Archive for February 15th, 2010

New land policy for Orang Asli: boon or bane?

Posted by Kit in Muhyiddin Yassin, Orang Asli on Monday, 15 February 2010

By Yip Ai Tsin | Feb 14, 10 2:56pm | Malaysiakini

A new land policy purported to be a boon for the 150,000-strong Orang Asli community has all but been received as good news, given the many questions surrounding the announcement, said activists.

Unless further details are forthcoming from the government, the policy announced by Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin last December may even undermine the rights and interests of the Orang Asli, they alleged.

On Dec 4 last year, Muhyiddin announced that some 20,000 Orang Asli families will be given by state governments freehold land titles for residential use and for oil palm, rubber and other crop cultivation under an agreement between the government and developers.

The number made up 72 per cent of the total of 27,841 Orang Asli families and involve 50,563.51 hectares of land in Peninsular Malaysia, said Muhyiddin according to reports.
Read the rest of this entry »

14 Comments

No other Chinese New Year with such a blizzard of conversational topics and talking points

Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Monday, 15 February 2010

Probably in no other Chinese New Year since Merdeka has there been such a blizzard of conversational topics and talking points, from hot-oven scandals like:

  • the two missing jet engines disappearing all the way to Uruguay;

  • a multi-billion ringgit submarine that cannot dive;

  • Robin-Hood blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s son’s trial and tribulations in Sungei Buloh prison;

to perennial subjects like

  • the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal still awaiting the prosecution of “big fishes”;

  • who killed DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock who went willingly to Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) headquarters on July 15, 2009 and came out as a corpse the next day;

    • Read the rest of this entry »

37 Comments

Towards A Developed Malaysia – Part 2

Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, globalisation on Monday, 15 February 2010

By M. Bakri Musa

[Presented at the Third Annual Alif Ba Ta Forum, “1Malaysia Towards Vision 2020,” Rochester Institute of Technology, NY, December 5, 2009, organized by Kelab UMNO NY-NJ. The presentation can be viewed at www.youtube.com (search under “Bakri Musa RIT”) or through this link]

Part Two of Six: Diamond of Development

In my book Towards A Competitive Malaysia, I relate how the four cardinal elements – leaders, people, culture, and geography – govern a society’s trajectory of development. Each element influences and in turn is being influenced by the other three, as illustrated by my “Diamond of Development” diagrammatic representation. When all four factors are favorable, we have a virtuous cycle propelling that society quickly towards progress. When one element is wanting, it quickly exerts its negative influence on the other three, and soon we would have a vicious cycle leading towards a quick downward spiral.

An important caveat to my diamond of development is that it presumes peace. When a nation is at war or in conflict, the only certainty is death and destruction, not development. This is a much-needed reminder for a plural society like Malaysia. Just look at Northern Ireland and Sri Lanka.
Read the rest of this entry »

9 Comments