On Tue, 15 Jul 2008, Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
> So as far as I'm concerned, "disclosing" is the fixing of the bug. It's
> the "look at the source" approach.

Btw, and you may not like this, since you are so focused on security, one
reason I refuse to bother with the whole security circus is that I think
it glorifies - and thus encourages - the wrong behavior.

It makes "heroes" out of security people, as if the people who don't just
fix normal bugs aren't as important.

In fact, all the boring normal bugs are _way_ more important, just because
there's a lot more of them. I don't think some spectacular security hole
should be glorified or cared about as being any more "special" than a
random spectacular crash due to bad locking.

Security people are often the black-and-white kind of people that I can't
stand. I think the OpenBSD crowd is a bunch of masturbating monkeys, in
that they make such a big deal about concentrating on security to the
point where they pretty much admit that nothing else matters to them.

To me, security is important. But it's no less important than everything
*else* that is also important!

			Linus

A Hindu family today lost a court battle with Islamic authorities over the rights to the body of their relative who a religious syariah court declared to be Muslim.

MCPX

In the nation’s latest dispute over Islamic conversion, the family of Elangesvaran Benedict, who committed suicide last month, said he remained a Hindu and should be buried according to the rites of the religion.

The Penang High Court however dismissed an application for an injunction pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal made by a mee seller to stop the Islamic authorities from claiming the body his stepbrother.

Judge Balia Yusof Wali did not grant the stay to S Selvam (left), 48, to stop the council from collecting Elangesvaran’s body from Parit Buntar Hospital because “the High Court has no jurisdiction to decide over an earlier Syariah Court ruling”.

With the decision, Balia upholds his own decision made on similar grounds last Friday when dismissing an interim injunction application filed by Selvam on June 25 to claim his step-brother’s body.

The decision was delivered in chambers after Balia heard deliberations for nearly two hours from Selvam’s counsels, Karpal Singh and RS Nethaji Rayer, and arguments from lawyers Asmuni Awi, Yusnita Yusuf and Mohd Ghazali Mohd Taib representing the Perak Islamic Religious Affairs Department, Penang Islamic Religious Department and Parit Buntar Hospital director.

A visibly disappointed Karpal (left) will however go ahead with an appeal to the higher court to seek a landmark decision “to once for all end controversies arising from cases of this nature.”

He believed the grounds for Balia’s decision could be challenged since Syariah Court’s jurisdiction covers only Muslims and it could only make rulings on Islamic apostasy, “not when it involves a person’s religious identity.”

“Only civil courts can rule on whether a person is a Muslim or not,” he told journalists outside the chambers.

Case pending but Syariah Court made decision

Last Friday, while Selvam’s application for interim injunction was pending for hearing at the Penang High Court, the Parit Buntar Syariah Court ruled that Elangesvaran was a Muslim, much dismay of his family members.

Because of this, Balia decided that the High Court cannot overrule the Syariah Court decision and dismissed Selvam’s application, though he granted a stay to file for another injunction pending a hearing to allow Selvam to file an appeal to the Court of Appeals.

However, this too was dismissed today paving the way for the Islamic authorities to bury the deceased as a Muslim.

Karpal said it was wrong for the Perak Islamic religious authority to file for a decision at the Syariah Court when the case was pending at the Penang High Court, thus putting “unwarranted and undesired” pressure on judge Balia.

“It was a direct interference by the Syariah Court into the judicial powers of the civil court.”

Balia’s decision raises a serious question on what will happen to the deceased body if the Court of Appeal decided to overturn Balia’s decision and allow Selvam to claim the body.

This was the question raised by Karpal, Selvam and leaders of Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), who were at the court house to give moral support.

“If the Appeals Court overrules today’s decision, especially after the Islamic authorities had buried Elangesvaran body according to Islamic rites in a Muslim cemetery, the deceased family will undergo a traumatic experience of digging out his body then burying or cremating him according to Hindu rites.

“A stay would have avoided this unpleasant situation,” said Karpal.

Stepbrother: Elangesvaran was never a Muslim

According to his death certificate, Elangesvaran committed suicide at 3.40am on June 22, 2008 by hanging himself on a tree outside his house in Bagan Serai.

He leaves behind a wife and two children, age six and three.

Perak religious authorities claimed that the deceased was a Muslim convert though it failed to produce any documents as evidence to prove its claims that Elangesvaran had legally and rightfully embrace Islam.

Selvam claimed that Elangesvaran was never a Muslim and had always been a practicing Hindu.

“My stepbrother has special affection towards Lord Ganesha (the Elephant God),” he told Malaysiakini at the court house.

Balia’s decision is set to spark another round of controversy over ‘body-snatching’ in the country.

The case is the latest in a series of allegations of ‘body-snatching’ by Islamic authorities, who have seized remains against the objections of non-Muslim family members.

In the wake of the controversy, the government has proposed new rules on converting to Islam to prevent the wrangles that have split families and incited racial tensions in the country.

Describing the decision as shocking, Hindraf national coordinator RS Thanenthiran (left) suggested that “Syariah Court seems more powerful and prevailing over civil courts when the federal constitution says otherwise. This is injustice to Elangesvaran family and the Hindu community at large.

“I urge the Appeals Court to make an ultimate and fair decision to put to rest this persisting controversy,” he said.

Hindraf Perak coordinator A Vethamurthy said the decision today implied that “it was waste of energy, time and resources for non-Muslims to seek justice through the civil courts.”

The following is the full 16-page statutory declaration sign by Abdul Razak Baginda’s private investigor P Balasubramaniam on July 1.

I, Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal … do solemly and sincerely declare as follows:

1. I have been a police officer with the Royal Malaysian Police Force, having joined as a constable in 1981 attached to the police field force. I was then promoted to the rank of lance corporal and finally resigned from the police force in 1998 when I was with the Special Branch.

2. I have been working as a freelance private investigator since I left the police force.

3. Sometime in June or July 2006, I was employed by Abdul Razak Baginda for a period of 10 days to look after him at his office at the Bangunan Getah Asli, Jalan Ampang between the hours of 8am to 5pm each working day as apparently he was experiencing disturbances from a third party.

4. I resigned from this job after 2½ days as I was not receiving any proper instructions.

5. I was however re-employed by Abdul Razak Baginda on the Oct 5, 2006 as he had apparently received a harassing phone call from a Chinese man calling himself ASP Tan who had threatened him to pay his debts. I later found out this gentleman was in fact a private investigator called Ang who was employed by a Mongolian woman called Altantuya Shaaribuu.

6. Abdul Razak Baginda was concerned that a person by the name of Altantuya Shaaribuu, a Mongolian woman, was behind this threat and that she would be arriving in Malaysia very soon to try and contact him.

7. Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that he was concerned by this as he had been advised that Altantuya Shaaribuu had been given some powers by a Mongolian ‘bomoh’ and that he could never look her in the face because of this.

8. When I enquired as to who this Mongolian woman was, Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that she was a friend of his who had been introduced to him by a VIP and who asked him to look after her financially.

9. I advised him to lodge a police report concerning the threatening phone call he had received from the Chinese man known as ASP Tan but he refused to do so as he informed me there were some high-profile people involved.

10. Abdul Razak Baginda further told me that Altantuya Shaaribuu was a great liar and good in convincing people. She was supposed to have been very demanding financially and that he had even financed a property for her in Mongolia.

11. Abdul Razak Baginda then let me listen to some voice messages on his handphone asking him to pay what was due otherwise he would be harmed and his daughter harassed.

12. I was therefore supposed to protect his daughter Rowena as well.

13. On Oct 9, 2006 I received a phone call from Abdul Razak Baginda at about 9.30am informing me that Altantuya was in his office and he wanted me there immediately. As I was in the midst of a surveillance, I sent my assistant Suras to Abdul Razak Baginda’s office and I followed a little later. Suras managed to control the situation and had persuaded Altantuya and her two friends to leave the premises. However Altantuya left a note written on some Hotel Malaya notepaper, in English, asking Abdul Razak Baginda to call her on her handphone (number given) and wrote down her room number as well.

