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Kronologi kejadian tanah runtuh di negara ini
In Kedah, a two-horse race with no winners
DAP unlikely to abandon PR partners — Political analyst
Can Umno do this?

Kronologi kejadian tanah runtuh di negara ini

Posted: 21 May 2011 06:29 PM PDT

Menteri Kerja Raya Datuk Shaziman Mansor dilaporkan berkata bahawa kawasan itu dipercayai telah beberapa kali mengalami kejadian tanah runtuh namun tidak dilaporkan.

Bernama

Highland Towers dan Bukit Antarabangsa — itu adalah antara dua kejadian tanah runtuh yang mengorbankan nyawa di negara ini, dan semalam satu lagi kejadian tanah runtuh berlaku mengorbankan 16 nyawa.

Kejadian kali ini membabitkan Rumah Anak-anak Yatim dan Anak-anak Hidayah Madrasah Al-Taqwa di Batu 14, Hulu Langat dan dalam kejadian pada pukul 2.30 petang itu, seramai 25 orang terdiri daripada anak yatim, penuntut, warden dan kakitangan rumah anak yatim itu tertimbus.

Ketika kejadian, mereka berada di bawah sebuah khemah yang dipasang untuk persiapan satu majlis yang dijadual berlangsung pukul 5 petang.

Runtuhan tanah dari bukit berdekatan kawasan rumah anak yatim itu dikatakan menimbus keseluruhan khemah yang dipasang berhampiran dewan di lereng bukit.

Pasukan mencari dan menyelamat mengambil masa hampir 15 jam dalam operasi tanpa henti untuk mengeluarkan semua mangsa yang terperangkap dan mangsa terakhir dikeluarkan pada pukul 5.05 pagi.

Kejadian menyayat hati itu mengorbankan 16 orang dan mencederakan sembilan yang lain. Kebanyakan mangsa ialah kanak-kanak yang menghuni rumah itu.

Menteri Kerja Raya Datuk Shaziman Mansor dilaporkan berkata bahawa kawasan itu dipercayai telah beberapa kali mengalami kejadian tanah runtuh namun tidak dilaporkan.

Menteri Pembangunan Keluarga, Wanita dan Masyarakat Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil pula dilaporkan berkata bahawa rumah anak-anak Yatim itu tidak berdaftar dengan Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat atau mana-mana agensi di bawah kementerian itu.

Berikut adalah antara kejadian tanah runtuh yang berlaku di negara ini:

* 11 Dis 1993: Satu daripada tiga blok kondominium di Highland Towers, Hulu Klang, Selangor runtuh dan mengorbankan 48 nyawa. Kejadian itu berlaku selepas tanah runtuh berlaku di belakang kondominium itu.

* 30 Jun 1995: 21 orang terkorban manakala 23 yang lain cedera dalam kejadian tanah runtuh di jalan susur Genting Highlands. Kejadian itu dipercayai berpunca daripada hujan lebat yang mengakibatkan air turun laju dan menghanyutkan pokok dan tanah berhampiran terowong Karak.

* Pada tahun 1996: Kejadian tanah runtuh berlaku pada tahun baru apabila sebahagian Jalan 3/11 Pesiaran Tiga, Bandar Baru Selayang runtuh.Kejadian berhampiran tiga blok flat kawasan perumahan yang didiami 130 keluarga itu tidak mengorbankan nyawa.

* 25 Disember 1997: Tanah runtuh di Km17 Lebuhraya Ampang-Hulu Klang, Selangor mengorbankan tiga orang.

* 15 Mei 1999: Penduduk kawasan perumahan Bukit Antarabangsa dan Wangsa Ukay, Jalan Hulu Klang terperangkap dalam kejadian tanah runtuh sepanjang 100 meter. Seorang kanak-kanak berusia empat tahun maut.

* 2 November 2002: Sebuah banglo di Taman Hillview, Hulu Klang milik bekas panglima Angkatan Tentera, Jen (B) Tan Sri Ismail Omar runtuh selepas dirempuh tanah runtuh dari bukit bersebelahan rumahnya.

