The federal government reimburses the Sarawak power supply corporation about RM1.4 million a month so that about 70,000 households in Sarawak can enjoy free power supply, reports the Borneo Post.
Sounds good?
Let’s take a closer look at Sarawak Energy Bhd, which is 65 per cent owned by the State Financial Secretary Sarawak (which falls under the finance minister, who is Chief Minister Taib Mahmud) and 4 per cent by EPF:
Financial year ended 31 Dec 2008
Turnover RM1.3 billion
Profit before tax RM293m (RM401m in 2007)
Directors’ fees, etc RM3.8m (RM2.3m in 2007)
Now, let’s compare that with Tenaga Nasional Bhd, which was 38 per cent owned by Khazanah and 14 per cent by the EPF:
MRails International Sdn Bhd states on its website that the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) has “authorised our consortium to implement a monorail test track for 1.3km in Batu Kawan (near Stadium), Penang”.
The Edge weekly had reported in October that the state had in principle given the green light to businessman Jeyakumar Varathan, believed to be a director of MRails, to build a monorail test track on a 30-acre site in Batu Kawan. Discussions between the Penang government and Jeyakumar reportedly began three months ago.
But confusing statements have been made in the media by various state government leaders.
On 30 Nov, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy revealed, as reported in The Edge and elsewhere:
You can’t keep a good cartoonist down for long – especially one with a socio-political conscience. Three months after hundreds of copies of the inaugural issue of his Gedung Kartunmagazine were confiscated, political humourist Zunar and his creative team are back with a brighter idea.
Photos by Zunar’s team – Click on icon at bottom right of box to toggle to full-screen slideshow mode
This time, they are launching an 80-page cartoon book titled Perak Darul Kartun focusing on the power grab and associated antics in Perak – which undoubtedly offer rich material for satire. Unlike a regular magazine, a book doesn’t require a publishing permit under existing laws.
Appropriately, ousted Perak Mentri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin is expected to launch the book, priced at RM10 with an initial print run of 10,000 copies, in KL this Sunday.
This is what the irrepressible Zunar has to say:
In this era of Youtube, elected reps had better be on their toes when discharging their duties as they are coming under ever greater public scrutiny.
Three video clips show Penang Opposition Leader (from Umno/BN) Azhar Ibrahim apparently gesturing with his rear on two different occasions at the Penang State Assembly last week.
The first video has Azhar hitting out at theSun newspaper while apparently gesturing with his hand at his rear: “Itu paper pembohong besar. Ambil you punya paper calit … lagi baik. (That paper is a big liar. Take your paper and smear it with … would be better.)” His statement was made in the mistaken belief that theSun had reported him as commenting on a rowdy BN demonstration outside the state assembly when in reality the paper had not quoted him on the issue.
The more things change, the more they remain the same in Malaysian politics. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has failed to get a court to strike out a sodomy charge against him, which means the controversial trial that threatens to bump him from politics and land him in prison is set to begin on 25 January.
It will represent the second time Anwar faces charges of sodomy, which is considered a criminal act in Malaysia’s Muslim majority society. This time, he faces charges of sodomizing his 24-year-old former personal aide at a condominium in Kuala Lumpur in mid-2008.
Nizar Jamaluddin speaks to Penangites at the Caring Society Complex.
Some 700 Penangites attended the talk and hung on to Nizar’s every word – Photos by Jong. (Click on icon on bottom right of box to toggle to full-screen slideshow mode.)
<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=96877bcd0f” mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&task=viewaltcast&altcast_code=96877bcd0f” >LIVE: Nizar speaks to Penangites</a>
The descendants of settlers from Kwangchow have been waiting a dozen years for the compensation they were promised after they were forced to vacate their family homes along Jalan Raja Uda in Butterworth to make way for a major property development project.
Photos by Anil Netto – click icon on bottom right to toggle to full-screen slideshow mode
Today, their temporary concrete and zinc-roofed homes are rapidly decaying while the elusive agreed compensation – 800 sq ft three-bedroom medium-cost apartments – is nowhere in sight.
