RAKYAT MEMIMPIN: Nov 3, 2008

Monday, November 3, 2008

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Unanswered questions over Altantuya

MCPX'I empathise with Altantuya's father and I believe he must have thousands of questions running through his mind. How cruel is the world to him and his family.'On Abdul Razak Baginda acquitted Peter Ooi: Just like majority of Malaysians, I felt disappointed over Abdul Razak's acquittal. I empathise with Altantuya's father and I do feel how the whole world is tumbling down on him.I believe he must have thousands of questions running through his mind.Top of the list would be that had there not existed a man by the name of Abdul Razak Baginda, his dear daughter would not have made her fateful visit to Malaysia.Now that he has been acquitted, he must be wondering why such key evidence by Balasubramaniam was not examined in detail particularly the statutory declaration.Also he must be questioning where on earth Balasubramaniam has disappeared to without a trace. With all the expertise that our police have, he could have been traced with ease.Then he must be thinking why the police did not even examine the implications of SMSes between Najib and a lawyer. Any layman would feel that those messages were vital to the case and yet the prosecution did not use them.Altantuya's father must be thinking too why RPK - who made a statutory declaration - was not called as a witness but was instead slapped with criminal defamation charges.I believe Altantuya's father must be spending sleepless nights trying to find answers to even more questions than these few. How cruel is the world to him and his family.Can his daughter's murderers live with a clear conscience, I wonder.Lisa: The hearing has been so protracted and the evidence so convoluted that few have been able to follow facts of this murder case over the years.Add to that questions that were never addressed and other aspects of ‘water-muddying' and we have public perception of a tainted trial.Therefore, the belief is that there must have been something to hide and for that, Abdul Razak Baginda's acquittal will always make him guilty of something in the minds of the public.On Najib wins Umno presidency uncontestedTetraigrat: My dear members of Umno, ask yourself why didn't Mahathir pick Najib instead of Abdullah Badawi after sacking Anwar? Najib was one of the three VPs and had the highest winning votes.By that virtue, Najib should have rightfully been promoted to deputy prime minister after Anwar. was sacked from Umno. But Mahathir knew well Najib's skeletons and knew appointing him deputy premier would not been seen as right.Mahathir knew that people will question why was Najib appointed so to play to the tune of the people, Mahathir brought in Abdullah as a temporary solution though by virtue Najib should have been promoted.Now we only know that Mahathir is dead keen to get Najib in the PM's post to continue all his unfinished dreams at any cost. As it is being said, its not Najibism for Malaysia but a return of Mahathirism for another two or more decades.Putting this aside, with such a tainted background, Najib is not only playing puppet to Mahathir but may be blackmailed for favours. Why are the people in Umno subjecting Malaysia to this?Where is the morality of electing a true leader who has the country and people at heart? Perhaps we shouldn't be expecting morality from members of a party who put themself above the true interests of the party.On Backbenchers rap Penang's multi-lingual road signsSH Huang: Lately we read and hear a lot about road signs, road names and languages. What are the purposes of road signs, road names and their languages?Road names are usually named after certain personalities who had done some service for the people or nation. It is regrettable that some famous names have been replaced with some other names. Why should the names be changed?Some famous road names in Kuala Lumpur have been changed and this has made make tourists and locals alike a bit confused.Who would know the once-famous names like Foch Avenue, High Street, Davidson Road, Cross Street, Mountbatten Road, Batu Road, Swettenham Road, Circular Road, Brickfields Road, Madras Lane, Theatre Street to name a few ?I am sure many young people living in Kuala Lumpur will not know what their present names are! There is a history behind most of these names. Why try to change history?Many anti-colonialists want to discard the names which have a foreign sound. But those colonial masters administered the country named Malaya then and we should respect the British for the good administration they left behind.What about the language for road names? To familiarise the names which reputation took decades to build up, we should not change the language, just because we like to change them or just because we are in power and want to show our power. Leave them alone.But to make more people know about the place, we may need to have several languages like in Penang. Tourists want to know the meanings too.So several languages are included for easy reference and knowledge. Take the KLIA, for example. Why are their announcements in several languages? KLIA does it because it caters to foreigners.We should have proper road signs for easy access but keep the old road names for history and have several languages for road signs for tourists.On Why is Georgetown called Georgetown?Upper Caise: At the risk of sounding petty, it's not called ‘Georgetown'. The name of the heritage city of Nyonya and Straits Settlement culture and capital city of the state of Penang is George Town.Many make the common mistake of using Georgetown - but that is the name of various places in the world (the high class suburb in Washington DC, a university, many cities all over the US, a city in the Bahamas, and the capital of Guyana).But it is not the name of Penang's state capital no matter that the federal works and highway departments have misnamed the city so in road signs all over the state.And why George Town? After George III, the reigning monarch then, who is more well-known these days as the mad king who lost the colonies in North America.George Town was founded in 1876 - just 10 years after the colonists in New England declared independence.Another link to that event is in the naming of Fort Cornwallis, after the general who surrendered at Yorktown to the American revolutionaries and who was Governor-General of India when George Town was founded.Were the British obsessed with naming roads after themselves? Hardly. They named places after their notables and big shots, just like Malaysians do (but without the vanity of titles and full names, eg, Jalan Tan Sri Teh Ewe Lim, just one of several improbably long and snobbish present-day road names).So we have Weld Quay, after Frederick Weld, a governor and Gurney Drive, after Henry Gurney the high commissioner, but also Jalan Sir Hussein, after Hussein Abdoolcader, father of the late and respected federal court judge.

