Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Posted: 30 May 2011 04:32 PM PDT
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Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
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| Landlord never sent any eviction notice, says PKR Posted: 30 May 2011 08:48 PM PDT
(The Star) - PKR treasurer-general William Leong said they had never received any warning letter from the landlord to kick them out of the party's headquarters. He said the bank was auctioning off the two five-storey building because the owner had failed to service the bank loan. "If the landlord has any problem with us, they should come to us." "They have never taken any action nor served any warning to the effect," he said. Leong had claimed recently that they had been promptly paying the rental and that the bank was auctioning off the building because of the owner's failure to service the loan. It was reported last week that the bank had issued a notice to auction off the building on June 9. Leong said they had raised funds to participate in the auction. "If the price is right, we will bid for it." "If not, we will look for another place to house our headquarters or sign a lease agreement with the new owner," he added. Leong also denied speculation that the party had an agreement with a businessman to source funds for the rental. Sources claim that the businessman had stopped providing financial aid to the party after Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim failed in his bid to take over Putrajaya by Sept 16, 2008. Anwar had then claimed that he had enough Barisan Nasional MPs who were willing to cross over to Pakatan Rakyat to help the opposition coalition take over the Federal Government. It is learnt that the owner wanted to cancel the five-year lease agreement because PKR had allegedly failed to pay the rental.
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| Red faces after cash envelopes given out at government linked event Posted: 30 May 2011 08:08 PM PDT
(The Malaysian Insider) - Reporters and organisers found themselves in an awkward situation when brown envelopes containing cash were given out at a media briefing for the Northern Corridor here today. Reporters who attended were surprised when officials representing the Northern Corridor Implementation Authority (NCIA) gave them brown envelopes containing cash during the briefing and were asked to sign for it. The reporters were not informed as to the purpose of the cash envelopes, one of which contained at least RM50, and later returned the envelopes to an NCIA representative, saying that it was against their company policy to accept cash. When contacted via e-mail, NCIA chief executive Redza Rafiq told The Malaysian Insider that the cash was surplus from the event budget and was given in lieu of a mid-day meal and to help with reporters' expenses. "The token that was provided is part of our budget to cover transportation and lunch costs (lunch was supposed to have been provided, but had to be taken out of the agenda due to several last-minute change — we would really like to apologise for this change)," he said. "The signing is actually to record the attendance based on the list that we have been given earlier." Event organisers do sometimes help with parking expenses, normally by validating the parking ticket, but rarely with travel expenses within the city. If lunch is not provided, organisers normally ask a company representative to accompany reporters to a nearby restaurant where the official will sign for the bill at the end of the meal.
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| Suspend Anwar as opposition chief, says Ibrahim Ali Posted: 30 May 2011 05:06 PM PDT
(The Malaysian Insider) - Pasir Mas MP Datuk Ibrahim Ali backed today the call for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to be suspended from leading the Opposition bench in the Dewan Rakyat until the sex scandals linked to the latter have been cleared in a court of law. "As MP, I support 101 per cent Datuk Seri Rais Yatim's suggestion for the Opposition Leader position held by Anwar to be suspended until the sex video allegation and his sodomy trial against Saiful are over," the independent federal lawmaker said in a statement. Ibrahim added it was in line with the law on public service principles and practice but did not cite the source. The suspension idea was mooted yesterday by Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, referring to the controversial sex video supposedly showing the PKR adviser fornicating with a woman not his wife. Rais said the Permatang Pauh MP could be reinstated should the court rule in his favour. "National and international laws too have acknowledged the practice of letting go positions pending the indictment or charge against a person," Umno's Utusan Malaysia reported the veteran minister as saying. Rais highlighted the case of the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was forced to quit his job there on May 18 after being indicted of sexual assault and attempted rape charges in the US and drew parallels to Anwar's situation. "Several of our ministers and mentris besar have also let go of their positions in the course of criminal trials against them," Rais was cited saying. The Attorney-General has yet to bring any formal charges against Anwar. Ibrahim insinuated the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lynchpin was above the law.
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| Posted: 30 May 2011 04:48 PM PDT
A DAP state assemblyman says the BN component party has done nothing for the community, except to 'steal' from the poor. (Free Malaysia Today) - GEORGE TOWN: MIC is an Umno puppet without any political conviction, said DAP state assemblyman A Tanasekharan. The Bagan Dalam rep said that because of this, MIC would never implement any policies to upgrade the living standards of the Indian community. He claimed that MIC had always taken Indians' hard-earned cash to carry out its projects that failed to benefit the community. Tanasekharan noted that the Maika Holdings and MIED scandals were perfect examples of MIC swindling poor Indians. He also remarked that MIC built AIMST University in Kedah from contributions of Indians from all walks of life. "But how many poor Indians can afford to study at AIMST University? How many Indians have benefitted from Maika Holdings and MIED?" he asked. Comparatively, he said Pakatan Rakyat state governments managed to address various Indian issues in a short span of three years. He said under Pakatan, for the first time in the country's history, Indian elected representatives were appointed as a deputy chief minister (Penang) and legislative assembly speaker (Perak). Currently, he said Penang, Perak, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan had a record high of Indian representatives in state legislative assemblies. Aid for schools and temples Pertaining to Tamil schools in Penang, Tanasekharan said all 28 schools had been receiving annual state allocations to upgrade their facilities. In Selangor, he said the PKR-helmed state government had been allotting funds for similar projects. "Today parents can safely send their children to Tamil schools without the fear of seeing their children studying under trees, unlike during Barisan Nasional days," he added. He claimed that the Pakatan state government had provided land valued at RM4.5 million for the Azad Tamil School in the Waterfall area. For years, he said, the Tamil school was located under the basement of the Indian Association building in Jalan Bagan Jermal. "A new school has been built and is operational because of the sheer determination of Pakatan leaders to upgrade Tamil schooling standards," he added. Under Pakatan, Thanasekaran said no Hindu temple had been demolished in Penang, while many temples sitting on state lands were granted temporary occupation licence (TOL). He recalled that under the previous Barisan Nasional government, a Hindu temple in Butterworth, which was located on its own land, was forcibly removed and placed in a graveyard in Jalan Siram under the purview of the Penang Hindu Endowments Board (PHEB). "The reason for the temple's removal was that it was causing nuisance to an Umno member, who was staying nearby. This is how Indians were treated under the BN government… sheer arrogance of Umno leaders," he said.
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| FMT Poll: ‘Yes’ to non-Muslim PM Posted: 30 May 2011 04:42 PM PDT
Online poll shows almost 70% of respondents were receptive to the idea of a non-Muslim premier helming the nation. (Free Malaysia Today) - Malaysia is ready for a non-Muslim prime minister, a 10-day online opinion poll conducted by FMT revealed. Sixty-eight percent or 2,752 out of 4,065 readers who took part in the poll, which ran from May 20, said that the country was ready for a non-Muslim premier. Sixteen percent or 667 respondents said that the country was not ready for a non-Muslim prime minister while another 16% or 651 said that they did not care about the religion of the premier. Many claim that the prime minister must be a representative of the majority race and religion of Malaysia, and hence only a Malay-Muslim can be the head of government. The religion of the prime minister has been a contentious and sensitive matter as it is closely linked to Islam, whose special position is enshrined and protected under the Federal Constitution. Several independent constitutional experts have argued that there are no provisions in the Federal Constitution that state the premier must be a Malay-Muslim. More recently, the issue of the premier's religion popped up again during the "Christian Malaysia" controversy as highlighted by Malay daily, Utusan Malaysia. The Umno-owned paper's unsubstantiated report claimed there was a conspiracy by Christians and DAP leaders to install a Christian prime minister.
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| ‘Not much difference between DAP and Umno’ Posted: 30 May 2011 04:39 PM PDT
United Borneo Front president Jeffrey Kitingan also warns Sabahans to beware of Barian Nasional which is bent on moving towards extremism to perpetuate its hold on power. (Free Malaysia Today) - Peninsular-based DAP is bullying local opposition Sabah Progressive party (SAPP) just like how they (including PKR) thumbed Sarawak Nasional Party (SNAP) in the runup to the polls on April 16, said United Borneo Front president Jeffrey Kitingan. According to Jeffrey, DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang had started on a wrong footing in Sabah with his arrogant attitude and by pitting local (opposition) parties against each other. "Judging from this new development among the opposition parties, we can see clearly that there is not much difference between DAP and Umno too. "Definitely they are not thinking of the Borneo agenda. "I expected DAP to be more understanding regarding our dreams as Sabahans, but obviously DAP is too much engrossed with trying to get the Sabahans' votes to the point that it feels it can come to Sabah and push us around although we are all in the opposition," said Jeffrey, a former PKR vice president. Jeffrey had cited PKR's arrogant rule of Sabah as the reason for quitting PKR early this year. He called on Sabahans to reject DAP's attitude and reminded them that only local parties can best serve their interests. "Let's do away with relying on Peninsular parties to defend our rights. The people of Sabah and Sarawak have been tolerating this problem for 47 years now and have been hoping that the federal leaders would change their attitude but they never seem to change. "We can see that the Peninsula leaders and parties are in Sabah to serve their own peninsula agendas … pushing their own political games at the expense of Sabahans. "And, the worst thing is that the Pakatan Rakyat component parties are obviously trying to outdo each other in Sabah and Sarawak. "Recently DAP and PKR bullied SNAP in Sarawak and now they are bullying SAPP in Sabah," he said in a statement. Third Force needed He said the best thing for Sabahans and Sarawakians to do now under such circumstances is to take charge of their own future rather than rely on peninsula-based parties. "We need to form the Third Force, the coalition of local parties outside the BN and the Pakatan. "This is the best approach because this will enable us to pursue our own agenda. "We must also beware of the current trend in which BN is bent on moving towards extremism to perpetuate its hold on power, at all cost. "Even the Pakatan is using extreme measures to fight the BN, and both are not too concerned about what all this will do to the country," he said.
