Day: December 2, 2014

By Nigel Aw
Malaysiakini
5:38PM Dec 2, 2014

More than half a year after the government received the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) report on immigrants in Sabah, Putrajaya is finally set to release the document tomorrow.

The delay comes as no surprise after the nine month-long RCI hearing last year gave a controversial glimpse of the political machinations in Sabah which permanently altered the state’s demography.

Throughout the hearing, public attention centred on the uncontrolled influx of illegal immigrants and the alleged covert operations by the government to grant “instant citizenship” in exchange for votes.

Political opponents are likely to declare the report a vindication of their long-time claim about BN’s sin against the people of Sabah.

As controversial as the content may be, the toughest part for Putrajaya is not what happened in the past – which many Sabahans have long suspected – but what comes next.

Here is a highlight on what to look out for in the RCI report and why it is a headache for Putrajaya. Continue reading “Four things to look out for in Sabah RCI report”

Malaysiakini
Jan 28, 2013

Some call it Project IC, some call it Project M, whatever the name, here is what we have learnt from the Royal Commission of Inquiry on Immigrants in Sabah, in particular, the covert operations that allowed foreigners to vote in the bid to topple the PBS-led Sabah government.

1. There were at least two such black operations

G17 (or Group of 17)

Ring leader: Former Sabah National Registration Department (NRD) chief Abdul Rauf Sani (1990-1992)

Known figures involved: NRD officers Kee Dzulkifly Kee Abdul Jalil, Yakup Damsah, Asli Sidup

Political figures implicated: Then premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s political secretary Aziz Shamsuddin

Time period: 1990 onwards

Modus operandi

Sabah NRD officers were flown to Sabah to process some 40,000 to 100,000 blue identity cards for immigrants. This was necessary as at that time, the identity cards’ details and signature were done by hand.

After the details had been written on the cards as per the application forms furnished to the officers, they were dispatched to the then NRD headquarters in Petaling Jaya to be laminated before being returned to Kota Kinabalu. Continue reading “Eight things to know about the Sabah RCI”

By Paul Wood
BBC
1 December 2014

The Lebanese army’s Brig Gen Ali Mourad got a WhatsApp message from the Islamic State (IS). It was short and to the point. “We are the heroes of Qalamoun,” it said, referring to the mountains on Syria’s border with Lebanon, “and we’re going to kill you.”

Gen Mourad has a robust attitude to this threat.

“We want them to come, these terrorists,” he told me, at one of the heavily fortified positions paid for by the British government.

“We are waiting for them [here].

“When we see them, we shoot them, all the time.”

We were at Tango Ten, the 10th of 12 new posts built so far with UK money and expertise along Lebanon’s border with Syria. It looked down over a dusty plain to the snow-covered mountain that is controlled by various jihadist groups and used by them as a base to launch attacks.

The Lebanese soldiers at Tango Ten say they come under fire almost every night. They used to crouch behind a few tyres filled with concrete, “eyes like saucers, gripping the 50-cal [heavy machine gun,” said one of the former British army officers advising the Lebanese. Now they have proper defences, and morale is good.

Tango Ten had shades of Northern Ireland in the guard tower and Afghanistan in the Hesco barriers – which are earth-filled defensive walls. There was even a fleet of Land Rovers parked inside.

The UK has spent some £20m to stop the jihadists from invading Lebanon. Continue reading “Islamic State crisis: UK gives £20m to keep Lebanon safe”

Akbar Shahid Ahmed
Huffington Post
12/01/2014

WASHINGTON — The list of countries bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq has thus far featured a host of classic United States partners — Canada, the U.K., France. Now, it looks like the U.S. has a new quasi-partner in the air: Iran.

The U.S. is aware of Iranian bombing activity in the same national airspace where planes aligned with the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State are operating, a defense official told The Huffington Post Monday evening.

The official said he believes the Iranian bombing is unlikely to end as long as the Shiite-dominated nation feels threatened by the Sunni extremist group, also called ISIS. The bombing will not require a U.S. response unless Iran presents an immediate threat to U.S. forces in the air, he said.

“We are aware of that. I wouldn’t say we’re necessarily concerned with it — we kind of have our eyes on it,” the official said. He noted that the Iranian bombing has been taking place near the Iranian border, in a different part of Iraq than most U.S. and coalition activity. The official said he could only confirm reports of the bombing on the condition of anonymity. Continue reading “Iran Bombing Islamic State In Iraq, U.S. Official Confirms”

By BIMAN MUKHERJI and JOYU WANG
The Wall Street Journal
Dec. 1, 2014

HONG KONG—For years, Wo Shing Goldsmith has warmly ushered in eager buyers from mainland China, with customer traffic peaking at year-end. But shoppers are few and far between this year as Beijing’s anti-corruption drive damps spending.

“There was a sudden drop in gold price last year, which fuelled high demand from China. So we sold a good amount last year,” says Cheung Wai Nam, the 68-year-old co-owner of Wo Shing. “But this year…there is not too much demand.”

The store, opened in 1892 in Yau Ma Tei , part of the shopping district of Kowloon, displays chunky gold jewelry, with an old work bench scattered with tools and an ancient-looking metal vault in the back. The shop, next to a dried-seafood store on a busy street, deals mainly in accessories such as rings, bracelets and golden-pig necklaces.

On a recent afternoon, fewer shoppers than normal could be seen entering neighboring stores. Continue reading “Hong Kong Gold Sales Fall as China Tackles Corruption”

Barisan Nasional Ministers and MPs should not fail Sabahans and Malaysians a third time and should demand that the Joseph Pairin Review Committee on the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on the Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) should complete its review and make public its report before the end of the year, so that the new year of 2015 can begin with the serious resolution of the 40-year problem which had changed the political demography in Sabah as well as created unprecedented socio-economic problems for Sabahans as to make native Sabahans foreigners in their own land.

