tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75667806558797822692024-03-08T08:38:46.837+08:00THE JOURNALRandom Thoughts, News,Views and Comments on the State of the World.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1041125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-9841217767010539942011-12-06T07:34:00.001+08:002011-12-06T07:40:32.229+08:00Childbirth and Postpartum Psychosis<br />
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<div class="introduction" style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<b><span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Having a baby is
supposed to be one of the happiest times of your life. But for some women,
childbirth can be the trigger that causes them to temporarily 'lose their
minds'.</span></span></b></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;">Every
year, about 1,000 women in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region>
suffer from what is called </span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">postpartum psychosis</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;">. Most of them will need several
weeks in hospital to help them recover but, because of the stigma of mental
illness, it is not often talked about.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">When
I gave birth to my baby daughter Ettie, I was absolutely elated. But this
elation soon turned into a form of mania - non-stop talking, an inability to
sleep, an exhausting energy - all of which were unnatural and unsustainable.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I
became very irritable, suffering from extreme mood swings and hallucinations. I
was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for several weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That period in my life was not one I discussed
readily with anyone. It was so far from most people's experience of new
motherhood and because of the stigma of mental illness that exists in our
society, I felt slightly ashamed.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Would
people want to associate with a "crazy person"? Might they think I
was "a bad mother"?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It
took me a few years to get over that feeling and it is only recently that I
have had the opportunity to meet other women who have also suffered from
postpartum or puerperal psychosis.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Sharing
stories was a liberating experience and prompted us to become involved in a
Wellcome-funded project to publicise the illness and tackle the stigma that
hinders recovery.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
project is called Unravelling Eve. It was conceived by artist Joan Molloy, an
artist and mother of two whose work has focused on themes of family, memory and
time.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I
helped to run a workshop where Joan met a group of women who had all had
postpartum psychosis, to hear what the experience had been like for them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For
the first time, these women were able to talk about the terrible impact of the
illness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tracy
spoke of her terrifying hallucinations: "I thought I'd given birth to the
anti-Christ and my child, I believed, had little devils living inside his
stomach which would come out at night and dance around my kitchen floor."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Some spoke of suicidal thoughts and being
convinced that their babies would be better off without them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For
some it also took a long while to get better. "I felt like a zombie for at
least a year or two", says Ceri. "I can't remember how long I was on
anti-psychotics for - obviously the drugs saved my life, but my goodness they
take a while to recover from."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With
treatment each of these women recovered, but it was a life-changing experience
for them all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So
why does it happen to some new mothers?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Joan
and I went to see Dr Ian Jones of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Cardiff</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype></st1:place>, a perinatal
psychiatrist and expert on the condition.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He
explained: "When we're talking about postpartum psychosis, we're talking
about some of the most severe episodes of illness we see in psychiatry."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"These
are women who very quickly after childbirth have an episode triggered that may
involve lots of different mood symptoms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"They
often have psychotic symptoms, delusions, believing things that aren't true, or
hallucinations... seeing things or hearing things when nothing's there."<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tragically,
if the symptoms are not recognised in time, in rare cases this can result in
suicide or, very rarely, infanticide.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
causes of postpartum psychosis are unclear, though we do know that genetic
factors are important. You are more likely to have postpartum psychosis if a
close relative has had it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Changes
in hormone levels and disrupted sleep patterns may also be involved.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">More
research is needed, so we have set up a new charity called Action on Postpartum
Psychosis (APP) to raise awareness and support women and their partners who
feel isolated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For
many women with postpartum psychosis there is no warning, but if you have
bipolar disorder you are at considerably greater risk, so it is wise to find
out about postpartum psychosis and prepare yourself just in case.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Due to a shortage of specialist beds, many
women will have to be admitted to a general psychiatric hospital, usually
without their baby.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But
some parts of the country are lucky enough to have specialist mother and baby
units where women can keep their newborns with them for the weeks or months it
takes to recover.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We
visited the oldest of these, the Channi Kumar Unit at the <st1:placename w:st="on">Bethlem</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Royal</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Hospital</st1:placetype>,
south <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">London</st1:place></st1:city>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They
support the mother in developing a relationship with her infant in order to
reduce the impact of the illness on the child.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Mothers
and babies can stay together or the mothers can stay on their own with a
gradual reintroduction to their babies on the ward.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
average length of inpatient treatment is eight to 12 weeks, and staff encourage
the involvement of fathers or partners in the treatment process.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perinatal
psychiatrist Dr Trudi Seneviratne says their aim is to prepare mothers for a
lasting return to the community.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; line-height: 13.5pt; margin-bottom: 13.5pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-rendering: auto;">
<span style="font-size: 13pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #7f6000; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"One
of the joys of working in a unit like this is that women do get better",
she says. BBC.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-88300177991097607232011-11-27T08:09:00.003+08:002011-11-27T08:13:29.928+08:00George Michael shelves UK shows due to pneumonia<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyAQ0QIzzsdyX8ElX_nCKOMfhbpeqKeEo5fncWITUjBjq6fAZlZMmQasU76CN7qx7cvlgCGVWWlFnXCaFgXLL8AMuu_0hEeun8ke1oenG9DORUw61DPB3uhdG-plMuQ8TTFmkR0l_KJpfp/s1600/george+michael.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 224px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyAQ0QIzzsdyX8ElX_nCKOMfhbpeqKeEo5fncWITUjBjq6fAZlZMmQasU76CN7qx7cvlgCGVWWlFnXCaFgXLL8AMuu_0hEeun8ke1oenG9DORUw61DPB3uhdG-plMuQ8TTFmkR0l_KJpfp/s400/george+michael.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5679461375286414786" /></a><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Singer George Michael has cancelled the remaining dates of his tour because of ill health, his publicist has confirmed.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 48-year-old was admitted to hospital in Vienna on Monday and is being treated for "severe" pneumonia.</div><div><br /></div><div>His publicist added that the singer is "responding to treatment and slowly improving".</div><div><br /></div><div>Discussions are under way about rescheduling the remaining 14 dates that have been put off.</div><div><br /></div><div>The star's spokeswoman said in a statement: "George Michael is ill with pneumonia and any other speculation regarding his illness is unfounded and untrue.</div><div><br /></div><div>"He is receiving excellent medical care, he is responding to treatment and slowly improving.</div><div><br /></div><div>"To ensure his complete well-being, George Michael's doctors have advised that he cannot perform the rest of his Symphonica tour and that he instead takes a full and complete rest."</div><div><br /></div><div>The former Wham! singer kicked off his European tour in Prague in August.</div><div><br /></div><div>It was originally meant to include 47 concerts. He was due to bring the tour to the UK on Saturday, with dates continuing until 19 December.</div><div><br /></div><div>Professor Dr Christoph Zielinski and Professor Dr Thomas Staudinger of the Vienna hospital where the musician is being treated said: "George Michael has severe community acquired pneumonia and is being treated as an inpatient.</div><div><br /></div><div>"His condition has stabilised and he is responding to treatment.</div><div><br /></div><div>"From the current point of view, the time until recovery cannot be estimated, but he will not be able to perform the rest of the tour. Besides medical treatment, complete rest and peace and quiet are mandatory."</div><div><br /></div><div>In October, a viral infection caused Michael to pull out of a show at the Royal Albert Hall in London, following advice from doctors. BBC.</div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-80205459491763971402011-11-22T06:02:00.001+08:002011-11-22T06:25:52.722+08:00Taylor Swift wins big at American Music Awards<br />
Country sensation Taylor Swift came up the big winner at the American Music Awards yesterday, claiming three trophies including the top honour, artist of the year.<br />
<br />
She tied for most wins with British singer Adele, who also earned three trophies for female pop artist, best album with smash hit “21” and top adult contemporary performer.<br />
<br />
But Adele, who came into the awards show as the most-nominated singer with four nods, lost artist of the year to Swift, who seemed genuinely surprised by the upset victory.<br />
<br />
“This is one of the craziest things that has ever happened to me,” Swift said. “I have no idea what I’m supposed to say. I did not think this was going to happen.”<br />
<br />
Along with year’s top artist, Swift claimed AMA trophies for favourite female country artist for the second straight year, and she nabbed best country album with her “Speak Now”.<br />
<br />
Adele, who is recovering from vocal cord surgery, was not on hand to accept her awards.<br />
<br />
Rapper Nicki Minaj was the night’s other big winner with two AMAs in the rap or hip-hop category: favourite artist and best album for her “Pink Friday.”<br />
<br />
Minaj opened the show singing her smash hit single “Super Bass” in a metallic outfit that had two large speakers on her bottom, and after winning best hip-hop album for “Pink Friday” was overcome with emotion.<br />
<br />
“This one could actually make me cry,” Minaj said onstage before wiping away tears. “I can’t believe this is happening.”<br />
<br />
Elsewhere, the AMA awards were split among numerous acts.<br />
<br />
