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Broadband is snailband

Rais: No plan to register bloggers
By Husna Yusop and Giam Say Khoon | The Sun

KUALA LUMPUR (June 18, 2009) : The government has no plans to list or register bloggers and they are still free to post information on the internet, Information, Communications and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said today.

“There are various processes of disseminating information these days. Whatever the authorities do, the websites are still free to post any information on the Internet.

“At the moment, we do not list or register bloggers operating on the Net. And, there is no plan to do that. However, to maintain harmony in society, they (bloggers) must follow the laws,” he told Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur).

Lim in his supplementary question said the plan to register bloggers, made by some quarters recently, was a backward move.

Last month, Rais was reported saying the proposal was good but required indepth study.

Lim also complained about the broadband service which he said can also be called “narrowband” or “snailband”.
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Act of sabotage

car tyre puncture at Parliament Precint

Kit Siang’s car tyres punctured outside Parliament (Update)
By LEE YUK PENG | The Star

KUALA LUMPUR: A tyre of the car belonging to veteran Member of Parliament Lim Kit Siang (DAP-Ipoh Timur) parked at the MPs’ parking lot at Parliament building was delibrately punctured with a needle on Wednesday.

Lim, who raised the matter it at the Dewan Rakyat during the Question Time Thursday asked: “How can this act of sabotage happen at Parliament building?”

He said he planned to drive out for lunch at 1:15pm when he discovered that the rear left tyre had deflated.

An aide said he went to a nearby petrol station to inflate the tyre and returned to Parliament building after lunch.

However, he discovered the same tyre had deflated again at 4pm.
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Umno must abandon old politics and work together with Singapore to bring about prosperity and progress for Malaysia and Singapore

By Dr Chen Man Hin, DAP Life Advisor

PM Najib wants more development for Johore and Malaysia by improving relationships with Singapore. His proposal to build a third bridge to link South East Johore with Changi of Singapore was meant to bring economic development for South East Johore and Singapore.

Umno insisted that selling land to Singapore was akin to giving up Malaysia’s sovereignty. This is ridiculous.

Umno should be aware that large quantities of sand and quarry stone have been sold to Singapore for many years. Yet we have not lost our sovereignty.

Umno must realise that the rural population of South Johore – in particular both South East and South West Johore are still quite poor Continue reading “Umno must abandon old politics and work together with Singapore to bring about prosperity and progress for Malaysia and Singapore”

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“You Are Not Qualified To Talk My Religion”: How to Respond to Attempts to Close the Public Domain- Part 2

By Farish A. Noor

If I were to tell someone that I don’t like Satay, loathe batik shirts and cant stand keroncong music, does it follow from that that I hate Malay culture in toto? Now one would have to be deliberately and consciously paralysingly stupid to believe that, by assuming that the rejection of some aspects of normative culture amounts to a total rejection of an entire culture as well. If that is the case with culture, then why cant we see that the same rule applies to talk of religion as well?

I raise this point because it has become ever so trendy in Malaysia these days to assume that any rejection, critical questioning or even debate over some normative aspects of religious epiphenomena amounts to a total rejection of the religion per se. This arises because of the unscrupulous manner in which some religiously-conservative individuals have erroneously equated the normative aspect of religiosity with the dogmatic aspect of religion in general. The two spheres, however, are distinct and should remain so.

This explains in part why groups such as Malaysia’s Sisters in Islam have been in the limelight for so many years, and why this group of Muslim feminists have been attacked again and again, and accused of being anti-Islamic. The fact however is that Sisters in Islam (SIS) Continue reading ““You Are Not Qualified To Talk My Religion”: How to Respond to Attempts to Close the Public Domain- Part 2”

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PKFZ scandal – Ong Tee Keat should explain whether it is true that he had on 10th May 2009 as Transport Minister pressured the Prime Minister to approve RM1.2 billion payment as variation of costs for PKFZ

My three questions (No.58 to No. 60 on the 20th day in the current series) to Transport Minister Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal today are:

No. 1. – A website, http://pkfz.blogspot.com/, has appeared which uploaded exchange of letters to show that on 10th May 2009, Ong had on 10th May 2008 as Transport Minister pressured the Prime Minister to approve RM1.2 billion payment as variation of costs for the PKFZ project to its turnkey developer, Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd and asked why this information was omitted in the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) audit report on the PKFZ.

Ong should explain whether it is true that he had on 10th May 2008 as Transport Minister pressured the Prime Minister to approve RM1.2 billion payment as variation of costs for the PKFZ project and confirm the two letters uploaded on this website.
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Website launched as part of the effort to get to the bottom of the “scandal of scandals” in the nation’s history

Today, a website on the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal, http://pkfz-scandal.org/ is launched as part of the effort to get to the bottom of the “scandal of scandals” in the nation’s history.

I am very disappointed with the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) decision that its Chairman, Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid need not disqualify himself and step down from the PAC inquiry into the PKFZ scandal, despite a clear conflict of interest, as he was a Cabinet Minister from 2004 to 2008 when the Cabinet took many critical decisions resulting in the ballooning of the PKFZ scandal from RM1.1 billion in 2002 to RM4.6 billion in 2007 and now RM7.5 billion and heading towards the astronomical cost of RM12.5 billion.

I never suggested that Azmi has any personal interest in any PKFZ transaction but as a Minister involved in the decision-making process resulting in the PKFZ project becoming the “mother of all scandals”, he should be a witness appearing before the PAC to testify why he as a Minister had supported the Cabinet decision in July 2007 to bail out the PKFZ project at the astronomical cost of RM4.6 billion – when the Cabinet should know that it would mushroom further to RM7.5 billion and later RM12.5 billion instead of heading a PAC inquiry into it.
Continue reading “Website launched as part of the effort to get to the bottom of the “scandal of scandals” in the nation’s history”