Constitutional selection of MB doesn't involve 3 names

FMT - Who becomes MB is up to assemblymen, says ex-judge:

PETALING JAYA: Elected representatives should decide among themselves who should be appointed menteri besar or chief minister, in line with provisions in state constitutions, says retired judge Gopal Sri Ram.

He said the person chosen must command the confidence of the majority of members in the legislature.

“Soon after the election, all assemblymen should meet and then convey their decision to the ruler or governor,” he said.

Sri Ram said the constitutions did not speak about the acceptability of a candidate by the appointing authority (rulers or governors).

“The head of state (ruler or governor) has to accept the choice made by the legislative members,” he said.

Sri Ram was responding to a report that PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had submitted three names to the Sultan of Selangor to choose a candidate for the post of menteri besar.

On Tuesday, the Selangor ruler appointed Sungai Tua assemblyman Amirudin Shari as the new menteri besar in place of Mohamed Azmin Ali, who has been made a federal minister.

It was not revealed who the other two nominees were.

PKR’s Ijok assemblyman Idris Ahmad had claimed he was the only candidate for menteri besar preferred by all four component parties of Pakatan Harapan (PH), and that Amirudin only had the backing of Azmin.

In the May 9 general election, Selangor PH secured 51 seats and the opposition five seats.

After the polls, the head of states had adopted different approaches to select their MBs or CMs, like asking for more than one name and interviewing assemblymen.

Sri Ram said a Ruler is above politics and he accepts no responsibility in case a no-confidence motion is passed against the MB or CM.

“A constitutional monarch works with whoever enjoys the confidence of the majority and has no likes or dislikes,” he said.

He added that it was well known that Queen Elizabeth did not get on with Margaret Thatcher, yet she was appointed prime minister as she commanded the confidence of those in the House of Commons.

Constitutional lawyer Bastian Pius Vendargon said a careful reading of the constitution showed that in appointing a prime minister, MB or CM, party affiliation was not relevant.

“Party politics is not part of the Malaysian constitutional law but it is part of constitutional practice,” he said, adding that party politics was a product of history that originated from England.

He said assemblymen should put it in black-and-white their preferred candidate and despatch a person to have an audience with the head of state.

“Only the candidate nominated by the majority of assemblymen should accept the appointment,” he said, adding that any others must then be prepared to face a no-confidence vote in the state assembly.

The magic touch of Tan Sri Vincent Tan

NST - ECRL project gets a reprieve from government:

KUALA LUMPUR: The controversial China-backed East Coast Railway Line (ECRL) project has been given a reprieve from the government as RM20 billion of the project cost has already been paid, subject to a re-negotiation of the price tag, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng told online news portal The Malaysian Insight.

Earlier the PH Government had announced plans to scrap the project because of its exorbitant cost of RM60-RM70 billion, which various estimates claimed could be completed for under RM40 billion.

Lim was also quoted as saying in the interview with the news portal that the government was “still undecided” on whether to proceed or defer the KL-Singapore High Speed Rail (HSR).

Prior to further discussion with Singapore, Lim said the Attorney-General had been tasked to investigate the legal aspects of the projects.

“In the ECRL, we have already paid RM20 billion. So it doesn’t really make sense to just scrap it because we’ve already paid RM20 billion,” Lim reportedly said.

Lim, however, could not reveal the terms of the ECRL contract and how much recduction in cost the government was trying to negotiate.

“Let us discuss this first. We cannot have these discussions in public. The negotiations have to be done behind closed doors.”

In an earlier media report Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad described the ECRL project as a strange contract, as Malaysia has to fund the project with a loan from China, while also hiring contractors from China, as opposed to drawing down the loan in Malaysia and paying it to the foreign company’s local subsidiary.

Congratulations to Tan Sri Vincent Tan whose Syarikat T7 Global will now prosper with the Malaysian government's decision to un-cancel the proposed cancellation of, and thus to continue with, the ECRL.

Tan Sri, you sure have the magic touch in business.

For more, read here.

