MACC chief commissioner Azam Baki responds to a claim by tourism, arts and culture minister Tiong King Sing of alleged corruption involving ...
If Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing is
right, something is very rotten with the Immigration officers at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport
Tiong said he was there to attend to a complaint lodged by a Chinese tourist that some Immigration officers were allegedly demanding money to either free tourists from detention or to get them through a special lane into Malaysia.
It is not clear if the Chinese tourist was asked to pay any money, but she is said to have been fed only once in the 15 hours she was detained. If this is true, it is an abuse of power that must not be tolerated. Even a prisoner gets fed at regular intervals.
These are tourists who will take these unpleasant stories home to be told and retold about Malaysia, which is "cruel" to foreigners.
Somewhere in the ugly narratives will be lodged the tale of Malaysia being a land where money can buy almost anything. And it starts at Malaysia's main gateway, the KLIA.
Here is the scale of graft fees, not printed in any permanent form, of course, but to be passed from one tourist to another. An oral tradition of sorts to keep the greedy officers fed. Anything from up to RM3,000 to RM15,000.
If a tourist wants to get out of detention, the "fee" is up to RM3,000. If a speedy passage is needed, the tourist needs to cough up RM15,000, RM3,000 for a "special lane" and RM12,000 for visa-processing costs.
It appears that Tiong was armed for the surprise visit. He brought along his team of integrity officers, whose purpose is not clear. He may have done better by going there with the director-general of the Immigration Department.
A slip he may regret, now that he is being accused of demanding the release of the Chinese tourist, an accusation he is denying vehemently. This is a developing story, of which the nation will hear more.
Be that as it may, corruption among some Immigration officers is regularly featured in the media. Occasionally, Parliament gets to hear about the misconducts or crimes committed by Immigration officers at the gateways to Malaysia.
On June 21, the Dewan Negara, the upper house of Parliament, was told that 136 Immigration officers were found guilty between 2020 and last year: 112 cases were for misconduct and 24 were for convictions by court.
Not a number to be proudly paraded given that it is just to do with the processing of foreigners' entry into the country. Add them all, and it will be a national embarrassment.
How these wayward officers manage to get appointed, or worse, stay in service until they are caught is a question the D-G of the Immigration Department must answer.
The chief secretary to the government may have to revisit the selection, retention and reward systems of public offices to weed out the corrupt and corruptible.
There should be no place for them in public service, not just the Immigration Department.
Tiong has a colourful phrase for the "forever" malaise at the Immigration Department: culture of corruption. Expect this phrase to have a prominent place in the report that Tiong has promised to submit to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday urged Tokyo to provide a convincing explanation and the IAEA secretariat to respond over the allegation after South Korean media reports revealed that the Japanese government has made a political donation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concerning the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water disposal.
Despite concerns from several nations and international groups, Japan is pressing ahead with plans to release water contaminated by the 2011 meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. Starting sometime this year and continuing for the next 30 years, Japan will slowly release treated water stored in tanks at the site into the ocean through a pipeline extending one kilometre from the coast. But just how safe is the water to the marine environment and humans across the Pacific region?
How is the water contaminated?
The power station exploded after a devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami crippled the coastal plant, overheating the reactor cores. Since then, more than 1.3 million cubic metres of seawater have been sprayed onto the damaged cores to keep them from overheating, contaminating the water with 64 radioactive elements, known as radionuclides. Of greatest concern are those that could pose a threat to human health: carbon-14, iodine-131, caesium-137, strontium-90, cobalt-60 and hydrogen-3, also known as tritium.
Some of these radionuclides have a relatively short half-life and would already have decayed in the 12 years since the disaster. But others take longer to decay; carbon-14, for example, has a half-life of more than 5,000 years.
How are they treating the water?
The contaminated water has been collected, treated to reduce the radioactive content and stored in more than 1,000 stainless steel tanks at the site. The power-station operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), so far has used what it describes as an advanced liquid-processing system (ALPS) to treat the water. TEPCO says the water undergoes five processing stages of co-sedimentation, adsorption and physical filtration. The plan for disposing of the radioactive waste created in the ALPS process will be “gradually revealed as the decommissioning process progresses”, according to communication the Permanent Mission of Japan to the International Organizations in Vienna sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The ALPS process removes enough of 62 of the 64 radionuclides to bring their concentration below Japan’s 2022 regulatory limits for water to be discharged into the environment. These limits are based on recommendations from the International Commission on Radiological Protection.
