FMT News |  |
- Riff-raff delegates don’t represent Malays
- BN must abandon ‘culture of fear’
- Govt says it again: Lynas must remove waste
- Deepak: Anwar is not behind me
- Roboh tempat suci: MPS sedia laporan
- Share prices close higher
- Hong Kong, Singapore, China mark 12/12/12 with mass weddings
- Singapore Airline to focus on Asia after Virgin divestment
- ‘Rosmah told me to look for Bala’
- Singapore Speaker resigns in fresh sex scandal
- China ‘regrets’ N Korea rocket launch
- Jerusalem sites sprayed with anti-Christian graffiti
- North Korea successfully launches long-range rocket
- Australian neo-Nazis jailed for attack on Asian student
- Businessman denies ex-IGP’s allegations
- Report: Apple works with Asian suppliers to test new TV
- Obama tops Twitter highlights 2012
- SMS invites Indian nationals to Putrajaya rally
- Syarat lesen salun bukan Islam ditangguh
- NRD to rectify religious status error in Sabah
- Fernandes admits QPR disaster
- ‘MB Terengganu, pertahankan hak kita’
- Perhilitan, learn from the past, not live in it
- MIC men accused of roughing up Jui Meng
- Share prices higher mid-afternoon
- Reports: Japan’s Suntory eyes US$6.0b listing
- Angry house buyers to march to MB’s office
- Bollywood’s ‘star wives’ mean business
- ‘The Godfather of World Music’
- India launches probe into Wal-Mart lobbying report
- Economists cut Singapore 2012, 2013 growth forecasts
- Pacquiao says he will rise again
- Lynas halts trading for fourth time
- No ‘political tsunami’ in Sabah, says PBS
- Asian markets up on US talks, unmoved by N.Korea test
- Najib, name schools which got the RM540m
- Donna Summer to join Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- Sabah CPO price plunge inevitable
- Ranking for key subjects worrying, BN blamed
- Ravi Shankar dies at age 92
- Demonstrasi Baling ’74: Simbol kebangkitan rakyat
- Hundreds turn up for ‘stateless Indians’ protest
- Kajian: AES terbukti hanya kaut untung
- Share prices remain high in mid-morning trading
- International cooperation vital to tackle financial risks, says Zeti
- Sayangkan Umno, Shafie harus diketepikan
- Group wants referendum on Pengerang graves
- Extinct lizard named after Obama
- MCMC justifies 4G award to newcomer Puncak Semangat
- Malakoff proposes relisting on Bursa next year
| Riff-raff delegates don’t represent Malays Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:04 PM PST
And as always, Umno president Najib Tun Razak played to the gallery. He performed to get the approval of the riff-raffs who bought themselves the right to become delegates. These empty vessels were tripping over each other to get noticed by the president. Najib, we all know, wants approval from the people; who will fight like Churchill and move like Jagger. He is like Caesar, an honourable man. He will follow the wishes of the people even though the "people" means around 2,500 delegates in the hall. The great deception allowed Najib to shout at the close of the assembly that one vote for PKR means compromising the Muslims’ beliefs. One vote for PAS means hell breaking loose and one vote for DAP means doom for Malays. In his "performance", everyone is to be blamed for the current situation in the country among the Malays, except Umno. In the book, "The Road to Serfdom", author Austrian economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek wrote: “When the course of civilization takes an unexpected turn – when instead of continued progress which we have come to expect, we find ourselves threatened… we naturally blame everything but ourselves.” It appears Umno has done just that. It blames everyone else except itself. Inconvenient truth It was a climate of either them or us at the assembly. That was the mindset that produced some of the most pugnacious statements ever to come out from PWTC. Overall, the speeches were fiery, seditious and hostile. But here is the inconvenient truth for Umno. We (the people) are not intimidated What was the big word Najib used? Fata Morgana? It was a word probably understood by Najib alone. Najib must have been watching reruns of the TV series Merlin. In the series, Morgana is a female witch who created mirages to lure unsuspecting victims to their fatal ends. The only mirages created here are those witch-crafted by Umno. Let us be clear about one important fact. The exit of Umno does not mean the demise of the country. The exit of Umno only means the end of world where a selected few get rich riding on the manipulated emotions of the majority. It will be the end of a world where one gets ahead by cutting corners and leveraging political connections instead of using your own abilities. The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but has now joined DAP. He is a FMT columnist.      |
| BN must abandon ‘culture of fear’ Posted: 12 Dec 2012 03:02 PM PST
This limitation on freedom, however, has been the very basis of the 55-year rule of the Barisan National. The recent spate of changes in Malaysia’s laws did not enlarge the freedoms that are needed for a real democracy to function. Instead, the BN regime replaced the old laws with new ones that gave the BN government more or less the same powers to "bully" its opponents. A significant trend in the anti-opposition campaign by the BN is the daily dose of poison TV and press on PKR. From Anwar Ibrahim to Nurul Izzah or Rafizi Ramli, the top members of PKR are not given a minute of relief. As a result of these actions, the ruling coalition is seen as imposing its views as well as its power on its political opponents; hoping for an unfair fight during the upcoming general election. This is reminiscent of the "reformasi" days when a culture of fear was imposed on the public in general. On the onset of the clampdown on the reform movement in Kuala Lumpur, appeared the first version of the "Culture of Fear" which narrated the dangers the public faced in seeking the truth on the events in the country. At that time, with Anwar in jail and the Sodomy I case at its height, there was a gag on local journalists and the dark forces were hunting down the online citizens in a clear attempt at clamping down on the freedom the Internet offered. In today’s version of events, it appears the BN had hopes that with Anwar and Azmin Ali as well as the Bersih top leaders "disabled" with the court cases against them, the BN will whisk into an outright victory in the overly delayed election. Was the BN hoping for an easy fight in which it can win and maintain its grip on power with unfair means? Such unfair practices are undemocratic but it appears that the BN does not want to relinquish on its unfair and undemocratic practices, 55 years on. It is also correct to state that the BN is attempting to distort the image of its opponents with the many negative statements against PKR, Bersih and the peaceful demonstrators, portraying them as the devil and enemies of the state. Opposition seen as ‘victims’ While it is normal for a ruling coalition to adopt a negative attitude towards its opponents, the very fact that it portrays the opposition as the party that will bankrupt the nation is unbelievable. The opposition has proven itself with its massively great performances in the states it controls. Most of these states are producing positive economic results, even garnering surpluses whereas under the BN they were in the deficit. Is it not possible that the harsh policies and tactics used by successive BN regimes throughout the years is hurting BN more than Pakatan Rakyat? It is clear that such policies and tactics have led the country to the state of chaos in which it is now. The ghosts from the past are now haunting the BN to the extent that it is panicking in making further mistakes. Browsing through news items since 2008, it is also clear that the BN has made so many mistakes that it is not going to stop now on the eve of the crucial polls. This is not only damaging to BN but also damning to its many supporters and diehards. The prosecuting of the Bersih movement, for example, and targeting the two top leaders of PKR is yet another mistake that will haunt BN. Attacking Anwar on nonsensical matters shows how "democratic" BN is. Will this act as a stigma on the face of BN candidates? Will such policies not lead the people to act against BN itself by choosing for the same opponents BN has magnified as the pain and at times "traitors" to the nation? In reality, despite the bad mouthing and the evil painting of its opponents as seen in the BN- controlled mainstream media, there is no doubt that a majority of the voting population is aware of what they have to do in the next polls. The Malaysian authorities are seen as a bully while the actions of their supporters in opposition rallies and speeches are seen as the true image of the current regime. It is not a kind image at all with the stone throwing, road blocks and nail-littered roads where the Anwar convoy were heading not so long ago. Stop harassing the opposition To some people, such drastic measures against the opposition portrays BN’s image as one of a rough but desperate regime. It also tells the people that BN, though it is saying the contrary, despises the freedom of its opponents. This to the extent that it is even preventing a legitimate opposition from campaigning without hassle. Were these being done with the hope that the people will be frightened to attend opposition rallies? That is possible. Then again, such tactics can have a boomerang effect on BN. Instead of forcing the people to see Pakatan as a danger to the nation – as is claimed by BN – it portrays the opposition as a victim. In essence, the people see the opposition as the one group that is attempting to defend the rights of the people and are being victimised by the regime in place. BN has to buckle up and portray a better, kinder and more democratic image of itself by roping in its street fighters. It also has to stop harassing the opposition in a bid to frighten the people who want to listen to both sides of the political divide. That way, BN will gain more credibility towards the fence-sitters, amongst others, whose votes will be crucial in the upcoming election. Ali Cordoba writes extensively on local politics.    |
| Govt says it again: Lynas must remove waste Posted: 12 Dec 2012 07:32 AM PST
The ministers are International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Maximus Ongkili, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Unggah Embas and Health Minister LiowTiong Lai. They said that the Cabinet today reaffirmed the joint statement they had made on Dec 10 relating to the removal of the residue out of the country. “Reiterating that public health and safety is the highest priority, the government will ensure that all related government agencies closely monitor the operation of LAMP, especially on the handling and the management of the residue generated by it,” they said in the statement. This is consistent with the conditions stated in the Temporary Operating Licence (TOL). In their earlier statement, the ministers said the obligation imposed on Lynas in this matter is very clear, and that the government would not compromise the health and safety of the people and the environment in dealing with the issue of Lynas. Bernama Also read:
Lynas' waste: Rakyat watching govt's next move    |
| Deepak: Anwar is not behind me Posted: 12 Dec 2012 02:42 AM PST
Speaking to FMT today, he claimed that his detractors cooked up a story from the video footage that showed him mentioning several PKR leaders, including Anwar. The footage (photo: below) has been widely circulated by pro-Umno bloggers. "I did not say that I met Anwar," he said. "What I said and what was written (in the blog) are two different things." He challenged the person who recorded the video to release the entire footage and the transcript of what he had said. Last week, pro-Umno blogger Papa Gomo posted a two-minute clip in which Deepak is seen speaking to a few people off camera. Aside from Anwar, Deepak also mentioned Subang MP R Sivarasa and PKR vice-presidents N Surendran and Nurul Izzah in the video. "So he said I give you the place, whatever you want to do I help you, but you have to help me lah. Of course it is understood lah," said the man in the video. The video, according to Papa Gomo, was proof that Deepak had met with Anwar before he began his attacks against Najib and his wife Rosmah Mansor on Nov 27. Video take at Umno leader’s house "I didn’t know Anwar. And Sivarasa only came in for my court case at the last juncture. I never met Anwar in regard to this matter." The 40-year-old businessman also told FMT that the video was recorded at the house of an Umno supreme council member who, he claimed, had tried to "silence" him. Without disclosing his name, Deepak claimed that the Umno leader was the one who met him on Nov 30 and asked him not to make any further statement until Umno's annual general assembly was concluded on Dec 1. Deepak had made his first exposé on Nov 28. He said he was not a member of any political party and that his only interest was business. He claimed the government had caused a lot of disruption to his business after a land dispute involving him and Umno senator Raja Roopiah Abdullah. Also read: 'Video proves Anwar is behind Deepak'    |
| Roboh tempat suci: MPS sedia laporan Posted: 12 Dec 2012 02:22 AM PST  SHAH ALAM: Kajian terperinci berhubung isu perobohan tempat suci (shrine) dalam perkarangan sebuah rumah di Sepang baru-baru ini sedang dijalankan oleh Majlis Perbandaran Sepang (MPS). “Tidak lama lagi kita akan terima laporan atas kajian yang dibuat itu. Dalam hal ini kita kena beri peluang kepada PBT tersebut untuk menjelaskan tindakan mereka,” kata Menteri Besar Selangor Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim. Beliau berkata demikian ketika diminta memberi pandangan berhubung isu yang menimbulkan kontroversi itu dalam sidang media di Bangunan Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri (SUK) di sini hari ini. Pada Sabtu lalu, ratusan penganut agama Hindu mengadakan tunjuk perasaan di luar bangunan SUK bagi membantah terhadap kerajaan negeri Selangor yang didakwa ‘merestui’ tindakan merobohkan tempat suci itu. Sementara itu, mengulas mengenai laporan media berhubung analisa syarikat antarabangsa, JP Morgan bahawa prestasi ekonomi Malaysia akan baik sekiranya Barisan Nasional terus menguasai Kerajaan Persekutuan, beliau berkata ia hanya percubaan untuk menakut-nakutkan rakyat. Beliau menegur syarikat tersebut supaya lebih berwaspada dengan analisa tersebut agar tidak dilihat sebagai menyebelahi mana-mana pihak. “Antara faktor-faktor yang tidak diambil kira dalam analisa yang sedia ada adalah kesan buruk penswastaan di Malaysia, yang semakin membebankan rakyat dengan kerugian tetapi mengagihkan keuntungan hanya kepada pihak swasta. “Kejadian ini semakin meningkat di bawah Kerajaan Persekutuan di mana rakyat berhadapan risiko kewangan tetapi hanya syarikat konsesi yang menikmati keuntungan. “Kepercayaan bahawa perubahan politik serta reformasi kerajaan Persekutuan akan mengakibatkan kemelut ekonomi adalah tidak wajar,” katanya. Adun Permatang berbohong Mengenai isu asrama Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor (Kuis), Abdul Khalid mendakwa Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Permatang dari Barisan Nasional, Sulaiman Razak bercakap bohong. Ujar beliau, perjanjian pembinaan dan penswastaan asrama adalah antara syarikat milik Adun Permatang dan Majlis Agama Islam Selangor (Mais). Oleh itu kuasa untuk memutuskan sebarang keputusan dalam kolej itu bukan dari kerajaan Selangor. Beliau menasihatkan agar Kuis dan Mais melakukan penyusunan semula untuk mengurangkan beban bayaran asrama oleh para pelajar. Adalah dipercayai syarikat milik Sulaiman telah menaikkan (mark-up) kos pembinaan bangunan asrama terlalu tinggi sehingga bayaran sewa asrama menjadi begitu mahal dan membebankan para pelajar.    |
| Posted: 12 Dec 2012 02:18 AM PST
The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 8.18 points higher at 1,649.75, lifted by gains in key finance stocks. The index moved between 1,643.51 and 1,650.85 throughout the day after opening 2.58 points higher at 1,644.15. Public Bank rose 10 sen to RM15.90 while Hong Leong Financial group added 30 sen to RM13.20. Maybank Investment Bank Bhd vice-president, head of retail research, equity markets, Lee Cheng Hooi, said the local bourse was moved by defensive and telecommunication stocks. “It is the month-end window-dressing activity which saw counters stabilising before the year-end. On a year-on-year basis, the stock market is looking to perform better,” he told Bernama. Telekom Malaysia added 12 sen to RM5.80 while DiGi rose 10 sen to end the day at RM5. In regional markets, Lee said investors responded well to the positive news emerging out of the United States. “However, they still remained cautious over whether the US government could settle the fiscal cliff,” he added. Volume rose to 950.47 million shares, worth RM1.77 billion, from the 899.63 million shares, worth RM1.6 billion, transacted yesterday. The Finance Index gained 44.41 points to 15,153.85, the Industrial Index added 15.89 points to 2,721.14 and the Plantation Index surged 18.64 points to 7,965.25. The FBM Ace Index lost 4.21 points to 4,152.86, the FBM Mid 70 Index perked 23.52 points to 12,15.81, and the FBM Emas Index surged 47.19 points to 11,195.86, with the FBMT100 chalked up 48.58 points to 11,051.58. Among actives, Tiger Synergy and DSC Solutions eased 1.5 sen each to 36.5 sen and 15 sen, respectively, while Patimas Computers and Compugates earned half-a-sen each to 2.5 sen and nine sen, respectively. Of heavyweights, Maybank was two sen higher at RM9.07, Sime Darby rose eight sen to RM9.20, Axiata added seven sen to RM6.40 while CIMB was flat at RM7.60. Volume on the Main Market strengthened to 776.74 million units, worth RM1.75 billion, from 734.14 million units, valued at RM1.57 billion, recorded yesterday. Turnover on the ACE Market declined to 117.02 million shares, worth RM17.39 million, from Tuesday’s 124.4 million shares worth RM19.72 million. Warrants expanded to 55.2 million units, worth RM6.93 million, from 38.79 million units, worth RM3.89 million, recorded yesterday. Consumer products accounted for 53.18 million shares on the Main Market, industrial products 135.35 million, construction 22.44 million, trade and services 314.23 million, technology 59.4 million, infrastructure 15.76 million, finance 49.06 million, hotels 290,200, properties 96.68 million, plantations 12.83 million, mining 65,800, REITs 18.41 million and closed/fund 54,400. - Bernama    |
