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Rabu, 26 Disember 2012

part of paya peda dam had to be broken


KUALA TERENGGANU: Part of the Paya Peda dam in Besut which is still under construction had to broken yesterday to release a water reservoir for the safety of the people living downstream, said Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Said.

He said that although the move caused floods, it had to be done to release pressure on the dam.
The step taken enabled water to be released from the dam in a planned manner, he said.
Some 1,000 people in the district had to be evacuated to flood relief centres as a results of the ensuing floods.
 "Because of a fear of a dangerous spillover, the move to break down part of the dam was taken after consultations involving the dam's consultant, contractor and the Drainage and Irrigation Department," Ahmad told reporters after attending a Yayasan Terengganu function at Dewan Konvensyen Taman Tamadun Islam (TTI) here today.
The RM333-milion dam due to be completed in the middle of next year will serve as an irrigation dam that will enable padi farmers downstream to plant two crops a year. -- BERNAMA

Guan Eng seeking to divert attention from land issue


NIBONG TEBAL: DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng was chided for trying to divert attention from a state party leader's controversial 4,000ha land ownership in Kelantan by calling on the federal government to allow Christians to use the word of 'Allah' in the Bahasa Malaysia version of the Bible.

Umno Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam said the Penang Chief Minister was seeking to divert public attention from the controversy involving Perak DAP chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham.

Mohd Ali, who is also the Malacca Chief Minister said the issue of the use of 'Allah' word among Christians had been resolved and there was no need to bring up the issue again.

"However, he (Lim) needs to create a diversion from the controversy involving Ngeh to distract the public from the more important issue on the 4,000ha land owned by the DAP Perak chairman."

"DAP leaders made a ruling that their assemblymen should not acquire any land during their term in office, so Lim should better focus on explaining the issue to the rakyat," he said after opening the Malaysian Islamic Missionary and Welfare Organisation (Pekida) 18th annual general meeting here today.

Mohd Ali said the land issue was serious as it involved a huge land parcel in Pas-led Kelantan.

He also called for the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to expedite their investigation into the matter.

Ngeh had denied allegations that the Kelantan government awarded Upayapadu Plantation Sdn Bhd, the company that owns 4,359ha land in the state, in exchange for him not being made the Perak Menteri Besar after DAP won the most number of seats in Perak at the 2008 general election.

Mohd Ali also challenged the DAP leadership to suspend or direct Ngeh to relinquish his posts pending the MACC probe.

"This is a classic example of hypocrisy practiced by the DAP leadership. They are always quick to jump the gun and calling for BN leaders to resign the moment they are alleged of any wrongdoing."

"However, when their leaders are linked to any controversy, the party adopts a silent mode and create other issue to divert the public from the issue at hand," he said.

As such, Mohd Ali urged Muslims in the country not to fall into Lim's political twist by playing up the word of 'Allah' issue and instead focus on the land ownership issue.

Lim, in his Christmas message on Monday had urged the federal government to allow Christians to use the word 'Allah' in their Bahasa Malaysia version of Bible.

128 illegals arrested in Langkawi waters


LANGKAWI: The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) arrested 128 illegals believed to be Myanmar nationals, about five nautical miles from Pulau Rebak in Langkawi waters, yesterday.

Langkawi MMEA enforcement chief, Maritime Captain Zulkarnain Mohd Omar said in a press statement today that the group included four women and nine children.
He said the arrest was made by an MMEA patrol boat team who became suspicious of a cargo boat they saw in the waters here and upon inspection, found the illegals and that the bot was skippered by a Myanmar.
He said the illegals were then brought to the Bukit Malut fishery jetty for further investigation under the Immigration Act for illegally entering Malaysian waters.
Zulkarnain said this was the third arrest of illegals made by MMEA here this year.  -- BERNAMA


