Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Stop infighting or risk losing, BN leaders told
- Something is rotten about migrant workers’ entry rules
- 270 000 Illegal Bangladeshi workers enlisted in KL
- Blogger claims new video places Anwar at scene of sex clip
- Time to reclaim our true history
- Who's the Boss
- DAP Internal Party Squabble
- Remember how the Malacca Sultanate was brought down?
- Anything But Umno (Part 2)
- Rakaman CCTV lif Anwar-Eskay pula didedahkan
- Johor DAP leader accused of RM500,000 fraud
- Would the ISA be reborn under two new laws?
- Najib risks political future with reforms
- ISA repeal: Our Mandela moment and thereafter
- Sabah not on the right track if sitting on a time bomb!
- MAS-Air Asia merger flies into turbulent weather
- Yong: Why do Sabahans have to pay more?
- Citizenship?
- Tenaga Nasional deserves a long-overdue break
- The long road of reforms
- Not All Demands Of The Various Races Can Be Met, Says Mahathir
- IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: Malaysia Today is best viewed with OPERA
| Stop infighting or risk losing, BN leaders told Posted: 17 Sep 2011 11:07 AM PDT By V. Shankar Ganesh, Minderjeet Kaur and G. Surach, NST SHAH ALAM: Barisan Nasional leaders in Selangor have been urged to sign a pledge that they will not be involved in any internal fights or between component parties. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the leaders should also declare that they would not sabotage BN candidates if they were not chosen to contest in the coming elections. | ||||||||||
| Something is rotten about migrant workers’ entry rules Posted: 17 Sep 2011 10:36 AM PDT By John Inbaraj, Aliran Something is seriously wrong with the entire undocumented immigrants issue. There seems to be a complete lack of will on the part of the government to resolve the matter. The fact that undocumented immigrants in the country are present in the millions just cannot be fathomed by citizens of the country. Is our country's defence system so bad? Forces involved include the Immigration Department, the Marine Police and the Navy, the Field Force, the Army and the Police. Why is the situation so bad? Why are millions of undocumented migrants on the streets? Search, search and search for answers and the only conclusion is that the government is all for the influx of such undocumented migrants. Why? Money, Money, Money! Or is the government trying to create a new racial balance? If the government really does not condone undocumented entrants, are we then to believe that our coastline is so porous? Are we to believe that millions of undocumented foreigners can move around and live in our midst without care? What are the authorities doing about handling the problem? Are we incapable? Don't we have the resources? Perhaps a Bersih-like demonstration is necessary to jolt the government into action! This situation is really getting impossible to take! Let's not say that the 6P programme is set to resolve the problem. On the contrary, this programme is a colossal disaster. A programme that was initiated from the top i.e. the Cabinet committee under our DPM and the Home Ministry began with biometric machines being allegedly manipulated. People appointed by the top management … so how authentic is the data collected? The implementation of the programme itself was postponed at least three times giving rogue and bogus agents a field day conning poor undocumented migrants, especially. I wonder if this was a deliberate act to allow (selected) agents to cash in on gullible victims? Besides, I hear, that hefty rentals were charged and agents told not to charge any fees at the 1st P stage. Who supplied these machines? How do all these conditions make sense? Then we had the police "being shocked" by the sheer number of undocumented migrants in the country and Hishammuddin going on screen quoting numbers (registered via the biometric system) and declaring "ini merupakan satu keadaan yang begitu serius". Well done-lah, Hisham! But people on the ground knew it a long, long time ago! On the other side, we have the Indonesian government making us beg for their domestic workers and the Malaysian government actually begging. Why do we need to? After all, millions have come and gone on their own free will. Do the Indonesians actually bother about what their government says? Just hop onto a boat, pay some money here and there and you are safely on Malaysian shores at a much cheaper rate. Allowing the people to seek and bring their own choice of domestic help into the country through social visit passes and then having them registered seems a perfect solution. The onus is shifted to the employer and the domestic worker to satisfy themselves. We only need a proper monitoring system in place. But domestic worker agencies in Malaysia and Indonesia and the Indonesian Embassy are up in arms. Why? Money again! In fact, The Star on Sunday (4 September) reported that the Indonesian embassy's minister counsellor for information, social and cultural affairs Suryana Sastradiredja warned Malaysian employers that they could be detained by Indonesian authorities because "direct recruitment violates our laws".
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| 270 000 Illegal Bangladeshi workers enlisted in KL Posted: 17 Sep 2011 10:30 AM PDT By Sheikh Shahariar Zaman, bdnews24.com Dhaka, Sept 17 (bdnews24.com) –About 270,000 illegal Bangladeshi workers have been registered with the Bangladeshi embassy in Kuala Lumpur to get their status right. Bangladesh high commissioner to Kuala Lumpur AKM Atiqur Rahman told the bdnews24.com on Saturday that the mission officials enlisted them in August as the illegal workers were expecting amnesty from the Malaysian government. Currently about half a million Bangladeshi workers that include the illegal ones live in Malaysia. "The Malaysian government will start the amnesty process from next month (October) and they can again work here legally," he said. The enlistment process began on August 1 and continued till Aug 31 while only 2,000 workers chose to return home. "They can go back home without facing any fines or imprisonment," the high commissioner said. Those who will stay will have to submit their passports with the Malaysian government with the appointment letter from their employers to obtain permission to work legally, Atiq said. Some 23,000 do not have any employers and they would be assigned in different government projects in Malaysia, he said. CONFUSION OVER CITIZENSHIP When asked about a media report that the Malaysian government was giving citizenship to Bangladeshis to retain power, the high commissioner said, "I don't have any knowledge about the report." "I didn't read the report. An hour ago I was told about the report," he said. When asked how many Bangladeshis got Malaysian citizenship, he said, "I have been working here since 2009 and during this period 10 to 12 Bangladeshis got citizenship." He said the election date of Malaysia is yet to be decided but it would probably be held next year. "The citizenship issue is a continuous process and those who are living in Malaysia for long can apply for that," he said. Citizenship is granted to only professionals and big businessmen, and it is not open to workers, he added. The Malaysia Chronicle, a newspaper, in a report on Saturday alleged that Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak was giving citizenships to foreigners in order 'to retain political power'. It also said that the official website of a unit in the Bangladesh prime minister's office had confirmed that Bangladesh workers in Malaysia were asked to vote for Najib's BN coalition. Another news portal, Malaysian Insider, has falsely claimed that 'Bangladesh NGO Bureau' made such appeals to Bangladesh workers. But no such appeal was found. bdnews24.com/ssz/jr/1716h. | ||||||||||
| Blogger claims new video places Anwar at scene of sex clip Posted: 17 Sep 2011 01:14 AM PDT
(The Malaysian Insider) - A new video clip showing Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim entering a lift at an apartment building where a sex video allegedly of the opposition leader and a prostitute is believed to have been made, was released today by a pro-Umno blog. The clip, published on the Papagomo blog, showed closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of Anwar entering an apartment building elevator accompanied by businessman Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah, who has alleged that he was with the PKR de facto leader the day of the incident. p2cz3_z70U0
