Malayur News: 11/30/10

Tuesday, 30 November 2010

US regrets diplomatic cables leak

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has said the United States "deeply regrets" the release by WikiLeaks of confidential US documents, calling it "an attack on the international community".…

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Nazri says Malay supremacy wrongly interpreted

Nazri says ‘ketuanan Melayu’ is not about the Malays, it is about the Malay Rulers. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 — Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Aziz attempted today…

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Najib: Warisan Merdeka tower to go ahead only if commercially viable

KUALA LUMPUR: Permodalan Nasional Bhd's proposed 100-storey Warisan Merdeka tower will go ahead only if it is commercially viable, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said today.
He said the project…

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Samy: Some want to see MIC burn

By G Vinod
KUALA LUMPUR: S Samy Vellu, who is in the final lap of his MIC presidency, has revealed that certain quarters desired to witness the incineration of the…

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By G Vinod
KUALA LUMPUR: S Samy Vellu, who is in the final lap of his MIC presidency, has revealed that certain quarters desired to witness the incineration of the party.
And this was the reason behind him naming current deputy president G Palanivel as his successor, and vice-president Dr S Subramaniam as the next number two.
This, Samy Vellu added, would ensure a smooth transition in MIC, which he had led for three decades.
Without revealing names, he said: "Some people want to see our peaceful house (MIC) razed.”
“So I named them (Palanivel and Subramaniam) as leaders to ensure that does not happen," he told reporters at the sidelines of a function here.
The former works minister also advised the incoming top leaders not to heed the “negative voices” and focus on their work.
"As party leaders, you must not listen to them and put party interests first," he stressed.
MIC is strongest
Meanwhile, the MIC president also commented on an Utusan Malaysia report which noted that the Indian community here was split into supporting eight political parties.
Despite this, Samy Vellu stressed that his party was the strongest of the lot, and the only one capable of bringing progress for the community.
He said MIC had successfully served the community in the past and would continue to do so in future.
Samy Vellu pinned the blame on Indians turning their backs on Barisan Nasional in the last general election on former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's administration.
In the 2008 polls, MIC suffered its heaviest electoral defeat, with even Samy Vellu being vanquished in his traditional parliamentary stronghold of Sungai Siput.
"It was just that in 2008, Indians left us as the BN government then failed to hear the grouses of the community," he said, adding that the situation was different now.
He said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was reaching out to grassroots Indians and the community's support was returning to the ruling coalition.
"In fact, there are about 600 applications from several PKR members in Kedah wanting to join our party," he claimed.
On another matter, Samy Vellu declined to comment on Perkasa calling PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and her deputy Azmin Ali as “political prostitutes” and for all those who challenge the ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) concept to be banished.
"I need time to study the details and will comment within a couple of days," he said.

Malaysia: A coal plant in paradise

By Jennifer Pinkowski - Free Malaysia Today
FEATURE There are worse places to be than in the eco-paradise of Sabah, a state on the northeast tip of Malaysian Borneo. To…