| Hong Kong, Singapore, China mark 12/12/12 with mass weddings Posted: 12 Dec 2012 02:10 AM PST
Authorities in Hong Kong and Singapore respectively said 696 and 540 couples were scheduled to attend marriage registries, continuing a trend which has seen couples flocking to marry on 11/11/11 and 10/10/10 in both cities. The figure is a near-fourfold increase compared to the daily average in the self-governing Chinese city of Hong Kong and about an eightfold spike for non-Muslim weddings in Singapore, which is three-quarters ethnic Chinese. Couples also queued to marry in many mainland Chinese cities, on the basis that 12/12/12 sounded like “Will love/will love/will love” in Chinese, the official news agency Xinhua reported. The atmosphere was abuzz with hundreds of people crowding one of Hong Kong’s five marriage registries, taking photos of brides and grooms in full wedding regalia as they congratulated the newlyweds. “Today’s date is very special and we can get married before doomsday as well,” joked 34-year-old groom Raymond Ip. Some doomsayers believe December 21 could be the date the world ends. “There won’t be a 13/13/13,” Ip said, adding that he had booked the day half-a-year in advance to secure a spot. Groom Terance Fung, 29, agreed. “Today is the last day of the century with the same date numbers, so it is quite special,” he said. In Singapore, hundreds of couples and family members trooped in batches to the marriage registry despite pouring rain. 12/12/12 was, however, a less popular day to tie the knot than previous sequential dates. Hong Kong saw 1,002 weddings on November 11, 2011, which signified “Eternal love”, and 859 weddings on October 10, 2010 which represented “Perfection”. Singapore had 553 and 724 marriages respectively on the same dates. The all-time high for a single day there was on February 14, 1995, when 1,082 couples were married because the western and Chinese Valentine’s Day coincided. Extra staff were deployed at the marriage registry at Changchun, in China’s northeastern province of Jilin, where 2,000 couples were expected. But the office director Wang Zhe played down the significance of so-called lucky dates. “Every day is a lucky day to get married and it will be the most unforgettable day of their lives,” Wang was quoted as saying. -AFP    |
| Singapore Airline to focus on Asia after Virgin divestment Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:57 AM PST
The Singapore carrier’s tie-up with British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic never really took off since the alliance began 12 years ago when the stake was bought for £600 million (US$966.5 million). Singapore Airlines (SIA) yesterday said it will sell the stake to Delta Air Lines of the United States for US$360 million in cash in a deal to be completed next year. SIA said it “had been evaluating strategic options for the stake for some time, as the investment has not performed to expectations and the synergies the parties originally hoped for have not materialised”. Analysts said SIA, consistently one of the world’s most profitable airlines, had little say in how Virgin Atlantic was run by the flamboyant Branson, and the sale allows it to exit an underperforming investment in the troubled European market. “SIA can now focus on investments in the Asia-Pacific region,” Brendan Sobie, a Singapore-based analyst with industry consultancy Centre for Aviation, told AFP. Sobie said it made more sense for Delta to have a strategic stake in Virgin Atlantic as there are more synergies in their trans-Atlantic network rather than with an Asian carrier. Jason Hughes, an analyst with IG Markets Singapore, said that despite the higher acquisition price paid by SIA, the US$360 million “will go down as a profit, as losses had already been accounted for in previous years”. Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst with Standard & Poor’s Equity Research, said SIA can use the extra cash to “redefine its business strategy on top of beefing up its regional subsidiaries”. “It’s also good to exit out of Europe because the market conditions there are quite atrocious,” he told AFP. “The sale frees up a stake which SIA has been bogged down with.” Shukor said conflicting management styles with Branson was one of the chief reasons why the alliance failed to prosper beyond a code-sharing agreement. “Branson remained the controlling shareholder and he called the shots,” he said. Virgin Atlantic also did not have enough slots at London’s high-traffic Heathrow airport for SIA to latch on in its bid to gain a share of the lucrative trans-Atlantic route to New York, Shukor added. Analysts said SIA’s decision to buy the stake in Virgin Atlantic in March 2000 was a good move at the time because Asia was just emerging from a devastating financial crisis in 1997 and 1998. But the centre of global economic power has since shifted to Asia, with the region’s travel market now booming because of the rise of an affluent middle class and the emergence of budget airlines. Passenger traffic in the Asia Pacific is forecast to account for 33% of the global market in 2016, up from 29% in 2011, according to trade body International Air Transport Association (IATA). “This makes the region the largest regional market for air transport, ahead of North America and Europe which each represent 21%,” IATA said in a statement on their latest industry forecast. SIA has been investing both in the premium travel segment, where it faces competition from Middle East carriers, and in the low-cost market where it is challenged by budget airlines. SIA in June launched a long-haul budget wing called Scoot while maintaining a substantial stake in low-fare carrier Tiger Airways. It also operates a regional wing, SilkAir. SIA and Scoot in October announced orders for 45 Airbus and Boeing aircraft. The orders came after SilkAir in August said it would buy 54 new Boeing planes with an option to buy a further 14 aircraft. - AFP    |
| ‘Rosmah told me to look for Bala’ Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:57 AM PST
Revealing the identity of "the female friend" whom he mentioned at his recent press conferences, Deepak claimed that Rosmah called up many people for favours on the day Balasubramaniam disclosed his first SD, which linked Najib to the murder of Mongolian national Altantuyaa Shaariibuu. "At about 6pm or 7pm that day, Rosmah called me, asking me to help resolve the matter. I don't know Bala in person, but we have a mutual friend," he told FMT. The well-connected businessman repeated his earlier claim that Rosmah was rushing because one of the five individuals involved in the murder case was going to come forward to speak against Najib. Although he did not mention the date, it is likely that the incident took place on July 3, 2008. Deepak said he managed to get hold of the private investigator within a few hours of Rosmah's phone call but the latter was sceptical over what he said. "He asked to meet with Najib. I went to Najib's house to discuss this, but Najib did not want to see him. "Then Rosmah proposed to have Najib's brother Nazim to meet him." Deepak said a meeting between him, Balasubramaniam and Nazim was later held at The Curve, where Nazim asked the private investigator what he wanted in return for making the second SD. He said Nazim took Balasubramaniam to the Hilton Hotel in Kuala Lumpur after the meeting. He claimed that Najib had arranged for a senior lawyer who is now a Tan Sri to prepare the second SD for Balasubramaniam. ‘My biggest mistake’ Deepak said he now regretted getting involved in the case.
The 40-year-old businessman claimed Balasubramaniam was speaking the truth in the first SD. Asked how he knew that the premier and his wife were involved in the murder of Altantuya, he said: "I think this is pure fact. I was involved in the case. I knew that." He claimed that when Rosmah was asking for his "favour" in the phone call, he already knew the nature of the "favour" because there were already news reports of Balasubramaniam's SD on the Internet. Deepak said his friendship with Rosmah, whom he once referred to as "Elder Sister", deteriorated following a land dispute involving him and Umno senator Raja Roopiah Abdullah. Thanks to Rosmah Under the agreement, he was supposed to get all but 23 acres of the land, which would be returned to Raja Roopiah. Deepak claimed that Najib had bypassed the Cabinet in deciding to pull back the land from him. He alleged that he had been constantly intimidated by government machinery and had lost a lot of business deals with the government, "I acknowledge that because of (Rosmah), I was able to rise from a carpet dealer to receiving multi-million [ringgit] contracts from the government," he said. "I received a lot of support from her." He said he had decided to go on a "long holiday" in Myanmar from Dec 10 to March 11, which is his birthday. Also read: Deepak: Anwar is not behind me    |
| Singapore Speaker resigns in fresh sex scandal Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:47 AM PST  SINGAPORE: Singapore’s parliamentary Speaker announced his resignation today after confessing he had an extramarital affair with a community worker, setting off a fresh sex scandal in the city-state.Michael Palmer, 44, a married father of one who was only sworn in as Speaker in Oct 2011, also quit his seat in parliament and membership of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). “I have resigned to take full responsibility for a grave mistake that I have committed,” Palmer told a press conference. “My conduct was improper and it was a serious error of judgment. I have resigned in order to avoid further embarrassment to the PAP and to Parliament,” he added. Revealing that he “had a relationship” with a staff member of a community organisation called the People’s Association, Palmer, who is a lawyer, said he was “deeply sorry” to his supporters, the PAP as well as his family. The association’s chairman is Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is also secretary-general of the PAP. Lee quickly announced he had accepted Palmer’s resignation, saying members of parliament have to uphold the highest standards of conduct. Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean, who was with Palmer at the press conference, apologised to residents of the disgraced politician’s constituency. “I assure you that we will put things right and continue to look after you.” There was no immediate word on a by-election to replace Palmer. Under Singapore law, a by-election is totally at the discretion of the prime minister. The PAP, which has long cultivated an image of moral superiority over the opposition, came under immediate attack from online critics. “The PAP needs to come clean with the people (about) what information have they got about Mr Palmer and in particular, what did they know about him prior to the May 2011 election,” Adrian Lim, a member of the public, wrote on the prime minister’s Facebook page. Palmer’s resignation is the latest high-level scandal to hit Singapore, which consistently ranks high in international surveys on government efficiency and cleanliness. The former head of the narcotics police is on trial for allegedly seeking sexual favours from a contractor. The former head of civil defence is scheduled to be tried in January on a similar charge. “Yes, certainly this is a blow to the PAP,” said Reuben Wong, an associate professor in political science at the National University of Singapore. He cited the PAP’s “relentless hectoring” of the opposition Workers’ Party when one of its MPs, Yaw Shin Leong, was forced to quit politics over an extramarital affair earlier this year. The Workers’ Party, which regained the seat in a by-election, said Wednesday that it was ready to field a candidate against the PAP in Palmer’s former seat. In another high-level sex scandal this year, 51 men including civil servants, businessmen and uniformed officers were charged in court for allegedly engaging the services of a 17-year-old prostitute, and some have been jailed. - AFP    |
| China ‘regrets’ N Korea rocket launch Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:44 AM PST  BEIJING: China expressed regret today at North Korea’s long-range rocket launch, echoing a similar reaction from Russia and following strong condemnation from the United States.“We express regret at the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s launch in spite of the extensive concerns of the international community,” said foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei, using North Korea’s formal name. He said Pyongyang should observe “relevant” resolutions of the United Nations Security Council — which has imposed sanctions against the North over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes. China, North Korea’s sole major ally and its biggest trading partner and aid provider, is seen as one of the few nations with any influence over its regime and had previously expressed concerns over the launch. Over the past decade, China has repeatedly called for calm as North Korea tested nuclear weapons and carried out ballistic missile tests, despite wide condemnation from the international community. Following Wednesday’s launch, Beijing again urged all sides to ensure calm. “China always maintains that the fundamental approach to the realisation of ensuring peace and stability of the Korean peninsula should be found through dialogue,” Hong said. “We hope relevant parties will keep calm and jointly maintain the peace and stability of the Korean peninsula.” He reiterated China’s stance that “the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has the right to make peaceful use of outer space but this right is also subject to the restriction of relevant UN Security Council resolutions”. But he did not answer directly when asked whether the launch violated UN resolutions, instead repeating the call for calm and peace. North Korea insisted the mission was not a banned intercontinental missile test but was designed to place a scientific satellite in orbit, and said it had achieved all its objectives. In a commentary after the launch China’s state news agency Xinhua called for all sides to exercise restraint. “All parties concerned should stay cool-headed and refrain from stoking the flames so as to prevent the situation from spiralling out of control,” it said. “In place of bellicose rhetoric and gestures, they need to take concrete actions to foster a conducive milieu for dialogue and return to the negotiating table as soon as possible.” Xinhua urged a resumption of long-stalled six-party talks over the North’s nuclear programme, which are chaired by China and take in both Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia. “For years, the situation on the peninsula seems to have entered a reinforcing loop of misunderstanding, mistrust and animosity. The only viable way begins with trust-building,” the agency said. “In international relations, as in life, the best way to make an enemy of a country is to treat it like one,” it said. “This rule of thumb is also true with making friends.” - AFP    |
| Jerusalem sites sprayed with anti-Christian graffiti Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:42 AM PST  JERUSALEM: Vandals sprayed anti-Christian graffiti on a monastery and a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem overnight, in two apparent “price-tag” attacks, police told AFP today.“Overnight, graffiti was sprayed on the gates of the entrance of the Armenian cemetery reading ‘Jesus is a son of a bitch’ in Hebrew, and on a monastery belonging to the Greek Orthodox saying the same thing,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. Samri said the attackers also wrote “Happy Hannukah” and “price tag” at the second site, the Valley of the Cross monastery, and slashed the tyres of nearby cars. “Price tag” is a euphemism for revenge hate crimes by Israeli extremists, which normally target Palestinians and Arabs. Initially carried out in retaliation for state moves to dismantle unauthorised settler outposts, they have become increasingly unrelated to any specific government measures. The attacks tend to involve the vandalism or destruction of Palestinian property and have included multiple arson attacks on cars, mosques and olive trees. Perpetrators are rarely caught. At first, the attacks were predominantly in the West Bank, but they have expanded over time to include sites inside Israel, and in Jerusalem. In recent months, Christian sites have been targeted as well. Samri said a third apparent “price tag” attack had been reported in a West Bank village called Shukba, near the city of Ramallah, in which attackers set fire to a car and sprayed “price tag” and “happy holidays” nearby. Police were investigating all three attacks, she said. - AFP    |
| North Korea successfully launches long-range rocket Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:40 AM PST