Since the mid-1990s, over 300 households scattered over 50 acres have lost their family homes to the Raja Uda Commercial Centre project in Butterworth. This project comprises rows of new shophouses, each priced at between RM500,000 to RM1 million, fronting both sides of a one-kilometre stretch of Jalan Raja Uda towards the intersection with Jalan Telaga Air/Jalan Siram.
When Aliran put up an article on workers’ rights on its website, little did it expect a string of queries on some of the common problems that workers across the country face.
These queries reflect the lack of education they receive on their rights as employees. They also indicates the low level of unionisation among Malaysian workers (only a small minority are trade union members) and our relatively weak labour and union protection laws.
So if you readers have the answers and could share with us, I am sure many workers in similar difficult situations would be grateful. Or if you have an exploitative situation or a violation of workers’ rights at your own workplace, why not share with us as well?
Noor Aini – Dr |60.48.76.xxx |2008-12-30 12:41:45
Can an employer make it a regulation that all employees must pay their income tax thru’ PCB and manage tax calculation for the employees automatically every mth?
For a long time, activists had believed that rainforests in the vast northwest Borneo state of Sarawak were being logged unsustainably, rapidly making way for tree (acacia) plantations, oil palm plantations, dams and secondary growth. But few listened.
Their position was confirmed when the country’s auditor-general presented to Parliament in October its 2008 annual report criticising forestry management in Malaysia’s largest state as “unsatisfactory”. The Sarawak state authorities have denied the auditor-general’s findings.
Many of us would think that the concern about hill-slope degradation in Penang and warnings of climate change are a fairly new development which began in the 1980s and 1990s.
Wrong. James Richardson Logan – the man who coined the name ‘Indonesia’ and who is honoured at the Logan Memorial outside the Penang High Court and buried in the nearby Protestant Cemetery – expressed such concern in the mid-19th century in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, which he edited. The brilliant Logan, who was ahead of his time, was a member of the Asiatic Society, corresponding member of the Ethnological Society of London and of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences.
Here are some excerpts from the Journal Vol II, printed in 1848:
It was remarked that the whole of the eastern front of the range [of a mountain in Pinang] has within a few years been denuded of its forest…. In Singapore the present zealous Governor has, in an enlightened spirit … absolutely prohibited the further destruction of forests on the summits of hills…. Climate concerns the whole community and its protection from injury is one of the duties of Government….
This is a side of Malaysia you don’t often see, a world hidden from us. Here, we get a peek at the sad conditions inside an immigration detention centre.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has reportedly detected government projects in Sarawak where up to 60 per cent of the funding was diverted.
“Based on the investigations the Sarawak MACC carried out on specific and real cases (projects), only about 40 per cent of the allocations were spent while the remaining 60 per cent is ‘bocor’ (leaked out),” MACC deputy chief commissioner (prevention) Zakaria Jaffar was quoted as saying.
These projects included roads, low-cost houses and mosques.
A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for higher taxes on the rich to help their country recover from its economic crisis.
The campaign – “Vermoegende für eine Vermoegensabgabe” (Wealthy people in favour of a wealth tax) – proposes a five per cent wealth tax for two years followed by a reduction to one per cent for those with a personal fortune of more than 500,000 euros (US$750,000).
This is in sharp contrast to Malaysia’s move over the years to a regressive taxation model – reducing taxes for corporations and the rich, and now shifting the tax burden to the larger public, including the low-income group (currently exempted from income tax), through a new Goods and Services Tax (GST). Corporate tax has been progressively reduced from 40 per cent in 1988 to 26 per cent now, and now GST will be imposed probably at 4 per cent – for a start.
A record number of Malaysians – 10,755 – have pledged to go meatless tomorrow (25 November) to mark International Meatless Day – Animal Rights Day. There is still time for more pledges to reach the organisers; so let’s give it a last-minute push.
