Friday 11 April 2014
30,000 Chinese cancel holiday plans to Malaysia following MH370 disappearance, says Nazri
At least 30,000 tourists from China have cancelled their holiday packages to Malaysia until next year
as the fallout from the disappearance of MH370 becomes evident, Tourism and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Mohammad Nazri Aziz (pic) said today.
He said the cancellations were due to the fallout from the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flight MH370.
"However, the 30,000 figure is not the overall figure as the complete report of tourist figures for March has yet to be received.
"I have been made to understand that as many as 30,000 tourists from China have cancelled their holiday packages to Malaysia until 2015.
"That is why I mentioned earlier that the tourism sector has been affected," Nazri told a press conference at the Royale Chulan Hotel in Damansara.
"The figures for January and February are extremely good but I have not received the figures for tourism arrivals after March 8."
MH370, carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew members, was on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it dropped off the radar at 1.20am on March 8.
When asked what measures his ministry planned to take to resolve the issue of holiday package cancellations from China, Nazri said: "This is not the main issue which needs to be given priority at the moment. I don’t think we need to take any measures for now.
"In the culture and traditions of the Chinese people, closure is important for them to continue living.
"So the important issue for the time being is to give them the answers they want by finding the missing aircraft."
Nazri had previously admitted in Parliament that the tragedy of MH370 had affected the number of tourist arrivals in Malaysia.
Putrajaya has already shelved Visit Malaysia Year 2014 promotions in China in respect of the MH370 crisis.
China is the third biggest contributor to tourism arrivals behind Singapore and Indonesia with a record 1.6 million last year.
For Visit Malaysia Year 2014, Putrajaya has targeted 28 million tourist arrivals.
On the abduction of a Chinese woman from the Singamata Reef Resort in Semporna last week, Nazri admitted that the incidents which occurred in Malaysia recently had dented Malaysia's image on the global stage.
"Of course these incidents will cast a negative pall on Malaysia's image. That is why we are calling on the relevant ministry to step up security in Sabah," he said. – April 10, 2014.
Gov't must enforce Deepa’s rights, amend laws
Justice was served - or so we thought. Just one day later, things took a turn for the worse.
Enforce the two court orders - reunite mother and son
Deepa has gone through a lot. She survived domestic abuse by her ex-husband. In April last year, her children were converted to Islam unilaterally by her ex-husband without her knowledge or consent. Her children were taken away from her.
To claim her rights, Deepa turned to the justice system. She obtained an interim protection order (IPO) to protect herself from further abuse, and she went to the courts to obtain custody of her children. And despite the injustices she faced, she never asked that the father not be allowed to see the children.
Yesterday, one day after Deepa won custody of her children, the ex-husband, assisted by an unknown man, reportedly violently abducted the son from Deepa’s home.
By acting violently towards Deepa, the ex-husband had breached the interim protection order (IPO). By abducting the son, the ex-husband had breached the High Court custody order. Two court orders have been breached, which warrants his immediate arrest.
Yet now, a day later, Deepa’s son has still not been returned to her, and no action has been taken against the ex-husband. We have been informed that the police are still awaiting instructions from the deputy public prosecutor before making any arrests or retrieving the child.
Amend family laws - prevent future injustices
None of this should have happened in the first place. When the ex-husband unilaterally converted his children to Islam, he was gaming the system. He created an unfair advantage for himself, and obtained custody of the children in the Syariah courts, where Deepa had no chance to tell her side of the story.
We’ve seen this happen before, with S Shamala, R Subashini, and Indira Gandhi. And though we have seen some positive High Court judgments, we need to rectify our laws to fill all gaps and to make absolutely clear that the rights of the non-converting spouse must be upheld.
The Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act must be amended, including to spell out that the consent of both parents are needed to convert the religion of their children, and that when a spouse converts, the non-converting spouse must be notified about the conversion and its legal implications.
Deepa had faith in the system. We hope that the system lives up to her faith by ensuring she is reunited with her son immediately. And if women are to have faith in the system in the future, we must ensure that our laws ensure their rights are upheld.
Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) provides shelter, social work, and counselling services for women who experience domestic violence, and advocates for women’s human rights. Together, we change lives.
Father of killed prison inmate awarded RM400k
Judge Nik Hasmat Nik Mohamad on Feb 13 this year found the prison authorities had breached in caring for G Uthayachandran and were negligent in their actions, resulting in his death at the hands of prison inmates.
