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Only a royal commission can clear the air

Tender followed THE government is expected to de-
cide today whether to set up a royal
commission to look into the death of a
government is to accede to calls by the
public for a thorough investigation to
be undertaken by a royal commission.
some things might have been swept
under the carpet. Only a royal commis-
sion, usually granted with immense

ministry rules politician near the Selangor premises

WITH reference to “How drug
firm got tourism job” (July 20),
the Tourism Ministry would
like to clarify that the Shanghai
Expo 2010 project was tendered
out through the open tender
system on May 12 whereby only
companies registered under the
Treasury Code No 220204 (exhi-
bition management/stage) were
eligible to participate.
In line with the open tender
process, a briefing was made to
the interested parties on May
13, which was attended by 35
companies. Subsequently, 15
tender documents were sold
on the same day. Tender sub-
mission was closed on June 4
whereby 11 companies submit-
ted their tender documents with
design models. However, only 10
companies fulfilled the required
specifications.
The 10 tender documents
were then evaluated by the
technical and financial commit-
tee, which formed the basis for
consideration and selection by
the Tender Board A of Tourism
Malaysia.
The tender board considered
the eligible tenders meticulously
in accordance to the financial
procedures to ensure that the
selected company provided
optimal value for money and
fulfilled the technical require-
ments.
In order to safeguard the
government’s interests, the
tender board specified the
following conditions to the
successful tender:
» Any variation order involving
an increase in cost of project
is not allowed;
» The company involved shall
incur the full costs of engag-
ing the counterpart company
to implement this project in
China;
» Arising from the transactions
undertaken in China, the Gov-
ernment of Malaysia will not
incur any additional cost or
price increase over and above
the tender price.
Therefore, we wish to state
that the selection of the said
company has been carried out in
accordance with all the required
financial procedures as outlined
by the Finance Ministry.
Datuk Dr On Hong Peng
Secretary General
Tourism Ministry
of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption
Commission on Thursday. Teoh Beng
Hock, a political aide of a Selangor
assemblyman, was found dead after
a long interrogation which began on
Wednesday evening and ended early
Thursday. His body was found on the
fifth floor between four to five hours af-
ter he died, apparently from a fall from
the 14th floor of the Plaza Masalam
where the MACC office is located.
The MACC was questioning Teoh
as part of its investigation of four
Selangor executive councillors on the
alleged misuse of state funds chan-
nelled through the Petaling district
office. In view of the many questions
remaining unanswered and to ensure
that the credibility of the MACC is not
impaired by the death of a witness near
its premises, the best option for the
Only a royal commission, known for its
power and thoroughness and usually
set up to look into highly controversial
matters, could clear the MACC of all
kinds of allegations surrounding Teoh’s
death.
It is unfortunate that this tragic affair
had to happen, and just shortly after
prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak
had celebrated his first 100 days in
office with a much improved approval
rating than when he was about to be
sworn in. The police and the MACC are
also conducting their own investiga-
tions. A committee of inquiry may also
be set up to investigate. Considering
their public image their findings, in
the present highly charged and politi-
cally sensitive atmosphere, cannot be
expected to satisfy those demanding
for justice for Teoh and his loved ones
and may spawn speculations that
investigatory powers, “including sum-
moning witnesses under oath, offering
of indemnities, seizing of documents
and other evidences and – in a few
cases – compelling all government
officials to aid in the execution of the
commission”, can.
But for that to happen the royal
commission must be made up of men
and women of integrity and given wide
terms of reference, possibly to include
the MACC investigations into the
alleged misuse of state funds in which
Teoh was a witness, the death of Teoh
and the workings of the MACC itself;
especially on the need to question
witnesses after office hours. Once the
commission begins its work, every-
one can contribute to its success by
holding their tongue and speaking only
when they are summoned to give their
testimony.

Why policy reversal

makes no sense
I READ with interest the articles
by Prof Nor Hashanah Jamalu-
din in New Sunday Times and
Prof Ungku Aziz in Mingguan
Malaysia (July 19).
Every survey I have seen on
employers’ needs unequivocally
shows that the lack of fluency in
English by candidates is a major
problem in Malaysia. Every
survey on students’ difficulties
with higher education shows
the same. Talk to children who
move on to tertiary education
and you find that difficulties with
the English language as one of
the major hurdles, especially
with students following science
related programmes because the
scientific terms used are alien to
them.
This shows that the lack of
fluency in English is definitely
a problem, particularly so in the
sciences. How do we solve this ?
The teaching of maths and
science in English is a good solu-
tion. Of course, the implementa-
tion has been very poor. But
instead of working to solve the
problems of implementation, we
have arguments that we should
not have implemented it in the
first place.
The key reasons given for
wanting to reverse the policy are
one or more of the following:
» The rural students will fall
further behind the urban stu-
dents – So, do we keep everyone
backward until and/or if the
rural students catch up? Can’t we
provide the rural students better
teachers and facilities?
» We have produced many suc-
cessful professionals using Malay
as the medium of education,
so what is the problem – Any
simple comparison between pro-
fessionals produced today and
those produced during the days
of English medium education is
“chalk and cheese”. Employers
have often stated that the lack
of fluency in English is a major
problem. Is it not obvious that
producing professionals who are
unemployed or unemployable is
of no use to anyone?
» Malay is important to unite
the races – It seems that the races
were more united when English
was the medium of education.
Now we have Malay, Mandarin
and Tamil medium schools
catering almost exclusively to
Malays, Chinese and Indians
respectively. We don’t even have
to have English medium schools
like Singapore. We need a sen-
sible mix with Malay being used
as the medium of education for
most subjects but English being
used for subjects like science and
English being taught much better
than it is done now.
If the latter is done, it will
give us a platform for better
understanding among the races
and our future generations will
be better equipped to meet the
challenges of the future.
As Hashimah and Ungku Aziz
referred to schools with good
teachers and facilities in Petaling
Jaya, Damansara and Bangsar,
and these parents wanting Eng-
lish to teach science and maths
– is it also a coincidence that
the racial composition in these
“better schools” in these districts
have a much better racial mix of
students?
English already is the
language of the cyber world, it
will be the language of the world
in future.
So let us not play politics
with the future of our children
and stop catering to political
demands.
Concerned Malaysian
Via email