Isnin, 24 Disember 2012

Residents await state govt decision


ANOTHER DEMOLITION? Devotees in a quandary over temple status

SEPANG: THE residents of Ladang Teluk Merbau, here, have hit a wall over the status of a Hindu temple as their pleas continued to go unheeded by the Parti Keadilan Rakyat-led Selangor government.
Temple chairman R. Vellasamy said the over 130-year-old Sri Maha Mariamman temple will be reduced to rubble if the state showed no signs of intervention.
"This temple was built during the British colonial times on land belonging to conglomerate Hap Seng Land Sdn Bhd.
"But the company wanted its land back in April last year and issued a demolition order," he told a press conference yesterday.
Although he had asked for help from the state government, Vellasamy said the demolition was on hold temporarily due to a meeting with the company and representatives from MCA and MIC.
Former Sungai Pelek DAP branch chairman and temple advisor Tan Tuan Tat said the Indian community was saddened over the status of the temple.
"There are lots of Indian families here. If the temple is demolished, where will they go and pray?"
Tan said the conglomerate gave an alternate land for the temple to be relocated -- 8km away from its current location. But the temple management asked to be relocated to a land belonging to the state government which was only 2km away.
However, Tan said the state had ignored the request despite five letters sent between Jan 11 and May 28 this year to Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and state executive councillors Dr Xavier Jeyakumar and Teresa Kok.
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Temple chairman R. Vellasamy says the Sri Maha Mariamman


'Pakatan unfit to run govt'


Pakatan Rakyat is unfit to run the government as its party members and leaders give out empty promises and are embroiled in leadership problems.

Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan said this while listing 10 reasons to substantiate why Pakatan Rakyat was unqualified to administer the country.
He said he wanted to highlight the 10 points to ensure voters were not hoodwinked by the opposition's tactics during the general election.
Top on his list were Pakatan Rakyat leaders' empty promises, as many of them had not implemented their election manifesto.
"Each state led by Pakatan has its own problems. Kelantan is facing problems with quality of water supply while Penang has issues regarding the demolition of buildings.
"Kedah and Selangor are facing other problems," said Ahmad during a function organised by the Bakri Barisan Nasional at a community hall in Bakri, here on Saturday .


No awards for party members, says Karpal


Two DAP leaders came under fire from its national chairman Karpal Singh for accepting datukships from their respective state rulers, an action long deemed non-permissible to party members.

It may be back in 2008 that Perak DAP chairman Datuk Ngeh Koo Ham accepted his datukship and two years later for Selangor legislative assembly speaker Datuk Teng Chang Khim, but Karpal yesterday voiced his dissatisfaction and said such actions were non-tolerable.
"It is a long standing ruling for DAP. We constituted that in the 1990s. DAP state assemblymen and members of parliament are not to accept datukships and awards during their tenure in office.
"The two knew about it and yet they went ahead to receive the datukships. From now on, DAP will take action against members who do not follow this ruling."
On the action to be taken against those who accepted such datukships, Karpal replied: "The form of punishment will have to be decided by the party's disciplinary board after a hearing.
"There is no escaping. They will be punished."
Karpal pointed out that he himself did not accept any datukships or awards over the years.
"Neither did our senior leaders, such as Dr Chen Man Hin, Lim Kit Siang and even Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
"We could have easily had secured a datukship and also received many awards. The Penang government is with us... but we did not."
He was responding to an article by former party vice-chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, who claimed that Karpal had issued an edict prohibiting DAP members from accepting state titles and awards from Malay rulers.
Karpal said Tunku Aziz had lied and demanded a retraction of his statement.