Rounding out the country awards with Swift were Blake Shelton for best male artist and Lady Antebellum best group.<br />
<br />
Maroon 5 picked up the honour for best pop or rock group behind current hit “Moves Like Jagger,” and Bruno Mars rounded out the pop category with an AMA trophy for best male artist.<br />
<br />
Among R&B acts, Rihanna grabbed best album with “Loud,” winning over ex-boyfriend Chris Brown and his “F.A.M.E.” Usher was named favourite R&B male artist and Beyonce best female.<br />
<br />
Finally, the Foo Fighters earned top alternative rock band, Jennifer Lopez was the top Latin artist, and Casting Crowns won for best contemporary inspirational act.<br />
<br />
While awards are the major focus, the show brings out top acts to perform. Lopez put on two crowd-pleasing acts, one solo and the other with Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am.<br />
<br />
Justin Bieber with his holiday song “Under the Mistletoe,” had fans singing in the audience, and Enrique Iglesias with his anthem “I Like How it Feels” had them hopping to the beat.<br />
<br />
Marc Anthony and Pitbull also rocked the crowd, and the show ended with LMFAO singing from their “Party Rock” album, dancing with Bieber, and stripping to their underwear.<br />
<br />
The AMA awards is among the most widely watched of the annual US musical honours at the end of each year. Next up on the list of key honours are Grammy nominations, which will be announced on November 30. — Reuters<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-24404565612512614482011-02-08T09:36:00.001+08:002011-02-08T09:40:59.997+08:00AOL + Huffington Post = disaster?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOKsmjar4e84DeBgBX1u8ERkJI4yRZCmG_v0v-YcyQjqTVUPsaTdEYYBDIeO7Bx-2iNRFOc8MM26dUyNxSy27j4b-gi-oRam8GV-ELOqDkwf17-qG1TXs6wTfvzxM3xgT-C5xhnqiAf0ia/s1600/Arianna-Huffington-007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOKsmjar4e84DeBgBX1u8ERkJI4yRZCmG_v0v-YcyQjqTVUPsaTdEYYBDIeO7Bx-2iNRFOc8MM26dUyNxSy27j4b-gi-oRam8GV-ELOqDkwf17-qG1TXs6wTfvzxM3xgT-C5xhnqiAf0ia/s320/Arianna-Huffington-007.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 18px; " >Arianna Huffington is selling Huffington Post to AOL. Photograph: AP/Mark Lennihan</span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">by Emily Bell, guardian.co.uk</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"> </span></div><div style="background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">If a company is to enjoy success in the world of media in general, and content creation in particular, then two ingredients have to be present. One is a strong culture and the other is scale. It explains the success of any number of brands – News Corporation, the Daily Mail, the BBC, the Financial Times – in the recent difficult past.</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: arial, sans-serif; "><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">For companies that have scale but lack a culture, or vice versa, the obvious yet so often disastrous solution is to merge. Nothing creates greater comedic value or destroys actual monetary value quicker than trying to acquire a culture in pursuit of scale and getting the whole thing wrong.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">This is why <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2011/feb/07/huffington-post-sale-aol-ariana" title="Guardian: Huffington Post sold to AOL for $315m" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">AOL's purchase of the Huffington Post</a> is causing such intense media interest. It is not the $315m price tag, or the query over whether content businesses have a future, it is really the thought of Arianna Huffington, the Madonna of new media, striding into the AOL boardroom, where many unfairly imagine there are still shovels in the corner. AOL is not only a competitor for the world's uncoolest media brand, but is also to corporate mergers what <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2011/feb/06/george-bush-trip-to-switzerland" title="Guardian: George Bush calls off trip to Switzerland" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">George W Bush</a> is to US foreign policy.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; "><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9L4QG480.htm" title="Business Week: On the Call: AOL CEO Tim Armstrong" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Tim Armstrong</a>, who joined AOL as chief executive from Google in 2009, wants both the culture and the growth. He has to try to destroy the memory of AOL's two most infamous mergers – first with Time Warner in 2000 and then with social networking platform Bebo in 2008. If there were a competition for worst media mergers in history, these could happily expect to place one and two without any serious competition. Armstrong has been on a content-expanding rampage of late, first investing tens of millions of dollars in <a href="http://www.patch.com/" title="Patch.com" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Patch.com</a>, a hyperlocal network of low-cost sites, which now has 800 centres, and then a foray into buying high-profile blogs including <a href="http://techcrunch.com/" title="TechCrunch" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">TechCrunch</a> last September and now the Huffington Post.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">A terrifying leaked document entitled <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-aol-way#-1" title="Business Insider: The AOL Way" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">The AOL Way</a> pinged round the US media business last week containing the company's "secret sauce" for success in creating journalism for the internet. Quintessentially that seemed to be increasing the number of pieces writers produced, for less money. "Scaled content production" is the rather sobering term for this. It does not look like a set of numbers that Arianna Huffington would feel very at home delivering, although the strategy of Huffington Post, which is all Big Politics on the left hand side of the site and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Kardashian" title="Wikipedia: Kim Kardashian" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Kim Kardashian</a> on the right, is much closer to AOL's own strategy than one might immediately think. Indeed, Huffington achieved a miracle for web publishing in 2005, by getting high-profile contributors to write for nothing, through a mixture of charm and brand association. One can imagine now, with the money for their labours residing with AOL, that bargain will abruptly come to an end.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">Part of Huffington Post's success was its vibrance and its position outside the establishment. It has now not only joined an establishment, but joined one where most people feel about as close to the brand as they do to Walmart.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">One has to wonder in this context what is in it for Arianna Huffington (apart of course from a substantial part of the $300m)? What Huffington Post delivered her was a perfect platform for high-profile politicking and talking about her interests, which are wide ranging. The daily grind of editorial wrangling within a large corporate entity is a million miles from the start-up loft of Huffington Post's early days and the next phase of development carries none of the fun and much more of the risk than the early days.</p><p style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 13px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">A rather troubling aspect of the whole episode has been the baffling message, repeated by Huffington in an editorial on the site today, that this merger is "<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/huffington-post-aol_b_819373.html" title="Huffington Post: When HuffPost Met AOL: A Merger of Visions" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(0, 86, 137); text-decoration: none; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; ">1 + 1 = 11</a>". One hopes that this does not mean, for the sake of the HuffPo staff and the AOL shareholders, that the deal is quite literally nonsense.</p></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-12709846597330063622010-02-17T02:26:00.001+08:002010-02-17T02:28:18.233+08:00> Airport scanners may violate laws, says British rights commission<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ueyoMzPff0npSE4_OGpVIP6R4WxP1OvoZuk-_LhJB3WqiqcaLnKzR2zeOa9CGdPlIeywCYYxbiHPwlEZwAftVzHWgAprmivPsamL2EcOGD4wOfGKtDPxx7nqwHsqf2G1en0IPih3tOhI/s1600-h/scanner-feb16.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 228px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ueyoMzPff0npSE4_OGpVIP6R4WxP1OvoZuk-_LhJB3WqiqcaLnKzR2zeOa9CGdPlIeywCYYxbiHPwlEZwAftVzHWgAprmivPsamL2EcOGD4wOfGKtDPxx7nqwHsqf2G1en0IPih3tOhI/s320/scanner-feb16.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438909841254279042" /></a><br /><div>The use of full-body scanners at British airports may breach human rights laws, the country’s equality commission said today, potentially undermining the latest weapon against terrorism.</div><div><br /></div><div>The new technology has been hurriedly introduced at London’s Heathrow airport and Manchester airport in northern England after a botched attempt to bomb a US-bound passenger aircraft from Amsterdam on Christmas Day.</div><div><br /></div><div>Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is alleged to have boarded a US aircraft on Dec 25 with explosives hidden undetected in his underwear.</div><div><br /></div><div>The full-body scanners, which see through clothes to produce an image of the whole body, might have detected the explosives, experts have said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rights campaigners have said they fear an invasion of privacy and disproportionate scrutiny of Muslim travellers.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said the scanners might be breaking discrimination and privacy laws, and it had “serious doubts that the decision to roll this (body scanning) out in all UK airports complies with the law.”</div><div><br /></div><div>The commission said one of the chief concerns was over how people would be selected for the scans.</div><div><br /></div><div>In a letter to Transport Secretary Andrew Adonis, the EHRC expressed concern “about the apparent absence of safeguards to ensure the body scanners are operated in a lawful, fair and non-discriminatory manner.”</div><div><br /></div><div>The Transport Department said it was committed to ensuring that all security measures are used legally, proportionately and in a non-discriminatory way.</div><div><br /></div><div>It said it was “absolutely clear that those passengers who are randomly selected for screening will not be chosen because of any personal characteristics,” and that it had published an interim code of practice which addressed privacy concerns. — Reuters.</div><div>From Malaysian Insider.</div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-3446905407236351912010-01-14T13:53:00.001+08:002010-01-14T13:56:02.802+08:00> Y chromosome evolving fast<div><br /></div><div>By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer</div><div><br /></div><div>WASHINGTON – Women may think of men as primitive, but new research indicates that the Y chromosome — the thing that makes a man male — is evolving far faster than the rest of the human genetic code.</div><div><br /></div><div>A new study comparing the Y chromosomes from humans and chimpanzees, our nearest living relatives, show that they are about 30 percent different. That is far greater than the 2 percent difference between the rest of the human genetic code and that of the chimp's, according to a study appearing online Wednesday in the journal Nature.</div><div><br /></div><div>These changes occurred in the last 6 million years or so, relatively recently when it comes to evolution.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The Y chromosome appears to be the most rapidly evolving of the human chromosomes," said study co-author Dr. David Page, director of the prestigious Whitehead Institute in Cambridge and a professor of biology at MIT. "It's an almost ongoing churning of gene reconstruction. It's like a house that's constantly being rebuilt."</div><div><br /></div><div>Before men get too impressed with themselves, lead author Jennifer Hughes offers some words of caution: Just because the Y chromosome, which determines gender, is evolving at a speedy rate it doesn't necessarily mean men themselves are more evolved.