Ong Tee Keat and Lim Kit Siang: PKFZ Monday showdown in Dewan Rakyat
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What has Ong Tee Keat delivered so far:
We would like to applaud Ong Tee Keat for delivering on his promise to disclose Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) problems with the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report and organising a few task forces to heal the problem.
That’s definitely a first for BN and MCA. We also found that this action matches with Ong Tee Keat’s ‘courage’ slogan. And Najib’s 1Malaysia should not hesitate to encourage more of such resolute like this MCA President.
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What is Lim Kit Siang contributing so far:
We would also like to thank Lim Kit Siang and DAP for bringing to voter’s attention to the many questions raised through his blog, ranging from business dealings, accounting, accountability and many comments on feelings of betrayal.
As rational actors, we are concerned particularly with the questions on the PKFZ administrative and management problems. Lim Kit Siang is fully aware of Ong Tee Keat’s efforts and has mentioned his ministerial breakthrough in documenting and disclosing the PKFZ problems. We understand Lim Kit Siang’s unhappiness at the inaptness of the people in PKFZ which resulted in this fiasco.
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Suggestions for next step for MPs:
May we suggest perhaps for next step, Lim Kit Siang will consider to work on introducing a law at Parliament to ensure such GLC management problems will not arise again. He missed pushing for such a law following BMF scandal long ago. But now, with a stronger opposition bench, is a second chance for Lim Kit Siang to prove his ability to introduce such law in Parliament to upgrade Malaysian business environment.
May we the voters see a productive and progressive debate in Parliament coming Monday. Certainly, we will be closely following the updated reports from Malaysiakini webportal.
Good luck to both Member of Parliaments.
P/S: Perhaps one of these days we may be able to bring our children to see this story as a blockbuster movie showing in GSC or TGV cineplexes. It would make a very good voter’s education and guide to voting for an effective lawmaker.
Both sides now: Use this simple tool to determine process of Perak DUN meeting/fiasco
Just watched the circus of the assembly on Malaysiakini video “The Great DUN Perak fiasco“.
It’s amazing how lacking is our lawmakers’ ability to play the rules of the house in lawmaking. And most importantly the disregard for decorum in the lawmaking process.
Anyway, we leave the politicking to the politicians. Us voters must be wise to see through the drama.
Did you know that there is an established fundamental to check validity of the process of lawmaking? With this tool, you can use it to check your lawmaker’s capability and sensibility too.
Here is 2 examples from the Perak DUN fiasco for you to test this out:
1. Sivakumar said he will not start the meeting until the suspended members are evicted. (Background story: The decision to suspend the members was taken under a tree, attended by some members of the house.)
2. BN members elected a new speaker Ganesan. (Background story: The ‘old’ speaker is still seated, note example 1.)
Apply only 2 questions to test the validity of the examples:
1. Is it constitutional?
2. Is it legitimate?
Remember, put aside any emotions, the people are supposed to be the judge.
Attention MCA’s Chew Mei Fun and Heng Sai Kie!
Congratulations to the new (old?) Deputy Ministers from MCA.
MCA seems to have persuasively got an extra boost in Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak’s cabinet.
Hope Chew Mei Fun (formerly PJ Utara, lost to DAP Tony Pua’s intellect) and Heng Sai Kie (the quiet Senator from Perak, Wanita MCA Secretary General) will be more than just rubber stamps or worse… yes women in this new government.
Remember 308 well… The rakyat expects more of the female politicians than just talking without using the brains on hot issues. Female politicians unable to speak out on issues of the day is another no no.
We dare you to take on the opposition female politicians in debate or even to stand up together on national issues.
Dare you take on the challenge to wow us voters?
Kuala Terengganu by-election: Raja Petra has gone overboard disrespecting Article 11 and Article 10
We are disturbed with the latest article “Does MCA support hudud?” by Raja Petra Kamarudin in Malaysia Today.