One of the prison doors was not locked during food rationing time, thereby allowing the inmates to attack Uthayachandran.Justice Nik Hasmat today ordered the three defendants to pay RM192,000 (or a rate of RM1,000 times 16 years) as special damages, another RM100,000 in exemplary damages and RM100,000 as general damages.
She also ordered the government to pay RM4,000 as funeral expenses and RM5,000 in probate.
“Besides this, the court orders the government pay RM60,000 as costs to the plaintiff,” Nik Hasmat ordered.
Ghaur Chandram (above, right) filed the suit in 2009 had named the Home Ministry secretary-general, the Sungai Buloh Prison director, the prison hospital’s medical officer, two wardens and the government as defendants.
Guards failed to close canteen door
Uthayachandran, 23, who was remanded for a drug-related offence died at the prison canteen after the guards failed to close the prison door, resulting in other inmates assaulting him on May 18, 2008.
The father claimed that the prison authorities were negligent and had breached in their duties in caring for Uthayachandran.
Uthayachandran's sister G Eshwary said although they are not happy with the quantum, they have to accept it as it is.
She was in court with her father Ghaur Chandram, a taxi driver.
On
Feb 13, Justice Nik Hasmat agreed that the defendants were also late in
sending Uthayachandran, a tow truck operator, to the hospital in a van,
where the victim was pronounced dead on arrival.In her judgment, she said the court was satisfied that the father had proved his claim against the defendants.
She also said it was not normal practice for an inmate to be brought down when the food rationing exercise was carried out and “Pintu B” (Gate B) on the ground floor was not closed, allowing a group of prisoners to attack Uthayachandran.
Nik Hasmat also said the six to seven prison guards present then were not equipped to look after more than 700 inmates in the prison.
“The victim died as a direct result of the attack on him by fellow inmates. The court merely rules that there was breach of care and degree of negligence on the part of the defendants, which resulted in his death.
“Accordingly, I allow the plaintiff’s claim of special damages for funeral expenses and loss of dependency, exemplary and general damages,” she ruled.
Ghaur Chandram was represented by Arnold Andrew (above, right) while senior federal counsel H S Huam appeared for the defendants.
The defendants have filed an appeal against the quantum, but not on their liability.
Islamic horror: Iraq set to legalize marital rape, child marriage
In an effort to attract support from Shia Muslims, politicians in Iraq are set to legalize child marriage and marital rape.
The new law, recently approved by the Iraqi cabinet, is expected
to be approved by the Iraqi parliament before the upcoming April 30
parliamentary elections. The law lowers the country’s legal age for
marriage to 9, legalizes marital rape, and bans women from leaving the
home without the permission of their husbands.
The law is a calculated political strategy to please the
nation’s Shia Muslim majority ahead of parliamentary elections. Let that
sink in. Apparently a majority of Iraqis thinks child marriage and
marital rape is a good idea.
The legislation,
referred to as the “Ja’afari Law,” describes girls as reaching puberty
at age nine, thus making them fit for marriage. The legislation also
condones a husband’s right to insist on sexual intercourse with his wife
whenever he wishes, and makes the father sole guardian of his children
at age two.
The legislation was originally proposed by justice minister
Hassan al-Shimari, a member of the Shiite Fadila party, and approved by
the cabinet on February 25.
The proposed legislation is almost identical to legislation
on the books in neighboring Iran, a Shia-dominated Islamic theocracy.
The new law is repugnant and barbaric, dripping with a misogyny that is difficult to imagine.
MH370: New signal detected
But it will need further analysis, say searchers
PERTH: Searchers engaged in a race against time to pinpoint “pings” from the missing Malaysian airliner’s black boxes on Thursday detected a possible fifth signal, fuelling hopes that wreckage will soon be found.
The beacons on flight MH370′s data and cockpit voice recorders are due to fade, more than a month after the Boeing 777 vanished. So the Australian-led search is vying to determine an exact location before sending down a submersible to plumb the Indian Ocean depths.
The Perth-based Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said the latest ping was detected Thursday afternoon by an Australian air force P-3C Orion surveillance plane, which has been dropping dozens of sonar buoys into the remote waters of the search zone.
“The acoustic data will require further analysis overnight but shows potential of being from a made-made source,” JACC chief Angus Houston said in a statement.
The Australian ship Ocean Shield, bearing a special US Navy “towed pinger locator”, is now focused on a far smaller area of the Indian Ocean 2,280 kilometres (1,400 miles) northwest of Perth where it picked up two fresh signals Tuesday.
Those transmissions matched a pair of signals logged over the weekend.
