Update on the Independent Panel

It must be shocking for many Malaysians that those who revealed the tape on the "Fixing of Judicial Appointments" are now being threatened by the ACA to disclose their source or face action under Section 58 of the Anti-Corruption Act 1997.

Perhaps malayskini's interesting article would provide a more appropriate check on whether the contents of the tape are verifiable or not and if there is a probability that indeed the person in the tape was not making up a tall tale?

In fact those who are familiar with "the actor" would be able to recognise the voice and I am sure the ACA officers would be able to make a good conclusion. To verify the voice, all that is needed is a scientific voice analysis and then they can probe the other persons mentioned in the tape with the use of Section 58 on the "actor" and not those who are simply trying to report a crime to the authorities.

If you check on the results of MALAYSIAWATCH POLL 30 that poses the question,
"What is Your Reaction to the Video on the Judges Scandal?"
out of 300+ respondents only 1 person chose,
"The Independent Panel will Find the Answers"

This is not a legal argument but I am sure if the authorities want to solve this crisis, they certainly have enough powers. The question is,
"Do they have the moral courage?"

No Power = No Authority = No Results!

The story of the damning video clip implicating the authorities and judges in the fixing of appointments is not far from most newspapers today but this headline from malaysiakini says it all.

"Haidar: We have no power" Of course there is an open invitation to all and sundry to appear before the panel but you have to give all your particulars beforehand and no one know how many interested parties will want to check you out before your schedule to speak up.

In an era where the IPCMC is still being delayed after more than 2 years, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the open invitation to come forward is not going to be taken up by many.

If one observes the manner in which people linked to the tape have been asked to tea at police HQ instead of sending the tape for voice identification analysis, the independent panel is perceived by many (just look at the results in the poll-left column) to be just that.

If fact the panel is so independent they may as well conduct their hearings in space and keep our first Malaysian astronaut company!

Now that will make news headlines.
"Malaysian panel conducts inquiry from outer space."

How to Alleviate 10% Toll Increases?

FOMCA is fighting hard to get the proposed toll increases stopped and so far the DPM has mentioned there will be no increase this December as most likely the General Elections will be held sometime soon and the ruling party realises that a toll increase will mean the loss of some seats.

Apart from buying shares in the toll companies on the KLSE, there is little that motorists can do but grin and bear it or as the DPM once mentioned, "Change your Lifestyle."

So this simple cartoon is to show you just that.

(double-click image to enlarge)

Another Calamity, Another Whitewash, so What's New in Malaysia?

The latest disclosure on the reason for the collapse of the beams tells little on what really happened.

Perhaps the real reason is so unbelievable that it is better to gloss over the incident and hope the public will soon forget. After all, no one got killed and so why should I be getting so uptight?

Only the "MHA and several other agencies" are named in the NST story so one can only guess the depth of the inquiry that came up with so few details.

The story mentions that
"The contractor had detected a fault when laying the 40-tonne beams, one of which failed to settle onto a rubber cushion, in the incident at 11.40pm.

“As the contractor was attempting to rectify the fault, the eighth beam being laid slipped and fell, dragging down the remaining beams,” he said at the launch of the road safety campaign, in conjunction with the Hari Raya holidays, at the Sungai Buloh overhead rest area along the North-South Expressway (NSE)."

An earlier story mentioned that the eight beams were tied together by wire and the falling of one beam caused the other seven to follow in the "Domino effect".

If you take a good look at the photo, you will see the beams are properly installed in the top right corner; with the height standing tall.
Now if you look at the collapsed beams, they are all neatly lying on the ground; all 90 degrees turned with respect to the properly installed beams.

These eight collapsed beams probably formed the other side of the dual carriageway and maybe were being installed by a different set of crane operators and supervisors and they laid the first seven beams wrongly; ie on its side instead of vertical and this means the strength of the beam becomes many times weaker than when placed vertically as those properly installed in the photo.

So when the time came for the eight beam to be placed, there was not enough room on the rubber cushion for it.

No details are given on what they actually did to rectify the problem but I wonder when the beams were tied together. Maybe the crane operator was trying to lift all eight beams at one go? That's a scary thought but why else would the eight beams be tied together?

Just like the Nuri helicopter probe, this internal inquiry produces more questions that answers.

Maybe they should divert traffic in future projects so that this type of incident is not repeated.
And today's letter in the Press shows how mindful some companies are of public safety.

Photo: Thanks to New Straits Times

Excitement in the Syariah Courts?

They say one must dress appropriately when going for job interviews etc so that people can be influenced by your clothes.

Maybe it's my imagination but is that not a lot of cleavage to be on display?
Perhaps it was to prove to the judges that her motherly instincts were intact or what?

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy looking at beautiful women but this picture is surely not consistent with the requirements of Islamic dress.

In some stupid departments, they list out the items that will not be tolerated like sleeveless tees for women etc.
I am surprised that this dress was allowed into the Syariah courts.

Photo: Thanks to New Straits Times

Falling Beams - Looks Like They Were Placed Wrongly....

If you read my earlier post on the collapsed beams, please go back and examine the photo carefully.

You will notice the crane picking up a section of the broken beam and if you check carefully, the beam is of rectangular section with the height about 2 to 3 times the width.

Beams are designed to carry loads and usually placed so that height is vertical as this makes better use of the property of the beam called the "Area Moment Of Inertia" that is the ability to resist bending.

But the photo shows all the beams appear to have been placed wrongly unless they were all turned 90 degrees after the collapse.

This incident shows the hoisting contractor had not been given proper detailed instructions on how the beams should have been handled or placed.

malaysiakini's Powerful Influence

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and so I decided to amuse myself.

We all know that malaysiakini has been a thorn for many leaders as it strives to help reform society and many consider it to be the most independent source of news, daring to print what many editors fear to put in the papers as they are controlled by different laws and also under the control of the main political parties.

I guess the title of my Sunday article, "Disappointed with this Story from malaysiakini" must have been sufficient to tease readers to discover how malaysiakini may have tripped up.

The results look good for any advertiser or marketing campaign as the graph shows. I guess they would have been too types of respondents:

The loyal supporters of malaysiakini who wanted to support the company and
those who are waiting for the company to fail.

Keep up the good work, malaysiakini!

Graphics: from MalaysiaWatch3