VIDEO Nga Kor Ming at Kuala Sepatang PKR Dinner

GOOD ONE Taiping MP Nga Kor Ming at Kuala Sepatang PKR Dinner talks about the direction Pakatan Rakyat wants to lead the people. (Mandarin)





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Penang government urged to get ready to manage new hill funicular train

November 06, 2010

GEORGE TOWN, Nov 6 — The new Penang Hill funicular train will be handed over to be managed by the DAP state government once it is ready by the end of the year.

Minister of Tourism Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen said the RM68.8 million Tourism Ministry project to upgrade the train service is due for completion by the end of the year.

“Upon the completion of the project, we will hand over the project to the state government through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU),” she told reporters after a soft-launch ceremony to unveil the service’s new Swiss-made coaches here today.

“It should be a self-sustainable project once it is completed and we hope that the state government will be able to take full responsibility on all the post-project maintenance, services and financing,” Ng (picture) added.

On February 22, the 87-year-old funicular train service ceased operations to make way for the upgrading project by the ministry.

The new air-conditioned coaches, which can carry 50 people each, will travel non-stop between the foot of the hill and the station at the summit of Penang Hill under the upgraded system, unlike the old system where passengers had to change trains at a middle station.

Meanwhile, Ng also urged the state government to be more active and work closely with the federal government in developing the tourism sector as the state’s tourist arrivals for last year lagged behind Malacca.

She said the state had great potential to become one of the top tourist destinations as there were 191 international flights weekly.

“The state government should not rely too much on the federal government to provide more allocations to the state as RM143.4 million was allocated under the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

She added that Penang only recorded a total of 5.5 million tourist arrivals in 2009 compared with Malacca which had 8.9 million. — Bernama

Selangor seeks arbitration over water assets valuation

By Yow Hong Chieh

November 06, 2010

Santiago says there is a need to bring in a body, maybe from outside the country, to arbitrate. — File pic

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 — Shah Alam is looking at arbitration to help assess the value of Selangor’s water assets to overcome a deadlock with Putrajaya, said Klang MP Charles Santiago.

Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has valued the state water assets at RM10.98 billion while the federal government insists it is only worth RM1 billion.

Disagreement over how much the water infrastructure is worth has crippled negotiations, with the Minister for Energy, Green Technology and Water Datuk Seri Peter Chin recently alleging that Khalid’s “unreasonable” figure appeared to be an attempt to sabotage ongoing talks.

Santiago, who is a member of the Selangor water review panel, said it might be necessary to resort to outside help because it was difficult to find a neutral local party to judge the matter.

“Everybody in Malaysia has taken sides already,” he told The Malaysian Insider.

“Therefore you need a body, maybe from outside the country, to arbitrate the process. It has to be someone from outside the country because right now it’s very cloudy.”

He said, however, that these third parties must be familiar with the water industry as they would then be able to come up with a more accurate assessment of Selangor’s water assets and explain the “huge difference” between federal and state valuations.

The Selangor government is currently considering bringing in water operators from Thailand, Indonesia or the Netherlands to help with this task, Santiago added.

He urged Chin to resolve the federal-state dispute through an “arbitration mechanism” as that was the only way to reach a fair settlement.

At the same time, the Selangor DAP vice-president defended the state government’s valuation, which he said had been arrived at with the help of former engineers with the Selangor Water Supply Department (JBAS).

“They (engineers) did the planning for Selangor and also they did the building of some of the dams and some of the plants. They have procured money for these projects... so they know the water infrastructure very intimately,” he said.

Santiago added that the “30 to 40 years” of experience JBAS engineers brought to the table were more accurate compared to consultants brought in by the Water Asset Management Company (PAAB), who looked only at the “paper value”.

Selangor’s water players — Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas), Puncak Niaga Sdn Bhd (PNSB), Syarikat Pengeluaran Air Sungai Selangor Sdn Bhd (Splash) and Konsortium ABASS — are at risk of debt payment default as water bonds approach their December 31 maturity date.

The looming debt service problem started when Syabas was barred from implementing a 37 per cent tariff hike agreed upon in January 2009, after the Selangor government claimed the sole water distributor had not done enough to reduce leakages which cost the state millions.

This in turn led to payment problems between Syabas and water treatment concessionaires PNSB, Splash and Konsortium ABASS, who supply it with treated water.

All four term loan borrowers are already in technical default following their inability to maintain six months’ worth of reserves in a special account used to pay bondholders. The shortfall is understood to be some RM50 million, although this deficit could double in six months.

In an interview with The Malaysian Insider earlier this week, Chin said Putrajaya might consider bailing out water bondholders via a bond swap if no headway is made soon.

He said swapping existing bonds with triple-A government-backed ones was one option on the table to buy stakeholders more time as state and federal governments try to break the current impasse.

However, Chin warned that PAAB could not raise bonds worth RM10.98 billion as that would lead to “rocketing” tariff hikes and said the wholly-owned Ministry of Finance Inc company was only willing to offer RM1.1 billion for Selangor’s water assets.

Aidiladha on Nov 17

Muslims in Malaysia will celebrate Hari Raya Korban or Aidiladha on Nov 17, or 10 Zulhijjah, 1431 Hijrah.

The Keeper of the Rulers' Seal Tan Sri Engku Ibrahim Engku Ngah announced the Aidiladha date today on the order of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin upon consent of the Malay Rulers.

