Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

Looks like the Mahathir factor continue to oppose Najib’s choice of leadership in the Kedah Umno’s current factional tussle. The current chairman of the Kedah Umno state liaison committee is a Sabahan named Datuk Shafie Apdal who replaced Kedah former menteri besar Datuk Mahazhir Khalid who was dropped from the line-up after Umno’s defeat in Kedah at the last general elections. Being the head of the state liaison committee of Kedah Umno which is totally unknown to him, it is tough for Datuk Shafie to consolidate his power over the state giving the fact that he is an outsider and furthermore a Borneo Malay (from Sabah), not a peninsular Malay. Besides, Datuk Shafie is also perceived as a weak leader because of his ignorance in the way Kedah Umno politics are being run. In fact, the majority of the Kedah Umno division chairmen and some powerful party warlords in the state doesn’t not seem in wanting to give due respect to Datuk Shafie as the state liaison chief. That means, he is not in ...

Did you all know why we said the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) secretary-general Chin Peng should regret for the rest of his life? The reason is very simple! He was stupid enough to let the British colonist retake Malaya when the Japanese forces surrendered to the Allies after the end of the Second World War. Chin Peng welcomed the British’s return to Malaya in 1945 to establish the transitional British Military Administration (BMA) in Malaya to receive the Japanese’s surrender. As the result, the British past the then Malaya to an organization filled with racist and violent leaders who later presided the tragic 13 May incident in 1969 and later continue on to rule our nation for more than 50 years. And today, our nation remained racially and politically divided as the result of one man’s stupid mistake. If Chin Peng had done what the other revolutionaries did in Korea (Kim Il Sung), Vietnam (Ho Chin Minh) and Indonesia (Sukarno) by resisting the colonist’s return to their land, Malays...

Penang is positioning itself as a “green state” by extending its “no plastic bag day” to all retail stores for Mondays beginning next Jan 1 while other businesses which had done so will now implement it three days a week. Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said those doing it for three days are hypermarkets, supermarkets, professional outlets/firms and franchise stores. "This move is in line with the state’s efforts to reshape Penang as the first 'green' state in Malaysia," he said in a statement today. Lim (picture) launched the “No Plastic Mondays” initiative in July 2009 and data provided by 45 supermarkets and hypermarkets indicate the public had reduced an estimated one million plastic bags in just four months. He disclosed that the state had also collected RM21,403 for the Partners Against Poverty Fund from the 20-sen levy imposed on consumers who insist on plastic bags on Monday. He said the programme has received tremendous support from the public, while other states...

Datuk Seri Najib Razak is now facing increasing pressure to close down the controversial Biro Tata Negara (BTN) even as the hawkish forces in his administration continue to defend what has been called racist brainwashing courses by participants and the Pakatan Rakyat (PR). PR is now on a campaign to expose what its leaders say are political indoctrination programmes to ensure civil servants and students back Barisan Nasional (BN) and Umno. An earlier proposal by the Najib administration to overhaul the BTN, or National Civics Bureau, may not be good enough, with more Malaysians speaking up against the courses. If the government does not shut down the programme, Najib will face the prospect of more talk that his 1 Malaysia talk is empty. In recent week, a number of former participants which include PR politicians and journalists have spoken of their experiences at BTN camps. They have pointed to how facilitators would stoke racial superiority, including portraying the Chinese as the mos...

When the opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat won over key states in Penang, Kedah, Selangor, Perak (Umno later retook this state in a coup d’etat) and Kelantan after the 12th general elections on 2008, the federal government which is still dominated by Umno via its coalition called the Barisan Nasional (BN) refused to accept the people’s verdict and went on to established their kind of governance in these Pakatan rule states. In order to ensure their continuous presence in these Pakatan rule states, BN moved to established the Federal Development Department or better known as Jabatan Pembangunan Persekutuan (JPP). The purpose and role of these JPP in Penang, Kedah, Selangor, Perak (Umno later retook this state in a coup d’etat) and Kelantan is to rival the existing state governments in all their functions and administrations. The JPP in these Pakatan rule states are managed by a State Development Officer or better known as Pegawai Pembangunan Negeri who also function as a de-facto chief min...

We were in one shopping mall at Central Seberang Perai recently where we came across with some Santa Claus put up by the mall to celebrate the upcoming Christmas which will take place on 25 December 2009 next month. To our very surprise, all the Santa Clauses are dressed in Green and White instead of the usual traditional Red and White. We were thinking what actually the mall is up to? Are they trying to please the ruling elites who still dominate the said area? We are uncertain if Santa Claus had deliberately converted to Islam just to satisfy the lust of some of these ruling elites who likes to shout “ketuanan” and raise the “keris” in the name of their supreme lordship.

