Reflections from the Historic Public Debate

The 1st Public Debate on air is over, but the people of every social stratum are still talking about it. Najib Abd Razak, the Deputy Prime Minister, is seeking feedback from the masses before the government would decide on carrying on live telecast debate between the Opposition and the Government over issues of public interest. If only he could have done the same before the decision to introduce the controversial price hike of oil.
I found a post-event remark by Khairy Jamaluddin, an Oxford-trained Member of Parliament, pertaining to the oil price reduction issue to be very shallow or even moronic. I had absolutely no doubts at all of the pledge made by PKR in its Election Manifesto to reducing the oil price by 90 cents from the prevailing RM1.92 per litre then. Had PKR been returned to power in the last General Elections, the people would have seen the promise honoured. And I believe the People's Front government would not have increased the price at such high rate introduced by the ruling National Front government.
I hope the Ministry of Information would institutionalise this Public Debate-on-Air as a part of enhancing our democratic process to a higher level of respectability.

What's Going On, Malaysia ?

In this "Bolehland Malaysia", anything is possible, everything is enabled. Now that the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) has intended to record statements from the Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General respectively over a recent police report lodged by Anwar Ibrahim against the duo.

I am not aware that the ACA has jurisdictions over criminal proceedings other than graft- or corruption-related cases when its Director General announced that the department planned to take over the investigation from the Police Department to ensure impartiality. Has ACA the authority to do that ? Is he confirming that the Police has been partial so as to merit the case being transferred to an unrelated department to conduct investigations on a criminal case which normally falls under the purview of the Police ?

Out of Political Favour

The Rt. Hon. Yong Teck Lee is now being subject to an Anti-Corruption Agency's investigation over his RM5.0 millions deal during his tenure as the Chief Minister of Sabah. But what surprises me is the timing of such action following his statement on a potential withdrawal of the political party which he presides from the ruling National Front (BN) and his intention of pushing a Vote of No Confidence in the current sitting of the Parliament. Obviously this did not materialise when he, as the proponent of such motion, was absent from the parliamentary session.
The question is whether such action against him would have been triggered at all had he chose to remain a loyal member of the ruling coalition. Why now ? Wasn't the powers that be aware of such case as it happened then ? Was the 'malpractice' condoned by his political peers then when he was still a powerful BN supporter ?