The Bayan Mutiara mystery and affordable homes that cost RM220k

Pic A: Dr Mahathir dons Esquire's cover for February

Pic B: "Tear here" and turn the page, and someone familar's red lips, jaw and nostrils get a brainy top

Pic C: Ah, it's Guan Eng on the second or flip cover of the same magazine 

Blogger SatD, by now well-known for his superb research faculties, has urgent queries for Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng following his announcement of a mega project that he hopes "will put to rest accusations that the state government does not care for the welfare of the Penangites".

How did the same RM30 million project announced by the previous state government suddenly costing RM800 million?

In his recent state budget, Guan Eng spoke about a plan to build affordable homes costing RM72,000 to RM220,000. There was no mention of a budget for affordable homes costing RM42,500 to RM72,000? Where is the money coming from and was this an afterthought?

Please read why SatD thinks Guan Eng is not telling us the whole story, h e r e. Please go there to leave comments as well.

Before I move on ...

Feb 1, 2011: After the settlement that ended our 5-year court battle yesterday, the plaintiffs in Rocky's Bru vs Kalimullah + 3 issued a press statement through Kalimullah Masheerul Hassan, one of the plaintiffs. 

This press statement, which was quoted extensively by The Star in its report Rocky rues allegation, was not part of the settlement the parties mutually agreed upon in front of the High Court Judge in Kuala Lumpur yesterday morning, but I'm not belabouring this point. 

However, for the sake of accuracy, I must clarify that the settlement mutually reached yesterday between the plaintiffs and I, the defendant, has no relations with, and should not be seen as part of, the "apologies" that Kalimullah said he had received through court settlements in the last 12 months.

The Star also reported, quoting Kalimullah: “We accept the apology by Ahirudin and his expression of regret at the damage, distress and embarrassment he has caused not only to us but also our families and friends.” According to our settlement, however, my apology was "for the considerable distress, embarrassment and inconvenience caused to the Plaintiffs". It did not cover "families and friends".

There are other inaccuracies in The Star's report but, really, if you all don't mind, I'd like to move on now.

Please refer to Enclosure 44, which I published in full yesterday on my blog as part of the settlement. 

The Conclusion to Rocky's Bru vs Kalimullah & 3 other ex-NSTP journos

Enclosure 44. The defamation suit against me was filed by the New Straits Times Press and its 4 top executives then in January 2007. It made headlines as the world's first case involving a newspaper and its journalists against a blogger. The NSTP dropped the suit against me two Ramadans ago and this morning, I'm happy to report to you, the 4 individuals, all of whom are no longer with the NSTP, dropped the suit against me after I've agreed to what the High Court tags as Enclosure 44.

In a nutshell, I've agreed apologize "for the considerable distress, embarrassment and inconvenience caused to the plaintiffs" as a result of some of the things I'd written about them on my blog.

Both parties agreed that there will be no order as to costs.

As part of the settlement, I am pleased to publish Enclosure 44 in full:

Syukur Alhamdulillah.

Anwar's lawyers throw tantrums

Loyar Terlampau. So, every time a Court rules against their clients, these lawyers will stage a walkout? 

What kind of quality are they promoting, when they hold to ransom everything or everyone that they do not agree with or that/who does not agree with them?

Who did they learn this from?

These lawyers should fight their case in court. If they insist on throwing tantrums and merajuk every time they lose, join politicslah. 

Too much. Dah malampau betul diorang ni .. 

Minority Report: How Najib's Pahang will fare in PRU13

No walk in the park. Nanyang Siangpau says while the ruling Barisan Nasional will still take Pahang, which is PM Najib Razak's home state, during the 13th General Election, it won't be a walk in the park. And that's because the Chinese voters are set on giving their votes to the Opposition. Of all the Chinese-majority areas, only Bentong, which is held by MCA's Liow Tiong Lai, is expected to remain in BN's grip. And Nanyang's writer seems to think that the rare earth issue is going to cost BN more votes.

BN controls 38 of the 42 Parliamentary seats in Pahang.

Read Nanyang's report on the Future of Najib's home state.

