Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Don’t be complacent, Lim warns Pakatan
- "Oops, My Bad," says Chegubard on 1Malaysia exercise book article
- PKR sees CAT as ‘storm in a teacup’
- ‘Friendship’ turned nightmare for Musa
- Portal accused of misusing art
- BN will wrest back Selangor with 32 seats, says Noh Omar
- Pakatan pledges to focus on household income not equity targets
- Mansor still dodging ‘cocky Lim’ issue
- PM shreds Opposition's policy framework Buku Jingga
| Don’t be complacent, Lim warns Pakatan Posted: 01 Oct 2012 01:46 AM PDT
The chief minister says he will ask all Pakatan parties to submit reports on preparations for the general election. Athi Shankar, FMT Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has cautioned Pakatan Rakyat to view seriously Umno's boast of 3-3-3-1 winning formula for Barisan Nasional to recapture Penang. Lim, the DAP secretary-general, is concerned that Umno confidence could be boosted by complacency among Pakatan Rakyat leaders and members. Observers have speculated that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak would call for general election next year. But Lim, the state Pakatan chairman, is not taking things for granted. He will ask all Pakatan parties – DAP, PKR and PAS – to submit their respective full report soon on their election preparation. "Umno may be correct as Penang Pakatan's machinery is not in full election mode. Pakatan must view Umno's confidence seriously," Lim said in a statement here today. Yesterday, Umno vice-president and Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi expressed confidence on the 3-3-3-1 winning formula. in which Umno would win three seats more while retaining its current 11 state seats in Penang. MCA and Gerakan will win three seats each while MIC will win one seat to bring BN's total to 21, enough to knock Pakatan off its perch and recapture the state government by a one-seat majority in the 40-seat State Legislative Assembly. Lim said Umno's confidence could arise because the Election Commission (EC) is its obedient tool and it also controls the mainstream media to spread lies against Pakatan. He said the manipulation of EC to serve BN's political interests was well-recorded, with top EC officials being exposed as Umno members. He also took the mainstream media to task for carrying out sustained personal attacks against Pakatan leaders based on racism, and outright lies of corruption and sexual misconduct. "Even my own family members including my under-aged son have not been spared from such vicious lies," said Lim, the Bagan MP and Air Putih assemblyman. He said Umno is talking about regaining ground among Chinese, Indian and Malay voters because there is now a blackout of Pakatan leaders in all the mainstream media. For instance, he said some newspapers have refused to publish details of his house tenancy agreement when he revealed it recently in the interests of transparency. He also said the newspapers did not publish Pakatan's requests to BN leaders to reveal their tenancy or purchases of luxury homes. "The blackout will be total come election time," Lim said.
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| "Oops, My Bad," says Chegubard on 1Malaysia exercise book article Posted: 30 Sep 2012 05:47 PM PDT
(Malaysian Digest) - Parti Keadilan Rakyat's Rembau division chief Badrul Hisham Shahrin has admitted that he made a mistake in lambasting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak over the alleged distribution of 1Malaysia school exercise books bearing the PM's image on its cover. Badrul Hisham, better known as Chegubard, yesterday issued a statement on his blog (chegubard.blogspot.com) explaining his error. He said he has since withdrawn the comments he made concerning an article published in the Keadilan Daily website on Sept 24, in which it was claimed that the '1Malaysia exercise books' were being distributed in schools.
