For more about me, please read this.
Stand up for what you believe in, and what is right. You just might change the course of events for the better.
— Mary Sue Coleman. The University of Michigan Spring Commencement. April 30 2005.
[audio:MichiganCommencement2005.mp3]
Probably 4 years late but I want to share it, regardless.
A great view.
2009 schedule:
Sept. 5 Western Michigan
Sept. 12 Notre Dame
Sept. 19 Eastern Michigan
Sept. 26 Indiana
Oct. 3 @ Michigan State
Oct. 10 @ Iowa
Oct. 17 Delaware State
Oct. 24 Penn State
Oct. 31 @ Illinois
Nov. 7 Purdue
Nov. 14 @ Wisconsin
Nov. 21 Ohio State [The Quad Countdown: No. 57 Michigan. Paul Myerberg. The Quad. Jully 6 2009]
This does not happen all too often but accounting for Michigan’s disastrous performance last season, I am scared.
Shocked.
That was exactly how I felt when I found out that a political secretary of a Selangor assemblyman was found dead near the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headquarters. The MACC put the aide, Teoh Beng Hock, through questioning regarding activities of DAP assemblypersons just hours earlier before the time of death.[1] Granted, the cause of death — did the aide commit suicide? Did somebody push him from the top of the building? Was it defenestation? — is still a mystery but it surely, rightly or wrongly, incriminates the MACC.
To many, especially for Pakatan Rakyat sympathizers I suspect, judgment may have already been passed: the MACC is somehow guilty of causing the death. While it definitely an unfair position to assume, it is not hard to reach to that conclusion given that individuals have died in the custody of the authority, namely the police.
The MACC is already seen as biased arm of the government, embarking on selective investigation by targeting Pakatan Rakyat assemblymen but continue to leave Barisan Nasional politicians with suspicious record like Khir Toyo free from investigation. The death of the aide can only further damage whatever public confidence — if it has any left — that MACC has right now.
As for the Najib administration, looks like its 100-day celebration has just been cut short. On his 100th day as the Prime Minister, he announced six key result areas and one of them is the prevention of crime. [2] A government body now is being perceived as a perpetrator of crime. It is not just any crime but murder, perhaps the gravest of all crimes.
[1] — SHAH ALAM, July 16 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC) controversial probe into several DAP assemblymen’s activities was thrown into more turmoil today with the death of political aide Teoh Beng Hock at the anti-graft authority’s Selangor headquarters.
The 30-year-old’s death will put more pressure on the MACC, which has been accused by the opposition of conducting selective investigations.
[…]
At a press conference, the MACC director of investigations Datuk Mohd Shukri Abdul said Teoh was questioned from 5pm yesterday to 3.45am and was released soon after.bod
However, Teoh apparently said he was tired and so he rested on a settee in the lobby. He was seen sleeping on the settee at 6am.
At about 1.30pm, Shukri said, they heard that a body had been found on the 5th floor of the adjacent building and when one of the MACC officers went to investigate, he realised it was one of their witnesses.
Shukri said Teoh was not a suspect but was questioned as part of their investigations into the misuse of state allocations. [Ean Yong’s political secretary dead at MACC HQ. Neville Spykerman. The Malaysian Insider. July 16 2009]
[2] — KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 (Bernama) — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak on Saturday announced six national key result areas for more effective attainment of the targets of the key performance indicators (KPI).
He said these were crime prevention, fighting of corruption, widening access to quality and affordable education, raising the living standard of the low-income people, upgrading infrastructure in the rural and interior regions, and improving public transportation in a moderate period of time. [Najib Identifies Key Areas For KPI Targets.Bernama. July 11 2009]
In times when China is growing ever influential with other governments become increasingly reluctant to criticize the Dragon, it is good to know that someone has the courage to stand up and go against the wave. In response to the situation in Xinjiang where a racial riot between Uighur minority and Han majority that caused death on both sides happened, Turkey accused China of committing genocide against the minority.[1]
Turkey’s accusation of genocide is a tad too dramatic however. Furthermore, given Turkey’s history, Turkey might not have the moral authority to make that accusation, regardless the truth of the allegation.
That however does not negate the fact that Turkey’s criticism of China is appropriate at this juncture. What happened and is happening in Xinjiang cannot be left ignored by the world. Turkey went to keep the issue from dying, as China would want it.
If Turkey had remained silenced, China would remain relatively free from criticism from various governments. That would continue to create a suffocating momentum that gradually but ominously creates an environment where China is free from criticism. Continous unadmonished behavior of China may give it the idea that as long as it is an internal matter, it could do whatever it like. That is clearly false.
A break of that trend is important to demonstrate how that is false. Turkey broke it and that is why I salute Turkey.
[1] — The comment by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that Chinese policy in Xinjiang was ”like a genocide” and that China should ”abandon its policy of assimilation,” will ring in Beijing ears for a long time. However excessive his choice of words, Mr. Erdogan was in effect speaking for all Turkic people from the Mediterranean to central China. [The Echoes of Xinjiang. Philip Bowring. New York Times. July 14 2009]