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Komtar trees hacked and chopped

Anil Netto
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Before: Majestic trees provide shade for weary pedestrians next to the concrete jungle that is Komtar Photo by a concerned George Town resident

After: Going, going… and gone before you know it

They just can’t stand the sight of any greenery.

This was the scene at 3.30pm today outside Komtar, where about half a dozen trees lay mutilated while around them a crane and a bull-dozer snorted and grunted.

From what I understand, even simple tree pruning – let alone hacking and chopping – requires prior approval from the Penang Municipal Council. And from what I hear, an application was received by the Council last week, but before it could be approved… well, you can see what has happened.

Can the council and the state government confirm if they had given approval for the tree-cutting at their door-step?

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A chicken thief and the Jimah power plant

Anil Netto
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I suppose the story of a chcken thief who couldn’t recognise a chicken in court as the one he was alleged to have stolen was meant to provide some comic relief in the The Star. You are meant to chuckle or laugh when you read it.

But read the report more carefully and you will see that the accused had to support his family on RM25 a day. That’s about RM750/month, putting the household on the threshold of the official poverty line. Nothing to laugh about there. And he gets three months jail for stealing a chicken.

Now we shouldn’t condone even petty theft.

But we all know how difficult it is for any household to survive on less than RM1,500/month or even more, let alone RM750.

How about poverty in a land of plenty? Do we condone that?

My question now: what is the penalty for those who are now allowing TNB to bleed RM500 million in “capacity charges” over the next eight months by allowing an IPP to operate a power plant (Jimah) to provide electricity that the country doesn’t need? The Jimah plant, which will be operational in January, will raise the country’s power reserve margin to 45 per cent. The CEO of TNB says the country doesn’t need the power and can do without it. Who will profit from the Jimah power plant?

Will anyone be hauled up to account for this?

The Star

Friday December 12, 2008
Chicken thief couldn’t recognise bird

IPOH: A man who admitted to stealing a chicken got amused looks in a magistrate’s court here when he could not recognise the same bird brought to him for identification.

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Hill-slope projects: Contrasting positions of S’gor and Pg

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Compare and contrast the Selangor and Penang governments’ contrasting stands on hill-slope development. Both of them are under Pakatan rule, but look at the difference in their positions. You tell me which sounds more principled…

The Penang government’s position from the Malaysian Insider:

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Penang’s Chief Minister wants the federal government to set up a geotechnical engineering unit under the Public Works Department to ensure the safety of all hillside developments.

In light of the latest landslide incident in Bukit Antarabangsa which killed four people, Lim Guan Eng said Malaysia should learn from the painful experience and emulate Hong Kong, where 80 per cent of the buildings sit on slopes.

Says one long-time Penang resident:

A good reflection of where this DAP government stands with regard to hill-slope development. Very business friendly….

Lim Guan Eng knows full well that the Federal Govt will NOT implement such a suggestion. But he makes it anyway so he looks good, like he cares but in effect, he does not. Because, if he really cared (for public safety), instead of taking care of business interests, he would have called for a full moratorium or stop on hill development in Penang.

This perception is by no means an isolated one among those concerned about the environment in Penang. The following is a comment from another long-time resident of Penang, a foreigner who “is saddened by the destruction of Penang’s once beautiful north coast, where Moonlight Bay has become ‘Moonscape Bay’ and a disaster waiting to happen.”

I never thought I would see it but awareness and sentiment finally seem to be moving against the madness of clearing and building on dangerous hill slopes.  It is a pity though that Penang is still far behind Selangor in taking the necessary measures to prevent further tragedy and environmental degradation.  Selangor Exco member Elizabeth Wong’s article “Bitter vindication” in theSun 10 December p.16 should be read and disseminated widely. The issue really is one of putting “people” ahead of “profits.”

This is theSun report he was referring to:

Bitter vindication
by Elizabeth Wong

ONE of the earliest policy decisions by the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor government was to throw out any housing and building applications for Class 3 and Class 4 hillslopes to preserve environmentally sensitive areas and prevent landslides. This was decided at an executive council meeting on April 2.

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Jerit cyclists asked to fill up forms meant for “gangs”

Anil Netto
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1417: Jerit northern team cyclists have been harassed twice today. The first time was near Sungai Siput when the cyclists were stopped and all their particulars taken down.

Barely 5km away from the Sungai Siput road block, they were also stopped a second time at Kantan New Village, where Ipoh and Kinta District police were also present. This time the police wanted about 40 different particulars from each cyclist such as height, weight and “previous gang”.

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44 Jerit cyclists being taken to KK police station

Anil Netto
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1310: Jerit’s nothern cyclist team, 44 cyclists in all, are being taken to the Kuala Kangar police station. The police  want the ICs of the young cyclists, according to one of the organisers. Organisers, however, are not handing over the ICs as they are afraid that the parents of the youths will be harassed. The organisers have offered their own ICs instead.

This is the third time today the bus from Kamunting to Sungai Siput has been stopped. The first time was when the bus was stopped and officers wanted to inspect the driver’s permit.

