Suspects of rape murder acquitted

Just as I am afraid of, the 6 suspects arrested recently over the rape murder of factory executive Chee Gaik Yap was acquitted. The reason : DNA tests failed to link them to the case. Fortunately, they are remanded under a different clause for further investigation. We are not asking the police to simply find some scapegoats, but there must be somebody responsible for the girl's death. If they are not, then who is? The police have not made any arrest beside these group of people. What is the explaination to the stains of sperms and blood found on their vehicle,with which they were arrested? It is high time the police department upgarde their investigation skills, laboratory facilities/analysis and their level of commitment. Is it going to be just ANOTHER unsolved case?

Ministers withdrew their memorandum

Earlier of the week 9 ministers from the cabinet of Malaysia submitted a memorandum to the prime minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi urging him to amend the constitution in order that Malaysian Islamic Court (Syriah) will not issue injunctions to seize the bodies of deceased non Muslims during their funerals. The deceased persons in questions are claimed by the Muslim authority that they had converted to embrace the Islamic faith without the knowledge of their family members. The actions by the religion authority came as a huge shock to the deceased family adding to their pain of losing their loved ones. The 9 ministers who submitted the said memorandum are all non Muslims. However,under pressure from the Muslim components of the Malaysian National Front, and with the personal request from the prime minister himself pleading the 9 ministers to withdraw the memorandum, the momorandum was finally withdrawn. (Only 5 of the original 9 ministers were present). I strongly advise all non Muslim Malaysians to go to the lawyers and include in their wills the following clause : "I shall never be converted into a Muslim, and under no circustance shall I be buried in a Muslim cementery ", just in case.

Sorry,no handphones in school for now

The final decision by the Education Ministry of Malaysia is to withdraw its earlier announcement to allow students of all schools to bring handphones to schools. Reason : Parents and teachers are not ready (some critiques that about 5-10 years behind time). Then again, the Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin said it will be implemented later, stage by stage. Yes, begin with the secondary schools, the students of which are big enough to handle this. We cannot postpone it for ever, else people in other parts of the world may look upon us as "ulu".

6 suspects held for killing of girl

6 workers from a race horse stable were detained for investigation into the murder of a girl while she was jogging at a high class residential area in Sungai Petani. She was later dumped at the entrance of a resort. The stable was close to the scene of murder. A vehicle was retained together with the suspects. Stains of sperms and blood were found at the vehicle. Hopefully the police will not forget to send these specimens for DNA analysis. Let's hope this case be solved and not ending with the accused been acquitted due to some technical fumble up. We are seeing more and more serious homicide cases go unsolved, the accused always being acquitted due to technical mistakes. Maybe we should create a blog to record these acquitted cases, recoding the names of the prosecuting officers, court judges. At the end of the year we will name the winner with the highest score!

Do not jog alone

It was reported in the news today that a young woman was raped and killed while jogging in a Taman in Sungai Petani. Please do not take the risk and jog alone, especially young beautiful girls, even in broad day light. This is NOT the fisrt time young beautiful women were killed while alone in secluded places. There are 4 such cases where the murderers are still at large. The fact that one can commit such crimes and still escape punishement definitely will motivate others like-minded individuals to try to do it also. This will make it more dangerous for any young (and beautiful) girls to go any place alone. I pray this particular post will be read by all Malaysian girls. Please forward this to your friends.

Sin Chung School-a test of Pak Lah's integrity or authory?

SRJ Kebangsaan Sin Chung is located inside the constituency of the Prime Minister of Malaysia,Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi, oh my God I didn't know! It seems very odd, very very odd! True, the developer has the legal right to tear down the school, but the arrogance with which he went about handling this matter is definitely not the Malaysian way. He must at least "give face" to the wakil in that area, unless he has the blessing of the said wakil. Did Pak Lah give him the blessing? I doubt it very much. Then it must be that he did not care who the wakil is, be it be it an ordinary MP or the Prime Minister himself. I wonder again who is this guy? So powerful that he can just ignore the Prime Minister. Or maybe he plans to quit doing business in Malaysia after completion of this particular project, so that he can afford to antagonize everyone. Sin Chung was built with the help of the public's donations through the years. Now that it will be demolished, who will help to rebuild it now? Surely they can not collect enough money in such a short notice. The only way is to convert it to a full government managed school; this will be a severe blow to the Chinese community. Pak Lah said he had given full authority to Penang's Chief Minister Dr Koh Su Koon to handle the matter. Can Dr Koh handle it? It was very clear in past incidences that the developer did not respect him at all. Dr Koh is in a real dilemma now!

