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Spotlight on Sarawak electricity

Anil Netto
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10

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>

The forgotten settler-families of Jalan Raja Uda

Anil Netto
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The descendants of settlers from Kwangchow have been waiting a dozen years for the compensation they were promised after they were forced to vacate their family homes along Jalan Raja Uda in Butterworth to make way for a major property development project.


Photos by Anil Netto – click icon on bottom right to toggle to full-screen slideshow mode

Today, their temporary concrete and zinc-roofed homes are rapidly decaying while the elusive agreed compensation – 800 sq ft three-bedroom medium-cost apartments – is nowhere in sight.

Since the mid-1990s, over 300 households scattered over 50 acres have lost their family homes to the Raja Uda Commercial Centre project in Butterworth. This project comprises rows of new shophouses, each priced at between RM500,000 to RM1 million, fronting both sides of a one-kilometre stretch of Jalan Raja Uda towards the intersection with Jalan Telaga Air/Jalan Siram.

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Exploited workers want to know their rights

Anil Netto
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When Aliran put up an article on workers’ rights on its website, little did it expect a string of queries on some of the common problems that workers across the country face.

These queries reflect the lack of education they receive on their rights as employees. They also indicates the low level of unionisation among Malaysian workers (only a small minority are trade union members) and our relatively weak labour and union protection laws.

So if you readers have the answers and could share with us, I am sure many workers in similar difficult situations would be grateful. Or if you have an exploitative situation or a violation of workers’ rights at your own workplace, why not share with us as well?

Noor Aini – Dr |60.48.76.xxx |2008-12-30 12:41:45

Can an employer make it a regulation that all employees must pay their income tax thru’ PCB and manage tax calculation for the employees automatically every mth?

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Sarawak’s disappearing rainforests

Anil Netto
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5

For a long time, activists had believed that rainforests in the vast northwest Borneo state of Sarawak were being logged unsustainably, rapidly making way for tree (acacia) plantations, oil palm plantations, dams and secondary growth. But few listened.

Their position was confirmed when the country’s auditor-general presented to Parliament in October its 2008 annual report criticising forestry management in Malaysia’s largest state as “unsatisfactory”. The Sarawak state authorities have denied the auditor-general’s findings.

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Climate change warning for Penang – in 1848

Anil Netto
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11

Many of us would think that the concern about hill-slope degradation in Penang and warnings of climate change are a fairly new development which began in the 1980s and 1990s.

jamesloganWrong. James Richardson Logan – the man who coined the name ‘Indonesia’ and who is honoured at the Logan Memorial outside the Penang High Court and buried in the nearby Protestant Cemetery – expressed such concern in the mid-19th century in the Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, which he edited. The brilliant Logan, who was ahead of his time, was a member of the Asiatic Society, corresponding member of the Ethnological Society of London and of the Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences.

Here are some excerpts from the Journal Vol II, printed in 1848:

It was remarked that the whole of the eastern front of the range [of a mountain in Pinang] has within a few years been denuded of its forest…. In Singapore the present zealous Governor has, in an enlightened spirit … absolutely prohibited the further destruction of forests on the summits of hills…. Climate concerns the whole community and its protection from injury is one of the duties of Government….

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