Regional US allies were also angered and even China expressed concern at the successful launch by its wayward communist ally — while also calling on all sides to avoid “stoking the flames”. The launch triggered plans for an emergency session of the UN Security Council, which has imposed round after round of sanctions against North Korea over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes. North Korea insisted the mission was not a banned intercontinental missile test but was designed to place a scientific satellite in orbit, and said it had achieved all its objectives. “The satellite has entered the orbit as planned,” Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a statement repeated later in a triumphant special broadcast on state television. North American Aerospace Defense Command officials said the launch appeared to have successfully put an object in orbit. Masao Okonogi, a professor of Korean politics at Keio University, said the launch would thrust North Korea close to the top of Washington’s national security agenda. “Putting a satellite into orbit means that you have technology to get a warhead to a targeted area. Now, North Korea is becoming not only a threat to the neighbouring countries but also a real threat to the United States,” Okonogi said. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was believed to be keen that the launch fall close to the first anniversary of the death of his father and former leader Kim Jong-Il on December 17. KCNA hailed it as a “ground-breaking” event that paid tribute to the late Kim’s vision and leadership. The launch took many observers by surprise, coming after many experts said North Korea appeared to be running into technical problems caused by the bitter winter weather. A previous launch of the same Unha-3 rocket in April had ended in embarrassing failure, with the carrier exploding shortly after take-off. Success this time carries profound security implications, marking a major advance in North Korea’s ability to mate an intercontinental ballistic missile capability with its nuclear weapons programme. In October, North Korea had said it already possessed rockets capable of striking the US mainland — a claim that many analysts at the time dismissed as bluster. In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor issued a scathing statement that accused North Korea of once again tearing up the international rulebook. “North Korea’s launch today… is a highly provocative act that threatens regional security, directly violates United Nations Security Council resolutions … and undermines the global non-proliferation regime,” he said. Unusually China — North Korea’s sole major ally and its biggest trade partner and aid provider — responded relatively quickly with a statement that pressed the country to abide by UN Security Council resolutions. But in a commentary, state news agency Xinhua also decried “bellicose rhetoric and gestures” by all concerned, and defended North Korea’s right to explore space. “All parties concerned should stay cool-headed and refrain from stoking the flames so as to prevent the situation from spiralling out of control,” it said. Russia labelled Pyongyang’s defiance of UN resolutions as “unacceptable” and warned the launch would have a “negative effect” on regional stability. North Korea is banned from carrying out missile tests under UN resolutions triggered by Pyongyang’s two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. Japan’s government said it “cannot tolerate” the “extremely regrettable” launch, and South Korea’s government convened an emergency meeting of its National Security Council. “This is a threat to peace on the Korean peninsula and around the world,” Foreign Minister Kim Sung-Hwan said. The UN Security Council said it would meet Wednesday, with one Western diplomat predicting a “strong response”. Pyongyang put the timing of the launch at 9:49 am (0049 GMT) and said the satellite was deployed in orbit nearly 10 minutes later. The first and second stages fell in the sea west and southwest of the Korean Peninsula, while the third splashed down 300 kilometres (188 miles) east of the Philippines. US and South Korean officials said it would take time to fully analyse the entire launch and determine its overall success. North Korea had originally provided a December 10-22 launch window, but extended that by a week on Monday when a “technical deficiency” was discovered. While the United States and its allies look to ratchet up pressure at the UN, much will depend on the stance taken by veto-wielding member China. “China sets the maximum response level in the Security Council when it comes to North Korea,” said a senior South Korean government official. - AFP    |
| Australian neo-Nazis jailed for attack on Asian student Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:38 AM PST  MELBOURNE: An Australian judge today jailed two men who claimed to be members of a neo-Nazi group for the brutal beating of an Asian student that left him “almost unrecognisable as a human being”.Two men, along with a youth who cannot named because of his age, set upon Vietnamese student Minh Duong in an unprovoked attack on June 27. The assault in the Melbourne suburb left the 21-year-old unconscious in the gutter in a pool of blood. A series of attacks on foreigners in Australia has gained global attention in recent years, most notably the 2010 murder of an Indian national in Melbourne who was stabbed to death as he walked home. Residents called police after hearing Duong’s screams as he was racially abused and repeatedly hit, kicked and stabbed by the trio and smashed over the head with a brick with such force it broke. Justice Betty King said racial hatred played only a “very small part” in the attack on Duong, although she said the evidence showed that the student had been subjected to taunts such as “gook” and “yellow dog”. “It is my view that this attack would in all likelihood have occurred irrespective of the nationality of the person walking down the street,” she said. King said photographs of the victim’s injuries were “horrendous”, adding: “He is almost unrecognisable as a human being.” In jailing Shannon Hudson, 21, and Wayne O’Brien, 20, King said she believed the pair had a “general hatred” for the community and for some reason were just angry. “I am of the view that a lot of your discussions and talk about skinheads and white supremacy, and your Heil Hitler signs, were not really understood by either of you,” the Victorian Supreme Court justice said. “The increasing anger being displayed by young members of our community is one that is hard to fathom.” O’Brien, who along with Hudson pleaded guilty to intentionally causing serious injury, told police the pair were part of a neo-Nazi skinhead group which disliked Asians, Jews and blacks. He was sentenced to four-and-a-half years with a minimum non-parole period of two-and-a-half years while Hudson, who has a criminal history, was sentenced to 10-and-a-half years and will serve at least eight years. The third attacker was sent through the youth court. - AFP    |
| Businessman denies ex-IGP’s allegations Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:30 AM PST
At a press conference here, Phang said that he had never asked to be an adviser to Musa. He also rubbished an allegation that he had caused a senior police officer to be transferred with regard to a walkie-talkie contract. However, Phang admitted that he was appointed as an independent adviser to a telecommunications company which was awarded a contract with the police. Recounting an incident in 2008 when he "first entangled with" Musa, Phang said he was about to reveal a RM98 million case of police malpractice when Musa called him. "Musa called me on the phone and told me to call off my press conference. This is interfering with freedom of expression. This is straight up abuse of power," said the former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) adviser. Phang was referring to a press statement he gave in July, 2008, in his capacity as the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) executive council member. He had then revealed a compilation of letters which accused the police logistics departments of failing to comply with standard operating procedures when conducting procurement. In the press briefing today, he said that the current situation is “opening up an area where the public usually does not have access to”. “In a way I must thank Musa for describing me as a supernatural man who has the powers to make a very senior officer with the title of a Datuk transferred within 24 hours from one department to another. Thank you Musa, for upgrading me to be so powerful,” said Phang. He also criticised Musa’s claim that he had previously told the latter that he was also an adviser to former inspector-general of police Hanif Omar. “To implicate respectable persons such as Tun Hanif, that’s unacceptable. I was never an adviser to Musa or Hanif." Hanif: I’ve never had an adviser “If Musa allegedly said that Phang had introduced himself as my adviser, then that is between the two of them. So you get the clarification from them. Who appointed him? And what kind of remuneration did he receive?” asked Hanif. He, however, reaffirmed that Phang had never received anything from him. Meanwhile, Phang also criticised Musa over the latter’s revelation that the current Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar had cried at his bedside when a Sin Chew reporter was arrested under Internal Security Act (ISA). “Never in the history of the Royal Malaysian Police has any IGP made a fool out of his immediate successor. You are demoralising, belittling and shaming him.” Phang said that he is planning to lodge an official complaint to the police, or MACC to investigate the various claims by Musa. “I want the authorities to look into all these. Please investigate both Musa’s claims and myself, too” he said. During the press conference, Phang was grilled by reporters over his role in the walkie-talkie deal . While he admitted that he worked as a “independent adviser” for Motorola, he stressed that he only came in after the deal was secured. When questioned further, Phang admitted that he was present in meetings called by the home ministry prior to his appointment (to represent Motorola) in 2008. ‘No conflict of interest’ Click here to view the video on YouTube. Phang, who said he he still represented Motorola, added that his role was merely to ensure smooth negotiation between the government and the company, and that both reached a “win-win” situation. "How the deal was secured is none of my business. I was appointed in 2009… The award of the contract had nothing to do with my contribution," he said. Asked if his position as an MACC adviser then and as a consultant for a company constituted conflict of interest, a furious Phang said that there was no conflict. In 2011, Phang had voluntarily resigned from the MACC advisory panel after an anonymous blog accused him of bribing a Home Ministry official, but was cleared of this by the MACC last August.
In a related matter, Phang refused to apologise to MyWatch, in which Musa is the patron, for linking the NGO to criminal organisations. "Apologise to whom? What have I done wrong? I apologise to an NGO that is not registered, for what?” he said, alleging that the NGO was not even registered under the Registrar of Societies or the Company Commission of Malaysia. "I'm ready to meet Musa in open court,” he said. Also read: Musa reveals more, implicates businessman    |
| Report: Apple works with Asian suppliers to test new TV Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:29 AM PST
Apple has been testing several TV prototypes for large-screen high-definition TV for a few years, sources familiar with the situation were quoted by the Dow Jones Newswires as saying. Among the suppliers, Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision has been working with Japan’s Sharp Corp. on the design of the new TV, the report said, citing unnamed company officials. Hon Hai, better known as Foxconn, is the world’s largest maker of computer components and produces goods for tech giants including Apple, Sony and Nokia. Apple’s move into the television market would intensify competition with some of its biggest suppliers, including South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, the world’s biggest TV maker by shipments. Hon Hai also started selling 60-inch TV sets in Taiwan from last month in an apparent bid to beef up production of a panel plant in western Japan used to be owned by Sharp that it has invested in, company officials have said. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has described the TV business as “an area of intense interest” in a recent interview with US media, according to the report. A Sharp spokeswoman declined to comment on any products the company is working on while Hon Hai officials were not immediately available for comment. - AFP    |
| Obama tops Twitter highlights 2012 Posted: 12 Dec 2012 01:24 AM PST  SAN FRANCISCO: A victorious message of “Four more years” accompanied by a picture of US president Barack Obama hugging his wife topped a collection of Year 2012 Twitter highlights released yesterday.The nostalgic look back at the year by the popular one-to-many text messaging service recounted topics, news and trends that captured the attention of people around the world. Obama’s election night message was echoed 816,973 times by Twitter users in more than 200 counties, setting a new record for “retweets.” “Within hours, that tweet simultaneously became the most retweeted of 2012, and the most retweeted ever,” Twitter said of the Obama message. The second most retweeted message of the year was a loving farewell sent by Justin Bieber as a tribute to a six-year-old fan after she died from brain cancer. Bieber’s simple, heartfelt message was retweeted 224,173 times. Topics that prompted the “biggest conversations” at Twitter, as measured by spikes in message volume, included the US presidential election, the Summer Olympic Games, Superstorm Sandy and the death of singer Whitney Houston. European and US football were also vibrant Twitter topics this year, along with the MTV Video Music Awards and the Japanese anime film “Summer Wars.” “Notable Tweets” during the year included one sent by famed film director James Cameron from 10.9 kilometers beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean in the Mariana Trench. Details regarding Twitter trends for the year were available online at 2012.twitter.com. - AFP    |
| SMS invites Indian nationals to Putrajaya rally Posted: 12 Dec 2012 12:55 AM PST
Vengadeshwaran Subramaniam, who hails from Tamil Nadu and now resides in Kampung Kayu Ara, Damansara, told FMT that three days ago he received a text message with the promise from a person identifying himself as PKR Bala. He said he called the number from which the message was sent. “The phone was picked-up by an Indian man who introduced himself as PKR Bala. He told me he got my number through my friends." The SMS, which was forwarded to FMT, reads: "To all Indian National from India. Don’t miss this opportunity. U can get Malaysian citizenship. Malaysian government giving u a chance now. Please go and register at Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (NRD), Putrajaya on 12-12-12 at 10am. Please pass a word to all our Indians friends." Subramaniam said several of his friends received the same message. He said that in the phone conversation, he asked PKR Bala to explain his message. "He told me he will help me get a MyKad. In return I have to participate in the rally." Subramaniam said he took along several friends to Putrajaya today. “I reached here early in the morning," he said. "When I called PKR Bala, he said that he would not come to the protest. He also told me that Indian nationals would only get the MyKad if Pakatan takes over Putrajaya. “It looks like he has cheated me.” FMT did a quick check at the rally and found that more than 10 participants were Indian nationals. The rally today was organised by PKR to highlight the high number of Malaysian Indians without proper documentation. PKR claims there are about 300,000 stateless Indian in the country while the government claims the number only stands at 15,000.    |
| Syarat lesen salun bukan Islam ditangguh Posted: 12 Dec 2012 12:40 AM PST  KOTA BAHARU: Kerajaan PAS Kelantan menangguhkan penguatkuasaan syarat-syarat pelesenan di bawah undang-undang kecil Majlis Perbandaran Kota Baharu-Bandaraya Islam (MPKB-BRI) yang melibatkan kedai gunting rambut milik bukan Islam. Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Kerajaan Tempatan, Kebudayaan dan Pelancongan negeri Datuk Takiyuddin Hassan berkata penangguhan itu yang berkuat kuasa serta-merta, diputuskan dalam mesyuarat mingguan Exco Kerajaan Negeri hari ini sehingga kajian mengenainya selesai dijalankan. Katanya dengan penangguhan itu semua kedai gunting rambut wanita dibenarkan beroperasi seperti biasa dan tidak terikat dengan syarat-syarat di bawah undang-undang kecil pihak berkuasa kerajaan tempatan (PBT) tersebut. “Penangguhan itu dibuat setelah mengambil kira pandangan hasil perjumpaan wakil kerajaan negeri dengan pimpinan dua organisasi terbesar masyarakat Cina negeri ini minggu lepas,” katanya kepada pemberita selepas mesyuarat tersebut di Kota Darulnaim di sini, hari ini. Akhbar baru-baru ini melaporkan keluhan seorang pengurus kedai gunting rambut di Kota Baharu, yang mendakwa disaman 11 kali oleh PBT sejak 2010 kerana pekerja wanita bukan Islam di premisnya menggunting rambut pelanggan lelaki bukan Islam. Akibatnya, beliau didenda RM200 hingga RM350 dan mendakwa ramai lagi pemilik kedai gunting menghadapi perkara sama. Tindakan kerajaan negeri itu turut dikecam Pengerusi DAP Karpal Singh yang dilapor berkata mereka yang bukan Islam boleh membawa perkara tersebut ke mahkamah. Ditanya sama ada keputusan menangguhkan pelaksanaan penguatkuasaan itu ada kaitan dengan pilihan raya umum ke-13, Takiyuddin berkata sudah pasti setiap tindakan ada kaitan dengan pilihan raya. - Bernama    |
| NRD to rectify religious status error in Sabah Posted: 12 Dec 2012 12:33 AM PST
The decision comes after a long battle with the authorities to acknowledge that the term “bin” and “binti” in Sabah and Sarawak did not necessarily mean that the owners are Muslims. Non-Muslim Bumiputeras whose names bear the word “binti” and “bin” have had their religious status tagged as “Islam” in their MyKads by the NRD. The NRD had maintained that it would continue to list Bumiputera Christians in Sabah as Muslims as long as they are known by ‘bin’ or ‘binti’. The department has also refused to entertain any requests to amend this status, saying that it would only act upon receiving an order from the Syariah High Court clearing the applicants status as to whether these Bumiputeras were indeed Christians and not Muslims. But the process of securing this clearance from the Syariah Court was not an easy task as in most cases even if the applicants managed to get a hearing date, they were still dependent on the presence of officials from both the NRD and Islamic authorities. In a majority of the cases, neither party turns up. Activists and the opposition have accused the authorities of using this as a ruse to systematically Islamise the predominantly Christian Sarawak and, to a lesser number, Sabah Bumiputera communities. And this has been one of the major bones of contention in these Borneo states where post-2008 has seen numerous “revelations” about the ruling Barisan Nasional and its coalition allies. But the situation now looks upbeat. PM nod to NRD At a recent Upko convention here, United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) president Bernard Dompok declared that matter has been resolved at the federal Cabinet level. He said Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has given the NRD the go-ahead. “Previously, Sabahans with such a problem needed to go to the Syariah Court to rectify it. “However, after a discussion in the Federal Cabinet, the Prime Minister has agreed that the changes could be done just at the NRD,” he told Upko members here recently. He said the Cabinet had also decided to appoint him as the “focal point” in Sabah while Douglas Unggah was directed to monitor Sarawak. “I will be responsible to ensure assistance to resolve the problem faced by the people in Sabah. “I will also look into those who were born in Brunei before the formation of Malaysia and who have been having difficulty in applying for citizenship. “They and others having similar problem should contact me or my office,” he said, adding that he was thankful that Najib had found a solution to the problem.    |