Jumaat, 21 Disember 2012

DAP's 'Animal Farm' dysfunctionalism


ORWELLIAN-LIKE DUPLICITY: Party accuses rivals of transgressions which they stupefyingly embrace and execute

IN George Orwell's inspiring masterpiece Animal Farm, farm and dairy animals revolt against their oppressive human master but the pigs, as rebel leaders, transmute in and out into the very nemesis they despised -- humans.
And within that flux, there lies Orwell's most daunting maxim, an illuminating and still prescient rubric: "All animals are equal", an initial rule that slyly negated to "but some animals are more equal than others".
This grouping of maxims is worth reprising because it mirrors eerily the DAP, throttling in its variable theme of political dysfunctionalism that consistently parodies its own existence by playing a charade of something it is not.
DAP leaders' derring-do is uncannily similar to many aspects of Orwell's 1945 satire that spins a telling yarn of animal leaders mouthing grand democratic and governance ideals, but whose stringent constitutions they contemptuously snub.
Against Animal Farm's backdrop, DAP's malarkey is apt hypocrisy, reinforced by a most recent howler at their party elections last week, the ultimate trampling of their Malaysian Malaysia, Middle Malaysia, multiracialism mantra.
In short, their Chinese-dominant delegates couldn't find it in their conscience to elect a single Malay leader into their 20-member central executive committee despite the pleading of enduring and high-profile Malay loyalists, parachutists and defectors.
Basically, DAP were caught with their pants down of inadvertently dissing their cherished mantra of racial and religious equality, but you wouldn't know it from their leaders' rant in trying to weasel their way out of this hubris of their own making.
In any case, it was classic Orwellian: they blame rival parties for the grievous failure of the Malay candidates and comically spun it as bowing to democratic meritocracy when in fact, the party has no ability to see beyond their own true skin.
As for the frustrated Malay, one can only admire their perseverance or chuckle at them for sticking adhesively to a party that doesn't seem to need them, a party that should proclaim themselves as Chinese-dominant aided by minority stakeholders focused on Chinese issues. At least that would be straightforwardly honest.
But being Orwellian in their attitudes, the party has no capacity to be up-front: there are too many hypocritical stances committed to maintain their Animal Farm disposition.
Here's how their "some animals are more equal than others" profligacy affects the party:
THEY denigrate other parties for nepotism and cronyism, but they just have to maintain a father-son dynasty at the top of the heap;
THEY frothily pledge freedom of the press in their diatribes against their rivals, but they banned newspapers and other media outfits from attending their events in Penang as revenge against critiques dumped on their bizarre management policies;
THEY twaddle on the idea of free speech but alas, only their top leaders can lambast and lampoon brazen hyperbole against rivals in and out of the party.
THEY insist that their system of sharing power within their 20-member committee is to avoid cliques and in-fighting but tell that to some conscientious leaders battling the father-son authoritarianism: not only are they soundly dismissed but their reputation is brutally flayed by pro-dynasty cyberbullies;
THEIR Orwellian instincts have the mendacity to insinuate rivals as "Hitlerian" and on a par as the Hosni Mubarak regime: the irony is lost to them for if the Federal Government was anything like Hitler or Mubarak, DAP would have been absolutely wiped out decades ago;
THEY have the troublesome habit of denouncing others of racism when their own bigotry traps them in a corner. For DAP, when other parties practise the politics of racial balancing, it is racism all the same, but the kettle's bottom is darker in the DAP's side;
THEY castigate the police to the point that confidence against law enforcement is rattled and they vilify the Election Commission's work as dubious so that voters will believe that polls manipulation can mask their poor electoral prospects marked by a term of inept administration.
At the outset, victimology and a persecution complex are the noisy tactics deployed by DAP to neutralise criticisms of their Orwellian instincts.
The DAP is doomed to spend the rest of its volatile life disguised by a questionable multiracial skin wrapped up by a twisted sense of meritocracy.
Orwell's Animal Farm is at its apotheosis in DAP, a political dysfunctionalism that somehow survived in a democratic melting pot that should not be allowed full maturation.
But that's the idea, to stop them at their tracks and confine their realm to the Penang government, even if that is still feasible, and for them to continue as useful dissenting members of parliament.
From all the defective profligacies they elicited, a Putrajaya controlled by the axis and schemed by DAP will be the finale of an epic national disaster.