The Malaysian Insider

FEB 22 — Most folks know this but I say it anyway. Article 48 (6) of the Federal Constitution states : “A person who resign his membership of the House of Representatives, shall, for a period of five years, beginning with the date of his resignation take effect, be disqualified from being a member of the House of Representatives.”

There is similar provision in every state in respect of state legislative assembly representatives.

Meaning a Member of Parliament or state assemblyman who resign (vacate their seat) will have to sit it out for five years before trying to get reelected ie contest election.

FEB 18 — Lim Guan Eng has denied it. Perkasa — the so-called Malay rights group — has accused him of lying.

Perkasa labelled Lim "anti Malay". But the group itself is seen by many as “ultra Malay”. Yes, I’m talking about the Prophet Muhammad birthday which has become an issue albeit unnecessary . Lim, Chief Minister of Penang, as we know has said he never had any intention to cancel the procession in his state.

His detractors however say the intention was there but retracted after a big hue and cry was created. We can only “guess” as who is telling the truth, and who is not.

FEB 17 — I must confess I write this for “fear” of being accused (by the authorities and everyone else) of only wanting to write about “not good news”. Earlier this month I wrote about the “plight” of our students as a result of tight operating budget in schools and hostels. Well, since that article there has been , “developments”, in particular with regards to the annual budget for schools sports. The Education Ministry as we know had slashed the budget from RM6 million to RM1.5 million thus downsizing the number of participating teams and axing a total of 11 sports from the Malaysian Schools Sports Council 2010 calendar. Due to public outcry the DPM, who is also the Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin announced extra budget for the council and ordered all sports dropped earlier be reinstated into the calendar. That’s the good news. Hence this piece, lest I’m labelled “unfair”, for not commenting when things “take the turn for the better”.

Anyway when I heard the good news I sent text messages to friends who are coaches and teachers of schools’ sports teams. To be more specific I sent text messages to three coaches and teachers. One immediately responded and said “it’s good news indeed”. Another took sometime before calling me to say he will have extra training sessions to “whip” his players into shape now that “our tournament is back”. The third replied via text message. He said he didn’t know “when it will be implemented”. When I asked him when he expected it to happen he replied “Pray to God”. I could sense a tinge of scepticism. I sent him a text and told him so, that he didn’t sound “convinced”. He shot back. “Odd. Earlier in the year different circular issued. Less than a month, different things are said .So how am I to be convinced”?

Obviously he wasn’t “upbeat”. I left it at that.

FEB 3 – I first heard about it a couple of weeks ago from a friend who said a friend told him so. Since it cannot be “independently verified”, I dismissed it as rumour and hearsay. That was until last week when I heard about it again.

This time, it was on the radio. You know, those shows on which the presenter or announcer or DJ (they are known by many designations) take a hot current topic and ask listeners to phone in and comment?

The topic that day was “excellent” or “high performance” schools, a new concept unveiled by our DPM cum Education Minister recently.