Gobbledygook is the best defence of a bureaucrat. He would frighten you with jibberish -- remember it is not passengers but traffic profile MAB totes of in its enthusiasm to prove that the empty KLIA is in fact not empty. The MAB spokesman cannot understand why retailers complain. After all, the yield per passenger increased to RM24.75 in October, compared to RM21 in April. How is this worked out? The total gross sales divided by the total number of passengers. It does not take into account inflation, if not in Malaysia than in other countries in the world which supplies most of the goods. But never mind. Better proof than this cannot be got. If every passenger on arrival or departure spend that amount at the retail shops, many retailers would be driving around chauffer-driven BMW 740. That they do not is the clearest indicator yet that the MAB talks rubbish.

Dato' Seri Rais now wants the director of the CLP examination, Mr Khalid Yusoff, suspended for the wholesale tampering of the July/October CLP examination. Mr Khalid insists what he did was not tampering, though he would not say what it was. In truth, he could not say more since he could face a criminal charge. But there is no smoke without fire.

This divide Malays and non-Malays, Muslims and non-Muslims, UMNO Malays and PAS Malays, political Malays and cultural Malays. On 17 October, an UMNO MP from Sabah uttered an obscene four-letter word in the House. The Speaker ignored the uproar and took no action. UMNO did not punish the MP as it should have. It now is an issue in the bondooks: UMNO cannot respond to allegations that in its Islam, four-letter obscene words are perfectly respectable. UMNO runs hither and thither.

This appeared in my Chiaroscuro column in malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com) today, 30 October 2001

A version of what follows appears in my Chiaroscuro column in malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com) today, 25 October 2001.

This appeared in my Chiaroscuro column in malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com) today, 23 October 2001.

I wrote this for my Chiaroscuro column in malaysiakini (www.malaysiakini.com) on Friday 19 October 2001.

What follows is the column I replaced that with and would appear in Harakah (15-31 October 2001), that would be released this evening.

Dato' Rais' evasive answers indicated that he was not exactly telling the "the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the whole truth". That the newspapers this morning (08 October 2001) mentions the Securities Commission probe, even to deny it, does suggest that the lady is prepared for burning. She is a Daim nominee and Daim nominees are hunted down in the Bolehland political climate as the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, goes after Tun Daim Zainuddin's cronies after the latter resigned as finance minister three months ago. Curiously enough, he was also on leave for two months before he was removed.

Thursday, 04 October 2001

A letter in the New Straits Times today (4 October 2001, Letters, p11) suggests what would have been a brilliant advance in penal reform in the 13th century: put the fellow and his ilk in leg irons and chains in future. Mr P. Selvam of Petaling Jaya admits security was lax but gives the police credit for that since "it was not easy for the police to apprehend this criminal who with his gang members terrorised the public". But having caught him, allowed him to escape. The man was handcuffed.

I wrote this for my column in Harakah, and appears in its latest issue (01-15 October 2001), out today (26 Sept 01)

Touch nGo writes a letter to all holders of the card on 1 September 2001 to admit it is damned by its success and by extension, even if it does not spell it out so starkly, its own gross incompetence, that Auto Reload is suspended from 1 October 2001. Another reason it does not mention: the idea that the normal Malaysian can get a serve without hassle is too galling for a privatised entity to take that it must ensure he is inconvenienced as much as he possible could. There are so many ways out of this simple problem: Let the driver use the card for whatever distance for the balance in his card but tell him he cannot use it again without topping up. But that means providing a service. Touch 'nGo is not about to do that.

This sudden interest in merit is a gut reaction to Malay unrest in the universities. None looks at it as one should. The government now wants to amend the law when Parliament meets in October for undergraduates and lecturers to sign an agreement they would under no circumstances be anti-government on the campus. Dr Mahathir puts it nicely: "If students do not want to study, no way are we going to accept them into university." The education minister, Tan Sri Musa Mohamed, goes further: "It is necessary for these students to be given a strong reminder and just taking an oath is not sufficient. Now it is more towards an agreement." Given that the government cheerfully ignores agreement and contracts it signs -- the Trengganu Government can provide chapter and worse on just one -- how serious can such a act be?

The plaintiffs further claim Ganesh's actions were actuated by malice, rooted in Tan Sri Vincent's refusal to settle the matter before the Industrial Court Ganesh brought against the Sun Media. As proof, Tan Sri Vincent includes in his affidavit a letter from Ganesh's Malaysian lawyers, Messrs Skrine & Co, dated October 1999, offering terms of settlement, and (in Ganesh's words) "various religious articles I sent him (which I admit I sent him wishing him well for I heard that he was unwell -- a matter of praying for one's enemy)". Tan Sri Vincent claims the religous articles sent him together with (Ganesh again) "my note wishing him well were all proof that I threatened him with "Divine Displeasure" if he refused my terms of settlement". Tan Sri Vincent had lodged apolice report on the matter; so had the Berjaya Group chief of security claiming Ganesh had defamed them. Ganesh has entered a conditional appearance.

What happened at Sungei Way, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, where he opened the UMNO civil action bureau service centre on Wednesday, 18 October 00, is typical. This centre is UMNO's special plan, as the Prime Minister emphasised, "to bring itself closer to the people". Somehow, he could not relay that message to those who were there to welcome him. Half an hour before the Prime Minister's arrival, not even a parliamentary quorum was present. The factories in the vicinity were ordered to send their workers to the function to learn from the Prime Minister how UMNO would care for them. If Mohamed refuses to go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohamed. You would not read of this drama in the mainstream newspapers; but the workers resented being ordered to attend the function or face the wrath of the management. Why were not government officers in the vicinity asked to attend instead? A highly placed source tells me that is wasted effort: These rascals refuse to.

But the Prime Minister's crocodile tears, which the New Straits Times editorial today (19 October 00, p14) reflects, must remain that. "The Prime Minister is rightfully concerned with the state of affairs because it is detrimental to the smooth functioning of parliamentary democracy if MPs are frequently absent from parliamentary sittings and what is more disturbing is that the people's respect for their elected representatives could erode over time if the absenteeism persists and is not checked." Phew! But where was the New Straits Times when the National Front did just what it says MPs should not: deliberately preventing the functions of parliament. Couching the problem in cliches does not address the problem of National Front credibility. It is not disrespect for parliamentary democracy the Prime Minister rails against. The editorial suggests House sittings be televised. Would that help the National Front? Or the Opposition, whose MPs argue with purpose, often to taunts from the government backbenchers whose role more often than not just that. Another irrelevant quick-fix to an intractible problem.

On 22nd October 1994, the High Court of Malaya at Kuala Lumpur had ordered inter alia that:-

So, there was an Alice-in-Wonderlandish quality in the debate, which focussed attention on such matters are Islamic obscurantist pressures and the role of English in modern Malaysia. That the stock exchange rose 90 points on Friday did soothen some of this rage, but the feeling of orchestration remained. This assembly had virtually no divisional leader left untouched by the massive meltdown on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. But then the decision to hold the assembly now instead of the usual period around budget time was to divert flak from any harsh fiscal and economic measures that would have to be made in the forthcoming budget in October. In any case, few believed that the fortuitous 90 point rise on Friday is seen to be temporary, at best, the RM90,000 million cash cow officially made available notwithstanding.

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