Archive for October 25th, 2008

BN MP who signed petition revealed

Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Parliament on Saturday, 25 October 2008

BN MP who signed petition revealed
Andrew Ong
Oct 25, 08 5:16pm

Billy Abit Jol is the sole Barisan Nasional MP to have signed the petition urging the prime minister to prioritise the debate on the Internal Security Act when Parliament reconvenes on Wednesday.

The petition signed by 85 MPs – 81 from Pakatan Rakyat, three independents and one from BN – was delivered to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s office yesterday morning.

Billy Abit is a five-term MP for Hulu Rajang and vice-president of Parti Rakyat Sarawak.

His signing of the petition was revealed by Ipoh Timor MP and DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang when the latter officiated the DAP Jalong branch this morning. Read the rest of this entry »

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RM5 billion EPF funds to ValueCap – nation-wide protest

Posted by Kit in EPF, Good Governance on Saturday, 25 October 2008

On Monday, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced that the government would inject RM5 billion from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to double the size of the highly-secretive government fund, ValueCap Sdn Bhd to RM10 billion to prop up the stock market.

The Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) President, Syed Shahir Syed Mohamud has rightly come to the forefront to condemn the government’s move to boost up ValueCap to support the local stock market using RM5 billion from EPF, “as the provident fund is the custodian of the workers’ money and not some sort of ‘automated teller machine’ for the government”.

This is the second government attempt to raid the EPF to support ValueCap to prop up the stock market since the idea of ValueCap was first mooted by the Mahathir administration at the end of 2002 to shore up the stock market and bail out ailing companies. Read the rest of this entry »

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