...AND THE WOUND CONTINUES TO FESTER?

In a move to do damage control on a possible minor fallout with Russia over the benzene spill and more importantly, to apportion responsibility due to the lapse of credible information between Harbins 3.5 million and the state Chinese Communist Party, the totalitarian goverment fired the chief of the State Environmental Protection Agency.
In Malaysia, with the setting up of the “The Commission of Inquiry (COI)” for the nude ear squat incident, the "warong kopi" expects clear explanantion as to how widespread this practice is and how this culture of tolerance for such humilating nude ear squat search could have come into official acceptance. COI's responsibilty should also be extended to probe other police misdeeds like the deaths of detainees during lock up and specifically the 2am home raid on the 3 Chinese nationals.
To add salt to the "nude ear squat" wound, the Malaysian goverment has also been humiliated internationally even from within their own ranks with loose lips rattling. It is time to take stock of the situation, perform immediate damage control and be seen to make those responsible suffer the consequence. There should not be any back pedalling and going painfully forward would only be for the greater common good for the future of the police force and the country.

China environment chief resigns over toxic spill
Link : Reuters - By Brian Rhoads

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's environment chief resigned on Friday following a two-week crisis over a toxic spill that polluted a northeast China river, forced the shutdown of tapwater supplies to millions of Chinese and raised alarm bells in Russia.
Xie Zhenhua, chief of the State Environmental Protection Agency since 1993, resigned and was replaced by the former forestry director Zhou Shengxian, Xinhua news agency said, citing a statement by the country's cabinet.
State television said Xie had resigned due the administration's failure to address the crisis. The State Council, or cabinet, and Communist Party had approved it.
The administration "as the main body for environmental protection did not pay enough attention and fell short of the evaluation about the possibly severe results out of the incident. Thus, it holds the responsibility for the losses," China Central Television said......

The move is also in line with a campaign by President Hu Jintao to instill official accountability in the highest levels of government, dating back to the sacking of the health minister and Beijing mayor after a cover-up of the deadly outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in 2003.
"A reckless pursuit of economic growth and a lack of emergency response mechanisms have seen China experiencing a high rate of environmental disasters," Administration vice Minister Wang Yuqing was quoted as saying.......

The toxic slick forced officials in Harbin, a city of 9 million people downstream from Jilin in Heilongjiang province, to shut off its water for five days. The slick passed the city on Sunday and is making its way through Heilongjiang toward the Russian border.

The environment director, Xie, had "contended that the toxic chemicals were gradually diluted as they were carried down the river, so 'it was not to late' to inform the Russians then," Caijing Magazine said."In the realm of foreign relations, however, such an explanation does not go over too well," it said......

Regional governments were giving tacit consent to discharges of pollutants into rivers and some had approved polluting businesses that the central government had banned, Wang said......