Dato Hishamuddin Hussein : The Most Powerful Man In The Country

By Syed Akbar Ali

Tuan-tuan dan Puan-puan yang saya hormati, the most powerful man in the country, who has the fate of our entire nation in his hands right now, is our Minister of Education Dato Hishamuddin Hussein.

This is because he has said that the decision to continue or discontinue the teaching of mathematics and Science in the English language in all our schools will depend on the results of this year’s PMR examinations. Well the results are in and (as I predicted to my good wife) the results show a preponderance for the English language (at least in Maths and Science) among our school children.

Here is today’s news, snipped for brevity:

Majority opted for English when answering Science paper

PUTRAJAYA: The percentage of students who answered the Science paper of this year’s Penilaian Me­­nengah Rendah (PMR) entirely in English rose by 138% compared with last year’s figure.

This is the first time ever that a majority of students had answered the paper in English.

This year, 51.2% of candidates cho­se English, compared with 30.8% who answered in Malay and 18% who used a combination of both lan­guages. Last year, only 21.5% of candidates answered the PMR Scien­ce paper wholly in English.

Education director-general Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom described the increasing trend of candidates using English as “very encouraging.”

He said the final decision on whe­ther the subjects would continue to be taught in English rested with Education Minister Da­­tuk Seri Hi­­sham­­muddin Tun Hus­sein.

The subject that showed the biggest improvement in performance was English – the pass rate increased by 3.6% from 71.2% in (2003-2007) to 74.8% this year.

“Students are more comfortable using the language as they have studied Mathematics and Science in English for three years,’’ he said when asked whether the improvement was linked to the policy of teaching both subjects in English.

Someday in the future, we will opt to teach all our subjects in Malay again. I have no doubt in that happening. But I strongly feel that day is still far off.

We need to really move our younger generations up the learning curve as fast as we can. The steepness of that learning curve depends on the language that we use. For the time being English makes the curve a lot less steeper. It is an easy climb. This is becoming true all over the world. In China the number of English speakers is increasing at an exponential rate. The ‘Indian miracle’ in India is because of English.

I really hope that the PMR results will help convince the Honorable Minister to maintain the teaching of Mathematics and Science in English. This is not about patriotism, this is not about ketuanan, this is not about ‘matilah bahasa matilah bangsa’ etc. It is simply for the survival of our people – all our people.

Please do the right thing.

50 years to ditch BN, 10 months to ditch Pakatan?

By Syed Akbar Ali

Here are the headlines from The Star today (you can see why The Star now outsells the New Straits Times by almost four to one). For brevity I have snipped some filler.

Tuesday December 30, 2008

• 50 Indian leaders plan meeting to decide on their future in PKR
• PETALING JAYA: Discontent is boiling over among the Indian members of Pakatan Rakyat parties
• The meeting, said to be “crucial”, will discuss the disappointment felt by the Indians, who claim that they face discrimination and marginalisation by leaders of the pact, which is made up of PKR, DAP and PAS.
• The meeting is being organised by the informal Indian liaison committee, which is headed by P. Jenapala, who quit as PKR deputy secretary-general last week.
• He said one of the options to be considered at the meeting is a mass resignation followed by the setting up of a new party to represent the interest of Indian members. Another is for them to remain in the parties and to fight for their interest from within.
• Among the issues they are unhappy over is appointments to posts like local councillors, government-linked companies and village committees, he added.
• It is estimated that there are 150,000 Indian members in the Pakatan component parties.

The complaint seems to run across the board. After 50 years, the Indians said that they have been marginalized by the BN. Hence they abandoned the BN at the elections and switched over to the Pakatan. Now they are seriously considering to ditch the Pakatan after only 10 months.

The BN is made up of Malays, Chinese and Indians. The same applies to the Pakatan. The difference is the BN is clearly monopolized by UMNO (Malays). It is not clear if the Pakatan is monopolized by any one party or race. But in Penang and Perak it is mostly a DAP run show (meaning Chinese dominance in the administration). In Selangor it is mainly a PKR run show (meaning Malay dominance in the administration).

Both (BN and Pakatan) do not seem to work too well with the Indians.