This is the highest figure achieved by Malaysians so far, surpassing last year’s 8,563 pledges, since the campaign began in the country in 1996. Last year 84.2 million people all over the world pledged to go meatless.
With the deteriorating environment, this campaign is all the more important as livestock farming is a major contributor (18 per cent) of global emissions.
A lot has been said about the conversion of leasehold land to freehold land. The state sometimes relies on the “special circumstances” under section 76(aa)(iii) of the National Land Code 1965 (NLC) to justify the conversion from leasehold to freehold but this section is frequently misunderstood.
The term “special circumstances” is not expressly defined in the NLC. The statutes or the rules of court do not shed much light either. So I asked a senior lawyer to clarify what constitutes “special circumstances”, and this was the reply:
It is left entirely to the opinion and discretion of the courts.
The Malaysian Meteorological Department issued a red alert at 1.30pm, warning that intermittent and sometimes heavy downpours in Kelantan and Terengganu this week could lead to more floods in low-lying areas near river banks.
Thunderstorms in the two states have already forced over 8,000 flood victims to flee to relief centres in Dungun, Kemaman, Marang, Setiu, Hulu Terengganu and Besut.
A thorough independent audit is needed on the Selangor state agencies that are owed RM391 million by Talam Corp Bhd to find out how the debt arose and who is responsible for allowing it to linger. What wonders it would reveal!
The stage agencies concerned are subsidiaries of Selangor Development Corporation (PKNS), Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd (KDEB), Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB) and Yayasan Pendidikan Selangor.
State agencies usually come under the purview of top Selangor government leaders, and if these debts go back a decade as has been reported, then those responsible in the previous administrations have to be held accountable.
State agencies are believed to have entered into joint ventures with Talam to develop huge land banks. It was supposed to be a “win-win situation” – but obviously something went wrong, somewhere. Talam reportedly secured large landbanks in Ampang, Sepang, Puchong, Bukit Jalil and Rawang, all prime areas.
The Selangor government’s decision to approve an additional RM391 million budget allocation to Mentri Besar Inc (MBI) to take over the debts owed by Talam Corp Bhd to three state agencies has stirred controversy.
Basically, under the move, MBI will use the money (via Selangor Industrial Corporation as a channel?) to settle the amount that Talam owes subsidiaries of Selangor Development Corporation (PKNS), Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd (KDEB), Permodalan Negeri Selangor Bhd (PNSB) and Yayasan Pendidikan Selangor. The state government (via SIC?) is then supposed to recover the amount due from Talam.
While critics are viewing it as a bailout or window-dressing, Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim says the rationale is to ensure that Talam gives a higher priority to its debt (to the state), incurred over the last decade, ahead of its other creditors. On 10 Nov, Khalid gave Talam three months to settle the debt, incurred in connection with several property development projects. That remains to be seen.
Two Acts passed in Parliament – the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 and the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Corporation Act 2007 – could take away a huge chunk of the powers of local councils.
These Acts allow for the setting up of a federal-level solid waste management corporation that could remove the powers of the local councils to oversee solid waste disposal including collection and disposal of rubbish, grass-cutting and even the cleanliness of public areas such as public toilets, markets and local council roads. The federal body could even take over the management and operations of all disposal sites managed by local councils, including the task of identifying new sanitary disposal sites, transfer stations, and the management and technical oversight of incinerators. Not much left for the local councils to do then. Even recycling activity by NGOs could be affected by the new Acts.
Wrong. James Richardson Logan – the man who coined the name ‘Indonesia’ and who is honoured at the Logan Memorial outside the Penang High Court and buried in the nearby Protestant Cemetery – expressed such concern in the mid-19th century in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, which he edited. The brilliant Logan, who was ahead of his time, was a member of the Asiatic Society, corresponding member of the Ethnological Society of London and of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences.
Here are some excerpts from the Journal Vol II, printed in 1848: