CHINA'S 55-39-20 AND 36-24-36

Malaysians should start to get really worried when our Immigration Department (JIM) seems to be unable to keep a count of our vistors statistics. This led our PM on to a merry dance when basing on their feedback, issued an order to track down the missing 50,000 Chinese nationals. The Star reported today that the JIM list involves 250 nationalities with approximately 13,132,449 Singaporeans (!*!) missing in Malaysia. Australians -207,775, Japanese -747,668, Chinese -553,920 and the list goes on.
So, why the sudden focus on the purported 50,00o wayward Chinese nationals. Could it be that Singaporeans or Indonesians are a lesser security risk? Maybe just maybe, they were returning a favour to our men in blue by giving them a much needed reason for the harassment of our 4 guest from China ?
Statistically, this month has turned turned out to be a real pain to JIM and PDRM . The former paid too little attention as to how our visitors statistics were handled whilst the latter at the PJ police station paid, far too much attention to it.

Missing ‘tourists

Saturday - 26th Novemeber
LInk : Star - Data could be wrong
by M. KRISHNAMOORTHY AND TEOH TEIK HOONG

PETALING JAYA: Have 50,000 Chinese nationals actually gone missing in the country?
The accuracy of this figure has come under question following admissions by the authorities that statistics on arriving and departing travellers do not tally because of flaws in the system.
Figures posted on the Immigration Department website show that more than 16.7 million tourists had gone missing from 2000 to 2003.
Singaporeans make up the largest number, totalling 13 million, followed by Japanese (747,000) and Bruneians (703,075).
The list involving 250 nationalities is found on the website and there is a big difference between the arrival and departure figures of almost every nationality.
Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said the figures on the website (http://www.imi.gov.my/ENG/Statistik/im_Statistik.asp) did not accurately reflect the total number of people leaving the country because some came in as tourists and stayed on as expatriates or foreign workers......
Immigration director-general Datuk Jamal Kamdi concurred that the figures on arrivals and departures did not reflect the actual numbers that had left the country.

“Some of the reasons are breakdowns of the computers and when there is heavy traffic of Singaporeans exiting at the Causeway; the staff do not have the time to record their departures,” he said. He said there were also times when there was a delay in the transfer of data to the head office in Putrajaya.
“The data is sometimes entered at a later date when the officers are free and for this reason the figures on the website do not reflect the number of those who have overstayed,” he added.
Asked about the report on the 50,000 Chinese nationals who had not left the country, Jamal said the figure would not be accurate because of the constant movement of people....Tourists have also reported that at times during departure at airports, immigration officers have failed to stamp and collect the exit slips.

BLIND, DEAF AND DUMB DOCTORS

My father who passed away this year had a fall two years back and was taken to a private hospital. He was warded for 7 days.They tested his blood and did more tests but could not find the reason for the pain in his hip. A couple of my friends who worked in the General Hospital arranged for him to be transfered there. He was immediately X-rayed and was told that he had fractured his hip. The physician from the private hospital who treated him was probably blind.
My mother had her cataract operation in the General Hospital this year. It did not turn out too well and she had to see an ophthalmologist in a private hospital. Last week, she asked some questions on her progress and as usual was virtually ignored. She was given a bottle of eyedrop and a plastic bag of pills. She used the eyedrop before she slept. The following morning, her face became swollen and her eyes "went aflame" and exceedingly blood shot-red. She called up the specialist, who was at that time in the Operating Theater. He did not call back. The ophthalmologist was probably deaf the day earlier and dumb the following day.
Specialist care does not come cheap and if patients become "unreasonable", could it be because of Blind, Deaf and Dumb doctors ?

