JOAS condemns arrest of Committee Member, reiterates call for moratorium on development projects
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Orang Asli, Sarawak on Thursday, 13 August 2009, 11:34 pm
JOAS condemns arrest of Committee Member, reiterates call for moratorium on development projects
13 August 2009
JOAS condemns the arrest of Matek anak Geram early this morning by the police for the crime of allegedly restraining the workers of an oil palm plantation. He was taken into custody by ten fully-armed police personnel at 8.45am and detained for two hours at the Mukah Police Station and charged for allegedly wrongfully restraining the workers of an oil palm plantation company, Saradu Plantations Sdn Bhd. under section 341 of the Penal Code before being released on bail.
Matek, an Iban farmer, a member of TAHABAS (Sarawak Native Customary Rights Network) and Committee Member of JOAS was unarmed when he was arrested by the fully-armed police. For over a year, Matek and his immediate family have been guarding their property against Saradu Plantations who have been encroaching on their native lands. In individual shifts, they have blocked an access road built on their land. JOAS questions the heavy use of force and intimidation against one unarmed man and calls for neutrality of the state infrastructure in this legal dispute between the private company and indigenous peoples.
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SESB’s madness in Sandakan
Letter
By Saves DK
SESB’s irregular blackouts in Sandakan is appalling and causing a lot of disruptions to our daily lives.
If SESB really ‘CARE’ about Sandakan folks and are considerate, they would have tried to minimize the disruptions by at least:
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publish accurate advanced notice of blackout times and areas in the local newspapers, as they used to do before they were pushing for the proposed coal power plant;
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STICK TO their advanced notice (if published);
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have NO blackout in business areas during day time/business hours, and NO blackout in residential areas during evening and night;
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have a fair blackout schedule for the WHOLE of Sabah, not let it happen to only Sandakan/Tawau/East Coast.
Many have observed that for the first 2 weeks of August, there was NO blackout in many areas in Kota Kinabalu/West Coast at all, but by contrast, there were DAILY blackouts almost everywhere in the East Coast. WHY is that so?! (If the malfunctioning power plant is located in the West Coast, this would be even more puzzling.)
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Police and MACC should commence immediate investigations into Tiong King Sing’s allegations against Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat, particularly over the former’s RM10 million donation to Ong last year for MCA divisions
Posted by Kit in Corruption, PKFZ on Thursday, 13 August 2009, 3:20 pm
At 1.40 pm at the SS2 Police Station, Petaling Jaya, I lodged the following report against the MCA President and Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat and the Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB) CEO and MP for Bintulu, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing asking for police to commence immediate investigations into Tiong allegations against Ong, particularly over Tiong’s RM10 million donation to Ong last year for MCA divisions.
My police report, SEA PARK/006222/09 reads:
“This is to lodge a police report on what appeared in all the media today, including New Straits Times, Star, the Sun, Sin Chew Daily, Nanyang Siang Pau, China Press, Guang Ming, Kwong Wah Yit Poh and Oriental Daily,Berita Harian, as well as electronic media like Malaysiakini and Malaysian Insider viz:
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Statement by the chief executive of Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd and MP for Bintulu, Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing that he donated RM10 million to Transport Minister and MCA President, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat last year;
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Statement by the deputy CEO of Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd Datuk Faizal Abdullah that Ong had used the company’s jet five times incurring US$40,000 for the services; and
The art of Managing a Crisis…do we want one?
Posted by Kit in Hussein Hamid, Pakatan Rakyat, Post-2008 general election on Thursday, 13 August 2009, 9:39 am
Me thinks something is stirring in the Pakatan Rakyat and UMNO camps. The winds of change seems to blow ever so slowly. Diversions are being thrown around here and there by Pakatan Rakyat. The issue of selling beers in Selangor seem to take a life of its own unencumbered by thoughts of Pakatan unity. There is the ‘life and death struggle’ of Pakatan Rakyat in Selangor and the internal ‘bickering’ between PAS and DAP. For Barisan they want Selangor back and the word is out that they are confident enough to look at holding elections in Perak…it all points to the classic diversionary tactics of ‘creating a crisis’ – but by whom? Barisan or Pakatan?