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| Time to reclaim our true history Posted: 16 Sep 2011 10:23 PM PDT But supposing what Zainal has said is true - that we were never colonised - why did he wait till now to point this out? Why did he keep it secret from the whole country and allow the government to continue to celebrate Independence Day every year when there was really no liberation from colonialism to begin with? We've never been colonised by the British! I've never heard anything so ludicrous. And it's coming from history professors. Not just one, but at least two. Yeah, professors touting hogwash.  Prof Zainal Kling (right) first dropped the bombshell when he said several days ago that Malaya was never colonised. He said it was wrong to say that we were under colonial rule for 400 years, which would mean since 1511 when the Portuguese invaded Malacca. This would also mean that we were never colonised by the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British. No kidding? He said under the British, the Malay states were merely protectorates because the Malay rulers retained their sovereignty. Only Singapore, Malacca and Penang, known as the Straits Settlements, were colonies. He said Malaya was colonised by the British for only two years, during the Malayan Union period from early 1946 to the end of 1947, and by the Japanese during the Second World War. Wow! And here's his punch line - it is therefore wrong to say that the police, political leaders and Malay officers before 1957 were subservient to the British.  Ah! That's the main point, isn't it? He brought all that up to discredit what PAS deputy president Mohamad (Mat) Sabu (left) had recently said about the attack on Bukit Kepong, didn't he?Mat Sabu had said that the real heroes of that incident were not the police who defended the Bukit Kepong police station because they were serving the British, but that the credit should go to Mat Indera, the communist who led the attack, because he was fighting against the colonialists. Mat Sabu's remarks have created a storm since, and both sides of the political divide have been drawn into it. Their supporters have also entered the fray, either voluntarily or through being instigated to do so. Even ex-servicemen have joined in. But supposing what Zainal has said is true - that we were never colonised - why did he wait till now to point this out? Why did he keep it secret from the whole country and allow the government to continue to celebrate Independence Day every year when there was really no liberation from colonialism to begin with? Why did he let Malaysians put up with this masquerade? Something doesn't add up. By withholding this crucial piece of information from the nation, is Zainal Kling being a true Malaysian? Why has he waited till this politically opportune time to drop the bomb? Semantic quibble The other professor who has come out to say the same is Prof Emeritus Khoo Kay Kim. He corroborated Zainal's viewpoint by saying that "the British never ruled the country". They had "merely taken over the administration of our country", he added. Excuse me! Is there a difference between "ruling" and "administering"? This whole thing sounds like a semantic quibble - the British merely administered, they did not rule; we were not colonised, we retained our sovereignty; we were a protectorate, not a colony.  Khoo (right) said that from a legal point of view, Malaya was never colonised because the British made treaties with the Malay rulers before taking over the administration. That may be the form, but let's not forget the substance. In being a part of this 'conspiracy' of silence together with Zainal until this politically opportune time, Khoo's status as a true Malaysian must also be viewed with suspicion, mustn't it? Are there other professors involved in this 'conspiracy'? Suaram president Kua Kia Soong hints that the professors' response to Mat Sabu's remarks is "sickeningly deferential". This seems to imply that they have been put up to it. And if so, their academic integrity would have to be questioned too, because aren't academics supposed to be above politics? The great sin for professors, especially History professors, would be revisioning history to serve political purposes. Or to be deferential to the government of the day. As it is, Malaysian history as presented to Malaysians has been little more than a construct designed to aggrandise the ruling party, especially Umno. The real history has not been fully told. And the reason for this is that the ruling party has been adept at manipulating historical facts, including omitting important ones, to present a story that glorifies the party itself and promotes Ketuanan Melayu. To be sure, Umno was not the only party that engaged in the movement for independence. It was not even the first on the scene. Others came before it. Baling Talks meant to fail Watch the documentary '10 Tahun Sebelum Merdeka' by the film-maker Fahmi Reza and learn about the struggles of the multi-racial Putera-AMCJA for independence 10 years before 1957. Learn about the People's Constitution they drafted, the successful country-wide 'hartal' they staged on Oct 20, 1947, to protest against the Federation of Malaya Constitutional Proposals made by the British. Guess who staged a counter-protest to the 'hartal' in some rural areas like Senggaram and Bagan Datoh? Umno! (Doesn't it remind you of Umno Youth counter-protesting againt Bersih 2.0?)  Read about the struggles of Parti Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM), which came into being seven months before Umno was formed. Its main goal was to attain full independence for Malaya. Read about Ahmad Boestamam, Shamsiah Fakeh (left), Ishak Muhammad, Mokhtaruddin Lasso, Burhanuddin Helmi. Read about the fight against colonialism by the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), founded in 1930. Yes, the communists were freedom fighters. Anyone who says "those who regard the communists as freedom fighters are traitors" (like retired lieutenant-general Ja'afar Onn) is talking rubbish. Who fought the Japanese when they invaded Malaya? And after the war, when the communists went about killing people, whom were they targeting? Those who had collaborated with the Japanese. In 1945, the CPM opted to work for national independence using legal means. But in time, the British began cracking down on what they considered radical factions opposing its rule. The CPM was declared illegal in 1948. Then the Emergency was declared as the CPM mounted an armed struggle against the British colonialists.  In 1955, the CPM made overtures to Tunku Abdul Rahman's government to negotiate peace. That led to the Baling talks (right). If you were to read the transcripts of that negotiation carefully, you would realise that Chin Peng, representing the communists, was sincere in wanting to lay down arms and be part of the legitimate political movement towards independence because he acknowledged that the government was now an elected one and as such he was no longer fighting the British. It was the Tunku who made things difficult for the communists by demanding total surrender and subjection to a period of detention for them to be investigated. This scuttled the talks. When journalist Said Zahari asked the Tunku right afterwards if he was disappointed that the talks were not successful, the Tunku gave an astoundingly revealing reply. "No, no, not at all," he said. "I never wanted it to be a success." Twisted history These are not what have been taught in our schools. And so for generations, millions of Malaysian students have graduated not knowing the full story. Only the story that Umno wants them to know. And Umno has been revisioning history too, downplaying the contributions of the leftists and the non-Malay communities. Just visit the Independence Memorial in Malacca and see for yourself. This is not unexpected. Our leaders have been twisting things to suit their political agenda for decades. And historical facts are not spared. But the spin against Mat Sabu has gone out of whack. His opposers have even extrapolated the meaning of his remarks to imply that he does not appreciate the sacrifices of the police and the armed forces. This is certainly not true. There is no such implication. By saying that the Bukit Kepong police were serving the British, he did not say that the whole armed forces of this country from that era till now are worthless. No logical person would see such an implication in what he said - unless their agenda is to shoot him down regardless of logic.  All told, there has been a lot of vitriol thrown at Mat Sabu, and consternation expressed at the 'revelations' of Zainal Kling and Khoo Kay Kim, but there is also an upside to the whole episode.It is opening up a new public debate that is much needed. And the theme of that debate is the reclaiming of our true history. Forums are being held, including one discussing the role of the leftists in the struggle for independence, featuring eyewitness Said Zahari (left) himself. More history experts should be joining in. As well as more chroniclers of those times. The Malaysian mental revolution starts now. And the reclaiming of our true history is its catalyst. | ||||||||||