“When you put those two (sets of pings) together, it makes us very optimistic,” US Seventh fleet spokesman commander William Marks said earlier on CNN, adding that the search was getting “closer and closer”.
“This is not something you find with commercial shipping, not something just found in nature — this is definitely something that is man-made, consistent with what you would find with these black boxes.”
Marks said he expected the pings to last “maybe another day or two” as the batteries powering the black box beacons fade after their normal lifespan of about 30 days.
No floating debris from the Malaysia Airlines aircraft, which disappeared on March 8 with 239 people aboard, has yet been found despite days of exhaustive searching by ships and aircraft from several nations.
Investigation still inconclusive
Houston said the high-tech underwater surveillance was meant to define a reduced and more manageable search area in depths of around four kilometres (2.5 miles), but he acknowledged that time was running out.
“I believe we are searching in the right area but we need to visually identify the aircraft before we can confirm with certainty that this is the final resting place of MH370,” he said Wednesday.
Houston again urged against unduly inflating hopes, for the sake of the families of missing passengers and crew who have endured a month-long nightmare punctuated by a number of false leads.
But he voiced renewed optimism.
“They (experts) believe the signals to be consistent with the specification and description of a flight data recorder,” he said.
No other ships will be allowed near the Ocean Shield as it must work in an environment as free of noise as possible, but up to 10 military aircraft, four civil planes and 13 ships were taking part in surface searches in the region on Thursday, the JACC said.
Houston said it would not be long before a US-made autonomous underwater vehicle called a Bluefin-21 would be sent down to investigate, but has cautioned that it will have to operate at the very limits of its capability given the vast depths involved.
In Malaysia, Home Minister Zahid Hamidi said there was “no conclusive evidence yet” from the continuing investigation into what caused the plane to divert from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route.
Zahid, who oversees law enforcement, said around 180 people had been interviewed, including relatives of passengers and crew as well as airline ground staff and engineers.
“We are filtering all the information. When the evidence is conclusive then we will let the media know about it,” he said.
A number of theories have been put forward to explain MH370′s baffling disappearance.
They include a hijacking or terrorist attack, a pilot gone rogue or a sudden catastrophic event that incapacitated the crew and left the plane to fly for hours until it ran out of fuel in its suspected Indian Ocean crash site.
But no evidence has emerged to bolster any theory.
- AFP
The beacons on flight MH370′s data and cockpit voice recorders are due to fade, more than a month after the Boeing 777 vanished. So the Australian-led search is vying to determine an exact location before sending down a submersible to plumb the Indian Ocean depths.
The Perth-based Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC) said the latest ping was detected Thursday afternoon by an Australian air force P-3C Orion surveillance plane, which has been dropping dozens of sonar buoys into the remote waters of the search zone.
“The acoustic data will require further analysis overnight but shows potential of being from a made-made source,” JACC chief Angus Houston said in a statement.
The Australian ship Ocean Shield, bearing a special US Navy “towed pinger locator”, is now focused on a far smaller area of the Indian Ocean 2,280 kilometres (1,400 miles) northwest of Perth where it picked up two fresh signals Tuesday.
Those transmissions matched a pair of signals logged over the weekend.
“When you put those two (sets of pings) together, it makes us very optimistic,” US Seventh fleet spokesman commander William Marks said earlier on CNN, adding that the search was getting “closer and closer”.
“This is not something you find with commercial shipping, not something just found in nature — this is definitely something that is man-made, consistent with what you would find with these black boxes.”
Marks said he expected the pings to last “maybe another day or two” as the batteries powering the black box beacons fade after their normal lifespan of about 30 days.
No floating debris from the Malaysia Airlines aircraft, which disappeared on March 8 with 239 people aboard, has yet been found despite days of exhaustive searching by ships and aircraft from several nations.
Investigation still inconclusive
Houston said the high-tech underwater surveillance was meant to define a reduced and more manageable search area in depths of around four kilometres (2.5 miles), but he acknowledged that time was running out.
“I believe we are searching in the right area but we need to visually identify the aircraft before we can confirm with certainty that this is the final resting place of MH370,” he said Wednesday.
Houston again urged against unduly inflating hopes, for the sake of the families of missing passengers and crew who have endured a month-long nightmare punctuated by a number of false leads.
But he voiced renewed optimism.
“They (experts) believe the signals to be consistent with the specification and description of a flight data recorder,” he said.
No other ships will be allowed near the Ocean Shield as it must work in an environment as free of noise as possible, but up to 10 military aircraft, four civil planes and 13 ships were taking part in surface searches in the region on Thursday, the JACC said.
