The storm reaches our shores…
The storm has reached our shores.
In Kedah, 1,429 workers from 17 factories have been “temporarily” laid off.
In Kuching, 1,500 workers have been retrenched as Western Digital shuts its plant in March. About 60 per cent of these workers are reportedly married with children. The job losses account for 15 per cent of the 10,000 workers in the electronics sector in Sarawak.
Another 3,250 workers around the country, mainly from the electronics sector, are expected to be retrenched by over 130 employers in the next three months. And that’s just the official estimate.
Earlier in June, 1,600 workers in Nikko Electronics on mainland Penang lost their jobs when the company said it was unable to continue operations. They received a pittance in compensation.
Can you imagine what it will be like when we feel the full impact of the storm next year? Are we really prepared? Will we also come up with measures to make our economy more sustainable and socially just? It’s also time we put in place a comprehensive safety net (a national retrenchment fund) and begin re-training workers with skills to become self-employed. Unfortunately, this would require federal initiatives or funding, and that could be too little, too late.
Klang Sentral: Make concession agreement public
A storm is blowing over Pakatan Rakyat in Selangor and the mainstream media are going to town over it.
One of the issues that was bound to crop up sooner or later revolves around the Pakatan Rakyat leaders’ relationship with the the business community including developers. PR representatives need to keep the business community at arm’s length to protect the interests of the public. It cannot always be a “win-win” situation. Sometimes, PR leaders have to choose whose interests they want to protect and uphold – vested business interests or the people’s interests (e.g. workers’ rights, public safety and environmental protection). For instance, PR leaders need to respond decisively to the people’s demands for a ban on all steep hill-slope development.
The other issue is whether CAT is really being put into practice – or is it just a slogan? For instance, why haven’t Pakatan leaders declared their assets publicly? Pakatan reps were elected to power in five states because people felt they would be different from the BN folks. The non-declaration of assets so far is a major letdown.
I made a quick call to economist Charles Santiago, the DAP MP for Klang and one of the more principled politicians in Pakatan, to find out what was going on with the move of the main bus station to Klang Sentral, about 15 minutes away.
Israeli air attack slaughters over 200 in Gaza
An Israeli air attack on Gaza, which has massacred over 200 people including women and children, has been portrayed by the global media as a “retaliation” for the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza (map source: Wikipedia). The Israeli air-strike comes at a time when Israeli politicians are campaigning for a general election.
Three key points that have not been highlighted in the corporate media:
- It was the Israelis who broke the truce, as the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom points out.
- The rocket attacks from Gaza onto Israeli territory have not killed or injured a single Israeli, reports Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada.
- Gaza has been under a terrible and suffocating Israeli siege, which has caused immense suffering among the entire 1.5 million population. “Israel has not only banned food and medicine to sustain Palestinian bodies in Gaza but it is also intent on starving minds: due to the blockade, there is not even ink, paper and glue to print textbooks for schoolchildren,” says Ali Abunimah. It is vicious collective punishment.
First the article by Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace group:
- A sovereign and viable state of Palestine to be established side by side with Israel.
- The border based on the pre-1967 Armistice Line (the “Green Line”). Insubstantial alterations by mutual agreement on an exchange of territories on a 1:1 basis.
- East Jerusalem and all Arab neighborhoods as the capital of Palestine. West Jerusalem and all Jewish neighborhoods as the capital of Israel.
- All Israeli settlements will be evacuated
- Israel will recognise in principle the right of the refugees to return. … The number of refugees who will return to Israeli territory will be fixed by mutual agreement, it being understood that nothing will be done that materially alters the demographic composition of the Israeli population.
- The West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip constitute one national unit. An extraterritorial connection (road, railway, tunnel or bridge) will connect the West Bank with the Gaza Strip.
- Israel and Syria will sign a peace agreement. Israel will withdraw to the pre-1967 line and all settlements on the Golan Heights will be dismantled. Syria will cease all anti-Israeli activities conducted directly or by proxy.
- In accordance with the Saudi Peace Initiative, all member states of the Arab League will recognise Israel and establish normal relations with it. …
Saturday 27/12/08 The war in Gaza – vicious folly of a bankrupt government (and Amos Oz will soon regret having supported it) The war in Gaza, the bloodshed, killing, destruction and suffering on both sides of the border, are the vicious folly of a bankrupt government. A government which let itself be dragged by adventurous officers and cheap nationalist demagoguery, dragged into a destructive and unnecessary war which will bring no solution to any problem – neither to the communities of southern Israel under the rain of missiles nor to the terrible poverty and suffering of besieged Gaza. On the day after the war the same problems will remain – with the addition of many bereaved families, wounded people crippled for life, and piles of rubble and destruction.
How about helping the poor at home first, Najib?
