Citation for Datuk Mahadev Shankar

I have it from our President, Christopher Leong, that it was in the year 2011 that the Bar Council instituted the conferment of an award from time to time, to be called The Malaysian Bar Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition by the Malaysian Bar of past or present members, for outstanding contributions to the Malaysian Bar “inter alia in terms of leadership, service to the Bar and/or to the Nation, and/or in their practice at the Bar, which contributions had a significant, historical and lasting impact on the legal profession and on the community at large”.

The recipient of the inaugural Award was the late Raja Aziz Addruse; it was conferred on him posthumously in March 2012.  For 2013, there was one recipient, Dato’ Dr Sir Peter Mooney.
For this year, 2014, the recipient is Dato’ Mahadev Shankar.
I have been greatly honoured by the Bar Council requesting me to prepare, on behalf of the Bar Council, the citation for the conferment of the Award upon Dato’ Mahadev Shankar.
Dato’ Mahadev Shankar was born in Kuala Lumpur in 1932.  His father, the late Mr T V Mahadevan, had been from 1931 to 1958 (when he retired from Government service), Private Secretary to the Chief Justice of Malaya.  Shankar’s primary schooling started in 1940 at the Pasar Road School.  Two years later, the Japanese occupied Malaya.  Under the Japanese military administration, the Japanese language, Nippon-go, became the mandatory language of education in our schools.  Shankar went to one such school, Tek Sin Gakko, and by the end of 1942, Shankar had acquired a working knowledge of basic Japanese.

Man brutally stabbed and slashed to death

KUALA LUMPUR: A man was brutally stabbed and slashed to death in the heart of the city.
The body of M. Mugunthan, 28, was found in front of a hotel along Jalan Tan Cheng Lock with multiple stab and slash wounds to the neck, and his left wrist almost severed.
Dang Wangi OCPD Asst Comm Zainuddin Ahmad said a passer by had stumbled upon the body at around 10pm, Monday.
“The body was lying in a pool of blood along the five foot way, outside the hotel.
“Initial investigations have revealed that the man was from Mantin, Negri Sembilan,” he said when met at the scene on Monday night.
He said a visual inspection of the body revealed multiple stab and slash wounds to the neck and left wrist.
“We have yet to establish a motive for the case.
“We also could not find any weapon at the scene of the crime,” he said adding that the case was being investigated under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder.
Those with information regarding the case should contact the police hotline at 03-2115 9999 or visit the nearest police station.

PT3 replaces PMR, says Muhyiddin

KUALA LUMPUR: Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) or Lower Secondary Assessment examination would be replaced with Pentaksiran Tingkatan 3 (PT3) or Form 3 Assessment, beginning this year.
The Deputy Prime Minister said through the implementation of improvements in the Pentaksiran Berasaskan Sekolah (PBS) or School-Based Assessment on April 1, there would no longer be any centralised examination for Form 3 students implemented at the school level.
"PT3 replaces PMR. There is some form of assessment at the school level. The PT3 will be used as the basis to determine the entry of students into Form 4 whether in Fully Residential Schools, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama, Mara Junior Science Colleges (MRSM) including Sekolah Menengah Teknik (SMT) and Vocational Colleges.
"Besides the PT3, entry into these schools will also use the Psychometric Test to ensure that the selection and emplacement of students suited their capability and interest," he said.
Muhyidddin, who is also the Education Minister, said this at a special media conference, which was also attended by the major players in the country's education system such as the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) at Parliament House, here today.
He said the schools would inform the results of the performance assessment of the students at the end of the year the assessment was made and the student concerned could request for the result slip to go to any fully residential school.

Kenyan police arrest two men with bombs, suspected ties to militants

MOMBASA, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan police have arrested two men suspected of links to a Somali Islamist militant group after they were tracked and found to have two large bombs that may have been aimed for use in the area of the port city of Mombasa, a senior police officer said.
The two men were arrested on Monday and police said they could appear in court on Tuesday to face formal charges.
The Somali al Shabaab Islamist group has claimed several attacks on Kenya in the past. After a September raid by gunmen on a Nairobi shopping mall that killed at least 67 people, the group said it planned more attacks. The coast, which is popular with tourists, has been a target.
Al Shabaab have demanded that Kenyan troops withdraw from Somalia where they have been fighting the Islamist rebels.
"Our first suspicion is that they are al Shabaab especially because of their origin," Robert Kitur, Mombasa police chief told Reuters, adding one man was Somali and the other was a Kenyan of Somali origin.
Kenya, which neighbours Somalia, has a large community of ethnic Somalis.
Police recovered two large improvised explosive devices (IEDs), or hand-made bombs, from the men, Kitur said. "We suspect they were planning to detonate them somewhere around Mombasa," he added.
"If they had detonated, they would have caused massive destruction," Kitur said, adding police also found mobile phones which could have been used as detonators.
Police had trailed the suspects after intercepting telephone communications they were making with suspected accomplices in Somalia, Kitur said.
The provincial police headquarters in Mombasa was sealed off as bomb experts from the Kenya Defence forces took over to examine the explosives.
(Reporting by Joseph Akwiri and Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Chinese nationals: We are under observation all the time

CYBERJAYA: The next of kin of the passengers on missing Flight MH370 who were flown here from Beijing have likened their stay in Malaysia to being locked up.
They checked into a five-star facility here on March 11 but the families complained that they had little freedom as they were put under close observation by Malaysia Airlines officials.
At least 20 Chinese nationals are believed to have taken up the offer by MAS to travel to Kuala Lumpur as they await news on the missing flight which disappeared on March 8 with 239, including 153 Chinese nationals, on board.
“We are under observation round the clock. We feel like we are being locked up. There is no freedom,” said a Mr Xu, whose wife was among the passengers, in an interview with Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV.
MAS has been accommodating the Chinese families with their transportation and lodging needs from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur even though the information received in both countries is the same, as Firefly chief executive Ignatius Ong, who heads the command centre at Lido Hotel in Beijing, had pointed out.
The Department of Civil Aviation has been keeping the families updated on the latest news on the search and rescue mission in three briefings a day at the Beijing hotel.
However, Xu appeared determined to wait on in Malaysia.
“I want to be in Kuala Lumpur because it is nearer to where the incident happened compared to Beijing.

Missing MH370: Anwar now admits Capt Zaharie related to son's in-laws

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (pic) has now admitted that MH370 pilot Capt Zaharie Ahmad Shah is related to his son's in-laws.
"I am not denying that he ( Zaharie) is related to one of my in-laws and that I have met him on several occasions.
"In fact, he is a close friend of (PKR supreme council member and Subang MP) R. Sivarasa, as we said before," Anwar told reporters at the Parliament lobby here Tuesday.
Earlier, Anwar was quoted by South China Morning Post as saying: "I don’t recollect the name (Zaharie), but when the photographs were shown, I remembered I had seen him at party meetings," he said.