Complaints about docs who keep mum
LINK : THE STAR -- BY M. KRISHNAMOORTHY

PETALING JAYA: Doctors who do not take the trouble to explain to patients about their illness and the medicines they are prescribing has led to complaints of poor service in the profession. .The Malaysian Medical Association said other reasons for the complaints could be that patients “expect the unreasonable from their doctors”.
There were also complaints from unhappy patients who went to different doctors and ended up misinterpreting the different opinions of their ailments.
“Patients must play their role by not doctor-hopping while doctors should improve on their communication skills,” said MMA president Datuk Dr Teoh Siang Chin, adding that these could stop people from having a negative view of the profession.
He was responding to complaints on the deteriorating standard of service at clinics.
Dr Teoh said that the cornerstone of medicine was in a strong doctor-patient relationship.
He said doctors had been advised to inform their patients about the type of medicines that they were prescribing.
“Some doctors are apprehensive that patients will self-medicate if they know the names of the medicines.
“However, the policy of the MMA is to have doctors label their medicines.” ..........

HEY, THERE YOU....ERRR.........PROSTITUTE!

Post 9/11 has seen many changes in the world. One of the most obvious change is the search and detention of a person when he or she fits into the description of a "case probable". IF (and that's a big IF) profiling is indeed able to prevent criminal acts or to preempt heinous acts of terrorism then it should be accepted. Unfortunately, almost all worldwide profiling , has taken on the ominous version of racial, political and religious bigotry. Can we truly say that, most of our (in this case) immigration officers are immuned to such perceptive bigotry when they do not have a clear understanding of the tourist's culture and language? This decade is the decade of the Renmimbi tourist, the next decade may possibly be well the Rupee. Will we be proactive today or merely reactive in a decade from today? More importantly, will it be a continuation of junk science or bigotry?

Azmi defends Immigration men
Link : NST - Hamidah Atan

PUTRAJAYA, Fri

---

Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid has come out in defence of Immigration officers at airports who are alleged to have grilled female tourists from China. He said it was their job to interview arriving tourists, regardless of their home country....
Azmi said statistics compiled by ministry officials revealed that a majority of tourists, especially female Chinese visitors, refused to return home.... Azmi was commenting on a statement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz who said yesterday that female tourists from China were often subjected to lengthy questioning by immigration officers.
Nazri, who is also the Human Rights Parliamentary Caucus chairman, said Chinese nationals should be allowed entry if their documents were complete as they had the right to visit Malaysia without conditions....He said the Government welcomed tourists from China and there should be no restrictions on them entering the country nor any form of profiling.
Meanwhile, Azmi said it was inappropriate and unfair to blame immigration officers just because one or two of them may have gone overboard.
He said immigration officers had to use their discretion to facilitate entry of tourists into the country. He, however, said that pro-active efforts were being taken to address the problem.
"Among others, we are now fast-tracking an exercise to recruit immigration officers who are well-versed in Mandarin and other foreign languages. They will be based at all airports.
"With them around, tourists will be handled in a more professional and friendly manner. They will feel more at home."
Azmi also said the Cabinet had agreed in principle to recruit more enforcement officers.

INTELLIGENCE COMPROMISED OR FAILURE?

Something is possibly very rotten with the state of our anti-terrorism intelligence service team. They may have the ability to identify the location of any blogger within 10 minutes upon publishing their blogs but were unable to track down Azahari even though he had been keeping in contact with his first wife and family in Malaysia for the past 4.5 years. Whilst the anti-terrorism intelligence service had performed admirably during the Emergency of 1948~1960 and the Confrontation of 1962~1966, its road map and energy may have been redirected and now is a mere shadow of what it is meant to be - fighting terrorism. In the wake of our failure in keeping tabs on known and suspected terrorist contacts, the question is - Has our anti terrorist intelligence team been compromised from within or is it just an oxymoron - intelligence failure?


Azahari in touch with family while on the run
Ridwan Max Sijabat and Indra Harsaputra,
Link : The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Surabaya

