Just got a called from someone I know who was supposed to be on an Air Asia flight (AK605) from Kuching to Penang departing at 9.05pm.
Now the flight has been delayed to 10.45pm. And it’s not the first time this is happening to him.
By the time he reaches Penang it will be well past midnight – so the taxi fare to his home will now cost over RM100 instead of the usual RM65. And then there is the lost sleep.
Thailand’s most senior forensic pathologist, the renowned Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, dropped a bombshell at the Teoh Beng Hock inquest today.
Dr Pornthip is the Director-General of the Central Forensic Science Institute, Ministry of Justice, in Bangkok - Photo credit: thaitsunamihelp.org
This is the latest via Twitter from Malaysian Insider:
Dr Pornthip steps out of witness box.
Dr Pornthip says, “I never want to criticise the police & doctors.”
Dr Pornthip requests Azmil to make statement to media, stresses she is here to offer opinion only.
Magistrate Azmil Munthapa Abas, acting as coroner, thanks Dr Pornthip for helping inquest.
Dr Pornthip says will take longer time due to decomposition of body but that won’t affect her final analysis.
Dr Pornthip tells court she is prepared to do 2nd autopsy even if have to exhume Teoh’s body.
Yet another “tea party” in Tanjung Bunga, Penang. This time residents gathered over Diwali near the Pearl Hill town houses to protest against property development projects on steep hill-slopes.
Photos by a Tg Bunga resident.
In this instance, they wanted to draw particular attention to the Dynamic HomePro town house project located right below the Pearl Hill town houses and in front of the homes of residents of Solok Tan Jit Seng.
The latest Edge weekly reports sources as saying that the Penang state government has given the green light to a low-profile businessman, Jeyakumar Varathan, to build and commission a RM70-million monorail test track on a 30-acre site in Batu Kawan.
The paper suggested that this could be a sign that the state is embarking on its own monorail plans and cited sources as saying that the groundbreaking for the project could be in December.
Jeyakumar’s consortium may first have to prove that its technology is viable before it can build a monorail network in Penang, the paper added.
Some questions arise:
These images from Kg Tanjung Tokong were taken during a Raya event on Sunday, 11 October at a time when the villagers are facing an uncertain future.
Photos by Kim MK
Are you depressed about the socio-political situation? This could be just the antidote for you: the Aliran Singers.
The Aliran Singers breaking out in song and parody – Photo courtesy of Aliran Monthly
The Aliran Singers are gearing up to perform at a celebratory dinner in Penang on Saturday, 24 October 2009. The singers are coming together again after a two-year break to sing about the current political situation, which should be a whole lot of fun. The special guest artiste for the evening is singer Pete Teo, the producer of the popular 15Malaysia video-clips released recently.
The Bagan Pinang by-election will be remembered for the comeback of the tainted Isa Samad, the Pakatan’s first defeat on the peninsula since GE2008, and the large number of army postal votes.
BN and Umno flags flutter at the Port Dickson Golf and Country Club, next door to the Army Engineering Institute, during the by-election campaign – Photos by Jong
Have you checked out Najib’s 1Malaysia website here?
It’s in four languages: Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil. (The Tamil version’s content is largely in Malay and English.)
For it to be really “1Malaysia”, however, the website should have included Iban and Kadazan-Dusun.
The Pakatan needs to carry out a serious postmortem to find out why and how it was thrashed in Bagan Pinang.
Posters of the Kg Buah Pala demolition were found around Ladang Siliau in Bagan Pinang on nomination day – Photo by Tiger
In some ways, the BN victory was not unexpected. Perhaps the scale of the defeat surprised many. But a few keen political analysts noticed something amiss ahead of polling day and predicted that Isa would win comfortably as noted in my post here.
So far, many have pointed to some obvious reasons for the BN’s landslide win:
Pull factors:
Isa was a popular, well-known – albeit tainted – local candidate.
Bagan Pinang is an Umno stronghold.
All kinds of promises and enticements were made, especially to army personnel about improved facilities.
Questions about the postal balloting system persisted.
And of course, the mainstream media were used in the campaigning (but then the last three points were no different from previous by-elections – except there were more postal ballots here).
After attending a conference on climate change and the food crisis in Penang, I was supposed to write an article and that left me wondering how I should write the introduction.
And then it struck me that even as the conference was taking place, the climate was wreaking havoc in the region. Among those worst affected are the farmers, who rely on disctinctive seasons for an optimal harvest. How are they coping?
PENANG, Malaysia, Oct 9 (IPS/IFEJ) – When organisers of an international conference on climate change and the food crisis first scheduled the event here for late September, little did they realise the event would be sandwiched by two typhoons buffeting the region. Ironically, the first typhoon, ‘Ketsana’, delayed the arrival of conference delegates from the Philippines.
This is for those of us who couldn’t make it for the Pulau Tikus town hall meeting organised by the Penang Municipal Council as part of the Penang Transport Council’s pilot project to de-congest Pulau Tikus.
Dr Lim Mah Hui of the Penang Transport Council addressing the town hall meeting – Photos courtesy of Dr S P Choong
The participants, journalists and police at the town hall meeting
Maybe the following exchange will encourage public discussion and participation in the initiative towards more sustainable transport.
First the write-up by soohuey, who attended the town hall meeting:
Congrats to the BN! It finally broke the Pakatan’s winning streak on the peninsula. There will be much rejoicing in the mainstream media about how the tide has turned.