Handphones in schools

The education department of Malaysia has instructed all schools in the country to allow students to bring handphones to schools. But they have to adhere to the rules regarding the usage of handphones in schools,they can only use them before school,after school and during recess. This has brought critics from all angles,the parents,teachers and headmasters. Their reasons for objecting: 1. The students may be distracted from their study,they may be busy engaing in games and SMS back and fro. 2. The rich kids may show off their expensive sets in front of the poorer ones,hence causing envy. This may lead to theft or damage to others' handphones. Teachers will have to spend unnecessary time to handle these cases. 3. Parents will face difficulties in fullfilling their children's wishes to possess handphones as all their friends are using handphones now. 4. Students can make use of the school's telephones to contact their parents for urgent matters. Point# 1 is quite easy to handle, any student found violating the rules laid down by the Education Department will have his/her phone confiscated as instructed by the Department. Point#2 is slightly complicated but still can be solved. The schools can restrict the models of handphones allowed in the schools,requiring the students to bring only the cheapest yet still functioning handphones. If they want to show off,they may do so outside the schools. Pont# 3 is too personal,I can not offer any suggestion. Point# 4 gives room to a lot of arguments.How do you define "urgent" ? To some students the slightest stress, like the transport is late or forget to bring a book, is a matter of emergency; while to some students, nothing is worth worrying about, unless the sky fell on top of them. In my humble opinion, it is good for the kids to be easily contacted. In case there is some thing suddenly crops up at works and can not come to fetch them home immediately, at least the kids will know. In this case this is an in-coming call, are the teachers willing to go a few blocks just to inform the kids? Say there might be 10-20 such calls everyday? In another scenario, say a kid is supposed to stay back for some extra curriculum activity,so he/she will not follow the "Bas Sekolah" home, instead the parents will pick him/her home after works. But the activity is suddenly cancelled, he/she will have to stay idling in the school for a good 4-5 hours. This is how the students begin to sneak out the schools and hang around the shops where they pick up bad company. I don't want this to happen to my kids! Allowing kids to bring handphones to school is not a bad thing, provided we do it carefully.

Condolence

My deepest condolences to the families of the 4 Haj pilrims from Malaysia who were killed in the collasped hotel in Jundaria Road near Masjidil Haram in Mecca last Thursday.

Note this day in history

The session court has ruled that the developer has every right to demolish the Sin Chung Chinese Primary School. Note this day in history as the day a fully operational school in MALAYSIA first to be legally demolished in front of the public. Let's not get into the details of legal issues here,I am not trained for it. Let's talk about the humane side. The eagerness of the developer to tear down the school frigtening young school childern to cry is inhumane. Can't they wait for school seesions for the day to be over ? The session court judge should have thought of this and order the developer to wait a day or two. Fortunately the school managed to get an order in time from the high court judge to delay the demolition. Umm....the session court judge is a Malay,while the high court judge is a Chinese. Is it a coincident or am I being too sensitive? Don't get me wrong I am not trying to stir up sensitive racial issues, am just thinking if the two judges were to interchange positions, the court decision might still be the same. But the way it was to be handled could be much more subtle,much more humane. The learned leaders of Malaysia are emphasizing the importance of education towards nation building, towards acheiving the 2020 vision. But here we see court judges ordering the tearing down of schools,how ironic! Is making money all important? Must commercial deals get higher priority than providing education for our younger generation? I don't know who is right or wrong,and I don't care. What sends chill down my spine is the way the whole thing is handled.

The Construction Companies Again!

A man with a PHD from Cambridge University ,who has a bright future before him, was killed when a 720kg steel and concrete slab fell from building in a construction site while he was driving through the traffic next to the site.His wife who was with him in the car was seriuosly injured but survived. The Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia said the government is going to find out the cause of this tragic incident.The Cabinet will discuss this matter in details soon. A site supervisor of a construction company when contacted said,"Strict safety rules and regulations are adhered to here,but sometimes some careless workers did not adhere to the rules. Nothing much we can do except sack them after been found committing the mistake 3 times." This is by far the most irresponsible remarks I have heard! If you can not hire workers who are competent and follow safety rules then do not carry out any large projects that may endanger others' lives. Imagine a worker is allowed to make such risky mistakes 3 times before he will be sacked,it is like letting him have 3 chances to try to attempt killing others! I remember there were other incidents where heavy cranes fell on passing cars in the past. It is high time for the Malaysian government to take a closer look at the background of the constructions companies. And do not let traffic come too close to constructions sites.