Home Ministry's maths leaves MP puzzled

A written reply in Parliament to DAP Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching may very well show that something does not add up in the Home Ministry.

The March 29 reply from Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says in 2009, 14 people had died in custody.

But curiously, the 14 "consist of three who died in prison, seven in police custody and 17 at the Immigration depot detention centre".

"I am totally confused after reading the written reply: 14 = 3 + 7 + 17?" Teo (right) asks on her Facebook page, where the written reply is also posted.

The mind-boggling arithmetic continues with the minister noting that 13 people had died in custody in 2010 - that is, "one in prison, nine in police custody and 18 at the Immigration depot detention centre."

Meanwhile, in 2011, it was a case of "17 dead in police custody and 18 at the Immigration depot detention centre" making it a grand total of "21 deaths".

The causes of the deaths were "HIV/AIDS and other diseases such as tuberculosis, Hepatitis C, asthma and heart disease."

Did they use 'Google calculate'?

The written reply, which had been shared by 22 people on Facebook as at yesterday, were met with incredulous comments, with some wondering if the home minister had been using Google Translate to calculate the numbers.

A Facebook user commented: "(The deputy prime minister) just declared that we have the best education, better than UK... YB, you need to calculate again."

Earlier this year, the Defence Ministry was left red-faced when numerous mistakes were found on its website after it used the free Google Malay-English translation service.

The website published translations from its Bahasa Malaysia website, including advising visitors from wearing "clothes that poke eye", a literal translation from the Malay language term for 'revealing clothes'.