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| PKR sees CAT as ‘storm in a teacup’ Posted: 30 Sep 2012 05:43 PM PDT
Penang PKR information chief says the affair won't affect Pakatan's preparations for election. Hawkeye, FMT GEORGE TOWN: Penang PKR has shrugged off the exposure of its chairman Mansor Othman criticising Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, saying it would not affect Pakatan Rakyat's preparation for the 13th general election. "It's a storm in a teacup," said Penang PKR communications bureau head Sim Tze Tzin in reference to a leaked recording of Mansor allegedly describing Lim as arrogant. He said both his party and Lim's DAP regarded the leakage as a weak attempt to create a rift within Pakatan. However, a local Gerakan leader sees Sim's remarks as an attempt to cover up Lim's unpopularity. Mohan Apparoo, who leads Gerakan's Batu Kawan division, said Lim had been criticised as arrogant even by local DAP grassroots leaders. "To enliven this further," he added, "I was told that some of the DAP leaders on the (Penang) mainland will now be supporting Barisan Nasional because they are fed up with Lim's attitude." The media now refers to the controversy as CAT, abbreviating "cocky, arrogant and tokong" —words that Mansor apparently used to describe Lim during a meeting he had with some local PKR members. Details of the private meeting, including an audio recording, were posted in the "Gelagat Anwar" blog in June. Last Monday, TV3 aired the recording at prime time. Penang PKR has since announced that it was investigating the affair. Sim declined to say whether the culprit behind the leak had been identified or whether PKR would act against him or her, but he remarked that it "would be naive" to speculate that Mansor's political future was doomed as a result of it. "The remarks were made in a coffeeshop setting," he said. "The conversation was informal and there was loose talk. Some quirky remarks were made. They cannot be taken to heart."
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| ‘Friendship’ turned nightmare for Musa Posted: 30 Sep 2012 05:37 PM PDT
Chief Minister Musa Aman's bogeyman case has become a nightmare for his officers in the CM's office. (FMT) - KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Chief Minister's office is keenly watching an ongoing court case involving a businessman whom Chief Minister Musa Aman has previously claimed he did not know. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) case against one Michael Chia Tien Foh has got Musa's office sufficiently hot and bothered that it has even "advised" the mainstream media to avoid mention of the case, sources said. Most have taken the advice to heart and there is little news in the mainstream media that the MACC case against the businessman was winding its way through the courts until one newspaper unexpectedly published a court decision that Musa's bogeyman must face trial. Musa has been haunted by the controversial businessman since 2008 when the latter was arrested in Hong Kong as he was about to exit the country with a bag stuffed with cash amounting to some S$16 million. In the subsequent investigations, Chia reportedly told the Hong Kong's Independent Commission on Anti-Corruption (ICAC) that the money was not his and actually belonged to Musa. Musa, who also heads Umno in resource-rich Sabah, is still the subject of ongoing concurrent investigations in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland involving a Swiss UBS bank account under his name that allegedly has $100 million. The Swiss prosecutor has stated that the government would freeze the account if the Malaysian government requested they do so. Recently, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak revealed that investigation reports on the Musa's cases were with the Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail. But the opposition has grabbed hold of the scandal and refuses to let go, alleging that the trail of alleged illegal dealings leads right to Najib's office. Chia ordered to enter defence PKR vice-president, Tian Chua, has claimed that leaked MACC investigation papers disclosed that Musa told investigators that the $100 million under his name in the UBS account was not his but Umno's and as such directly implicates Najib. Now that the controversial Sabah businessman has been ordered to enter his defence on a charge of attempting to cheat another local businessman over the right to log and extract commercial timber at the Kalabakan Forest Reserve, Musa is furtively watching the case. On Aug 24, Sandakan High Court judge Supang Lian set aside the acquittal of Chia by the Sessions Court and set Sept 12 for the mention of Chia's case at the Sessions Court. Supang, in allowing the prosecution's appeal against Chia on Aug 24, however, dismissed the prosecution's appeal against the acquittal of another businessman Lo Man Heng jointly charged with Chia, ruling that the link between Lo and the offence had not been established. Both Chia and Lo, who were charged under Section 420 of Penal Code, had been acquitted by the Sessions Court on Sept 23 last year without their defence being called.