14. Altantuya had introduced herself to Suras as ‘Aminah’ and had informed Suras she was there to see her boyfriend Abdul Razak Baginda.

15. These three Mongolian girls however returned to Abdul Razak Baginda’s office at the Bangunan Getah Asli, Jalan Ampang again, the next day at about 12 noon. They did not enter the building but again informed Suras that they wanted to meet Aminah’s boyfriend, Abdul Razak Baginda.

16. On Oct 11, 2006, Aminah returned to Abdul Razak Baginda’s office on her own and gave me a note to pass to him, which I did. Abdul Razak Baginda showed me the note which basically asked him to call her urgently.

17. I suggested to Abdul Razak Baginda that perhaps it may be wise to arrange for Aminah to be arrested if she harassed him further, but he declined as he felt she would have to return to Mongolia as soon as her cash ran out.

18. In the meantime, I had arranged for Suras to perform surveillance on Hotel Malaya to monitor the movements of these three Mongolian girls, but they recognised him. Apparently they become friends with Suras after that and he ended up spending a few nights in their hotel room.

19. When Abdul Razak Baginda discovered Suras was becoming close to Aminah he asked me to pull him out from Hotel Malaya.

20. On the Oct 14, 2006, Aminah turned up at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house in Damansara Heights when I was not there. Abdul Razak Baginda called me on my handphone to inform me of this so I rushed back to his house. As I arrived, I noticed Aminah outside the front gates shouting “Razak, bastard, come out from the house”. I tried to calm her down but couldn’t, so I called the police who arrived in two patrol cars. I explained the situation to the police, who took her away to the Brickfields police station.

21. I followed the patrol cars to Brickfields police station in a taxi. I called Abdul Razak Baginda and his lawyer Dirren to lodge a police report but they refused.

22. When I was at the Brickfields police station, Aminah’s own private investigator, one Mr Ang arrived and we had a discussion. I was told to deliver a demand to Abdul Razak Baginda for US$500,000 and three tickets to Mongolia, apparently as commission owed to Aminah from a deal in Paris.

23. As Aminah had calmed down at this stage, a policewoman at the Brickfields police station advised me to leave and settle the matter amicably.

24. I duly informed Abdul Razak Baginda of the demands Aminah had made and told him I was disappointed that no one wanted to back me up in lodging a police report. We had a long discussion about the situation when I expressed a desire to pull out of this assignment.

25. During this discussion and in an attempt to persuade me to continue my employment with him, Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that:

1) He had been introduced to Aminah by Najib Razak at a diamond exhibition in Singapore.

2) Najib Razak informed Abdul Razak Baginda that he had a sexual relationship with Aminah and that she was susceptible to anal intercourse.

3) Najib Razak wanted Abdul Razak Baginda to look after Aminah as he did not want her to harass him since he was now the deputy prime minister.

4) Najib Razak, Abdul Razak Baginda and Aminah had all been together at a dinner in Paris.

5) Aminah wanted money from him as she felt she was entitled to a US$500,000 commission on a submarine deal she assisted with in Paris.

26. On Oct 19, 2006, I arrived at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house in Damansara Heights to begin my night duty. I had parked my car outside as usual. I saw a yellow Proton Perdana taxi pass by with three ladies inside, one of whom was Aminah. The taxi did a U-turn and stopped in front of the house where these ladies rolled down the window and wished me ‘Happy Deepavali’. The taxi then left.

27. About 20 minutes later the taxi returned with only Aminah in it. She got out of the taxi and walked towards me and started talking to me. I sent an SMS to Abdul Razak Baginda informing him “Aminah was here”.  I received an SMS from Razak instructing me “to delay her until my man comes”.

28. Whist I was talking to Aminah, she informed me of the following:

1) That she met Abdul Razak Baginda in Singapore with Najib Razak.
2) That she had also met Abdul Razak Baginda and Najib Razak at a dinner in Paris.

