Himpunan Hijau ke Putrajaya… Wah, lebih 100,000 hadir!
Posted by Kit in Elections, Pakatan Rakyat, PAS, UMNO on Sunday, 3 June 2012, 10:45 am
— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 02, 2012
2 JUN — Himpunan Hijau ke Putrajaya di Alor Star malam tadi adalah perhimpunan raksasa dan yang hampir sebesar perhimpunan Bersih 3.0 yang diadakan pada 28 April yang lalu. Himpunan Hijau itu telah menunjukkan kepada rakyat seluruh negara bahawa kedatangan lebih daripada seratus ribu pengunjung perhimpunan itu membayangkan manifestasi keseluruhan rakyat benar-benar serius untuk ke Putrajaya selepas PRU yang akan datang ini.
Himpunan anjuran PAS ini sangat berjaya kerana orang ramai sudah memenuhi stadium dari pukul 4 ptg semalam. Orang ramai bukan sahaja telah memenuhi semua tempat duduk Stadium Alor Star itu tetapi juga meliputi padang stadium tersebut dan juga di luar stadium. Ramainya peserta himpunan ini menunjukkan bahawa rakyat serius dalam perjuangan untuk menuju ke Putrajaya dan sambutan itu sudah cukup untuk memberikan gambaran sebenar akan kemahuan rakyat keseluruhannya.
Kejayaan ini amat membanggakan kerana mereka datang dengan sukarela dari seluruh negara tanpa dibayar tambang atau tempat penginapan dan tidak pula diberikan kemudahan perkhidmatan ribuan bas percuma seperti yang dilakukan oleh Umno. Bayangkan jika Umno menganjurkan perhimpunan tanpa wang, topi dan T-shirt serta tempat penginapan tidak akan ada siapa pun yang akan hadir kerana pergerakan Umno dan ahlinya memerlukan tolakan dengan wang ringgit.
Jika Umno hendak mengadakan perhimpunan sebesar ini secara “conservative”nya ia akan memakan belanja sekurang-kurangnya RM15 juta. Itulah sebabnya saya dan ramai yang lain selalu berkata Umno (baru) tinggal sejarah sahaja setelah wujud sejak 24 tahun yang lepas. Read the rest of this entry »
Call on Malaysians to emulate the spirit of 250,000 Bersih 3.0 supporters who acted selflessly out of supreme patriotism for Malaysia and for the sake of next generation
Posted by Kit in Bersih, DAP, Elections, Pakatan Rakyat on Saturday, 2 June 2012, 2:34 pm
We should now be in the thick of the battle of the 13th General Election and not be launching the Perak DAP 13th General Election machinery if not for the “428” Bersih 3.0 rally which completely scattered Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s earlier plan for June polls.
Events are proving me right when I said in early May that Bersih 3.0 was a greater public relations disaster for Najib than Bersih 2.0, as this has been confirmed from the high-handed, insensitive and reactionary government responses so far, especially the high-level campaign of demonization of Bersih 3.0 and the 250,000 Malaysians regardless of race, religion, class, region, age or gender who gathered peacefully in Kuala Lumpur in support of a common national cause – a clean election for a clean Malaysia.
Every day we are seeing the Barisan Nasional leaders shooting themselves in the foot – the latest being the announcement by the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to upload a video compilation of what happened on Bersih 3.0 on the Home Ministry website, which made an utter mockery of the assurances by the Barisan Nasional government that it wants an independent inquiry to find out the true facts of what went wrong on Bersih 3.0 on April 28, causing the incidents of brutality and violence, regardless of whether the victims were police personnel, media representatives or peaceful protestors.
My strongest message today is to call on Malaysians to emulate the spirit of the 250,000 Bersih 3.0 supporters who acted selflessly on April 28 out of two most honourable motives – firstly, as an act of supreme patriotism and love for Malaysia and secondly, for the sake of the next generation of Malaysians to ensure that they have a better Malaysia than today. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s popularity dips even as polls beckon, survey shows
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Elections, Najib Razak on Saturday, 2 June 2012, 7:52 am
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 01, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s popularity has slipped in recent months, an opinion poll showed today, as he lost support among Chinese and middle-class voters ahead of a general election that he could call within months.
Najib is facing a dilemma over the timing of the election as his Barisan Nasional coalition seeks to reverse a dismal showing four years ago that deprived it of its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time.
The 58-year-old leader has enjoyed high personal approval ratings, but analysts say it is unclear whether that will translate into increased support for his less popular Umno party and its allies.
