Five Days Week A mistake.

Dear Editor,
At the moment Malaysia cannot afford a
five days week.As it is , many of the govt.
departments are struggling to clear the backlog of
their current workload and the newly going to-be
implemented five days week is going to increase that
workload.The land office is one typical department
that has a pile up of land transfer applications and
even with computerisation the waiting period for such
transfer to be completed can be 3 to 6 months.In
addition to this, sub-division of land now takes a
minumum of 1 to 2 years and with the five days week
the period is going to be longer.
Another area that will suffer with the five
days week would be the judiciary.As it is, the backlog
of court cases have already reached an unprecedented
delay time.Some civil cases have a waiting period of
up to 5 years and even without the new five days week
the outstanding cases have not been resolved. The old
adage that justice delayed is justice denied is going
to be more pronounced.
All these backlogs in workload could have been
averted if the govt. introduce a five day week but at
the same time open all govt departments for seven days
week.This effectively means we have a win-win situation
where civil servants enjoy a five days week but at the
same time keeping all govt. dept open for seven days
week.This can easily be accomplished by rotating off
days for staff. Some staff may take week days off and
some may work during week-ends.All these would merely
involve some administrative juggling and should not
pose any problems in the organisational structure.One
added advantage of a seven days week would be the
creation of more employment opportunities and this
should offer employment avenues for our unemployed
graduates.The increased revenue obtained from the
seven days week should easily offset the cost of
additional staff.
While it is commendable for the govt. to give
more time for civil servants to spend with the family,
it is also important that the govt should ensure the
quality of service rendered to its citizens should not
be compromised.While a seven days week has not been
tested any where in the world, I suggest the govt
seriously consider its implemetation because I feel it
is a viable proposition.

,

Dr. Shafie Mohd Salleh should Resign.

The Higher Education Minister, Dr. Shafie mohd
Salleh, is a product of the system.In terms of
experience as a minister he has done nothing
outstanding and his role in the Gomez saga exemplifies
his mediocrity.But his recent statement denying that
there was no tampering of exam results and favouritism
in promotion at U.M. reflects on his abilty as a
minister.
The pertinent question that needs to be
answered is how did Shafie arrived at the decision
that there was no tampering of students results and
that there was no favouritism in promotion?To say
publicly via the media he must be very confident with
his statement.But how did he come to that
conclusion?.One can only assume that the
Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Hashim Yaacob would have
communicated this to Shafie.
Does Dr. Shafie realise that his statement is in
direct contradiction with the staff Union association
of U.M allegations that the Vice -chancellor was aware
of exam tampering and favouitism in
promotions.?Further, Gomez also publicly accused U.M
authorities of the same demeanour.So who is telling a
lie now?
How could a Minister be so slip-shod in his work
is beyond me.To do justice to this allegations and to
determine the veracicty of such a serious allegation,
the proper thing to do is to conduct a transparent,
unbiase investigation into the truth of the matter.An
allegation of such importance which could in effect
tarnish the reputation and integrity of the
institution should not be treated with such
friviolty.A mere public statement of denial by the
Minister that such allegations was a figment of
somebody's imagination is the height of stupidity.The
proper and appropriate thing for the Minister to do is
to conduct an impartial investigation into this
allegation before coming to any conclusion .The
failure of Dr. Shafie Mohd Salleh to do this is
tantamount to dereliction of his duty and for that he
should resign.

University Bashing And Govt. Bashing.

Dr. Musa Mohd Nordin's seem to take umbrage at
the truthful articles written by Product of the system
and Artemis Tower.Yes , the truth always hurts and
Musa like many of his counterparts who are a product
of the system would be the last to admit it.If not for
government intervention and policies extended to
Public Universities, civil service, army, police and
every government controlled institutions, people like
Musa would not be sitting comfortably in their
positions and making unbelievably half baked
statements that they are not product of the system.Ask
all the top bumiputra civil servants, the IGP, the
Chief Justice and they will deny that they are the
product of the system.I bet my last dollar that every
one of them will say that they are there because of
merit and not because of bumiputratism.And if we are
to believe that this is true then we better start
believing that 40% of Malaysia's non bumiputra
citizens
are imbeciles incapable of holding or leading any of
the top government positions.
Malaysians of non bumi ethnic origin should not
only be bashing at the malay academics at U.M but
should also be bashing at the govt.for not appointing
non-bumi's for top positions in the civil service,
judiciary,police, army and every govt-controlled
institutions.It is not by accident nor by merit that
the top positions are occupied by one ethnic group but
by a clear an irrevocable design by the corridors of
power in the govt.
It is people like Dr. Musa who choose to deny
that they have benefitted from the system and by
their own volition often chose to bite the hand that
feeds them.This even prompted the former P.M, Mahathir
to rebuke the malays for being ungrateful and turning
their back against the govt despite the govt's
numerous assistance and opportunities provided for
them.

racial Integration cannot be attained by merely introducing Language classes.

Our govt doesn't seem to understand the
underlying problem why non-malays are reluctant to
send their children to National schools.If they think
that by introducing language classes such as mandarin
and tamil it will attract them back to National
schools then they are in for a surprise.
I thought by now our educational
authorities would know that our National schools have
surely and surreptiously become religious schools
catering for the needs of the malay students.With the
present set-up, a non malay will simply not fit into
the daily curriculum.
But the fundamental question is whether our
govt is really serious about forging racial
integration amongst its plural society?I don't think
so.What about the bumiputra students that are creamed
from schools at standard six and sent to MRSM
schools?These MRSM schools are exclusively bumiputra
instituition catering exclusively for only one
community.From the moment these students are creamed
from standard six to MRSM schools they will have no
contacts whatsoever with non bumiputra students.These
students will not have any opportunity for racial
interaction with other races. When these students
continue their tertiary education thay will virtually
go through a phase in their adult lives similarly
without any contact with the other races.From the
cream of these students one day will emerge a leader
to lead this nation. The frightening thought is that
this leader will be someone who has no knowledge, no
contact and no understanding of the other races.One
can only speculate what the repercussion would be when
this become a reality.

