People must come first

From the Star:

Koh: Projects must go on

All Federal Government projects committed before the March 8 elections must be carried out for the benefit of the people of Penang, Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon said.

The former Penang chief minister said this included the Second Bridge and the Monorail projects.

He denied the Federal Government was giving the Pakatan Rakyat Government in Penang a hard time and punishing Penangites for voting in the then Opposition.

“I would be the first to disagree if the intention is to punish Penangites,” he told reporters yesterday after chairing the Gerakan central working committee meeting.

The Gerakan acting president said he had already made his stand as early as in the first week after the general election – that all federal projects in the state should go on.

He stressed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had also made this clear. “As far as the Second Bridge is concerned, it’s already committed, and should go ahead.”

However, he pointed out that in big infrastructure projects like the Penang Second Bridge or the Monorail, there were bound to be technical and financial problems, which would result in some delays regardless of whether the state was under the Barisan or Pakatan.

He said delays to the bridge project started even before March 8.

On Saturday, Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said mega projects in the state like the Monorail and the Penang Outer Ring Road might not take off as they had not reached “approval” stage yet.

To this, Dr Koh said, there was some confusion over the Monorail project.

He said before March 8, the state government spent a lot of time discussing and engaging Federal Government departments on the project, and four companies had submitted proposals, each with different alignments.

In Petaling Jaya, Nor Mohamed said the Federal Government was sincere about working with the Pakatan-led Penang government, and had no intention of cancelling projects announced under the 9th Malaysia Plan.

He said the three-hour Penang Federal Action Council meeting which he chaired on Saturday was to call for more cooperation with the state government, accelerate projects and overcome problems such as land acquisition, and to discuss cost controls.

“The Prime Minister has said that he is the Prime Minister for all. It applies to Penangites as well. The election is behind us now,” he said.

“Projects under the 9MP will continue to be implemented subject to details and procedures, including land acquisition. We will cooperate with the state government in the interest of Penangites.”

MCAC – do it fast

The Prime Minister has announced that the ACA will be restructured to become an Independent body for fighting corruption– Malaysian Commission for Anti Corruption (MCAC). This is a significant move for reform, and if really a fully independent commission can be set up, it should be welcome news for Malaysians, even if it has come a bit late — but better late than never.

I have been vocal in asking for an Independent Commission for corrupt Practices. I have forgotten how many articles and letters I have written on this. I will just quote one of the letters published in Malaysiakini on 18 September 2006 below, since the points are still valid, for the readers who have not read it before.

Before quoting the letter, I have these few points to make:

1. The commission has to be truly independent. It is only answerable to a select committee of the PArliament consisting of government and opposition MPs.

2. To be truly independent, no politicians or businessmen, past or present,  should serve in the commission. Its members have to be those of high integrity, consisting of outstanding people from the academia, from the professions, from the civil service or diplomatic service, NGOs. The appointment should be made by the Agung on the recommendation of the Parliamentary committee.

3. It must have separate power of investigations as well as prosecution, without going through the police or AG chambers.

4. The commissioners must have their assets declared yearly in media such as newspapers as well as internet websites.

5. It should have the power to investigate anyone, perhaps with the exception of the Agung as the Head of the country. It should have the power to call anyone including the PM for questioning and investigation.

6. There should be a new class of investigating officers who should be newly recruited and should be sent to Hong Kong for training. No police officers should be seconded from the police force.

I have also proposed a structure of a ICAC in my of my earlier posts. The commissioners will sit on a supervisory committee overseeing the Chief Investigating Officer.

I hope that the formation of this commission as well as the Judicial Commission can be set up as soon as possible, possibly within 100 days. This will show the resolve of the PM to introduce reform.

For those who want to read my letter published in 2006 , Please click on this link.

Dr Koh Tsu koon on an Independent ACA

This is an article posted by Sdr H’ng Khoon Leng in his blog Putih Hitm Kelabu:

An Independent ACA will be more effective

An independent Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) will make it more effective in combating corruption and enhancing integrity in the public service.

“It will be a concrete mechanism in realizing the objectives of the National Integrity Plan or Pelan Integriti Nasional (PIN) launched by the Prime Minister in 2004.

“It will also give greater confidence to the ordinary people when they want to report on corruption cases,” said Gerakan’s Acting President Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon in welcoming the ACA’s proposal to be an independent body.