Support for Najib slid to 65 per cent in the May poll from 69 per cent in March, according to the Merdeka Center, the country’s most respected polling firm.
The dip may add to speculation that Najib may choose to delay elections until after presenting the budget on September 28. Read the rest of this entry »
The ‘G’ in the C+I+G=Y formula
— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 01, 2012
JUNE 1 — When Kenyesians dan Hayekians debate each other, they don’t debate on the science of economics as a science. As a science which studies the allocation of scarce resources among competing wants and needs, that part is settled. They debate on the bigger issue of how to manage the economy. Keynesians want to steer the economy while Hayekians want to set the economy free. One side thinks they can plan for others. The other side wants the planning to be done by many as individuals adapting themselves to the free market.
They debate on the efficacy of polices, whether managing aggregate spending or freeing the market is better in order to increase income. Controlling aggregate spending suggest some control over the aggregates, whether consumption, investment or government spending. Who controls them? The answer: the government. Control suggests the omnipotence of government and of course governments all over the world like to control things.
Hayekians support the free market, relying instead on the actions of individual economic actors with motivations and self-interests (what interests the individual) to make the economy work. Free market does not mean free from government involvement absolutely. Rather, government’s scope is limited over a few matters such as keeping peace from within and without. Government’s role is that of an umpire and the umpire must be neutral.
Our government of course supports the Keynesian approach without a doubt. They are adherents to the dictum, we are Keynesians now. But here is where the similarities end. While in western economies, the focus is on actually seeing the economy succeed, the emphasis in our country is different. The focus here is to concentrate steering power into our hands as much as possible, so that in the name of guiding the economy, the state plays the role of allocating resources to who they think can advance the economy. The state assumes omnipotence stature. And because of this status, they get to choose who succeeds and who fails.
We are digressing too far I am afraid. We can already anticipate the headlines. “We must avoid what happens to Greece. In order to do that, we must spend more. To hell to those who complain of increasing public debt to GDP share. If we cut spending, the economy will contract. The opposition is stupid. They are just following the IMF’s prescriptions.” Read the rest of this entry »
Hishammuddin should give personal attention to escalating cases of political thuggery and violence like the vicious attacks on Ganapathirao and Papparaidu instead of propaganda concerns like official video compilation on Bersih 3.0
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Elections, Hishammuddin, Police on Friday, 1 June 2012, 3:06 pm
As Home Minister, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussin should give personal attention to escalating cases of political thuggery and violence in the country like the vicious attacks on DAP Selangor State Committee member V. Ganapathirao and his brother Papparaidu in Klang on Wednesday night instead of propaganda concerns like the official video compilation on Bersih 3.0.
Yesterday, Hishammuddin said that a video compilation, containing footage of what transpired during the Bersih 3.0 rally last April 28, would be ready within two days and would be uploaded on the ministry’s website once it was ready.
He said it would contain “the good, bad and ugly” visuals received from many parties throughout the rally.
Would the official video compilation on the Home Ministry website contain all the available “ugly” videos of all the cases of brutality and violence which happened on Bersih 3.0, regardless of whether the victims were police personnel, media representatives or peaceful protestors or would it only be a very selective compilation as the latest in the official campaign of vilification and demonization of Bersih 3.0?
Malaysians are very wary of this official campaign of demonization of Bersih 3.0, both over government television channels and the Internet in the past month, completely ignoring the fact that Bersih 3.0 was a great historic awakening of a quarter of a million Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, class, region, age or gender, gathering peacefully for a common national cause but which was marred by incidents of brutality and violence involving a small number of police personnel and peaceful protestors. Read the rest of this entry »
MACC must break its silence on the corruption-cum-treason case of selling Navy secrets to foreigners in connection with the purchase of the Scorpene submarines
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Defence, Parliament on Friday, 1 June 2012, 12:36 pm
Yesterday, public confidence in the professionalism, independence, impartiality and integrity of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) reached a new low 41 months after it was elevated from its former form as Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) with greatly expanded powers, budget and staffing.
Members of Parliament and Malaysians were promised when the MACC Bill was debated in Parliament in December 2008 that the MACC was going to become another ICAC (Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption) respected world-wide for its uncompromising and no-nonsense commitment against corruption without fear or favour for position, status or influence.
Instead, MACC continues to be a standing joke as it has not been able to
to shake off its early image as a tool of the Barisan Nasional to hound and persecute Pakatan Rakyat leaders and establish its reputation as a fearless, uncompromising and dedicated graft-fighter, whether against ikan bilis or ikan yu.