</div><div><br /></div><div>Researchers took the most detailed examination of the Y chromosome, which females do not have, of both humans and chimps and found entire sections dramatically different. There were even entire genes on the human Y chromosome that weren't on the chimp, said Hughes, also of the Whitehead Institute.</div><div><br /></div><div>The two-year research took twice as long as expected because of the evolutionary changes found, Hughes said.</div><div><br /></div><div>There is a bit of a proviso to the comparison to other chromosomes. While all human and chimp chromosomes have been mapped, only two chimp chromosomes have been examined in great detail: Y and chromosome 21. Yet, there's still enough known to make the claim that the Y is the speediest evolver, Hughes and Page said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until recently the Y chromosome was considered the Rodney Dangerfield of genetics, especially because it had fewer genes than other chromosomes. A few years ago some researchers even suggested that the Y chromosome was shrinking so that in 50,000 years it would just disappear — and so would men.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The story is not as cut and dried as many would have liked to predict," Hughes said. </div><div>"It's kind of fun to say that men are going to die out, but the science is proving — now that we've got data — that that's not true at all."</div><div><br /></div><div>Page agreed. "The Y chromosome has many more tricks up its sleeve than it was given credit for," he said.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are a couple of reasons Page and Hughes cite for Y being such an evolutionary powerhouse. One is that it stands alone and isn't part of a pair like 44 other chromosomes. So when there are mutations there's no matching chromosome to recombine and essentially cover up the change, Hughes said. Because women have two X chromosomes, the X chromosome doesn't have this situation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another reason has to do with the nature of mating. When female chimps are in heat, they mate frequently and with many partners, so there is an evolutionary pressure on the male to produce the most and best sperm to propagate his genes, Page said.</div><div><br /></div><div>To test this out, Hughes said she hopes to soon examine the Y chromosomes of a rhesus macaque, which is fairly promiscuous, and the marmoset, which is more monogamous than early humans probably were.</div><div><br /></div><div>Outside scientists praised the study.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Wow," said R. Scott Hawley, a genetics researcher at the Stowers Institute in Kansas City. "That result is astounding."</div><div><br /></div><div>"The Y chromosome clearly has the strength and tenacity to fight back," said Hawley, who wasn't part of the research. "I certainly think the Y chromosome has taken a bad rap for a long time with people doing maps showing areas for channel surfing."</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-31001887855169924852010-01-01T04:20:00.000+08:002010-01-05T16:27:29.207+08:00> Happy New Year 2010<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNpGQl_UBC7oP1uT4gSmxh0mG3jvY0bhIS6nYrD7NihL-guwGCtibTafuKeVc6EHUe7RnketZ_9vn12bnoo80PoZFZsPNe6_Ekpv8rkES2XfEi5qgN-iNv9jsl3PiBXwtAsWMzMkiZJaQo/s1600-h/happy+new+year+2010.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNpGQl_UBC7oP1uT4gSmxh0mG3jvY0bhIS6nYrD7NihL-guwGCtibTafuKeVc6EHUe7RnketZ_9vn12bnoo80PoZFZsPNe6_Ekpv8rkES2XfEi5qgN-iNv9jsl3PiBXwtAsWMzMkiZJaQo/s320/happy+new+year+2010.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5423168922902017218" /></a><div><br /></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0); ">HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 It was a memorable 2009.Wishing 2010 will be fabulous.</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>New Year gives what one receives</div><div>Make not much of what you're missing</div><div>Happiness ought not seem daunting</div><div>In your heart is all you need</div><div>As you are is as you will</div><div>Sure of winds that wish you well.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-57844184417838194682009-12-28T10:10:00.002+08:002009-12-28T10:11:25.590+08:00> The Fury of the Sea<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCADpnE-nJGG7Ljw09EamWLDdG3lksS_ETLdS8WOMTyVCOARzvVCreTeW065fcUDIPWZrwYsxJwsSQ2cTbUUpt6mUIAtELCZb45CCH-iv4RVBCSYOORjofEgun-hNU2DnLZU6qDe1s5ws/s1600-h/tsunami.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 259px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCADpnE-nJGG7Ljw09EamWLDdG3lksS_ETLdS8WOMTyVCOARzvVCreTeW065fcUDIPWZrwYsxJwsSQ2cTbUUpt6mUIAtELCZb45CCH-iv4RVBCSYOORjofEgun-hNU2DnLZU6qDe1s5ws/s400/tsunami.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5420103862897467970" /></a><br /><div>People across Asia paused Saturday to observe the fifth anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2004 that killed up to 230,000 people in about a dozen countries.</div><div><br /></div><div>The devastating December 26 tsunami destroyed entire coastal communities, decimated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches, sweeping away everyone and everything in its path.</div><div><br /></div><div>Brief memorials were held in mosques throughout the region beside mass graves, and at seaside resorts and communities on the rim of the Indian Ocean.</div><div><br /></div><div>The tsunami was triggered by an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 that struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Over the next seven hours, a wall of water reached across the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal areas as far away as East Africa.</div><div><br /></div><div>In a coincidence, a strong earthquake struck Indonesia on Saturday just before 6 p.m. local time (0857 UTC). The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake, measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale, was centered in the Banda Sea region off the Tanimbar Islands. A tsunami warning was not issued by authorities, and there were no immediate reports of injury or serious damage.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the 2004 tsunami some locations reported waves of nine meters or more on the shoreline. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and Thailand sustained massive damage. </div><div><br /></div><div>Tens of thousands were reported dead or missing in Sri Lanka and India, a large number of them on the Indian Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory. The low-lying island country of Maldives reported more than 100 casualties and immense economic damage. Several thousand tourists vacationing in the region also were reported dead or missing. </div><div><br /></div><div>The lack of food, clean water and medical treatment extended the list of casualties. </div><div>Long-term environmental damage was severe as well, with villages, tourist resorts, farmland and fishing grounds demolished or inundated with debris, bodies and plant-killing salt water - Voice of America.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-53767498507889523352009-12-24T14:47:00.004+08:002009-12-24T14:54:05.211+08:00> Christmas Greetings<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#FF0000;">MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone !</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuVP-WfVW41pPkIt5VCBMwPLDqumR5dFqdC1MKc3GbSrVt-y_4GAiGLTMupRYdfJ4hBNTYeSZ03aGMbyrr06bGv3Agnd86C8WggnFHOaoJKNDm8xrFi2uCzfEsUaWOv4KEeaR2geNJrWOC/s1600-h/merry+christmas.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuVP-WfVW41pPkIt5VCBMwPLDqumR5dFqdC1MKc3GbSrVt-y_4GAiGLTMupRYdfJ4hBNTYeSZ03aGMbyrr06bGv3Agnd86C8WggnFHOaoJKNDm8xrFi2uCzfEsUaWOv4KEeaR2geNJrWOC/s400/merry+christmas.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5418691643897055938" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-91890400324101219692009-10-21T11:15:00.000+08:002009-10-21T11:16:29.730+08:00> Congress passes Guantanamo bill<div>The US Senate has voted to continue to allow Guantanamo inmates to be tried on US soil, removing a hurdle as the Obama administration seeks to close the camp.</div><div><br /></div><div>The measure, which was passed by the House last week, permits Guantanamo detainees to be brought to the US only in order to face trial in US courts.</div><div><br /></div><div>Those cleared cannot remain in the US. The bill - passed 79-19 by the Senate - largely mirrors existing restrictions.</div><div><br /></div><div>It will now go to President Barack Obama to be signed into law.</div><div><br /></div><div>Mr Obama has set a 22 January 2010 deadline for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba, where more than 220 inmates are still held.</div><div><br /></div><div>While some will be tried on US soil, others could be sent to abroad or face military tribunals.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Republican concerns</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The legislation passed by Congress on Tuesday removes one of the many legal, diplomatic and political obstacles to the closing of the Guantanamo detention centre.</div><div><br /></div><div>Under its terms, Congress must be provided with a detailed assessment of the security risk involved before a detainee can be brought to the US.</div><div><br /></div><div>The administration must also give 15 days' notice of any transfer.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some Republicans have objected to plans to hold Guantanamo detainees in US prisons, arguing that they do not deserve the protections afforded under US law.</div><div><br /></div><div>"There is too much at stake to grant the unprecedented benefit of our legal system's complex procedural safeguards to foreign nationals who were captured outside the United States during a time of war," said Senator Saxby Chambliss during the debate.</div><div><br /></div><div>Correspondents say the legislation will be considered a victory for President Obama.</div><div><br /></div><div>Under its terms, those convicted will not be able to serve their sentences in US prisons, and those cleared will not be allowed to remain on US soil, even when no other country will accept them.</div><div><br /></div><div>The matter is to be decided by future legislation or by the Supreme Court - which has begun hearing an appeal by a group of Chinese ethnic Uighurs, who were cleared while being held at Guantanamo.</div><div><br /></div><div>Their lawyers argue that they should be allowed to resettle in the US rather than China, where as ethnic Muslim Uighurs they would be subjected to persecution.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-82082689783008956202009-10-10T02:48:00.002+08:002009-10-10T02:52:59.620+08:00> Surprised, humbled Obama awarded Nobel Peace Prize<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN8XD8PyyWRppCaJgBSC_XUk3AfLYnWwI-xlpBmSmg82HURk2D5Wb6SVGLmee3NkUVVM-qEMITLJaTE_8xK6xAQxUThtWhsJD2lIJgZ0716lf0LidhC6ZuEEPlc-QbJtf1o2XH5BRVMdDl/s1600-h/barack_obama.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN8XD8PyyWRppCaJgBSC_XUk3AfLYnWwI-xlpBmSmg82HURk2D5Wb6SVGLmee3NkUVVM-qEMITLJaTE_8xK6xAQxUThtWhsJD2lIJgZ0716lf0LidhC6ZuEEPlc-QbJtf1o2XH5BRVMdDl/s400/barack_obama.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390674292287540658" /></a><br /><div><b>President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a stunning decision designed to build momentum behind his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilateralism.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Obama said he was surprised and deeply humbled by the honor, and planned to travel to Oslo to accept the prize.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many transformative figures that have been honored by this prize," he said. "I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the challenges of the 21st century."</div><div><br /></div><div>Many observers were shocked by the unexpected choice so early in the Obama presidency, which began less than two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline and has yet to yield concrete achievements in peacemaking.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some around the world objected to the choice of Obama, who still oversees wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has launched deadly counter-terror strikes in Pakistan and Somalia.