Speaker's Blog...

Visit the Perak Speaker's Blog at http://speakforperak.blogspot.com/.

This morning, some photos to share...

At Taman Cempaka in the morning...

At Handicap Children Welfare Home at Housing Trust with Sdr. Ong BP and Sdr. Teh HK...

Interesting Article from Malaysiainsider on Samy Vellu...

Embattled MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, whose wish to return to the Cabinet was rejected by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is playing his final gambit by threatening to withdraw the sole MIC minister.

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The Malaysian Insider understands Samy Vellu has little support except from party vice-president S. Sothinathan in this gambit which was sparked after Najib rejected all hints last week to make Samy Vellu a senator and put him back into the Cabinet as works minister.

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Samy Vellu complained to his supporters that if Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon could be made a senator and minister, he should have been accorded the same privilege.
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Samy Vellu is also unhappy that Selangor Gerakan chief A. Kohilan Pillay has been made a deputy foreign minister, a high-profile post for an Indian.
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He feels it should have been given to one of his nominees.
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After failing to get himself re-appointed, Samy Vellu tried to propose two additional deputy ministers posts for Sothinathan and Senator Loga Chitrakalla, according to MIC sources.

Weekend programmes..

I will be going to Bercham for a DAP Bercham Dinner shortly. Tomorrow will have to go to Malim Nawar for our Party Dinner too... :-D

Some clarificationss...

I would like to express my thanks to all of you who have posted comments on the Telco issue which was posted by me last week.

I think there is a need to have certain clarifications here as the previous post seems to be vague in certain areas.

On Nga Kor Ming being the EXCO in charge of Local Government...

I never said that he is useless (as posted by Anonymous). It is also untrue to say that “If you have a problem within your party sort it out internally and not blame the exco.” I am only looking at the matter and finding ways to solve it. I fully concur with Defender of PKT that “Anak ipoh and anonymous, i totally disagree with your comments. How can you blame the PKT's Perak EXCO on local authority for having taking so many other portfolios.”

I also fully agree wih Frustrated in Canning who posted that “What's wrong with having an EXCO who is willing and had actually sacrified so much his time and effort by assuming so many portfolios. Nobody say is easy but i must say the EXCO on local authority has done a tremendous job taking into consideration that he is also an MP. Just look at the number of portfolios he has to handle... Yet he still have time and brain to settle the telco issue by making the state richer by imposing million ringgit fine. As the old saying goes "one stone kill two birds".”

Just don’t get me wrong, the State EXCO i mentioned in the previous post was not referring to Kor Ming.

As i always stress, it is no wrong for someone to take on more portfolios than others if he or she is willing and able to do the work. What kor ming did in the past 10 months have proven that he can take up the task.

For the purpose of clarification, in fact, the issue of illegal telco was subsequently (after the announcement of RM3,000.00 fine per towers by Sdr. Nga) passed on to another EXCO whose portfolios overlaps with the portfolio of Local Government.

RM3,000.00 fine imposed on each illegal Telco...

On the RM3,000.00 fine imposed, as stated in my previous post, from experience and also my personal view, it is never sufficient. My comrade in Kepayang, YB Loke Chee Yen had once dealt with an illegal Telco in his constituency whereby the Company in charge told him they can easily pay the RM3,000.00 fine as it is a very small amount to them.

For me, the only way to stop their (Telcos) arrogance is to impose daily fine and to take drastic action to pull down the illegal towers if there is non-compliance of the Local Authority Order. We can impose it to the “illegal” restaurant traders and pig farmers, why not on Telcos...

One Stop Centre at MBI...

Anak Ipoh had rightly pointed out the issue of One-Stop-Centre (OSC). Anak Ipoh said:” The simple truth is that erection of telco is under the jurisdiction of local authority. So who sit in the local authority? Apart from the obvious scapegoat viz. dato bandar himself, it is the councillors themselves. So before, we go blaming all the PKT EXCOs to MB, perhaps YB care to share with us who are the councillors who sit in "One Stop Centre"??? I sincerely hope that no one of them is from Canning.”

One of the Councillors sitting in the OSC is Clr. Liu Ten Tui, who is in charge of Kg Simee, Ipoh Gardens and Canning. I have informed Clr. Liu of certain illegal towers in the constituency which can never be approved without the consent of the Residents. The appplications that were eventually declined include the one in Taman Canning and the other in Kg. Simee.

