According to the latest household income survey, the following are the percentages of families in the various monthly household income brackets.
| Household monthly | Percentage | |
| income range | of families | |
| < RM 1000 | 8.6 | |
| RM 1001 – 2000 | 29.4 | |
| RM 2001 – 3000 | 19.8 | |
| RM 3001 – 4000 | 12.9 | |
| RM 4001 – 5000 | 8.6 | |
| RM 5001 – 10,000 | 15.8 | |
| > RM 10,000 | 4.9 | |
| 100.0 |
Following Unesco’s recognition of George Town and Malacca as world heritage sites, LW wrote these important words of caution, which I thought I should highlight:
I just hope, though, that this listing will actually bring about more context sensitive and local-culture-based modes of development in Penang and Melaka that are sustainable in the long term – not speculative and profiteering projects that will only earn quick cheap dollars from tourists but suck the life out of the cities.
Armenian Street in George Town, which has the largest collection of pre-war houses – over 12,000 in all – in South-East Asia. Photo credit: Wikipedia
The Stadhuys Square in Malacca Photo credit: Wikipedia
Rua das Flores (Flowers Street), the main street in Curitiba, Brazil, has been a pedestrian avenue since 1972. Penang Road and other streets of George Town could be turned into pedestrian malls, serviced by buses and trams. Photo credit: http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=377289
The historical Straits Settlement cities of George Town and Malacca have just been classified as Unesco World Heritage sites.
“The two towns constitute a unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia,” said the citation on the Unesco Heritage list website.
This comes as a major boost to the lack-lustre economies of these two states.
The new status is the result of a 11-year-long struggle. “It has been a touch and go affair until the last minute,” said heritage conservationist Loh-Lim Lin Lee, when contacted.
Today I was chatting with someone who owns a few stationery shops in Penang and I was told that “business is down” because prices have gone up. Later in the evening I chatted with the cashier at a petrol station and he told me that sales volume was down.
So it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we are in for some gloomy times ahead especially with a global economic slowdown expected in the second half of the year.
I culled the following from various analyst reports on Malaysia:
Malaysia Today is now accessible at this URL: http://202.75.62.194/
2245: Anwar has addressed the crowd of not more than 10,000 people, about 85-90 per cent Malay, mostly young people. He explained the political circumstances surrounding the sodomy allegations at this time, saying there was great fear among the BN that they could lose power.
Najib came under fire too and Anwar told the crowd they could see the DPM’s office if they had any problems.
He also maintained that he could reduce the price of oil. How exactly he would accomplish this, he didn’t say. Instead, he said he would reveal more details on the 15th. My source at the scene believes that, from the hints he got from Anwar’s address, this could involve plugging leakages of funds. The event has now drawn to a close, thankfully without any major incident. Malaysians have once again asserted their right to freedom of expression and to freedom of assembly.
2200: Charles Santiago in the stadium reports that the crowd has now swelled to 10,000 as Kit Siang address the crowd.
2105: About 7,000 people are in the stadium now as the main speakers start arriving one by one.
2042: The stadium and the field are filling up. People are still arriving. The roads to the stadium are jammed.
1947: Malaysiakini reports that sections of the crowd were unhappy with a couple of the performances by two different rock bands. A member of one of the bands had shown his rear to the crowd; it was unclear if he had boxer shorts on. A mob rained projectiles on them, mostly water bottles. Earlier, about 700 Pas Amal members pulled out in protest at another rock band performance. That could partly explain the traffic jams later.
A large crowd has gathered in Seberang Jaya on mainland Penang tonight for a ceramah by Pakatan Rakyat leaders, according to a source.
Anwar and Guan Eng have been speaking. Among the hot topics are Najib as well as the issue of selective prosecution.
The ceramah comes on the eve of a scheduled protest against oil price hikes in KL. The speakers have been telling people to show up in KL. They are saying it’s the “last opportunity to tell AAB it’s time to wrap up and go,” says my source at the scene.
Photo credit: China Press
Bala (left) when making the first SD
Bala (right) when making the second SD
Remind me to avoid fish-head curry in Brickfields.
Bala and family have now gone missing and are out of contact, says his worried nephew, who has lodged a police report. Meanwhile, Najib has denied any involvement in Bala’s retraction of his first SD. “I have no knowledge of anything,” said the deputy premier.
He had friendly phone chat with ASP who wanted to congratulate him for first SD, says lawyer
(Press statements by Americk and Sivarasah)
At a press conference now going on at 5.30pm, P Balasubramaniam’s lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu has cast doubt on the private eye’s second statutory declaration.
After spending hours with Bala taking notes of his testimony previously and being familiar with his character, Americk said, “I am very sceptical that he has signed the second statutory declaration of his own free will and I am convinced he has been intimidated to do so by either threats or promises, as I can think of no other reason.”
He said Bala had signed the first declaration in front of a commissioner of oaths – someone whom Bala recognised as having grown up in the same Slim River neighbourhood as himself – on his own free will.
“I am therefore extremely surprised that Mr. Bala, in the space of 24 hours, has engaged the services of another lawyer and affirmed another statutory declaration swearing the first one was untrue and that he was forced to sign it,” said Americk.
The last Americk saw Bala was in Americk’s office after the press conference. Bala said the police were trying to contact him over the phone. Americk then told Bala to talk to them since they were trying to reach him.
Hmm… what is going on here?
The PI, Balasubramaniam, wants to retract his statutory declaration yesterday and has come up with a new one. The address of the commissioner of oaths who witnessed the new declaration is reportedly the same as that of a legal firm owned by the brother of the Federal Territory Minister.
Was busy today rushing out an article for Asia Times (see below).
In the meantime, as Mustafa has pointed out here, the mainstream media online have been very… apa nama … “shy” in reporting Anwar’s and Balasubramaniam’s allegations – until Najib came out with his denial. Funny, they didn’t display the same reticence when reporting Saiful’s allegation on Sunday morning. I noticed on the front page of the Sunday Star that Anwar was said to be “fighting for his political credibility” in the wake of Saiful’s report. I wonder if they will say the same thing of Najib now.
Najib has now dismissed all the allegations as “malicious lies”. He maintains he has never met the woman and Anwar is trying to divert attention from the sodomy allegations. See the NST here. Najib seems keen to lob the “ball” back to the sodomy allegations.
Where is all this leading to? Taking a step back and looking at the larger picture, I believe this high-stakes “tennis match” (lob and counter-lob) symbolises the battle between the new political order and the old, the tsunami vs the hegemony. I don’t think it is a healthy development though, for politics to be so personalised. The tsunami movement for reforms and change is too broad-based to be focused on individuals at the apex slugging it out for their political survival – but there you go.
Anyway, here’s the article I wrote: