Both the New Straits Times and the Star today chose to splash Justice Dato Ian Chin’s “stunning” claims of my alleged interference in the judiciary, providing brief respite from the current issues of oil price hike etc etc I will refrain from commenting for now and will do so in due time. However, I am quite curious about what Ian Chin considers as “veiled threat”. Perhaps he could be more specific as his allegations are very serious.
Mahathir and the judges… again
Somehow, even after his retirement, Mahathir is still involved in controversy involving the judges. The Lingam tape, Salleh Abas, Ian Chin… ? What else is coming out of the judicial closet?
So what do you make of Mahathir’s response (to Ian Chin’s revelations)? Maybe his memory needs refreshing…
Mouth-watering seafood, anyone?
By now, you would have heard that Malaysian seafood exports could be slapped with a EU ban.
What’s gone wrong?
From reports, we hear that:
“… there are infrastructure and facilities such as fishing vessels, fish landing ports, and fish and prawn farms, which are lagging behind the standards set by EU,”…
Random checks conducted on nine seafood companies exporting to Europe found six of them lagging behind in health standards and practices set by the EU… (The Star)
Corporate doublespeak: subsidies vs “incentives”
I walked into a petrol station along a busy road in Penang last night and engaged in some small talk with the cashier. I asked him what kind of impact the petrol price hike has had on his collection.
“In ringgit terms, it has gone up,” he replied. “But in terms of litres sold, there has been a drop.”
Hmm, so there has been a drop in consumption, at least at this station, I thought to myself.
From People Power to Pedal Power
There has been a lot of talk about people boycotting the petrol pumps – you can see this being circulated via email. Only snag is how long can people sustain this?
So it’s time for pedal power! Hey, if Paris can do it, why not KL, Penang, Ipoh, Johor Bharu, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu? It will do wonders to turn our cities greener and quieter. We need not follow the business model in Paris. All we need to do is press our state governments to come up with dedicated cycle lanes, shaded by trees to keep off the blazing sun.
Why the generous subsidies for IPPs?
Oil price hike protest in Ipoh (Source: Unknown; forwarded via email)
So Petronas and the Malaysian government says subsidies distort the market. Of course, the withdrawal of subsidies will encourage conservation of a scarce resource – which is a good thing. It might even reduce pollution and congestion. Roads were noticeablly less congested in parts of Penang and KL today. Traffic on the Penang Bridge heading to the island at 5.20pm – peak time – was smooth; the usual bottleneck after the toll plazas, as the mutiple lanes narrow down to two lanes, was gone. But has the government given much thought to the impact of the removal of oil subsidies on the poor – and even large segments of the middle-class, who are rapidly moving down to the ranks of the poor in terms of real purchasing power? One key question has not been answered: why a sudden complete removal and not a gradual phasing out? Come on, tell us how much profit Petronas made for the year ended 31 March 2008. The figures should be available by now, even if the annual report isn’t ready.Would you like to see this in your city?
A modern tram in Grenoble, France – Photo credit: Wikipedia (copyleft)
The tram initiative is building up momentum. So far, 25 29 30 31 bloggers and websites have signed on to the campaign. Civil society activists have articulated their views too. Here’s what some people are saying: Heritage writer Khoo Salma Nasution:Heritage writer Khoo Salma Nasution noted that the Penang Island Municipal Council was the first local government to introduce electric trams in the inner city in the early part of the last century. “People think the tram is a thing of the past, but they are wrong because it is actually the thing of the future,” she said. “It is clean, energy saving and user-friendly not to mention fast, efficient and also cheap.”
More on the mysterious oil subsidies
Some more light on this mysterious subsidy thing:
Most of the country’s oil fields contain low-sulfur, high quality “sweet” crude. Malaysia exports the majority of its oil to Japan, Thailand, Singapore and South Korea.
At least RM500/mth to use the second Penang bridge
Now that oil prices have gone up by 41 per cent and diesel by even more, our planners should scrap the proposed second cross-channel road link for Penang.
If the RM4.8 billion second Penang bridge (all 24km of it, 17km over water) sounded like a bad idea before the oil price hike, today it sounds like a terrible idea in the light of higher fuel prices.
Let’s try this out for size to see how much it will cost the average commuter every month to use the bridge.
Time to bring back the trams
Before the general election, they told us that we would become a net importer of oil by 2011.
Now, with the sharp oil price increase, they tell us we can remain a net exporter of oil until 2014-2015. You see, domestic demand will slow down. Some of us might turn to bicycles – and even live to tell the tale, given the notorious absence of bicycle lanes on our roads.
Excerpt from Reuters:
“It will be postponed if the demand does not grow at the rate that it should grow,” (Petronas) Chief Executive Mohd Hassan Merican was quoted as saying by state news agency Bernama.
He added: “If the rate is reduced from six percent (demand growth annually) to four percent, it will be extended by three to four years to 2014 or 2015.”
Subsidy? What subsidy? Aiyah, I don’t understand-lah…
For the last few days, I have been trying to figure out what exactly this oil “subsidy” is that the government is talking about, which it cannot tahan any longer and so it has to collect more money from the people.
What exactly is this “subsidy”? Everyone is talking about it without really knowing what this subsidy is all about.