3) That she was promised a sum of US$500,000.00 as commission for assisting in a submarine deal in Paris.

4) That Abdul Razak Baginda had bought her a house in Mongolia but her brother had refinanced it and she needed money to redeem it.

5) That her mother was ill and she needed money to pay for her treatment.

6) That Abdul Razak Baginda had married her in Korea as her mother is Korean whilst her father was a Mongolian/Chinese mix.

7) That if I wouldn’t allow her to see Abdul Razak Baginda, would I be able to arrange for her to see Najib Razak.

29. After talking to Aminah for about 15 minutes, a red Proton Aeroback arrived with a woman and two men. I now know the woman to be lance corporal Rohaniza and the men, Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azahar. They were all in plainclothes. Azilah walked towards me while the other two stayed in the car.

30. Azilah asked me whether the woman was Aminah and I said “Yes”. He then walked off and made a few calls on his handphone. After 10 minutes another vehicle, a blue Proton Saga, driven by a Malay man, passed by slowly. The drivers window had been wound down and the driver was looking at us.

31. Azilah then informed me they would be taking Aminah away. I informed Aminah they were arresting her. The other two persons then got out of the red Proton and exchanged seats so that lance corporal Rohaniza and Aminah were in the back while the two men were in the front. They drove off and that is the last I ever saw of Aminah.

32. Abdul Razak Baginda was not at home when all this occurred.

33. After Oct 19, 2006, I continued to work for Abdul Razak Baginda at his house in Damansara Heights from 7pm to 8am the next morning, as he had been receiving threatening text messages from a woman called ‘Amy’ who was apparently ‘Aminah’s’ cousin in Mongolia.

34. On the night of Oct 20, 2006, both of Aminah’s girlfriends turned up at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house enquiring where Aminah was. I informed them she had been arrested the night before.

35. A couple of nights later, these two Mongolian girls, Mr Ang and another Mongolian girl called ‘Amy’ turned up at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house looking for Aminah as they appeared to be convinced she was being held in the house.

36. A commotion began so I called the police who arrived shortly thereafter in a patrol car.  Another patrol car arrived a short while later in which was the investigating officer from the Dang Wangi police station who was in charge of the missing persons report lodged by one of the Mongolians girls, I believe was Amy.

37. I called Abdul Razak Baginda who was at home to inform him of the events taking place at his front gate. He then called DSP Musa Safri and called me back informing me that Musa Safri would be calling handphone and I was to pass the phone to the inspector from Dang Wangi police station.

38. I then received a call on my handphone from Musa Safri and duly handed the phone to the Dang Wangi inspector. The conversation lasted 3-4 minutes after which he told the girls to disperse and to go to see him the next day.

39. On or about Oct 24, 2006, Abdul Razak Baginda instructed me to accompany him to the Brickfields police station as he had been advised to lodge a police report about the harassment he was receiving from these Mongolian girls.

40. Before this, Amy had sent me an SMS informing me she was going to Thailand to lodge a report with the Mongolian consulate there regarding Aminah’s disappearance. Apparently she had sent the same SMS to Abdul Razak Baginda. This is why he told me he had been advised to lodge a police report.

41. Abdul Razak Baginda informed me that DPS Musa Safri had introduced him to one DSP Idris, the head of the criminal division, Brickfields police station, and that Idris had referred him to ASP Tonny.

42. When Abdul Razak Baginda had lodged his police report at Brickfields police station, in front of ASP Tonny, he was asked to make a statement but he refused as he said he was leaving for overseas. He did however promise to prepare a statement and hand ASP Tonny a thumbdrive. I know that this was not done as ASP Tonny told me.

43. However ASP Tonny asked me the next day to provide my statement instead and so I did.

44. I stopped working for Abdul Razak Baginda on Oct 26, 2006 as this was the day he left for Hong Kong on his own.

45. In mid-November 2006, I received a phone call from ASP Tonny from the IPK Jalan Hang Tuah asking me to see him regarding Aminah’s case. When I arrived there I was immediately arrested under Section 506 of the Penal Code for criminal intimidation.

