This Is a Truly Rumination Piece

This piece is supposed to APpear tomorrow which I commit mostly to reflection on Sundays -- it's not right for this writer to work on Christmas day an article that jars the soul when it should be a reflection on peace and gOodwill, yes?

No DDC. So that my readers, esteemed or steamed, hear me right.

A lot is going wrong with NegaraKu.
The NST frontpage today leads with header MACC raids NFC office.

I won't go into details, just one general thought thinking aloud/allowed:

After the Auditor-General's 2101 annual report came out describing the RM250million National Deedlot Corporation's cattle-rearing project as "in a mess", and after many paries -- Desi alone wrote NOT LESS THAN SIX COMMENTARRIES on this subject -- the anti-corruption agency or renamed MACC finally got into the act. ((The PDRM earlier was reported to have commented that its initial findings, released just before the UMNO general assembly, said it had questioned more than 70 witnesses in conjunction with the NFC scandal, and it decided there was no hint of any criminal offence involved. Hey, after it had been admitted finally by the NFC boss that RM19.8miilion had been diverted to buy two units of condominium in Bangsar, and his wife UMNO Wanita chief-cum-Minister Sharizat Jalil stressed again and again the project had nothing to do with her; both were even "arrogant" in counter-attacking their critics, especially the Opposition. (An ASIDE can? In chinoserie there is a saying: Erk Ren sian kau zhang, rougly translated as "The aggresssor is first to report wrong done to him". Minta maaf if Desi got it wrong Okay! My Pasar mateys often tease with as being half a MatSalleh as I was schooled all along in English medium, and I confess I know more about American history than China's.)

Today I just read another report that in gist quoted Sharizat as challenging her party leaders with, I quote in Bahasa Malaysia: (from batuvsbatu.blo! gspot.co m using a Malaysia Chronicle report...) ""Beritahu saya, pemimpin UMNO yang mana tiada masalah?" " merupakan jawapan pantas Shahrizat apabila diminta memberi komen mengenai sama ada beliau akan bertindakbalas terhadap seruan untuk meletak jawatan seperti yang di laporkan oleh suratkahabr Sin Chew beberapa hari lepas.

Please read the full post at the original blog via link: http://batuvskayu.blogspot.com/2011/12/shahrizat-beritahu-saya-pemimpin-umno.html...

I quote the first para:

"Disebalik tanda bahawa UMNO sedang berantakan disebabkan skandal rasuah dan pertelingkahan dalaman dikalangan pemimpin tingginya, Suruhanjaya Pencegah Rasuah telah mengumumkan bahawa satu pasukan khas akan dibentuk untuk menyiasat dakwaan bahawa keluarga Menteri UMNO Shahrizat Jalil telah menyalahgunakan dana awam berjumlah RM250 juta yang diperuntukkan bagi projek ternakan lembu NFC untuk kegunaan peribadi dan juga harta mewah."

*************************************

I also recall the previous Wania UMNO chief Rafidah Aziz was reported to have admitted in Parliament, in gist, yes, her son-in-law did receive APs (Approved Permits for vehicle imports) oversighted by her ministry. But in mitigating defence perhaps, she also revealed that a family member of her boss then -- nothing less than then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad -- a;so received such APs.

It seems the logic of UMNO ministers -- past, present ( and in future too? God forbid!) -- truly believe that if fellow UMNO leaders were also doing similar acts of misusing their powers, or worse, engaging in corrupt acts, then it's acceptable. I believe such statements come when the proptagonist is clutching at straws when he/she feels her days in politics (or on earth?) are numbered -- or Heavn forbid, t! hey trul y believe their own statements, which made often enough, become rock solid rationale?

BUT YOU KNOW WHAT?

The Rakyat, especially the VOTERS, who term-after-term elected the BN led by UMNO into majority control of Parliament, I just would say: Hey, you ask for it! IF I were to use Da Desi Code, it would have read: Hey, you aRsEk for it! Then I would have humoured myself, not all except for a handul, of my esteemed readers.

I should end with the usual Vote "ABU" in the impending General Elections (GE13), but I refrain. BUT YOU KNOW WHY? Because some smartaleck here would ask Desi: Please explain to me what ABU stands for? And my blood pressure would hit the roof, and I could be admitted to the Seremban General one last time, but I have no such death wish...

"God please bless me and my friends with a life well lived and long." Amen.


********************************************

From alditta.blogspot.com cometh another piece worth pondering over:)

24 December 2011

Shampoo theft jailed 2 years,while Corruption jailed 1 year.....

The Star in 25 May 2011 reports...

J! obless m an jailed two years for shampoo theft

JOHOR BARU: An unemployed man was jailed two years for stealing six boxes of shampoo worth RM107.40 at a supermarket.
Nor Azmi Mohd Amin admitted to committing the offence at the supermarket in Taman Kota Masai at noon on May 20.

DPP Tan Poh Vun prosecuted before magistrate Mazana Sinin while the accused was not represented.

The Star in 23 Dec 2011 reports...

Khir Toyo jailed 12 months for corruption

Former Selangor Mentri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo was found guilty by the High Court here Friday of knowingly purchasing two pieces of land and a bungalow in Section 7 at a much lower price than its original value from Ditamas Sdn Bhd director Shamsuddin Hayroni in 2007.

He was sentenced to one year in jail from Friday and Justice Mohtarudin Baki ordered his land and bungalow be forfeited.

However, the judge granted him him a stay of execution of jail time and forfeiture of the properties pending an appeal after his lawyer M. Athimulan made the request. The lawyer said the appeal would be filed Friday evening.

The properties involved were purchased at RM3.5mil although Ditamas had bought it for RM6.5mil on Dec 23, 2004. The court found that the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt in the case.

source: theStar

cheers.

Posted by ali allah ditta

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How the EC is in cahoots with BN

Indelible ink notwithstanding, the 13th general election is going to be the biggest and dirtiest election battle in history.
By transferring out the Chinese to areas where BN finds impossible to win, they will regain seats lost to the opposition and those seats that BN cannot win we will notice that the opposition has won by a very margin, for instance Seputeh (won by DAP’s Teresa Kok by a margin of 36,000), Kepong and Cheras (also won by DAP with large margins).
Selena Tay, Free Malaysia Today
In an effort to lend an air of credibility to itself, the Election Commission (EC) has announced that indelible ink will be used in the upcoming 13th general election.
But there is no reason to jump for joy just yet. A lot of hanky-panky can still go on undetected right until the day of polling itself. Listed below are several examples:
1. Name not in the voter rolls and therefore unable to vote – any perfectly eligible voter whose name is not in the voter rolls is totally helpless to do anything about it. They can lodge a complaint of course but by then the results of the polls are already secured.
2. Name transferred out to another locality or worse still to another state – this is also an inconvenient move for the eligible voter and will very well impede his ability to vote if his name is transferred, say from Kuala Lumpur to Perlis.
3. PKR’s Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh has revealed that nearly 600,000 names in Selangor have been moved or shifted about without the voters knowledge and these are only the ones detected!
Although indelible ink is a tremendous help in preventing multiple-voting, we are still back to square one if the eligible voters are unable to cast their vote due to hanky-panky in the voter rolls.
Although prior to polling day we can check to see that our names are not tampered with, anything can still happen on the day of voting itself. With instant and advance technology our names can be in the voter rolls today but vanish tomorrow on polling way. There is no surefire guarantee that our names will be 100% kept safe in the voter rolls.
4. The only way the Pakatan Rakyat can win the 13th general election is with overwhelming support from the rural masses and from Sabahans and Sarawakians. This is because due to gerrymandering by EC, many small seats have been created in the rural areas.
This is called the ‘Voters-per-seat Formula’. For instance, the parliament seat of Batu in Kuala Lumpur has over 100,000 voters. Compare this to the rural areas where many seats have less than 10,000 voters. This means that 100,000 can only give one seat to the opposition if the opposition wins in Batu whereas in the rural areas 100,000 voters can already contribute 10 seats.
This also shows that more weight or power is given to the rural seats as even with a few thousand voters, the rural folk have already one parliament seat compared to the city folk who need big numbers to get just one parliament seat. This unfair method of manipulation by EC has helped BN to win all along.
5. Besides playing around with the ‘Voters-per-seat Formula’, the EC can also move voters in a strategic manner. For example the Parliament seat of Shah Alam held by PAS’ Khalid Samad. EC can move the Chinese voters to Klang which is held by DAP’s Charles Santiago. In this way, BN regains Shah Alam. Forget about Klang, never mind.
Next, the EC can also move the Chinese voters from the PAS seat of Titiwangsa to Cheras which is held by DAP. In this way, BN regains Titiwangsa. Forget about Cheras as it is impossible for BN to win in Cheras anyway.
EC’s dubious tactics
By transferring out the Chinese to areas where BN finds impossible to win, they will regain seats lost to the opposition and those seats that BN cannot win we will notice that the opposition has won by a very margin, for instance Seputeh (won by DAP’s Teresa Kok by a margin of 36,000), Kepong and Cheras (also won by DAP with large margins). This is a bad sign as it indicates that something is afoot.
6. Another of EC’s dubious tactics is the demarcation of boundaries beyond rhyme or reason. Again, several examples:-

• Parliament seat of Batu in Kuala Lumpur. This is supposed to be a KL Federal Territory seat but it has been extended beyond Pasar Borong Selayang right up to Taman Selayang Jaya in Selayang, Selangor. In fact it overlaps with Selayang’s Parliament seat in Selangor.