The announcement was made over radio and television.

-- Bernama

See What Barisan Nasional Gotta Say?

Mengapa PAS kalah di Galas

Punca PAS kalah di Galas secara mudah boleh difahami daripada prestasi undi yang raih antara dua pilihan raya, iaitu daripada pilihan raya umum 208 kepada pilihan raya kecil 2010. Jadual 1 berikut menunjukkan PAS berkurang undi hanya 265 undi sahaja.

Wan Nik Wan Yussof, Harakahdaily

Pilihan raya kecil (PRK) N.45 Galas sudah berlaku pada 4 November lalu. Kekosongan kerusi yang berlaku sejak 27 September 2010 sudah diisi oleh seorang wakil rakyat dari Barisan Nasional (BN). Proses pengisiannya berlaku melalui pengundian yang tidak menyebelahi PAS. Kesannya membawa kemerosotan pencapaian PAS yang lebih teruk daripada pilihan raya kecil Manek Urai pada Julai 2009 yang lalu. Ia juga suatu gambaran penggunaan secara salah jentera Kerajaan Pusat di Galas yang mungkin bakal merebak dalam pilihan raya umum ke-13 nanti. Justeru itu, PAS yang mengawal sebuah ‘kerajaan kecil’ di Negeri menerima kekalahan di Galas. Mungkinkah ini punca sebenar kekalahan PAS dan Pakatan Rakyat di Galas?

Punca PAS kalah

Banyak jawapan yang boleh diberi oleh jentera kempen PAS semasa post-mortem bagi merasionalisasikan punca PAS kalah di Galas. Namun latar belakang punca kekalahan PAS pada asasnya perlu dilihat dahulu aspek kekuatan sebenar PAS di Galas. Pencapaian PAS tahun 1999 dan 2004 antara ukurannya.

Pada dua pilihan raya itu, kekuatan PAS hanya sekitar 36 peratus sahaja. Sedangkan pada pilihan raya umum 2008 PAS mencapai kemenangan pada paras 54 peratus. Berlaku penambahan peratus sokongan kepada PAS sebanyak 18 peratus. Apakah punca kemenangan itu?

Banyak pihak bersetuju, ia berlaku atas faktor calon sebagai peribadi yang mewakili PAS pada pilihan raya umum 2008 itu. Tokohnya ialah Arwah Che Hashim, seorang yang popular berkhidmat kepada rakyat dan diterima baik oleh semua pihak termasuk masyarakat Cina dan Orang Asli. Khidmatnya bermula sebaik sahaja beliau kalah dalam pilihan raya umm 2004. Maka tidak harianlah beliau berupaya menang ‘terkejut’ apabila mengalahkan penyandang wakil rakyat Galas ketika itu, Saufi Deraman.

Namun kemenangan PAS pada 2008 itu bukan bergantung sepenuhnya kepada faktor calon. Malah suatu faktor yang lebih bersifat strategik ialah gerakan kepartian dan penyusunan gerak kerja pilihan raya PAS di Galas antara 2004 sehingga pilihan raya 2008. Di antaranya nilaian strategik yang berjaya dilakukan ialah pendaftaran pemilih baru kalangan warga Galas, termasuk yang berada di perantauan. Hasilnya, pihak PAS dikatakan berjaya mendaftar lebih 1,000 orang pengundi baru. Justeru undi PAS tahun 2004 (kira-kira 3,000 undi) dijadikan teras ukuran sokongan rakyat apabila dicampur dengan 1,000 pengundi baru, maka logiknya PAS mencapai 4,000 undi pada pilihan raya umum 2008. Natijahnya, PAS mencapai kemenangan di Galas pada 2008 adalah tepat pada angka sokongan sebanyak 4,399 undi atau pada undi popular 53.96 peratus (54 peratus). Sedangkan undi popular PAS pada 2004 hanya 36 peratus. Bermakna PAS berjaya mencapai lonjakan agak besar iaitu 18 peratus.

Sehubungan itu, sumbangan 1,000 pengundi baru yang berjaya didaftarkan sepanjang 2004-2008 itu adalah bernilai 22.73 peratus apabila dinisbahkan dengan undi yang dicapai 4,399 pada pilihan raya umum 2008. Namun, selepas 2008 didapati usaha mendaftar pengundi baru tidak berlaku secara baik. PAS dikatakan hanya berjaya mendaftar sekitar 500 orang sahaja. Sedangkan pihak BN dikatakan berjaya mendaftar kira-kira 1,000 pengundi baru. Maka secara matematiknya, pihak BN sudah berjaya menyeimbangkan nilai undi yang dicapai tahun 2008 yang hanya kalah sebanyak 646 undi pada 2008. Justeru itu, semasa pilihan raya kecil Galas ini kekuatan PAS dan BN berada pada paras 50:50 dan pihak BN hanya memerlukan sedikit tambahan undi ke arah meraih majoriti.

Di atas rasionalisasi strategik tersebut, adalah amat mudah bagi BN meraih tambahan undi. Pendekatan rasional BN tidak lain ialah dengan cara memfokuskan faktor kekuatan dan peluang bagi BN meraih sokongan undi tambahan. Faktor kekuatan BN adalah jentera Kerajaan Pusat dan peluang bagi BN ialah pengundi Orang Asli dan pengundi terapung kalangan orang Melayu dan Cina. Pilihan raya kecil Galas kali ini jelas menyaksikan nilai rasionalisasi BN berjaya menggunakan sepenuhnya kekuatan jentera Kerajaan Pusat sekali gus berupaya meraih tambahan undi baru kalangan Orang Asli dan pengundi terapung orang Melayu dan Cina. Logiknya, inilah punca kekalahan PAS.

