Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- Legal action threat over oil, gas rights
- Mustafa: Pakatan seat talks at tail-end
- Perak Speaker Ganesan: I am not involved in any sex scandal
- ‘PKR got it all wrong on power rates’
- ‘Probe the five involved in Deepak’s claims’
- Bentong villagers want DAP to explain
| Legal action threat over oil, gas rights Posted: 20 Dec 2012 07:28 PM PST
(Borneo Post) - State Reform Party (Star) Sabah is giving the State Government six weeks to restore ownership rights of Sabah's oil and gas resources, or the people would proceed with legal action, according to its chairman Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan. He told a press conference at TNGC Beverly Hills yesterday that Petronas missed the point when it acted as if it was the sole custodian of Malaysia's oil and gas.
He was responding to the statement by Petronas that it could not afford to increase the cash payment to 20 per cent to the oil-producing states as proposed by Pakatan Rakyat.
"The Federal Government is also irresponsible in using Petronas as its mouthpiece to reject the claims of the oil-producing states for increases in the cash payment from the current five per cent.
"The Federal Government and Petronas have totally ignored the fact that oil and gas resources belong to Kelantan, Terengganu, Sabah and Sarawak, in the first place. It did not belong to the Federal Government and definitely not Petronas," Jeffrey asserted.
He said from Sabah and Sarawak's point of view, it should not be trapped into discussing the increase of the five per cent cash payment. In fact, he said, many of Sabah's leaders were still confused with the five per cent cash payment.
"It is not royalty as in the 1976 Oil Agreement; the State Government was pressured to reject or waive its right to collect royalty.
The real issue now, said Jeffrey, was not the amount of cash payment but the validity of Tun Abdul Razak's Vesting Order to Petronas as the oil and gas belonged to Sabah and Sarawak.
"Such vesting to Petronas has to be unconstitutional and invalid," he said.
"Therefore, Petronas and the Federal Government, and Pakatan Rakyat as the alternative front, and their leaders should be talking, firstly about restoring and returning the ownership of the oil rights to Sabah and Sarawak and then, secondly re-negotiate for the state to contribute a portion of the oil revenue to the Federal Government or Petronas.
He said Star Sabah would be handing over a memorandum to the Chief Minister's office by Monday or Tuesday, calling for restoration of the ownership of the oil and gas, otherwise the people of Sabah, with the support of Star Sabah, would bring the issue to court, including the issue of Blocks L and M. |
| Mustafa: Pakatan seat talks at tail-end Posted: 20 Dec 2012 06:20 PM PST
Tarani Palani, fz.com With seat negotiations between Opposition allies at its tail end, any party which demands for additional seats at this juncture would have to bear in mind whether there is a supply of additional seats left to be distributed. PAS Secretary General Datuk Mustafa Ali said this in response to his DAP counterpart Lim Guan Eng's announcement during the weekend party congress that the party would like three more parliamentary seats and 10 more state seats. However, the PAS party veteran was quick to add that Lim's request was nothing to be jittery about as it was understood that he was playing to party supporters. "There is nothing wrong with asking for seats because every political party is seeking for more seats. But (if there are) seats left to be distributed (is something to bear in mind)," he said in an interview with fz.com recently. For Mustafa, who was present at the congress in Penang to hear Lim's speech, the DAP leader's announcement was neither suprising nor the opposite. "I was there, I heard what he said, but I didn't ask him," said Mustafa chuckling. "I feel (the announcement) was more to pacify (party) grassroots who are looking for a seat increase". Mustafa who heads the PAS team in the Pakatan Rakyat election consultative council on seat negotiations, said that talks usually took place in the committee and that there was "not much" left to negotiate. He was mostly tight lipped on the matter, merely saying that most of the negotiations had already taken place this year. DAP Deputy Chairperson Tan Kok Wai and PKR Deputy President Azmin Ali are the heads of the other parties in the committee. Mustafa repeated what many Pakatan leaders had said on the criteria for seat allocations. For the coalition, which will face its first general election as a formal alliance, the formula would be to more or less stick to its status quo in 2008. "Each party forwards its suggestions. But we mostly use as one of our guidelines the 2008 status quo. We know what the status quo is, so it's plus or minus that. (That will be the basis) for exchange of seats or discussions similar to that," he said. He added that despite of announcements made by party leaders, the final outcome would depend on negotiations between the parties. Mustafa also said that he did not foresee any difficulty in finalising Pakatan's list of candidates as it could be settled at the committee stage. He said that in case one particular candidate cannot be agreed upon, then the matter will be brought up to the party Presidents. He however said that it may not come to that extent as most of the negotiations have gone on smoothly.