“This will also show the seriousness of our Barisan Nasional Government in fulfilling a key promise in our Manifestos in both 2004 and 2008 Elections”

Minister in Prime Minister’s Department Dato’ Seri Nazri Aziz revealed yesterday that the ACA had submitted a proposal to the Prime Minister to allow it to operate along similar lines to Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Dr Koh said that Gerakan has long called for an independent ACA, especially since a workshop and a series of discussion was held in the late 90’s.

Moreover, Gerakan Founding President the late Prof Dato’ Syed Hussein Alatas was an academic authority on the study of corruption. Therefore Gerakan will continue to pursue and support all measures to combat corruption including strengthening the ACA as an independent body.

Restore confidence in our judiciary

This post is taken from a new blog: Perak Kini, and was written by the chairman of the Legal Bureau of PGRM. Amatterofchoice is glad that last night, the Prime Minsiter has announced the setting up of a Judicial Commission to look into the appointment and promotion of judges.

Party Gerakan urge the government to revamp the system of appointment of judges, as this will certainly restore confidence in our judiciary.

Our judiciary has been the focus of attention in the past 20 years and numerous negative reports have emerged. The latest is of course the “Lingam Tape”.

The present system is not transparent and arouses too much suspicion.

The British appointment system before 2005 invited similar criticisms and it depended too much on individuals’ influence and lack of guidelines.

It cumulated in the enactment of Constitutional Reform Act in 2005 and formation of an independent Judicial Appointments Commission which was officially, launched on 3rd April 2006.

The Commission is evaluates applicants for judicial positions and promotions. It selects candidates and makes recommendations to the Lord Chancellor who can reject the recommendations but he is required to give reasons to the Commission.

The Commission has set up guidelines on procedure and qualities and merits required for appointment and promotion.

The English system is worthwhile for the Malaysian judiciary to adopt as we share a common history in legal development, which is based on common law.

We are confident the proposed system is effective and acceptable to the public. The present political and social circumstances merit the adoption of the proposed machinery which will restore confidence, status and image of the Malaysian judiciary which has received a lot of beatings in the past few years.

Dato’ Chang Ko Youn
Gerakan National Legal Bureau Chairman

Fair and equal society ?

(This post is in response to this news in Malaysiakini:  Tengku Faris: Non-Malays should not seek equality)

Even though my childhood memories are very blurred now, I can still remember that from the time I was conscious of my surroundings, I had been taught one simple fact of life – that all men are equal in this world. My parents, being both intellectuals in the teaching profession, had always stressed to me that every son and daughter of theirs were equal in their eyes.

When I was older,   women teachers were fighting for equal treatment as their male counterparts; equality of the sexes were again ingrained in my mind. I remember I was very glad one day when my mother came back from school and told us that she would be getting same pay as her male counterpart. It was really not the pay, because as small kids the value of money was not so important to us, but rather we were glad because the equal status made our mother very proud and happy.

In schools, we were taught the same thing— that all men are equal. We learned from history how India had started to do away with the caste system, how in Euporean countries. all citizens were treated equal. I learned about Martin Luther King and his “I have a dream” speech. I read about how in USA, civil rights movement had succeeded in getting equal rights for all races.

 I read the book “All men are brothers” from Dr Albert Schweitzer when I was older , and the notion of equality of all people are again ingrained on me. By the way, the book influenced me into taking up medicine.

All great religions teach about equality of mankind. Even UN passed the Universal declaration of Human rights, in which all humankind are supposed to have same rights and deserve the same treatment. As the world progresses to be one single big family, inequality has become less and less, and I believe that there would come one day, call me an idealist, that all men will be truely equal.

Now, suddenly, someone important is telling me that all my notion of equality is not vaild in this country.  My dream of equality can only be dreamt. How do I feel? How do you feel?

One royalty is telling us that a certain portion of Malaysians, which include me and my family,  cannot be equal and should not seek equal treatment; That there are in fact different classes of races in the country; that even those  born in this country long after Independence will still have to carry the burden left behind by our forefathers. How do you feel?  I feel disgusted and cheated.

Are we really still so medieval that we still need to have different classes of citizens? Can’t all citizens be treated equal – the tenet of the most basic of human rights?

I don’t know how to answer that. 

All my life , I have taught my children about fairness and equality. Now what am I going to tell my grandchildren?

“Gerakan needs to ‘Gerak’ now” – another email comment

There is a very interesting but thought provoking exchange of opinions by a few commentators following the posting of the last article ( Business as usual?) by a concerned member of PGRM, Sdr Pook Kong Fee. A reader known as romerz, who has posted many insightful comments in the blogs of many bloggers and is no stranger to the blogsphere , has commented on the inert situation of PGRM following the dismay results of the recent General Election.