MACC harvested many media headlines yesterday, including:
“MACC clears Shahrizat of NFC contract, loan award”;
“Anti-graft panel wants Azmin probe re-opened”; and
“Probes against Taib, Musa yet to be resolved”. Read the rest of this entry »
Main challenges for a PR government
Posted by Kit in Elections, Pakatan Rakyat on Friday, 1 June 2012, 10:05 am
– Ong Kian Ming
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 01, 2012
JUNE 1 — What happens in the unlikely event that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) wins and maintains control of the federal government after the 13th general election? This is a question which few people have tried to address systematically. In this article, I want to highlight what I think will be the five main challenges facing a PR federal government as a way to contextualise the policy options which such a government will have to address.
I have summarised these five main challenges into five “P”s: (i) Dealing with the “Past” (ii) Distributing “Power” between the federal and state governments (iii) Coming up with a new set of “Plans” in the economic, political and social arenas (iv) Focusing on a smaller number of “Priorities” which can be delivered within 100 days and one year and finally (v) Finding a set of “Procedures” to deal with disagreements within the PR coalition.
(i) Past
Having been in power for 55 years, there are bound to be a whole list of “legacy” issues which a new government has to figure out how to deal with. It would not be practical for a new federal government to conduct a massive witch hunt to weed out all those who have paid bribes to the previous government to obtain contracts, to find evidence to convict all BN politicians who have received bribes or have amassed wealth beyond their means or to sack all civil servants who have been complicit in corrupt dealings involving the previous government. But at the same time, it makes sense for a PR government to outline a clear set of rules with regard to how it will, for example, deal with dubious contracts which the government has signed with private companies. This is important because there is a great temptation for PR to blame the previous BN government for many of the problems that it will face when it is governing. Instead of blaming BN in an ad-hoc manner throughout its first term in government, it would be better for PR to outline a place to clear out the skeletons in the cupboard early in its tenure in power. Read the rest of this entry »
A country going rotten
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections, UMNO on Thursday, 31 May 2012, 11:30 pm
— Othman Wahab
The Malaysian Insider
May 31, 2012
MAY 31 — Today is the day. If there was any doubt that Malaysia is ruled by the corrupt and assisted by the corrupt and that only regime change can save this country, today was the day where all the doubts were put to rest.
Today we saw the MACC give Shahrizat Jalil the all-clear, saying that she did not influence the RM250 million loan award to National Feedlot Corporation. But were her “expenses” paid by the NFC; did she benefit from the umrah packages bought by her family members aka directors of NFC.?
This probe was always going to be a whitewash because no Umno/BN bigshot is ever going to be convicted of anything, be it corruption or living beyond their means.
We knew that MACC was going to clear Shahrizat Jalil, and paint her as some aggrieved party. Poor thing. That they did it speedily while still investigating Taib Mahmud and Musa Aman should not surprise anyone.
The NFC case is a symbol of everything gone wrong with Umno and this country and the party elders believe that going to the polls with too many question marks over Shahrizat was untenable. Read the rest of this entry »
MACC’s cow sense
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Good Governance, UMNO on Thursday, 31 May 2012, 11:21 pm
— The Malaysian Insider
May 31, 2012
MAY 31 — Here’s a question for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Who accused Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil of being involved in the process of awarding the RM250 million government soft loan to the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) operated by her family?
Short answer, no one. Long answer, not one person ever did.
So, clearing the Wanita Umno chief of any involvement in the scandal is not even news because she wasn’t accused of that. And if MACC and Shahrizat are crowing about this, they have as much cow sense as the cattle in the Gemas farm.
Let’s be clear why Shahrizat’s name has been dragged into this and the government had to drop her from the Cabinet by not extending her tenure as senator.
Her family is accused of abusing public funds meant for a cattle-rearing project for their own shopping spree of luxury properties in Malaysia and abroad. They had admitted as much, saying the funds were being put to some use while waiting for the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries to do its part of the deal.
Of course, it begs the question whether public funds meant for one project can be used in other ways while waiting for something else to happen. The short answer, no. The long answer, of course not. Read the rest of this entry »
Dissecting the ETP Annual Report (Part 1) — Grade A+ for obfuscation!