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By Jennifer Pinkowski - Free Malaysia Today
FEATURE There are worse places to be than in the eco-paradise of Sabah, a state on the northeast tip of Malaysian Borneo. To one side is the Coral Triangle, home to the world's richest ocean diversity; to the other is the Heart of Borneo, a 22-million-hectare rain forest.
In the middle is a vast swath of 1,100 palm plantations. Every year hundreds of thousands of tourists visit Sabah to explore its marvels of biodiversity, hiking elephant paths, spotting shy orangutans and scuba diving with hammerhead sharks.
It's hard to imagine a worse place for a brand new 300 MW coal-fired power plant than here. But it will be a real challenge for Sabah to get by otherwise. And there, in a Southern Pacific garden spot, are all the world's eco-tensions writ small.
Malaysia has taken clear steps to make environmental health a national priority. In the fall of 2009, Prime Minister Najib Razak pledged at the U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen that his country, already a Kyoto Protocol signatory, would reduce its carbon emissions by 40% by 2020.
It is one of the few countries in Southeast Asia with renewable energy standards, despite the fact that it has reliable stores of conventional fuels; its oil, gas and energy sectors accounted for 10% of the country's GDP in 2009.
Revised TNB plan
But Malaysia is also a land of pressing energy needs, and Sabah tells that story better than most places.
Officials anticipate a 7.7% annual energy demand increase through 2020, which Sabah Electricity, the state power company, has proposed meeting by adding seven new energy facilities to the 17 already in existence.
Most are fueled by natural gas, followed by hydropower and diesel.
One of those new facilities, promised by Najib just months before his pledge in Copenhagen, is slated for the Sabah palm plantation region. And this one will be fired by coal — Sabah's first such plant.
Twice before in the last three years, the local electricity utility, a subsidiary of Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), which owns 80% of Malaysia's power generation, had lobbied to build a coal-fired plant. Both times the plans were shot down by the federal Department of Environment (DOE) and local opposition.
This latest plant, however, is different. Not only is it slated for federally owned land, it also has the backing of the Prime Minister.
Sabah's environmental groups formed a coalition to fight the plant, but they kept hearing the same thing over and over again: Ini Najib mau. (Najib wants this.)Still, what Najib wants is not necessarily what the rest of his government wants, and in August, the DOE (Department of Environment) once again stepped in, rejecting a detailed environmental impact assessment for the plant.
TNB is expected to submit a revised statement early next year and when the company does, environmentalists fear the jig could be up; this time a coal plant may actually get built.
Under-developed resources
It doesn't have to be this way, environmentalists say. Some 60% of Malaysia is rain forest, the vast majority of it found in Sabah and its neighbor state, Sarawak.
Though renewables currently account for only 1% of the country's energy production, mostly from hydropower, Sabah's abundant sunshine, geothermal sources, extensive network of strong rivers and a long coastline give it the potential to make Malaysia a regional leader in clean energy.
These resources are underdeveloped, however, and until the renewables sector can get itself ginned up, the threat of a coal-fired plant looms.
One stopgap for Sabah would be to build the power plants it needs but fuel them with palm oil production waste.
Sabah currently produces about 30% of Malaysia's palm oil, which combined with Indonesia's, constitutes 90% of the world's palm oil exports.
A palm waste biomass plant could readily meet the 300-MW target Najib promised, according to one recent energy analysis.
Of course, palm plantations — and their waste — do their own serious environmental damage.
In Southeast Asia, slash-and-burn land clearing has destroyed vast forest regions to make way for monocrops like palms, a practice that has been strongly implicated in global warming.
That hardly makes this region a good place to do more burning.
Still, even greens concede that palm burning is a step up from coal, if only because it provides something to do with the 70 million tons of palm production waste the country generates each year, most of which is dumped in mill ponds or illegally burned in open pits.
Despite these problems, Malaysia still heads into the 2010 climate talks in Cancun which began on Nov. 29 as one of the world's better-intentioned environmental citizens.
But it remains to be seen how these good impulses will play out in Sabah's fragile and beautiful ecosystem.
This report first appeared on Time magazine.

2 Malaysian firms snared in Iran missile probe

» The Guardian’s full cables website
» State’s Secrets: the New York Times
» Cablegate: full texts at Wikileaks

Two companies in Malaysia have been named by the United States…

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» The Guardian’s full cables website
» State’s Secrets: the New York Times
» Cablegate: full texts at Wikileaks

Two companies in Malaysia have been named by the United States as being front companies for an Iranian-controlled network buying up missile technology from around the world.