But that process does not remove carbon-14 and tritium, so the treated water needs to be diluted further to less than one part per 100 parts of seawater. TEPCO says that the resulting concentration of tritium is around 1,500 becquerels (a measure of the radioactivity of a substance) per litre — around one-seventh of the World Health Organization’s guidelines for tritium in drinking water. The company suggests that the concentration of tritium will drop to background ocean levels within a few kilometres of the discharge site. The carbon-14 in the tanks is currently at concentrations of around 2% of the upper limit set by regulations, TEPCO says, and this will reduce further with the seawater dilution that takes place before the water is discharged.
Jim Smith, an environmental scientist at the University of Portsmouth, UK, says the risk this poses to nations around the Pacific Ocean will probably be negligible. “I always hesitate to say zero, but close to zero,” he says. “The nearest Pacific island is about 2,000 kilometres away.” He argues that a greater risk is posed by keeping the treated water on-site. “The risk of another earthquake or a typhoon causing a leak of a tank is higher, and they’re running out of space.”
Will radioactivity concentrate in fish?
Nations such as South Korea have expressed concern that the treated water could have unexplored impacts on the ocean environment, and a delegation from the country visited the Fukushima site in May. Last year, the US National Association of Marine Laboratories in Herndon, Virginia, also voiced its opposition to the planned release, saying that there was “a lack of adequate and accurate scientific data supporting Japan’s assertion of safety”. The Philippine government has also called for Japan to reconsider releasing the water into the Pacific.
“Have the people promoting this going forward — ALPS treatment of the water and then release into the ocean — demonstrated to our satisfaction that it will be safe for ocean health and human health?” asks Robert Richmond, marine biologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “The answer is ‘no’.”
Richmond is one of five scientists on a panel advising the Pacific Islands Forum, an intergovernmental organization made up of 18 Pacific nations including Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and French Polynesia. The panel was convened to advise on whether the release of the treated water from Fukushima was safe both for the ocean and for those who depend on it. Richmond says they have reviewed all the data provided by TEPCO and the Japanese government, and visited the Fukushima site, but there are still some unanswered questions about tritium and carbon-14.
Tritium is a β-radiation emitter — albeit a weak one — meaning that it emits ionizing radiation that can damage DNA. TEPCO says the concentrations of tritium in the treated water release a dose of ionizing radiation lower than that experienced by someone flying a round trip from New York to Tokyo.
But human skin partly blocks ionizing radiation, Richmond says. “If you eat something that’s radioactively contaminated with β-emitters, your cells inside are being exposed.”
TEPCO says fishing is not routinely conducted in an area within 3 kilometres of where the pipeline will discharge the water. But Richmond is concerned the tritium could concentrate in the food web as larger organisms eat smaller contaminated ones. “The concept of dilution as the solution to pollution has demonstrably been shown to be false,” Richmond says. “The very chemistry of dilution is undercut by the biology of the ocean.”
Shigeyoshi Otosaka, an oceanographer and marine chemist at the Atmospheric and Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo says that the organically bound form of tritium could accumulate in fish and marine organisms. He says international research is investigating the potential for such bioaccumulation of the radionuclides in marine life, and what has already happened in the waters around Fukushima after the accidental release of contaminated water during the tsunami. “I think it is important to evaluate the long-term environmental impact of these radionuclides,” Otosaka says.
A spokesperson for TEPCO said that the company has been conducting tests in which marine organisms are raised in seawater containing ALPS-treated water. “We have confirmed that the tritium concentrations in the bodies of marine organisms reach equilibrium after a certain period of time and do not exceed the concentrations in the living environment,” the spokesperson said. The tritium concentrations then decrease over time once the organism is returned to untreated seawater.
TEPCO will continue to compare the health of organisms reared in diluted treated water with those reared in untreated seawater.
Has this been done before?
Smith points out that releasing tritium-contaminated water is part of the usual operating procedure for nuclear power plants. He says that both the Heysham nuclear power station and Sellafield nuclear-fuel-processing plant in the United Kingdom release between 400 and 2,000 terabecquerels of tritium into the ocean each year. “Overall, because it’s such a weak β-emitter, it’s not really that radiotoxic,” Smith says.
