first and most obvious short coming is an absence of a legal provision that will allow a MACC officer to call anyone to account for his wealth and lifestyle that are obviously beyond his known legal income. There is the anti-laundering provision, but this is not the same.
The second is its much touted independence. The MACC is NOT independent. No one believes it is independent because its leadership has allowed it to become a political instrument that is seen by the people to work to the Barisan Nasional agenda. This is because we are manning the MACC with the self-same functionaries who developed second guessing into a fine art form under Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s special guidance. They cannot reasonably be expected to change their work practices which have become almost second nature to them.
I should feel happy because I have been totally vindicated by the recent events but I cannot, in all conscience, bring myself to rejoice amidst a great human tragedy, the totally unexpected death of Teoh Beng Hock, a young loyal Malaysian of great promise who believed passionately in change for a better, safer Malaysia.
If the government wants to retain its legitimacy to govern, it must rededicate itself to the principles of international best practices predicated on justice for all, transparency and accountability in the conduct of the affairs of state. It must clean out its unsavoury stables of corruption because it is corruption that has reduced this country to its present sorry state. As for the MACC, in its present form it is of no use to either man or beast.
Its senior officers have to accept full responsibility for what has gone so horribly wrong so soon after its establishment. Seriously, they should get on their bicycles in full ceremonial uniform dripping with gold plated buttons and other bits and pieces and ride off into the sunset of shame and degradation. — mysinchew.com
Opalyn Mok (The Sun)
GEORGE TOWN (July 21, 2009) : DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng has proposed that the government set up an independent inquiry committee to investigate the death of political secretary Teoh Beng Hock and that the committee be headed by Tunku Abdul Aziz, a senator.
“Tunku Abdul Aziz was the founder of Transparency International-Malaysia and a special adviser to the secretary-general of the United Nations in 2006, so he is the most credible and reliable person to head the committee to ensure that justice is served,” he said.
Lim urged the cabinet to form the committee immediately and ensure that it is independent, reliable and credible so that the inquiry will reveal the truth.
“There are many questions to be answered and only an independent inquiry will be able to find the truth behind this and bring the culprits to justice so that cases like this will not happen again,” he said at a press conference in his office.
On an unrelated matter, Lim, who is also the chief minister, said the federal government’s announcement that it is reviving the RM1.2 billion Mengkuang Dam expansion project shows the federal government knows that working together with the state government is for the good of the people.
He expressed his gratitude to the federal government for reinstating that project, in addition to other projects such as the Penang second bridge and the Penang Hill funicular train upgrading project, and hoped that there will be more of such infrastructure projects for Penang in future.
Accustomed as I am to Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz’s often outlandishly over the top and predictably uncharitable innuendoes about people and their integrity, coupled with imputations of improper motives, I was, for all that, flabbergasted to read an account in the New Straits Times of Thursday, July 16, 2009 about Nazri resorting to slanderous language, obviously intended to damage and harm the reputation and standing of three well-known public figures, Tun Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Hanif Omar and Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman, currently Chairman of Suhakam.
Nazri of all people should not be too quick off the mark to denounce the trio or any one else for that matter as “crooks” because I expect he himself would be the last to claim that he is a person of complete moral rectitude and that he has not once offended against the code of ethics of his chosen profession, if one could dignify the practice of politics as a profession, in the best sense of the word.
Before I go on, let me say that Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz has always been kind and courteous to me, a gesture I greatly appreciate and happily reciprocate. I write this more in sorrow than anger.
I would not normally give two hoots about Nazri’s boorish and tiresome behaviour, but when he has the gall to go out of his way to blacken the good name of a distinguished former civil servant and a fine gentleman of great honour and integrity, then I feel duty bound to say that his remarks are clearly beyond the pale. I cannot claim to know the other two gentlemen as well as I have known Hanif, but that does not mean that I am not equally saddened by Nazri’s totally uncalled for remarks about them. Nazri has overstepped the bounds of common decency.
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Tuan Yang Dipertua,
Saya mengucapkan terima kasih kerana diberikan peluang untuk membahaskan Rang Undang-undang Suruhanjaya Hak Asasi Manusia ini.
Sebelum saya memulakan ucapan saya, saya ingin mengambil perhatian Dewan yang Mulia ini bahawa di dalam Pertubuhan Bangsa-bangsa Bersatu, terdapat banyak konvensyen yang dibincangkan, dibahaskan dan dibuka untuk diratifikasi.