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obama said he was working to end the war in Iraq and "to confront a ruthless adversary that directly threatens the American people and our allies" in Afghanistan.</div><div><br /></div><div>Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said their choice could be seen as an early vote of confidence in Obama intended to build global support for his policies. They lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation, and praised his pledges to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms, ease American conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen the U.S. role in combating climate change.</div><div><br /></div><div>Aagot Valle, a lawmaker for the Socialist Left party who joined the committee this year, said she hoped the selection would be viewed as "support and a commitment for Obama."</div><div><br /></div><div>"And I hope it will be an inspiration for all those that work with nuclear disarmament and disarmament," she told The Associated Press in a rare interview. Members of the Nobel peace committee usually speak only through its chairman.</div><div><br /></div><div>The peace prize was created partly to encourage ongoing peace efforts but Obama's efforts are at far earlier stages than past winners'. The Nobel committee acknowledged that they may not bear fruit at all.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Some people say, and I understand it, isn't it premature? Too early? Well, I'd say then that it could be too late to respond three years from now," Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said. "It is now that we have the opportunity to respond — all of us."</div><div><br /></div><div>In Europe and much of the world Obama is lionized for bringing the United States closer to mainstream global thinking on issues like climate change and multilateralism. A 25-nation poll of 27,000 people released in July by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found double-digit boosts to the percentage of people viewing the U.S. favorably in countries around the world. That indicator had plunged across the world under President George W. Bush.</div><div><br /></div><div>At home, the picture is more complicated. Obama is often criticized as he attempts to carry out his agenda — drawing fire over a host of issues from government spending to health care to the conduct of the war in Afghanistan.</div><div><br /></div><div>U.S. Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele contended that Obama won the prize as a result of his "star power" rather than meaningful accomplishments.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The real question Americans are asking is, 'What has President Obama actually accomplished?'" Steele said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Drawing criticism from some on the left, Obama has been slow to bring troops home from Iraq and the real end of the U.S. military presence there won't come until at least 2012.</div><div><br /></div><div>In Afghanistan, he is seriously considering ramping up the number of U.S. troops on the ground and asking for help from others, too.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I don't think Obama deserves this. I don't know who's making all these decisions. The prize should go to someone who has done something for peace and humanity," said Ahmad Shabir, 18-year-old student in Kabul. "Since he is the president, I don't see any change in U.S. strategy in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."</div><div><br /></div><div>Obama has said that battling climate change is a priority. But the U.S. seems likely to head into crucial international negotiations set for Copenhagen in December with Obama-backed legislation still stalled in Congress.</div><div><br /></div><div>Former Polish President Lech Walesa, who won the prize in 1983, questioned whether Obama deserved it now.</div><div><br /></div><div>"So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far. He is still at an early stage. He is only beginning to act," Walesa said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, the peace prize is given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Like the Parliament, the committee has a leftist slant, with three members elected by left-of-center parties. Jagland said the decision to honor Obama was unanimous.</div><div><br /></div><div>The identity of the person who nominated Obama will not be made public unless that person steps forward. The Nobel committee received a record 205 nominations for this year's prize.</div><div><br /></div><div>The award appeared to be at least partly a slap at Bush from a committee that harshly criticized Obama's predecessor for his largely unilateral military action in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Those who were in support of Bush in his belief in war solving problems, on rearmament, and that nuclear weapons play an important role ... probably won't be happy," said Valle, the Nobel Committee member.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obama is the third sitting U.S. president to win the award: President Theodore Roosevelt won in 1906 and President Woodrow Wilson was awarded the prize in 1919. Wilson received the prize for his role in founding the League of Nations, the hopeful but ultimately failed precursor to the contemporary United Nations.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Nobel committee chairman said after awarding the 2002 prize to former Democratic President Jimmy Carter, for his mediation in international conflicts, that it should be seen as a "kick in the leg" to the Bush administration's hard line in the buildup to the Iraq war.</div><div><br /></div><div>Five years later, the committee honored Bush's adversary in the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore, for his campaign to raise awareness about global warming.</div><div><br /></div><div>In July talks in Moscow, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed that their negotiators would work out a new limit on delivery vehicles for nuclear warheads of between 500 and 1,100. They also agreed that warhead limits would be reduced from the current range of 1,700-2,200 to as low as 1,500. The United States now has about 2,200 such warheads, compared to about 2,800 for the Russians.</div><div><br /></div><div>But there has been no word on whether either side has started to act on the reductions.</div><div>Former Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, said Obama has already provided outstanding leadership in the effort to prevent nuclear proliferation.</div><div><br /></div><div>"He has shown an unshakable commitment to diplomacy, mutual respect and dialogue as the best means of resolving conflicts," ElBaradei said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obama also has attempted to restart stalled talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, but just a day after Obama hosted the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York, Israeli officials boasted that they had fended off U.S. pressure to halt settlement construction. Moderate Palestinians said they felt undermined by Obama's failure to back up his demand for a freeze.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I look forward to working closely with you in the years ahead to advance peace," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a message of congratulations to Obama.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the Gaza Strip, leaders of the radical Hamas movement said they had heard Obama's speeches seeking better relations with the Islamic world but had not been moved.</div><div><br /></div><div>"We are in need of actions, not sayings," Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said. "If there is no fundamental and true change in American policies toward the acknowledgment of the rights of the Palestinian people, I think this prize won't move us forward or backward."</div><div><br /></div><div>Obama was to meet with his top advisers on the Afghan war on Friday to consider a request by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, to send as many as 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan as the U.S war there enters its ninth year.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obama ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan earlier this year and has continued the use of unmanned drones for attacks on militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a strategy devised by the Bush administration. The attacks often kill or injure civilians living in the area.</div><div><br /></div><div>A Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan has condemned President Barack Obama's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize, saying the American president had only escalated the war by sending more troops.</div><div><br /></div><div>Qari Yousef Ahmadi accused Obama "of having the blood of the Afghan people on his hands."</div><div><br /></div><div>In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses."</div><div><br /></div><div>Nominators for the prize include former laureates; current and former members of the committee and their staff; members of national governments and legislatures; university professors of law, theology, social sciences, history and philosophy; leaders of peace research and foreign affairs institutes; and members of international courts of law.</div><div><br /></div><div>The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change.</div><div><br /></div><div>Until seconds before the award, speculation had focused on a wide variety of candidates besides Obama: Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, a Colombian senator, a Chinese dissident and an Afghan woman's rights activist, among others.</div><div><br /></div><div>by KARL RITTER and MATT MOORE, Associated Press Writers.</div><div>Associated Press writers Ian MacDougall in Oslo, Rahim Faiez in Kabul, Celean Jacobson in Johannesburg, George Jahn in Vienna, Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki and Jennifer Loven in Washington contributed to this report.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-70249842062472005082009-09-24T10:21:00.001+08:002009-09-24T10:21:50.730+08:00> 'Thief shouting thief' over Buah Pala<div>Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng today lashed out at Gerakan state chief Teng Hock Nan and accused him and Barisan Nasional of 'selling out' the Kampung Buah Pala villagers.</div><div><br /></div><div>In a hard-hitting statement, he asked why Teng has not repented by apologising for his part in selling the land at such cheap rates without consulting the villagers? </div><div><br /></div><div>Lim urged Teng and BN to provide proof or stop their "shocking lies" that the Pakatan Rakyat government finalised the village land deal and sold Kampung Buah Pala to Koperasi Pegawai Pegawai Kanan Kerajaan Pulau Pinang (Koperasi).</div><div><br /></div><div>"No amount of false reports by their 'character assassins' will convince Penangnites that BN and the Gerakan government did not rob the villagers of their land," he said.</div><div>'Thief shouting thief'</div><div><br /></div><div>Lim said the declassification of exco minutes on July 7, 2009 showed that the BN state government under then chief minister and Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon were principally culpable for alienating the land twice to Koperasi in exco meetings on Aug 8, 2004 and June 8, 2005 without consulting the villagers.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The land was alienated by BN at a ridiculously low land premium of RM10 per square feet (when the market rate then was at least RM50 psf) with unanimous support from all MCA, Gerakan, Umno and MIC state exco members including Teng.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Teng never repented and apologised... and he is now blaming the Pakatan state government of robbing the villagers of their land, a classic case of 'the thief shouting thief'," he added.</div><div><br /></div><div>After losing their land, Lim said the BN "land robbers" treated the villagers as illegal squatters with no rights to own their land. </div><div><br /></div><div>The exco minutes showed that BN offered a RM75,000 flat unit to Kampung Buah Pala villagers. </div><div><br /></div><div>Unlike BN, Lim said his state government treated them as landowners who were allowed to stay by the original British landlord nearly 150 years ago. </div><div><br /></div><div>He said the Pakatan state government worked hard to compel the developer to offer a double-storey terrace house with 99 years lease to the residents worth RM600,000. </div><div><br /></div><div>This successful compensation is widely recognised as the best in Malaysian history, he added.