Zaid Ibrahim Coy On Ex-Gratia Payment To Former Judges – Malaysiakini

What is ex-gratia payment. It is a payment done in favour without legal right. Or simply it means, you are paying someone a sum of money without admitting liability, for whatever pain or discomfort or loss that has been caused. It is some sort of guilt payment without admitting guilty. That’s all to it.

The ex judges, five in number, were paid some extra money. This was to appease them and say forget what happened in the past, now that you have been compensated.

Zaid Ibrahim the de facto law minister, had this to say why the amount involved must not be divulged.

• The Judges did not want publicity, or discussion

• The amount be kept confidential

• The privacy of the Judges must be respected

• It was not a bribe to shut the Judge’s mouth

• Permission must be obtained from the Judges before releasing the amount given.

All these is bull, if you ask me. It brings out the possibility either the compensation was very low, say a few hundreds or running into millions. Was it a shameful amount or did this make them millionaires.

Whatever said and done, it is the people’s money, and this is another episode like Petronas, where everything is done under the table; secretly, and perhaps at night. Transparency and accountability; what, are they new words.

Zaid grilled over judicial matters

For three hours for de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim who was grilled on various issues facing the beleaguered judiciary.

PAS Youth Defends Overtures To UMNO – Malaysiakini

PAS Youth defends overtures to Umno

This is a quarrel between PAS and PKR over the rubbing of shoulders between UMNO and PAS. As per Abdul Hadi Awang, this move was to convey the message of Islam to individuals in UMNO.

I have no comments on these. I am not a party member, and don’t intend to be one in the near future. But, I take offense at the remarks made by PAS when it comes to PAS being the party having the most members in Pakatan Rakyat. The predominance of PAS is 83 seats to DAP’s 73 seats and PKR’s 40 seats in state legislative assemblies.

Then PAS goes on to brag about PAS people with the most party branches and the most number of people who brought about victory.

Let me correct the records. The bulk of the people who voted for PAS are not all, who loved the party and their Islamic principals. Many non-Muslims voted for PAS instead of voting Barisan Nasional as a protest against the ruling party. Many would have preferred PKR or DAP, but because the candidate was from PAS there was no choice. Many a voter did not even know who the PAS candidate was, but it did not matter, the annoyance was with BN. My state and parliament constituency were PAS candidates and after casting my vote, out of curiosity went to the party tent to ask who were the candidates as I wanted to say hello to them. Both were busy elsewhere and I left. So, it is not just PAS members or mainly Malays who voted PAS, a lot of non-Malays voted for PAS. If this is understood, then I have made my point.

A Funny Home Minister

Our Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar is blowing hot and cold. Yesterday in Parliament he was hot, he said “Syed Hamid said the meeting was attended by various leaders,
including DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan
Eng, DAP vice-chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw and PAS treasurer Dr Mohd Hatta
Ramli.

“This proves that the threat was very real. The intention
was clear, we had to take some action to prevent bigger things from
happening.”

Now, he is blowing cold, when DAP confirmed that no meeting was held with Pakatan leaders,Hamid says he will verify his earlier information. He further adds that he will not apologise unless DAP asks him nicely. Oh brother, must DAP bring along chocolates and ask him nicely.

But the more important issue is, were the road blocks just put up by the Police on the instructions of the Home Minister when the unverified information was received.

Is he not going to apologise to the people for the three day inconvenience and agony the people suffered in traffic jams.

What a funny Home Minister. What has the PM to say to this.

DAP denies attending rally meeting

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and vice-chairman Dr Tan Seng Giaw denied attending a meeting with Pakatan Rakyat leaders on July 9 on the alleged Monday rally.

DAP has called for a retraction from Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar who said Monday that the meeting was attended by various leaders, including Kit Siang, Guan Eng, Dr Tan and PAS treasurer Dr Mohd Hatta Ramli.

DAP claims there was no such meeting among the Pakatan top leadership.

Kit Siang added that there should be a public inquiry into the massive road blocks on Monday.

He also called for Syed Hamid to resign if he failed to provide an explanation for the massive jams on Monday.

In an immediate response, Syed Hamid said the Home Ministry will verify the information he received via SMS on the planned rally outside Parliament. He added that he will not apologise to the DAP unless they speak to him “nicely” about it.

In Parliament, Syed Hamid insisted that the authorities had valid information that Guan Eng had attended a meeting with Pakatan Rakyat leaders on July 9 to discuss the alleged demonstration on Monday.

“I will retract what had been said of Yang Berhormat if the information is found to be untrue. The details of the information are not with me, but I can tell you more in other forums,” he added.

Guan Eng earlier denied that he had attended the meeting, and claimed that he was with the Penang Yang di-Pertua Negri Tun Abdul Rahman Abbas on that day.

“I was in Penang and there was no meeting at the PKR headquarters (on that day),” he added.

Several minutes of argument then ensued between the Pakatan MPs and Barisan backbenchers.

N. Gobalakrishnan (PKR-Padang Serai) told Syed Hamid that the massive traffic gridlock had occurred because of “your false information,” while Syed Hamid replied that “Yang Berhormat is the one who is causing difficulty to the people.”

