Immigration Officers: What a tough balancing act

As a sequel to my previous blog entry on the 'unsung heroes' albeit the Immigration Officers, just spend some time on my scribbles below, at least you have some ideas what a tough job it is, what a difficult balancing act they have to perform, they don't deserve all the brickbats aimed at them, yes, it cannot be denied that there exist some bad hats, but those belong to the minority group.Some brief background on the department and the task they have to shoulder.

The Immigration Department of Malaysia is under the Ministry of Home Affairs, which provides services to Malaysian Citizens, Permanent Residents and Foreign Visitors.

The functions of the department are as follows:-

1. Issuing of passports and travel documents to Malaysian Citizens and Permanent Resident.
2. Issuing of visas, pass and permits to Foreign Visitors entering Malaysia.
3. Administering and controlling the entry and exit of people at authorized entry points.
4. Enforcing the Immigration Act 1959/63, Immigration Regulations 1963 and Passport Act 1966.

(source: The official website of the Malaysian Immigration Department)

We will start from the top, they (the officers) are responsible to issue travel documents, while it is easier said than done, they have to be very careful and cautious in executing this task, only those deserve to be issued documents need to be issued, while those under the refused list due to numerous reasons (ex: bankrupt, criminals,tax evaders etc) would have to be refused, but more often than not, those who are refused will use several platform and channels to show their displeasure, especially political channel.

As for the second function, only genuine Foreign Visitors need to be entertained, it is not a right but a privilege, again the officers would come under undue pressure from many quarters, jabbed left and right from various organization, they cannot be too strict neither they can be lax.

The same problems are faced while administering function number three and number four, and again more often than not, their decisions will be overruled by PTD officers who normally act out of self interest.Now you tell me, isn't it an arduous task, almost impossible balancing act? Doesn't it sounds like head they lose, tail they don't win?

My prayers for them, and my wish like I mentioned earlier is for the department to become a fully closed department one day...GOD willing.....till then GOD have mercy and help them

To all the Immigration brave souls out there.....be strong....Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri...ciao....a.h.baharom

Rocky II: The onslaught against Najib?

Words or rather blogs are abuzz with news that Rocky Bru a.k.a Datuk Ahiruddin Atan is planning to do next, after leaving Redberry group at the end of his contract in May. Strong signals are being detected that Rocky would be leading an online media onslaught against the current Premier Najib Tun Razak. In case you have forgotten, Rocky is credited for ousting former Premier, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, his government and the New Straits Times. He used to great success his blog and his network of blogger and journalist friends, and by the time Pak Lah  realized, it was too late.He later aligned himself to Najib, becoming one of his trusted friends or more aptly known as within the circles guy.
Boy oh boy, what a shocking turn of events, in a Hollywood kinda of script, there is a sequel for this blockbuster, rumours are spreading like wildfire that Rocky’s on the loose again, this time he’s gunning for Najib. If that doesn;t shock you, wait till you hear who's behind it. As reported by the http://catoutofbag.wordpress.com/

But the really interesting thing is who is backing his new venture financially. If you were to find out you would think these were some of Najib’s closest allies. After all it includes people linked to, wait for it, ….Hishammuddin Hussein and Muhyiddin Yassin – the two men who have been pushing Najib to the right, cornering the PM, and basically trapping the PM. 

Wonder whether any of the Hollywood producers are interested in making it into a movie, one thing for sure, it will definitely be full of twist and turns and many sequels.....ciao.....a.h.baharom

THE ROLE OF GOLD IN FINANCIAL INVESTMENT: MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Below are the excerpts from the working paper that I worked together with lead author Prof. Mansor Hj Ibrahim. The paper is summarized and most of the technical parts are removed to provide an easy reading, the paper was also presented in the 2nd Langkawi International Finance and Economics Seminar which was held in 2010. The full copy of the paper could be found on the net, with the proceedings published by esharianomics.com.......a.h.baharom

THE ROLE OF GOLD IN FINANCIAL INVESTMENT: MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Mansor H. Ibrahim
A. H. Baharom

