My Say

or not? Well, based on this piece of news, it looks like tourists will be enjoying a speedy clearance through immigration when entering the country. So it would seem and sound logical that Malaysians should enjoy better, if not similar, speedy clearance? Unfortunately it’s not the case. If anyone has tried clearing immigration using one of the newer Malaysian passport with an implanted chip, you’ll know what I’m talking about. It takes ages for the ‘reader’ to read the information on the chip and update it. It is frustrating, to say the least, to see foreign passport holders clearing immigration more quickly. Are we welcome back into our own country?

I can only speculate as to why the ‘readers’ are so slow. It was meant to be a ’state-of-the-art’ technology and I am sure the Government spent a fortune to install these. Maybe some of the money has been pocketed by middlemen, which is very common in this country, leaving only enough money for cheaper inferior subsitutes. Who really knows?

what are they trying to prove here? RM7,000 is nothing. Perhaps they could donate some of their own profits to charity. Otherwise stop crowing about it.

Pak Lah has put him in his place, finally… Read here.

Read these 2 contradictory statements by Pak Lah (for full text, read here)

Statement 1: “How could the cost (of cancelling the project) be higher than building the bridge. You are trying to assume something,” he said when asked to comment on a recent news report, which claimed that cancelling the scenic bridge would cost the government RM1.12 billion when the actual proposed cost of the building the bridge was RM1.11 billion.

Statement 2: “I want a correct figure. I want to know exactly (the cost). It cannot be more than the cost of the bridge. How could it be?”

Now, I have a few comments:

1) If Pak Lah is not sure of the amount (Statement 2), then he should not make Statement 1. How can he jump to a conclusion when he doesn’t have the ‘correct figure’?

2) It IS definitely possible for the cost of cancellation to be higher than the cost of building the bridge. Don’t forget that as a result of the cancellation, a dedicated highway has to be built to link the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (’CIQ’) complex built near the site of the cancelled bridge. The cost of acquiring the land and building this highway are the additional costs to be incurred as a result of the cancellation of the scenic bridge. Of course, the other option would be to allow the CIQ to become another white elephant.

Given the amount of scrutiny this whole issue is getting, it would be wise for Pak Lah to refrain from making any comments, which may further weaken the case for cancelling the bridge.

Is he saying that before the 9th Malaysian Plan, incompetent contractors could and did get contracts from the government? If not, why is he making this statement? Why state something that is so very obvious?

When someone reports some ‘negative’ news about your country, it doesn’t always mean that there is a conspiracy against your country. But that seems to be what the minister is implying here. I quote “…such reports had most likely had been manipulated by certain media.” As always, it’s very convenient to point the finger at “certain media”. However, the real issue is: why did the events reported in the media happen in the first place? Has an investigation been conducted to determine the root cause? As with many other incidents in this country, the real problem has not been dealt with. In any case, what makes him think that these media would want to waste their precious ink and newspaper columns just to “manipulate” the news report? I would also remind Tengku that he should do some soul searching first. The Malaysian media is not exactly ‘guiltless’ in this matter. Remember how they publish front page news about Malaysian being put through whole body search in the USA after the Sept 11 incident? There was a song and dance about it. Maybe what goes around does come around after all…

We need to give the deputy prime minister a copy. To understand why, read here.

Street Demonstrations Will Not Do Any Good, Says Abdullah . Pak Lah, why do you think people are taking to the streets? You think it’s a fun thing to do? (Ok, have to concede that there are a few falling into this category) With all the recent excessive use of force by the police to disperse the demonstrators, it’s even a dangerous thing to do. What is the forum for people to express their views, if not on the streets? Are you willing to have dialogue with the people, and not just listen to your advisors? You have always said that the root of the problems (such as Palestinian issue) needs to be dealt with. Well, it’s high time you practice what you preach…

Read how the Blairs are grilled by the British press over the Fawziah Holdings incident. Click here.

If only we have similar sort of ‘politician watch’, I’m sure a lot of ‘excesses’ would be curbed.

At the High Court’s verdict not to allow Cherie Blair to defend Fawziah Holdings in their case against 2 heavyweights in the Malaysian corporate scene. See story here.

There seems to be a ‘conspiracy’ to prevent Cherie from representing Fawziah Holdings, and the reasons given by the judge sound like mere excuses. I know the Bar Council has some rules on foreign lawyers practicing in Malaysia, but I believe there are few lawyers, if any, who are better qualified than she.

If nothing else, perhaps the local lawyers could learn something from this Queen’s Counsel!