Brazil race analysis - Hamilton holds his nerve for glory

Lewis Hamilton started the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend as title favourite and duly ended it as champion. Ahead of their showdown, Felipe Massa said the pressure would be on his rival at Interlagos - and that’s exactly how it panned out. As the Brazilian romped to the home win he needed, Hamilton and McLaren understandably took a more cautious approach. It so nearly cost them everything, but ultimately gave us the most thrilling season finale in years...FerrariFelipe Massa, P1Kimi Raikkonen, P3Massa did everything so brilliantly that no wonder his supporters felt he deserved to be world champion. And for fleeting moments it seemed that he was, but then after he had crossed the finish line Hamilton passed Glock for the fifth place he needed, and the Brazilian lost by a point. Raikkonen said his Ferrari got much better towards the end, but was told not to bother challenging Alonso’s second place since third would be sufficient to secure the constructors’ title for the Scuderia as the consolation prize.RenaultFernando Alonso, P2Nelson Piquet, Retired lap 1, accidentPiquet might have crashed on the first lap, but Alonso drove another great race to take a strong second place, which bodes well for the team’s 2009 prospects.Toro RossoSebastian Vettel, P4Sebastien Bourdais, P14Running more downforce than most, Toro Rosso enjoyed another great run from Vettel, who was in the hunt for a good helping of points right from the start. Running to a different fuel strategy he pushed Massa hard at times, Vettel thoroughly deserved his fourth place. Bourdais should have had a shot at eighth, too, but was rudely bundled off the track by Trulli as they chased Fisichella early on.McLarenLewis Hamilton, P5Heikki Kovalainen, P7McLaren did not get the best from the MP4-23 as they appeared to aim just for the fifth place that Hamilton needed. Had it remained dry to the end, he would have achieved it without problem; as it was it came down to fate intervening as Glock lost so much ground on his dry tyres on that critical final lap. Nevertheless, a championship is won over a season not one race, and Hamilton and McLaren were deserving winners.ToyotaTimo Glock, P6Jarno Trulli, P8Trulli could not sustain his qualifying promise once he switched from wet to dry tyres early on, and much of that was because he got stuck behind Fisichella and lost a lot of ground. A half spin also dropped him behind Glock, and after a brush with Bourdais, he had to be content with eighth. Glock drove well, but the decision to stay out on dry tyres ultimately cost him the fourth place that it appeared to have brought him. He finished sixth, cementing Toyota’s fifth place overall.Red BullMark Webber, P9David Coulthard, Retired lap 1, accident damageThere was bad news and bad news for Red Bull. Coulthard got punted out of his final Grand Prix by Rosberg on the opening lap; and Webber said the RB4 did not have the pace to do better than ninth.BMW SauberNick Heidfeld, P10Robert Kubica, P11This was BMW Sauber’s worst race of the year, and marked not just the first time they failed to score points this season, but in 34 races - since Brazil 2006. Heidfeld got trapped in traffic early on and couldn’t make any progress thereafter, while Kubica only came alive after switching to wets in the rain at the end. But third place overall was still a solid indication of the team’s success in 2008.WilliamsNico Rosberg, P12Kazuki Nakajima, P17It was yet another unhappy afternoon for Williams, with Rosberg nudging Coulthard off on the opening lap, and triggering the incident in which the Scot inadvertently hit Nakajima’s car, spinning it. The Japanese driver sustained bodywork and suspension damage that compromised his race. 12th and 17th overall said it all.HondaJenson Button, P13Rubens Barrichello, P15Honda had another lacklustre race which resulted in 13th place for Button and 15th for Barrichello. Their gamble on extreme-wet tyres at the end backfired when the Brazilian overheated his and needed standard wet replacements after two laps, and the fact that the Englishman’s RA108 caught fire in the pit lane afterwards somehow summarised a terrible season.Force IndiaAdrian Sutil, P16Giancarlo Fisichella, P18Bringing Fisichella in on the second lap for dry tyres enabled the veteran Italian to star for a while as he ran as high as fifth, but a clutch problem later led to two stalls during pit stops and he slumped to finish 18th and last. Sutil had an uneventful run to 16th.