• Parliament seat of Kepong in Kuala Lumpur. This is also a KL Federal Territory seat which has entered into Selayang, Selangor and overlaps with the Selayang Parliament seat as well.

• The third example also involving a KL Federal Territory seat is the Parliament seat of Titiwangsa which has been extended right up to Taman Chempaka in Selangor.

All those seats are geographically weird in nature and this is done to include in Malay voters who are known to favour BN. However, in the 12th general election in 2008, many urban Malays voted for the opposition. Knowing this, Umno is now frightening the Malays that they will be wiped-out if Pakatan comes to power.
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MACC will jail Mamak soon ?

KUALA LUMPUR, 23 DECEMBER, 2011: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) will not hesitate to call upon any individual involved in the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) funds case, said the commission's investigation director Datuk Mustafar Ali.  
Speaking after launching the "KL Principle Code of Ethics for SMEs" here today Mustafar said anyone who was linked to the case, including the company's senior management, would be called in to facilitate their investigation.

He said so far police have arrested a suspect with a 'Datuk' title and handed him over to MACC yesterday. 

"The suspect, a businessman, is said to be closely linked with the NFC case but we're still scutinising the whole case to see if he is really involved and the investigation will be carried out as earnestly and professionally as possible," he said.

Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Khalid Abu Bakar said he could not reveal details of the case yet, as investigations were ongoing.

 
Speaking during a press conference at the Selangor police headquarters in Shah Alam, he said the man in remand was believed to have been involved in several attempts to bribe the police and a domestic maid cheating case in Ipoh.

Meanwhile, Bukit Aman Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID)director Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan said the businessman was arrested about 4 pm yesterday for attempting to bribe several senior CCID officers who were in the process of investigating commercial crime cases.

He said the suspect, who owned a foreign workers agency and taxi company was picked up three weeks ago on a cheating case in Cheras and was wanted for another cheating case in Bercham, Ipoh.


- Bernama


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What’s fair?

— Hussaini Abdul Karim
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 24, 2011

DEC 24 – The headline in The Star's report by Nurbaiti Hamdan, Friday December 23, 2011 read, "Khir Toyo gets 1 year jail for graft"

Former Selangor Mentri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo was found guilty by the High Court here Friday of knowingly purchasing two pieces of land and a bungalow in Section 7 at a much lower price than its original value from Ditamas Sdn Bhd director Shamsuddin Hayroni in 2007.

He was sentenced to one year in jail from Friday and Justice Mohtarudin Baki ordered his land and bungalow be forfeited.

However, the judge granted him a stay of execution of jail time and forfeiture of the properties pending an appeal after his lawyer M. Athimulan made the request.

The lawyer said the appeal would be filed Friday evening.

The properties involved were purchased at RM3.5mil although Ditamas had bought it for RM6.5mil on Dec 23, 2004.

The court found that the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt in the case.

On Saturday November 12, 2011, The Star also reported that

Man jailed for stealing shampoo

A 31-year-old man was jailed eight months for stealing eight bottles of shampoo worth a total of RM119.56.

Mohamad Fazlee Zainuddin, 31, was charged with committing the offence at a supermarket at Jalan Gambang here on Nov 10.

Magistrate Nurunaim Abdullah sentenced Mohamad Fazlee to eight months jail and fined him RM2,500 in default two months jail after he pleaded guilty.

What is RM119.56 compared to RM6.5mil?

Just look at the sentences, the former gets 12 months jail for a RM6.5 million offence and the latter, eight months jail for a RM119.56 offence. It is grossly unfair!

Khir Toyo should be sentenced to jail for a longer period that is commensurate to the seriousness of the offence that has been proven guilty of committing, regardless of who he was or who he is.

This entry was posted on Saturday, 24 December 2011, 7:33 pm and is filed under Corruption, Court, Crime. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0.  

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Felda: The smell of easy money (Part VI)

Part 1:    FELDA – The smell of easy money

Part 2:    FELDA – The smell of easy money

Part 3:    FELDA – The smell of easy money

Part 4:    FELDA – The smell of easy money

Part 5: FELDA- The smell of easy money 

• The brains behind the FGV-KPF-FH restructuring are good at selling stories. Their skills are probably as good as the medicine peddlers at the night market. Being private company, FELDA-A has refuses to divulge the annual report of FGV despite the fact that it owes it to the taxpayers. I have been fortunate for knowing a group of people who wish to be identified as "Friend of Felda". They have been giving me information and documents that I need to write my post as well as to answer some of the commentators. In the last few days TV3 has also been selling the story of how Felda settlers would benefit by interviewing key pro-BN settlers. However they never explicitly explained how the settlers would benefit. The way I see it, they don't really know.

• FGV has been touted as the global player and has been promoted as competent group that would propel Felda and the settlers to greatness in the next few years. The world is facing economic slow down. Globally everyone talks about it but our government is probably the only one that says Malaysia will be fine. The settlers must appreciate the reality. Their revenue is expected to drop as the global CPO price is expected to soften in view of weakening demands in EU, USA and China. If they think FGV can do wonders I suggest they think again and think hard.

• Felda Global Ventures has 101 companies under the group. Only 90 of the companies are active in doing business. The rest are dormant or holding companies. Recently they entered the sugar business and float the company (MSM Holdings). They are planning to float another 4 companies. The bulk of its profits come from Felda Holding. The other 89 subsidiaries in general contribute losses or meager profits. As at Dec 31^st, 2010 FGV pretax profit is RM366mill and during the same period FH profit is RM760mill. Going by the fact that FGV owns 49% of FH, we can assume that would get RM372.4 mill profit from FH is the entire 100% of the profits are returned to shareholders.

• For the first half of 2011, FGV chalked a turnover of RM1.98bill with a profit of RM167.8 mill. Assuming that their fortune is good, than the profits for 2011 would be about RM336 mill. Again this would mainly come from Felda Holdings. Clearly, FGV has very poor track record. The restructuring followed by IPO is merely an exercise to support FGV poor business venture as well as "to feed a few personalities". The company would be in debt and the financial outlook for the settlers after the IPO and listing looks bleak. Numbers don't lie. Based on past financial performance, I don't think KPF should support the schemes. FGV track records are extremely discouraging.

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Shampoo theft jailed 2 years,while Corruption jailed 1 year.....

The Star in 25 May 2011 reports...

Jobless man jailed two years for shampoo theft

JOHOR BARU: An unemployed man was jailed two years for stealing six boxes of shampoo worth RM107.40 at a supermarket.
Nor Azmi Mohd Amin admitted to committing the offence at the supermarket in Taman Kota Masai at noon on May 20.

DPP Tan Poh Vun prosecuted before magistrate Mazana Sinin while the accused was not represented.

The Star in 23 Dec 2011 reports...

Khir Toyo jailed 12 months for corruption

Former Selangor Mentri Besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo was found guilty by the High Court here Friday of knowingly purchasing two pieces of land and a bungalow in Section 7 at a much lower price than its original value from Ditamas Sdn Bhd director Shamsuddin Hay! roni in 2007.

He was sentenced to one year in jail from Friday and Justice Mohtarudin Baki ordered his land and bungalow be forfeited.

However, the judge granted him him a stay of execution of jail time and forfeiture of the properties pending an appeal after his lawyer M. Athimulan made the request. The lawyer said the appeal would be filed Friday evening.

The properties involved were purchased at RM3.5mil although Ditamas had bought it for RM6.5mil on Dec 23, 2004. The court found that the defence had failed to raise reasonable doubt in the case.

source: theStar

cheers.

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DAP stung by deathwish?

21/12/11 – 6pm

http://twitter.com/limkitsiang

@limkitsiang

Landed @LCCT from KK 2news of another Karpal-Ramasamy blow-up.We must learn hard way BN mainstream media coverage serve BN political agenda

@limkitsiang

As Nik Aziz told PAS leaders: "Selesaikan perselisihan pandangan melalui mekanisme dalaman parti dan tidak memberikan peluru kepada musuh"

@limkitsiang

Ppl asking whether DAP leaders stung by death wish with 13GE around corner. We must respect these feelings if DAP is 2deserve popular trust.

