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Singapore elections: The day after

Farish Noor in Singapore shares with us his thoughts on a landmark general election.

Live – Singapore election results

Live updates and public reaction via twitter on the Singapore election results. Voting closed at 8.00pm and results are due from 9.30pm.


Penang Hill Railway ‘upgrade’: From RM40m to RM73m

Initial news reports for the Penang Hill Railway ‘upgrade’ had mentioned an allocation of RM40m. But later news reports put the cost at RM63m and finally RM73m.

How many billions would it take to wipe out Sarawak poverty?

Some of us might think that it could take several billion ringgit to wipe out poverty in Sarawak. Not really.

Flaws in ‘upgraded’ Penang Hill Railway

I ran into a visitor who had taken a ride on the ‘upgraded’ Penang Hill railway and he made the following observations:

Judge dismisses Eskay’s RM20m ‘commission’ claim

The Malaysian government would do well to heed Justice V T Singham’s views in his dismissal of the lawsuit brought by Eskay (of ‘Datuk T’ fame) claiming RM20m in commission from the developer of the ‘crooked bridge’ project.

Singapore general election: Democracy rising

It’s just two more days to polling day in Singapore – and the democratic awakening sweeping across the world has not left the island republic untouched.

“Singapore is a country – not a company,” says private teacher Michelle Lee, speaking at an opposition SDP rally

An opposition rally in Singapore

TBRA fails in legal challenge

The Tanjung Bunga Residents Association has been thwarted in its legal challenge against the state government’s gazetting of Tanjung Bunga as a primary corridor for development instead of a secondary corridor.

‘Upgraded’ Penang Hill railway shut for repairs

What, already? I think there’s a story in here somewhere.

The Penang Hill Corporation has issued a statement. Notice these lines in particular, which suggest that all is not well:

Repair work is further hampered by lack of spare parts from the train supplier. The full inventory of spares especially power pick-ups, has still not been given. The situation is further aggravated by the lack of information in dealing with the supplier. Documents and contracts on the upgrading works of the new train and rail are still not in the Corporation’s possession despite repeated requests and reminders. If the power pick-ups and spare parts were available, the Penang Hill Corporation would have been able to repair the train much quicker.

Penang Bridge disappointments

Liaw Yew Peng was chief resident engineer of the first Penang Bridge in the 1980s and speaks about some of his happy memories – and disappointments.