Foul!

As published in Malay Mail today   HARESH SAYS By Haresh Deol IT was supposed to be another day at work. Instead, I received a rude shock last Thursday from a used car dealer.   “Bro, did you lodge a police report that your car was stolen?” were his first few words on the phone. Car? Police report?   In 2010, I bought a used Mazda RX8. The first owner, a diplomat with the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, shipped the car into the country from Japan. The car was then sold to another man and I was technically the third owner. I had all the paper work, including copies of the AP, and secured a bank loan with ease.   Despite what some may say about the rotary-engine petrol-guzzling beast, it was one of a kind. The annual road tax was only RM70 (due to its 1.3cc engine) and maintaining it was surprisingly cheap. However, I did not do justice to it and decided to let it go in 2014. It was on Dec 22, 2014, when I sold it to a used car dealer. I have been “car-le...

As published in Sunday Mail today. By Haresh Deol and Pearl Lee mmnews@mmail.com.my KUALA LUMPUR —  A complete revamp of the disgraced Royal Malaysian Customs Department — coming in the wake of one of the country’s biggest corruption scandals in the civil service — is being set in motion to rope in more rogue officers. A task force is to be formed to study weaknesses in the department’s standard operating procedures (SOP) especially at entry and exit points where corruption is seemingly rife. A source familiar with the proposed revamp described the existing SOP for these areas, where there is heavy movement of export and import goods, as “archaic” and “riddled with shortcomings”. He said the review will also look at the existing powers of the department to determine if this allowed officers at certain levels to operate unchecked. “The situation in Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ), for instance, grants Customs almost absolute powers withou...