The Malay Awakening Selangor is the state for UMNO rest in peace
Recently, the Selangor state assembly passed a regulation barring state representatives and local councillors from applying for state-owned lands. This is a brave and unprecedented move which deserves more public attention than it has drawn so far.
One question is whether the new rule also applies to the members of the royal family. There are probably many examples of members of royalty applying for state land. Should they be given special consideration or be treated the same as the public?I am sure there are pros and cons when it comes to applying the rule to royalty. The important thing is for the issue to be brought out into the open and for rational public opinion to prevail.A brave and unprecedented move, it might be. But in an ethical society it's an item that would have been on the statute books 55 years ago The Croooks in BNajis will never eradicate such ' self serving ' or corrupted ' incentives '
Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers have tabled a landmark motion allowing the Selangor Economic Development Corporation or PKNS to open up a 7% special discount reserved for Bumiputera to all races born in Selangor, who wished to buy homes built by the state-owned property developer.
According to a Bernama report on Thursday, Speaker Teng Chang Kim had announced the motion received majority support at the Selangor state assembly, where the Pakatan holds 33 seats, compared to the 20 held by Prime Minister Najib Razak’s BN coalition.
The motion was submitted by DAP assemblyman for Kota Alam Shah M Manoharan and supported by Lau Weng San, the DAP MP for Kampung Tunku, at the Selangor state assembly.
If there’s something to take home positively from the series of “exposés” from Datuk Chua Tee Yong and his band of Selangor MCA cheerleaders, it is that he will doggedly persist with making increasingly ludicrous allegations against the Pakatan Rakyat state government, even if it is at the expense of exposing himself as a half-baked accountant.
To date, he has not even responded to the billion ringgit mega-blunder he has made, or other alleged scandals over the land asset recovery by the Selangor state which were exposed as unscandalous. He now alleges that the Selangor state subsidiary Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB) was forced to take a supersized RM230 million loan to acquire land from Menteri Besar (Incorporated) as part of the Talam debt settlement agreement.
Firstly, it does not at all make any sense for PNSB to take a RM230 million loan just to recover outstanding debts of RM22 million from Talam. Secondly, Datuk Chua himself admitted that he was not able to ascertain that PNSB had taken the hefty loan to purchase the plots of land in the Hulu Selangor constituency as the state firm’s 2011 audited accounts are not yet available. Hence he’s really just shooting in the dark!
But even if we were to assume that he is spot-on, that a RM230 million loan was indeed taken by PNSB to acquire RM450 million worth of land assets, as audited, valued and recognized in the PNSB 2010 financial accounts, where is the impropriety in that?
In case Datuk Chua isn’t aware, PNSB is a property development company. It has to acquire land to develop and construct, in order to sell and make a return for the company. It is no different from any property development company, privately held or publicly listed or government owned. And if Datuk Chua isn’t familiar, it’s a concept called “land-banking”. Hence the acquisition of land for future potential development is the normal course of business for a property development company! Where exactly is the “scandal” in the above transaction?
What’s more, as a trained accountant, Datuk Chua should know that getting into debt is not in itself an adverse event for the company. Otherwise, Malaysia’s largest property developers SP Setia Bhd, Sunway Bhd or IOI Corporation Bhd must be among the worst run companies because they carry debts of RM2.44 billion, RM2.42 billion and RM5.46 billion respectively in their books.
What is important is whether the liabilities that a company undertakes are sufficiently backed by its assets, and whether these assets can generate higher returns than the cost of funds. In this particular case, it is clear that the RM450 million of additional assets as pointed out by Datuk Chua himself, is worth nearly double that of the debt. So what’s the problem?
End the embarrassment for the MCA: Let’s debate
Datuk Chua has become an embarrassment for the MCA as he stumbles from one mega-blunder to another. I call upon Datuk Chua to end his misery once and for all, with a public and open debate in any language, at a time and place of his choosing, even if it is held at Wisma MCA over the “Talam Debt Recovery: A Billion Ringgit Bailout or a Billion Ringgit Mega-Blunder”.
Given Datuk Chua’s unwavering confidence over the issue, and the dedicated support of The Star in highlighting all of his press conferences on the front page of the paper, I am certain that the public will be looking forward to see how the biggest rising star of MCA demolish, once and for all, the reputation of the Pakatan Rakyat state government in Selangor.
While the MCA Presidential Council has barred its President Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek from further debates, I am confident that there is no blanket ban against all MCA leaders from participating in debates against DAP leaders. I very much look forward to Datuk Chua’s favourable reply.
The recent reshuffle of Keadilan’s line-up in Selangor has revealed the party’s intention to consolidate its position in the crown jewel of Pakatan Rakyat.
The appointment of vice-president Mohamed Azmin Ali as the new Keadilan Selangor Chief taking over from Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has been overplayed by the media as an attempt to squeeze Khalid out of his MB seat.
Speculations of a revolt by Keadilan MPs unhappy with Khalid’s leadership of the state has also fizzled out with no news on the existence of the said petition by 15 MPs to oust Khalid from the MB seat.
In typical melodramatic fashion of the mainstream media, Khalid has been typecast as the victim of a vicious political power play.
Leaders in Keadilan were reported by the media as saying that they were unhappy at Khalid’s unwillingness to give in to their demands for posts and state contracts.
Keadilan has also been painted as a party that is no different from Umno with their leaders’ unquenchable thirst for largesse.
The situation has been made worse by unwarranted demands made during the party’s congress in Kota Bharu.
Fringe leaders in the youth wing at the national and state level demanded for top posts in state-owned enterprises.
The party’s supremo Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has came out strongly and outlined this matter explicitly in his winding-up speech.
Anwar stressed that the party has no objections on appointments or awards to party members, as long as it is based on merit.
While the issue of government-linked companies (GLC) posts and projects hogged the limelight, the perception has been set in the media that these are the only issues that top the agenda among Keadilan leaders.
Keadilan faces a Herculean task of correcting the negative and biased perception whilst at the same time attempt to realign the party members and leaders on the need to serve the public, first and foremost.
Azmin, realising the arduous challenges ahead, has publicly endorsed Khalid’s tenure as the chief executive of Malaysia’s most developed state and declared that the party will do its all to defend the state from Umno’s attack.
Former Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohamad Khir Toyo meanwhile tried to sow distrust in Keadilan Selangor’s camp by claiming that the party is in dire straits as they have three “captains” in Anwar on international investments and economy: Khalid on state’s administration and development; as well as Azmin on political matters.
This was echoed of all people by an immature newbie Keadilan Selangor Youth Chief Khairul Anuar agreeing that Keadilan Selangor now has two heads.
The fact of the matter is that Umno is currently under tremendous pressure with Azmin helming the political front in the state as he is a tougher nut to crack.
Umno has been masterminding series of attempts to destabilize the state government using racial and religious undertones in their boisterous campaign.
The recent harassment of two of Keadilan’s state assemblymen by MACC was also alleged to be part of Umno’s agenda to recapture the state.
Umno will not let up in their attempts to salvage their battered pride from a disastrous outing in 2008 and will be even more brazen with Azmin helming Keadilan in the state.
Keadilan Selangor will need to support and complement Khalid’s effort at the state level and push for a more efficient public service delivery, reduce bureaucracy as well as upholding tenets of good governance.
As the dust settles from the media frenzy prior to the party’s retreat, there is a realization among party leaders that a snap election may be called by Prime Minister Datuk Sri Najib Tun Razak.
Pakatan Rakyat need a solid and strong partner in Keadilan to bolster their ranks and effectively defend the state from Umno’s onslaught.
Hence, Keadilan have no other option but to take the fight to Umno in the heartlands of Kuala Selangor, Sabak Bernam, Tanjung Karang and the likes.
This is where the battle will be come the next general election and Azmin will have to pull out all the political tricks from his sleeve to stop Umno in their tracks.
Azmin’s warm relations with the palace will also be an added positive in the state government’s effort to ensure the civil service including the Islamic department adhere to state’s policies and refrain from being used as tools of Umno.
Anwar, Khalid and Azmin have all expressed in unison their intention to fight tooth and nail to retain Selangor and the time has now come for the party to meet the insatiable expectations of the people.
The pride of the party is at stake and the consequences of failure is too high for Pakatan to endure.
The battle for the Pakatan’s crown jewel will definitely be the one to watch once Najib meets the King for the inevitable.
Newly released Human Development Report 2011
I am no journalist, endowed with the license to spin. I am just an unsalaried blogger who gives it straight to you and from the heart.
KTM Komuter trains and stations are now the latest canvas to market the Najib administration to Selangor commuters.
A survey by Malaysiakini found that train coaches and stations have been used for a “Sayangi Selangor (Love Selangor)” advertising campaign, with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak as the main subject.
The two taglines for the campaign are “We hear your problems on cost of living” and “We hear and understand your needs on education”.Such message appear all over train coaches, pillars on the platforms and train station escalators.