— Ong Kian Ming and Teh Chi-Chang
The Malaysian Insider
May 31, 2012
MAY 31 — Top marks for befuddling even highly-qualified Malaysians. PEMANDU released its annual report last month to an expected chorus of praise. An economist at a leading financial institution gushed that the ETP deserves an “A” for transformation. Our analysis however, finds that pretentious words and slick presentations, protestations of diligence and toil and selective representation of data obscure the true picture.
Real GNI grew only 4.7 per cent last year. This is well below the 6 per cent per year growth rate called upon for the duration of the ETP. Nominal GNI growth, which includes inflation, was 12.3 per cent. But inflation does nothing for our real quality of life, and it is only because inflation was higher than expected that the nominal GNI growth rate hit double-digits.
PEMANDU’s GNI “target” is questionable. PEMANDU claims it has outperformed as GNI last year exceeded its RM797 billion target. Strangely enough, this “target” was declared only after the actual data was already out. Furthermore, the target was exceptionally low. As far back as October 2010, the Ministry of Finance was already projecting RM811 billion GNI. It is easy to exceed targets when they are low, and only declared after the fact. No real value is added, though.
Scoring is easy when you can shift the goalposts. The subterfuge by PEMANDU includes attempting to steal credit for 2010 economic growth, conflating GDP with GNI and using exchange rate movements to amplify performance. And these are just on the subject of headline economic performance. We shall uncover more ruses as we delve into the execution details. Stay tuned! Read the rest of this entry »
Di dalam bermusuh sesama sendiri
— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
May 31, 2012
31 MEI — Umno bukan sahaja bermasalah untuk menentang parti-parti pembangkang, parti itu juga sedang berhadapan dengan masalah dalamannya. Masalah dalaman Umno bukannya kecil. Ia melibatkan pergerakan dalam yang dilakukan oleh sekumpulan pemimpin Umno yang veteran dan yang muda untuk menyusun kembali hiraki kepimpinan parti itu.
Dalam situasi menghadapi pilihan raya umum, Umno juga sedang membuat persediaan untuk mengadakan perhimpunan agong parti dan perhimpunan kali ini melibatkan pemilihan kepimpinan di setiap peringkat. Gerakan-gerakan yang dilakukan oleh pemimpin-pemimpin tertinggi parti dalam isu pemilihan kali ini amat besar ertinya dalam menentukan masa depan setengah pemimpin tertinggi parti dan pemimpin muda yang tidak sabar untuk menongkah arus dengan cita-cita besar menjadi Pemegang tampok kuasa suatu hari nanti.
Sejak akhir-akhir ini perkembangan dalam Umno telah menampakkan bibit-bibit perpecahan kerana ada usaha untuk mengenepikan Muhyiddin agar kekosongan itu dapat diisi oleh pemimpin muda yang inginkan menjadi pelapis kepada Najib yang mereka jangka akan terpaksa mengakui yang beliau telah gagal dalam segala “avenue” untuk terus memegang tampuk pentadbiran negara dan akan meletakkan jawatan sebagai Perdana Menteri. Read the rest of this entry »
Is Malaysia under rule of law or law of jungle where Radio Free Sarawak presenter Peter John Jaban can disappear for 6 hours after arrival in Miri without anyone in authority claiming knowledge or responsibility?
Posted by Kit in Law & Order, Police, Sarawak on Thursday, 31 May 2012, 4:33 pm
Is Malaysia under the rule of law or the law of jungle where Radio Free Sarawak presenter Peter John Jaban can disappear for six hours after arrival in Miri this morning without anyone in authority claiming knowledge or responsibility?
I have just spoken to Jaban’s lawyer, Alan Ling, the DAP Piasau State Assemblyman in Miri, and he confirmed that he is completely in the dark as what to has happened to Jaban some six hours after he met him at the Miri Airport on his arrival from Kota Kinabalu.
Alan had just spoken to the Miri police less than an hour ago and he was again told that the Miri police had no instruction or was not in anyway involved in Jaban’s arrest or disappearance.
Jaban had arrived in Miri from Kota Kinabalu in an Air Asia flight at about 10.45 am and as the Miri police had assured Alan that there was no instruction for Jaban’s arrest, Jaban had left the airport for Miri town with the Miri PKR chairman Dr. Michael Teo.
On their way to town, three men in a Proton car stopped Teo and Jaban, and Jaban was taken away.
Six hours have passed and nobody knows what has happened to Jaban or he is, safe or otherwise – and whether the three men who took Jaban away were from the police specially dispatched to Miri to apprehend Jaban, and if so, why the Miri police have been kept completely in the dark. Read the rest of this entry »
PEMANDU hiding ETP failure, say critics
By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
May 31, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 — Putrajaya’s efficiency unit is “shifting the goalposts” to hide its failure to transform the economy since launching its ambitious Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) in October 2010, says the Research for Social Advancement (REFSA) think-tank.