But at what cost?
In its desperation to win in its own stronghold, Umno put up a popular local candidate whom its own party disciplinary board had found guilty of “money politics” (let’s call a spade a spade and refer to it as corruption). A candidate who perhaps best reflects the ethos of the party – at a time when the MCA itself is in utter disarray following the PKFZ debacle.
What message does this send out about “1Malaysia” and “1World”? We might as well disband the MACC…
If you are free tomorrow (Sunday), why not hop over for the final day of the Freedom Film Fest in Penang organised by Komas. This time the fest is being hosted in Han Chiang School/College, near the Penang State Mosque.
You can find the programme schedule here. You are spoilt for choice, but if you are not sure which film to go for, I have been reliably told these shouldn’t be missed:
11.00am – Flow
Irena Salina’s award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century – The World Water Crisis.
The BN was dealt a demoralising blow on the eve of the Bagan Pinang by-election after contradictory motions passed during the MCA’s extraordinary general meeting today threw the party into disarray and left it bereft of top leadership.
Photos by Jong
Before today’s EGM, a couple of political scientists/analysts I know who visited Bagan Pinang last night got the impression that the BN had the edge. They observed that the Pakatan’s campaign was missing some of the earlier by-election “spirit” and felt that Isa would win comfortably.
Here’s something interesting from the Penang Municipal Council, which hopefully will be the first step towards more sustainable transport and pedestrian-friendly streets in Penang. Pulau Tikus is supposed to the focus of a pilot project that could be extended throughout Penang. If you are in the area, why not check it out or better still, participate.
Decongest traffic in Pulau Tikus
You are all invited to a stakeholders’ meeting
Time: 4.00pm – 6.00pm
Date: 10 October 2009
Place: Balai Rakyat Pulau Tikus, Jalan Cantonment
Organised by MPPP
Daily traffic jams!! For so many years!!
HOW can this problem be solved??
CAN holistic win-win solutions be found??
YES!!
Looks as if USM isn’t making much headway among the major league universities, if the THES ranking is anything to go by.
Not to be obsessed with those rankings, but I can’t help wondering where the big apex (more popularly known as ah pek) budget is going to and what kind of results it is yielding.
All those courses and workshops in hotels aimed at improving standards don’t seem to be filling up the academic “silos” of USM.
It is shocking to see the Penang Development Corporation and Abad Naluri re-negotiating the deal in which the latter was supposed to acquire 750 acres of land in Batu Kawan from the PDC.
The site of the failed equestrian centre project in Batu Kawan – Photo by Anil
This Batu Kawan land was supposed to have been used for a new equestrian centre among other things around the time the Penang Turf Club entered into an agreement with Abad Naluri to sell its Batu Gantung race-course for the Penang Global City Centre project. Neither project (the PGCC and the new equestrian centre in Batu Kawan) took off.
An Edge report says no money has exchanged hands for the Batu Kawan land even though there was a principal agreement between the PDC and Abad Naluri. If so, hasn’t this agreement, which was entered into in 2004, now lapsed?Shouldn’t the PDC be terminating the deal outright?
This morning’s press conference at the Pas operations centre in Port Dickson to announce the party’s protest over the issue of postal votes:
Photos by Jong
Pas is expected to meet the Elections Commission this evening.
Meanwhile, Aliran president P Ramakrishnan has come up with a statement here on the corruption vs breach of ethics controversy surrounding BN candidate Isa Samad.
The Aliran Singers breaking out in song and parody – Photo courtesy of Aliran Monthly
The Aliran Singers are gearing up to perform at a celebratory dinner in Penang on Saturday, 24 October 2009. The singers are coming together again after a two-year break to sing about the current political situation, which should be a whole lot of fun. The special guest artiste for the evening is singer Pete Teo, the producer of the popular 15Malaysia video-clips released recently.
BN and Umno flags flutter at the Port Dickson Golf and Country Club, next door to the Army Engineering Institute, during the by-election campaign – Photos by Jong
Posters of the Kg Buah Pala demolition were found around Ladang Siliau in Bagan Pinang on nomination day – Photo by Tiger
In some ways, the BN victory was not unexpected. Perhaps the scale of the defeat surprised many. But a few keen political analysts noticed something amiss ahead of polling day and predicted that Isa would win comfortably as noted in my post here.
So far, many have pointed to some obvious reasons for the BN’s landslide win:
Pull factors:
Dr Lim Mah Hui of the Penang Transport Council addressing the town hall meeting – Photos courtesy of Dr S P Choong
The participants, journalists and police at the town hall meeting
Maybe the following exchange will encourage public discussion and participation in the initiative towards more sustainable transport.
First the write-up by soohuey, who attended the town hall meeting:
The site of the failed equestrian centre project in Batu Kawan – Photo by Anil
This Batu Kawan land was supposed to have been used for a new equestrian centre among other things around the time the Penang Turf Club entered into an agreement with Abad Naluri to sell its Batu Gantung race-course for the Penang Global City Centre project. Neither project (the PGCC and the new equestrian centre in Batu Kawan) took off.
An Edge report says no money has exchanged hands for the Batu Kawan land even though there was a principal agreement between the PDC and Abad Naluri. If so, hasn’t this agreement, which was entered into in 2004, now lapsed? Shouldn’t the PDC be terminating the deal outright?