Aarvidi’s Weblog

I have been always fascinated by statements from our leaders in government, when they say, the people are happy, the people are satisfied, the people understand, the people love, we are following the needs of the people and so forth. I thought there is a secret mechanism that Government has, which at the press of a button tells you, so many people are with this, so many people oppose this and so many people are undecided. Something like a poll, that gives answers.

Najib says people are happy with the National Service programme. I am so sad to conclude that he does not read Malaysiakini, nor the blogs. I don’t know whether this has got to do something with his selective reading list, but unfortunately I read Malaysiakini and blogs and it gives me a different ‘perception’.

Apparently Najib is just busy not to read Malaysiakini nor the blogs but surely someone in his Ministry can do this and pass on a summary, and embarrassing statements like this can be avoided.

On the issue of National Service, Najib said the Government would continue with the programme as it promoted unity although there were accidents and death cases

He said since the programme started in 2004, there had been 16 death cases, of which 11 trainees died in their camps.

“The people are very happy with the programme despite the death cases. Their response is proven in the increased number of voluntary trainees from 929 last year to 1,137 this year,” said Najib.

I never met or knew Altantuya, Najib tells Parliament

You should read this. The people are waiting for a divine intervention. As the writer of this letter points out it could be wishful thinking, but then divine intervention is something that the people understand, and it does happen, the question is when.

Some international observers are suggesting that the Burmese generals’ callous disregard of their people’s plight in the wake of Cyclone Nargis could eventually prove the long-overdue death-blow to their calamitous regime.
Many Malaysians are sensing the winds of change too. They wonder whether the gust of disgust stirred-up by the use of sedition charges against those accusing deputy premier Nazib Abdul Razak of complicity in the Altantuya Shaariibuu murder will develop into a cyclone that finally sweeps Barisan Nasional (BN) out of office.
Unfortunately, however, both scenarios smack more of wishful thinking than of real or at least imminent possibility. Or do they?

Cyclones Nargis and Najib

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen, is the most inconsiderate woman Minister, we have had for a very long time. While the whole country is condemning the National Service program, she comes with this ill-timed announcement, sex education is to be introduced for the National Service candidates. What maternal feelings has she got, as a mother, or the least as of one of the feminine gender, parents are grieved over the latest death, brought about by negligence, and there she goes on to add misery to the bereaved. Najib, who things death is natural as the fowl slaughtered in the market, agrees with this proposal. Can’t they wait, until things settle down. Come on, if you are the parent of any of the 21 candidates who died, would you agree and make the statement. I wonder.

You can read this pathetic announcement here.

I refer to the letter NS deaths: Are you parents dead too?

The nation joins the parents of the more than a dozen NS youths who died while under the care and responsibility of all those who are paid or benefitting and in-charge of this much doubted programme.

Now do we blame, find an excuse or should one take responsibility?

The deputy prime minister has lambasted - in the wake of public concern and outcry - with a statement to that effect that this NS programme cannot be aborted as there is much to lose.

While as a minister privy to many of the official secrets, he may have his grounds to take a seemingly hardline stand but one reels flabbergasted for the obvious lack of empathy and sympathy.

What is the equation? Saving the lives of our young and promising future or the loss of material, financial and economic considerations?

And just in case anyone out there is tempted to holler back with that infamous standard Malaysian answer, ‘It is God’s will’, the medical profession should act assertively and make known a learned public opinion without fear or favour over each and every child we lost through this National Service programme.

Please Mr Prime Minister, the nation looks towards you for an answer. And if such is not forthcoming in a timely and affirmative manner, the consequences arising from the subsequent public perception will only weigh-in even deeper. And after-thought facts and accrued statistics will surely only add to nought.

The very fundamentals of safety dictate that an accident only occurs when two factors combine, namely an unsafe act and an unsafe condition.

If we are to allow common sense to prevail, then the deaths of our helpless, innocent young within the camps after all these years can only be explained by virtue of someone’s incapability, insensitivity, incompetence - short of cold, inhuman brutality.

Now who will take the rap? Please do not jump in with a politically-motivated finger pointing at the lost souls

NS deaths: Blame, excuses or taking responsibility?