A secret US diplomatic cable in February to the US embassy in Beijing sought China’s help to block a Chinese company from selling missile guidance gyroscopes to the Malaysian-based companies.
The contents of the cable were published on Sunday at the Wikileaks whistleblower website together with 261 other secret cables, in a massive leak of US diplomatic secrets which has ruffled feathers in governments all over the world.
It is the second time in recent years that a Malaysian company has cropped up in the worldwide US-led campaign to contain Iran’s nuclear and missile ambitions.
Six years ago the US named a unit of the Scomi group of industrial companies controlled by Kamaluddin Abdullah Ahmad, son of the former prime minister, as having shipped to Iran components for enriching uranium, the nuclear fuel in power plants as well as nuclear weapons. (» Scomi nuclear scandal article at Wikipedia.) A Malaysian police investigation later closed the file on Scomi after reaching the conclusion that it was unclear that the components were meant for use in a nuclear facility.
On February 25 this year, the State Department gave guidance to its embassy in Beijing, on how to ask for China’s help in investigating the two companies for possibly flouting international sanctions against nuclear proliferation, and sanctions under the Missile Technology Control Regime.
The two Malaysian-based companies named in the US State Department cable are:

Electronics Components Ltd
Skylife Worldwide Sdn Bhd., which the State Department said was a front-company.

(No information was available about the background or origin of ECL. Skylife Worldwide is listed in the telephone directory as having its offices in Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. However its offices were closed when this posting was written.)
The cable referred to information provided to China in December last year about Electronic Components Ltd trying to buy TRS-500 gyroscopes from a Chinese firm. The gyroscopes could be used in the guidance systems of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles, the cable said.
The following is an extract of the relevant portions of the full cable as released by Wikileaks.

 ¶4.  (S) Action Request:  Request Embassy Beijing approach

appropriate host government officials to deliver talking

points/non-paper in paragraph 5 below and report response.

Talking points also may be provided as a non-paper. 

¶5.  (S) Begin talking points/non-paper: 

(SECRET//REL CHINA) 

–In December 2009, we shared with you information regarding

attempts by the Malaysia-based firm Electronics Component

Limited (ECL) to buy TRS-500 gyroscopes from the Chinese firm

VibTel Industrial Co. Inc. 

–TRS-500 gyroscopes are controlled by the Missile Technology

Control Regime (MTCR) and China’s missile-related export

controls, and can be used in the guidance systems of

ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial

vehicles. 

–We also noted that ECL is associated with a network of

Iranian-controlled front companies that procure sensitive

goods on behalf of a number of Iranian entities of

proliferation concern. 

–In response to this information, you agreed to look into

this matter, but asked if the United States could provide

additional details on ECL’s relationships with firms in Iran. 

–We now want to provide you with additional information

indicating that ECL is part of a network of

Iranian-controlled front companies that includes the Iranian

firm Shahin Sefid Esta and the Malaysia-based front company

Skylife Worldwide Sdn Bhd. 

–This network procures sensitive goods on behalf of a number

of Iranian entities of proliferation concern, including the

Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), which is Iran’s

primary developer of liquid propellant ballistic missiles,

and Heavy Metal Industries, a front company for the tactical

missile developer Ya Mahdi Industries. 

–Both SHIG and Ya Mahdi Industries are sanctioned under

United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1737. 

–Additionally, the TRS-500 gyroscopes are controlled items

that would be prohibited from being exported to Iran under

UNSCR 1737. 

–We hope this information is useful in supporting your

efforts in this case and assists your ability to prevent the

transfer of these gyroscopes by VibTel Industrial Co. to ECL.

Wikileaks is releasing in batches the full text of 251,287 secret diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world. The contents of all the cables are available for viewing as well as for download.
Copies of the cables were also released in advance to the Guardian newspaper in London, the New York Times, and Der Spiegel (Germany), Le Monde (France), and El Pais (Spain) which have published some of the cables after redacting (editing out) the identities of selected individuals who might be placed in danger.

WikiLeaks Reveals Iran’s Secret, Worldwide Arms Hunt

(Wired.com ) Guns and ammo from Turkey. Missile components from Germany. Guidance systems from China. Iran is on a global, clandestine mission to acquire weapons and weapons technologies of all…

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(Wired.com ) Guns and ammo from Turkey. Missile components from Germany. Guidance systems from China. Iran is on a global, clandestine mission to acquire weapons and weapons technologies of all sorts, diplomatic cables released Sunday by WikiLeaks reveal. And the Tehran regime is using a series of front companies in its attempt to assemble the arsenal.