| Posted: 12 Dec 2012 12:07 AM PST
The London club are without a win in 16 matches and Saturday's 2-2 draw at Wigan Athletic saw them set a new record for the longest run of winless games at the beginning of a Premier League campaign. Harry Redknapp's side host London rivals Fulham on Saturday and Fernandes has in his tweet urged supporters to keep the faith ahead of the busy Christmas period. "Holiday today in malaysia. Went early xmas shopping. But all I want is 3 points. Hehehehe," he said. "Its been nothing short of a disaster. Its not where we are. But boy we put so much effort into this. Good honest effort. "Keep your spirits up. Laughing smiling and being positive helps. Won't leave any stone unturned to try fix this. tough as it is. Hopefully santa gives us some early presents." -AFP    |
| ‘MB Terengganu, pertahankan hak kita’ Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:59 PM PST
“Kita (PAS) minta Menteri Besar, Datuk Ahmad Said mempertahankan hak kita di Bertam. Kita bukan rampas hak orang tapi hak kita. “KIta minta kerajaan jangan jangan bermain politik…,” kata timbalan pesuruhjaya PAS Terengganu, Syed Azman Ahmad Nawawi. “Kita tidak mahu hak kita terlepas kepada pihak lain yang tidak ada kena mengena dengan minyak Terengganu,” beliau menambah. Adun PAS kawasan Batu Burok di Terengganu berharap Najib menjelaskan kedudukan sebenar telaga minyak Bertam itu. Ini kerana, katanya, perdana menteri mengatakan telaga minyak Bertam berada dalam kawasan perairan Pahang. Pada 30 Oktober lalu, Najib berkata, beliau telah diberitahu oleh Petronas bahawa usahasama antara Petronas Carigali Sdn. Bhd. dan Lundin Oil telah menemui penambahan rizab minyak di medan minyak Bertam yang terletak di Blok PM 307. Katanya, medan minyak berkenaan terletak kira-kira 160 kilometer di luar pesisiran pantai Semenanjung bertentangan dengan negeri Pahang pada kedalaman air 76 meter. Sementara itu, Syed Azman juga menegaskan bajet Terengganu untuk tahun depan berjumlah hampir RM2 bilion sebagai luar bisa. Menurut beliau, ia luar biasa dan menjadi perbualan umum kerana ia menjadi bajet terbanyak selepas Sarawak. “Sedangkan Selangor yang mempunyai penduduk lebih ramai dari Terengganu bajetnya tidak sampai sebanyak itu,” tambah beliau.    |
| Perhilitan, learn from the past, not live in it Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:46 PM PST FMT LETTER: From Sean Whyte, via e-mail Perhilitan really are a disgrace. Before the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 came into force this idle government department protested they could not help zoo animals until the much delayed Act was enshrined in law. Perhilitan even gave these dreadful zoos six months grace to come up to standard. (see, ‘Why action was not taken against errant zoos’). During this time e monitored a great many zoos and saw improvements. Now that the Act is enshrined in law, Perhilitan declines to enforce it. Not that anyone expected anything different from Perhilitan. They have a long history of protecting zoo owners and wildlife traders. In the meantime, the unfortunate animals in zoos are abandoned by Perhilitan to continue their suffering. If you don't believe me, just go and take a look for yourself, but be prepared to be physically upset at the sights you will see. Johor Zoo and Tower Zone Zoo are just in a very long list of truly appalling zoos. We were back at the Tower Zone Zoo recently and saw no, as in zero, improvements. Last weekend, we returned yet again to Melaka Zoo and photographed as we have done so many times before, orangutans and chimpanzees being thrown food and plastic bottles by zoo visitors. What goes on behind the scenes at Melaka Zoo, particularly the quarantine area, at this government run zoo is of great concern, but remains a state secret. What we have documented is gut-wrenching for us but a living nightmare for the animals crammed into tiny cages day and night. And this is supposed to be the premier zoo of Malaysia. Compared to Singapore's government owned zoo, Melaka zoo resembles something from the dark ages. Singapore zoo shames Malaysia. Whenever Nature Alert has offered Perhilitan free advice, expertise and help in the past, our e-mails have gone unanswered. We have copies on file. To sum up. Dozens of zoos are in breach of the law. Cruelty to zoo animals is rampant. No zoo owner, as far as we can determine, has been prosecuted. This mirrors the pattern with wildlife traders and it is why Malaysia is seen as a soft touch for those who want to make vast profits from exploiting animals with no fear of prosecution. We repeat, Perhilitan and the government need to learn from the past, not live in it. Up to now we have seen scant evidence of this discredited organisation having learnt anything from past mistakes and transgressions. We hope Natural Resources and Environment Minister Douglas Ugah Embas will hang his head in shame as well as apologise to the people of Malaysia for permitting Perhilitan to get away with doing so very little to help so many animals who are unable to help themselves. I leave you with these words, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals." – Mahatma Ghandi Also read: Why action was not taken against errant zoos    |
| MIC men accused of roughing up Jui Meng Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:32 PM PST
“It is shocking that the police allowed MIC gangsters into a federal government building. There were about 50 MIC members waiting outside the meeting room. “When we stepped out of the room after the meeting, about seven to eight of the MIC goons manhandled Chua, pushing and shoving him,” said N Surendran, a PKR vice-president. Surendran had earlier led a delegation comprising Chua, Latheefa Koya, Charles Santiago and R Sivarasa to meet NRD director-general Jariah Mohd Said. They were representing hundreds of people in a bid to resolve the issue of stateless Indians. Surendran said a police report will be lodged against the MIC members who roughed up Chua. “We will also release a video which proves the assault,” he said. Click here to view the video on YouTube. MIC Youth information chief S Subramaniam was quick to deny Surendran’s allegation. “We were there as part of a special task force. Chua reacted harshly when one of our members asked what he had done for the community when he was in the Cabinet,” he said. Chua was health minister in the BN government from 1990 to 2004. He joined PKR in 2009. Also read: Hundreds turn up for 'stateless Indians' protest Getting to the core of stateless issue 'Don't take Indians for granted'    |
| Share prices higher mid-afternoon Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:32 PM PST
At 3.11pm, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) was 5.94 points better at 1,647.51 after opening 1.67 points higher at 1,633.82. The Plantation Index added 9.71 points to 7,956.32, the Finance Index jumped 38.26 points to 15,147.7 and the Industrial Index earned half-a-point to 2,705.73. The FBM Emas Index advanced 37.35 points to 11,186.02, the FBM Mid 70 Index rose 32.45 points to 12,124.74 but the FBM Ace Index declined 13.6 points to 4,143.47. Advancers led decliners 283 to 266 while 295 counters were unchanged, 796 untraded and 25 others were suspended. Turnover stood at 548.34 million shares worth RM886.86 million. Among actives, DSC Solutions lost one sen to 15.5 sen, Tiger Synergy eased half-a-sen to 37.5 sen while Compugates and Menang Corp earned half-a-sen each to nine sen and 33.5 sen, respectively. Of heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM9.05 and RM7.60, respectively, Axiata improved five sen to RM6.38 but Sime Darby slipped one sen at RM9.11. - Bernama    |
| Reports: Japan’s Suntory eyes US$6.0b listing Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:23 PM PST
The firm would make its Tokyo listing plans official by year’s end with the up to 500 billion yen (US$6.0 billion) initial public offering set for next summer, the leading Nikkei business daily reported, adding that the move was aimed at funding Suntory’s overseas expansion plans. Privately-held Suntory – which two years ago scrapped plans to merge with Japanese beverage giant Kirin to create one of the world’s largest beer and soft-drink companies – would keep a majority stake in the division, the Nikkei said. Suntory, a major whisky maker that is also one of Japan’s biggest brewers, denied reports about plans for listing its Suntory Beverage & Food unit, which produces non-alcoholic beverages including soft drinks and bottled tea. “Certain news agencies have reported on matters regarding the initial public offering of Suntory Beverage & Food Limited,” the company said on its website. “These reports are not based on any official announcements by Suntory Group. No facts relating to the matter have been confirmed at this point.” Suntory Group posted sales of 1.8 trillion yen last year with its food and beverage sector accounting for 970.6 billion yen in revenue. Major Japanese beverage makers have aggressively sought to expand abroad in recent years to offset their shrinking domestic market, while a strong yen has made the foreign shopping spree relatively cheaper. In June, Suntory said it would form a joint venture with Chinese brewer Tsingtao to expand its reach in the world’s biggest beer market. Suntory earlier this year also said it would acquire a 51% stake in Indian food and drink maker Narang Group and set up a joint venture, while in 2009 it bought Europe’s Orangina Schweppes Group for about US$3.3 billion. - AFP    |
| Angry house buyers to march to MB’s office Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:23 PM PST
MBPJ has not met a two-week deadline set by Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, according to M Sugumaran, who chairs the Block E Residents Action Committee. "In a meeting on Nov 24, Khalid instructed the council, in our presence, to come up with a solution within two weeks. "He told us to meet him straight if MBPJ fails to meet the deadline. The deadline is over and we are now planning to go see Khalid at his office." The area now known as PJS1 was a squatter settlement until 2003, when property developer Peter Brickworks Sdn Bhd decided to build five blocks of flats there. The company promised about 200 squatter families that it would allocate units for their purchase. The project stalled after four blocks had been completed. A court order had barred Peter Brickworks from working on the portion of the land it had reserved for the fifth block, Block E. Last year, the Selangor state government decided to intervene. It promised the squatters that it would resolve their problem. Sugumaran said MBPJ was the culprit behind the squatters' prolonged suffering. He alleged that when he called up deputy mayor Puasa Md Taib, the latter passed the buck to other departments. "They keep pushing us from one department to another," he said. "MBPJ is even defying a directive from the MB." Also read: PJS 1 residents: Meet us or we will march PJS1 housebuyers deliver 135 letters to MBPJ    |
| Bollywood’s ‘star wives’ mean business Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:22 PM PST  NEW DELHI: Bollywood wives were once expected to stay loyal, discreet and out of sight, but today they forge influential careers as businesswomen, designers and producers as India embraces celebrity culture.They appear on magazine covers, present television shows, advertise everything from soap to sofas and increasingly head their own budding money-making empires, claiming their share of the spotlight. The list of “star wives” in the Mumbai-based film industry is headed by superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s wife Gauri Khan, a successful film producer and now an independent entrepreneur who is regarded as a pioneer of the redefined role. Co-founding the Red Chillies Entertainment production company in 2002 with her husband, she has produced eight films to date, including major blockbusters such as last year’s science fiction hit Ra.One. Khan, 42, has since branched out into interior design, launching her own line of furniture in April in collaboration with another Bollywood wife, Sussanne Roshan, who is married to heartthrob actor Hrithik Roshan. Roshan, 37, set up an imposing interior design store in Mumbai called The Charcoal Project two years ago. She admits that she had little interest in working when she got married 12 years ago, but then discovered that she had a taste for competition.
More recently, in a move echoing American lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, she launched The Home Label, an interior decor website selling products endorsed by her. Adhuna Akhtar, who is married to actor-director Farhan Akhtar, is another high-profile Bollywood wife, working as one of the country’s leading hairstylists. Her success led to her starring in a makeover reality television show earlier this year in which she offered free haircuts and styling advice to young women. The 44-year-old Akhtar now has 17 high-profile salons scattered across India with plans to open in Dubai. Increasing job opportunities for women The first ladies of Bollywood weren’t always such a staple of Indian popular culture. As recently as ten years ago, few film fans paid them much heed, according to Mumbai novelist and commentator Shobhaa De. “For decades Bollywood’s star wives were kept in virtual purdah and allowed out for an airing occasionally… generally at funerals,” De told AFP. At the time, they were largely perceived as housewives who suffered in silence behind closed doors while rumours flew about their husbands’ alleged affairs with glamorous co-stars. Since then, a younger, assertive and ambitious generation of Bollywood wives has emerged.
“When Sussanne married Hrithik Roshan she was just a pretty girl, but the minute she opened her store, her profile shot up. Women want to emulate her because she works,” she told AFP. “You can’t become a Bollywood star at 40, but you can turn a passion for interiors or fashion or whatever into a business, into a career, even after you have had kids. And women are drawn to that when they see Sussanne,” she said. According to a Gallup poll released last month, only 25 percent of Indian women participate in the labour force compared with 80 percent of Indian men. Analysts expect that figure to grow as India’s economy expands, creating job opportunities that can be accessed by larger numbers of women. Those occupying high-profile senior positions in the corporate sector include Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of biotech giant Biocon, Chanda Kochhar, managing director of ICICI Bank and Shikha Sharma, managing director of Axis Bank. Being married to one of India’s most famous men helps to keep Roshan and her business ventures in the spotlight, as she readily acknowledges. “It’s a huge bonus, no question, but my idea of success really isn’t about being married to a movie star,” she said. “I think it’s very important for any woman — especially in India — to aspire to be independent, to be your own person and speak up for yourself. Women today aspire to do much more than just look good.”—AFP    |
| ‘The Godfather of World Music’ Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:20 PM PST
His extraordinary musical journey took him from the banks of the sacred River Ganges in British India to the legendary Monterey and Woodstock festivals, where he played alongside the likes of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. At the height of his fame when he was the darling of the hippie movement in the 1960s, he was described as “the most famous Indian musician on the planet” and his influence on pop music continues through his daughter, American singer Norah Jones. Shankar taught Harrison to play the sitar and collaborated with him on several projects, including the groundbreaking charity Concert for Bangladesh in 1971. The Beatles called him “The Godfather of World Music”. Another collaborator, the violinist Yehudi Menuhin, compared his genius and humanity to Mozart. Ravi Shankar was born into a high-caste Bengali family in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi in northern India on April 7, 1920. He began his career at a young age, touring Europe with his brother Uday’s dance troupe but returned to India in the late 1930s to study the sitar under the renowned musician Allaudin Khan. Shankar first married Khan’s daughter, Annapurna Devi, in 1941 and they had a son, Shubendhra. The couple later separated and Shubendhra, who also played the sitar, died in 1992. Shankar’s affair with a New York concert producer Sue Jones led to the birth in 1979 of Norah Jones, who has won nine Grammys with her blend of pop and jazz music. He had a third child, Anoushka Shankar, with his second wife Sukanya Rajan, who were there by his side when he died on Tuesday in a hospital in San Diego, California, after undergoing surgery to replace a heart valve. Anoushka is a famous sitar player in her own right and frequently toured with her father, who gave his last concert on November 4 alongside her in Long Beach, California.
