malaysiakini and the SPREAD of A(H1N1)...How to Protect YOURSELF

According to this malaysiakini article A(H1N1): 'It's your duty to take care of yourself' some Malaysians are not doing enough to reduce the spread of the pandemic and even some doctors in hospitals seem to be unaware of the proper procedures to treat suspected cases and that has resulted in a few deaths.
So I would like to share my own family's experience about A(H1N1).
About 10 days ago, my wife and I attended our son's graduation in London and we spent 2 nights with my daughter and son-in-law.
Straight after the graduation we left for Bath where we spent 3 nights. On the day before we were supposed to return to London to collect our suitcases and spend another night with them, my daughter called to say her husband, who is a doctor in a hospital, was sick with suspected A(H1N1).
It was a self-diagnosis but he later told us he had been seeing quite a few cases of A(H1N1). Apart from feeling rotten with body aches and fever, he was OK. So he stayed home and rested for three days.
We spent the night in another place after collecting our bags and flew back to Singapore the next day.
We arrived in Singapore on a Sunday night and on Monday morning my wife told me she had a fever during the night. She is not such a good traveller as I and I thought it was her usual "travel hangover" but no, she said she definitely had chills during the night.
So she saw the doctor in the clinic downstairs and came back with common flu medication and also some colourful brochures on "What to do as a Patient" and "What to do as a Care-giver".
I will upload those later after I scan.
The basic instructions are:

1.Avoid public transport
2.Watch out for the severe symptoms and quickly get to a hospital (not the clinic)
3.Keep a "2 metre" rule distance from the patient.
4.Wear a proper mask if you have to break that "2 metre" rule.
5.Maintain a clean environment with regular cleaning of exposed surfaces.
6.Wash hands often and thoroughly.
7.Do not leave home unless absolutely necessary.
8.Do not have meals together with the patient as the food can get contaminated and also you cannot wear a mask while eating.

Of course nothing is fool-proof and I am sure the pandemic will slow considerably if these simple measures are taken.
Both my wife and son-in-law have returned to work. Meanwhile I am taking 2 tablets of buffered Vitamin C daily as I fall under the high risk category.

malaysiakini and the CASE of TEOH BENG HOCK.... A Possible CAUSE of DEATH?

Before the science of FORENSICS was refined, there used to be a saying, "Dead Men Tell No Tales" but that is so wrong today when cases can be solved even years after a person is buried.
In Malaysia, there appears to be a learning curve in this science as I guess most of the books are in English and even if you understand the language, the text is going to be tough and most folks will be technically challenged with all those terms like "rigor mortis" etc.
Some Malaysian doctors too will probably fail if they had to sit for professional tests in forensics as after all, the patients do not complain if you botch up the work. Remember the recent case of Kugan?
One also suspects that some doctors are forced to produce cover-up reports to protect the police from being sued - after all, if the victim is a suspected car thief, should not society be grateful that a criminal element has been taken off the streets?
Thus it is not surprising that according to this malaysiakini article, Family adamant RCI probe Teoh's death.
As the death occurred in the building controlled by the MACC, the public really need the RCI rather than an inquest to determine if the newly "so-called reformed" ACA is not just a make-over of the government.
At first I thought someone had held Teoh outside the window in order to get him to talk and the death resulted when his pants tore.
But the lack of blood after that great fall indicates that his heart was not working when his body hit the concrete.
This means that he was already dead when somebody threw him out the window.

My feeling is that Teoh's death was caused by the improper use of the new toy recently issued to the police. Perhaps he had a weak heart and could not endure the use of the Taser X26 that was issued in early July 2009 according to this MM article Local police armed with Tasers
One of the dangers with Tasers is that it can cause cardiac arrest as the gun gives a high-voltage shock to the body and can cause death.

Unfortunately the perceived view of many Malaysians is that the MACC is trying to cover-up a death in custody instead of being honest at the very beginning and working out the damage control with a proper procedure.
Let us all reject this kind of police methods that have created serious problems of credibilty of state institutions.
After more than 50 years of independence, we demand and deserve better than this and we need more professionalism in the top echelons of government.

Take the Poll on TEOH's SUDDEN DEATH....

SnapPoll appears to be compromised so please try the new poll.
It is in RED to signify a death shrouded in mystery and terror.

malaysiakini and HOPE for CHANGE or Is IT Just WINDOW-DRESSING?

So they have just announced the KRAs for the government but I am not getting overly excited about the makeover plan.
According to the malaysiakini article, Najib announces KPIs, 6 lead ministers.
It seems that the government has approached the problem of governing as if one is still schooling and needed to pass certain subjects in order to get a certificate.
With a central government like Malaysia where state governments play a subsidiary role, it seems that the government KRAs are too few and too insignificant to mean anything for most citizens.

My perception is that the government has lost much credibility to govern because it has abused much of the powers vested in it and no one has been held accountable even though we have years of reports from the Auditor-General's office. Then the disgraceful and reprehensible events in Perak and the death of Teoh recently show that window-dressing like KRAs will not do much to steer our nation away from failed state status.

As for the use of statistics and percentages, let us all be wary of maths experts who can fool us with their reports.

Let's look at a few of those KRAs according to the STAR:

Reduction of crime rate
1.Reduce street crime, including snatch thefts and unarmed robbery, by 20% by the end of 2010.

What about other crimes? There should be a crime index to determine all criminal activities like drug-trafficking, prostitution, white-collar crime and abuse of police powers.

Upgrade equipment for enforcement agencies and increase the usage of CCTV.

Now if only the MACC had CCTV operations in their HQ, the late Teoh would probably be still alive today. Remember after the first Royal Commission on police abuse was completed, the government also spent millions to upgrade facilities? This seems to be a bottomless pit of expenditure with little to show. If the government had not chickened out from the IPCMC, who knows if this further expense is warranted? Another RM200mil for some nice contracts?

Combating Corruption:
Updating relevant policies, procedures and enforcement to improve global perception.

What more is there to update? We simply don't enforce existing rules. A wishy-washy nice-to-include filler to show the government is aware of but unable/unwilling to reduce corruption.

Use open or restricted tender process for all government projects with the exception of those sensitive in nature.

Who decides "sensitive in nature"? A better target would be a Freedom of Information Act by 2010 that will override the OSA except for matters relating to defined internal security and defense matters.

Widening access to affordable and quality education

I pass on this topic but in general the education system in Malaysia appears beyond redemption with the latest "flip-flop" on English in education. Maybe to ensure the education system is uniform and equitable, all ministers should send their children to schools in their respective homes as a measure of the good quality anywhere? Too much to expect? Otherwise free the education system and let schools operate independently without restrictions on medium of instruction and let school boards decide on such matters.

Raising the living standard of the Poor

I believe more can be done in this area and the concept should be empowering the poor to upgrade rather than merely providing grants to forever live in poverty. For example, some poor families have too many children that they cannot afford to feed and care for them properly and some will become criminals. For such families, the state should require them to stop having more children to receive monthly grants. I would make sterilization for both husband and wife a condition for state aid. Further state aid should be for defined periods like 2months a maximum of 3 months during which period the recipient should be given access to job vacancies in various states.

Out of 25 ministers, only 6 have been selected for the KRAs. I like the idea of having key ministers tasked with the subjects as they should be held accountable if the results can be verified by another independent(?) Panel.

Photo: Thanks to http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2007/startracks/070514/kate_moss2.jpg

malaysiakini and the USELESSNESS of our So-called ROYAL COMMISSIONS.....

Maybe we have become even worse than Zimbabwe.
Over there, if the government wants to take you out, you can simply disappear on the orders of the higher authorities and no one will bother to look for you.

In Malaysia we have become more sophisticated. Just see how the Perak state government was overthrown via a coup that seemed to have the approval of the palace. It does not matter one jot that the common folks were all demanding that fresh elections be held.

Now we have the latest "death in custody" that will now involve more taxpayers' funds for proceedings that will probably end in another "NFA" dead end. For Teoh, it was indeed a dead end when he went to the MACC office alive and came out dead via a window located on the high floor where he was being held. According to this malaysiakini article there are Growing calls for royal commission to widen probe.The way the commission is being authorised is akin to conducting a probe into how a fire took hold in a building without ascertaining as to who committed the arson. In other words, such a commission will ascertain that indeed Teoh did exit from the window but the commission cannot determine who was/were responsible for his demise as they did not keep proper records on who had control of the witness.

As usual, the Cabinet had to make a decision after the necessary delay to determine the possible fall-out from taking various decisions. It seems that justice has to be weighed against political damage.
Coming so soon after the revamp of the Anti-Corruption Agency into the MACC that someone described as "putting old wine into a new vessel", it seems that many top Malaysian leaders are still unable to discern right from wrong.
For example, no one like the Home Minister has offered to resign to accept responsibilty for this seemingly cold-blooded killing.

To me it does not matter if the following happened:
1.Someone pushed him out the window or
2.He fell when his pants tore while they were holding him outside the window to make him talk or
3.Someone managed to breach the MACC security and killed him or
4.He was so exhausted by their questioning and threats that he tried to escape with deadly results.

So far we have spent millions of ringgit of taxpayers' funds on 2 Royal Commissions that produced no results. So my feeling about this third royal commission is one of USELESSNESS.
If you share my view, please take the trouble register to vote and change the government in the next General Elections. The next person to die "under police protection" could be your own son or daughter.

malaysiakini and a JOKE about ROYAL COMMISSIONS....

Malaysia has a reputation for the Guinesss Book of World Records - it used to be a tradition in the last 20 years but seems to be less fashionable now.
But this article in malaysiakini suggests otherwise. Readers should recall that we have had 2 Royal Commissions in the last 6 years - one to probe police misconduct that recommended the IPCMC and the other to probe the Lingam tape recordings.
So far, nothing substantial has happened - NOT one criminal has been brought to book and many witnesses just claimed "memory loss".
Now this latest royal commission to probe Teoh's sudden death.

As for the joke about Royal Commissions in Malaysia:

How many Royal Commissions does it take for justice to be served in Malaysia?

Indefinite - no justice is possible untill the government is voted out of office.

What do you think?

Back from LONDON after a GRADUATION.....

Arrived back from London last night after my son's graduation from King's College with a degree in Law.
We then had a brief holiday in Bath and also made a trip to Lynmouth, a town that was destroyed by floods more than 50 years ago.
So finally we feel a major milestone has been reached as far as children are concerned for we have been able to ensure that all of them have been educated to degree level and hopefully will be able to lead independent lives.
Our three daughters are older than our son and are doing well.
Now anyone knows who needs a graduate in Law?
The only setback is that someone in the family has suspected A(H1N1) flu and we are not sure if any of us will get the flu. Guess the next few days will be critical.
We flew to London with Emirates and the planes were all quite full.