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| Rafizi: New Electricity Tariff Hike Will Burden the People Posted: 30 May 2011 03:43 PM PDT By Aidil Syukri, Malaysian Digest KUALA LUMPUR, 31 MAY, 2011: PKR Strategic Director Rafizi Ramli today said the government's announcement to reduce electricity subsidy will only burden the people while Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) and IPPs (Independent Power Producer) still enjoy the same profits. According to Rafizi, the announcement of an electricity tariff hike does not come as a surprise to the public as it was made in order to confront the largesse of the elite political-business group that had profited tremendously at the expense of the public by dismantling lopsided agreements that have long caused structural damages to the economy. Rafizi said, Barisan Nasional (BN) has proven time and time again that it lacks courage and political will to undo the crony-capitalism from which it has benefited for a long time. "BN claims that the tariff hike will not affect 4.4 million households as the tariff for the usage of 300 kWh per month and below is left unchanged. The monthly electricity bill for the households may not increase much as a result of the tariff hike, but their disposable income will definitely be affected by the ever rising inflation," said Rafizi. "There are also other households or dwellings (including accommodations shared by the students or workers) whose monthly electricity bill is above RM77 a month which will be affected directly by the tariff hike," he added. The last time the tariff was reviewed that affects the majority of domestic customers was in June 2006. The baseline tariff for the first 200 kWh per month was also maintained at the current 21.8 sen per kWh. "In spite of this, 2006 saw the second highest inflation rate for the second half of the last decade at 3.6%," he said. According to Rafizi, the only time when price increase was higher was in 2008 during the sudden petrol and diesel hike. A closer look at the inflation data in 2006 will reveal that a combination of electricity tariff and petrol/diesel price hikes was the main factor that had led to the increase in inflation. "BN is repeating the same prescription in 2006 for 2011- a combination of price increases for basic goods that include sugar, petrol, diesel and now electricity. The combined effect of this will see the inflation for 2011 surpassing that of 2006 and inflict difficulties to millions of households whose meagre disposable income will be reduced further," he added. "The public does not need a unilateral withdrawal of subsidies that cause these price hikes. Any responsible government facing a dual deficit and inflation crisis in Putrajaya should summon all the political will and moral courage to go to the root cause of these problems," he added. "The power generation sector in this country is shackled with the legacy of lopsided agreements which continue to exact economic pains on the public. TNB has to buy electricity at the much higher rate than its own cost from IPPs," he added. He said, in order to balance the price, TNB and IPPs were given huge gas subsidies borne by PETRONAS each year. "All in all, the result is constant that TNB achieves a status quo financially, the public bears the burden from the tariff hike and IPP is not affected at all from thus exercise due to the fuel pass through mechanism," he said. READ MORE HERE. |
| Reveal truth about Felda’s RM6b loan, PKR tells EPF Posted: 30 May 2011 03:34 PM PDT By Yow Hong Chieh, The Malaysian Insider KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — PKR has urged the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to clarify if it lent RM6 billion to the Federal Land Development Authority (Felda) as has been alleged by a settlers' group. PKR central leadership council member Datuk Dr Tan Kee Kwong said the EPF board of directors has to explain why it chose to lend such a significant sum of money to Felda as the agency has always been cash-rich. "It's not your grandfather's money. It belongs to all 10 million contributors," he told reporters at PKR headquarters here today. The former deputy land and co-operative development minister pointed out there was no reason for Felda to borrow money while other plantation companies like IOI Corp and Tradewinds Bhd were making record profits on the back of high crude palm oil prices. He said this suggested that Felda was being badly mismanaged as the agency should be making at least RM1 billion in profit every year. The National Association for Children of Felda Settlers (Anak) alleged last week that Felda had borrowed RM6 billion from the EPF to develop settlers' lots. Anak chairman Mazlan Aliman showed reporters last Tuesday what he claimed to be minutes from a Felda Nitar 02's programme development committee meeting confirming the massive loan. According to the minutes, one of the issues discussed at the April 20 meeting was an application to increase the living allowance of the settlers. The document states that the application was rejected by the national settler consultation committee because "Felda had borrowed RM6 billion from EPF for the development of settlers' lots". Mazlan said this was proof that Felda, a government-linked company (GLC), was in dire financial straits. The dispute over Felda's financial status hit the headlines last June when opposition parties alleged that its considerable reserves had declined as a result of irregularities. |
| MACC clears A-G and Robert Phang of graft Posted: 30 May 2011 03:32 PM PDT By Florence A Samy, The Star KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) cleared Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail of graft allegations over his Haj pilgrimage to Mecca with his family. MACC also cleared former MACC Consultation and Corruption Prevention Panel member Tan Sri Robert Phang of having tried to bribe a ministry's secretary-general. There was not enough evidence to prove graft, according to the MACC on Tuesday. Malaysian online news portals and bloggers had been playing pictures of Abdul Gani seen together with Shahidan Shafie, who was said to be close to former Malaysia Airlines chairman Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli in the recent haj pilgrimage in Mecca. They had claimed that Shahidan had convinced Abdul Gani not to press charges against Tajuddin, who was chairman of MAS from 1994 to 2001, over the national carrier's loses which ran into billions. MAS was reported to have filed several reports against Tajuddin with the MACC, citing Tajuddin's move to relocate MAS' cargo operations in Amsterdam and Frankfurt to a single hub in Hahn, Germany, as the single biggest loss suffered under him. The new hub operation reportedly incurred monthly losses of between RM10mil to RM16mil before it was terminated and the government took over control of MAS in 2001. Meanwhile, the allegation against Phang was that sometime before Hari Raya of 2010, the secretary-general of a ministry, which was awarding a contract worth RM900mil, had to tell Phang to leave his office because Phang had tried to bribe him. |
| 'Submissions won't be made public for now' Posted: 30 May 2011 01:02 PM PDT By Irdiani Mohd Salleh, NST KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Commission of Inquiry investigating the death of Teoh Beng Hock has decided not to make public the written submissions by the three parties until its report is submitted to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. Commission secretary Datuk Saripuddin Kasim said the decision was made after a meeting between the commissioners and the lead counsel for the Bar Council, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the conducting officers yesterday morning. "The commission is answerable to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and it is his prerogative whether to make the report public." Saripuddin said the commissioners, led by Federal Court judge Tan Sri James Foong Cheng Yuen, were now studying the various documents. Shafee said the parties agreed not to release the written submissions to the public in order to avoid a trial by media. |
| RI, Malaysia end standoff on migrant worker rights Posted: 30 May 2011 12:56 PM PDT By Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post A previous MoU was signed in 2006 but Indonesia complained the document favored only the Malaysian side at the cost of Indonesian workers.
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| Posted: 30 May 2011 12:35 PM PDT By Karen Arukesamy, The Sun PUTRAJAYA (May 30, 2011): Households that use 300 kilowatt hour (kWh) or less of electricity a month will not be affected by the higher tariff effective Wednesday, June 1. This means if your monthly bill is RM77 or less, there's no change. "The average electricity tariff will be increased by 2.23 sen/kWh or 7.12% from 31.31 sen/kWh to 33.54 sen/kWh," Energy, Green Techno-logy and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui told a press conference today. He said all domestic consumers with a monthly consumption of up to 200kWh (lifeline band) and the next 100kWh will not be affected. "Domestic consumers in these bands will continue to enjoy the subsidised unit rate of 21.8 sen/kWh and 33.4 sen/kWh respectively. "Domestic consumers in the 301 to 400 kWh per month band will experience minimal electricity bill increase (0.1%-6% or 7 sen-RM6.60)," he said. Consumers whose monthly power bill is RM77 and below form 75% of the population. The other 25% will have to pay RM6 more (see table). The 7.12% increase comprises: * 5.12% or 1.60sen/kWh due to higher natural gas price to the power sector from RM10.70/mmBTU to RM13.70/mmBTU in line with the increase in global energy prices; and * 2% or 0.63sen/kWh for Tenaga Nasional Bhd to partly recover the increase of electricity supply cost since the last base tariff revision in June 2006. "There will an additional 1% imposed on the monthly bill as the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) to promote renewable energy fund to bear the additional cost. However, domestic consumers who use less than 300kWh/month will be exempted," he said. The tariff review package also provides the following special rates and discounts: * 10% discount on electricity bills enjoyed by local schools and higher learning institutions, places of worship and welfare homes registered with the government; and * 10% discount extended to partially government-funded educational institutions. Industrial consumers will experience an average increase of 8.35% (ranging from 6.2% to 10.3%), he said. Chin said the main rationale for the tariff revision was the higher price of natural gas supplied to the power sector effective Wednesday. "The increase in natural gas price is unavoidable due to the increase in global energy prices since 2009 and is based on the government natural gas pricing mechanism in which the price is periodically reviewed in tandem with market price trend. "Since natural gas cost constitutes around 54.2% of the total fuel cost mix (FY2010), the additional fuel cost incurred due to the gas price revision is reflected via the increase in end-use electricity tariff," he said. Announcing the increase in the natural gas price earlier at the same press conference, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said gas prices were determined based on their alternative fuel pricing. "For example, if fuel oil is used in power generation and if gas is used to replace fuel oil as an energy source, then the price of gas will be the same as that of fuel oil. The practice of pricing gas relative to its alternative fuels has been adopted in all countries in the region," he said. |
| Pro-Lynas group bullies protestors as IAEA panel meets Posted: 30 May 2011 12:34 PM PDT By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider KUANTAN, May 31 — For the second day in a row, demonstrators supporting the controversial rare earth plant forced anti-Lynas protestors to leave the Hyatt Regency here. The group of about 100 men confronted a group of residents from Beserah, where the plant is located, just as they finished their meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency-led (IAEA) team that is here to meet local stakeholders. After a scuffle, the Beserah group led by their assemblyman Syed Mohammad Lonnik and community leader Andansura Rabu had to be escorted by police light strike force officers to their car. Earlier in the morning, protestors wearing "Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas" T-shirts were also chased away from the beach in front of the hotel by the pro-Lynas group. Many of the pro-Lynas group were those here yesterday holding up banners supporting the IAEA and also Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob. Two reporters from Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau were also confronted by men who demanded they stop taking pictures. One of the reporters said a man threatened to punch her if she did not stop. "You want to report good or bad, think properly first. The government has already brought in a panel of experts. "I am from Balok. We are more concerned than these people who come from Ipoh, Seremban and KL. Why do we want to chase away investors?" said members of the group to reporters later.