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| Portal accused of misusing art Posted: 30 Sep 2012 03:46 PM PDT
(The Star) - The creators of an art project that featured merchandise with designs offering a tongue-in-cheek look at Malaysia do not find it funny that their work has been exploited by a news portal for political mileage. They accused Keadilan Daily of misleading the people and want the website to issue a public apology to the merchandise creators as well as to the public. The website had, on Sept 24, published an article in which it alleged a school exercise book with the caricature of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was being distributed in schools. The article, quoting Rembau PKR chief Badrul Hisham Shaharin better known as Chegubard criticised the move and likened it to former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak displaying his image before his downfall. The article has since been removed from the site. Refuting claims in the article, June Low, 27, said she and graphic artist Adila Abdul Malik, 25, had come up with the idea of a Malaysia-themed artwork and merchandise for the Art for Grabs event at the Annexe Gallery in Central Market on Sept 22. The theme of the event was Janji Ditutupi, a play on the Government's Merdeka Day theme Janji Ditepati. "We displayed a range of comedic art merchandise. "Items included a school exercise book, with the cover bearing a likeness to the PM and the 1Malaysia logo," she told news portal Malaysian Digest yesterday. Low said their intention was to amuse and share a laugh with others and those who visited the event were aware of the attempt at light-hearted humour in the current affairs of Malaysia. Low said she was shocked that a photo of the book cover on her Twitter account was used by Keadilan Daily in an article. She said: "To twist the truth to this extent without fact-checking is disgusting. "It is simply irresponsible journalism." Keadilan Daily could not be contacted for comment.
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| BN will wrest back Selangor with 32 seats, says Noh Omar Posted: 30 Sep 2012 03:19 PM PDT
Normy Nozwir, The Malaysian Insider Selangor Umno deputy chief Datuk Seri Noh Omar is confident that Barisan Nasional (BN) will be able take back Malaysia's richest state at the next national polls by nabbing 32 of the 56 seats in the state legislative assembly. The state, which had been held by BN since Malaysia's founding, had slipped out of its grasp in the last general election four years ago to the PKR-DAP-PAS alliance, leaving the powerful federal coalition with only 20 state seats. "I don't want to get ahead of fate, but God willing I am confident BN will be able to win back Selangor, at least 32 seats," Umno veteran Noh told The Malaysian Insider in a recent interview, disclosing for the first time the number of seats it believes it can gain. The 13-member BN coalition only needs nine more seats to gain a simple majority with 29 seats. But the Tanjung Karang MP remained tight-lipped on BN's strategy in wresting back the highly-developed west coast state. The agriculture minister only said that Selangor residents were now starting to see that the PKR-DAP-PAS partnership that had since formed a fledgling bloc now known as Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact in the wake of their landslide wins in Election 2008 was unfit to govern. In the 12th general election, the three federal opposition parties had swept a total of 36 seats, with PKR taking the lion's share of 15 seats; and the DAP and PAS taking 13 and eight respectively. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also Umno president, has repeatedly vowed to win back Selangor for his BN coalition by all means necessary. Selangor is said to be a state with hot seats because of its large number of newly-registered voters, as well as being the country's wealthiest state. Noh dismissed talk of him being appointed as Selangor mentri besar despite rumours that he would be given the state's highest position if BN wins. "I don't want to get ahead of fate, I am still a member of Parliament for Tanjung Karang, but it all depends on the leadership. "Most importantly, we move the party machinery to win this state, the question of who (will be) mentri besar is not important," he said. Noh has been widely speculated to be gunning for the Selangor mentri besar's job He also kept his lips sealed on the potential candidates for the top state government post, saying BN's focus now was on winning back the state. "In 2008, they (Pakatan) also didn't know who their candidate for mentri besar was, so it's better for BN to focus on winning back Selangor," he said. Selangor's former Mentri Besar Dr Mohammad Khir Toyo has rejected the possibility of contesting in the coming elections after the courts found him guilty recently in a breach of trust case. The trained dentist is currently appealing against his conviction.