Meskipun diketahui PAS turut berusaha melakukan pendekatan terbaik bagi memenangi hati Orang Asli dan sejumlah pengundi terapung. Apa yang jelas, jentera kempen PAS hanya berjaya mempertahankan jumlah undi yang dicapai pada 2008 sekitar 4,000 undi. Sedangkan pencapaian BN melebih 5,000 undi adalah disumbangkan oleh peningkatan undi di semua saluran mengundi.

Keputusan pilihan paya kecil (2010)

Walau bagaimanapun, pilihan raya kecil kali ini menyaksikan PAS mendapat 4,134 undi berbanding BN mendapat 5,324 undi. Maka BN ialah 1,190 undi. Pilihan raya kali ini pula menyaksikan 83 peratus atau 9,950 keluar mengundi dan 132 undi rosak.

Menariknya daripada trend pengundian kali ini ialah tingginya keluar mengundi seperti mana juga pilihan raya umum 2008. Hal ini juga mempunyai penilaian politik tersendiri dalam konteks menjawab kenapa PAS kalah pada pilihan raya kecil Galas kali ini. Antara yang jelas adalah penggunaan jentera Kerajaan Pusat, khasnya Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli Malaysia yang berjaya memunggah, mengumpul dan menjamu pengundi Orang Asli secara teratur sejak awal sebaik sahaja gendang pilihan raya dipalu.

Analisis mendapati jumlah keluar mengundi kelompok Orang Asli meningkat agak besar, 7.73 peratus, iaitu daripada 77.79 peratus (2008) kepada 85.52 peratus (2010). Sedangkan di semua peti undi bukan Orang Asli peningkatan agak kecil hanya 0.50 peratus, iaitu daripada 81.05 peratus (2008) kepada 81.55 peratus (2010). Menjadikan peningkatan keseluruhan keluar mengundi sebanyak 1.65 peratus, iaitu daripada 80.57 peratus (2008) kepada 82.22 peratus (2010).

Faktor agensi kerajaan pusat

Melihat kepada sosioekonomi di Galas adalah berada dalam situasi pesat membangun dengan penduduknya sekitar 37,600 orang. Ekonomi yang berasaskan ekonomi tradisi (perladangan, perkebunan, pembalakan, perlombongan dan perniagaan) membolehkan perkhidmatan agensi dan jabatan Kerajaan Pusat berperanan secara langsung menguruskan sosioekonomi rakyat Galas. Paling berkesan ialah agensi yang mewakili Kerajaan Pusat - Lembaga Kemajuan Kelantan Selatan (Kesedar), Lembaga Pemulihan Tanah Persekutuan (Felcra) dan Pihak Berkuasa Kemajuan Pekebun Kecil Perusahaan Getah (Risda) serta Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asal Malaysia (JHEOA).

Istimewanya Tengku Razaleigh dalam mencipta kemenangan semula BN ialah mengarahkan kesemua agensi Kerajaan Pusat sebagai agen BN. Kesan daripada peranan agensi Kerajaan Pusat telah banyak melakukan pendekatan pengundi kerana semua agensi tersebut memiliki peralatan cukup bagi membujuk dan menarik sokongan politik untuk manfaat calon BN.

Menggunakan kekuatan agensi seperti Risda telah mampu menguasai semula minda ekonomi politik pengundi Cina di Kampung Pulai yang rata-ratanya adalah pekebun getah. Demikian pula Kesedar telah mengumumkan perumahan rakyat bernilai RM180 juta dan JHEOA membuat kurungan khas (menjamu) pengundi Orang Asli sebelum mereka dihantar ke pusat mengundi. Sementara agensi seperti jabatan KEMAS, Penerangan, Pembangunan Wanita, RELA dan tidak ketinggalan Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara telah secara terang-terangan digunakan untuk tujuan kempen terhadap pengundi mahu pun menyediakan perkhidmatan meraih sokongan pengundi.

Keseluruhan faktor agensi di bawah Kerajaan Pusat itu dilihat berperanan, maka kemudahan termasuk peralatan dan kewangan telah disalurkan untuk kepentingan kempen BN di Galas.

Prestasi 2010 dibanding 2008

Punca PAS kalah di Galas secara mudah boleh difahami daripada prestasi undi yang raih antara dua pilihan raya, iaitu daripada pilihan raya umum 208 kepada pilihan raya kecil 2010. Jadual 1 berikut menunjukkan PAS berkurang undi hanya 265 undi sahaja. Ini mungkin faktor undi terapung yang beralih kepada BN. Puncanya ialah kerana kekuatan jentera kempen PAS yang tidak dapat menguasai undi terapung yang pernah dicapai 2008. Maka nilai 265 undi itu jika dinisbahkan dengan undi PAS 2008 ialah 6 peratus. Impaknya PAS kekurangan undi popular 10.25 peratus.