What is self-evident now is that there is a growing momentum towards creating a Malaysia the people are unfamiliar with. The dismantling of the great racial divide, the real possibility of Pakatan Rakyat emerging as the next Government after the General Elections (at worse an effective opposition) and the potential demise of UMNO and the Barisan Coalition it leads as the Party in power.
Concurrently as part and parcel of this progression there is an increasing demand by the people for transparency and openness in Government – akin to Putri Gunung Ledang agreeing to marry the Sultan if given:
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ASEAN must condemn ASSK’s 18-month house arrest as an unacceptable violation of ASEAN Charter on human rights
Posted by Kit in ASEAN, Burma, Human Rights on Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 2:48 pm
ASEAN and individual ASEAN governments must make clear their condemnation of another 18-month house arrest of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi by the Myanmese military junta as an unacceptable violation of ASEAN Charter on Human Rights.
ASEAN Foreign Ministers at their meeting in Phuket last month had endorsed the Terms of Reference (TOR) of the ASEAN Commission on Human Rights, which is to be launched at the ASEAN Summit in October but the latest egregious violation of human rights by the Myanmar military junta raises the question whether such an ASEAN Human Rights Commission would represent a step forward in the promotion and protection of human rights or just a figleaf to give legitimacy to continuing gross human rights violations in the region.
The continued house arrest of Suu Kyi represents at least four things:
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Firstly, the mortal fear the Myanmar military junta has for the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Laureate who had spent 14 of the past 20 years in incarceration and recognition her unsurpassed power to evoke the hopes of the people of Burma for democracy, justice and national reconciliation. This is the reason for the term of 18 months of additional house arrest, barring her from campaigning in next year’s national elections although the Myanmar military junta had already in a sham referendum written a new constitution to exclude her from being a candidate.
What is wrong with Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government?
Posted by Kit in Pakatan Rakyat on Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 6:13 am
(This is one response to an earlier post expressing concern about what is happening to the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government which I think is important enough to share in the public domain to elicit a wider discussion. – Kit)
There is certainly the “need to be worried” matter in Selangor. One quote going around from some prominent businessmen is that ” It took BN 50 yrs to become so arrogant, but it took PR only 1(one) year to be just as arrogant”. Nowhere is that business sentiment more acutely felt than amongst some housing developers.
The aetiology is of course multifactorial. Many unscrupulous and other less-than-straight developers had ridden on the past (less transparent) govt to execute projects that left much bitter aftertaste/heartaches amongst unconsulted residents in a forced topdown approach. Unfortunately in yesteryears (and even recently) REHDA had not come down hard on these recalitrants, thus much of society had tarred all and sundry developers in the same manner. Read the rest of this entry »
Principled Politics
Posted by Kit in Hussein Hamid, Politics on Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 5:00 am
Why is it that I, as a Malay, show much disrespect to Najib? Why are there so many Hang Jebats as oppose to Hang Tuahs in this time of ours – ready to do verbal battle with our leaders? Menderhaka they say. Sometimes after I have written my piece I read them and I am appalled at the venom of what I write. While we are Hang Jebats we do what we do because of what Hang Tuah had said “Takkan Melayu Hilang di Dunia”. If we do not care for our survival as a viable partner to the other races in our country then who will?
We want to tell the Malays and the people of our country that there is an alternative to the excesses of the past fifty years when UMNO were in power and got totally carried away. You not only systematically steal from our national treasuries but also take from other Malays what as taken years to acquire. How else do you explain the use of the EPF and Petronas funds to bail out your failures?
If you ask how can DAP, Keadilan and PAS work together towards a common goal when their fundamental beliefs are so divisive? I say this….how about principled politics?
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Liow Tiong Lai, Where are You? Karen Lee looking for you
At 5.10 pm, on my blog this morning re: “Large-scale H1N1 awareness campaign welcome but why so belated – after 33 deaths and some 2,000 cases?” , I received this heart-rending post from a mother, Karen Lee from Kota Kemuning, worried about her five-year-old son in the A (H1N1) flu killer pandemic, which has claimed 38 lives since the first death was reported 26 days ago on July 16 and recorded 2,253 cases since the first H1N1 case less than three months ago on May 15, 2009..
Karen wants to ask the Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai four questions about the A (H1N1) flu pandemic and quite desperate for getting an immediate reply as her son’s life is “at stake”.
These four questions are: Read the rest of this entry »
Open Letter to PAC Chairman Azmi Khalid that he should avoid conflict-of-interest as former Cabinet Minister in 2007 and disqualify himself from conducting the PAC inquiry into the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Parliament, PKFZ on Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 4:06 pm
YB Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid,
Chairman,
Public Accounts Committee,
Chairman
11th August 2009
YB Datuk Seri,
I take the liberty through this Open Letter to ask you to avoid conflict-of-interest as former Cabinet Minister in 2007 to disqualify yourself from conducting the Public Accounts Committee inquiry into the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.
I had earlier written to you in a letter dated 17th June 2009 asking you to step down as Chairman of the PAC inquiry into the PKFZ scandal as you were a Cabinet Minister from 2004 to 2008, a period when the previous Cabinet had made various decisions concerning PKFZ, including giving retrospective approval for the four Letters of Support unlawfully issued by the two previous Transport Ministers, Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik and Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy to guarantee the RM4 billion bonds issued by the PKFZ turnkey developer, Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB) as well as the RM4.6 billion Cabinet decision to bail out PKFZ.
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As I see it
Posted by Kit in Hussein Hamid, Pakatan Rakyat on Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 3:44 pm
By Hussein Hamid
steadyaku47
The past:
Big win gives Malaysia’s Abdullah mandate
The 2004 elections won by Barisaan’s Nasional was the biggest for any Political Party in Malaysian history. With a parliamentary majority of over two thirds, the multi ethnic Barisan Nasional coalition that UMNO heads can pass law uncontested. This success was matched in polls for the state assemblies with Barisan winning 12 of the 13 states.
This puts to rest the challenge of PAS in the Malay heartland states in the North and seemed to wipe out Keadilan.
Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, faced a recount in her seat, which was once occupied by her husband Anwar Ibrahim who is now serving a 15-year jail term for sodomy and abuse of power, and the party looked unlikely to win any other seats.
Current realities: Read the rest of this entry »
After being so badly savaged, can Najib’s 1Malaysia be salvaged?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Tuesday, 11 August 2009, 12:50 pm
In just four months of the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak unveiling his new and gleaming “1Malaysia” motto, the UMNO-owned Utusan Malaysia is already assuming the mantle of the “Undertaker” to bury Najib’s “1Malaysia” slogan with its recent series of unabashedly divisive and remorselessly seditious incitement of racial hatred and disharmony in plural Malaysia.
When Najib could fail the first test to stand up by his “1Malaysia” concept in just 130 days as Prime Minister, not from challenges from outside but threats from within, what credibility can the Prime Minister command to continue to advocate the concept of “1Malaysia”?
Is Najib going to order a halt to the millions or even tens of millions of ringgit which had been spent or budgeted for a massive nation-wide promotion of the “1Malaysia” concept when it is so publicly repudiated, almost on a daily basis, by Umno leaders and Umno institutions like Utusan Malaysia?
Yesterday, Najib called on the police to take action against those who incite racial and religious tensions.
Read the rest of this entry »
Large-scale H1N1 awareness campaign welcome but why so belated – after 33 deaths and some 2,000 cases?
The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday announced that the government will launch a large-scale public awareness campaign on influenza A(H1N1) beginning this week to educate the public on the pandemic in view of the worsening scenario in the country.
This is a welcome though belated initiative and the questions uppermost in everyone’s mind is why this decision was taken so late, after 33 deaths and some 2,000 cases.
Furthermore, why must it take the Prime Minister to intervene personally before such a decision is taken? What then is the use of having a Health Minister?
Would more lives had been saved if the large-scale public awareness campaign had been launched when the first death from the A (H1N1) flu had occurred 25 days ago on July 16?
It is not only the Health Minister who had failed to provide the proper leadership in the campaign against A (H1N1) flu, even the Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin who headed the inter-ministerial committee on A (H1N1) was guilty of a most flippant and irresponsible attitude with his shocking remark: “Even if I am health minister, I cannot guarantee your safety.”