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| Anwar Ibrahim’s Western Public Relations Effort Failing? Posted: 30 May 2011 08:50 PM PDT
First, Anwar's political touch is turning out to make a lot more lead than gold. Most recently, he has taken to excusing away his inability to move the needle in local elections, in the process doing critical damage to his coalition's efforts in advance of the upcoming national elections by insulting a vital, potential ally. Christopher Badeaux, Red State In the West, we tend to ignore the Muslim countries of Southeast Asia too often in favor of the more rambunctious Middle East; whether this is because we are concentrating our limited energies on the larger problem spot, or ignoring places where things are going well, is probably a function of one's particular outlook on life. Regardless of the source of this disregard, it is an error as great as choosing to ignore the safe streets in city planning in favor of the bullet-ridden ones. The good things don't last without some tending of their own. That leads to Malaysia, a moderate Muslim country with strong trade ties to the United States, that we too often ignore along with its other, moderate neighbors in favor of a pointless bombing campaign in Libya and other adventures in futility. Malaysia has done well for itself, holding fast to a moderate strain of Islam while continuing to grow energetically. It is not heaven on earth, but it is better than most Muslim nations, with religious minorities freely practicing their faith, and calls for extremism loudly and roundly denounced by most Malaysians. It is in and from this fertile ground that Malaysia's current prime minister, Najib Razak, boldly decried the practice of suicide bombing, eschewing the usual Islam-means-peace pablum for a concrete denunciation of murder and suicide, explicitly calling them contrary to Islam and a mark of barbarism. This is especially significant because English is the lingua franca of Malaysia, and so Najib's Oxford speech was reported and understood at home. He cannot — and to his credit, does not — play the all-too-common game of tell-the-non-Muslims-what-they-want-to-hear, revert-to-death-to-the-Jews-death-to-America at home. His political opposite cannot say the same. I'm on the record having a low opinion of Anwar Ibrahim, but that's only because he's a virulent anti-Semite with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood who formed an opposition coalition in his country by recruiting a political party best known for calling for volunteers to fight with the Taliban against the United States. So, you know, little things. But what's worse is how he has played the nasty demagogue at home, then played the good democrat in the West; and what's worse than that is how the Western policy establishment has historically tolerated this. This is one of those critically easy policy rules: If someone is blathering about the Jews being the source of the world's problems, or, more particularly, his own, he is a very bad man, a nutter, or both. You don't need to be a failed painter with a nasty little mustache, a figurehead president with alleged (and hastily denied!) Jewish ancestry, or a former military juntaist whom we have unaccountably not snuffed as he has gone on to destroy one of the most vibrant and productive economies in Latin America for this to be so. You can be an opposition leader trying to wrest control of your country's parliamentary system from someone you casually describe as being controlled by the Jews. Indeed, given his ready trafficking in old anti-Semitic (and anti-Christian) tropes, it is a wonder the extent to which Anwar has retained so much of the goodwill he managed to rack up in the late Nineties. People whom many of us (I include myself) have respected for years tend to shock us by excusing away Anwar's disturbing tells. Probably the best, single example of this I've seen has been Jackson Diehl excusing the anti-Semitism as an unfortunately necessary means of political survival (while giving Anwar an on-the-record opportunity to explain away his minutes-long rant as the result of a slip of the tongue), and giving Paul Wolfowitz, who really should know better, a chance to provide Anwar some same-themed cover. That neither man would tolerate this sort of doublespeak out of, say, a Saudi prince is a telling indictment of their willingness to suspend their disbelief at inconvenient times. Diehl and Wolfowitz are hardly alone. For years — since at least 2008, when Anwar first explained his failure to win a national election as the result of the American Jewish Lobby doing … something — Western policymakers and opinion makers have given the man a free pass, ignoring each round of particularly vicious anti-Semitism as it occurs. Anwar has helpfully made himself available without pause or cessation, ready to say one thing to any Western voice that would listen, and another at home; he has been his own best press agent. A strange thing seems to have happened of late, though. Anwar is on trial for forced sodomy (mistakenly described by Diehl and others who should know better as consensual sodomy), and the judge presiding over the case has allowed it to go forward. In a matter of days, Anwar will have to present his defense, and will doubtless explain again to Western ears that he is a beleaguered democrat facing a political charge (something the Washington Post seems inclined to believe credulously), and tell audiences at home that this is because of the Jews, the Israeli special ops, and/or the Americans. But as yet, there is no groundswell of spontaneous opinion writing in his defense. There is no remarkable wave of excuses and dire warnings about democracy in Malaysia. There is, instead, silence. I would submit this is the result of two, critical factors. First, Anwar's political touch is turning out to make a lot more lead than gold. Most recently, he has taken to excusing away his inability to move the needle in local elections, in the process doing critical damage to his coalition's efforts in advance of the upcoming national elections by insulting a vital, potential ally. He compounded this by accusing the people of Sarawak — where he carefully hid his ties with radical Islam during the local elections, to no avail — of racism for failing to support his ticket, a charge that is not merely not helpful, but has the added bonus of being based on a complete misunderstanding of the facts on the ground. The Western press likes winners and canny underdogs. It's not quite so hot on fools who cannot keep their feet from their mouths. The second, critical element here is the Obama Administration's approach to Malaysia. I have been a not-infrequent critic of the Obama Administration's foreign policy — confused, overt deference to the genocidal People's Republic of China, and a willingness to snub the world's most populous democracy are not actually achievements of which Americans should be proud — but this is one area in which the Administration seems to have caught on more quickly than its outside supporters and critics. Not only is the Secretary of State praising Najib's call for religious moderation, but the Administration as a whole is treating Anwar as a matter of secondary importance. And as we learned during the 2008 Presidential campaign, the media are nothing if not sensitive to the directions open and implicit of this President. The next few months will be interesting to watch. Anwar's trial will conclude with a verdict of some kind, and Malaysia will move toward its next national election. In the face of dual pressure, it would seem reasonable to assume that Anwar will step up his availability and his lobbying of the Administration to build support either for his appeal (if convicted) or his election efforts (regardless of the trial's outcome). Whether his one-man public relations campaign yields the same willingness to ignore rank anti-Semitism and tolerance of Islamist lunacy will rest on the Administration's willingness to stand by its prior positions (an open question) and whether Anwar continues to inject his foot into his mouth when blood libels are not leaving it.