Najib is depicted with various groups, including children, with an emphasis on him listening to the grassroots.
It is understood that the campaign is currently aimed at the KL Sentral-Port Klang route – which runs mostly through Pakatan Rakyat held areas.
‘Why isn’t Khalid on it?’
It is believed that Najib is the centrepiece of the campaign because there has yet to be a clear BN nominee for the menteri besar position. Najib is the Selangor UMNO chief while Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) chairperson Mohd Zin Mohamed is the state BN coordinator.
Interviews with several commuters show that they were overwhelmingly unfavourable of the campaign.
A public university student who wished to be known only as Mat said that the campaign was “not balanced” because Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim was excluded.
“This is supposed to be a ‘Love Selangor’ campaign. Khalid should be included for fairness. It looks odd that a ‘Love Selangor’ campaign focuses on the Pprime minister,” he said.
Mat, 22, said it was not proper for the federal government to advertise its achievements.Heard it all before
Another student, Amirul, who studies in a private institution said the campaign was a sign that the general election is near. “If they have been looking after the people’s welfare, why the adverts now? Maybe it is because of the election,” he said.Meanwhile, Liana, 26, who works in a private firm, said the advertisements were unnecessary since the public is well informed about the government’s efforts.“There are a lot of advertisements, even on television. I think everyone knows the government has BR1M (Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia), vouchers for students and other things.
“I feel there is no need for such advertisements. What is important is transparency,” she said.Previously, Malaysiakini reported that BN flags had been put up all over several Selangor Komuter stations along the Kuala Lumpur-Port Klang route. Mohd Zin had at the time denied issuing any instructions for the flags to be raised.I will tell you that the Harmony Act is some utopia conjured by the fuckheads in Putrajaya. That utopia is distorted harmony.I will tell you that the Government’s twin ass-wipes the MACC and the Royal Commission concurred that Teoh Beng Hock “flew out of the window” because of enhanced interrogation. "Enhanced interrogation" sounds like a questioner who just shouts at you a little louder under the bright lights, or the threesome who conveniently opened a window of opportunity and assisted you in your flight. I heard somewhere that it was the Nazis who first invented the term.I will tell you that Custom Officer Ahmad Sarbini Mohd also was alleged to have lost his balance and“fallen” to his death from enhanced interrogation from the new MACC building in Jalan Cochrane, after bothersome truthfinding audits whilst the RCI on TBH was in progress.
I WILL TELL YOU THAT SINCE INTIMIDATING COAXING AND INTENSIFIED PHYSICAL TECHNIQUES FAILED KUGAN SUCCUMBED TO POSSIBLE HEIGHTENED BODY RECONFIGURATION ULTIMATE AND RIGOROUS PHENOMENOLOGICAL EXERCISES!I will tell you that Putrajaya will swear that they will not lie but instead will use euphemism like the boy who told the mother that since he had some time to spare, he did some creative economics and boosted his energy level for a while. I will tell you that the kid meant that he ponteng classes, stole some money and blew it on cigarettes.I will tell you that more euphemisms will come out from the Transformation Department because “chocking” the chicken or “porking” the pig is better spoken/written than seen.But I will also tell you that the Peaceful Assembly Act and the Evidence Act and whatever invasive imploration analysis forthcoming from the jackasses in Putridjaya will garner more votes for Pakatan.This much I can tell youas a Barisan Rakyat Bloggerwith scant resources.
What’s the problem with Lynas?
In a nutshell, it’s an identical issue to the Taib family’s Pressmetal Aluminium Smelter in Mukah. It shares the same origins as Taib’s land grabs, the greed that turns priceless forests into cheap plywood and oil palm.
The problem is that rich people in some faraway place, distant from Lynas, will get richer, while poor people pay with their lives.
Winners & Losers
In the case of Lynas, rich people in Umno and Australia profit, while the rakyat lose. Lynas is a mining company that has no proven track record, yet intends to ship gigantic containers of soil, laden with minerals called rare earth, from Western Australia to Gebeng, near Kuantan, Pahang.
In its factory in Gebeng, surrounded by half a million people within a 30km radius, Lynas proposes to extract the rare earth from the soil, and ship it to hungry industries manufacturing ‘smartphones’, computers and other electronic gadgets. The leftover mud will be radioactive, and Lynas has refused to say what it will do with the hazardous waste soil.
The New York Times broke the news a year ago to incredulous readers, that Lynas will be operating a factory handling radioactive materials, with no plan to dispose of the radioactive waste. The embarrassing reports exposed the Australian company’s pitiful lack of experience.