Tindakan Timbalan Perdana Menteri Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yang meminta Tengku Razaliegh Hamzah berfikir dahulu menyertai Kaukus khas parlimen berhubung royalti petroleum disifatkan sebagai primitif dan masih megamalkan politik zaman batu. Naib Presiden PAS Datuk Mahfuz Omar ketika diminta mengulas perkara itu berkata, sikap Muhyidin tidak memperlihatkan mahu memperjuang hak dan kepentingan rakyat sebaliknya masih terikat dengan stigma sempit kepartian. "Muhyidin ini bagi saya seorang TPM primitif yang amalkan politik zaman batu, di mana tidak boleh menerima pandangan orang lain untuk kepentingan rakyat dan negara," jelasnya. Muhyidin hari ini membuat gesaan kepada Ku Li, iaitu Ahli Parlimen BN Gua Musang supaya berfikir dan menjaga kepentingan parti sebelum menyertai kaukus tajaan pakatan rakyat itu. Gesaan itu dibuat setelah Ketua Pembangkang semalam mengumumkan Ku Li bersedia untuk bersama dalam kaukus tersebut. Mahfuz yang juga Naib Presiden PAS menasihatkan Muhyiddin aga...

Mahkamah Tinggi hari ini memutuskan News Straits Time Berhad (NSTP) membayar ganti rugi berjumlah RM100 ribu kepada Penasihat Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR). Mahkamah turut mengarahkan NSTP membayar RM20 ribu sebagai kos mahkamah. Keputusan itu diumumkan Hakim Harminder Singh Dhaliwall di Mahkamah Tinggi Jalan Duta petang tadi. Pada 2003, Anwar memfailkan saman terhadap NSTP dan bekas ketua pengarang kumpulan Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad, di atas artikel yang bertajuk 'Anwar’s Link To US Lobbyist' yang disiarkan pada 2002. Anwar menuntut RM100 juta bagi ganti rugi am, ganti rugi teladan, ganti rugi tambahan, faedah, kos dan relif lain yang difikirkan sesuai oleh mahkamah. Artikel itu menyentuh dakwaan hubungan Anwar dengan pelobi Washington DC, hubungan kewangan beliau dan organisasi dikenali Asia Pacific Policy Centre (APPC) dan tuduhan dalam akuan bersumpah oleh bekas Penolong Gabenor Bank Negara Malaysia, Datuk Abdul Murad Khalid - Agensi .

The state government has found fresh evidence suggesting conspiracy in a land deal scandal that cost it RM40 million after they were sued by a quarry operator, Penang Deputy Chief Minister (II) Prof Dr P. Ramasamy said today. Dr P. Ramasamy He said a state-appointed committee to investigate the wrongful transaction of a private land by the Penang government to Tang Hak Ju had unearthed a crucial letter that suggested Tang had known beforehand that the land did not belong to the state. "From the information we have got, there is additional evidence that has not been investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)," he said, after submitting the committee’s findings to MACC officials at his office yesterday (25 Nov 2009). Tang had applied to the state government for the land in Seberang Perai Tengah (SPT) in 2002 to extract rocks for quarrying purposes. The state executive council approved the application after verifying with the SPT District and Land O...

Politics are now getting from bad to worst at Iskandar Malaysia, the showpiece economic corridor project situated in Johor state. So far, two chief executive officers (CEO) of the Iskandar Development Authority (IRDA) did not last two years on the job. Besides, the relationship between some of the key players in the IRDA mainly the Johor Civil Service (JCS), the federal government’s Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Iskandar Investment Board (IIB) and the last one, of course it is Umno. Right now, Johor menteri besar Datuk Abdul Ghani is lobbying at Putrajaya for the state government to take full control of the said “mega economic project” said to be the Malaysia’s Shenzen. Datuk Ghani had continuosly pushed the federal government to put IRDA directly under the jurisdiction of the state government and not report to Khazanah Nasional Bhd as currently the position is. The IRDA board of directors is currently chaired by both the prime minister and the menteri besar himself. Ever since the resignatio...

Actually, what is the logic behind another trade and convention centre? Did you know the existing RM600 million Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC) is still under utilized and is operating at a loss? PICC was built at the cost of RM600 million, fully paid by the federal government but until today it had so far collected only about RM2.5 million of rental annually. How long will it take to recoup the cost then? The proposed RM628 million Matrade to be built in Jalan Duta in Kuala Lumpur is to be developed by Naza TTDI, a subsidiary of Naza Group of Companies. So, apart from PICC there are also other trade and convention centre at the capital and Klang Valley like the KL Convention Centre (KLCC), Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) as well as the Mines Exhibition and Convention Centre. Aren’t these existing convention centres enough to cater about some 30 events annually? How much public fund will then be wasted in yet another so-called mega project of the Barisan Nasional? Why ...