</div><div><br /></div><div>'There's nothing we could do'</div><div><br /></div><div>Lim explained that once the decision of the BN state exco was conveyed by approval letters for land alienation and development orders sent out to Koperasi and the developer, the state government was legally bound. </div><div><br /></div><div>"There is nothing the new government can do. This was also affirmed by the Federal Court decision. The order for eviction and demolition was issued to the developer and not initiated by the state government," he added.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lim challenged BN to deny that they had issued numerous letters of eviction to the villagers when they were in power.</div><div><br /></div><div>In contrast, he said, the new state government never issued a single letter of eviction. </div><div><br /></div><div>"Similarly until now BN or Teng cannot show prove that I promised that I would return the land back to the villagers during the general election as I did not even campaign there," he added.</div><div><br /></div><div>On the same note, Lim asked: "If BN And Gerakan are so innocent, why is it that Koh (former CM) dare not take up his own challenge of an open public debate with me on national television?"</div><div><br /></div><div>Lim said the only solution to saving Kampung Buah Pala was to forcibly acquire the land. </div><div><br /></div><div>"However this would cost the state more than RM100 million, a sum 1.5 million Penangnites can not afford for 24 houses in Kampung Buah Pala. </div><div><br /></div><div>"Unless of course Teng can write the cheque for the acquisition to redeem and atone for BN's mistake, which he has still not done so," he added - Malaysiakini.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-17668041518746518162009-09-20T11:38:00.003+08:002009-09-20T11:39:59.400+08:00> SIS files revision against Kartika's whipping<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rltWiMGJzayJ7i7Q80B62cq0asadnwJPPuKFr-kMW17hcC_DsUT1hmBCd4Dh1TseIo_KwDh7-SJpenwmbT9OHES3Kdk66v40sdoeNWtSWai1v10tM1pUX9pNrUPx3ax-llVGk6w7gPzu/s1600-h/f8ef465d8d7843054e1857a901d641cb.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 280px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7rltWiMGJzayJ7i7Q80B62cq0asadnwJPPuKFr-kMW17hcC_DsUT1hmBCd4Dh1TseIo_KwDh7-SJpenwmbT9OHES3Kdk66v40sdoeNWtSWai1v10tM1pUX9pNrUPx3ax-llVGk6w7gPzu/s400/f8ef465d8d7843054e1857a901d641cb.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5383389211503254226" /></a><br /><div>Sisters in Islam yesterday filed an application to the Syariah High Court in Kuantan asking for a revision and a stay of execution against Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno's whipping sentence. </div><div><br /></div><div>“As an advocacy group working on women's rights in Islam, SIS is acting in the public interest so as to resolve the controversies and to provide clarity on this issue,” said SIS executive director Dr Hamidah Marican.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kartika, 32, was arrested at a hotel nightclub and sentenced to six strokes of the cane two month ago in a rare prosecution of religious laws that ban alcohol for Muslims.</div><div><br /></div><div>Her insistence that she was ready to face her punishment and would not appeal threw the government and religious authorities into a spin as they attempted to carry out the sentence on a woman for the first time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Last month, as the mother-of-two was detained ahead of the thrashing, she was abruptly released and the punishment is now being held back until after Hari Raya Aidilfitri.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hamidah also expressed concern that the Pahang Religious Department intended to execute the sentence on Kartika without any prior notice despite newspaper reports that the state chief syarie judge has also filed for a revision of Kartika's sentence</div><div><br /></div><div>“Since Kartika's case has generated much public concern, nationally and internationally, the insistence on executing the sentence when legal avenues for revision and clarification have not been exhausted shows an utter disregard of a matter of great public and international interest,” said Hamidah.</div><div><br /></div><div>“SIS urges the authorities to refrain from executing the sentence on Kartika until all legal and other avenues have been exhausted.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Kartika: Leave me alone</div><div><br /></div><div>Kartika, who refused to file an appeal against the sentence, had on Wednesday issued a statement that she wanted be left alone and that the caning to proceed.</div><div><br /></div><div>According to her, too many individuals had tried to press her into filing for a revision of the sentence.</div><div><br /></div><div>“As such, I give notice that I do not want to be disturbed by any individuals, politicians, government organisations and non-governmental organisations...," she said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kartika was fined RM5,000 and and sentenced to six strokes of the rotan by the Kuantan Syariah High Court on July 20 after pleading guilty to drinking alochol at a hotel in Cherating on July 11, 2008.</div><div><br /></div><div>On Aug 24, the caning was postponed by Pahang Syariah High Court judge Abdul Rahman Yunus out of respect for the month of Ramadan - Malaysiakini.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-34947978526472239912009-09-17T03:19:00.002+08:002009-09-17T03:20:55.724+08:00> Penan rape: Protest held in front of PM's office<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbpHl0YWOlOj3nsnCyJTO-OcsgWTTEXjSWpGX4g-FOhy-y5FdUnOYGQzJt590HAMOtGqzAIAolsqAbrAW5SsrAAU2GTc-WXk3j-p1AgumX72y-XJDkr3-pxMfdr1xm29mjnSGwCFft66C3/s1600-h/624e6bdbf078e86884e622921b934420.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 312px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbpHl0YWOlOj3nsnCyJTO-OcsgWTTEXjSWpGX4g-FOhy-y5FdUnOYGQzJt590HAMOtGqzAIAolsqAbrAW5SsrAAU2GTc-WXk3j-p1AgumX72y-XJDkr3-pxMfdr1xm29mjnSGwCFft66C3/s400/624e6bdbf078e86884e622921b934420.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5382147360777396514" /></a><div>Yip Ai Tsin</div><div><br /></div><div>Several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) today staged a picket outside the Prime Minister's office in Putrajaya alleging that the government lacked commitment to resolve the plight of the Penan women and girls who were raped by loggers.</div><div><br /></div><div>Shortly after singing "Negaraku" to commemorate "Hari Malaysia", the group was told to disperse by a group of 15 police personnel who threatened to arrest them for illegal assembly.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG), which comprises five Malaysian women's rights groups, Centre for Orang Asli Concerns (COAC) and Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) wants the government to:</div><div><br /></div><div>1) make public the current status of the police criminal investigation of the sexual abuse cases and allocate adequate resources for the investigation as well as the prosecution of the perpetrators;</div><div><br /></div><div>2) conduct an investigation into the activities of the logging companies identified in the cases of sexual abuse as well as other companies with commercial interests in the Orang Asal native customary rights lands , with a view to uncover and stop violations of human rights;</div><div><br /></div><div>3) provide support for the survivors of sexual abuse in the form of financial aid, healthcare, education and counselling for the individuals concerned and their families;</div><div><br /></div><div>4) take steps to ensure that survivors of sexual violence among isolated or rural indigenous communities such as the Penan are able to obtain legal redress by making the justice system more accessible to women from these communities, eradicating corruption among the police force and disseminating easy-to-understand information on their rights and the law;</div><div><br /></div><div>5) abide by its obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child;</div><div><br /></div><div>6) fully incorporate the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into federal and state legislation and policies, and not to act in any manner inconsistent with the rights protected therein.</div><div><br /></div><div>Implement task force</div><div><br /></div><div>JAG also demanded that the government immediately implement the recommendations of the task force and closely monitor their implementation.</div><div><br /></div><div>While noting that Malaysia voted for the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples, JAG said that the Department of Orang Asli Affairs director-general continue to have the power to displace Orang Asli communities from reserve lands and award compensation for the displacement at his/her discretion, without the communities' free, prior and informed consent.</div><div><br /></div><div>(The declaration affirmed indigenous community's right not to be forcibly removed from their lands or territories, and the right to participate in decision-making.)</div><div><br /></div><div>"Sabahan and Sarawakian indigenous people continue to find themselves having to take, often at tremendous risk and very little financial support, case after case native customary land rights to court.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The communities are all still waiting for justice. They have been met by stone-walling, summary dismissals of their concerns, false allegations of foreign intervention, and a seeming lack of interest by the authorities on meeting their obligations to protect, fulfill and promote human rights in this country," said JAG in a statement.</div><div><br /></div><div>Orang Asli activist Jenita Engi (right) urged the government to take heed and resolve the matter as justice has been eluding the Penan people for a long time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Also present was PKR Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin (left) who described the report prepared by Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil as inadequate as it did not lay out action against the culprits and measures to ensure the safety of the Penan women.</div><div><br /></div><div>"We wonder why is Shahrizat keeping quiet and beating around the bush in this matter. We are even more surprised with Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu for doubting the Penans and blaming the NGOs for making up stories," she said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Instead of protecting the Penans, BN's Sarawak state government is more bent in safeguarding the interest of the logging companies, she added.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Clearly, self-serving Shahrizat is in cahoots with them," she said.</div><div>Report finally made public </div><div><br /></div><div> Last year, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development set up a task force, comprising ministry officials and women NGO representatives, to investigate allegations of sexual abuse against Penan women and girls in Sarawak.</div><div><br /></div><div>Its report was released earlier this week and listed at least eight cases of sexual abuse of Penan girls and women by logging camp workers. The report said several of the victims were schoolgirls as young as 10.</div><div><br /></div><div>Local NGOs claim these documented cases were only a small fraction of the total number of cases of sexual abuse.</div><div><br /></div><div>Allegations first surfaced on the Bruno Manser Foundation website last year - Malaysiakini.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-17738371500371707212009-09-16T03:06:00.002+08:002009-09-17T03:22:03.062+08:00> Tony Fernandes takes 1 Malaysia into Formula One<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTu3F7HA2mcgi48mLnxLrY2ii9LtQ-xqGeSVlLHA0ctIY2VA4l6qHNw2byxDFsw2reE1wM1XuJPwlZJ1d_ZwMreqTU4Lx9Cr5vZ9Oy8XX-zXsLrq-pkDQCDUtm5SqlU7N0QJscgRqDd2kF/s1600-h/f1-malaysia-sept15.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 231px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTu3F7HA2mcgi48mLnxLrY2ii9LtQ-xqGeSVlLHA0ctIY2VA4l6qHNw2byxDFsw2reE1wM1XuJPwlZJ1d_ZwMreqTU4Lx9Cr5vZ9Oy8XX-zXsLrq-pkDQCDUtm5SqlU7N0QJscgRqDd2kF/s400/f1-malaysia-sept15.