In a cable from February of 2010, State Department officials in Washington alert the staff at the U.S. embassy in Beijing that a Malaysia-based firm, Electronics Component Limited (ECL), is trying to buy three-axis fiber optic gyroscopes from a Chinese company. This isn’t just a simple business deal, the dispatch makes clear. Gyroscopes measure orientation, which makes them a critical component of weapons’ inertial navigation systems. These particular gyroscopes, the State Department warns, “would be suitable for use in the guidance systems of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles.”

Worse, the cable adds, “ECL is part of a network of Iranian-controlled front companies that… procures sensitive goods on behalf of a number of Iranian entities of proliferation concern, including the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG), which is Iran’s primary developer of liquid propellant ballistic missiles.”

The warning is part of a common thread emerging from WikiLeaks’ three major document dumps. These diplomatic dispatches, along with war logs from Afghanistan and Iraq, detail a globe-spanning Cold War between Iran and the United States. Each side has its proxies, each side provides weapons to those allies, and each side uses the game of global diplomacy to corral the other’s ambitions. “The metaphor most commonly deployed by Jordanian officials when discussing Iran is of an octopus whose tentacles reach out insidiously to manipulate, foment, and undermine the best laid plans of the West and regional moderates,” one WikiLeaked cable reports.

International arms control and non-proliferation agreements are one way the U.S. and its allies keep countries like Iran from acquiring advanced weapons technologies. Iran constantly looks for ways to game the system. Sometimes, it’s by getting their arms from other rogue regimes. Other times, it’s by using cut-outs and front firms — particularly in China.

A second Iranian outfit may be trying to make a deal for gyroscopes, one cable says, this time with China’s Hong Kong 4 Star Electronics Ltd. Meanwhile, the developers of Iran’s solid-fuel missiles are using cut-outs to buy carbon fiber in China. The stuff “could be used by Iran to produce rocket nozzles for its… medium-range and short-range ballistic missile systems. It also could be used… produce lighter motor cases that could potentially extend the range of these systems,” a second dispatch notes.

In addition, the missile-developers at Iran’s Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group have tried again and again to buy missile components in Germany, a December 2009 cable observes. German officials have had some success in stopping previous purchases. But this dispatch notes that SHIG is now using “front companies and middlemen posing as end users” to acquire “pressure transducers and other equipment [that] could be used in ballistic missile testing applications.”

It wasn’t just high-end gear, either. Iran also attempted to buy low-tech armaments from overseas, according to the State Department. According to a WikiLeaked dispatch, the U.S. has information that two Turkish firms “may sign a contract to export military material to Iran,” including full metal jacket “.38 caliber and wadcutter bullets; 40 mm automatic grenade launchers; 5.56 mm composite magazines (for M16 assault rifles), and 7.62 X 39 mm and 7.62 X 51 mm composite magazines.” The cable orders American diplomats to go to the Turkish government to thwart the deal. There’s no word in this new WikiLeak document dump whether or not the U.S. please was successful. But the worldwide, largely secret chess match between Washington and Tehran continues.

Promote ‘ketuanan rakyat’, Anwar tells Pakatan leaders

The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has urged Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders to spread a “ketuanan rakyat” (people supremacy) message to voters in states…

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Don't Be Fooled By PKR's Statements, Says Zahid

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 29 (Bernama) -- Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) leadership's recent statement against the Malay supremacy concept was only to divert public attention from the party's serious internal problems,…

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Ketuanan Melayu row not a vote-getter, say pundits

The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 — The ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) row that has broken out between PKR and its political foe Umno is unlikely to gain traction…

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The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 30 — The ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) row that has broken out between PKR and its political foe Umno is unlikely to gain traction on the ground and sway voters one way or another in the 13th general election, say pundits.

