4 theSun | TUESDAY APRIL 7 2009

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No special treatment for Najib’s children

KUALA LUMPUR: Their father may
be the country’s prime minister but
Riza Shahriz, Nooryana Najwa and
Norashman Razak live just like any
other ordinary citizen.
They get no special treatment.
Life has not changed even though
their father Datuk Seri Najib Tun
Razak has ascended to the country’s
most powerful position as prime
minister.
And living abroad has enabled
Riza, 31, Nooryana, 20, and Norash-
man, 18, to be more independent.
“There is no difference in terms of
family life. It’s still the same and I’m
sure Mummy (Datin Seri Rosmah
Mansor) and Daddy (Najib) expect
the same from all of us.
“(When) we go back to our
normal lives in London and Wash-
ington DC, we still have to clean our
rooms and take out the trash,” said
Nooryana, who is fondly known as
Gina by family and friends.
Nooryana is currently into her
second year pursuing studies in
international politics and foreign
policies in Georgetown University,
Washington. Her younger brother,
Norashman, fondly known as
Ashman, is a first-year student in
international relations studies in the
same university.
Riza is in corporate finance at
HSBC London, where he has been
working for the last seven years.
When met at KL International
Airport (KLIA) before departing to
their respective destinations early
Sunday, Norashman said he believed
what made their parents proud was
and so’s son or daughter”.
Rosmah, who was also present at
the interview, said she wanted them
to lead a normal life, like ordinary
people and normal university stu-
dents.
“There is no special treatment
for them overseas. They are just
ordinary children and university
students. I don’t allow them to have
special treatment.
“They still have to go through the
normal channels for immigration
Rosmah sends off her children
to their respective destinations
at KLIA on Sunday. Riza
and they still have to carry their own
bags,” she said.
On what they could do to help
their prime minister father, Riza, on
behalf of his siblings, said of utmost
importance was to behave accord-
ingly.
“No trouble for dad means he can
actually focus on his responsibilities
150% without us being a burden.
“Yes, we do get to be in (selected)
places when we travel, see a lot of
new places, meeting many impor-
tant people, which I guess, normal
people wouldn’t have the chance to
do so. But at the same time, we will
be subject to pressure in terms of
the (certain) responsibilities which
normal people wouldn’t be subjected
to.
“So it has got to be the ‘ying’
and ‘yang’, good and bad, hopefully
throughout the months and years to
come, Insyallah, we will be able to
navigate those muddy waters in the
best way we can,” he said.
Nooryana said: “I think people
(often) underestimate what it takes to
be a good leader. In growing up with
my father, we have seen how hard
he works and the sacrifices he had
to make. And it’s not just about the
publicity, I mean, you really have to
have it in you to be a good leader.”
Riza said their father never pres-
sured any one of them to follow his
footsteps by going into politics.
“But he did say that, ‘whatever
role you play in society, I want you
to contribute well. It does not matter
whether it is in politics, accountancy,
law or banking or others, just make
sure you make a contribution to the
country in some form’,” he said.
Nooryana said she hoped that her
father would be a fair leader to all.
She said her father’s strong will
and rational thinking were among
the strongest points that he possessed
as a leader.
“The fact is that he does not get
pressured by emotions. He does
not get easily influenced by other
people’s suggestions. He has a clear
vision of what he wants to do and
I think that is the most important
characteristic as a leader ... to be
objective,” she said.
Norashman felt that the premier’s
strength was that he could maintain
his composure even during emo-
tional moments.
Riza said: “He is a very sharp man
as well. I see him on a daily basis,
he can switch from having a nap
for 20 minutes and then when he
wakes up, he can just immediately
talk about (US President Barack)

BERNAMAPIX
the children achieving what they Obama’s speech, or the financial cri-
(left) works in London while
have today through their own hard sis, or the credit crunch immediately
Nooryana and Norashman are
work “not just because we are so (after that).” – Bernama
studying in Washington.

