French lawyer Bourdon agrees to brief lawmakers

French lawyer William Bourdon, who represents Suaram in the Scorpene case, has indicated that he is willing to brief the Malaysian parliament on the matter.

Thieves in Malaysia cart away ATM containing RM37,520

Thieves carted away an ATM which contained RM37,520 after they dragged it out of a building in Bandar Baru Salak Tinggi near Sepang.

The incident occurred at 3.20am on Friday when it is believed more than one suspect used a rope to pull the ATM and loaded it onto a Toyota Avanza before fleeing.

Selangor CID chief Senior Assistant Commissioner Mohd Adnan Abdullah said a security guard working in the building discovered the theft when he heard the sound of breaking glass.

Malaya bleeding us dry

By Zainal Ajamain

Malaysian Post l These words “we demand autonomy or Sabah Negeri, Merdeka” must be on the lips and hearts of all true leaders in Sabah.

On both sides of Sabah’s political divide, our leaders have long been incapacitated by their fear of their perceived Malaya masters.

They will not speak out against the daily injustices towards fellow Sabahans. And even when they do speak up it is just passive shouting – a token resistance, just to show they are saying something.

It is like a dog that is supposed to guard a house against a thief – while it barks it retreats to the back, easily allowing the thief into the house and all its belongings.

But now, for many of us, an awakening has come. We have been stirred from our slumber and now find ourselves thrust into a new political era .
We now must accept the challenge that we each have to safeguard our Sabah.

Not enough money to make babies

PETALING JAYA: There are more people living in Malaysia today than ever before. At least 28 million people reside within its shores. Selangor and Kuala Lumpur combined take the lion’s share with a total population of 7,136,762.

But these staggering numbers – made public through the Population and Census Report 2010- also highlight a disturbing trend.

We may have more Malaysians today, but we are making less babies. And the economy may have something to do with it.

International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) professor and urban planner Alias Abdullah said that the country’s growth rate was on a steady decline since the 1990s.

Bank Negara’s increase in interest rate ill-timed

KUALA LUMPUR: Central bank Bank Negara’s move to raise the Overnight Policy Rate is ill-timed as people are continuously facing a rise in living cost.

“Since last year, the government through Bank Negara has increased the OPR four times and each time there has been a 25 basis-point increase,” PAS MP Dzulkefly Ahmad said in a statement today.

The OPR is the benchmark interest rate commercial banks use to calculate their base lending rates for loans.

EC to Bersih: Abandon rally, we’ll talk

PUTRAJAYA: Do not make the Election Commission (EC) a scapegoat, its chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof has told the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih).

He said the EC was prepared to meet Bersih over issues, on the condition that they abandon their planned illegal street demonstration for July 9.

“We can discuss on that condition, but if they (Bersih) want to hold the illegal street demonstration and meet us just as a rubber stamp or an excuse, it is meaningless.

MP stands by proposed dam

PETALING JAYA: A timely visit to Kampung Tambatuon assured Kota Belud MP, Abdul Rahman Dahlan, that the villagers are not averse to the proposed construction of a dam there.

According to Rahman, the villagers remained cautious over the prospect of leaving “invaluable land” but were also keen to find out details of the dam and the government’s compensation plan.

Kampung Tambatuon became the subject of controversy following a government proposal to build a RM450 million dam aimed at increasing paddy production and eradicating poverty in Kota Belud.

Malaysia developing a gambling culture

Malaysian Post l Christopher Fernandez

Towards late last month, Johor police squashed an illegal 4D syndicate that reportedly was raking in RM500,000 monthly, and also arrested 23 suspects in yet another of a growing list of raids conducted from time to time that bears testimony to the fact that a gambling culture has spawned in Malaysia.

If we have become quite used to reading about these raids, not only are illegal 4D syndicates the target of police, also ubiquitous now are Internet casinos operating under the guise of cybercafés that are beginning to attract hordes of gamers.