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381772998397175490" /></a><br /><div>Formula One’s governing body today named Lotus as the 13th team for the 2010 championship. The new outfit will be led by Tony Fernandes of Malaysia, it was announced here.</div><div><br /></div><div>In Kuala Lumpur, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak also confirmed the news and said the team will be known as the 1 Malaysia Formula One team, although Reuters quotes the FIA as calling the new outfit the Lotus F1 team.</div><div><br /></div><div>According to Reuters, the new team is a partnership between the Malaysian government and a consortium of Malaysian entrepreneurs.</div><div><br /></div><div>The FIA said the team principal will be leading Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes. The 45-year-old set up Asian budget airline Air Asia and, with a net worth of US$220 million (RM770.57 million), is Malaysia’s 15th richest man, according to Forbes Malaysia 2009 rich list.</div><div><br /></div><div>Investors in the new team are Air Asia co-founders Datuk Kamarudin Meranun and Fernandes as well as SM Nasarudin SM Nasimuddin of Naza.</div><div><br /></div><div>Technical director Mike Gascoyne has more than 20 years of experience in Formula One having previously performed the same role for the Force India, Toyota, Renault and Jordan Formula One teams.</div><div><br /></div><div>As part of its application to compete in the 2010 championship, the Lotus team agreed an engine supply deal with Cosworth.</div><div><br /></div><div>The team will initially be based in Norfolk, some 10 miles from the Lotus Cars factory in Eastern England.</div><div><br /></div><div>The team’s future design, manufacturing and technical centre will be purpose built at Malaysia’s Sepang International Circuit, the FIA statement said.</div><div><br /></div><div>1Malaysia is Najib’s platform for uniting Malaysians irrespective of ethnicity and creating a performance based culture.</div><div><br /></div><div>The concept has gotten mixed reviews as some have praised its objectives while others have criticised its vagueness, which Najib says is deliberate.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Malaysian government has gone on overdrive to promote 1Malaysia via billboards and song competitions.</div><div><br /></div><div>Najib declined to disclose the amount that the public-private initiative will cost.</div><div><br /></div><div>He added however that the government’s investment will be via proton.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lotus, one of the most successful and glorious names from Formula One’s past, will return next year replacing BMW-Sauber as the 13th entry on the starting grid.</div><div><br /></div><div>The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement that, after due diligence and an intensive selection process, it had chosen Lotus.</div><div><br /></div><div>“The cars will be made in Malaysia, by Malaysians,” the Malaysian government said in a separate statement.</div><div><br /></div><div>The vacancy arose after BMW announced that they were withdrawing at the end of the season, following a path already trodden by Japan’s Honda.</div><div><br /></div><div>The FIA said BMW-Sauber, who are still seeking a buyer, had been given a reserve slot to fill any vacancy that might occur between now and the start of the 2010 championship.</div><div><br /></div><div>“The team will announce its two drivers by October 31, 2009. Currently six local and international drivers have been selected,” the Malaysian government said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Three teams had been on the FIA shortlist for the 13th slot: Lotus, a BMW-Sauber entry to be renamed under eventual new ownership and Spain’s Epsilon Euskadi.</div><div><br /></div><div>The original Lotus won seven Formula One constructors’ titles and six drivers’ crowns between 1963 and 1978 under the inspirational leadership of the late Colin Chapman, one of the most innovative engineers in the sport.</div><div><br /></div><div>Chapman died of a heart attack in 1982 and the company slid into administration in 1994 after giving the late Brazilian Ayrton Senna his first victory in 1985.</div><div><br /></div><div>British great Jim Clark spent his entire F1 career with Lotus, winning two titles. The team’s other champions include compatriot Graham Hill, Brazilian Emerson Fittipaldi and American Mario Andretti.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 1970 the team’s Austrian driver Jochen Rindt became the sport’s only posthumous champion.</div><div><br /></div><div>The right to the Lotus F1 name was acquired by David Hunt, brother of the 1976 champion James, while the British-based car company was bought by Malaysian state-owned Proton - The Malaysian Insider.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-50195734289221024592009-09-15T10:26:00.002+08:002009-09-15T10:29:57.085+08:00> Jeffrey: Time to recognise Sabah, S'wak as equal partners<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi__Fc9uXK8fWOh1GY_rUWRySx_cMfdZY9pMQ_LybwFfmJpwuhHwZ9u0vVXN2MRy2mSM_OZNjAyWHr2edOZayK4f3IhuWr5Jc5ygh8mljpVneJRDIsBi3z7Dx77yvLEJfMMfcRGT7q0bYh-/s1600-h/jeffrey-kitingan-2.png"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 144px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi__Fc9uXK8fWOh1GY_rUWRySx_cMfdZY9pMQ_LybwFfmJpwuhHwZ9u0vVXN2MRy2mSM_OZNjAyWHr2edOZayK4f3IhuWr5Jc5ygh8mljpVneJRDIsBi3z7Dx77yvLEJfMMfcRGT7q0bYh-/s320/jeffrey-kitingan-2.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381515730488964610" /></a><br /><div>by Leong Sai Ho</div><div><br /></div><div>Jeffrey Kitingan says this is the right time for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to recognize the equal partnership and status of Sabah and Sarawak and correct the deviation from the original concept of Malaysia.</div><div><br /></div><div>“This year is the most appropriate year for the government to declare Sept. 16 as national public holiday, if they are really serious about 1Malaysia,” he told the Malaysian Mirror in an exclusive interview here.</div><div><br /></div><div>He says this is also a favourable time to recall the contributions of our leaders in the formation of Malaysia and hold seminars, symposiums and exhibitions on the history of Malaysia’s formation.</div><div><br /></div><div>“The true history, not the manipulated history,” he stresses, adding that such activities should be organised and held nation-wide.</div><div><br /></div><div>“In this way,” he explains, “We can talk about Malaysia through the exhibitions to all Malaysians, especially the young who could get to know and appreciate the concept of a true Malaysian federation.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Restore special rights</div><div><br /></div><div>Jeffrey, a younger brother of Joseph Pairin Kitingan, president of Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) and a deputy chief minister in the state Cabinet, believes this is an appropriate time for the prime minister to recognise the equal partnership and status of Sabah and Sarawak.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Our prime minister could do so by restoring the special rights and status of Sabah and Sarawak to differentiate them from other states in the peninsula. Now we have been down graded.</div><div><br /></div><div>“If he can do this, he will be recognised as a prime minister who restored dignity to the people of Sabah and Sarawak and complied with the true spirit of the Malaysia Agreement,” he exhorts.</div><div><br /></div><div>That, he adds, would be a great gift to the founding fathers from the two states and to the future generations of Malaysians.</div><div><br /></div><div>Touching further on the significance of Malaysia Day celebrated on Sept 16, the day in 1963 when the Malaysian Federation was formed with Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya as partners in nationhood.</div><div><br /></div><div>“It should be a national day, a public holiday. When we talk about 1Malaysia, what is it if not Malaysia?</div><div><br /></div><div>“We should accord due importance and acceptance to it as Malaysia Day, the day we became one nation, a day when Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya came together.”</div><div><br /></div><div>No relations to Aug 31</div><div><br /></div><div>He says that if we want to celebrate on Aug. 31, then it should be celebrated as Independence Day separately for the Malayan states there.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Their independence year was 1957 and ours is 1963. So we cannot use 1957 as the basis for National Day celebration, since Sabah and Sarawak have no relations to it.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Jeffrey asserts, “If you insist in doing that, you are saying there is no Malaysia, only Malaya. That would mean that Sabah and Sarawak are just an appendix or colony.”</div><div><br /></div><div>It seemed to him that no one at the federal level is listening to this issue. At the same time, he feels that Sabah and Sarawak leaders (in the government) have no determination to pursue the matter, get the necessary attention and get this issue resolved.</div><div><br /></div><div>“So, this renders meaningless the BN concept of cooperation and power sharing. I am glad to see that the Pakatan Rakyat government has started recognizing Sept 16 as a significant date for national union by having that day declared as a public holiday.”</div><div><br /></div><div>He said this has been done in some states (that are under the control of PR) like Penang and Selangor.</div><div><br /></div><div>Jeffrey’s sentiments on Malaysia Day have been echoed by other leaders in Sabah. Among them is Eric Majimbun, Member of Parliament for Sepanggar, and a deputy president of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP).</div><div><br /></div><div>He told the Malaysian Mirror in a separate interview that Sept 16 should be officially recognised by the government and is also calling for it to be declared a national public holiday.</div><div><br /></div><div>“By doing so our young Malaysians would know that Malaysia was formed by four nations, Sabah, Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya. This means we are not one of 13 states in Malaysia. We are equal partners of the three components of the federation.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Our young ones think that we are just one of the 13 states in Malaysia because they regard Aug. 31 1957 as Merdeka, five years of difference,”</div><div><br /></div><div>Majimbun says that in terms of development, this is also the yardstick we look at.</div><div><br /></div><div>“So, development is also different. We are far behind in development, especially in infrastructure and in agriculture. We may think we are at par with the other states in plantations, but they are all from outside and not locals. This is the problem we face.”</div><div><br /></div><div>In the case of Sabah, Sept 16 is a public holiday by virtue of the fact that it is a day on which the Yang di-Pertua Negeri (Head of State) celebrates his official birthday.</div><div><br /></div><div>'Malaysia Day Countdown'</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, the United Sabah Dusun Association (Usda) has organised a “Malaysia Day Countdown” at Padang Selupuh in Tuaran beginning at 8pm on Sept. 15.</div><div><br /></div><div>Its president, Kalakau Untol, has called on Sabahans “who envisage changes in politics and the system of governance” to attend the function.</div><div><br /></div><div>“This is an opportunity not to be missed, especially the younger generation to know events of history that brought about Sabah’s involvement in the formation of Malaysia and also the consequences of being in the Federation since Sept 16, 1963.”</div><div><br /></div><div>He says among leaders invited to speak at that function are: MP for Tuaran, Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing, who is also deputy president of Upko; Dr Jeffrey Kitingan; former senator Karim Ghani from Umno Sabah; and Haji Ansari Abdullah, another leader from PKR Sabah.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kalakau said in his statement announcing the event that the people of Sabah, especially the younger generation, “must not forget” that Sabah together with Sarawak, Singapore and Malaya formed a new federation called Malaysia on Sept 16, 1963.</div><div><br /></div><div>Singapore, however, pulled out in August 1965 - Malaysian Mirror.