Malaysian terrorist Azahari bin Husin, who was responsible for a series of bomb attacks that killed hundreds of innocent people in Indonesia, appeared to have kept in touch with his family during his years as a fugitive.
Personal documents found by police in the house where he was killed in a gunfight last Wednesday revealed that Azahari had communicated with his family and siblings by letter and telephone.
The police discovered dozens of international phone cards, letters and a diary belonging to Azahari, along with guns and explosives, among the rubble of his hide-out in Batu district in the East Java regency of Malang. The building was severely damaged in what police believe was a suicide bombing by Azahari and his operative Arman.
In his last letter to his wife, Azahari asked her to pray for his efforts to wage a jihad so that he could die as a martyr. The letter, which was found inside the diary, never reached his wife in Malaysia.
"To die in such a way will assure me of a place in heaven and enable me to bring 70 members of our extended family. Remember me to our son and take care of him," the letter, written in Malay, reads...
Police also found a letter from Azahari's wife Wan Noraini Jusoh, expressing her fears that he could be killed at anytime. Noraini and their son also advised Azahari to take care of himself and she said their son frequently uttered the word "grave" in his sleep.....Azahari's 45-year-old sister, Suraya, cherished the good side of his childhood and adulthood saying he loved the outdoors and once hitchhiked on a lorry from the premier Malay College Kuala Kangsar, where he studied, to his home in Jasin as a teenager.
She said her brother was intelligent, competitive at school and liked adventure. Azahari studied at the English-medium SK Inggeris and SM Inggeris in Jasin and moved to MCKK when he was in Form Three. He then studied in Australia and took a PhD in mathematics in Britain.

ISMAIL KHATIB SHAMES ALL POLITICIANS

Tired of reading about the political and religious dimension of the Arab -Israeli conflict? Disgusted with our talking, talk-talk politicians from both sides of the "Barisan" when they champion the Middle East issues for their own political benefit? Despite, the acts of fanaticism and terrorism that we hear everyday, there are still islands of real kindness and goodness. These are the real towering citizens of the world and are often common folks with a clear understanding of what is right and wrong. For what they lack on rhetoric they have abudance of will and the moral strength to do what is right.
Ismail Khatib shames all politicians.

In Peace Overture, Family Donates Organs to Israeli Patients.

Link : Washington Post - by Scott Wilson

JENIN, West Bank -- A photo of a slightly smiling Ahmed Khatib has joined the martyr posters on the walls of the refugee camp here. But the 12-year-old boy is shown cradling a guitar instead of the assault rifles brandished in the grim tributes around him. A large red question mark appears at the bottom.
"Why the Palestinian children are killed?" it asks in stilted English. Ismail Khatib and his wife, Abla, have offered a response that has drawn praise from Israeli leaders and challenged Palestinians in this cramped refugee camp, a focal point of Israeli-Palestinian violence for years. Ahmed, the couple's son, was shot twice last week by Israeli soldiers in what the military said was a mistake made during the heat of street fighting near their house. The boy had been holding a toy gun. He died two days later in an Israeli hospital, and the Khatibs made the surprising choice of allowing his organs to be harvested for transplant to Israelis. Six people, including five Israeli Jews, have received the boy's heart, lungs, liver and kidneys since then. The recipients range from a 58-year-old woman to a 7-month-old girl, who died two days ago after failing to recover from surgery that gave her half of Ahmed's liver. The rest are recovering.....The donation, which the mechanic and his wife have described as a peace overture that others should emulate, has at least momentarily transformed a persistent conflict between two peoples into a shared drama of ordinary people looking beyond a war that Israeli human rights groups say has killed 672 Palestinian and 118 Israeli minors in the last five years.
Israel's finance minister, Ehud Olmert, called quickly to apologize for Ahmed's death and to thank the family for its decision. Members of the Israeli parliament, particularly the Arab bloc, have praised the gesture. Ismail Khatib was summoned Wednesday to meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who he said told him, "What you have done serves our cause." Even the guerrillas here say the family's sacrifice has proved more potent than their armed operations.
The Israelis who received Ahmed's organs are still recovering in intensive-care units in Israeli hospitals, including an 8-year-old boy whose ultra-Orthodox parents say they intend to visit the Khatibs here as soon as possible. Fewer than half of families in Israel agree to organ donations, many because of religious convictions.... Riyad Ghadban is watching his 12-year-old daughter, Samah, gradually recover with Ahmed's heart beating inside her frail chest."It's like she has changed her whole body," Ghadban, 55, said from his daughter's bedside at the Schneider Children's Medical Center in the Israeli city of Petah Tiqwa....Ghadban is an Arab Druze from the northern Israeli village of Pekiin....
To the youths of Ahmed's neighborhood, the gunmen staring from the posters or swaggering around the streets were heroes. Ahmed collected the martyrs' posters, bringing them home only to have his mother tear them up. He threw rocks at army Jeeps.... Abla said. "Whatever the older guys did, he liked to do as well."....The boy was taken to an Israeli hospital in Haifa. But doctors there were unable to detect any brain function, and it was only a matter of time before he succumbed. In the meantime, Ismail asked his wife if she would "mind someone touching her son" to allow his organs to be harvested. Moved by the children suffering in the same hospital ward, Abla agreed to the donation after Ismail called the mufti of Jenin and the Muslim cleric gave his blessing.
..... Ismail's motives were personal. As a boy, he watched his brother, Shawqat, die after a 15-year battle with kidney disease....Abla, her soft, round face framed by a pale-blue head scarf, also wants the choice she made about her son to stand as a political statement. This is a message from us to them: that we are the ones who want peace and they break their promises," she said. Later, she said, "In our nature, we do not like the Jewish people because they are the occupiers."
On the streets of the Jenin refugee camp, Ahmed's friends appear uncertain about the family's decision.
"I say it's forbidden to donate your organs to Jews," said Imad Bitawi, 13. "Tomorrow they will kill us. If it were Arabs, it would be easier."
Ahmad Tawfiq, 11, was standing three feet away when the bullets struck Ahmed that day. He said Ahmed held a toy gun shaped like an Uzi and that the boys stood among five Palestinian fighters exchanging gunfire with Israeli soldiers in Jeeps.
"The organs were given to the enemy that killed him," Tawfiq said. But he added that Jewish children deserved Ahmed's organs.
"The children, like us, have nothing to do with this," Tawfiq said.

