Heatley claimed money for two bottles of wine, writing food and beverages on the form, after already being caught out for using his ministerial credit card to pay for a family trip.
Heatley has already repaid 175 NZ dollars (US$123) for what he said at the time was for food and beverages at a National Party conference.
Heatley said he was not as familiar with the rules around credit card use as he should have been, and was careless with its use. He has asked the Auditor-General to conduct an independent inquiry into his accounts.
“I want to resign, I haven’t lived up to my own standards,” an emotional Heatley told reporters. He would remain in Parliament as member of parliament for Whangarei region,
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key told a press conference on Thursday that he accepted the resignation with regret. Key said his office has been working with the Audit Office since Wednesday in regards to Heatley’s expense claims.
A full investigation will begin on Thursday afternoon. For the time being, Maurice Williamson and David Carter will take on the housing and fisheries portfolios respectively.
New Zealand Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee also apologised this week and repaid 151.90 NZ dollars (about US$107) spent outside the rules in September, 2009 for a lunch with his electorate staff.
Heatley was the second cabinet minister to resign in the past 12 month. Richard Worth was the first government minister to resign over inappropriate behaviour. – Bernama
Whether as DPM he would agree to the establishment of an Opposition-headed Parliamentary Select Committee on 1Malaysia;
Is he prepared to declare that the basis of 1Malaysia is “ketuanan rakyat Malaysia” and not “ketuanan Melayu”; and
Is he prepared to endorse the objective of 1Malaysia as defined by the 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme (GTP) Roadmap to create a nation where every Malaysian perceives himself or herself as Malaysian first, and by race, religion or region second – by setting the lead to be the first Umno national leader to declare that he is Malaysian first and Malay second?
Recently the Wall Street Journal published a first-hand account of how the Malaysian Special Branch police fabricated the charges that led to Anwar’s first trial. Munawar Anees recalled how he had been starved and beaten into signing a false confession which implicated Anwar.
Michael Danby, The Punch
Last week saw an unusual event in Australian politics: backbench members of Parliament from both sides took a foreign affairs initiative, independent of their party leaderships. Sixty Members and Senators – Labor, Liberal, Green and independent – signed a letter which was presented to the Malaysian High Commissioner protesting against the current trial of Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim on charges of “sodomy.”
The letter was signed by, among others, Laurie Ferguson, Malcolm Turnbull, Greg Hunt, Bob Brown, Nick Xenophon, Duncan Kerr, Deputy Speaker Anna Burke, Jennie George, Gary Gray and Mark Dreyfus QC.
It followed a speech which I gave in the House of Representatives on 3 February, in which I drew the House’s attention to the 2nd Sodomy trial in Kuala Lumpur of Anwar Ibrahim.
I’m very grateful to all the Members and Senators who signed the letter. I can’t recall another backbench initiative like this in recent times.
Why should Australian Members of Parliament stick their noses into the affairs of a country like Malaysia, which is a friend and neighbour? I would say it is precisely because Malaysia is a friend and neighbour that we care what happens there. No-one is surprised at show trials and political persecution in North Korea or Burma. When it happens in a country which is one of our region’s relative success stories, we are shocked and dismayed.
Many Australian’s have spoken for Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democratically elected leader under house arrest by an authoritarian regime. In some sense these legal torments of Anwar are more egregious as they are happening in a developing democracy that says organs of the state such as the courts or police should not be used to persecute a democratic political opponent.
People-to-people contact between Australians and Malaysians has become very close in recent years, through students studying in Australia, steadily growing tourism in both directions and growing business ties. The persecution of Anwar Ibrahim, however, does not put Malaysia in a good light.
The repeated attempts by Malaysia’s ruling party to drive Anwar out of politics by framing him up on obviously false charges is a disgraceful story which has now been running for more than ten years. Anwar was Deputy Prime Minister in 1998 when he fell out with the then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad – no friend of Australia. He was arrested, beaten up, tried on faked evidence and coerced testimony, then jailed for four years, before his conviction was finally overturned in 2004. Now the same charges have been laid again.
Recently the Wall Street Journal published a first-hand account of how the Malaysian Special Branch police fabricated the charges that led to Anwar’s first trial. Munawar Anees recalled how he had been starved and beaten into signing a false confession which implicated Anwar. The same things are happening again now. It would be intolerable in any democratic country for an accuser to front at the home of the Prime Minister before he then went to the impartial Malaysian police. This is what happened to Anwar Ibrahim when has accuser was succoured by Rosman Razak, the Prime Ministers wife, before he went to charge Anwar at the Police station.
These are the tactics which Anwar’s enemies are willing to resort to, in order to eliminate the threat he poses to those currently in power.
