Duncan Lewis could not uncover what ABC 4 Corners did with less resources, and he is now to head ASIO?

NOTE

The appointment of Ducan Lewis as head of ASIO seems to underscore why form will always win over substance. 

While Lewis is highly credentialed and has experience as a field commander, that , as I have said before,does not make him a competent spy master.

His incompetence was described in an article on my blog published on  WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2012

People Smuggling: Did Australia's National Security Adviser learn anything in Malaysia?

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on April 25,2009:
WAVES of Australia-bound asylum seekers crossing from Malaysia to Indonesia have prompted the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to send the national security adviser, Duncan Lewis, to talk with Malaysian officials about counter measures.
Mr Lewis was accompanied by the head of Customs, Michael Carmody, and senior immigration and Australian Federal Police officers. Before leaving Kuala Lumpur yesterday, members of the delegation said the meetings with Malaysian officials were "positive".
"There has been agreement at a conceptual level for increased co-operation and engagement to combat people smuggling," one member said.


On February 1 2012 a boat capsized of the east coast of Malaysia.The wording of reports regarding that incident by Malaysian media, which are essentially state controlled, is instructive:

EIGHT foreigners drowned in Malaysian waters early yesterday while attempting to sneak into Australia to seek greener pastures.
District police chief Superintendent Che Mahazan Che Aik said when police reached Telok Semayong about 8am, they saw eight bodies washed ashore while further off, the 12 survivors were spotted in a group.
“We believe the foreigners were trying to leave the country illegally. They were using Malaysia as a spring-board,” he said.
Initial investigations also revealed that the passengers had paid US$8,000 (RM24,000) each for the journey from their country to Australia.
The 12 who were rescued were sent to the district police station to assist investigations while the bodies were sent to the district hospital for post-mortem.
(by Sam Bak Heng, 8 drown off Johor;New Straits Times,02 February 201)



Eight people drowned, 11 others were rescued while six more are still missing, all foreigners, after their boat capsized off Teluk Semayong waters, Sedili Besar, near Kota Tinggi Wednesday morning. Kota Tinggi Police Chief Supt Che Mahazan Che Aik said the boat was believed to be illegally ferrying men from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to a neigbouring country when the boat capsized.
(Report in the Borneo Post, 2 February 2012, quoting the national wire news service, Bernama)


Clearly, what Australia regards as "asylum seekers" Malaysia regards as opportunists.
As far as Malaysian police are concerned the main issue here is "illegal ferrying".
The persons being ferried are not being treated as asylum seekers, refugees, or anything of that sort but rather suspects or accomplices in a crime.


How then did Duncan Lewis and party come to the conclusion that "there has been agreement at a conceptual level"?
Lewis is now Secretary , Department of Defence, and the post of National Security Adviser has yet to be filled. Nevertheless, as NSA he was , in essence, the country's chief spy.
As Sally Neighbour put it:
The most recent initiative is the appointment by the former Rudd government of a National Security Adviser (NSA), who works out of the prime minister’s office and chairs a new National Intelligence Coordination Committee, to ensure the agencies are “closely aligned [and] effectively integrated”. Australia’s first NSA, the former SAS commander Brigadier Duncan Lewis.....
(the post) centralises control in the prime minister’s office ... the position is entirely outside the accountability umbrella of IGIS.
(Sally Neighbour, Hidden Agendas,The Monthly, 2010-11-04)

Despite these advantages, it does appear that the NSA learnt nothing in Malaysia, or of Malaysian attitudes to what Australia considers asylum seekers. Judging from the SMH report, and from the Gillard government's handling of the the "asylum seeker" issue it does appear that the present administration is light years away from understanding the problem of illegal migrants.Pretending that this simply another aspect of the white man's burden is an idea that has long passed its due date.

The full extent of Lewis's incompetence was laid bare by Sarah Ferguson's Captain Emad story, where she detailed the operations of a people smuggling ring headquartered just 15 minutes from the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur:

 

The ABC has revealed that people smugglers connected with a deadly disaster at sea are now residing in Australia under refugee visas. 

According to passengers on Emad's boat, in detention in Australia, Abdullah al Sharifi talked openly about his work as a smuggler with Captain Emad in Malaysia and Indonesia. 

"He said, 'I was with Captain Emad in Malaysia. He brought me here for free and we work together at this smuggling business'," passenger Rahim said.

A different life

It is not clear what Captain Emad told Australian immigration officials to convince them he was a genuine refugee in need of protection.

What is known is that before he set up shop in Indonesia, he had spent a large portion of his life in downtown Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

His legitimate business in Malaysia was perfume. By 2005 he owned four perfume shops in Kuala Lumpur and he still owns at least one

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-04/powerful-people-smugglers-caught-living-in-australia/4050506

END 

Andrew Constance Could Not Be Trusted With Fines, Should Not Be Trusted With Treasury

by Ganesh Sahathevan

The new NSW Treasurer Andrew Constance's  methods of improving NSW  state revenue at all costs,  disregarding even the law,  while  in his former finance and services portfolio, makes him unsuitable to be put in charge of the more senior Treasury portfolio.

As Minister For Finance Mr Constance sought to increase state revenue by enforcing parking fines. In 2012 alone he added $ 177 million to state revenues by imposing parking fines on apparent over-stayers at parks and hospitals, hitting the sick, elderly , and students.
When questioned on that strategy  Mr Constance said:

"If a driver believes they have been fined incorrectly, they can seek a review from the Office of State Revenue (OSR)."

