Categories
Conflict & disaster Liberty

[1051] Of conscription in the name of disaster relief

Amid chaos in Johor, I am hearing worrying calls for something similar to conscription. I have not heard an outright call for conscription but Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil is suggesting something that comes close to that effect:

PETALING JAYA, Jan 14 (Bernama) — Woman, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil will announce the locations of all flood relief centres in Johor tomorrow so that the National Service Training Department (NSTD) can deploy its trainees to the areas.

She said with the addresses of these centres revealed, the department can move on its own to help the flood victims.

“For the cleaning works, please bring your own equipment,” she told reporters after the launch of an anti-drug campaign at Seri Sentosa flat, here Sunday.

Yesterday, she suggested that the National Service trainees be utilised to assist the Community Services Department (CSD) in helping flood victims in Johor.

A more worrying development is this:

KOTA BAHARU, Jan 14 (Bernama) — The Disaster Brigade is made compulsory at public institutions of higher learning (IPTA) in an effort to nurture caring attitude and exemplary conduct among students, said Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed.

“The formation of the brigade is made formal today and we hope private institutions of higher learning will follow suit,” he told reporters after delivering his new year address to principals, headmasters and district education officers from Tanah Merah district here today.

More from The Star:

KOTA BARU: Higher Education Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed wants public institutions of higher learning (IPTAs) to make community work compulsory for undergraduates.

He said all IPTAs must form community brigades to help ease the sufferings of those who become victims of natural disasters such as floods.

The brigades’ role is to extend help to victims of natural disasters namely in clean-up programmes, he told reporters after meeting Jeli district education officers and principals here yesterday.

Instead of mulling over conscription — or whatever one may wish to call it — how about we fully mobilize our professional and volunteer-based military?

In the name of pragmatism, I would prefer a nationwide emergency that is conscious to civil liberties to any kind of conscription.

Even if conscription were acceptable, it would be highly inappropriate for Malaysian leaders to call for conscription while they themselves prefer to spend time vacationing abroad in times of disaster. Such leaders have no moral rights to call for conscription.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

p/s – implementation of conscription to increase others’ happiness is another example of conflict of happiness.

Categories
Politics & government

[1050] Of Batu Talam: null and void?

The boycott of Batu Talam by-election reminds me of the past Thai election.

The natural question is this: is there a Malaysian provision that would null and void the election result if certain quota is unfulfilled, i.e. very low voter turnout?

Categories
Liberty

[1049] Of the end and conflict of happiness

I painfully wrote a piece on why liberty is the end of the state to further explore another related idea that I had shared earlier. Specifically, the earlier material would affect my perception on the state. Despite that, I did not say how it would affect my view of the state. This entry explains how it would affect my view of the state.

If I had concluded that happiness is the end of the state, that would effectively mean that I should be supportive of welfare state arrangement. The support for welfare state is the would be conclusion that I am uncomfortable of.

I see the purpose of welfare state as the advancement of happiness of the society that form the state; the state’s end is happiness. It seeks something similar to the joint utility function or joint happiness as mentioned previously. A welfare state seeks a “happiness floor” for its citizens. Never mind of the measurement of central tendency because that floor could be seen as a joint happiness. For the uninitiated, joint happiness is:

A democratic system may provide a mean or median happiness — mean or median joint utility function — and the state may take that as the state’s happiness.

Having a joint happiness will inevitably violate a person’s happiness. Why?

As written earlier, joint happiness does not represent non-centrists’ view or in this case, happiness. The farther a person’s utility function away from the joint happiness, the less happy a person would be. In other words, the end of the state contradicts the end of the individual, the citizens.

Perhaps an example is in order.

Let us consider a safety net called unemployment benefits. To escape debate on the effectiveness of unemployment benefits, let assume a very generous benefit that eliminates any possible effectiveness related to the state.

Also, let us assume of an unemployed person. Unemployment deprives the person from a stream of income. A prolonged unemployment later exhausts the person’s saving and eventually, zero wealth. This adversely affect the person’s happiness and brings the person’s happiness to somewhere below a joint happiness as agreed by citizens of a state to be enforced by the state. The state therefore provides unemployment benefits to the unemployed person.

Such provision however can only be possible through taxation.

For a person, let us call the person a dissenter, that disagrees with welfare state arrangement, any taxation upon the dissenter meant for unemployment benefits reduces the dissenter’s happiness. Notice how one’s happiness has to be subsidized by another person and this effectively reduces the happiness of the latter.

So, if I had concluded that the end of the state is happiness, I would have come to two conflicting conclusions. That was what was bothering so much.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reservedp/s – another example is the film adapted from Isaac Asimov’s idea which Will Smith starred in — I, Robot. Not directly related to happiness but the reasoning is similar: citizens’ security is trampled upon for the sake of the species’ security.