| Posted: 16 Sep 2011 10:13 PM PDT Repealing the ISA means nothing because of the existence of the Emergency Ordinance 1969 (EO) that empowers PDRM to detain any individual without the need to produce them in a court of law. ISA requires the Home Minister to approve the detention of an individual, EO does not. Any PDRM officer above the rank of superintendent is authorized to detain any person under the EO. By Hakim Joe The announcement to repeal the Internal Security Act 1960 is great. Or is it? For those who do not know how this law works, here is a brief version of the "ISA for Idiots". Malaya's colonial masters first implemented the British version of the ISA or the Internal Security Act in 1948 to combat armed communist insurgencies perpetrated by the MCP (Malayan Communist Party) hordes and the "Malaya was never colonized" de facto master, Sir Edward Gent, called it the Emergency Regulations Ordinance (ERO). When "never-colonized" Malaya was granted a "non-required-since-we-were-never-colonized" independence in 1957 and after the Malayan Emergency was declared "in confectum" (it means ended in Latin for those uninformed) in 1960, the government decided that this legislation was too good to be repealed and determined that a cosmetic application was urgently required here and hence the name change from the Emergency Regulations Ordinance (consequently repealed) that allows the government to detain any individual without trial (or excuses) for a maximum period of ONE year to the now infamous Internal Security Act (allegedly soon to be repealed) that also allows the government to detain any individual without trial (or excuses) for a period of TWO years (indefinite extension permitted). Similar to the ERO, the ISA was enacted to combat the MCP in Malaya and similarly, both possess a singularly stated rationale of the legislation and that is specifically utilized to deter the spread of communism in Malaysia. Bapa Malaysia Tunku Abdul Rahman stated that, "My Cabinet colleagues and I gave a solemn promise to Parliament and the nation that the immense powers given to the government under the ISA would never be used to stifle legitimate opposition and silence lawful dissent". Just how far have the present and preceding governments deviated from this promise that it must make TAR turn in his grave. Singaporean PM, Lee Kuan Yew utterly agreed that it would be such a blatant waste of such a great law for the presiding government that they adopted it immediately after breaking away from Malaysia. In fact, being a perpetual kiasu, they went one up and incarcerated Chia Thye Poh for 23 years without trial (Malaysia's longest ISA detainee was Shamsudin Sulaiman who was jailed for 8 years). It just shows how lucky we are here in Bolehland. Chia Thye Poh was released from ISA detention in 1989 but was under house arrest another seven times since his release. When our esteemed PM made this announcement, the Malaysian viewers were fortunate that he decided not to do it with the missus ala the Hari Raya greetings. It was difficult enough not to concentrate looking into his eyes when he was reading from the teleprompter (right to left…right to left…), and we have to do a repeat when the missus did the same (right to left…right to left…). So what does it mean for the Malaysians? It means that we are getting one for two. Instead of having one law that abuses human rights, now we might get two. In fact, repealing the ISA means nothing because of the existence of the Emergency Ordinance 1969 (EO) that empowers PDRM to detain any individual without the need to produce them in a court of law. ISA detainees go to Kamunting, EO detainees go to Simpang Renggam. ISA requires the Home Minister to approve the detention of an individual, EO does not. Any PDRM officer above the rank of superintendent is authorized to detain any person under the EO. With ISA we have three legitimate individuals who are capable of signing the warrant. Care to guess just how many PDRM Superintendents there are in Malaysia? With the ISA, an individual is supposedly retained if he is suspected to be a communist (with or without evidence) even though it is widely used for everything. With the EO, anyone can be retained without trial for just about anything and since the PDRM does not have the requirement of charging the detainee, the question of guilt is inconsequential let alone the PDRM having to show cause in front of a judge. When this is permitted to happen, the arbiters of the word of law rest on the hands of the PDRM and not the Court. So, who is the boss? Lastly, what will happen if this tabling of the act to repeal the ISA is defeated in Parliament? Don't be too surprised if this comes to pass, as the Opposition does not have the numbers to defeat it alone. Will we witness the DPM calling for a no-confidence vote against his nemesis and seize power in Putrajaya? | ||||||||||
| Posted: 16 Sep 2011 10:10 PM PDT
While GE13 is coming anytime the Bakri Liaison Committee led by Gwee has only left 2 to 3 thousand ringgit in its account. That makes one to suspect whether he still wants to continue to fight for this seat or not. The most amazing thing is that, earlier on this year, the same account had 60 thousand ringgit. By Malaysia Politic Insider It is well known publicly that Gwee Tong Hiang is a henchman of Lim Guan Eng. Recent development is the DAP organizing committee is facing an internal party squabble. This image will definitely affect adversely the efforts of the Northern Johor DAP election preparation.
In 2005, Gwee Tong Hiang promoted himself to be a candidate for the Bentayan State Seat, in direct opposition to Dr Boo Cheng Haw option. Because of this, Gwee severed relationship with Boo. Since then, he did not allow Boo to stay at his house in Muar. Before this, it was a practice to receive and be a host to a visiting comrade for economical reasons. And Boo's position had been replaced by Nga Ko Meng. This was obviously to set aside and also to undermine Boo's influence. In 2007, 17 DAP members accused Gwee of improper execution of the sale and purchase of Wisma DAP Muar at Jalan Sakeh, especially with regard to the illegal omission of commission on the sale. When Lim Guan Eng heard about this news, he rushed to Muar and instructed Gwee to use legal means to bring the 17 members to court.  Finally, Er decided to leave the DAP Bakri Parliamentery Constituency Liaison Committee. He left without any followers or financial resourses.
In 2009, Lim Sey Wee, a senior party leader, left Gwee. This being so despite being a former comrade of close rapport. On one occasion before the 12th GE, Lim even cried in front of reporters in defence of Gwee, about the WISMA commission scandal. Shiew Kok Kong has been working together with Gwee for more then a decade. He has repeatly persuaded Gwee to share party resouces. But eventually he was also kicked out from the DAP Bakri Liaison Committee.
In April, 2011 during the Sarawak Election. Gwee organized a supporting team from Bakri Liaison to go to Sarawak. During the campaign, Gwee demanded the members to wake up early and work till late night, and according to Gwee, this is all CEC's order. After that, he secretly brought his wife to Brunei, in order to compensate what he had missed out in the government trip to Northern Europe offered by Johor State Government. During the campaign period, when one of the member fell sick, he only gave a few Panadol strips without sending her to the nearest clinic. In their orignal agreement before they came to Sarawak, Gwee agree to use Bakri Liaison's fund to fully subsidize for the whole trip but after that Gwee requested one of the member to pay for the whole trip with the reason that the member has proposed in the meeting that using thier own pocket money instead of party fund for the trip. That made that member pissed off.
On 25th August, all these were exposed in the Bakri Liaison election Committee. Gwee was not re-elected as Chairman, and it was eventually exposed that Bakri Liaison Committee is heading for bankruptcy under the leadership of Gwee. Although within these 4 years, they have organized 4 fund raising dinners with 200 tables at each dinner function and collected more than half a million ringgit. Frankly speaking, as a State Assemblyman who always does his job well with "longkang and lubang" complaints, he also complained about teachers beating pupils. He tries his best to make friends with Tai Ko and loan sharks, and he is also making his efforts to expand more branches in the Bakri Constituency until the extent that all his branches occupy 20% of the total branches in Johor State. That gains him a nickname of "Johor's Ronnie Liu" . Besides that, he is also making his best effort to generate more enemies that he can take in. He prevents the advancement of, and suppresses members who have good potentials. Qualified members are a threat to him.