Jadual 1: Keputusan bandingan pilihan raya 2008-2010
Pilihan raya	PAS	BN	Beza	%PAS
2008	4,399	3,753	646	53.96
2010	4,134	5,324	-1,190	43.71
Perubahan	-265	1,571		-10.25

Apa pun disebabkan upaya BN menarik 1,571 undi atau 41.85 peratus dibandingkan dengan undi BN 2008, maka undi terapung, malah undi peribadi yang pernah dicapai Arwah Chek Hashim telah beralih kepada BN.

Demikian pula, analisis khas seperti Jadual 2 mendapati populariti PAS kalangan pengundi Orang Asli didapati hanya merosot pada kadar 17 peratus atau 66 undi dinisbahkan dengan undi PAS 2008 sebanyak 387 undi. Berbeza dengan BN yang mencapai lonjakan 75 peratus atau 567 undi dinisbahkan dengan undi BN 2008.

Jadual 2: Bandingan trend undi Orang Asli pilihan raya 2008-2010
Pilihan raya	PAS	BN	Beza	%PAS
2008	387	755	-368	33.89
2010	321	1,322	-1,001	19.54
Perubahan	-66	567		-14.35

Realiti tersebut membuktikan penggunaan Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli Malaysia dikira berkesan membawa kepada lonjakan undi maksimum pengundi Orang Asli keluar mengundi BN. Apakah isu ini wajar diamalkan dalam sistem demokrasi di Malaysia?

Sehubungan itu, pilihan raya kecil Galas kali ini menyaksikan suatu kerakusan kuasa state ke atas aparatusnya demi survival dominasi BN dalam mengukuhkan hegemoni! Jelas punca kekalahan PAS kali ini banyak disumbangkan oleh penggunaan maksimum jentera Kerajaan Pusat selain kelemahan persiapan dalaman PAS sendiri dalam menghadapi pilihan raya kecil.

Wan Nik Wan Yussof,

Setiausaha Politik Menteri Besar Kelantan.

Kak Wan, what do you want me to do with these ballot papers?

The People's Parliament

In my ‘PKR, and its ballot papers, up for sale’ post yesterday, I had said that I was going to meet an individual last night who had contacted me to say that he was in possession of PKR ballot papers for use in the ongoing party elections, and that he would pass the same to me as evidence of his claim.

In fact, that meeting was scheduled to take place this afternoon, but the individual was extremely concerned that I would be followed and that he might be identified by ‘interested’ parties, and so, at his request, I said that the meeting was to take place last night.

I met him about an hour ago.

He was very nervous.

He showed me a stack of ballot papers. They comprised ballot papers for the post of Deputy Presidency, Vice Presidents and Majlis Pimpinan Pusat.

The ballot papers for the Deputy Presidency and Vice Presidents were all serialised whilst the one for the MPP were not.

He had about 100 copies of the ballot papers in all.

I asked if that was all he had.

He replied that if I could wait, he could go back and meet me again later at another location with another 1,000 or more if I wanted.

I asked if I could have the 100 or so ballot papers that he had with him.

He offered to give me one of each provided I promised to blank out the serial numbers as he did not want to get any one into trouble.

I asked who those people might be.

He did not want to reply.

I asked him to explain to me how possession of these ballot papers might be used in the elections.

He explained that the central election committee returning officer could manipulate the list of members attending at the ongoing elections, where voter turnout is low, adjust it upwards and stuff additional ballot papers into the ballot box. Worse, it seems that at some elections, there is not even an attendance list to reflect the number of members attending to vote. This makes it even easier to stuff additional ballot papers into the ballot box.

I asked if he was representing any of the candidates and was that why he was exposing this to me, as the person or persons he was supportive of were being affected.

He admitted that he was doing this because the leadership he favoured were being cheated, but he also said that he was doing this in the hope that something would be done to stop this cheating and, if nothing was in fact done, he saw no reason to remain with the party any longer.

I asked if he knew who was behind this.

Without hesitation, he named Azmin, aided, he said, by the party HQ secretariat, and certain members of the central election committee over which the chair, Dr Molly Cheah, no longer has any control.

I do not have access to a scanner right now, so I have taken photos of the ballot papers, with the serial numbers blocked, which I now reproduce below.

The ballot for the deputy presidency is a 1-page A4 document, inserted in the 3-page vice presidency ballot .

What happened to the Chinese votes?

from Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH by Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid

ANALYSIS GUA MUSANG: Many observers and analysts shared a common sentiment that the Chinese votes in the country were securely in the bag of the opposition. In the case of Galas, they were wrong. It was the Chinese votes that gave the constituency away to the Barisan Nasional (BN).

A quick reading of the polling data of the Galas by-election, the 12th since the 2008 general election, showed a startling and perhaps worrying trend for the opposition.

The data revealed that all the predominantly Chinese enclaves in Galas backed BN. The most damning data came from Kampung Baru Gua Musang polling streams.

In the 2008 general election, the Islamist party won Galas by a majority of only 646 votes. The turnout then was slightly lower than Thursday's by-election, which saw 81% of the constituents in Galas cast their ballots.

BN's Abdul Aziz Yusoff defeated PAS' Dr Zulkefli Mohamed with a majority of 1,190 votes.

Chinese support for PAS in the 2008 polls was at 55%. PAS did not do well in three Chinese enclaves but dominated all four polling streams in Kampung Baru.

But on Thursday, the voters of Kampung Baru Gua Musang turned their backs on PAS.

