I just had this random thought this morning – about how Malaysia might want to have direct PM elections.
In our current system, the PM is appointed by the YDPA based on his discretion on who commands the majority in parliament. My argument is that this is based on the notion that by commanding the majority support in parliament, the PM also enjoys the majority support of the people.
Unfortunately, with gerrymandering and malapportionment, it is possible for a Malaysian PM to command a majority in parliament with under 20% of the popular support. So, this premise no longer holds true. A better measure that the YDPA might use to appoint the PM is a person who can command the majority of popular support.
What better way to get this feedback than through direct PM elections?
I will try to develop this idea further in my law blog, taking into account the necessary Constitutional Law aspects.
I got free VIP tickets for London – The Summer Musical, courtesy of Sunway Education Group. The show was staged at the Sunway Lagoon Amphitheatre. I must admit that this was my first time to the Lagoon, for any purpose.
So, I took a friend out to watch the musical this evening. It was quite interesting. The songs were quite good and there was just so much dancing on stage. It’s a fun musical overall – lots of popular tunes that one can sing and dance to, which I did!
I have real respect for the band of dancers too. They were all over the stage throughout the night, and the show runs every night! No wonder they’re all so fit with the 2-hour workout each day. Amazing stamina.
Also, I got singled out by the singers, who asked for my name from the stage. I shouted it out and they incorporated it into their show, several times. Wow!
I have to say that I got the best seats in the house. I was literally seated in the centre of the VIP seating area, at eye-height with the stage. I guess that I have the people at Sunway who got me the tickets, to thank for this.
No, it’s not Armageddon. I was just musing to myself, how is the world and the human race, likely to end.
Post-WW2, many have envisioned that a thermo-nuclear war between nations would wipe us out. That’s merely a product of the nationalised thinking of the time and we’ve come to regard that as less and less of a possibility today.
Some have also imagined that humans would end up creating a race of robots who would rise up against us, enslave us and ultimately wipe us out. That’s behind such blockbusters as The Matrix, Terminator, I-Robot, etc.
More recently, some have imagined that we would end up creating a mutagen or super virus in our labs, that when let lose, would eventually wipe out the human race. Whatever’s left behind would not have enough viable genetic material to continue on. Lots of disaster films here too.
However, I thought to myself today, that neither of these possibilities are going to be likely in the future. I think that our end would be ensured when we have war, not fought by humans but by our creations. As a result of this war, we humans would be collateral damage and would get wiped out.
Why do I think so?
No specific reason except that I think that the human race, as a whole, is dumb. We are not smart enough to actively engineer activity that will bring about Armageddon. Armageddon is likely to be an unintended by-product of our inaction.
So, that leaves someone or something else as the catalyst for Armageddon. Why not our creations?
It’s a good attempt from DAP to do the voice-over in Malay. However, the script is still obviously written by someone who isn’t too fluent in the language.
As any good netizen, I go about changing my online passwords regularly. With the new Law coming in under the Evidence Act amendments, it was doubly important for me to increase my online security as I would be held liable for any illegal activity originating from my ISP account.
So, I went about to try to change my UNIFI passwords using the self-service portal. However, the option was grayed out and that was not possible to do.
So, I raised a ticket to ask for the proper way to do it (1-2599347454) and the reply I received left me aghast!
I was told that it was their policy to NOT allow their customers to change passwords ourselves. The only way was for them to reset it on their side, but TM will always know my password. There is no way for me to have my own secret password.
This just beguiles the mind.
I hope that TM realises the amount of liability that they are opening themselves up to. With the recent amendments to the Evidence Act, any TM contractor can get my password and login with it from another location to do illegal activity and I would be presumed by the Law to be the the one guilty of the illegal act.
What is wrong with you, TM?
If I ever get into hot soup with the Law, you’re going to be hearing from my Lawyers.
Our government is regularly headed by people who are either lazy or stupid (likely both). I’ve written about this in my Law blog but the logic behind the amendments to the Evidence Act that shift the burden of proof from the accuser to the accused is either lazy or stupid.
Our MCMC Chairman, Datuk Mohamed Sharil Mohamed Tarmizi, was quoted as claiming that it was easy for people to deny that they’re the perpetrators of crime by just saying that “it wasn’t me”. Therefore, the burden of proof needs to be shifted as there is no other proof that the authorities can muster to support their case.
This kind of logic is either plain stupid or lazy. That’s why we have to beat confessions out of people, or throw them out of windows. Our authorities are filled with people who are plain stupid and lazy.
Elsewhere in the world, the authorities are able to catch cyber criminals doing all sorts of bad things, from hacking, to piracy and pornography. However, our local authorities are unable to do it and now wish to make a presumption of guilt onto any accused party.
And to top it off, they’re holding children hostage. “As more of the young are connected online, who is going to watch over these kids when there are real people who want to harm them.” This kind of statement is only designed to evoke an emotional response, rather than a rational one.
If the issue was child pornography or crimes against children, then make that an “exception” to the general rule. Even then, it’s dicey. Two can play at this game as a child rapist would still be presumed innocent until proven otherwise. Why should someone who posts defamatory comments be considered worse than a child rapist?
However, making it a general rule and then using an exception to explain it away, is just stupid. That’s right. I’ve used the word ‘stupid’ so many times in this entry, but I’ll need to use it another time.
It is evidence of stupidity, laziness, the lack of education and training when someone tries to introduce a Law to force the accused to prove something that doesn’t exist. It is nigh impossible for the accused to present any evidence to prove that they didn’t do it. The only way to do it would be to find out who actually did it.
Maybe the right thing would be to just allow this amendment to go through and to have a free-for-all festival on-line targeting all the law enforcement and major government figures. Let’s just go around making defamatory comments masquerading as the MCMC chair and let him try to prove his own innocence.
Menteri Luar Negeri, Dato’ Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Our extremely honest and trustworthy information minister – Dr Rais Yatim – claimed today that they were able to conclusively determine from image estimation techniques that there were only about 22,700 people gathered at Bersih 3.0 rally.
I think that our government has lost the forest for the trees.
Firstly, nobody believes in whatever official figures you quote any more as you have lost all credibility. In Bersih 1.0, you claimed that there were only about 4,000 people. Nobody believed you.
In Bersih 2.0, you claimed that it was smaller than Bersih 1.0 with only 5,000 people. Malaysia became the only place in the world where the immutable laws of mathematics have been violated – 5,000 is less than 4,000.
Also, the police managed to arrest a whopping 1,600 people – 30% of the crowd. That’s essentially one in every three person at the rally. I can tell you that no Malaysian can ever believe that our PDRM has such efficiency catching unarmed people.
Now you claim that there are only 22,700 people and I guess that the point is to show that this is the fringe minority who are making noise. All these mathemagic just beguiles the average Malaysian like me.
Does it matter whether it is 22,700 or 227,000? – No.
What matters is that:
Bersih is growing. You cannot deny that. I can tell you that for every person that attended the rally, there are at least another 10 who’re unable to attend it due to various reasons and that they will be there for Bersih 4.0
Bersih is able to pull in a truly 1Malaysia crowd. Maybe the UMNO birthday bash drew in huge crowds – but it was not a 1Malaysia event. Bersih is the single largest 1Malaysia event in Malaysia.
Bersih attendees came on their own volition and under the threat of police arrests, tear gas, water cannons, police beatings, etc. Quantity isn’t the only thing that you should be concerned with – quality too.
So, what I’d like to say is that the numbers are not at all important. What is important is the message, which I think that our government is missing. The people want clear systemic changes, which our government is unable or unwilling to commit to.
Sybreon Ones Nought 