Indian group kills Abu

Hindraf NO to ABU

Hindraf wants ABUR. Common sense still prevails among the majority of us Malaysians. Even Hindraf boss P. Uthayakumar, described as the Soul of Hindraf, cannot stomach the hypocrisy underlining the Anything But Umno (ABU) campaign [Kenapa Uthaya Menolak ABU]. Personally, I disagree with Hindraf from day one but now that Uthaya has openly rejected ABU and will instead advocate ABUR (Anything but Umno and Pakatan Rakyat Racism), I can see Hindraf in a slightly different light. But only very slightly.

Another major setback for Haris Ibrahim, who has just quit MCLM because of RPK's Jan1 interview, which contained some of the most damning comments about Anwar Ibrahim.

Anas Zubedy, who was one of the earliest to attack ABU's logic and sincerity, throws in another cinder for its cremation in his posting today, Fundamentally Flawed.

The Ghost of Johor

Lim Kang Hoo: "de facto MB"?

Lim Kang Hoo. If you're not a Johorean, you might ask, "Lim Kang who?". That's ok. Even among business journalists in Kuala Lumpur, the name does not ring a bell instantly, recognition comes only after you throw in Danga Bay and Ekovest as broad hints. But within the circle of those in the know in Johor and Singapore, Dato' Lim's name inspires both awe and jealousy, even suspicion. Unlike Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary, the man who has to manage at least two gateways into Johor (Port of Tanjung Pelepas and Senai International Airport), Lim is liked by the Istana. He does many business jointly with the state government, which is not a bad thing, of course, but with some people already labelling him as "the de facto MB of Johor", it can't be all that good, either.

Now, I see Lim's name all over the latest, detailed posting by Zakhir Mohamad, an anak Johor, about being subservient to Singapore in Serving the new-economic master. I have an affinity to both Singapore and Johor so I shall not comment on this alleged slave-master relationship at this juncture.What draws me is how cryptic Zakhir has become in this article. He writes about "..a major corporate play" in Johor "involving a certain public listed company on an land-bank acquisition roll". Parcels of land have or in the process to be lined up for acquisition or injected into this PLC, he said.

But throughout the article, Zakhir made mention of not a single corporate player. He wrote of Iskandar, Petroans, Kulim, JCorp, and the role of an ex-Fourth Floor boy in all this new economic slavery business, but no names. 

Quite unlike Big Dog. Why?

Is he afraid of the Ghost of Johor?

p.s. Lim is not the Ghost. The Ghost is said to be haunting a lot of businesses in the state, asking for 30 per cent here and 30 per cent there. If this ghost's hunger can't be satiated and things are not properly handled, we will have to exorcise this ghost soon.

+ Other Ghosts you may like ..

Police told of ABU event only after "disturbance"

Nalini: Was she talking rubbish?

Updated: In Canada, the police would sue you for defamatory libel, a criminal offense! Read h e r e.

Original posting:

The Malaysian Insider has the follow-up on  the disrupted ABU event (which I still think was self-inflicted). As expected, one of the organisers, who is a member of the political party PKR of Pakatan Rakyat, is accusing the police of working hand-in-hand with the Umno-BN "samsengs" in the incident. E. Nalini, an executive director of Suaram, now a so-called NGO in my book, claimed to be witness to several of these samsengs wearing t-shirts bearing Umno and BN logos, beating up an Indian boy that night. Turns out she was talking rubbish.

This is the kind of stuff that makes more and more Malaysians sick with the politics of this lot

Read the Insider's Cops deny aiding "school kids" to disrupt ABU event. Some nice quotes from Shah Alam police chief Zahedi Ayob: "We were not informed of the event. Why did they not tell us? Only they know".

Will the police bashing stop now?

Syabas, PDRM. I mean, that's the least I can I say, right? For all the bashing, the police went on doing their job, seemingly unfazed. But the cops are human like us, not heartless machines. Credit where it's due. Let's say a big THANK YOU to our men and women in blue. As NST's editorial put it, May the force be with you! 

 KL's crime rates down 40 per cent in 2011

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By Lee Shi-Ian
New Straits Times
Monday, Jan 23, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR - A greater police presence, especially in crime hotspots, and more joint operations with other enforcement agencies have yielded positive results - a 40 per cent reduction in street crimes last year.

This is the objective set under the National Key Result Area for crime prevention which has contributed to a drop in the national crime index by 11.1 per cent, the third year running that police have achieved a reduction in the number of criminal cases. 