"LOOK PETER, LOOK JANE SEE THEM GO"

I drive from Penang to Kuala Lumpur averaging twice a month. The drive can be rather pleasant although you will need to slow down near Taiping and Tapah as big brother will be playing with their radar guns. If you cruise at the maximium permissible limit of 110km/hr you will notice that this has unofficially been raise to 120~130km/hr for police vehicles in convoys and for coppers on testosterone fueled bikes, it's - "Look Peter, Look Jane see them go, see them weave".
Get these "over age" children off the highway if they are not able to behave .

ROAD MENACE

BY MARC LOURDES - Link - The Star
160,000 unlicensed motorists endangering people's lives

KUALA LUMPUR: Almost 160,000 unlicensed motorists – potentially a menace to themselves and other road users – were caught by police in the last 11 months.
And the authorities believe that the actual number could be a whole lot bigger.
Although the police do not have figures on the number of accidents caused by unlicensed motorists, 13 of those killed in accidents during the recent festive period were motorcyclists without licences.
Greatly concerned over the matter, the Road Safety Department is seeking stiffer punishment for such offenders to reduce their number.
During the recent Ops Sikap IX, he said, more than 10% of the motorcyclists killed were found to be “kiddie” riders without licences.
“For example, parents should not allow their children to drive cars or ride motorcycles if they don’t have a licence.”
“The 13 unlicensed motorcyclists who died during the festive period represented a significant percentage of the total fatalities.
“The existing penalties are not stringent enough and we have to take a look at them again,” he said, adding that the department would be conducting awareness campaigns on the matter.
Echoing SAC II Gingkoi, he said: “We will also be talking to parents, because these under-aged children should not be on the roads.”

THE TRUTH IS IN THE STREETS.

During each festive season, mammoth multi-cultural gathering allows our media to show case to local and international audiences the "All is well-Malaysia is Asia" story. This year Hari Raya open house at the PWTC is no different, drawing record crowds. The primary attraction is the presence of the Prime Minister, to an extent the cabinet and the free food. Take away the glitter of the festivity, it is individual Malaysian civil servant serving the "Malaysian street" who will ultimately affect the real state of racial and religious harmony.
Let the education to promote real racial harmony begin there.

195,000 at Hari Raya open house.
Link : The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: It was a day of thousands of salam and handshakes when Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his Muslim Cabinet ministers spent the first day of Hari Raya greeting visitors who flocked to their joint open house at the Putra World Trade Centre here.

The Prime Minister and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak stood for hours to shake hands with well-wishers.

