A rare video report from the ground looking at how pro-democracy activists defended Tahrir Square – at a terrible cost, several killed and over 5,000 injured – after coming under waves of attack from pro-Mubarak thugs.
Egypt: Some 3,000 protest in KL
On this ‘Day of Departure’ protests, some three thousand people have gathered in KL calling for Mubarak’s ouster. They join protesters gathering across the world.
Watch Aljazeera’s live streaming of the’ Day of Departure’ from Cairo. (Why is Astro’s screening of Aljazeera’s ‘live coverage’ a few minutes behind Aljazeera’s live coverage over the Internet?)
1616: Eight people are believed to have been arrested. Those arrested are in police trucks outside the PNB building.
1556: Protesters have dispersed from the Tabung Haji building area, as police linger on. Meanwhile, Latheefa tweets: “They tried to arrest Fadiah who went to inquire about the arrests! – shouting at her ‘budak baru! very prof indeed!'”
1551: A least four protesters have been arrested, reports my contact.
1546: Police fired water cannon briefly to disperse the protesters, reports a contact. About a hundred people are still around the Tabung Haji building area. My contact says he saw police taking one of the protesters away, and he believes there could be a few arrested.
1538: Police are spraying stuff on the demonstrators. They look poised to make arrests, reports a contact.
1532: According to a tweet from Latheefa Koya citing her source Fadiah, police have arrested some people including an old man. They are being brought to IPD Dang Wangi.
1522: A contact at the scene reports that the turnout was in the region of 3,000 to 5,000. Riot police blocked the road leading to the US Embassy, leading to some commotion. Some teargas was sprayed (but not fired using tear gas cannisters.) By 3.20pm, the protest was drawing to a close after demonstrators were pressured to disperse.
1453: Riot police have taken up positions about 50 metres away from the US embassy.
1440: The crowd has reached 2,000 people, according to a tweet.
1427: Some 500 people have gathered in front of the Tabung Haji building in KL. Several hundred more, carrying banners, have just arrived from KLCC. A contact at the scene reports that the crowd has reached a thousand. They might be heading for the US Embassy.
About a hundred police personnel are already at the scene as sirens wail.
Egypt: The struggle for democracy
Live updates from Cairo and elsewhere in Egypt.
Strong cyclone to strike N Queensland
A “life-threatening” cyclone is expected to hit the coast of Northern Queensland, Australia at around 10.00pm. It comes in the wake of devastating floods which swamped large parts of Queensland recently.
Meanwhile, a colossal winter storm has struck the United States. It is expected to affect a third of the population. And over here in Malaysia, we have floods in the south of the peninsula. Climate change? sign of the times?
Updates from Cairns, north Queensland below:
The cost of illicit financial outflows
Many of us now know that Malaysia has lost RM889 billion in terms of illicit financial outflows from 2000 to 2008. But how much was the per capita average annual illicit outflow when compared to per capita GDP?
Independent observer Philip Khoo does the maths in a commentary for Aliran:
Most shocking of all, the illicit outflow from Malaysia cost the rakyat 17 per cent of per capita GDP, but less than 1 per cent in Egypt and Tunisia. In other words, that outflow could have potentially added up to 17 per cent of GDP, or made available up to US$1,200 for the betterment of every man, woman and child in the country, including non-citizens.
Egypt was World Bank’s “top reformer”
By now, we are gradually becoming familiar with the poverty, unemployment (especially among youth) and income inequality in Egypt that seems to be fuelling the protests. But what is less well known is that Egypt, like Tunisia, had only recently been viewed as an ‘economic miracle’ after it wholeheartedly pursued standard IMF/World Bank ideas.
(Follow the ‘one million-strong’ gathering in Cairo ‘live’ over Aljazeera here.)
It’s funny that Hillary Clinton now says that Egypt has to”‘reform”. Only in August 2010, the Wall Street Journal reported that Egypt had become Washington’s economic favourite. And last year, the World Bank, in its ‘Doing Business 2010’ report gushingly (and embarrassingly) applauded Colombia and Egypt as the “top global reformers in four of the past seven years”. I kid you not. How wrong can you get? Unless they meant reforms to profit a small minority of the business elite.
Such IMF/World Bank ‘structural adjustment’ policies include privatisation, subsidy cuts, market ‘liberalisation’ and deregulation. Sound familiar?
Penang’s farcical draft FOI Bill
Although many welcomed the Penang state government’s decision to enact a Freedom of Information Act, the release of a draft Bill has made a mockery of the people’s aspirations for more transparency and accountability.
Have a look at Sarajun Hoda’s analysis of the draft Bill on Aliran here:
The FOI Bill is surrounded by a million reasons stipulating why information ‘may’ not be given. Instead of asserting the opening up of access to information, it only speaks about conditions for not divulging information and even more excuses for impeding access. It finally sounds just as haughty, opaque and obfuscating as the Selangor Bill.
Oil in Malaysia: Worrying trend
As petrol pump prices rise steadily (another increase in RON 97 price has just been reported), here’s a less well known trend: Malaysian oil production has been gradually falling since peaking in 2004.
This graph should be of concern to all Malaysians. Notice the production-consumption gap narrowing.
That’s why they are dishing out contracts for ‘enhanced’ oil recovery.