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| Posted: 30 May 2011 12:39 PM PDT By Terence Fernandez, The Sun "WE began with a small group of orphans in a building built from timber we found while clearing the land. We cut the slope to make space for the building." These telling words of Mohamed Noor Ismail illustrate how we take things for granted when it comes to adhering to safety rules. Mohamed Noor is the co-founder of Madrasah Al-Taqwa Al Hidayah in Hulu Langat which was lost to a landslide that killed 16 people, mostly young boys, on May 21. To call it an orphanage is an anomaly, as our reporters discovered when they spoke to Mohamed Noor recently. Many of the children who were killed had parents and relatives. Anyway, we are not going to split hairs over this, as what is important is to prevent further occurrences of such tragedies – which are becoming all too common. I was in two minds over writing about this tragedy. After the landslide in Taman Bukit Mewah, Bukit Antarabangsa, on Dec 6, 2008 buried 14 bungalows and killed five people, the authorities promised to be more pro-active and vigilant in ensuring that developers played by the rules. Unfortunately this had not happened due to the turf war between the Public Works Department (PWD) and the local councils – both of which are pushing the buck to each other. To make matters worse, a declassification exercise by the state government turned into a political tirade as both sides – the past and present administration as well as the federal government started pointing fingers at each other. There were also games of one-upmanship being played as the state government was given the runaround between the police, the PWD and the Housing and Local Government Ministry in getting preliminary reports on the Taman Bukit Mewah landslide. Now, with regards to the latest tragedy, someone needs to be held accountable for not fulfilling safety requirements when setting up the building. The fact that there was no certificate of fitness (CF) puts the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) in the spotlight. It is not enough for council president Datuk Hassan Nawawi Abdul Rahman to say that the 17-year-old building existed before the council was even formed (in 1997). The fact is the council did not conduct the checks it could have done to ensure that homes and buildings on slopes are safe and issued with CFs. Now suddenly, MPKj realises that all homes in this landslide-prone area do not possess this vital document. That those who ran the centre also did not feel compelled to ensure they got one also makes them culpable. The architects, engineers and contractors must be equally held accountable. If they had breached their professional duties by cutting corners and bending the rules, criminal charges must be brought against them. It is encouraging that the police have opened a criminal negligence investigation. Hopefully this time at least, someone pays for the lives lost. PWD senior director Datuk Ashaari Mohamad had gathered that massive tree-felling had compromised the integrity of the soil, causing it to give way following abnormal rainfall in the days preceding the tragedy. He also said the orphanage building had been erected too close to the hillside. This alone gives one a good head start to find out the cause and the culprits. However, I risk sounding like a broken record. The same points were put forward by many columnists and yours truly after every landslide. These tragedies are often followed by visits by VIPs and politicians who come bearing sombre faces, cheques and strong words. But once the focus of the media shifts to other pressing matters, the promises are forgotten or take a back seat to other issues that need immediate attention. This has always been the case. And the fact that the Highland Towers verdict which absolved the local council from negligence "because local councils cannot be sued", is a slap in the face to those who are campaigning for stricter guidelines or even a ban on hillslope development. That the release of the Taman Bukit Mewah tragedy report is impeded by the Official Secrets Act (OSA) flies in the face of logic and yes, decency. That the authorities want to keep things under wraps in bringing to book those responsible for flouting the law is mind-boggling and does not reflect any sincerity in wanting to put things right. Now with Hulu Langat, there seems to be more urgency in wanting to fix faults of the past, probably due to the 14 young lives that were lost. The announcement of initiatives in this direction by Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung while welcomed, begs the question: shouldn't requirements such as submitting plans and the imposition of deadlines be the basic necessities of any development? Even so, it is good that the authorities and the rest of us have woken up. Hopefully these recent positive developments do not get side-tracked by politicking, cover-ups and short memories. |
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| Pemuda PAS bantah Konsert MTV Word Stage Posted: 30 May 2011 06:24 PM PDT
DPPNS mahu Datuk Bandar Shah Alam, Datuk Mohd Jaafar Mohd Atan menarik balik kelulusan program tersebut kerana bertentangan dengan Enakmen Kawalan Hiburan Negeri Selangor. Ketuanya, Hasbullah Ridzwan (gambar) berkata, pihak Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam (MBSA) ataupun pengurusan i-City dapat mematuhi garis panduan hiburan yang telah ditetapkan oleh Kerajaan Negeri serta mencari kaedah yang lebih sesuai untuk mempromosi Bandaraya Shah Alam selain daripada menganjurkan konsert secara terbuka. "Dewan Pemuda PAS Negri Selangor melahirkan rasa kecewa dan terkilan di atas kenyataan Datuk Bandar Shah Alam, Datuk Mohd Jaafar Mohd Atan dalam satu sidang media pada 18 Mei lalu yang mengatakan konsert ini untuk memperkenalkan Bnadaraya Shah Alam di peringkat antarabangsa," kata beliau dalam satu kenyataan kepada Harakahdaily. Menurutnya, DPPNS amat bersetuju dengan kenyataan Ahli Parlimen Shah Alam Khalid Samad dan Ketua Penerangan Badan Perhubungan PAS Negeri Selangor, Roslan Shahir yang disiarkan dalam satu protal berita tentang kemungkinan wujudnya pengaruh negatif berbanding positif hasil daripada penganjuran konsert tersebut. "Janganlah kita menggadaikan maruah anak bangsa dan negara hanya semata-mata untuk mendapatkan sedikit pengiktirafan dunia antarabangsa. "Penganjuran konsert yang membabitkan artis-artis barat dan artis tempatan yang pro barat sudah pastilah berlawanan dengan hasrat Kerajaan Negeri di dalam melahirkan modal insan yang terbaik untuk negeri Selangor," katanya. Tambahnya, DPPNS yakin bahawa penganjuran konsert ini pasti akan menimbulkan rasa resah, gelisah dan amarah khususnya kepada penduduk setempat. "Kami dimaklumkan telah ada persatuan penduduk di persekitaran tersebut yang telah menyatakan bantahan mereka terhadap konsert tersebut," katanya. Antara artis yang mengesahkan penyertaan pada konsert itu ialah '30 Second To Mars' iaitu pemenang Band Rock Terbaik di MTV Europe Music Award 2010 dan band tempatan Pop Shuvit. Sehubungan itu, DPPNS akan menyerahkan satu memorandum bantahan berhubung penganjuran konsert ini kepada Datuk Bandar Shah Alam dan Menteri Besar dalam masa terdekat ini. "Dewan Pemuda PAS Negeri Selangor berharap semoga Dato Menteri Besar Selangor, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim serta barisan Ahli Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri Selangor mengambil tanggungjawab terhadap usaha-usaha mencalar imej dan agenda Kerajaan Negeri Selangor di bawah kepimpinan Pakatan Rakyat," katanya.
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| Peguam tetap heret Najib, Rosmah ke mahkamah Posted: 30 May 2011 06:21 PM PDT Menurut Sankara Nair, kedua-dua individu itu akan dipanggil apabila Mahkamah Tinggi Kuala Lumpur bersidang semula pada 6 Jun hingga 30 Jun depan, lapor Keadilan Daily. Namun, Sankara berkata pihak polis menyukarkan usaha pihaknya untuk memanggil perdana menteri dan isterinya bagi memberi keterangan. Menurut Sankara, pasukan peguam Anwar sudah memberikan notis untuk memanggil Najib pada 16 Mei lalu tetapi sehingga kini, selepas dua minggu berlalu polis masih lagi tidak membenarkan Najib disoal siasat peguam Anwar. "Pihak polis belum buat apa-apa persiapan walau pun kami dah beri notis 16 Mei lalu," kata Sankara kepada Keadilandaily.com Najib Razak adalah antara saksi yang mahu dipanggil ke mahkamah oleh peguam Anwar kerana pernah menemui pengadu, Saiful Bukhari Azlan dua hari sebelum dia membuat laporan polis memfitnah Anwar. Najib sebelum ini memberikan alasan Saiful bertemunya atas urusan biasiswa sedangkan Saiful sebenarnya adalah pelajar yang gagal menamatkan pengajian di sebuah universiti swasta. Selain Najib dan Rosmah, peguam juga akan memanggil bekas atlet negara yang juga pembantu peribadi Rosmah, Datuk Mumtaz Jaafar, bekas Ketua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Musa Hassan dan bekas Ketua Pemuda Parti Keadilan Nasional, Ezam Mohd Nor. Pada perbicaraan di Mahkamah Tinggi Kuala Lumpur Mac lalu, Pegawai Penyiasat Jude Pereira membuat kejutan apabila mengaku mengambil keterangan Najib dan isterinya berhubung kes berkenaan. Saiful Bukhari dalam keterangannya turut mengaku bertemu Najib yang pada masa itu Timbalan Perdana Menteri tetapi menafikan berjumpa Rosmah. Sebaliknya Saiful mengaku pernah bertemu Mumtaz Jaafar di kediamannya. Beliau juga mengaku bertemu Ezam Mohd Nor antara tengah malam 27 Jun dan awal pagi 28 Jun, sebelum membuat laporan polis terhadap Anwar.
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| Tan Sri Muhyiddin, Kami sedia tanggung beban... Posted: 30 May 2011 12:56 PM PDT
Kepada YAB Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, Wahai YAB Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin Timbalan Perdana Menteri Malaysia, ketahuilah bahawa rakyat 1Malaysia sudah lama bersedia untuk bersama-sama memikul bebanan kenaikan harga petrol jika harganya naik lagi seperti yang Tan Sri war-warkan. Sejak sekian lama kami semua menerima sahaja kenaikannya walaupun ada di antara kami yang dulu mampu berkereta ke pejabat kini terpaksa bersesak-sendat dalam bas rapidKL, LRT dan KTM Komuter. Ketahuilah bahawasanya kami telah lama bersedia. Kami telahpun buktikan dengan pengorbanan kami menelan sahaja apa yang kerajaan mahu kami telan. Kenaikan harga petrol kami telan, kenaikan harga gula juga kami telan. Semalam Tan Sri meminta kami bersiap sedia untuk menelan lagi kenaikan baru harga petrol. Pasti enak rasanya untuk kami telan lagi. Kami bersedia sahaja demi kerajaaan yang kami sayang. Minta kami bayar cukai pendapatan kami turutkan. Apa lagi wahai Tan Sri? Pohonlah apa sahaja akan kami tunaikan. Akan kami telan sampai kami muntah darah, semuanya kerana Malaysia.  Cuma kali ini kami ada satu sahaja permintaan. Selepas banyak permintaan kerajaan kami telan, kami cuma nak minta satu sahaja. Cuma satu sahaja yang kami minta, dan kami takkan minta apa-apa lagi kalau permintaan kami yang satu ini dapat Tan Sri dan kerajaan BN tunaikan. Kami berjanji jika permintaan yang satu ini dapat Tan Sri penuhi, undi kami memang kami janjikan untuk Barisan Nasional. Cuma 1 yang kami minta, hentikan segala bentuk pembaziran daripada yang duit cukai yang telah kami bayar dan yang kami amanahkan kepada kerajaan untuk menggunakannya untuk tujuan pembangunan dan kesejahteraan rakyat. Duit cukai yang kami bayar ini bukan untuk subsidi kepada IPP atau menyelamatkan projek-projek kroni sehinggakan subsidi untuk rakyat pula TERPAKSA ditarik balik. Tan Sri kata subsidi petrol yang diperuntukkan oleh kerajaan adalah RM10 billion tetapi kini telah mencecah RM18billion, tetapi kami pelik kenapa subsidi untuk IPP RM19billion tidak ditarik balik? Mereka ada membayar cukai ke? Kami bayar! Mereka menikmati subsidi daripada duit rakyat sebanyak RM19billion tetapi masih mampu menjana keuntungan. Kami juga yang menanggung rugi. Jika sudah untung banyak untuk apa lagi dibayar subsidi? Adakah ini bukti Rakyat Didahulukan Pencapaian Diutamakan? Memang ada perjanjian ditandatangani antara kerajaan dengan IPP tetapi kita semua tahu ianya berat sebelah kerana kepentingan rakyat bukan keutamaan semasa menandatangani perjanjian tersebut. Samada ia kesilapan teknikal atau disengajakan hanya mereka yang terlibat sahaja yang tahu. Jika kerajaan sedar ianya berat sebelah mengapa tidak dibawa ke meja rundingan semula?. Pengusaha IPP juga rakyat Malaysia, mereka juga manusia. Bawalah ke meja rundingan, perjanjian itu ciptaan manusia dan ia boleh diubah jika kedua belah pihak bersetuju. Malangnya kami tidak nampak usaha yang telus dilakukan untuk membatalkan perjanjian tersebut. Jika hal pertelingkahan ideologi politik boleh diheret ke mahkamah mengapa hal yang melibatkan kepentingan rakyat tidak boleh dipertahankan? Bukan ini saja... banyak lagi pembaziran yang berlaku. Jika semua pembaziran ini dapat diberhentikan maka kami dengan rela hati akan menelan kenaikan harga petrol kali ini dan juga kenaikan-kenaikan pada masa hadapan serta kami berikrar dan berjanji undi kami akan sentiasa untuk Barisan Nasional. Antara pembaziran yang kami maksudkan (cuma sebahagian):- 1. RM500juta komisen kapal selam kepada Perimekar sepatutnya disalurkan kepada pembangunan rakyat. 2. RM111juta utk PERMATA di bawah First Lady of Malaysia Office (perlukah semua ini sedangkan isteri PM yang terdahulu tidak pun memerlukannya) 3. RM50juta untuk pembangunan email 1Malaysia 4. RM50sen dibayar oleh agensi kerjaan bagi setiap email yang dihantar kepada 27juta rakyat Malaysia 5. Ketelusan dalam pembahagian peruntukan Ahli Parlimen. Peruntukan untuk Parlimen Pembangkang tidak disalurakan. Ianya adalah duit cukai rakyat yang diperlukan untuk menbangunkan kawasan tersebut untuk kesejahteraan rakyat. Ianya bukan duit BN. 6. ..... Kami keliru kerana kami dihantar ke sekolah kerajaan supaya kami menjadi cerdik pandai, agar kami boleh membantu menbangunkan negara Malaysia. Kenapa apabila kami bersuara, pendapat kami dibangkang buah fikiran kami dinafikan. Read more at: http://ikhlasmalaysia.blogspot.com/2011/05/tan-sri-muhyiddin-kami-sedia-tanggung.html