PAS was betting on a slight swing in Chinese votes of at least 3% to its side. This would have helped it counter the anticipated decrease in Orang Asli votes from its original 35%.

The Islamist party was also hoping to bag the young Malay voters, who formed a sizeable chunk in the Galas electorate. This did not happen. To make it worst, PAS had nothing to fall back on now that their Chinese votebank had been robbed.

1Malaysia magic won the Chinese?

What happened? MCA deputy president Liow Tiong Lai would like to believe that the Chinese voters are warming up to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's 1Malaysia concept.

"They are responding to his 1Malaysia call and they believe that the prime minister wholeheartedly means it. This means we can strengthen unity as we have worked hard to achieve it," he told FMT when reacting to the news of the BN victory.

Liow gave a standard reply. He has every right to believe in it. But the fact of the matter is, the shift in Chinese feelings against PAS, particularly in Kampung Baru Gua Musang, is something new and hard to explain.

The campaigning methods of the MCA were not exactly brilliant. They were even recycled. Was this responsible in the decline of Chinese support for PAS? Hardly so.

And did PAS do anything different from before? Not really. Issues like land which have been close to the hearts of the Chinese settlers here have been more or less resolved. Their way of life has not been threatened by the brand of Islam espoused by a party its rivals love to portray as "Taliban-like".

Ku Li may have played a role

Some analysts say it could be due to the personality of the BN Galas election director Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the British-educated gentleman statesman. He, and not Umno, is hugely popular in Galas. This could have swayed the Chinese voters to abandon PAS.

But until the specific polling data is revealed, there can be no real answer. Nevertheless, the defeat in Galas has got the opposition in jitters over possible shift of loyalty among the Chinese voters.

The opposition camp knows that if this trend is replicated at the national level, Pakatan Rakyat, which has so far rode on an anti-establishment wave among the Chinese voters, may find it difficult to defend seats should snap polls be called.

And Najib may be convinced that the day of reckoning has come. Snap polls is now likely. And if it happens in this inauspicious climate, we may see the Chinese mandate given to the opposition expire.

It all may have started from a sleepy nobody-knows-Chinese town of Kampung Baru Gua Musang. FMT

Nominees – so what, its legal!

from rights2write by drrafick

1. I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry when I saw the story on the Sarawak Report which essentially exposed the inner workings of people in power in illegal wealth accumulation legally. It relates to the man who went who said in 2008 that he went to Sweden to seek a dental treatment. The ongoing court case in Sibu spilled the beans on how the Sarawak CM and his family secures and expands lucrative businesses in Sarawak.
   

2. The model that is being used by the CM is probably being used by many top Malaysian politicians and shrewd businessman. It is legally acceptable for individuals to appoint nominees to hide the owner’s real identity. In the event something goes wrong, the nominees who usually are acting in good faith AND for some “compensation” will face the brunt of the law. The true owners escape. The liability of a Sdn. Bhd. companies stops at the company level.
   

3. So why is it that the Sarawak Report is raising issues related to a norm practices in Malaysia. It is a norm from Kuala Lumpur, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. I would prefer if the Sarawak Report focus on the Government of Malaysia that create such a laws which allows people to abuse it as well as the inaction of the government in curbing such problems. The best part is the government creates the laws that bind their own legs and does not allow them to walk properly. Ironic isn’t it but it is true.
   

4. For example, when PHUKB raised the issue of abandon housing at Ministry of Housing, the PUU tells us what they cannot do and what we can do but not what they can do. When Chan Ah Chye visited Dato Chor, I was informed that he told the Housing Minister that the developer Damai Bistari Sdn Bhd does not belongs to him but it belongs to his friend. He is just helping them out! Nice to have such friends that helps other friends to such extent.
   

5. Last month we had a banner unveiling that push the two governments to compete for the peoples vote. Today, I was told that TSCAC visit the project site every other evening to see the progress. Whether this current work is sustainable or otherwise, it is yet to be seen. We will not keep our guards down. We will maintain the pressure and the next event will be the ORANGE WAVE event where we aim to get 2000 house buyers to congregate and have a family day is a park in the city. The members will be wearing a T-shirt that says “VICTIMS OF ABANDON PROJECT”.
   

6. In view of the large number of people being victims, it is imperative that government do something concrete. I think it is high time that the Malaysian AG Chambers, the KSN forms a dedicated legal task force to goes after the powers behind the veil. Every single law, no matter how small it is must be used. If it takes the need to use traffic summonses or use of health inspector to check for mosquito larvae in their compound, it must be done. The task force must use all powers, big and small to pressure, harass and send these crooks to prison. I will write to KSN about it.

Sins of the Grandfathers

I have frequently asked why the early Muslims were known to be great scientists and mathematicians whilst the current crop are just Talibans and terrorists, seeing violence as the only way to solve their problems. Also those Malays who are brought up to think the world owes them a living because they were marginalised. The combination of Islam and bumiputra rights is a double dose of disaster that will wipe out the Malay race within a few generations. Maybe you can throw this open to discussion in Malaysia Today. The UMNO politicians are destroying their own race in the guise of helping them. Here is the genetic proof.Dr. Tan Sins of the Grandfathers - by Sharon Begley (Newsweek) What happens in Vegas could affect your offspring. How early-life experiences could cause permanent changes in sperm and eggs.