46. I was then placed in the lock up and remanded for five days. On the third day, I was released on police bail.

47. At the end of November 2006, the D9 department of the IPK sent a detective to my house to escort me to the IPK Jalan Hang Tuah. When I arrived, I was told I was being arrested under Section 302 of the Penal Code for murder. I was put in the lock up and remanded for seven days.

48. I was transported to Bukit Aman where I was interrogated and questioned about an SMS I had received from Abdul Razak Baginda on Oct 19, 2006 which read “delay her until my man arrives”. They had apparently retrieved this message from Abdul Razak Baginda’s handphone.

49. They then proceeded to record my statement from 8.30 am to 6pm everyday for seven consecutive days. I told them all I knew including everything Abdul Razak Baginda and Aminah had told me about their relationships with Najib Razak but when I came to sign my statement, these details had been left out.

50. I have given evidence in the trial of Azilah, Sirul and Abdul Razak Baginda at the Shah Alam High Court. The prosecutor did not ask me any questions in respect of Aminah’s relationship with Najib Razak or of the phone call I received from DSP Musa Safri, whom I believe was the ADC for Najib Razak and/or his wife.

51. On the day Abdul Razak Baginda was arrested, I was with him at his lawyers office at 6.30am. Abdul Razak Baginda informed us that he had sent Najib Razak an SMS the evening before as he refused to believe he was to be arrested, but had not received a response.

52. Shortly thereafter, at about 7.30am, Abdul Razak Baginda received an SMS from Najib Razak and showed, this message to both myself and his lawyer. This message read as follows: “ I am seeing IGP at 11am today …  matter will be solved … be cool”.

53. I have been made to understand that Abdul Razak Baginda was arrested the same morning at his office in the Bangunan Getah Asli, Jalan Ampang.

54. The purpose of this Statutory declaration is to:

1) State my disappointment at the standard of investigations conducted by the authorities into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Altantuya Shaaribuu.

2) Bring to the notice of the relevant authorities the strong possibility that there are individuals other than the three accused who must have played a role in the murder of Altantuya Shaaribuu.

3) Persuade the relevant authorities to reopen their investigations into this case immediately so that any fresh evidence may be presented to the court prior to submissions at the end of the prosecutions case.

4) Emphasise the fact that having been a member of the Royal Malaysian Police Force for 17 years, I am absolutely certain no police officer would shoot someone in the head and blow up their body without receiving specific instructions from their superiors first.

5) Express my concern that should the defence not be called in the said murder trial, the accused, Azilah and Sirul will not have to swear on oath and testify as to the instructions they received and from whom they were given.

55. And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same be true and by virtue of the provisions of the Statutory Declaration Act 1960.

Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal
July 1, 2008

The purpose of the workshop is to provide a platform for information sharing for the implementation of open source, in three specific areas namely: Funding, Public Private Collaboration, and Intellectual Property Rights.

The details of the workshop are as follows:

Date : 30th June – 1st July 2008
Time : 8.30 am – 5.30 pm
Venue : Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC)

The itinerary is available here . Your presence and input during the workshop will be very much appreciated. Please contact Ditesh Kumar ditesh@qubeconnect.com for registration. For registration, please provide your name, email address, contact number, organization and position in the organization.

The deadline for registration is on 24th June 2008.

I’ve finished reading Nelson Mandela’s autobiography: The Long Walk to Freedom. The book in itself was amazing. The burden he bore, to fight for freedom of all Africans (white or black) was extremely courageous and reminded me to some extent of the conversation of satyagraha in Orson Scott Card’s most excellent Shadow of the Hegemon:

“From the mention of Bose, the conversation turned to a discussion of Gandhi. Someone starting talking about ‘peaceful resistance’–never implying that anyone in Planning might contemplate such a thing, of course–and someone else said, ‘No, that’s passive resistance.’