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| Lynas: where common sense left us Posted: 30 May 2011 12:53 PM PDT Why is a foreign country sending all the raw material over here to process and then take back what it wants, leaving behind what it does not want back on its shores? So much has been said about the Lynas project. The anti-Lynas voice is slowly drowning under the pro-Lynas marching on. To give credence to the pro-Lynas propagators and champions, even threats have been hurled at concerned citizens and residents. People have been admonished in no uncertain terms that they may even lose everything else if they boycotted the Lynas project. So many highly intelligent and so-called specialists are also seemingly working hard in the wake of anti-Lynas objections. The goal is to allay the fears, give assurances that all safety measures will be guaranteed and to allow the progression of the Lynas project that was already hatched a long time ago without public consultation. But what happened to common sense? Does anyone want to ask that simple question: Why is a foreign country sending all the raw material over here to process and then take back what it wants, leaving behind what it does not want back on its shores? Whether you are putting in all the safety measures or whether you will see to the ultimate safe disposal of residual toxins, etc is not the issue. Why do it here? - that is the fundamental question that has not been answered. Yet we are so busy debating and arguing with all kinds of scientific and attested benchmarks to keep the Lynas project on. We are refusing to pay homoge to basic common sense. And therein lies the rape of a young nation. If only our leaders put citizens first before profits; if only we put health and well being before economic harvests - we may be poor by Adam Smith's standards, but healthy on all accounts. We are just kidding ourselves. What we are looking for is big money in quick time. Sad but true. And in the final analysis, who cares if the pawns die owing to exposure to contaminants ten, twenty or thirty years from now. By experience we know, the powers that be will in all likelihood cry when the Lynas project goes fowl in the distant future: "We did all we can; but the tragedy is beyond us - it is an act of God. So let us accept the unexpected tragedy in a manner that is consistent with our respective faiths". And that is because if have chosen to let common sense fly out of the window. We forget that without common sense there is no Vision 2020 in the first place. |
| Two Wrongs Don't Make One Right Posted: 30 May 2011 12:47 PM PDT By Tony Pua The Najib administration announced that it will raise electricity prices by an average 7.12 per cent from June 1 this year. According to Reuters, the price charged by Petronas for the sale of natural gas to electricity companies would rise to RM13.70 per mmBtu from RM10.70, and increase by RM3.00 every month. The industrial and commercial consumers will bear the brunt of the tariff hike with an average increase of 8.35 per cent in their power bills. This will inevitably fuel further inflation and reduce the competitiveness of our goods and services. The Government has employed the excuse of the need to reduce subsidy bills as the basis for the tariff hike in order to reduce the "misallocation of resources", which leads to declining competitiveness. However the Government has at the same time conveniently ignored the fact that the source of the "misallocation of resources" lies with the unbelievably lucrative Independent Power Producers (IPPs) power purchasing agreements (PPAs) with Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB). As a comparison, the power industry structure in Malaysia and Thailand are highly similar, with a little more than 70% of the fuel-mix for electricity generation being natural gas. However despite the fact that natural gas prices are more than double that of Malaysia's at RM23.10 mmBtu, commercial electricity tariff in Thailand is only 0.4% higher at RM38.01 kWh, compared to Malaysia's 37.85 mmBtu.. In fact after the latest revision, it has become stark clear that electricity rates for our commercial sector will be significant higher than that in Thailand, despite the fact that natural gas prices for the sector in Malaysia will still be 68.6% cheaper. Using Thailand as a benchmark, Malaysian electricity prices should be 16.9% cheaper based on existing subsidy rates. Instead, the BN Government does the exact opposite to raise the electricity tariffs. This shows clearly that our problem with electricity industry "distortions" as described by Minister in Prime Minister's office, Nor Mohd Yakcop is not with its prices, but with our highly "ineffcient" power producing sector which charges high prices despite lower cost of production. And the key reason for that is the unfair PPAs which results in ridiculously high levels of electricity reserve margins. According to TNB, our reserve margin is 54.6% in 2008 and 52.6% in 2010, which is double that of Thailand and Java, Indonesia, at 25.4% and 26% respectively. The net effect is TNB is forced to purchase electricity which it does not need to the IPPs, resulting in inflated costs for TNB and correspondingly inflated profits for the IPPs. The Government's decision to reduce the subsidies to the electricity sector is a clear attempt to right an existing "wrong" with another "wrong", which will only lead to further distortions in our market, and not reduce it. Our export industries which are already affected by the strong ringgit will be dealt with a bigger blow due to higher electricity prices compared to the region as a result of an inefficient and distorted power sector which profits only the IPPs. The only and proper way to correct the distortions in our power sector is to restructure the lobsided PPAs. In fact by doing so, the Government can kill two birds with one stone, reducing its subsidies and correcting the inefficiencies in the power sector as a result of our super-high reserve margins, while at the same time maintaining our existing electricity rates. The fact that the Government chooses to punish our consumers and industries, without laying a finger on the IPPs only serves to prove that the Najib administration has no political will to carry out the necessary reforms to our economy, contrary to the rhetoric we hear every day.
TONY PUA is DAP National Publicity Secretary and MP for Petaling Jaya Utara |
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| Lynas: where common sense left us Posted: 30 May 2011 12:53 PM PDT Why is a foreign country sending all the raw material over here to process and then take back what it wants, leaving behind what it does not want back on its shores? So much has been said about the Lynas project. The anti-Lynas voice is slowly drowning under the pro-Lynas marching on. To give credence to the pro-Lynas propagators and champions, even threats have been hurled at concerned citizens and residents. People have been admonished in no uncertain terms that they may even lose everything else if they boycotted the Lynas project. So many highly intelligent and so-called specialists are also seemingly working hard in the wake of anti-Lynas objections. The goal is to allay the fears, give assurances that all safety measures will be guaranteed and to allow the progression of the Lynas project that was already hatched a long time ago without public consultation. But what happened to common sense? Does anyone want to ask that simple question: Why is a foreign country sending all the raw material over here to process and then take back what it wants, leaving behind what it does not want back on its shores? Whether you are putting in all the safety measures or whether you will see to the ultimate safe disposal of residual toxins, etc is not the issue. Why do it here? - that is the fundamental question that has not been answered. Yet we are so busy debating and arguing with all kinds of scientific and attested benchmarks to keep the Lynas project on. We are refusing to pay homoge to basic common sense. And therein lies the rape of a young nation. If only our leaders put citizens first before profits; if only we put health and well being before economic harvests - we may be poor by Adam Smith's standards, but healthy on all accounts. We are just kidding ourselves. What we are looking for is big money in quick time. Sad but true. And in the final analysis, who cares if the pawns die owing to exposure to contaminants ten, twenty or thirty years from now. By experience we know, the powers that be will in all likelihood cry when the Lynas project goes fowl in the distant future: "We did all we can; but the tragedy is beyond us - it is an act of God. So let us accept the unexpected tragedy in a manner that is consistent with our respective faiths". And that is because if have chosen to let common sense fly out of the window. We forget that without common sense there is no Vision 2020 in the first place. |
| Increasing Electricity Tariffs Without Restructuring The Power Industry Is Akin To An Attempt ... Posted: 30 May 2011 12:47 PM PDT By Tony Pua The Najib administration announced that it will raise electricity prices by an average 7.12 per cent from June 1 this year. According to Reuters, the price charged by Petronas for the sale of natural gas to electricity companies would rise to RM13.70 per mmBtu from RM10.70, and increase by RM3.00 every month. The industrial and commercial consumers will bear the brunt of the tariff hike with an average increase of 8.35 per cent in their power bills. This will inevitably fuel further inflation and reduce the competitiveness of our goods and services. The Government has employed the excuse of the need to reduce subsidy bills as the basis for the tariff hike in order to reduce the "misallocation of resources", which leads to declining competitiveness. However the Government has at the same time conveniently ignored the fact that the source of the "misallocation of resources" lies with the unbelievably lucrative Independent Power Producers (IPPs) power purchasing agreements (PPAs) with Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB). As a comparison, the power industry structure in Malaysia and Thailand are highly similar, with a little more than 70% of the fuel-mix for electricity generation being natural gas. However despite the fact that natural gas prices are more than double that of Malaysia's at RM23.10 mmBtu, commercial electricity tariff in Thailand is only 0.4% higher at RM38.01 kWh, compared to Malaysia's 37.85 mmBtu.. In fact after the latest revision, it has become stark clear that electricity rates for our commercial sector will be significant higher than that in Thailand, despite the fact that natural gas prices for the sector in Malaysia will still be 68.6% cheaper. Using Thailand as a benchmark, Malaysian electricity prices should be 16.9% cheaper based on existing subsidy rates. Instead, the BN Government does the exact opposite to raise the electricity tariffs. This shows clearly that our problem with electricity industry "distortions" as described by Minister in Prime Minister's office, Nor Mohd Yakcop is not with its prices, but with our highly "ineffcient" power producing sector which charges high prices despite lower cost of production. And the key reason for that is the unfair PPAs which results in ridiculously high levels of electricity reserve margins. According to TNB, our reserve margin is 54.6% in 2008 and 52.6% in 2010, which is double that of Thailand and Java, Indonesia, at 25.4% and 26% respectively. The net effect is TNB is forced to purchase electricity which it does not need to the IPPs, resulting in inflated costs for TNB and correspondingly inflated profits for the IPPs. The Government's decision to reduce the subsidies to the electricity sector is a clear attempt to right an existing "wrong" with another "wrong", which will only lead to further distortions in our market, and not reduce it. Our export industries which are already affected by the strong ringgit will be dealt with a bigger blow due to higher electricity prices compared to the region as a result of an inefficient and distorted power sector which profits only the IPPs. The only and proper way to correct the distortions in our power sector is to restructure the lobsided PPAs. In fact by doing so, the Government can kill two birds with one stone, reducing its subsidies and correcting the inefficiencies in the power sector as a result of our super-high reserve margins, while at the same time maintaining our existing electricity rates. The fact that the Government chooses to punish our consumers and industries, without laying a finger on the IPPs only serves to prove that the Najib administration has no political will to carry out the necessary reforms to our economy, contrary to the rhetoric we hear every day.
