Ellias Zakaria a very big man now

Penang Islamic Religious Council President Ellias Zakaria must be a very big man now, if The Star's report of 18 June 2011 is anything to go by.

I quote below the relevant paragraph from The Star's report:

"Ellias said he was summoned to Istana Negara in Kuala Lumpur, accompanied by Penang Yang Dipertua Negeri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas, where the King ordered the setting up of an independent committee to find new procedures in appointing mosque committee members".

There you have it. An ordinary civil servant is being accompanied by a Yang Dipertua Negeri. Even the Chief Minister will have to accompany the Yang Dipertua Negeri not the other way round.

I wonder if this radical change in protocol is also being observed by other states in that the Yang Dipertuas Negeri / Sultans will have to accompany their Religious Council chiefs whenever an audience with the King is required.  

Happy Teacher's Day

We celebrate Teacher's Day yesterday 16 May 2011. Teachers are, along with our parents, undeniably instrumental in shaping us into what we are today. On this happy occasion, I would like to record and acknowledge the roles and contribution of my former teachers.

During my primary school days in early and mid 60s at SK Badak in Bachok, Kelantan, I am proud to mention that its HM Tuan Haji Mohd Zain Abdullah had done much to sort out my overage problem, one associated with my late enrollment at the school. The SITC-trained Cik Gu Zain later resigned from his post to contest the 1964 General Election as a PAS candidate. He won and successfully defended the seat for several terms, including his famous victory in 1986 GE (on BN ticket) by defeating a PAS heavyweight, Datuk Nik Aziz, now Kelantan MB. The fact that he still managed to win despite changing his party affiliation speaks volumes about his rapport with the electorates. Another teacher at the school who later made good in public life is Datuk Noordin Razak a former DG of DBKL. My late father used to be his father's "henchman". One of my classmates at SK Badak (named after Kg Badak where Datuk Mustafa Mohd, the Minister of International Trade and Industry hails from) is Maktar Mohd, the Minister's younger brother who is now a businessman. 

I later went to SM Bachok (then known as Bachok English School) for my secondary education. Again, an HM left an impact on my life. Cik Gu Mokhtar Hassan (the school's HM) forced me to sit for the maximum 9 subjects in the SPM (in 1969) instead of 8 as I had intended. I had wanted to drop my weakest subject, Drawing Art but Cik Gu Mokhtar would have none of it and had even offered to pay for the 9th subject if my reason for skipping Drawing Art was due to financial problem. He suggested I took Add Maths instead, in view of my "strength" in Maths, despite the subject not being taught by the school. I reluctantly agreed and he lent me several relevant textbooks for me to study on my own. I managed to barely pass with grade P8 but I reckoned I would have failed my Drawing Art should I opt for it. In any case, a P8 in Add Maths is much more valuable than a P8 in Drawing Art. What was amusing was that during the exam I was the only candidate at the exam hall sitting for the paper and was overseen by 4 invigilators!!! Amongst my schoolmates: Zainai Mohd (now Prof Dr, the VC of UMK who's one year my senior), Mansor Jusoh (now Prof Dr., a retired economics professor from UKM who's my classmate), Phua Ah Hua (former national badminton player, one year my junior) and Kang Bee Leng (now VP of MTUC and long-time Sec-Gen of AUEGCAS, two years my junior).          

Osama Dead in 2001?

Has anyone ever read or heard about Osama being killed in Afghanistan in 2001 shortly after the World Trade Centre disaster? I must confess that I am terribly out of date on this issue. What I did hear was the suspicion that the WTC tragedy was not perpetrated by Osama but by a Jewish organization and the US Government itself to provide justification for a "war against terrorism" and invasion of Muslim countries such as Iraq. They pointed to the alleged fact that no Jews were killed in the WTC disaster.

For those who are in the same league as me on Osama's death in 2001, please read the article below which appeared in the Star of 12 May 2011.


Quote:

OPINION: Osama may still have the last laugh

By Bunn Nagara in Petaling Jaya/The Star | ANN – Thu, May 12, 2011

Petaling Jaya (The Star/ANN) - The Sept 11 terrorist attacks on US soil is not the only event whose 10th anniversary is approaching.

