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Posted: 02 Feb 2013 07:17 PM PST

He said the state executive council has decided to award a company the tender to construct four major traffic roads in Penang.

He did not name the company but it is known that the massive undertaking, costing a whopping RM8 billion will begin in 2015.

"If we had control, we would want the best. But in this case, even if we had our own money, we cannot do it. What do we do then? We have proposed four major road projects for the most congested roads," he said.

The four proposed projects involves the 4.2km Gurney Drive-Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu expressway, 4.6km Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu-Bandar Baru Air Itam bypass (four-lanes), 6.5km Penang-Butterworth Tunnel and a 12km road connecting Tanjung Bungah and Teluk Bahang (four lanes).

"Since the federal government does not want to give us public transport, we will built alternative roads.

"If we had control, we would want the best. But in this case, even if we had our own money, we cannot do it. What do we do then? We have proposed four major road projects for the most congested roads," he said.

The four proposed projects involves the 4.2km Gurney Drive-Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu expressway, 4.6km Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu-Bandar Baru Air Itam bypass (four-lanes), 6.5km Penang-Butterworth Tunnel and a 12km road connecting Tanjung Bungah and Teluk Bahang (four lanes).

On the island's on-going traffic woes, Lim lamented that Penang has no control over public transport as it comes under the federal administration.

There are several issues that must be addressed before the Penang State Government embarks on the projects:

READ MORE HERE

Malay politics and Ramleeology

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 02:49 PM PST

My last column on Malaysia in the 70s was an enjoyable piece of journaling and from the numerous comments I read from all the blogs that carry it - my own blog Between Cybernetics and Existentialism, my Facebook page, Malaysia Today, etc - I feel that there was a time when a good Malaysian spirit was about to be forged.

This was that sense of a historical block, until May 13, 1969 came, of course; whether it was orchestrated or a victory campaign that went wrong we are beginning to find out, as alternative accounts of it continue to be written.

After languishing in sweet memories of the 70s, I next thought of the 60s; the time when I was growing up in Johor Baru and how the kampong and the city and the school I went to became my "global classrooms".

My fond memories always go back to a "multicultural Malaysia I knew - especially how I owed my interest in learning and insatiable urge to acquire knowledge through the selfless work of my teachers - Malay, Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, and even my Peace Corps American teachers.

Without them, I would not have been able to write honestly about the need not just to "tolerate" other cultures but to learn from each one of them, embrace the dynamics of each, and to bring out the universality of the values, and next to design good learning systems and environments that will nurture these differences into commonalities and to hybridise the wisdom we will acquire.

This is what has been lacking in our education system - critical sensibility and the embracing of the idea of "cultural action for freedom", as the Brazilian educational philosopher Paulo Freire would say.

A P Ramlee movie

Of late, too, I have been watching P Ramlee movies - reminiscing my childhood days as well with my memory of the black and white television, that "machine to call upon far away vision" (tele + vision), or on a more theoretical basis, anthropologists of technology would call "a fantasy-machine in the garden" and in this case, a "TV in a peaceful kampong".

I watched and "read closely" Malaysia's great humanist-social-philosopher P Ramlee's, classic of the 60s Pendekar Bujang Lapok.
I found something interesting in there worthy, in fact, of a full-blown dissertation on the anthropology of the Malays. Here is what I discovered about the first 17 minutes of it:

There is an intellectual framework in "reading" this movie; one that could be a hybrid of political-economy of development and underdevelopment (see the work of the Dependenistas/Dependency Theorists of the 70s), World-Systems Theory, Marx's idea of "technological determinism", i.e. technology as the shaper of social relations of production (see my dissertation Thesis on Cyberjaya, on the origin of Cyberjaya and the concluding discussion on Marx and technology and culture), semiotics of power, as in the notion of "habitus" (see Pierre Bourdieu's work on "symbolic power") and a study of post-colonialism emblematic in the work of Albert Memmi's Colonizer and the Colonized, Frantz Fanon's Black Skin White Masks, and others in the genre of psychological studies of oppression.

Ramleeology as method

Syed Hussein Al Attas's work is also instructive of a framework in looking at the idea of how the image of the native is constructed, as lazy, obedient, and imbued with "bebalism" and "tolol-ism " (feudalistic Malay idiocy and moronism); constructed by the rich and land-owning class that drew inspiration from "divide and rule" - from the British colonials.

READ MORE HERE

Langkawi's road to environmental shame?

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 02:35 PM PST

Environmentalists are concerned over a road project, currently being built along Pantai Kok's rainforest-covered hill which they said is "sacrificing" century-old trees as well as marine lives along the island's shores.

Naturalist Irshad Mobarak said the road project is actually along a forest on a limestone hill which is also close to a mangrove forest and a popular tourist spot.

In an interview with The Mole Irshad said: "Langkawi has many rare species which is only seen in this part of the world and it will go extinct if the island is overdeveloped."

"The island's biodiversity is amazing and eco-tourism is what draws tourists to the island. Islands work by different rules, if a habitat is lost, species will decline, " he said.

Meanwhile, a source who lives and work on the island said the estimated cost of the road project is RM22 million and stretches about 1.2km long.

The project which started about a month ago is said to be built as a short cut to enable tourist to get to a nearby resort.

The source also said there were no proper signage's to indicate that the area was under construction.

Read more at: http://www.mole.my/content/road-works-stretching-12km-affecting-pantai-koks-ecotourism

Would winds of change usher in hudud?

Posted: 02 Feb 2013 04:24 AM PST

Is there any way possible for the Barisan National to snatch victory from Pakatan Rakyat in the upcoming general election? This is the question being asked by all and sundry in the country.

Nevertheless, a large number of organisations and nations across the globe see change as an inevitable thing in Malaysia, and would welcome a Pakatan victory.

Among them is Hamas whose top-most leaders are allies of Anwar Ibrahim.

During the entire Pakatan campaign in 2012, Anwar displayed images of the Hamas leaders in meetings with Egyptian scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qardawi, with Anwar himself at the centre of attention.

These images, applauded by the local folks all over Peninsular Malaysia and in Borneo, show the close relationship the Hamas leadership has with Anwar.

And suddenly, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak jumps onto the Hamas bandwagon and gets himself meddled in a diplomatic row with Al-Fatah. Yet, the surprise visit – surely arranged by some organisations acting as public relations and image polisher of the Malaysian prime minister – has had some reverberations.

The presence of PAS Syura Council member Ustaz Nasharuddin Mat Esa, since then ejected from the party, speaks for itself.

Was the trip to Gaza an attempt to gain the sympathy of local Islamic NGOs? Or was it an attempt to discuss future plans for the pro-Umno PAS members?

It would be stupid to dismiss the possibility of talks between Umno and PAS members. It is clear that a PAS member who joins an Umno prime minister's trip is either a toad or simply a negotiator.

Was it not expected that PAS would dismiss Nasharuddin after this display of love for the prime minister?

However, many observers believe the Malaysian prime minister's visit to Gaza, where he praised the Hamas movement, was not a simple visit. Despite the apparent diplomatic faux pas, there is more than support for Gaza in the visit.

This was certainly an attempt to reach Sheikh Yusuf, the mentor of Anwar. And do we care to know why?

Persistent rumours

Recently, Najib, with the syariah in mind, spoke of Southeast Asian Muslims leading a sort of Islamic revival movement. This was at the Nusantara seminar titled "Islam in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Hopes". The speech was read by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Jamil Khir Baharom.

Hudud has been the bone of contention between PAS and Umno in their talks for a future "Muslim-led" government.

At this stage, the BN has surrendered to almost all the demands made by the opposition. This includes getting rid of one of its most powerful tools, and that is the Internal Security Act (ISA).

While the pro-Mahathir groups are calling to reinstate the ISA, it is almost certain the draconian act is history.

Moreover, there is still room for talks between the parties in power and the strong opposition coalition. After the good showing of the DAP in Sarawak in the 2011 state election, there were talks of offers being made for the latter to join the BN.

There are persistent rumours in Malaysia that the government is thinking of taking in the opposition members in its Cabinet. Or that there will be a caretaker government that will be under the prime minister with opposition members joining in.

Such a caretaker government should naturally be in place after the dissolution of Parliament, anytime soon in Malaysia.

A caretaker government, if it is in place, will have no "emergency" powers to reinstate the ISA to please some Umno members.

Nevertheless, it will have the power to offer to the opposition one of the two possible scenarios:

1. The formation of a government of national unity in which the leadership will be under Umno with a large number of the opposition members in the government.

2. Throw the gauntlet to PAS with hudud or Islamic syariah laws made official in the states run by PAS.

The first possibility seems remote, since the ruling coalition will never allow Anwar to be a member of the Cabinet. This will be due to the outright opposition by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who promised Anwar will never be a minister or prime minister.

READ MORE HERE

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Ahad, 3 Februari 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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