Over the last two decades, the international financial markets have experienced a series of financial crises and turbulence in different parts of the world. Among them include the Mexican crisis in 1994, the Asian financial crisis in 1997/1998, the Russian crisis in 1998, Brazilian crisis in 1999, the Argentine financial crisis in 2001/2002 and most recently the US subprime crisis in 2007 and Greece’s financial crisis in 2009. In all cases, these crises resulted in drastic drop and excessive volatility in the stock markets of the crisis-originating countries. The national markets of other economies suffered as well through the “contagion” effect. These adverse financial shocks brought substantial costs to the crisis-affected countries as the shocks were translated into banking distress and economic slumps. As an example, the 1997/1998 Asian crisis brought the market index of Thailand, the crisis-originating country, to nosedive from a peak of 1410.33 points in January 1996 to 214.53 in August 1998. Other regional markets particularly Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines nosedived as well, observing their market prices to shred by more than half over roughly the same periods. These shocks were then propagated to the real sector. The growth rates of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand in 1997 were respectively 4.7%, 7.3%, 5.2% and -1.7%. In 1998, these figures dropped drastically for all countries to -13.1% (Indonesia), -7.4% (Malaysia), -0.6% (Philippines) and -10.2% (Thailand).

The recurring heightened volatility in the stock markets is normally viewed to impose substantial risk to stock investment. Existing studies on stock market risk have a predominant focus on characterizing the risk using GARCH-type models and whether the risk can be diversified through international diversification. The risk dynamics have been examined for not only developed markets, which occupy majority of studies, but also to emerging markets as far as Lithuania (Teresienė, 2009). Studies on the benefits of international diversification tend to suggest increasing interactions among national markets and their interactions are more intense during crisis episodes and accordingly limit the benefits of diversifying away financial risks originating from a specific market (Lee and Kim, 1993; Arshanapalli and Doukas, 1993; and Meric and Meric (1997). These studies thus highlight the need to identify other types of financial assets as a protection against this risk.and Greece’s financial crisis in 2009. In all cases, these crises resulted in drastic drop and excessive volatility in the stock markets of the crisis-originating countries.

The national markets of other economies suffered as well through the “contagion” effect. These adverse financial shocks brought substantial costs to the crisis-affected countries as the shocks were translated into banking distress and economic slumps.The crisis episodes seem to conjure up the image of gold as an alternative investment asset or an important part of assets in financial portfolios. The emerging interest in gold in times of crises perhaps stems from its historical use as a medium of exchange and standard of value and its stable purchasing power over times. In light of these, few studies have raised an empirical inquiry as to whether gold can at least diversify portfolio risk or at best provide a safe haven. Notable among these studies are recent works by Capie et al. (2005), Hillier et al. (2006) and Baur and Lucey (2010).

Capie et al. (2006) examined whether gold serves as a hedge against fluctuations in sterling-dollar and yen-dollar rates and arrive at a conclusion that gold possesses the exchange rate hedge property. However, they also note that the extent of hedging tends to vary over time. Baur and Lucey (2010) estimate the relations between U.S., U. K. and German stock and bond returns and gold returns. They document evidence for the hedging role of gold. Moreover, gold also provides a safe haven in extreme market conditions.

The present paper attempts to contribute to this line of research by examining the role of gold in financial investment from an emerging market perspective, Malaysia. We focus on the emerging Malaysian market since it is the emerging markets that frequently exhibit volatile market movements relative to the advanced markets and, in Malaysia, the importance of gold was strongly voiced during the Asian crisis. In the analysis, we assess whether gold investment can provide diversifying role, hedging role or safe haven role for stock market investors as recently defined by Baur and Lucey (2010), which is based on correlations between gold returns and stock market returns. Simply stated, gold is said to provide a diversifying role if its return is positively but less than perfectly correlated with stock market return. Gold serves as a hedge if its return is independent from or negatively correlated with the stock return. Finally, if this hedging characteristic of gold investment also prevails during periods of market turmoil or stress, the gold is considered to be a safe haven.