The MIC does not represent the Indian majority anymore. Even "way past expiry date" MIC Boss Samy Vellu got the boot in his home ground of Sungei Siput.

Long before that about 100,000 thousand Indians split from the MIC and set up the Indian Progressive Front under the late Tan Sri MG Pandithan. The IPF is also in a bit of a churn right now, following Pandithan’s death and a succession struggle.

Then we have the multi racial PPP or Peoples’ Progressive Party headed by P Kayveas. Although multi racial, the PPP does seem to have a large number of Indians in its midst.

All three parties represent mostly the Tamil Indians. Indians are of numerous shades, colours, languages and religions.

Over the weekend the Punjabi Sikh Khalsa group had the largest gathering of Sikh youths in Rembau. They are very removed from the Tamil Indians, MIC, IPF, PPP, Pakatan etc.

Then there are the Ceylon Tamils, by far the wealthiest racial grouping in Malaysia (with higher per capita income than the Chinese). You can meet tons of them at the long bar at the Selangor Club. A fun bunch who are hardworking and generally serious about things. They too are quite removed from the predicaments faced by the headline grabbing Indians above.

Another very quietly succesful group among the Indians are the Malayalees. They have little in relation with the problems faced by the Tamil Indians.

The disgruntled among the Indians are usually the Tamil Nadu Tamil Indians, the largest group among the many Indians in the country.

There should be some serious focus on this group. It is just not healthy for any country to have so many unhappy people. Perhaps it is time the Indians seek the advice of others too, especially the non Indians to sort out their troubles.

It is good to listen to all views then follow the best thereof.

Arguing Over Dead People

By Syed Akbar Ali

There is a well known saying ‘History repeats itself’. This is true. Even if we observe events happening around us, we will see that history does repeat itself.

The question that is seldom asked is Why? Why does history repeat itself?

The answer is because the human being is a creature of certain habits. From the Stone Age until now all human beings have the same basic needs ie food, shelter and clothing. Everything else takes off from these basic needs.

To serve these basic needs all human beings also end up thinking (or screwing up) more or less in the same manner. Hence they end up facing the same successes and the same failures in their efforts to secure these basic needs. This is a very simplified explanation but I think it is very true. (Why come up with a more complicated explanation? Takde kerja lain ke?)

When the crony fellow built his illegal castle in Klang, when the crony fellows threw out the poor people, took the land cheap and then sold it for a billion Ringgit in profit etc, its all tied to their efforts to secure food shelter and clothing – of course on a bigger scale. History repeats itself.

So what is human progress? It is many things but it is also reducing the rate of human failures and increasing their successes.

I am tempted to write down these points today after reading Kimi’s comment in my Blog. Here is a part of what he said:

“Have you all heard of the rifts among family members and friends because of Anwar Ibrahim? Have you all heard of stress and tension between husband and wife because of arguing or fighting over the virtues of Anwar Ibrahim? Have you all heard of fall-outs between very close friends because of talking about the value system of Anwar Ibrahim? And the most odd thing is that, most of these people have never seen Anwar Ibrahim in the skin!!!! How can anyone cause so much pain, distress and anger without even being known to the parties involved?? Why just talking about Anwar Ibrahim can cause pain???!!! Why??!!!”

Indeed why? Why do folks fight among their loved ones because they want to defend someone whom they never met?

In my third book ‘Things In Common’ I have mentioned this too. I call it ‘arguing over dead people’. In the book I confined these remarks to religion. “Arguing over dead people” is very true of those people who are imbued with fanatic religion.

When I say religion, to me it includes the traditional religions which have their priesthoods, places of worship, rituals, religious sects etc plus the other religions like communism, capitalism, socialism, Wall Streetism, CNNism, politics etc. These are all religions (varying perhaps in degree only but still a form of religion).

This is not an exhaustive list but the common factors of these religions are the following:

1. Adherents must follow some rites of passage and obey some type of rituals which differentiate them as members of that religion. Those who don’t follow are considered ‘non believers’. For example the kalimah of George Bush was “Either you are with us or you are against us”.

2. Believers will be divided into various classes, those who are more in belief than others. This is called ‘I am holier than thou’. This is essential for all religion. No “holier than thou” no religion.