The way the royal commission inquiry was conducted, I was skeptical, whether it will end up as ‘it looks me,dances like me,speaks like me, eats like me’ but it is not I. The members of the commission must be congratulated for a job well done.

Badawi has the best possible avenue to put matters right and at the same time to make the judiciary recognised as being upright. For that all involved must be punished, no mercy here, because individuals by the greed for fame and money resorted to doing things unheard of in the judiciary. That includes even the former Prime Minister and the Minister who leaked out what went on in the Prime Minister’s department. They were all part of the grand scheme to undermine the righteousness of the judiciary.

If this is not done, the judiciary will always be looked upon as corrupt, inefficient and comprised of people with doubtful characters.

I refer to the Malaysiakini report Correct, correct, correct, it’s Fairuz.

The prime minister now has to ‘walk the talk’ to restore the already battered judiciary. It is proven that the judiciary is riddled with corruption following evidence exposed before the Lingam Tape royal commission.

The first thing that the government should do and can do is to suspend immediately all the judges that were named during the royal commission inquiry.

The next step is to form an independent investigation body to look into the possible charges that can be brought against these people.. The Bar Council must play a part here to help form this independent body.

Let’s be very objective here. After hearing the involvement of the Anti-Corruption Agency and the massive cover-up attempted over this whole affair, do you really think we have faith in the investigations abilities of the ACA or the Attorney-General’s Chambers?

Do not forget, there were police reports on the VK Lingam saga before and we have heard enough of the blatant incompetence of the authorities’ investigations.

Do you think that the present Attorney-General should be given the discretion to prosecute or not? Honestly, I have no faith in that present office that was appointed during the tenure of the former prime minister.

Apart from hunting down corrupt judges, politicians and businessmen, we must put right what has been done unjustly and wrong. Real people have suffered under these corrupt judges and justice demands that the misdeeds must be corrected.

Are we just going to turn a blind eye to the wrong doing in the Ayer Molek case and just tell them ‘too bad’? Are we going to tell Wee Choo Keong ‘tough luck, buddy’? Are we just going to tell MGG Pillai’s estate ‘better luck next time’?

We have heard enough of the favours former chief justice Ahmad Fairuz did for the previous government under the former PM.

As for VK Lingam, please do not forget that this man. What we saw are the cases that he handled personally. The evidence of Loh Mui Fah and Loh Gwo Burn says it all.

I hope Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is serious and will not let this be yet another one of his half-hearted attempts to correct what is and has been manifestly wrong.

Lingam tape: There must be restitution

The Public Services Department must be congratulated now and bestowed the title the most efficient of our departments. They have screwed up the whole system mighty good, giving scholarships based on skin colour. Their guarantees are just to cheat the people how thoughtful they are and acts of playing up to the gallery. But basically they are bringing down the name of the government, which the Prime Minister is unable to apprehend.

IPOH: K. Kamine Devi was shocked that the Public Services Department (PSD) had turned down her application to study medicine overseas despite her having scored 10A1s in last year’s SPM.

This after the PSD had issued a statement recently guaranteeing scholarships for students who scored 9As in their SPM.

What was worse was that her application for a matriculation programme was also rejected.

Kamine, 17, said she had her heart set on becoming a doctor and even participated in an attachment programme in April that exposed her to a doctor’s job.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found out on Sunday through the PSD website that my application was unsuccessful,” she said yesterday, adding that she checked the result of her application several times.

“I felt that my world collapsed that day,” said the former student of SMK Ahmad Boestamam in Sitiawan, about 90km from here.

Speaking at a press conference called by the Perak Health, Environment and Human Resources Committee chairman A. Sivanesan, Kamine said her quality control father who earns RM3,600 a month could not afford to send her overseas to pursue Medicine.

“I just want to become a doctor so I can serve the country,” said Kamine, who was also active in her school co-curricular activities.

Sivanesan said the rejection of Kamine’s application made a mockery of the PSD’s earlier statement.

“The PSD should have taken the top-scorers result from the Malaysian Examination Syndicate and offer scholarships to the students. It is up to the students whether to accept or reject the scholarships,” he said.

He invited parents of bright children who faced a similar predicament to see him.

“I will assist them in writing to the PSD,” he said.

Girl with 10A1s shocked by PSD’s rejection