"Balai polis" video clip chronology

Categories: Malaysia

The "balai polis" video clip which was believed to have been recorded using a mobile phone, first shows a naked fair-skinned woman from the back doing the ear-squat while a policewoman with a headscarf watched. The woman then gets up and turns. Her breasts were visible before she donned her undergarments.

24 November

Seputeh MP Teresa Kok showed the "balai polis" video clip to ministers, MPs and the media at Parliament House. Among them were Home Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz and Backbenchers Club chairman Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad. (NST)

Ketua Polis Daerah Petaling Jaya, Asisten Komisioner Mohd Hazam Abd Halim menafikan rakaman klip video itu diambil dari lokap Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah (IPD) berkenaan. (BH)Wormie: First thing from a government servant is usually denial. Never mind if no investigations had been carried out. Just deny first, maybe it will go away!

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was very concerned about the assumption that Malaysia profiled Chinese nationals and had directed him (Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid) to go to China to reassure the Chinese Government that Malaysia always welcomed Chinese tourists. (NST)

Home Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said "It’s shameful that this sort of thing is happening in our country. This further strengthens our case that such incidents happen here. We will also put pressure on the Immigration Department to ensure foreigners are not given a hard time." (NST)

Wormie: Statements like this will only strengthened the public perceptions of abuse of power in the government service. What does the minister mean by " to ensure foreigners are not given a hard time"? To me it means that a lot of "necessities" and procedures are actually not needed but "created" by the government officials just to make things difficult for the foreigner. If this is true and known by the minister (from interpretation of what had been reported), then certainly the minister should have disciplined the government officials involved even before this strip-search incident. What had the minister been doing?

25 November

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Razak pledged there would be no cover-up as there was absolutely no reason to embarrass and humiliate people in that manner. (NST)

On whether strip search was part of standard police investigation procedures, Najib said: "We do not indulge in that... There is no reason to embarrass and humiliate people in that manner."On Home Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid’s visit to China next week: "We will apologise when we are wrong. There is no harm in admitting our mistakes," Najib said. (NST)Wormie: The Deputy Prime Minister had already admitted that a "crime" had been conducted. And from what had been said the crime is "... to embarrass and humiliate people in that manner." This is because he refuses to comment whether strip-search is standard police procedures. If it is not then he should have said so, then the reason for the apology will be clear. The implication is that strip-search is standard police procedure!

Nazri berkata: "Kita tidak tahu sama ada wanita itu rakyat asing atau tempatan, tetapi latar belakang klip video itu menunjukkan ada seorang pegawai polis. Apa yang berlaku tidak sepatutnya berlaku dan jika mereka polis bermakna sudah berlaku penyalahgunaan kuasa." Mengulas lanjut rakaman klip video itu, Azmi berkata, beliau sedih melihat seorang anggota polis wanita bertudung memerhatikan tahanan melakukan ketuk ketampi sambil dia bercekak pinggang. (BH)

Police have classified the act of the uniformed personnel in the video clip as criminal intimidation. (Star)

26 November

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan promised a speedy investigation. He said police had the power to conduct strip searches. He had said police had identified the woman police officer shown in the video clip as a member of the district police headquarters but would only go after the person who recorded the video for outraging the modesty of the woman made to strip and perform ear squats. (NST)

Wormie: Contradictions and more contradictions. Yesterday it was reported in the Star that police had classified the act of the uniformed personnel in the video clip as criminal intimidation. Now he is not going to charge the uniformed personnel in the video clip (which was classified as criminal intimidation) but would go after the whistle blower! Further he had claimed that the person who had recorded the video as outraging modesty of the victim. True, the real intention of the person who recorded the video is unknown, but the fact that the person with the authority to change things ie the uniformed personnel, chose not to change things and committed this humiliating act. If there is abuse of power the she should be punished. Likewise if the person who recorded the video is found to be a pervert then charge him as well.