Never too late to say sorry

KUALA LUMPUR: That Effing Show’s Fahmi Fadzil has achieved international fame, thanks to his 100 apology tweets, the subject of stories carried by Associated Press, Wired UK, The Huffington Post, the London Metro and Al Jazeera.

As of three hours ago, he had made it into 314 international news reports.

His followers were confused yesterday morning when he started tweeting apologies to Blu Inc Media for allegedly defaming it.

New Malaysian metropolis taking shape near Singapore

This photo taken on May 13, 2010 shows visitors looking around a luxury home at Iskandar Malaysia district in the southern state of Johor Bahru. A new metropolis three times the size of neighbouring Singapore is taking shape in the foothills of southern Malaysia. -- PHOTO: AFP

JOHOR BAHRU - A NEW metropolis three times the size of neighbouring Singapore is taking shape in the foothills of southern Malaysia, where officials and investors have equally huge ambitions for the city.

Najib is the best Tupperware Queen of the 70s Tupperware Party

Written by  Mariam Mokhtar, Malaysian Post

The only time when citizens of Malaysia can be real masters of their destiny and make the holders of public office accountable for their actions, is when we have clean and fair elections.

But our politicians are the ones who fail to distinguish between political interest and administrative positions.

Already, Prime Minister Najib Rajak has cancelled this week’s Wednesday cabinet meeting to campaign in Sarawak. Najib is blurring the lines between his federal government duties and party political interest.

How many more lives must be lost before Malaysians run amok?

Written by  J. D. Lovrenciear l Malaysian Post

The nation is gripped with pain as citizens shake their heads in disbelief. The most recent death of a Customs employee - will this episode be the proverbial fourth stone that breaks the camel's back?

Or will Malaysians have to live through numerous more deaths of citizens under detention, under investigation and what nots before Malaysians finaly run into a frenzy?

Or as the authorities have admonished, people must not speculate but go about their everyday business as it does not involve them. And let the authorities do their job and when the answer is finally provided life will return to normalcy.

Probe Taib, or ‘we take to the streets’ (Video inside)

Malaysian Post 

PUTRAJAYA: A Sarawak citizens initiative has warned that it will take to the streets if the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) does not probe state chief minister Taib Mahmud.

The ultimatum from the Movement for Change Sarawak (MoCS) leader Francis Siah comes amid preparation for the Sarawak state election on April 16.

Siah, who submitted a letter of demand to the MACC at its headquarters in Putrajaya today, asked why there has been no action against Taib despite the overwhelming evidence, including documentary proof, provied by whistleblowers.

The allegations are too many, he said, adding that they include Taib’s enormous wealth, his various properties overseas and his alleged shady land deals and monopolising of logging concessions in Sarawak.

Marcos, Mubarak & Mahathir – Who’s The Richest Man?

T

he mounting pressure from 18 days of historic protests finally drove Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from office, after 30-years as his nation’s iron-fisted ruler. But the dictator should not shed a single drop of tear because the fortune he amassed is more than enough to finance his retirement comfortably. It would be nice and jaw-dropping if Forbes can compile the world’s richest dictators or politicians simply because it would put world’s richest man, Mexican Carlos Slim (worth about US$54 billion) and Bill Gates (net worth about US$53 billion) to shame.

Armed with suspended constitution for 30 years, Hosni Mubarak was in virtually every piece of business deal in the country thanks to guaranteed profit from monopolies, red-tape fees, bribery fees, nepotism and whatnot. The British Guardian newspaper estimated the wealth of Mubarak and his family at somewhere between US$40 billion and US$70 billion. That’s about US$1 billion to US$2 billion net profit annually on average, not bad for a job as a president ruling a nation with GDP per capita of just $6,300.

