Karpal Singh to receive posthumous public service award

SHAH ALAM: The late Karpal Singh will posthumously receive a special award in recognition for his dedicated service to the nation for more than 40 years, said the Gandhi Memorial Trust (GMT) chairman S.Radhakrishnan.

He said the public service award would be presented by GMT at a special ceremony to be at the Royal Selangor Club in Kuala Lumpur on June 30.

Radhakrishnan also described Karpal, who was a former DAP national chairman and Bukit Gelugor Member of Parliament, as a brilliant lawyer, an astute politician and parliamentarian and, above all, a strong human rights activist.

“Karpal’s life long passion had been the pursuit of social justice and upholding the Malaysian Constitution and the Rule of Law.

“He was a national treasure and will be clearly missed and lovingly remembered for his great contribution and sacrifices to make Malaysia a better place that all of us in Malaysia can be proud of,” he told Bernama.

Karpal, known as the ‘Tiger of Jelutong’, died in a road accident at KM306.1 of the North-South Expressway, near Gua Tempurung, in Kampar early April 17. He was 74.

Commenting further, Radhakrishnan said GMT had invited four prominent individuals with legal backgrounds to speak on the various facets of Karpal’s life and work before the presentation of the award.

They are retired judge of Court of Appeal Datuk Mahadev Shankar, former Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department in charge of law Datuk Mohd Zaid Ibrahim, former Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and lawyer Datuk Jagjit Singh, he said.

Karpal’s wife, Gurmit Kaur and all his children would also be attending the ceremony besides 20 ambassadors and high commissioners and a number of judges and retired judges.

Source : BERNAMA

Liow and Mah made ministers, status quo for Umno

MCA president Liow Tiong Lai has been named the new transport minister while his deputy Wee Ka Siong has been appointed as minister in the Prime Minister's Department.

Gerakan president Mah Siew Keong, who won the recent Teluk Intan by-election, has been made a minister in the PM's Department as well.

The other appointments involved three MCA vice-presidents:

Senator Lee Chee Leong as international trade and industry deputy minister, Labis MP Chua Tee Yong as deputy finance minister and Chew Mei Fun (right) as women and family development deputy minister.

Chew, who did not contest in the last general election, would be made a senator before assuming her cabinet post.

All new appointees would be sworn in on June 27.

No changes for Umno ministers

Contrary to intense speculation, the cabinet reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak this afternoon in Putrajaya did not involve any Umno ministers.

Prior to this, there was even speculation that Deputy Prime Minister Muhiyiddin Yassin would make way for Najib's cousin and current defence minister, Hishammuddin Hussein.

But all three dismissed this, with Najib calling it "political fabrication" and Hishammuddin blaming it on those attempting to create a rift among Umno's top leaders.

Apart from Hishammuddin, it was also speculated that two other Umno vice-presidents could see their ministerial portfolios changed.

They are Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Rural and Regional Development Minister Shafie Apdal.

The new reshuffle also saw no minister or deputy minister dropped from the Cabinet, which critics have often criticised as being bloated.




Source : http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/266764

There is only one race – the human race

I am very disturbed with the turn of events in my beloved country. You may call me pendatang or kafir. I accept your immature statement with pure maturity.

I am not a pendatang because the last time I checked, my identification card was blue and I was listed as a Malaysian citizen.

You can call me kafir but I will always remember that my parents and my religion taught me never to resort to name calling.

The biggest problem we have today is ‘lack of understanding’. Many do not even understand the Constitution and therefore its true meaning is lost on them.

It is high time we ponder what went wrong and just exactly what caused this epidemic. Is it our education system? What about extremist religious teachings?

Are our current lot of politicians more intent on championing issues of self-interest and self-gratification rather than national integration?

We must go back to our roots. Revamp the education system. Many countries strive to continuously improve their education system but unfortunately, we have regressed.

We have forgotten that this is not Tanah Melayu any longer. This is Malaysia and has been since 1963.

We look at the past to learn so that we do not make the same mistakes again. However we have chosen to live in a time warp not because it is right but because many have interpreted it to be right.

Passenger sues MAS in Australian court

A Malaysia Airlines (MAS) passenger is suing the national airline in an Australian court, claiming A$250,000 (RM752,000) in damages for allegedly refusing to provide her with a wheelchair, causing her to suffer a fall in which she sustained bone fractures.

