The Imagined and Real Perils of Blogging about One’s Job
Stressed Teacher has put down his or her chalk. No explanation was given but we can only speculate that the blog’s very articulate and enlightened views on the hands-on workings of the teaching industry might have rubbed colleagues and supervisors up the wrong way. Personal views might have been seen as unprofessional views.
I like reading Stressed Teacher and it gives a gritty account of how difficult it is to be a dedicated teacher. I have close friends who still plod in the teaching industry despite the ridiculous workload and sometimes heinous students and parents axis of evil, simply because the good days make it all worthwhile. I applaud that as passion in a job is what makes the job worth doing. Blogs like Stressed Teacher also help dispel the myth still held on to by the many ignorant people out there that teachers are paid adequately and get to enjoy the long school holidays.
Was Stressed Teacher forced nicely to shut down his or her blog? We won’t know until there is confirmation. Nevertheless, blogging about one’s job has implications depending on the boundaries set about by the employer and whether that employer is being unreasonably touchy is another matter. Insider trading, client confidentiality, Official Secrets Acts, patient privileges are all established ethics in the industries on where the no-go boundaries are in talking about work. People have lost their jobs supposedly through blogging about their work, or maybe blogging is the pretext by the employers for letting a staff go at work.
Stressed Teacher, too bad you are gone for now. Meanwhile, for diehard fans, Google already archived some of Stressed Teacher’s work e.g. A Day at Work.
More Like a Private Inquiry than a Public Inquiry?
Wong Kan Seng promises to reveal to the public the details on the escape but not the details on the report. The Workers’ Party, rather than raise unbelievable conspiracy theories like one other political party, recently asked a thought-provoking question about the semantics of a committee of inquiry and a commission of inquiry according to the 2007 Inquiries Act. WP’ subtext in their suggestion throws implications on the entire regime’s supposed checks and balances system.
The MIW always prides in its ability to check and control its excesses and the hastily formed committee of inquiry headed by a minister is an example that it would take care of its own house. What WP is implying is that the president of Singapore, the head of state, should be the ultimate arbitrator on whether there is any deliberate or unintentional wrongdoing by the government. Just like Ong Teng Cheong tried to probe into the state of Singapore reserves when he was president. Working together with the judiciary, the president should be the highest authority as a check and balance. This not only gives credibility to the system and any national inquiries, but also is a true test of whether the government of the day can be accountable for its actions.
Nathan is a president who is ethical enough to do the job properly. When he was director of SID then, he volunteered to be exchanged as a hostage during the 1974 Laju incident and thus allowed the original hostages to be released. This sort of moral backbone is what we need in a person appointing a commission of inquiry of the proportion of terrorist escape from Singapore. I am certain Nathan can do the job of balancing the public’s need for explanation and transparency, and the needs of the state where some information cannot be released for national security reasons.
Public will be given full account: Wong
Inquiry continues as hunt for fugitive enters 19th day
Monday • March 17, 2008
Teo Xuanwei
xuanwei@mediacorp.com.sg
WE MUST keep the pressure on Mas Selamat Kastari, said Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng yesterday, adding that the public will be given a full account of how the terrorist leader escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre once the Committee of Inquiry has completed its work — as the island-wide search for him continued into its 19th day.
Recommendations to prevent similar lapses will also be made public, he said. What will not be made public, however, are details involving the Whitley Road Detention Centre. The nature of the inquiry requires a thorough examination of the centre, including detention, security, investigation and intelligence functions.
“Exposing these details in public will compromise the confidentiality necessary for the Internal Security Department’s (ISD) security and intelligence operations to remain effective,” said Mr Wong, explaining why demands by the opposition Workers Party for an open inquiry cannot be met.
The detention centre, he said, is a sensitive purpose-built installation holding detainees under preventive detention. Its focus is on intelligence collection related to ongoing investigations of national security. It is not “simply a prison”, he said.
The committee, which began closed-door investigations last week, has spent long hours examining “many witnesses”, Mr Wong told reporters after a community event at Shunfu Mart yesterday.
Even as he spoke, close to 1,000 police and other security personnel continued their search of the forested MacRitchie Reservoir area, as the authorities believe Mas Selamat has not left our shores, said police operations director Wong Hong Kuan in a separate briefing. Without elaborating, he said “trip wires”, surveillance equipment and “eyes and ears on the ground” were in position.
Mr Wong, who is also Deputy Prime Minister, said the Criminal Investigation Department is in the “final stages of investigation, which included interviews of dozens of witnesses” and forensic scene examination to see if there was “any criminal wrongdoing” leading to the escape.
Checkpoints and borders were “locked down” within 30 minutes after the 47-year-old’s escape was detected, and no intelligence so far suggests he has fled Singapore.
As to the impartiality or independence of the committee — in particular, Dr Choong May Ling, who is a senior administrative officer in the Home Affairs Ministry — Mr Wong said they would not put their achievements and good reputations at risk “to do other than a thorough and impartial job at seeking the truth”.
Dr Choong oversees security policy and “does not have any line relationship over ISD or any operational departments”. The other members are retired High Court Judge Goh Joon Seng and retired Police Commissioner Tee Tua Ba.
Thailand: Thaksin Pleads Not Guilty on Eve of Trip to Britain
The independence of the Thai court under Samak’s rule is put to the test. Thailand’s legal system, but not exactly its court, has shown its “independence” before by finding Thai Rak Thai guilty of election fraud during the heyday of anti-Thaksin fever. With PPP seen as a Thaksin front for now, the proceedings of the court in pressing corruption charges on Thaksin would be signs for Bangkok pundits on how much the way is paved for Thaksin’s political comeback. April 29 is the day to watch.
Thailand: Thaksin Pleads Not Guilty on Eve of Trip to Britain
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister who was ousted in a military coup in 2006, pleaded not guilty before the Supreme Court in Bangkok in one of two criminal corruption cases against him. He is accused of using his office to win a prime piece of Bangkok real estate for his wife in 2003. The court set the next hearing for April 29. Mr. Thaksin spent 17 months in voluntary exile, mostly in London, and returned to Thailand last month after a new elected civilian government led by his allies took power. The court also excused him from having to appear at every hearing, as requested by his lawyer. The court session came just a day before he begins a monthlong trip to Britain to cheer on Manchester City, the English Premier League soccer team he owns. The court granted him that permission on Tuesday.
The Writing is on the Wall
BN is on its way out. Former PM Mahathir is blaming his hand-picked successor for the appalling BN performance – BN won only 63% of the seats in Parliament, compared to 91% in 2004. The person in the background who would lead the opposition to continue sweeping away BN’s domination would be Anwar Ibrahim, the very same BN lieutenant whom Mahathir persecuted and prosecuted almost a decade ago. There is such thing as karma in politics.
I also hope Singapore is on good terms with Anwar as he could just become PM, a post snatched away from him, within the next decade.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia’s prime minister took the oath of office for a new five-year term Monday, rejecting calls to resign after unprecedented electoral setbacks eroded the ruling coalition’s two-thirds majority and shook the country’s political landscape.
Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was sworn in at 11.10 a.m. local time (0310 GMT) in front of King Mizan Zainal Abidin, the constitutional monarch, and dozens of government dignitaries in the national palace’s glittering throne room.
“I pledge to carry out my duties honestly and with all my abilities,” Abdullah said, reading out the oath. “I pledge to protect and uphold the Constitution.”
Dressed in all-black Malay attire cap, collar-less shirt and loose pants with a swath of gold embroidered cloth wrapped around the waist Abdullah arrived at the place with his wife, Jeanne, for the simple ceremony that was nationally telecast.
He smiled occasionally, mingling with guests after the ceremony, belying the stress and tensions of the last two days when he was confronted with the biggest political crisis of his life.
Abdullah’s National Front ruling coalition secured a fresh mandate in general elections Saturday, but lost its two-thirds parliamentary majority and relinquished control of five of Malaysia’s 13 states to the opposition. The opposition alliance now has 82 seats in the 222 member Parliament, a massive jump from its 19 seats in the outgoing house.
The result was the coalition’s worst electoral performance in the 51 years that it has governed Malaysia following independence from Britain in 1957. Scores of senior National Front officials lost their seats in the federal and state legislatures.
The stunning electoral upheaval was the outcome of simmering racial tensions, income disparities, inflation, rising crime and anger against the enrichment of the ruling elite. Analysts see it as the foothold that the resurgent opposition needs to eventually break the National Front’s stranglehold over power.
“A two-party system seems likely to evolve from the outcome of this general election,” wrote Wong Chun Wai, the editor of the pro-government Star daily, in his newspaper Monday.
“The first page of the new Malaysian political era opens today. Certainly, the elections may have ended but the drama has only just started. Stay tuned,” he wrote.
Abdullah told supporters who gathered at his official residence in Putrajaya, Malaysia’s administrative capital, late Sunday that he believed he still commanded the loyalty of coalition members.
“I will not step down from any post because I feel no pressure,” Abdullah said.
Still, Malaysians hailed the elections as a victory for democracy in a country that has been long used to the semi-authoritarian governments, including the 22-year rule of Mahathir Mohamad, who stepped down in 2003 after hand-picking Abdullah to replace him.
Mahathir, however, turned against Abdullah two years later and became his most bitter critic.
On Sunday, Mahathir called for Abdullah’s resignation, saying his successor “has destroyed” the National Front.
Mahathir has limited clout now in the ruling United Malays National Organization, the dominant party in the National Front, but his call was echoed by his son Mukhriz, an active party member.
Mukhriz Mahathir told The Associated Press he would hold a news conference later Monday with other UMNO members to demand Abdullah’s resignation.
“The message is clear from the results of the elections. That’s the voice of the people. We have to respect it. It is a very humbling experience and points to dissatisfaction of the prime minister’s leadership,” he said.
Mukhriz is the first UMNO member to openly demand Abdullah’s resignation, and his views could signal the beginning of an internal revolt.
Senior government lawmaker Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah stopped short of calling for Abdullah’s head. But he called the defeat a “historic crisis.”
“The leadership team must wake from its slumber, face the truth and accept full responsibility for this debacle,” he said.
However, other coalition leaders sought to show a united stance.
Deputy Information Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said “there is no doubt or question at all in the top ranks” that Abdullah should continue to lead the coalition and country.
“There is no one person to blame for what happened. We all are taking the collective responsibility,” Ahmad Zahid told The Associated Press.
(Race) Politics and Malaysia: The Answer by Tomorrow
| By Robin Brant BBC News, Kuala Lumpur |
Just as political leaders across the world are lining up to do deals with India, Malaysia appears to have gone the other way.
It is unexpected, to say the least.
India and Malaysia have a long history of close cultural, economic and political ties.
Indians migrated here in their thousands in the 1800s, to work the rubber plantations. There are now more than two million Malaysian Indians.
| The big problem here that we have is that nobody trusts each other anymore Manjit Bhatsia |
Thousands took to the streets to demonstrate, in defiance of a police ban.
The cabinet decision to suspend visas is proof that the event, with images of riot police and water cannons beamed around the world, has shaken those at the top of government.
They are worried – worried about instability and what it might do to the economy, and worried about the delicate coalition that is modern-day Malaysian society.
‘No trust’
The Chinese established communities over centuries. Together with the Malays they all make for a fragile but mostly harmonious mix.
This mix is in trouble now, though, according to Manjit Bhatsia, an academic and writer who was born in Malaysia but now lives and works in Australia.
“The big problem that we have is that nobody trusts each other anymore,” he said.
“There’s a working relationship, a very strong working relationship at the top level of society, but at every other level of society it just doesn’t work.
“That’s the problem, this administration needs to understand that it has created a monster.”