3. There must be gatekeepers also known as priests, guardians of the faith etc. These folks are the manifestation of ‘holier than thou’. Without them there can be no religion either.

4. The need for 2 and 3 above is usually required to take money from the unsuspecting believers or derive some physical benefit from the unsuspecting believers. (The money and benefits are required to meet the basic human needs of the gatekeepers and the holier than thous of that religion). In other words religions are means by which the priests, Brahmins and gatekeepers meet their basic needs of food, shelter and clothing.

5. And last but not least there must be arguments over what dead people said. No arguments about what dead people said, then no religion also.

These basic components must be found in all religions. (Feel free to add more to the list).

Just like what Kimi noted, I too have seen numerous people splitting up because they argued over what dead people said. Dead people means people who may have lived a 100 years ago, 500 years ago or even a 1000 years ago. Dead people whom they have never met or knew. People who may not even have existed.

For example there is now much argument going on among a group of people known as the Salafis. The Salafis say that their understanding of their religion is the purest form because they say they base it on the earliest generations who practiced their version of their faith over 1000 years ago. And what is their basis for saying so : you guessed it – what other people, who are long dead and gone, are believed to have said about this or that.

Allow me to digress a little. We all want justice from the Courts. In this country there is much discussion about our system of justice. We all want a system of justice that is fair and reliable. Not matter what their religion, I think many people in our country may have a lot of faith in the justice system in say the UK, maybe the US and the other developed countries. It is generally accepted that these countries have developed a system of justice that is relatively fairer than that in other countries.

Also many people around the world have much faith in the World Court, which sits in The Hague in Holland. And the World Court was essentially set up by those same advanced countries (UK, US, Germany etc) along universally well accepted norms of justice which they already practiced in their countries.

And one of the most essential, fundamental and underlying basis for a successful system of justice is to accept only direct testimony of witnesses and cogent physical evidence in resolving differences and conflicts in Court.

The testimony of dead people, through third parties is not admissible in Court. Not only that but the testimony of a third party is also not admissible in Court.

I am not a lawyer but let me explain. If you are a witness in Court, if you say

1. “I saw Ahmad climbing through the window” – that is acceptable in Court. You, the witness saw it yourself. This is first hand testimony.

2. “Ahmad told me that he climbed through the window” – that is also acceptable in Court. You heard this direct from Ahmad. It is also first hand testimony.

3. “My brother told me that he saw Ahmad climbing through the window – this is NOT acceptable as evidence in Court. It is called hearsay. Third party testimony.

4. “Before he died, my grandpa told me that he saw Ahmad climb through the window” - this is also not acceptable. This is also hearsay. Third party testimony.

Adhering to first hand testimony is the cornerstone of the success of well respected systems of justice like the World Court and the justice systems which have helped make the advanced countries the success stories that they are today. Without adhering to this simple principle the US, UK, Europe, Japan etc cannot have become what they are today.

A common feature of all First World countries is their predictable, dependable, stable and transparent system of justice.

Now compare this with religion. Religion does not at all depend on first hand testimony for anything. Religion depends almost entirely on ‘my dearest and most beloved grandfather who never told a lie in his life honestly and truly said that he heard his father tell him that he heard from his dearest and most beloved uncle, a great teacher and pious man that he heard from so and so that etc etc’. This is the cornerstone of religious faith.

Hence thousands of years of religion have caused chaos, confusion, murder, mayhem, violence and hatred among the human race.

In stark contrast, in just about 200 years of upholding modern laws, Courts and modern systems of justice built on the principle of accepting only first hand testimony, the human race has advanced at light speed to what it is today.

Unfortunately in many parts of the world the human race is still stuck in the doldrums of backwardness and darkness by still listening to what dead people may have said, about a thousand years ago.

The IRB Was Just Pulling Our Legs !

By Syed Akbar Ali

Well folks, tis the season to be merry isn’t it? Time for jokes, laughter and pulling peoples’ legs. It appears that the IRB’s plan to make people submit monthly tax exemptions was just a joke too. It was not meant to be taken seriously.