Teresa Kok took Musa to task today, echoing calls for the police to take action against those involved in the mistreatment of the detainees."The police are only concerned with looking for the pervert who did the recording. (NST)

The police were reportedly aware of the controversial footage before it was exposed (Malaysiakini)

MCA head of Public Service and Complaints Department Datuk Michael Chong said he received the video clip via MMS last Saturday (19 Nov). He then immediately called Selangor police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Yahaya Udin. They met on Tuesday (Nov 22) and Chong showed him the clip and discussed what action should be taken. (Star)Datuk Michael Chong: "I chose not to blow up the matter as the image of the police force had already been tarnished. By releasing it to the press, the whole force would be demoralised. All that matters to me was to get the culprit punished. This is not to say that Teresa Kok was wrong in what she did. It is just that we have different ways of solving problems." (Star)

MALTA: "Memalukan," demikian reaksi Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yang amat marah dengan kejadian seorang wanita dipercayai rakyat China, yang dipaksa berbogel dan melakukan ketuk ketampi ketika dalam tahanan polis. Perdana Menteri memberi reaksi itu sebelum wartawan sempat menanyakan soalan sebaik beliau keluar dari lif hotel penginapannya untuk menghadiri perasmian Mesyuarat Ketua-ketua Kerajaan Komanwel di sini, pagi semalam. (BH)

"I know how it feels," says Anwar. Being a victim myself, I feel for these people, this was the response of former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim to a question on police abuse. Having been assaulted by a former inspector-general of police, the ex-deputy premier understands the suffering of detainees who are abused. (Malaysiakini)

Wormie: "I know how it feels" - the words that may carry the most weight and causing the greatest harm to the image of the Police force. What can be worse than for a person who was previously assaulted by the police, now coming out to say that he knows how the girl who was strip-search must have felt. Because he had been there and felt the pain and the humiliation of it all (after all he was the deputy prime minister just a few days before when he was assaulted by the police).

Najip: "If the video clip is true, it can tarnish the image and integrity of the police and the Government." (Star)

The DAP has urged the Government to install CCTVs at all police lock-ups as a measure to check cases of police personnel meting out degrading, humiliating and inhumane treatment to detainees. In a letter to the IGP, the party’s secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said Mohd Bakri's "loud silence" over the inhumane treatment meted out to the naked detainee had placed the entire force in a state of crisis. (Star)

Wormie: CCTV will not work. What is important is for the police personnel to have pride in their work and therefore appreciate the importance of having a certain acceptable image. Laws will be of no use if the people who are suppose to carried them out have no sense of responsibility and pride. You cannot instal CCTV throughout the building because there are certain nooks and corners which by their very nature be private.

The uniformed woman captured on a cellular phone video ordering a naked female Chinese national to do ear squats has been identified as a police constable from the district headquarters here in Petaling Jaya. It has also been confirmed that the incident occurred at the headquarters. Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan said police had recorded the constable’s statement and he had directed a no cover-up investigation into the incident. (Star)Wormie: Now it has been confirmed that the incident took place in the Petaling Jaya district headquarters. Why was Ketua Polis Daerah Petaling Jaya, Asisten Komisioner Mohd Hazam Abd Halim so quick to deny it just a few days ago. Is there a conspiracy for cover up?

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan also clarified that all detainees were required to strip and be searched before being sent to the lock-up. The police could also ask detainees to do squats.This is to ensure that they do not have any prohibited items, like sharp objects or drugs. (Star)

27 November

Seputeh Member of Parliament Teresa Kok was today called by police to have her statement recorded over the nude video clip taken at a district police headquarters lock-up. She maintained that the VCD was left on the doorstep of her office on Nov 24 after she had brought the case of the three Chinese nationals (who alleged that they had been forced to strip after being detained for alleged visa violations and then spied upon by male police personnel.) to the media (NST)