We hope to hear the reply from PGRM leaders on their views as well as the views of other commentators. PGRM members are encouraged to give thier views too.

We received another input from Sdr Pook KF, which we will post it below.

Hi,
Romerz had posted a comment in relation to something that I had written “Business as Usual” – April 10, 2008.

I posted a comment in relation to that, basically agreeing with romerz’s comment and went to suggest what Gerakan leaders could do. Mind you, romerz declared that he is not a member of any political party and that he voted for Gerakan candidate for the past 3 elections, both state and parliament!!

I am enclosing my comments below (within curly brackets, { }) for discussion.

In order to assist others to understand the comments, I have also enclosed romerz’s comments within brackets ( ).

I would like to add here that one of the new issues that had arisen this week is Pak Lah’s comments that people who convert to Islam should notify their family and to have some form of documentary evidence to prove the notification.

Various comments and suggestions had been voiced by NGOs, MCA and also DAP Karpal Singh, but none from Gerakan (at least in the english press).

During the week I have also received emails from NGOs notifying of the proposed meeting between the NGOs with the Mentri Besar of Selangor on 16 Apr and also the proposed nonimation forms for nominations of Councillors to be submitted to the Selangor State Government as well as the meeting the NGOs have had with Ronnie Liu one of the Selangor State Exco Member.

The email also attached the main points the NGOs have made vis a vis various issues of concern and relevance to the residents of Selangor. The issues raised are wide ranging.

If the NGOs (more than one diverse groups) can within the short time after the Mar 8 election, organised themselves, meet and present their views to the Selangor Exco members and also the speed at which the Selangor State Government is meeting with them, there is no reason why Gerakan cannot put its act together quickly and immediately,

Much time has passed, people are watching and Party members are also waiting for directions. Perceptions are being created in the minds of the people that the Pakatan Rakyat government is pro-active and sincerely in trying to solve the problems or concerns of the people.

Seriously, Gerakan has to move and to move now. The Party’s name calls for that as well.

One more thing, I similarly did not, till today receive any response or reply (automated or otherwise) to my email to Gerakan. I wanted to log into the Gerakan and to post some comments/issues but could not do so. I sent an email asking for advice on what needs to be done. Sad to say there is no response todate

Pook Kong Fee

 

 

 This is the comment from member1982 in response to romerz’s comment below:

{romerz has summed the present perception of Gerakan very well.

I expected that Gerakan would be more organised, tech savy and would be the first amongst the BN parties to regroup and respond to the changes, expectations and aspirations that the Malaysian voters had shown in the Mar 8 elections.

Regrettably practically nothing is coming from the Gerakan leadership. Absolutely no comments, ideas as to what the Party’s positions are with regards to the various issues now being brought up as well as the allegations by the Pakatan Rakyat Penang state government about the land scams, mismanagement of the Penang State’s funds, both at council and state level.

This gives the impression that Gerakan is impotent. It also gives rise to the impression that the time that Gerakan was in power it was just warming the seats and do things on behalf of the UMNO, the dominant partner of Barisan Nasional.

It further provides the perception to the Malaysian people that Gerakan, for all the hype of many responsible and sincere professionals in the Party, is actually empty up there and do not have any opinions, ideas, plans, strategy whatsoever when confronted with issues and problems.

If the Party leaders really want to “reinvent” Gerakan and be the party of choice of the Malaysian people or to to provide the lead in formulating policies that will help heal the “gaps” between the various races, religions, social classes and segments of the Malaysian society, Gerakan leaders have to LEAD and to START TO LEAD NOW!!!! Otherwise Gerakan will find itself really irrelevant by the end of 2008.
Being out of the Federal and State Government, Gerakan may not be able to directly influence the policies of the Fed and Stat Government, but Gerakan can and must play the role of the “conscience of the Government and of the Barisan Nasional” by voicing out in the various medias, both conventional and non-conventional.

Gerakan can do so by stating the correct positions from a multi-racial, multi-religious and multi-cultural perspective to the various issues. Gerakan can do further, apart from stating its positions publicly, by studying and analysing the various immediate problems facing the country and the Malaysian people and to produce position papers proposing concrete solutions and action plans to solve or elevate these problems.