Categories
ASEAN

[1048] Of Australia to apply into ASEAN

Years ago, Israel expressed its desire to join the European Union. I was skeptical of it back then because of one reason: geography. Now, I am expressing similar skepticism on Australian intention to join ASEAN. According to Bloomberg:

Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Trade Minister Warren Truss will attend the second East Asia meeting on Jan. 15. along with leaders from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations plus Japan, China, India, South Korea and New Zealand. Australia will also push its application for permanent membership in Asean, analysts said.

Just like how Israel is not geographically Europe, Australia is not part of Southeast Asia.

This does not mean that I do not favor closer integration among nations of the world or within this context, between ASEAN and Australia. I am all for it. I would be delighted if free flow of labor and capital through the borders of ASEAN and Australia were guaranteed. Further, I do not deny that ASEAN and Australia share a number of similar concerns that demand close cooperation.

Yet, having Australia as a member state questions the basis of ASEAN: what is the basis of ASEAN?

I consider ASEAN as a regional grouping. As the name suggests, the region refers to Southeast Asia.

If ASEAN is to grant Australia membership, I do not see why it should stop with just Australia. China, South Korea and Japan should be part of ASEAN. Maybe, even India too. Hence, where would it end?

The admission of these states into ASEAN would possibly dilute the influence the original ten member states. I am sure these current extra-ASEAN states have their own unique interests and they could bring up those issues that at the expense of ours. Take what had happened at APEC for example: because of President Bush’s political goal, terrorism became the focus of APEC despite the fact that APEC was established as a trade forum. The trend was only reversed after several East Asian countries as well as those from Southeast Asia took a stand and said no to the US, saying that APEC is a trade forum, not security.

Furthermore, ASEAN is drafting its charter. The matter of accession will distract ASEAN from the exercise. If we as ASEAN are to admit Australia into the club, or even debate on it, let us do it after the ratification of the charter.

Therefore, I am currently in the position that Australia should remain in the next best thing: the East Asia Summit. I am saying no to Australia, for now.

Categories
Environment

[1047] Of 30% sourced from hydropower

I am disappointment to hear that Malaysia is planning to source 30% of its electricity from hydroelectric power plant. In The Star today:

PUTRAJAYA: The plan is to have 30% of electricity over the next decade generated through hydropower to reduce the adverse effects of fossil fuel use.

Power generated through gas and coal will be reduced to 45% and 25% respectively.

Hydroelectricity generation currently constitutes only 5.5%, gas 70.2%, and coal 21.8%.

I would prefer to see the country diversifies its sources and includes heavier utilization of green renewables like solar and wind energy.

Further in the article:

“Hydroelectricity is environment-friendly, renewable, cheap and stable. Prices of fossil fuel are not stable and are always increasing,” he [Energy, Water and Communications Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik] told reporters after addressing the ministry’s monthly gathering here yesterday.

While hydroelectric is renewable, it is not environmental friendly and hence, not green. Hydroelectric dam devastates local environment perhaps more than any other types of power plant. The larger a dam, the greater the damage done to the local environment. The intensity of damage done to the local environment by a large dam could rival any other types of power plant at typical operational level.

One does not need to be reminded how various dams in the United States have contributed to the falling salmon population:

Scientists estimate that about 70%-95% of the human-induced kills of salmon in the Columbia Basin are dam related. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service “the major decline of the runs coincides with the construction and operation of dams for electrical power, irrigation, and flood control. Between 1930 and the late 1970’s about 200 dams, including 19 major hydro-electric dams, were constructed in the Columbia Basin to provide water for irrigation, flood control, barging, and cheap electricity for the aluminum smelters and cities of the region. Hardly any major stream was left untouched. For example, the 1214 mile Columbia River was turned into a series of back to back dams and reservoirs. Less than 200 miles of the Columbia River in the United States remain free-flowing today.

Or the extinction of the Chinese dolphin.

In The Star further, the minister seems to have implicitly assumed that hydropower plant produces less or practically no greenhouse gases compared to fossil fuel-based plants:

The minister said burning fossil fuels increased global warming and caused other damage.

That assumption does not necessarily hold for all cases.

Recent publications have suggested that dams in tropical areas produce significant amount of greenhouse gases due to decomposition in areas flooded by dams:

Hydroelectric dams produce significant amounts of carbon dioxide and methane, and in some cases produce more of these greenhouse gases than power plants running on fossil fuels. Carbon emissions vary from dam to dam, says Philip Fearnside from Brazil’s National Institute for Research in the Amazon in Manaus. “But we do know that there are enough emissions to worry about.”

In a study to be published in Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Fearnside estimates that in 1990 the greenhouse effect of emissions from the Curuá-Una dam in Pará, Brazil, was more than three-and-a-half times what would have been produced by generating the same amount of electricity from oil.

This is because large amounts of carbon tied up in trees and other plants are released when the reservoir is initially flooded and the plants rot. Then after this first pulse of decay, plant matter settling on the reservoir’s bottom decomposes without oxygen, resulting in a build-up of dissolved methane. This is released into the atmosphere when water passes through the dam’s turbines.

Therefore, please reconsider dear sir.