On Sunday, PAS called for the tabling of a Parliamentary White Paper on an alleged terror threat that's seen 12 people, including several DAP members - two assemblypersons among them - nabbed for apparent links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Now, others, including Umno and several DAP politicians have backed that call too. The DAP fellers, however, say the paper should also cover other purported threats such as that mischievous mullah Zakir Naik.

In the British Parliament, White Papers are generally policy documents that set out proposals for future legislation. In Malaysia, they’re also sometimes tabled to inform the rakyat (or rather, representatives of the rakyat) about issues and other stuff affecting them (see the upcoming Defence White Paper and the previous one on Felda). The effect of these Parliamentary papers is debatable. But the larger purpose for these documents in a Parliamentary democracy is that once tabled, the details of issues become transparent and known to everyone.

So should all of us be calling for a White Paper on the LTTE? Well, it depends. The probe is still ongoing. So perhaps the best cause of action, for now, would be to let Bukit Aman counter-terrorism boss Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay and his team do their jobs.

Speaking of the cops doing their jobs, PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad justified the use of the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act 2012 (Sosma) – which allows suspects to be detained for up to 28 days with no need for charges to be filed – in the LTTE probe. Reason? It exists, so why not?

Yes, folks. The guy who labelled the law “draconian, undemocratic and oppressive” and promised to repeal it sees no reason why it shouldn’t now be used since no amended or alternative laws have been drafted yet. Hands up if you’re surprised.

Meanwhile, while all this was going on, Finance Minister and DAP head honcho Lim Guan Eng took time out of his busy schedule to scold Ayob Khan. The two have been in a catfight ever since Guan Eng said, after the first arrests, that he’d been assured no more DAP leaders would be targeted in the LTTE crackdown. Ayob disputed this, saying he had given no such assurance.

Was it someone from Ayob’s team then who’d given Guan Eng the (wrong) info? Someone else from the force? We don’t know, and  ̶N̶o̶b̶i̶t̶a̶  Saudara Lim Jr. isn’t saying. But what we do know is that a minister shouldn’t be warning cops. That’s interference, whichever way you spin it.

Incidentally, if you’re not too clear on what the LTTE is/was, this comprehensive piece should do the trick.

Richard Huckle, the convicted paedophile who was accused of targeting and abusing as many as 200 kids, many of whom were from Malaysia, was found stabbed to death in a British prison Monday.

Huckle, one of Britain and Malaysia's worst ever sex offenders, preyed on the kids over an eight-year span, between 2006 and 2014, while working as a volunteer with Christian charitable groups in Kuala Lumpur. 

Worse still, he posted pictures of his victims, the youngest of whom was six months old, online. He was nabbed by British police in December 2014, and over 1,000 pictures of him molesting and raping children were found on his laptop.

In other words, Richard Huckle was a scumbag. The British courts had the same opinion, sentencing him to 22 concurrent life sentences after he plead guilty to 71 child sex offence counts.

Huckle's crimes were so shocking that it galvanised our country into passing the Sexual Offences Against Children Act in 2017, and this year, the formation of a sex offenders registry.

Going back to Huckle's death. British authorities should have been more vigilant, considering at least one other high-profile killing had previously occurred at Full Sutton Prison in York, where Huckle was incarcerated. 
 

And though it's tempting to want to dance a jig on Huckle's grave, the fact is, deserving punishment meted out by a court of law isn’t the same as deserving to be stabbed to death by a fellow inmate.

Sex offenders, particularly child molesters, are marked men in prisons all around the world. However, society should not condone situations such as this where inmates take justice into their own hands. 

Especially as there's also one other thing to think about - in dying, Huckle arguably got off more easily than if he had to serve the full length of his sentence. 

Back in 2014, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Ministry launched something called the Public Cellular Blocking Service (PCBS). 

The idea: to allow people who had their phones stolen to block nicked phones from making calls, texting and whatnot ... even in cases where sim cards are changed.

The problem: a data leak of epic proportions that saw the phone numbers, home addresses and MyKad deets of some 46.2 million people being compromised.

The nitty-gritty of what went down, how the leak occurred and how much data was affected has been covered before and you can read all about it here. However, if you don’t have the time, all you need know is at the centre of the issue was Nuemera (M) Sdn Bhd, a company that’d actually been hired to protect users’ personal data. Yeah, that’s right. A clear case of harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi.

The Comms Ministry, in a written reply in Parliament to Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil, said on Monday that the MCMC has ended ties with the company and investigation reports on the matter have been handed over to the A-G’s Chambers.

Here’s the big question though: when is action actually going to be taken?

In Feb 2018, Fahmi, who’d filed a civil suit against Nuemera and the MCMC, had said the matter is one of public interest. And he was spot on. Personal data breaches are no small matter.

Unfortunately, to date, one-and-a-half-years since Pakatan Harapan took charge, we’ve yet to see the guilty parties being brought to book. Surely it’s time to do so, right?

Since the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s announcement last week, some folks on the list have admitted to taking 1MDB money and at least one person has promised to engage with the graft-busting body.

There is, however, a large bunch of folks from Umno, who've promised to fight the compounds tooth and nail.

According to former minister Shahrir Samad, his buds and he are unhappy with the orders to pay up as they're unfair. Plus, he says MACC boss Latheefa Koya actually lied. The 80 individuals and entities named didn’t receive RM500k and above. Some of them only got RM100k or RM200k. Shahrir's argument is that the poor little Umno peeps are being compounded for more than they should be.

What's truly amazing about this is to see how the same people who kept mum - and are still largely keeping mum - over the billions siphoned from the rakyat (allegedly, allegedly!) by 1MDB are jumping up and down when it's their money (well, it's technically our money, but you get what we mean) at stake. 

Meanwhile, Ahmad Maslan says the affected Umno leaders will lodge police reports against the MACC to protest its “cruelty”. Yes, ’cos asking for the people’s money back is cruel, right?

In a statement that made slightly more sense, Ahmad Maslan also said the MACC is acting beyond its legal powers (ultra vires) in issuing the compounds, considering the 1MDB and SRC trials are still ongoing. Honestly, it's the most sense Ahmad Maslan has made in a while now. 

In other graft news, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, the former Federal Territories Minister, was ordered to enter his defence for allegedly accepting a bribe of RM2 million. Hmmm. We wonder whether Ahmad Maslan finds the High Court’s order cruel too.