Granted Gerakan may not be in the position to implement any of these solutions or action plans, but it can be put to good use nevertheless. It can be used to educated its Party members and the general public so that people are more aware of the actual problems and the possible solutions and actions that could be taken.

It can be presented to the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council in which Gerakan is still represented for consideration and adoption. In fact this is the ONLY channel that Gerakan has to try influence the policies of the Fed Government, discounting the direct personal contacts between the Heads of the component parties.

The ideas, proposals, solutions or actions plans could well be “adopted” or “pirated” by Pakaktan Rakyat and implemented in the states under their control. I personally think that this may be too remote but I think some form or hybrid could be adopted by them and I think for the betterment of the country and the Malaysian people there is no harm. Never mind if they take the credit for the implementation, the country progress and the people are happy and enjoy the fruits of the progress.
But people will know that the solutions, proposal, action plans started from Gerakan.
Having said all these, perhaps the Gerakan leaders may have voiced some its opinions and may have been published in the non- english press, which I do not read. If this is so Gerakan leaders have also to find ways and means to ensure that their opinions are also widely publicised in the english media as well because many Malaysians read only one language media and english is one of the widely read media in Malaysia.

If the english press does not want to provide coverage due whatever reasons, perhaps it is high time that Gerakan consider its own Party newspaper to be sold to and subscribed by the general public, similar to what some other political parties have.

The Party newspaper can initially be published quarterly and the frequency increased as the paper gets more organised.

I believe the Party can find the resources, both brains, brawns and liquidity, to get these things done. After all the Party resources have improved tremendously sine 1982.}

 

Below is the original comment from reader romerz in response to the article “Business as usual” posted in this blog last week:

(romerz Says:
April 10, 2008 at 6:46 pm
The silence from Gerakan is indeed deafening. Except for a few comments here and there, it’s almost as if the party ceased to exist since 8 March. Even the Gerakan website has nothing much to say, more like it’s caught in a time warp before 8 March.

Well, it’s a month past 8 March and after the biggest blow suffered to Gerakan as a party since its formation. The silence is bewildering for those who supported Gerakan and are now unsure where to go from here.

I’m not a member of any political party but because of my residence, I have for 3 elections now, to choose between a Gerakan candidate and a DAP candidate. For all 3 elections, I have given my votes to the Gerakan candidate, both state and federal. It is not because I’m ‘in love’ with Gerakan but more because I didn’t see the opposition as a viable alternative then.

Well, all that has changed. Since 8 March, the 3 components of Pakatan Rakyat are saying and pressing all the right buttons, with the occasional hiccup here and there, which is amazing given its different ideologies and the short period of time they have had to transit from opposition to government in 4 states. I’m not saying that they have suddenly become viable but they are increasingly appealing to me as an alternative that will fight for what I cherish for this country and in turn, for my descendants.
Those of us not within the party or the inner circle of the leadership asks a very simple question of Gerakan.

 

“Do you still want our support or not?”

If you do, then for heaven’s sakes come forth and be seen to have heard the ‘loud’ message the rakyat just sent you a month ago and show us leadership. Silence only gives the perception that Gerakan is ‘lost’ and waiting for UMNO to show direction. The very reason why so many of the ‘middle ground’ voters has had enough and were ‘pushed’ to vote for the opposition.

No matter how ugly it is, be it leadership crisis, loss of direction, or even fear of the unknown, etc; put it to an issue now! Delay will surely spell Gerakan’s demise!

Having the party elections next year, after UMNO’s, will only give the perception that Gerakan cannot decide its own future by its own members. But is dependent on UMNO before setting its own course.
Perception is everything. As Aedhmar Hynes, CEO of Text 100 International, said, institutional trust is eroding, more and more people are turning to ‘peer media’. Unfounded accusations (as frequently raised in the blogs) of Gerakan may be perceived to be true, in part by Gerakan’s unwillingness to challenge it.

Difficult times require difficult response. Gerakan owes it to its members and those non-members who supported it all these times an answer now. If it’s unsure of where to lead us, then be sincere and tell us now then disband and let all its supporters choose their own course.

Isn’t sincerity what the party had always proclaimed when confronted with difficult issues? Not so much Gerakan’s own creation but UMNO’s. Why now when we need to know most is it so silent?
Even the MCA is moving faster than Gerakan. I say this because I was so stirred-up about Malaysia’s future since the outcome of the 12GE that I shot-off emails to MCA and Gerakan, giving my views about what happened on 8 March, uninvited as it may be.