@limkitsiang

Call on all DAP leaders x 2fall into trap of BN mainstream media n 2pursue/resolve all differences in party channels and not outside.

This entry was posted on Saturday, 24 December 2011, 7:03 pm and is filed under DAP. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0.  

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Akjan, go ahead and sue!

Daniel J Jambun

Datu Akjan's media conference in which he said that there was never an Projek IC and the call for an Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) was ill-intended and can damage interracial relations was the strangest event with the most stupid statement I have ever seen in my years of political observations!

I know that in politics we may sometime meet certain characters who are extra daring and say a lot of shocking things, purposefully to agitate society for the sake of cheap publicity. But there is a limit to everything. One can overdo things and behave in a way that goes beyond what is acceptable and respectable, and this is what Akjan had done to himself. It seems that he had not learned anything form his huge blunder in declaring himself as Sultan of Sulu on Malaysian soil. After all the nationwide ridicule and insulting remarks about him because of the declaration, and after the arrest and investigation, it seems he has not grown up enough to behave in a civil and educated manner.

Now he had taken a most ridiculous action by saying there was no such thing as a Projek IC, when in fact he himself was arrested under the ISA for his direct involvement in the project. I fully support Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau for pointing out to Akjan about the court ruling in the election petition for Likas, in which the judge made a ruling based on the sworn testimony if Hassnar Ibrahim about his involvement in Projek IC. Why doesn't Akjan make a statement to say that Hassnar Ibrahim, Jabar Khan and many others who had confessed about their involvement in the project, are liars? And why not also say the judge in the Likas election petition was unprofessional and should be defrocked and disbarred? Why not sue these people, including the judge?

 

And for goodness sake, how is an RCI going to cause ill-feeling between the races? Who indeed is causing ill-feeling between people and between the people of Sabah and the Federal Government? It thought it was those people who produced the false ICs. But now Akjan is saying those people who want the RCI are causing the ill-feeling. What kind of logic is this? The whole state wants and RCI except for him, why? Obviously Akjan is trying to defend the illegal immigrants and wants the huge problems of illegals immigrants in! Sabah t o continue and become worse. Again, why? Is it because he himself is an illegal immigrant who managed to get a MyKad through his own Projek IC (as proven by Mutalib M.D. in his book IC Palsu)? How come he had sued Mutalib? By his statement we are reminded that Sabahans are losing their position as masters of their own future, because now an immigrant is saying it is wrong to investigate illegals. If Akjan really believes there is no Projek IC and no illegal immigrants, why not let this be proven with an RCI? The RCI will clear up everything, and settle the issue once and for all. There will be no ill feeling against anyone, including aliens, as long as they are legal. What we don't want is a lot of questions about people like Akjan claiming to have been born in Limau-Limauan Kudat but the people there swear they don't know him, or Pakistanis holding ICs saying they are from a village in Ranau and they don't know a word of Dusun. Are the people of Semporna happy that they are being outnumbered by aliens by five to one?

 

So if Akjan is offended and believes he is right, I challenge him to go ahead and sue. By suing and the case going to trial we will be able to know the real story behind why he was arrested under the ISA for manufacturing false ICs, how many aliens benefited from his unpatriotic act, how much money those people involved managed to make to enrich themselves, and whether Akjan himself is an illegal immigrant. He had admitted that he is not a Malaysian by declaring that he is the Sultan of Sulu. His personal history raises a lot of questions, but he has all the opportunity to prove himself by proceeding to sue on the matter. But then again, I would also like to ask if he still considers himself a Sultan of a foreign country, in which case he has no business trying to be a Sabahan and a Malaysian or interfering in our state affairs.

 

DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN

Advisor, UK-based Human Rights Foundation Malaysia

!  

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Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

This entry was posted on Saturday, 24 December 2011, 5:52 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0.  

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Compassion is our New Currency ~ by Rebecca Solnit

"Nothing has been more moving to me than this desire, realized imperfectly but repeatedly, to connect across differences, to be a community, to make a better world, to embrace each other."

By Rebecca Solnit | Nation of Change

Usually at year's end, we're supposed to look back at events just passed - and forward, in prediction mode, to the year to come. But just look around you! This moment is so extraordinary that it has hardly registered. People in thousands of communities across the United States and elsewhere are living in public, experimenting with direct democracy, calling things by their true names, and obliging the media and politicians to do the same.

The breadth of this movement is one thing, its depth another. It has rejected not just the particulars of our economic system, but the whole set of moral and emotional assumptions on which it's based. Take the pair shown in a photograph from Occupy Austin in Texas. The amiable-looking elderly woman is holding a sign whose computer-printed words say, "Money has stolen our vote." The older man next to her with the baseball cap is holding a sign handwritten on cardboard that states, "We are our brothers' keeper."

The photo of the two of them offers just a peek into a single moment in the remarkable period we're living through and the astonishing movement that's drawn in… well, if not 99% of us, then a striking enough percentage: everyone from teen pop superstar Miley Cyrus with her Occupy-homage video to Alaska Yup'ik elder Esther Green ice-fishing and holding a sign that says "Yirqa Kuik" in big letters, with the translation - "occupy the river" - in little ones below.

The woman with the stolen-votes sign is referring to them. Her companion is talking about us, all of us, and our fundamental principles. His sign comes straight out of Genesis, a denial of what that competitive entrepreneur Cain said to God after foreclosing on his brother Abel's life. He was not, he claimed, his brother's keeper; we are not, he insisted, beholden to each other, but separate, isolated, each of us for ourselves.

Think of Cain as the first Social Darwinist and this Occupier in Austin as his opposite, claiming, no, our operating system should be love; we are all connected; we must take care of each other. And this movement, he's saying, is about what the Argentinian uprising that began a decade ago, on December 19, 2001, called politica afectiva, the politics of affection.

If it's a movement about love, it's also about the money they so unjustly took, and continue to take, from us - and about the fact that, right now, money and love are at war with each other. After all, in the American heartland, people are beginning to be imprisoned for debt, while the Occupy movement is arguing for debt forgiveness, renegotiation, and debt jubilees.

Sometimes love, or at least decency, wins. One morning late last month, 75-year-old Josephine Tolbert, who ran a daycare center from her modest San Francisco home, returned after dropping a child off at school only to find that she and the other children were locked out because she was behind in her mortgage payments. True Compass LLC, who bought her place in a short sale while she thought she was still negotiating with Bank of America, would not allow her back into her home of almost four decades, even to get her medicines or diapers for the children.

We demonstrated at her home and at True Compass's shabby offices while they hid within, and students from Occupy San Francisco State University demonstrated outside a True Compass-owned restaurant on behalf of this African-American grandmother. Thanks to this solidarity and the media attention it garnered, Tolbert has collected her keys, moved back in, and is renegotiating the terms of her mortgage.

Hundreds of other foreclosure victims are now being defended by local branches of the Occupy movement, from West Oakland to North Minneapolis. As New York writer, filmmaker, and Occupier Astra Taylor puts it,

"Not only does the occupation of abandoned foreclosed homes connect the dots between Wall Street and Main Street, it can also lead to swift and tangible victories, something movements desperately need for momentum to be maintained. The banks, it seems, are softer targets than one might expect because so many cases are rife with legal irregularities and outright criminality. With one in five homes facing foreclosure and filings showing no sign of slowing down in the next few years, the number of people touched by the mortgage crisis - whether because they have lost their homes or because their homes are now underwater -- truly boggles the mind."

If what's been happening locally and globally has some of the characteristics of an uprising, then there has never been one quite so pervasive - from the scientists holding an Occupy sign in Antarctica to Occupy presences in places as far-flung as New Zealand and Australia, São Paulo, Frankfurt, London, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Reykjavik. And don't forget the tiniest places, either. The other morning at the Oakland docks for the West Coast port shutdown demonstrations, I met three members of Occupy Amador County, a small rural area in California's Sierra Nevada. Its largest town, Jackson, has a little over 4,000 inhabitants, which hasn't stopped it from having regular outdoor Friday evening Occupy meetings.

A little girl in a red parka at the Oakland docks was carrying a sign with a quote from blind-deaf-and-articulate early twentieth-century role model Helen Keller that said, "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt within the heart." Why quote Keller at a demonstration focused on labor and economics? The answer is clear enough: because Occupy has some of the emotional resonance of a spiritual, as well as a political, movement. Like those other upheavals it's aligned with in Spain, Greece, Iceland (where they're actually jailing bankers), Britain, Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, Chile, and most recently Russia, it wants to ask basic questions: What matters? Who matters? Who decides? On what principles?