Little Boy Blue, come blow your horn,
The sheep's in the meadow, the cow's in the corn.
But where is the boy, who looks after the sheep?
He's under a haystack, he's fast asleep.
Will you wake him? No, not I,
For if I do, he's sure to cry.

for Nga Kor Ming

Malaysian Jeanne D'Arc

MM Online - Siti Kasim: As a lawyer, I don’t take nonsense from anyone (extracts):

KAJANG, June 24 — Lawyer Siti Kasim said today she will continue to represent her client Anis Nur Izzaty Ruslan as the latter “does not trust anyone else at the moment”, following her release from police custody.

Siti insisted she was only doing her job as a lawyer, which included standing up for her client and “not taking any nonsense from anyone”.

“I have not contacted her since my arrest yesterday, but I believe she is being looked after by the Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO),” Siti said during a press conference following her release, referring to her 24-year-old client.

Siti said Anis initially stayed with her on Thursday as she feared her mother — who had lodged a police report against her daughter, claiming she is mentally unsound — would create a disturbance at WAO’s office.

Anis Nur Izzaty is 24 years old, an adult who doesn't need her mother's consent nor supervision anymore if she so chooses. In fact she fears her allegedly abusive mum which has been why she cabut-ed from the mother in the first place.

MM Online also reported: According to Sisters in Islam (SIS) programme manager Shareena Sheriff, Anis left her home in Putrajaya last January, where she was living with her mother.

After living in a shelter for a month, Anis managed to find a job in a legal firm and moved out of the shelter to live on her own.

However, her mother had lodged police reports and told Selangor Islamic Religious Department (Jais) that she was mentally unstable and that her faith was in question.

That was when the police went Rambo and even knocked down the door of Siti Kasim's house where young sweetie was taking shelter from her mum.

Naturally Siti attempted to defend her client but police considered that as obstructing the law. She was remanded but is now released

But were the police instructed by JAIS to go save a Muslim soul from the Devil Woman? Wakakaka, yes JAIS sure dislikes Siti mainly for her valiant defence of the LGBT community.

But obviously Anis' mum knows which buttons to press to get her daughter back under her command and supervision, to wit, alleging Anis was mentally unstable (must be since January when she ran away) and the best, her faith was in question.

That sure lit a rocket under JAIS 6 O'clock and in turn the police's.

But I salute Siti for standing always firm on righteousness. She's definitely a Jeanne D'Arc than the Devil Woman that JAIS sees in her.

Scepticism in the new Malaysia.

Regarding the breaking of lil' Ervin Devadasan's piggy bank for Lim GE's Tabung Harapan, Latheefa Koya has become a villain for calling Lim KS' promotion of such lil' boy type patriotism as a gimmick (Lim KS' gmmick, not the lil' boy's).

Furthermore, she became more villainous for her reminder of Lim KS that the legal maxim of 'Innocent until proven guilty' should not be politicised by the DAP senior leader until Malaysian law becomes more deformed.

Aneh Commander (ret) Thayaparan who writes for Malaysiakini said:

Latheefa Koya is right on both counts. Tabung Harapan - a fund which so far has no oversight except that it is controlled by a political coalition - is a politically-charged fund no matter its genesis.

A child who donates to the fund has been contextualised as someone who has reduced the national debt as opposed to the former prime minister, which says a lot about the narrative developed by Pakatan Harapan. In other words, his act has become politicised and because everyone hates Najib, it is easy to make such statements.

People either applaud or can’t be bothered to face the online opprobrium expected for dissenting against these types of tactics. [...]

Latheefa is right when she said the whole thing is exploitative but, of course, you wouldn’t get that from the expected online abuse she received.

Besides the usual allegations of having Umno DNA, a political operative from DAP sent me a sampling (which disgusted her) of abuse including comments that questioned if Lathheefa was menopausal, a bitter hag or part of an elaborate PKR plot to destabilise Harapan. All this from people who are supposed to be defending the noble actions of a kid. [...]

Honestly, I was amazed at how many qualifiers were in Latheefa’s statement. For instance, she made it clear that when she said that Harapan should get on with governing - she did not mean they were not. All she ventured was that this was a sideshow that the Harapan regime could do without. And it is.

Her rejoinder that this was a country of laws was also met with the same kind of online abuse. I get that Latheefa can be mercurial, but receiving text messages that she is some sort of sub-rosa agent out to destabilise Harapan? Or that she was attempting to divert from PKR’s own issues by sullying the good name of the DAP. Really? Another text read: "What has she ever done for this country, unlike this kid?”

So let me get this straight. Because PKR is perceived as the weak link in Harapan and its internal squabbles well-documented, PKR political operatives should just keep quiet and not say anything - especially if it goes against Harapan - because this demonstrates how they just want to destabilise the new government?

I have had a few public disagreements with what Latheefa has said but to claim that she is just some political operative who hasn’t done anything for the country is downright moronic.

Her work with stateless people and gender issues, not to mention public interest cases - that nobody seemed to be interested in - is evidence that she is just not some political operative looking for publicity.

Reminding Malaysians that there is a difference between public opinion and the rule of law is something we need from our political operatives. Reminding Malaysians that the former prime minister deserves due process like every other citizen in this country is important. And she was right again when she questioned how a politician could make such a statement encouraging otherwise.

Why did we vote for Harapan? I do not know about anyone else but I voted for them to bring change in the way how we do things in this country. I did not vote for Harapan so a lynch mob could go after the former prime minister. I did not write glowingly about attorney-general Tommy Thomas so he could play the old BN game and fix the political enemies of the Harapan state.

If a case is brought against Najib, I want it to be an airtight case which finally exposes the depths of the 1MDB scandal after years of allegations. I want Malaysians to understand exactly how corrupt the former Umno state was and how we could ensure that the Harapan regime does not have the same room to make such mistakes.

These kinds of Harapan narratives and strategies prove one thing. There is a great need for scepticism in this new Malaysia.

Chef Wan's 'racist' - types of?

Malaysiakini - ‘Racist!’ Chef Wan slams Kula's locals-only cooks proposal (extracts):

“Racist.” That is how celebrity chef Redzuawan Ismail, better known as Chef Wan, described a proposal by Human Resource Minister M Kulasegaran to ban foreign cooks from restaurants in the country.

"I find this new ruling to be racist. How can we stop other races in this world from acquiring knowledge and skill in any cuisine? Food, like love, has no boundaries.

"We have many Malaysian chefs across the world working in so many cities doing the same thing.

"So my question to the minister why is it different? Suddenly other immigrants in this country cannot cook Malaysian food simply because they are not Malaysian? Why do we need to discriminate (against) them?" he asked on Instagram.

Redzuawan noted it was unfair to only be offended when others say there cannot be a non-Malay finance minister or attorney-general, but at the same time discriminate against non-Malaysians.

Wow - Racist!

Since Chef Wan was referring to the proposal by Minister Kulasegaran, he must have used it as an adjective. That means the word is intended to signify:

'showing or feeling discrimination or prejudice against people of other races, or believing that a particular race is superior to another'

But you know something? Chef Wan could have meant 'racist' in two possible ways, to wit:

(a) 'Racist' the Malaysian way - where Chef Wan has meant that Kula, being an Indian of Tamil ethnicity, is discriminating against other Malaysians of non-Tamil origin, like a Dayak goreng-ing char koay teow or a Chinese preparing pasembur or a Malay doing roti canai, etc etc etc - now that's discriminatorily racist.

But that doesn't seem so as Kula's proposal is to ban FOREIGN cooks from cooking for restaurants in Malaysia. Penang already has such a similar ban on foreign chefs meddling around with certain 'heritage' (hawker-type) food in Penang.

The Star Online reported: 

Penang as the state government had imposed a ban on foreigners from cooking local hawker fare from Jan 1, 2016.

Penang first proposed the ban in 2014, aimed to preserve the authenticity of hawker food.

what else could it be lah? 

Penang Island City Council (MBPP) mayor Yew Tung Seang said the ban applied to specific true local hawker fare such as char koay teow, hokkien mee and assam laksa.