He is in constant fear of losing his seat, status and position. He complains about reporters. He ensures that every electorate's complaint can be published in local newspapers. All these finally caused reporters to write an article to complain about this state assemblyman. The purpose we write this artcle is obvious. But please stop guessing who we are. Are we Boo's man, Er's man, or we are sent by BN; we are cyber-trooper of MCA. Could we be also reporters from the local newspaper, or are we also anonymous. It does not matter. And Gwee has really pissed us off this time, and we have caught him with his pants down. On 25th August 2011, the DAP Bakri Constituency Liaison Committee held its annual party election. Many branches had been told that the Bakri Liaison Committee is facing financial crisis. More important is that, most of the participants have one common thinking in mind: protecting DAP, uphold Bentayan, and they want to teach Gwee a lesson. Out of 93 qualified representatives, 71 of them have attended the party election. This could rival DAP Selangor State Committee Election last year when they tried to bring the downfall of Ronnie Liu. When the result was announced, Gwee lost his chairman seat. Nevertheless, these participants only wanted to teach him a lesson. He survived and was voted to became deputy President. According to reliable sources, the rest of the meeting failed to break the stalemate. They did not even complete the annual fianncial and secretary report!  Read more at: http://malaysiapoliticinsider.blogspot.com/2011/09/dap-internal-party-squabble.html
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| Remember how the Malacca Sultanate was brought down? Posted: 16 Sep 2011 08:34 PM PDT By Masterwordsmith The Malaysian Insider reported that a Bangladesh Prime Minister's Office unit website has claimed that its citizens working in Malaysia have been asked to vote for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government, prompting PKR vice-president Fuziah Salleh to call for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) into the contentious issue. That article has since been removed from the original site but can be read here. Till now, there has been no official response from both sides as to the authenticity of the claims in that site. DSAI reportedly said here that he is asking his friends to verify the truth of that allegation. If that allegation is true, history may soon repeat itself if we are not careful to pay heed to all the signs of danger. Sultan Mansur took advantage of the breathing room he had won and gradually, through diplomacy, established good relations between the Thais and Melaka.Wikipedia says that "the Portuguese was helped by Guy Arojo, Chinese Capitans who supplied small ships to enter the Port of Malacca and the southern Indian and Javanese group who were in dispute with the Sultanate of Malacca." Now, if that allegation is indeed true, we may have a situation where the status quo are depending on foreigners to keep them in power and once again, they WILL BE SOLD OUT - just like in the past! In their greed for power, they have not learnt from history! If this were to happen, the 'imported voters' will eventually become so significant they can grab the powers that be by the balls and demand all sorts of things and they will have no choice but to say yes. Even if this is not true, let us not forget other incidents that happened in the last thirty years. Southern Thais have been known to have fled to Kelantan as reported HERE and here although denials have been issued here refuting a Thai politician's claim that more than 200,000 southern Thai Muslims have fled the violence in the region and have taken refuge in Kelantan. Whatever the case, in the last 20 years, there have been concerns as to how even in Kelantan, foreigners could tip the scale in the ballot box. READ MORE HERE.
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| Posted: 16 Sep 2011 05:54 PM PDT Ali Kadir, The Malaysian Insider Humility is a virtue which everyone of us should aspire to but many of us prefer pride. So we should not be surprised that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Barisan Nasional are claiming credit for announcing the removal of some laws which the BN government has used for decades to stifle dissent, lock up critics and control the press. Strange isn't it that they are silent about being the architects of the ISA and other laws but quite happy to claim credit for proposing their demise. This is like a factory owner or dare I say rare earth plant, which pollutes the neighbourhood for 20 years, and then congratulates itself for shutting down the factory, not saying sorry for the increase in the number of deaths from cancer. But it's OK, by claiming credit Najib and BN are behaving just like humans or like desperate governments anywhere in the world. I just have a few points to make. One, this is a proposal, a whole bunch of nice words but only words. Two, the test of sincerity of any policy or initiative is timing. If Najib proposed these changes and implemented it within his few weeks in office, then he could make the argument that his DNA is that of a reformer. But he and BN are only doing this now because it is his last gambit, not because he believes that Malaysia is a mature democracy. The real mature people are the Malaysians who have fought with blood, sweat and tears for a better country. Remember the Hindraf men who were detained for speaking up for their community, the Sin Chew journalist who was jailed for alerting Malaysians to the racism of Ahmad Ismail, politicians who were deprived of sleep and tortured for no other reason that they didn't agree with the government, Raja Petra Kamarudin who was detained because he was too troublesome.
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| Rakaman CCTV lif Anwar-Eskay pula didedahkan Posted: 16 Sep 2011 04:56 PM PDT
Kini klip video menunjukkan Anwar berada ditempat kejadian mula ditayangkan melalui blog upahan Umno. (Free Malaysia Today) - Selepas pendedahan video skandal mengaitkan Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dengan pelacur China tersebar, kini klip video menunjukkan Anwar berada ditempat kejadian mula ditayangkan melalui blog upahan Umno. Rakaman video berwarna yang disiarkan dalam blog papagomo melalui kamera litar tertutup (CCTV) menunjukkan individu yang didakwa Anwar, memakai baju ungu dan berselipar berjalan bersama ahli perniagaan Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah daripada arah lobi sebuah bangunan yang didakwa penulis blog itu sebagai Ampang Apartment. Eskay kemudiannya dilihat menekan butang lif untuk menuju ke atas sebelum masuk ke dalam lif bersama Anwar. Waktu rakaman CCTV itu juga menunjukkan individu yang didakwa sebagai Anwar masuk ke dalam lif bersama Eskay pada pukul 10.09 malam dan kemudiannya berjalan keluar daripada lif pukul 10.52 malam. Manakala waktu rakaman video hitam putih adegan dalam sebuah bilik yang pernah tersebar sebelum ini menunjukkan bermula kira-kira pukul 10.30 malam. Rakaman CCTV berdurasi 3 minit 48 saat itu menunjukkan tarikh 21 Februari 2011, tarikh rakaman yang sama dengan video adegan seks dalam sebuah bilik sebelum mula didedahkan kepada wartawan di Hotel Carcosa Seri Negara Mac lalu. Penulis blog papagomo dalam artikel yang diselitkan bersama video itu kemudiannya menasihatkan Anwar membuat laporan polis terhadap blog yang menayangkan video seks dan menuduh beliau sebagai pelaku tersebut bagi memastikan siasatan lanjut dapat dijalankan. Tidak masuk akal "Adalah tidak masuk akal jika Anwar Ibrahim terus terusan berdiam diri tampa melakukan hal ini kerana imej beliau semakin tercemar dengan lakonan seks bersama pelacur China sepertimana dalam video di atas. "Jika kesemua di atas masih lagi enggan dilakukan beliau maka laporan polis akan dibuat bagi menyiasat laporan palsu yang telah beliau lakukan dalam isu video seks ini. "Dan menjadi tanggungjawab buat Anwar Ibrahim kelak memberikan kerjasama sepenuhnya kepada pihak polis dalam siasatan laporan polis yang dibuat beliau ke atas video seks yang tersebar," katanya dalam blog yang mula disiarkan pagi tadi. Eskay, bersama Pengerusi Risda Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik dan bekas Bendahari Perkasa Datuk Shuaib Lazim dalam sidang media Mac lalu
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| Johor DAP leader accused of RM500,000 fraud Posted: 16 Sep 2011 04:48 PM PDT The Johor DAP's woes took another hit when its Bakri liaison committee deputy president was alleged to have misappropriated funds worth half a million ringgit. (Free Malaysia Today) - The bickering by Johore DAP and PKR over seat negotiations has taken a new twist.An email is making its rounds alleging that a Johore DAP man has misappropriate funds worth half a million ringgit. The email alleges that Bakri liaison committee deputy president Gwee Tiong Hiang of misappropriating funds worth about RM500,000 from its liaision committee in Bakri. It says the funds, were collected over the last four years, in his then-capacity as the liaison committte chairman. "And now the liaision committee only has about RM3,000 in its account despite having nearly RM60,000 earlier this year," reads the email. The email states that allegations against Gwee also surfaced in 2006 when he was linked to a dubious transaction involving the purchase of the Muar DAP office at Jalan Sakeh. "Even then, eighteen DAP members came forward alleging impropriety involving the purchase but the matter was silenced due to the intervention from the central leadership," reads the email. In addtion, Gwee was also said to have transferred party funds to a company which was not recognised by DAP. "He set up a company called Bakri Sunshine Project Company in the pretext of using it for charity purpose and transferred party funds there. Instead of crediting the liaison committee, he uses the company to promote himself." The email also alleged that Gwee had used funds from the liaison committee to purchase a four-wheel drive which was not registered under DAP. " He took out RM10,000 of party funds to purchase a vehicle but registered it under his name and four other friends," reads the email. Acknowledging the fact that his committee was in severe financial constraints, Gwee is said to have told that he would raise funds again by having dinner events.