Abdullah was his usual friendly self. He even requested the security staff to usher a partially disabled man into the dining area.

At one point, he comforted Gan Neng Sim, who cried after conveying her condolence on the passing of Datin Paduka Seri Endon Mahmood on Oct 20.

Abdullah later told reporters that Gan used to work with Endon at the Public Services Department.

“I am very pleased with the good turnout. There was an estimated 195,000 people of all races,” he said.

Businessman Mohammed Idris, 48, and his wife Halijah Ibrahim, 43, brought their eight children aged between three and 18, to meet Abdullah and the ministers.

“We hope our PM faces this challenge with all the strength he can muster,” said Mohammed.

Student Lee Kah Lin, 20, said she went because she wanted to meet the Prime Minister.

“He is a great man to be able to face the public and resume his duties so quickly after his wife’s death,” she said.

Amir Ihsan, 35, his wife Sharifah Intan, 32, and their children Adli Amir, aged one, and Adilah Amir, five, came all the way from their hometown in Kota Baru.

“I want my children to meet our PM, and we want to show our appreciation for his fantastic leadership,” said Amir.

Many people were regulars at the open house, turning up every year.

One such person was Nageshrao Buddatisannacy, a 41-year-old driver.

Nageshrao said he had been attending the open house for more than seven years now.

“I come every year to make sure my children get to meet the Prime Minister and all the ministers,” he said, adding that his 12-year-old son could identify all the ministers.

SELLING VIRGINS IN INDONESIA.

Move over sunshine and all things blue, more dirty hazy days may be on the way. This time the haze will not be from land raped Sumatra but from the Indonesia side of Borneo. After pillaging and polluting their land, growing economic power and enviroment polluter China will finance the "action" to cultivate 5 million acres of oil palm trees in the midst of pristine jungle. Well connected Indonesian businessmen in the lumber industry, amply greased goverment officers from both sides (of the border?) and China will benefit. Malaysian will be left wearing surgical masks and staring at grey skies, an a added bonus for East Malaysians, silted brown rivers.
The Malaysian goverment will still be talking about good neighbourly relationship with saudara Indonesia and to the global community an irreverisible and immesurable loss of biodiversity.
Way, to go Indonesia! selling their million year old virgin's.

Shaking Money From Borneo's Trees
By Washington Post

BETUNG KERIHUN NATIONAL PARK, Indonesia -- A river the color of pale toffee coursed through a valley, carrying several types of rare fish. A young orangutan, a member of a threatened species, dangled merrily by one leg from a tree.
In the heart of Borneo, home to one of the world's last remaining expanses of intact rain forest, Hermas Rintik Maring, an avid conservationist who is native to the area, marveled at the life within the vast canopies of jungle green that for centuries have made this tropical island vital to the health of the region.
At the same time, he said, he fears this pristine forest could fall to the whine of chainsaws and the rumble of bulldozers clearing land for what has been billed as the world's largest palm oil plantation.
The project, brokered by the Indonesian government in Jakarta, could affect as many as 5 million acres of Borneo's forest -- an area slightly... (inserted **slightly bigger than the state of Johor)-- near Indonesia's 1,250-mile-long border with Malaysia. Officials hope China will finance the project on the island, which is divided between Indonesia and Malaysia.
Indonesian officials claim the plantation could bring the area a half a million jobs directly related to the industry and 500,000 more in spin-off jobs in schools, health care and other services. It could produce more than 10 million tons of crude palm oil a year, they said, worth about $4.6 billion...
Earlier this year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ... spoke to President Hu Jintao about helping to develop the border area. "So far, the feedback has been positive," Yudhoyono said...
The Chinese said that though their government is generally keen to invest in Indonesia... agricultural projects such as palm oil plantations require careful study...
The area that environmentalists call the heart of Borneo is home to 14 of the island's 16 major rivers. Six miles downstream from Betung Kerihun is Danau Sentarum, a 325,000-acre necklace of lakes that nurture several species found only on Borneo, including the bekantan monkey and arwana fish. Indigenous peoples live and fish on the lakes. Logging the forests will start a chain reaction of erosion and silt buildup that will destroy the area's water ecosystem, environmentalists say.
At least one plan, drawn up by a consortium of state-owned palm oil plantations and obtained by the Worldwide Fund for Nature, shows plantations being built in three national parks near the border, including Betung Kerihun and Danau Sentarum...
The environmentalists are concerned that under the guise of planting oil palms, companies will raze the forests, removing billions of dollars' worth of timber, and then abandon the land. Too often over the last decade in Indonesia, that scenario has played out. According to the Forestry Ministry, 5.75 million acres of forest in Indonesian Borneo alone have been cleared for palm oil plantations that never materialized. Most of that land is at a lower altitude.
If the government wants to promote oil palm plantations, "Why not use that land?" asked Hermas, the conservationist...
A decade ago, an estimated 100,000 orangutans frolicked in Borneo's forests; today there are only 55,000. Palm oil plantations are the main reason for the decline, according to Friends of the Earth, an international environmental group. The industry could drive the ape to extinction within 12 years, the group warned.......

