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Fright for BN as Budget passed by 66-63 votes

Anil Netto
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It was fright night for the BN as the national Budget reportedly was passed by a wafer-thin 66-63 majority in Parliament last night.

That’s 48 per cent attendance for the BN MPs and a 77 per cent turnout for the Pakatan reps. If half a dozen more Pakatan MPs had been there and they had defeated the BN in the vote, it would have sent shock-waves across the country. A missed opportunity if ever there was one.

Najib and Ong Tee Keat reportedly had to rush to Parliament to vote – and this was for their “1Malaysia Prosperity for All” national Budget.

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Tamiflu: US$3b spent – but does it really work?

Anil Netto
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This is something that I have been wondering about for a while now: why do so many people believe everything that Big Pharma tells them without conclusive evidence? One would have thought that governments and the medical community would want to see rigorous testing before spending big bucks for some ‘miracle’ drug.

Why have governments around the world spent US$3 billion since the emergence of H1N1 on Tamiflu, a drug that seems to do very little? That’s the question raised by The Atlantic, after the British Medical Journal revealed that researchers were unable to conclude that the drug is really effective.

Reuters reported in May that Malaysia was boosting its Tamiflu stockpile to cover 10 per cent of its 27 million population from 7.5 percent.

Now, in an explosive report, The Atlantic reveals:

Governments, public health agencies, and international bodies such as the World Health Organization, have all based their decisions to recommend and stockpile Tamiflu on studies that had seemed independent, but had in fact been funded by the company and were authored almost entirely by Roche employees or paid academic consultants…

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Oil wealth: Blessing or curse?

Anil Netto
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When Tengku Razaleigh started Petronas in 1974, little did he realise he would live to see the day he would wish the country had not discovered its oil bounty.

Our nation is blessed with a modest quantity of oil reserves. As a young nation coming to terms with this natural bounty in the early 1970’s, our primary thought was to conserve that oil. That is why, when Petronas was formed, we instituted the Petroleum Development Council. Its function was to advise the PM on how to conserve that oil and use it judicially for national development. We knew our reserves would not last long.

We saw our oil reserves as an unearned bounty that would provide the money for modernization and technology. We saw our oil within a developmental perspective. Our struggle then, was to make the leap from an economy based on commodities and low cost assembly and manufacture to a more diverse, economy based on high income jobs.

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Number of unemployed graduates soars

Anil Netto
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While the uproar over the BTN continues, let’s look at what happens to some of our university students after they graduate.

The following was the answer received by Selayang MP William Leong in Parliament recently:

In 2004, there were 4,594 unemployed graduates of whom 163 were Chinese, 207 were Indians and 4,060 were Malays;

In 2005, there were 2,413 unemployed graduates of whom 31 were Chinese, 70 were Indians and 2,186 were Malays;

In 2006, there were 56,750 unemployed graduates of whom 1,110 were Chinese, 1,346 were Indians and 50,594 were Malays.

In 2007, there were 56,322 unemployed graduates of whom 1,348 were Chinese, 1,401 were Indians and 49,075 were Malays.

In 2008 (as of June) there were 47,910 unemployed graduates of whom 1,403 Chinese, 4,694 Indians and 41,813 were Malays.

This more or less tallied with the 47,733 active graduate registrants on the Malaysian Labour Exchange in June 2008.

By March 2009, Najib was talking about 60,000 unemployed graduates. This was more or less in line with the 57,701 graduate registrants on the Exchange in March 2009.

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Spotlight on Sarawak electricity

Anil Netto
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The federal government reimburses the Sarawak power supply corporation about RM1.4 million a month so that about 70,000 households in Sarawak can enjoy free power supply, reports the Borneo Post.

Sounds good?

Let’s take a closer look at Sarawak Energy Bhd, which is 65 per cent owned by the State Financial Secretary Sarawak (which falls under the finance minister, who is Chief Minister Taib Mahmud) and 4 per cent by EPF:

Financial year ended 31 Dec 2008
Turnover RM1.3 billion
Profit before tax RM293m (RM401m in 2007)
Directors’ fees, etc RM3.8m (RM2.3m in 2007)
Now, let’s compare that with Tenaga Nasional Bhd, which was 38 per cent owned by Khazanah and 14 per cent by the EPF:
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Confusion over Batu Kawan monorail test track

Anil Netto
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MRails International Sdn Bhd states on its website that the Penang Development Corporation (PDC) has “authorised our consortium to implement a monorail test track for 1.3km in Batu Kawan (near Stadium), Penang”.

The Edge weekly had reported in October that the state had in principle given the green light to businessman Jeyakumar Varathan, believed to be a director of MRails, to build a monorail test track on a 30-acre site in Batu Kawan. Discussions between the Penang government and Jeyakumar reportedly began three months ago.

But confusing statements have been made in the media by various state government leaders.

On 30 Nov, Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P Ramasamy revealed, as reported in The Edge and elsewhere:

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Zunar is back with Perak Darul Kartun

Anil Netto
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You can’t keep a good cartoonist down for long – especially one with a socio-political conscience. Three months after hundreds of copies of the inaugural issue of his Gedung Kartun magazine were confiscated, political humourist Zunar and his creative team are back with a brighter idea.

Photos by Zunar’s team – Click on icon at bottom right of box to toggle to full-screen slideshow mode

This time, they are launching an 80-page cartoon book titled Perak Darul Kartun focusing on the power grab and associated antics in Perak – which undoubtedly offer rich material for satire. Unlike a regular magazine, a book doesn’t require a publishing permit under existing laws.

Appropriately, ousted Perak Mentri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin is expected to launch the book, priced at RM10 with an initial print run of 10,000 copies, in KL this Sunday.

This is what the irrepressible Zunar has to say:

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Azhar’s antics on Youtube

Anil Netto
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In this era of Youtube, elected reps had better be on their toes when discharging their duties as they are coming under ever greater public scrutiny.

Three video clips show Penang Opposition Leader (from Umno/BN) Azhar Ibrahim apparently gesturing with his rear on two different occasions at the Penang State Assembly last week.

The first video has Azhar hitting out at theSun newspaper while apparently gesturing with his hand at his rear: “Itu paper pembohong besar. Ambil you punya paper calit … lagi baik. (That paper is a big liar. Take your paper and smear it with … would be better.)” His statement was made in the mistaken belief that theSun had reported him as commenting on a rowdy BN demonstration outside the state assembly when in reality the paper had not quoted him on the issue.

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Anwar trial: Deja vu, but then again…

Anil Netto
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The more things change, the more they remain the same in Malaysian politics. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has failed to get a court to strike out a sodomy charge against him, which means the controversial trial that threatens to bump him from politics and land him in prison is set to begin on 25 January.

It will represent the second time Anwar faces charges of sodomy, which is considered a criminal act in Malaysia’s Muslim majority society. This time, he faces charges of sodomizing his 24-year-old former personal aide at a condominium in Kuala Lumpur in mid-2008.

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LIVE: Nizar speaks to Penangites

Anil Netto
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Nizar Jamaluddin speaks to Penangites at the Caring Society Complex.

Some 700 Penangites attended the talk and hung on to Nizar’s every word – Photos by Jong. (Click on icon on bottom right of box to toggle to full-screen slideshow mode.)

<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&#038;task=viewaltcast&#038;altcast_code=96877bcd0f” mce_href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;altcast_code=96877bcd0f” >LIVE: Nizar speaks to Penangites</a>

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