The BN Ministers and MPs had earlier failed miserably in being unable to rise to the occasion in the middle of last month to demand that the Report of the RCIIIS should be tabled in Parliament before the end of the 28-day budget meeting of Dewan Rakyat on Nov. 27 so that there could be a full-scale parliamentary debate.

The first failure of the BN Ministers and MPs was to allow the Prime Minister and the Cabinet to sit on the Report of the RCIIIS for more than six months doing nothing, as a parliamentary answer to my question revealed that the RCIIIS Report was submitted to the Federal Government on May 14.

Can the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, or any Barisan Nasional Minister or MP from Sabah enlighten the public as to what was done by the authorities with regard to the RCIIIS Report in the past six-and-a-half months since it was submitted to Putrajaya. Continue reading “BN Ministers and MPs should not fail Sabahans and Malaysians a third time and should demand that the Joseph Pairin Review Committee on the Report of the RCIIIS should complete its review and make public its report before end of year”

By Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Dec 1, 2014

Watching the succession of cabinet members spewing inflammatory rhetoric at the Umno Baru general assembly (GA) was like observing notorious class bullies playing to a crowd of their most loyal sycophants. The men and women who took to the podium are an embarrassment to their party, the nation and their community. The Father of Independence,Tunku Abdul Rahman, laid the foundations for a united Malaysia. Najib Abdul Razak consigned Tunku’s ideals to the bin.

At the finale of this year’s Umno Baru conference, Home Minister Zahid Hamidi told the delegates to adopt a “war mindset”, to “attack our enemies on the outside” and that “the best form of defence was to attack”. He claimed that Umno Baru’s training and research bureau had the blessing of the PM to use cyber and psychological war tactics to win the 14th general election (GE14).

Since when do leaders of a nation lead a clarion call to wage a war against it own people? Shame on you, Zahid and Najib!

Why are Umno Baru’s party conferences filled with hostility? Where are the words of reconciliation, national unity, 1Malaysia, harmony and cooperation, to address corruption, injustice and to uplift people’s lives? These supposedly illustrious men of the cabinet, including the disgraced former women, community and family development minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, behaved like thugs.

The public are disgusted with blatant corruption, injustice and abuse of power. They only desire a harmonious, multiracial, secular Malaysia. Continue reading “Cabinet wages war on the rakyat”

By Nigel Aw
Malaysiakini
5:38PM Dec 2, 2014

More than half a year after the government received the royal commission of inquiry (RCI) report on immigrants in Sabah, Putrajaya is finally set to release the document tomorrow.

The delay comes as no surprise after the nine month-long RCI hearing last year gave a controversial glimpse of the political machinations in Sabah which permanently altered the state’s demography.

Throughout the hearing, public attention centred on the uncontrolled influx of illegal immigrants and the alleged covert operations by the government to grant “instant citizenship” in exchange for votes.

Political opponents are likely to declare the report a vindication of their long-time claim about BN’s sin against the people of Sabah.

As controversial as the content may be, the toughest part for Putrajaya is not what happened in the past – which many Sabahans have long suspected – but what comes next.

Here is a highlight on what to look out for in the RCI report and why it is a headache for Putrajaya. Continue reading “Four things to look out for in Sabah RCI report”

The extremist and incendiary hate speeches by two UMNO General Assembly delegates Mohd Zaidi Mohd Said (Penang) and Mashitah Ibrahim (Kedah) should be “must watch” videos on You Tube for all Malaysians to realize that the time has come for moderates regardless of race or religions to unite to save Malaysia by isolating and marginalising extremism and promoting wasatiyyah or moderation.

The Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had been preaching to the world in the past four years – three times at the United Nations General Assembly since Sept. 2010 – that “the fight against extremism is not about Christians versus Muslims, or Muslims versus Jews, but moderates versus extremists of all religions”, and calling for a “coalition of moderates – those willing to reclaim their religion and pursue the path to peace”.

Unfortunately, Najib has allowed extremists in UMNO free rein, to the extent that UMNO delegates could even make extremist and incendiary hate speeches in the face of Najib, Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin, Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi and the whole phalanx of UMNO Ministers and leaders at last week’s UMNO General Assembly, enjoying immunity and impunity from sanctions of the law.

More than two months ago, at an UMNO Lumut function, Zahid swore: “As the minister responsible for the Royal Malaysian Police, wallahi billahi tallahi (I swear to Allah) that if police reports are lodged against any individual who impinged on a sensitive issue, the police will start investigations immediately, if possible within 24 hours.”

Why then the silence and inaction by the police to the numerous police reports which had been lodged against Mohd Zaidi and Mashitah for sedition and other crimes of hate speech in the past few days – well exceeding the 24-hour deadline in Zahid’s public oath? Continue reading “Mohd Zaidi and Mashitah’s racist, extremist and incendiary hate speeches at UMNO GA are “must watch” videos on YouTube for all Malaysians to realize that the time has come for moderates regardless of race or religion to unite to Save Malaysia by marginalizing extremism and promoting wasatiyyah”

Malay Mail Online
December 2, 2014

PETALING JAYA, Dec 2 — With RON97 now only 20 sen more expensive than RON95, more Malaysians are now able to purchase it.

In 2012, both fuels used to have a price difference of RM1 per litre.

But what exactly is the difference between RON 95 and RON97 besides the price?

RON stands for Research Octane Number, a form of fuel quality and performance rating.

The rating system was developed by Russell Marker at American firm Ethyl Corporation in 1926, following Marker’s discovery that branching in hydrocarbons reduced “knocking”, or pre-ignition. Continue reading “The real difference between RON95 and RON97 — besides the price”