The root problem is the years of discrimination some Malaysian Indians say they have endured, accusing ethnic Malays of enjoying preferential treatment.
| The underlying problems that we have can easily erupt between the communities Deputy PM Najib Tun Razak |
Malaysia is riding high on an oil-fuelled boom.
Ethnic Indians see Malays enjoy the spoils of political domination and the Chinese reap economic rewards.
They feel left behind, and some are demanding change.
The men who organised the march in Kuala Lumpur six weeks ago are in prison now.
They were arrested and detained indefinitely under stringent security laws, having been deemed a threat to national security.
“It’s a very delicate situation in Malaysia,” the country’s deputy prime minister told me when I interviewed him last weekend.
In a blunt assessment of the fragility of the ethnic mix here, Najib Tun Razak said: “The underlying problems that we have can easily erupt between the communities.”
As for the demonstration, illegal under Malaysian law, he said: “If we allow street demonstrations to take place on a regular basis, it will in fact entice or aggravate other sections of the community who want to respond to it.”
There is a history of racial violence in Malaysia. In one incident in 2001, six men died in a week of clashes between Malays and Malaysian Indians in an area west of Kuala Lumpur called Kampung Medang.
It started when a man kicked over a chair as he passed a wedding celebration.
Some of the victims were hacked to death.
International message
With a general election approaching, there is a fear, even an expectation among some, that the clashes in Kampung Medang could be repeated.
I have walked around the new estate which has since risen up to replace the squats in the Kampung Medang.
One simple image conveys the divide.
On one side of a road, running through the low-rise tower blocks, I saw a Malaysian Indian making roti – thin fried bread – in a restaurant.
On the other side of the road, a Malay man was chopping chicken to order as a Malay woman in a headscarf selected fish from an ice-packed polystyrene box.
They live side by side but most people will tell you that they do not share their lives.
I interviewed one of the men who organised the protest in November just before he was arrested.
P Uthayakumar said the public demonstrations would go on.
“What else can we do?” he said. “We’ve exhausted all avenues.”
The government has made it clear it will not tolerate any more marches. The organisers are locked up, indefinitely.
The decision to tighten visa controls for Indian workers wishing to come here was a message sent on the international stage but to a domestic audience – along the lines of: “Stop what you are doing or we will make life difficult for your friends and relatives seeking to join you”.
As Malaysia prepares to elect a new government, the stakes are high.
Malaysia is oil-rich and developing quickly. Stability is the key.
At the moment, Malaysia is in a rare state of instability.
Political Comebacks
While Malaysia braces for Anwar’s inevitable return to Malaysian politics in April, Thailand prepares itself for Thakin’s return maybe even later this year. Thaksin avoided contact with Thai PM Samak Sundaravej, possibly so that the latter is not seen as a seat-warmer. When Thaksin re-enters Thai politics, would he be friendly with Singapore again? Also, how does Anwar Ibrahim see Singapore?
Anurag Viswanath: Thailand`s comeback kid – Thaksin has the last laugh
New Delhi March 06, 2008
The former Thai Prime Minister has had a remarkable turnaround in fortune in 17 months.
The wheels of fortune, it seems, have turned a full circle for the consummate political maverick, former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who was ousted by a military coup in September 2006 — into exile and what then seemed like the end of the road. In a well-orchestrated media blitzkrieg, Thaksin returned to Thailand last week. Kneeling down and kissing the Thai soil, he drove away to the Supreme Court, only to be released later on an eight million baht (about Rs 1 crore) bail. His return not only marks a vindication of sorts and a personal triumph, but also signals a turning of page in the current Thai political scenario.
Thaksin’s exile was well-spent — from check-mating the junta that ousted him in the September 2006 coup and out-manoeuvring current political players to ensuring a new avatar for his disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party, TRT (Thais Love Thais) via a new political outfit, Palang Prachachon, PPP (Peoples Power Party) and engineering its win in the December 2007 elections. He also bought the Manchester City football club in the English Premier League for $162 million and sought to bring in a couple of Thai players — a move that endeared him to millions in football-crazy Thailand.
