Category: Daily Whatevers

Go to a bank, they are there waiting for you. Go to a petrol station and they hide behind pumps, waiting to pounce on you the moment you start filling your car’s tank up.  Go to an ATM machine, they will be waiting outside.  Go to a food court, they will come and push this worn out leaflet of an orphanage under your nose.

Malaysians are known to be philanthropic.   As a Muslim, you are encouraged to give alms with the hope that God will reward you leaps and bounds.  Sadly, it is Muslim children, mainly orphans whom you see are being exploited by the management of orphanages to solicit funds/donations from the general public.  But is sending children out on their own, for long hours, for days at times, necessary?

The International Labour Organization defines Child Labour in Article 3 of ILO Convention No.182.  It reads:

a) all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;

(b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;

(c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;

(d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children.

Labour that jeopardises the physical, mental or moral well-being of a child, either because of its nature or because of the conditions in which it is carried out, is known as “hazardous work”.

The words I have put in bold are the ones, in my opinion, reflect the nature of labour these unfortunate orphans are being put through.  My question is, what are the authorities doing about this?

In March 2012, Datuk Heng Seai Kei, the Deputy Minister for Women, Family and Community Development said that  continuous effort has been taken by the North-South Highway Project (PLUS) with the cooperation of the Social Welfare Department to curb the abuse of orphans by the management of orphanages along the North-South highway.  Apart from that, the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (JAKIM) has asked the respective state religious authorities to arrest those who exploit children and orphans by asking them to solicit funds.  He said this when answering Dungun MP, Datuk Matulidi Jusoh in Parliament when the latter asked about the actions taken against errant Orphanages and Tahfiz centers that have been exploiting children and orphans.

I think the authorities need to get their act together.  Local authorities are more keen on raiding and confiscating stalls belonging to small-time business owners than stopping child exploitation, and members of the public need to realize that they should start asking these children when do they ever get to study, or if they like walking around in the heat of the sun, or late at night, asking for donations that they never get to see at the end of their “shift.”

These children are innocent, and asking them to solicit funds for orphanages is NOT the way to hone their entrepreneurial skills.  The one I saw at the ESSO station along the North-South highway was virtually there every day.  The one I questioned two nights ago had loitered around my favourite food court for the past two weeks.  When do they ever get to go to class?  When do they sleep? Where do they sleep? What do they get to eat at the end of their “working day?”

And do you ever wonder how many of these children have been sexually harassed by predators as they are left at a location for hours and have to fend for themselves?

And what do these children learn?

Every time they piss someone off for disturbing them while they eat or fill up their tank, they incur the wrath of the restaurant’s or petrol station’s customer.  And it is possible that if they do not get enough “fund” they get punished.  In the end, the only lesson with impact these children will ever learn is resentment and anger.  Now, whose fault is that?

Unless you don’t mind seeing your children end up like in the picture above if something unfortunate happens to you, then you can stop reading this blog post and move on.  But to this blogger, the authorities, especially the religious authorities,  have a lot to answer for this Halal child labour.

UPDATED (12.10PM – 29th July 2012)

One comment on my Facebook account on this issue has prompted me to update this post:

Unfortunately, in many cases the parents of the children are not aware of them being used by whatever tahfiz or madrasah to collect alms or to sell trinkets. Do you also notice that most of the time the madrasah or tahfiz is in Kedah or Kelantan, unregistered and not in the Malaysian Education System, nor supported by the state governments. Short of saying they are operating illegally, the children are also not insured nor officially registered in those institutions. There was one case when the rickety van the children were in was involved in a crash, killing 4 kids and the Ustadz. The parents were shocked to hear that the children was brought to KL from Kedah without consent, to beg for alms. For the record, I am totally against this, and I often question the children as to why they were there selling posters instead of studying – Farid Hamid. 8.12am, 29th July 2012

I remember that incident.  This happened a little over five and a half years ago. Five students from a Tahfiz in Kedah died after the van they were traveling in, hit the back of a stationary trailer, on their way back to Kedah after an “excursion” in KL.  None of the parents were informed of the trip to KL, nor was their permission sought by the management of the “Tahfiz.”  You can read about it here.  And yes, the “excursion” to KL was for them to be used by the management of the “Tahfiz” to solicit funds from the public.  You can read about it here.