Dr.Hashim Yaacob should Resign

The looming crisis regarding U.M's
involvement in exam results tampering and favouritism
in the promotion of its academic staff have rendered
Dr. Hashim Yaacob's position as Vice-Chancellor
untenable.If there is any truth in the allegations
levied against the U.M authorities and I personally do
not doubt the veracity of the allegations, then it is
indeed a serious blemish to U.M as an academic
institution.
The allegations strike at the very chord
of what U.M strives to attain in providing graduates
of a certain standard comparable to the very best at
least in Asia.Tampering of results of students
especially is a serious matter because it cast a dark
shadow on the quality of its graduates and this in
turn will deprive the innocent graduates the
recognition they duly deserve.
The recent statement by Dr. Hashim Yaacob
that Gomez resignation was not a loss to U.M and the
susequent reversal of his decision by P.M to allow 2
years of non- pay leave to Gomez is further prove that
he can no longer remain at his post as Vice Chancellor.
Any person with any intellectual ability to comprehend
his dilemma would have no hesitation in tendering his
resignation.Dr. Hashim Yaacob should do the needful and
just resign. That is the most honourable thing for him
to do and hopefully it will retrieve at least a portion
of whatever reputation he has left.

The World Already Knows.

I don't think I agree with P.M's statement
that we have to tell the story about Malaysia to the
world.Frankly the world already knows and the picture
they see is not an attractive one.In this day of
globalisation and information technology the click of
the mouse will simply tell everyone from Timbucktu to
Alaska what is happening in Malaysia.Our corrupt civil
service, our lack of transparency in awarding govt
contracts, the govt bailing out of badly managed
companies using Govt-linked companies funds,our
corrupt politicians,our poorly managed finance
ministry manned by an incapable 2nd Finance minister
and a Bank Governor who does not even know the meaning
of misalignment.To be honest, the list of bad
corporate governance of our public listed companies
have led foreign investors to shun our equity
market.By just looking at our stock market index of
800 plus tells a simple story that investors are not
interested in our market that lacks transparency.
In short the world knows about our poorly
managed economy and all the nuts and bolts of our govt
apparatus.There is simply nothing to tell the world
what they already know.

Corrupt LLN and Indah water Officials.

The ulgly tentacles of corruption has now spread from the police, civil service to LLN and the sewerage company Indah water.Last week a business colleague of mine confided that he was so exaperated with the attitude of the engineer who reportedlythreatened that no electricity would be provided for his housing project.The reason being that he started his project after two years of LLN approval to provide him with electricity.My friend was adamant that therewas no delay because after obtaining approval from LLN he still had to obtain approval from other govt authorities and this took almost two years before it was finally approved. Needless to say, my friend was desperate as any delay in completing his project would inccur more cost.Finally, he ask his project manager to approach the engineer and money changed hands. A week later he received a letter from the LLN engineer that theywould now supply electricity for his project. Next encounter was with the Indah water authorities.The contractor for my friend's sewerage could not commence his work. Each time he went to the Indah water office he was told that they could not find his file.Without the file and the approved plans my friend's contractor could not proceed with his work.Finally in desperation he approached one of the officials and again money changed hands and miraculously next day the file was found. When confronted with such a situation, most businessman would find it more convenient to give than suffer severe economic losses.Nobody enjoy parting with their hard earned money but what recourse did my friend had?Its easy to condemn my friend and say that he should have refrained from giving money to those crooked officials. But the economic consequences of failing to deliver houses on time could be disastous. Yes, sad to say, it appears corruption has spread its tentacles to practically every aspect of our lives.As long as our leaders do not have the political will and the personal determination to eradicate this menace it will gradually become part of our culture and entrenched in our society.

Scholarships And Patriotism

Every year at this time there is alot of heart break for parents and students with exemplary results.The same tune is repeated year in and year out and despite the obvious lack of transparency in its selection criteria, the authorities dont seem to care or simply dont give a damn about it.From the media hue and cry it is quite obvious that the affected parties are always the non bumiputra students. The stark silence from the bumiputra students can only mean that they are quite happy with the selection criteria. And why not when you see bumiputra with mediocre results getting scholarships in critical courses. Frankly I dont know what kind of message our govt is sending to these young intelligent malaysians who have attained brilliant,excellent academic results.We are talking about the cream of the malaysian students. Students who manage to obtain 13 and 12 straight A'S being denied scholarships to do courses of their choice.As one student succinctly put it,the govt wants us to love our country and be patriotic but is this their way of winning our love for the country.? The present govt policy has created a generation of bitter, angry malaysians.In order to have loyalty and patriotism from its citizenry the govt has to earn it.It doesnt come easy on a platter.The govt cannot expect its citizens to remain loyal and patriotic when it treats its citizens with contempt.At the moment our govt seem to be imbued with jealousy at the remarkable academic success of its non bumiputra citizens that it is contriving every means possible to deprive them of any success at all. I wish the govt have the opportunity to hear the angry voices of parents and students vented at them. Any govt worth its salt would take heed of this, for a govt that choose to ignore this angry cry would do so at their own peril.