Tunisians honor Mohamed Bouazizi whose self-immolation sparked a revolution

Stop for a moment and consider just how unforeseen and unforeseeable all of this was when, on December 17, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi, a Tunisian vegetable vendor in Sidi Bouzid, an out-of-the-way, impoverished city, immolated himself. He was protesting the dead-end life that the 1% economy run by Tunisia's autocratic ruler Zine Ben Ali and his corrupt family allotted him, and the police brutality that went with it, two things that have remained front and center ever since. Above all, as his mother has since testified, he was for human dignity, for a world, that is, where the primary system of value is not money.

"Compassion is our new currency," was the message scrawled on a pizza-box lid at Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan - held by a pensive-looking young man in Jeremy Ayers's great photo portrait. But what can you buy with compassion?

Quite a lot, it turns out, including a global movement, and even pizza, which can arrive at that movement's campground as a gift of solidarity. A few days into Occupy Wall Street's surprise success, a call for pizza went out and $ 2,600 in pizzas came in within an hour, just as earlier this year the occupiers of Wisconsin's state house had been copiously supplied with pizza - including pies paid for and dispatched by Egyptian revolutionaries.

[Read the full article here.]

"The ad hoc invention of the people's mic by the occupiers of Zuccotti Park, which requires everyone to listen, repeat, and amplify what's being said, has only strengthened this sense of presence."

Some rights reserved © Antares/Magick River You may borrow and/or modify content for your own blog but please credit and backlink, thanks.

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SPR's hanky-panky to ensure BN wins PRU 13...

In an effort to lend an air of credibility to itself, the Election Commission (EC) has announced that indelible ink will be used in the upcoming 13th general election. But there is no reason to jump for joy just yet. A lot of hanky-panky can still go on undetected right until the day of polling itself. Listed below are several examples:

1. Name not in the voter rolls and therefore unable to vote – any perfectly eligible voter whose name is not in the voter rolls is totally helpless to do anything about it. They can lodge a complaint of course but by then the results of the polls are already secured.

2. Name transferred out to another locality or worse still to another state – this is also an inconvenient move for the eligible voter and will very well impede his ability to vote if his name is transferred, say from Kuala Lumpur to Perlis.

3. PKR's Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh has revealed that nearly 600,000 names in Selangor have been moved or shifted about without the voters knowledge and these are only the ones detected!

Although indelible ink is a tremendous help in preventing multiple-voting, we are still back to square one if the eligible voters are unable to cast their vote due to hanky-panky in the voter rolls.

Although prior to polling day we can check to see that our names a! re not t ampered with, anything can still happen on the day of voting itself. With instant and advance technology our names can be in the voter rolls today but vanish tomorrow on polling way. There is no surefire guarantee that our names will be 100% kept safe in the voter rolls.

4. The only way the Pakatan Rakyat can win the 13th general election is with overwhelming support from the rural masses and from Sabahans and Sarawakians. This is because due to gerrymandering by EC, many small seats have been created in the rural areas.

This is called the 'Voters-per-seat Formula'. For instance, the parliament seat of Batu in Kuala Lumpur has over 100,000 voters. Compare this to the rural areas where many seats have less than 10,000 voters. This means that 100,000 can only give one seat to the opposition if the opposition wins in Batu whereas in the rural areas 100,000 voters can already contribute 10 seats.

This also shows that more weight or power is given to the rural seats as even with a few thousand voters, the rural folk have already one parliament seat compared to the city folk who need big numbers to get just one parliament seat. This unfair method of manipulation by EC has helped BN to win all along.

5. Besides playing around with the 'Voters-per-seat Formula', the EC can also move voters in a strategic manner. For example the Parliament seat of Shah Alam held by PAS' Khalid Samad. EC can move the Chinese voters to Klang which is held by DAP's Charles Santiago. In this way, BN regains Shah Alam. Forget about Klang, never mind.

Next, the EC can also move the Chinese voters from the PAS seat of Titiwangsa to Cheras which is held by DAP. In this way, BN regains Titiwangsa. Forget about Cheras as it is impossible for BN t! o win in Cheras anyway.

EC's dubious tactics

By transferring out the Chinese to areas where BN finds impossible to win, they will regain seats lost to the opposition and those seats that BN cannot win we will notice that the opposition has won by a very margin, for instance Seputeh (won by DAP's Teresa Kok by a margin of 36,000), Kepong and Cheras (also won by DAP with large margins). This is a bad sign as it indicates that something is afoot.

6. Another of EC's dubious tactics is the demarcation of boundaries beyond rhyme or reason. Again, several examples:-

Parliament seat of Batu in Kuala Lumpur. This is supposed to be a KL Federal Territory seat but it has been extended beyond Pasar Borong Selayang right up to Taman Selayang Jaya in Selayang, Selangor. In fact it overlaps with Selayang's Parliament seat in Selangor.

Parliament seat of Kepong in Kuala Lumpur. This is also a KL Federal Territory seat which has entered into Selayang, Selangor and overlaps with the Selayang Parliament seat as well.

The third example also involving a KL Federal Territory seat is the Parliament seat of Titiwangsa which has been extended right up to Taman Chempaka in Selangor.

All those seats are geographically weird in n! ature an d this is done to include in Malay voters who are known to favour BN. However, in the 12th general election in 2008, many urban Malays voted for the opposition. Knowing this, Umno is now frightening the Malays that they will be wiped-out if Pakatan comes to power.

This is to prevent the Malays from voting for Pakatan. The Malays must remember that PAS is also a Malay party and PKR is Malay-based, thus there is no way the Malays will be wiped out if they give overwhelming support to Pakatan. It is only Umno that will be wiped-out!

Therefore, it can be seen that due to EC's shenanigans, it is the rural voters that hold massive power to swing the election and decide who stays in Putrajaya.

Together with the civil service, teachers, police and the armed forces which are BN's vote bank, the rural vote which encompasses the settlers of Felda, Felcra and their kith and kin and those in connection with them are more than enough to ensure that BN stays in Putrajaya.

Mind you, the rural vote includes those in the Sabah and Sarawak interiors which have too many small seats and all these small seats contribute to BN's Parliament seat count as well.

Truly, the 13th general election is going to be the biggest and dirtiest election battle in history, indelible ink notwithstanding. Indeed we are living in interesting and exciting times.

Will the rakyat vote in Pakatan Rakyat to usher in a new era of change for the better or will we wake up to the same old boring BN with corruption stories day in day out the day after the election results are announced?

We are certainly on the threshold of a great historic moment, greater than the fall of the ! Berlin W all, will the rakyat rise to the occasion? - Selena Tay

source:FMT

cheers.

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Syarat BN menang besar PRU13 — Zulkifli Jalil

24 DIS — Jangan jadi seperti Pak Pandir. Berlawan sabung ayam, ayamnya menang tapi kampung tergadai. Begitu juga dengan Mat Jenin yang hanya tahu berangan namun hasilnya tiada.

Cerita penglipur lara ini walaupun agak melucukan tetapi membawa maksud cukup mendalam jika dihayati. Dan cerita rakyat ini hakikatnya menyelitkan mesej yang harus diteladani.

Cerita-cerita sebegini harus menjadi teladan kepada orang Umno. Jangan kita menang sorak tapi kampung tergadai. Jangan kita hanya bersemangat melaungkan perjuangan dan berkobar-kobar semasa Perhimpunan Agung Umno di Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra (PWTC) baru-baru ini. Tetapi selepas habis persidangan, semangat dan perjuangan luntur ditelan masa, sehinggalah bertemu kembali 'tak ada apa-apapun' dalam persidangan tahun hadapan.

Begitu juga dengan cerita Mat Jenin. Orang Umno hari ini tidak boleh terus berasa selesa dan berangan bahawa Barisan Nasional (BN) mampu mempertahankan kerajaan yang ada kini pada Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13 (PRU13). Ini kerana tanpa melakukan gerak kerja dan strategi bagi mendekati dan memenangi hati rakyat, parti pemerintah itu tidak mustahil akan diketepikan.

Genderang perang sudah ditiup Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak pada Perhimpunan Agung Umno lalu. Semangat perjuangan sudah disuntik, mesej perjuangan sudah menjalar ke akar umbi. Calon boleh menang sudah diperjelaskan dan persoalannya kini sejauh mana kesediaan jentera parti untuk menghadapi 'perang' yang akan berlaku pada bila-bila masa.

Banyak perubahan yang sudah kita saksikan sejak Najib mengambil alih tampuk pentadbiran negara. Usaha untuk mengembalikan keyakinan rakyat terhadap BN dan Umno setelah melalui 'tsunami politik' pada 2008 dilakukan secara konsisten, tanpa mengenal erti putus asa.

