10
speak up!
Swine flu checks gone to the dogs
THE records of the Health Ministry
at the KL International Airport
(KLIA) will show that one Benjamin
Netanyahu of Israeli nationality ar-
rived in Malaysia at 7.43am yester-
day. He carried passport number A
01220703 and his contact numbers
are 00-40-41-42-43 and 00-40-44-
44-45. He arrived on Malaysian
Airlines Flight MH003 and occupied
seat number 30G. He declared that
his last port of embarkation was CitizenNades but then again, being used to the
London and further stated that he
did not suffer symptoms of H1N1 by R. Nadeswaran
like fever, sore throat or shortness
of breath.
However, the airline’s passenger manifest
of that flight will show that no passenger by
that name was on the plane and that seat
number 30G was pre-booked and occupied
by a Malaysian journalist, whose name in the
passport appears as Nadeswaran Murugasu
Raja. The Immigration Department records
will show that people with Israeli passports
have not entered the country and that the
“genuine” occupant of Seat 30G went through
the electronic gate. Subsequently, his suitcase
was X-rayed and cleared by customs officers.
Now if any of the passengers on that flight
occupying seats in rows 29, 30 or 31 is down
with swine flu, the health authorities will be
scratching their heads when going through
their records to trace the occupant of seat
30G who had spent more than 12 hours with
the affected passenger. Well, let’s save them
the trouble. That passenger was yours truly!
Initially, I thought of using Barrack Obama but
then thought that using a country with which
we have no diplomatic relations will make
alarm bells ring, let alone make the antennas
of the health officials go up. No, nothing hap-
pened. Zilch.
Instead, like the invigilator
collecting answer scripts after
examinations, he collected mine
and slipped it under the pile which
he held and in return gave me a
yellow slip of paper which gave
instructions as what is to be done
if I later suffered any symptoms.
Our health authorities have
to provide answers for this lapse,
Malaysian way of doing things,
I can anticipate the explanation
(read excuse). “There were too
many passengers and the officer could not cope
and therefore the usual verification was not
carried out,” would be the official stand. Pure
bunkum!
In Hongkong as in many other countries
including what is referred to as Third World
countries, particulars of arriving passengers
are checked against the passports. If details
such as seat numbers are not entered, the pas-
senger is forced to rummage through his bags
to find the stub of the boarding pass. Back in
KLIA, there is no such thing and what we saw
yesterday was nothing more than organised
chaos. One single file turned into two and the
officer was busy collecting forms and asking
passengers to fill in their handphone numbers.
Any number would have sufficed, immaterial
if they existed.
On June 12, when Terence Fernandez and
I arrived at the KLIA, the health declaration
forms were distributed on board the MAS
aircraft. We duly filled them, but on arrival,
there was no one to collect them.
Two weeks ago, at the Colombo Interna-
tional Airport, I was sent back to the health
counter by the immigration authorities
because my declaration form did not carry
the stamp of the health department. On my
return, over tea, I told a senior ministry of-
ficial of the lapse in their system at the KLIA
in the hope that he would have taken heed of
the serious lapse, but nothing has changed.
On Monday afternoon, on board the flight
from London, I decided to check if our health
officers at the airport are “up to it”. Sadly, my
brief encounter as I headed to the immigra-
tion counters, speaks volumes of how the
fight against H1N1 is progressing. Perusing
the newspapers, it was not surprising to read
chest-thumping exclamations of “it is under
control”.
This brings us to the key question: Why
aren’t we sufficiently organised when it comes
to important issues like health? Why are we
not paying heed to the increasing number
of cases? Why are we not giving priority to
screening those entering the country? Isn’t
prevention better than cure? Are we serious
in looking after the health of the people?
letters
letters@thesundaily.com
Put nation before self
I WAS dumbfounded when a minister recently
described three former leaders of the nation
as “crooks”.
His father, my senior in school, had served
the nation as a distinguished civil servant. Tan
Sri Abdul Aziz once said to me at an old boys
dinner many years ago: “Politicians can come
and go. We, the civil servants, will continue to
remain to assist in the management of gov-
ernment. However, we have to remain good,
fair and honest as ‘servants’ of the people.
Otherwise, we may become tools of certain
politicians who feel politics is more important
than the people and nation.”
I respect Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad for
propelling the nation forward even though
he could have done some things differently.
His great and obsessive compassion for his
people and community, had been his strength
and yet is also his fallibility. But if the enlarged
cake he fostered for so long could have gone
on indefinitely, every community would have
had more of the cake.