In the analysis, we look at the relation between domestic gold and stock market returns within a regression framework. Based on daily data from August 2001 to March 2010, our analysis covers both full sample and two equally-divided sub-samples. The latter is implemented such that we can roughly address possible changing relations between gold and stock returns in the recent period marked by heightened volatility during years surrounding the US subprime crisis. The heightened volatility of financial markets sparked by a series of financial crises in different parts of the world has raised serious concern over stock investment risk and,consequently, necessitates the need to identify alternative financial assets that can ameliorate investment portfolio risk. In light of this, we empirically investigate whether gold can serve as a diversification, a hedge, or a safe haven asset for the case of Malaysia. We look at the issue from Malaysia’s investment perspective by estimating the relations between gold and stock returns using daily domestic gold and stock market data from August 2001 to March 2010.

In general, we find gold to serve as a diversification asset. The analysis also reveals two important findings. First, during periods of extreme market conditions, the relations between gold and stock market returns tend to be stronger. This signals the weakened diversification benefit of gold investment during period of large market downturns. And second, based on two equally-divided sub-samples, gold is found to provide a hedge against stock market risk and a safe haven during extreme stock market downturns during the first sub-sample. However, these properties of gold tend to disappear during recent years. Thus, the investment role of gold has been degraded to be a diversification asset. Again, the diversification benefit seems weakened during extreme market conditions. In short, the investment role of gold is time-varying. Probably, in the case of Malaysia, the degradation of gold from a hedge or safe haven asset to a diversification asset over recent years is due to the prolonged volatility of the market during years surrounding the sub-prime crisis.

World stock markets plunge as fears of recession intensify: Gold remain the better option

It seems that gold still seems to be the better option, soaring to a record high....how I wish....
It is going to be an interesting week, are we going to experience a global 'freefall' or is it just a hiccup and we will be left unscathed, forget about the politicians comment, be realistic, somehow we would be affected, either a small dent or a hugh hole....GOD help us.....a.h.baharom

World stock markets plunge as fears of recession intensify

FTSE, Dow Jones, Dax and Cac all fall as investors flee to gilts and gold


Julia Kollewe

guardian.co.uk, Thursday 18 August 2011 15.37 BST
Article history

A trader watches his screens on the Frankfurt stock market. Photograph: Michael Probst/AP


Global stock markets crashed and gold soared to a new record high on Thursday, amid growing fears that the world is sliding into a double-diprecession.

Dire manufacturing figures from the US prompted a sell-off on Wall Street, where the Dow Jones plunged more than 500 points at one stage. It later traded down 445 points at 10965, a fall of nearly 4%.

The FTSE index in London plummeted 220 points, or 4.1%, to 5110 with all 100 stocks on the index down – banking and mining stocks were among the biggest fallers, led by Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland.

Germany's Dax fell 6.3% and France's Cac lost 5.7%, while markets in highly indebted Spain, Italy and Portugal dropped by 5.8%, 6.1% and 4.8% respectively. In Asia, Japan's Nikkei closed down 1.25% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled 1.2% and the Shanghai Composite ended the day 1.6% lower.

The yield on UK 10-year government bonds, known as gilts, tumbled to 2.34% – the lowest since 1897 – and gold jumped 2.1% to hit a fresh record high of $1,825.99 an ounce as investors fought shy of equities. Expectations that the world economy will need less oil pushed Brent crude down towards $108 a barrel, after reaching a two-week high on Wednesday. The euro fell 1% against the Swiss franc, regarded as a safe haven.

Dominic Rossi, global chief investment officer, equities, at Fidelity International, believes volatility is here to stay.

"We can certainly argue that equities are cheap. Apart from the depths of 2008, there aren't many periods in the course of the last 20 years where you could argue that equities were as lowly valued as they are today. However, I think we need to recognise that while equities are cheap, they are cheap for a reason and they may stay cheap for a while longer. I'm not expecting equity markets to go back to the highs we saw earlier this year soon and frankly wouldn't be surprised if over the course of the next few months we see some further pressure, with the lows of a couple of weeks ago being re-tested."

He added: "We have to think about the impact that three bear markets have had on investor psychology. Back in 1999 equities were a cult. Here we are 13 years later where equities have been offering jam tomorrow and not delivering. When you go through that kind of bear market the requirements of investors change and I think there is going to be a growing demand from equity investors for jam today, rather than jam tomorrow. That means going forward there is going to be a greater demand for income from equities than there has been over the last 15 or 20 years."

