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Guan Eng under pressure to stop hill-slope projects

Anil Netto
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pearlhilltwnhses

Pearlhill Townhouses perched precariously on a steep hill-slope: Plans were approved for development on the slopes directly below

Penang residents, especially those along the northern coastline, continue to worry about projects on steep hill-slopes. I received the following from a blog reader, who also included a well-reasoned and articulate letter to the Penang Chief Minister from the Management Committee of Mt Evergreen Phase 1 (reproduced further below).

We are owners and residents of a string of four blocks of 87 apartment units perched on the side of Pearl Hill, Penang. About a year ago the previous State government approved the building of apartment blocks right below our properties. This part of Pearl Hill has slopes categorised as class 3, that is, more than 25 degrees with some localised sections in excess of 35 degrees.

The proposed development will cut away two-thirds of the trees. Blasting is bound to be undertaken, as huge rocks – some as big as cars – are evident in the landscape of the hill. Cracks have appeared both on the public road serving our residences as well as on our walls, indicating possible potential slope failure.

We wrote the following letter to YAB Lim Guan Eng, the Chief Minister of Penang soon after the Bukit Antarabangsa tragedy. We want the approval withdrawn. We cannot risk having the development proceed, even if the building work is to be monitored for the reasons given in our letter to the Chief Minister of Penang, reproduced below.

YAB Lim Guan Eng

Chief Minister of Penang

13 December 2008

Dear Sir

Development on Hill Slopes

As all Malaysians, we were horrified to hear of the recent landslide at Bukit Antarabangsa, and dismayed that, so many years after Highland Towers, these loss of precious lives and properties continue. It is all the more lamentable because they could have been avoided.

We read with interest and concern the recent press statements you made in response to the tragedy. Concern because you seemed to have made light of the Prime Minister’s call for a stop to development on slopes. Politics aside, we had been heartened by it, and though we reserve our cynicism that things will not change, his statement seemed to us a national clarion call to reason.

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The storm reaches our shores…

Anil Netto
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The storm has reached our shores.

In Kedah, 1,429 workers from 17 factories have been “temporarily” laid off.

In Kuching, 1,500 workers have been retrenched as Western Digital shuts its plant in March. About 60 per cent of these workers are reportedly married with children. The job losses account for 15 per cent of the 10,000 workers in the electronics sector in Sarawak.

Another 3,250 workers around the country, mainly from the electronics sector, are expected to be retrenched by over 130 employers in the next three months. And that’s just the official estimate.

Earlier in June, 1,600 workers in Nikko Electronics on mainland Penang lost their jobs when the company said it was unable to continue operations. They received a pittance in compensation.

Can you imagine what it will be like when we feel the full impact of the storm next year? Are we really prepared? Will we also come up with measures to make our economy more sustainable and socially just? It’s also time we put in place a comprehensive safety net (a national retrenchment fund) and begin re-training workers with skills to become self-employed. Unfortunately, this would require federal initiatives or funding, and that could be too little, too late.

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Klang Sentral: Make concession agreement public

Anil Netto
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A storm is blowing over Pakatan Rakyat in Selangor and the mainstream media are going to town over it.

One of the issues that was bound to crop up sooner or later revolves around the Pakatan Rakyat leaders’ relationship with the the business community including developers. PR representatives need to keep the business community at arm’s length to protect the interests of the public. It cannot always be a “win-win” situation. Sometimes, PR leaders have to choose whose interests they want to protect and uphold – vested business interests or the people’s interests (e.g. workers’ rights, public safety and environmental protection). For instance, PR leaders need to respond decisively to the people’s demands for a ban on all steep hill-slope development.

The other issue is whether CAT is really being put into practice – or is it just a slogan? For instance, why haven’t Pakatan leaders declared their assets publicly? Pakatan reps were elected to power in five states because people felt they would be  different from the BN folks. The non-declaration of assets so far is a major letdown.

I made a quick call to economist Charles Santiago, the DAP MP for Klang and one of the more principled politicians in Pakatan, to find out what was going on with the move of the main bus station to Klang Sentral, about 15 minutes away.

