From Research Center to High Performance Tranining Center without cost

The Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre in Brickendonbury will be used as a training centre without additional expenses to renovate it.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said it would become a High Performance Training Centre, but would not be turned into a sports complex.

Najib, who chaired the Cabinet Committee for the Development of Sports yesterday, said …

Source: New Straits Times

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Najib approved UK sports center concept only

Bar Council gives reasons to review 1988 judicial crisis

Yeo said the admission of former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that he had asked Salleh to resign in 1988 showed that the principle of separation of powers had not been adhered to.

He said for the head of one branch of the government (the executive) to require or demand the resignation of the head of another branch (the judiciary) “is an obvious violation of this principle”.

“It also amounts to an admission of executive interference in the judiciary. It mocks the rule of law, and strikes at the foundation of democracy,” he said.

Yeo said the serious implications contained in this admission “must surely, in addition to the many other reasons that already exist, make a review of those events of 1988 imperative”.

He said what happened in 1988 had been consistently described, both domestically and internationally, as a judicial crisis.

“No one has sought to call it by any other name, such as judicial reform. This in itself is telling. This by itself cries out for truthful re-examination,” he said.

Source: The Sun

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Does the government want the truth to come out ?

Samy inspects school

Does the government want the truth to come out ?

Whether the 1988 judicial crisis should be reviewed boils down to whether the people and the government want the truth to come out, the Bar Council said today (Sept 27, 2006).

Its chairman, Yeo Yang Poh, who recently called for the review, said the revelation of "new facts" by former Lord President Tun Salleh Abas yesterday makes the move more important and pertinent now.

Salleh’s airing of five reasons for a review was in response to a recent statement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz that a review can only be justified if "new and important facts" have arisen.

Nazri, in an immediate response to Salleh’s "new facts", reportedly said the new information did not merit a review.

He reiterated that there must be a finality to such cases.

Said Yeo: "Are we interested, that is the question?"

He said with the new revelation by Salleh, the finality argument by Nazri did not hold water.

Johor Baru MP Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad, who is also parliamentary Public Accounts Committee chairman, said he would support the review of the 1988 crisis, which led to Salleh’s sacking and that of two other colleagues, on the basis of new evidence.

Shahrir said the issue was one of the reasons why he stood as an independent candidate in a by-election he won in August 1988.

"It is very personal (the sacking) and it was for this reason I had refrained from commenting on it," he said.

He said that for the matter to be re-opened, the basis or the idea as to why it should be reopened must be there.

Shahrir said the best and the utmost one can do is learn from the crisis and not repeat it.

The 1988 crisis represents the darkest period in the country’s judicial history and was criticised as the executive interfering in the judiciary.

Source: The Sun

Read:
Cabinet chorus: there must be finality…
No reason not to review judicial crisis
Nazri fear minister will feel indecisive if ministerial decisions are subject to judicial review
Nazri:Once in 5 years check sufficient
Good reason to review 1998 judicial sackings
Nazri says no good reason to review 1988 judicial sackings

NEP

An estimated 400 people turned up for the DAP forum on the National Economic Policy (NEP) and Vision 2020 last night (Sept 27, 2006), surpassing the organiser’s expectations.

Also on the panel were the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli)’s Centre for Public Policy Studies director Dr Lim Teck Ghee and former group chief executive officer of Kumpulan Guthrie Bhd and former chief executive officer of Permodalan Nasional Bhd Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

Khalid, who is currently Parti Keadilan Rakyat treasurer, said Malays needed to change their mindset because if they didn’t, they would lose out.

"The competition is no longer local but global, and when I have to compete in Australia, for example, I don’t have the benefit of relying on the NEP," he said.

He said the government’s development strategies changed after 1990 when the National Development Policy was launched.

"During that period, there was a subtle change where (economic) growth was far more important than (wealth) distribution," he said, noting that politics costs money.

Khalid suggested that Asli should conduct a study to track how much it costs for politicians to maintain their positions of power.

Ramasamy said the NEP had been hijacked to serve the interests of a particular group of Malays closely linked to the political elite.

"The altruistic objectives for wealth redistribution and poverty eradication are no longer on the agenda," he argued.

"The NEP is a very divisive instrument and race-based affirmative action that will jeopardise our economic growth and social cohesion.

"The government needs to move on. What we need is to foster inter-ethnic partnerships based on competitiveness and merit."

Source: The Sun

Hishammuddin says we have our ways of discussing issues, Noh no know

Two new Chinese schools will be built under the Ninth Malaysia Plan (9MP). They are SJK (C) Tun Tan Siew Sin in Putra Heights, Selangor, and SJK (C) Kulai (2) in Johor. 

Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said this showed that his discussions on the matter with Barisan Nasional component party leaders had not been just rhetoric. 

“We have our ways of discussing such issues and it is not our style to make an announcement until everything – such as the land, location and allocation – has been sorted out,” he said after his ministry’s post-Cabinet meeting yesterday. 

Last week, Deputy Minister Datuk Noh Omar had said in Parliament that the Government would not build any vernacular schools under the 9MP. 

Hishammuddin, however, pointed out that his deputy could not be blamed for what he said because the matter was not under him.  

“As minister, I am the one with the power to decide whether we are to have such schools,” he said. 

“This is why I decided to announce these new schools to prove there are such plans. There has never been a policy of not building national-type schools under the 9MP,” he said. 

Source :The Star

Cabinet chorus: there must be finality…

It’s final. There will be no review of the sacking of three judges in 1988, the Cabinet decided yesterday.

They felt that there must be finality on this issue and said that the the sacking of Tun Salleh Abas, Datuk George Seah and Datuk Wan Sulaiman Pawanteh will only be revisited when there is “new and important" about the case emerge.

Source : New Straits Times

well-knowledged ? Najib needs lesson in English

A well-knowledged society is what brings the country ahead

Source: The Star

It should be knowledgeable or well informed

Malaysia’s Global Competitiveness Index ranking 2006-7

Malaysia is placed 26th in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Competitiveness Index rankings for 2006-2007. 

Switzerland, Finland and Sweden are rated the world’s most competitive economies.  

Denmark, Singapore, United States, Japan, Germany, The Netherlands and Britain completed the top 10 list.  

The rankings are drawn, among others, from the Executive Opinion Survey, of which over 11,000 business leaders were polled in 125 countries.

Source : The Star

Najib the cabinet committee chairman on essential goods

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has come to the defence of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal who is under heavy criticism over the continued shortage of sugar in the market. 

“Pity him. The last time it was petrol. What is next for him?” said Najib when asked to comment on calls for Shafie to resign if he failed to solve the problem. 

Sugar shortage has surfaced around the country since April and despite assurances and steps taken by the Government, including increasing the price of fine sugar, the problem has persisted. 

Najib, who is the cabinet committee chairman on essential goods, took note of the problem saying the Government was still monitoring the situation through the ministry.

he said after chairing the National Forestry Council meeting at the Prime Minister’s Department here yesterday. 

Asked if Shafie was doing a good job, Najib replied, “It is not for me, it is for the Prime Minister to decide.” 

Source: The Star