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30,000 gather to listen to PR top guns

Anil Netto
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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.

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Bala – before and after “fish-head curry”

Anil Netto
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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.

Bala left for fish-head curry in Brickfields: Americk

Anil Netto
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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.

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Balasubramaniam retracts statutory declaration

Anil Netto
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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.

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“Malicious lies,” says Najib, as temperature rises

Anil Netto
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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:

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Anwar: Najib knew Altantuya, alleges former cop

Anil Netto
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The stakes have just got higher. No, they have shot through the roof!

In a sensational development, Anwar has revealed that a former cop has come up with a statutory declaration implicating Najib and others in the Altantuya case. Former police officer-turned private eye, P Balasubramaniam claimed that it was Najib who introduced Altantuya to Abdul Razak Baginda at a diamond exhibition in Singapore and that the Mongolian woman was promised US$500,000 as commission for a submarine deal in Paris. Balasubramaniam was engaged by Baginda as a private investigator.

Click here for Anwar’s statement in full.

Click here for Balasubramaniam’s statutory declaration.

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Malaysia Today, Aliran websites attacked

Anil Netto
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The Malaysia Today website has been hacked and defaced. Now it’s simply not downloading as Raja Petra is having difficulty restoring it due to a poor Streamyx connection.

A couple of days ago, the Aliran website came under bombardment with close to 60,000 hits coming from two unknown IP addresses within the space of a few minutes. “The account was being attacked,” said the webhosting network security administrator. As a result, he temporarily disabled the website and and restored it hours later, after blocking those IPs.

On 19 June, Mahathir’s chedet.com website was “locked” because it was deemed to be a “suspected spam blog”. His webmaster was forced to change the domain name from www.chedet.com to test.chedet.com

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Where has all the tsunami money gone?

Anil Netto
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Still waiting for proper homes

Tanjung Bunga fisherfolk still waiting for proper homes

When the tsunami slammed into our shores, claiming scores of victims, many Malaysians donated generously in cash and in kind. But, four years later, a dozen fisherfolk in Tanjong Bunga, living in a “temporary” longhouse, are still waiting for alternative housing. Where has all the tsunami money gone, they wonder.

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Why is Petronas delaying release of financial results?

Anil Netto
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It’s already 2 July, and still no sign of Petronas’ results for the financial year ended 31 March 2008.

I hope the government or top management are not waiting for the big 6 July oil price hike protest to be over first.

In previous years, Petronas announced its financial results to the media by the end of June.

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Full text of Anwar’s police report against IGP and AG

Anil Netto
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Check out the full text of the police report here.

Anwar is alleging that a thorough police investigation had revealed much earlier (by Oct 1998) that the former police chief, Rahim Noor, was the one responsible for the assault on the ousted deputy premier.

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