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| Would the ISA be reborn under two new laws? Posted: 16 Sep 2011 04:37 PM PDT Opposition leaders feels that the the Internal Security Act's repeal would only result in two new laws with no change in sight. (Free Malaysia Today) - Pakatan Rakyat welcomed repeal of the Internal Security Act (ISA), but was wary of the two new laws that will take the Act's place. Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim said he supported the repeal of the ISA, but wanted to know what the two new security laws would entail. "We welcome whatever announcement that … (goes for) the repeal of the ISA. We welcome (Prime Minister) Najib Tun Razak's step in doing so." "But we need to be cautious, because the cancellation (of that law)… Najib will introduce two news laws, and we don't know what they are," Anwar said in a press conference at PKR's headquarters here. On Thursday, Najib announced in a televised speech that the ISA, along with three Emergency proclamations, would be abolished. He said that the Act would be replaced by two anti-terrorism laws to suit today's security climate, in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. However, the premier did not elaborate on the exact nature of these laws, leaving many to speculate on their respective powers. A two-time ISA detainee himself, Anwar said that there was a possibility that the ISA could be reborn under the two new laws. "The principle of the ISA is a writ of habeus corpus… the right for an accused to appear in court, is denied. If there is a new law that suggests the same principles, the name may be different, but the meaning is still the ISA," he said. Anwar said that the ISA was initially drafted by the federal government during the 60s to combat the communist terrorist threat. However, the PKR supremo said that its original function has been misused to target the government's political opponents. Detained in 1974 and later on in 1998, Anwar claimed that he was not looking for compensation over his arrests in the past. "I went through that, (I have) no regrets," he said.
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| Najib risks political future with reforms Posted: 16 Sep 2011 04:35 PM PDT Razak Ahmad, Reuters Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's pledge to speed up civil liberty reforms to attract middle-class voters could hurt his chances in the general election expected early next year by alienating conservatives. Najib said in a televised address on Thursday that the Internal Security Act (ISA), enacted in 1960, and Emergency Ordinance, both of which allow for indefinite detention without trial, would be repealed and replaced by two news laws for use mainly against suspected militants. By repealing or changing the security laws, which critics say have stifled freedom of expression, Najib faces resistance from influential conservatives who want a tougher stance against political dissidents. But any failure to deliver on those pledges is likely to anger an electorate, already upset with the glacial pace of reforms, clouding the outlook for Najib's ruling coalition at the ballot box. "If reform resistance emerges and grows or if there is no substantive change, then his chances of achieving his aim (of securing a strong election win) becomes less certain," said Ibrahim Suffian, director of Merdeka Center, an independent opinion polling outfit. Najib has promised political and economic reforms in 2008 in a bid to reverse his ruling coalition's record losses in a general election. He will need to deliver on those pledges to stay firmly in power. As part of his pledges on Thursday, a strict media law will also be changed to allow greater media freedom and other legislation restricting civil liberties would be reviewed. Since taking office, Najib has delayed economic reforms, including the introduction of a promised goods and services tax. He has slowed down on a fuel subsidy rollback to avoid sparking anger by voters hit by rising prices. A big street protest in July, attended by young members of the middle class angered over the slow pace of reforms, also exposed a groundswell of anger that has sent Najib's approval ratings to 56 percent last month from 72 percent in May last year. Najib has softened his stance on the reform of a controversial pro-ethnic majority Malay economic policy amid resistance by conservative groups who enjoy backing from some within his own party. One of the most influential, Perkasa, has begun to question his promised political reforms. That could lead to a pushback and block their implementation. "Malaysian politics is now in havoc and he suddenly withdraws the ISA… At the moment, I see it is more aimed to be populist rather than because of national security," said Ibrahim Ali, head of Perkasa. The group has in the past called for the laws to be retained for use against political dissidents, and said it would study the two new security laws Najib proposed before making an official stand. "This move is a gamble by Najib and his best chances in turning it into a success depends on how well he can convince the hardliners and conservatives in his party that this will improve their electability," said the Merdeka Center's Ibrahim. Failure to implement the changes substantively ahead of polls could lead to the kind of a voter backlash that befell Najib's predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Abdullah led the ruling coalition to a historic 90 percent sweep of the country's parliamentary seats in the 2004 general election on a pledge of reforms including strengthening the independence of institutions like the judiciary and police. But he was severely punished by voters in 2008 after failing to deliver on his reform promises in the face of strong resistance by the ruling party, and was forced into early retirement the following year. "I wonder how many of those who were so captured by Abdullah's promises feel similarly giddy after hearing the promises made by Najib," said political analyst Ong Kian Ming who teaches at UCSI University in Kuala Lumpur. "If you answer in the affirmative, I advise you to take a sober look at Abdullah's record and then re-examine Najib's promises," said Ong.