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The PJ vigils go on regardless…

Anil Netto
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Lighting up for the cause of justice Photos by Rakyat@work

Hope for the future

Rest for weary legs

Rakyat@work reports on the ninth PJ vigil on Sunday, 7 December 2008:

I cannot imagine we are now into our ninth weekly Sunday vigil. It’s something most of us are learning to adjust and get accustomed to it. A friend just called to find out if we are going for the vigil because the weather looks like it’s taking a turn for the worse and we might be better off relaxing indoors than standing in an open car park. But wait! We have braved even the FRU before; how is a little rain gonna stop our cause? Nope, we must continue; after all, it’s not just about ourselves but about others too, right? So come rain, shine, storm, FRU, and what-have-you, here we are again …

Just a handful of us, about 15 so far. Well, it doesn’t matter; the show will go on regardless. It’s a good chance to getting acquainted with familiar faces. Suddenly, groups of people just turn up and within ten minutes, there are about a hundred of us! You begin to lose focus on decent one-to-one conversations as people appear from every direction and greet you. Oh, better get out of here – better start work – journalist ma?

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A new Freedom Ride cycling team reaches Kamunting

Anil Netto
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Mission accomplished with a candlelight vigil last night outside the Kamunting Detention Centre: Yin, Joseph, Meng and Michael. Their colleague and photographer, Jorge, is not in the pic. The camera flashes alerted the officers on duty, who came out to have a look. (Note: This cycling team is  not part of the Jerit cycling team.)

Ready to roll on the Freedom Ride

First it was candle-mania; now it’s cycle-mania

One of the cyclists, Michael, sent in this report at 4.00am today:

It’s been a very tiring and hectic two days (Saturday and Sunday) for me especially today as I had to reach Kamunting, do the candlelight vigil last night and still catch the 9.00pm bus back to KL. It was a great feeling having been able to achieve what we set out to do.

We started out from Klang on Saturday, 6 Dec at 8.00am from a bak kut teh shop, no less. Besides the five of us, two more friends rode with us to Sabak Bernam (110km) where we stopped for the first night. The next morning, the five of us started at 8.00am and, with only a few stops for lunch and quick breaks, we rode all the way to Taiping (160km away), reaching the town just before 7.00pm. (Coincentally, the southbound Jerit cycling team were spending last night in Taiping and Bagan Serai.)

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The exuberant Simon Bolivar youth orchestra lets rip

Anil Netto
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Performing at the BBC Proms 2007 (Thanks to John Hilley for highlighting this)

This is the product of El Sistema, Venezuela’s music education programme pioneered by economist and musician José Antonio Abreu in 1975. According to a UK Telegraph report, the programme offers every interested child, no matter how poor, an instrument and free tuition. Some 250,000 children are participating in the programme. El Sistema general manager Javier Moreno was quoted as saying: “We’re interested in creating citizens with all the values they need to exist in society – responsibility, teamwork, respect, cooperation and work ethic.”

If only we had a Malaysian equivalent – comprising the youths of all ethnic groups and classes (rich and poor) from Perlis to Sabah – playing a fusion of Malaysian music with similar exhuberance. Wouldn’t that be more culturally authentic – and more affordable – than the big-budget Petronas “Malaysian” Philharmonic Orchestra, which comprises highly paid expats performing before mainly well-heeled audiences?

This is how The Telegraph describes the BBC Proms of 2007:

It was a night that anyone who was there will never forget.

The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra prom
Fiesta time as the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra lets rip

Yes, the Proms are renowned for their party atmosphere, particularly on the Last Night, but that’s from the audience. At the concert by the astonishing Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, it was the performers who let rip in what must have been the most joyful Proms performance ever.

The high jinks started at the end of the scheduled concert when they produced from nowhere jackets in the national colours to replace their immaculate suits. To cheering and stamping from the audience, they performed three increasingly wild encores.

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Eight Jerit cycles torched; Riot police in Bagan Serai

Anil Netto
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Someone doesn’t like the Jerit cyclists Photo by the Jerit crew (More pictures here)

The Jerit cyclists continue to be hit by one obstacle after another.

In a pre-dawn incident today, unknown arsonist(s) torched eight of the Jerit bikes in Penanti on mainland Penang, where the cycling team were spending the night. Three of the cycles were badly damaged.

The four dozen cyclists were not to be deterred and continued their journey south.

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The glass wall that separates the rich from the poor

Anil Netto
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The glass facade of George Town’s premier business hotel, Traders Hotel (formerly Shangri-la Hotel), where Jerit cyclists were to hand over their memo to Guan Eng at 1.30pm

Pakatan leaders were inside attending a conference to outline their “New economic vision for Penang and Malaysia”.  US multinational electronics corporation, Agilent Technologies, and the Shangri La hotels chain were the sponsors of the event, to which participants had to pay RM250/person to attend. Ironically, the session scheduled just before lunchtime was “Getting the politics right to enable sustainable economic growth that is socially just.”

But nobody cared to ask the workers and representatives of marginalised communities outside what they thought of this vision. Instead, the front door of the hotel was locked while hotel management and security looked concerned. Not that the Jerit cyclists were desperate to get in. All they wanted to do was hand over their memo and leave. Still, it would have been a great gesture if the Pakatan reps inside had invited the cyclists and activists in to listen to the aspirations and hopes of workers and marginalised groups. The Pakatan folks would have been seen as pro-people.

As it stands, the Pakatan leaders in general look increasingly pro-market, pro-investor and pro-business while lowly paid workers, who are struggling to make ends meet, do not seem to figure very highly on their list of priorities.

Jerit cyclists peering through the glass to see how the rich wine and dine: The poor in Malaysia can only dream of the lavish life-styles of the upper middle-class and the rich.

The rich top 10 per cent of the population earn 22 times what the bottom 10 per cent earn, making Malaysia one of the most unequal societies in East Asia in terms of income disparities. The Jerit campaigners and the Malaysian Trades Union Congress have been calling for a decent minimum wage in the country that would enable workers to live in dignity. A minimum wage would also help the economy as it would give the public, especially workers, greater purchasing power.

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