Today, alarming news filtered out of Selangor: 1,326 acres or 54% of the 2,300-acre Kuala Langat north forest reserve will be ‘developed’ – or rather destroyed. It would be given to a private company for ‘mixed commercial development’.
These 8,000-year-old forests had been gazetted as ‘permanent forest reserves’ – a misnomer if there ever was one.
Bad news folks. I wrote the article (see bottom) about the organic farm known as the Wonder Wilderfarm at the Relau Agricultural Park on 12 January 2017. On Monday, 23 August, four days ago, a bulldozer flattened the farm – without any notice, from what I hear, and with hardly any time for the tenant to salvage whatever she could (though she has now been given three weeks to remove her stuff).
The rain that belted down this evening aptly summed up the sense of despondency in the living rooms of many homes here.
Over 300,000 people have signed an online petition rejecting the choice of Ismail Sabri as the next prime minister.
When news filtered through last night that Ismail Sabri had apparently secured the backing of ‘114 MPs’ in the race for the prime minister’s post, most people felt the contest was effectively over. But it is not over till it is over.
Cryptic remarks emerging from Gabungan Parti Sarawak yesterday have added a twist.
The GPS MPs yesterday reportedly said they had submitted a name to the palace, but they were not saying who they had opted for. The GPS leader Abang Johari Openg said they were leaving the decision to the wisdom of the Agong. Full article on Aliran website
If we think this week of uncertainty over the choice of PM and government is too much, spare a thought for Belgium, which last year had to go through 500 days of horse trading before settling on a seven-party coalition government.
What a day it has been! So the backdoor government has been shown the exit door. With that, let us hope some serious lessons have been learned.
Updates from Twitter from selected sources:
So it looks as if Monday will be the moment of truth for Prime Minister Mahiaddin Yasin.
What do you think of Mahiaddin Yasin’s invitation this evening to opposition parties to come together.