The incident took place on April 4 this year, 72-year-old Vineetha Latha Warnakulasuriya claimed, when she arrived in Sri Lanka from Kuala Lumpur, aboard Flight MH179, and asked the flight attendant for a wheelchair.

However, Vineetha was told that the wheelchair could not be brought into the aircraft, and she would have to exit to where a wheelchair would be brought.

“Following this refusal, the plaintiff (Vineetha) had no choice but to comply with the directive of the flight attendant and she attempted to get out of her seat to walk, whereupon her right knee immediately gave way and her right leg collapsed causing her to fall to the floor, resulting in the injuries,” Vineetha’s statement of claim states.

The statement of claim was lodged in the Brisbane District Court yesterday. Vineetha holds dual citizenship - in Sri Lanka and in Australia.

She claimed to have suffered fractures on her right tibia (shinbone) and ligament damage to her right kneecap as a result of the fall.

MH370: Families still hoping, seeking for truth

PETALING JAYA, June 16 — Red and blue balloons with wishes of hope were released by family members of those aboard the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 yesterday to commemorate the 100th day since the plane went missing on March 8.

The 100th Day Event, organised by Voice370, which is the official association for families of passengers and crew on the plane, gathered at the hall in Damansara Damai to remember their loved ones.

Some family members folded paper cranes to represent the passengers and crew while others brought their own crafted pieces, including pictures and place cards of their loved ones with wishes of a safe return.

Norazlinda Ayub, the wife of crew member Junaidi Mohd Kassim, said though she still had strong hopes to see her husband, she also hoped there would be some closure on the fate of the aircraft and those on board.

The mother of Hareez Danni Junaidi, 11, and Hani Daleeya Junaidi, eight, said she was able to keep her children occupied with outings and activities as they moved on with their daily routine.

“This is one of the activities we do to show we are still united and have not given up in search for answers,” she said.

“For Father’s Day, I had my children build an aeroplane from paper mache with their wishes written on it.”

Though she said support from MAS had been “cold”, she was grateful for the counselling sessions provided for her two children once every three to four weeks.

“But we want something more from the airline and hope the government will make some effort to meet family members on a monthly basis,” she said.

Nurzarina Mohamed Hasnan, 36, who is the sister of cabin crew Mohd Hazrin Mohamed Hasnan, said the gathering was held to commemorate Father’s Day.

She said her brother, commonly known as “Rain”, was close to his four-year-old daughter, Iman Mohd Hazrin, who had yet to grasp the absence of her father.

“She doesn’t cry for him and she acknowledges her father when she sees photos of him but you can never know what is going on in her mind,” she said.

Nurzarina said it was a sad sight to watch a toddler not being able to express emotions over the ordeal.

“We are all still looking for closure and we refuse to believe the flight ended in the South Indian Ocean, as we have yet to see or hear of any debris being sighted."

Hazrin’s wife, Intan Maizura Othman who delivered a baby boy last month, said she still had hopes her husband would return.

Another family member of the cabin crew, Jacquita Gonzales, 52, said while the family members had all gone back to their routine, it could be tough whenever people started asking them questions.

“My children and I try our best to go on with our lives but our conversations regarding my husband will always be in present tense, said the wife of inflight supervisor Patrick Francis Gomes.

The wife of one of the passengers on board, Jalwati A. Jalil, 32, said she was still hoping for a miracle, especially some shred of evidence to give the families closure.

Her husband, Safuan Ramlam, who was a senior planner at Freescale Semiconductor Malaysia Sdn Bhd, was on the way to Beijing for a one-month course.

Offside! Absenteeism set to rise, productivity to fall during World Cup

KUALA LUMPUR, June 12 ― For a month from today, workplaces nationwide can expect to see workers turning up with dark eyebags, snoozing away during lunch hour or possibly not turning up at all as a sudden epidemic sweeps across the country.

The World Cup, the football tournament dubbed “the greatest show on earth”, is back.

Companies already expect productivity to be affected by the month-long football bonanza as workers are likely to suffer from prolonged sleep deprivation due to the timing of the matches; the 12 hour difference between Malaysia and Brazil, the host country of the tournament’s 20th edition, means most of the 64 games will be played at 1am, 4am and 7am local time.

