The inaugural convention of the Pakatan Rakyat in Perak, held in Ipoh yesterday, has officially ushered in a new era of two-coalition politics.
Photo by Kinta Kid (Photo story at Kinta Chronicles)
Perhaps because of the furnace of trials and tribulations the Perak Pakatan was plunged in, its parties are said to have emerged welded together in greater solidarity. A manifesto was drawn up and debated upon.
What has the US-led Invasion and Occupation of Iraq really achieved? What have the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of American troops really accomplished?
If you ask me, a lot of people made a lot of money out of this military adventure – that’s what it has accomplished. Yes, war is all about Big Business for a few: the oil price rockets up, military budgets are pumped up, weapons sales soar, strategic oil pipelines are laid, funds for dubious “reconstruction” are siphoned off and a few favoured corporations reap huge profits for their well-connected share-holders.
Leila Fadel of McClatchy reports:
I couldn’t understand what thousands of American soldiers had died for and why hundreds of thousands of Iraqis had been killed. I didn’t see a budding democracy in an Iraqi government that was more like Saddam Hussein’s every day. I didn’t see a land long divided by sect, ethnicity, tribe and class beginning to grow into a united nation.
While the front pages of the newspapers today are all about Badrul Hisham quitting PKR and how PKR is supposedly on the verge of a meltdown, BN component parties too are feeling the heat.
In particular, MCA president Ong Tee Keat and Gerakan chief Koh Tsu Koon have been under pressure to call it a day. The latest broadside came not from opposition ranks but from a BN back-bencher in Parliament yesterday. (Did he receive the green light from the top?)
Kg Tanjung Tokong villagers are appealing to Prime Minister Najib Razak to fulfil his father’s promise for their village.
Razak’s vision as reported in The Straits Echo, 11 April 1972 – Photo by Anil
During a visit to the village in 1972 accompanied by Dr Lim Chong Eu, then premier Abdul Razak told villagers that he understood that they were “not the owners of the land” but only “temporary residents” of the 200-year-old settlement. Nevertheless, he was reported as saying, the government planned to make them settle there permanently.
Why did the authorities hinder Pakatan reps – and drag one of them – as they entered the Perak State Assembly yesterday? So that they could forcibly remove the Speaker’s attire from Sivakumar?
Chaos and confusion was the (dis)order of the day at the Perak State Assembly this morning. Check out Aliran President P Ramakrishnan’s view here.
Drama at the Perak State Assembly – Photos by Kinta Kid and Jong
Two Mentris Besar, two Speakers, two assembly sessions, two sets of rules. Only in OneMalaysia.
2142: An Ipoh resident reports just 12 hours ahead of what could be an eventful Perak State Assembly sitting:
I have just returned from a (look-see around) Ipoh town and the Perak SUK area. And my, oh my, unbelievable(!), the whole place is as quiet and peaceful as ever! So different from 7 May “BlackMalaysia” day.
For the coming financial year (2010), the Penang Municipal Council is projecting a budget deficit of RM40 million based on revenue collection of RM230 million, two thirds of which come from taxes. Over the last year, the council should be commended for making extra effort to collect arrears from various parties…
It is therefore strange that the Council plans to blow RM30 million in capital expenditure in its 2010 Budget on a new convention centre project. This centre will be located within the premises of the Penang International Sports Arena (Pisa) at a spot where the present fountains are. It is believed that a further RM20 million will be allocated in the 2011 financial year.
Now, Pisa as everyone knows is an under-utilised white elephant, saddled with expenditure – hardly the most productive asset in Penang. So where is the logic in building another convention centre next to it? And how is it going to affect the already ailing Pisa, which is owned by the Council and managed by a private firm, Penevents (formerly owned by the PDC until a management buyout)?
It appears that the federal government is going ahead with a RM50 million plan to introduce water taxis and build more jetties in Penang Island and on the mainland.
Najib approved the conceptual plan in July. A month earlier, this blog had suggested that the Penang Port look into emulating Bangkok’s river buses along the Chao Phraya River.
But the devil is in the details. Now they are talking about allowing private firms to run the water taxi service. In the first phase, they want to target foreign tourists. The public would be targeted only in phase three. This is so unlike the low-cost river buses in Bangkok, where the passengers are mainly locals and the fares are low (apart from the separate cruise boats catering for the tourists). Public transport works best when the fares are affordable (even if it means government subsidies for an essential service) – but you can’t have affordable fares if you have private firms hoping to make huge profits.
Meanwhile, all the various parties appear to be doing their own thing. You have the bridge firms (federal) working on the second bridge, Penang Port working on the ferries and water taxis, Rapid Penang (federal) upgrading the bus service, the Penang state government reportedly looking into monorail, a proposal to revive the Penang Outer Ring Road on the cards, the aerorail proposal, and the new Penang Transport Council probably not being consulted on some of these projects. What a jolly rojak!