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Why has Najib condoned the Umno-inspired hysteria and gunning for Loke Siew Fook for insulting the Perak royalty and Islam when these allegations are completely groundless?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Monday, 10 August 2009, 5:00 pm
What has the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak joined in the Umno-inspired hysteria and gunning for DAPSY chief and MP for Rasah Loke Siew Fook for insulting the Perak royalty and Islam when these allegations are completely groundless?
This morning, Najib directed the relevant authorities to investigate Loke.
In directing the relevant authorities to investigate Loke without any background or preliminary check as to whether the DAPSY chief had make such grave allegations on his blog, and talking about offences under the Sedition Act, Najib is acting most irresponsibly as Prime Minister as he was in fact helping to fan the Umno-inspired hysteria that there is a systematic attack on Islam and the royalty.
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Why is MACC wasting time trying to find out whether all 42 advisory panel members share adverse opinions about MACC when it should be giving top priority to end gross abuses and malpractices to restore public confidence?
Posted by Kit in Crime, Teoh Beng Hock on Monday, 10 August 2009, 3:43 pm
Why is the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) wasting time trying to find out whether all the 42 MACC advisory panel members share adverse opinions about the MACC following the mysterious death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock when it should be giving top priority to end gross abuses and malpractices to restore public confidence in it as Malaysia’s version of Hong Kong-style Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC)?
It is reported by Malaysiakini today that emails had been sent out recently by the secretariat to 33 members of the MACC Advisory Panel following six “offending” media statements made by panel members Ramon Navaratnam and Robert Phang.
The MACC wanted the views of the other panel members as it felt that the views of the two “were not supportive of the establishment of the anti-corruption body and wanted to know the views of other panel members on the issue”.
MACC is now run by narrow-minded and bigoted people who equate criticisms of MACC failings as being anti-MACC.
Malaysiakini reported that not everyone has responded so far, and of the handful who did, not even one panel member has been critical of Navaratnam or Phang.
Panel members Simon Sipaun and Yong Poh Kon were mentioned in the Malaysiakini report as members who were “equally critical” in their response to the MACC.
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Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government facing a life-and-death threat with a high-powered Umno-BN conspiracy to topple it at all costs and restore Umno-BN rule in Selangor as in Perak six months ago
Posted by Kit in Pakatan Rakyat on Monday, 10 August 2009, 12:38 pm
The Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government is facing a life-and-death threat with a high-powered Umno-BN conspiracy to topple it at all costs and restore Umno-BN rule in Selangor as in Perak six months ago.
This is not an ordinary challenge but a no-holds-barred onslaught and take-no-prisoners assault mobilising all available means and resources, including the most unethical and illegal, whether at state or national level, whether government or outside like the mass media, to destroy the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government and cause the break-up of Pakatan Rakyat.
DAP and Pakatan Rakyat leaders in Selangor and in the country should be fully aware of this latest life-and-death threat to the 17-month-old Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government as testified by two pronouncements by the two top Umno leaders today.
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Fraudulent Defenders of Our Faith
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, Religion on Monday, 10 August 2009, 9:40 am
By M. Bakri Musa
With Ramadan soon upon us, Muslims everywhere are caught up in a heightened sense of spirituality. That is the good news.
Take last Thursday evening, for example. The San Jose, California, masjid was inundated with believers staying late into the night. It was the 15th of Shaaban, an especially blessed time in the Muslim calendar. Shaaban is the month before Ramadan, and serves as a ‘warm-up’ to it. As my Imam Ilyas noted wryly in his Friday khutba, what struck him was that many that evening had never before set foot on the premises. That is the bad news.
Malays too are struck by this wave of religious fervor with the impending arrival of Ramadan. Thus the recent local governmental agency raid on a 7-Eleven store in Selangor, stripping the store of its beer inventory. Never mind that the store had been selling that beverage for decades without any harassment from the authorities.
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Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia’s immunity to flout the law by continuously inciting racial hatred and religious discord a public slap-in-the-face for Najib’s 1Malaysia concept
Posted by Kit in nation building on Sunday, 9 August 2009, 3:01 pm
Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia’s immunity to flout the law by continuously inciting racial hatred and religious discord is a disgrace to Malaysian journalism and a public slap-in-the-face for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept.