The Penang government may declassify minutes of its state executive council and land committee meetings on a controversial land conversion approval, following criticisms by the Barisan Nasional (BN) state opposition. Chief Minister and DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng said the state exco will be requested to open up confidential minutes on the decision to convert from leasehold to freehold, a 1.4ha plot in George Town‘s Unesco heritage zone. The seafront land adjacent to the E&O Hotel in Farquhar Street here is earmarked for a construction project by PDC Heritage Hotel Sdn Bhd - a joint venture between the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) and YTL Hotels & Properties Sdn Bhd - for luxurious condominiums and an eatery. The issue was first brought up by Umno’s Pulau Betong assemblyman Muhammad Farid Saad earlier this month when he questioned Lim over his written reply in the last State Assembly sitting in August, that there were no were no freehold conversions approved b...

The board running Iskandar Malaysia, the country’s showpiece economic corridor, has finally accepted the resignation of chief executive officer Harun Johari effective Jan 1, 2010, just months after his appointment. The Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) board of directors’ acceptance of Harun’s resignation confirmed a last 24 October report . The board had earlier repeatedly denied the report. Harun becomes the second CEO to exit IRDA since it was set up in November 2006, following the footsteps of Datuk Ikmal Hijaz. Harun’s departure will raise more red flags over a project which has been long on announcements and master plans but painfully short on visible changes on the ground. It also calls into question Khazanah Nasional’s acumen in picking senior officials to drive this ambitious project. The Malaysian Insider understands that Harun tendered his resignation in late October but talk of his possible departure has been swirling since it became apparent that he was...

Moves are underway to get PAS spiritual advisior Nik Aziz NikMat to head Pakatan Rakyat, when the green light is given by the Registrar of Societies to activate the tripartite alliance as a formal political party. At the moment it is just a loose political pact comprising PAS, the DAP and the PKR – unlike the 13-party Barisan Nasional coalition which has its own organisation structure and a common logo unifying all the different component parties. The Pakatan has applied for formal registration as a single entity and there had been whispers about putting former minister in the Prime Nminister’s Department Zaid Ibrahim as its chairman.However, Zaid himself had reportedly proposed Nik Aziz to head the new political entity and this suggestion, it is understood, has received much support, especially from the PAS side. The PKR political bureau member wrote in his blog that Anwar Ibrahim should ‘sacrifice’ himself to make way for Nik Aziz to lead Pakatan. At the same time, an ntv7 poll, wh...

On 6 November, Penang state opposition leader and state Umno secretary Datuk Azhar Ibrahim had alleged that the Penang state government had boycotted events and functions organised by the federal government departments and agencies. Apart from that, Azhar also claimed that officers from the state government were inactive at resolving issues arised and the state machineries were hardly to be seen. The statements made by Azhar shows that he is politically inmatured and he had put his words without checking the facts first. In fact what had Azhar claimed that the state government had allegedly "boycotted" federal events had directly pointed back to himself and his party, Umno. We hope he had realised it by now and quickly apologise to the state as soon as possible. In the first place, who boycotted who first? The people knows that very clearly. When the Pakatan Rakyat took over several states after the 8 March 2008 general elections, it was the Umno-led federal government who ur...

The Sixth Penang Career Expo will be held from 14 November 2009 to 15 November 2009 at the Penang International Sports Arena (PISA) situated in Bayan Baru, Penang. The career expo shall commence from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm for the two days. Hope all jobseekers and those who desire a career shift will take up this opportunity soonest. Good Luck then !

In the prime minister’s speech at the recently concluded Gerakan national delegates conference which he officiated, Datuk Najib Razak told the Gerakan delegates and the people that racist comments from one or two Umno leaders should be ignored, Umno is not a racist party and don’t listen to one or two leaders’ talk. Does Najib think that by ignoring these “one or two racist Umno leaders” would be enough? Or why does he think that by ignoring these racist would be effective to curb them out of political influence? And are there really only “one or two” racist Umno leaders as he claimed? Since from the beginning of Umno’s inception till today, we had seen more than just “one or two” racist Umno leader wielding and yielding racist and supremacist jargons as well as threatened the lives of other communities. So, we want to correct Najib’s error, it is actually between “one to two thousand”. And we hope he does acknowledge his error. By just ignoring these racist Umno leaders aren’t enough ...

