10  TELLING IT AS IT IS theSun | TUESDAY JULY 7 2009

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Go after They dare to dream

the big fish
Scene: Uncle Lim’s kopitiam, PJ. prevent anyone from had thundered away
talking about unity. at those who wanted to
MOHAN: So Azman, Umno and For instance, the Pa- talk unity with Umno.
PAS are talking again. But this katan Rakyat leaders Azman: Malays had
time it’s not unity talks or unity can announce that the always talked about
THE Selangor Government must government talks but intellectual unity talks or unity unity especially when
be lauded for doing something that talks. Between Umno Youth and government idea is off they feel insecure. Isn’t
the previous administration only PAS Youth. and get PAS leaders that right, Cikgu?
embarked on as an afterthought Azman: Clever. Under intel- who are enamoured Zain: Yes, they tend
– taking punitive action against lectual talks they can talk about by the idea of Malay to feel insecure and
incompetent and corrupt civil anything. About the economy, unity to renounce it threatened when the
servants. about the challenges facing Barack but can they actually WhatTheySay non-Malays begin to
In Sept 20, 2007, then Mentri Obama, about Israel agreeing to prevent the unity talks exert themselves and
by Zainon Ahmad
Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad a Palestinian state but a demilita- from going on. I don’t saying that their rights
Khir Toyo decreed that below-par rised one… think so. And I think have been trodden on.
civil servants would be sacked or Chong: A castrated Palestinian those leaders who came up with Like what happened during the
put to pasture early by way of VSS state you mean. That’s what a state the idea of intellectual talks are run-up to last year’s general elec-
(voluntary separation scheme). Down2Earth without an army is. actually thumbing their noses at tion. You cannot deny that the Ma-
The furthest he got, however, by Terence Fernandez Mohan: Yes, that’s right. The certain people. lays had flaunted their power quite
was awarding brooms to under- Umno and PAS boys can talk about Mohan: Thumbing their noses a bit after winning that landslide
performing local councils, as six that and if they want to, also talk at whom? Datuk Seri Anwar Ibra- in 2004. The non-Malays were
months later his administration was booted out in the general about Malay unity. Who can say him, the alliance leader? Is it Lim alarmed and began to speak up.
election. that it is not an intellectual subject. Kit Siang, the DAP strongman? Chong: Seems to me it’s all
Last Thursday, colleague Llew-Ann Phang and I spent Clever aren’t they, Cikgu? Is it Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, right for the Malays to speak up
an hour with Ronnie Liu, the executive councillor for local Najib: Govt Zain: Yes, they are certainly considered by some loyalists as but when we non-Malays speak up
government, research and development. clever. After all, how can you the supreme leader of PAS? He they say we are asking for more.
Liu was uncharacteristically coy when discussing the puni- streamlin-
tive measures taken against state officers who breached the ing
public trust. policies
He told us about 20 people had either been transferred
or lost their jobs for various offences. He declined to name to be more
these officers or their departments for good reason – that
the state is continuing its investigations and expects more
people to be hauled up.
While one understands the need for confidentiality in an
ongoing probe, at the same time, as a politician Liu needs to
be accountable to the public who put him there to clean up
the mess.
competitive
pg 12
Cities of the dead
ON AUG 6, 1945, “LITTLE BOY”, A URANIUM BOMB,
This move will take the heat off the state which had been
under criticism for its perceived sluggishness in addressing
issues of the past, while at the same time making boo-boos DEVASTATED HIROSHIMA. ON AUG 9, A PLUTONIUM BOMB
in the implementation of policies and governance.
For example, voicing that it was willing to compromise on DESTROYED NAGASAKI. ON GROUND ZERO, THOUSANDS OF
its “no hillslope-development” policy, appointing fewer NGOs
as local councillors than what was promised and removing
politicians from tender boards, hence doing away with any
PEOPLE WERE VAPORISED IN THE BLINDING FLASH OF HEAT
sort of internal checks and balances by giving civil servants a
free hand in deciding who gets contracts.
AND THERMAL RADIATION.
After much criticism, these have been reversed but the
state has a complex problem when it comes to dealing by Khor Eng Lee cadavers are particularly numerous. on Aug 9, 1945. The surrounding steep
with civil servants used to one way of doing business for Among them are the wounded who hills confined and tempered the impact
30 years. AFTER the nuking of Hiroshima, are still alive. A few have crawled un- of the atomic explosion, and protected
After 16 months in power, Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Kha- the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin also der the burned-out autos and trams. the city from the full force of the blast,
lid Ibrahim, Liu, Teresa Kok, Hassan Ali, Dr Xavier Jeyakumar wanted the atomic bomb. In 1945, only Frightfully injured forms beckon to us radiant heat, and nuclear radiation.
and the rest are still trying to figure out who can be trusted the United States had the A-bombs – a and then collapse ... ” About 40,000 people died within
with state secrets and be relied on to carry out policies. handful of them. By the Cuban missile Dr Michihiklo Hachiya, director of a month of the bombing, and 70,000
It is no secret that there are civil servants who are still crisis in October 1962, the US had Hiroshima Communications Hospital, by the end of 1945. A total of 140,000
loyal to their previous political masters. How else do you about 27,000 nuclear weapons and recorded in the diary (published in 1955): died in the first five years.