Concerned that the eurozone debt crisis could be spreading to the US banking sector, regulators in New York have stepped up their scrutiny of the US arms of Europe's largest banks. The news was compounded by a cocktail of bad economic data from the US. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve factory index, which measures manufacturing activity in the surrounding region, fell to its lowest level since March 2009. Further pressure came from worse-than-expected new jobless claims in the US last week, while inflation was faster than anticipated in July.

Morgan Stanley warned that the global economy was teetering on the brink of a recession, and slashed its growth forecasts. Citing "recent policy errors" and the prospect of further austerity measures in 2012, it said the US and the eurozone were "hovering dangerously close to a recession over the next six to 12 months".

"While we had been calling for a 'BBB' recovery in developed markets all along, the path now looks even more Bumpy, Below-par and Brittle than previously thought," analysts Joachim Fels and Manoj Pradhan said in a note, adding that emerging markets were not immune either.

The US investment bank cut its global growth forecast to 3.9% from 4.2% this year, and to 3.8% from 4.5% next year. Growth in developed market economies is now seen averaging at just 1.5% this year and next (down from previous estimates of 1.9% and 2.4%). A recession is defined as two or more consecutive quarters of economic contraction.

"Still, recession is not our base case because the corporate sector looks healthy; household real incomes will be supported by lower headline inflation; and we expect more action from the Fed and the ECB, including rate cuts and more non-standard easing," the Morgan Stanley analysts said.

Fears that the UK economy could slide back into recession intensified after news that retail sales grew by just 0.2% last month, and by 0.1% in the last three months. The latest UK labour market data also painted a worsening picture, with unemployment rising sharply, especially among women and young people. The grim global outlook and turmoil in financial markets prompted the Bank of England's monetary policy committee to discuss a fresh round of quantitative easing at its meeting a fortnight ago, and its two most hawkish members abandoned their calls for higher interest rates to curb inflation.

At Franco-German crisis talks in Paris on Tuesday, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy urged closer economic co-ordination and called for a Europe-wide tax on financial transactions to prevent the disintegration of the single currency.

Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities, said: "The European sovereign debt crisis is likely to remain a feature of markets for some time, but if we see a sharp slowdown in economic activity it could threaten fiscal consolidation in core countries such as France and exacerbate the crisis."

Jenkins noted that one bank borrowed $500m (£300m) for a week from the European Central Bank on Wednesday. "It is the first time a euro area bank has borrowed dollars from the ECB since February. While one shouldn't read too much into one transaction it could be another indication of tension in money markets."

Explain Tajuddin Ramli's bailout:TI-M;s Chief tell Putrajaya

It is getting more and more interesting, or should I say intriguing, of course I am talking about the MAS, the merger, oopppss...the CCF, the end of Munir's reign, the letter from Nazri....bla...bla...bla...below is a report ftm The malaysian Insider....adios .....a.h.baharom

(The Malaysian Insider) - Transparency-International Malaysia (TI-M) president Datuk Paul Low questioned the Najib administration’s decision to settle all out-of-court suits between government-linked-companies (GLCs) and Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli, saying today Putrajaya has a duty to protect the public’s interest.

He was responding to The Malaysian Insider’s report earlier today, citing de facto law minister Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz’s directive to all GLCs, including Danaharta and Malaysian Airlines (MAS), to drop all claims against Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s poster boy for Bumiputera entrepreneurs as the Ministry of Finance (MOF) has agreed to settle the payment.

“When they say settle something, exactly what does it mean? Nobody knows how it’s to be settled or how much, on what basis and justification? Is the government paying on behalf of the GLCs? Is it a bailout? Who are parties involved?

“Who instructed Nazri? Was it the Finance Ministry, the Cabinet or the prime minister? We don’t know,” Low told The Malaysian Insider when contacted.

He reminded the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government that it was accountable for spending taxpayers’ money.

He said the government could not simply step into a legal dispute that involved a public-listed company, even if it had government ties; and added the government must show how the country and the public benefitted from such a decision.

“This arrangement does not reflect well on the government. In good governance, the buck stops at the CEO, or the board of directors. The government has to answer,” he added.

The head of the local anti-graft watchdog urged Putrajaya to come clean on the decision, noting that it was a “test of good governance” for the ruling political coalition.

What went wrong with MAS?