Dalam kejadian itu, isterinya Puan Sri Azizah Abdul Aziz, anaknya Hijaz, dua menantu dan dua cucu serta pembantu rumah Indonesia terkorban.

* 31 Mei 2006: 49 rumah di Kampung Pasir, Hulu Klang musnah akibat runtuhan tanah dan empat sekeluarga terkorban.

* 30 November 2008: Dua beradik, Noratirah Roslan, 16, dan Nurul Intan Sarina, 9, terkorban selepas tertimbus dalam kejadian tanah runtuh yang turut meranapkan sebuah banglo di Ulu Yam Perdana, Hulu Selangor.

* 6 Disember 2008: Kejadian tanah runtuh di Taman Bukit Mewah, Bukit Antarabangsa, Ampang meragut lima nyawa selain menimbus 14 banglo.

* 29 Januari 2011: Tanah runtuh dan banjir kilat akibat hujan berterusan di beberapa penempatan di Sandakan, seperti di perumahan lereng bukit Bandar Ramai-Ramai, Kampung Gelam runtuh dan Kampung Sundang Darat. Kejadian mengorbankan dua orang, seorang warga emas dan remaja perempuan.

In Kedah, a two-horse race with no winners

Posted: 21 May 2011 04:57 PM PDT

The street poll of 70 Kedahans aged 21 to 70 showed that half of them (50 per cent) want a change in the state government. The sentiment was most pronounced among Malays of whom 60 per cent want change followed by Indians (50 per cent).

By Sheridan Mahavera, The Malaysian Insider

Muhammad Najib and his fellow restaurateurs here are seething. The Alor Star City Council (MBAS) wants them to pay extra if they want to put tables and chairs on the five-foot ways in front of their shops.

A restaurant with around 15 tables would have to fork out RM600 a month to MBAS. In addition, they will have to pay a one-time RM1,000 application fee and RM10,000 for insurance.

"It's either you pay up or they come and take your tables and chairs away," said Muhammad Najib, who requested his name be changed for fear of reprisal.

Ordinarily, he said, the way to deal with such a predicament is for restaurants to band together and take their case up with their state assemblyman, who would then plead with the local council.

Or escalate their struggle by getting an influential "penaung" (patron) such as the mentri besar or the head of a large political party to help them.

But in the post-2008 political landscape, the balance of power in a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state such as Kedah has diluted the ability of a citizen like Muhammad Najib to use his democratic right to petition the authorities for redress.

"If I go to a Barisan Nasional (BN) Adun (state assemblyman) or get a penaung like the state BN chief to help you, the city council won't listen to him because he's considered the current opposition.

"If you go to the MB and he helps you, the federal BN will mark you as pro-Pakatan. So if BN comes into power next election, you sure kena (you will be fixed). So in the end, you are trapped."

His dilemma of the common man feeling victimised by the endless battle for power by BN and PR is repeated again and again by other Kedahans. The only difference is the players and the arenas. The stakes and the game remain the same — gain influence by any ways necessary even if it means opposing good policy.

It boils down to jobs and garbage

Though Alor Star has a new night attraction near its historic Balai Nobat, life in Kedah has pretty much remained the same under the PR administration.

During a recent visit by The Malaysian Insider to Kedah, a straw poll of residents signalled that they are tired of the game and that a significant number want to change the next state government in the next election.

Only 36 per cent of Chinese respondents wanted change while 28 per cent wanted to keep PR in power. The remaining 36 per cent of Chinese respondents either did not know or did not want to comment.

The respondents were a mix of urban and rural residents from Jitra, Alor Star, Sungai Petani and Merbok.

Most respondents cited employment issues (28 per cent of respondents) namely the lack of jobs, low salaries and the difficulty of finding workers as the biggest problem affecting Kedah.

Respondents said the second biggest problem was poor garbage collection (17 per cent) while lack of economic growth and business opportunities came in third (15 per cent).