Houston said it would not be long before a US-made autonomous underwater vehicle called a Bluefin-21 would be sent down to investigate, but has cautioned that it will have to operate at the very limits of its capability given the vast depths involved.
In Malaysia, Home Minister Zahid Hamidi said there was “no conclusive evidence yet” from the continuing investigation into what caused the plane to divert from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing route.
Zahid, who oversees law enforcement, said around 180 people had been interviewed, including relatives of passengers and crew as well as airline ground staff and engineers.
“We are filtering all the information. When the evidence is conclusive then we will let the media know about it,” he said.
A number of theories have been put forward to explain MH370′s baffling disappearance.
They include a hijacking or terrorist attack, a pilot gone rogue or a sudden catastrophic event that incapacitated the crew and left the plane to fly for hours until it ran out of fuel in its suspected Indian Ocean crash site.
But no evidence has emerged to bolster any theory.
- AFP
Deepa: Act fast before ex-hubby goes abroad
The mother who won the custody battle fears her ex-husband who took away her son will go overseas.
SEREMBAN: The mother, who won custody of her two children three days ago, wants police to arrest her Muslim convert ex-husband for violating a court order by abducting their six-year-old son.
S Deepa told FMT today that she was worried that Izwan Viran Abdullah might take her son overseas.
“Why are the police still unable to nab my ex-husband?” she asked.
She believed Izwan Viran must be in his hometown in Sungai Pelek, Selangor.
“What I’m going to do if Izwan Viran takes my son overseas or abducts my nine-year-old daughter Sharmila after this?” she asked.
“Police must take action soon because he has violated the court order by abducting my son,” said Deepa.
Deepa alleged that the Green Mitshubishi Pajero used in the abduction yesterday belonged to Yayasan Kasih Sayang where Izwan Viran was working.
“I have seen the Pajero at the Yayasan Kasih Sayang premises in Paroi before,” she said.
When contacted, the female staff of Yayasan Kasih Sayang said she would relay the message on the Pajero to her superior who was in Kuala Lumpur.
However, no one from Yayasan Kasih Sayang called FMT and verify the matter.
The Advocacy Officer of Women Aid Organisation, Sally Wangsawijaya, who is assisted Deepa in her court battle for divorce and custody of the children, urged the police to take action fast.
Sally said Izwan Viran had breached two offences.
First is the violation of Interim Protection Order that Deepa obtained from the Seremban Magistrate’s Court on Aug 30 last year for domestic violence.
“Izwan Viran is not supposed to go to Deepa’s home or get near her.
“Secondly, he violated the custody order given to Deepa by the Seremban High Court judge on Monday.
“We are concerned for her safety and children,” said Sally.
Jelebu police chief Deputy Supt Setapa Yusoff could not be reached for comments.
S Deepa told FMT today that she was worried that Izwan Viran Abdullah might take her son overseas.
“Why are the police still unable to nab my ex-husband?” she asked.
She believed Izwan Viran must be in his hometown in Sungai Pelek, Selangor.
“What I’m going to do if Izwan Viran takes my son overseas or abducts my nine-year-old daughter Sharmila after this?” she asked.
“Police must take action soon because he has violated the court order by abducting my son,” said Deepa.
Deepa alleged that the Green Mitshubishi Pajero used in the abduction yesterday belonged to Yayasan Kasih Sayang where Izwan Viran was working.
“I have seen the Pajero at the Yayasan Kasih Sayang premises in Paroi before,” she said.
When contacted, the female staff of Yayasan Kasih Sayang said she would relay the message on the Pajero to her superior who was in Kuala Lumpur.
However, no one from Yayasan Kasih Sayang called FMT and verify the matter.
The Advocacy Officer of Women Aid Organisation, Sally Wangsawijaya, who is assisted Deepa in her court battle for divorce and custody of the children, urged the police to take action fast.
Sally said Izwan Viran had breached two offences.
“Izwan Viran is not supposed to go to Deepa’s home or get near her.
“Secondly, he violated the custody order given to Deepa by the Seremban High Court judge on Monday.
“We are concerned for her safety and children,” said Sally.
Jelebu police chief Deputy Supt Setapa Yusoff could not be reached for comments.
But he denied claims by former Deputy Prime Minister Tun Dr Musa Hitam that he had asked Dr Mahathir to postpone his visit to China scheduled the day after the incident.