Otosaka says that is also the case in Japan: “More than 50 terabecquerel of tritium was discharged annually from each nuclear power plant in regular operation before the accident,” he says. TEPCO says that less than 22 terabecquerels of tritium will be released from the pipeline each year. “The release rate of the tritium … is well controllable,” Otosaka says.
TEPCO says there will be continuous monitoring of sea life and sediments around the area, which will be done by TEPCO, the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority and the IAEA.
The IAEA, which has been supervising the clean-up and management of Fukushima, is expected to release a final report on the site and the plan for the wastewater release later in June.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is about to set to return to its pre-Covid-19 conditions, but with a difference.
Malaysians will have to wear masks, practise safe distancing and other health measures if they have an infection, or if they are high-risk individuals in crowded areas.
“The new protocols allow Malaysians to return to pre-Covd-19 times, but with all the public health knowledge and preventive measures internalised in them,” said Prof Dr Moy Foong Ming of Universiti Malaya’s Department of Social and Preventive Medicine.
She was commenting on the latest SOP announced by the Health Ministry as the country moves towards endemicity.
With the choice given back to the people, Dr Moy said people should weigh their own risks while co-existing with the virus.
“When they are infected or if there is an outbreak in their community, they should practise those old measures.
“The new SOP gives people the choice to put on a mask or not. Of course, those who test positive must wear a mask.
“Those in contact with patients in a hospital also need to wear a mask.
“The non-high-risk people may need to practise precaution because they can infect the high-risk persons around them, like elderly, pregnant women or immunocompromised individuals,” she said in an interview yesterday.
Prof Moy also called on the government to keep watch on any new variants globally.
Family physician Dr Raj Kumar Maharajah also said it was important to be wary of new variants.
“I support the government’s move to enforce masks for those infected. In other countries, we can see people have taken off their masks,” he said.
Dr Raj Kumar, the former president of the Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia, said Covid-19 had become like a “common flu” now, with a significant decrease in the number of new cases and deaths.
“We should move forward, but without letting our guard down. When infected, just stay at home.
“We must be more responsible, and maintain hygiene,” he said, adding that there was no harm in continuing to use the mask outdoors.
PETALING JAYA: Starting July 5, the isolation period for Covid-19 patients will be shortened from seven days to five.
This is in view of studies which showed that infectivity is high in the first five days from the onset of symptoms when the viral load is high, said Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
She also said that the wearing of face masks would no longer be compulsory on public transport and in hospitals effective July 5.
However,
she said that people with respiratory symptoms were encouraged to mask
up to avoid spreading infections on public transport.
However, she said that people with respiratory symptoms were encouraged to mask up to avoid spreading infections on public transport.
Also, Covid-19 positive individuals and those handling them are required to wear face masks in healthcare facilities.
“High-risk individuals like senior citizens, those with chronic diseases, individuals with low immunity or pregnant women are encouraged to wear face masks, especially in crowded places and areas with poor ventilation,” she said in a statement yesterday.
Although the Covid-19 situation was not at a worrying level and health services were not under pressure, she said the ministry decided to extend the status of local infection areas in Malaysia, due to end today, by another six months until Dec 31.
This is to facilitate the management of the disease as there are risks of emergence of new variants and sub-variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the country.
“Apart from this, mass gatherings are expected to occur during the Hari Raya Aidiladha celebration and also the (coming) state elections, which risk contributing to an increase in cases and burdening the government healthcare service system if prevention and control measures are not fully implemented.
“It is to enable the enforcement of several provisions under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases (Measures within the Infected Local Areas) (National Recovery Plan) (Transition to Endemic Phase) Regulations 2022, formulated on the powers of the minister under Subsection 11(2) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act,” she said.
Dr Zaliha said new Covid-19 cases had declined by 53.5% (5,801 cases to 2,698 cases) and deaths dropped by 35.3% (17 cases to 11 cases) in the past five weeks.
In terms of hospital capacity, she said the admissions of Covid-19 patients to public hospitals and bed occupancy had dropped while usage of Intensive Care Unit beds remained stable at 6% compared to the previous epidemiological week.
She also said 16,337,744 people or 50% of the country’s population had received the first booster dose while only 825,275 (2.5%) had been injected with the second booster as of June 27.
BEEFING up their presence in China will only move multinationals forward with stronger growth over the long term, despite rising uncertainties over decoupling and supply chain disruptions, said global business leaders and industry experts on the sidelines of the Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin.