The opposition-linked think-tank, which has published a series of critiques on the ETP that aims to double per capita income by 2020, said in a focus paper released today that the Performance Management and Delivery Unit’s (PEMANDU) gross national income (GNI) targets were lower than those set by the government.
REFSA noted that after the Finance Ministry (MoF) released the national income figure of RM830 billion for 2011, PEMANDU claimed the RM797 billion target had been exceeded. The unit under the Prime Minister’s Office is tasked with executing various transformation plans,
“Where did this RM797 billion target come from? It was not stated in the ETP Roadmap launched in Oct 2010. The MoF had already projected RM811 billion GNI for 2011, before the ETP Roadmap was launched.
“PEMANDU’s so-called ‘target’ is underwhelming. Taken at face value, PEMANDU is dragging down the Malaysian economy instead of transforming it. How else would you explain PEMANDU’s target for GNI being smaller than the forecast made by the MoF?,” REFSA said. Read the rest of this entry »
Proton is the price we pay for brainless patriotism
Koon Yew Yin
The founding of Proton National Bhd in 1983 was a big expensive mistake to begin with. Billions of ringgit from taxpayers have been lost in the process.
The haemorrhage could not be stanched until only recently when Khazanah Nasional Berhad sold off its 43 percent stake in Proton to DRB-Hicom a few months ago. Malaysians have been wondering – is this finally an end to the unhappy saga of the government’s foray into the production of a so-called ‘national car’ or will the burden on taxpayers and car owners be continued in other new ways?
A revisit of this white elephant project is necessary to generate a larger public discourse especially amongst taxpayers who should be more concerned as to where all the tax money they’ve been paying has gone to.
One simplistic assumption which appears to have been made by the initiator of the national car project Dr Mahathir Mohamad is that an industry that is growing yearly should be profitable. It is not. In fact, industry data shows that the total profits of all the car companies over the last decades amount to only a modest return, and that only for the fittest in the industry. Read the rest of this entry »
Let 2012 Hari Kaamatan and Hari Gawai usher the greatest empowerment of Kadazandusun and Dayak communities in 13th General Election in shaping the destiny of Malaysia in next 50 years
Wishing Hari Kaamatan and Hari Gawai to all Kadazandusun and Dayak communities in Sabah and Sarawak.
Hari Kaamatan and Hari Gawai this year is taking place at a momentous period in the nation’s history, with the country geared to hold its 13th General Election which will decide whether Malaysia is ready to take her place as one of the normal democracies in the world where power transition at the national level is determined through the ballot box and accepted as part and parcel of the parliamentary democratic process.
For quite some time, the conventional wisdom is that the 13th General Election will fall in June this year, but now all the political calculations have to be reworked after the unprecedented support of a quarter of a million Malaysians for Bersih 3.0 in the streets of Kuala Lumpur and by tens of thousands of Malaysians in over 80 cities across the globe.
This spontaneous outpouring of support for the Bersih campaign for a clean election had caught the Najib administration by surprise as the intelligence it received before April 28 was that Bersih 3.0 had “little traction” with the people and could not muster more than the crowd of Bersih 2.0, which brought out some 50,000 people.
Read the rest of this entry »
Sun setting on Penang’s factories?
Posted by Kit in Penang Government, Zairil Khir Johari on Wednesday, 30 May 2012, 11:05 am
By Zairil Khir Johari | May 30, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
MAY 30 — With the general election closing in, the Penang Barisan Nasional (BN) leadership is certainly not short on promises.
Having recently assumed the hot seat, newly-minted state BN chairman Teng Chang Yeow has been eagerly peddling the coalition’s “alternative blueprint” for Penang, an election manifesto that includes a plan to restore free port status to the island while turning it into an international tourism hub, along with plans for an international financial centre, innovation park and aquaculture hub in mainland Seberang Perai.
And then, as if to prove that his fancy labelling actually carries some philosophical substance, he goes to great lengths to explain his vision of a post-industrial future for Penang, where he promises to transform the services sector into an engine of growth as a replacement to the manufacturing industry.
Read the rest of this entry »
Bersih to snub Hanif-led probe panel
By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
May 30, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, May 30 — Bersih has joined the Bar Council in refusing to participate in the “Hanif panel” investigating police violence in the April 28 rally for electoral reforms, saying the probe would be “seriously flawed” under Tun Hanif Omar’s chairmanship.