Voters, including from the Malay community, are more focused on seeing the results of public policies trumpeted by the federal and state governments respectively and less likely to be moved by racial rhetoric, several academics told The Malaysian Insider.

Umno partymen and their supporters have launched a blistering attack against PKR and its leaders accusing them of betraying their own race in the mainstream newspapers and in cyberspace following Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s (picture) move resurrecting calls that “ketuanan Melayu should be abandoned”.

The PKR president had claimed the concept of Malay supremacy championed by Umno was only a front to benefit a small group of Malay elites in power.

She said it must be left behind “so that our children will grow up with the vision of a dignified race.”

Political analyst Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said the PKR president’s remark last Saturday could be seen as a strategy move to draw the senior party in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition into taking a hardline stand that may repel its non-Malay supporters.

“I don’t think it has become an issue, maybe among the rural Malays but not the educated urban voters and especially not with the younger voters,” he said.

Sivamurugan said the 2008 general election had changed the mindset of voters, noting that blind support of a political party was no longer the norm.

“Voters are more rational and want to see implemented the GTP, ETP, 1 Malaysia concept. They want to see these policies transformed into activities and programmes on the ground now,” he said, referring to the government reform measures mooted under the Najib administration.

“I think why Wan Azizah did it was to focus on wooing back non-Malay support and divert attention from what happened during their party’s election,” he added.

Sivamurugan noted the reform party had lost much support from its non-Malay base after several contenders, including its former deputy presidential hopeful Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, went public with their allegations that top leaders had rigged the party polls.

The PKR elections had caused much public excitement as it was the first political party to allow ordinary members to directly vote in the top leaders of their choice.

The Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) lecturer observed that the grand old party has been put on the defence and pointed to the police report lodged by Perkasa, the hawkish group championing its version of Malay rights.

But Sivamurugan said so far the two political parties had only been harping on each other’s weaknesses, believing it would make a difference in the upcoming general election that is speculated will be called by April next year.

The 13th general election is only due in March 2013.

Sivamurugan said the “ketuanan Melayu” call may backfire on PKR because “younger voters especially would want to focus on the reform achievements the political parties have wrought” including at the state level controlled by the PKR-DAP-PAS alliance.

“It’s anyone’s guess now how the next election will turn out,” he said.

The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact was formed in the wake of the watershed 2008 general election which swept the three federal opposition parties into power in four states apart from Kelantan that had been long-ruled by the Islamist PAS.

Political scientist James Chin too shared the view that the supremacy concept would not gain traction on the ground either way in the upcoming general election.

But he believes that Dr Wan Azizah’s call for an end to racial superiority may cause a considerable shift at the 14th general election with a surge in younger voters.

“I see youths making 40 per cent of the total voter population by the one after this coming general election. Minimum would be 30 per cent,” Chin told The Malaysian Insider.

He said the message will appeal to the younger generation of voters and potential voters who are widely read and travelled.

“They don’t buy the argument that the Malays must be in charge. The whole concept of ketuanan Melayu is that they must be No. 1 in everything, politics, the economy, socially,” Chin elaborated.

The Monash University lecturer in political science praised Dr Wan Azizah for being the first leader of a Malay-dominant party since the 1970s to sound the call to end supremacy of one race over another, a concept many believe is based on Article 153 of the Federal Constitution.

“Wan Azizah’s statement is historic by Malaysian standards. It’s the first time since the ‘70s. No other Malay leader has done it. The message she’s selling is that Umno-BN is a racist party.

“What she’s saying is consistent with PKR’s stand for the last 10 years. PKR’s been projecting itself as a multiracial party. It’s just a reaffirmation of that but no one else has come out and said it,” Chin said.

Dr Abdul Aziz Bari from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) said Dr Wan Azizah’s remark was not new, noting PAS had been calling for an end to “ketuanan Melayu” for more than a decade.