Indeed i am so lucky to have my Councillor sitting in the OSC otherwise the towers in my constituency will be approved easily.

However, as Clr. Liu reverted to me, he was facing pressure even from the officers sitting in the OSC (although that should not be the case). I’d even go as far as saying that he was in effect, receiving hostile questioning on his reasons for turning down the applications since the MCMC had approved it and they are in compliance of the regulations! (seem they may have forgotten the protest by the Residents and treated OSC as a Rubber Stamp which Clr. Liu and myself will never let it be the way)

I don’t believe in apportioning blame on others for what they have or have not done as for those who knows me, it is not my style. In this case, we need the full and unreserved backing of the state govenrment who will be forming the cardinal policies behind certain issue (including this one, Telco.), in order for us, the elected representative and the appointed councillors, to fully deliver what the people want and need.

Flood in Canning etc...

This is another equally important and serious problem in the constituency apart from Telco which the residents are having nightmare just like those sleeping beside the building with a Telco's erected. Clr. Liu and myself are aware of the issues and are constantly looking for solutions over that. We are not technical people but we are lucky enough to have one resident of Ipoh Garden, Mr. Lee helping us.

During rainy days, we have aken surveying filed trips through affected areas, ie along Ipoh Garden East, Ipoh Garden South, Ipoh Garden and Canning Garden and see how the water flows. The water flows from these areas along Sg Senam and towards Fair Park. By doing this we discovered that the culverts at Fair Park’s were too small to accomodate the water volume and you can see the water level from left side of the culvert (at Fair Park-Ipoh GH’s junction) are of the same level with the road surface. There is a need to widen it.

JPS knows about it but claims they do not have enough funds. We found it ridiculous. I have then made a request to Ngeh (who is the EXCO in charge of JPS) and he has in principal agreed that this Project shall be one of the Project to benefit from the Supplementary Bill of RM22.5 million for flood elevation programmes in 2009 which was supposed to be presented in this April Dewan’s sitting but for the unfortunate political events taken place.

Quran: My experience during university days...

It has been reported that several groups had condemned Sdr Nga Kor Ming for “belittling the religion” by virtue of reciting the verses from the Holy Quran as a non-Muslim.

The Perak CPO Zulklifli confirmed that the police had received three (3) police reports against Sdr Nga regarding the same issue. The police are currently investigating the matter under Section 298 of the Penal Code and will be calling him for statements.

Section 298 of the Penal Code says “298. Uttering words, etc. with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person. Whoever with deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person, utter any word or makes any sound in the hearing of that person, or makes any gesture in the sight of that person, or places any object in the sight of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.”

I am wondering what basis of defence Barisan Nasional, UMNO, MCA, Gerakan, MIC etc are going to adopt in case they firmly deny that the police reporting were perpetuated by them.

I attended International Islamic University Malaysia for 4 years. For the first 3 years (6 Semesters), it was a requirement for the students to enrol in at least 2 Islamic Law courses each semester; starting with Islamic Legal System in the First year and ended with Islamic Jurisprudence in the Third year. Furthermore, we were also required to complete 4 authentic courses of Islamic studies. In total, at least one third of the course requirement to obtain a Law Degree at the University pertained to Islamic Studies.

The Quran is the highest source of Syariah law, followed by the Sunnah of the Prophet. There is virtually impossible to neither understand nor study Syariah Law without the Holy Quran.

I bought my copy of the Holy Quran (Arabic-English) since the First day of my law study. I learned Arabic (the language for the original Quran transcript) during my first 2 semesters. As part of the process, we had to study the Holy Quran. In addition, we had to understand it, memorize and quote it as authority when completing our submissions or examinations for syariah laws. Sometimes you will get additional appraisals from your lecturer or ustaz if you manage to quote the Quranic verses in Arabic.

What is the matter with those who lodged the reports against Sdr. Nga? What offence has Nga committed? If the police decide that there is indeed a case against Nga, does that translate to, we, the International Islamic University Malaysia’s non-Muslim students had committed a crime? Were we then “forced” to carry out wrongdoing during our studies?

As far as my understanding of Islam and the Quran, it never intends to stop someone from uttering or invoking its teachings.

I sent a sms to my police friend who happens to be one of my classmates during my days at the university, whom had asked for Nga’s phone number for the police to conduct an investigation. The sms sounds: “Uncle, sila bagi tahu i.o., itu kes sebut Quran sia-sia punya. Kita kan tiap hari pegang, baca n hafal Quran masa uni days? ...”

