Merdeka for the media, abolish PPPA

So, happy celebrating Merdeka to everyone but this time around, just think about what we need as Malaysians, and that is a free and independent media. Why? Well, no need for 10 reasons why we need free and independent media, apart from the fact that as citizens we have a right to a free and independent media and right to information.

The media must reclaim its own freedom and we need to make this call as citizens too! Support the abolition of the Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) and don't be fooled that without it, there will be chaos in the country!

I'm sharing CIJ's statement here.

Sakariya is the star attraction

Kirstine and her family arrived about 2 weeks ago and I've been happily busy! Sakariya is now 2 and this is first long trip out of Denmark. He has adjusted very well, though he doesn't fail to mention that it is very warm when he gets out of the air-conditioned buildings/car:-) Unfortunately the two of us have been down with fever, his lasting for a few days now, so are bro's kids. Not sure where the bug is from, but its out there! So mainly being home bound, but optimistic about making a trip to Kuantan this weekend.

We've explored some Ramadan bazaars in Subang Jaya, Shah Alam and Sg. Pencala, done some shopping and had a nice time with the extended family:)

(first day with his sunnies at home; [below] seriously contemplating the pool - which he gets into later with the Eswaran siblings; with parents at Sg. Pencala)
































Mathias will arrive next week, so its a full house here - a pleasant relief from the quiet of the last few months. Hope to organise more buka puasa together with friends, but hope the little one will get better soon!

Trust the AG? Forget it!

And so we are expected to believe the sudden turning up of a note in the late Teoh Beng Hock's bag, which several blogs have claimed is a suicide note. That it only surfaced a year after his death after being questioned at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office in Shah Alam raises a lot more questions. The Malaysian Insider asks the right questions here about the sudden appearance of the note. The Attorney-General's office has offered a lame excuse that it was shocked by it too and that they have now sent the note for authenticity check.

Apparently the Investigating Officer ASP Ahmad Nazri Zainal found the note on Oct 7, more than two months after Teoh’s death last year. Why did it take so long if the first thing one would do is to check contents and forensics for any traces of evidence? And then this ASP didn't do anything about it because the documents in the bag were written in Chinese and in Roman characters. Huh? Got meh like that? I think these fellas seriously should just watch CSI or NCIS to get a tip or two. He really didn't think to get it checked and translated? What kind of investigating officers do we have really? On the one hand, the want the right to exercise the powers unchecked and then they fail miserably at what is really the core of their work. Maybe if the force didn't spend too much focusing on public dissent and civil society protests or candlelight vigils, they might be able to perform their jobs better.

By the way, what were the Umno people doing with this information of the note before it even reached the coroner officially? If Mohd Ezam Nor, now Senator, after jumping ships several times, (caution: reader is advised to doubt his credibility as much as possible) can raise a question in Parliament about the note before it found was submitted to the coroner, is the police and Umno in collusion then? Well, we've always suspected that, but here's another instance proving it! Is somebody in MACC and the AG's office leaking information, possibly to cast doubt over Teoh and the defence, and just before the Thai forensic pathologist Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunand is scheduled to testify again? Lawyer Gobind Singh Doe who is representing Teoh's family was of course mad about the situation, who wouldn't be?

There are several blogs out there of course criticising Gobind, saying the inquest is ongoing so no such thing as withholding evidence. But if the evidence was there in the first place a year ago, it should have been tendered and informed since the government had always wanted to show that Teoh took his own life. And Gobind is right: the line of questioning and witnesses to be called would have been different if this evidence was made known earlier.

But you can bet that most Malaysians are and will be very suspicious of the AG [who has done little in his time to show that he is a person with integrity] and our enforcement agencies, yet again. We can only hope the coroner will act fairly in the ongoing inquest.

Sg. Lembing, the El Dorado of the East

Over the weekend, I went up to Sg. Lembing with Annu to look at the town that was once the location for the world's biggest iron mine site since the late 1880s. Sg. Lembing is about 40km from Kuantan and it is a really small town, with one main street along the river, yet with a very rich history, no pun intended. The town/village looks very much like what it was in the pictures at the museum. It was known as the "El Dorado of the East" - the largest and deepest underground tin mine with its heydays until the 1970s. During the good times, they even had a duty free area, bringing in stuff from England for the foreigners living in the village and around.

The museum is definitely worth a visit. I think its one of the best I've been to in Malaysia. Its situated in what was the former director of the Pahang Consolidated Company Ltd's house and is a beautiful wooden two-storey building at the end of the village. It was a busy day with many different people visiting the museum, including a bunch of boys on the bike:)

Actually we started the afternoon with a walk behind the village (towards Bukit Panorama) for some birdwatching and the bird of the day was the black and red broadbill, a pair really. The others were saw were the red-eyed bulbull, orang bellied flowerpecker and the common tailorbird, of which we saw many on the way down the hill.

Here are the stars of the day, the broadbill, image from one of my favourite birdie sites (pix by Connie Khoo) and the tailorbird (right) (pix by Tee Lian Huat).

We found the trail where steps were being put in, and be assured that its not an easy ascent - that was cardiac work for a week! But the view is great and I'm sure if we went up all the way it would have been even better. A view from the trail and this was at mid-day.

Then back to the city for a great game of basketball with the girls!