According to Najib, the government is willing to help Malays advance in other countries where they are a minority.
He said this when opening the the Malay World Muslim World (DMDI) forum’s ninth convention on 23 December, reports Malaysiakini.
The deputy premier said ethnic Malays in the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Cambodia, South Africa and southern Thailand could be assisted.
What would have been the reaction if the deputy premier of India and the vice premier of China had offered to help the ethnic Indians and ethnic Chinese respectively in the various countries of South-East Asia? Wouldn’t the governments of this region have asked them to butt out, citing foreign interference in domestic affairs?
Gov’t must account for premium on pump price
The global crude oil price is now US$36 barrel. In contrast, the local pump price is still relatively high at RM1.80/litre – despite a fifth reduction in price on 15 December since a 41 per cent hike in June.
It’s obvious that the pump price is now higher than the real market price; in other words, the higher price is a form of consumer tax (as opposed to a subsidy previously). Now, it is the government’s prerogative if it wants to impose this kind of tax.
But what is it going to do with this surplus?
“It never happened. Nothing ever happened”
It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis. – Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Harold Pinter, who passed away on Christmas Eve, was well known for his plays. But the corporate media have downplayed his role as one of the most prominent opponents of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. His words on how politicians and the mainstream media often try to blank out monumental or historic events from the public consciousness have relevance for us in Malaysia, where official news reports are often at sharp odds with what really happened. Politicians, he observed, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. “To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives.” “Sometimes,” he asserted, “a writer has to smash the mirror – for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us.” This was Pinter’s Nobel lecture:
Art, Truth & Politics
In 1958 I wrote the following: ‘There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.’ I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?Palestinian Christians face eviction from Bethlehem
As we remember the birth of Jesus, it may have escaped our notice that the little town of Bethlehem, his birthplace which lies in Palestinian territory, is now cut off by a 4-metre high Israeli security wall on three sides.
Palestinian Christians also have to contend with demolition and eviction orders issued by Israeli occupation forces.
Over in the Gaza strip, which is now under an Israeli siege, many Palestinian Christians have been denied access to Bethlehem even as the town welcomes foreign tourists.
This report from Al Jazeera:
So this is Christmas – when they have to guard the milk…
If I was a desperate parent, I would be tempted to steal milk too. One pack of full cream milk powder ( 2 kg) costs RM 42. My youngest son consumes more than 4 kg (2 packs) per month. Add 4 tins cereal, it costs more than RM100 to feed him. My pension is only RM 1200.Could an economic system that allows such a situation to persist be considered just? Meanwhile, R Ganesh reports from KL: The proposed privatisation of Institut Jantung Negara (IJN) appears to have not taken into much consideration the basic survival of the poor and the middle class. They would be hit if IJN becomes private. Already, many low-income folk are finding it difficult to cope with high food prices. Many are now finding that their low wages are insufficient for them to live in dignity given the high cost of living and inflation. The threshold for survival for a family of four is probably in the region of RM2,000 to 3,000. But how many of us actually earn that amount of money? With reference to your post on the Chicken Thief, what is rather shocking now is that when you go to certain supermarkets, you may now see a security guard in the milk aisle/dairy section. Previously, the guards would be keeping an eye on the liquor section.
Who’s behind Sime Darby?
Of late Sime Darby has been very much in the news with its proposed – and then postponed – IJN takeover and now with a proposed new low-cost carrier airport in Negri Sembilan.
While many have questioned the economic feasibility and viability of a new airport so close to the present Kuala Lumpur International Airport, nothing much has been said about the environmental impact of having two large airports so close to each other (not to mention global warming).
So who exactly is behind Sime Darby? According to its 2008 Annual Report, its substantial shareholders are:
- Skim Amanah Saham Bumiputera – 34%
- EPF – 14%
- PNB – 15%
- Yayasan Pelaburan Bumiputera – 15% (deemed interest)
Who is the real man – Rambo or RPK?
Malaysia’s polar opposite non-violent answer to Rambo
Photo by Rakyat@work
The Man With D Video Cam tells us why he thinks we have “the real deal” in our midst: Rambo is a film character, a man with bulging muscles brandishing a serrated knife and creating havoc among his enemies. In the world of make believe, Rambo has drawn quite a following. Men who walk around, exhibiting a bulky load of muscles with women clinging to either arm are the real men in this fanciful, make-believe world. Driving fast cars with branded sunglasses, they saunter around as if the world is their playground. In contrast, what I have is a comfortable car that can still provide me with an uninterrupted journey to my destination and a woman who will stand by me – come what may. This is my world and I love it! But there are still many things missing in my life. I want to live in the real world, which is more interesting and exciting than any imaginary world, which can be so deceiving.
