PR candidate for Bukit Gantang to be announced tonight?
Nizar and Anwar are due to address a “mega ceramah” in Simpang, Taiping tonight. (Police have since declared the ceramah “illegal” and the organisers are now reportedly moving the event to outside the Pas office in Bukit Cempedak, Bukit Gantang.)
Talk has it that Pakatan will reveal its candidate for the Bukit Gantang parliamentary constituency tonight.
Will Guan Eng attend the Tanjung Bunga coffee party?
Tanjung Bunga residents are holding another coffee party on Saturday from 4.00pm to 5.00pm, this time at Solok Tan Jit Seng behind the Tanjung Bunga Secondary School. The tea party aims to bring together residents who are concerned about dangerous hill-slope development.
The state assembly member for the area, Teh from the DAP, who seems to share the residents’ concern, has confirmed his attendance. The residents have also invited the Chief Minister and other elected reps from the area to the event.
They are hoping that the CM will turn up to show solidarity with them.
On several occasions, Guan Eng has taken commendably strong positions against developers of other projects in Penang.
EPF link to Penang Sentral
The proposed RM2 billion terminal – but not enough funds for public transport? (Image from penangsentral.com.my)
Worried about low EPF dividends?
Here’s some food for thought.
Did you know that EPF is somehow associated with Penang Sentral?
Note 47 of the EPF Annual Report for 2007 shows a list of the EPF’s associated companies. Among them is Penang Sentral Sdn Bhd and it shows that the EPF has an effective equity interest of 100 per cent.
70-96% want Gobind referred to Privileges Committee
A huge majority of Malaysians feel that Gobind should have been referred to the parliamentary Rights and Privileges Committee instead of being summarily suspended from Parliament over his point-blank remarks aimed at Najib.
The results of an SMS poll over ntv7 last night revealed:
Utusan’s sales and profits slide
|
CURRENT
YEAR QUARTER |
PRECEDING YR
CORRESPONDING
QUARTER |
CURRENT
YEAR TO
DATE |
PRECEDING YR
CORRESPONDING
PERIOD |
||
|
|
31/12/2008 |
31/12/2007 |
31/12/2008 |
31/12/2007 |
|
|
|
RM’000 |
RM’000 |
RM’000 |
RM’000 |
|
| 1 | Revenue |
96,953 |
102,340 |
373,324 |
385,565 |
| 2 | Profit before tax |
5,612 |
23,992 |
7,821 |
44,179 |
| 3 | Profit for the period |
2,153 |
18,786 |
3,171 |
36,445 |
Shuttle buses/trains/trams across the Penang Bridge?
Did the second stimulus package announced by Najib give enough attention to public transport – or did the discounts offered owners of older vehicles to replace their cars with new Proton and Perodua cars overshadow the public transport component of the package?
Blogger Ong Eu Soon has come up with a proposal to ease congestion on the Penang Bridge, which deserves serious consideration. It involves the use of shuttle buses (or trams?) and park-and-ride facilities. If ferry services are also increased, expanded and upgraded, we could go a long way in easing road congestion in Penang. I hope the Penang state government will seriously consider this. The state government is also considering an earlier suggestion to have a rail link from the mainland to the island. This is worth considering for that would mean folks from JB, KL, and the mainland could enter Penang Island by rail while leaving their cars at home. This would be a great first step in promoting the wider use of public transport in Penang in a bid to create a more sustainable and liveable habitat.
Each day hundred of thousands of Penangites face traffic congestion as they commute to work in their cars via the Penang Bridge. The impact from this congestion is substantial in time, resources, and pollution. The vehicle trips per day are estimated to be 120,000. It is estimated that the Penang Bridge congestion alone cost travelers 328 million hours of delay, 10 million litres of wasted fuel, and minimum RM140 million in toll fees per annum.
Can Najib’s RM60b economic stimulus do the trick?
Finally, they seem to be taking the economic crisis a bit more seriously. Or maybe they just didn’t want to make us panic and to undermine business confidence any further by telling us that dark clouds lay ahead. But the cat is out of the bag now.
Here’s an analysis I did for Asia Times:
Malaysia wakes up to crisis
By Anil Netto
PENANG – A big new economic stimulus package unveiled by Malaysia’s Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak is being viewed as belated official recognition that the country is being hard hit by the global economic and financial turbulence, with worse to come.
The Malaysian economy grew by just 0.5% last quarter and many economic analysts have predicted a technical or real recession later this year. The government has revised its own forecast for 2009 down to between negative 1% and positive 1% growth in gross domestic product (GDP).
Perak PR marks 1st birthday under Democracy Tree
Perak PR turns one with a bite of red eggs under the Democracy Tree – Photos by Kinta Kid
Birthday boy Nizar receives a basket of pomelo
Kinta Kid reports from the Democracy Tree in Ipoh:
A year ago today the new government of Perak was sworn in. Coincidentally it was also the birthday of “MB yang sah” Nizar Jamaluddin. Today, I received an sms at around 5.00pm about a birthday party for Nizar and it was to be held under Pokok Demokrasi at 6.00pm. Where else!
The PR team turns one today and the situation today has completely changed compared to the previous 50-odd years. For his birthday, Nizar was presented with a pomelo. (The pomelo is a fruit identified with Ipoh. It is segmented inside but is juicy and refreshing and its outer appearance is packaged well with a smooth and rounded exterior.)
Ali Rustam out; does it really matter?
With Ali Rustam now out of the running, the coast appears to be clear for Muyhiddin to claim the Umno deputy presidency with his only challenger now being Mat Taib.
The thing is, does it make any difference who the No. 2 is?
If anything, this move will only worsen factionalism within the party.
Industrial production limbo: How low can it go?
Industrial Production Index plunges further Source: Statistics Department
The old model is dying. It can never be business as usual again.
Selangor’s public declaration of assets, minus the assets
The Selangor exco have made public their respective disclosure of assets.
At first glance, it looks great.
The only problem is that most of these are ‘declarations of assets’ that do not publicly reveal the assets!
What they do reveal are monthly salaries and other allowances of the individuals concerned and their respective spouses as well as their outstanding loans and monthly loan repayments. A few have indicated that “other income” would be diclosed when their EA forms are released.
But no details of their assets are provided among the few that I checked. (The exco members are only required to declare additions and disposals to their assets since assuming office.)
One chartered accountant, when he first heard that the asset disclosures would only show assets acquired from March 2008, sent me a text message: “Sounds like a watered-down version, ha ha.”
Democracy Tree plaque removed
Smashed, scarred and now uprooted and gone without a trace – Photos by Kinta Kid
Now, who did this?: Bro Vincent Corkery, former director of St Michael’s Institution, inspects the site
… and the rakyat are still coming
On the third day, the Democracy Plaque vanishes… Another metaphor for our lost democracy.
Kinta Kid reports from Ipoh:
The plaque under the now famous Democracy Tree has been removed. According to an eye witness account, it was removed at around 7.00am today, presumably by the Ipoh City Council’s enforcement department. A view of the site indicates that a tractor was used to remove the structure.
Democracy Tree vandalism caught on camera
Friday the 13th, 1.30am: The light at the centre of the image is from the headlights of a car parking before a vandal alights to smash the Democracy Tree plaque – (Click to expand) Image sourced by Kinta Kid
Smashed and scarred: A disappointed little girl looks sadly at what remains of the Democracy Tree plaque – Photos and images by Kinta Kid
The tragicomedy surrounding the Democracy Tree continues as the resourceful Kinta Kid reports from Ipoh:
The plaque was vandalised a second time today. This time the wording was covered with what appears to be road tar. The general consensus amongst all present was that it was once again a sad and cowardly act.
Nip any authoritarian tendencies among PR leaders
Update 2: But a couple of media sources tell me that the NST journalist is probably reluctant to provide specific instances of preferential treatment of businesses and projects as that would amount to revealing his sources, including who the disgruntled business people are. “He can’t expect journalists to dance to his tune,” one of them said. They also felt that it was unfair to single out particular media organisations to be barred as it amounted to “divide and rule” over the media.
Update 1: It has just come to my attention that the main reason Guan Eng is unhappy with the NST is that he felt the journalist had questioned his personal integrity by reporting that certain business people had lamented that he had given preferential treatment for certain projects and personalities. From what I understand, Guan Eng had challenged the journalist to produce a list of such occurrences – and has not yet received such a list, and thus he felt the journalist’s statement was unfair and had cast doubt on his integrity. It was for that reason that he had barred the NST from press conferences.
Despite the obvious political leanings of papers like the NST, Sharanjit Singh has a point in his piece: What’s your beef, Guan Eng?
The Pakatan fellas have to get used to the idea of “unfriendly media” or critical media covering their press conferences and not pick and choose their media.
In Ipoh, at the height of the crisis, I was barred from entering the MB’s residence for 45 minutes while “friendly media” such as Harakah and Suara Keadilan as well as ordinary folks were allowed in by the Pas Unit Amal folks at the gate. I don’t blame them as they were just “ikut arahan” – whose orders, I dont know.
Apparently, the instructions were issued after certain mainstream media had been portraying the Pakatan in a negative light in the preceding days. Also kept out for a while at the front gate were other independent media such as the Chinese-language Merdeka Review and blogger Wong Chin Huat.
Democracy Tree plaque vandalised again
Two nights ago, they smashed the edges of the Democracy Tree plaque. Kinta Kid now informs me that the plaque has been vandalised again.
This time they poured road tar or black paint on the inscription on the plaque, so that it can’t be read.
Friday the 13th vandalism at Democracy Tree site
Shattered plaque, broken democracy – Photos by Kinta Kid
Sanizar with his family: “Tak baik lah macam ini.”
The Pakatan team pledging to uphold democracy
The plaque at the Democracy Tree has been vandalised.
Why are we not surprised? In fact, many of you had predicted that some form of vandalism would occur at this site. And so it came to pass…
In a way, the shattering of the three sides of the plaque is a sad metaphor for the state of our broken democracy.
Thank God that the tree itself is safe – for now.
Kinta Kid reports from Ipoh:
It was bound to happen.
And it had to happen on Friday the 13th… It probably happened around 1.00am as a resident living by the side of the tree heard dogs barking at that time.
Kula mentioned that “we expected this to happen but not this fast”.
Charles Santiago on the Selangor water crisis
Charles Santiago, the MP for Klang, provides a run-down of the water crisis in Selangor and explains how certain water corporations are making quick and easy money.
Presenting the Adil Johan Quartet
An Adil Johan Quartet semi-original, “Listen'” featuring Dasha Logan. Live at No Black Tie, December 2008. Adil is the son of Johan Saravanamuttu (‘the singing professor’) and academic Maznah Mohamad. Darsha, on the other hand, is the daughter of the late Logan Arumugam of Alleycats fame. Looks like a couple of stars in the making…
This is a song about re-arranging your life. Talks of shady deals and contracts (“It’s not the way we want it to be, but those in power don’t want to see”), the struggle for change and the quest for justice and transparency. Quite appropriate for a guy named Adil Johan (“Champion of Justice”). Steve Naris Nanda: Drums; Hiro Maekawa: Bass; Terrence Liew: Keys; Adil Johan: Sax + Vocals.
US economic crisis could last 36 months
“We could end up … with a 36-month recession, that could be “L-shaped stagnation, or near depression,” said Prof Nouriel Roubini.