This week, US and Pakistani officials said a secret deal was struck between the two countries a decade ago for unilateral US military action within Pakistan.

The deal is said to have been made between Gen Pervez Musharraf and President George W. Bush. It supposedly resulted from Osama's escape from US bombardment of eastern Afghanistan's Tora Bora mountains in late 2001.

The deal, quickly denied by Musharraf, allowed US forces to launch operations in Pakistan as and when it found fit. It would have the silent approval of the Pakistani authorities, who could then protest loudly for domestic consumption.

So far, events have gone according to script. Variables include the fate of the future billions in US aid for Pakistan and the precise nature of diplomatic relations between them.

Another event also approaching its 10th anniversary is the death of Osama himself. This is unlike the conspiracy theory that Osama is still alive and well somewhere.

There is a growing body of circumstantial evidence and belief around the world that the alleged head of al-Qaeda had died in the 2001 Tora Bora attack. Subsequent events including video releases are said to be devised to perpetuate his continued "existence" for US geopolitical interests.

In this scenario, the testimony of Osama's supposed captive family and al-Qaeda itself are of questionable origin. Its very secretiveness allows it to be another covert false flag operation by US authorities.

No pictures of a dead Osama have been shown that can stand up to scrutiny. An initial mugshot has been exposed by Pakistan's Geo TV as fake.

His body was swiftly dumped in the ocean, preventing verification by witnesses or forensic examination by experts. Despite the US Navy SEALs team that raided the Abbottabad hideout equipped with video cameras on their helmets, no graphic image of Osama, in close-up or from a distance, has been available.

Even senior members of the US government who watched the live feed from Abbottabad in "real time" from those helmet cameras had 25 minutes blacked out, CIA director Leon Panetta admitted this week.

President Obama said watching the raid live in the White House Situation Room was the longest 40 minutes of his life, but those 25 minutes must have been even longer.

Much of the testimony about Osama's death in late 2001 or early 2002 has come from senior US and Pakistani officials over the past decade.

Gen (Rtd) Hameed Gul, former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency, is among those saying that the US raid on the Abbottabad compound was a hoax.

In December 2001, Pakistan's Observer newspaper reported that the Afghan Taliban had found Osama dead and buried him. In the same month, US forces ousted the Taliban from government.

The following month, Pakistani leader Gen Pervez Musharraf said he believed that Osama was already dead. He said Osama's dialysis machines needed for his kidney condition had been destroyed at Tora Bora.

Later that year, Afghan president Hamid Karzai said much the same on CNN, with the belief shared by the FBI's head of counterterrorism. An unnamed Republican Party source also confirmed to US radio host Alex Jones that Osama's body had been kept "on ice" by the Bush administration until a politically favourable time.

Democrats then made an issue of that and the White House apparently retreated from that measure and relied on "Osama videos" instead.

In late 2001, another video of Osama appeared, showing a younger, chubbier image grinning untypically. The point of that video was to "take responsibility" for the Sept 11 attacks.

The following year, senior US government security official Dr Steve Pieczenik announced on US radio that Osama had been dead for several months. Pieczenik had served in various presidential administrations and aided Osama and the Afghan mujahideen against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s.

Gen Tommy Franks, who led the US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, then let slip in a news conference that Osama was already dead. Pieczenik believes that Osama had died not of renal failure but from Marfan Syndrome, which does not make US forces out as heroic for having hunted him successfully.

In early 2007, "new" videos of Osama looking quite unlike the gaunt and greying figure before Tora Bora's onslaught were released. Prof Bruce Lawrence of Duke University said the videos were fake, and he believed that Osama had already died.

In November that year, former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto told David Frost on Aljazeera that Omar Sheikh was the man who had killed Osama. Omar, a British-born Pakistani militant, had earlier been recruited by the MI6 British intelligence agency and whom Musharraf suspected to be a double agent.

The following month, Benazir herself was killed soon after her return to Pakistan following a visit to the Bush White House. Not only did she say openly that Osama had died years ago, she had wanted the US and Britain to stop pretending he was still alive.

By 2009, Pakistani President Ali Asif Zardari, Benazir's widower, said he did not believe Osama was still alive. In the US, others who refused to believe the standard version of Osama remaining alive until early this month were news veteran Walter Cronkite and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright.