Tun Hanif Omar and Tan Sri Abu Talib were
both professionals of exceptional calibre in
their related services and times, which were
exacting and crucial for our national security.
Hanif, an apolitical and non-communal
leader, was the man and not so much the
IGP, I went to Perak, voluntarily as chief police
officer following the assassination of CPO Tan
Sri Koo Chong Kong.
Abu Talib was the attorney general who had
an intuitive understanding of the intricacies of
the Special Branch’s functions. His intuitive
pragmatism in the interest of greater national
security had, when pertinent, enabled the SB’s
penetration and destruction of the Communist
Party of Malaya. This had shortened the war in
both the jungles and urban areas in especially
Perak and Kuala Lumpur where we knew the
Second Emergency would eventually be won or
lost. A man with an intuitive sense of legal and
moral justice, Abdul Talib had in his Suhakam
role given his views.
Of course, in the past we could not speak
up much during our tenure of service. That did
not mean we were absolutely happy with the
increasing political, racial and religious polarisa-
tion especially, when we had to push and lead
our men in the field, to die if necessary, for
the nation based on universal values and are
embedded in our constitution and our religions
Stop destroying our coastline
THE Lido Beach mega project in Johor Baru
along the coastal highway (Tebrau Straits) is
planned to stretch from Lot 1 shopping complex
to the Harbour Master’s office and is scheduled
to start soon.
This blatant destruction of our beautiful
coastline is evident in Malacca and is now being
repeated in Johor Baru.
The Lot 1 shopping complex is not only
defunct but an eyesore and a white elephant
theSun | WEDNESDAY JULY 22 2009
All these questions can be answered in the
negative if this morning’s exercise is used as
a yardstick. What is the purpose of spending
millions in scanners and detectors if we do
not have the committed manpower to use
it? What is the use of making all those pre-
landing announcements if the people trusted
with the responsibility adopt a “tidak apa”
attitude?
Please, for the sake of this country and its
people, the attitude must change. The people
are there not to make up the numbers – they
are there to perform a specific task. If they
can’t, they must make away for others who
can.
R. Nadeswaran, like most other travellers is
wary of the dangers of carrying the H1N1 and
other viruses. Hence, he decided to carry out
this test. He is editor (special and investigative
reporting) at theSun. He can be reached at:
citizen-nades@thesundaily.com.
– all hoping that more enlightened days would
come.
Deep inside, our loyalty and faith continued
even as we feared things would come to a head
sooner or later, if decadence did not cease. It
was with this same objective and fears for na-
tion that a number of us had written, hoping to
persuade the incumbent government to regain
a better balance and retrieve itself.
Nobody can say Hanif is not Malay
enough. His family lineage includes the warrior
who assassinated James Birch, a former British
resident. However, Hanif is one Malay who did
not have to persuade the many non-Malay and
Malay Special Branch officers to risk their lives,
time and time again, fighting communist terror-
ists in secret operations. These contributions
made such a decisive impact in the unseen
and little known war in the jungle and urban
areas. Whole communist combatant units were
secretly brought under control of the SB in the
jungle as were their supporting underground
apparatus in the urban areas. This also remained
unknown to Chin Peng even during the early
stages of the Peace Accord talks in 1989.
Lastly, the 1Malaysia theme, which I also
support, is surely the resultant reformation that
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak
had pledged to the nation for all communities.
The sooner we realise this and do something
about it, the sooner we shall extricate ourselves
from the mess that decadent or obsolete or
corrupt politics have got us into. For so long
as we are not able to accept positive and con-
structive criticism or differing comments, so will
naive and unconvincing remarks which sound
so loud but hold so little matter, come from
some politicians who have not grown taller
with rapidly changing politics in the nation and
internationally.
This unfortunate factor can only dampen
the objectives of 1Malaysia in the eyes of the
rakyat. While we appreciate the prime minis-
ter’s internal problems within his own party he
should declare his stand on the denigrating of
three of the top personalities of the past in the
interest of the incumbent government and his
personal self. We now need not political party
advisers but advisers of nation who also see
and read the hearts of all communities.
Datuk Seri Yuen Yuet Leng
Ampang
which greets visitors from the causeway.
Land will be reclaimed along the Lido Beach
front for the addition of condominiums, office
suites, a hotel and another shopping mall.
The scenic beauty atop the hill besides the
Sultan Abu Bakar museum overlooking this
coastline is set to be lost forever.
Archuna Umapathy
Johor Baru