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In Manek Urai, school’s in but mud and water keep classes from starting

By Zurairi AR
The Malay Mail Online
January 11, 2015

KUALA KRAI, Jan 11 ― Schools here reopened today for the start of the new year, but students in flood-stricken Manek Urai have yet to commence with lessons as cleanups are expected to last another week.

Clad in colourful casual attire and rubber slippers instead of the usual white-and-navy-blue uniforms, the students in SK Manek Urai here spent their time lounging around gawking at army personnel and volunteers, from their still wet classrooms.

This month marks the first anniversary of Yusof Ismail, 49, as the school’s headmaster after transferring from his hometown of Tanah Merah last year.

He admitted that the floods, which submerged two of the schools four storeys, were a major setback.

“It’s my personal challenge this year, to rebuild this school from the ground up. I am starting from square one now,” Yusof, with his black pants tucked inside a pair of yellow rubber boots, told Malay Mail Online during a visit this morning. Continue reading “In Manek Urai, school’s in but mud and water keep classes from starting”

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After 40 years of nightmare of illegal immigrants in Sabah, time is well past “talking” and only action, action and action will do

A few days ago, the yet-to-receive Appointment Letter Chairman of the Working Committee of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) Report, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan said his committee was prepared to hear out the Opposition.

Pairin intended to appear very magnanimous but he has come across as very out-dated and even obsolete, for after 40 years of nightmare of illegal immigrants in Sabah, time is well past “talking” or “hearing out”, but action, action and only action to resolve the problem once-and-for-all will do.

All the solutions that could be conceived to resolve the problem of exponential increase in the population of Sabah as a result of the unchecked influx of illegal immigrants, and worse, their illegal and immoral enfranchisement as voters through Project I/C and such-like treasonous conspiracies, have been canvassed ad infinitum, even by Pairin himself and the PBS leaders, and it is the height of dishonesty and hypocrisy for anyone to pretend that they want to hear out some more views as to how the 40-year-old nightmare of illegal immigrants could be resolved.

Pairin knew that there is no shortage of solutions but only one thing is lacking, and he himself had diagnosed this problem when he appeared as a witness at the RCIIIS. This was noted in page 31 of the RCIIIS Report on Pairin’s testimony as follows: Continue reading “After 40 years of nightmare of illegal immigrants in Sabah, time is well past “talking” and only action, action and action will do”

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Church fails to get 9-man bench to hear ‘Allah’ review

by V. Anbalagan
The Malaysian Insider
11 January 2015

The chief justice of Malaysia has turned down a request by the Catholic Church to convene a minimum nine-man panel to deliberate its review application against the ban on the word Allah when the case comes up on January 21.

The church was instead informed that only a five-man bench would be constituted to hear the matter.

The decision by Tun Arifin Zakaria was conveyed to the Catholic Church by the special officer to the chief justice, Dr Alwi Abdul Wahab, in a letter dated December 31.

The letter which was sighted by The Malaysian Insider, said that the request for a full bench could not be entertained. There were no reasons given on why the request was dismissed.

On December 23, a lawyer for the church had sent a letter to Arifin, urging for at least nine Muslim and non-Muslim judges to hear its arguments on fundamental constitutional provisions relating to religion.

The letter, which was also sighted by The Malaysian Insider, had said the church wanted a quorum that reflected the multi-cultural and multi-religious diversity of Malaysian society, given the nature of the issues raised. Continue reading “Church fails to get 9-man bench to hear ‘Allah’ review”

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The 40-year-old nightmare of illegal immigrants in Sabah is one of the seven cardinal sins of UMNO/BN government betraying the rights and interests of the people

The 40-year-old nightmare of illegal immigrants in Sabah is one of the seven cardinal sins of the UMNO/Barisan Nasional government betraying the rights and interests of the people.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Illegal Immigrants in Sabah (RCIIIS) has gone full circle, from skepticism of the public when it was first announced to high hopes raised during the public hearings, and to dashed hopes, disbelief and even deeper skepticism when the RCIIIS Report was made public in Kota Kinabalu on 3rd December 2014.

The people of Sabah and Malaysia must not give up hope and must continue to demand action to end the influx of illegal immigrants, revoke identity cards issued illegally, ensure a clean and untainted electoral roll in Sabah and to punish those responsible for the Project I/C and other treasonous scams, acting unlawfully, whether through abuse of power or corruption, in the massive issuance of illegal identity cards to exercise the citizenship rights of voting in the electoral processes.

The debate on the 40-year-old nightmare of illegal immigrants in Sabah cannot come to an end with the RCIIIS Report, but should be taken to a new height of immediacy and urgency.

The publication of this booklet, “The RCIIIS: The Endless Merry-Go-Round”, which is a collection of media statements and speeches of DAP leaders in the first month of the release of the RCIIIS Report, is to ensure that the 40-year-old nightmare of the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah remain in the forefront of public debate and democratic struggle not only in Sabah but also in Malaysia. Continue reading “The 40-year-old nightmare of illegal immigrants in Sabah is one of the seven cardinal sins of UMNO/BN government betraying the rights and interests of the people”