Someone at KKIPC has a thing for Star Wars. :D
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Sunday, May 08, 2011
The Australia-Malaysia swap
ABC News, 7pm, 7 May 2011
Its not everyday you get an item on Malaysia as the first item on the 7 o'clock news, but when Australia announces they've got somewhere, anywhere, to put the "hordes of asylum seekers", it's news. The PNG solution (formerly known as the East Timor solution) just became the Malaysian solution.
Initial reactions to it was largely one of disbelief and incomprehension, at least by some Malaysians who actually read news. That doesn't involve sex, drugs, tits and grainy youtube videos.
It takes a bit of getting your head around, but it does make sense.
Malaysia already has a existing network of detention centres for illegal immigrants. In them there are part of the 50,000 -90,000 (depending on who you believe) or so refugees already in Malaysia, and registered with the UNHCR. They're just waiting for a (3rd party) country to accept them.
Malaysia does not recognise the status of "refugee" (the Malay word for it, "suaka", is practically unused in mainstream Malaysia). But under the jus cogens International Law principle of Non-refoulement Malaysia cannot send them back where their lives or freedoms could be threatened.
And that is where the understanding falls apart. The concept of "refugee" is alien to Malaysians. Let me try to make this as simple as I can. In the same way all thumbs are fingers but not all fingers are thumbs, all refugees are (considered under Malaysian law to be) illegal immigrants, but not all illegal immigrants are refugees.
So while Malaysia cannot send them back, it doesn't recognise them, so they are undocumented, have no legal status, cannot work, and live life in constant fear of the Home Ministry's paramilitary force, RELA.
Of course, all this will be completely incompressible to all but the few people who actually bother to pay to obtain a copy of Aliran.
This agreement will see about 4000 out of the 50,000 or so refugees registered with the UNHCR accepted into Australia. The next 800 boat people intercepted by the Australian navy will (presumably) get sent to Lenggeng instead of Christmas Island, where there is no such concept of human rights and fair treatment, and any out-breaks of violence fly under the radar.
So yes, Australia is assisting Malaysia. Few in Malaysia would miss 4000 illegal immigrants that are constant fodder for 999. And Australia gets somewhere to keep the next few boat arrivals where it doesn't have to be generous in treating them well, and they get to cherry pick the 4000 that are allowed to be resettled in Australia.
The fact the Australian federal government is picking up the tab (A$292 million) will probably help sweeten things a little.
Tony Abbott is right: this is a better deal for Malaysia than it is for Australia. The swap hardly removes the hot potato in Australia's backyard, and in a perverse way it is actually uniting the Liberals and the Greens to speak as one.
Source.
She's not too far off the mark. Malaysia is a nation that does not acknowledge 30% of its population who are otherwise full citizens which have been here almost as long Malaysia has been a sovereign nation, with the constant cries to these group to leave for their "motherland".
We can't even treat our own citizens well, and you expect people who just stepped off the plane to be part of our society?
Friday, May 06, 2011
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Why I refuse to acknowledge social networking, round 2
This is why I've always maintained that Geography should have been a compulsory subject until Form 5. Overall Malaysians have a terrible grasp of geography as a concept.
And its not limited to the "big scale". Try giving directions in Malaysia.
Monday, May 02, 2011
A letter to the editor
My letter to the Malaysian High Commission.
Over the last week, a letter with identical contents was published by Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider. But this is not the story.
As both letters have made clear, I was denied my constitutional right to vote during the 2011 Sarawak State elections. I had no illusions when I wrote the letter above to the Malaysian High Commission that I would get a reply. As Malaysians, we have come to have virtually no expectations from our civil service at all levels. At best, you get sent around in circles. At worst, you never hear from any level of bureaucracy.
Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider were not the first media outlets to receive my letter. Initially, on 17 April 2011, I sent it to the 2 big media outlets in Malaysia, The Star and the New Straits Times, and two local papers, The Borneo Post and the (New) Sarawak Tribune.
It should come to no surprise that none of the 4 papers published my letter. In particular, the New Straits Times found a letter from one Marisa Demori (mirror here) suggesting that employers should pay for the travel expenses of potential employees more compelling than mine. Which is probably a good indicator of how low they've fallen in editorial quality.
Having given them 1 week to print it, I then tried plan B. On 24 April 2011 I sent my letter to The Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini. Both published it the next day.
(And now a message for The Malaysian Insider: I read your news portal, Timothy Lim reads The Malaysian Insider. I suppose it is symptomatic of this younger generation and their poor grasp of the English language)
As a general rule of thumb, I don't bother reading the comments associated with articles on news websites. The ignorance, stupidity, and inability of the commenters to read (but somehow they possess the intelligence to write) usually kill what few brain cells I have left to put up with them in real life.
And Malaysiakini is no exception. Considering that commenting is limited to their subscribers, I suppose it is an indication of the intelligence level of those who can afford a Malaysiakini subscription.
To give credit where it is due, both Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider published my letter in full with little modification. Say what you will about our online media: they are merely filling a gap the printed press has created themselves.
Over the last week, a letter with identical contents was published by Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider. But this is not the story.
As both letters have made clear, I was denied my constitutional right to vote during the 2011 Sarawak State elections. I had no illusions when I wrote the letter above to the Malaysian High Commission that I would get a reply. As Malaysians, we have come to have virtually no expectations from our civil service at all levels. At best, you get sent around in circles. At worst, you never hear from any level of bureaucracy.
Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider were not the first media outlets to receive my letter. Initially, on 17 April 2011, I sent it to the 2 big media outlets in Malaysia, The Star and the New Straits Times, and two local papers, The Borneo Post and the (New) Sarawak Tribune.
It should come to no surprise that none of the 4 papers published my letter. In particular, the New Straits Times found a letter from one Marisa Demori (mirror here) suggesting that employers should pay for the travel expenses of potential employees more compelling than mine. Which is probably a good indicator of how low they've fallen in editorial quality.
Having given them 1 week to print it, I then tried plan B. On 24 April 2011 I sent my letter to The Malaysian Insider and Malaysiakini. Both published it the next day.
As a general rule of thumb, I don't bother reading the comments associated with articles on news websites. The ignorance, stupidity, and inability of the commenters to read (but somehow they possess the intelligence to write) usually kill what few brain cells I have left to put up with them in real life.
And Malaysiakini is no exception. Considering that commenting is limited to their subscribers, I suppose it is an indication of the intelligence level of those who can afford a Malaysiakini subscription.
To give credit where it is due, both Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider published my letter in full with little modification. Say what you will about our online media: they are merely filling a gap the printed press has created themselves.
Sunday, May 01, 2011
High speed broadband roll-out (missing) locations
The Star, 25 March 2010
Above is a Star infographic that came with an news article titled "RM1bil initiative to promote high-speed broadband usage" on the planned deployment of the roll-out of Malaysia's High Speed Broadband (HSBB) network. Some observations:
1) Kuching is completely missing from the roll-out locations. Samajaya, while part of Kuching, is not a superset of the wider Kuching city geography.
The HSBB plan calls for a roll-out in "high economic impact areas", which usually means the industrial parks. But I find it sad that if we're going to have the infrastructure, we might as well do the whole city.
2) At least Sarawak still better off relatively. The entire states of Kelantan and Perlis are to miss out completely, according to The Star's infographic.
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