4 theSun | THURSDAY NOVEMBER 27 2008

news without borders ‘No’ to motion on

Gaza blockade
THE Dewan Rakyat yesterday rejected
a motion by Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi
Giam Say Khoon and Husna Yusop at the Dewan Rakyat (BN-Batu Pahat) to discuss the block-
ade imposed by Israel on Gaza despite
the issue being supported by almost all

Karpal gets 57 signatures

the MPs from both sides.
Deputy Speaker Datuk Ronald
Kiandee said the government had
made its stand known to the world by
issuing a statement in October asking
for strict action to be taken against
the Israeli regime.

for debate on Zaki

KARPAL SINGH (DAP-Bukit Gelugor) yester-
day managed to get the signatures of 57 MPs
– a quarter of the total of 222 – to file a motion
under Standing Order 36(8) and Article 127
of the Federal Constitution to debate the
conduct of Chief Justice Tan Sri Zaki Azmi.
At a press conference at the parliament
lobby, Karpal said the 57 were made up of
Pakatan Rakyat MPs as well as an independ-
ent MP from Sepanggar, Datuk Eric Enchin
Majimbun.
He said Article 127 of the Federal Constitu-
tion allows for the debate on the conduct of
a judge with the support of one-fourth of the
MPs.
“Such a subjective motion requires 14 days
notice, so it will be on the order paper before
the house adjourns in December,” he said.
“I have given Zaki until today to step down
(for his correctional statement clarifying that
he was misinterpreted in a news report on
Nov 8). So we have to take it further.
“We now want to debate Zaki as he (alleg-
edly) lied (in his correctional statement) in his
capacity as a chief justice.”
Earlier, Karpal had moved an emergency
motion to debate the statement made by
Zaki on Nov 7 on his alleged “experience”
in bribing court officials when he was still a
practising lawyer in 1987.
The emergency motion was rejected by
Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia on Nov
12 as the house was not allowed to debate
the conduct of the judges unless a quarter
of the total number of MPs supported it, as
stipulated in the Federal C onstitution.
Karpal also urged the prime minister to
invoke the provision of Article 125(3) of the
Federal Constitution to refer Zaki to a tribunal
appointed by the King in accordance with
clause 4 to remove him from office.
Asked if he felt the motion will be read out
and debated, Karpal said the speaker cannot
reject the motion now.
“We will insist that it will be discussed even
after the government business,” he said.
On whether he was in possession of a
recording of Zaki’s statement, he said: “We
have the recording and since there is no
denial from the chief justice, we accepted it
as the truth.”
Karpal also accused Minister in the Prime
Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz
of “lying again” when Nazri said a letter by
the King to the chief secretary to the gov-
ernment was not made public for 20 years
and, therefore, he did not know about the
pensions paid to the sacked judges.
“A story was carried on The Star on Oct 7,
1988 that the King had ordered that pension
to be given to the judges,” he said, adding
that he will produce the paper cutting of the
report today.
“I am satisfied that the issue
is not urgent and need not be
discussed here,” he said.
Mohd Puad said in his motion
Israeli has shown disrespect towards
the demands of the international
community and the UN resolutions.
Azizah to stay on as
president: Anwar
OPPOSITION Leader Datuk Seri An-
war Ibrahim brushed aside specula-
tion that there will be a transition
of power between him and his
wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan
Ismail, who is the president of Parti
Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), during the
party congress this weekend.
Did he lie The PKR de facto leader said
or not? Wan Azizah is doing good work as
Karpal wants the party president.
house to debate “I do participate much more now
conduct of but she is (the one) looking at the
Zaki (left). operation in the party and she got
the mandate (from the members)
as she was elected,” Anwar said.
“I would support that she stays
and continues as the president so
that I am given more time to work
not only on PKR but also Pakatan
Rakyat as this is the synergy and
understanding between us.”

MyKad: Syed Hamid apologises for ignorant cops
INCIDENTS in which the police did
not know that the identity card (IC)
and driving licence are combined in
the MyKad should not have happened,
Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid
Albar said.
While tendering an apology to
Nasharuddin Md Isa (PAS-Bachok),
who said he has been faced with such
situations several times before, Syed
Hamid said there should be coordina-
tion and understanding about this
among the agencies concerned.
He also said the government was
aware of the poor quality of the elec-
tronic chip in the MyKad – as claimed
by Nasharuddin, who said some had
become “rusty” and could not be read
by the scanner – but assured him that
efforts were being taken to improve it.
To a question from Datuk Mo-
hamad Aziz (BN-Sri Gading), Syed
Hamid said the latest MyKad is of high
quality and could not be tampered
with as it uses the biometric system
and the thumbprint.
“Before we introduced the MyKad,
there were problems because the pre-
vious IC had a lamination which could
be torn but now it cannot because it is
in the form of a card,” he said.
“And, using the biometric and
thumbprint system, even if we put
someone else’s photo on it, it could not
possibly be forged because the thumb-
print is different. So, it is easier for us to
identify the owner of the card.”
Mohamad had also asked for the
number of MyPR holders, the problems
they faced in getting citizenship and
the problems faced by people in Sabah
and Sarawak who did not have ICs.
Syed Hamid said that out of
371,281 permanent resident status
holders in Malaysia, 198,510 have
been issued with MyPR. The rest have
yet to change to the new card.
Once they have changed to MyPR,
it would be easier for them to get
citizenship.
“But there are still a lot of backlog
cases and that is why we have in-
creased our staff and they also work
on Saturdays and Sunday to tackle all
the old cases,” he said.
Syed Hamid also told Datuk Abdul
Ghapur Salleh (BN-Kalabakan) he
realised there were cases in which
qualified applicants have yet to get
their citizenship status approved even
after 20 years. He promised to solve
them as soon as possible.
Abdul Ghapur had also complained
about the quality of the card, saying:
“Our IC actually does not have quality
at all. In my area, if the villagers were
to carry their IC with them everyday, it
could break into two pieces.”
‘Absolute open skies’
ruled out
MALAYSIA cannot have an absolute
open skies policy whereby flights can
have landing rights to any destination,
Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee
Keat said.
Replying to N. Gobalakrishnan
(PKR-Padang Serai), who suggested
blanket approval for all flights to go
to any des tination, he said there are
limitations and guidelines, depending
on bilateral relations, which must be
complied with by all parties.
There is also the question of quota,
which depends on the business deci-
sions made by the civil aviation com-
panies, Ong said.