According to the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF), a survey held for the 2006 and 2010 World Cups showed that more than 55 per cent of respondents indicated high absenteeism or productivity loss during the two tournaments

The same is expected to happen for the next month. “Yes, to a certain extent (productivity at the workplace will be affected),” MEF executive director Datuk Shamsuddin Bardan told The Malay Mail Online.

“Fans who are mostly employees (there are about 6.5 million working in the private sector) that would love to watch all the matches live and as such for about one month… football fans will be having insufficient sleep and come to work with heavy eyes and less energetic,” he added.

For the last World Cup, hosted by South Africa for the first time in the game’s history, a MEF survey found that 35.6 per cent of respondents reported more cases of employees arriving late while 35 per cent saw an increase in sick leave.

It further revealed that 25.4 per cent of companies complained of increased absenteeism while 20 per cent said they recorded lower productivity.

There were also grouses of other “World Cup-related problems”, such as workers caught abandoning work to watch the matches or sleeping on the job.

And of those who took sick leave during the 2010 tournament, which had the matches aired much earlier than those in next week’s  Shamsuddin said he suspected the reasons were most likely concocted.

“In some cases employees will be absent from work altogether either through MCs (medical certificates) or some other made up reasons.”

While the Malaysian Medical Association said there is no data to support the view that the number of MCs issued will spike up during the World Cup, president Dr. H Krishna Kumar reported anecdotal evidence of the phenomenon.

“I have had personal experiences where my friends tell me of these things,” he told The Malay Mail Online.

Krishna said that lower productivity is inevitable during the tournament as workers suffer from prolonged lack of sleep as they try to catch all the matches at the expense of a good night’s rest.

“If the matches are late then there will be a change of body rhythm and this will result in the lack of sleep and the body won’t function too well. Workers tend to be less efficient and make more mistakes”.

In light of possible setbacks to businesses during the World Cup, the MEF has urged workers to plan their schedules by prioritising the matches to watch live and catching the rest on replays such as those available via pay-TV operator Astro.

Bung Mokhtar insinuates Indians are born robbers!

If Indians are not elected MPs, then they would be robbers! What a nasty insult to the Malaysian Indian community.

And that insulting insinuation was uttered by Umno’s Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Mokhtar in a debate in Parliament. Bung was not reprimanded by the Speaker and the insult is therefore “officially valid”! Indians in Malaysia are born robbers!

Well, that’s what the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) thinks of the Indian community. But hey! Malaysians who continue to vote for BN shouldn’t be complaining. You deserve the government you elected.

You deserve the treatment the government dishes out to you. According to a Malaysiakini video clip of the debate in Parliament, Bung and PKR’s Kapar MP G Manivannan were locked in a heated debate when the racist remark was made.

Bung uttered: “If you weren’t elected, you’d be a robber!” Does such racist arrogance from an Umno MP surprise any Malaysian? When will such insults and Malay supremacy statements stop?

It will not because at every general election, the meek Malaysians will just fall for the carrots dangled by BN. The May 31 Teluk Intan by-election is testimony to this fact. And don’t think the likes of Bung have a beef with only the Indian community.

All non-Malays and also Malays who do not support Umno are targeted. Umno-controlled Utusan Malaysia’s favourite “celebrity”, Ridhuan Tee Abdullah, now tells BN not to be too grateful to the non-Malay voters! Malaysiakini reported Ridhuan as saying even though BN’s share of Chinese and Indian votes increased in the Teluk Intan by-election, the ruling coalition need not be overly grateful to them.

“Whatever the reason given for the increase in Chinese and Indian votes (for BN), the attention must still be on Malay Muslim voters. “Do not be too thankful to other people and forget our own,” he said in a column in Sinar Harian.

What do you expect from one who has forgotten his roots and is trying very hard to become more Malay than Malays?

The fact that the Umno-led BN government allows race and religious bigots like Ridhuan to spew anti-national unity venom unabated, you can expect the 14th general election to be the same as all previous elections.

Umno’s politics of race and religious divisiveness will continue to reign supreme. You can watch Bung's infamous remark here.


Source : http://www.theantdaily.com/Main/Bung-Mokhtar-insinuates-Indians-are-born-robbers#sthash.5toSuuit.dpuf