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-3369753658539135962009-09-15T08:41:00.002+08:002009-09-15T08:42:26.764+08:00> Get set for a Pakatan surprise in Bagan Pinang<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLnGP7R5CMqYc5TzZEXO_y95_YOSu_aX29r902NWb3a1ek56-w2Fa74DwRwdV42rMvp0GRpD0TRfKl2UpH2WfospixOXTP_M2xqUCAdPkAMAk55PTvm0QQWTykX8Tad-10Ja249GLEuDLA/s1600-h/fac68f71e07237fadf6223d522b69290.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLnGP7R5CMqYc5TzZEXO_y95_YOSu_aX29r902NWb3a1ek56-w2Fa74DwRwdV42rMvp0GRpD0TRfKl2UpH2WfospixOXTP_M2xqUCAdPkAMAk55PTvm0QQWTykX8Tad-10Ja249GLEuDLA/s400/fac68f71e07237fadf6223d522b69290.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5381488059126248834" /></a><br /><div>by Rahmah Ghazali</div><div><br /></div><div>The Bagan Pinang Umno stronghold holds no fear for Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim as he believes that Pakatan Rakyat will emerge triumphant in that state constituency's upcoming by-election.</div><div><br /></div><div>"God willing, with the people's support, we will pull a surprise," said Anwar from his PKR headquarters in Tropicana, Damansara after chairing a Pakatan leadership council meeting today.</div><div><br /></div><div>Expressing his concern over the Election Commission's selection of dates, he lamented that on seats considered a Barisan Nasional stronghold, polls would be held over the weekend.</div><div><br /></div><div>"And on seats within our stronghold, polls would be held during the weekdays," said Anwar (left), who is PKR de-facto leader.</div><div><br /></div><div>EC chief Abdul Aziz Yusof had this morning announced that Oct 3 (Saturday) has been picked for nominations with Oct 11 (Sunday) set for the polls.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anwar also said that PKR and DAP will provide a strong support for the PAS candidate throughout the by-election campaign period.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is the ninth by-election since the 12th general election in March last year.</div><div><br /></div><div>The seat fell vacant following the death of incumbent BN assemblyperson Azman Mohammad Noor, on Sept 4, from blood infection. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the general election in March 2008, Azman defeated PAS' Ramli Ismail with a majority of 2,333 votes. He polled 6,430 votes against Ramli's 4,097.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kit Siang: It is an uphill battle</div><div><br /></div><div>Describing the fight against arch-rivals BN as an "uphill battle", DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang however said it is up to the voters to "demonstrate their desire for change in this sea of by-elections".</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, PAS secretary-general Mustafa Ali admitted that Pakatan, and PAS especially will face a "quite different situation" this time around as Bagan Pinang constituency has a huge number of postal voters. </div><div><br /></div><div>"Although it is usual for the postal votes to be in favour of BN, we hope they would use their intelligence by voting for Pakatan, allowing us the opportunity to prove our ability," said Mustapha.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are 13,664 voters in Bagan Pinang, of which 9,060 are ordinary voters with the remainder of 4,604 being postal voters. The postal voters large number is due to the several army camps located in the constituency.</div><div><br /></div><div>PKR man to stand as independent</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, several hours after Pakatan leaders spoke about springing a surprise in Bagan Pinang, a local level PKR leader threw his name to the hat as a potential independent candidate.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kota Lukut PKR division committee member Shahrudin Abdul Hamid today said he was going to contest for the state seat, providing for a potential three-cornered fight between himself as an independent, BN and PAS.</div><div><br /></div><div>Shahrudin, 52, a former aide to PKR's Teluk Kemang MP Kamarul Baharin, said he wanted to contest to promote the tourism industry in Port Dickson.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Here tourism is important. I want to play my role in uplifting the facilities here. Presently I don't see anyone doing that," he told Malaysiakini today.</div><div><br /></div><div>The former Umno man is involved in events management - Malaysiakini.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-6661464960381569732009-09-13T05:57:00.002+08:002009-09-13T05:59:53.661+08:00> Subra says his loss was due to money politics<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg__OrKRQS5ewtVllc5Dy7gYyomKxoBh9xvKkyG-0g7oWp9pQBO7EMml3msaNNImrsKa-lABxStYJa4IgTAmwwDzDfzGqtuhhpMklA70sbJjDSEgVoEoNqweFHnEgz7OEApte-4o7UJKHP8/s1600-h/6f34ba87592a0740476b7b437db0eadb.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 197px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg__OrKRQS5ewtVllc5Dy7gYyomKxoBh9xvKkyG-0g7oWp9pQBO7EMml3msaNNImrsKa-lABxStYJa4IgTAmwwDzDfzGqtuhhpMklA70sbJjDSEgVoEoNqweFHnEgz7OEApte-4o7UJKHP8/s400/6f34ba87592a0740476b7b437db0eadb.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5380704006065310418" /></a><br /><div>S Subramaniam, who lost in his bid to regain the MIC deputy president's post, attributed vote buying as largely contributing to his defeat.</div><div><br /></div><div>He said, money was openly given, a minimum of RM300 to each delegate.</div><div><br /></div><div>"It was very disappointing. I did not expect (the loss)," he told reporters.</div><div><br /></div><div>Asked whether he would join another party or form a new political party, or what his next move would possibly be, the once long-time deputy president said: "I will take some time to think about it (next move).</div><div><br /></div><div>Asked to comment on the possible disciplinary action against him as he had been referred to the disciplinary board for making a statement on party elections held in 1977, Subramaniam said he was not bothered about it.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I will know what to do," he said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, many of Subramaniam's supporters were in tears. They vented their anger by shouting that money politics was the cause of the defeat and urged him to join other parties.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another deputy presidential candidate, S Sothinathan, said he accepted the defeat.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Despite what the prime minister said this morning... delegates made their decision and nothing has changed," he lamented - Malaysiakini.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-4650768368885063832009-09-13T05:50:00.001+08:002009-09-13T06:01:16.640+08:00> Palanivel is Deputy President of MIC<div>Incumbent G Palanivel retained the MIC deputy president post by fighting off a strong challenge from rivals S Subramaniam and S Sothinathan.</div><div><br /></div><div>Palanivel (left) garnered 629 votes against former deputy president Subramaniam, 547, and former vice-president Sothinathan, 280. His margin of majority was rather slim - 82 votes.</div><div><br /></div><div>All three candidates endorsed by MIC president S Samy Vellu have also been elected to the three vice-president posts in today's party polls.</div><div><br /></div><div>Human Resources Minister Dr S Subramaniam was the top vote getter with 1,260 votes, while deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Department SK Devamany came second with 1,122 votes and Federal Territories deputy minister M Saravanan joining the other two with 1,030 votes.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is also learnt that most of Samy Vellu's men have won the lion's share of the 23 seats in the party's central working committee.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Samy Vellu feeling 'much better'</b></div><div><br /></div><div>A visibly distraught Sothinathan said he accepted the verdict from the 1,469 party delegates.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Even after what the prime minister had said today, they don't change. What can I do? Everybody knows the situation. The public know but still..."</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, Subramanian supporters looked dejected and there appeared to be an air of disbelief among them.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some expressed anger, saying that MIC would never change and that they might as well support the Pakatan Rakyat opposition.</div><div><br /></div><div>MIC supremo Samy Vellu, when asked how he felt, laughed and said: "Much better... much better."</div><div><br /></div><div>A close aide of had earlier told Malaysiakini that the party boss visited a temple just before the elections to 'invoke the armies of Hanuman' (monkey god) to help his team win.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Subra mobbed by dejected supporters</b></div><div><br /></div><div>In an immediate reaction, Subramaniam said he accepted the decision of the delegates although he was disappointed.</div><div><br /></div><div>He however expressed surprise that the delegates had failed to heed Najib's advice this morning.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I don't know if they did not understand it or refused to listen but they have decided and I shall accept their decision," he said.</div><div><br /></div><div>He was mobbed by his somber supporters as he came out of the counting room. He urged his supporters to remain calm and leave peacefully.</div><div><br /></div><div>Subramaniam also said that he needed some time to think about what he would do next. He also refused to comment if he will be leaving MIC for another party or form a new party.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Give me some time. I will answer all these later," he said.</div><div><br /></div><div>He blamed his defeat on money politics by the president's team.</div><div><br /></div><div>"So much of money was given. They did not stop giving," he lamented.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>KP Samy: We'll form a new party</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Some of Subramaniam's supporters were in tears after the unofficial results indicated his defeat.</div><div><br /></div><div>A few blamed Sothinathan for splitting the votes and playing the spoiler in the deputy president race, while others were angry with Samy Vellu for orchestrating their leader's defeat.</div><div><br /></div><div>While Subramaniam is silent about his future in MIC, many his loyalists said their man's political future lies outside the party that had rejected him today.</div><div><br /></div><div>Subramaniam left the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) where the MIC 63rd AGM is being held before the official results were announced.</div><div><br /></div><div>A highly emotional KP Samy, who is a staunch supporter of Subramaniam, vowed to leave MIC.</div><div><br /></div><div>"We will form a new party and teach these people a lesson. We will tell the PM not to rely on this fellow (Samy Vellu)," he said.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Jubilant Samy sings</b></div><div><br /></div><div>After the election commission steering committee head K Vijayanathan announced the results, a jubilant Samy Vellu thanked the delegates and broke out into a song.</div><div><br /></div><div>A few minutes later, he returned to the microphone and asked for the music to be turned down in the hall.</div><div><br /></div><div>The president then thanked the media representatives and called on the delegates to give them a resounding applause.</div><div><br /></div><div>Samy Vellu also argued that there had been changes in the party line-up.</div><div><br /></div><div>"They wanted changes and I have made them. About 18 out of the 23 CWC members are new. All three vice-presidents are new.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The deputy president is only three years old while the president is 73-years-old," he quipped.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I will take care of them, train them, so that they can run a strong party."</div><div><br /></div><div>Following this, Palanivel thanked the delegates for voting him. Responding to a question, he denied that the election has caused fissures in the party.</div><div><br /></div><div>"There is no split in the party. The party is united."