We have supported Raja Petra for his fearless opinions as freedom of expression is a right provided for under Article 10 and Article 11 of the Federal Constitution. (Article 10: Freedom of speech, assembly and association. Article 11: Freedom of religion)
However this time, we feel Raja Petra has gone overboard the provision of law as in his article he has trampled on rights of citizens on freedom of association and religion.
The below particular paragraph extract from Raja Petra’s article is particularly alarming, highly intimidating, intruding and disrepecting the personal sphere of non-Muslim:
MCA, do you or don’t you support Hudud?
Speak up now or forever hold your tongue.
Are you pro-Islam or anti-Islam?
Please tell us now and make it very clear. Tomorrow we are going to Terengganu to campaign for PAS and we want to know what to tell the Kuala Terengganu voters.
And it will either be “MCA is anti-Islam” or “MCA is pro-Hudud”.
As law abiding citizens and voters, we are greatly disturbed and strongly object the method deployed in above article of Raja Petra which trampled on personal rights provided in the Federal Constitution.
Raja Petra’s shameful attempt of crass politicking by issuing above ultimatum to Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) to support hudud is a highly mischievous attempt to bully their non-Muslim community.
Character, Leadership and Command in Malaysia politicians
We found an extremely interesting research which may be of help to educate our Malaysian politicians. Perhaps you might want to get one and donate it to your neighbourhood politicians.
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The book excerpt below talks of the importance of Character, Leadership and Command in Organisations.
“Even when leaders try to hide and disguise their character, their traits are recognizable to others,” says Harvard Business School professor emeritus Abraham Zaleznik. His new book, Hedgehogs and Foxes: Character, Leadership, and Command in Organizations, explores the internal complexities of people in control.
Key concepts include:
* Hedgehogs know one big thing while foxes know many things.
* Applied to leadership, hedgehogs reduce reality to one single principle, while foxes are prepared to adapt to a complex view of the world.
* An individual’s character is outwardly represented while it is a product of development, starting with early childhood.
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Here’s a book excerpt from Hedgehogs and Foxes: Character, Leadership, and Command in Organizations, by Abraham Zaleznik
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Individuals who are caught up in empowerment movements, both nonviolent and violent, substitute one form of dependency—on an authoritarian program or leader—for another—economic privation. Liberation, from these and other forms of dependency, requires freeing the ego from group psychology and from neurotic disabilities that restrict the development of the individual.
Once restrictive governments are replaced, new goals have to be developed with the aim of enhancing the ego through education, economic opportunity, and personal freedom. …
Empowerment movements have sprung up in the United States and other developed countries with democratic institutions. Empowerment movements have been adopted in the name of feminine liberation and equality of the sexes.
In complex organizations empowerment programs seek to alter hierarchies, to “flatten” the organizational structure, decreasing the authority of top levels while increasing the autonomy of the lower levels. These ideological approaches carefully avoid the fact that hierarchy is a form found in nature. Assemble a group, give it a purpose, and if left to its own devices, it will organize itself into a hierarchical structure in the shape of a pyramid.
True empowerment is a result of individual transformation from dependency to autonomy following the path of maturation from infancy onward. … Education and training to develop competencies is the sure, albeit slow, route to empowerment through the enhancement of talents, whether in developed economies or third world nations.
In underdeveloped nations the route toward self-engendered empowerment may be longer, and the results may be slower to materialize, but whether in developed or underdeveloped economies, self-empowerment requires motivation. The desire to develop and strengthen the ego must be internalized, and this comes with the cultivation of talents.
Unlike mass movements under the leadership of a charismatic leader, empowerment of individuals through the development of talents comes through education and training.
Identification with gifted teachers, who stimulate learning, is a microscopic process that occurs not only in the formal atmosphere of the classroom but also in the seemingly mundane activity in factories and offices—wherever people assemble to accomplish work.
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P/S: Unlike our UiTM under leadership of its lifer vice chancellor, Abraham Zaleznik is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School. You can read his biography here.