The reason the ruling party UMNO fears Anwar is simply that he is the first Malay politician to challenge successfully its monopoly of the Malay vote, which is the basis of its long-standing hold on power. At the 2008 elections Anwar’s People’s Justice Party and its allies won 60 seats away from UMNO and its allies, creating a viable two-party system for the first time. UMNO fears that he will win the next election unless he is stopped, and it seems that at least some elements of UMNO and their allies in the police are willing to resort to any means to stop him. Their nightmare scenario is for the urban, educated Malays together with Indian and Chinese minorities together with deputies from the rebellious Sabah and Sarawah provinces, uniting to form a parliamentary majority.
Malaysia , however is not like North Korea, sealed off from world opinion. The Malaysian people and the Malaysian government care about their reputation in the region and the world. There have been demonstrations by UMNO ‘youth’ outside the Australian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. A leading supporter of the Malaysian Prime Minister sought to deflect Malaysian opinion by responding that ‘Michael Danby, who organized the petition is a homosexual’. Sad and pathetic though such a reaction is, the response on many blogs and new sites, by ordinary Malaysians who are outraged at the trial, repudiate such prejudice and show hope for a civic discourse as Malaysia’s democratic ethos develops.
The Malaysian media reports what is said about Malaysia in other countries. That’s why an intervention such as our bipartisan letter to the High Commissioner, politely but clearly setting out our strong protest against persecution of Anwar Ibrahim, can be effective, and why it is such an important initiative. Hopefully when Anwar is free of these torments the best answer to those who would like to keep Malaysia a one party state, will be the peaceful transition to power al la Japan, Taiwan and Korea of an Opposition Government.
When that happens, Australia’s politicians will have done more to cement genuine friendship with Malaysia than oodles of “diplomacy.”
- Michael Danby is the Member for Melbourne Ports and Chair of the Parliamentary Sub-committee for Foreign Affairs.
That's right! We have many kangaroo courts. From Session courts to High Courts, from Court of Appeal to the Federal Courts.UPDATED
By Syed Jaymal Zahiid
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 17 — The Barisan Nasional Youth and Malay rights group Perkasa gathered separately outside the Australian High Commission here today to protest against 50 Australian MPs who had asked for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to be freed of his sodomy charge.
BN Youth claimed it gathered 600 members headed by chief Khairy Jamaluddin and his Umno Youth deputy, Datuk Razali Ibrahim for the gathering. Khairy later led a delegation to hand over a protest memorandum to High Commissioner Penny Williams.
The crowd had earlier gathered at a nearby restaurant some 200 metres from the mission as early as 8.30 am and later marched towards the building carrying placards, banners with “Don’t Mess With Our Affairs!”, “Jaga Negara Sendiri (take care of your own country)” written on it.
As they marched, the crowd shouted “mind, mind, mind your own business” and “to hell with Australia”.
A Light Strike Force squad was deployed to form a barricade and prevent the crowd from gathering at the mission’s outer compound.
Only Khairy, Razali and MIC youth chief T Mohan were allowed to pass through the barricade.
Khairy later told reporters that he had met Australian High Commissioner Penny Williams to hand over the memorandum, which among others, demanded the Australian government to make their stand on the issue clear.
“We also want an open apology from the 50 MPs and we want them to retract the petition,” he said.
“This act is a clear interference with our internal affairs and an encroachment to our sovereignty and we will tolerate none of this,” Khairy added.
The BN and Umno Youth chief said the Australian High Commission had assured him that their government has no intentions of meddling with Malaysia’s affairs and are not prejudging the ongoing Sodomy II trial, a charge Anwar and other opposition leaders claimed is “trumped up” to kill its surging influence.
Khairy, however, slammed the accusations and said he believed the ongoing trial will take place in a transparent and fair manner unlike what is claimed by the opposition.
The 50 Australian MPs last week said the Malaysian government should drop the sodomy charge against Anwar, who leads the Pakatan Rakyat opposition pact. Anwar is charged with sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan on June 26, 2008.
The former deputy prime minister has denied the charge, the second such charge in 12 years.
Perkasa president and Pasir Mas MP Datuk Ibrahim Ali, who led his own members behind the BN Youth, was less diplomatic when stating his view to reporters outside the Australian High Commission.
Ibrahim said the reason why Michael Danby, the MP who led 49 others to hand in the petition calling for the charge to be dropped, is “supporting” Anwar is because he is a homosexual, a derogatory description leveled against Anwar by his political rivals.
“Birds of a feather flock together.I heard that Danby is a homosexual.” The BN Back Benchers Club (BNBBC) also sent a separate protest note at 11.15 am.
BNBBC deputy chairman Kinabatangan MP Datuk Bung Mukhtar Radin handed over their protest memorandum to Williams.
Bung Mukhtar told reporters that Williams had assured them that the views of Danby and the 49 MPs do not represent the Australian government’s stand.
He also said that the Australian MPs should not be carried away by Anwar’s side of the story. The opposition icon has been vigorously engaging the international media in a bid to woo support. “The case is not approached by the government but Saiful,” said the Kinabatangan MP. “Because the case is not broached by the government so how can they ask the judiciary to drop the case?” he added.