Gallery: The Evolution of Birth Control The Evolution of Birth Control

The astounding part of Skinner’s statement is that this altered inheritance does not occur the way generations of biologists have been taught. Instead of changing the DNA sequences that make up the genes that ancestors pass down to descendants—the A’s, T’s, C’s, and G’s that spell out the genetic code—something more subtle occurs in epigenetic inheritance. A life experience—in Skinner’s study, exposing rats to a fungicide called vinclozolin—alters the on-off switches that control DNA in sperm or eggs. Biologists have long known about the switches, which are clusters of atoms called methyl groups. The cluster can silence a gene it attaches to; when the cluster is removed, the gene is active again. (This silencing is why the DNA for, say, insulin is turned off in brain cells but active in pancreas cells.) But biologists believed that when sperm and eggs grew up, as it were, and created an embryo, the tags were reset, nature’s way of scrubbing the sins of the fathers and mothers before they could afflict the next generation.

Skinner’s discovery that not all those marks are erased, but are instead permanently modified (at least as far out as he bred his rats: four generations), has challenged a decades-old tenet of reproductive biology … which, when it’s brought to his attention, he acknowledges with an Oh, right: “The ‘permanently’ does astonish me,” he concedes. “I guess it’s why we got such pushback from the medical community.”

Skinner’s findings are far from anomalous. For one thing, they’re not confined to rats or to the fungicide he fed them. Other labs, too, are finding that experiences—everything from a lab animal being exposed to a toxic chemical to a person smoking, being malnourished in childhood, or overeating—leaves an imprint on eggs or sperm, an imprint so tenacious that it affects not only those individuals’ children but their grandchildren as well.

Skinner and his team have gone the furthest in showing how this works. By analyzing the on-off settings of switches on every bit of sperm DNA, they found that 16 had been altered, turned on when the normal position was off, or off when the normal position was on. Those alterations appeared in the sons of mothers exposed to the fungicide when they were pregnant, in the sons of the sons, and in the sons of the sons’ sons. The tags on the sperm DNA did not vanish, as textbooks say. As a result, because some genes that were supposed to be dormant were instead active, and some genes that were supposed to be active were squelched, the sons and grandsons developed abnormalities in their testes, prostates, and kidneys. The point is not that this fungicide causes these problems in people—humans are exposed to much lower doses—but a proof of principle: by altering sperm in an enduring way, an environmental exposure can leave its mark on at least four subsequent generations.

The environmental exposure doesn’t have to be as extreme as chowing down on a fungicide. Scientists at Australia’s University of New South Wales fed healthy, svelte, male rats a high-fat diet (43 percent of calories from fat—a typical American diet). Not surprisingly, the rats put on weight and fat, and developed insulin resistance and glucose intolerance—basically, type 2 diabetes, the scientists reported last month in Nature. None of that was surprising. What made the scientists take notice was the daughters these rats sired: although their mothers were of normal weight and ate a healthy diet while pregnant, daughters of the high-fat-diet dads developed insulin resistance and glucose resistance as adults—even though they never ate a high-fat diet themselves.

Mothers’ diet while pregnant affects their children’s health as adults because of how nutrients and toxic compounds pass through the placenta. But fathers have no contact with their daughters except through the sperm that created them. These rat fathers were not genetically diabetic. The conclusion is therefore inescapable: the fathers’ high-fat diet altered their sperm in a way that induced adult-onset disease in their daughters. (The next step is to see whether grandchildren develop it, too.) Emma Whitelaw of Queensland Institute of Medical Research, who has found similar transgenerational effects, has called it “a molecular memory of the parent’s experience—in this case, diet.” Reminiscent of Skinner’s finding that sons and grandsons of his fungicide-exposed rats had abnormal on-off switches in their sperm DNA, the Australian team found that 642 genes in the pancreas (which makes insulin) of the daughters of the high-fat-diet fathers had on-off switches in the wrong position. The result raises the intriguing possibility that the childhood-obesity epidemic is at least in part due to alterations in sperm caused by fathers-to-be eating a high-fat diet. After all, while it’s fine to blame kids’ couch-potato ways and fattening diets, that does not explain why obesity in babies has risen 73 percent since 1980.

Transgenerational effects do not have to be harmful. When 15-day-old female mice frolicked for two weeks in an enriched environment, one filled with exercise wheels, novel objects, and lots of other mice for social stimulation, it strengthened the brain mechanism that underlies memory. That much had been shown many times before: animals raised in an enriched environment remember mazes better. But last year, scientists led by Larry Feig of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago reported in The Journal of Neuroscience that the neuronal effect shows up in the mice’s offspring—even when those offspring never lived in an enriched environment, and even though those offspring were not so much as a gleam in their mothers’ eyes when they lived in the enriched environment. “The idea that qualities acquired from experience can be transmitted to future offspring has long been considered [heresy],” Feig’s team wrote. If something similar occurs in humans, how good your memory is during adolescence “can be influenced by environmental stimulation experienced by one’s mother during her youth.”

One reason that is not so farfetched: transgenerational effects are showing up not only in lab rats but also in people, as if the ghosts of our ancestors haunt our very genes. In 2006 scientists announced the findings of a study in a town in Sweden called Överkalix (chosen because it keeps excellent birth and death records). If a father began smoking before the age of 11, found Marcus Pembrey of the Institute of Child Health in London, his sons had a greater body-mass index, on average, than did sons of men who took up smoking as adults. In this same population, if a man suffered food shortages as an 8- to 12-year-old child, his sons’ sons were more likely to die young; if a woman suffered food shortages as a child, her son’s daughters were. Another study in Överkalix found that if a man overate in childhood, his sons’ children were four times more likely to develop diabetes and cardiovascular disease, found scientists at Sweden’s Umeå University.