Bercakap kepada Utusan Malaysia semalam, Exco Pergerakan Pemuda Umno, Datuk Sohaimi Shahadan berkata, dalam mendepani cabaran politik semasa, perubahan perlu dilakukan bagi meremajakan Umno. Ia seperti yang ditekankan Najib yang juga Presiden parti bahawa Umno tidak boleh menjadi parti mendapat sokongan orang kampung saja.

Sebaliknya ia perlu menjadi parti mewakili masyarakat Malaysia dari segenap lapisan Bandar dan luar bandar secara menyeluruh.

"Menyedari akan hakikat itulah, tercipta satu sejarah sepanjang 62 tertubuhnya Umno apabila pindaan dilakukan terhadap perlembagaan Umno yang menyaksikan tujuh perubahan dilakukan bagi memastikan Umno bersifat inklusif serta relevan kepada rakyat Malaysia.

"Tujuh perubahan ataupun pindaan yang dilakukan itu ialah perluasan jumlah perwakilan, penghapusan kuota, penambahan bilangan Ahli Jawatankuasa Majlis Tertinggi, Bahagian dan Cawangan lantikan, penubuhan Jawatankuasa Pemilihan Umno, penghapusan yuran tahunan, pendaftaran keahlian dan pengiktirafan kepada Setiausaha Bahagian.

"Walaupun Ketika ini Umno dan BN dilihat sudah berupaya mengembalikan sokongan rakyat dengan pelbagai program, tindakan, pengumuman, aktiviti, gerak kerja serta usaha dilakukan secara berterusan, namun juga harus diingat segala isu yang melingkari parti dan kerajaan yang ada kaitan dengan UMNO, BN atau para pemimpinnya perlu diperjelaskan kepada rakyat dan harus ada agensi serta jentera parti yang bergerak cepat memadamkan isu ini," kata beliau.

Menurut beliau, tindakan proaktif ini perlu dimainkan oleh para pemimpin di peringkat bahagian, cawangan dan akar umbi demi kepentingan parti. Dan bukannya terpinga-pinga terjebak dalam mainan 'psywar' atau strategi politik kotor pembangkang.

"Adalah tidak wajar jika Umno dan kerajaan menjadi kambing hitam dalam isu berkenaan dan lebih malang lagi masyarakat mempercayainya bulat-bulat walaupun ia berunsur fitnah atau tohmahan," kata beliau.

Cuma dalam aspek ini, penulis mahu melontarkan bahawa adakah masalah kepimpinan di peringkat bahagian Umno masih menjadi penyakit dan duri dalam daging? Barangkali kerana segelintir kecil, maka itu sebabnya semasa taklimat Presiden Perhimpunan Agung parti baru-baru ini, Najib memberi penekanan supaya masalah di peringkat akar umbi perlu diselesaikan segera dengan sebaik mungkin.

Kisah mengenai adanya Setiausaha Bahagian yang 'menggelapkan' rumah seawal pukul 10 malam ketika pilihan raya kecil kerana tidak terpilih sebagai calon. Dan ada pemimpin bahagian yang menyimpan peruntukan pilihan raya untuk digunakan bagi bertanding jawatan dalam parti selain pemimpin parti pergi keluar negara meninggalkan jentera pilihan raya kerana tidak dipilih menjadi calon, semuanya itu harus menjadi iktibar jika BN ingin mempertahankan 'nikmat' pemerintahan kuasa yang ada pada parti pemerintah itu.

Sesuatu yang menimbulkan tanda tanya, apakah orang Umno sanggup menjunjung dan berpegang kepada bai'ah dilafazkan baru- baru ini. Adakah ahli parti di peringkat bahagian ataupun akar umbi sanggup bekerja bagi memastikan kemenangan jika calon yang dipertandingkan nanti bukan daripada kumpulan mereka.

Begitu juga pemimpin bahagian. Apakah mereka sanggup berkorban dan sedia memberi laluan kepada calon baru untuk berada di pentas arus perdana bagi meneruskan kesinambungan perjuangan yang ditinggalkan mereka.

Sepanjang perhimpunan agung Umno baru-baru ini, isu 'winnable candidate' diperbahaskan daripada dalam dan luar Dewan Merdeka, di Riverside dan coffee house. Ia sungguh hangat diperkatakan oleh orang Umno dan semuanya setuju dengan Presiden parti dalam soal ini. Bukan itu saja, malah ada pihak yang mahu Presiden parti menggariskan kriteria 'calon boleh menang' dimaksudkan kerana ramai teruja dan terpanggil untuk mencongak-congak siapa agaknya "wineable candidate" di kawasan mereka.

Namun bagi pucuk pimpinan parti, ia sangat jelas tiada kriteria khusus melainkan calon yang dicadangkan nanti boleh membawa kemenangan kepada parti. Selain isu 'winnable candidate', ada satu perkara yang perlu diberi perhatian serius iaitu soal percaturan. Cakap-cakap positif yang kedengaran sewaktu penulis minum bersama perwakilan parti di Riverside tempoh hari, antaranya perlu parti mengambil iktibar akan kekalahan BN di Perak pada pilihan raya umum lalu. Ia bukan disebabkan oleh kekuatan lawan tetapi kerana kesilapan percaturan.

Justeru, sudah tiba masanya BN menukar percaturan ini di mana calon kawasan majoriti Melayu dan bukan Melayu harus dikaji. Pertukaran kerusi secara strategik perlu dilakukan. Ini kerana formula ini telah digunakan oleh PKR dalam PRU ke-12 dan mereka mencapai kemenangan tidak dijangka. Satu lagi yang perlu diberi perhatian oleh pucuk pimpinan dan pemimpin peringkat bahagian ialah janji-janji pilihan raya.

Sudah tiba masanya untuk BN menyemak kembali janji-janji yang ditawarkan pada pilihan raya umum lalu. Apakah ia sudah dilaksanakan sebaik mungkin seperti mana dijanjikan. Jika belum, penjelasan perlu diberikan kepada rakyat supaya mereka tidak terkeliru.

Akhir sekali penekanan paling penting selain daripada calon boleh menang, Umno dan BN perlu memiliki 'jentera parti boleh menang' seperti yang dinyatakan oleh Ketua Pergerakan Pemuda Umno, Khairy Jamaluddin dalam ucapan pengulungannya. Tiada gunanya jika BN memiliki calon yang baik dan sempurna jika jentera parti tidak boleh bergerak.

Dan paling penting ialah jentera parti tidak mensabotaj calon. Tepuk dada, tanyalah hati. Adakah orang Umno sudah siap siaga? Jika ya, teruslah mara tanpa gentar lagi. — Utusan Malaysia

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.

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Mustafa Ali enggan jawab tuduhan mahu jumpa Umno

PETALING JAYA: Setiausaha Agung PAS, Datuk Mustafa Ali enggan mengulas tuduhan Datuk Dr Hasan Ali yang beliau mahu berjumpa pemimpin Umno.

Orang kuat PAS itu memberi alasan bekas pesuruhjaya PAS Selangor sudah tidak lagi menyerang PAS.

"Dia (Dr Hasan) sudah berhenti lawan PAS,  saya pun berhenti cakap.

"No komen,  biar dia kata apa pun. Kalau dia nak bercakap, biarlah dia bercakap," katanya ketika dihubungi hari ini.

Mustafa berkata demikian ketika diminta mengulas dakwaan Dr Hasan bahawa setiausaha agung PAS itu mahu berjumpa pemimpin Umno.

Dalam sidang media baru-baru ini, Mustafa mendakwa exco agama kerajaan negeri Selangor mengatur rancangan mahu berjumpa pemimpin Umno.

`Saya sign surat'

Selain Dr Hasan, kata Mustafa, bekas Timbalan Presiden PAS Nasharudin Mat Isa juga mahu berjumpa dengan pemimpin Umno.

Bagaimanapun, dalam sidang media di rumah Dr Hasan di Taman Tun Dr Ismail di Kuala Lumpur pagi tadi, Adun Gombak Setia itu menafikannya.

Dalam pada itu, Mustafa berkata hubungan beliau dengan Dr Hasan biasa sahaja.

"Hubungan personel (peribadi)  biasa sahaja. Tiada hubungan dalam telefon, cuma hubungan dalam media," katanya sambil ketawa.

Ditanya bila PAS  mahu menghantar surat memanggil Dr Hasan, Nasharudin dan Ketua Penerangan PAS Selangor, Saari Sungip untuk memberi pejelasan kepada Presiden Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, Mustafa berkata, Ketua Penerangan Datuk Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man sedang menguruskannya.

