Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

New Section 203A a license for Corruption Cover-up

Posted: 22 Oct 2013 12:09 PM PDT

This amendment is certainly more oppressive than the OSA which at the very least requires a process of certification by a minister before a document is deemed 'restricted' under the act.

Eric Paulsen, Co-founder & Adviser, Lawyers for Liberty

Lawyers For Liberty is appalled at the BN government's attempt to pass the new section 203A of the Penal Code Amendment bill, which criminalizes the act of unlawfully disseminating information received under any written law and carries a maximum fine of one million ringgit or a year imprisonment or both.

The proposed amendment is so widely drafted, it is scarcely believable. But the severity of this odious amendment being passed as law cannot be overstated.

This proposed amendment is the BN government's knee jerk and undemocratic reaction to stop the exposure of all incriminating information irrespective of whether they have been classified under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) or other laws.

The amendment will effectively shield all 'official' documents & information received under written law with a cloak of secrecy, and can only be released legally according to the whims and fancies of the BN government.

This would mean any information on scandalous issues such as the NFC, and Scorpene submarines would no longer be legally accessible to the public & whistleblowers will be punished severely while the wrongdoers will be protected.

This amendment is certainly more oppressive than the OSA which at the very least requires a process of certification by a minister before a document is deemed 'restricted' under the act.

Such an odious piece of law has no place in a modern and democratic state like Malaysia and is more suited for totalitarian regimes in North Korea or Myanmar.

We therefore call for all parties – MPs, opposition, civil society, the Malaysian Bar to oppose this amendment, if passed, would effectively turn Malaysia into a nightmare Kafkaesque secret state not unlike that depicted in G.Orwell's 1984.

RM151 million loan from Federal Government to Syabas

Posted: 22 Oct 2013 12:04 PM PDT

For this loan to be extended when extensive negotiations are taking place will surely strengthen the bargaining power of Syabas to press for a higher takeover price from the state and delay any deal from happening soon. Any sensible government would have taken the opportunity to pressure Syabas to "settle" the impasse before granting any financial favours.

Tony Pua

Yesterday, Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd announced that the Federal Government has extended a further RM151 million of soft loans to its subsidiary Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor (SYABAS) purportedly to replace old and critical pipes in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya and to reduce non-revenue water losses in the state, which is among the highest in the country.

SYABAS is given a 3-year grace period to commence the repayment of the above loans and will be charged a subsidised interest rate of only 3%. The above amount comes just 8 months after a RM120 million soft loan was extended to the company in February to carry out the same works.

Even before this, the Federal Government has also given generous helping hands to Syabas with a RM320.8 million zero-interest soft loan and RM110 million credit facility in December 2009 and October 2011 respectively.

To top it all off, the Federal Government took over all of the outstanding debt of Syabas amounting to RM2.9 billion which was due and the company was unable to repay in 2011, effectively bailing out the cash constricted concessionaire. These means that Syabas has benefited from a total of RM3.6 billion of tax-payer's money in the form of grants and loans to save the company from collapse since December 2009.

The question needs to be asked as to why the BN Government is persistent in extending these hundreds of millions of ringgit of annual credit facilities to Syabas despite the latter's obvious failure to provide quality water services to the public as demanded on the the water concession agreement signed in 2004?

It should be emphasized that under the Water Concession Agreement, there is absolutely no obligation by the federal and state government to provide financial grants or loans for Syabas to carry out its obligations to upgrade all the required water infrastructure to fulfil its obligations to provide quality water services to the people of Selangor and KL. That means that the RM3.6 billion extended to Syabas is done entirely out of the kindness of the BN Government to save a private concessionaire.

The latest RM151 million worth of loans is also a sign of Syabas' financial desperation as negotiations are already underway between the Federal and Selangor Government together with Syabas. For this loan to be extended when extensive negotiations are taking place will surely strengthen the bargaining power of Syabas to press for a higher takeover price from the state and delay any deal from happening soon. Any sensible government would have taken the opportunity to pressure Syabas to "settle" the impasse before granting any financial favours.

What is worse is that the Federal Government, despite being desperate for cash due to the double debt and deficit crisis, continues to use tax-payers' monies wantonly to rescue BN's crony companies. By right if Syabas fails to perform its obligations to upgrade and maintain its water pipes to provide quality water services as agreed under the concession agreement, the Federal Government should sue the company for compensation or terminate the agreement for default.

However in Malaysia, despite telling ordinary Malaysians that subsidies need to be cut and more taxes needs to be collected, crony companies continues to enjoy the implicit government guarantee from financial distress. It is rubbing salt to the rakyat's wounds when Puncak Niaga Holdings Bhd which can afford to pay its Chairman Tan Sri Rozali Ismail a whopping RM33 million in fees and bonus for 2013, needs to beg for RM151 million from the government to carry out its obligations under the Water Concession Agreement.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Rabu, 23 Oktober 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

0 ulasan:

Catat Ulasan