That was when Petra spoke up. ‘This is India, and you know the word. It’s satyagraha, and it doesn’t mean peaceful or passive resistance at all.’

‘Not everyone here speaks Hindi,’ said a Tamil planner.

‘But everyone here should know Gandhi,’ said Petra.

Sayagi agreed with her. ‘Satyagraha is something else. The willingness to endure great personal suffering in order to do what’s right.’

‘What’s the difference, really?’

‘Sometimes,’ said Petra, ‘What’s right is not peaceful or passive. What matters is that you do not hide from the consequences. You bear what must be borne.’ ”

“‘That sounds more like courage than anything else,’ said the Tamil.

‘What happened to ‘discretion is the better part of valor’?’

‘A quotation from a cowardly character in Shakespeare’…

‘Not contradictory anyway,’ said Sayagi. ‘Completely different circumstances. If there’s a chance of victory later through withdrawal now, you keep your forces intact. But personally, as an individual, if you know that the price of doing right is terrible loss or suffering or even death, satyagraha means that you are all the more determined to do right, for fear that fear might make you unrighteous.’

‘Oh paradoxes within paradoxes.’

But Petra turned it from superficial philosophy to something else… ‘I am trying… to achieve satyagraha.’

…in the silence that followed, she knew that some, at least, understood. She was alive right now because she had not achieved satyagraha, because she had not always done the right thing… And she was preparing to change that… “

I spent the weekend at Cameron Highlands, at the most excellent Father’s Guesthouse, for a weekend of hacking with Aizatto, Khailee, Khalid and Usher. Given the cheap availability of wifi Internet access, relatively cheap accomodation, decent food and comfy sofa’s, I was pumped to go crystalize some of the ideas bouncing around in my head.

Funnily enough, I received the same room as I was in previously 6 months ago. I wonder if they reserve certain rooms for Malaysians. It was raining a little which led to lower temperatures then expected. Next time, I’ll bring a sweater.

I got some code written up. It has become a force of habit for me to now determine the correct observation points to analyze the system and thus think through and work out the design of the various aspects of the code before actually sitting down and writing it; and even whilst writing it, to continually improve it, if proven necessarily. This had lead to slower developmental speed, but the overall quality of my code is much better. It’s particularly nice to see the various pieces fit together slowly and after several months of hacking, seeing it come together elegantly.

The code I wrote will be open sourced at some point when it is usable. Right now, I need to ensure the core design is resilient and well structured. However, I am not sure whether the code will ever make its way into a product as I built the software to solve a specific document management problem I have been having for several years now, although I can see how it can benefit others - hence the decision to open source it at some point.

Another positive thing I learnt in Cameron Highlands is the game gin-rummy, an amazingly addictive card game. I was losing constantly though, no doubt thanks to getting Happy (note the capital H) I was working out the parameters of the game really, with n-different people, how does one maximize the chance of minimizing losses given the inherent unpredictably present in the game? The skill of counting cards is a must when playing against experienced players as is the ability to switch strategies to throw off the others who may be counting my cards

I met Gabriel, an interesting geographer, from Switzerland. He had just finished his Masters and had cycled (on a bicycle, even!) all the way from Singapore to Kelantan on the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. In 8 days! Amazing, I must say. We had an interesting conversation on the politics of Malaysia. Gabriel, if you ever make your way to Kuala Lumpur, my couch is available for your surfing

The trip back to KL was … very surreal I’ll leave it at that!

In any case, I look forward to having another hacking session at Cameron Highlands.

Bob was in trouble. He forgot his wedding anniversary. His wife was really pissed. She told him “Tomorrow morning, I expect to find a gift in the driveway that goes from 0 to 200 in 6 seconds AND IT BETTER BE THERE!!”

The next morning he got up early and left for work. When his wife woke up, she looked out the window and sure enough there was a box gift-wrapped in the middle of the driveway.

Confused, the wife put on her robe and ran out to the driveway, brought the box back in the house.

She opened it and found a brand new bathroom scale.

Bob has been missing since Friday.