A delegation from Putrajaya is planning a two-day study trip to Singapore next month to learn more about tree-planting.
Huh? Read this Malaysian Insider report.
A blog reader visited Singapore earlier this month and snapped a few pictures.
Surprisingly, I noticed that trees and plants at public places, by the roadside, at HDB condos etc are in better shape than those at private premises/condos. Can’t even find old sick trees or a branch of brown foliage, serious no exaggeration!
The Perak government is desperately trying to promote heritage tourism, but as one writer observes, there is no evidence that this “top down, bottom up” approach, requiring love and respect for our heritage, exists anywhere in Ipoh.
Saw this piece by Ian Anderson in the Ipoh Echo:
Once there was a beautiful Italian marble fountain on this site (in Little India). It was put there not by government, but by the businessmen of Ipoh in memory of the 8th British Adviser, E W Birch, who unlike his father had been good to Ipoh and Perak during his tenure. Indeed without his assistance, New Town would not have been built. However in the 1980s the memorial was removed by the City Council in the name of development.
The late Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu will be remembered as a leader who left his imprint on Penang during a time of turbulence and ferment in Malaysia’s post-independence years.
His experiment with multi-ethnic politics with Gerakan – in its initial years at least – fired the imagination of many Penangites and other Malaysians.
His economic policy of promoting export-oriented, foreign investor-driven development – the standard World Bank model in support of MNCs – gave birth to the electronics industry and the Free Trade Zone in Penang. It compensated somewhat for the loss of Penang’s duty-free status.
Philippine President Aquino has declared his assets showing that he is worth RM3.6 million (50 million pesos). Now when will we get to know how much the Malaysian Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and Chief Ministers are worth? Transparency anyone?
Aquino submitted his ‘Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth’ to the Ombudsman’s office soon after he assumed office. Notice, it is not a statement of income but of assets.
In contrast, his predecessor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo started her term of office with a net worth of RM4.8 million. By the time she stepped down from office, her wealth had soared to RM10.2 million.
I don’t know about you, but I got that sinking feeling when I heard that Penang Port could be privatised.
At present, Penang Port comes under the federal Finance Ministry. The government reportedly has already spent RM1 billion over the last five years to upgrade Penang Port.
Now the news is that Malaysia’s seventh richest man, Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, could take over the port, as reported in the Singapore Business Times. Just how many ports do they want him to take over? His MMC already controls Port of Tanjung Pelepas and the Johor Port in Pasir Gudang.
The opposition in Sarawak have accused the state government of tampering with the state assembly’s Hansard, the recording of the Dewan’s proceedings.
See Free Malaysia Report here.
An independent source told me the episode is accurate as he was unable to download the fourth day’s proceedings. “The fourth day proceedings were mainly opposition speeches. It has not been uploaded. If Parliament can upload opposition speeches in Hansard, why not Sarawak? Or is the Sarawak Chief Minister beyond reproach?”
Something is happening at the Subang Ria Recreational Park and it doesn’t sound good. Although the state government had agreed that all 73 acres will be maintained as a green lung, it appears that 19 acres could now be allowed for commercial use.
Why can’t they learn from the 350-acre Hyde Park and the 275-acre Kensington Garden (both combined, larger than the size of Monaco and lying right smack in the middle of London), which are virtually untouchable? But then some of our developers are greedy and think nothing of depriving present and future generations of precious green spaces. All they can think of is $$$
The leak in Parliament – yet again – is an act of God, says Nazri, pointing out that the building is old. Actually it just reflects the lack of a culture of maintenance or plain incompetence.
Go ask the JKR, Nazri says, after being repeatedly questioned by journalists. Part of the problem, he said, is that the building was not designed for air-conditioning.
After getting a close look at the ‘pro-ISA protesters’ in Penang, we are now privileged to be able to closely study the ‘disgruntled PKR members’ bussed in to ‘protest’ outside the PKR headquarters on 21 November 2010.
I don’t know about you, but to me, many of them look utterly bored or not paying attention to the speech, only chanting and raising their hands on cue.
Sarawak Deputy Tourism Minister James Dawos Mamit has admitted that the impoundment of the Bakun Dam had adversely affected the livelihood of the people downstream and the tourism industry.
“Because of the shallowness of the river, some of them lose their jobs as tourist guides and have to chop firewood for a living because there are no more tourists coming after the water level has dropped,” the Borneo Post quoted him as saying. Ironically Dawos is the former environment adviser for the Bakun Dam project.
The authorities must now release the Environmental Impact Assessment report. Let’s have a look at the conditions of approval.