Kepada mereka yang berminat untuk
menjadi Sukarelawan Pemerhati Pilihanraya agar Pilihanraya Umum ke 13
nanti Bersih, Telus dan Adil, Tunku Zain Al'Abidin ibni Tuanku Muhriz
menjemput rakyat yang prihatin agar bersama YAM Tunku. Mereka yang
berminat untuk menjadi sukarelwan pemerhati pilihanraya bolehlah
menulis e-mel ke amin@ideas.org.my
Focus on ensuring cleanliness of
election
Friday, February 08, 2013 - 16:22
by Tunku ’Abidin Muhriz
ONE HUNDRED AND TEN years ago today,
our first prime minister was born, and normally my colleagues and I
would be hosting an anniversary event with the blood and ideological
descendants of Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra at his former residence (now
memorial), because we chose the same date three years ago to formally
launch IDEAS.
At that launch event, Tunku’s
great-granddaughter Sharyn Shufiyan and political ally Tengku
Razaleigh Hamzah gave us accounts of their relationship with the
first prime minister, before Tunku Khadijah Tunku Abdul Rahman gave a
personal tour of the house in which she used to live.
Our first anniversary event in 2011
included recollections by former cabinet minister Tan Sri Abdul Kadir
Sheikh Fadzir and a panel discussion comparing the economic policy of
the first prime minister to the current, as well as the publication
of a pamphlet of some of the Tunku’s quotes.
That is when it became clear that a few
prominent organisations had no qualms in condemning what they saw as
Tunku’s weakness in being “too soft” on non-Malay Malayans.
Our second anniversary event in 2012
took a similar fussformat, as Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim reminisced
about his family’s Kedahan connections with Bapa Kemerdekaan,
before former Chief Justice Tun Dzaiddin Abdullah spoke about the
rule of law followed by a panel discussion comprising PKR’s Nurul
Izzah Anwar, Umno’s Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan, Bar Council
President Lim Chee Wee and Anis Yusal Yusoff from UKM’s Institute
of Ethnic Studies.
This year, however, we are too busy
preparing for the general election observation mission. After months
of negotiation, IDEAS and other civil society organisations were
formally presented with appointment letters by the Election
Commission (EC) chairman.
The official website —
www.pemerhati.my — has
detailed information, but our first priority is to recruit volunteers
who will be on the ground to check nomination, polling, counting and
tabulation.
Those who would like to be a part of
this should email amin@ideas.org.my
Some continue to accuse us of being
cronies of the EC, but I encourage these people in particular to
become volunteers so they can focus their energies on ensuring the
cleanliness of the election instead. If they like, they can still
accuse of being cronies of the EC afterwards.
Another anniversary was celebrated this
week: in 1963 the Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negri Sembilan Tuanku
Munawir officiated the opening of Shell’s refinery at Port Dickson,
and on Tuesday my elder brother and I toured the facility still run
by the quaintly-named Shell Refining Company (Federation of Malaya)
Berhad.
Tuanku Munawir and Tuanku Durah touring
the Shell refinery in 1963 with N.L. Fakes (chairman of the Shell
Companies in Malaya and Singapore), H. Wilkinson (managing director
of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group) and Dr Lim Swee Aun (minister of
commerce & industry)
My knowledge of the petroleum industry
is rather limited, but the briefing by the Managing Director Rozano
Saad and his team was most comprehensive. First we got an overview of
the history of Shell here (they commenced operations in the Straits
Settlements in 1891 and struck oil in Miri in 1910 courtesy of a well
called the Grand Old Lady), before talking about the more strategic
aspects of its upstream and downstream operations and finally, the
more technical side of things. As I have not sat in a chemistry
classroom since 1998, I had to clarify several terms the engineers
referred to. But I now understand the significance of the refinery’s
new Hijau project which is soon to go live — it will enable the
refinery to vary its feedstock options, increase diesel production
and improve refining margins.
After a brief stop at the two kilometre
purpose-built jetty, there was lunch, commemorating Shell’s 50
Years with the Community. Of course, there was a video that all big
corporates now have to prove their corporate social responsibility
credentials.
This one featured a large number of
testimonials from community leaders saying positive things about
Shell. Away from company representatives, however, I asked for
unabridged sentiments. A resident of Kampung Hailam told me that
Shell had donated fire extinguishers to villagers just months before
a lightning-induced blaze actually occurred.
An elderly gentleman from Kampung Arab
essentially credited the entire economic development of the area to
the oil giant, while another said that three generations of his
family had worked at Shell.
Wow: this is the kind of relationship
that must be the envy of many other big corporates, like those chaps
wanting to open a rare earths plant in Pahang.
During his lunchtime speech, the Tunku
Besar Seri Menanti pulled out a well-preserved programme book and
photos from the launch event 50 years ago, which got the senior staff
and community leaders into reminiscing mode for the rest of the
afternoon. PD can be sure of Shell for a while more, it seems.
The feelings and inspiration triggered
by the past can be powerful indeed.
Alas, I have rarely seen public sector
employees express such institutional loyalty and motivation compared
to what I saw from these private sector employees.