TONY PUA is DAP National Publicity Secretary and MP for Petaling Jaya Utara |
| Posted: 30 May 2011 12:39 PM PDT By Terence Fernandez, The Sun "WE began with a small group of orphans in a building built from timber we found while clearing the land. We cut the slope to make space for the building." These telling words of Mohamed Noor Ismail illustrate how we take things for granted when it comes to adhering to safety rules. Mohamed Noor is the co-founder of Madrasah Al-Taqwa Al Hidayah in Hulu Langat which was lost to a landslide that killed 16 people, mostly young boys, on May 21. To call it an orphanage is an anomaly, as our reporters discovered when they spoke to Mohamed Noor recently. Many of the children who were killed had parents and relatives. Anyway, we are not going to split hairs over this, as what is important is to prevent further occurrences of such tragedies – which are becoming all too common. I was in two minds over writing about this tragedy. After the landslide in Taman Bukit Mewah, Bukit Antarabangsa, on Dec 6, 2008 buried 14 bungalows and killed five people, the authorities promised to be more pro-active and vigilant in ensuring that developers played by the rules. Unfortunately this had not happened due to the turf war between the Public Works Department (PWD) and the local councils – both of which are pushing the buck to each other. To make matters worse, a declassification exercise by the state government turned into a political tirade as both sides – the past and present administration as well as the federal government started pointing fingers at each other. There were also games of one-upmanship being played as the state government was given the runaround between the police, the PWD and the Housing and Local Government Ministry in getting preliminary reports on the Taman Bukit Mewah landslide. Now, with regards to the latest tragedy, someone needs to be held accountable for not fulfilling safety requirements when setting up the building. The fact that there was no certificate of fitness (CF) puts the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) in the spotlight. It is not enough for council president Datuk Hassan Nawawi Abdul Rahman to say that the 17-year-old building existed before the council was even formed (in 1997). The fact is the council did not conduct the checks it could have done to ensure that homes and buildings on slopes are safe and issued with CFs. Now suddenly, MPKj realises that all homes in this landslide-prone area do not possess this vital document. That those who ran the centre also did not feel compelled to ensure they got one also makes them culpable. The architects, engineers and contractors must be equally held accountable. If they had breached their professional duties by cutting corners and bending the rules, criminal charges must be brought against them. It is encouraging that the police have opened a criminal negligence investigation. Hopefully this time at least, someone pays for the lives lost. PWD senior director Datuk Ashaari Mohamad had gathered that massive tree-felling had compromised the integrity of the soil, causing it to give way following abnormal rainfall in the days preceding the tragedy. He also said the orphanage building had been erected too close to the hillside. This alone gives one a good head start to find out the cause and the culprits. However, I risk sounding like a broken record. The same points were put forward by many columnists and yours truly after every landslide. These tragedies are often followed by visits by VIPs and politicians who come bearing sombre faces, cheques and strong words. But once the focus of the media shifts to other pressing matters, the promises are forgotten or take a back seat to other issues that need immediate attention. This has always been the case. And the fact that the Highland Towers verdict which absolved the local council from negligence "because local councils cannot be sued", is a slap in the face to those who are campaigning for stricter guidelines or even a ban on hillslope development. That the release of the Taman Bukit Mewah tragedy report is impeded by the Official Secrets Act (OSA) flies in the face of logic and yes, decency. That the authorities want to keep things under wraps in bringing to book those responsible for flouting the law is mind-boggling and does not reflect any sincerity in wanting to put things right. Now with Hulu Langat, there seems to be more urgency in wanting to fix faults of the past, probably due to the 14 young lives that were lost. The announcement of initiatives in this direction by Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung while welcomed, begs the question: shouldn't requirements such as submitting plans and the imposition of deadlines be the basic necessities of any development? Even so, it is good that the authorities and the rest of us have woken up. Hopefully these recent positive developments do not get side-tracked by politicking, cover-ups and short memories. |
| Posted: 30 May 2011 12:35 PM PDT By Karen Arukesamy, The Sun PUTRAJAYA (May 30, 2011): Households that use 300 kilowatt hour (kWh) or less of electricity a month will not be affected by the higher tariff effective Wednesday, June 1. This means if your monthly bill is RM77 or less, there's no change. "The average electricity tariff will be increased by 2.23 sen/kWh or 7.12% from 31.31 sen/kWh to 33.54 sen/kWh," Energy, Green Techno-logy and Water Minister Datuk Seri Peter Chin Fah Kui told a press conference today. He said all domestic consumers with a monthly consumption of up to 200kWh (lifeline band) and the next 100kWh will not be affected. "Domestic consumers in these bands will continue to enjoy the subsidised unit rate of 21.8 sen/kWh and 33.4 sen/kWh respectively. "Domestic consumers in the 301 to 400 kWh per month band will experience minimal electricity bill increase (0.1%-6% or 7 sen-RM6.60)," he said. Consumers whose monthly power bill is RM77 and below form 75% of the population. The other 25% will have to pay RM6 more (see table). The 7.12% increase comprises: * 5.12% or 1.60sen/kWh due to higher natural gas price to the power sector from RM10.70/mmBTU to RM13.70/mmBTU in line with the increase in global energy prices; and * 2% or 0.63sen/kWh for Tenaga Nasional Bhd to partly recover the increase of electricity supply cost since the last base tariff revision in June 2006. "There will an additional 1% imposed on the monthly bill as the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) to promote renewable energy fund to bear the additional cost. However, domestic consumers who use less than 300kWh/month will be exempted," he said. The tariff review package also provides the following special rates and discounts: * 10% discount on electricity bills enjoyed by local schools and higher learning institutions, places of worship and welfare homes registered with the government; and * 10% discount extended to partially government-funded educational institutions. Industrial consumers will experience an average increase of 8.35% (ranging from 6.2% to 10.3%), he said. Chin said the main rationale for the tariff revision was the higher price of natural gas supplied to the power sector effective Wednesday. "The increase in natural gas price is unavoidable due to the increase in global energy prices since 2009 and is based on the government natural gas pricing mechanism in which the price is periodically reviewed in tandem with market price trend. "Since natural gas cost constitutes around 54.2% of the total fuel cost mix (FY2010), the additional fuel cost incurred due to the gas price revision is reflected via the increase in end-use electricity tariff," he said. Announcing the increase in the natural gas price earlier at the same press conference, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said gas prices were determined based on their alternative fuel pricing. "For example, if fuel oil is used in power generation and if gas is used to replace fuel oil as an energy source, then the price of gas will be the same as that of fuel oil. The practice of pricing gas relative to its alternative fuels has been adopted in all countries in the region," he said. |
| Pro-Lynas group bullies protestors as IAEA panel meets Posted: 30 May 2011 12:34 PM PDT By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider KUANTAN, May 31 — For the second day in a row, demonstrators supporting the controversial rare earth plant forced anti-Lynas protestors to leave the Hyatt Regency here. The group of about 100 men confronted a group of residents from Beserah, where the plant is located, just as they finished their meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency-led (IAEA) team that is here to meet local stakeholders. After a scuffle, the Beserah group led by their assemblyman Syed Mohammad Lonnik and community leader Andansura Rabu had to be escorted by police light strike force officers to their car. Earlier in the morning, protestors wearing "Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas" T-shirts were also chased away from the beach in front of the hotel by the pro-Lynas group. Many of the pro-Lynas group were those here yesterday holding up banners supporting the IAEA and also Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob. Two reporters from Chinese daily Nanyang Siang Pau were also confronted by men who demanded they stop taking pictures. One of the reporters said a man threatened to punch her if she did not stop. "You want to report good or bad, think properly first. The government has already brought in a panel of experts. "I am from Balok. We are more concerned than these people who come from Ipoh, Seremban and KL. Why do we want to chase away investors?" said members of the group to reporters later.