Lawyer Sankaran Nair, counsel for three Chinese nationals, who was a police officer with the rank of assistant superintendent for eight years before leaving the force, said there were never any instructions that all detainees should be subjected to a strip-search. He said under the Inspector-General’s Standing Orders, only in special cases were detainees ordered to strip for a search. "In the case of a drug-related offence, they are stripped and searched, but always with at least one officer of the rank of inspector or above present to ensure that everything is done according to the rules." (NST)

Lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad: "The mere fact that the police had conducted such searches (strip search) previously as part of their SOPs does not make such searches legal, if in the first place there is no law to allow such searches." Furthermore, he said Standing Orders had no force of law. (NST)

"Ear squats and body cavity searches are not written in the Lock-up Rules 1953, which govern the custody of the prisoner," said lawyer M. Puravalen. (NST)

Wormie: Why are there such discrepancies between what was said by Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Musa Hassan and the lawyers. They are totally at odds. Is it because the Deputy Inspector-General of Police is making some form of justifications for his personnel or is it because he is not clear of the Law?

Menteri Hal Ehwal Dalam Negeri, Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid, berkata mangsa terbabit harus berani memberi bukti kes untuk mengenal pasti polis yang mengarahkannya berbogel, meskipun dia seorang warga asing yang memasuki negara ini secara haram. Setakat ini, kata beliau pihaknya belum dapat mengesahkan kebenaran rakaman Sistem Pesanan Multimedia (MMS) mengenai wanita yang didakwa menjadi mangsa kejadian terbabit kerana belum tampil memberi sebarang keterangan berhubung kejadian memalukan itu. (BH)

In Kuala Lumpur, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok said stripping and asking foreign visitors to do ear squats should not happen at all in a civilised country (Star)

Selangor police chief Datuk Yahya Udin said last night police have questioned eight personnel from the Petaling Jaya district police headquarters in connection with the video clip filming. He said the eight were on lockup duties during the time of the allegedly incident but he declined to reveal the ranks and gender of the personnel questioned. (Sun)

28 November

The Government has extended its apology to Chinese nationals who have been mistreated by police while in detention recently. (NST)

Wormie: So now we know that all those previous charges of police mistreatment by detainees are true. I hope after this episode, the government will review all its police operating procedures so as to protect detainees and to improve on the tarnish police force image.

Demands are being made for Inspector-General of Police Mohd Bakri Omar and his deputy, Musa Hassan, to resign over the infamous strip-search at the Petaling Jaya police station. (Malaysiakini)

Wormie: I think they should be sacked! Malaysians do not need such people who are quick to try to cover up any misdeeds and mislead the public. To quote Najip, if you are wrong apologise, there is no harm in admitting our mistakes.

"Musa's (Deputy Inspector-General of Police) statement (that police would only go after the person who recorded the video) is a bombshell as it is an open police defiance less than 24 hours after the pledge by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that there should not be any cover-up," Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang said in a statement. (Sun)

Criminal Procedure Code (CPC)

Section 19: Whenever it is necessary to cause a woman to be searched, the search shall be made by another woman with strict regard to decency.

Section 20: When a person has been arrested and has to be placed in custody, the police may search the body of the person and place in safe custody all articles other than the necessary apparel found on the person, and detain anything believed to be the instruments or the fruits or other evidence of the crime until the person is discharged or acquitted.

Lock-up Rules 1953

Rule 7: Every prisoner shall be searched on admission and all clothing and property, other than one set of clothing, shall be removed, entered in the Prisoner's Property Receipt Book, and placed in safe custody. Any monies or valuables sent for delivery to a prisoner shall be entered in the Prisoner's Property Receipt Book and placed in safe custody.

Rule 8: A woman prisoner shall be searched only by a woman.

Do you know.........?

Categories: Do You Know?












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Image of the asteroid Itokawa with shadow of the Hayabusa probe on its surface (above). The spacecraft is on a mission to collect samples from the surface of the asteroid Itokawa and return them to Earth in the summer of 2007. [Source]

When will they learn?