Who is paying this “subsidy” to whom? I mean, actual cash payment. Is Petronas actually paying cash to anyone for this “subsidy”? Is the government paying cash to Petronas?
It’s a jungle out there! Oil price hike madness…
I was stuck in a massive jam after I went to pick up a friend from the Penang airport. No matter how hard I tried to avoid the petrol stations, it seemed like the whole of Penang was out on the streets looking for oil, before the price hike at midnight.
While listening to the radio, I heard one caller phoning in to the deejay and saying something to the effect of, “Here I am stuck in a jam on the way to a petrol station to fill up. I wish I could stay at home like my friend Mr Abdullah and shake legs cos he doesn’t need to go out and fill up.” It took me a couple of moments to realise that he was speaking about the PM! Even the deejay responded, “I would rather be like your friend Mr Abdullah”!
This, then, is the shape of things to come. A 40 per cent hike in petrol prices plus a 20 per cent rise in electricity tariffs. Welcome to the free market and the “brave new Malaysia”.
What are they doing on the Penang Bridge centre-span?
High above the Penang Bridge
For the longest time now, there has been major ongoing work on the three-lane centre-span of the Penang Bridge. The work seems never-ending. Many motorists are puzzled about the long-term closure of the far left lanes on the centre span.
Petronas’ RM600 billion profit: Where has it all gone?
So the figure has been revealed. Petronas’ group profit before taxes, royalties, dividends and export duties amounted to RM570 billion for the period from its establishment in 1974 to 31 March 2007.
If you include the figure for the period until 31 March 2008, then you are probably looking at a figure closer to RM700 billion, with the higher oil prices.
Let’s see the breakdown of that RM570 billion:
Second Penang bridge cost soars to RM4.8 billion
Traffic jam on the Second Penang Bridge in 2020? Toll $$$ for UEM
In July 2007, the estimated cost of the second Penang bridge was RM2.7 billion.Urban planning gone crazy
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Blogger Power drives Penangites for Trams Campaign
The campaign to bring back the trams to Penang is picking up momentum as more bloggers join in the action.
So far 22 bloggers have joined in the campaign. That’s brilliant! Click here to see the full list. If you are a blogger and you want to join in the campaign, just add one of the campaign icons to your blog and leave a comment here, and you will be added to the list.
Nerisa and Jalil’s quest for justice
From Sabah comes an interesting case. A couple from Tawau, Nerisa A Kassim @ Nerisa Abdullah and her husband Joel Leona @ Jalil Abdullah, have filed a RM3 million suit against a female relative of Nerisa’s and a former private secretary of the Sultan of Pahang for alleged deception and misrepresentation. The female relative, who is trained as an accountant, is the daughter of Nerisa’s mother’s niece; both she and Nerisa had been brought up as sisters by Nerisa’s parents in Sabah.
They allege that Nerisa was duped by Nerisa’s relative and the former secretary into signing a blank form, purportedly to buy shares for Nerisa. The couple allege that the securities trading and bank accounts that were opened in Nerisa’s name were later used by the relative and the former secretary to move large sums of money – including a cheque for RM2 million – without her knowledge.
The couple are also suing the securities firm and the bank, where the accounts were opened. Nerisa claims she only came to know about the alleged deception when she applied for a bank loan with a different bank in Sabah only to be told she had been blacklisted for the earlier share-related transactions. A judgment in default amounting to RM294,934 in favour of the securities firm in Kuantan for those suspicious transactions had been sent to an incorrect address in Tawau, which meant Nerisa might even have been declared bankrupt without her knowledge had she not been alerted by the rejection of her bank loan application.
Here is a Daily Express press report giving more background to the case (click on image to see enlarged version):
And another report from The Borneo Post (click image to enlarge):
As oil prices soar, we build more infrastructure for cars… Hello!
Malaysians are bent on building more infrastructure for cars and other private vehicles at a time when many other countries are looking for alternatives to private vehicle ownership as oil prices soar.
Even in the United States, notorious for promoting private vehicle ownership, an increasing number of Americans are turning to public transport – and even bicycles. Nearer to home, New Delhi has bitten the bullet and opted for a Bus Rapid Transit, which it is now introducing with a lot of teething pains. Nobody said it would be easy, but it has got to be done if we care for our environment.
Think again. Do we really want to entrench the use of private vehicles with more highways and road bridges? Shouldn’t the new link for Penang be a rail link? The Penang state government should do the right thing, and not take the easy way out by opting for a KL-inspired solution, which is more focused on inflated construction costs and lucrative toll collections.
Trains, buses, guided buses, trams and bikes are the way of the future. Let us not go against the tide and burden future generations. Even that might not be accurate. At the rate we are going, as one blog reader cautioned me, there might not be any “future generations” left to inherit our polluted and poisoned world.
Trains, Buses and Bikes, Oh My!
Last week, Isaiah reported on the 7% increase in mass transit ridership, and also how limited that increase is. Because the Bush administration did nothing to make mass transit more convenient and accessible, many Americans who want to quit paying for high-priced oil don’t have that choice.
It’s not just mass transit. It’s bikes too.
Today, my local paper headlined “Bike Sales Rise With Gas Prices. In fact, local outlets across the country are reporting the same spike with bikes. And interest seems to be growing beyond the stereotypical hippie bike messenger. Read more
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