In a statement last week, Musa said he had asked Dr Mahathir to put off his China trip and cited three reasons: the incident had taken place in the prime minister’s home state of Kedah; it had involved Malay Muslims; and the postponement would convey the perception that the head of the country’s government’s concern and priority for a domestic crisis.
The day before Dr Mahathir’s trip to China, the police raided the small village where PAS leader Ibrahim Mahmud — also known as Ibrahim Libya — was teaching, killing 14 civilians including Ibrahim.
“On Nov 20, 1985, I led a massive private sector delegation to China because I believed there were abundant trade opportunities with China which had then only opened up to external trade participation.
“I cannot recall Tun Musa (Hitam) coming up to me to ask me not to go to Beijing but he was, with many others, at the airport, to wish me well on my trip to China. Even at that time I cannot recall if he (Musa) had advised me against going abroad, said Dr Mahathir today in a posting on his blog.
Dr Mahathir said he was very confident in the ability of Musa in handling the situation and that he had appointed the latter as the acting prime minister.
“I returned home on Nov 28, 1985. When I was abroad, there were no incidents that could not be handled by the deputy prime minister who was then the acting prime minister.”
“The issue with regards to me not being in Malaysia when the incident occurred was not spread by me. I did not mention this at all in my book. What is publicly known is that Dato Musa Hitam was the Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister at that time.
“The Inspector General of Police discussed and reported to him as the Home Minister. The Home Minister is also involved in making the decision on actions that needed to be taken. It is surely unbecoming if when things were going well, only then one admits to the responsibility.”
Musa has drawn consternation from politicians on both sides of the aisle with his disclosure at a public forum on March 27 that Dr Mahathir was in the country on the day of the violent clash in Memali.
Opposition lawmakers have demanded a royal inquiry into the Memali incident that had stained and cast a stigma on Islamist party, PAS.
Missing Plane Will Haunt Malaysia's Future
President Barack Obama
always knew his Asia tour later this month would be fraught with
political landmines. The two nations that lead off his itinerary -- U.S.
allies Japan and South Korea -- have been squabbling for more than a
year over World War II history. Another, the Philippines, is one of
Asia's economic bright spots even as President Benigno Aquino's
government is locked into a dangerous maritime territorial spat with
China -- a country Obama would rather not antagonize.
But most problematic of all may be Obama's time in Malaysia. Obama's visit -- the first by a U.S. leader to Kuala Lumpur in 50 years -- was meant to celebrate a nation viewed as a high-tech hub of moderate Islam and a democratic contrast to China. Six months ago, Obama hailed Malaysia as “an example of a dynamic economy" and touted its multiethnic society as a model to others. Today, amid the global outcry over the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, such praise sounds naive. The past month has highlighted Malaysia's deepest flaws, and all-too-few of its strengths.
The international press has pilloried Prime Minister Najib Razak's government for its initial response to the crisis, which was marred by conflicting information, poor coordination with neighboring countries, defensiveness, and an apparent lack of transparency. Fairly or not, since March 8 when Flight 370 disappeared on its way to Beijing, Malaysia has lost a great deal of its standing both in the region and around the world.
At the same time, Najib's government has been clamping down on internal political dissent. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim once again faces the specter of jail on sodomy charges; Karpal Singh, chairman of the Democratic Action Party, is defending himself against sedition allegations. Local media outlets critical of Najib are on the defensive. The government has by contrast been silent on efforts by Islamic conservatives to limit who can use the word "Allah" -- a campaign that has eroded Malaysia's reputation for religious tolerance.
What can Najib's government do, post-Flight 370, to improve its image at home and abroad? This isn't a mere PR challenge. The country needs nothing less than a political revolution.
The Flight 370 crisis has fully exposed the dangers of allowing one party to rule a nation for six decades. Since rising to the top job in 2009, Najib has had to divert his attention from revitalizing Malaysia's economy to maintaining the United Malays National Organization's long hold on power. It's a full-time job: For years populist handouts, gerrymandered districts, and political arrests secured the party comfortable majorities, but in last year's election the ruling coalition lost the popular vote for the first time. Its ethnically Malay, largely rural base is dwindling.
Early on, Najib thrilled global investors by hinting that he would scrap his party's 40-year-old affirmative-action policies, which favor Malays. But UMNO's troubles prompted Najib to expand rather than eliminate such apartheid economics.
These affirmative-action policies stifle innovation and drive away investment. They disenfranchise the country's Indian and Chinese minorities, forcing many of them to seek their fortunes overseas. Malaysia is blessed with enviable natural resources. But it is willfully squandering its equally enviable human capital.
