Who the hell wants to invest in country run by thieves.
The Courts and Judiciary should concern themselves about JUSTICE being administered, in whatever, language, or form (sign language etc.), or way, and not language used. This really gives meaning to the phrase "Ada gaya, tapi tak ada mutu" - got form, no substance ... typical of KANGAROO Courts and Judiciary, who try to show they are administering justice, but actually NOT !!
.Anwar's suit struck out because document was in English
Hafiz Yatim, Malaysiakini.com
9 December 2009
The Court of Appeal has ruled that all court documents must be filed in the national language, as the supremacy of Bahasa Malaysia is enshrined in the federal constitution.
Justice Abdul Malek Ishak, who on Oct 20 had dismissed Anwar Ibrahim's appeal in his defamation suit against former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said the courts are required to strictly enforce the procedure.
In his 31-page written judgment made available today, the judge said failure to satisfy the ruling would result in applications being dismissed.Anwar's lawyers had filed the memorandum of appeal in English rather than use the normal procedure of filing it in Bahasa Malaysia and English.His lawyers then sought an extension of time to file the necessary documents when Mahathir's application to strike out the suit is heard, but this too was rejected.
CHIEF JUSTICE ZAKI, PLEASE DO COME FORWARD TO RIGHT THE WRONG IF WHAT YOUR MAIDENSPEECH SPELLS SINCERITY AND TRANSPARENT.
your Justice Abdul Malek Ishak,cant read ENGLISH
"We have seen the memorandum and it is obvious it is not drafted in Bahasa Malaysia," Abdul Malek said."The failure to do so amounts to blatant breach that would compel us to conclude no memorandum has been filed at all."
Federal Court of judicial pillars has been waiting written judgement from LINGAM&CO,MAMAK ZAMRY Cendol1 and Rojak1
Anwar, he said, should have filed the memorandum of appeal in the national language as "no other language will be entertained"."This is ordained in the laws of this country. The filing of the memorandum of appeal in the English language constituted an injustice to the respondent (Mahathir) and it was a pure and simple abuse of the process of the court," the judge said.
"Article 152 of the constitution, read together with the National Language Act, states all proceedings other than the giving of evidence shall be in the national language."
In January 2006, Anwar had sued Mahathir for RM100 million over allegedly defamatory remarks the latter had made at a Suhakam conference four months earlier.
In July 2007, the Kuala Lumpur High Court struck out suit without hearing the merits of the case, leading to an appeal being filed.
On October 20 this year, a three-member bench of the Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed the appeal and ordered Anwar to pay costs. Sitting with Abdul Malek were Justice Azhar Ma'ah and newly-elevated judge Syed Ahmad Helmy Syed Ahmad.
The fall in Malaysia's rankings has coincided with jitters over the stability of the country's political system in the wake of the 2008 elections and portfolio investors withdrew almost US$40 billion between the second quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009.
Reuters
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has announced an impressive raft of liberalisation measures since he took office in a bid to woo back investors, but his efforts may founder unless he takes steps to stamp out corruption.
Najib took the top job in April charged with renewing a government that was rocked in polls last year as many voters forsook the coalition that has ruled this Southeast Asian country for over half a century, tired of broken pledges to tackle graft.
Since he came to power, however, a scandal over a port trade zone close to the capital has emerged, exposing links between government politicians and business and worrying holders of US$1 billion (RM3.4 billion) of bonds who fear they may not be repaid.
Najib has promised to prosecute any wrongdoing but was forced at a recent presentation to investors in New York to promise that the government would honour the bonds that were initially sold with a fake government guarantee.
"Najib has to take hard measures against what has historically been accepted in Malaysia, which is corruption," said a fund manager who attended the presentation and who is a bondholder of the Port Klang Free Trade Zone.
Costs for the free trade zone may spiral to RM12.45 billion from an initial RM1.8 billion, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers that identified potential conflicts of interest in land sales.
As a result of the concerns over corruption and the questions over repayment, bonds issued to finance the construction yield 5.9 per cent, a full 213 basis points (2.13 percentage points) over five year Malaysian government debt.
The fund manager, whose company policy does not allow him to be named, is a member of a bondholder group that wants the government to go a step further and issue iron-clad government debt to replace the bonds, removing the risk of non-payment.
Despite promises made by both Najib and his predecessor to end corrupt practices, Malaysia has fallen to a record low of 56th place among 180 countries polled in anti-graft watchdog Transparency International's 2009 corruption perception index.
That is still better than its emerging Asian neighbours such as 84th placed Thailand and 111th placed Indonesia, but Malaysia has fallen from 29th place in 2004 while Indonesia has risen from 133rd place over the same time period.
Najib has taken measures to stem vote buying in his own political party Umno, but observers say there has been little change in tolerance of abuse among politicians and in the country as a whole.
"There's no denying that the rhetoric coming out from the (Malaysian) government has been extremely sound but the real test is implementation, and so far we have not seen anything yet," said Terence Gomez, economics professor at the University of Malaya.
The fall in Malaysia's rankings has coincided with jitters over the stability of the country's political system in the wake of the 2008 elections and portfolio investors withdrew almost US$40 billion between the second quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009.