Last week, the possibility of Osama being kept a virtual prisoner in the Abbottabad compound was floated. Former US Homeland Security Adviser Frances Townsend added to this view by saying a secret video of Osama there looked like he was a prisoner.

Meanwhile, establishment voices opposing sceptics of the official story dismissed all speculation as conspiracy theories. But so far the score is that the US government has scored some hits, plus a timely hike in public opinion, regardless of how or when Osama had died.

Unquote

US the Invader: The Ends Justify the Means?

All news reports about the killing of Osama Ben Laden highlighted the angle that the world is now safer with the leader of the "terrorists" movement Al Qaida murdered and his body hurriedly thrown into the sea. Is it true that the world is going to be more peaceful now? I tend to agree with the Australian PM Julia that as long as the root cause is not attended to and resolved, terrorism will always be around and alive and kicking. I am not sure what root cause she had in mind but for me the root cause is the failure of the West (especially the US) to ensure that Israel comply with international laws and UN resolutions. Many UN Resolutions (in particular the one ordering Israel to withdraw from Arab territories captured during the 1967 war) were blatantly ignored by Israel and the Jewish state somehow never get punished. Contrast that with any Arab/Muslim country not obeying the UN or US who were promptly slapped with embargo or outright invasion. With this scenario, what is the point of observing the laws. They must be thinking that they will be better off taking up arms and fight. The laws could not be relied upon to protect them. In fact this was the root cause giving rise to "terrorist/extremist" organizations such as communism (particularly in Russia and China), Hamas, Fatah and Tamil Elam.

Another aspect conveniently ignored by the global media is the fact that the US had violated the sovereignty of another nation, Pakistan. This is not the first time that the US had shown disrespect to other nations, while those not respecting the US had been known to have been harshly punished. The ends justify the means. The pot calling the cattle black.

Taib in 100-metre Race to the Palace

The Sarawak's General Election was concluded more than 2 weeks ago. To me there was no big surprise as I had expected such a result. The fact that the Chinese voted very heavily against the BN (said to be their dissatisfaction with the Chief Minister Tan Sri Taib Mahmud) and that Taib's party, PBB still managed to score big victories in the rural areas and retained two-third majority in the state assembly, had been well expected.

However what was more of a surprise to me was Taib's decision to race to the palace to be sworn in as Chief Minister as soon as the BN achieved a simple majority that very night itself. Why couldn't he wait until the next working day? Perhaps he was influenced by a similar act by Tun Mustapha of Sabah several years ago when he managed to get himself sworn in as Chief Minister despite his party not getting the required majority in the election to form the state government. He was obviously badly advised into thinking that the 6 appointed seats could be taken into account for the purpose of determining whether he had got the simple majority required before he could be sworn in as Chief Minister. Perhaps Taib wanted to prevent such an event from happening to him.

Taib is well aware that his continued stay in power has come to be less certain given the fact that he has been there for more than 30 years. This has been compounded by the recent court decision in the Perak crisis which made it clear that the loss of confidence against a Menteri Besar / Chief Minister could be taken anywhere, not necessarily on the floor of the legislative assembly. Hence, by extension, the presidency of a political party could also be determined through a meeting (not necessarily an EGM or AGM) held anywhere. Any assemblyman/delegate can gang up with other assemblymen/delegates to pass a no confidence motion in his house and if carried the Chief Minister/party president is validly removed. This can be a chilling nightmare for any president of any political party or chief minister/menteri besar especially for one facing a groundswell of dissatisfaction from certain quarters, not necessarily from his own party members. Interestingly, the event very similar to the Perak crisis took place in Sarawak in the 60s where the then Chief Minister Stephen Kalong Ningkan was dismissed by the Governor at the instigation of the then Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Ningkan brought the case to the court which decided in his favour saying that a Chief Minister could only be removed by the state Assembly through a motion of no confidence against him at the floor of the assembly. This precedent was however not followed by the court in deciding the Perak case.        

Bench and Bar Deals With KPI

Last week, the Bench and the Bar finally issued a joint statement resolving their differences or misunderstanding on KPI measures introduced by the Chief Justice Tun Zaki Tun Azmi to deal with backlog of cases in the courts.

