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Full text of Obama’s speech to the Muslim world

Anil Netto
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In a much-awaited speech in Cairo just now directed largely at the Muslim world, Obama has vowed to:

  • shut down Guantanamo Bay by next year,
  • prohibit the use of torture by the United States (what about rendition or outsourcing of torture?) and
  • remove US troops from Iraq by 2012 (what about the large permanent or “enduring” US bases it has built?).
  • seek a world in which no nation holds nuclear weapons.

He has also pledged to work for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate. He has called for the Palestinians to “abandon violence” – without issuing a similar call to the Israelis. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements, he adds – but what about existing settlements?

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Nasharudin rules out Pas-Umno pact

Anil Netto
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Just spotted this on the Reuters wire service: Pas Deputy President Nasharudin Mat Isa, who enjoys the backing of conservatives within the party, has ruled out a Pas-Umno/BN pact and instead said that Pas should consolidate within Pakatan and consider itself a “government-in-waiting”.

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On eve of general assembly, Pas at a crossroads

Anil Netto
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Mat Sabu in Penanti

Mat Sabu is one of the contenders for the Pas deputy presidency – Photo by Anil Netto

Pas holds its 55th general assembly this week.

The party is now at a crossroads. As it aspires for federal leadership together with its Pakatan allies, Pas will have to decide and discern which direction it should take: towards a more inclusive and democratic Malaysia or towards a conservative theology that will alienate it from non-Muslims.

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Pakatan on a roll

Anil Netto
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Here’s something I wrote for Asia Times after the Penanti by-election:

Malaysia’s opposition alliance has chalked up its fifth by-election win out of six since a general election last year.

This time, the ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front – BN) coalition did not put up a candidate, perhaps fearing that another by-election defeat would be demoralizing. That left the coast clear for the Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) to brush aside three independent candidates on Sunday.

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New dams in peninsula despite Bakun undersea cables

Anil Netto
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Now comes news that Tenaga is planning two new hydroelectric plants in Terengganu and Pahang (see report below).

Doesn’t this fly against the justification for the laying of submarine cables to transmit electricity from the Bakun Dam in Sarawak to the peninsula – that there would be no need for expensive new capacity on the peninsula?

Energy Minister Peter Chin said last month that the Cabinet had agreed that opting for the Bakun submarine cable project would be better than continuing to build new power plants in the peninsula. “In the long term, it will be more economical and viable to transmit power from Bakun to Peninsular Malaysia even though the undersea cable project will be very costly,” he said.

So, what’s going on?  Was Peter Chin unaware of these two new dams in the peninsula – or was he simply having us on?

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Widow facing eviction dies after deadline expires

Anil Netto
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manimathuWhen I first met her last week, she reminded me of my dear late grandmother. She did not say much but wore a worried frown on her face (see photo).

Tonight, I received news that she had passed away just after 8.00pm on the way to the hospital, after complaining of pain in her back and hand. She had not been feeling well for some time.

Widow Santhosa Mary @ Manimathu, 74, lived among the tenant-villagers at the St Francis Xavier’s Church along Penang Road. They had been given a 31 May deadline to sign an agreement to vacate their homes. The Church, through its lawyers, wanted the villagers to accept RM10,000 in compensation and leave by 31 May 2010. If they failed to accept these terms, they had to leave by yesterday, Pentecost Sunday.

As the deadline to accept the terms approached, Manimathu grew anxious, according to one of the villagers.

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Pakatan savours victory in Penanti

Anil Netto
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LIVE: Penanti by-election polling day and results

Anil Netto
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Penanti: The moment of truth arrives

Anil Netto
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Photos by Anil Netto

These are scenes of Nizar at Penanti on Nomination Day and of a ceramah last night at the main Pas operations centre, as polling day approaches tomorrow. “Postal balloting” involving police personnel has already taken place.

In the PKR campaign, national issues have taken centre-stage, especially the Perak power grab and Najib’s role in it as well as his – apa nama – ‘political baggage’.

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Air of gloom as Church orders villagers to vacate land

Anil Netto
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st-francis-xavier-villagers-007

“Please help us”: Some of the villagers who are not sure what to do next – Photo by Anil Netto

Villagers in a dozen households next to the St Francis Xavier’s Church face uncertainty after receiving three letters over the last year from lawyers acting on behalf of the Catholic Church in Penang.

The residents had been ordered to vacate their premises by 31 May 2009 (which happens to be Pentecost Sunday, marking the coming of the Holy Spirit). In the latest letter of 19 May 2009, they have been granted a second extension until 31 May 2010 on “humanitarian grounds”, provided they agree in writing to compensation of RM10,000. If not, they have to vacate their homes by this Sunday.

The lawyer’s letter states the church can afford to provide only RM10,000 as it is a “non-profit religious institution”. Lay Catholics, however, are not in a position to judge whether the church can afford to pay more as its diocesan accounts are not made public to them as a matter of course.

Allow me to introduce you to some of the villagers the church wants to evict (see photo above, from left):

Augustin Martin, 82, raised at the nearby orphanage in the early 1930s. He was a church organist during World War II and worked as a driver for the Kee Huat company in his younger days. Occupant of house no. 52-E.

Arokiasamy Dass, 84, born here in 1925, former JKR tractor driver. His father arrived here around 1920 just before getting married. Occupant of house no. 52-H.

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