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| Perak Speaker Ganesan: I am not involved in any sex scandal Posted: 20 Dec 2012 05:25 PM PST
Ganesan speaks to reporters denying any involvement in a sex scandal outside the state assembly on Friday. (The Star) - Perak Assembly Speaker Datuk R. Ganesan has denied any involvement in a sex scandal and will lodge a police report on the claim. "I will ask the police to investigate the claim. I'm not shocked because they are only made-up stories," he told reporters here on Friday. "I am also extremely sad that my family has to face such allegations," he said, adding that he viewed this as an Opposition tactic to attack him. He was commenting on the envelopes which Opposition assemblymen V.Sivakumar and A. Sivasubramaniam received outside the assembly earlier in the day. The envelopes contained a printed online article and a compact disc (CD) with a lewd picture, Ganesan's portrait and a woman's portrait on the cover. Sivakumar said he would be lodging a police report on the matter.
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| ‘PKR got it all wrong on power rates’ Posted: 20 Dec 2012 04:22 PM PST
Several IPP managers say that forcing IPPs to renegotiate their PPAs will have serious implications. Zainal Epi, FMT PKR has gone off the mark when it said that it would slash the power rates if it comes to power, say independent power producers (IPPs). They were commenting on PKR investment and trade bureau chief Wong Chen's statement on Dec 7 that Pakatan would reduce the independent power producers' (IPP) return of investment (ROI) from 19% to 10% if it forms the next government. Wong has said even if the return of investment (ROI) was at 10%, which is the global benchmark, it was still a lot of money for them (IPPs). (The ROI measures the profitability on an investment and can help in making investment decisions.) "What we want is to cut their [IPPs'] obscene profit," Wong has said. He said under the current contracts, the IPPs' return of investment stood at a whopping 19% and a Pakatan government would reduce it to 10%. However, IPP players said Wong's notion that renegotiating the PPAs (power purchase agreements) with the IPPs was a silver bullet to ensure power prices remain at current rates in the future was wrong and off the mark. They said his analysis was probably driven by poor understanding of the power industry. "It is incorrect, for example, to use take Tenaga Nasional Bhd's 2011 capacity payment as a proxy for IPP earnings and dividing it by IPPs' total capital expenditure, resulting in a ROI of 19%," said a senior IPP manager who did not want to be named. (Capacity payment is payment received in exchange for making electrical capacity available.) He said this is because capacity payment is a composition of revenue and not profit, "so it is wrong to treat it as earnings". "Capacity payment is primarily used to service debt obligations of the power plant developer, so earnings is derived only after deducting debt servicing payments and other fixed costs such as insurance and taxes. "The time value of money, which is basic in financial economics, is ignored in his [Wong's] analysis – there is a need to consider capital investment made in a year and also the annual earning streams recurring for 21 years, to work out the true ROI, and not just taking into account one payment in one particular year…," said one IPP senior manager. Another IPP manager said Pakatan's proposal to force IPPs to take a 50% cut on revenues – primarily used to service their debt obligations – has the following serious implications:
'Tariffs need to go up' "For example, oil has increased from below US$30 per barrel in 2000 to currently above US$90 per barrel [over 200% increase for the period]. "To get an inkling of the capital-intensive nature of the industry, just look up the TNB website and discover the capital expenditure of TNB each year [in the range of RM4 billion to RM7 billion]. "If the opportunity cost of gas were to be added to the present gas price, that alone will raise TNB's fuel cost by more than RM10 billion annually," he said.