The longer Malaysia sticks with the racial preferences, the more graft and opacity will worsen and undermine growth. The only way to unshackle the economy -- which should be performing a lot more like South Korea than Vietnam -- is to end such policies.
Najib could start by announcing specific targets and dates to scrap Malay-friendly quotas on hiring, preferential treatment for government contracts, and perks involving everything from education to housing. Civil-service and Cabinet appointments should be about ability and nothing else -- not race, not sex, not age. Until and unless every lawmaker, ministry and government-linked corporation realizes they will have to answer for their actions and failings, the trust gap between Malaysians and their government will only widen.
Ending affirmative action would increase accountability and transparency within the government and the economy. It would bolster international confidence. The government's handling of Flight 370 was no fluke. The fumbling exposed a political elite that's never really had to face questioning from its people, never mind the rest of the world. That same political culture created and coddled national carrier Malaysia Airlines. Not surprisingly, even before this, the airline had fared poorly against peers amid growing global competition.
Six months ago, Obama could praise "Malaysia’s diversity, tolerance and progress" and "dynamic economy" as "a model to countries around the world." The president's speechwriters will have a hard time coming up with compliments that sound credible this time. Najib has the power to change that -- if he has the courage.
To contact the writer of this article: William Pesek at wpesek@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this article: Nisid Hajari at nhajari@bloomberg.net
But most problematic of all may be Obama's time in Malaysia. Obama's visit -- the first by a U.S. leader to Kuala Lumpur in 50 years -- was meant to celebrate a nation viewed as a high-tech hub of moderate Islam and a democratic contrast to China. Six months ago, Obama hailed Malaysia as “an example of a dynamic economy" and touted its multiethnic society as a model to others. Today, amid the global outcry over the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, such praise sounds naive. The past month has highlighted Malaysia's deepest flaws, and all-too-few of its strengths.
The international press has pilloried Prime Minister Najib Razak's government for its initial response to the crisis, which was marred by conflicting information, poor coordination with neighboring countries, defensiveness, and an apparent lack of transparency. Fairly or not, since March 8 when Flight 370 disappeared on its way to Beijing, Malaysia has lost a great deal of its standing both in the region and around the world.
At the same time, Najib's government has been clamping down on internal political dissent. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim once again faces the specter of jail on sodomy charges; Karpal Singh, chairman of the Democratic Action Party, is defending himself against sedition allegations. Local media outlets critical of Najib are on the defensive. The government has by contrast been silent on efforts by Islamic conservatives to limit who can use the word "Allah" -- a campaign that has eroded Malaysia's reputation for religious tolerance.
What can Najib's government do, post-Flight 370, to improve its image at home and abroad? This isn't a mere PR challenge. The country needs nothing less than a political revolution.
The Flight 370 crisis has fully exposed the dangers of allowing one party to rule a nation for six decades. Since rising to the top job in 2009, Najib has had to divert his attention from revitalizing Malaysia's economy to maintaining the United Malays National Organization's long hold on power. It's a full-time job: For years populist handouts, gerrymandered districts, and political arrests secured the party comfortable majorities, but in last year's election the ruling coalition lost the popular vote for the first time. Its ethnically Malay, largely rural base is dwindling.
Early on, Najib thrilled global investors by hinting that he would scrap his party's 40-year-old affirmative-action policies, which favor Malays. But UMNO's troubles prompted Najib to expand rather than eliminate such apartheid economics.
These affirmative-action policies stifle innovation and drive away investment. They disenfranchise the country's Indian and Chinese minorities, forcing many of them to seek their fortunes overseas. Malaysia is blessed with enviable natural resources. But it is willfully squandering its equally enviable human capital.
The longer Malaysia sticks with the racial preferences, the more graft and opacity will worsen and undermine growth. The only way to unshackle the economy -- which should be performing a lot more like South Korea than Vietnam -- is to end such policies.
Najib could start by announcing specific targets and dates to scrap Malay-friendly quotas on hiring, preferential treatment for government contracts, and perks involving everything from education to housing. Civil-service and Cabinet appointments should be about ability and nothing else -- not race, not sex, not age. Until and unless every lawmaker, ministry and government-linked corporation realizes they will have to answer for their actions and failings, the trust gap between Malaysians and their government will only widen.