The number of murder, rape, armed robbery, gang robbery and house break-in cases also decreased significantly last year. 

Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said 157,891 cases were reported last year, down from 177,520 in 2010. 

Most of the reduced street crimes, including snatch thefts and robberies, were in hotspots identified in Penang, Johor, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur in 2009. 

Based on police analysis, more hotspots were added in 2010 and last year and police presence was further stepped up in these areas. 

In the past year, police held joint crime-prevention operations with Rela and the General Operations Force nationwide. 

Police also set up several dedicated task forces to focus on crimes that registered sharp increases in 2010, including house break-ins and sexual offences. 

"We must not rest on our laurels. 2011 was a good year but we want to make 2012 better," Ismail told the New Straits Times. 

It is learnt that police will focus on three main aspects this year as they attempt to keep a lid on crime. 

"Police omnipresence, community policing and communication with the public via various media channels are the three aspects we are looking at. 

"The deployment of 40,000 personnel from the police, Rela and Civil Defence Department this month to fight crime in major towns is a good example. 

"This will give us additional presence on the streets and assist in crime prevention operation. The increased public participation in voluntary patrol schemes in their neighbourhoods points to greater confidence in the force." 

On community policing, police will work closely with the National Unity and Integration Department under the Prime Minister's Department. 

The department promotes the voluntary patrol scheme by supplying equipment and building Rukun Tetangga centres nationwide. 

"We want to establish a smart partnership with residents associations and further enhance the existing relationship," Ismail said. 

Police, he added, also aimed to build closer ties with the media to create awareness among the public on their activities.

What's going on, Suaram?

 Updated: ABU serang ABU?
 

The Unspinners say the hiring of "friendly" thugs is a cheap political stunt used before in the Bagan Pinang by-election. The cops are checking out this angle, I'm sure.




 Original Posting, 23 Jan 2012:

A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government ... The term is usually applied only to organizations that pursue some wider social aim that has political aspects, but that are not overtly political organizations such as political parties. - WIkipidea

Have our NGOs become too political? This is not the first time that our NGOs have forced me to wonder if they are not becoming more political than some of our political parties. Or have some of them have become just a cover story for some of our political partie?

Today's question popped up in my head after reading Helen Ang's Samseng serang ABU, seorang cedera dibelasah. As I read her story, several questions popped up. 

Did the organizers of ABU hire those gangsters to make something out of nothing? I'm sorry I have to repeat the question here; as I see it, ABU definitely needs the kind of publicity that such drama could generate and, also, there are a lot of idle samsengs these days. The anak2 ABU won't be happy but I assure them I'm not the only one with this theory.

Of course, in all fairness, I also considered that the report Helen Ang quoted was true, that there was his group of Malays who were not happy and they decided to show their unhappiness that night. After all, even Anas Zubedy had warned the anak2 ABU that an "unthinking" iniative like ABU would lead to bad consequences. Will there be worse ones ahead?

Then I read the bit about an Indian witness' account of these Malay samsengs beating up an Indian boy. You know what's the best thing about it: the samsengs were wearing t-shirts bearing "BN and Umno logos". Haha. Imagine a picture of masked bank robbers wearing t-shirts printed with their Facebook profile pics! LOL!  I mean, if you want to insult the intelligence of the 3.3 million Umno members and 7 million BN cronies, you'd have to do better than that lah.

Now, that's when the NGO bit struck me ... The witness quoted in the story, she is E. Nalini, the Executive Director of Suaram, a Malaysian NGO. Now, what was an NGO representative doing at a political forum? Is Suaram part of ABU? Is Suaram now openly against Umno?

As I understand it, NGOs are above partisan politics,.Suaram cannot, for example, be openly cooperating with PAS, a political party, to try and kill the party's opponent, in this case Umno. Seriously, man, that is so wrong.

Perhaps, Suaram would like to explain what's going on ..

Enter the Dragon

Gong Xi Fa Cai. The neighbours have just given us a free 5-minute fireworks display. Awesome. That's thousands of ringgit burnt in the Puchong skies but we can handle it. Yes, we can. Malaysians celebrate another Chinese New Year, in peace and prosperity. While much of the rest of the world expects the economy to slow down quite a bit in the Year of the Dragon, here in Malaysia we appear to be confident about being well-insulated and resilient. We have good reasons to be.

