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RPK meets Marina in Kamunting on his birthday

Anil Netto
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Marina was able to visit RPK on his birthday in Kamunting on Saturday, 27 September. Interesting that part of RPK’s rehabilitation (or is it punishment?!) involves reading the NST! 🙂

Here is another touching account of their encounter:

Happy 58th Birthday, Love

Yesterday, 27 September 2008 was Pet’s Birthday. My two daughters’ and I were allowed the scheduled visit to see Pet at Kamunting on his 58th birthday.

When we wished him Happy Birthday he had forgotten it was his birthday and we told him that we had brought along birthday cards hand-drawn by his two grandchildren, ages 5 and 6, one from Jia Wei age 7, one card signed by a few of his friends and also three books. We had to handover all the items with the prison authorities and they would only give it to him after inspection. I told him of the numerous emails, sms, calls, on the blogs and our sons in the UK also sent him Birthday wishes.

This visit was also face to face and so I was holding on to his hands all along.

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No more projects on steep hillslopes in Penang: MPPP

Anil Netto
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A small victory for People Power

The scary project

Some positive news from Chee Seng Garden in Tanjung Bunga, Penang, after the ‘miraculous’ flooding on hill-slopes (caused by hill-slope apartment/condo projects). The MPPP has said there will be no more projects on steep hillslopes. It’s a small victory of sorts for People Power over irresponsible developers.

A resident George Aeria sends us an update:

Since the floods on 6 September, we met up with the MPPP Engineering Dept directors and the developers on the 10th, but their response was pathetic. Thus, we, the residents, pushed for a meeting with the MPPP YDP and we finally got it on 20 September.

This meeting was a surprise to us as he acted as the role of residents’ champion and instructed all parties – both the developers, his MPPP Dept directors and all other government departments – to act responsibly and to resolve all issues at the housing estate. He even stated in the meeting that he would NOT approve any more hillslope developments above Class 4 slopes i.e. > 35 degrees.

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Over 60% of Gerakan members want to quit BN: Koh

Anil Netto
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Looks like Gerakan has some tough decisions to make, if they are to survive as a party. This is what Koh Tsu Koon says here:

“If you go on sentiments alone, I would say more than 60% (want us to leave), but we are taking a lot of factors into consideration, and a decision cannot be based just on sentiments.

I believe one of the factors is the Gerakan reps with positions in government will probably lose their positions if they pull out.

The choice for the party is simple: either return to its roots and embrace the reform agenda whole-heartedly (can it really do that within the Barisan and with the current party leadership?) or lose more and more of their members and disappear into oblivion.

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2,000 in peaceful Abolish ISA protest in KL

Anil Netto
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Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes yesterday. Lots of candles around – ‘cept they were not on my birthday cake. Some 2,000 Malaysians, many holding up candles to dispel the darkness of our times, gathered last night in KL calling for the release of RPK, the Hindraf Five and other ISA detainees.

That’s an amazing turnout! Full report, pictures and video clips by DeadAlienX here.

(Listen to RPK speak days before his arrest. The BBC interviews him here. If you would like to send an email to your favourite politician(s) calling on him/them to release all ISA detainees, click here for details.)

The event was organised by two different groups: Hindraf and a coalition of NGOs led by the Writers Alliance for Media Independence. As the original venue Dataran Merdeka was cordoned off by police, the vigil turned into a peaceful march to the Kortumalar Pillayar Temple, opposite Puduraya.

The whole event last about an hour. If you were there, do send in your citizen journalist eye-witness impressions.

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Early dawn scare for Teresa’s family

Anil Netto
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Teresa Kok with parents and party supporters at a press conference this afternoon following a molotov cocktail scare at her parents’ home at 2.55am today (Photo credit: M Soon) The molotov cocktail failed to explode and no one was hurt. But a sheet of paper on which was written a threat and vulgar words was found.

300 attend Abolish ISA vigil; Film fest opens in Penang

Anil Netto
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Some 300 people turned up for an Abolish ISA candlelight vigil in Penang last night (Photos by Amiruddin, Wartawan Rasmi Laman Reformasi)


John Pilger’s award-winning War on Democracy, which was screened at the opening of the Freedom Film Fest in Penang last night

Just a couple of updates on what’s been happening around Penang:

But before that, a Molotov cocktail was reportedly hurled into Teresa Kok’s parents’ house at 2.55am today. Thankfully, they failed to explode and no one was hurt.