Seriously, the authorities need to come down hard on these culprits.

After all that crap about the imbecilic nature of the Selangor State Government when it comes to handling the water shortage fiasco, I saw a nice tweet by my wife about the number of sewage treatment plants.  It read:

“Kelantan has only 11 sewage treatment plants. Even Perlis has 33. Gulp. Johor has over 600”

“Wow!” I thought.  But since it was early in the morning I thought it was about the number of water treatment plants, as Kelantan has a poor treated water supply coverage as well.  Then I re-read the tweet and I realised how for the past 22 years, the Kelantanese State Government has been shirking its duties in ensuring the basic human rights to clean water supply as well as sanitation.

22 years.

Let us compare the states mentioned above in terms of population count versus the number of sewage treatment plants made available in the respective states.

Johor had 3.23 million in 2010.  Perlis, possibly the state with the least resources, had 198,000 in 2010.  Kelantan 1.46 million in 2010.

Johor has 600 sewage treatment plants for its 3.23 million inhabitants – that translates as having 5,383 persons per sewage treatment plant.  In Perlis, the ratio is 1:6,000; while in Kelantan it is 1:132,727.

Let us go by size of each state: Johor is 19,210 sq.km; Perlis is 821 sq.km; and Kelantan is 15,099 sq.km in size.  The ration of kilometer square per sewage treatment plant is 1:32; in Perlis it is 1:25; but in Kelantan it is 1:1,373.  So, one sewage treatment plant in Kelantan has to cover an area that is 1,373 sq.km, and crap from 32,727 132,727 people.

Little wonder you get headlines like: Tetracycline Resistant Cholera in Kelantan (1998); Cholera Outbreak In Tumpat, Kelantan (1990); Cholera Cases in Kelantan Continue to Rise (2000).  I can go through the tens of headlines right up till June 2012, but I just want to give examples on how crappy shit already is in Kelantan.  People die from the outbreaks above, yet the Kelantan State Government behaves nonchalantly.

Of course, the holier-than-thou attitude the Kelantan State Government adopts does not help the situation; what makes it worse is when voters have been brainwashed to think that whatever Cholera-shit that hit them is a test from God.

Unless the voters are given a knock on the head, my guess is they will continue to live in Holy Shit for another 22 more years.

Power corrupts, they say; or as the longer version goes, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Upon mentioning the word corruption more often than not our mind will wander towards our visual cortex playing visions of Barisan Nasional, the police, and on the lesser side the local authorities.  Like it or not, the management of people’s perception towards the integrity of Barisan Nasional leaders continues to play a huge role especially in the cyber world and will have an impact in the 13th General Election.  While Prime Minister Najib continues to win the rakyat‘s hearts and minds through his policy of openness, there is that little devil playing in the back of our mind asking if Najib would have the political will to remove certain people after the next general election he inherited from his predecessor who had stepped down mid-term.  Let us hope that high-profile cases affecting Barisan Nasional’s integrity such as Shahrizat Jalil’s and Khir Toyo’s will reflect a continuous effort by the Najib administration to strengthen its integrity.

Fighting corruption in Malaysia is not a new thing.  In fact, Malaysia became the first developing nation to have an anti-corruption law when the Anti-Corruption Act was passed in 1961. This was supported by the Emergency Ordinance (Essential Powers) No.22, 1970, and then replaced by the Anti-Corruption Agency Act in 1982.  As part of a continual process to make better the fight against corruption, the Anti-Corruption Act 1997  was passed among others covering more types of corrupt acts, adding more powers to the prosecution and to the Anti Corruption Agency.  To further show its seriousness in fighting corruption, the Government had also tabled (and passed by Parliament) the Witness Protection Act 2009, Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission Act 2009, and the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010.