SEND THEM TO BANGLADESH!

Remember the comments after the 2006 budget where some of the civil servants complained that they were not appreciated for their "hard work" (think National Registration Department and the Road Transport Department)They were given $50~$150 COLA, those earning less than $1,000 - 1.5 months bonus and the rest 1 month bonus subject to a minimium sum of $1,500. They should be thanking their lucky stars that they do not have to cari their "rezeki" in Bangladesh. Maybe a foreign exchange program for some of them may probably wake them up from their perpetual slumber and ingratitude.


No salary for 28 months.

Link : The Daily Star

Seventeen teachers and staff of the Bandarban Shishu Poribar Kendra under Social Welfare Department are not getting salary for 28 months.The project work was started in 1998. Its tenure expired on June 30 last year but the project was not included in the revenue budget.

Sources at the Kendra said the teachers and staff were recruited in May 2003. They are not getting salary since July 2003 as fund allocation was stopped following an allegation of corruption against its authorities.

The 100 boys housed at the Kendra are now being fed with voluntary food supplies from Bandarban Hill District Council, the sources said.

Social Welfare Minister Ali Ahsan Muhammad Muzahid during his visits to the Shishu Paribar last year and this year assured that either the project would be included in the revenue budget or funds for their salary would be disbursed, the sources claimed. But nothing has been done, they added.
Shafiqul Islam, Deputy Supervisor of the Shishu Paribar said letters were sent to higher authorities several times for sanctioning funds, but to no reply yet.

"BUT....."

Malaysians should be terribly upset with the explanation given by Dr Hashim Yacob that we did “very well” in 3 out of the 5 categories in the survey done by THES. The plunge in overall ranking from 89 to 169 seems to be a non-issue to him when he uses the conjunction “but”. So again another issue of note is waved away with ..."but"... the cracks on package 11 of MRR2 can be repaired but at the cost of $20 million...Bank Islam loses $480 million but "we are on the mend and cleaning problem areas". We would have rewarded Nicol David but.......

UM among top 100 in three sectors
Link : The Star --- BY LEANNE GOH AND KAREN CHAPMAN

KUALA LUMPUR: Universiti Malaya's overall position in the World Universities Rankings 2005 may have dropped significantly but its performance in three categories and its improved marks are achievements to be proud of, said its Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Hashim Yaacob. He expressed “great happiness” that UM was placed among the top 100 universities in three out of five categories – Arts and Humanities (45th place), Biomedicine (82nd) and Social Science (83rd). The other two categories are Science and Technology. “Last year, we did not make it to the top 100 in any of the five categories, but this year we made it to …Prof Hashim said that “at first glance,” it looked like UM had done badly in this year's ranking but a more thorough study would show that its performance had improved…“Last year, our overall score was 16.6% only, but this year it was 23.5%,” he said.
However, he could not explain why UM had dropped so much in the overall rankings when it seemed to have improved in some areas.
The vice-chancellor noted that there were more than 30,000 universities worldwide and UM still managed to be in the top 200. “I want to share my happiness with you that although there are so many universities in the world, we are number 169,” he said, citing other top universities which had dropped by many notches. Seventy universities from last year's list are not in this year's.