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| Ibrahim wields faith to ward off ‘Umno stooge’ claims Posted: 29 May 2011 08:39 PM PDT
(The Malaysian Insider) - Datuk Ibrahim Ali declared today his willingness to swear on Allah's name that he acts of his own free will and has never been influenced by Umno. In saying so, the fiery Perkasa president belittled Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for refusing to do the same to prove his innocence in the sex video scandal and Sodomy II case. "You, Anwar, were not brave enough to swear with (Mohd) Saiful (Bukhari Azlan) and Datuk Trio. Who is the real comedian here, if not yourself?" he asked. The Pasir Mas MP was responding to Anwar's criticisms of him over the weekend where the PKR de facto leader called Ibrahim the "worst example of Malaysian politics". Ibrahim's Perkasa has also often been accused of being an offshoot of Umno and part of the Najib administration's strategy to draw support from the hard-line Malay electorate. But Ibrahim insisted today that by levelling such accusations against him, Anwar was merely adding to his already growing list of sins. "O' my old friend, I am not as bad or as evil as you. I have never been anyone's stooge, or what's worse, your stooge for life," he said. Ibrahim accused Anwar of destroying Umno as well as PAS and its spiritual advisor, Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, with his support for pluralism and attempt to spread disunity among the Malays. He further claimed Anwar was insincere, pointing to the latter's days in Abim, when he had been critical of Umno and later supported PAS, before shifting allegiances to Umno until he was sacked and entered PKR. "Your story is long, Anwar. You are rotten to the core and you are the worst... but you are good at acting. So go ahead and act. You can cheat your family and your friends who are blind all the time but you cannot cheat me all the time," he said.
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| Bigger landslide in the making Posted: 29 May 2011 05:51 PM PDT
By Stephanie Sta Maria, Free Malaysia Today KUALA LUMPUR: Double landslides occurred side by side in Bukit Antarabangsa, Hulu Kelang, Selangor, 10 days ago but escaped public attention for both struck on the same day as the Hulu Langat tragedy. As rescue personnel and the media rushed to the Madrasah Al-Taqwa Orphanage, business owners and employees watched mounds of wet earth sliding down the slope behind their commercial centre in Taman Ukay Perdana. Unlike Hulu Langat, however, no property damages or injuries took place in the Bukit Antarabangsa incident. The Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) moved swiftly in dispatching a team from its hillslope division to begin immediate work in containing the situation and repairing the slope. MPAJ is currently the only authority with an existing hillslope division which was formed after the 2008 Bukit Antarabangsa landslide, which claimed five lives. When FMT visited the site last Friday a large tarpaulin sheet blanketed the landslide on the left. There had been a downpour that morning and workers swarmed the top of the slope hauling the sheet higher to better secure its position. The other landslide, however, remained exposed. The slope face had previously been protected by a concrete structure which had gradually disintegrated over time. The rain had now rendered this raw surface slick once again. Of greater concern was the row of small businesses fronting both landslides. None of them had been instructed or were compelled to temporarily cease operations. Cars still filled the corner workshop and lined the affected roads. People continued patronising the outlets along the stretch. Personnel at the Ukay police station, directly across the covered landslide, were equally unperturbed. The Public Works Department (PWD), meanwhile, has assured that the situation is under control and that there is no cause for alarm. "This is just a small erosion and small debris flow," Professor Ashaari Mohamad, director of PWD slope engineering branch, told FMT. "Once repair work has started it will not pose any danger to the shop houses."
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| As panel meets, pro- and anti-Lynas groups face off Posted: 29 May 2011 05:47 PM PDT By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider KUANTAN, May 30 — The situation at the Hyatt Regency here threatened to turn ugly this afternoon as both pro and anti-Lynas Corp groups gathered while the review panel began meeting stakeholders this afternoon. Several demonstrators, including three Umno assemblymen, rushed to confront Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh as she arrived to meet the International Atomic Energy Agency-led (IAEA) team at 3pm. They demanded the PKR vice president, who has been leading protests against the controversial RM700 million rare earth plant, not be allowed to bring in signed petitions into her half-hour session and that those accompanying her remove their anti-Lynas T-shirts. As police also pressed Fuziah to meet the demonstrators' demands, her team complied before entering the building where the meetings are to take place. The demonstrators were part of a group of about 100 who arrived at 2pm, holding up banners supporting the IAEA and also Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob. About half as many wearing "Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas" T-shirts also made their stand here until police told both groups to leave the hotel. However, both groups refused to leave outright and loitered outside the hotel premises until 4pm. About ten light strike force officers were also deployed until the protestors left. Earlier, pro-Lynas demonstrators had also confronted Indera Mahkota MCA Youth chief David Choi. Choi, who has not been supportive of the project, told reporters later that he was kicked by some of the protestors. The three assemblymen leading the pro-Lynas group included state executive councillor Datuk Mohamad Sahfri Ab Aziz as well as Norolazali Sulaiman and Mohd Zaili Besar, Guai and Panching representatives respectively. |
| Power rates up 7pc June 1, gas prices also hiked Posted: 29 May 2011 05:41 PM PDT
(Reuters) - PUTRAJAYA, May 30 — The Najib administration today said it will raise electricity prices by an average 7.12 per cent from June 1 in an effort to cut down on subsidies. Officials said natural gas prices would also rise by RM3.00 per mmBtu each six months until it reached market levels. Power prices would rise by as much as 2.3 sen per kilowatt hour. The price charged by state oil company Petronas for power generation would rise to RM13.70 per mmBtu from RM10.70, they said.
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| Perkasa defends Ibrahim Ali, calls Anwar ‘worst politician’ Posted: 29 May 2011 05:12 PM PDT
(The Malaysian Insider) - Perkasa defended Datuk Ibrahim Ali today as a man of integrity who has earned both the trust and confidence of professionals as well as politicians. Syed Hassan Syed Ali, the group's secretary-general, also launched a broadside against Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for calling Ibrahim the worst example of Malaysian politics. "Even when Ibrahim Ali was in Semangat 46... the government then could not find one fault against him because Ibrahim is well known to be a man of integrity, he would not do what is not right and he would cause trouble for those in the wrong even though they were his close friends," Syed Hassan said in a statement today. He charged that it was Anwar who should have admitted that he was the "worst politician", pointing out that in all the years of Ibrahim's political career he had never been slapped with charges in court like Anwar. Syed Hassan said that unlike Ibrahim, Anwar was always abandoned by his friends as soon as they "found out who he really was." "Malay professionals are always approaching Ibrahim Ali, even in Perkasa's supreme council there is no shortage of professionals. Many people know Ibrahim Ali, and those in Perkasa and also outside Perkasa support him," he added.
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| A ‘snap poll’ in Malaysia? Political surprise, journalistic cliché Posted: 29 May 2011 05:07 PM PDT
Election campaigns in Malaysia — from the announcement of the poll, the proroguing of Parliament, the nomination of candidates, the campaign, the vote, and the declaration of the result of the poll — can accordingly be completed, from start to finish, in about 10 days. The whole business is usually "done and dusted" within two weeks. Clive Kessler, The Malaysian Insider Once again there is talk of an early or imminent election in Malaysia. No surprise, nothing unusual in that. And once again the commentators are considering the likelihood of a "snap poll." Again, no surprise, nothing unusual in that. Just silly. The expression "snap poll" a cliché. And, as ever, hasty recourse to the irresistibly available cliché is a sure sign that clear, fresh and direct thinking about the matter at hand has been avoided, short-circuited. That an "end-run" (to use a cliché!) had been made around the moment of analysis, the need for thought. What is, or was, a snap poll? The term was coined to denote an election that is called suddenly, at an unexpected moment, to take advantage of the element of surprise. The snap poll is to political life, to electoral politics, what Pearl Harbor was to naval warfare. Suddenly, early one morning, unannounced, out of a clear blue sky... It is an encounter, a contest, that is pretty much over before it has begun. It is a fight — and this is the whole point of the manoeuvre or stratagem — that is as good as over from the outset: before the back-footed adversary, here the political opposition, has a chance to get up from its chair, onto its feet, and into action. One has only to think about that for a moment and one thing becomes clear. That the idea, and use of the term, "snap poll" in Malaysia is quite ridiculous. Not just strange, oddly inappropriate, but altogether ludicrous. It is absurd for two reasons. First, all Malaysian elections are in effect snap polls. In 1969 the national election campaign period was a long one. The Tunku wanted to give the people plenty of time to consider the issues, to weigh the choice that they faced. Never again. Since then, all election campaign periods have been brief. Reform of election legislation has made this brevity, this compression or "telescoping" of the political season — a concentration of pressure and, some would say, enforcing an unreflecting rush to political judgment — possible. Election campaigns in Malaysia — from the announcement of the poll, the proroguing of Parliament, the nomination of candidates, the campaign, the vote, and the declaration of the result of the poll — can accordingly be completed, from start to finish, in about 10 days. The whole business is usually "done and dusted" within two weeks. That kind of concentration and rapidity of electoral procedure falls fully within the ambit of the term "snap poll." These are not elections that run for weeks, whose date is announced months ahead or else are calendrically set by law (as in the US) for the election of candidates to a fixed term of office, say four years. You don't need to speculate in Malaysia whether there will be a snap poll. There always is. Every election is sudden and a "quickie", fast to come and fast to be over and gone. The only question is when. When will the government decide to call it? When will it exercise its discretion, avail itself of the incumbent power's prerogative, to "pull the trigger" (another cliché!) or (yet another) to get the contestants to the line and "sound the starter's gun"? That is one reason why the term "snap poll" in Malaysia is a silly misnomer. There is a second. Invariably in Malaysia, once the country is about two to three years further on from its previous election, and the next is felt approaching in two to three years' time, incessant election speculation begins to develop, mount and inexorably intensify. How does this happen? Quite simply, there is a popular interest in the matter. Why not? The citizen wants to know. As a stakeholder in the political community, the citizen wants to be part of, and informed about, the process of deciding the community's common fate — not just a spectator. Always politically adept, the government caters to and assiduously "plays upon" this interest. It does so constantly and continually, raising and lowering the intensity of its hints, feinting and parrying this way and that, as in some exotic sword-dance or wrong-footing silat routine. In doing so (to change our metaphor, or flee into a different cliché), it "plays the rakyat" the way a maestro plays a violin. Its objectives in doing so are several. It wants to "whet and feed" the rakyat's "political appetite." If elections are eventually to be held, the enthusiasm of party workers must be sustained, the political attention of voters must be activated and focused, and people need to be reminded of their political obligations (especially, as the powers of the day in every country see the matter, to acknowledge gratitude for benefits already and most recently received). Governments, by toying with speculation about imminent elections, also seek to "test the waters" (what, another cliché!) concerning their own popularity. They raise the hypothetical possibility of a snap poll to measure their own situation and prospects, "to see how they are running." They also use the measured and very controlled encouragement of election speculation to "fly various kites": in other words to assess likely public reaction to certain provisional policy initiatives, as well as the popular acceptability, persuasiveness and effect of possible campaign stratagems and rhetorical innovations, such as new slogans. Not least of its purposes in toying openly with ideas of an imminent poll is to dismay, disorient and "bamboozle" the opposition: to keep its strategists preoccupied with the short-run possibility, however unlikely, of having soon to face the polls and so force it to redirect and consume large amounts of its scarce energies and time. Election speculation, no matter how fabricated or implausible, usefully distracts the opposition. It diverts the government's opponents from pursuing necessary longer-term tasks, such as the development of defensible policies and from necessary, and necessarily time-consuming, political planning. Talk of early elections forces the opposition to operate in "rush mode", even "panic mode", not "thoughtfulness mode." It keeps the opposition "tied in knots." By this logic, there may be an "inverse" relation between election speculation and the likelihood of an imminent poll. The louder the talk of a "snap poll", the less likely an early election may be. Until, of course, the last indulgence in such talk, the last tactical flirtation with the idea before the election is finally called. But by then the clock has largely run down, time is running out, and the calling of the election usually comes as no surprise... After years of keen anticipation and bated breath, what you hear in the end is often just a sigh of relief. So in sum, every Malaysian election is both, in one sense, a "snap poll" and, in another, not, since no Malaysian election ever can be. Every election comes at the end of a two-to-three year-long cycle, or barrage, of election speculation. A snap poll, a surprise, beyond all expectations, out of a clear blue sky? Hardly!
