Foul!

UPDATE 8.40pm: City Hall has agreed to meet KLBA "soon" over the status of the badminton stadium in Cheras. The development of the land was also reported by Astro Arena during its evening bulletin.  BADMINTON enthusiasts hope those involved in the redevelopment project at Jalan Cheras will honour their promise in reconstructing the Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium. Kuala Lumpur Badminton Association (KLBA) also hopes an alternative training venue will be provided during the reconstruction process. This comes following news Mah Sing Group Bhd had bought the land housing the 27-year-old stadium that has a capacity of 4,500. Mah Sing told Bursa Malaysia on July 3 it signed a share sale agreement with Hazreeq Putra Hasman and Maslinda Othman for their shareholding in Cordova Land Sdn Bhd,a company which has secured the acceptance of Kuala Lumpur City Hall for the purchase of an 11.233-acre piece of land in the area for RM82.127 million. Mah Sing’s gro

As published in Malay Mail today  By Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos TRULY,  Malaysia is witnessing the many colours of democratic action by groups of citizen. First, we had the Bersih 4 rally symbolised by the yellow colour. Bersih 4 had reforms of the electoral process as its main objective and rally cry.   While I was not supportive of the choice of date for Bersih 4 — one day before Merdeka Day — the generally peaceful nature of the assembly was commendable. In fact, the police were also to be praised for their role in ensuring a peaceful assembly.   It was unfortunate though that there were some quarters who had taken part in Bersih 4 chanting anti-government slogans. I thought this may actually distract the rally from Bersih’s avowed aim of electoral reforms. This may also alienate the ones that support the government and also want electoral reforms.   In many of the discussions that followed, it was made an issue that the participants were mostly Chinese and very few Malays.

As published in Malay Mail today By Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos Any intention to want reforms and improvements in society is good and encouraging.  The fact is there have been people selflessly and unknown to many of us who have been struggling all their lives to bring about various kinds of reforms in our society. Sometimes they work together and often times, they work alone with like-minded friends.    Without the slightest doubt, there is a need for improvement in many parts of our lives, the most obvious being that we have still failed to co-exist peacefully and compassionately with each other after so many thousands of years of being on earth. We have so many religions and yet it is difficult to say how many of us have attained God consciousness as opposed to religious consciousness. This  is a valid question for it is mind-boggling how anyone who wants the mercy of the Creator will fail to share that mercy with others. So, yes, there is a need for internal reform. A q

As published in Malay Mail today By Jahaberdeen Mohamedd Yunoos IN the midst of seeming confusion surrounding the business of 1MDB, there appears to be a major confusion among some sectors of the public on what a “whistleblower” is in law. A whistleblower, in law, is not someone who whistles any tune or music loudly in public with the purported motive of disclosing a wrongdoing by some government department. If that was the legal position, then any number of government agencies can be vilified and undermined in public on the pretext of whistleblowing. Likewise, writing a blog article for example, based on so-called inside information, to disclose a purported wrong by say, a minister or a ministry, also does not qualify as whistleblowing in law. The blog writer, contrary to his expectations, could end up committing various crimes and may even face potential civil liability if his accusations of wrongdoings are levelled at individuals. For this reason and reasons

As published in Malay Mail today By Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos We have heard of the word “snowballing” before.  Those who have played with snow know if you let a small snowball roll down a slope, more likely than not, it gets bigger.  An unresolved problem may get bigger or a situation that is not controlled may become worse. This is called the snowball effect.  There were initially queries about 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). There were answers given in the press and even on national television by 1MDB and the authorities.  However, parties with vested interests and an “evil agenda”, to use the words of Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, manipulate the genuine concern of some Malaysians and snowballed the simple matter into an effort to thwart the peaceful practice of democracy.  Suddenly, the nation is being attacked surreptitiously, unknown to the ordinary citizens, as events seemingly innocently unfolded.  Without blazi

As published in Malay Mail today THE Abrahimic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam — teach that we are all descendents of Adam. All major religions teach that we originate from the Creator, a Supreme Being.   While the message of oneness of human beings is what religions teach, politics, prejudice and calculative evil people with vested interests manipulate the diversity of culture and ethnicity to cause division and suspicion.  These evil people are like vultures who want to feed on the carcass of innocent lives that may arise in a bloody conflict fuelled by racism.   Let there be no doubt at all. Racism is evil and anti-God. It is anti-God because it denies the greatness of God’s creativity of diverse ethnicity, languages, culture and colours (Quran 49:13). The purpose of the diversity of ethnicity, explains the Quran, is to learn from each another and to recognise it as yet another sign of God (Quran 30:22).    Hence, it is completely a lie and disgracef

As published in Malay Mail today   By Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos FIRST of all, we should be fully aware that political stability is of utmost importance for the general well-being of the citizens. No country in the world which is politically unstable is able to develop economically or plan for the future general well being of its citizens. Political instability will not only frighten away investors but may also cause capital flight from the country by its own corporate players. Prolonged political instability will have immense negative practical impact on the ordinary citizen in terms of rising unemployment, increased cost of living, lowering of the quality and standard of living and so on. These in turn will certainly cause other social problems such as increase in crime rate, increase in corruption and wastage of national resources. In short, when the politicians fight, we suffer. We have been having political instability for far too long. The second factor which

As published in Malay Mail today.  Court rules blog posting not defamatory THE High Court has struck out a defamation suit filed by a lawyer against a journalist on grounds the case was an abuse of the judicial process. The ruling was made by judge Datuk Yeoh Wee Siam in chambers yesterday. The suit was filed by Datuk Mohamad Bustaman Abdullah against Malay Mail executive editor Haresh Deol on August 15, 2012, over an article posted on the latter’s blog Foul! ( www.hareshdeol.blogspot.com ). Haresh had in the posting “Judge Walks Out” on June 27, 2012, republished a Malay Mail article “Judge walks out as question turns personal”, a hyperlink to an article “Ethics vital for lawyers” published in The Star Online on June 27 and a YouTube video clip titled “Hooligan lawyer assaults client”. Mohamad Bustaman, had claimed the Malay Mail article, which was a court hearing between National Sports Council (NSC) and Mesuma Sports Sdn Bhd, was defamatory to him. He had acted

Twenty candidates have filed nomination papers for election to the Bar Council for the 2014/2015 term, pursuant to section 49 of the Legal Profession Act 1976.  They are: 1.    Andrew Khoo Chin Hock (Khoo Chin Hock Andrew) (Selangor) 2.    Brendan Navin Siva (Kuala Lumpur) 3.   Buzze Azam (Mohd Khairul Azam Bin Abdul Aziz)   (Kuala Lumpur) 4.   Colin Andrew Pereira (Kuala Lumpur) 5.    George Varughese (George Varughese A/L K O Varughese) (Selangor) 6.    Hendon Mohamed (Kuala Lumpur and Selangor) 7.   Honey Tan Lay Ean (Tan Lay Ean) (Kuala Lumpur) 8.    Dato’ Jahaberdeen @ Jabar (Jahaberdeen Mohamed Yunoos) (Selangor) 9.  Datuk Kuthubul Zaman Bukhari (Datuk Haji Kuthubul Zaman B Bukhari) (Johore) 10. Low Beng Choo (Dato’ Low Beng Choo) (Kuala Lumpur) 11. Mohamad Ezri Bin Abdul Wahab (Mohamad Ezri B Abdul Wahab) (Penang) 12.  P. Suppiah (Suppiah S/O Pakrisamy)   (Johore) 13.  Rajpal Singh (Rajpal Singh A/L Mukhtiar Singh) (Selangor) 14.