Among the major names in contemporary music influenced by him were The Byrds, whose 1965 track “Eight Miles High” bears the hallmark of Shankar’s mesmeric sitar playing. In the same year, Harrison used a sitar he had bought on a whim on the song “Norwegian Wood”. Harrison met Shankar in London in 1966 and later travelled to India, where the maestro taught him how to play the plucked instrument. Awards and collaborations with other top artists followed Shankar wherever he went. He composed three sitar concertos and worked with top conductors like Andre Previn and Zubin Mehta and the composer Philip Glass. The first of his three Grammy awards came in 1967 for his collaborative album with Menuhin, “West Meets East”. The second in 1972 was for his Concert for Bangladesh album while the third came in 2001 for his “Full Circle” concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. He was nominated for an Oscar in 1982 for his work on the film “Gandhi”, was a recipient of both India and France’s highest civilian honours and was awarded an honorary knighthood in Britain as well as a string of honorary degrees. The Bangladesh concert at New York’s Madison Square Garden, organised by Harrison, raised nearly $250,000 for UNICEF to help refugees of the South Asian country’s freedom struggle and led to future benefit gigs like Live Aid. Shankar said the concert was one of the most memorable in his long career given his close association with the people affected by the strife. Shankar, who also sat in the Indian upper house of parliament and set up a charitable foundation, once said that his greatest achievement was in helping Western audiences to better understand Indian classical music. But he said Indian audiences did not always approve of his association with Western rock stars and he was also not comfortable with the fame it brought him. “When I started working with George Harrison I became like a pop star myself,” he told Britain’s The Guardian newspaper in a June 2011 interview. “Everywhere I went, I was recognised. I didn’t like that at all.” -AFP Also read:    |
| India launches probe into Wal-Mart lobbying report Posted: 11 Dec 2012 11:07 PM PST
Wal-Mart disclosed in a report to the US Senate that it had paid US$25 million over four years to lobby American lawmakers to help gain access to overseas markets, including India. The report spurred opposition lawmakers, who oppose Wal-Mart’s entry into India, to call for an inquiry into whether any money was spent in India, even though the disclosure filing only referred to lobbying activities in the United States. “The government has decided to have a probe by a retired judge into the media reports pertaining to Wal-Mart’s lobbying,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath told Parliament. Government officials have said privately there is nothing to investigate since Wal-Mart’s lobbying activities in the United States were not illegal. Wal-Mart has said allegations it had lobbied in India were “entirely false”. The government wants to resolve the matter as quickly as possible so that Parliament can pass important financial bills before the winter session ends on Dec 20. Wal-Mart has found itself entangled in a fight between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s fragile minority government and political opponents determined to thwart supermarket reform which, they say, will destroy the livelihoods of millions of small store owners. Opposition parties have sought to portray Singh’s government as the pawn of powerful foreign companies ahead of national elections due in 2014. Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart has been the most active among foreign supermarket operators keen to push their way into India’s US$450 billion retail market. - Reuters    |
| Economists cut Singapore 2012, 2013 growth forecasts Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:55 PM PST
Singapore, whose trade is three times gross domestic product (GDP), has been hurt by the downturn in Western economies that has crimped demand for its exports. The wealthy city-state of 5.3 million people has also underperformed neighbours such as Malaysia and Indonesia, which can rely on their much larger populations to prop up growth. “The key thing is Singapore’s small domestic market. Regional economies, especially in the rural household sector, have benefited from still strong resource prices so there is the domestic consumption story,” said CIMB regional economist Song Seng Wun. Economists now expect the Southeast Asian city-state’s GDP to grow 1.5% this year, down almost a full percentage point from the median estimate of 2.4% in the previous poll, according to the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) latest quarterly Survey of Professional Forecasters. In contrast, Indonesia’s central bank said yesterday it expects full-year growth of 6.3% in 2012, while most economists expect Malaysia’s economy will expand by more than 5% this year. However, Singapore may avoid a technical recession based on the median estimate of 1.8% year-on-year growth in the fourth quarter, which works out to an annualised quarter-on-quarter and seasonally adjusted expansion of around 3%. The city-state’s economy contracted an annualised and seasonally adjusted 5.9% in the third quarter from the second quarter. MAS conducts its survey every quarter after the release of economic data for the preceding three-month period. The median forecasts in the latest report were based on the estimates of 21 economists. For 2013, the Singapore economy is now seen growing by just 2.7%, down from 3.9% in the previous survey but in line with the government’s latest forecast for an expansion of 1%-3% next year. Singapore’s inflation for 2012 will likely come in at 4.7% this year before slowing to 3.8% next year, the latest survey showed, with the latest estimates coming well above the September survey’s median forecasts. Slow growth While rising rents and soaring car prices have been the main contributors to inflation in Singapore over the past two years, government measures to make it harder for firms to employ low-cost foreign workers have also contributed by pushing up the prices of services such as healthcare. Inflation had averaged around 2% prior to this period. Most economists expect Singapore will face several years of slow growth and relatively high inflation as the government reins in immigration amid a backlash from locals unhappy about crowded trains and competition for jobs that has depressed wages at the lower end. To help keep inflation in check, MAS is likely to persist with its policy of letting the Singapore dollar rise against the currencies of its main trading partners. According to the MAS survey, the Singapore dollar is likely to end the year at 1.225 to the greenback before strengthening further to 1.200 by end-2013. The Singapore currency, which is currently trading around 1.2210, has gained 6.2% so far this year, the third best performer among Asian currencies tracked by Thomson Reuters. “The government has made it very clear that previous high growth rates boosted by the surge in foreign population is pretty much unsustainable,” Mark Tan, a senior economist at Goldman Sachs in Singapore, said at a briefing yesterday. “The new way going forward really is to boost domestic productivity and the government has said we are in a period of lower growth as the economy transitions. In that transition phase, you are going to deal with higher wage cost, high inflation and slower growth,” he added. Singapore’s economy grew by 4.9% in 2011 following a blistering 14.8% expansion in 2010. - Reuters    |
| Pacquiao says he will rise again Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:49 PM PST
“Don’t worry, we will rise again,” he told well-wishers as he arrived in Manila from the United States, where he suffered his second consecutive loss with a sixth-round knockout by Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday. Pacquiao, who has 54 wins, five defeats and two draws in nearly 18 years in the pro ring, had lost his World Boxing Organization welterweight crown in June on a controversial points decision to unbeaten US fighter Timothy Bradley. But retirement appeared far from the mind of Pacquiao, who turns 34 on Monday and was once regarded as the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter. “I was fighting very well from the first to the sixth round. I was moving well. It was just that I got hit with a lucky punch on the last second of the round.” Pacquiao, who on Wednesday also announced he was donating 10 million peso ( RM700,000) to the victims of a typhoon which devastated the country’s south last week, said he had been looking to finish off Marquez by the eighth round. “The way the fight was going, there was no way it would have reached the 12th round,” he said. He cited how he had broken the Mexican’s nose, leaving him with breathing difficulties that Pacquiao claimed had forced his foe to remove his mouthpiece at one point. But Pacquiao acknowledged: “He owned that night. Let’s give him due credit.” Former world champion Ricky Hatton, who was knocked out by Pacquiao in May 2009, has added his voice to calls for the Filipino to hang up his gloves. “The only advice I could give Manny Pacquiao is that his legacy is already secured,” said the Briton, a former world light-welterweight and welterweight champion who retired for a second time last month. “The thing is with us fighters is that there is always one more fight,” the 34-year-old told AFP during a visit to Hong Kong. “What’s he (Pacquiao) going to achieve by having one more fight? Probably nothing. He’s an eight-weight world champion. There’s nothing more to be said.” Hatton, who was knocked out in a failed return to the ring in November, in what he says was his last fight, said of his Filipino rival: “You’d like to see him go into retirement and spend some time with his family and be happy. “He can’t do any more from a boxing point of view.” -AFP    |
| Lynas halts trading for fourth time Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:47 PM PST
Executive chairman Nick Curtis said the company called the halt to prevent volatility in the share price and to clear the ”noise” that was being generated by being kicked around as a ”political football” in Malaysia before the country’s hotly contested election. Trading is expected to resume on Wednesday. The halt was called yesterday morning after four Malaysian government ministers put out a strongly worded joint statement late on Monday reiterating the requirement that Lynas remove all radioactive residue from its Kuantan processing plant, or face having its temporary licence revoked. ”The government will not compromise the health and safety of the people and the environment in dealing with the issue of Lynas,” they said. It followed reports in Malaysia’s Chinese-language media that Lynas’ local managing director, Mashal Ahmad, had said waste from the Kuantan plant could not be exported because of international laws. But Lynas said the reports were inaccurate and that it would convert the residue into a commercially safe building product called synthetic aggregate, which would be exported if not allowed to remain in Malaysia. ”There is no legal impediment, no change in our legal status with respect to the operations, we continue to commission the plant… nothing that has been said in this statement has any impact on the prior legal approvals we’ve had,” the Age quoted Curtis as saying yesterday. Shares in Lynas have plunged more than 60% since February as a result of extended delays and uncertainty over the project. Legal challenges by Malaysian activists concerned about the environmental impact of the processing plant have resulted in repeated trading halts. The shares last traded at 60.5 cents. Shares in Lynas’ closest rival, the US-based Molycorp, surged 20% in New York on the news.    |
| No ‘political tsunami’ in Sabah, says PBS Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:44 PM PST
Rebutting former Upko deputy chief Wilfred Bumburing’s views, PBS information chief Johnny Mositun said there would be no "political tsunami" in Sabah. He said that playing up the prospect of a political tsunami in Sabah was "another lie made up by the opposition”. “The fact is the issues that led to the erosion of support for BN in the 2008 general election did not have an impact on Sabah or Sarawak. It is no different today. We remain staunchly pro-BN. “His [Bumburing's] claims are fanciful and not substantiated by facts, ” he said. Bumburing recently said that the KDMs in the state were shifting their alliances away from BN and that Sabah would experience the same "tsunami" felt by Peninsular Malaya in 2008. He made these claims during a DAP organised dinner last Thursday in Labuan. In his speech, Bumburing, who is Tuaran MP, said he has been travelling extensively in Sabah since July (after his defection from Upko) and was confident that KDM allegiance to BN was shifting rapidly. Bumburing’s tour around Sabah was to promote his own platform, Angkatan Perubahan Sabah (APS), which he claimed stood for Sabah rights and Sabah for Sabahans. APS is aligned to peninsula-based Pakatan Rakyat. Mositun yesterday claimed that ties between BN partners PBS, Upko and PBRS were “intact” and that they were collectively confident that KDMs were still with the coalition. Commenting on Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, he said the former deputy prime minister was not a factor in Sabah and that his feud with Umno had “negligible” effect on Sabah. He said it is the local issues which would determine how the people will vote in the next general election. That being the case, then key local opposition groups – Jeffrey Kitingan’s State Reform Party (STAR) and Sabah Progressive Peoples Party (SAPP) – are on top it. Many here see Sabah at a crossroads again. The last time it was there was in 1985 when PBS roared in to wrest the reins from Berjaya. The rumblings of dissatisfaction are similar but the roar this time is coming from the STAR, which is eyeing the KDM seats. STAR is confident of taking away at least 10 seats from the BN bank. But speculations are rife that the numbers could go up to 14. And this is not counting the other parties which are also confident of winning some seats. Sabah has 60 state seats which will be up for grabs in the 13th general election.
