You got to hand it to Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu. He doesn’t know the facts – his own admission – but he still thinks the Bakun losses could have been averted.
Reports have said that cost over-runs of RM1.7 billion have been incurred by Sime Darby on a contract worth RM1.8 billion for the dam. Now not only is the Bakun Dam jinxed, a hex has been placed on Sime Darby too after it touched the project.
The mainstream media have been reporting that Malaysia and Singapore have ended their deadlock on key issues – but have all the prickly issues raised by Mahathir in the past been resolved?
Could we have the valuations for all the plots of land concerned so we know it’s a fair deal.
The Star reports that the key features of the latest round of talks were:
UPDATED: Pakatan polling agents were unable to witness the casting of ballots by over a thousand postal voters who were said to be located outside the Sibu police headquarters and two main army camps.
That’s the assertion made by an experienced Pas polling agent familiar with the process, which revealed glaring weaknesses and loop-holes in the Sibu by-election.
Back at Wisma Sanyan, the main coordinating centre for postal ballots, the agents for the Sibu by-election exercised unprecedented scrutiny over the counting and verification of the ballots.
As the agents spotted more and more discrepancies in the postal ballots, the pile of spoilt and rejected ballots grew higher and higher. (The agents had been thoroughly briefed on what to look out for.)
Malaysia’s fugitive blogger Raja Petra has received a standing ovation at a talk in a packed lecture theatre in London.
Photo courtesy of Danny Lim
That’s according to a tweet by Padraig Reidy, the news editor of Index on Censorship (a British organisation promoting freedom of expression) and former deputy editor of New Humanist.
Pakatan supporters held simultaneous protests in Penang, Perak, Selangor, Terengganu and Negri Sembilan against the federal government’s decision to issue a licence for sports betting in the country.
Photo courtesy of Wartawan Rasmi Laman Reformasi
The protest in Penang, led by Penang Pas youth leaders took place after Friday prayers at the Kampung Permatang Jangus mosque in Permatang Pauh on the mainland.
We often hear politicians accusing each other of corruption. Those accusations may be genuine, but sometimes they paper over deeper structural problems in the economy which are less sensational but which may have an even greater impact on the poor.
First, let me say that most Malaysians correctly recognise that the billions of ringgit lost through corruption and wastage and rent-seeking could have been used to provide more budget allocations to assist the poor.
Tanjung Bunga state assembly member Teh Yew Cheu has written to the Penang Municipal Council on the Bolton Surin project.
Rock blasting at the Bolton Surin project site in Tanjung Bunga is unnerving residents in nearby Chee Seng Gardens.
One of the rocks from the blasts and a damaged roof-tile
This has prompted Tanjung Bunga Residents Association president George Aeria to once again write to leaders of the Penang state government and Penang Municipal Council:
Today (19 May 2010) again, Bolton Surin carried out their usual blasting and this time a large rock flew further than my house i.e. a full 500 feet, (my house is @ 400 feet from the blast site) hit the roof of my neighbour and broke it….