Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| The lies and deceit by the NST: sue the bastards, Rosli! Posted: 28 Feb 2013 07:44 PM PST The Star had to eat the humble pie by admitting that the story posted in 2007 by their editor Dato' Lourdes Charles was a fabrication and a smear campaign against Lawyer Rosli Dahlan who was then defending Dato' Ramli Yusuff who was facing a trumped up charge by AG Gani Patail, then IGP Musa Hassan and the MACC . Yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised to read that Dato Ramli Yusuff has finally filed a legal suit against former IGP Musa Hassan for defamation. Musa had recently surfaced to reinvent his image as a crime crusader. He wanted to be a Batman whereas we all know that he is actually a Badman, the baddest IGP Malaysia ever had. Musa was the IGP who brought total disrepute to the Polis DiRaja Malaysia. The IGP who was linked to the underworld and who brought criminal charges against 6 junior officers because they discovered his links with the triads. The IGP who made a false anonymous blog against Deputy Minister Dato Johari Baharom in order to ward off investigations against himself. And when that failed, Musa suspended and charged the Director of CCID, Dato' Ramli Yusuff so that his underworld link, the Chinaman known as Tengku Goh can be released. I was also pleasantly surprised to receive in my mailbox a cd. When I sat down with my wife to watch the cd, I realised it was a recording of the court proceedings that has been going on since Tuesday and ended yesterday. It was the court proceedings where Lawyer Rosli Dahlan is suing The NST, its editors and the MACC and its editors. This has been going on for three days and not a single mainstream newspaper reported it. As I continued watching the cd, I understood why there was no news report about this trial. The evidence against the NST and the MACC was so compelling damning. It showed the NST blaming the MACC for giving them false information to publish the "RM 27 Million Cop Story" which then became the RM 27 Million Lawyer story posted on 12th October 2007. It also showed the MACC trying to exculpate itself by claiming that the story the MACC posted on their official website was actually based on the excerpt of the NST news report. Gosh! Instead of defending the case together, they were actually blaming each other! That is what thieves and liars do. They steal together and when they get caught, they blame each other. That was the comical scene you can watch in this cd and more, of how the lawyers for the NST and the MACC fumbled through their way in this court case. In this court proceeding, you see that Rosli Dahlan is represented by just one lawyer, Chetan Jethwani, while the NST have 2 lawyers from an UMNO law firm and the MACC have 4 senior government lawyers from the AG Chambers. You will see how the leader of the government team of lawyers is led by a shorty counsel, a goateed and bearded Tuan Haji Azizan, with a shrill shouting voice. You will see how disrespectful this Shorty Tuan Haji Azizan behaved towards Rosli's counsel and witnesses. You will see how badly Shorty Tuan Haji Azizan's spoken English is that one shudders to think how worse is his written English. With such bad English, it is no wonder why the AGC loses cases badly. But it is more worrisome to think that because of such bad English, these government lawyers may not have understood what they read in the law books and the statutes. Could they have misunderstood who is the good guy and who is the bad guy? Was that why they brutally arrested Lawyer Rosli Dahlan who was just needed as a witness in this case but did not arrest Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli in the MAS case when Rosli was acting for MAS to recover the multi-billion losses caused by Tajudin to MAS? Was that why they kept Rosli under continued detention in the MACC dungeon in this case but were so eager to release that criminal Tengku Goh from Restricted Residence exile? There was also the comical scene of Shorty Tuan Hj Azizan scolding Rosli's witness, Dato Hj Hasanudin who is the Chairman of Masjid AlGhufran. Shorty Tuan Hj Azizan's English was so bad that he can't even be understood in his scolding. Usually, scolding or shouting expletives in English is so easy to do. I find it easier to F…someone in English than in Malay, if you know what I mean. Shorty Tuan Hj Azizan was also very rude to another witness, Amir Hussin, who was merely telling his version of things which was not to Shorty's liking. It was gratifying that in one part, witness Amir Hussin testified that while he initially believed The NST and the other mainstream newspapers, he began to distrust their reports after reading Din Merican's Blog which presented facts and news in a more balanced way. Hearing this from a witness in a court proceeding is very motivating that my writings have achieved its purpose – the promotion of truth and justice.