"Saya hanya sign (tandatangan) surat tetapi tarikhnya biar sesuai dengan tarikh presiden," kata Mustafa lagi.

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LDHN dalam proses kumpul data pemohon BR1M

IPOH: Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) kini dalam proses mengumpul data pemohon yang layak bagi menerima skim Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) sebanyak RM500, kata Menteri Kewangan Kedua, Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah.

Sehubungan itu beliau meminta supaya kerajaan negeri memberi kerjasama dan bantuan kepada petugas LHDN bagi memastikan proses pendaftaran berjalan lancar.

"Pada masa ini, kesemua petugas dan sukarelawan LDHN sedang giat memberi tumpuan di kawasan pedalaman terutama di Sabah dan Sarawak bagi memastikan setiap isi rumah yang layak menerima bantuan itu didaftarkan sebelum tamat tempoh.

"Jangkamasa yang diberikan kini kurang dari sebulan dan dengan itu kita memerlukan maklumat yang lebih tepat mengenai kawasan yang berpenghuni bagi memudahkan pendaftaran," katanya kepada pemberita.

2.4 juta borang

Ahmad Husni berkata proses pendaftaran BR1M berjalan lancar dan sejak dilancarkan dua minggu lalu, LHDN telah menerima lebih 2.4 juta borang permohonan di seluruh negara.

Katanya jumlah itu dijangka meningkat sebelum tamat tempoh yang ditetapkan iaitu pada 10 Jan tahun depan.

Beliau juga menjelaskan kesemua 304,000 penduduk yang tersenarai dalam daftar e-Kasih akan menerima bantuan secara automatik.

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Akjan, go ahead and sue!

Daniel J Jambun

Datu Akjan's media conference in which he said that there was never an Projek IC and the call for an Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) was ill-intended and can damage interracial relations was the strangest event with the most stupid statement I have ever seen in my years of political observations!

I know that in politics we may sometime meet certain characters who are extra daring and say a lot of shocking things, purposefully to agitate society for the sake of cheap publicity. But there is a limit to everything. One can overdo things and behave in a way that goes beyond what is acceptable and respectable, and this is what Akjan had done to himself. It seems that he had not learned anything form his huge blunder in declaring himself as Sultan of Sulu on Malaysian soil. After all the nationwide ridicule and insulting remarks about him because of the declaration, and after the arrest and investigation, it seems he has not grown up enough to behave in a civil and educated manner.

Now he had taken a most ridiculous action by saying there was no such thing as a Projek IC, when in fact he himself was arrested under the ISA for his direct involvement in the project. I fully support Datuk Wilfred Madius Tangau for pointing out to Akjan about the court ruling in the election petition for Likas, in which the judge made a ruling based on the sworn testimony if Hassnar Ibrahim about his involvement in Projek IC. Why doesn't Akjan make a statement to say that Hassnar Ibrahim, Jabar Khan and many others who had confessed about their involvement in the project, are liars? And why not also say the judge in the Likas election petition was unprofessional and should be defrocked and disbarred? Why not sue these people, including the judge?

 

And for goodness sake, how is an RCI going to cause ill-feeling between the races? Who indeed is causing ill-feeling between people and between the people of Sabah and the Federal Government? It thought it was those people who produced the false ICs. But now Akjan is saying those people who want the RCI are causing the ill-feeling. What kind of logic is this? The whole state wants and RCI except for him, why? Obviously Akjan is trying to defend the illegal immigrants and wants the huge problems of illegals immigrants in! Sabah t o continue and become worse. Again, why? Is it because he himself is an illegal immigrant who managed to get a MyKad through his own Projek IC (as proven by Mutalib M.D. in his book IC Palsu)? How come he had sued Mutalib? By his statement we are reminded that Sabahans are losing their position as masters of their own future, because now an immigrant is saying it is wrong to investigate illegals. If Akjan really believes there is no Projek IC and no illegal immigrants, why not let this be proven with an RCI? The RCI will clear up everything, and settle the issue once and for all. There will be no ill feeling against anyone, including aliens, as long as they are legal. What we don't want is a lot of questions about people like Akjan claiming to have been born in Limau-Limauan Kudat but the people there swear they don't know him, or Pakistanis holding ICs saying they are from a village in Ranau and they don't know a word of Dusun. Are the people of Semporna happy that they are being outnumbered by aliens by five to one?

 

So if Akjan is offended and believes he is right, I challenge him to go ahead and sue. By suing and the case going to trial we will be able to know the real story behind why he was arrested under the ISA for manufacturing false ICs, how many aliens benefited from his unpatriotic act, how much money those people involved managed to make to enrich themselves, and whether Akjan himself is an illegal immigrant. He had admitted that he is not a Malaysian by declaring that he is the Sultan of Sulu. His personal history raises a lot of questions, but he has all the opportunity to prove himself by proceeding to sue on the matter. But then again, I would also like to ask if he still considers himself a Sultan of a foreign country, in which case he has no business trying to be a Sabahan and a Malaysian or interfering in our state affairs.

 

DANIEL JOHN JAMBUN

Advisor, UK-based Human Rights Foundation Malaysia

!  

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‘Terima kasih Ibrahim Ali, saya masih bersama PAS’

KUALA LUMPUR: Bekas Pesuruhjaya PAS Selangor Datuk Dr Hasan Ali menolak tawaran Presiden Perkasa Datuk Ibrahim Ali yang mempelawanya menyertai badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) itu.

Perkasa  pada dasarnya memperjuangkan Islam, keistimewaan Melayu dan kedaulatan institusi Raja.

Malah Dr Hasan menegaskan beliau  masih mahu berjuang dalam PAS dan fokus terhadap usahanya untuk menyampaikan mesejnya selama ini.

Ibrahim semalam dilaporkan berkata sudah sampai masanya Dr Hasan membuat keputusan menyertai Perkasa jika merasakan perjuangannya dalam PAS tidak mampu memenuhi hasrat dan cita-citanya itu memandangkan Adun PAS Gombak Setia itu sudah pun dipinggirkan oleh parti sendiri.

Ahli Parlimen Bebas Pasir Mas itu berkata beliau telahpun menyatakan hasratnya itu kepada Dr Hasan sebelum ini tetapi setakat ini belum menerima apa-apa jawapan.

Jumpa presiden

"Saya ucapkan terima kasih kepada Ibrahim Ali kalau ada tawaran tapi beri saya peluang untuk berjuang dalam wadah sedia ada yang diberikan kepada saya untuk tentukan wadah ini memberi impak dan kesan kepada 28 juta umat Islam di negara ini.

"Di peringkat ini saya tak terima," katanya dalam sidang media di sini hari ini.

Sementara itu, ditanya tentang pertemuan dengan Presiden PAS Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang untuk menjelaskan isu ini, beliau berkata
setakat ini tidak mendapat apa-apa arahan atau surat daripada pimpinan, namun tetap bersedia bila-bila masa sekiranya dipanggil.

"Saya perlu berjumpa dengan pimpinan parti kerana saya patuh kepada pimpnan parti, saya perlukan bimbingan mereka tentang polemik yang berlaku, selain ada beberapa cadangan yang nak disampaikan kepada pucuk pimpinan tertinggi," katanya.

Beliau turut akur dengan perintah pimpinan parti untuk tidak membuat kenyataan terbuka dan menganggap ini sidang media terakhir dalam isu ini, namun mempertahankan tujuannya hari ini adalah kerana Setiausaha Agung PAS Datuk Mustafa Ali yang mencabarnya supaya menjawab dakwaan tentang perjumpaan dengan orang Umno Julai lalu bagi mengelakkan tanggapan negatif ahli dan masyarakat lain.

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`Tiada ruang untuk saya bersuara dalam Harakah’

KUALA LUMPUR: Exco Selangor Datuk Dr Hasan Ali menegur lidah rasmi PAS Harakah yang didakwanya hanya membuat liputan berita terhadap golongan tertentu sahaja dan mengenepikan pihak lain.

Katanya, keadaan itu ketara lebih-lebih lagi isu membabitkan dirinya sejak dua minggu lepas,  malah beliau tidak diberikan ruang dalam media parti sendiri untuk bersuara.

"Kalau buat analisis kajian kandungan dalam Harakah berhubung polemik ini sejak dua mniggu lepas berapa peratus ruang yang diberikan untuk Hasan Ali?

"Masa saya jadi Pesuruhjaya PAS Selangor pun tak banyak peruntukan diberikan kepada saya berbanding orang lain,  kadang-kadang ruang diberikan kepada parti komponen lain lebih besar berbanding golongan tertentu dalam PAS sendiri," katanya dalam sidang media di rumahnya di sini hari ini.

Beliau berkata sedemikian ketika diminta mengulas mengenai temuramahnya dengan TV3 menerusi slot 'Soal Jawab' Rabu lalu.