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| Pakatan pledges to focus on household income not equity targets Posted: 30 Sep 2012 03:17 PM PDT
Lisa J. Ariffin, The Malaysian Insider The national economic plan should shift from only meeting equity targets and growth to ensuring a minimum household income of RM4,000 a month by the end of a first-term Pakatan Rakyat (PR) administration, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today. He also said economic growth should be generated by small and medium-sized businesses and not just by "one or two big bosses." Speaking in Parliament, the opposition leader pitched his PR's Budget 2013 proposal to focus on disposal income instead of chasing equity and growth targets. "The statement has been distorted until some end up making assumptions that PR had promised to pay compensation to the people until their minimum household income reaches the target of RM4,000 a month," Anwar said. "The approach should instead emphasise sustained economic development and ensure there is increase in the people's disposable income," he said when debating the government's Budget 2013 proposals. Anwar stressed family household income levels were important key economic targets to ensure nobody was left out of mainstream development and the nation's prosperity. "The welfare and well-being of those in the community who require help and protection so as to not be marginalised is the government's responsibility through an integrated social safety system," he said. "The economic prosperity of the majority with continuous revenue levels ensures sustainable growth when they continue to invest in the country's economy," he added. Anwar also said economic growth must be generated by small and medium-sized entrepreneurs "who form the largest business class in the economy", and not only "one or two big bosses or the person who monopolises most economic activities". "The government's role in the economy should be restricted to generating growth in new areas and to accelerate economic activities strategically, and not get involved in every type of economic activity and competing with small businesses and the entrepreneurs," he said. Last week, Anwar had promised to raise the disposable income of Malaysians through measures such as cheaper car prices, abolishment of tolls and waiver of student loans. He said a PR government would be able to pay for the proposed measures not through raising taxes but by plugging leakages that arise as a result of inefficiencies and corruption.
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| Mansor still dodging ‘cocky Lim’ issue Posted: 30 Sep 2012 02:34 PM PDT
(The Star) - Deputy Chief Minister I Datuk Mansor Othman has continued to avoid responding to the allegation that he had described Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng as a cocky and arrogant man. "My comments have been twisted in every angle. No comment. People are no longer interested in reading what I say," he said after opening a seminar for Muslim scholars here yesterday. He declined to provide an update on the leaked audio recording of the informal PKR meeting. Mansor had allegedly uttered those words, besides also saying that Lim was also regarded as a tokong (deity) by the people here in the leaked recording, which was later reproduced in an online news report and a TV3 news broadcast. Asked by a reporter whether he was on good terms with Lim, Mansor merely raised both his hands up in the air while walking away. "We should be talking about the Budget. People are really interested about the Budget. They are not interested about me anymore," he said. Earlier, state PKR vice-chairman Datuk Abdul Halim Hussain confirmed that a report on the alleged leak was sent to the party's headquarters.
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| PM shreds Opposition's policy framework Buku Jingga Posted: 30 Sep 2012 01:15 PM PDT  Friendly greeting: Najib and Gerakan president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon waving to press photographers. (The Star) - Pakatan Rakyat's common policy framework Buku Jingga is "not worth the paper it is printed on", said Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. He said their masterplan which amongst others aimed to restructure subsidies and abolish tolls was not feasible as doing so would spell the end of Bursa Malaysia. "Most of the concessionaires are public-listed companies and Pakatan's plan will lead to the collapse of Bursa. "That is why Buku Jingga is not worth the paper it is printed on," he said in his opening speech at the Gerakan national delegates conference yesterday. In a fiery speech, the Prime Minister said the Opposition's promise to wipe out the National Higher Education Fund Corporation's (PTPTN) RM33bil debt was not doable either. He said Pakatan should not talk about taking over Putrajaya when it had not even formed its own shadow Cabinet. "Why didn't they do it? Are they afraid that they do not know what posts to give to (DAP parliamentary leader) Lim Kit Siang, (PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul) Hadi Awang or (PAS deputy president) Mohamad Sabu? "Don't talk about forming the government, form the shadow Cabinet first," he said. He said that in Selangor, 73% of the promises made by Pakatan to the people were not fulfilled, and as such, no one should have a government that lied or failed to deliver on its promises. He said unlike Barisan, Pakatan did not even have a common symbol or manifesto. Citing an example, he said they could not even agree on the implementation of hudud. "If you don't have a common position or policy on something so fundamental, how are you going to administer the country? You don't have the credibility to run the government," he said. Najib said the Opposition had only three weapons in its arsenal criticise, instigate and promise the sun, moon and the galaxy. In contrast, he said the ruling government had a clear sense of direction in transforming the country into a high-income, developed nation. "When we promise something, it is based on something that hinges on reality. We have studied it in depth, after engaging with experts from within and out of the country. It is doable and achievable," he said. Najib also chided critics who claimed that the 2013 Budget was a populist move, pointing out that it was aimed at putting the people first and moving the economy forward. "It's not all just about BR1M. You do Bersih 2.0, we do BR1M 2.0. You storm barricades and overturn police cars, we can help the poor," he said.
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