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| No takers yet for Rolls Royce: M'sian businessman Posted: 29 May 2011 04:53 PM PDT
(The Straits Times) - BUSINESSMAN Zamil Ibrahim is still waiting for someone who can find a Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim 'lookalike' to take up the offer of a vintage Rolls Royce and RM10,000 (S$4,080). Mr Zamil, who is the Kedah Kita chief, had made the offer on Friday in connection with the sex video implicating the PKR adviser. 'The Rolls Silver 111 6700cc is mine, and the cash offer is made by someone who wants to remain anonymous. 'Anwar has been saying he was told the man looked like him but that he (Anwar) did not have a belly,' he said. Datuk T, comprising businessman Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah, former Malacca chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik, and former Perkasa treasurer Datuk Shuaib Lazim, had on March 21 exposed the existence of a video of a man resembling Anwar having sex with a woman believed to be a foreign prostitute. Anwar then lodged a police report claiming that he was not the man in the video. Zamil said he had decided to make the lucrative offer 'to help ease the confusion'. 'The public are confused. I believe Anwar can finally clear his name if we can help him find a man who looks like him, walks like him, and even smiles like him,' he said. Zamil also added that he would invite Shazryl, Kita president Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and Senator Ezam Mohd Noor to sit in a panel to identify the Anwar lookalike. 'The three of them were very close to Anwar. They can tell if someone looks exactly like Anwar,' he said. Several bloggers have also promised to run naked around KLCC if a man resembling Anwar could be found.
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| Posted: 29 May 2011 04:21 PM PDT
Of the six, five are state seats. The sole parliamentary seat targeted is Padang Serai, held by N Gobalakrishnan. (Free Malaysia Today) - The Human Rights Party (HRP) plans to contest in five state seats and one parliamentary constituency in Kedah which have 20% and above Indian voters. The party's secretary-general P Uthayakumar said the five state seats were Bukit Selambau (29.5%), Lunas (22.5%), Merbau (22%), Sidam (20%) and Gurun (18.4%). The sole parliamentary seat was Padang Serai, currently held by former PKR strongman, N Gobalakrishnan. "PAS is ruling by a majority of a mere two seats when compared to 14 seats held by Umno/BN and PKR having five seats, DAP one seat and one Independent in the 36-seat Kedah state assembly. "So if HRP wins in these five state seats, they will be the real 'kingmakers' and can seriously push for change vis-a-vis the Kedah Indian poor at the highest political level," said Uthayakumar. He added that the Indian poor have to be politically empowered to effect changes at the highest political level as both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat have refused to address the pressing Indian problems.
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| WIKILEAKS: ‘Abu Sayyaf links turned Dr M red’ Posted: 29 May 2011 04:00 PM PDT
However, his attack against the Time magazine over the article was moderate as he was not personally mentioned and wanted to keep a lid on the possible links, said US diplomats. The Time article appeared in its April 10, 1995 issue, alleging that Southern Philippine Muslim extremist group Aby Sayyaf was receiving arms, money and training for Islamic groups in various countries, including Malaysia. K Kabilan, Free Malaysia Today Dr Mahathir Mohamad was unusually moderate in his attacks against two articles which appeared to criticise his government in the Time and Fortune magazines in early 1995 as he was "not personally mentioned in the stories". Also, Mahathir was not keen to pursue his attacks against the Time magazine article in particular as it involved his government's alleged links with the Abu Sayyaf movement from the Philippines. "Given the murky general history of Moro-Malaysian dealings, he may feel it best not to go into too many details," wrote US diplomats based in the US embassy here in their confidential cable to the US State Department in Washington. The confidential cable was dated April 13, 1995. The cable was leaked by whistleblower site WikiLeaks and handed over to FMT today. The US diplomats felt that Mahathir was quick with his anti-West attacks when the two articles were published, especially since the general election was imminent then. However, they noted his reaction was "moderate and apparently shortlived". The US diplomats felt the main reason for Mahathir's muted attack on Time and Fortune was largely due to the fact that he was not personally targeted in the two articles. The diplomats also mentioned that Mahathir could have been mindful that his recent anti-British and anti-Australian outbursts had not given him clear-cut victories. They said that they felt that the Malaysian government did not wish to make an issue of the Time article, especially considering the historical ties between the Moro movement and Malaysia. The Time article appeared in its April 10, 1995 issue, alleging that Southern Philippine Muslim extremist group Aby Sayyaf was receiving arms, money and training for Islamic groups in various countries, including Malaysia. The article further claimed that Abu Sayyaf used training camps in Malaysia and was expecting arms shipments from Malaysian supporters. Western media campaign Mahathir's reaction to the article was to immediately label it as "part of a campaign by the western media to discredit Malaysia" to deter investment and tourism. The Time article came just after another article in the Fortune magazine which had said that the Malaysian currency was facing risk. ***************************************** C O N F I D E N T I A L KUALA LUMPUR 001919 |
| ‘PKR failed to pay rent for 30 months’ Posted: 29 May 2011 03:54 PM PDT
Party leaders are accused of lying in saying that they had been prompt in paying RM20,000 per month to the landlord. (Free Malaysia Today) - New details have emerged that PKR may not have paid rental for its party headquarters in Merchant Square here for almost 30 months, owing arrears of about RM600,000 to the landlord. The party had entered into a five-year lease with the landlord beginning July 2008 for RM20,000 per month. FMT learnt that the party paid rental only until November 2008. "Since then, not a single payment has been made," said a party insider today. "And the party's top leaders are lying in saying that they had been prompt in paying rents," he said. PKR leaders revealed last week that the party faced possible eviction from their party headquarters because the landlord failed to service the bank loan. As a result, Affin Bank has initiated an auction to be held on June 9 to recover its money. Playing the blame-game Laying the blame squarely on the landlord, party leaders like treasurer William Leong, vice-president Tian Chua and secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution said that the party had never failed to pay the rental to the landlord. "It is the landlord, the banks are going after them. A lot of people have the wrong notion that we are the owners. We are just the tenant and not responsible for the loan. We have never failed to pay the monthly rental," Leong had said. Tian, meanwhile, said he did not know why the landlord failed to service the bank loan but speculated that the landlord could be facing financial difficulties. Saifuddin denied that the party was in a financial quandary, adding that the party has been prompt in paying rent. "We are not in any financial problem. It is the owner who has a problem with the bank as we have been paying rent without fail," he told FMT. Leong said that the party was now planning to buy the premises when the bank auctions it next month, failing which it would seek to rent it from the new owners. But if that does not work out, then PKR will find itself another office. Lies, half-truths The party insider said these leaders were "talking rubbish". "They didn't even pay the rentals… perhaps they did not have the money to do that… and now they are talking about buying the premises at the auction," he said. He also chided them for making statements without proper checking, especially when they even got the name of their supposed landlord wrong. When the PKR leaders spoke to the media on the auction, they mentioned that the landlord was a company named Ainb-Tech Sdn Bhd. However, FMT learnt that the lease agreement had named another company as the landlord. "They don't seem to have a clue on the lease details of the premises they are occupying. I don't think they know who owns the building and even how much money they have to pay for rental. "They are jumping now after seeing the auction notice as they have been caught with their pants down… and have resorted to lies and half truths," added the insider.
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