While EC chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusuf saw “nothing wrong” for EC officers to be members of political parties as long as they remained neutral and unbiased when carrying out their duties, PAS feels otherwise. Said Dewan Pemuda PAS or PAS Youth Assembly committee member Abang Ahmad Kerdee Abang Masagus: “How can he [Abdul Aziz] say that? Article 114 (2) of the Federal Constitution clearly stated the importance of securing an Election Commission which enjoys public confidence. “This means that the EC should carry out a transparent general election, not favour any one party, and ensure the universal rights of voters and fair competition among political parties and their respective candidates. ” He said Aksyah’s position in Umno and his role in the Sabah EC was a clear conflict of interest and it was impossible to ensure impartiality. “The issue here is that Aksyah is a member of a political party and holds an important position there as well as in the EC. “How can the EC guarantee that he will carry out his duties without bias and professionally? “Imagine if this was a football game; do you think the spectators will trust the referee?” Ahmad Kerdee asked. He warned of further action if Aksyah continued to hold both posts.    |
| Asian markets up on US talks, unmoved by N.Korea test Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:40 PM PST
Regional share markets were initially unmoved by North Korea’s launch of a long-range rocket in contravention of UN sanctions, with Seoul remaining in positive territory. Tokyo rose 0.49%, Hong Kong added 0.59%, Sydney climbed 0.37%, Shanghai was 0.30% higher and Seoul was up 0.20%. US President Barack Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner have swapped new offers to avoid the fiscal cliff of huge tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect on Jan 1, according to sources on both sides. It fuelled hopes that the two, who have been at loggerheads over plans to increase taxes on the rich and slashing aid to Medicare, could come to an agreement. If a deal is not reach by the New Year the package currently in place is widely expected to send the economy into recession. Markets are also eyeing a meeting of the Federal Reserve policy committee, which is to decide on what action to take as the end approaches of its “Operation Twist” – selling short-term debt to buy longer-term debt. There are expectations that policymakers will replace it with more outright bond purchases, or “quantitative easing”, aimed at lowering interest rates to encourage businesses to invest and hire. Buying support was also provided by positive numbers from Germany, where investor sentiment in Europe’s key economic machine hit a seven-month high on hopes it will dodge recession. The confidence index from the ZEW economic institute surged to 6.9 points in December from minus 15.7 in November. Forecasts had been for a reading of minus 11.3. It was the highest reading since May and the first time since then that the index has been in positive territory. Spain also enjoyed a successful Treasury bond auction, easing fears over its ability to raise cash to pay its bills. Traders on Wall Street ended on a positive note. The Dow rose 0.60%, a fifth straight day of gains, while the S&P 500 added 0.65% and the Nasdaq climbed 1.18%. Confidence in “riskier” assets sent the safe-haven yen lower in US trade yesterday and the unit remained under pressure in Asia today. The greenback jumped to 82.63 yen soon after South Korea said the North had fired its rocket, which critics insists was being used as a covert ballistic missile test. However, the dollar soon eased back to 82.51 yen, compared with 82.51 yen in New York. The euro was at 107.34 yen from 107.28 yen. That compares with 82.36 yen and 106.68 yen in Asia yesterday. The euro bought US$1.3006 today, from US$1.3003 in New York. Previous launches and nuclear tests have led to an initial asset sell-off owing to geopolitical fears, but regional markets remained up in early trade. On oil markets New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in January, edged up six US cents to US$85.85, and Brent North Sea crude for January added 26 US cents at US$108.27. Gold was at US$1,711.32 at 0230 GMT compared with US$1,709.35 late yesterday. - AFP    |
| Najib, name schools which got the RM540m Posted: 11 Dec 2012 10:32 PM PST FMT LETTER: From M Manoharan, via e-mail Najib Tun Razak has been making repeated announcements on the RM540 million that his government has spent on Tamil schools since he became Prime Minister. The latest was at the MIC General Assembly last weekend. I challenge Najib to give a detail breakdown as to which schools received this allocation. We must have the names of the respective schools as well as the individual expenditure. Failure to do so only goes to show that this is just another election ploy to garner Indian votes. Half a billion ringgit is a colossal figure and we would have seen tremendous improvement in the state of the Tamil schools if such money had indeed been spent. Instead of plucking figures from the air and attempting to deceive the hapless Indians, he could have made a meaningful and significant gesture by declaring all Tamil schools to be fully-aided at the assembly. Such a move would ensure that Tamil schools become part of the mainstream national education development. With such a declaration, the schools would have unhindered access to building funds, adequate teaching staff, furniture and computers. The headmasters and PIBGs would not have to engage one fundraising move after another and would be able to channel their limited energies to more constructive activities. Anyway, the fundraising results were never enough. It was sad to see the MIC leaders at the assembly, once again, focussing their efforts on lobbying for more Indian support for the BN to please their Umno master. Attention was paid on retaining the 28 seats allocated to the MIC previously as well as delivering the Indian votes to the BN, even if it meant going door to door to canvass for each individual Indian vote. The MIC president detailed the total number of Indian votes at 955,000 and that the Indian voters made up more than 15% of the electorate in more than 26 parliamentary constituencies. Alas, but he was so weak on asking what had Umno and the PM had done to deserve the overwhelming support that he plans to garner from the Indian voters and surrender to the BN on a silver plate. Of late, the MIC Youth that Palanivel so lavishly praised at the general assembly, has become a joke, preferring to score political points on trivial issues like the 'Sepang Altar' episode instead of substantive and meaningful work that will really uplift the well-being of the Indian Malaysian community. If this is the mindset of the MIC, then there is little hope for the Indians who choose to vote for the BN in the soon to be announced 13th General Election. The writer is Kota Alam Shah state assemblyman    |
| Donna Summer to join Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:46 PM PST
Singer-songwriter Randy Newman, Canadian progressive rockers Rush, rock band Heart and the late blues guitarist Albert King are also being inducted into the prestigious Hall of Fame, which pays homage to people who have influenced the music industry. “We are thrilled to announce this year’s class of inductees, which again represents the broad, compelling and significant definition of rock and roll,” Joel Peresman, president and chief executive of the organization, said in a statement. Non-performers Lou Adler, executive producer of the 1975 rock-musical cult hit “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and pop arranger, composer and producer Quincy Jones are also named to the Hall of Fame. They will be officially inducted at a ceremony in April in Los Angeles. ‘Queen of Disco’ Summer, who died in May at the age of 63, rose to fame in 1976 with the disco hit “Love to Love You Baby.” She had three number one hits in 1979 with “Hot Stuff,” “Bad Girls” and “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough),” a duet with Barbara Streisand. Although Public Enemy, formed by artists Chuck D, Flavor Flav, Professor Griff and DJ Lord, never topped the charts during their three-decade career, the group is known for giving hip hop a political and social conscience in the 1980s and early 1990s. They explored American race relations with songs such as “Fight the Power” and “911 Is a Joke.” Randy Newman, known for his sharp, ironic pop songs, has won two Oscar awards for songs he penned for “Monsters, Inc.” and “Toy Story 3,” and six Grammys for his film work. Heart scored hits with “Magic Man” in 1976, “These Dreams” in 1986 and “Alone” in 1987, while Rush is recognized for complex rock songs that draw on blues. King, who died in 1992 at age 69, was a towering figure in American blues guitar, with hits such as “Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong” in 1961 and “Born Under a Bad Sign” in 1967. The eight inductees were chosen from a shortlist of 15 nominees. Those missing the cut include German electronic music ground-breakers Kraftwerk, rock group Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, rappers N.W.A. and rock band Deep Purple. The inductees were chosen by some 500 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which includes past inductees, and for the first time this year fans were also allowed to vote. Candidates for the Cleveland-based Hall of Fame must have released their debut album or single at least 25 years before 2012 to be eligible.—Reuters    |
| Sabah CPO price plunge inevitable Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:44 PM PST
In the mid-2000s, however, it became the undisputed economic barometer of the state amidst the rise of China and Russia, notwithstanding all the price oscillations. With a current global consumption of more than 100 million metric tons annually, plantations have been heavily criticised for accelerating the total destruction of rainforest and pushing wildlife to the brink of extinction; but the challenges only fuelled more aggressive expansion by insatiable entrepreneurs, both local and from the Peninsula, whose wealth soared as demand kept knocking at their gates. In Sabah where more than 70% of Malaysia's palm oil output is sourced from, crude palm oil (CPO) prices influence government policies and options because it attracted hundreds of millions of investments. Thus it played an important role in her future, providing employment to a large number of foreign workers who are an economic force by themselves and livelihood to many smallholders in the rural areas in the north, east, and south of Sabah. The prospects were so good that even the Sabah Rubber Fund Board was contemplating planting oil palm at one time. For those who do not know how filthy rich the big planters are, they are the people who pushed up all the real property prices and rentals in all major towns of Sabah by buying up not just one but blocks after blocks because there is nothing else left to buy with their immense monthly millions. The economy of Sabah is now on its last legs; will the imminent crash of the palm oil industry spell its final collapse? Where are the effects of the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP) that is supposed to stop a disaster of this nature from happening? Whoever came up with this fanciful sounding project must definitely have not expected a debacle of this magnitude. This is what happens when the government kept telling the people of Sabah delusional fibs that we are financially healthy and giving us the impression of non-existent growth with no thought of whether it is appropriate; but reality always has a way of exposing falsehood. Seek professional help Economics is all about supply meeting demand; no one in the industry including the government seemed to know that whatever goes up must also come down and vice versa. When the times are good, everyone made money; nobody cared to save up or make provisions to tackle or cope with bad times. In short, it is like building your irrigation during good weather in anticipation of flooding during the monsoons. There is really nothing that the government could do now that the palm oil price is plummeting. What it should have done in the beginning was to make all the preparations to cushion or mitigate the fall before it actually happens. The government has failed miserably in this aspect of governance and has lost touch with the people when it did not see this plunge coming. Like the recession of the mid-1980s and the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997/1998, it will be a chain reaction; bankruptcies will rise by leaps and bounds when people could not repay their bank borrowings, but the government will be bailing the banks out instead of the people. One of the reasons foreign buyers are getting their CPO supplies from Indonesia instead of Malaysia is because of better pricing and minimal bureaucracy. Before the government can even think of a recovery, it should put aside its undeserved pride and first seek professional help from people with the real credentials to pillow this financial plunge if it really cares for the people as it claimed. The writer is a member of the fading Sabah travel industry, loves food and speed, speaks to all sides of the political divide, and blogs at http://legalandprudent.blogspot.com/ giving no quarters.    |
| Ranking for key subjects worrying, BN blamed Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:35 PM PST
The latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 survey published online showed Malaysia scoring 440 points in Form Two mathematics which is the equivalent to eighth grade worldwide, trailing countries like Singapore who are among the world’s top scorers. Malaysian 14-year-olds were found to have performed worse than Israel who chalked up 516 points, Lithuania (502) and Lebanon (449), but beat neighbouring Thailand, which scored 427 points on tests by a narrow margin. In science, Malaysians scored 426 points, tying with Syria and just pipping Palestine, Georgia and Oman, which totted up 420 points each in the tests. This means Malaysia’s ranking in maths fell from 20th in 2007 to 26th last year while its science dropped drastically, from 21st to 32nd in the same period. The only country which suffered declines in scores in all content and cognitive domains for the two subjects is Jordan. Malaysia, however, is the worse performer among all countries between 1999 to 2011 with students achieving low percentage points in scoring full credits for what should be basic math and science questions. BN blamed “This is extremely worrying, a great concern. We are losing quality that is crucial for the country’s growth,” he told reporters at the party’s headquarters here. Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Muhyiddin Yassin pledged for an overhaul with the announcement of a new National Education Blueprint that Putrajaya said would put Malaysia back on the right development path. But even so, the blueprint only admitted to “some” mistakes while highlighting past achievements now invalidated by the survey. PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, speaking at the same press conference, also urged Muhyiddin to explain the disparity between the performance of male and female students with the latter scoring better. “They cannot keep glossing over when we have a problem like this,” she said. DAP election strategist Dr Ong Kian Ming said the opposition will raise more issues pertaining to the report. The opposition is expected to issue its own comprehensive response to the matter and is likely to use it as an election issue as key national polls loom.    |
| Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:30 PM PST
Shankar, who was the father of the American singer-songwriter Norah Jones, died in a hospital in San Diego where he was preparing to undergo surgery, according to Indian television news channels. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his sadness over the death and hailed Shankar as “a national treasure and global ambassador of India’s cultural heritage”. “Mourn (the) passing of a musical genius and gentle soul,” Nirupama Menon Rao, the Indian ambassador to the United States, said on her Twitter feed. Shankar, who was living in California when he died, was born into a high-caste Bengali Brahmin family in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi in northern India on April 7, 1920. He taught close friend the late Beatles George Harrison to play the sitar and collaborated with him on several projects, including the groundbreaking concert for Bangladesh in 1971. The Beatles called him “The Godfather of World Music”. —AFP Also Read: Ravi Shankar: 'The Godfather of World Music'    |
| Demonstrasi Baling ’74: Simbol kebangkitan rakyat Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:19 PM PST
Syarahan Demonstrasi Baling anjuran Angkatan Muda Keadilan (AMK) pada 10 Disember lalu menarik untuk kita ungkapkan semula gelombang kebangkitan rakyat yang dipimpin oleh golongan tani dan mahasiswa. Gerakan Mahasiswa yang ditonjolkan oleh generasi 60an dan 70an adalah merupakan satu gelombang yang lahir dari hati nurani generasi muda bagi memperjuangkan nasib rakyat dari ditekan oleh pemerintah. Dalam melihat hal ini saya suka untuk merujuk kepada sebuah buku lama yang diterbitkan pada tahun 1969 oleh Prof Faeur dari Universiti Toronto dalam bukunya The Conflict of Generation – The Character and Significant of the Student Movement. Beliau menyatakan bahawa protes dan bantahan yang ditunjukkan oleh mahasiswa adalah hasil daripada 'konflik generasi' atau ‘generational conflict.’ Konflik antara 'generasi baru' dan 'generasi lama', adalah disebabkan oleh kerosakan bermoral, peradaban yang rosak, lapok, penyalah gunaan kuasa, tidak bertanggungjawab dan melakukan penindasan. Konflik antara generasi yang dicetuskan oleh penindasan adalah faktor utama kebangkitan rakyat untuk menyatakan hak. Peranan mahasiswa dalam kebangkitan rakyat jelas terpancar ditambahkan lagi puisi yang dinukilkan oleh Usman Awang (1967): Dengan Buku di tangan kau nyayikan lagu itu Meresap pada jantung bangsa Lagu daerah teluk gong Dari ruang sudut pidato Pecahlah kaca menara gading Dengan Berani berteriak Untuk petani-petani yang tertindas Lihat pancar mata ayah mu di desa Lihat senyum ibu mu di kampung Kebanggaan bahawa kau anak mereka Tanda hormat Sajak ini yang dinukilkan oleh Usman Awang sebagai tanda hormat dan penghargaan beliau kepada mahasiswa yang pada ketika itu memperjuangkan isu Telok Gong. Tragedi yang sama juga berulang lagi tujuh tahun selepas itu pada tahun 1974 yang mana selepas pilihanraya 1974 negara digemparkan dengan kenaikan harga barang dan kejatuhan ekonomi termasuklah kejatuhan harga getah. Keadaan menjadi teruk apabila dikejutkan dengan berita kebuluran yang berlaku di Kedah sehingga ada di kalangan rakyatnya yang terpaksa makan sejenis ubi kayu gadum yang mengandungi racun. Oleh kerana itu berlakunya kes kematian walaupun pihak kerajaan menafikan dakwaan tersebut. Malaysia ketika ini menyaksikan kebangkitan besar-besaran mahasiswa pasca merdeka menyatakan pandangan dan bantahan ke atas apa yang telah berlaku. Dalam sejarah gerakan mahasiswa, ini adalah merupakan gerakan terbesar yang pernah dicatatkan, dengan melibatkan hampir 10,000 mahasiswa, hampir 2,000 mahasiswa ditangkap dan tahanan ISA yang paling lama pernah dikenakan kepada mahasiswa. Ketua Pembangkang Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim yang ketika itu adalah Presiden ABIM telah ditahan selama dua tahun di bawah Akta Keselamatan Dalam Negeri (ISA) dan Dr Syed Husin Ali selaku pensyarah Universiti Malaya pada ketika itu ditahan dibawah ISA selama enam tahun. Akta Universiti dan Kolej Universiti (AUKU) telah dirangka lebih awal iaitu pada tahun 1971, tetapi peruntukan undang-undang di dalam akta tersebut dikatakan tidak cukup ketat bagi mengekang gerakan mahasiswa pada ketika itu. Demonstrasi Baling adalah merupakan alasan oleh pihak kerajaan untuk meminda akta tersebut pada tahun 1975. Pada ketika ini semua pertubuhan mahasiswa adalah berdaftar di bawah universiti dengan meletakkan kuasa mutlak kepada Naib Canselor dan Menteri yang dipertanggungjawabkan. Tragedi hitam Mahasiswa dilarang sama sekali untuk terlibat dengan politik dan pertubuhan luar. Ini adalah merupakan satu tragedi hitam dalam sejarah mahasiswa. Saya juga ingin memetik beberapa catatan yang diterbitkan dalam Makalah Ar-Risalah 1975: "Perhimpunan pelajar-pelajar tersebut telah disuraikan oleh FRU dengan tembakan gas pemedih mata. Pelajar-pelajar telah melarikan diri ke Masjid Negara tetapi FRU terus mengejar mereka. FRU telah mengepung 8,000 pelajar yang sedang berlindung di Masjid serta melepaskan tembakan-tembakan gas pemedih mata ke arahnya. Ketika berada di dalam masjid pelajar-pelajar tersebut telah melaung-laungkan kalimat “ALLAHU AKBAR” dan beberapa kali mereka setelah mengalunkan azan. Sementara menunggu ketibaan waktu zohor mereka telah berzikir beramai-ramai selama kira-kira 20 minit. Setelah masuk waktu mereka telah menunaikan Fardzu Zohor secara berjema’ah. FRU terus berusaha untuk memberkas pelajar-pelajar dan dalam operasi tersebut beberapa orang pelajar telah cedera. Akhirnya FRU telah menangkap seramai 1,128 orang pelajar, termasuk 80 orang, pelajar wanita dan membawa mereka ke balai-balai polis Sentul, Brickfield dan Jalan Bandar. Pada sebelah malamnya mereka telah ditempatkan di Polis Depot Jalan Gurney. Pelajar-pelajar yang ditahan hanya diberi makan selepas 11.00 malam. Ketika berada dalam tahanan pelajar pelajar tersebut dikatakan telah melaungkan azan pada tiap-tiap kali masuk waktu dan menunaikan sembahyang dengan berjemaah secara bergilir-gilir. Kesemua pelajar-pelajar yang ditahan telah dihadapkan ke Mahkamah pada keesukan harinya. Kesemuanya tidak mengaku salah. Mereka telah dibebaskan dengan dibenarkan menjamin diri sendiri sebanyak antara $200.00 hingga $300.00 seorang. Mereka akan dibicarakan antara Februari hingga April tahun 1975. Tangkapan tersebut telah tidak dapat menahan pelajar-pelajar dari terus berdemonstrasi meskipun hanya terbatas di kampus-kampus sahaja, kerana dikawal ketat oleh FRU. Gerakan menangkap pemimpin pelajar Demo dalam kampus itu berjalan beberapa hari. Tindakan lanjut yang diambil oleh pemerintah ialah gerakan menangkap pemimpin-pemimpin pelajar, pensyarah-pensyarah dan pemimpin-pemimpin belia. Polis telah memasuki kampus Universiti Malaya dan Universiti Kebangsaan pada jam 2.00 pagi hari Ahad 8 Disember 1974. Polis telah menggeledah bilik-bilik asrama, pejabat-pejabat dan lain-lain bangunan Universiti untuk mencari dan menangkap mahasiswa di bawah ISA. Pengajaran besar yang harus diambil daripada Demonstrasi Baling selain daripada keberanian mahasiswa menjadi juru bicara rakyat adalah iktibar kepada isu yang diperjuangkan oleh mahasiswa ketika itu tidak bersifat 'self centered' yang berlegar disekitar isu dalaman dan isu yang remeh temeh. Tuntutan-tuntutan yang dikemukakan adalah bersifat nasional menunjukkan kematangan mahasiswa di dalam berfikir. Menghayati sejarah bererti bukan disimpan di dalam peti muzium untuk kenang-kenangan tetapi sejarah adalah coretan pengalaman untuk membina sesuatu yang lebih baik pada masa akan datang. Mahasiswa seharusnya berasa jelek dengan perkataan 'senyap'. Bersikap apologia dengan berdiam diri dan berpeluk tubuh melihat kecelakaan berlaku kepada rakyat. Mahasiswa adalah kelompok terdidik dalam masyarakat punya idealisma dan aktivisma yang tinggi untuk menyatakan hati nurani majoriti yang ditindas dan dizalimi. Kronisme dan pembaziran wang ringgit negara untuk segolongan kecil dalam masyarakat tidak boleh ditolensi lagi. Dalam aspek ini saya amat bersetuju dengan apa yang diungkapkan oleh Prof Diraja Ungku Aziz, “kepimpinan akan lahir daripada mahasiswa yang 'terpelajar' dan 'mencabar' walaupun beliau sendiri terlibat dalam mengekang mahasiswa dalam peristiwa 3 Disember 1974. Diakhir tulisan saya, saya ingin meninggalkan persoalan apakah yang bakal kita lakukan apabila harga barangan dan bebanan sara hidup yang makin tinggi? *Penulis ialah Pengarah Biro Mahasiswa, Angkatan Muda Keadilan Malaysia    |
| Hundreds turn up for ‘stateless Indians’ protest Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:14 PM PST
Some in the crowd of about 600 came clad in the "12-12-12" shirts. Most of Pakatan Rakyat’s Indian representatives were also present including Klang MP Charles Santiago, Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran, Kapar MP S Manikavasagam and Subang MP R Sivarasa. PKR vice-president Chua Jui Meng and several others addressed the crowd who were carrying red identification cards. Police personnel were seen guarding the National Registration Department (NRD) office. MIC had also set up MyDaftar kiosks in front of the NRD.