On Wednesday, 24^th December 08 the papers said this :

• KUALA LUMPUR: A new schedular tax deduction (STD) system will take effect from Jan 1 to overcome the problem of over-deduction.
• This means employers and employees will have to do more - they now have to file tax exemptions on a monthly basis rather than annually.
• Inland Revenue Board chief executive officer Datuk Hasmah Abdullah said the new system would ensure that an accurate amount was deducted, and would reduce the instances of over-payments and refunds or under-payment involving three million people.
• “The new STD system will require employees to provide to their employers the monthly exemptions, personal relief and rebates they wish to claim as a taxpayer,” said Hasmah.
• However, the first monthly payment for the January salary would have to be made by Feb 10.
• The appropriate forms for employees to submit to their employer will be released as soon as the STD is gazetted.
• The completed forms will have to be forwarded to the employer to collate and consolidate before forwarding the information electronically to IRB using Form CP39 declaring all the STD deductions.

But today’s paper quotes the IRB chief saying something else. Here it is :

Thursday December 25, 2008

IRB: New system is not mandatory

• KUALA LUMPUR: The new schedular tax deduction system will not be mandatory and will give flexibility to employers.
• Inland Revenue Board (IRB) chief executive officer Datuk Hasmah Abdullah said employers could choose to submit their tax exemptions monthly, twice a year or any other number of times per year.
• “They can also maintain the status quo of submitting once a year.
• “It is not mandatory to have adjustments made monthly,” she told a press conference yesterday.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Airlines System Employees Union (Maseu) has called on the IRB to come up with a better solution to solve the problem of tax over-deduction. It said it should not pass the buck to employees and employers.

So actually you can submit your tax exemption requests monthly, twice a year or any number of times a year or even just once a year. Well what a relief.

Or is it? Read between the lines. They are sneaky. Bottom line is you will still have to submit your requests for tax exemptions through your employer. This is new. This is the problem.

The taichi is still on. This is the problem that the Gomen is creating to burden the public, so that the IRB may save itself some paperwork (more time for knitting and 'tabung sabun').

The comment by the Malaysian Airlines Union rep is valid. The IRB should not pass the buck to employers and employees to do its work.

As I pointed out yesterday, this new regulation by the IRB has not been well thought at all and will cause nightmares for the public. Here is a relevant letter from a reader in The Star pertaining to this subject.

Thursday December 25, 2008

Real bad move by IRB

I WOULD like to refer to your front page report “New IRB move” (The Star, Dec 24) and like to say that once again the IRB, in its enthusiasm to provide some relief to taxpayers, have put forward an impractical idea, much to the chagrin of both taxpayers and their employers.

While some of the deductions and expenses can be calculated on a monthly basis, how will the IRB propose to taxpayers and their employers to handle lump sum expenses that are unexpected and are made towards the end of the year?

For example, if an employee decides to buy a computer in December after saving for most part of the year, how can his computer purchase be spread over the other 11 months so that he may not be over-deducted for the year.

Or in another case, a taxpayer who is just marginally taxable throughout the year, may find that after buying some books and a computer in December, his parent has suddenly fallen seriously ill and he has to spend his “total allowance” in medical expenses to look after the sick man.

Will this employee have to revise his monthly deductions already submitted to the employer in order to have his monthly tax deductions reduced or even refunded?

What an extraordinary waste of everybody’s time!

The policy and payments of income tax have always been based on yearly incomes and expenses, and in this aspect IRB can provide some relief to us if they could just be efficient and refund all overpayements and deductions one month after April 30. Trying to micro-manage your procedures will just upset and exacerbate all parties.

TAM YENG SIANG,

Petaling Jaya.

What an extraordinary waste of everybody’s time indeed Mr Tam!

My suggestion is please cut out these news reports and keep them with you. Come January 1^st 2009, much confusion is going to be hoisted upon the public. You may want to have these newsclips handy to show the Income Tax guys. It wont be of any use but at least you will have some ammo.

Merry X'Mas

To all our Christian friends Merry Christmas. Happy New Year too.

A Multi Religious Village In India

By Syed Akbar Ali

This is something interesting I found in my inbox.

Uttar Pradesh, India : WAHID KHAN (80) has four nephews — Shaukat Ali, Mahendra Singh, Achal Singh and Bajua. They all live together with their father Gaznavi. Unique? But Sandhan, a remote village in Agra district of Uttar Pradesh, has — for centuries — been like this.