Immigrating Can Be Bad for Your Health For some immigrant populations, the United States is more than just “the Land of Opportunity.” Moving to America has presented a long history of health challenges for America’s immigrants.

At the time these studies were done, it cost about $10,000 per sample to scan DNA for changes in the on-off switches that show this sins-of-the-grandfathers effect. But the cost is dropping fast, says Skinner, making it feasible to see whether life experiences leave indelible marks on the sperm or eggs that give rise to children and grandchildren. Since the answer so far is yes, consider it a warning to hold off on your unhealthy behavior until after you have kids.

Pakatan Lost Focus in Galas and Batu Sapi

from Din Merican: the Malaysian DJ Blogger by dinobeano

November 6, 2010

www.the malaysiainsider.com

Pakatan Loses Focus against a resurgent and determined UMNO-BN

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal

Tengku Razaleigh's New Politics in Galas

The latest by-elections results suggest that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has lost its Election 2008 momentum, while Barisan Nasional’s (BN) UMNO seems to be regaining its winning touch, analysts say. But they cautioned that BN’s strong win in the Galas state seat, situated within PAS-controlled Kelantan, as well as Sabah’s Batu Sapi parliamentary seat cannot be taken as a signal that the momentum of voter support has returned to the ruling coalition, as the two seats are “unique and isolated” cases.

They are also divided as to whether Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will call for snap polls by the first half of next year, amid widespread speculation that the double win will be reason enough to dissolve Parliament.

“From the results of the by-elections and the days leading up to the polling day, we see that Pakatan Rakyat has lost its momentum, their focus, and are distracted instead by internal issues that have affected the opposition’s focus and resolve to win these by-elections.

“I think the long string of by-elections has sapped PR of their financial resources which may have been a

Merdeka Center's Ibrahim Suffian

factor in BN’s wins. The peak of Pakatan’s dynamism as seen during the past Bukit Gantang by-election is no longer there,” said Ibrahim Suffian.

PR won four states and 82 federal seats in Election 2008, denying BN its customary two-thirds parliamentary majority. It also won eight out of the 13 by-elections thus far since the March 2008 general election.

Ibrahim, who is Merdeka Center director, said the results of the Galas by-election showed BN’s effective “low-key” campaigning method which indicated rural Malay support in Kelantan slowly returning to the federal coalition.

“If you look at Galas, you can see that Malay voters who were previously voting for Pakatan and were against BN are slowly returning back to BN’s fold. It also shows that UMNO was more focused in the by-election, having a greater resolve and have learnt from their past experiences. Malay voters over there are slowly returning to BN“, Ibrahim told The Malaysian Insider.

Asked whether he thought PKR had made any inroads in Sabah, after coming in second after BN in Batu Sapi and having gathered more votes than local state party SAPP, Ibrahim claimed that the opposition still had “a long way to go” before it could actually make its presence felt in east Malaysia.

“Despite all the politics and talk of dissatisfaction towards BN, PKR as well as Pakatan still have a long way to go. At the end of the day, development policies are still relevant. And this is where there is a continued assurance that BN is still strong in Sabah, provided they can address all the development issues raised by Sabahans,” said the pollster.

USM political scientist Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said the election strategy adopted by PAS during the Galas polls contributed to a renewed shift towards UMNO and BN. “PAS was overconfident, they believed that traditional voters would support them. This didn’t work out well in Galas. In Galas too, we could see a change in BN’s approach, where they adopted a low-key campaign approach. I think Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah played a major part in BN’s campaign strategy shift, and it worked out well for the federal coalition,” Sivamurugan told The Malaysian Insider.

The academic however claimed that BN’s two wins did not mean that it would be able to replicate such results if snap polls were to be called in the near future.

“Alhough BN won big this time, it does not mean that they can replicate such results on a national level. I do not think that this can be used as an indicator for snap polls. Galas and Batu Sapi were won because of more localised issues, like in Batu Sapi the BN candidate’s late husband, who was the MP was a well-liked man.

“I do not think that snap elections will be called any time soon. First of all, UMNO and BN would have to replicate their campaign strategy in Galas. Do they have leaders like Ku Li in other areas, constituencies?” asked Sivamurugan.

In Galas, BN’s Abdul Aziz Yusoff obtained 5,324 votes while PAS’s Dr Zulkefli Mohamed received 4,134 votes. The margin of victory was 1,190 votes.

And in Batu Sapi, Election Commission results showed that BN’s Datin Linda Tsen Thau Lin obtained 9,773 votes to win the seat by a majority of 6,359 votes. Her PKR opponent Ansari Abdullah obtained 3,414 while SAPP’s Datuk Yong Teck Lee received only 2,031 votes.

Analyst-Economist Dr. Lim Teck Ghee

Another political analyst however insisted that Najib would call for snap polls “as soon as possible.” “I think BN leaders are certainly going to be emboldened and some will want to call for a general election as soon as possible,” said Dr Lim Teck Ghee. Lim told The Malaysian Insider that the two by-elections should be a “wake-up call for PR” to stop being complacent and “buck up while there’s still time.”