Malaysia ialah salah satu anggota kepada PBB. Malangnya, daripada banyak konvensyen-konvensyen yang dibentangkan, Malaysia hanya meratifikasi dua sahaja iaitu Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women dan Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Namun bagi Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, kita mempunyai beberapa pengecualian.
Bagi Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, kita sudah menandatangani konvensyen ini tetapi tidak diratifikasi.
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Peraturan Mesyuarat (13) (1) (o):
“Urusan-urusan bagi tiap-tiap persidangan mesyuarat hendaklah mengikut aturan seperti di bawah ini kecuali jika Majlis Mesyuarat menetapkan aturan lain:
(o) Urusan am”
Tuan Yang Dipertua
Saya merujuk kepada Aturan Mesyuarat yang diusul oleh Menteri Kewangan pada 25 Jun 2009 dan diperbahaskan di Dewan Rakyat.
Usul tersebut berkaitan dengan penggunaan bajet akibat daripada penyusunan semula selepas pemindahan kuasa Perdana Menteri yang berkuat kuasa pada 10 April 2009 yang lalu.
Menurut Peraturan Majlis Mesyuarat 66A Peraturan-Peraturan Majlis Mesyuarat Dewan Rakyat, tertakluk kepada suatu Rang Undang-Undang Perbekalan yang telah diluluskan mengikut Peraturan Mesyuarat 66, mana-mana penguntukan semula peruntukan perbelanjaan boleh dibuat melalui suatu usul oleh seorang Menteri.
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Tuan Yang Dipertua,
Saya mengucapkan terima kasih kerana dibenarkan untuk membahaskan rang undang-undang Suruhanjaya Integriti Agensi Penguatkuasaan 2008 atau dengan ringkasnya SIAP.
Di dalam bab integriti, saya ingin menyentuh hanya kepada aspek polis dan cara tahap profesionalisme polis di Negara ini.
Tuan Yang Dipertua,
Saya telah dilantik oleh Duli Yang Maha Mulia Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Dipertuan Agong sebagai salah seorang pesuruhjaya di dalam Suruhanjaya Diraja Penambahbaik Operasi dan Pengurusan Polis bersama teman-teman saya yang terdiri daripada dua bekas ketua hakim, seorang bekas Ketua Polis Negara dan badan-badan bebas dalam melihat dan mengkaji tingkahlaku badan kepolisian yang ada di Negara kita.
Dengan kajian yang sungguh mendalam, kami telah merumuskan bahawa kita memerlukan sebuah suruhanjaya bebas bagi memantau badan polis ini.
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Tuan Yang Dipertua,
Saya mengucapkan terima kasih kerana diberikan peluang untuk membahaskan Rang Undang-undang Identifikasi Asid Deoksiribonukleik (DNA) ini.
Pertamanya, izinkan saya menyatakan bahawa rang undang-undang ini diperbincangkan apabila keyakinan rakyat terhadap pihak penguatkuasa dipertikaikan.
Di sini, saya merujuk kepada pihak polis dan Badan Pencegahan Rasuah yang gagal memperlihatkan peningkatan di dalam perkhidmatan mereka dan tunduk kepada kerakusan politik pemerintah.
IPCMC yang dicadangkan masih belum dilaksanakan sehingga sekarang, suruhanjaya bebas anti-rasuah juga masih tidak dapat dilaksanakan.
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THE UPSURGE of interest in integrity and ethics is not without a good reason. People all over the world have realized that human progress is unlikely to be sustainable without all of us adopting and embracing universal human values – values that transcend cultural, religious and political barriers.
In Malaysia we have the best legal framework, rules, regulations and procedures, but corrupt practices continue unchecked because those entrusted to serve the community are themselves morally and ethically deficient and devoid of ethical values and high standards of personal and public behaviour.
If we lose our competitive position because we are corrupt and lack integrity, we are putting our future as a nation at risk. Corruption kills competition, breeds inefficiency, distorts our decision making processes and promotes social and political instability in the long run. I believe that in societies where integrity is firmly entrenched, corruption can be kept firmly under control.
We have to refocus our vision and reshape our views and ideas on what can be done to fight unethical public behaviour, not only on our own turf, but equally important, on the international front because cross-border corruption represents a major source of social, economic and political instability and distortion, if not dealt with decisively.
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