Most people are scratching their head trying to find reasons, logical one that is, what went wrong with our national carrier. How many rescue plans does she need?. A decade ago, more specifically, somewhere in 2002, the current Managing Director of MAS's major shareholder, albeit Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar headed the wide asset unbundling (WAU) restructuring exercise thru BinaFikir consultancy.It really helped MAS to clean up its book.

If that is not enough MAS had two rights issues since, raking in RM1.6 billion in 2007 and RM2.67 billion in 2010 to fund its operations and fleet purchases. Idris Jala, the former MD of MAS was doing a fine job steering it clear of troubled waters.MAS has undergone almost everything that a turnaround situation would warrant including restructuring, outsourcing, streamlining, financial reengineering etc....you named it....they've done it kinda thing, then why is it that it is still bleeding red ink?

Though the experts in the aviation could argue that all these were financial in nature to keep the airline in the black, but what was lacking is operational fixes, it still doesn't make sense.What makes perfect sense is thar the unnecessary leakages such as the well known secret of the outsourcing of thr catering wing whereby MAS indeed suffers significant waste. The former Prime Minister's brother Ibrahim Abdullah is a shareholder in SkyChef - a joint venture with Lufthansa - which has taken over the job of MAS Catering. This is a very lucrative deal for SkyChef but a bleeder for MAS.

Or is it due to the curse of Nor Mohamed Yakcop?....Remember him?...the former Second Finance Minister. There was a period when MAS was reporting direct to him, and he his known as the opposite of Midas, whereby anything and everything that he touched in the past went bust (well, almost all). He is infamous for putting Bank Negara into technical bankruptcy with his forex deals which caused RM17.0 billion in losses.He was also the  Chairman of Abrar which not only went bust but was wound up. Not only companies, even people who ether brought him in or employed him also were literally busted or went bust. It is a long list which includes Anwar Ibrahim, Rashid Husain, Abul Hassan,......

Adios for now.....GOD have mercy and help us........a.h.baharom

AirAsia-MAS Deal: Its not a merger its CCF...Duh!

All the major players, be it from Khazanah, AirAsia or MAS vehemently denied that the AirAsia-MAS deal will create a monopoly.They are claiming that the exercise is not a merger, AirAsia, AirAsia X and Malaysian Airline System have announced they have entered into what is termed a Comprehensive Collaboration Framework (CCF), which includes a major share swap and a collaboration agreement to explore opportunities to cooperate on a broad range of areas. As part of the CCF, six MAS directors have resigned and have been replaced with six new directors, including AirAsia CEO and founder Tony Fernandes. Two MAS executives will join the AirAsia board

According to a report by ATW (Air Transport World), as part of the CCF, MAS and AirAsia are issuing free warrants to each other’s shareholders. A MAS shareholder will be granted approximately one warrant in AirAsia for every 30 MAS shares held, while an AirAsia shareholder will be granted approximately one MAS warrant for every 10 AirAsia shares held.In addition, Tune Air and Khazanah Nasional Berhad, the major shareholders of AirAsia and MAS, respectively, have agreed to acquire from each other existing shares of both companies.

As a result, Tune will hold 20.5% of shares in MAS and Khazanah will hold 10% in AirAsia. In addition, Khazanah proposes to acquire 10% of shares in AirAsia X on terms and at a price to be mutually agreed upon later.According to AirAsia, the agreement enables MAS, AirAsia and AirAsia X “to respectively focus on business segments in which they are capable of developing the most value.” The airlines will now assess and review their network services to enhance their offering, which will include partial interlining and flights to new destinations currently not served by any of the airlines.

In layman term, MAS and AirAsia are not married, they are just living together.....it is going to be interesting, where it goes from here, anyway like I said before....Merry Christmas Tony....darn....it is only August, comes December it will be Merrier Christmas Tony........adios...........a.h.baharom 

Ho! Ho! Ho! : Christmas sure comes early for Tony Fernandes

While the Muslims worldwide are going thru fasting in the holy month of Ramadan and will be celebrating Eidul Fitri in 20 days, Tony Fernandes, is grinning from ear to ear and seems to enjoy all the jolly good news of AirAsia-MAS deal. It was totally unexpected (well to most of us) and is akin to Tony Fernandes celebrating Christmas in August.While some counterparts and colleagues have been claiming that I am jumping the gun, saying that I should wait for the fine prints of the 'merger' or deal before making any comments or condemning the exercise. Well, one thing for sure, is that Monopoly power is BAD news for the consumers, it is inefficient, any basic text book, or any economic theories (be it classical or neo) will conform to that view.