One may ask how effective have these Acts been, especially in the Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 with regards to the NFC case?  As we know, an employee of a bank here in Malaysia had divulged transaction information of an account belonging to the NFCorp to PKR’s Rafizi Ramli (who by chance is an accountant), who in turn made public the findings and demanded an investigation into the NFCorp.  While we thank the two individuals for their concern into the misuse of public funds granted to the NFCorp to assist its real purpose, the bank employee had committed an offence under Section 97(1) of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act, 1989 for revealing details of a customer’s account, while Rafizi, whether foolishly or knowingly given that he is a certified accountant, had committed an offence under Section 97(3) of the same Act for disclosing information in contravention of subsection (1).  Anywhere you go to, including Switzerland, you will never be able to get information pertaining to the banks’ customers’ account(s) unless compelled by law.

Aren’t Rafizi and the bank employee protected under the Whistleblower Protection Act then?  No, they are not.  All disclosure of improper conduct should be reported to any enforcement agency “Provided such disclosure is not specifically prohibited by any written law” (Section 6(1)).  What the bank employer should have done was to lodge a report with the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) and let due process take place.  It makes no sense to report a purported wrongdoing to the press, or on the Web, or in ceramahs, unless you are not interested in seeing justice being done, but rather throw it to the court of public opinion for political mileage.

Being able to govern the country is at its core all about power and influence.  Elected politicians use their power to get things done.  In an ideal world, we can hope to see this power used to benefit others, meaning voters.  That would be in the form of socialised power.  The other form of power would be called personalised power.  This is used for personal gains.    An elected politician can still use this power to benefit others, and at the same time make personal gains.  After all, none of us have seen a poor former US President.  We have, in our times, seen poor Prime Ministers (such as Tun Razak), but that would be a rare exception.

We have also seen the rearing of ugly heads when it comes to the Opposition-held states; the sand-mining scandal in Selangor, mushrooming of seedy health centers in Selangor, sale of Bayan Mutiara, allocating humongous projects in Kedah without open-tender being called, the contract to supply of tailor-made costumes to the Perak government being given to members of a state assemblyman’s family, and of course, the case Teoh Beng Hock died for.  If you ask a layman like me, I see no benefit whatsoever that could be gained by Barisan Nasional coming from Teoh Beng Hock’s death, but those whose information the late Teoh Beng Hock was privy to, definitely benefited from his eternal silence.  Only fools would think otherwise.

So, my fellow rakyat, voters, the answer is NO, REPLACING X WITH Y DOES NOT CHANGE ANYTHING.  There are positive and negative sides of power.  On the former, power makes leaders more assertive, confident and certain of their decisions.  They must use the power to get the job done.  On the latter, the more power a leader possess, the more they focus on their egocentric desires and as their power increases, they will gradually cease to see the perspective of others.  What we want, as the rakyat, are leaders with integrity, and it does not matter which side of the political fence they are on.

Recently, the Malaysian Institute of Integrity had issued a press statement supporting the move by the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission offering to vet potential candidates for the GE13.  Datuk Dr Mohd Tap Salleh, President of IIM, said that “this proactive step would help party leadership to nominate candidates with integrity.”

IIM in this statement said that this process will ensure the degree of confidence towards the election and democratic systems will increase, and this will in turn interest the public to participate in the elections process and choose leaders.  “This country needs political leadership with high integrity.  With respect to that, leaders need to have in them pristine values such as trust, responsible, accountable, truthful, transparent, honest, and sincere, in order to serve the nation and its people,” Datuk Dr Mohd Tap added.

And I, as a layman, cannot agree more.  I hope that the Government, political leaders,  and the Elections Commission will take this offer seriously.  Elected politicians must always remember that they have the mandate from the rakyat to administer this government and the constituency they represent to ensure it is done efficiently and the interest of the rakyat protected at all cost, not for their political nor personal gains.

I have always maintained that if I have to choose between the Devil and the deep blue sea, I can deal with the Devil and live, but would drown with the latter.  For that reason, being no lover of the BN, I refuse to support the ideals (or lack thereof) of the opposition.