Earlier Syed Hamid told Raime Unggi (BN-Tenom) that the ministry encouraged a liberal and responsible mass media which adhered to the Federal Constitution, democratic principles and Malaysia’s multi-racial society.

He added a “national media policy” was being formulated to ensure the country’s mass media fulfilled the country’s aspirations to create mass media that was responsible, transparent and had credibility.

The policy encompassed the print and elec

Muhyiddin Can Be Deputy Premier – Malaysiakini

Again Mahathir is taunting Najib, hoping he will get the message, and to do something to wrest the number one post from Badawi. Mahathir is a political animal, well versed, in manoeuvring situations with the ultimate goal in mind; Badawi must go now.

If it is not so, why is the sudden announcement that even Muhyiddin can beat Najib and win the DPM post. Mahathir knows he is backing Najib, a lame horse, a weak person, never independent, but follows the leader. Perhaps Mahathir is wrong, who does not want to be the DPM, Najib yearns for this but the heavy package he is carrying, which I am sure Badawi knows, prevents Najib from making a bidding. With this ‘I know what you did last night’ Sword of Damocles hanging over his head, Najib becomes a reluctant candidate telling Badawi to choose what he thinks is best for him.

Malaysiakini says Mahathir is now supporting Muhyiddin. This is a red herring to draw Najib out to the fore-front and asking him to fight like a man. Will Najib do it.

Najib even calls Badawi the right honourable – something unheard of in Malaysian politics, and a fall back to the British tradition. Read here.

Dr M: Muhyiddin can beat Najib for No 2

Should Muhyiddin Yassin challenge Umno deputy president Najib Abdul Razak, the senior vice-president can win the contest, said former party president Dr Mahathir Mohamad today.

“People perceive Najib as a weak leader who has never had his own stand. He merely has been repeating ‘I support, I support…I’m very touched’,” said Mahathir when opening the office of the Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress (Kimma) in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur.

World’s oldest blogger’ dies at 108 – CNN.com

‘World’s oldest blogger’ dies at 108 – CNN.com

(CNN) — An Australian woman often described as the world’s oldest blogger has died at the age of 108 after posting a final message about her ailing health but how she sang “a happy song, as I do every day.”
Olive Riley posted more than 70 entries on her blog — or “blob” as she jokingly called it — since February 2007

Olive Riley posted more than 70 entries on her blog — or “blob” as she jokingly called it — since February 2007

Olive Riley died Saturday at a nursing home in New South Wales.

Riley posted more than 70 entries on her blog — or “blob” as she jokingly called it — since February 2007.

On the site, The Life of Riley, and in a series of videos post on YouTube, Riley mused on her day-to-day life. She also recounted living through two world wars and raising three children on her own while working as a cook and a bar maid.

“She had a wonderful memory, and an amazing zest for life,” said her friend Eric Shackle, who met Riley at a nursing home while visiting his wife, who has since passed. “Just two weeks ago, she recalled the words of a song that was popular before World War II, and sang the chorus with me.”

In a post titled “Washing Day,” Riley wrote: “You 21st Century people live a different life than the one I lived as a youngster in the early 1900s. Take washing day, for instance. These days you just toss your dirty clothes into a washing machine, press a few switches, and it’s done.”

She then described how she helped do laundry as a youngster, starting with finding “a few pieces of wood to fire the copper for Mum.”

“When the water in the copper began to boil, Mum would add a cupful of soap chips, and throw in a cube of Reckitt’s Blue wrapped in a muslin bag to whiten the clothes,” she wrote. “Then she put in all the dirty clothes, first rubbing out the stains with a bar of Sunlight soap. … that was jolly hard work.”

Riley was born in 1899 and would have turned 109 on October 20. She took up blogging at the suggestion of Mike Rubbo, who filmed a documentary on her life four years ago.

“First of all, I had to explain to her what a blog was and that took some doing,” Rubbo said. “Then I got across the idea it was sort of a diary that she would share with the world.

“The reason for its popularity is that she was such a standout talent — just so touching and funny and such a great story teller.”

Various others have at times been labeled the world’s oldest blogger, including Spain’s Maria Amelia who was born in 1911 and given a blog by “my grandson, who is very stingy.”

Riley was 12 years older than Amelia.

In her final post, dated June 26, Riley wrote how she felt weak “and can’t shake off that bad cough.”

She wrote of singing a “happy song, as I do every day,” with a visitor to the nursing home, “and before long we were joined by several nurses, who sang along too. It was quite a concert!”

Said Shackle: “The thousands of loving messages she received from fellow bloggers in such places as Iceland, India, Iran, North and South America and Australia helped keep her alive in her final year.

“Her only regret was that she couldn’t reply to them.”

Bloggers – The Other Side Of The Story

Tunku Abdul Aziz, a former special adviser to the United Nations Secretary General, writing in The Sunday Times, calls bloggers liars hiding behind the cyber curtain.

The Pahang ruler in a news item cautions people to be wary of bloggers.

The Tunku is hard hitting, calling bloggers arrogant, acting as the nations conscience, and arbiter of truth. Bloggers are least qualified he says, to give comments and opinions, as truth is sacrificed.