They made the remarks as Premier Li Qiang said at the forum on Tuesday that China has full confidence and the ability to achieve steady economic growth and high-quality development for a long time to come.
The country's economy shows clear rebound and improvement momentum with the first-quarter GDP growing 4.5 percent year-on-year, and is expected to expand faster in the second quarter, Li emphasized, adding that it will offer "a consistent source of dynamism" to global economic recovery and growth.
Joe Ngai, chairman of management consultancy McKinsey China, said: "After looking at the global context we are in right now, there is no other place in the world that has the size and is still growing at the same rates we're seeing in China. The Chinese market has also been a major growth segment for multinational companies. I still believe the next China is China."
Bruce Cameron, chairman of Zespri, a cooperative of kiwi fruit growers in New Zealand, said the economic growth rates in China are still very "impressive" when compared to the rest of the world.
The latest estimates from Boston Consulting Group show that China is projected to contribute at least 25 percent of global economic growth by 2030.
"We are very confident about the Chinese economy and its ability to continue to have a strong presence here. We believe that our company and our presence here take us forward over the foreseeable future with strong growth," he said.
Such a long-term potential for economic growth is inspiring multinationals to ramp up investment, expand their talent lines and chalk up medium-to-long-term plans in the country.
Wang Rui, senior vice-president of US tech company Intel and chair of Intel China, said many international companies attach great importance to the Chinese market, and "Intel will firmly adhere to its development strategy in China".
"The Chinese market has vast opportunities and provides an open business environment. Intel's innovative technology is also in line with the high-quality development demands of the Chinese economy. This is a mutually beneficial relationship," Wang said.
George Xu, CEO of Airbus China, said: "Airbus China plans to expand its recruitment of new energy talent to support its green transformation and sustainable development."
Xu said that in China, even faced with challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the company increased its headcount by 15 to 20 percent on a yearly basis.
Faced with external propositions on decoupling and de-risking, Premier Li emphasized at the forum on Tuesday that the world should not and cannot return to a state of seclusion or isolation, and should oppose the politicization of economic issues and work together to keep global industrial and supply chains stable and smooth.
Such a stance was shared by company executives and industry experts at the forum.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization, said during a panel discussion that decoupling and fragmentation are something that the world simply cannot afford to have.
Even with rising decoupling challenges, Wu Chun, managing partner of Boston Consulting Group Greater China, said that the country has demonstrated its resolution to join hands with all other stakeholders to tackle challenges and seek win-win outcomes, thus providing confidence and stability in an uncertain world.
It gives an extra vote of confidence for multinationals to grow in the country over the long term.
"We see China as a very long-term global market. We have no intentions of backtracking or leaving China," Cameron from Zespri said. "We are embedded here."
Officials, economists and entrepreneurs attending the Summer Davos in North China's Tianjin have expressed full
confidence in China being able to achieve its growth target of around 5 percent for 2023, with some putting an even higher forecast, as the
global gathering of business elites acknowledged China's continued role
as ...
To some extent, the promulgation and implementation of the foreign relations law demonstrate and strengthen China's strategic
transparency. China's diplomacy is open and aboveboard.
China's top legislature passed the Foreign Relations Law on Wednesday, marking a milestone significance as it is the first basic, fundamental and comprehensive foreign relations law that aims to fix the loopholes in the rule of law in foreign-related affairs amid new challenges in foreign relations, especially when China has been facing frequent external interference in its internal affairs under the Western hegemony with unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction.
The law will take effect on July 1. Divided into six chapters, the legislation stipulates the guidance and basic principle of foreign relations and specific provisions on the functions and powers of foreign relations, the objectives and tasks of the development of foreign relations, the legal system of foreign relations, and the capacity building and guarantee for the development of foreign relations, according to the approved version.
Some legal experts said that the law inherited China's long-term diplomatic stance and its position on international rule of law, upgrading policies and systems for foreign affairs management to national law, legally interpreting and elaborating on a series of new ideas and initiatives in global governance. With the implementation of the law and the introduction of more legislation on foreign affairs in the future, China's ability to defend its interests and the people through legislations will be continuously improved, they noted.
The National People's Congress (NPC) issued the draft of the law in December 2022, and the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the NPC says the draft legislation has the support of NPC deputies; members of the advisory body - the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference; legal experts and the public.
The enactment of the law also came after a report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) last October called to step up legislation in key, emerging, and foreign-related fields and advance the rule of law in domestic and foreign-related affairs in a coordinated manner, so that good laws are made to promote development and ensure good governance.