Wednesday decision on Perak reps’ suit Police seize papers

PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court here
will decide tomorrow whether it has ju-
risdiction to determine the constitutional
issue of who has the power to declare
the vacancy of a Perak state seat.
Court of Appeal president Tan Sri
Alauddin Mohd Sheriff set the date after
hearing submissions on a preliminary
objection by Sulaiman Abdullah, counsel
for Perak assembly speaker V. Sivaku-
mar, who challenged the matter being
referred to the Federal Court.
The other four judges who sat with
him were Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk
Arifin Zakaria, Federal Court judges
Datuk Nik Hashim Nik Ab Rahman and
Datuk S. Augustine Paul and Appeal
Court judge Datuk James Foong.
Sivakumar and the three independ-
ent assemblymen who had brought
the suit were not present.
The three – Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi,
Capt (R) Mohd Osman Jailu and Hee Yit
Foong – had applied for the suit to be re-
ferred to the Federal Court under article
63 of the Perak Constitution 1957.
Sulaiman objected on the grounds
that the court has no jurisdiction to deal
with article 63 of the Perak Constitution
as it is a pre-Merdeka Day legislation.
Sulaiman said article 63 came into
effect before Aug 31, 1957, and the
word “Supreme Court” in the article
referred to two courts – High Court
and Court of Appeal – as established in
1948, whereas the Federal Court was
only set up in September 1963.
He said although the word “Supreme
Court” in article 63 was later amended to
“Federal Court” in 1997, Article 63 of the
Perak Constitution was not equipped to
allow the applicant to refer constitutional
issues to the Federal Court.
“Article 121 of the Federal Constitu-
tion confers three jurisdictions to the
Federal Court – appellate jurisdiction,
original or consultative jurisdiction and
other jurisdiction as may be conferred
by federal law. The Perak Constitution
cannot be a federal law.
“The only way to read article 63
harmoniously with article 162 of the
Federal Constitution is to interpret the
word ‘Supreme Court’ as ‘High Court’.”
However, Attorney-General Tan Sri
Abdul Gani Patail, who appeared as an
intervenor in the hearing, submitted
that article 63 was validly enacted and
validly conferred the jurisdiction to the
Federal Court to hear this application.
“It is only proper and appropriate
for the Federal Court to hold that it is
seised with the jurisdiction to hear this
application under article 63,” he said.
Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin,
leading counsel for the three assembly-
men, adopted the same stand as Abdul
Gani, saying that the Federal Court
had interpretative power to decide on
constitutional issues. – Bernama
on Kugan’s
post mortem
by Charles Ramendran
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
PETALING JAYA: Police raided the University Malaya Medical
Centre (UMMC) mortuary yesterday and seized documents
related to the post mortem the hospital conducted on car-theft
suspect A. Kugan who died in police custody on Jan 20.
The raid followed an announcement by Health Director-General
Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican yesterday that the findings of their inde-
pendent committee into the contradicting post mortem reports,
first by the Serdang Hospital on Jan 21 and the next by UMMC
on Jan 25, showed A. Kugan had an underlying heart disease,
suffered beatings which could have led to his kidneys failing and
this led to fluid retention in his lungs which killed him.
MACC He said Kugan was found to have an underlying acute
wraps up myocarditis, while the blunt force trauma could have led to acute
probe on renal failure aggravating the acute myocarditis resulting in acute
pulmonary oedema.
Penang “Acute myocarditis is an acute inflammation of the heart
deputy muscle which may be caused by infections or toxins. It is a known
CM cause of sudden death in young adults and gross examination of
the heart appears unremarkable in up to 30% of the cases,” Ismail
pg 6 was quoted by Bernama.
Ismail also said all body injuries noted on Kugan were insuf-
ficient, either individually or collectively, to cause death directly.
“There was no evidence of injuries to the internal organs and
no skeletal fractures were detected,” he said.
CID director Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Zinin, when contacted, said
police had sought a search warrant to obtain the documents at
the UMMC to facilitate their probe into the case.
He said police required the documents for the probe due to the
different findings on the two post mortems conducted on Kugan.
Eleven policemen from the Subang Jaya police headquarters
who were part of the team investigating the suspected crimes
allegedly committed by Kugan were relieved from their positions
as members of the district CID and have been confined to desk
duties at the state contingent police headquarters. The case was
classified initially as “assault in an attempt to extract a testimony”
but it was later reclassified as murder.
When asked if the men are expected to be charged in court
soon, Mohd Bakri said he was unable to say when as investiga-
tions were ongoing and police would need to go into more details
surrounding the case.