According to the New York Times (NYT), engineers have reported cracks in the storage tanks for the toxic mud. “The problems they detail include structural cracks, air pockets and leaks in many of the concrete shells for 70 containment tanks, some of which are larger than double-deckerbuses”.
Only Chinese complaining?
A Dutch supplier of resin or glue for the storage tanks, AkzoNobel, objected to cracks, moisture and shabby structural engineering in Lynas’s half-built plant. “We will not certify or even consider the use of our coatings if this problem can’t be fixed,” its spokesman told the NYT last year.
Eventually, Akzonobel declined to place its global reputation on the line, and pulled out of the project, obviously afraid that any major radioactive leak would cause a terrible human catastrophe.
Lynas and the government have failed to consult the local communities, and have played stupid, see-through public relations games. The government, including the much-ridiculed Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob, have aggressively defended Lynas, while keeping details a secret.
Adnan even used the old tactic of trying to dismiss the anti-Lynas campaign on racial grounds, implying only the Chinese were complaining. In fact, Malay farmers and fishermen stand to be the worst affected, and all local communities have been running a vigorous campaign against the radioactive plant.
Eyewitnesses say 15,000 people of all races took part in the Himpunan Hijau on February 26 in Kuantan. “I couldn’t see the edge of the crowd from where I stood,” said one protestor who had travelled four hours to get there.
Huge risks – but the rich benefit
Dangerous transport of radioactive materials, the factory itself, and the toxic waste dump, all pose unacceptable risks. Leakage, or an accident, at any of these stages would cause poisoning of the people, wildlife, soil and sea for many kilometres around, and winds would carry poisons further afield.
Anti-Lynas campaigners have pointed out that Australia does not want this polluting industry, yet Malaysia’s government has offered ten years of tax free status. Kuantan’s economy will potentially lose huge sums of money from loss of tourism, fisheries, agriculture – and from emigration of those with enough money to leave.
Why is Umno’s government is willing to risk poisoning the lives and livelihood of hundreds of thousands? Mahathir’s son Mokhzani, for one, was given a contract to supply the plant. Many Umno businessmen will make a fortune from this RM700 million plant – and then take the money and run. Poor local people will be left to fend for themselves.
Cancer
Since Australia refuses to take the radioactive waste back, the poison will be dumped somewhere around Kuantan. We have already witnessed the horrors of a far smaller radioactive rare earth factory and dump site in Bukit Merah and Papan, Perak, starting in 1982. There, residents reported a heartbreaking increase in children born with birth defects, learning disabilities and cancer.
A plague of blood cancer or leukaemia visited the local population of Bukit Merah. Before the rare earth factory, several years had passed without residents hearing of new cases. After ARE, eight children developed leukaemia within five years; seven of them died.
The national incidence of leukaemia is approximately 2.9 per 100,000 per year. In the local Bukit Merah and Papan community of 11,000, that leukaemia rate was a shocking five times the national average. The Malaysian government has admitted to the United Nations that the leukaemia rate there was higher than the national average, but argued there was no way of proving the rare earth waste had been responsible for this surge in numbers.
Bukit Merah’s Asian Rare Earth (ARE) factory, owned by Mitsubishi Japan, produced a tiny amount of radioactive waste compared to the sludge that will come from Lynas. ARE produced some 1,700 tonnes of radioactive waste a year for some ten years.
75 new leukaemia patients a year
Lynas proposes to create 20,000 to 50,000 tonnes of radioactive waste a year, or 10 to 30 times the amount of radioactive waste of Bukit Merah. Based on our past experience of 1,700 tonnes of toxic waste a year, as in ARE in Bukit Merah, we might be looking at 75 new leukaemia patients a year in a population the size of Kuantan’s. If the production in Lynas is 10 to 30 times that amount, we will surely see far more.
We have heard the smiling lies before, from government and industry, about radioactive waste being “safe” in Bukit Merah. Now, Umno insists on bulldozing the Lynas plant through.
Taib Mahmud and Musa Aman preside over land grabs in Sarawak and Sabah for exactly the same reasons: greed and corruption. Lynas, Bakun, and Mukah are the fruits of the same tree. Corruption is in all our backyards, and if we are to live, we must uproot this parasitic tree.
Bersih 2.0 and Himpunan Hijau were a good start, with tens of thousands showing solidarity for those of our fellow human beings under threat. If we stand together, we can one day be rid of our most shamelessly corrupt politicians.
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