The rationale for this five-star hospital is that it would bring in good commercial returns by promoting health tourism, and other happenings in Parliament today.

RM544 mil Petronas-owned hospital under spotlight

The government has defended its decision to build the RM544 million five-star Prince Court Medical Centre (PCMC) in Kuala Lumpur through state-owned oil company Petronas.

Responding to Azmin Ali (PKR-Gombak) during the oral question session today, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Amirsham A Aziz said the hospital was part of the effort to promote health tourism in the country.

"The involvement of Petronas in the health services especially in the setting up of PCMC was made after taking into account its commercial returns from this investment," said Amirsham.

Azmin has questioned the rationale of Petronas's involvement in the private hospital services.

Malays topped death list

The highest number of detainees who had died while in police custody between 2000 and 2007 were the Malays, revealed Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar today.

Of the 123 who had died, 59 were Malaysia, followed by 23 Chinese and 22 Indian detainees.

The remaining 19 were those from ‘other bumiputera ethnics' and foreigners.

The figures were revealed by the minister in a written reply to Saifuddin Nasution (PKR-Machang).

52 cops died on duty 2003-2007

In another reply to Dr Lee Boon Chye (PKR-Gopeng), Syed Hamid said 52 police personnel and officers have died on duty between 2003 and 2007.

There were another 153 who were injured while on duty during the period.

Gov't ‘colour-blind' in recruiting cops

Deputy Home Minister Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh said the government was colour-blind when it came to recruiting police officers into the police force.

In response to a supplementary question by Gobind Singh Deo (DAP-Puchong), he said the force recruited new personnel based on their qualifications and regardless of their skin colour.

Wan Ahmad Farid also said the government planned to strengthen the police force by offering 60,000 more positions to raise the number of police officers to a total of 150,000 by 2011.

No probe into ‘missing' postal ballots

The Election Commission is not required to launch any investigation into over 70,000 unreturned postal ballot papers, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz said.

"Under the law, once a postal ballot is issued, it's up to the voters themselves. In the democratic system being practised in Malaysia, it's the voter's right to vote or not," said Nazri.

He said this in a written reply to Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) who has asked for the reasons behind 72,058 unreturned postal ballot papers in the past election and their ‘whereabouts'.

27 unwritten High Court judgments?

Over the past ten years, the Federal Court has on record 27 cases of High Court judges who have yet to write their judgments despite having passed guilty sentences on the defendants concerned and the latter having gone on to appeal, said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

In a written reply to Karpal Singh (DAP-Bukit Gelugor), Abdullah said enquiries with the judges involved, however, found that "most of" the judgments have been written.

The gap between what is on record and the judges' assertion that they have written the judgements could be due to the failure of some high courts to convey the correct information to the Federal Court, added Abdullah.

Meanwhile, lawyers have been asked to extend their cooperation by informing and giving feedback to the Malaysian judiciary through its website. The response from lawyers, however, has not been encouraging, said Abdullah.

Monthly landscaping costs for Putrajaya: RM1.5 million

Federal Territories Minister Zulhasnan Rafique said the government spends RM1.5 million every month to maintain Putrajaya's landscaping.

In a written reply to a question from Liew Chin Tong (DAP-Bukit Bendera), Zulhasnan said the RM18 million paid annually goes to 29 landscaping contractors.

No hanky-panky in Iskandar Malaysia

Iskandar Malaysia in Johor has attracted RM33 billion of investments from foreign and national investors out of the targeted RM47 billion needed for the development project, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Amirsham Abdul Aziz.

Answering a question from Mohd Puad Zarkashi (BN-Batu Pahat), Amirsham said the government was only contributing RM4.3 billion to the project in the form of infrastructure.

Denying claims that Iskandar Malaysia would cause Malaysia to lose out to Singapore, Amirsham said the government would ensure that all investments do not bind Malaysia to terms and conditions that to its disadvantage.

He added that while no land owner in the region would be forced to sell their land for the project, all land purchases would be conducted on a ‘willing buyer-willing seller' basis and subject to the relevant policies and legislation put in place.

The Iskandar Development Region Authority, the state government and local councils will also ensure that land sales are not done ‘arbitrarily', while an Approvals and Implementation Committee has also be set up to look into the appropriateness of the development plans for Iskandar Malaysia, said Amirsham.