His emotive writing condemns bloggers as socially maladjusted, for writing the untruth. His grouse is also that bloggers level allegations left right and centre, on people they dislike, spreading despair and disquiet, exploiting the uncertain political times the country is going through. His other points are, bloggers by nature have sterile intellect and to compensate this deficiency engage in blogging to add spice and excitement to their postings.

The Blog language is such that even your aunt will feel uncomfortable.

Now comes the good point, despite all the evils the bloggers do, he is magnanimous to admit the disappointment of clumsy management of official information. He digs at the Information ministers, who in his estimation are people who control and regulate and what comes out is an insult to human intelligence.

At his best, the Tunku says the MSM is perceived as propaganda tools and bloggers are displacing the mainstream media. In ending he bemoans the fact that the government because of ineptitude is giving bloggers some credit.

On closer reading of the article, the Tunku is aware of the current situation of why bloggers are increasing in numbers, inept information from the government, and the MSM drives people to write their comments and views via blogs not to show their excellence in the language, but writing to show their feeling of the government and MSM and their failed attempt to paint a picture of semuanya ok, syndrome.
The main issue is whether bloggers lie to their teeth to get famous or for monetary gains. It is not so. Broadly speaking, there are two types of bloggers, the first group like Raja Petra, Jeff Ooi, Rocky Bru, Anil Netto and others are fortunate in  that they have little birds whispering in their ears as to what is happening in government circles. They write with confidence of what they know. The second group, where the bulk of the bloggers are in, depend on the MSM media for news, and God help those responsible if there is any attempt to spin the actual tale. The second group is vigilant enough to read a lot on line as well as other blogs, and form an opinion which cannot be a lie. Bloggers just don’t pluck out a subject, and start commenting unsure of the origin. If they do that they become story-tellers.

As for the ruler’s comments, that bloggers confuse the people and ruin the peaceful atmosphere in the country, is a bit far stretched. I think the bloggers as a community are more united and open to criticism and views, than what the government can ever do to bring the people to an open society of give and take forgetting your origins.

Technorati Tags: Blogs,Tunku Abdul Aziz,Raja Petra Kamarudin,Jeff Ooi,Rocky Bru,Anil Netto

Traffic Jams The Anwar Factor

Traffic jams caused havoc yesterday in Kuala Lumpur, with some motorists spending two hours in their cars before reaching their destination. Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said that Government had proof that road blocks by the Police was necessary to stop an illegal assembly outside Parliament house.

The question is asked, if there was a plan to assemble before Parliament, would it not be prudent to block the roads in the vicinity of the building; a safety net just for Parliament alone. Was it necessary to cordon off the whole of Kuala Lumpur, even as far as Seremban where road blocks by Police was evident during the week end. Were the Police over zealous in their zeal to create inconvenience and anger. Any good vibrations the people may have for the Government turned to annoyance and frustration. Trust me the Government has lost some much needed support of people who still cling on to Barisan Nasional.

Hamid adds the Police cannot be complacent and take no action when information is received. But he also says the planned assembly was for July 9, if it be so, why were road blocks necessary earlier.

It is obvious that the Government did not want to Anwar to be around especially with the no confidence motion being introduced in Parliament against the Prime Minister, but to my mind the debate should have been allowed by the Speaker as the issue would not go beyond the debating and no action is possible with the Barisan Nasional having the majority.

There’s Proof Illegal Assembly At Parliament Organised By Opposition :: Bernama.com

KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 (Bernama) — The government has proof that the failed illegal assembly outside Parliament House Monday was planned by the Opposition, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said.

While expressing his frustration with Opposition leaders for denying they were behind the assembly and instead accusing the government for naming them, Syed Hamid said the authorities received various information about it including that it was planned on July 9.

“Is it fair for the police to ignore public interest by not ensuring peace and security and letting the illegal assembly to take place,?” he told reporters at Parliament House Monday.

Syed Hamid said police had taken appropriate action by setting up road-blocks and limiting access to Parliament House as preventive steps leading to the illegal assembly taking place at Pasar Seni.

Some 20 people including Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Youth chief, Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, were at the 2pm assembly at Pasar Seni after failing to penetrate the police shield around Parliament House.

The assembly dispersed after three minutes when told to do so by police.

“If we did not take such early action the situation could have worsened. We are sad that due to this people were inconvenienced. I apologise to the public and the media who faced difficulty getting to Parliament but thank god our actions made the situation controllable,” Syed Hamid said.

He called on the Opposition to not politicise the issue of public peace and security.

During the Dewan Rakyat session, Mohamed Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) asked Syed Hamid to give a full explanation in the House regarding the organisers of the illegal assembly.

“The intelligence received by the Home Ministry is irresponsible and amounts to preventing (PKR advisor) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim from coming to Parliament today,” Mohamed Azmin said.

When asked about the explanation sought, Syed Hamid said he would not provide any explanation in the Dewan Rakyat.

“In the Dewan Rakyat there are rules and if I begin to break the rules people will say that I am teaching the Speaker how to run the proceedings,” he said.

Umno Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein meanwhile said the police’s pro-active actions brought the situation under control.