Katanya, perkara ini dapat dibuktikan apabila Timbalan Mursyidul Am PAS Datuk Dr Haron Din yang pernah memanggil media termasuk Harakah untuk menjelaskan pandangannya mengenai isu Gereja Methodist Damansara Utama (DUMC).

`Mungkin perintah orang berkuasa'

"Biasanya kalau timbalan mursyidul nak keluar akhbar mereka ini didahulukan tapi kemungkinan atas perintah orang yang berkuasa dalam Harakah didapati artikel sampai sekarang tak tersiar.

"Bayangkan kalau berita timbalan mursyidul am pun  tak keluar apatah lagi Hasan Ali," katanya yangmendakwa turut mendapat aduan yang sama daripada anggota dan pimpinan PAS  yang lain mengenai isu ini.

Walaupun tidak menafikan sumbangan besar Harakah dari zaman merdeka sehingga kepada kemenangan PAS dan Pakatan Rakyat dalam pilihan raya, Dr Hasan berkata pimpinan tertinggi perlu melihat semula struktur organisasinya walaupun isu ini pernah dibincangkan dalam parti.

Sementara itu, Dr Hasan  berkata beliau terbuka menerima mana-mana media yang mampu meletakkan berita itu ke pangkuan masyarakat seluas-luasnya dan tidak nampak kemudaratan yang diberikan kepada diberikan kepada dirinya dan parti sepanjang polemik ini timbul.

"Keterbukaan mereka untuk menerima orang seperti saya lebih besar daripada apa yang ada dalam media milik parti sendiri.

"Saya gunakan media yang dah sedia kukuh dengan tiada niat untuk mengambil keuntungan politik dan saya merasakan itu tindakan terbaik untuk saya setakat ini," katanya.

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Sabah tourism in a fix over MAS’ move

KOTA KINABALU: MAS' decision to suspend several flights to and from Sabah has put the government and state tourism in a fix.

Embarassed by the airline's decision, the state government has vowed to look for alternatives to prevent a downturn in Sabah's tourism.

Yesterday, MAS announced that it will be suspending eight flight routes and this included flights from Kota Kinabalu to three destinations; Perth (Australia), Seoul (South Korea) and Osaka (Japan).

Unveilling its business plan last week, the airline said the route rationalising was aimed at becoming profitable by 2013.

In the third quarter of this year, the airline posted its third straight quarterly loss, owing to high fuel costs and increased competition.

Yesterday, State Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Masidi Manjun, in an immediate reaction to the announcement by MAS said the state government had appealed for reconsideration.

"My ministry is aware of MAS' impending move to suspend these routes. We have had a series of high level meetings with MAS management to discuss the issue and to appeal to them not to proceed with this drastic move," he said in a press statement.

Masidi said the decision by MAS "is sad and regrettable especially at a time when the industry is facing a stiff competitive and unpredictable global economic scenario."

"But we won't cry and do nothing. We will just move on," he added.

Re-strategizing Sabah's tourism

Masidi said the state cabinet has also been notified of the matter and conveyed its unhappiness with MAS' decision.

"Based on the cabinet's stand I have written a letter to the minister of transport expressing our objection to the routes termination as it would have a negative impact on the development of the tourism industry in Sabah.

"In fact my ministry through Sabah Tourism has offered to assist MAS to improve their passenger load from these destinations which MAS blames for operational losses," he said.

Masidi however acknowledged that MAS was likely to ignore the state government's plea due to the airline's poor financial standing which has "severely affected its capacity to continue mounting flights to these loss-making destinations".

He said the decision is bound to have a negative impact on tourism arrivals in Sabah especially in the short term as the industry would need time to realign its marketing strategy and priority.

"On our part we are not going to cry over spilled milk. We are moving on. We have in fact started strategising our next move to overcome this latest challenge and believe that this MAS episode would be a temporary setback.

"The ministry and Sabah Tourism are reviewing various options and have started talking to other airlines to ensure that the rate of tourism arrival in Sabah is sustainable or even improved."

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Quit DCM post: Karpal tells Rama

PETALING JAYA: DAP national chairman Karpal Singh wants Penang Deputy Chief Minister II P to quit his post.

The calll from the veteran politician came in the wake of Ramasamy's comments to the media.

"His position as DCM is untenable. He should step down," Karpal told FMT.

On Thursday, Ramasamy, who is also Prai state assemblyman and Batu Kawan MP, claimed that his critics were plotting his downfall.

"People will be astounded if I reveal what the grassroots leaders are asking for in projects," he reportedly said.

This, Karpal said, was in defiance of the decision of the three-man committee set up by DAP to resolve the differences between Ramasamy and him.

The committee comprised DAP veteran Dr Chen Man Hin, party adviser Lim Kit Siang and secretary-general Lim Guan Eng.

"The allegations are serious and baseless. What he said is in defiance of the party's central executive committee and the three-man committee," said Karpal.

"As the national chairman, I cannot sit back and let it go. I have to publicly defend my party," he added.

Karpal said if there were elements of corruption, Ramasamy should have filed reports with the police and Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Previously, Karpal and Ramasamy crossed swords after the former labelled the latter a warlord while the latter called the former a godfather.

MORE TO FOLLOW

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Kritik Negara Berkebajikan: Hasan Ali mohon maaf

KUALA LUMPUR: Bekas Pesuruhjaya PAS Selangor Datuk Dr Hasan Ali hari ini mengaku tersilap membuat kenyataan mengenai konsep 'Negara Berkebajikan' yang dipersetujui ahli parti dalam Muktamar PAS dan disahkan Majlis Syura Ulama' Jun lalu.

Dr Hasan sebelum ini mengkritik PAS yang sudah lari daripada perjuangan asalnya iaitu membangunkan Negara Islam dan menganggap Negara Berkebajikan hanya konsep  'biasa' yang berjaya diamalkan oleh mana-mana negara maju termasuk di negara Eropah.

"Sebagai ahil PAS dan ahli jawatankuasa PAS Pusat, saya mengaku terdapat unsur keterlanjuran saya waktu membuat ulasan terhadap perkara itu.

"Dengan ini saya menarik balik komen saya mengenai 'Negara Berkebajikan tersebut.

"Saya mohon maaf kepada saf kepimpinan dan ahli parti terhadap keterlanjuran saya itu," katanya dalam sidang media di rumahnya sini hari ini.

Nafi bertemu pemimpin Umno

Sementara itu, beliau menafikan sekeras-kerasnya dakwaan Setiausaha Agung PAS  Datuk Mustafa Ali bahawa beliau dan bekas Timbalan Presiden Nasharuddin Mat Isa bertemu dengan orang Umno di Hotel Le Meridien selepas solat terawih Ogos lalu.

Beliau menegaskan dirinya tidak pernah bertemu dengan mana pemimpin Umno sama ada peringkat bawahan, pertengahan mahu pun atasan pada tempat yang dinyatakan.

"Setahu saya yang ada ialah pertemuan yang sebahagiannya berulang kali di antara setiausaha agung dengan pemimpin tertinggi Umno.

"Bahkan terdapat permohonan daripada setiausaha agung sendiri untuk bertemu dengan seorang pemimpin tertinggi Umno yang sehingga kini setakat yang sama maklum belum dapat diadakan," katanya sinis.

Katanya Mustafa sekali lagi terperangkap dengan prasangka buruk api fitnah sesama Muslim dan ahli jamaah.

"Sebagai setiausaha agung kepada parti yang berteraskan Islam, tuduhan liar dan serkap jarang seperti itu tidak selayaknya keluar dati mulut seorang setiausaha agung yang berwibawa," katanya.

Unit risikan dan intipan

Beliau turut mempersoalkan sejak bila pejabat setiausaha agung menubuhkan unit risikan dan intipan di pejabat agung parti dan keperluannya dalam konteks menjaga kesatuan dan perpaduan dalam parti.

Beliau sekali lagi menegaskan apa yang disebutkannya itu bukan pandangan peribadinya semata-mata, tetapi sebahagian ahli dan penyokong PAS selain anggota masyarakat lain.

"Mereka bersimpati dengan perjuangan PAS kerana melihat parti ini seolah-olah semakin tersasar daripada perjuangan asalnya.

"Ini mungkin disebabkan pendekatan akomodatif yang diambil PAS terhadap parti komponen demi bersam-sama mencapai hasrat menawan Putrajaya.

"Ramai yamg menyatakan kekhuatiran sikap ini akan dijadikan senjata oleh musuh politik PAS untuk menyerang PAS dalam pilihan raya umum akan datang," katanya.