If a UN Special Rapporteur can be humiliated…
If a United Nations Special Rapporteur from the United States can be humiliated this way, what hope do the suffering citizens of Gaza, which now resembles a vast open-air prison camp, have?
This report from The Guardian:
My expulsion from Israel When I arrived in Israel as a UN representative I knew there might be problems at the airport. And there were by Richard Falk On December 14, I arrived at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, Israel to carry out my UN role as special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories.
PJ vigil spot turns into rakyat’s Speakers’ Corner
Photo by Rakyat@work
Give details of PFI for Sime Darby/Air Asia airport
First, Sime Bank tak boleh tahan.
Then, Sime Darby turns down Bakun undersea cables project – cannot make money-lah.
Next, public outcry forces postponement of IJN privatisation.
Now, it’s a new low-cost carrier (LCC) airport in Negri Sembilan.
The government has given the green light for a RM1.6 billion low-cost carrier airport, about 20km away from the KLIA. It will be built by Sime Darby and Air Asia under a private finance initiative (PFI).
The rationale is that the KLIA cannot cope with the expected influx of LCC passengers. (Didn’t Mahathir say, when he tried to justify the KLIA, that it was being built to meet the country’s needs for the next 100 years? What about Subang – is it now fully utilised?)
The government must give us details of what kind of PFI is involved. Will any government or public money be indirectly used for this project?
What Sime Darby was eyeing in IJN
The government-owned National Heart Institute (IJN) is in the midst of a RM230 million expansion plan – that would be public money – to buy more equipment and to build a new wing, which would be completed next year.
This from The Edge:
The new wing would give it an additional 192 beds, four new operating theatre complexes, new intensive care units and coronary care units, dialysis centre, health screening centres, cafes and shops, according to the website.Apparently, the plan was for Sime Darby to ride on IJN’s reputation, painstakingly built by the government and the IJN team over the years, and its “captive market” as a base to draw more patients – locally and from the region (medical tourism) – possibly into a private wing. From another Edge report:
Citizen Journalism 101 training in Penang
Malaysiakini and Seacem are jointly organising a certified video journalism course in Penang over four weekends. Scholarships worth RM3,000 are being offered to suitable participants.
Training objectives:
* To empower trainees through experiential training and give them the knowledge, technical skills and networks necessary for them to address issues of importance
* To encourage diversity, tolerance, acceptance, unity and democracy
Details:
* Practical workshops held every fortnight (four weekends) for two months – 10.00am till 6.00pm in the Aliran building.
* Workshops will focus on reporting skills and the production of video news content
Courses:
* Citizen Journalism
* Scriptwriting for Documentaries
* Video Editing
* Video Camera
Here’s why the Chee Seng residents are worried
Photos sent in by a concerned Tanjung Bunga resident
From these two pictures of the Bolton Surin project in Tanjong Bunga, Penang, you can get an idea why the Chee Seng residents (living on the left in the top photo) are worried and want the project stopped.
IJN privatisation postponed: Umno elite out of touch
The sudden postponement of the scheme to privatise the National Heart Institute (IJN) suggests that the government under-estimated the depth of public opposition to the move.
The postponement comes just a day after Najib revealed that the green light had been given to Sime Darby to acquire a majority stake.
The Umno elite appear to be out of touch not only with the masses but also with their own BN component parties such as the MCA, which is opposing the privatisation. Or were they just testing the waters (to gauge public reaction), as some of you suggest?
To me, the real heroes are the 33 IJN specialists (out of a total of 35) who stood up to oppose the move. Their stand is all the more commendable as chances are they would have stood to gain in terms of a more lucrative pay package. It is great to know there are public-spirited specialists in Malaysia, for whom money is not everything – something which the corporate predators find hard to understand.
Mysterious masked man who took a stand for justice
Jerit cyclists reach Parliament
1212: Some 120 Jerit cyclists are now in Parliament, where they will be having lunch and handing over their memorandums to a rep from the BN and the Opposition. It’s mission accomplished! Congratulations to the Jerit team.
1145: About 30 participants of the Jerit cycling teams are now in Parliament to hand in their memorandum amidst a heavy police presence, including a helicopter clattering overhead.
Earlier they were barred from cycling to Parliament. “The OCPD told us we could head to Parliament, but not on our bicycles,” says Jerit coordinator Rani Rasiah.
Abolish ISA Mass prays for a more just judiciary
The series of Abolish ISA Masses at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Penang will be taking a break for Christmas and will resume next year.
In the last Abolish ISA Mass for the year, parish priest Fr Marshall Fernandez exhorted the congregation of 80 gathered tonight to pray for a more just judiciary.
Referring to the recent controversy between Karpal and Chief Justice Zaki, Marshall said that a cleaner judiciary would provide justice for all.
Meanwhile, all the prayers and various campaigns to Abolish the ISA and free the detainees are having an impact.