Almost each household in this hamlet has some members offering namaz (Muslim prayer) and some performing (Hindu) puja. And they do not want to be portrayed or projected as role models.

Elders in the village told Hindustan Times the practice has been going on for more than 800 years. "It is believed the king of this region, Singh Pal Jadau, converted to Islam some 850 years ago under the influence of Sufi saints," they said. Some in his family did n't convert and came to be known as 'Purana Thakurs', while those who embraced Islam were referred to as 'Rajput Muslims'.

Mazid Khan, a villager, said: "The practice of staying together comes naturally to us." In front of Mazid's house, there is a Hindu temple and he looks after it.

Similarly, Kallu, son of Sagar Singh, voluntarily offers labour in a Muslim graveyard.

Shahjehan Beghum, wife of Shiv Singh, has two sisters-in-law. One of them married according to Hindu rituals while the other opted for a Muslim style nikah.

Her brother-in-law Haidar Ali also married off his two daughters in two different ways.

Bhagwan Singh, the sarpanch of Sandhan panchyat, said: "Outsiders are often confused to see this harmony, but there is no confusion among us."

Jan Muhammad, son of Narayan Singh, said: "We have never experienced communal tension. As long as I'm not stepping on someone's toes by practicing my discipline, I think we should let everyone be."

Bhuri Singh, a Bajrang Dal activist, said: "Religious beliefs are emotional attachments, and we need to keep them personal."

Villagers, however, said some 'religious leaders had tried in the past to create differences among the inhabitants of Sandhan, but were summarily shown the door. End of story.

Well good for them. But we have the same here or even more. I know of Chinese people whose children, brothers, cousins, uncles may be Buddhist, Taoist or Christian. That is three different religions under one roof and they can all live peacefully under one roof.

In Sabah there are families with members who may be Christian, Muslim or followers of traditional religions yet they all live under one roof or in the same village.

Then we also have the less civilised peoples. They are the ones who have problems with everyone else.

Government The Problem versus Government The Solution

By Syed Akbar Ali

Well its nothing new if I say that the Government is causing more problems than providing solutions.

However lately the Government seems to be going out of its way to shoot itself in the foot and stick its foot into the mouth. Fine by me but what is scary is that when the Government fumbles, we all get pasted. Government can make life hell for everyone.

Rear Seat Belts : Recall the rear seat belt ruling? I Blogged about this. The point I highlighted was how is the Gomen going to enforce the ruling, since many many Malaysians take 5, 6, 7 or more people in their cars, MPVs, vans etc? And true enough the Gomen now says that the extra passengers in the rear seat (they call it the fourth passenger) will not be penalized. Then what is the purpose of making the ruling (and forcing people to suffer costs to fit the extra seat belts) in the first place?

I am all for rear seat belts but you cannot make it a ruling in this country because people have no alternatives when they have six kids or three wives in tow. Has the Gomen considered this?

Extra RM50,000 for Loan Defaulters : Just last week Dato Noh Omar the Minister for Entreprenuer Development came out with the most incredible statement. He said that those people who default on their study loans will be given opportunity to borrow another RM50,000 from the Gomen to venture into business.

Helloo? Anyone home upstairs? What if they default on the RM50,000 loans pula? Do you give them another RM50,000?

They cannot get jobs because their grades are poor, they cannot speak English, they have little marketable skills etc. This is testimony to our education system. How are they going to suddenly handle their own business? This was an unbelievable suggestion by a Minister.

It is just burning taxpayers’ money. Let me suggest something : give me the RM50,000 and I will employ these boys and girls for 24 months and teach them about business. I will even deduct from their salaries and pay their student loans.

IJN Fiasco: Then of course there is the IJN Fiasco. It is perhaps still ongoing. The Gomen wants to sell the IJN to Sime Darby. Why? The IJN is doing just fine : it is providing good service, it is profitable, it has healthy cash reserves. It is a jewel among the Gomen’s assets. Why sell it off? And while we are at it : Why sell off Avenue Cap too?

EPF Contributions: 20 years ago I knew the EPF was running out of ideas how to invest the monthly collections from Contributors. So I took a risk. I withdrew my little EPF funds at that time to buy my first house – a terrace house in Selayang. I knew it was a matter of time before the EPF would allow second withdrawals to buy 2^nd houses. This is exactly what happened a few years later. So I withdrew my EPF funds again in 2006 to buy an apartment.

The EPF is finding it difficult to invest all the money they collect. So how are they going to generate a return to declare dividends? From 8% pa before the EPF now pays about 4% pa dividend. Too much money collected, too little dividend generated. Sudah malas nak jaga duit orang. Tapi gaji jalan lagi.

So now the EPF allows withdrawals to buy computers (it turned out to be a fiasco), house renovation, pay medical bills and buy 2^nd homes. May I suggest something : if the Contributor has paid up in full for his 1^st, 2^nd house etc, just let him withdraw his EPF funds to buy his 3^rd, 4^th house and on and on.

And now the EPF even wants to collect less money from the Contributors. Using the World Financial Crisis as an excuse, the EPF says the monthly contributions from Contributors has been reduced to 8% (from 11%). This is a potential 27% drop in EPF collections ! !

But they don’t mind because by end 2007 the EPF had RM318 Billion in assets and they still take about RM2.3 Billion in contributions per month ! That is a lot of money and the EPF has to go and find places to invest all this money. Yang ini lah jadi pening. The KLSE is about 40% down.

So again the EPF is feeling ‘malas nak kerja lah’. Employees who still want to contribute the old 11% - meaning they want to save more – have to isi borang. Siapa tak isi borang, will automatically only have to pay 8% contributions.

In other words the EPF is penalizing Contributors who wish to save more. This is a terbalik situation.

Why not do it the other way : those who want to save more money and continue paying 11% as usual (no change lah) don’t have to isi borang or do anything. Status quo.

But those who want to contribute less, and save less money, they are the ones who should isi borang. Hormat lah sikit orang yang yang jimat lebih. Kan berjimat itu baik? Biar orang yang kurang berjimat itu isi borang lah.

Also now the employers have to print new stationary, new vouchers, adjust accounting software etc to accommodate the new 8% EPF contributions. This just increases the cost of doing business and burdens the taxpayer with more red tape.

The EPF is not promoting efficiency with this type of regulations. But they don’t care. They just want to ‘nak senang kerja’.

Inland Revenue Board also 'nak senang kerja'. And here is another no brainer from the Gomen.

The Star Wednesday December 24, 2008 (truncated)

New IRB move to avoid over-deduction

KUALA LUMPUR: A new schedular tax deduction (STD) system will take effect from Jan 1 to overcome the problem of over-deduction. This means employers and employees will have to do more - they now have to file tax exemptions on a monthly basis rather than annually.

“The new STD system will require employees to provide to their employers the monthly exemptions, personal relief and rebates they wish to claim as a taxpayer,” (said Inland Revenue Board chief executive officer Datuk Hasmah Abdullah). Some of the exemptions include life insurance payments, medical expenses for parents, equipment for the disabled, higher education fees, full medical examination, purchase of books, magazines, journals and computer and alimony payments.

The Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) has objected to the new system, saying that it would burden employers.

“It is going to be costly and create a lot of problems as we have to employ more people and create a new software to process the STD deductions monthly,” said MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan.

It is bad enough that the IRB forced employers to make monthly deductions from the employees salary slips. That has been going on for years already. To make their own work easier (the ‘nak senang kerja’ attitude again) the IRB came up with the monthly deductions regulations.

This also added considerably to the cost of doing business for employers.

They are also penalizing hard working, monthly wage earners. The businessmen who run the businesses and who may not ‘earn’ a monthly salary do not have to suffer monthly deductions. That indignity is reserved for the monthly wage earner.

By why burden the employer? The IRB should give the individual tax payer the option to pay his taxes monthly, quarterly, bi annually or annually. It should be his responsibility. The IRB targeted the employers so that it will be easier to bully them (with fines etc) if they do not make the monthly deductions. Again nak senang kerja.

Can the IRB tell us how much efficiency they have promoted in the economy by burdening the public with these type of regulations?

And today’s news from the IRB is even more perplexing. Tak masuk akal. Now employees who want to claim tax deductions must show their slips and receipts (medical bills, bookshop receipts etc) to their employers on a monthly basis.

What happened to privacy? Now your employer can know what are your alimony payments, what life insurance you have, what books you read, how much medical expenses your parents incur etc.

In other words to bagi senang kerja for the IRB, your private family details have to be divulged to your employer on a monthly basis.

Here is what I think : I think the IRB knows that people will not like to do this sort of thing. So fewer people will be making Income Tax refund claims. The Gomen jadi kaya lah.

But just like the rear seat belts issue, there are some enforcement issues here that need clarification. What happens if an employee makes incorrect or false claims? Who becomes responsible? Is it the job of the employer to vet all the receipts and invoices?

If the employee makes a false claim, does the IRB take action against the employer and fine them or put them in jail? Or does it go after the employee? If the IRB goes after the employee, where then is the onus on the employer to exercise any caution?

After the employee provides all the receipts etc to the employer, does the IRB then straight away give the tax refund without anymore checking? Or does the IRB still double check the authenticity of all the receipts and bills? Who is responsible?

If the IRB will still double check the bills, receipts etc, then what is the purpose of getting the employees to submit the bills to the employer in the first place? What is the purpose of this whole exercise? Buat kerja dua kali saja.

What about employees who switch jobs? Does it mean that when an employee moves from say Maybank to Sime Darby, Maybank must hand over to the employee his Personnel File with all the IRB refund bills and forms?

And if the employee later makes false medical claims at Sime Darby – which are related or a follow up to his earlier claims at Maybank – who is responsible to check the details Sime Darby or Maybank ?

There are a million other problems that arise. Obviously the IRB has not thought all these things through carefully. Which is why the Malaysian Employers Federation said the following:

“It is going to be costly and create a lot of problems as we have to employ more people and create a new software to process the STD deductions monthly,” said MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan.

The attitude of the Gomen nowadays seems to be to just pass the buck, to taichi things to the consumer or the public. Nak senang kerja. Malas nak pikir lah. We saw the same attitude over the fuel subsidies and the fuel prices. Until today sectors like the fishermen are still complaining.

The Gomen’s attitude seems to be to just let the consumer bear the burden. So what if the employer has to suffer more paperwork and suffer more costs? Who cares? We are the Gomen. We are powerful.

Eight Year Old Marries 58 Year Old.

By Syed Akbar Ali

Girl, 8, marries man, 58

Tue, Dec 23, 2008
AFP

RIYADH: A Saudi court has rejected a plea to divorce an eight-year-old girl married off by her father to a man who is 58, saying the case should wait until the girl reaches puberty, a lawyer involved told AFP.

"The judge has dismissed the plea (filed by the mother) because she does not have the right to file such a case, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty," lawyer Abdullah Jtili told AFP in a telephone interview after Saturday's court decision.

The divorce plea was filed in August by the girl's divorced mother with a court at Unayzah, 220 kilometres (135 miles) north of Riyadh just after the marriage contract was signed by the father and the groom.

"She doesn't know yet that she has been married," Jtili said then of the girl who was about to begin her fourth year at primary school.

Relatives who did not wish to be named told AFP that the marriage had not yet been consummated, and that the girl continued to live with her mother. They said that the father had set a verbal condition by which the marriage is not consummated for another 10 years, when the girl turns 18.

The father had agreed to marry off his daughter for an advance dowry of 30,000 riyals (8,000 dollars), as he was apparently facing financial problems, they said.

The father was in court and he remained adamant in favour of the marriage, they added.

Lawyer Jtili said he was going to appeal the verdict at the court of cassation, the supreme court in the ultra-conservative kingdom which applies Islamic Sharia law in its courts.

Arranged marriages involving pre-adolescents are occasionally reported in the Arabian Peninsula, including in Saudi Arabia where the strict conservative Wahabi version of Sunni Islam holds sway and polygamy is common.

In Yemen in April, another girl aged eight was granted a divorce after her unemployed father forced her to marry a man of 28

My only comment for now is this: When the girl reaches 18, the 'handsome husband' will be 68.