"In recent years, the changes of external environment have brought new conflicts and challenges for China, and the shortcomings of foreign-related rule of law are gradually revealed," Huo Zhengxin, a law professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
On one hand, in the face of some Western hegemony frequently interfering in China's internal affairs by "law" and imposing unilateral sanctions and "long-arm jurisdiction," China has not yet established a comprehensive preparedness system and an effective blocking mechanism, and the "shield" of the rule of law in foreign-related affairs has not been fully established, Huo noted.
On the other hand, in terms of safeguarding China's sovereignty, security and development interests, there is still a shortage of institutional supply in terms of law, and the "spear" of the rule of law in foreign affairs needs to be accelerated, he noted.
While China has been facing growing challenges including export control measures and sanctions, toward which international law has failed to provide adequate remedies, the Foreign Relations Law has also been considered as necessary and a major progress in domestic legal framework to regulate foreign relations, experts said.
Important, necessary step
The Foreign Relations Law stipulates that, on the basis of abiding by the basic principles of international law and the basic norms governing international relations, the country shall strengthen the implementation and application of laws and regulations in the field of foreign affairs, and take law enforcement, judicial and administrative measures in accordance with the law to safeguard China's sovereignty, security and development interests, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens and organizations.
China has the right to take necessary countermeasures in accordance with the law against acts that violate international law and the basic norms governing international relations and endanger China's sovereignty, security and development interests. The country shall formulate necessary laws, administrative regulations and departmental rules, establish corresponding working systems and mechanisms, strengthen coordination among departments, and establish and implement relevant countermeasures and restrictive measures.
"For the first time, the law states the purpose, conditions and policy orientation of the application of Chinese law in foreign relations, and stipulates principles for the measures to counter and restrictive measures against foreign countries, individuals or organizations," Huang Huikang, a professor of the Institute of International Law of Wuhan University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
It also establishes corresponding working systems and mechanisms, so as to construct the basic legal system framework for Chinese law in extraterritorial application, Huang said.
The extraterritorial application of domestic law is an important part of the rule of law in foreign-related affairs, and exterritorial application of domestic law is the concrete embodiment of protective jurisdiction and universal jurisdiction recognized by international law, and is a supplement to personal jurisdiction and territorial jurisdiction, the expert noted.
"What we object to is the abuse of so-called 'long-arm jurisdiction'," he said.
The law stipulates that the goal of developing foreign relations includes developing a global partnership and promoting an all-round, multi-level, wide-ranging and three-dimensional external work layout, promoting the coordination and positive interaction among major countries.
The US is the only sanctions superpower in the world. According to the Treasury 2021 Sanctions Review by fiscal year 2021, the number of active US sanctions designations had increased to more than 9,400, according to a report released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry in February on US' long-arm jurisdiction. In recent years, China has been subjected to mounting US sanctions over a series of matters such as high-tech, Xinjiang and Hong Kong as well as the Ukraine crisis.
"The formulation of the Foreign Relations Law is a major legislative measure to accelerate the construction of the rule of law in foreign-related affairs and fix the shortcomings in the field, which also marks an improvement in China's ability to carry out international struggles and safeguard the interests of its country and people through the rule of law," Huo said.
The law also provides a legal basis for the diplomatic struggle against sanctions, anti-intervention and long-arm jurisdiction, and aims to constantly enrich the legal toolbox and develop the ways and means to safeguard national interests, which could also play a role of prevention, warning and deterrence against Western hegemony, experts noted.
With the help of certain US media acting as loudspeakers, brainless anti-China remarks from
pseudo-experts like Gordon Chang create a negative public opinion environment toward China.
After the long-delayed visit of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing last week reopened channel for high-level
exchanges between the US and China, US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen is reportedly planning to visit China in July, as business
insiders believe that official economic engagement is poised to take center stage amid soured bilateral ties, which is mainly caused by
Washington's erroneous perception.
In the sixth installment of this series, we invite Lu Chuanying, director of the Research Center for International Cyberspace
Governance under the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, to reveal how the US bullied the world through its digital hegemony,
harming the national security of other countries while advancing its own
...
China Passes Foreign Relations Law With Eye On Countering Sanctions | China Policy News | LIVE
Entrepreneurs and industry experts exchange ideas at the Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin. Photo/Xinhu