So dear Readers, here's to your wealth and, more importantly, health.

What Guan Eng didn't tell us (or didn't know) about his asset declaration

... Lim said the MACC could not be trusted, and urged the federal government to follow in the footsteps of Penang by appointing an independent audit firm to oversee the asset declarations.

“I feel the MACC is a tool of the BN. That’s why we (Penang government) never asked the MACC... our assets are verified by KPMG, an international independent audit firm... because I think they have more standing that MACC,” said Lim. - Guan Eng: Ministers, not kin, must declare assets, Malaysian Insider, Jan 19

If the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission  is a tool of the Barisan Nasional, as alleged by the Penang Chief Minister, shouldn't many of the Opposition leaders have been behind bars for alleged corruption. Especially since the judiciary is believed to be under the control of the BN, too. Oh, and the police, also, don't forget.

Seng Giaw: DAP's BN tool in MACC?

But why did the MACC go after Khir Toyo so relentlessly, and how come its predecessor, the Anti-Corruption Agency or ACA, went after so many BN leaders, including at least two other MBs? Why is a Tun from MCA, a BN component party, in court defending himself against MACC charges? 

Guan Eng praises the KPMG sky-high and runs down this fellow Malaysians on the MACC but didn't he know that the MACC and KPMG work closely together, including jointly organizing training for graft fighting? 

And does not he know that two former KPMG experts, including this dude responsible for setting up the KPMG's forensic audit unit in Malaysia, are sitting on the MACC's advisory panels?

Salahudin: Another BN tool in MACC?

I happen to know that the staff of the KPMG Guan Eng  is bragging about were all trained by this ex-KPMG dude, who is now overseeing the MACC's forensic audit operations.

I also happen to know that the so-called asset declarations the KPMG did for Guan Eng's Penang were NOT done via Statutory Declaration. In other words, dear Readers, Guan Eng's asset declaration is just a piece of paper and not a legal document.

See, this is what happens when a politician talks cock all the time: he makes an asset of himself.

 

p.s. Ah, I almost forgot, respected professionals sit on MACC panels, including people who are very critical of the BN even if they don't think much of Pakatan Rakyat. I'm sure Guan Eng is well aware that Tan Seng Giaw and Salahudin Ayub are advising the MACC. By his own logic,  the seasoned DAP campaigner and and PAS strongman are "tools" of the BN as well and can't be trusted? 

Senai, not a royal airport anymore

Since it opened in 1974, Johor's airport has been known as Sultan Ismail International Airport. Not anymore. A week or so ago, the airport's authorities were told to stop using the name and to use Senai International Airport for all intents and purposes. They claimed to have been given 24 hours to do that. The orders came from the Menteri Besar's office but the real orders came from elsewhere, or so it seems.

Senai, named one of the region's best emerging airports last year, is run by a group within Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary's empire in Johor, which includes the Port of Tanjung Pelepas. Almarhum Sultan Ismail was the grandfather of the reigning Sultan of Johor.

Strangely, you won't find any statement about the hurried name-change in the local papers or the Internet ...

Wikipedia on strike

Went to Wikipedia because I needed to research some basic background info for a posting I'm doing on Senai Airport but got this instead. Find out why Wiki is on a 24-hour strike h e r e.

I am a Moderate (blogger)

"The real divide is not between Muslims and non-Muslims, or between the developed and developing worlds, it is between moderates and extremists." - Malaysian PM Najib Razak, keynote speech at Global Movement of Moderates Conference, KL

There are rhetoric and then there's Najib Razak's Global Movement of Moderates. Since he mooted the idea at the UN General Assembly in 2010, the idea has slowly caught on. The ignorant West said there was no moderate voice in Islam; well, here is one. Yesterday, Najib launched the inaugural conference on Global Movement of Moderates. Ironically, international spectators are more enthusiastic. Local dailies that have been quick to accuse the government of treating other religions as second to Islam buried the message in the inside pages of their editions today. Given Malaysia's on-and-off miscues between certain faiths, a fairly recent phenomenon fired up by some political shitheads, you'd think that the local opinion makers would show greater interest in the call against any form of religious extremism that the Global Movement of Moderates carries. Alas, nope.

Perhaps Malaysia needs its own Local Movement of Moderates.