Disinformation & Destroying Credibility.

By Syed Akbar Ali

What is ‘disinformation’? The dictionaries say the following: “false information spread in order to deceive people”.

Sometimes it could be used to destroy someone’s credibility too. It used to be the domain of espionage and war. But today politics is often run on disinformation. People who play this game seriously are usually highly intelligent and they have some purpose in mind. It is a tactic in subterfuge. Subterfuge means a tricky or dishonest way of achieving something.

It may not always be dishonest but tricky, most certainly yes. So we have to be careful and sieve things carefully to sort out the disinformation in the subterfuge.

Here is a story. President John F Kennedy of the United States was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963. They almost immediately arrested Lee Harvey Oswald for his murder but the next day November 23^rd, while in Police custody, Oswald was conveniently shot and killed by Jack Ruby. Jack Ruby was a night club owner who claimed to be a patriot.

Later it became known that Ruby was known to Oswald. Ruby also had connections to the underworld. Ruby was sentenced to jail for Oswald’s death but in 1967, while in jail, he died of lung cancer. Before he died Ruby claimed he had been injected with something.

That brought the case to an end. The Kennedy murder has been a great mystery too. Until today it is widely believed that there was a conspiracy to kill him.

There was a District Attorney (Pendakwa Raya) by the name of James Garrison in New Orleans who started an investigation about the Kennedy assassination. Through much effort Garrison filed charges against one Clay Shaw (aka Clay Bertrand) a New Orleans businessman for conspiracy to murder Kennedy. Garrisons angle indicated a larger conspiracy involving the CIA, Naval Intelligence, the US Army etc (basically the whole US Government).

Garrison certainly stirred up a hornets nest. Imagine if he had conclusively proven that there was a larger conspiracy.

Garrison lost his case. One of the most damaging weaknesses in Garisson’s case was that some of his witnesses were almost totally discredited by the Defense in open court. There was one witness by the name of Charles Spiesel, who testified in Court (to Garrison’s utter shock) that he had been repeatedly hypnotized by government agencies, thus sounding like an orang gila.

Another witness ‘confessed’ in court that he had X-rayed and fingerprinted his daughter before she left for vacation and after she came back to make sure that she had not been abducted by Martians. These were nut cases. This type of witness totally destroyed Garrisons credibility and his case against Clay Shaw. Based on this, the jury took less than one hour to dismiss Garrisons case and found Clay Shaw innocent of all charges.

In his book Garrison says that he had assembled a team of lawyers to help him prepare the case, including identifying and interviewing witnesses. Garrison said that he suspected that ‘saboteurs’ had been infiltrated into his legal team. On hindsight this is what really happened. Some of the lawyers on his team were actually 'saboteurs' who secured those nut cases as witnesses.

This was a clear cut case of ‘destroying credibility’. A saboteur can destroy someone’s credibility by sniping at them from afar (‘jungle sniper’ style). To do that well he will use real or fake information. As long as folks believe it, the saboteur will be successful.

Another way (greater chance of success) is to get close to someone (or a subject or cause) and start being the spokesman for that person, cause or subject. The idea is to earn the public’s trust (or the trust of the supporters).

Once the saboteur has earned their trust, then he can suddenly start talking about X-raying his children for fear of Martian kidnappings etc. Start behaving like a nut case lah.

This will then destroy not only the saboteur’s credibility (which was his intention anyway) but also that of the person, subject or cause for which he has become the acknowledged spokesman. In fact anyone who was associated with the saboteur will suffer the same fate – their credibility will be destroyed.

So imagine there is a political target which needs to be discredited. A person can be sent to “fight” for his cause. With or without the target’s acquiescence, he says many great things about the target. He earns the peoples’ trust. People like to listen to the nice things he says about the unsuspecting target.

Then after establishing his ‘credibility’ he starts saying strange things (about himself, about other things etc). Some of them are really quite wild. He loses credibility. People will find it hard to believe him. Ultimately people will question and refuse to believe all the things he says and has said about the target. That is when mission is accomplished.

So beware who speaks about you or on your behalf, with or without your acquiescence. Make sure they do not X-ray their children for fear of being kidnapped by Martians.