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‘Perang terbuka’ papar kelemahan segelintir pemimpin PAS — Zulkiflee Bakar

24 DIS — Datuk Mustafa Ali akhirnya 'meletuskan lava' kritikannya kepada bekas Pesuruhjaya PAS Selangor, Datuk Dr Hasan Ali.

Dalam apa yang dianggap 'serangan terbaru' ke atas Hasan, Setiausaha Agung PAS itu mendakwa beliau mempunyai bukti untuk mengaitkan Hasan dengan agenda Umno.

Sambil merujuk kepada satu pertemuan antara Hasan dan bekas Timbalan Presiden PAS, Nasharuddin Mat Isa di sebuah hotel bersama sekurang-kurangnya tiga individu lain pada Ramadan lalu, Mustafa menegaskan, Hasan tidak boleh beranggapan pergerakan beliau tidak diketahui oleh pemimpin PAS lain.

Sudah pasti Hasan tidak akan duduk diam dan akan membalas kembali kenyataan Mustafa maka akan tercetuslah peperangan terbuka antara 'dua anak' Ali ini.

Kita tidak pasti siapa yang akan menang, tetapi apa yang nyata, pertelingkahan terbuka ini telah membuka pekung PAS terutamanya mengenai hala tuju parti itu yang semakin mengelirukan.

Selain itu, ia juga memaparkan bagaimana lemahnya pemikiran politik sesetengah pemimpin PAS apabila sewenang-wenangnya mengaitkan Umno dalam kemelut yang berlaku dalam parti mereka.

Gambaran yang cuba diberikan ialah Hasan seolah-olah tidak bijak berpolitik apabila didakwa sudah terperangkap dengan agenda Umno. Tidak mengapalah kalau pemimpin PAS hendak terus menyalahkan Umno, biar pun ia tidak benarkan kerana itulah sikap PAS, bak kata seorang kawan kalau tersandung batu semasa berjalan pun, mereka akan salahkan Umno!

Apa pun yang lebih perlu diberi perhatian ialah kenapakah Hasan yang mempertahankan pendiriannya menolak negara berkebajikan dan menggesa supaya PAS kembali kepada perjuangan negara Islam harus 'diserang'?

Hasan hanya menegur dan mengingatkan kepimpinan PAS bahawa perjuangan negara Islam perlu diteruskan dan tidak boleh diselindungi dengan slogan negara berkebajikan.

Tetapi ternyata niat ikhlas Hasan tidak mahu diterima oleh kepimpinan PAS, sebaliknya beliau 'diserang' kiri dan kanan, atas dan bawah, tengah dan tepi oleh pemimpin-pemimpin parti itu. Jika sebelum ini ada yang menyokong Hasan kerana tegas dalam soal memperjuangkan Islam dan menyatukan ummah tetapi secara tiba-tiba nada itu berubah.

Hasan digesa meninggalkan PAS jika tidak bersetuju dengan keputusan parti itu manakala ada pula yang menyatakan PAS tidak pernah lari daripada landasan perjuangannya.

Lebih buruk lagi, Hasan didakwa berlatar belakangkan pendidikan sekular dan tidak layak bercakap soal memperjuangkan Islam.

Begitulah hebatnya 'peperangan' dalam PAS, segala-galanya diungkit dan 'dibongkarkan' seolah-olah Hasan adalah musuh yang perlu diperangi habis-habisan.

Berdasarkan kepada hujah-hujah dan serangan ke atas Hasan, jelaslah di peringkat kepimpinan boleh dikatakan Hasan kini sendirian, tiada teman dan kawan yang berani secara terbuka mempertahankan pendirian beliau supaya PAS kembali kepada perjuangan negara Islam.

Tambahan pula selama ini apabila PAS bersedia menggugurkan perjuangan negara Islam, mereka semakin akrab dengan DAP dan berjaya menarik perhatian sesetengah masyarakat bukan Islam.

Justeru apabila Hasan secara terbuka bercakap mengenai konsep perjuangan negara Islam, PAS menganggap ia satu tamparan kerana PAS tidak mahu hasrat menubuhkan negara Islam menggugat hubungannya dengan Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) dan DAP.

Apa yang anehnya, biar pun ada pemimpin PAS tidak bersetuju dengan Hasan tetapi mereka menegaskan, PAS tidak pernah lari daripada landasan perjuangannya dan negara Islam tetap menjadi matlamat.

Sudah pastilah kenyataan ini menimbulkan kekeliruan di kalangan penyokong PAS sendiri kerana ia seolah-olah wujud misi tersurat dan tersirat dalam perjuangan PAS.

Yang tersuratnya adalah PAS mengisytiharkan kepada sekutu politik dan rakyat bahawa mereka ingin menubuhkan negara berkebajikan dan yang tersirat pula ada pemimpin parti itu masih mahu negara Islam diperjuangkan, ertinya sama dengan kehendak Hasan.

Oleh itu kenapakah Hasan hendak 'diserang'? Kalau betul PAS masih ingin memperjuangkan negara Islam maka Hasan tidak harus dipersalahkan apabila bercakap perkara berkenaan secara terbuka.

Kalau benar PAS tidak lari daripada landasan perjuangan asalnya, maka janganlah marah Hasan apabila beliau bercakap soal negara Islam kerana itulah matlamat sebenar Pas apabila parti itu ditubuhkan oleh sekumpulan ulama pada tahun 1951.

Janganlah memperkecilkan kenyataan Hasan bahawa penyokong PAS di peringkat akar umbi menyokong apa yang beliau perjuangkan kerana tindakan itu boleh menjejaskan parti. Ini memandangkan biar pun keputusan mewujudkan negara berkebajikan dan meninggalkan perjuangan negara Islam dibuat dalam muktamar namun ia bukanlah bermakna semua penyokong PAS bersetuju dengan keputusan itu.

PAS adalah parti Islam dan itulah yang diuar-uarkan, jika begitulah pegangannya maka tiada matlamat perjuangan lain selain perjuangan menegakkan negara Islam. Inilah yang diperingatkan oleh Hasan! — Utusan Malaysia

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.

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Tumbok Estate folk get choice of houses or money

KUALA LUMPUR: The former workers at Tumbuk Estate now have a choice between free houses and monetary compensation, but they have to decide quickly.

The offer is being made by G Team Resources Sdn Bhd, which last year acquired a majority stake in Maika Holdings Sdn Bhd, the main owner of the estate.

G Team's chief operations officer, T Tamil Selvan, told FMT that Maika, MIC's investment arm, would be wound up soon.

He said the former workers must say clearly whether they wanted housing or money "and we will work something out".

Over the last few weeks, G Team has been the target of criticism from the pro-worker NGO Jerit and the 14 families still living in the estate. They claim the company promised to build houses for the former workers in their agreement with Maika in 2006.

Maika holds a 31% percent stake in Tumbuk Estate. The rest are held by private investors.

The residents have also claimed that G Team withheld utility bills amounting to RM2,500, resulting in their water supply being disconnected.

Tamil Selvan said the 2006 agreement obliged Maika to subsidise only RM25 per family for water supply. "So legally, we should only pay about RM550 a month."

However, he admitted that his company did not pay RM16,000 in water bill, as it claimed recently, but only RM6,500 since June 2010.

"It was a typing error from our side when we issued the statement," he said.

Explaining why Maika had not built houses for the former workers, he said the then management decided to shelve the project in 2008 because the residents could not decide which families would get the corner houses.

"And they argued even after lots were drawn. So Maika had no choice but to postpone the project."

In a meeting in Nov 2010, after the acquisition, the 22 families eligible for the houses became divided again, he added.

Ex-gratia

He also said ex-gratia payments, amounting to RM201,000, were held back as a down payment for the housing project.

"However, the money was missing from Maika Holdings' account when we acquired it," he said.

He also said he told the former workers it would be difficult for them to get housing loans as they were all retired.

"And that's when we decided to take a vote, in the presence of Selangor exco Dr Xavier Jeyakumar," he said. "Out of the 22 present, 12 agreed to take the monetary compensation—between RM30,000 and RM40,000—as opposed to restarting the housing project.

"And in June this year, another two agreed to accept the compensation. We then prepared compensation for all of them as we had a clear majority."

Asked to explain why there were now 14 instead of eight opposing monetary compensation, he said the newcomers were those deemed ineligible for the housing scheme in the 2006 agreement.

"I even asked them to produce evidence that they were in list of those eligible, but they failed to do so," he said.

He reminded the residents to make their decisions quickly for they might end up with nothing after Maika got wound up.

"It is out of sheer goodwill that we are trying to resolve the residents' plight before closing down Maika Holdings. We want the matter to be resolved as soon as possible." he said.

Also read:

Jerit disputes tycoon's statement on Tumbuk estate

'G-Team did not turn off the taps

Maika's white knight loses hero status

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