Just five days ago, Utusan Malaysia carried an editorial “Tidak sedarkah Melayu sedang di hina?” and an article “Melayu jangan jadi bacul” spouting unabashed rank racism, incitement and sedition totally subversive of Najib’s 1Malaysia slogan.
Today, Utusan Mingguan tried to create an explosive tinderbox by making baseless but incendiary allegations in a multi-religious Malaysia that DAP is anti-Islam in its Sunday editorial “DAP anti-Islam?”
Read the rest of this entry »
RACE: TIME FOR A NEW BEGINNING
Posted by Kit in nation building on Sunday, 9 August 2009, 12:34 pm
by Tengku Razaleigh
(Speech at Kelab Umno Australia Seminar “Racial Integration and its Challenges” in Melbourne on Sunday 9th August 2009)
RACE: TIME FOR A NEW BEGINNING
Distance, home and reflection
1) The opportunity to study abroad is gift. I remember my days as a student in Belfast so long ago. Now as then, overseas study gives us the chance to be educated at some of the finest, best established institutions of higher learning anywhere, and to be exposed to the best that has been thought and done, and to measure ourselves against the highest standards. It is an opportunity to see the world.
2) Travel and living abroad takes us far away from home, but in doing so it also brings us closer to ourselves, and closer to home. Have you experienced this? Have you felt time and distance making you more conscious of how unique and precious the places, relationships, colours, smells and yes, tastes, of home are? Distance can help us see things more clearly. Home is such an immediate, dense and total experience that we often need to go away to see its contours. Home is such an emotional experience that we often understand it better in the coolness of distance. We sometimes need the elevation of distance to see the map of our own country.
3) I want to use this privileged distance that we now share, here in Melbourne, to speak frankly with you today about a matter that is usually so tightly wound up, so emotional, that at a national level we have not been able to have a rational discussion about it.
4) I want to invite you to look across this distance at the map of the life in common that we call our country. I want to look across the distance of fifty two years of independence, across changes over my own lifetime, to understand where we have come from as a nation and where we are going. My topic is race and racial consciousness in Malaysian life, and especially in our politics. Read the rest of this entry »
Muhyiddin – honour Najib’s pledge that “The era where the government knows best is over” and allow parents the choice to retain the policy of teaching Science and Mathematics in English for their children
Posted by Kit in Education, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak on Sunday, 9 August 2009, 12:02 pm
When Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced his Cabinet four months ago on April 10, 2009, he built on his motto of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” a week earlier to be “a government with new approaches for new times – a government that places a priority on performance, because the people must come first”.
Najib declared: “The era where the government knows best is over. We can only achieve our ambition for Malaysia if the government and the people, in a unified effort, work together for success and progress”.
We are only in the First 128 Days of Najib’s premiership, but his injunctions and exhortations of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” and that “The era where the government knows best is over” had been completely ignored or forgotten by his Cabinet and bureaucracy.
Otherwise, the parents of SMK Seri Hartamas students in Kuala Lumpur would not have been locked out of the school yesterday when the school’s Parent-Teacher Association wanted to hold a properly-convened extraordinary general meeting to retain the PPSMI policy on the teaching of of science and mathematics in English in their school in 2012. Read the rest of this entry »
Oh No !! What Have I Got Myself Into?
Posted by Kit in Hussein Hamid, UMNO on Sunday, 9 August 2009, 5:00 am
By Hussein Hamid
steadyaku47
In the beginning UMNO and MCA had a tacit understanding that the Malays will have control of Political Power while the Chinese – the Economy. This arrangement brought with it all the intrigues and excesses that springs up when the Malays were in control of licenses and contracts that the Chinese business needed to do businesses and in return the Chinese made contributions during elections (that is how they became known as buy elections !!) up front services fees, kick backs and went into joint ventures with Bumiputra Companies and gave ‘directorship’ to Malays in Chinese owned companies.
Politics. Patronage and Profit.
This is the thing I cannot understand. Mahathir was not able to see where this lethal combination of Politics, Patronage and Profit will lead to? He is suppose to be quite smart. Was he under the mistaken belief that he would be able to ‘manage’ the situation to his personal advantage? Which in hindsight he did because to stay in office for 22 years Read the rest of this entry »