Categories: Malaysia

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is planning to raise fairs as part of a strategy to turn the troubled national carrier around, it was reported yesterday. This is not the first time, MAS has ran into financial crises. Back in 2001, the Malaysian government bought the majority shares from Tajudin Ramli at the same high price that he 'purchased' previously. Since then, the price of MAS has dropped significantly as MAS had been in the red for the last four years. Then, it was promised that MAS would do better with a new team, but this does not seem so. I am surprised that in a country of with a population of about 23 million people, we do not have good and able people to run MAS. If we can produce people like Tun Daim, I am sure there are other people who are good enough to run the company. Increasing fares and selling assets are only short to medium term plan. Foreign ownership should be rejected as had been done by Dr Mahathir, the then prime minister back in 2001. After all this is the national carrier and should be Malaysian-owned.

Too lenient!

Categories: Singapore

The Straits Times reported today [The Straits Times, November 22, 2005] that an employer was fined S$15000 for pimping her maid. She was spared the jail sentence. One of the reasons cited for the 'lenient' sentence is that the maid was a voluntary partner. The maid is currently awaiting repatriation. The fine imposed for this crime is laughable! If you go to Geylang, and if a pimp is caught, why is then a jail sentence added? Aren't the girls under his 'charge' also willing parties?

There are many ways to make a person a willing party. Psycho the poor maid about her poverty, and how she had to earn enough to support her children and the family. Do this on a daily basis and the poor girl would have felt miserable enough to really believe that she needed to earn much more than what (is truly) pittance of pay she is getting working as a maid. Or she may be coerced when the employer put pressure by not giving her time to rest, shortened the sleep time, asking her to do household chores over and over again.......... After all, the maid is staying with the employer and is (always) at the mercy of the employer. There are many ways to coerce a person. With such mental and physical 'torture' how many would not have become a willing party?

I am heartened to hear that a police report was made by the maid agency. This is surely a departure from the what I had heard regarding maid agency as regards to maid treatment. Finally a maid agency had done the right thing - to protect the maid. If more maid agency can treat their maids better and with more respect, then I feel that there will be less maid abuse in Singapore.

Is it necessary?

Attended my daughter's prize presentation ceremony this morning. Was greeted by the vice-principal scolding the children in the hall. This despite having the parents all sitting at the back of the hall. The vice principal demanded absolute silence and no fridgiting from the student. She will continue to issue command until there was absolute silence and the children are sitting properly. After that there was a roll-call for the classes. All this while 3 classes were still making their way into the hall each being lead by a teacher. When the roll-call was over, 2 classes were apparently not present.This started her to say that the ceremony will start without them! With that she passed the mic to the MC who promptly said that the ceremony will not start yet and will wait for another ten minutes for the missing classes to file in. The ceremony finally got started when the remaining classes make their way into the hall and to their respective places. The ceremony started smoothly enough. However midway through the ceremony, it was briefly interrupted when the MC chided the children for making too much noise! This quieten down the children and the ceremony resumed. The "noise" level got progressively higher as the prize presentation got underway with some students actually "screaming" when their classmates' name were announced. This abruptly brought the ceremony to a halt with the MC again 'reminded' the student just to clap appropriately!

I wonder why this school is so straight-laced. I find it strange that the VP should reprimand the students when the parents are around. I would have thought that such reprimands and reminders should be done behind close doors and only the best 'appearance' should be seen by the guests - in this case, the parents. Granted this is technically a chinese school where discipline is paramount, but maybe some subtlety may be in order. The mood of the ceremony maybe marred by such situations.

