Archive for March 22nd, 2010

DAP to assist Sabahans stranded in Peninsula

By Queville To | Free Malaysia Today

DAP Mojuntin statue

PENAMPANG: DAP is planning to go in search of destitute Sabahans stranded in Peninsular Malaysia.

A special gathering is being planned for them in the Klang Valley to listen to their plight and to find ways to help them.

Speaking at a news conference here, Ipoh Timor DAP MP Lim Kit Siang said the gathering was tentatively fixed for April 18.

“We call on all the Sabahans currently working or stranded in Peninsular Malaysia to come to this meeting so that their voices can be heard.”

The meeting is being organised by the Sabah DAP chief-cum-MP for Kota Kinabalu Dr Hiew King Cheu, and coordinated by DAP MPs for Serdang and Segambut, Teo Nie Ching and Lim Lip Eng.
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Pandemonium in the house as MP breaks procedures

Tweets @limkitsiang :

Gross abuse of standing orders by KotaBelud MP condoned by deputy speaker resulting in unprecedented pandemonium Parliament worst in 53yrs
03/22/2010 01:37 PM

Had warned if KotaBelud MP is allwd by dy speaker then dangerous precedent is set n PR MPs can do same. Chair failed resulting in 1hr chaos
03/22/2010 01:42 PM

2day most shameful episode in parliamentary history Standing Orders arbitrarily violated, Minister Nazri made unrepentant sexist remark
03/22/2010 01:56 PM

All bcos Umno obsession 2persecute Anwar 4 APCO-1Malaysia speech The hr-long bedlam was not over Anwar but abuse of parl process n sexism
03/22/2010 02:01 PM
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Why is Sabah still poor? asks Kit Siang

By Queville To | Free Malaysia Today

Batu Sumpah, Sabah

KOTA KINABALU: DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has called for the establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on whether the expectations of Sabahans and Sarawakians in forming Malaysia had been fulfilled or betrayed over the past 50 years.

He stressed that this would be appropriate in view of the fact that in 2013 the country would mark the 50th anniversary of the formation of Malaysia.

“Have the people of Sabah been granted their full citizenship rights as Malaysians in the past five decades?

“Let the debate and soul-searching begin as to how one of the richest states in Sabah had been reduced in five decades to become the poorest state in the federation,” he said in a statement issued here on Saturday following a visit to Keningau.
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Lim to Najib: Explain ‘massive’ oil find

Free Malaysia Today

KOTA KINABALU: DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang wants the government to disclose full details of an alleged new oilfield discovered by national oil company Petronas.

“I call on the PM Datuk Seri Najib (Razak) to make a ministerial statement in parliament tomorrow (today) on this very important subject, the biggest oil find in the Malaysian history and the role of Petronas because Petronas is now contributing about 42 per cent to the country’s revenue,” he told reporters here yesterday.

Lim was commenting on Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s statement on Saturday that he had been told of the discovery of a new oilfield by Petronas, which could be the biggest oilfield in the world.

“I have heard about this but up to now the government has not made any announcement. I think this should not be kept under-wraps.

“Malaysians have a right to know as it will mean that the future of Malaysia will be cast in a different light.
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Sabah power supply scandal deepens

By Queville To | Free Malaysia Today

PENAMPANG: The electricity supply scandal in Sabah has taken a new twist.

Figures disclosed by the state and federal power utility companies are at variance with each other and do not add up, according to a top parliamentarian.

The discrepancies are so great that DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang has questioned whether the persisting poor and worsening System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) on power supply in the state was genuine, or a deliberate fix.

He believes it could be part of measures to create a ‘panic situation’, so as to compel the people to accept the controversial coal-fired power plant.

He said suspicion arose from the consistent disparity in the SAIDI figures that were given out by the Federal Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister, Peter Chin Fa Kui, the Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB), Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) and the Energy Commission Malaysia.
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Healthcare As A Bottomless Pit

By M. Bakri Musa, MD, MS, FRCSC, FACS

[Invited editorial, Malaysian Journal of Medical Science, 17(1):1-2, Jan-Mar 2010.]

As a young surgeon at the General Hospital Kuala Lumpur in the 1970s, I remember pleading with Tan Sri Majid Ismail, then Director-General of the Ministry of Health, for funding of my research project.

A distinguished clinician turned policy maker, Tan Sri Majid was professionally interested in my proposal. Nonetheless he politely declined it, but not before offering me a comforting explanation. Between funding me and building a Klinik Desa (rural clinic) in Ulu Kelantan, the choice was clear, he gently told me. Besides, he assured me, I would have minimal difficulty securing funding elsewhere while those poor Kelantanese had no choice.

Tan Sri Majid said something else that reverberates in me today. “Healthcare is a bottomless pit,” he advised me, “but the resources to meet those literally endless worthy needs are limited, so society must set its priorities and draw the line somewhere.” The job of government is to ensure a minimal acceptable level of care for all, he added, and beyond that it is for individuals to set their own limits with their own resources.
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