Extract from Malaysiainsider

Since Umno enacted the Perak crisis, the party has been continuously accusing Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin as being a traitor.

It goes without saying that hitherto Umno has never been able to come up with any evidence to back up this wild allegation. It solely relies on a surmise and conjecture. Of course Umno is good — no, excellent at manufacturing lies.

The end justifies the means has been the basic tenet of Umno’s politics. Thus winning at all cost was the sole end of Umno’s struggle in Bukit Gantang. The traitor’s issue had dominated the Bukit Gantang by-election. In fact that was the only issue left for Umno. The traitor’s issue was meant for voters in Saluran 3 — the old folks who live in this world believing that the only political party that exists on this planet is Umno.

Armed with arsenals of evidence at its disposal, Pakatan Rakyat ably adduces compelling evidence to rebut Umno’s unfounded allegation against Nizar. Knowing very well of Umno’s political game, the PR machinery led by PAS put counter arguments by producing a plethora of statements made by Umno leaders on this very derhaka issue. The evidence showed beyond any shadow of doubt that Umno has been the traitor par excellence.

When the PR machinery started churning out paper cuttings from the Umno-controlled newspapers, Umno leaders reluctantly conceded that they were being mercilessly slaughtered by PR’s efficient machinery. The more Umno spoke on the issue, the more evidence detrimental to it surfaced and haunted each and every Umno’s leaders. In one instance, Utusan, in executing Umno’s mischievous campaigns against the Sultan in 1993, carried the following startling caption viz “Ismail wajar turun takhta”. Ismail was referring to the Sultan of Kelantan.

Nizar’s now famous utterance i.e “Patik mohon sembah derhaka” was the only evidence Umno had as a basis to charge Nizar as a traitor. To even suggest such a statement qualified Nizar to be categorised as a traitor was completely naïve. Those were the proper words to address the King in the event you have disagreements with the former. In fact the phrase “patik mohon sembah derhaka” is the most respectful way of addressing the Sultan in such circumstances.

When Umno kept on playing those words to support its theory that Nizar was a traitor, the PR retaliated. PR made a counter attack by producing the damaging statement by Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Tamby Chik. In 1993 Rahim suggested that the people should drop the word “patik” in addressing the Sultan. Let's pause here. Let assume if Rahim was in Nizar’s shoes. No doubt in displaying his disagreements with the Sultan, one could expect the former chief minister of Malacca would address the Sultan with the following remark “Aku mohon sembah derhaka”.

Before Umno even fully recovered from the ailment of its own making, then came the decision of the Kuala Lumpur High Court on April 3, 2009. It was another salvo for Umno. On that date, the court, in granting leave to Nizar’s application for a judicial review against Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir, held that such an application was not frivolous. The court concurred with Nizar’s lawyers that he has passed the minimum threshold required in the leave application.

The judgment of the court simply means Nizar has able to establish an arguable case against Zambry. Nevertheless the judgment did not end there. It also contained something which caused irreparable damage to Umno in Bukit Gantang. The judgment was fully utilised by PR’s machinery to silence the Umno’s malevolent propaganda.

The judge declined to uphold the Attorney-General’s strenuous objection. The A-G vehemently protested Nizar’s application on the ground that Nizar was in fact challenging the decision of the Sultan. Rejecting the said argument, the learned High Court judge held that Nizar has every right to assert on what authority Zambry could say that he is the lawful mentri besar when Nizar claims himself as the legitimate mentri besar of Perak.

The judgment impliedly affirms that the writ of quo warranto is the proper remedy in this case. The writ of quo warranto allows Nizar to challenge the legal status of the appointee of the public office (i.e. Zambry in this case) without even bringing in and challenging the decision of the appointing authority (the Sultan of Perak).

The court also held that the issue of whether Nizar has ceased to enjoy the confidence of the majority of the state assemblymen needs to be established first before Zambry could mount an argument that he is the lawful MB.

The upshot of such a court’s decision is simply this. It is clear now that the allegation that Nizar was challenging the discretion of the Sultan is not an issue. Nizar has never challenged the decision of the Sultan. By not challenging the decision of the Sultan, it is equally loud and clear that Nizar has never been a traitor as maliciously claimed by Umno.

The Bukit Gantang by-election reaffirms that the people have changed but Umno has not.