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Israeli air attack slaughters over 200 in Gaza

Anil Netto
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palestineAn Israeli air attack on Gaza, which has massacred over 200 people including women and children, has been portrayed by the global media as a “retaliation” for the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza (map source: Wikipedia). The Israeli air-strike comes at a time when Israeli politicians are campaigning for a general election.

Three key points that have not been highlighted in the corporate media:

  • It was the Israelis who broke the truce, as the Israeli peace movement Gush Shalom points out.
  • The rocket attacks from Gaza onto Israeli territory have not killed or injured a single Israeli, reports Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada.
  • Gaza has been under a terrible and suffocating Israeli siege, which has caused immense suffering among the entire 1.5 million population. “Israel has not only banned food and medicine to sustain Palestinian bodies in Gaza but it is also intent on starving minds: due to the blockade, there is not even ink, paper and glue to print textbooks for schoolchildren,” says Ali Abunimah. It is vicious collective punishment.

According to the reknown Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery, peace between Israel and Palestine is not impossible to achieve. The terms of such a peace settlement would include:

  • A sovereign and viable state of Palestine to be established side by side with Israel.
  • The border based on the pre-1967 Armistice Line (the “Green Line”). Insubstantial alterations by mutual agreement on an exchange of territories on a 1:1 basis.
  • East Jerusalem and all Arab neighborhoods as the capital of Palestine. West Jerusalem and all Jewish neighborhoods as the capital of Israel.
  • All Israeli settlements will be evacuated
  • Israel will recognise in principle the right of the refugees to return. … The number of refugees who will return to Israeli territory will be fixed by mutual agreement, it being understood that nothing will be done that materially alters the demographic composition of the Israeli population.
  • The West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip constitute one national unit. An extraterritorial connection (road, railway, tunnel or bridge) will connect the West Bank with the Gaza Strip.
  • Israel and Syria will sign a peace agreement. Israel will withdraw to the pre-1967 line and all settlements on the Golan Heights will be dismantled. Syria will cease all anti-Israeli activities conducted directly or by proxy.
  • In accordance with the Saudi Peace Initiative, all member states of the Arab League will recognise Israel and establish normal relations with it. …

First the article by Gush Shalom, the Israeli peace group:

Saturday 27/12/08
The war in Gaza – vicious folly of a bankrupt government (and Amos Oz will soon regret having supported it)

The war in Gaza, the bloodshed, killing, destruction and suffering on both sides of the border, are the vicious folly of a bankrupt government. A government which let itself be dragged by adventurous officers and cheap nationalist demagoguery, dragged into a destructive and unnecessary war which will bring no solution to any problem – neither to the communities of southern Israel under the rain of missiles nor to the terrible poverty and suffering of besieged Gaza. On the day after the war the same problems will remain – with the addition of many bereaved families, wounded people crippled for life, and piles of rubble and destruction.

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How about helping the poor at home first, Najib?

Anil Netto
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According to Najib, the government is willing to help Malays advance in other countries where they are a minority.

He said this when opening the the Malay World Muslim World (DMDI) forum’s ninth convention on 23 December, reports Malaysiakini.

The deputy premier said ethnic Malays in the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Cambodia, South Africa and southern Thailand could be assisted.

What would have been the reaction if the deputy premier of India and the vice premier of China had offered to help the ethnic Indians and ethnic Chinese respectively in the various countries of South-East Asia? Wouldn’t the governments of this region have asked them to butt out, citing foreign interference in domestic affairs?

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Gov’t must account for premium on pump price

Anil Netto
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The global crude oil price is now US$36 barrel. In contrast, the local pump price is still relatively high at RM1.80/litre – despite a fifth reduction in price on 15 December since a 41 per cent hike in June.

It’s obvious that the pump price is now higher than the real market price; in other words, the higher price is a form of consumer tax (as opposed to a subsidy previously). Now, it is the government’s prerogative if it wants to impose this kind of tax.

But what is it going to do with this surplus?

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“It never happened. Nothing ever happened”

Anil Netto
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haroldpinter

It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It’s a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.
– Harold Pinter, Nobel Prize winner for Literature, 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Harold Pinter, who passed away on Christmas Eve, was well known for his plays. But the corporate media have downplayed his role as one of the most prominent opponents of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003.