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| ISA repeal: Our Mandela moment and thereafter Posted: 16 Sep 2011 04:31 PM PDT For national reconciliation to have a chance, we need to give truth a fair hearing. One vile accusation is that Uthaya is racist. It's an allegation easily rubbished by Uthaya's track record as counsel to Malay and Chinese victims of police brutality. He took up their cases pro bono years before any of his present armchair cyber critics even acquired a pinch of political consciousness. Helen Ang, Free Malaysia Today The release of Nelson Mandela after a 27-year detention ushered in South Africa's post-apartheid era where the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established during his presidency. It is hoped that Thursday's watershed announcement on repealing the Internal Security Act will yield a similar milestone in our political landscape. And hopefully the same two keys words – 'truth' and 'reconciliation' – will be as significant for us. Can this momentous move to sheath the ISA sword go some way in making Malaysians braver and more clear-headed in confronting self-evident truths? Ex-ISA detainee P Uthayakumar is one of the foremost and forthright speakers of the truth today. I'll share why I hold a deep respect for this man but first a few words on another political figure that played a recent role in carving out public space for the exploration of truth. The Malay far right has been calling for Mohamad Sabu, better known as Mat Sabu, to be ISA-ed over his remarks on the Bukit Kepong episode. "Well over 900 police reports" were lodged against Mat Sabu for what is in essence a challenge to the Umno version of our Merdeka narrative. Threat of police investigation is a same sort of weapon that the ISA is. And the ISA has been a blunt and brutal instrument to put the fear of government into the people. The almost one-party state is feared for its power to lock you up and throw away the key. Umno controlling the Home Ministry not only has ISA at its disposal but the police and their lock-up facilities too. PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali suggested that the large number of police reports against Mat Sabu were mobilised by Umno through the many NGOs connected to the party. Punishing the truthseekers We must take our hat off to Mat Sabu for sticking to his guns on the Mat Indera contentious comment and remaining unfazed by the almost a thousand police reports. It is through Mat Sabu standing his ground despite 'dikepong' (being besieged) from all sides that paved the way enabling last evening's forum in Petaling Jaya on the contributions of the left to the decolonialisation process. If Mat Sabu had succumbed to pressure exerted by adversaries and allies alike, the topic would have been closed prematurely. Members of the public could not then have heard Dr Rohana Arifin's forum presentation telling how the Bukit Kepong hagiography – the eponymous film directed by Jins Shamsuddin – goes to serve the Umno propaganda. A retraction by Mat Sabu as Karpal Singh had demanded would have shut the window of opportunity created and later kept ajar by PAS agreeing to back up their deputy president. Umno is the devil we know that fails to mask its coercive nature in trying to silence Mat Sabu. Turning the complaints over to police opens the door to another facet of state intimidation, especially when sedition is invoked. DAP is an equally treacherous devil. Coming on the heels of Karpal's insistence that Mat Sabu should apologise was the hatchet job by Tunku Abdul Aziz. The party vice chairman had piled insult upon derision upon malice in tearing into Mat Sabu. Karpal did not bother to hide the motivation for his attack. He declared upfront that the resulting backlash from Mat Sabu offending Malay 'sensitivities' would be "very damaging" to Pakatan's prospects in the general election. A parallel motive propels the attack by Aziz, i.e. DAP's courting of the Malay vote. In fact, DAP stabbing Mat Sabu in the back indicates that the party is preparing itself to go direct to the Malay electorate and bypassing electoral pact partners PAS and PKR as intermediaries. The DAP plan to stand its own Malay candidates is no secret. Note that on Sept 2, when Umno firepower in the form of pliant press and party proxies was trained on Mat Sabu, DAP international secretary Liew Chin Tong signed his party's name to a Pakatan joint statement that condemned the Utusan Malaysia reports as "irresponsible spin-mongering being perpetrated by Umno leaders and the media". Yet a mere five days after the opposition's purported defence of Mat Sabu, the New Straits Times on Sept 7 published Aziz's vicious denunciation of the populist speaker's historical reinterpretation. Tunku Aziz, Karpal and the party they chair don't give a toss for any intellectual truth of the matter. Granted, Mat Sabu's off-the-cuff observation has an adverse impact on the potential votebank and Pakatan pursuit of the Putrajaya crown. However DAP pulling the rug from under Mat Sabu's feet signifies how for them, truth is better off denounced if it gets in the way of fishing in Malay waters.
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| Sabah not on the right track if sitting on a time bomb! Posted: 16 Sep 2011 04:08 PM PDT Who owns lands in Sabah several times the size of Singapore and got it without state cabinet approval? Answer: Felda. Who takes our income taxes, service taxes, parking offence compounds and penalties? Answer: The Federal government, to the tune of around RM19 billion per year (for taxes only), and that calculates to about RM95 in five years. And how much were we allocated for development fund under the five-year 10th Malaysia Plan? RM9 billion with Sarawak and Sabah combined! DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN Former chief Minister and Sabah State Assembly Speaker, Datuk Salleh Said Keruak, had said recently that he believes Sabah and Malaysia are on the right track to achieving state and national targets, and that to him Sabah has already seen tremendous developments "by leaps and bounds since independence," and that "the federal allocations for Sabah and Sarawak... they are getting a bigger chunk of the federal fund. No one can deny this," that the per capita income in the state has also increased and increasing and lifestyles have improved and that "we enjoy a peaceful and harmonious state that continues to progress at rapid pace," he said. Of course there have been a lot of changes after independence, but we must not look at what we have achieved only but what great developments we have missed because of mistakes we had committed and are still committing! If I were to elaborate on this point alone I could go on to fill up a few pages of this paper, even many books. When I wrote my paper, "Shattered Hopes and Broken Dreams," I listed a host of problems which had become cancerous for Sabah. Anyone wishing to have a copy of this paper can email me at danieljjambun@gmail.com. The issues are many, but let me just mention a few. By joining Malaysia in a hurry we have lost the right over a lot of things like revenue collection, which most of it now goes to Kuala Lumpur, and this is a violation of Point 11 of the 20 Points which says: "North Borneo should retain control of its own finance, development and tariff, and should have the right to work up its own taxation and to raise loans on its own credit." By looking at our potential oil revenue, Salleh cannot deny that we should now be richer than Brunei! Now there has been a discovery of a field with a stock of US500 billion worth of gas in Sabah waters, and the frustration is that it is even this will not be under our control. And what untold wealth have we lost because of the surrender of Block L and M – a surrender made without reference to the state cabinet and the federal cabinet? If we complain about Tan Sri Harris surrendering Labuan to KL without the people's consent, imagine how much more we have lost with the loss of Block L and M! Tremendous development, my foot! Salleh tries to downplay the seriousness of the illegals problem by saying there are needed in the plantation and construction sectors, as if we Sabahans are blind idiots who have never learned the truth about the whole rotten things about PTIs. The illegals are a massive problem which is threatening Sabah with the possibility of a reverse takeover and a drastic change in the demography of Sabah. Hundreds of thousands of them have become legal, are now already full-fledged new Bumiputeras of Malaysia because some leaders saw to it that they get Mykads. Many are still coming through our porous boundaries with ease. To come in and out of Sabah is so easy, without any fear of being caught. Just take a fishing boat out to sea and join a bigger boat to go to the Philippines waters which is a short distance away! And to come back, just do it vice versa, and the border police won't even care! The refusal by UMNO to form a Royal Commission of Inquiry to solve it despite the many requests by BN local component parties can only be interpreted as caused by a hidden agenda to sabotage Sabah for the sake of political expedience. The problem of the PTIs has become legendary and thanks to the works of Mutalib M. D. and Dr. Chong Eng Leong, we know this is not just a fourth-stage cancer. Sabah is sitting on this time bomb which is waiting to explode! And the federal government's suspicious method of solving the problem with the 5P Registration method is not working. How many illegals have been sent home although we have registered hundreds of thousands of them? What is going on behind it all? Why haven't we heard