However, there is evidence that the OSR , led by the Commissioner For Fines, Tony Newbury, and Mr Constance, appear to have in place a scheme where reviews are routinely rejected and the appellants told instead to seek redress via the legal system , in the expectation that the costs of legal challenge will discourage doing so, and the fine paid without challenge.

In a recent incident where this writer was involved, an attempt was successfully made to make Mr Constance and Mr Newbury reveal  their methods when  justifying  a fine.Email queries were sent Mr Newbury , Mr Constance , and then Premier, O'Farrell.

In response, Mr Newbury, in a letter sent on behalf of Constance and O'Farrell, admitted that:

a) they could not detail the actual facts of the offence upon which their penalty was premised.
They had earlier determined to justify the penalty on a fabricated story which involved  a child that was supposed to be the driver's , the child climbing out of the car,and  child walking then walking towards the car ; all of which was false.

b)  there was disagreement between the time of offence stated in the penalty notice, and their own photographs which they furnished as evidence of the crime. In fact , the times were clearly transposed, raising the issue of whether the time of offence had been deliberately misstated to justify the offence.
Nevertheless, this was explained away as a failure to adjust their cameras for daylight saving, but then;

c) could not say  how the time of offence was actually determined

Given that most fines, including the one described above, are for a few hundred dollars and given that legal fees are usually upward of a thousand, most fines are paid without any legal challenge, regardless of the facts.Indeed judges are angered by litigants who disregard  "commercial realities".
However, Mr Constance does not seem to have realized that being a politician, the court of public opinion is what really matters to his future. If the best he can do is cheat to raise public revenue, it is unlikely that he possesses the skills necessary to balance the state's books.
END

An example of the debate among Malays illustrates why MGG Pillai was heard, and today's non-Malay commentators are not

NOTE 

While many would be aware that MGG Pillai and I had , shall we say, a major difference of opinion in the last few years of his life, I must say that he was not afraid to participate in debates, private and public , like the ones described below by Rocky Atan. 

He did take sides, and that did become an issue, but he was at least brave enough to do so.

True, he started out as a journalist when the races were less divided,and the leadership more inclusive, but then , he continued to speak and write as he did despite the changing environment.Doing so, he   remained  relevant till the day he died.

On the other hand, today's non-Malay commentators seem more interested in making a play of having "controversial" views,and then of hiding, or remaining quiet, for fear that "they" are listening, thus giving themselves a degree of importance they simply do not have. Put in another way, the irrelevant are made even more irrelevant by their ego. 

Thursday, January 09, 2014

The photograph that spooked Annie and some others

Got a few calls to ask me if "you bloggers" are revolting against the PM. Even prominent businessman TF was concerned enough to call me for the first time in over a year: "Why are the bloggers whacking Najib ... except you?" The latest caller, a little lady called Annie, said she became particularly worried after reading Apanama's Najib Worse Than Pak Lah? People familiar with the Malaysian blogosphere would equate Apanama with critical-but-polite postings, a cool head among today's very temperamental and crazily critical English-driven bloggers. But Apanama's latest posting was so hard-hitting it seems that even the punching machine Syed Akbar Ali was quoting him line for line.  

"And, aiyooo,  my dear Rocky did you see the photograph published by OutSyed The Box's!?" I promised her I'd check out the two blogs as soon as I get back to my den from a dinner with some consultants. 

And, ah, no wonder Annie was spooked! Here's the picture Syed Akbar published in his posting Apanama makan Roti Teloq - Ampat Biji!! 

Superstitious people avoid threesome shots

People would read all kinds of things upon seeing this photograph and you can't blame them if they do. But I'd tell Annie that things are not always what they appear to be. Tun Daim Zainuddin, the man flanked by OutSyed The Box and Apanama in the picture, engages bloggers every now and then over breakfast. He would even invite some of the mainstream editors from time to time. But no, Daim's not the "unseen hand" some people think is behind recent incessant attacks on Najib, his wife, and family and friends. Or on Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, for that matter (see Syed Akbar's posting on the former nemesis h e r e).

I have had the privilege of joining the Tun for roti canai in some very public places where we exchanged stories and gossips. Daim is an excellent story teller. The last time I was invited to breakfast with Tun Daim, I was late by a few minutes. After I had taken my allocated seat next to the former Finance Minister, my ex boss AKJ asked those who were pro-Najib to move over to Daim's side, with me and Syed Akbar (who was seated to Daim's left), while those who were not for the PM would sit opposite Daim, with AKJ. Just like a school debate. A lof of things were said in jest like that but we did talk about the serious stuff too. 

When we're not meeting Daim, we bloggers would be meeting anyone who wants to engage us. But not everyone wants to engage us. 

As for Apanama's hard-hitting posting, it is indeed a reflection of what a lot of people feel. Tan Sri Zainal Rampak, the trade union leader, thinks Najib is not getting a true picture of what's happening on the ground and has asked me to "please tell Datuk Seri Najib to go down to the people."  

Apanama wants Najib to stop talking about transformation plans and start transforming. The PM can sack some aides and reshuffle his Cabinet, for a start.

"We need men and women of character, capability and common sense to steer this nation forward ... some of your cabinet members have become laughing stocks. Quite a number of the better cabinet members are finding it hard to hold their heads up in public because of the clowns among them."  

But please do read what Apanama has to say right to the end of his posting so that you won't miss the message:

But time is running out, Mr Prime Minister