Some 180 people including onlookers gathered at Millennium Square near Speakers’ Square for a candle-light vigil to mark the first anniversary of the sudden death of Teoh Beng Hock.
They gathered from 8.30pm to 9.15pm today, according to a human rights activist. Several DAP reps addressed the crowd in turn.
For what is expected to be the biggest mega project of them all, the RM43 billion Mass Rapid Transit proposal has received little prominent media publicity and most Malaysians remain in the dark about it.
The ‘unsolicited proposal’ for a 180-200km partly underground railway network in Kuala Lumpur by Gamuda Bhd and MMC Corp is now undergoing feasibility studies by two government-appointed consultants, according to a report in The Star.
The actual project is expected to cost RM36 billion. Add land acquisition and rolling stock cost and the tab reportedly could come up to a jaw-dropping RM43 billion. (What about possible cost overruns?) That makes it the largest construction job under the Tenth Malaysia Plan.
It is alarming to read that the government has set aside RM4 billion for the PM’s Department alone this year.
Equally shocking to hear that the number of civil servants in the same department has doubled in the space of seven years since Mahathir stepped down – from 21,045 in 2003 to 43,544 in 2010.
Officers of the National Financial Investigation Division (DNIF) of France are responsible for probing into the conditions of sale of submarines to Malaysia, especially a related 114 million euro payment, a French website has revealed.
The DNIF is a divison of the Central Directorate of Judicial Police (DCPJ) based in Nanterre near Paris. This was where Bala was questioned on Monday.
The DCPJ is the national authority of the criminal division of the French police tasked with leading and coordinating the actions of law enforcement forces (Police Nationale and Gendarmerie Nationale) against organised crime (either criminal or financial activities). In carrying out its investigations, the DCPJ works with other institutions such as the Customs and Revenue Service, according to Wikipedia.
Today is something of an historic day for the country in our quest for a more accountable society.
Watch ‘live’ over ‘TV Selangor’ as the Selangor becomes the first state to table a Freedom of Information Bill for its first reading and debate.
The Penan may be one of the most marginalised communities in the country but their plight has received considerable attention, if an internet search is anything to go by.
Like it or not, the Penan are “hot” news: a Google search today throws up 378,000 results.
French judicial police and investigators interviewed Bala for more than six hours yesterday, according to Tian Chua.
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The interview began at 2.00pm French time (8.00pm Malaysian time) and extended past 5.00pm, well after normal working hours in France, said the parliamentarian, who has been keeping abreast with developments there. Bala was questioned at the National Financial Investigation Division (DNIF) of the Central Directorate of Judicial Police (DCPJ) along Rue des Trois Fontanots in Nanterre.
Certain property players have turned their attention to choice London properties.
And they seemed to have secured access to generous soft loans, in the process.
All is not well in the state of France as some hard questions are being asked of the leadership about kickbacks and other funding scandals.
The BBC has a story: ‘How ‘rotten’ is France’s politics’?
One pending inquiry, involving the sale of submarines to Pakistan in 1994 when Mr Sarkozy was budget minister, may come back to haunt the president.
The irony is that the explosion of funding scandals in the past two decades has coincided with unprecedented attempts to clean up France’s political life.