It is natural for anyone who are happy and cheering their fellow students to sometimes be carried away with their cheers. Mutterings and exchange of happy chats regarding the prize winners is something natural. Imagine with children from 3 levels of primary schools, even whispers will be magnified. And what is wrong with some 'screaming' when this is done in appreciation and not in antagonism? Of course if there were catcalls, then the students should be reminded about such 'hoogalism' act. Friendly cheers should be encouraged! Even if the school does not condone such friendly 'screams', maybe the MC should have waited for the end of the ceremony to reprimand the students.

Don't take me wrong. I support the school although I may no entirely agree with some of the things they do. I think discipline is important and should be strictly enforced. However I feel that sometimes it should not be over-zealously enforced and only if the 'offence' is not too serious, maybe there is an appropriate time and appropriate place for its implementation.

The correct way....

Categories: Wormie Says

Jordan experienced a horrific terrorist attack yesterday when three bombs exploded in Amman. Two bombs struck in a wedding banquet killing many people - total of 42 Arabs, with the bulk of which are Jordanian - 33 in all. In contrast only four non-Arabs were killed. King Abdulla of Jordan quickly condemns the attack and vowed to track and brought the perpetrator to justice. The general public also expressed their disapproval by marching through Amman and condemned Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the alleged mastermind linked to this bombing. [Source] I feel that this is the way to show these terrorist that killing innocent people has no support with the general public in the Muslim world. Resorting to killing innocent people cannot be called Islam as Islam is a religion of peace. I sincerely hope that more Muslim leaders will condemned such acts so that these extremist will be alienated and the "moderates" will prevails!

Doubly sentenced

Categories: Singapore

The five blood donors who was found to have knowingly lied about sexual history and later found to have HIV was charged yesterday. What is sad about this case is not only that five individual was found to be inflicted with HIV but the fact that they were 'doubly' sentenced. First they were sentenced in court for knowingly lying in answering the legally-binding questionnaire which is a pre-requisite for blood donation. This is the consequence of their actions. What is unfortunate in my view is the fact that they were publicly named in the national newspaper. In normal circumstances, HIV carriers' identity is kept secret. Despite the change in the law recently, this is still the case as only the spouse is allowed to be told and therefore the doctor-patient confidentially breached. However for the five, their names had been splashed in the newspaper and their lives will forever be changed. They will tend to be ostracised, their job prospect will be affected and generally live in 'shame'. I feel that this is unfare to them because they are doubly charged - by the court of law and by the society.

Charge them!

Categories: Singapore

Five blood donors had been charged in court for donating AIDS-tainted blood. On the surface this looked draconian. Here we have a good hearted person trying to help a fellow human being by donating his blood only to be charged when the blood was found to be HIV-positive. Why would the health authorities risked scarring away blood donors by highlighting these cases. To answer this question, we need to look into the blood donation process. I had worked in the National Blood Bank previously and therefore quite familiar with the process.

For all potential donors, there are a few steps to be taken before they can donate blood, even for those who are frequent donors. This is necessary so that the blood donated will be as safe as possible to be used for those in need. After the usual weight taking and blood test for the level of hemoglobin, a potential donor is asked a series of questions.

The questionnaire is aimed at filtering out any potential high risk group for disease transmission. The questions covers mainly the sexual history, medical history and travel history. In sexual history, questions includes number of sexual partners and visits to prostitutes. A potential donor is rejected if he has multiple sexual partners or visits to prostitutes. This is because both these habits increases the risk of sexually transmitted disease. Therefore if anyone who had experience such sexual habits, then it is imperative that they tick yes to the questionnaire and the whole blood donation process will end. He will have excluded himself from the whole process. Even if he does not want to tick yes, he may chose to cite that he had changed his mind because he does not want to answer the questionnaire and he will not be allowed to donate blood. There is no question asked as to why he does not want to donate blood. After answering the questionnaire, he will have to sign the questionnaire which states that the answers given are truthful to the best of his knowledge and this make it a legally binding document. I will not explain the other processes that goes through in ensuring the safety of the blood as this is clearly spelled out in the newspaper report.

The catch phrase is truthful to the best of his knowledge. If you knowingly give a false response, then you are lying. However if you genuinely do not know then you are not liable. Therefore the misconception that you are charge for having HIV when you donate blood is a myth. If you genuinely do not know that you have HIV with no history of sexual indiscretion, then you will not be charged in court. A case that happened some years back which unfortunately not reported together with current case will illustrate the real situation.

There was this 19 years old girl who donated blood. After all the questionnaire had been answered, she donated her blood. However after the blood had gone through the mandatory test for HIV, Hepatitis B and C and other sexually transmitted disease, she was unfortunately found to have HIV. An investigation was conducted. She was interviewed to which she admitted that she had sexual relations before but only with one person (the questionnaire asked if more than one sexual partner). She had not other risk factor for sexually transmitted disease. Her boyfriend was brought in to help the investigation. During the course of questioning, it was found that her boyfriend had many sexual partners! So it was her boyfriend who passed the HIV to her. She was not charged because she did not lie in the questionnaire ("to the best of her knowledge").

Hopefully, my article will reassure the public that blood donors are not prosecuted if they are found to have HIV. They are only charged if they did not tell the truth during the questionnaire. Therefore if you are truthful to yourself, then there is no risk of being charged even if you are unfortunately found to have HIV in the process of blood donation.

Wrong values...

Categories: Wormie Says

More and more children are signing up for beauty and talent pageant [Sunday Times, Nov 6, 2005]. Some parents supported the idea because they says that it make the child to have more confidence. Some says that it is a good investment because they got one up against other kids for having learn something not so common along the way. Psychiatrist however says that putting such kids in competition at such an early age will make them too competitive and coupled with parents' expectations the agony of defeat may be too much for them to shoulder. Another psychiatrist says that such competition teach the child false values like exterior beauty being more important.

This report is timely because a few days ago the Straits Times reported on the 'New Poor' - people with rich assests but running a high debts as a consequence. Are these two phenomenon related? In my opinion yes.

If a child goes for beauty and talent pageant, one of the things they learned about is glamour. And glamour teaches the child to look good, dress well, behave and speak in a certain acceptable way, and therefore to be able to stand out from the crowd. On the surface these are good values. One must always strive to look good and dress well. If one does not dress appropriately, then it does not reflect well on oneself and may even looked out of place. Behave and speak in an acceptable way of course is good so as not to be seen as too loud and incongruous with the crowd. However such behaviour may be 'force' because beauty and talent pageant has certain set of criteria for one to be 'model' child. What this creates is a falsity in the personality which in the long run becomes pretentious. The child is not taught to be honest but to be politically correct. The child is not taught to spend within his own means, he has to look good and dress well; therefore branded things which are usually associated with such behaviour becomes a must whether you can afford or not.

Sad to say we do not need to look far for such pretentious behaviour. Years ago when I was doing medical cover for a performance by our local star, back stage their behaviour was not something to admire. They smoked like chimney, cold to the 'lesser' people and something rude. But when they are in the public eyes, the behave in a way you would expect a star to behave - obliging, smiling, cheerful. Some of those who are involved in charity drive, would show concern and care to the patient when in front of the camera but once the camera is shut off, they seemed to be another person - no longer friendly and sometimes downright rude. If this is not pretentious behaviour what is. Certainly this is not the value we want to teach our children.

If you grow up with the idea of wanting to have glamour, what would happen if you do not have the financial means of living it up? Well in Singapore there is a barage of credit cards that can be easily obtained. There is also no lack of unsecure loans to choose from. With all this 'easy money', it is easy to understand why there are so many so-called 'New Poor'. This is coupled with the fact that even in the University, students are already taking a loan! Well there is a student loan which helps students to pay for their school fees and this can make up to 50% of the course fee. In view of the relatively high school fees here in Singapore, the majority of University students here take up such loan. This loan is good in the sense that every body has an opportunity to study in University. But takes the usual agony and embarrassment that is usually associated with loan-taking. It make people immune to taking loan. Therefore when more and more loan are piling up, there is less intimidation associated with the debt than what it really should.