The poll seemed to buck the views that the young are more likely to support PR or that the old vote for BN. Close to equal numbers of young and old respondents wanted to either change or maintain the state government.

However, women respondents were likelier than men to want the state government changed.

It's always my race that gets it

Just as pertinent as these figures are the myriad views individual respondents volunteered about life in Kedah under PR. Many of those wanting change were frustrated with policies which they felt discriminated against them.

Muhammad Najib's above case is not unique. Other respondents complained of new local council rulings which seemed to have sprung up during PR's rule and which they deem "insensible".

The water damage from the floods can still be seen on the houses in Taman Sri Utama near Jitra.

Shopkeepers in the Jitra town centre complained of a rule forbidding them from displaying goods on their five foot-ways, while residents of Sungai Petani groaned about steep parking fees.

Many of the complaints were tinged with perceptions of ethnic bias.

Conversations with Chinese business people invariably bring up the PR government's 50 per cent Bumiputera quota housing policy (link to Chinese sentiment story) Malay shopkeepers felt that local council only targeted Malay businesses.

"I have been warned about cleanliness. But I look at the Chinese restaurants behind mine and they haven't been touched. It's like they won't mess with Chinese businesses because they are afraid of losing votes," railed one eatery owner in Alor Star who requested anonymity.

This is another version of the perception war that PAS and its PR allies are fighting all over the country, from Selangor to Penang and Perak, that it is bending backwards for non-Muslims at the expense of Muslims.

Kedah PAS Youth chief Ahmad Yahya points out that the 50 per cent Bumiputera quota for housing estates (which Chinese business groups have opposed) is meant to help Malays buy more houses.

Yet this point was missed by all of the Malay respondents who accused PAS of a non-Muslim bias.

Posted: 20 May 2011 06:02 PM PDT

Jeniri was commenting on former vice chancellor of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) Tan Sri Nordin Kardi's statement encouraging DAP to join BN as Umno's pragmatic policies were a better match for the secularist party than PAS' Islamic theology.

Borneo Post

DAP will sink and swim with its Pakatan Rakyat partners rather than join the BN, said local political analyst Dr Jeniri Amir.

As such, he said DAP would not want to abandon its partners, namely PKR and PAS, in any way.

"After all DAP and its partners in Pakatan are looking forward to form the next federal government," Jeniri told The Borneo Post here yesterday.

He also said DAP's agenda was not similar to those of the BN.

Nordin, who headed UUM until last year, also wrote in Utusan Malaysia yesterday that DAP was better suited for Umno than MCA or Gerakan.

"Many of DAP's demands have already been met by BN such as meritocracy for universities and a 'Malaysian Malaysia' which is already under '1Malaysia', he wrote, referring to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's slogan of inclusion.

Nordin, who currently holds the Za'ba chair of Malay Civilisation at Universiti Perguruan Sultan Idris, said there was no need to change the status quo as BN already had both secular and theological ideas and looked after the interests of all races.

"If the excuse is that BN is still not clean, then the better reasoning is to reform BN, not replace it," said Nordin.

He wrote that MCA only emerged during independence to secure business deals that were previously monopolised by British companies.

However, the People's Action Party that has governed Singapore since it was removed from the Federation of Malaysia was formed due to concerns that the Chinese community would be led by communists.

Nordin said that DAP, which was formed in Malaysia after the two countries split, had the same ideology as PAP and was well-matched with Umno which also rejected leaders who were left-leaning.

Najib had recently warned Chinese voters that they would not be represented in the Cabinet if they fail to support BN's Chinese candidates in a general election that he is expected to call within the year.

It came after MCA pledged to reject government posts if it did not improve on its 2008 election performance, where it only won 15 of 40 parliamentary seats contested.

Chinese support for the ruling coalition has also been on the slide with nearly all Chinese majority seats in the April 16 Sarawak election going to DAP.

Can Umno do this?

Posted: 20 May 2011 05:48 PM PDT