And almost everything else has been said about BERSIH 3.0 – the rubbish ironically caused by a movement that calls itself “Clean” is all but gone.  DBKL workers are working double-time to ensure things are back to normal.  Injured policemen are still in the hospital while their Logistics Department must be assessing the cost of damage to assets.

The cost of all the above will also be borne by the Rakyat – and when I say Rakyat, I mean people like me who are against public rallies simply because public rallies rarely pass the two tests that should be applied: the Clear and Present Danger test, and the Incitement test. There has been TWO BERSIH rallies prior to the last one – none ended peacefully. And BERSIH has never been apolitical through it association, no matter what its supporters may claim.  I acknowledge the existence of idealists whose cause is pure, but on the topside, BERSIH is just another political agenda for its organisers and associates.

The Police should be commended for adhering to the Peaceful Assembly Act 2011. The Police allowed the rally participants to assemble even though no permit was ever issued to them.  The Police was tasked to uphold the law – enforce a court order banning any entry into Dataran Merdeka.  This they did, until the most famous hijacker of all, Anwar Ibrahim was videotaped by a pro-opposition blogger giving a signal to his loyal lieutenant Azmin Ali, to breach the police line.  This act was apparently done AFTER the organiser of BERSIH, Ambiga.S ordered the participants to disperse.

Now, have a look at this webpage:

http://www.signingsavvy.com/sign/JUMP%20OVER

I do not want to comment much about what happened after, but if you look at the video below, you can see Anwar making a sign for the deaf for “JUMP OVER” repeatedly (0.9s marked by a yellow square) to Azmin. Azmin acknowledges and instructs an Indian man next to him to remove the police barrier.  Nobody won on that day, but democracy was hijacked by democrazy.  The biggest losers are the suckers who thought they are idealists, but were merely mules ridden by the likes of Anwar for his political benefit.

Could all this have been avoided? The answer is a simple but definite YES.  Ambiga was offered to hold her rally in stadiums, according the one she had requested for in BERSIH 2.0, but refused saying it was an 11th hour offer.  Yet, she had no problem whatsoever demanding for her demands to be met by the Elections Commission immediately.  There was clear incitement by political figures including Anwar, and even Nik Aziz admitted to giving RM200 per participant from PAS to join the rally, even to the point of issuing a “fatwa: saying that it is compulsory for PAS members to be part of the rally.  Ambiga, through the previous BERSIH rallies should know better that incitements by political figures bring about highly-charged atmosphere; and that there is no way for her to control the behaviour of 25,000 people.  Did she knowingly go ahead with the rally with these facts in hand?  My answer would be YES.

So, should I trust BERSIH 4.0?  Definitely NOT.  Do I want a free and fair election? The answer is YES, but if I want to say my piece, I will do it during the next general elections.  After all, the opposition made no qualms about winning five states in the previous one using the very same dirty (they claimed) electoral roll.

Who would I vote for?  Definitely not for Scylla and Charybdis because there is no democracy there. Watch the video below and you will understand.

Not too long ago, I was both elated and afraid when the Vice-Presidency of PAS was filled with the likes of Nasharudin Mat Isa, who read at the University of Glasgow.  For once, PAS was filled by people with IQ, instead of the Mullah-like characters from their Dewan Ulama.  In 2009, all that changed when he was defeated by Mat Sabu and other Ataturks (Mahfuz Omar et al), who then went on to become the Deputy President of PAS in 2011, the first non-Alim (singular, Ulama is plural) to be in that position in over a quarter of a century.  PAS is now said to be 60% in control of the Ataturks, and only 30% by the Dewan Ulama.

PAS was ultra-radical in its political approach and its battle-cry had always been to set-up an Islamic nation, based on its myopic interpretation of what is considered Islamic.  The implementation of Hudud and Qisas (I wonder why Ta’zir was omitted) was their aim, much to the chagrin of fellow Barisan Alternatif partner, DAP. Somehow, it forewent this battle-cry in the 2008 General Elections to adopt a “more people-friendly” tagline of “welfare first.”  With this, they had PAS Supporters’ Club formed for non-Muslim supporters of PAS.