Last night, some 300 people attended an Abolish ISA candlelight vigil in front of Dewan Sri Pinang for the third Friday night in a row. More pictures by Amiruddin here.

I wasn’t there as I was at the Wawasan Open University attending the Freedom Film Fest (see below). From what I hear, those who attended the candlelight vigil wrote dozens of greeting cards to the detainees in Kamunting. Many wanted to send cards to Raja Petra. Organisers pointed out there are 65 other detainees in Kamunting who would be happy to receive cards as well, so some in the crowd said, okay, we will write one card to Raja Petra and a second one to another detainee! RPK sure has some ardent readers. Speaking of which, I just discovered this morning that I share the same birthday as Raja Petra… which is nice 🙂 Many happy returns, Raja Petra!

Some good soul has come up with an easy way for you to send a protest email to your ‘favourite’ politician for detaining RPK and others under the ISA. Click here.

Meanwhile, the Abolish ISA Movement (GMI) also organised a peaceful demonstration at Masjid Jamek in Kuala Lumpur at noon yesterday. Full report here. Check Haris Ibrahim’s and Susan Loone’s blogs for more initiatives against the ISA.

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Free films in Penang; candle-light vigil too

Anil Netto
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Quite a few things happening tonight.

Check out the Freedom Film Festival in Penang this weekend. It is organised by Komas and is being held at the Wawasan Open University from today until Sunday. The action has already begun… Details of films here. Choose what you like and come and support the festival.

You might also like to join in the Abolish ISA Movement’s candle-light vigil in front of Dewan Sri Pinang tonight from 9.30pm onwards.

Umno AGM put off to March; Abdullah to decide by 9 Oct

Anil Netto
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This seems to be a compromise to the transition plan – or is it the end of the transition plan? – under which Abdullah was supposed to hand over power to Najib in June 2010. But there was uncertainty over whether Abdullah would even get the 58 nominations he needs from the 191 party divisions to defend his presidency in December.

By putting off the general assembly, he gets to test the waters to see if he can secure those nominations; and if he can’t, he gets to stay on a little longer probably until March and hand over to Najib then. Najib too won’t be seen as power-hungry if he bides his time a little longer.

So will we see a Razaleigh vs Najib contest for the presidency? And where does Muhyiddin fit in? How will Najib, as finance minister, handle the economic slowdown in the coming months? Still a few critical questions hanging in the air. Meanwhile, Anwar is out there…

1229: Abdullah will decide his next move – whether to defend the presidency – by 9 October. He insists that he is not under any pressure to decide. But the pressure seems obvious.

1221: The Umno general assembly has been postponed from this December to March 2009 but the divisional elections will go on as scheduled from 9 October. So will Abdullah stand for the presidency or stand aside for Najib?

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More concern about wi-fi radiation

Anil Netto
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A concerned Penangite has just sent me this article from the Independent in the UK:

EU watchdog calls for urgent action on Wi-Fi radiation

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor
Sunday, 16 September 2007

Europe’s top environmental watchdog is calling for immediate action to reduce exposure to radiation from Wi-Fi, mobile phones and their masts. It suggests that delay could lead to a health crisis similar to those caused by asbestos, smoking and lead in petrol.

The warning, from the EU’s European Environment Agency (EEA) follows an international scientific review which concluded that safety limits set for the radiation are “thousands of times too lenient”, and an official British report last week which concluded that it could not rule out the development of cancers from using mobile phones.

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Anwar works behind the scenes … and waits

Anil Netto
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Let’s see what happens tomorrow at the emergency supreme council meeting. Umno seems to be facing a leadership crisis. The sand in the hourglass is emptying rapidly for Abdullah.

And all the while, Anwar is waiting and working behind the scenes. . Having missed two self-imposed deadlines, he appears to be adopting a different approach: keeping a lower profile, while waiting to spring a surprise. Here’s something I wrote today for Asia Times:

PENANG – Malaysia’s political opposition insists its plan to topple Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s government is still on track, as doubts emerge about the credibility of those claims after it missed two self-set deadlines for ushering in political change.

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