“The victories show that Pakatan Rakyat still has some way to go in winning over the rural electorate. At the same time, they are going to take heart from the fact that the BN victories cannot be easily replicated all over the country and there is still a sizable rural anti-government sentiment that is up for grabs.

“The question is whether they can get their act together in terms of stitching a cohesive and formidable electoral machine the way the BN has, and whether they can pull in the smaller parties. Avoiding three corner fights is going to be critical to PR’s hopes of taking over Putrajaya and they cannot leave this negotiation to the last minute,” said Lim.

DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua said BN’s victories showed that PR can never really take over Putrajaya unless it obtained the majority of east Malaysian votes.

“Pakatan has a lot more work to do in east Malaysia. Without the support of east Malaysia, we cannot even hope of taking over the federal government,” Pua told The Malaysian Insider.

Private investigator Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal's letter to the AG

from Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH by Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH

It has therefore come as a great surprise to me to discover that you have been unable to decipher any wrongdoing from the enormous amount of evidence the police must have been able to accumulate from their investigations. Let me admit to you that I did sign a false statutory declaration. Yes. I did. I signed a false statutory declaration. It was the second one, not the first one. The first one was entirely truthful. The second one was a complete pack of lies. I admit this.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

OPEN LETTER TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Dear Tan Sri,

My name is Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal.

I think you may have heard of me.

I was Razak Baginda’s private investigator hired by him to protect him from his ex girlfriend Ms. Altantuya Shaaribu (deceased), sometime in 2006.

Remember you charged him for her murder but he got off. Instead, two of the Prime Ministers body guards got convicted. Stranger things have happened, I am sure you would agree.

But I digress. Let me come to the point.

I have been made to understand that you have decided to close the case involving 2 statutory declarations I signed sometime at the beginning of July 2008 in Kuala Lumpur.

The contents of these statutory declarations were diametrically opposed. Both could not have been true and therefore one of them was false. I trust that makes sense to you.

The police, I believe, have investigated the circumstances surrounding the making of these 2 statutory declarations under s.199 of the Penal Code, for an offence which carries a sentence of 3 years imprisonment and a fine. This is not a trivial offence.

The police must have interviewed my lawyer Americk Sidhu, his secretary, the Commissioner of Oaths who attested my signature and a variety of other witnesses you have mentioned who were somehow intrinsically interwoven in the construction and affirmation of both statutory declarations, one way or another.

It has therefore come as a great surprise to me to discover that you have been unable to decipher any wrongdoing from the enormous amount of evidence the police must have been able to accumulate from their investigations.

Please permit me to assist you.

Firstly may I suggest that you re-open this file immediately.

I will make it easy for you.

Let me admit to you that I did sign a false statutory declaration. Yes. I did. I signed a false statutory declaration.

It was the second one, not the first one.

The first one was entirely truthful.

The second one was a complete pack of lies. I admit this.

This statutory declaration was prepared by some unknown person(s) and I was forced by very thinly veiled threats and intimidation to sign it.

I have already made this known to the world at large and I am surprised your office has not picked this up as yet. Everyone else has.

If you are unable to ascertain this information which I have just provided to you directly, please feel free to contact me at this email address bala.p.i@hotmail.com and I shall forward to you a copy of the video recorded interview I had in the presence of my lawyers in Singapore last November, and a copy of the transcript thereof.

Otherwise you can find this information on all the blogs worth reading (such as Raja Petra’s ‘Malaysia Today’) and also on ‘YouTube’. ( Just type in ‘PI Bala’ into the search column and you will be surprised what comes up).

So you may now consider charging me for making the false 2^nd statutory declaration after the clues I have given you.

I do however reserve the right to plead not guilty to the charge as I believe I have a very good defence.

Your prosecutors will also have to make sure they call all the necessary witnesses to prove their case against me. These witnesses will have to include the following personalities:

(i) a lawyer named Mr. Arunampalam a/l Mariam Pillai (who coincidentally does legal work for Deepak Jaikishan and Rosmah Mansor’s personal companies).

(ii) a Commissioner of Oaths (Zainal Abidin Bin Muhayat) who works in the office of M/s Zul Rafique and Partners (Advocates & Solicitors) and who attested my signature when he came to the room in which I was being held at the Hilton Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

(iii) Deepak and Dinesh Jaikishan ( very good friends and confidantes of Rosmah Mansor).

(iv) Datuk Nazim Razak (younger brother of the Prime Minister), and his wife.

(v) ASP Suresh (a suspended police officer formerly attached to the IPK HQ KL).

(vi) Officers from the Immigration Department Damansara (who assisted in obtaining urgent passports for my family).

(vii) A host of journalists and reporters who were present in the lobby of the Prince Hotel Kuala Lumpur when a lawyer called Arunampalam released my 2^nd statutory declaration without my permission.

These are just some of the witnesses I can think of but I am sure you know how to do your job so that should be no problem. I don’t want to be accused of trying to teach an old dog new tricks.

If for some strange reason my defence is called, I will also be able to provide witnesses to support what I have to say. I need not disclose who these witnesses are at this stage and I am sure you know that as well.

I shall now wait for the charge against me to be laid.

I will be more than happy to return to Malaysia to defend myself but you will have to ensure that my safety is guaranteed as there are some people who would prefer that I was not around.

Best regards,

Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal

[Bala (PI)]