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| Penang's RM8 Billion Road & Underwater Tunnel Project is A Symptom of Dap-PR Inability to ... Posted: 28 Feb 2013 07:41 PM PST The project consists of a 6.5km Gurney Drive-Bagan Ajam undersea tunnel, a 4.2km Gurney Drive-Lebuhraya Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu bypass, a 4.6km Lebuhraya Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu-Bandar Baru Air Itam bypass and a 12km road connecting Tanjung Bungah and Teluk Bahang. Lim's road and tunnel projects have created a dilemma for the Pakatan Rakyat. On one hand, the coalition is proposing to increase the number of public buses through a RM2 billion allocation. One the other hand, the Penang state government has approved road and tunnel projects worth a record high of RM8 billion to a vendor. There is definite a policy inconsistency. There are several serious issues with the award: 1. It appears that these projects have been awarded way before the launch of the Penang Paradigm. For something so significant, the state government should have incorporated these projects within the framework of the Penang Paradigm and allow the residents/stakeholders to evaluate and ponder over these projects. It is unfortunate that the government has chosen to award the project while the Penang Paradigm has just been released for public consultation. 2. The state government should not have awarded the project until at least a new mandate has been given to them in the upcoming GE. Any government rushing through such significant public projects so near to a GE is unfair and unscrupulous. The next GE should be used as a referendum for these projects. Hence, it is prudent for the current state government to defer and retract its award announcement until after the GE. 3. The mode of payment/compensation to the vendor is most controversial. The state government is giving 4,791,016.5 acres of reclaimed land in Tanjung Pinang in phases to the developer. There are two major issues of using land to swap for infrastructure projects. Firstly, land is a scarce commodity in Penang especially on the island. The public can expect only expensive developments will be launched on the land. Rising property prices are going to make home ownership issue even more chronic and severe in the future. Second, infrastructures depreciate but land will appreciate over time. Hence, the state could be paying escalating future prices/costs for the projects. 4. Penang CM Lim Guan Eng said that the infrastructure project is estimated to cost less than RM8 billion. Hence, is the state paying a fair price for it? At present value, the land is expected to fetch over RM2.5 billion (RM520 per sq. ft.) and could escalate up to RM5 billion over the next 3-5 years. Some properties in the Tanjung Pinang area are already selling above RM1,000 per sq. ft. The state is giving a 30-year concession period to the developer for the third link (the Bagan Ajam-Gurney Drive underwater tunnel). Based on a rough calculation (100,000 vehicles average a day x 30 years x RM8 - without factoring in any increase in toll charges), the developer is expected to rake in RM8,760,000,000 or RM8.76 billion. Eventually, the estimated gross development value (GDV) of the Tanjung Pinang land could be well over RM50,000,000,000 or RM50 billion. In sum, for infrastructure projects worth less than RM8 billion the developer could end up raking in more than RM58.76 billion in revenue. It is crystal clear that using land swap, especially prime land, as a mode of payment for infrastructure projects is untenable and a bad financing option. 5. The state government has not been able to provide any convincing evidence that these expensive projects could help solve Penang's traffic congestion problem in the long run. The reason is simple. Building more highways, roads or tunnels are not going to help solve our congestion problem. It can only be solved through prudent policy intervention to reduce the number of private cars and vehicles on the road. Sadly, the PR coalition - both at the federal and state levels - does not have a viable solution. The Penang state government's decision to build these expensive highways and underwater tunnel is not only going to burden the people financially but it is going to create deep social repercussion for the state too. If the number of new cars registration does not go down, it does not take us long to render these new highways helpless against congestion. Additional new cars every year is going to choke off these highways and render the secondary roads inaccessible.
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