vox populi small thumbnail 'The minister should have resigned long ago - but here, politicians regard their posts as a God-given right. They enjoy the privileges but do not answer for or accept the responsibility.'

FairMind: In other parts of the world, the home minister would have resigned a long time ago for this fiasco. Here we have a home minister who said he had better and more important things to do, and pushed the responsibility back to the police force.

What is more important than the deaths of so many people, including children? Maybe Hishammuddin needs to pay millions of ringgit to a foreign consultant to come up with a Powerpoint presentation as to why the killings are justified.

Jimmy Ng: 270 deaths in 10 years - that's 27 a year! Are we living in a police state or what? By any country's standard, that's like 27 deaths too many. What kind of police do we have? Cowards or ruthless killers? If they are so afraid of being charged at by supposedly "suspects wielding parangs", then they should not be in the police force in the first place. This is a despicable and deplorable state of affairs.

Mahindar Singh: How about having a list of victims who have died in the hands of these criminals and also those family members who have suffered loved ones due to the criminals? How about publishing that too? We focus too much on criminals and less on victims.

Gerard Samuel Vijayan: So it is okay for the police to simply shoot people who are suspected of crime and ask questions later. So a person with a criminal record deserves to be shot and killed even if he happens to be innocent on the occasion.

What LFL (Lawyers for Liberty), the NGOs and PKR are seeking is transparency and accountability on the part of the police. This can only be done if there is proper oversight of the police by a truly independent and impartial body.

Nobody in their right mind would support criminal acts of brutality and violence, and our sympathy is always with the victims and those police officers killed in the line of duty. But even the criminals have rights and one of them is the right to due process.

The police cannot act as vigilantes and summarily execute people at the slightest perception of danger or provocation. Otherwise, what is there to stop any ordinary citizen with a gun licence to simply kill somebody whom they perceive to be a threat. This will lead to anarchy and lawlessness.

SoothSayer: The home minister should have resigned long ago - but here, politicians regard their posts as a God-given right. They enjoy the privileges but do not answer for or accept the responsibility.

Anonymous: All police cars should be equipped with cameras, so that any shooting incident can be documented on video. This is being practised in many developed countries to protect against any police abuse. Videos can help to resolve controversies as to whether the shootings/killings were justified or not.

Outahere: "Negro"? That's truly insulting to a very large population of this world, including the most powerful man on earth, Barack Obama. It goes to show what pariahs we have as police. The home minister had better go and apologise to the whole world and resign from politics for the sake of our nation.

Perhaps the police have lost faith in our judiciary as well? Too many ‘real' criminals walked free?

Lim Chong Leong: Hishammuddin is caught lying outright yet again. He has the thickest skin in the cabinet.

And we shot one "Negro"? What? During a slave hunt? The police still think this is Kunta Kinte's time, when Obama is already ruling at least half the earth? Are we not on the bombing list?

Gov't to save RM1.2 bil from subsidy cuts

Rick Teo: Idris Jala, simple economic principles dictate that you should not save RM1.2 billion and spend RM5 billion on white elephants like the 100 storey-tower.

You skim and save RM1.2 billion by taxing the rakyat and then go on a spending spree on a worthless project which does not benefit the people but only a few Umno cronies. What kind of governance is that?

Ken: Idris, what is the point of making a small saving and then let the BN cronies make 10 times more on contracts awarded to them? Have open tenders on all government projects and let everyone compete irrespective of race or connections.

For people like you who are paid highly, five sen difference is nothing, but for those who are struggling, it means a lot. Please explain yourself on behalf of the BN goons and tell us why we should continue to vote those who put us in such a predicament in the first place.

Rolls-Royce: Here's why this hapless government can't provide subsidies:

1. Spending lavishly on consultants to write speeches, conduct endless studies and draft good-for-nothing transformation programmes;

2. The size of the government keeps expanding from creating new ministries and appointing new hapless ministers to a bloated civil service that is deaf and blind to the needs of the people;

3. The opulent lifestyle of the ruling elites and their wives - just look at their homes, offices, travels, the clothes, the make-up, Botox, the hairdo, the perfume, the shopping, the cars, and their children. Lee Kuan Yew once made a comment on the hairdo of a daughter of a Burmese general - her hairdo was studded with diamonds and it looked like a Christmas tree. Soon, I think we also need not look further;

4. Siding with all the privatised interests - from IPPs (independent power producers), tolled roads, AP-holders, rice importers, sugar and flour businesses, to water concessionaires and garbage contractors;

5. Siphoning government money through dubious and nonsensical projects and programmes - yes, like building arches, putting up buntings and colourful lights, building ugly landscape features, water fountains, etc, but only to let them fall into disarray and decay;

6. Have endless number of courses and seminars conducted by know-nothing experts for government servants and those in the government-linked companies in posh hotels that serve five or even six meals day (if you don't trust me, just walk into any decent hotel and chances are you will find a group of civil servants attending a seminar).

I Spy: Idris thinks he is still running a decent company like he used to in MAS and Shell. He hasn't woken up to the fact that no matter how much he saves for this ‘company' by squeezing the rakyat, the savings will all be stolen by crooks and criminals whose greed know no bounds.

Either he is naive, more stupid than people think, or worse, more crooked than people thought.

Confucius: The increases are "minimal"? I am a retiree and every sen counts. It's okay for you as you are a highly-paid civil servant, but what about us?

What's RM1.2 billion when the leaders are corruptly bleeding the country by hundreds of billions? They are not even denying this. RM65 million to renovate the official residence of the PM? You tell me how can this be justifiable during these hard times? That's a lot of money by any yardstick and it is only for renovations. Who the heck does the PM think he is? The Sultan of Brunei?

It looks like the only way you can think of to stave off bankruptcy is to penalise the people.

Bertrand Russell: Idris tried to explain how the price increase is "minimal" and that it would result in some savings for the BN government. Yes, savings to be spent on some mega-projects that are more important than the welfare of the rakyat.

Idris, please find out what is happening to the money from Petronas. I am also interested to know why the petroleum companies are adding so much benzene to our petrol. With the five sen increase in the price, I hope the petroleum companies will add less benzene to RON95.

Jazz singer: What authority or qualifications does Idris have to say this? They are putting a face to this scandalous hike to make it legitimate. Any Tarmidizi, Daud or Harry can be made a chief of some department, paid a fat salary just to out-source consultations to say the country is heading towards bankruptcy.

Gunner: I believe this RM1.2 billion will be used partly to finance development projects which will be directly awarded (without calling open tender) to Umno-related contractors. In return, these contractors will have to finance the party in the upcoming general election.

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