The PPP rode on the back of Thaksin’s popularity and is currently at the helm of a six-party coalition, in control of 315 of the 480 seats. The party, manned by Thaksin loyalists and royalists, equated a vote for itself as one for Thaksin and won almost two-thirds majority in the House of Representatives, paving the way for his comeback.
The PPP-led government headed by rightist, royalist and Thaksin crony Samak Sundaravej has cornered the main opposition, the Democrats led by Abhisit Vejjajiva. With 165 seats in the lower house, it has led the Democrats into the political boondocks. It has also relegated the Peoples Alliance for Democracy, a 26-party coalition of anti-Thaksin groups, into an inglorious footnote. The vicious Thaksin witch-hunt since September 2006 is over too, as the dismembered junta finds itself on the backfoot, and is making conciliatory noises. Luckily for the junta, they had the foresight of amnesty written into the new 18th Constitution of 2007, providing themselves a way out.
Thaksin’s return, following his wife’s return earlier this year, is ostensibly to face graft charges ranging from tax evasion and concealment of assets in family-owned SC Asset Corp to his wife Potjaman Shinawatra’s embroilment in a high-profile land scam. The land scam involves Potjaman’s buying of prime land from a state agency in 2003, for literally a pittance. His return also comes in the wake of the PPP government fighting to find its feet, and allegedly warding off an “invisible hand” out to destabilise it, possibly a reference to the armed forces.
Thaksin is the king-maker for now. The current Prime Minister has been referred to as Thaksin’s lapdog. The present political dispensation is manned by Thaksin loyalists such as Noppadon Pattama (the Shinawatra family lawyer who managed Thaksin’s cases), who was rewarded with the foreign ministry portfolio. Thaksin’s inner circle member Surapong Suebwonglee is the current finance minister (who incidentally wants Thaksin as his economic advisor).
At the heap of the political bonfire is the present Prime Minister, ultra-rightist and royalist, Samak Sundaravej. Samak shot into the public eye as a smart, earnest boy on a TV show, Tick, Tack, Toe in the late 1950s. Since his entry into politics as a Democrat, he has been a public figure famously known for his cooking show on TV and his stint as the Bangkok governor, which he won by a million votes in 2000. Infamously, he has been associated with “having blood on his hands” due to his controversial role in the Tank Corps Radio Station, which critics say egged and escalated the clampdown on student leaders in the October 1976 pro-democracy demonstrations that led to a virtual massacre of students. This dark blotch on Thailand’s history, an epic tragedy, has been one of the cornerstones of Thailand’s battle for democracy.
Samak’s recent interview to CNN correspondent Dan Rivers has raked up skeletons in the closet. After refuting charges of being a puppet, he opened up a Pandora’s box by his outright rejection and re-interpretation of Thai history. This refers to his dismissive comment, “For me, no deaths, one unlucky guy being beaten and burned in Sanam Luang” in October 1976, disregarding the bloodbath of left-leaning, pro-democracy activists. Sanam Luang is a field in Bangkok in close proximity to the Thammasat University which was the centre of student activism in the 1970s. This provocative comment has stirred a hornet’s nest, as many students were massacred at the time. This must make Samak’s allies and partners, as well as ex-activists who are in the present government (such as the current finance minister, himself a well-known student activist of the 1970s) cringe.
To top this, in his interview to Al-Jazeera, Samak took the line that the Tak Bai incident in 2004 in the southern Narathiwat province, where 78 southerners died as a result of suffocation when loaded on to an army truck, was the result of people falling on top of one another, condoning the brutality of the armed forces and their controversial role in handling the Muslim uprising in southern Thailand.
His cabinet which is also called the “ugly cabinet” has some intensely polarising figures. The volatile situation in the four southern provinces of Yala, Songkla, Narathiwat and Patani has continued unabated for several years. Civil society is also waging a war on the Computer-Related Offences Act passed by the interim National Legislative Assembly (of the junta), which has banned an estimated 80,000 websites on the grounds of either being disrespectful to the monarch or having pornographic content. Samak’s future role is also not clear, and indications are he is unwilling to have shots called from behind the scene.