** does anyone think Guan Eng knows what is meant by 'hokkien mee' in Penang?

The enforcement on the ban is an ongoing process and hawkers who violate the ban would see their licences revoked.

I have to say that, on reading above MKINI article, I was initially quite miffed the Penang MPPP restriction on hawker chefs hasn't included the other equally (if not more) important aspect of hawker koay teow, to wit, koay teow t'ng.

koay teow t'ng

But that was my bad after I cross-checked with an article in the NST which thankfully confirmed that koay teow t'ng was not omitted. 

The NST article said: The 13 local food covered under the policy are; nasi lemak, asam laksa, pasembor, mee sotong, char koay teow, koay teow soup, hokkien mee, curry mee, wan tan mee, loh bak, chee cheong fun, char koay kak and oh chien.

koay teow t'ng

Naughtily I was about to lambaste a previous Penang CM, saying he was NOT an indigenous Penang bloke (like kaytee, wakakaka) who thus failed to realise that koay teow t'ng (such as the duck-based version in Anson Road) is (or was, I heard the hawker ran away from the Income Tax Office, wakakaka) far more valued than a mere char koay teow.

probably doesn't know difference between Penang and KL chee cheong fun 

Aiyah, what the bloody hell does a Batu Pahat Cina-sinkhek knows about Penang hawker food? Yes, that was to be my conclusive condemnation of him, but alas, I myself was the one incorrect in my hasty presumptions in just reading MKINI, and erratically too, wakakaka.

Adoi, mea culpa, and I am not talking about a new koay teow dish, wakakaka.

Anyway, I hope our new CM, Chow Kon Yeow, an anak Pulau Pinang tulin, will take necessary measures to protect the very important heritage taste of koay teow t'ng (which if you don't stop me now, I'll end up penning a doctoral thesis on koay teow t'ng, wakakaka).

Chow Kon Yeow 

Anyway, excuse me for my off track digression in discussing a sacred dish of Penangites, wakakaka.

Thus, Minister Kulasegaran's proposal is not so much 'racist' as it is 'nationalistic' or 'chauvinistically Malaysian' or 'jingoistic' or 'zealous-Malaysian' or 'patriotic' etc. OK, Chef Wan? Hope I've improved your English vocabulary, wakakaka.

(b) 'Racist' the International Way -  where Chef Wan has meant that Kula, being a Malaysian, is discriminating against other nationalities like Bangla, Myanmarese, Thai, Indon, Viet, Pinoy and Mat Salleh in, say, the last in his attempt to cook crispy skin rendang or an audacious Pinoy claiming to serve authentic poh pniah.

poh-pniah 

If it was the second, namely, the International Way, then Chef Wan's accusation of 'racist' could actually be a praise for our proud nationalism where everyone including Hew Kuan Yau, Ibrahim Ali and Mahathir are all Malaysians or Bangsa Malaysia, wakakaka.

But Chef Wan kinda spoilt the whole ambiguity by also stating:

it was unfair to only be offended when others say there cannot be a non-Malay finance minister or attorney-general, but at the same time discriminate against non-Malaysians

... in which he was obviously referring to Minister Kula's proposal as 'racist' in the Malaysian Way - sayang saje.

Thus I think he was tokking-kok. Minister Kula is not a racist. His proposal has been all about preserving jobs for Malaysians and indeed, in some cases, forcing restaurateurs to employ locals rather than source cheap overseas labour. At least he as Human Resource Minister is doing his work instead of Tun's personal streak of vengeance.

Furthermore, a recent study showed that some foreigners have been found 'to be carrying microbes which could cause food poisoning and even death, and a small percentage of them harboured antibiotic resistant bacteria'.

Chef Wan has gotten too carried away by his 'no borders for food' philosophy which has already been proven wrong by the Mat Salleh's 'crispy skin' rendang.

Some so-called chefs are only good within their national borders and indeed should be kept there, wakakaka. OK, perhaps the food per se is border-less but alas, not some of the chefs themselves, especially those two BBC clowns - and Namaste to them too. Yes, chefs and associates are what Minister Kula has been talking about.

I have thus urged Minister Kulasegaran stay resolute with his chef proposal.