(An in depth to my previous article on the similar topic in this blog) Since Datuk Najib Razak took over as prime minister, he introduced the 1Malaysia concept which is to be undertaken by his administration. But does he realize that, if he is serious about racial integration, it must be first by revamping the entire educational system? Has Najib ever looked into this first prior to his commencement of 1Malaysia? Almost all of us agreed that in order to foster greater racial integration today, it must be start from school with its educational system first. However, today we still hear reasons given by non-Malay parents for not wanting to send their children to national schools. Their core concern is the overly emphasizing of Islam in national schools and due to this the national schools has been increasingly dominated by Malay students which by now had turned these national schools into “Malay schools” or “Islamic schools” instead of its origin position as national schools. In the past...

There goes 1Malaysia achievement. As at to-date, we have yet to see any results from the 1Malaysia implementation but only vast publicities and propaganda hits to promote the concept to all Malaysians. There had been a lot of talking around by the prime minster, his deputy premier and ministers but none have put it into action. In fact the cultural, arts and information ministry has been effectively turned into a propaganda ministry to promote the “cause” undertaken by Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN). Yes, the “cause”, from 1Malaysia, they had created 2Perak by insisting that their power seizure or shall we say coup d’etat staged on early last February to toppled an elected Perak state government was a genuine one because they had the support from the royal household who sworn in their rebel state government under the leadership of current rebel leader Dr Zambry Abd Kadir. Then they forcibly ousted the Perak state assembly speaker with the support of “outsiders” fully armed with various...

More than 10 senior officials and ex-ministers will be implicated in the Public Accounts Committee's report on the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) multi-billion ringgit fiasco to be tabled in Parliament tomorrow. PAC member and DAP National Publicity Secretary Tony Pua told reporters in the Parliament lobby today that PAC knows the Cabinet received a report on PKFZ and that "many ministers are accountable because no action was taken based on the report". "However, there are one or two (ex) ministers who had heavier and specific responsibilities to act and did not," Pua said referring to the "leaked" cabinet papers on the PKFZ showing that the government was aware of all the problems. Declining to name the officials, he told reporters to wait for the report to be tabled first. "We hope that stern and swift action are taken by the government so that such wastage of public funds will not recur," he said. It was earlier reported that a former transpo...

Najib's 1Malaysia was overly emphasized on the current political scenario and the aim to promote racial integration of our present generation only by political means. But the prime minister and Umno president had overlooked he need to start educating people from school via education. Doesn't he realise the importance of education to advance the multiracial integration in our country? Or is 1Malaysia a mere political ideology of BN? This concept and its objective remain unclear today as there are no specific direction to move forward to foster a greater Malaysian concept. In our country there are two types of educational system i.e. the national schools and the other is vernacular schools (which consist of Chinese and Tamil schools). In today's situation, Malay parents tend to send their children to national schools, while the non-Malay parents send their children to either Chinese or Tamil schools. Well, their reasons are clear, the non-Malay parents wanted their children t...

The DAP has called on the Government not to implement the proposed service tax on credit card holders, which will cause financial hardship to the poorer segments of society. DAP Secretary-General and Bagan Member of Parliament Lim Guan Eng who is also the Penang Chief Minister criticised the move, proposed in the Budget 2010, which is RM50 on each principal credit and charge card and RM25 for supplementary cards. The policy will push more consumers to borrow money from “ah long” or illegal moneylenders, especially when the country is facing the effects of the global economic slump, he added. “The Government should look at the perspective of the poor first before it implements the move,” he said. Lim said the party estimated that the Government will collect RM555mil in revenue from 10 million credit card and 1.5 million supplementary card holders per annum. He added that the Government is expected to collect an additional RM6.3bil in net revenue for next year and questioned why it neede...

Penang Chief Minister and DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng did not turn down the USD3bil (RM10.2bil) investment as claimed by Gerakan economic bureau head Wan Sun Keong at the Gerakan National Delegates’ Conference yesterday. Lim’s special investment officer Jeffrey Chew said in a press statement released today that Lim had never turned down any quality investment by multi-national companies. “Instead Lim has worked hard to make Penang an attractive investment location of choice by focusing on developing physical and human infrastructure as well as running a clean government based on CAT (competency, accountability and transparency),” he said. Calling Wan’s statement as a “mindless attack” against the Chief Minister by claiming that Lim had turned down a RM30 billion foreign investment because he “could not commit 1,000 engineers” in the state, Chew said Wan’s statement was all lies. “Lim had stated 1,000 electrical and electronic (E & E) engineers, not 1,000 engineers. In fact, ...