Money trickled back in the third quarter but Malaysia is far from having to douse the flows of hot money that have flowed into the developing world's top reformers such as Brazil and Indonesia.
Najib's reform efforts so far have seen some elements of the New Economic Policy (NEP), a four-decades-old economic and social affirmative action policy for the Malays and other indigenous communities, rolled back.
He has received a generally positive response for that and other measures to lift investment caps for foreigners in areas like tourism and financial services so as to boost investment.
Malaysia saw its first flicker of interest yesterday when US banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc took advantage of the liberalisation measures to set up a fund management and advisory business here.
Politically, too, Najib has stabilised a government that was so wobbly in September 2008 that it had to ship 40 MPs to Taiwan to put them out of reach of opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's bid to lure them to join him and topple the Barisan Nasional coalition.
Fights in ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indian parties are occupying the premier's time and stretching his ability to reach out to non-Malay voters who he needs to win back in order to have a convincing national mandate when he goes to the polls.
The biggest concern is the MCA, the second-largest government party, which represents the 25 per cent of the population that is ethnic Chinese and which is paralysed by a leadership row that has forced Najib to mediate.
"Even if the MCA were to resolve its problems, it will likely not have enough time to win back the lost support from the community," said James Chin, political science professor at Monash University in Kuala Lumpur.
SEVERAL weeks ago, a delegation from a major European company held a no-holds barred meeting with our government officials.
The discussion centred around opening up markets, free trade agreements and protectionists policies. Needless to say, this was not the first time that the company officials had dealt with our bureaucrats. But what was different this time was that the usually polite and diplomatic Europeans had no time for niceties.
The gloves came off and they made it clear that Malaysia’s flip-flopping on its protectionist policies and the culture of the "enrichment" of certain groups at the expense of fair trade and the absence of a standard trade guideline was not the way countries in the European Union (EU) did business. There is no "kautim" mentality or "special arrangements". All’s fair in capitalism.
Filth and Evil never ever changes – it can hide, camouflage itself, but will never deliver benefits. related articleAUSTINKOSONG SON Of SCATTERBRAIN–The deceptive Judge INDEPENDENCE,IMPARTIALITY ,INTEGRITY ,EQUALITY ,COMPETENCE AND DILIGENC HE PRICE IT $$$ per kilo
Of course critics of the World Trade Organisation will have their own opinion on capitalists, but what this delegation was cheesed off with was the fact that our inconsistent business policies was costing them money.
It was getting expensive to do business in Malaysia because it was difficult to plan. For instance, the phasing out of the approved permits (AP) system under the National Automotive Policy is supposed to begin next year, culminating in 2015, following which we all hope imported cars will be cheaper by at least RM50,000 (current rates).
However, now we hear that the government may give in to requests from Malaysian dealers and rent seekers to extend it until 2020 to allow the creation of more millionaires. And mind you, we are not just talking about cars. Most imports, including sugar, carry APs. This invariably makes the cost of doing business in Malaysia higher than our neighbours’, which is why we are losing out to others in the region.
In his exit speech in 2007, EU ambassador to Malaysia Thierry Rommel made some remarks that did not go down well with our folks here. Rommel among others charged that some of the government’s policies were designed to practise significant protectionism of Malaysia’s own market covering the automotive sector, steel, consumer goods, agricultural products and services.
Rommel may have had his own agenda but he was merely articulating how the outside world – Europe at least – feels about doing business with us.
While trade last year was RM140 billion, Rommel’s successor Vincent Piket forecasts trade with Malaysia will drop by RM35 billion this year. We can attribute some of that to the global economic downturn. But it is during times like this that we need to up our game, call a spade a spade and be proactive in getting rid of old habits or risk having foreign investors look elsewhere to spend their money – as was the case with the European company at the beginning of this column.
You know something is not right if for a rice-growing nation, the cost of producing this staple is 30% more than other rice-producing countries. So if even Malaysians have to pay more for the rice we eat, then who’s benefiting? Certainly not the people. The sole company awarded the contract to import and distribute rice, perhaps?
In any case, to move forward the government must show its sincerity in protecting all Malaysians. Its policies must be all-encompassing and attractive to those whom we wish to do business with.
You know something is not right if for a rice-growing nation, the cost of producing this staple is 30% more than other rice-producing countries.
It is laudable that the government has abolished import duties on over 2,000 items as part of its commitment to the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) which comes into play next year. Hence, opening up the markets may also make such items as rice cheaper as import duties for rice will also be reduced.
However, I am expecting the government to flip-flop again, especially when certain entrepreneur groups complain that Afta is hurting them. Soon before you know it, we will have more "special arrangements".
Emerging markets in Southeast Asia are giving us a run for our money. The only advantage we have over them is that English is widely spoken here – but even this is being threatened by politicians with hare-brained ideas of compelling the private sector to use the national language to enhance the usage of Bahasa Malaysia.
Such myopic views do not augur well for us and the future for a nation that aims to be a global player but is bogged down by decades’ old thinking and selfish priorities which will only succeed in reducing our competitiveness internationally.
Terence says first and foremost we have to improve our broadband quality . He is deputy editor (special reports & investigations) and can be reached at terence@thesundaily.com
No comments:
Post a Comment