Thanks to all for views on whether the “caretaker government” public interest litigation should be instituted.

Time does not permit me to respond to the good arguments canvassed on both sides. The caretaker government suit may be filed tomorrow.

Thanks also to those who have pledged financial support to the suit. Your financial donation will be sought on this blog shortly.

All the buzz around facebook, thought should check it out for myself. Feel free to add me as your friend.

DAP Ceramah – New Deal for marginalised Indians and all marginalised groups

Speakers –

1. Lim Guan Eng DAP Secretary-General
2. M. Kulasegaran – MP Ipoh Barat
3. Fong Kui Lun – MP Bukit Bintang
4. A. Sivanesan – CEC member
5. M. Manoharan – Human Rights lawyer
6. Lim Kit Siang – Parliamentary Opposition Leader

Venue – Wisma NUBE,
No. 12 Jalan Tun Sambanthan 3, Brickfields,
(besides Petronas station)

Date – Wednesday 12th December 2007 (7.30 pm)

This blog is optimised for viewing with Firefox or Opera browsers, both of which are free.

Internet Explorer (IE) is incompatible because of some coding and bug issues.

Firefox comes with hundreds of add-ons or browser extensions for you to customise your personal surfin experience.

For the first time in 50 years, the annual government budget has been reduced into a “social occasion” with the Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi accompanied by his wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah “dropping by’ the Finance Ministry on the night of the eve of the Budget Day for a photo-op.

The 27-page budget read out by Abdullah in Parliament yesterday was themed “Together Building the Nation and Sharing Prosperity” — which contained a slew of goodies with the next general election imminent in the next six months.

DAP presented for the first time an alternative budget, themed “Malaysian First — Unity Driven Equity: Growth & Innovation”.

The main thrust of the 52-page DAP proposed Budget 2008 would be to establish the conditions of good governance that permits hardworking and talented Malaysians to get on with the business of creating wealth and succeed in life.

More importantly the government must learn to get out of the way and not intrude on the people’s activities unnecessarily. The real win-win solution is where every Malaysian learns together, grows together and reaps the rewards together.

You can download the PDF copy of the proposed DAP Malaysian First Budget 2008 here.

This blog will adopt peer-moderation for comments. As word filters and other measures are not bombproof, on the odd occasion malicious comments can still slip through. You are invited to be the blog’s final line of defence against possible sabotage by malicious comments. If you spot a comment that you feel is inappropriate, please send an email to [email protected] pointing out which comment may be offensive. Let’s work as a team. Thanks.

Forum:An Islamic State after 50 years?

Date: 25 July 2007 (Wed)
Time: 7.30pm
Venue:KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall

Speakers:

Ambiga Sreenevasan, Bar Council President;

Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, HAKAM President;

Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, PKR Secretary-General;

Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary-General;

Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition Leader.

Enquiries, call 03-79578022 (Lau Weng San)

Nathaniel Tan, a 26 year old dedicated blogger, a Harvard University alumnus and an aide to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was arrested under the Section 8 of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) over allegations that he had documents linked to Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Johari Baharom’s alleged involvement in corruption.

Nathaniel was released after four days’ detention.

To demonstrate our solidarity with Nathaniel who has been dealt with great injustice, to show our steadfast refusal to let the Government curb the democratisation impact of blogs and the Internet, and to voice our displeasure at the OSA, we are organising a forum with invited speakers from across the civil society with details as follows:

Venue: KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
Date: 19th July 2007 (Thursday)
Time: 7.30 pm
Admission is Free; Bring Friends

The panel of Distinguished Speakers include:

Nathaniel Tan, Blogger & Aide to PKR Advisor

Jeff Ooi, Protem Vice-President, All Blogs Malaysia

Harris Ibrahim, Lawyer & Founder of The People’s Parliament

Nurul Izzah Anwar, Special Assistant to PKR Advisor

Lim Guan Eng, Secretary-General of DAP

Tony Pua, Economic Advisor to DAP Secretary-General

Chairperson: Soon Li Tsin, Journalist & Blogger

“To say that she is not under the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court – because she no longer professes Islam – is not appropriate… In other words, one cannot embrace or leave a religion according to one’s whims and fancies.” – Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim

“Illegal and unreasonable… to expect the appellant (Lina) to apply for a certificate of apostasy – when to do so would likely expose her to a range of offences under the Islamic law – is, in my view, unreasonable.” – Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Datuk Richard Malanjum

“I am disappointed that the Federal Court is not able to vindicate a simple but important fundamental right that exists in all persons; namely, the right to believe in the religion of one’s choice… The Federal Court has not only denied me that right but to all Malaysians who value fundamental freedoms.” – Lina Joy

Date: 7 June 2007 (Thursday)

Time: 7.30pm

Venue: Armada Hotel, Petaling Jaya

Room: Laksamana Room, Level 3

Speakers:

Y.B. Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition Leader

Ambiga Sreenevasan, Malaysia Bar Council President

Dr Azmi Sharom, Associate Professor, UM Law Faculty

Lenard Teoh, Legal Advisor to Malaysia Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Sikhism (MCCBCHS)

Yusri Mohammad, President of Angkatan Belia Islam (ABIM)

Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary-General

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, General Secretary of PKR

Chairperson: Tony Pua

Free Admission

English Forum: Civil Service Excellence: Quality vs Quantity

“The Government must hence take the painful but very important step of trimming the civil service sector into a leaner and more efficient “machine”. The increase in pay will be a waste of public funds, if the move is not accompanied by a corresponding increase in civil service productivity.” – Tony Pua

“Pergerakan Pemuda UMNO mendesak Pua dan DAP mengambil langkah memperbetulkan kata-kata mereka yang langsung tidak bertimbang rasa dan begitu menghina sekali.”

“Pua’s negative comments about the civil service can cause considerable damage to the morale and image of the public sector.” – Khairy Jamaluddin

Speakers:

Lim Kit Siang, Parliamentary Opposition Leader

Lim Guan Eng, DAP Secretary-General

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, PKR Secretary-General

A. H. Ponniah, former Secretary of Public Service International (Asia-Pacific Region)

Nurul Izzah Anwar, Special Assistant to Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim

Tony Pua, Economic Advisor to DAP Secretary-General

Open invitation to Khairy Jamaluddin, UMNO Deputy Youth Chief

Venue: KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall

Date: 30th May 2007 (Wednesday)

Time: 8.00 pm

Admission is Free

Thanks to Chengkhoon, the blog kink with IE6 & 7 has been resolved.

This is Chenkhoon’s solution:

“Line 38 of the css file (style.css) contains the following line:

“filter: Shadow(color:white, strength:0, direction:0);

“This is proprietary IE6 code. Removing the line will solve the problem.”

Many thanks Chengkhoon, on my part as on behalf of so many visitors who had faced problems of accessing the blog with IE6 or 7. Most appreciated. Also thanks to all who given their suggestions to resolve the problem.

TJY emailed to say that this blog cannot be viewed from Internet Explorer 7. There have been other complaints which seem to zero down to the same cause, such as the following from Shirley of UK:

“Still unable to access your blog. Managed to access the main page but only part of it. Even then unable to read as only the top of page is visible.”

Later Shirley emailed: “Internet Explorer was the problem. Problem solved when switched to Mozilla Firefox.”

Anyone with any ideas as to how the problem can be resolved with Internet Explorer 7?