“Actually many people have been saying that, PAS, for example, has been rejecting it since Fadzil Noor's time more than a decade ago.

“And as we know this catchphrase has got nothing to do with the Malay position in the Constitution. It is a term coined by Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad in 1986,” he said, referring to the former Umno supreme council member and Kok Lanas MP who once helmed media giant New Straits Times Press.

The law lecturer echoed Sivamurugan’s view that Dr Wan Azizah’s call was a successful strategic move to put Umno on the defensive and to reclaim its loss of support among the non-Malay community and urbanites by “trying to get Umno into their game”.

“To me it was an attempt to keep the non-Malay votes and tell the Malays it is all right to dump Umno,” he said, stressing that the grand old party is losing its mandate as guardian and protector of the Malay community.

Like Sivamurugan, Abdul Aziz noted that the Malay community at large was more interested in how Putrajaya and the state governments would carry out their public policies and less likely to be swayed by “ketuanan” issues.

“Except for the poor Malays and Umno diehards the concept rings hollow to them. That is why one finds that more and more educated and professional Malays are leaving the country and working abroad.

“Only Umnoputras benefit from government programmes. Not the Malays that have been put as the main target,” he said.

And like Chin, Abdul Aziz said PKR appeared to hold a slight edge with Dr Wan Azizah’s call.

“From the constitutional point I think PKR has been advocating what is there in the supreme law, namely to help the Malays without prejudicing the interests of other races,” he said.

The law expert noted that because of that, there may be no need to amend Article 153.

Family of 3rd police victim makes report

Seoul warns: 'dear price' if North Korea attacks again

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak warned Monday that North Korea will face severe consequences if it launches another military attack across its southern border.

"If…

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'Did my son beg for mercy before being shot?'

(Malaysiakini) There is nothing that she wants more than to see the person who killed her child be hauled up to court to face justice.

But for now, Norhafizah Mad…

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(Malaysiakini) There is nothing that she wants more than to see the person who killed her child be hauled up to court to face justice.

But for now, Norhafizah Mad Razali (left in pix) just cannot help thinking of her son's last moments before he was shot dead by police.

"I keep thinking what he was thinking, how he felt before the fatal shot. Did he plead for mercy? Was he crying in pain?" she said in tears, while her husband, Shapiei Zainal Abidin who in spite of his own wet eyes tried to offer comfort.

Their son, Mohd Shamil Hafiz Shapiei, was shot dead about 4am on Nov 13 on a street in Glenmarie in Shah Alam, Selangor. He was about a week away from turning 16.

He was shot once in the chest and in the middle of his forehead, an image which will not leave his parents' minds.

"Call it a mother's instinct...I don't know how or why, but the words just slipped out of my mouth when I saw his body: 'He has been murdered'," she said when met at the low-cost flat where they live in Kota Damansara.

The police have claimed they fired in self-defence, as Mohd Shamil and two others - Mohd Hanafi Omar (right), 22 and Hairul Nizam Tuah, 20, said to be from Cheras - had allegedly charged at police with machetes after attempting to rob a petrol station.

All three sustained similar gunshots to the chest and head, with Hairul Nizam also shot at the side of his head while Mohd Hanafi was shot at the top of his head.

All the bullets passed through the bodies, with exit wounds on Hairul Nizam's body at a lower part of his head and torso compared to the entry wound.

Headlines immediately after the incident screamed 'Teen Terrorist', with reports quoting the police as saying that Mohd Shamil was a seasoned criminal and a ringleader of Geng Minyak- a gang that had been targeting petrol stations across the Klang Valley.

If the manner in which the youths were shot dead was not enough to raise their suspicion, it was the police statements which have steeled the families' resolve to get more answers.

NONE

Hairul Nizam's sister Norliza Tuah took her concerns to their parliamentarian R Sivarasa (left) of PKR.

"I kept thinking of the way he was shot. The trajectory of the bullet (evident from the wounds) makes it seem like he was shot from a higher point. Did the police climb a tree to shoot him?