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — Malay rights group Perkasa today labelled Lim Guan Eng as ‘anti-Malay’, saying the Penang chief minister lied about the purported cancellation of this year’s Prophet birthday march.
Perkasa leader Datuk Ibrahim Ali said Lim overturned the cancellation only when a state government document suggesting the cancellation was leaked to Utusan Malaysia and Umno leaders.
“Lim Guan Eng is anti-Malay. He is the racist. The letters leaked are proof that he had lied,” he told some 250 Perkasa supporters while inaugurating the outfit’s wiranita, Wra and Wirawati wings here.
The Pasir Mas MP, who won the seat on a PAS ticket, also slammed the Islamist party for defending the Penang chief minister on the issue.
Its party organ Harakah had come out to attack Umno-linked newspaper Utusan Malaysia for “twisting” the issue with its report that Lim had intended to cancel the annual procession to mark Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) birthday.
The Penang chief minister denied the allegation and blasted the report as “lies”, with his officials saying the leaked document was a suggestion by civil servants in response to another letter asking to revise the birthday celebrations.
The officials said there are three sets of letters, dated Jan 13, Feb 5 and Feb 12, issued by civil servants over the celebrations but the final decision was with the state executive council.
A scanned copy of one letter that bore the letterhead of the state secretariat dated Feb 5 showed the proposal to cancel the procession in favour of a gathering at the Dewan Sri Pinang. The copy was put up at www.rembau.net, the personal
Utusan carried a report today on what the Rembau MP had said on his blog, that Lim should come clean on the matter.
Ibrahim said PAS in defending Lim and his Penang government has made itself a “tool” for the DAP which he accused them of being chauvinistic and racists.
“These are the real crooks,” he said referring to PAS and added that the Islamist party has betrayed the Malay cause by working closely with the predominantly Chinese DAP.
Ibrahim also condemned the act of 50 Australian MPs who had lodged a formal protest, urging Malaysia to drop sodomy charges against opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“They are extremely biadap (rude). Who are they to interfere with our affairs? No one in this country is above the law,” lamented the Perkasa founder and president.
Ibrahim, who was detained under ISA with Anwar for a farmers protest in 1974, also chided the PKR leader and the Pakatan Rakyat pact for using the Sodomy II trial as campaign issues despite the ongoing trial.
“This is subjudice to the court. I have never heard of anyone else doing so,” said the former deputy minister in charge of the judicial services, urging members of the public to lodge police reports against those found using the trial as campaign issues.
By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 — The Federal Court today may have denied Datuk Seri Nizar Jamaluddin his Perak mentri besar’s post but its just-released collective written judgment is apparently riddled with contradictions, a retired judge said.
Nizar, 53, who had previously been declared the rightful mentri besar, lost the job when a three-man panel of Court of Appeal judges reversed the High Court’s decision last May 22.
The Pasir Panjang assemblyman then took it to the Federal Court and asked the Bench to address three issues based on the Perak Constitution, which, in plain English, translates to:
1. Whether the MB’s post is vacant when he did not resign; none of his peers had passed a vote of no confidence against him; he had asked the Sultan to dissolve the state assembly and start the process for fresh elections and was rejected.
2. Who decides that he has lost the confidence of the state assembly?
3. Who has the right to sack him if he refuses to resign?
The five apex court judges who replied were Tan Sri Alauddin Mohd Sheriff, Tan Sri Arifin Zakaria, Datuk Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin, Datuk Wira Ghazali Mohd Yusoff and Datuk Abdull Hamid Embong.
In declaring Datuk Seri Zambry Abd Kadir the rightful
But a closer look at the full judgment, made available to reporters a few hours after the decision was pronounced in Putrajaya, showed several seemingly contradicting statements, prompting a former judge to question the soundness of the top court’s reasoning in one of the most critical cases to affect the highest law of the land — the constitution.
Datuk Chan Nyarn Hoi was puzzled at a certain section that had earlier been read out in open court by the third highest-ranking judge in the country, Chief Judge of Malaya Arifin.
“However, we would add that this is by no means the end of the matter, as it is always open to the appellant [Nizar] to bring a vote of no confidence against the respondent [Zambry] in the LA [Legislative Assembly] or make a representation to HRH [His Royal Highness the Sultan of Perak] at any time if he thinks that the respondent does not enjoy the support of the majority of the members of the LA,” it said.
To the retired Court of Appeal judge, more popularly known as NH Chan, that particular section “sounds strange”.
“On the face of it, it sounds like they are contradicting themselves, isn’t it?” the 74-year-old asked The Malaysian Insider over the phone.
“They say [Nizar] can take a vote of no confidence now, but why couldn’t they do it earlier?” he wondered.
Chan, who now lives in