ARCHIVE: Najib and Altantuya "A Picture Connects Them"

Written by Mat Salleh 
Sunday, 01 July 2007 

Testimony in a Malaysian courtroom links the deputy prime minister to a lurid murder case 

Months of conjecture in Malaysia about the relationship of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to Altantuya Shaariibuu have been heightened by testimony Friday of Altantuya’s cousin, Burmaa Oyunchimeg, that she had seen a photo of Najib having dinner with the Mongolian beauty and Abdul Razak Baginda, who is accused of arranging for her murder. 

Najib has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Altantuya. A spokesman said Saturday that he won’t answer any questions concerning her because he has never met her. Nonetheless, opposition leaders Anwar Ibraham of Parti Keadilan and Lim Guan Eng of the Democratic Action Party both pounced on Burmaa’s testimony, demanding he explain the photo, which the woman said she had seen but did not produce. 

Mahathir says power corrupts but in the same breath rejects change

Written by  Mariam Mokhtar, 

Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad cast doubt on the ability of the new governments of Tunisia and Egypt to solve the nation’s troubles. He didn’t believe that its new leaders would do better and blamed government incompetence for the underdevelopment of Muslim countries.

He said, “Should these revolutions succeed there would be new governments. But it is worthwhile to remember that change is not always for the better”.

With a hint of irony, he remarked “This is because most leaders upon achieving power would change and would forget the struggles and sacrifices which enabled them to be in power. Power corrupts as we all know”.

Pakatan proposes RM1 billion fund for Dayaks

Pakatan Rakyat has proposed the setting up of a RM1 billion Dayak endowment fund if it wins the coming Sarawak state election, DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng said in Kuching today.

"The fund is to redress the gross neglect, improve the economic welfare and uplift the educational standards of the Dayak community," he said to reporters after the opening of the 15th Sarawak DAP annual convention.

Lim, who is also the chief minister of Penang, accused the BN government in Sarawak of marginalising and neglecting the Dayak community while their leaders and ministers enrich themselves.

Female ministers in Najib’s cabinet, Shahrizat or Yen-Yen, should get their husbands to stand in for some of their work

No one is in a better position to check up on one’s subordinates than one’s wife. In this case, Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has detailed his wife to go to three countries for visits to promote Malaysia and do some official work.

The First Lady may not be a politician or an elected representative of Malaysia but only a woman of her calibre has the ear of the PM and his sentiments too.

Rosmah need not be on the official government payroll because her husband can easily command that she be paid the necessary expenses as she is promoting Malaysia, on his behalf.

How much is Rosmah Mansor's salary?

Normal ministers already enough to make you see stars!! 


The Prime Minister's salary: Monthly salary RM22,826.65, plus a lot of allowances which can be a few times of salary, and those ahem ahem that can be by hundreds of millions to billions.

Julian Assange: The Secretive Whistleblower

To some, WikiLeaks is seen as a beacon of free speech that is to be praised. But to others, including outraged Pentagon and White House officials as well as a number of governments the world over sees it as irresponsible and want the website taken down for what they call irreparable damage to global security.

The elusive public face of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange has been described by his mother as "highly intelligent". Not a surprising credence – even for a mom – seeing as Assange is an award-winning journalist was nominated as ‘Person of the Year’ by Time magazine which described him as a “new kind of whistle-blower… for the digital age”.

Assange’s act of exposing official top secret documents had catapulted to celebrity status but his notoriety did not stop there. Shortly after he released the Afghan War Diary, he became the subject of a sex crime case in Sweden.

So who is this lean, lanky, leather jacket-clad man with pale skin mop white hair we’ve been seeing a lot on TV and the internet lately?

Young Julian

Assange was born in Townsville, in the Australian state of Queensland, and spent much of his youth living on Magnetic Island. The son of parents who ran a touring theatre company, he grew up constantly on the move. In 1979, his mother, Christine, remarried; her new husband was a musician who belonged to a controversial New Age band. The couple had a son, but broke up in 1982 and engaged in a custody struggle for Assange's half-brother. His mother then took both children into hiding for the next five years. Assange moved several dozen times during his childhood, attending many schools, sometimes being home schooled, and later attending several universities at various times in Australia.