His words on how politicians and the mainstream media often try to blank out monumental or historic events from the public consciousness  have relevance for us in Malaysia, where official news reports are often at sharp odds with what really happened.  Politicians, he observed, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. “To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives.”

“Sometimes,” he asserted,  “a writer has to smash the mirror – for it is on the other side of that mirror that the truth stares at us.”

This was Pinter’s Nobel lecture:

Art, Truth & Politics

In 1958 I wrote the following:

‘There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.’

I believe that these assertions still make sense and do still apply to the exploration of reality through art. So as a writer I stand by them but as a citizen I cannot. As a citizen I must ask: What is true? What is false?

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Palestinian Christians face eviction from Bethlehem

Anil Netto
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2

As we remember the birth of Jesus, it may have escaped our notice that the little town of Bethlehem, his birthplace which lies in Palestinian territory, is now cut off by a 4-metre high Israeli security wall on three sides.

Palestinian Christians also have to contend with demolition and eviction orders issued by Israeli occupation forces.

Over in the Gaza strip, which is now under an Israeli siege, many Palestinian Christians have been denied access to Bethlehem even as the town welcomes foreign tourists.

This report from Al Jazeera:

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So this is Christmas – when they have to guard the milk…

Anil Netto
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22

guard

A supermarket security guard keeping an eye at the milk aisle – Photo by Ganesh

At Christmas, we recall the birth of Jesus in the midst of poverty and oppression. As we party and feast and make merry, it’s worth asking: did he have enough nourishing food as a baby bearing in mind that his parents were humble peasants struggling to make ends meet? Were they able to provide him with a balanced diet during his formative years?

Let’s spare a thought for workers, including factory operators earning RM600 to RM800 per month, who are finding it increasingly difficult to afford milk for their children. Recently, for instance, a woman complained to an activist that a portion of loose powdered milk  (it’s cheaper sold in bulk; not in tins) in a sundry shop along Penang Street frequented by those from the lower-income group  that used to cost RM7.50 before the petrol price hikes now costs RM10.50.

It’s not surprising that a certain supermarket chain has resorted to putting security tags around baby milk tins/packs. The tags are then removed by the cashier upon when the customer checks out.

Says blog reader pakshah:

If I was a desperate parent, I would be tempted to steal milk too. One pack of full cream milk powder ( 2 kg) costs RM 42. My youngest son consumes more than 4 kg (2 packs) per month. Add 4 tins cereal, it costs more than RM100 to feed him. My pension is only RM 1200.

Could an economic system that allows such a situation to persist be considered just?

Meanwhile, R Ganesh reports from KL:

The proposed privatisation of Institut Jantung Negara (IJN) appears to have not taken into much consideration the basic survival of the poor and the middle class. They would be hit if IJN becomes private. Already, many low-income folk are finding it difficult to cope with high food prices.

Many are now finding that their low wages are insufficient for them to live in dignity given the high cost of living and inflation. The threshold for survival for a family of four is probably in the region of RM2,000 to 3,000. But how many of us actually earn that amount of money?

With reference to your post on the Chicken Thief, what is rather shocking now is that when you go to certain supermarkets, you may now see a security guard in the milk aisle/dairy section. Previously, the guards would be keeping an eye on the liquor section.

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Who’s behind Sime Darby?

Anil Netto
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17

Of late Sime Darby has been very much in the news with its proposed – and then postponed – IJN takeover and now with a proposed new low-cost carrier airport in Negri Sembilan.

While many have questioned the economic feasibility and viability of a new airport so close to the present Kuala Lumpur International Airport, nothing much has been said about the environmental impact of having two large airports so close to each other (not to mention global warming).

So who exactly is behind Sime Darby? According to its 2008 Annual Report, its substantial shareholders are:

  • Skim Amanah Saham Bumiputera – 34%
  • EPF – 14%
  • PNB – 15%
  • Yayasan Pelaburan Bumiputera – 15% (deemed interest)

So basically we are talking about a government-linked corporation and groups managing public money here.

Sime Darby’s Board of Directors (again, according to its 2008 Annual Report) is made up of:

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