It was a shock to many that a person of Mat Sabu’s morale got elected to the No.2 post of a supposed Islamic party.  In December of 1995 (I stand corrected as to the actual date), Mat Sabu was charged for being in close proximity with one Normah Halim, wife of Bukhari Noor, a Kelantanese businessman, in Room 121 of Hotel Perdana in Kota Baru.  While he was acquitted due to technical reasons (the two witnesses could not agree on the room number where the offence took place), one should not forget that the act was committed.

There was also a recording of a telephone conversation supposedly between Mat Sabu and Normah done back in 1994.

Mat Sabu made headlines last year after claiming that communist Mat Indera, who led the murder of 18 policemen at the Bukit Kepong Police Station in 1950, and then murdered their family, as the true nationalist.  Nine days later, on 30th August 2011, Karpal Singh, a DAP veteran and MP for Bukit Gelugor responded saying that the 25 policemen were true nationalists and that Mat Sabu’s statements were ill-advised.  PAS, however, has gone to defend Mat Sabu’s claims and statements.  Mat Sabu, the joker, is now an idol worshipped by many in PAS:

Just last year, Dr Hasan Ali, a PAS VP, defended the actions of the Selangor Religious Department (JAIS) raiding the Damansara Utama Methodist Church for an attempt to proselytize Muslims.  The full report submitted by JAIS has never been brought forth by the Menteri Besar, but His Royal Highness the Sultan of Selangor decreed that JAIS’s action was right and lawful, hence underscoring the dangers of proselytizing of Muslims by Evangelists.  This was carried in PAS Selangor’s website.  Yet, three months after this story was carried by the party’s state organ, Dr Hasan Ali was expelled from PAS for not toeing party line, or not following the spirit of Selangor’s Pakatan Rakyat.

The removal of Hasan Ali from PAS is another signal that the Ataturks are now in power.  The level of distrust against PAS is further demonstrated by the other Pakatan Rakyat partners, DAP and PKR, when it was announced that the Menteri Besar, Khalid Ibrahim, who is from PKR, would hold the exco position instead of another PAS state representative.  What qualification Khalid has is one issue.  The other being, why not PAS?  Khalid, of course, is being labeled by many as DAP’s mule, rather than being an effective PKR’s Menteri Besar.

I do not know how much power is wielded by the President, Hj Hadi Awang, who seems encircled by the Ataturks.  Whether he still calls the shots in PAS, nobody really knows.  Suddenly, I read in an online news that Hj Hadi offers himself to NOT be nominated to stand for the next General Elections.

I don’t know if it is a sign that he is not confident PAS will attain the same level of support from the masses and wishes not to be associated with any downfall, or if he is being forced to not lead PAS by the Ataturks,  He would know best.  However, reading Hadi’s statement below reminds me of one person who has yet to step down, although promised on several occasions to do so:

If Hadi resigns, that would pave the way for Ataturks like Mat Sabu and Mahfuz Omar to lead the so-called Islamic party – people with morale baggage that DAP could use to blackmail for support.

There is also talk that the Menteri Besar of Kedah, Dato Seri Azizan from PAS, will also be ousted from the party for not toeing Pakatan Rakyat’s stand on the Universities/University Colleges Act (AUKU).  Azizan recently defended the use of AUKU against some KUIN students, and got salvos fired at him from every Pakatan Rakyat direction.  Azizan’s rationale was simple: AUKU is an act of law, and therefore should be upheld.

If PAS in its present form cannot be trusted to lead a state’s religious affairs, respect Acts of Law, or even champion the cause of Islam, should we even trust it to run the states it is already running, let alone running a country while protecting the sanctity of Islam in this nation?

I think not.  What you think is none of my concern.

With that, I leave you some entertainment courtesy of Mat Sabu and Ambiga.

So much for linking BN to APCO and Israel and what not.

This article from the Wall Street Journal goes to prove who is the blue-eyed boy of the Zionists in the Muslim world.

The image below was captured from the 4th last paragraph of the said article:

So, what was it about BN and APCO, Urko?