Mohd Khusrin Munawi has reported for duty even though he was bottom of the list of candidates that the Selangor state government preferred for the position of State Secretary.
Only in 1Malaysia. You have to thank the BN federal government for not consulting the state government. After witnessing the role played by the State Secretary in Perak, people could be forgiven for worrying about the future of democracy in Selangor.
People are still talking about the PM’s aide asking the church to remove religious symbols at the Christmas tea party to which the PM and opposition leaders were invited.
In today’s Malaysian Insider, Utusan’s Ridhuan Tee has chipped in with his idiotic two cents’ worth. (I don’t know why people pay attention to what he says. If he is worried about the widespread visibility of Christmas decorations in shopping malls and other retail outlets, then it might comfort him to know that many Christians are just as concerned about the widespread secular commercialisation of this occasion. What would Jesus make of all this?) Meanwhile, a priest phoned me just now to find out what exactly had happened. One Christian emailed, was critical not only of the PM’s aide but of the Church itself: the big question, he wanted to know, was did the Archbishop agree to the aide’s demands/instructions/advice? What concessions, if any, were actually made?
The Christmas party is an annual event organised by the Christian Federation of Malaysia, an ecumenical umbrella body representing the main Protestant, Oriental Orthodox, Evangelical and Catholic churches in the country. This year, it was the turn of the Catholic Church to play host and so it was held at the residence of Catholic Archbishop Murphy Pakiam – or more precisely at the car park of the premises – where the issue of religious symbols didn’t arise in the first place.
Happy New Year, folks! Here’s to a cleaner, greener, more democratic, accountable and socially just Penang and Malaysia. Cheers! Let’s work together to realise this dream.
And let’s protect our planet too. It’s the only one we have. You will be pleased to hear that Italy has announced a complete ban from 1 January on shops and supermarkets handing out plastic bags to their customers – the first country in the European Union to do so. (See Telegraph report here.) Earlier in August, Mexico announced a similar ban (as reported in the BBC here).
So Penang is in good company. Here are a few photos of George Town by night for you to enjoy:
Good to see efforts being made to spruce up Penang.
The ban on free plastic bags is the right way to go.
Swiftlet breeding will soon be banned from the heritage zone. In the interim period, 32 new or unregistered breeders will have to move out by 1 January 2011. The remaining 78, who are registered breeders, will be given three years to relocate. See theSun report here.
Meanwhile, theSun also reports that the state government plans to restructure the Batu Feringghi ‘cowboy town’ zone, where most of the retail outlets and beach operators have been unlicensed for several decades. In the first phase, massage parlours and reflexology operators on the beach will be relocated to gazebos. Enforcement action against quad bike operators and horse-riding on the beach has started. Water sports activities may be relocated to areas within safety buoys.
Auckland is bringing back trams to its heritage quarter after an absence of more than half a century.
The proposed tram stops will be integrated with future bus stops.
The city’s original trams ran from 1902 to 1956. Their removal in 1956 has now been described as a “terrible mistake”. See this report in the Auckland Trains website.
Syed Shahir and his team have been defeated in the MTUC elections today.
I spoke to a veteran unionist to find out the implications of the result. “It’s a black day for the workers’ movement,” he lamented.
He described the new set of top leaders as generally pro-establishment. “We will have to sit down and find out how to react to the leadership change.”
Now this news item is disturbing. Catholic church officials were reportedly told to remove religious symbols before Najib attended the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur’s Christmas Day tea party.
See a Malaysian Insider report here.
A church source, however, told me the party was held in the grounds of the archbishop’s residence which is normally used as a car park for neighbouring offices during the week, and thus religious symbols were not an issue.
But the requests or instructions from the PM’s aide(s) reflect the reality of Najib’s 1Malaysia in everyday life.
It seems that plastic makers are saying they are going to distribute 150,000 free plastic bags next year to counter the Penang state government’s ‘no free plastic bags’ policy.
The news was published all over the Chinese-language media on Sunday. See a Guang Ming report here.
Let’s take a poll to see what kind of support the state has for its policy.
[poll id=”60″]
The Penang state government has asked NGOs to back its policy. Here is a response from an anti-plastic bags activist:
I am not sure whether the state government has a strategy to counter the plastic manufacturers who had been attacking the Penang State government since it first started the no plastic bags campaign.
More and more American cities are turning to light rail trains at street level to reduce congestion in cities.
From a cost-benefit perspective, these systems make good sense. They can complement the bus service and transform the image of public transport, making it more attractive to more commuters.
Check out this NPR article:
It’s hard to find a city in America that isn’t planning, proposing, studying or actually building a light rail system. Cities as diverse as Dallas, Seattle and Washington, D.C., all see light rail as part of their future — a way to reshape their development.
I wonder how many of our local councils can achieve this level of transparency.
We still have a long way to go. Even in the CAT land of Penang, the MPPP (the council for Penang Island) still does not put up its annual budget on its website for public view. It only has the annual accounts.