For now, Thaksin is clearly on the ascendant. He has risen, like the mythical Phoenix from the ashes. It is likely that many, if not all, charges against him will be, over time, buried, given that he has the loyalty of the ruling PPP. Although he has publicly stated that all he wants to do is to be an ordinary citizen, he will undoubtedly play a key role in ‘guiding’ the government. Thaksin has clearly the mandate of the vast majority of Thailand, except largely the intelligentsia. His is in an enviable position — to be the real power, but without the accountability of office.
Watch the Rise of the Anwar Dynasty
Nurul Izzah Anwar is contesting the Barisan Nasional-dominated Lembah Pantai in the coming Malaysian polls on March 8. She is up against Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Wanita Umno deputy chief. The BN stalwart humilated her Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) challengers in 1999 and 2004, and Nurul might not be expected to win despite getting symapthy votes as a potential proxy for her famous father, Anwar Ibrahim. Pundits would be taking bets on the margin of the given PKR loss and decipher whether the BN candidate and minister might lose her grip there. This match between KDR and BN would be more fascianting than the PAP vs WP one we had in the last election at AMK GRC.
Anwar’s other proxy is his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. She is contesting Permatang Pauh and has held it for 2 elections. The turf is solidly loyally Anwar since the former DPM has lorded over there from 1984. Wan Azizah said that if she can hold on to Permatang Pauh, she would step down to cause a by-election, paving the way for Anwar Ibrahim to officially re-enter politics after his ban ends in April. What an excellent dangle for those opposing BN in that ward and the promise of an exciting political comeback by Anwar is intoxicating.
Malaysian politics is exciting and that’s an understatement.
Anwar’s daughter steps into political wilderness
By Ahmad Pathoni
Thu Feb 28, 2008
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – The eldest daughter of Malaysia’s opposition leader is making her electoral debut in next month’s election that could make or break her family’s political future.
Nurul Izzah Anwar, a 27-year-old who has just given birth, has joined her mother to fight the government in the March 8 poll many say could be Anwar Ibrahim’s last hurrah if his party loses badly.
Anwar, once regarded as a future prime minister, is now hemmed in by his opponents and is battling to stay relevant to voters. His Keadilan political party is officially headed by his wife, who is its only member of parliament.
U.S.-educated Nurul, trying to make her own mark in politics, was quick to deny suggestions that she was contesting as a hedge for her 60-year-old father.
“I’m offering myself for the people of Lembah Pantai,” she said, referring to the economically mixed urban constituency in the heart of Kuala Lumpur where she is contesting.
“If they are voting, they are voting for me. I want to win this election for myself and for my party,” she told Reuters.
Anwar is barred from standing as a candidate until this April because of the conviction for corruption, a charge he said had been contrived to wrongly imprison him for six years until his release in 2004.
He hopes to eventually return to parliament via a by-election. One way is to take over Nurul’s seat, if she wins.
Her opponent in the race is Women’s Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, a favorite to win the seat.
RACE-BASED POLITICS
Some ordinary voters think Nurul, still breast-feeding her baby, could make it in politics.
“She is promising. She is well-educated and religious. She can win if the election is held fairly,” said Faridah Mat Jais, a 44-year-old woman selling snacks under a highway bridge.
Others have some reservations. “I think the prospect is not too bright because she is contesting against a formidable woman figure,” said political analyst Shamsul Amri Baharuddin.
In the interview, Nurul said the multiracial Keadilan would fight to end Malaysia’s deep-rooted racial politics.
“If we are going toward this (racial) road, we are doomed,” she said. “We need a future devoid of racial politics, that’s why it’s very important for young Malaysians — Indians, Chinese, Malays — to stand up and work together.”
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s multiracial coalition is widely tipped to retain power but with a reduced majority.
The coalition comprises 14 parties, each representing an ethnic group. Malays account for just over half of the population, with Chinese and Indians forming sizeable minorities.