Bersih co-chairman Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan repeated the council’s view that Hanif’s involvement in the panel, following the latter’s criticism of Bersih 3.0 protesters as communist sympathisers, would affect the impartiality of the investigation.
“Our stand has not changed. It is not personal, we have nothing personal against Tun Hanif but we think it is seriously flawed as he is chairing it (the panel).
“Justice must be seen to be done and he has already made a pronouncement about Bersih in a negative light, so we think he should not even be there (in the panel), let alone to chair it,” she told The Malaysian Insider yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s sweeping reforms: Winds of change or hot air?
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Elections, Human Rights, ISA on Tuesday, 29 May 2012, 9:59 pm
— Justina Chen
The Malaysian Insider
May 29, 2012
MAY 29 — Since Malaysia Day last September, the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak has undertaken a whirlwind of legislative and policy reforms, making Mr Najib arguably the most reformist Malaysian prime minister ever.
Political pundits remark that the rushed reforms which were undertaken without consultation with key stakeholders are a sign that a general election is imminent, perhaps to be held in less than two months.
Over the course of the last six months there have been a record number of legislative reforms including: repeal of the infamous Internal Security Act; amendments to the University and University Colleges Act and the Printing Presses and Publications Act; announcement of a minimum wage policy as well as the passing of the Security Offences Bill and Peaceful Assembly Act.
Despite the current air of optimism, the sincerity of the government to effectively implement lasting reform has repeatedly been called into question. Government critics cite the lack of consultation and the short time frame within which legislative reform has taken place as evidence that the reforms are merely political ploys designed solely to gain traction with voters. Read the rest of this entry »
Cabinet tomorrow should cut the Gordian Knot and end the rigmarole of two Bersih inquiries – dissolve Hanif panel and give full support to Suhakam inquiry
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Elections, Hishammuddin, Najib Razak, Police on Tuesday, 29 May 2012, 4:27 pm
The Cabinet tomorrow should cut the Gordian Knot and end the rigmarole of two Bersih inquiries – by dissolving the Hanif Omar “independent advisory panel” and giving full support to the Suhakam inquiry.
Yesterday, former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar announced the ten terms of reference of the “independent advisory board” into Bersih 3.0 violence.
Notably absent from the “independent advisory board” terms of reference is whether it is to establish Bersih 3.0 rally was an attempted coup d’etat by the Opposition to topple the government, that there were pro-communist individuals at Bersih 3.0 from demonstrations in the 1970s and whether there was use of provocateurs and children ala-“tactics of the communists” in the Bersih 3.0 rally or whether the panel is to take these three allegations as “accepted and proven truths” as Hanif himself had publicly endorsed them.
Hanif had defended his appointment, saying that his track record has proven that he acts with integrity.
It is precisely because Hanif should cherish his reputation of integrity that he should recuse himself as head of the Bersih 3.0 panel, as there is no way he could come out of it with his integrity unscathed after he had publicly made known his anti-Bersih 3.0 views. Read the rest of this entry »
Stop-work orders prove Pakatan strict on developers, says Penang CM
Posted by Kit in Housing, Lim Guan Eng, Penang on Tuesday, 29 May 2012, 2:37 pm
By Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
May 29, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — Lim Guan Eng revealed today that the Penang Municipal Council (MPPP) had issued 259 stop-work orders on housing developments since 2008, claiming this proves that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is stricter with developers than Barisan Nasional (BN).
The Penang chief minister pointed out that the number of orders issued by the council was a whopping seven times more than the 38 issued by the previous BN state administration from 2004 to 2007.
The Seberang Perai Municipal Council (MPSP) had issued 11 stop-work orders under PR’s rule from March 2008 until May 2012, whereas not one was issued under BN from 2003 to 2008.
“Facts have disproved BN’s claims that the Penang PR state government is the darling of developers at the expense of the public, especially those who need public housing,” Lim said.
“If given a choice, some developers would prefer the BN government which rarely issued stop-work orders, especially in MPSP where not a single stop-work order was issued.
“The huge increase in the number of stop-work orders issued proves that the PR Penang state government is more stringent in upholding the rule of law, demanding strict compliance with technical requirements and more unforgiving than BN,” he added.
However, Lim stressed that despite PR’s stringent rule, the administration remains business-friendly, provided that all investors and businessmen comply by the rules. Read the rest of this entry »