After a brief stand-off, NRD opened its doors to allow representatives from the group to meet its officers. Meanwhile, MyDaftar representative K Novinthen told FMT that 20 people have already registered to obtain their identification documents since morning. PKR: 500 registered today “Red and green IC holders are not stateless.
Three persons managed to obtain birth certificates due to the protest held today. M Soundarajan, 47, from Rawang, claimed that his children were given birth certificates without his name. “I was late in applying for the MyKad. That resulted in the birth certificates without my name. I came here six times but failed to rectify my children’s birth certificates," he said. Meanwhile, PKR claimed that they had registered a total of 500 people.
Asked about MIC central working committee member S Vell Paari’s offer to work together to resolve the problem, he said: “MIC and BN are making the offer to curb the political damage that they have suffered." “They should ask Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, as part of the government, to resolve the problem instead of cheating the people,” he added. Also read:    |
| Kajian: AES terbukti hanya kaut untung Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:12 PM PST
Kajian Politik Untuk Perubahan (KPRU) mengemukakan bukti kerajaan United Kingdom (UK), Amerika Syarikat (US), Perancis dan Australia mengambil kesempatan dengan memperoleh keuntungan berjuta dolar melalui pelaksanaan AES. KPRU dalam kajiannya berkata, perkara ini kemudiannya mendapat tentangan hebat kerana kerajaan berkenaan melaksanakan AES secara senyap-senyap tanpa rundingan bersama rakyat dan pengguna jalan raya khususnya pada peringkat perancangan sehingga berjaya memaksa program itu ditutup. “Pada tahun 2006 sebuah siasatan samaran di UK telah menemui kamera trafik sememangnya dilakukan untuk meraih keuntungan bagi kerajaan dan syarikat pembekal kamera trafik dan bukannya untuk meningkatkan keselamatan di jalan raya. “Malah menurut siasatan tersebut, kamera trafik sememangnya direka untuk mengaut keuntungan daripada pengguna jalan raya di mana saman yang bernilai berjuta-juta dolar akan disalurkan secara rahsia kepada kerajaan dan bukannya memberi semula wang tersebut untuk memperbaiki keselamatan jalan raya,” katanya. KPRU turut mendapati penentangan terhadap syarikat pembekal kamera trafik mencapai tahap kritikal di mana terdapatnya laman sesawang yang menyenaraikan kegagalan syarikat-syarikat tersebut dalam memperbaiki keselamatan jalan raya. “Pada tahun 2011, syarikat berkaitan telah kehilangan sebanyak USD$2.4 juta dalam kontrak berikutan permintaan ke atas kamera trafik yang kian menurun dan penentangan terhadap kamera-kamera trafik yang kian meningkat. “Pada tahun 2012, nilai saham syarikat berkaitan di Amerika Syarikat pula menjunam daripada USD$2.10 kepada USD$1.76 (16 peratus) selepas syarikat berkaitan terlibat dengan amalan rasuah dengan pegawai majlis perbandaran untuk mendapatkan kontrak pemasangan kamera trafik. Berbeza di Belanda dan Sweden pula, program AES dikatakan berjaya berbanding negara lain kerana kerajaan terbabit berusaha untuk menyediakan sistem pengangkutan awam yang cekap dan komprehensif, lantas menjadikan usaha memperbaiki keselamatan jalan raya satu usaha yang menyeluruh. Selain itu, negara terbabit juga mempunyai kecekapan sistem pengangkutan awam yang begitu tinggi sehinggakan majoriti rakyatnya amat bergantung kepada pengangkutan awam selain basikal. Beban kepada pengguna
Sehubungan itu, KPRU mencadangkan satu sistem pengangkutan yang komprehensif harus dilakukan jika kerajaan Malaysia serius mahu memperbaiki keselamatan pengguna jalan raya. Ini termasuklah sistem pengangkutan awam yang cekap dan efektif, kempen kesedaran di semua lapisan masyarakat mengenai kepentingan keselamatan jalan raya, dan rangkaian jalan raya yang selamat dan berkesan. “Di Malaysia – di mana kecacatan sistem pengangkutan awam dan amalan rasuah sering dibangkitkan – apakah pelaksanaan sistem AES dibantah sepenuhnya akan ditangguhkan oleh kerajaan hari ini? “Pendek kata, kita nakkan kerajaan yang dahulukan kepentingan kroni atau kepentingan rakyat terbanyak?,” soalnya.    |
| Share prices remain high in mid-morning trading Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:09 PM PST
As at 11.06 am, the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) gained 4.95 points to 1,646.52, after opening at 1,644.15. The Finance Index surged 27.94 points to 15,137.38, but the Industrial Index eased 0.35 of a point to 2,704.9, and the Plantation Index advanced 33.64 points to 7,980.25. The FBM Emas Index soared 34.55 points to 11,183.22 and the FBM Mid 70 Index jumped 29.32 points to 12,121.61 but the FBM Ace lost 3.49 points to 4,153.58. Gainers led losers 247 to 195 while 248 counters were unchanged, 950 untraded and 25 suspended. Turnover stood at 317.78 million shares worth RM449.73 million. Among actives, Compugates and P.A. Resources earned half-a-sen each to nine sen and 15 sen, respectively, Menang Corp rose 1.5 sen to 34.5 sen but Tiger Synergy slipped 1.5 sen to 36.5 sen. Heavyweights, Maybank and CIMB were flat at RM9.05 and RM7.06, respectively, Sime Darby lost three sen to RM9.09 but Axiata improved five sen to RM6.38. - Bernama    |
| International cooperation vital to tackle financial risks, says Zeti Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:08 PM PST
In making the call, Bank Negara Malaysia governor Zeti Akhtar Aziz said the cross-border dimension of policy-making has not been as extensive, despite wide-ranging financial reforms at the international level to strengthen the resilience of the financial sector. This is also despite the swift spread of financial and economic shocks in the global economy and international financial system, following the 2008 crisis which affected the stability of both emerging economies and more developed financial systems. To facilitate effective policy decision-making, Zeti said there needs to be a platform and governance process for policy coordination across agencies within an economy, and for this to be extended for regional and international collective action. Institutional arrangements for policy cooperation and coordination have yet to reach the levels that commensurate with the degree of global economic and financial integration, she said. “While the individual efforts by any single economy is vital, it can no longer guarantee global financial stability,” she said in her speech, titled “Global Financial Stability and the Internationalisation of Financial Systems in Emerging Economies”, at the “The Euromoney-Qatar Conference” in Doha yesterday. The text of her speech was released here today. Emerging economies that are more open and integrated with the global economy and international financial system are the most affected by these developments. Zeti noted that the crisis has forcefully demonstrated the importance of the international dimension of policy in view of the fact that it caused high unemployment in many parts of the world. Since financial stress in a specific segment might no longer be confined to that segment, but might rapidly be transmitted to the rest of the financial system, “a piecemeal policy response would not be sufficient,” she said in highlighting the lessons to be learnt from the financial crisis. “It would require a comprehensive response to ensure that such stressed conditions do not evolve into a major financial crisis,” she added. Misaligned exchange rates Another vital lesson is that the build-up of risks to financial stability need to be identified early as pre-emptive action would reduce the cost of the crisis on the financial system and the economy. Regulatory authorities also need to be accorded the necessary powers to manage the risks to financial stability, while the optimal policy mix might not only include policy actions to address immediate term issues but would need to simultaneously address the underlying structural problems. Zeti said that recognition should also be given to the importance of enabling conditions that would render the implemented policies to yield the desired outcomes. While the benefits of financial liberalisation are significant, it could also amplify further the implications of financial stress from other parts of the world on the domestic financial system, as well as accentuate and amplify asset bubbles and boom-bust cycles. The central bank governor also cautioned that volatile capital flows might not only affect the efficient functioning of the financial markets but could also result in misaligned exchange rates that do not reflect underlying fundamentals. “These potential risks and vulnerabilities continue to be a challenge not only to emerging economies but also to the more developed financial systems and economies,” she said. She also cautioned that premature internationalisation of financial systems could result in highly destabilising conditions, which is why the liberalisation process needs to be pragmatic, taking into account the different objectives that need to be achieved. “With sufficient development of the financial infrastructure, the safeguards and the buffers, emerging economies have every potential to participate in a more internationally integrated financial system that will facilitate mutually reinforcing global growth and development,” Zeti said. - Bernama    |
| Sayangkan Umno, Shafie harus diketepikan Posted: 11 Dec 2012 09:06 PM PST
Tahun 2012 sudah hampir melabuhkan tirainya dan andai direnung kembali peristiwa sepanjang tahun ini sudah tentu bahang PRU13 (pilihan raya umum ke 13) yang tidak berkesudahan tetap menjadi bualan hangat bagi mereka yang merasakan cukup arif tentang suasana politik Malaysia. Ada sesuatu yang sangat menarik perhatian penulis untuk mengulas kemelut politik yang sedang melanda Malaysia Timur ketika ini dan di antara yang paling panas ialah Parlimen Semporna P189 yang memang terkenal sebagai salah satu kubu kuat Umno semenjak parti tersebut berjaya menakluki negeri Sabah. Hasil daripada kajian yang penulis telah lakukan semenjak kembali dari bercuti di daerah tersebut, amat mengejutkan apabila disedari bahawa Ahli Parlimen bagi Semporna ialah Menteri Pembangunan Luar Bandar Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal yang juga merupakan salah seorang yang bertanggungjawab membawa kemasukan Umno ke Sabah pada tahun 1991. Menyingkap titik permulaan beliau di arena politik Malaysia, Shafie hanya bermula sebagai pegawai biasa di Yayasan Sabah berjaya dketengahkan oleh bapa saudara beliau Tun Haji Sakaran in Dandai yang pada masa itu pemilik kerusi DUN N.48 Sulabayan di bawah tiket parti pembangkang Usno. Setelah Shafie berjaya mengambil alih kerusi parlimen Semporna pada PRU 1995, beliau telah dilantik sebagai Setiausaha Parlimen Kementerian Penerangan, Timbalan Menteri Pertahanan, Menteri Hal Ehwal Pengguna dan Korperasi, Menteri Perpaduan Masyarakat dan Kebudayaan dan kini menerajui Kementerian Pembangunan Luar Bandar dan Wilayah. Melalui rekod jawatan yang beliau sandang, ternyata Shafie adalah seorang yang boleh dikatakan pemain peranan utama di dalam kabinet Barisan Nasional. Memegang tampuk kepimpinan Parlimen Semporna selama empat penggal dan pada pemilihan Agung Parti Umno 2008 beliau berjaya menduduki salah satu daripada kerusi naib presiden. Rekod kejayaan Shafie sebagai ahli politik memang boleh dikatakan gah secara zahirnya. Berbalik semula kepada topik daerah Semporna. Lawatan penulis baru-baru ini sangat membuka mata. Tanah yang terkenal dengan Pulau Sipadan (Diver’s Heaven) ternyata daif dan jauh ketinggalan dalam segala aspek walaupun diwakili oleh orang penting di dalam kabinet Barisan Nasional (BN). Persoalannya, apakah yang telah dilakukan oleh Shafie selama empat penggal memegang mandat para pengundi di Semporna ini? Soalan ini memaksa penulis cuba mencari tahu daripada masyarakat tempatan bagi mengenal pasti kepincangan pengurusan daerah tersebut. Hasil daripada apa yang diamati, ada 4 Dalil Utama yang akan menjadi penyebab kepada kekalahan BN sekiranya Shafie diturunkan sekali lagi pada PRU13 nanti. 1. Janji empat penggal tidak ditepati Ditanyakan tentang kepimpinan dan kredibiliti Shafie kepada masyarakat tempatan, terlalu ramai yang mengeluh dan menyuarakan rasa kecewa mereka dengan cara pimpinan Shafie setelah empat penggal. Terlalu banyak janji-janji yang tidak ditepati. Salah satu daripadanya ialah pembinaan jambatan dari tanah besar Semporna ke Pulau BumBum yang dikatakan janji empat penggal yang jelas tidak ditunaikan sehingga ke hari ini.