Related: Bangla in Pilihanraya.

make a guess what the above is? 

Kulasegaran stay resolute with your chef proposal

Minister Kulasegaran has been attacked on the Net because of his proposal to limit restaurant chefs to locals.

Some of the protests or complaints were outside the scope of his proposal which touches only on chefs and not servers. But some of those Net-whingers are nonsensically saying locals refuse to serve for more than 2 days etc etc etc, and thus the minister had been unreasonable.

Well Kula, fCk those irrelevant complainants.

In Penang, the ruling of locals as chefs of heritage hawker food has taken effect beautifully so Kulasegaran should seek inspiration and strength from Penang's success - see NST's Penang hawkers share 'locals only cook' policy experience. Extracts of article follow:

Since the ban, the Penang Island City Council (MBPP) has revoked 17 operating licences of hawkers on the island.

Mayor Yew Tung Seang 

Its mayor, Yew Tung Seang said MBPP would not compromise on the matter as ample time had been given to hawkers to prepare themselves for the change.

“We have to take enforcement action. Close monitoring is ongoing every now and then since 2016,” he said.

Yew said the policy, however, was only applicable to 13 types of local street food.

“We will continue our efforts to ensure the food are fully prepared by Malaysians for the ardent local food hunters,” he said.

The 13 local food covered under the policy are; nasi lemak, asam laksa, pasembor, mee sotong, char koay teow, koay teow soup, hokkien mee, curry mee, wan tan mee, loh bak, chee cheong fun, char koay kak and oh chien.

Nga - Confident or Defiant?

MM Online - Wait for official announcement of Cabinet list, says Nga:

Wow, bloke seems confident he'll get something.

Related: Budak kecil failed promise.

Budak kecil failed promise

MM Online - DAP’s Nga not made minister or deputy minister (extracts):

where's my piggy bank?

IPOH, June 23 — Perak DAP chairman Nga Kor Ming has failed to be appointed as federal minister or even deputy minister, even though his party won the most state seats out of Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the state.

A source suggested that Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad may have rejected Nga for his apparently racist comments in the past.
Sources from Nga’s camp told Malay Mail that party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng broke the news to Nga yesterday before chairing the party’s emergency central executive committee meeting.

“He (Lim) was close to tears that he could not persuade the old man to appoint Nga as a minister,” said a source, referring to Dr Mahathir.

The source said the DAP did not deserve to be treated as such as it contributed many seats to enable PH to form federal government after the 14th general election.

In the May 9 elections, the DAP made a clean sweep of the 18 state seats it contested in Perak, compared to Parti Amanah Negara that won six seats, PKR four, and a single seat by Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s (PPBM).

On the federal level, the DAP contributed 42 seats, making it the second-biggest PH party in Parliament after PKR with 50 seats.

The source also said Dr Mahathir rejected Nga’s name for minister and deputy minister. He suggested Nga was rejected for his purported “ultraness”.

“His racially charged statements do not sit well with the PM who must have been told of the matter,” he added.

During campaigning in the 2018 election, Nga told voters that the DAP will use 92-year-old Dr Mahathir, who is PPBM and PH chairman, to defeat then-Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak before, Nga alluded, Dr Mahathir dies.

The source also said Nga was not the only big name to be left out from the Cabinet list, suggesting that a Sarawak DAP politician only received a deputy minister’s position.

During the 14th general election, Lim had told Teluk Intan voters that Nga would be made a minister if the latter won the seat and PH formed federal government.

(1) It shows Mahathir is STILL a very vindictive old man. It's natural he would resents Nga's remark that the DAP would use him to defeat Najib before he (Maddy) dies.

But to carry his resentment into political practice in a coalition shows his unforgivingness, his 'small mind', his 'meanness', very hostile emotions as he has shown towards Anwar and Najib and those who had joked about him or denied him or his family of anything, eg. Tunku, AAB, KJ.

(2) It also shows that Mahathir despite his 12 Pribumi seat versus DAP's 42 seats is still the No 1 Boss, and Guan Eng could do f-all.