Ending affirmative action would increase accountability and transparency within the government and the economy. It would bolster international confidence. The government's handling of Flight 370 was no fluke. The fumbling exposed a political elite that's never really had to face questioning from its people, never mind the rest of the world. That same political culture created and coddled national carrier Malaysia Airlines. Not surprisingly, even before this, the airline had fared poorly against peers amid growing global competition.
Six months ago, Obama could praise "Malaysia’s diversity, tolerance and progress" and "dynamic economy" as "a model to countries around the world." The president's speechwriters will have a hard time coming up with compliments that sound credible this time. Najib has the power to change that -- if he has the courage.
To contact the editor responsible for this article: Nisid Hajari at nhajari@bloomberg.net
MH370 exposes Hall of Shame
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, like the prime ministers before him, has let down the nation, but the investigation into MH370 has trashed Malaysia’s reputation.
We need a cull of the political class to regain our credibility as a nation. We should start with the following initiates of the ‘Hall of Shame’. Politicians head the list, then civil servants. If the civil servants were to be replaced before the politicians, the new ones would be corrupted by their political masters, who dictate to them.
Malaysia has been on auto-pilot for several decades and the nation has been performing like a rudderless aeroplane. MH370 signals the beginning of the end of Umno Baru.
The Malaysian Hall of Shame
Number One: Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. Two words describe the MH370 “investigations”: Mismanaged. Mishandled. (MM).
MH370 may have been an unprecedented incident but the crisis management team was shambolic, with several people issuing contradictory official statements. Our confidence and trust has been shaken to the core despite all the big talk and the hundreds of billions of ringgits spent on military hardware and sophisticated equipment. We may have the best machinery that money can buy, but are monkeys operating them?
In the first few days of MH370’s disappearance, Najib and his wife, the self-styled ‘First Lady of Malaysia’ (FLOM), sought to gain cheap publicity by “weeping with the families of the passengers and crew of MH370”.
Did Najib make a premature announcement that MH370 had crashed into the Southern Indian Ocean, based on one mathematical interpretation by one company? The local press are conditioned not to ask awkward questions but foreign journalists demand answers.
Number Two: Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. Hishammuddin (left in photo) justified Malaysia’s mismanagement of the MH370 investigations by saying that history will judge Malaysia well.People ask, “Who writes the history books if not the Malaysian cabinet and their proteges?”
Hishammuddiin told the families of passengers and crew of MH370 that miracles do happen. The act of giving false hope is as bad as trading on people’s grief.
Number Three: Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. His response to the stolen passport fiasco at KLIA is symptomatic of a sick nation. He told parliament, “Furthermore, Interpol’s information of lost (passports) may slow down the process of immigration checks at counters.”
Zahid prefers speed to efficiency and safety/security concerns. Interpol has since given Zahid a dressing down and said the checks take 0.2 seconds per passport.
Malaysia is a hub for human trafficking and people have alleged that our police and immigration officials are involved. Will Zahid clean up his department?
Number Four: Deputy Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri. Abdul Rahim told Parliament that the RMAF “assumed” that Flight MH370 had been ordered to turn back by the civilian air traffic controllers.
Following a public outcry, he backpedalled and said that HE had made this assumption. So did the RMAF make this assumption or was Abdul Rahim forced to retract his statement. His U-turn is typical of the tactics of the government of Malaysia.
Lack of communication
Number Five: The Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) director-general Azharuddin Abdul Rahman. Azharuddin contradicted the statements of the home ministry and the inspector-general of polcie (IGP). More worrying than this is the lack of communication between the military and civil aviation authorities.
The MH370 investigation has lacked transparency and is mired in intrigue. This incident has reminded us of the question, by the opposition MP Nurul Izzah Anwar in June 2012, about the roles of the DCA and the Transport Ministry in the award of the contract for the supply of the RM128.4 million air traffic control system to a minster’s family through “closed tender”.
Three weeks ago, we were told that the final words from the cockpit were “All right, good night”. In the past few days, the DCA issued a correction and said the final words were “Good night. Malaysian Three-Seven-Zero”.
How can the public be expected to put their faith in the DCA or the investigative bodies with such a simple error as this? So what else is wrong?
Number Six: MAS CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya. When the reputations of the pilot and co-pilot on MH370 were being trashed, Ahmad Jauhari (right)
failed to defend his men. Although he did speak on their behalf, he
waited several days and the damage was already done. His failure to act
immediately demoralised all of the MAS employees.The sending of a text message to the families of the passengers and crew of MH370, ahead of Najib’s announcement that MH370 had gone down in the southern Indian Ocean, is symptomatic of the poor customer relations in MAS. Many people have previously stated that their complaints are rarely acknowledged or addressed.