Selain daripada janji jambatan yang tidak tertunai, penduduk daerah ini juga berdepan dengan masalah infrastruktur di mana jalan utama ke pekan Semporna sentiasa mengalami kesesakan kerana sudah tidak mampu menampung jumlah kenderaan yang semakin bertambah. Masalah kemudahan asas yang semakin meruncing seperti bekalan tenaga elektrik yang tidak stabil dan bekalan air bersih yang tidak terurus juga sudah sekian lama tidak dapat diselesaikan. Dan yang sangat memalukan ialah pengurusan sampah yang sangat lemah telah mengharumkan nama Semporna sebagai daerah terkotor di Sabah dan juga mungkin di Malaysia. Kekotoran daerah ini memang tidak dapat disangkal lagi dan sudah cukup menjadi bukti kukuh kepincangan kepimpinan Shafie dan YB DUN di dalam kawasan parlimen Semporna. 2. Skandal artis Ramai sedia maklum kehangatan skandal pemberian hampir RM1.3 juta kepada seorang aktres tempatan. Walaupun Shafie berjaya mendiamkan dan menyejukkan kehangatan skandal ini, golongan masyarakat Semporna sudah maklum akan kebenarannya, malah ada anak tempatan yang mempunyai bukti yang kukuh atas kesahihan skandal ini. Kehangatan skandal ini juga dikatakan telah membuka semula rahsia skandal lapuk Shafie yang dikaitkan dengan seorang wanita tempatan. Kedua-dua skandal ini sebenarnya boleh dikatakan nyata bagai ‘sudah terang lagi bersuluh’, tetapi Shafie tetap menafikan dan sanggup menipu dan memperbodohkan masyarakat daerah Semporna. Persoalan penting yang harus diberikan tumpuan ialah, bagaimana Shafie mampu mendapat jutaan ringgit bagi menampung kemewahan hidup artis tersebut? Mengimbas semula skandal-skandal yang pernah melanda barisan pemimpin tertinggi Umno, seharusnya Shafie mengambil langkah yang sama menawarkan diri untuk tidak bertanding di dalam PRU13 agar beliau dapat bersara dengan cara terhormat. Skandal ini tidak seharusnya diambil mudah oleh barisan pemimpin tertinggi BN sekiranya mereka benar-benar ingin menurunkan barisan calon pilihan terbaik. Terdengar ura-ura mengatakan akan ada pihak yang berani untuk membuktikan kesahihan skandal ini. Seandainya Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak bersungguh-sungguh mahu mempertahankan kuasa BN di Putrajaya, maka tidak salah untuk mengorbankan Shafie demi nama baik Umno kerana lambat laun akan terbukti Shafie hanyalah individu yang akan membawa kerosakan pada imej kepimpinan BN. 3. Kronisme dan sabotaj penyokong Umno Selama menjadi menteri di Persekutuan, Shafie dikatakan telah mengamalkan kronisme di mana beliau telah banyak menganugerahkan projek-projek kerajaan kepada ahli keluarga yang terdekat.
Mengambil kira dari keadaan semasa yang melanda negeri Sabah, Ahli Majlis Tertinggi BN sewajarnya meminta Shafie untuk meletak jawatan bagi membuktikan kesungguhan mereka untuk membariskan pemimpin yang bersih dan lebih cekap mengurus di dalam PRU13 nanti. Tindakan bekas presiden Umno seperti Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dan juga Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yang dengan sukarela melepaskan jawatan mereka dan bersara harus dicontohi oleh Shafie demi kepentingan perjuangan Umno dan BN di Sabah. 4. Calon pembangkang bukan calon pilihan Shafie Bukan lagi khabar angin. Yang jelas, dalam PRU10 sehingga PRU12 masyarakat tempatan ada mengakui bahawa Shafie telah meletakkan orang sendiri sebagai calon parti lawan dan ini adalah faktor utama kejayaan bertahan selama empat penggal. Strategi beliau telah lama dikenal pasti dan setelah menyedari bahawa anak tempatan yang juga seorang pakar bedah pilihan sebenar PKR Pusat akan menentang beliau, pelbagai usaha telah beliau lakukan bagi memastikan anak tempatan tersebut tidak dicalonkan. Satu langkah jelas yang beliau lakukan ialah dengan memporak porandakan urusan Cabang PKR Semporna dan juga cuba meletakkan calon wanita yang kononnya Ketua Srikandi Cabang tersebut. Malangnya, perhimpunan kemasukan beramai-ramai ke PKR yang dihadiri hampir 3,000 orang tempatan di Semporna telah membuktikan bahawa Shafie akan menghadapi kerumitan di dalam mempertahankan kerusi beliau. Kemasukan beramai-ramai ini juga petanda besar kepimpinan Shafie telah ditolak. Memancing undi dengan wang ringgit bukan lagi satu kaedah terbaik untuk memenangi hati masyarakat Semporna pada PRU13 kerana perkara utama mereka inginkan ialah pemimpin yang lebih berjiwa rakyat dan mampu menzahirkan segala janji yang ditaburkan. Mungkin Shafie berada di zon selesa sebelum ini sehinggakan beliau terlepas pandang akan kepincangan yang telah beliau lakukan selama memegang kerusi tersebut hampir 18 tahun. Sudah tiba masa untuk beliau memberikan laluan kepada muka baru bagi memimpin dan memenangi hati pengundi pada PRU13 kelak. Empat dalil (faktor utama) telah diterangkan di sini, maka terserah kepada pucuk pimpinan BN untuk membuka dacing dan membuat pertimbangan. Meletakkan Shafie dalam senarai calon sekali lagi hanyalah umpama membiarkan parasit membiak dan merosakkan kredibiliti BN. Padah akan mengundang seandainya suara pengundi Semporna dianggap remeh kerana kuasa ditangan mereka. Kebencian para pengundi pada Shafie sudah tidak dapat dibendung lagi. Yang pasti, janji dan sumpah keramat Shafie sudah tidak mampu mengaburi mata penduduk tanah Bajau Laut itu. *Penulis, 33 tahun, yang bermastautin di Kuala Lumpur ialah seorang penyanyi, penulis lirik lagu, penggemar seni, suka menjelajah dunia, aktivis Gerakan Hak Asasi Malaysia (MCLM) dan politik.    |
| Group wants referendum on Pengerang graves Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:56 PM PST
The seven along with 11 Muslim cemeteries have been earmarked for relocation by the Johor government. They are to make way for the Pengerang Integrated Complex, the site for a major oil refinery hub. Despite protests against the relocation of the cemeteries, the state government is determined to go ahead with the project. “We want to show once and for all that the people of Pengerang do not want the relocation and this referendum will prove it," said Chua Peng Sian, treasurer for the Coalition of Pengerang NGOs. "We conducted a signature campaign earlier this year and 90% of the Chinese families signed it saying they did not want the cemeteries to relocated. Then in June, Er Teck Hwa (MP for Bakri), tabled a motion to debate the issue, but it was not allowed," he added. Chua said: "So now we want the courts to call for a referendum to find out if the people of Pengerang want all the seven Chinese cemeteries to be relocated. And we hope this will show the authorities what the people really want." ‘Respect peoples’ sensitivities’
IPR facilitator, Abdul Rahman Maidin, said: "We support the stand by all the communities living here and the communities have strongly indicated that they do not want to be relocated and this includes their cemeteries." "The sensitivities of the people should be respected," he said, adding that the issue involving the relocation of the 11 Muslim cemeteries has already been taken up by lawyers. The Pengerang Integrated Complex entails the relocation of about 25,000 people from 10 villages. Under the first phase of the relocation, 3,122 people from seven villages will be made to move out by March next year. The projects is said to bring in RM170 billion worth of investments and will start operations in 2016.    |
| Extinct lizard named after Obama Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:52 PM PST
The small, insect-eating lizard was first discovered in eastern Montana in 1974, but a recent re-examination showed the fossil had been wrongly classified as a Leptochamops denticulatus and was in fact a new species, researchers told Reuters yesterday. Obamadon gracilis was one of nine newly discovered species reported on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In naming the new species, scientists from Yale and Harvard universities combined the Latin “Obamadon” for “Obama’s teeth” and “gracilis,” which means slender. “The lizard has these very tall, straight teeth and Obama has these tall, straight incisors and a great smile,” said Nick Longrich, a paleontologist at the school in New Haven, Connecticut. It was believed to have lived during the Cretaceous period, which began 145.5 million years ago. Along with many dinosaurs from that era, the lizard died out about 65 million years ago when a giant asteroid struck earth, scientists say.
“It would look like we were kicking him when he’s down if he lost and we named this extinct lizard after him,” he said in an interview. “Romneydon” was never under consideration and “Clintondon” didn’t sound good, said Longrich, who supported Hillary Clinton’s failed run against Obama in the 2008 Democratic primary. Obama is not the first politician whose name has been used to help classify organisms. Megalonyxx jeffersonii, an extinct species of plant-eating ground sloth, was named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson, an amateur paleontologist who studied the mammal. Earlier this year, researchers announced they had named five newly identified species of freshwater perch after Obama, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Jimmy Carter and Theodore Roosevelt. In 2005, entomologists named three species of North American slime-mold beetles agathidium bushi, agathidium cheneyi and agathidium rumsfeldi in honor of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld – the U.S. president, vice president and secretary of defense at the time. Other celebrity names also have been used to name new species. A small Caribbean crustacean has been named after reggae icon Bob Marley, an Australian horsefly has been named in honor of hip-hop star Beyonce, and an endangered species of marsh rabbit has been named after Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner.—Reuters    |
| MCMC justifies 4G award to newcomer Puncak Semangat Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:50 PM PST
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chairman Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi said the commission gave telecommunication newcomer Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd (PCSB) more bandwidth than competitors to encourage new players. PCSB, a company formed in 2010 and linked to billionaire Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary, has received 40Mhz of the 2.6Ghz spectrum band under the government allocation, while seven other telcos received 20Mhz each. "We need a new player and it is our prerogative to give the award to whichever company we choose. Puncak Semangat has submitted a good business proposal," said Mohamed Sharil at an MCMC event here yesterday. Even with Mohamed Sharil's statement, there are still questions over what PCSB is going to do with its allocation. PCSB is also in the running with i-Media Broadcasting Solutions Sdn Bhd and REDtone Network Sdn Bhd for the digital terrestrial broadcast infrastructure contract to convert current analogue broadcasting system to digital, which will be awarded by middle of 2013. PCSB was first reported as a bidder for Internet service provider Jaring Communications Sdn Bhd. Mohamed Sharil said all Tier 1 players have been allocated the bandwidth they need, while the 40Mhz allocated to PCSB is the minimum a startup needs to compete. "If we don't give the bandwidth to the Tier 2 players, then they cannot compete," he said. Tier 1 players consist of Celcom Axiata Bhd with a total of 139MHz, Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd with 137MHz and DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd with 109MHz, inclusive of the recently awarded bandwidth under the 2.6GHz spectrum band, which would enable them to provide 4G or long-term evaluation (LTE) services with speeds in excess of 100Mbps. Mohamed Sharil said that not all of the allocated bandwidth has been fully utilised. "Mobile players are not optimising the spectrum. We have given out enough mobile spectrum to the players," he said, adding that Vodafone Ltd in the UK only uses 86MHz for its 26 million subscriber base. At the event, Mohamed Sharil also talked about MCMC's strategy of encouraging sharing among the players, saying that if the players do not share the bandwidth then they are not going to get the optimal speed. "It is not about players' consolidation. We are trying to focus on infrastructure consolidation." Mohamed Sharil added that LTE is going to be around for quite some time so businesses are encouraged to develop contents and applications to meet consumers’ needs. "Innovation is on the contents," he said. This content is provided by FMT content partner The Malaysian Reserve.    |
| Malakoff proposes relisting on Bursa next year Posted: 11 Dec 2012 08:47 PM PST
KUALA LUMPUR: Malakoff Corp Bhd (MCB), a 51%-owned unit of MMC Corp Bhd that was taken private in 2007, has proposed a bonus issue, conversion and splitting of shares prior to its proposed relisting on Bursa Malaysia next year. Malakoff is the largest independent power producer (IPP) in Malaysia with an effective power generation capacity of 5,020MW representing 22.5% of Malaysia's total installed capacity. It has also the largest effective power generation capacity in Southeast Asia. The company is also involved with power generation and water production in the Middle East and North Africa with an effective water production capacity of 358,550 cu m of water per day. The company is proposing the conversion of all the consolidated redeemable convertible non-cumulative preference shares of RM1 into new ordinary shares of RM1. Subject to Securities Commission approval, there will be 41.8 million new pre-subdivided shares after the exercise. The issued and paid-up capital of the company will increase from 351.3 million shares to 393.1 million shares. The company is also proposing a bonus issue which involves the issuance of 6.8 million new pre-subdivided shares. Upon the completion of the proposed conversion and proposed bonus issue, MCB will undertake a subdivision of every one existing ordinary share of RM1 in MCB into five ordinary shares of 20 sen. The issued and paid-up capital of the company will be RM400 million comprising of two billion shares of 20 sen each. The company intends to undertake an initial public offering (IPO) of 760.9 million shares comprising an offer for sale of 260.9 million shares by shareholders and a public issue of 500 million shares. The institutional offering of up to 629.4 million IPO shares, at a price to be determined by way of book building on a date to be determined later, represent up to 25.2% of the enlarged issued and paid-up capital of the company. There will be an allocation of 275 million shares to Bumiputera investors approved by Ministry of International Trade and Industry and 93.5 million up to 260.9 million shares to selected local and foreign institutions, an MMC exchange filing yesterday noted. The retail offering of the IPO will consist of 131.5 million shares representing 5.3% of the enlarged issued and paid-up capital of MCB. The proposed listing will accelerate the growth of the energy business within the MMC group. This content is provided by FMT content partner The Malaysian Reserve.    |
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