(3) It teaches Guan Eng a bloody lesson not to make bullshit arrogant promises which embarrassingly for him, now cannot be met.

(4) It may also be an omen that Mahathir is now 'pulling back' from his liberalness as he moves to assuage Malay fears that his "government" may be too much Chinese-dominated.

Mind, Nga Kor Ming is not the sort of Chinese whom elite Malay gentlemen, patricians and country squires (eg. Ku Li, Tunku Aziz, Mahathir, HRH Sultan Perak, etc) would be comfortable with.

Nga's mateys would be more in the category of Hew Kuan Yau, wakakaka.

Malay elite and patricians prefer 'Killing softly with his song' rather than robust 'Kungfu fighting', wakakaka.

... and as a bonus to your guys, a third song from kaytee, wakakaka:

Lord of the Rings

Star Online - German firefighters get trained to help men with stuck penis rings:

DRESDEN: Firefighters in Dresden, Germany are being trained in a sensitive area - how to cut off stuck penis rings.

The programme was launched as more and more emergency calls in the country have involved men following their sexual misadventures.

Ja, wir sind bereit (yes, we're ready) 

The Daily Mail of England reported that the "Maschinenunfaelle" or "Mechanical Failures" seminar was attended by 600 firemen.

But how do you cut off a relatively small penis ring with an industrial metal grinder without injuring the sensitive organ?

In the seminar, an emergency situation was simulated by placing a sex toy on top of a fireman.

Participants watched as a heat-shield blanket and bandages were delicately placed around the artificial penis.

This was followed by the insertion of a spatula between the shielded "penis" and the ring.

For further protection, a special heat-resistant paste is applied, before the ring is finally cut off with a heavy-duty metal grinder.

The blanket, bandaging, paste and spatula provide quadruple protection for the precious male organ from flying sparks and burns

Speaking at the seminar, instructor Eric Forberg said that accidents with penis rings are at the, ahem, tip of the challenges they face.

Rescuers have been called to other painful and baffling sex injuries, such as a man who got an apple stuck up his anus, while rescuers had to spend three hours helping a weightlifter in the German city of Worms remove his penis from the central hole of a five-pound iron weight.

The weight had to be shattered using a grinder and then cut up with a vibrating saw.

Malaysian firemen have also had more than their fair share of male organs in distress.

In 2017, it was reported that 80 percent of distress calls involving rings made to the Kuala Lumpur City Fire and Rescue Department (bomba) over the last three years, were to remove rings stuck in the private parts of men.

The last reported case in Malaysia happened in June 2017, when bomba helped an 80-year-old man in Sungai Siput free his penis after it got stuck in a plastic chair.

kaytee note: hope looes74 might find last paragraph of this article useful, wakakaka

Voting age to 18?

The Coverage - Tun Mahathir Suggests Malaysia Lowering Voting Age To 18 (extracts):

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government may lower the voting age from 21 to 18, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad suggested today.
In an exclusive interview with Malay Mail, the prime minister said the suggestion would be an acknowledgement of the strong political awareness shown by young voters in the 14th general election last month that saw Barisan Nasional (BN) ousted after six decades.

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government may lower the voting age from 21 to 18, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad suggested today.

In an exclusive interview with Malay Mail, the prime minister said the suggestion would be an acknowledgement of the strong political awareness shown by young voters in the 14th general election last month that saw Barisan Nasional (BN) ousted after six decades.

“I think it is worthwhile to consider that,” he said, referring to lowering the voting age.

“We follow the practice in other parts of the world. It’s a big jump from 21 to 18, but it is a manifestation of our belief that people are better educated and they can make a judgment.”

Under normal circumstances I would have supported his proposal.

But given the unruly behaviour of the local Hell-Hounds who don't know their political history, I object because those under 21 will definitely be immature, wakakaka and liable to exploitation by snake-oil salesmen, wakakaka again.

Portfolio of FM

TMI - Another BN term and there would be no Malaysia to save, says Guan Eng:

MM Online - Guan Eng: France pursuing Scorpene corruption scandal:

not exactly my work but just doing what Boss has specifically instructed