"My brother was afraid of the police and refused to drive if he didn't have his driver's licence on him because he was afraid of getting caught. How could he have charged at police with a machete?

“And where is this machete? I want to see it. We have not been shown anything that was found on (the deceased) and the police kept asking us what colour his helmet is, but he left his helmet at the cyber cafe."

Fourth person involved?

The helmet and the keys to the Hairul Nizam's motorcycle had been passed to Norliza on the morning of Nov 13 by his friends who had waited for him to return to the nearby cyber cafe where they were.

The friends told her that Hairul Nizam and Mohd Hanafi were there at 3.30am that day when someone in a Proton Waja - she does not know who - stopped by the cyber cafe and invited them out for supper.

"(Hairul Nizam) asked his friends to wait for him and said he would be back in a short while. They waited until morning but he never came back," she said.

The last time Norhafizah saw her son was at around 2.30am, when he came to the tomyam stall which she operates next to the flats.

"He always hung around with other youths who live here and played checkers. His father saw him at around 3am," she said.

Although only 15, Mohd Hafiz had much time on his hands as he was no longer attending school, having dropped out of Tahfiz (religious) school last year.

Norhafizah said he was not academically inclined and that he had asked her to search for a place for him to take up vocational training.

The teen's absence was noticed early in the morning as he has not returned home - something he had never done before.

"His sister was receiving an award for academic excellence (on Nov 13) and he told me he wanted to go to the ceremony. I called him several times but his phone was turned off," she said.

No drugs or alcohol found

Answers, albeit vague, were found in the morgue of Tuanku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital, where forensic pathologist Khairul Azman Ibrahim informed them of their worst nightmare.

"We asked the police officer who was there to tell us more but he only said that he was not at the scene of the incident. No one could answer us properly," said Norliza.

But what they did find out was that none of the youths were under the influence of drugs or alcohol when they died, leaving question marks over why they would charge at armed officers with machetes.

Just like

slain teen Aminulrasyid Amzah's (right) family, who had in vain sought an apology from the police for labelling the 14-year-old a criminal, these families too cannot fathom that the youths were involved in criminal activity.

Also on their minds is the identity of the mysterious fourth person in the Proton Waja, in which police said the youths had sped off.

“That is for the police to find out, I don't want to speculate. I just want justice for my son, for my children,” Norhaliza said.

Her second son has been taunted by his peers who have been telling him that his brother was a criminal, while her four-year-old is now asking his parents to buy him a gun.

“The little one keeps asking us where his brother is, and when we don't answer he says, 'He is dead, shot by police...police are bad',” she said.

More than clearing the name of their loved one, Hairul Nizam's family also wants this to be the case that changes the way police conduct operations.

“Someone has been charged in the Aminulrasyid case…(but) there is still something wrong with the system in which the police operate.If this could happen to our family, it could happen to another family too.

“Maybe the real Geng Minyak is still out there and my brother was the scapegoat,” Norliza (left in pix) said.

The family has since filed a police report about their suspicion over the shooting.

An emergency motion on the issue, which Sivarasa attempted to raise in Parliament on Thursday, was rejected.

Mohd Hanafi's family filed a similar police report today.

Senior Shah Alam police officers could not be contacted for a response.

Makkal sakthi or what not, Indians will not be fooled

http://www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/makkal2.jpg

It was the 'makkal sakthi' awakening and the civil society's overwhelming contribution that made March 08 a reality for Pakatan. Not denying their efforts but the win was definitely…

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P. Uthayakumar’s “ethnic cleansing” Sedition case. Biased Judge again refused to adjourn case pending High Court hearing to declare Sedition Act Ultra virus Article 4 of Federal Constitution.

Proceedings began at 9.00 a.m before Judge Sabaraiah Osman, N. Surendran appeared for P. Uthayakumar. DPP Noorin Badaruddin and two other DPP’s appeared for the prosecution.

P.Uthayakumar continued cross examining…