anymore about it? Salleh cannot deny that the PTIs are still the mother of all problems in Sabah! Sabah on the right track? After 48 years with BN, Sabah has become the poorest in Malaysia although it was endowed with rich natural resources. What happened? Where have all the forests gone? Answer: To the casinos of Genting, Macau, Hong Kong and Manila. Who got all the wealth of gold and other metals from the infamous Mamut Copper Mine? Answer: The Japanese! Who is reaping the majority share of the huge Sabah Forest Industries in Sipitang? The Indians, with Ballarpur Industries holding a superlion share of 97.8 percent since March 2007. (BPH is wholly owned by Ballarpur International Holdings NV, which in turn is owned by BILT (80%) and JP Morgan (20%). We are surviving by importing 70% of our food supplies! So, I beg Salleh to explain what he means by "lifestyles have improved." Who owns lands in Sabah several times the size of Singapore and got it without state cabinet approval? Answer: Felda. Who takes our income taxes, service taxes, parking offence compounds and penalties? Answer: The Federal government, to the tune of around RM19 billion per year (for taxes only), and that calculates to about RM95 in five years. And how much were we allocated for development fund under the five-year 10th Malaysia Plan? RM9 billion with Sarawak and Sabah combined! Datuk, are we on the right track? Over the last few years, especially after Umno took over Sabah in 1994, tens of thousands of Sabahan youths have gone to Singapore and the Peninsular to try to make decent livelihoods. We have a very high unemployment rate! A recent job fair organized by the government caused an embarrassment to the BN because tens of thousands came like hungry wolves trying to get only a few jobs. All those news about job creations and job offers, and blaming youths for being choosy are just propaganda and people are tired of it. A hotel doorman in Kota Kinabalu makes about RM600, but if he did the same work in Kuala Lumpur he can make RM2,000 plus, even more in Singapore. Why? Because the economy of Sabah had long gone to the dogs! We have a runaway inflation, which the BN keeps justifying as "tidak membebankan pengguna (not burdening the consumers)." People are suffering even with a salary of RM2,500, let alone those with less, and the worst affected are the kampung people who never get any salary raises because they have no salaries! And yet they still have to pay for the higher petrol and cost of transport. Sabah's GDP at 5% per annum is the lowest in the nation and we have been running on deficit budgets for the last 13 years! We are debt ridden! And with all these happening we don't see any clear light at the end of the long dark tunnel. We have been promised that poverty would be ended in Sabah by the end of last year. Instead the government found out there were even more poor people than they thought! We have been promised Sabah will achieve a developed status by 2015 but at the way things are going this is not going to happen, not even by 2020. Salleh wants was to see Sabah become stronger economically, politically and culturally and staying within the federation. But with the strong economic colonialism of the Peninsular over Sabah, especially with the repressive cabotage policy in place and lack of Borneonization, how are we going to be economically stronger? How do we become politically stronger with Umno controlling everything here? Does political strength mean Umno strength of control and dominance? If even the local BN components are just stooges, what political strength for Sabah do we have? And about becoming culturally strong, what does that mean? Even the Pesta Kaamatan is being controlled by Umno, even by leaders who have no KDM blood, to the point of excluding the Huguan Siou in the ceremonies! This talk about cultural development is all lies. What is real is that the Malay supremacy is being applied in Sabah, with employments in the public sector is biased to certain groups, so is that what Salleh means by Sabah becoming culturally strong? We don't need all these sweet talks which are made just for the sake of propaganda. What we need is solid results which can be backed up by real figures, and outputs and growths which we can feel in our stomachs.
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| MAS-Air Asia merger flies into turbulent weather Posted: 16 Sep 2011 03:41 PM PDT By Patrick Lee, FMT PETALING JAYA: The downside of the MAS -Air asia metrger is that the MAS workers have been left in the lurch. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim says this is because neither the government or the affected airlines have been transparent. Anwar who claims that he was in contact with MAS employees said no information was given to the MAS staff. " They must be told that their performance was not up to the mark… what is the problem, and what is their position going to be after the so-called merger or take-over?" Anwar asked during a press conference at PKR's headquarters here. "It's all shrouded in secrecy, that is the trouble with this government." He also said that nothing had been said about the possible welfare of MAS staff, adding that the carrier's workers were left in the dark about their fate. "But you know, there's always this management once they take over, they give this option, and people will be persuaded to take another option. These are concerns that must be addressed," Anwar replied to the possiblity of layoffs. The Opposition Leader was also concerned with Air Asia's lack of an in-house union, which may be carried over to MAS once the merger took place. Anwar then claimed that he had been informed that Air Asia employees who tried to form their own union were subsequently sacked. MAS and Air Asia announced the merger last month. However, both Air Asia chief executive officer Tony Fernandes and Khazanah Nasional Bhd -a major shareholder of MAS- managing director Azman Mokhtar denied that it was a merger, preferring to call it a "collaboration". They also denied that a monopoly would arise out of this "collaboration".
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| Yong: Why do Sabahans have to pay more? Posted: 16 Sep 2011 02:39 PM PDT By Queville To, FMT KOTA KINABALU: Former chief minister Yong Teck Lee has questioned the economic policies imposed by the federal government which have kept the prices of goods in Sabah higher than in the peninsula. Yong, the Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) chief said there was no reason for this to happen as the government could subsidise the freight charges for goods shipped to Sabah to ensure the prices of goods in the country were equal. He said the federal government should do this without any further delay if it really cares for the well being of Sabah people. He contended that if the federal government could afford to give more than RM250 million per year to subsidise the four main highways in Peninsular Malaysia in order to keep the toll rates low and lessen the burden on road users, it should have no problem applying the same strategy to assist the people of Sabah. The prices of goods in Sabah have always been higher than Peninsular Malaysia ever since the state joined the Federation of Malaya to form Malaysia in 1963. "Before Sabah joined to form Federation of Malaysia, cargo ships from all over the world could come to Sabah and Kota Kinabalu to load and unload goods freely. "But this was no longer the case after the formation of Malaysia," he pointed out. Protectionist policy The cause of the imbalance has also been put down to the imposition of the controversial Cabotage Policy introduced introduced in 1980, which critics say was a protectionist policy which has benefited a privileged few shipping companies. As a result, today it costs the Sabah traders more than RM2,000 to bring in goods and merchandises in a 20-foot container. This thus contributed to higher cost of doing business in Sabah and inevitably contributing to a high cost of living, as the traders have no choice but to pass on the additional cost to the consumers. Making matter worse, the average take-home pay for a consumer in Sabah is currently the lowest in the country. Yong also took a swipe at the centralization of powers by the federal government which he said had caused great misery to the people of Sabah. He said even the conversion of a van into a hearse had to be approved in Putrajaya as the party found out when it applied for such a conversion to carter for the needs of the residents in Sepanggar. Also in the line of fire was the performance of Bernas (Padiberas Nasional), the country's sole rice importer. Rice is costlier in Sabah The government entity stands accused of hindering Sabah's potential to become a major rice "If we could plant padi ourselves, not only can we achieve self-sufficiency we could even have surplus for export. "When I was the Chief Minister and (current Parliamentary Speaker) Pandikar Amin was the State Agriculture Minister we had planned to undertake large scale padi plantation to make sure that Sabah could become self sufficient within three to five years and even have surplus to export rice to other countries. "Unfortunately, in today's situation, even if we have surplus of rice supply, we have no right to export rice, as it is the exclusive right of Bernas. "Even the state government is not allowed to import and export rice on its own. "And on top of that, each and every family in Sabah is subsidizing Bernas as the rice sold in Sabah cost more than the rice sold in Peninsular Malaysia. "I have highlighted this many times in the past, but until today Bernas just plays dumb.
