I cannot for the life of me imagine why any businessman would want to invest in Zimbabwe.
Look what happened to one such business venture, a Malaysian-Dutch firm Matanuska, which had its banana plantation seized by a retired army general-turned-Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Tanzania.
Perhaps Matanuska thought its interests would be protected by Zimbabwe’s Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (Bippa) with Malaysia. Under this agreement, the firm was reportedly offered land but not title to the land. Or maybe they thought Malaysia enjoyed a special relationship with Zimbabwe!
While Malaysia has big plans to go into nuclear energy, it is still grappling with radioactive waste from the Asian Rare Earth facility in Papan more than 20 years ago.
The Sunday Star carried an excellent write-up on Papan here. (Too bad it was not a cover story but instead appeared deep in its inside pages.) Aliran also carried a story here. In both pieces, Mahathir’s claims on the real situation there have been exposed. During his administration, folks were arrested under the ISA for standing up to protect their area from radioactive waste. It is only in recent years that action is being taken to reduce the danger. Now, the real story emerges. What has Mahathir got to say to those folks who were unjustly detained under the ISA and the rest of the Papan residents who were put at risk?
BN leaders with short memories are now talking about going into nuclear energy.
UPDATE: Polling closed at 5.30pm sharp on 15 June 2010.
Just before it closed, it was 9,608 (about 66 per cent) saying No to the arches and 4,981 (about 34 per cent) saying Yes.
URGENT ALERT:The percentage of those saying No to the arches in Penang Botanic Garden has inexplicably plunged in a poll hosted on the Tourism Ministry’s website.
Caught in the act: See how the poll results appear to be manipulated
From 91 per cent who said ‘No’ to the arches a few days ago, it is now only 54 50 48 per saying ‘No’. That is an unbelievably sharp drop in the percentage opposing the arches in just a matter of days. When observed, in the space of an hour on a Sunday afternoon (today), over 200 more “Yes-es” were recorded in favour of the arches. And that’s just in an hour.
The poll may close anytime soon and then the government might use the final result to justify its decision on whether the arches should stay or go. So make sure you vote now before it’s too late.
Here’s your chance to tell the government whether those large arches at the Penang Botanic Garden – one of which is believed to be tilting – should be removed.
The Tourism Ministry is carrying out a poll on its website. But be careful, you are asked whether those arches should remain.
Lately, officials have been stretching the definition of ‘subsidies’ and playing around with words – which is why Idris Jala’s figure for total ‘subsidies’ last year (RM74 billion) is vastly different from the Treasury’s (RM18.8 billion).
We are now told that a lot of the regular government spending on essential services for the people (which is the responsibility of any decent government and funded by taxpayers’ money) are ‘subsidies’ which distort the market, blah-blah-blah.
Okay, you want to talk about subsidies, let’s talk about subsidies…
This morning, the frontpage of the newspaper was all about Najib’s unveiling of the Tenth Malaysia Plan – but what about that all-important emissions cut pledge in Copenhagen?
Let’s see now – 52 “high-impact projects” including:
seven highway projects (think lucrative toll concessions and the promotion of private vehicle ownership),
massive property development all over the place,
coal-fired plants (including the controversial one in Sabah?), and
two aluminium smelters (to justify all those unnecessary dams?).
Apart from worrying about the effects of cuts in subsidies, the lower-income group and even the middle-class are feeling the effects of a sharp rise in fruit and vegetable prices, especially over the last quarter.
While Najib waxes eloquent about the New Economic Model, low-income Malaysians are struggling to balance their budgets. Fruit and vegetables that used to cost RM60 a few months ago now cost around RM90. If you paid RM25 for a basket of vegetables a few months ago, you probably would have to fork out around RM45 now.
Of course, Cabinet Ministers won’t feel the pinch from higher food prices and cuts in subsidies. But ordinary workers will, as their wages struggle to keep pace with the rising cost of living. (As an aside, we desperately need a move towards organic agriculture to make us more self-sufficient in healthy pesticide-free natural food.)
Here’s something I wrote for IPS:
The government’s proposal to remove and rationalise subsidies on essential goods and services continues to provoke a storm of criticism from ordinary Malaysians.
Is the relocation of Parliament to Putrajaya going to be another case of flip-flop, after the sports betting fiasco?
In his written parliamentary reply to Sim Tong Him (DAP-Kota Melaka), Nazri said the relocation was decided by the cabinet recently.
But according to Malaysiakini, Nazri later clarified to the press that the matter was still being mulled over by Cabinet. “It’s not decided yet… We will bring it to the Cabinet to be discussed,” he said.
Not again! Flip-flop – or testing the waters?
Even Khairy disagrees with the RM800 million plan.
Updated to include dates of Anwar taking refuge in the Turkish embassy, his arrest and forced medical checks in Hospital KL and the Permatang Pauh by-election. All very fascinating.
I was getting a bit confused and mixed up with all the dates and times and the sequence of events in the Anwar trial.
So I thought it would be best to come up with a chronology of events gleaned from publicly available information especially news reports of the witness testimony at the trial, Saiful’s blog, etc.
Dec 2007/Jan 2008
Saiful, a former student leader at Uniten, meets Najib’s special officer at Najib’s office to get a letter of support for training as a pilot.
… “upon certain terms and conditions”. The government is now saying that it has not yet decided on the sports betting licence for Ascot.
Berjaya Corp made an announcement to Bursa on 12 May 2010. Look at Item 2.2 under background to Ascot: “The Minister of Finance has given its approval for the re-issuance to Ascot of the licence to carry out sports betting operations upon certain terms and conditions.”
But under item 8, “approvals required”, it states: The Proposals are conditional upon approvals being obtained from the following:
d) The Minister of Finance for the re-issuance of the sports betting license and the changes in shareholders and directors in Ascot, if required;…
There’s also item 2.5 (a) “TSVT’s guarantee of the profit after tax of Ascot that it shall be at least RM375.0 million in aggregate for the three (3) financial years ending 30 April 2011 to 30 April 2013. This translates into an average profit after tax of RM125.0 million per annum;…”
Berjaya Corp’s full announcement to Bursa on 12 May 2010:
BERJAYA CORPORATION BERHAD (“BCORPORATION” OR “COMPANY”)
(A) PROPOSED ACQUISITION OF 70% EQUITY INTEREST IN ASCOT SPORTS SDN BHD
(“ASCOT”) FOR A TOTAL CASH CONSIDERATION OF RM525 MILLION (“PROPOSED
ACQUISITION”); AND