I do agree that such beauty and talent pageant helps to bring confidence but confidence can be nurtured in other ways. Moreover, nowadays there are so many tuition centres and other enrichment centres which have programs to inculcate confidence on the children. Not only such program cheaper, it also avoid the numerous disadvantages I described above.

Sometimes I wonder whether investing in the child in such a way is more for the parents or the child.....

The Chinese 'problem'

Categories: Wormie Says

Before I start my blog, I would like to clarify that I am a Chinese. The title is so named because the government usually address the Malay issue as the Malay 'problem'. Let me address this issue from the point of the majority. This blog was partly prompted by a letter to the Straits Times by a Mr Osman Sidek. [link]

Singapore has about 75% Chinese majority. What this translate to is that being a Chinese you can go about your daily life without having meaningful contact with the minority group. Let me illustrate.

Radio and TV here have very clear distinct segregation of the dialect channels. This means that if you were to listen to the Chinese channel, then you hardly see any minority group. Not much can be said about these channel as it is difficult to imagine a minority group to be conducting a show in Mandarin. However when it comes to the English channel, then the lack of the minority group is hard to understand given that English is the de facto national language. Therefore from TV and radio, there is hardly any 'contact' with the minority group.

Then comes the charity shows which is televised live on national TV. It is strange that the is a lack of artiste from Suria and Central. This make the charity program very skewed. Again no meaningful 'contact' with the minority.

If you go to work, we tend to meet people from the majority group. Granted that this is inevitable because just by the law of chance, there is a three-quarter chance of meeting a member of the majority group. Couple with the fact that people of the same race tends to congregate together, this further reduce the chance for a meningful 'contact'.

Therefore it is no surprise that the social worker quoted by Mr Sidek said 'Wah, today I am very happy. At last I can say I have one Malay friend and one Indian friend.'

Like Mr Sidek, I think it is easier for the majority to reach out to the minority and not for the minority to try to 'integrate' into the majority. But unlike him, I think there is more to education and upbringing that can bridge this 'great' divide. I think there should be a more mixture of artiste and language in the national TV so that artificially the people is 'forced' to learn about each others' culture. This will make for greater tolerance and respect through understanding.

I find it sad when some of my fellow majority race friend do not know about meaning of such simple things like 'haram' and Muslim fasting. Although we may not agree with what out northern neighbours are doing, maybe we should learn from their TV channels. Their TV channels were previously like ours - one for the National language (Malay) and one for the rest (Mandarin and Tamil). But times have change and now both channels have a mixture of all languages. There is no need for a full hour program but just a minute-long clips on cultures and practices may all that is needed for the majority to understand the minority.

What is wrong with Kashmiri militant?

Categories: Wormie Says

It is absolutely insane and unimaginable for the Kashmiri militant to carry out bombings in the last week against the Indian government. The first there was the car bomb which exploded when bus carrying soldiers of India's Border Security Force went by and then there were the three bomb blast in New Delhi in a market place on the 29th Oct just a few days before Deepavali. A search on Internet will undoubtably show up more such news since the Oct 8 earthquake. What an irony? The world including the Indian government is still trying to help the victims of the Oct 8 quake, of which victims are Kashmiri, and here crazy militants go about bombing other innocent people. Don't they have any conscious at all? Wouldn't it be more beneficial if they put down their arms, even if temporariry, and help out in the providing aid to the Kashmiri people? People they claimed to have represent and whose support they have. If they are going to represent the Kashmiri people, then I should think that Kashmiri should think twice before supporting them. If they can carry out such heinous crime during this tragedy where people are still dying due to lack of shelter, then what will they do to help their people when there is no tragedy? Shame on you, militants!