Number Seven: Chief of the Armed Forces Zulkifeli Mohd Zin. He despatched ships from Lumut on the night MH370 disappeared. He then claimed that a C-130 plane was sent to scout the area the following morning.
What made Zulkifeli confident that he was scouring a potential crash site, thousands of kilometres from where Najib had directed others in the search and rescue (SAR) operations? Is Zulkifeli hiding something from us?
Number Eight: Chief of the RMAF Rodzali Daud. An unidentified plane was picked up by military radar around 200 nautical miles northwest of Penang in the Straits of Malacca, at about the time MH370 went missing. The military failed to act on this information, wasting both time and opportunity.
Number Nine: IGP Khalid Abu Bakar. When asked about the contradictory descriptions of the men using stolen passports, a dismissive Khalid said, “Why ask me? Ask Immigration, or ask Interpol.”
The defence minister asked everyone to avoid speculation, but Khalid said that his policemen were analysing all the speculation on the Internet to help in the MH370 investigations.
The IGP should focus on facts, rather than investigating speculation and rumour. He should chase criminals, rather than hound opposition politicians and NGOs.
Number Ten: Witch-doctor Ibrahim Mat Zain, or Raja Bomoh. This shaman heaped ridicule on the country when, at the entrance to KLIA, he used his bamboo binoculars and two coconuts to divine that MH370 had been hijacked by elves and the plane was either suspended in mid-air or had crashed into the sea. He should be jailed if he refuses to say who sent him to KLIA, to mock the suffering of the passengers and crew of MH370.
Bonus: It is reported that Najib’s favourite number is 11. When former PM Mahathir Mohamad resigned, he continued to make his presence felt by refusing to hand over the controls of the airship Malaysia, which he was flying to mediocrity. Mahathir completes the list by being the eleventh member of Malaysia’s Hall of Shame.
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO).
June tabling for hudud bill?
The New Straits Times
By SULAIMAN JAAFAR
By SULAIMAN JAAFAR
SEEKING EXPERTS' VIEWS: Deputy menteri besar says draft of the bill is ready
KOTA
BARU: THE private bill seeking a declaration that Kelantan Syariah
Criminal Code Enactment II or hudud can be implemented in the state will
be tabled in Parliament, the earliest by June.
Deputy
Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah said the draft of the bill
was ready and needed only experts' views for further improvement.
"We
want to table it possibly this year. If there is time, it will be done
in June, and if it is not possible, then, in December.
"However,
we have not decided who will table the bill," he said after chairing
the inaugural technical committee meeting on the enactment here
yesterday.
On
the much delayed meeting, Amar said it was attended by most of the 19
committee members, including state police chief Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul
Rahman.
The
notable absentees were former Chief Justice Tun Salleh Abbas and former
International Islamic University lecturer Dr Abdul Aziz Bari.
Pengkalan Chepa Prison director Zawari Abdul Rashid did not attend the meeting but sent a representative.
The
technical committee was formed in October 2011 and the first meeting
was postponed several times although several forums and discussions had
been held in Kuala Lumpur.
Amar
said the findings made during the pre-committee meetings were tabled in
yesterday's meeting and would be presented to the state executive
council.
"Another suggestion made at today's meeting was to improve the enactment to clarify further several issues.
"This
includes whether a rape victim, who is unable to bring four witnesses,
which is virtually impossible, can be sentenced for qazaf (making false
accusation).
"We will bring these issues to the state exco meeting next week."
Najib Reminds People Against Changing Government Arbitrarily
KUANTAN, April 10 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak Thursday reminded the people against moving to arbitrarily change the government of today.
He said the government of today had proven that it could implement the change and development that the people desired.
"Let's not change the government (of today) just because we want a change; more importantly, we want change and progress. Why must we change if the (Barisan Nasional) party can fulfil and implement the change and progress?" he said at the presentation of land titles for the Seri Damai Collective Land Scheme near Kuantan.
Najib said there was a possibility that what the people hoped for could not be fulfilled if they were to go for the change.
"We must know the ultimate outcome," he said.
Najib, who is the MP for Pekan, said many countries where the government had been overthrown by the people did not achieve the desired outcome.
He said the people should maintain their trust in the government of today to help realise the government's mission to make the country a developed nation by 2020.
At the event, the prime minister handed out land titles to 167 participants. Each individual received a 0.4-hectare plot.
The Seri Damai scheme was initiated in November 1985 along with 36 other schemes in the Kuantan district.
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