Surprise surprise! I not only received a reply from MCA (I had expected Gerakan to respond 1st, if at all) but I actually got a phone call from MCA asking me to continue sending emails of relevance relating to the minority communities, which I might add is still ongoing and replied, not by a bot but by a person!

Guess what I got from Gerakan? Nothing, zilch, zero, and I thought being on a multi-racial platform would have a better chance than MCA for survival.

For those within the party, I appeal to you to set something in motion. Don’t really care what it is except that it makes the party leadership get off their behinds and do something drastic to salvage sinking ship!)

Business as Usual ? Email from a concerned member

This blog received an email from a member from Kuala Lumpur, Sdr Pook Kong Fee, which we will publish below.  Please feel free to give your views and comments.

        Start to be vocal now !!!

Hi,

We are still not catching up with the times. The people have spoken and our leaders have still not caught up.

A few issues have been raised amongst which is the Penang Govt allegations that there are numerous scams relating to land transactions in Penang.

Apart from Sdr Koh’s Secretary who had made a press statement in the the English press that the State Govvt at that time had initiated an investigation, no news or statements had been forthcoming.

Sdr Lee Kah Choon does have a point and that is the Party has to come out to clarify the matter and to prevent further asperations and doubt being casted onto the Party’s administration in the previous Penang Govt.

Another issue which was just raised is the Syariah Court Judge calling for the civil laws of Malaysia to be amended in order to charge non-muslims involved in khalwat with muslims.

Gerakan leaders should state in no uncertain terms what the Party’s opinions are on this issue. Otherwise the people will still think that we still following the “business as usual” despite the people clearing telling us that we have been doing are not enough and would want the Party to state clearly the Party’s positions on various contentious issues.

I hope the Party’s leaders will respond to these issues and other issues that may arise in future timely and promptly.

Pook Kong Fee

At the cross-road

It is now about 4 weeks since the 12th General Election which has really changed the political landscape of Malaysia. If you are a keen follower of Malaysiakini, you would have noticed that the past 3 weeks, so much unexpected have occurred.

The question in most people mind now is that will UMNO change for the better. One question everyone is asking: if UMNO wants reform, what is Mike T doing there?

I think the PM knows that he has to reform UMNO otherwise people will abandon UMNO. Already there are voices in some of the component parties such as PPP and Gerakan and even MCA that they should opt out of BN if UMNO does not reform. The question is : will he be strong and firm enough to institute a total revamp, including doing away with money politics, cronyism, nepotism and corruption?

For these component parties, there are 3 options to choose from:

   (graphic courtesy of inmagine.com)

1. Remain in BN, where their fate will be decided by whether UMNO reforms or not.  Their fate will be in the hand of UMNO. If UMNO does not reform radically, these parties will probably be wiped off the next round. Any reform taken by these parties without similar reform being instituted in UMNO will not endear them to the people.

2. Opt out of BN and join the Barisan Rakyat. But some of the parties are so weak now, they will be in no position to bargain for better terms to join Barisan Rakyat. In the reality of politics, do not expect PKR or DAP to give up seats for these parties to contest. They will probably be absorbed and disappeared from national political scene. So this might not be a viable option from the political point of view.

3. These small component parties can opt out of BN and remain independent and be a vigilant watchdog over both Barsian National and Barisan Rakyat. They can act as a consciense for the people and give constructive criticism for both sides. They can play the role like the Liberals in UK, which has thrived between 2 giants, the Conservatives and the Labour. Come the next election, they could probably opt to join force with either one of Barisan or Pakatan, depending on which is more closer to the people. They could then bargain from a  position of strength, and not from  a position of weakness, during any seat negotiation.

In any case, they will have to reform and be closer to the people, feel the pulse of the people and speak out on behalf of good governance.

Exco line-ups

Does the racial composition of the Exco line-ups, particularly in Perak, Selangor and Penang, really matter?  If one abides by Gerakan’s non-racial ideology, it doesn’t.

All that matters is that it is a Malaysian list, to serve Malaysians in those States. If mischevious elements try to exploit this issue to incite racial feelings, it is to be condemned. The Exco may be criticised if they fail to perform, but not on its ethnic breakdown.

The voting swing was multiracial. As far as the above-mentioned States are concerned, it is the Government that the people of all races wanted, and it is what they will get. Going against this democratic principle by playing the communal card is in bad taste.

Whether they can deliver the goods is another matter, and left to be seen.

Observer.