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| Posted: 16 Sep 2011 02:24 PM PDT By NGO Affairs Bureau, Prime Minister's Office, Bangladesh BANGLADESHI Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told that she has been in Malaysia during her 6-day visit to South Korea and Malaysia last year. Highly placed sources claimed that during the meeting, the Malaysian prime minister assured Hasina of considering the issue of legalizing Bangladeshi workers to his country with utmost sincerity. Source: HERE | ||||||||||
| Tenaga Nasional deserves a long-overdue break Posted: 16 Sep 2011 01:43 PM PDT By P Gunasegaram, The Star Poor Tenaga Nasional! Despite being majority owned by the Government it continues to be given the stepchild treatment. PARADOXICALLY, those who have signed concession agreements with the Government or with Tenaga Nasional for things such as toll roads, water, and provision of electricity have wonderful, almost riskless deals. Thus despite being a major utility which has almost complete monopoly for the provision of power to the Malaysian public, the share price behaviour is totally unlike that of a utility and subject to the vagaries of the marketplace with respect to input costs. The solution to bring about a vibrant, vital Tenaga Nasional that will see it hold its share price easily and have continuous capital appreciation is very simple actually, simply allow it to pass on all unavoidable costs the way it is done for independent power producers (IPPs) and the way toll road operators get guaranteed toll increases. And this does not necessarily have to mean that electricity rates have to increase. If the Government so chooses, it can still subsidise electricity rates to the consumer and keep Tenaga Nasional insulated from cost vagaries. It is actually to the Government's advantage to do this as we shall explain. Tenaga Nasional used to be the sole producer of electricity at one time, a job which it did pretty well for a long time. By some accounts, it was not allowed to expand its electricity output resulting in an electricity blackout in the nineties and the advent of the IPPs. The first of these IPPs actually erected its plant on land which Tenaga Nasional had earmarked for a power plant. Not only that, this first IPP got extremely favourable terms and a take-or-pay arrangement for power generation, opening the floodgates for other similar if slightly less lucrative deals. The key thing about these early IPP deals was that uptake was more or less guaranteed and if there was no uptake there was a huge capacity charge paid to the IPPs to offset these. Not just that, there was an express provision for the IPPs to pass through all their cost increases of inputs such as fuel to Tenaga Nasional. Through such deals Tenaga Nasional suffered and eventually the IPPs combined became more valuable than Tenaga Nasional. The reason Tenaga Nasional suffered was because the Government dismantled the original cost-pass-through formula that the utility had proposed before its listing in the nineties. That formula would have ensured that Tenaga Nasional not only recovered all increases in fuel price, but also got an increase in tariffs based on inflation. If it had been given what the IPPs have in terms of recovery of increases in cost inputs, Tenaga Nasional would have been sitting pretty. But it has not and it suffers from this neglect by the Government of its predicament. Recently, this situation has been exacerbated. Because Petronas gas supplies are not fully available at the moment, it has had to source gas at considerably higher market prices. That would translate to an additional RM3bil this year alone, with no sign of relief anywhere. That is already straining Tenaga Nasional's financial resources while its share price has continued to weaken, bringing down the value of the Government's investment in the utility day by day. All the Government has to do to put Tenaga Nasional out of its misery is to implement the cost-pass-through formula and let the national electricity utility recover its costs just like what the IPPs are entitled to under contract. If the Government does not want the tariff to rise, then all it has to do is to pay Tenaga Nasional directly for the difference. That way, the Government will see an immediate increase in the value of its investments in Tenaga Nasional by several billions of ringgit. Then, by selling down its investments in the utility, it can get back some revenue to subsidise the electricity rates. That will also increase the free float and liquidity of Tenaga Nasional which will help to increase further the value of the utility. It is high time that the Government treat its own corporations at least as well as it does privately owned companies, especially when it stands to gain billions of ringgit by doing so. It's a wonder beyond understanding that it does not. | ||||||||||
| Posted: 16 Sep 2011 01:10 PM PDT (The Malaysian Insider) - Life would be easy if every wish is a command that is done instantaneously. But it isn't and sceptics remain at large as to Datuk Seri Najib Razak's announcement that several laws are to be revised or repealed. After all, some of Najib's boys had blamed hardliners like Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, Datuk Seri Rais Yatim and to a lesser extent Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin for giving the PM wrong advice on how to handle Bersih. In fact, even during a recent Cabinet retreat Hishammuddin lauded the government's handling of Bersih. And other ministers joined in to praise the police for a good job done. So will these "hardline" elements now truly support Najib or will they place enough obstacles to ensure the reforms (euphemistically called the Political Transformation Programme) are diluted when finally set in stone? Because there is a world of difference between policy statements or announcements and the final product, especially in Malaysia. Just look at what Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi promised during his time in power, for example, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Without a doubt, the predecessor Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) was far less controversial than more powerful MACC. Two people have died now during investigations into corruption in the government. Some cases have gone to court only to be overturned. Yes, it's more effective but also deadly. And the corruption perception index continues to show Malaysia as more corrupt. Similarly, Abdullah's promise to overhaul the police faced resistance from the police and more far-reaching proposals by the police royal panel were not implemented. Recommendations to relax regulations on freedom of assembly remain in dusty files that are trotted out when more announcements are made. | ||||||||||
| Not All Demands Of The Various Races Can Be Met, Says Mahathir Posted: 16 Sep 2011 12:53 PM PDT (Bernama) - KUALA LUMPUR -- Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the various races in the country must accept the fact that all their claims cannot be fulfilled by the government. He said that if all the races could accept this fact, then this country would continue to remain peaceful, thus enabling a rapid economic development. He said if any ethnic race wanted its demand to be fulfilled then it would indirectly deny the other races their rights, thus creating unhealthy "I feel administering a multi-racial country is different from that of a homogeneous country because there will certainly be demands made by the various races. "In order to ensure peace in Malaysia, each race must accept the fact that not all 100 per cent of their demands can be entertained. If they insist on getting all their demands met, then this will deny the other races of their rights," he said in the programme "Bicara Negarawan bersama Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad" which was aired by RTM1 last night. He said this when responding to a question on the openness introduced by the government after the 2004 general election which resulted in several groups openly demanding equal rights. The three-member panel in the programme comprised Bernama editor-in-chief Yong Soo Heong, Utusan Group assistant chief editor I Zaini Hassan and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak lecturer Dr Jeniri Amir. According to Dr Mahathir, Malaysia was one of the nations that had granted freedom to all races in the country to use their own languages besides the national language in schools. He said the freedom was given in order to respect the wishes of certain groups to continue using their own language in schools. Meanwhile, the former prime minister said issues concerning claims of equality could be corrected by giving deep understanding to the various races in the country on the principles that had been practiced since the formation of Malaysia. "When living in a multi-racial country, we have to accept the fact that we cannot obtain everything that we considered as our right. When asked on the Barisan Nasional component parties that were currently less active, Dr Mahathir said they should get down on the ground and try to get closer to the grassroots by resolving the problems faced by the people. In addition he said, the people must also realise that after fifty years of independence the cooperative spirit of component parties had created the best environment enjoyed by the people currently. "We must remember that the coalition government had cooperated for fifty years and that this government had brought success to Malaysia, more so than the other goverments. "Thus we shouldn't reject the system that had brought success to us compared to one that is unfamiliar to us," he said. Dr Mahathir also touched on winnable candidates in the general election which would create problems between the leaderships and the grassroots. He said the winnable candidates in the election, which will depend on the evaluation and opinion of the Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his advisors, may go against the wishes of the party and create problems of sabotaging candidates in the election. When asked on the appropriate time for the election, Dr Mahathir said: "Later will be alright. This will give time to Najib to make as assessment on who should be the candidates." | ||||||||||
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