It seems that Tony Fernandes indeed has the magic wand, he seems to get what he wants, and whenever he wants it ,anybody in aviation sector (except those in AirAsia) would vouch for that. Ask the airport authorities (KLIAB/MAB), how they have to put up with his antics, and imagine if he is control of MAS as well, it will be double impact ........ ...WoW...devastative,,,that is how I will describe that. So far he seems to be the spoilt and pampered son of Malaysia. as a friend of mine commented, "whatever he demanded of LCCT and routes are pure govt handouts to him!!"....It makes me wonders....is he the only one smiling and laughing all the way to the bank, or does he have any partners in crime......


Ciao..........a.h.baharom

MAS-AirAsia deal: A monopoly in the making?

The proposed share swap deal between MAS and AirAsia is helmed as a win-win situation by the Transport Minister. He further claimed that the move will strenghten the local or National aviation sector, boost it and add synergies. But the manner and hush-hush behind the deal is indeed worrying tending to cause or excite suspicion and questionable. One moment Tony Fernandes and Kamarudin Meranun are hailed as the majority MAS shareholder, the next moment Khazanah Nasional denying it, and insisting they remain the largest shareholders.

It is claimed that it is inevitable for Tony Fernandes and Co. to step in to help the flagging national carrier. Was the move to pull out Idris Jala from the national carrier a bad one? Could he have avoided it? No point crying over spilt milk....we have to move on. From an economic perspective, the move to bring Tony Fernandes in, would be akin to creating and handling the monopoly power of the Malaysian aviation sector to him, on a silver platter. It is a common knowledge that monopolist have huge powers, and the consumers would be at their mercy. Monoply market is also known for its inefficiencies, underallocatment and overpricing.The lack of real competition may give a monopolist less of an incentive to invest in new ideas or consider consumer welfare.

The fierce competition between MAS and AirAsia before this, ensured that the consumers enjoyed some good deals, this would not be possible if they become one and no elements of competition exist.So, I am not sure how the Transport Minister could come up with the conclusion of win-win situation. For me the consumers would be at the losing end, and what ever it is, Tony Fernandes would be laughing all the way to the bank.......adios........a.h.baharom

It is Ramadan, can we stop politicking?: KJ, don't stoop too low

Furore and chaos on all the media's, tweets flying around, while it is understandable for people like Chua Soi Lek, his apple polishing Wee Ka Siong to take advantage of the situation, it is unthinkable for Khairy Jamaludin to follow suit. After all it is the holy month of Ramadan, it is a month even warring parties take a break and lay down their guns, it is a hugely anticipated month where we would like to maximize good deeds, it is a month even the Satan is chained, so to stoop too low to politicize and indulge in dirty politics and fish in murky waters would be unthinkable for a Muslim.

JAIS (the religious authorities of Selangor), which comes under the wings of the State Exco Dr Hassan Ali paid a visit (well, the spinners called it a raid....whatever) Damansara Utama Methodist Centre, the sole reason was there was a strong believe based on huge tip-off that there were proselytisation (memurtadkan) efforts being made on Muslims(numbered around 12 people) that night. DUMC claimed that it was just a feast for the under-privileged, there are many questions left unanswered.the JAIS team was made to wait for a very long period before they were finally allowed in. Efforts were made to destroy some evidence(Why?). there were some people who were even try to escape via some back-doors. All these arouses more suspicion.

I am .not an extremist, but why is it held in a night in Ramadan? Wouldn't these people would be better off performing terawih prayers? Why is it held in a church? If it is just a feast for the underprivileged, wouldn't it be better off in other proper places? if nothing is wrong, and they have nothing to hide, why were the officers from JAIS held up for long period of time? Why were there efforts to destroy some hard evidence? Why is there a need to bolt off? Fishy eh?......Let investigation take place..if all the suspicion are unwarranted, then DUMC deserves an apology,....what if........?.......ciao........a.h.baharom