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| ‘Probe the five involved in Deepak’s claims’ Posted: 20 Dec 2012 04:16 PM PST
PKR piles pressure on the authorities to investigate Cecil Abraham, Arulampalam, Nazim, Deepak and Balasubramaniam. Leven Woon, FMT The police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) have been urged to investigate the five individuals allegedly involved in the preparation of private investigator P Balasubramaniam's second statutory declaration (SD). PKR vice-president Tian Chua said the authorities should probe lawyer Cecil Abraham who was allegedly said to have prepared the second SD and Arulampalam, who has appeared with Balasubramaniam at the press conference to issue the second SD on July 4, 2008. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's brother Nazim Tun Razak, Balasubramaniam and businessman Deepak Jaikishan must also be called up for questioning, Chua added. "Malaysian laws stipulate that conspiracy to falsify or subvert sworn statement is a criminal offence. "Those involved in abetment and conspiracy can be charged under Section 107 of the Penal Code, or Section 120a for criminal conspiracy, and Section 191 for false evidence under Statutory Declaration Act 1960," he said at a press conference here today. Nazim allegedly met Balasubramaniam on behalf of the prime minister and provided the latter with the money to retract the explosive first SD linking Najib to the murder of Mongolian national Altantuyaa Shariibuu. Chua said since both Balasubramaniam and Deepak had concurred that the second SD was prepared under intimidation and enticement, it is the duty of the enforcement authorities to verify the allegations with the other three individuals. He pointed out that the authorities have shown they are capable of carrying out swift investigations when six federal agencies targeted NGO Suaram over allegations of receiving foreign funding lately. "Unless the MACC and police act immediately, their [already] tainted reputation and image will be tarnished further," he said. Second defamation The Batu MP also ticked off MACC over its clarification yesterday that Cecil, who is a member of the MACC's operation review panel, was not involved in the decision to halt investigation of Balasubramaniam's second SD. Describing the statement as an "utter disappointment", he said MACC is more concerned with defending its decision to stop the investigation than to discharge its duties properly. Meanwhile, Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul said the allegation that Najib had asked his brother to offer money to Balasubramaniam could be considered as a second defamation on the premier after Deepak's claims that Najib was involved in the murder of Altantuyaa. "If what Deepak said is true, then there are elements of corruption and MACC should investigate. Don't drag the matter anymore," he said. Chua also challenged the MACC to find out whether PKR was involved in paying Deepak to defame Najib. When asked whether the enforcement authorities should also probe Najib, since the premier was directly implicated in the allegations, Chua said the focus now should be on the five individuals first. "To be fair to [Najib and Rosmah], they are not materially present at the meeting. Let's leave them alone first. But if Deepak's allegations are proven to be true, then they must follow the lead and investigate further," he said.
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| Bentong villagers want DAP to explain Posted: 20 Dec 2012 12:09 PM PST
(The Star) - BENTONG villagers have given a date for DAP to explain its decision to abruptly stop a singing show during a dinner, reported China Press. They had challenged Bentong Dapsy chairman Chow Yu Hui to cut the head of a cockerel and perform a vow at Guan Di Temple in Kampung Telemong at 1pm tomorrow. The act of cutting a cockerel's head at a temple is a Chinese tradition to prove one's innocence in settling disputes. In a statement signed by 15 village heads and Bentong MCA deputy chief Woong Choo Yak, the group urged Chow to show his bravery in politics and not be a "deserter". "Come to the temple on time and tell us everything. Many villagers know the show was halted because DAP bowed to pressure from PAS and used many tactics to cover this up. "In fact, the incident on Nov 17 should not have happened because DAP was the organiser of the event, which was mostly attended by the Chinese. DAP did not have to follow the orders of PAS members," said the group, adding that this proved that the party had no status in Pakatan Rakyat. During the incident, PAS guests had reportedly demanded that the performance be stopped because they were apparently disturbed by a singer's dressing, which was "too revealing". Villagers, who had raised thousands of ringgit to hire the singers, were furious.
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