explain documents falling into the hands of the Opposition? the Soviet Union about 3,000 – each “The streets were deserted except for A Japanese news agency reported:
All these should be addressed and we laud the efforts of the of them many times more powerful the dead. Some looked as if they had “Nagasaki is now a dead city, all areas
Opposition led by the former mentri besar in keeping the than the first generation nukes. been frozen to death while still in the have been razed. Only a few buildings
present government on its toes. The first two shots of nuclear fire- full action of flight; others lay sprawled are left, standing conspicuously among
Having said that, the present administration which is fond power in WWII unfolded “the opening as though some giant had flung them to the ashes.”
of accusing the authorities for going after the ikan billis should chapter to the possible annihilation of their death from great heights ... On Aug 10, Strategic Air Force com-
also pull up its socks and take to task senior officers who mankind”, to quote the Japanese study “Nothing remained except a few mander Carl Spaatz proposed targeting
had abetted the previous government in questionable land of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. buildings of reinforced concrete … America’s third atomic bomb on Tokyo
deals. When “Little Boy” exploded at For acres and acres the city was like (what Truman had ruled out about a
When they were in the Opposition, members of the present 8.15:17 on Aug 6, 1945, about 1,800ft a desert except for scattered piles of month earlier after the Trinity test).
administration had criticised the rent-seeking consortium over the heart of Hiroshima, the city bricks and roof Preparations
exercise where all pest-control companies in Subang Jaya had more than 280,000 civilians (about tile. I had to revise were being
needed to register with the consortium if it wanted to do 100,000 were evacuated earlier) and my meaning of I climbed Hikiyama Hill made to de-
business in the municipality. One of those who came up with about 43,000 soldiers. According to the word destruc- and looked down. I was liver and drop
the idea was the council president who today is chief financial official statistics, 70,000 died in Au- tion or choose shocked … Hiroshima didn’t another plu-
officer. gust (most of them on the day of the some other word exist – Hiroshima just didn’t tonium bomb
Today one of the officers involved in talks on the water bombing). A total of 140,000 died by to describe what I on Japan by
deal with concessionaire Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd is lead- the end of 1945, and the number of saw. Devastation exist ...” mid-August.
ing the team to renegotiate the contracts where he faces a the dead rose to 200,000 by the end may be a better – A history professor interviewed twenty On the
of the fifth year. word, but really, I years after the bombing morning of
former exco member – a politician who is today a director
for Puncak Niaga. Of 76,000 buildings in Hiroshima, know of no word Aug 10, Tru-
“I need to keep them there to answer for past decisions,” 70,000 were damaged or destroyed. or words to describe the view.” man received Japan’s acknowledged
was Abdul Khalid’s response when we asked him about keep- The official Japanese study reported According to the history professor acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration
ing such officers. that “the whole city was ruined instan- interviewed by American psychiatrist calling for its surrender. The president
Well and good Tan Sri, but what guarantees do you have taneously.” Robert Jay Lifton, two decades after then gave orders to halt further atomic
that they are not working against you? On the morning of the day after the atomic bombing: “I climbed Hiki- bombing, but not the detonation of
I would like to think that the suspension of the head of the atomic holocaust, a German Jesuit yama Hill and looked down. I saw that conventional explosives. Henry Wallace,
another subsidiary, KDEB, in the Balkis investigations is a sign priest recalled: “The bright day now re- Hiroshima had disappeared … I was secretary of commerce, noted in his di-
that the state government is taking a tougher stance against veals the frightful pictures which last shocked by the sight … What I felt then ary: “… He (Truman) said the thought of
those suspected of complicity in past wrongs. night’s darkness had partly concealed. and still feel now I just can’t explain wiping out another 100,000 people was
The action against the 20-or-so is a good start but one Where the city stood, everything as far with words. Of course I saw many too horrible. He didn’t like the idea of
hopes that the big fish will be hauled up too. as the eye could reach is a waste of dreadful scenes after that – but that killing, as he said, ‘all those kids’ …”
ashes and ruin. Only several skeletons experience, looking down and finding On Aug 13, Truman ordered the
of buildings completely burned out in nothing left of Hiroshima was so shock- Air Force to resume area incendiary
Terence reminds the Selangor administration that people the interior remain. The banks of the ing that I simply can’t express what attacks. Six kilotons of high explosive
expect more from them because they campaigned on a plat- rivers are covered with the dead and I felt … Hiroshima didn’t exist – that and incendiary bombs destroyed half
form of transparency and integrity. It is not the voters’ fault if wounded, and the rising waters have was mainly what I saw – Hiroshima just of Kumagaya and a sixth of Isezaki, kill-
they oversold themselves. He is deputy editor (special reports here and there covered some of the didn’t exist ...” ing several thousand more Japanese
& investigations) and is reachable at terence@thesundaily. corpses. In Nagasaki, “Fat Man” exploded on the eve of Japan’s unconditional
com. “On the broad street in the with an estimated force of 22 kilotons surrender on Aug 15.
Hakushima district, naked, burned about 1,800ft above the city at 11.02am Henry Simson, US secretary of war,