What happened was that when Tun Zaki became the Chief Justice of the Federal Court, he quickly introduced Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in order to reduce backlog of cases which had become a bone of contention amongst the stakeholders. Under the KPI, judges’ performances are judged based on the number of cases disposed of per month etc. Arising from this, judges have been known to overzealously implement the KPI at the expense of justice. We read from the press how judges refused to grant adjournment despite production of medical certificates by the lawyers. To top it all, a lawyer collapsed while on duty in court.

Alarmed by this unhealthy development where justice has been sacrifice for speed, the Bar Council at its EGM recently passed a motion urging the Chief Justice to drop the KPI failing which the Bar will take certain actions in response to it. It is heartening to note that both sides had come to an agreement on this issue.

The KPI measures are actually needed to solve the longstanding issue of backlog of cases. I know for a fact that there are judges who delay their written judgments very, very badly. This delay means an appeal could not be filed in time and there is a time limit for you to file your appeal. What could you do? There are occasions when many, many reminders had to be sent to the judge to come up with the written judgment. And the KPI should be directed towards this kind of judges.

I discover one interesting thing about letters to the judges. When we write to the judge, we do not address to the judge but to his secretary, like when we write to a Sultan. So in this respect, a judge and a Sultan is on par with each other. At the end of the letter addressed to the judge’s secretary, we plead with the secretary to bring the letter to the attention of the judge. I wonder if the delay in writing the judgment is due to the secretary not forwarding the letter to the judge or due to other reasons.     

So KPI, you are needed actually.

The Star Gets A Warning, Again

The Star newspaper today carried a news item that it has been reprimanded by the Home Ministry over an article on the impounding of 5,000 Bahasa Malaysia Bibles. The letter, signed by the Ministry’s Secretary General (incorrectly reported as Chief Secretary), reminded owners of printing presses to comply with directives from the Ministry.

 

This is not the first time the paper was ticked off by the Ministry. A few months ago, its business managing editor was given a warning over his article that bordered on ridiculing Islam. In fact the paper has been known to be very fond of publishing articles that belittle Islam albeit subtly.

During the Kerling incident in 1978 when Muslims extremists were killed by the Hindus following desecration of a Hindu temple by the Muslims, The Star still published letters from their readers in the letters to the editor column making accusations that none of the government leaders had condemned the act by the Muslims despite the fact that the then Deputy Prime Minister, (now Tun) Mahathir Mohamad had a few days before the publication of those letters condemned the unacceptable act of the Muslims extremists.

It seems it is very hard for it to learn a lesson.       

The Bane of Translation

I work as a translator in a law firm. In the course of translating legal documents from English into Bahasa Malaysia and vice versa, the BM version always contains more ambiguities than the English version. Similarly if you read news reports in our English Language newspapers and compare them with the translated versions in their BM counterparts, you will sometimes face problems with the BM versions as far as accuracy is concerned. 

However, the two reports I am quoting below seem to be the exception.

Quote:

KUALA LUMPUR— Persidangan Dewan Rakyat hari ini meluluskan Rang Undang-Undang Perbekalan 2011 (Bajet 2011) berjumlah RM212 bilion tanpa sebarang masalah.

Berbeza dari tahun lepas, Bajet 2011 diluluskan kira-kira 7.25 malam apabila bacaan kali ketiga oleh Timbalan Menteri Kewangan Datuk Husni Hanadzlah menyaksikan lebih suara menyokong berbanding membantah.

[Bernama 14 Disember 2010]

KUALA LUMPUR: The Dewan Rakyat passed the Supply Bill 2011 (Budget 2011) involving RM212bil without any fuss.
It was passed at 7.25pm yesterday after the third reading by Second Finance Minister Datuk Husni Hanadzlah.

[The Star 14 December 2010 quoting Bernama]

Unquote

The Malay version contains only one inaccuracy i.e. it appears to suggest that the third reading was done by the Second Finance Minister whereas the reading was in fact done by the members of the House who were present. The Minister only moved the Bill for the third reading.

The English version contains two inaccuracies, one of which is as stated above. Secondly it could also be interpreted to mean that the Bill was passed by the Minister after the third reading, also done by the Minister. We all know that a Bill can only be passed by the House and nobody else.