Minefield : New Chrome killer

New comer from Mozilla is claimed to be the successful Chrome killer. Named as Minefield. It is actually come from Mozilla Firefox 4.0 alpha. Remember still in alpha version, be careful.Minefield is, in fact, a way to glimpse into the future of Firefox. After spending some time with Minefield, one thing is clear: the future of Firefox is fast. Lightning fast.Even people claim it 10 % faster than Google Chrome.How it can be a super fast web browser? Simple. Minefield does not have so many features and pre-installed with new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. Minefield's installation won't affect your current Firefox, so there's no risk trying it. It's fast. Really.Download Minefield 3.1beta here

Gerakan's Vijayaratnam found dead

Gerakan vice-president Dr S Vijayaratnam was found dead outside his clinic in Seremban this morning. He was 58.
MCPXIt is learnt that the politician's body was discovered around 11.30am outside the three-storey building which he owned, known as 'Vijay Mahal', located along Jalan Tengku Hassan.
He leaves behind widow Anucia Tharumaratnam and two sons.
The police, who are investigating the death, this afternoon ruled out suicide or foul play.
In a statement, Gerakan said Vijayaratnam had suffered a heart attack and party sources scotched rumours that foul play was involved.
"Vijayaratnam passed away this morning due to a heart attack. This is sad news to Gerakan, the Barisan Nasional and the country," read the statement.
"He was a leader of principle respected by many and a role model for the young people inside and outside of Gerakan. May God bless his family and give them strength."
Meanwhile, Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon expressed shock and sadness over Vijayaratnam's sudden demise."We lost a committed comrade and close friend," he said in a statement.Describing Vijayaratnam as a dedicated and loyal leader of Gerakan, Koh said: "We pay tribute to a true Malaysian. Vijayaratnam frequently contributed articles to the media to articulate the party's ideology and stand on various issues of national concern."Vijayaratnam, whose father is a former DAP leader and a one-term parliamentarian for Seremban Barat, joined Gerakan in 1980.
Vijayaratnam was appointed senator in 2002 and served for two years, from 2006 to 2008, as parliament secretary of the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry.
Highest ranking non-Chinese in Gerakan
Vijayaratnam, a general practitioner based in Seremban, was the highest ranking non-Chinese leader in Gerakan.
In the party polls last month, he retained his vice-president's post by coming in second. The highest vote-getter was former Youth chief Mah Siew Keong (1,153 votes), followed by Vijayaratnam (678) and former Penang Youth chief Huan Cheng Guan (568).Highly-fancied Malay candidate Dr Asharuddin Ahmad (537) failed to make the cut.Party observers said that Vijayaratnam was able to win the post twice because he was known as the president's manVijayaratnam was chairperson of the party's International Affairs & Ethnic Relations Bureau and head of Gerakan branch in Sungai Ujong, Negri Sembilan.
He was also a member of the National Economic Consultative Council, a fellow of the Royal Society of Health in London, and an honorary fellow of the Indian College of General Practitioners in New Delhi, India.
MIC president S Samy Vellu remembered Vijayaratnam as a "mild-mannered, easy-going and well-respected" person.
"I am deeply shocked and saddened by his demise," he said in a statement.
"Gerakan has lost a capable leader. He served the government well. I knew him very well and he worked closely with MIC. It's a great loss to us too.
"I wish to extend my condolence to his wife and children," he added.
In another reaction, Selangor executive councillor Elizabeth Wong, who is from PKR, also expressed her condolences to Vijayaratnam's family and Gerakan.
"I have had the pleasure of working with Vijayaratnam from 2005, when he was a member of the Malaysian Parliamentary Caucus for Democracy in Myanmar, and later in the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Caucus for Democracy in Myanmar (AIPMC)."Dr Vijayaratnam's and his party's steadfast support to see democracy restored in Myanmar was instrumental in propelling the Malaysian government's position to be more vocal on this issue," she said.