</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Balloting lasted three hours</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Earlier today, the 1,469 MIC delegates took three hours to complete their voting in what is considered as the most tense and most watched polls in the party's 63-year history.</div><div><br /></div><div>According to Vijayanathan, who is also MIC secretary-general, there were 54 polling booths and 28 ballot boxes.</div><div><br /></div><div>The balloting, which kicked off at 1pm, came to a close at 4pm. </div><div><br /></div><div>The ballot boxes were taken to Bilik Pangkor, on the third floor of the PWTC, for the counting of votes.</div><div><br /></div><div>At 4.25pm, the contestants emerged from the main conference hall.</div><div><br /></div><div>Subramaniam was greeted with a resounding applause while the reception was a little muted for his key rival, Palanivel. Some of Subramanian's supporters shouted "give change a chance".</div><div><br /></div><div>However, most of the delegates have decided to back their long-time president, who has led the party for 33 years, and his men.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>OFFICIAL RESULTS</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Deputy president</div><div><br /></div><div>G Palanivel* - 629</div><div>S Subramaniam - 547</div><div>S Sothinathan - 280</div><div><br /></div><div>Vice-president (3 posts)</div><div><br /></div><div>Dr S Subramaniam - 1,260</div><div>SK Devamany - 1,122</div><div>M Saravanan - 1,030</div><div>S Balakrishnan - 471</div><div>VKK Teagarajan - 220</div><div>P Subramaniam - 215</div><div>P Mariayee - 61</div><div><br /></div><div>* Incumbent. Those in bold are MIC president S Samy Vellu's men.</div><div><br /></div><div>Central Working Committee (23 seats)</div><div><br /></div><div>1. KR Partiban</div><div>2. M Asojan</div><div>3. VS Mogan</div><div>4. RA Ragu Moorthi </div><div>5. S Murugesan</div><div>6. M Devandran</div><div>7. A Saktivel</div><div>8. Randhir Singh</div><div>9. Jaspal Singh</div><div>10. KRA Naidu </div><div>11. K Ganeson</div><div>12. S Ananthan</div><div>13. MM Samy</div><div>14. SP Manikavasagam</div><div>15. M Paanjamoorthy</div><div>16. AGaneson </div><div>17. VK Suppiah</div><div>18. S Ganesan</div><div>19. KP Samy</div><div>20. SS Rajagopal</div><div>21. N Ravisandaran</div><div>22. P Palaniappan</div><div>23. Madhu Marimuthu</div><div><br /></div><div> - Malaysiakini.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-19255023283982570702009-09-09T02:20:00.007+08:002009-09-09T05:44:08.567+08:00> Here comes the next MIC President<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvI1wkgj5-wuWTvH_4pWLPDR3YrVBnlIAc5lyVyvIg2wv1YaKueaR-Dodiy-ZpVnW7Hdf1gEFRcnC2wkNZB-1D6wjsBUdAKxjvQ96_kxluA6wL69RZ6j1Ugvhaxc5CpUdGR2ewvgBmfLAp/s1600-h/a2680513bf835b7457994bf79f9754c0.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 244px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvI1wkgj5-wuWTvH_4pWLPDR3YrVBnlIAc5lyVyvIg2wv1YaKueaR-Dodiy-ZpVnW7Hdf1gEFRcnC2wkNZB-1D6wjsBUdAKxjvQ96_kxluA6wL69RZ6j1Ugvhaxc5CpUdGR2ewvgBmfLAp/s400/a2680513bf835b7457994bf79f9754c0.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5379215334507837474" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#000000;">by R.K.Anand<br /></span></a><div><div><br /></div><div>The debonair politician looks dashing in a crimson shirt as he strides into the finely decorated living room of his lavish bungalow in Petaling Jaya for another interview.</div><div><br /></div><div>As the clock ticks down for the MIC elections, one of the party's most recognisable faces is being hounded by the media of all languages.</div><div><br /></div><div>While his critics may accuse him of numerous misdeeds, one thing that even they cannot deny is that the man ages gracefully. And although S Subramaniam turns 65 next month, the father of three does not look a day over 50.</div><div><br /></div><div>During a casual chat with journalists, Subramaniam quipped that his youthful appearance may also be a sore point for his political nemesis, MIC president S Samy Vellu.</div><div><br /></div><div>"That is why he tells people that I go around like a mapillai (bridegroom)."</div><div><br /></div><div>Whether or not there are superficial differences between the two, one thing is for certain. Their political differences is legendary.</div><div><br /></div><div>For nearly three decades, the president has tried every trick in the book to make him disappear, but Subramaniam always reappears.</div><div><br /></div><div>When Subramaniam lost in the 2006 deputy presidential elections, Samy Vellu thought he had finally vanquished his foe. Two years later, the 2008 general election returned Subramaniam to the forefront of politics.</div><div><br /></div><div>And come Saturday, he will attempt to reclaim his No 2 post in the party and realise his dream of helming MIC.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Four-cornered fight</b></div><div><br /></div><div>While the incumbent G Palanivel is embroiled in a three-way battle, Subramaniam said he sees himself and to a certain extent the third challenger S Sothinathan as being in a four-way fight.</div><div><br /></div><div>Why? Because "the biggest campaigner happens to be Samy Vellu."</div><div><br /></div><div>The MIC president has openly endorsed Palanivel and has been urging the some 1,400 party delegates to cast their ballots in favour of his line-up to ensure stability.</div><div><br /></div><div>So as far as Subramaniam is concerned, this is actually shaping out to be a battle for the top post itself.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The president is battling me. He is the one who has come into the fray. The president is getting involved so deeply, so it must be seen as almost a contest for the presidency. It is his team, endorsed team, official team. What does it mean?</div><div><br /></div><div>"My time is taken up to respond, reply and explain to the delegates these unfounded allegations that are being made by the president."</div><div><br /></div><div>Given the recent developments, Subramaniam said he sometimes regrets not taking on Samy Vellu for the presidency but claimed that it was not fear which stopped him.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Because now he is behaving like a candidate (for No. 2). I wish I had contested against him and had the opportunity to tell where he had not performed and where he went wrong.</div><div><br /></div><div>"He is not a candidate, he is trying to be one. He is campaigning against me. It was not fear. I made it (the decision not to contest against him) in the interest of the party.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Many urged me to contest, but I said 'No' because the party was weak (after the general election) and I did not want to cause any problems in terms of the strength of the party."</div><div><br /></div><div><b>'There is no feud'</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Subramaniam also denied that he has an axe to grind with the president, saying it is the latter who is always picking a fight.</div><div><br /></div><div>"There is no feud. As far as I am concerned, I am not starting a feud. But of course the president is trying hard to draw me into a war of words and all sorts of controversies. But I am prepared to face him anytime, anywhere."</div><div><br /></div><div>Despite the obstacles, Subramaniam, whose clarion call is 'Change for the Better' is confident of winning this election and possibly even becoming the next president.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I have a very strong response from the delegates, because they are interested in seeing change, a change for the better in MIC.</div><div><br /></div><div>"This is a critical election. The delegates must choose the right person, not only as deputy president but in the event he (the president) steps down, (the elected candidate) takes over the leadership."</div><div><br /></div><div>While Samy Vellu is toying with the idea of staying on for a few more years, Subramaniam wants him to stick to his promise.</div><div><br /></div><div>"He said on the day he was elected (in March) that he will retire after the deputy presidency is filled. I hope as a leader, he will keep his word."</div><div><br /></div><div>Commenting on the president's reluctance to bid farewell just yet, he said: "Probably he thinks 30 years (as president) is not enough... he continues to claim that his services are required... some say he wants to put his son (Vel Paari) in a proper place (in the party before retiring)."</div><div><br /></div><div>Although Samy Vellu has acknowledged the need for changes and has embarked on a re-branding of the party, Subramaniam however to a "arge extent" agreed with the view that for any transformation to be effective, the president has to step down.</div><div><br /></div><div>And when asked if this means the president should throw in the towel, he replied: "I hope he has the heart to do it. That is the reality on the ground."</div><div><br /></div><div>On whether Samy Vellu will be receptive of his victory, Subramaniam stressed that the former has no other choice but to accept the decision of the delegates.</div><div><br /></div><div>"It is not the president's wish to accept or not accept, It is the delegates who decide and it is the (party) constitution that is binding on everybody."</div><div><br /></div><div><b>'I've never dabbled in caste politics'</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Subramaniam also vehemently denied that he has exploited caste organisations, which he terms as social organisations, for his political advancement.</div><div><br /></div><div>On this issue, he challenged the president to a debate to prove this allegation.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I dare him to say this in the debate he challenged (me to) and I accepted. Fix it quickly. Because I have never dealt with any social organisations for my political success.</div><div><br /></div><div>"He is probably the user (of caste politics)... he is probably is the user and that's why he thinks others are doing it."</div><div><br /></div><div>As for money politics, Subramaniam said nobody has accused him of attempting to buy votes from the delegates.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I have not heard any accusations against me... I don't have the evidence (that others are doing it). But I hear that some money is being handed over..."</div><div><br /></div><div>On why the delegates should choose him, the veteran MIC leader argued that he has the best experience among the contestants to ensure that the party is ushered along the right track.</div><div><br /></div><div>Furthermore, he said he carries no baggage. </div><div><br /></div><div>"I have never amassed any wealth. I have nothing to worry about. The community knows all this."</div><div><br /></div><div>Responding to the speculation that Sothinathan's bid for the deputy presidency is an orchestration to break his votes, he said: "Many people have told me that. Many people have asked me that. I really don't know what is going on between Samy Vellu, Sothinathan and Palanivel."</div><div><br /></div><div>"As I see it, my votes cannot be split. It will be a solid vote. Sothi (right) cannot split my votes."</div><div><br /></div><div>Subramaniam also explained that the change he is espousing relates to transformation for the betterment of the party and not otherwise.</div><div><br /></div><div>"When I talk about change, it is to change for the better. Change alone is not good enough because you can change for the worse. So if they (the delegates) elect me, it will be a change for the better.</div><div><br /></div><div>"I will liberalise the party further. I will (provide) greater freedom for members to express their views. Whether I agree or disagree (with the views), I will hear them out.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Basically, the change must be something where party members are given new hope, aspirations and direction. The party must be a united and strong party."</div><div><br /></div><div>Should Subramaniam not succeed in his bid, will he quit politics?</div><div><br /></div><div>He replied firmly: "The question does not arise that I will not succeed. As of now, I am confident that I will succeed." - Malaysiakini.</div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-65153241591755721952009-09-08T08:52:00.000+08:002009-09-08T08:53:05.317+08:00> Damning PKFZ report singles out Kong Choy<div>A confidential report by a government-appointed task force probing one of Malaysia’s biggest financial scandals has identified serious breaches on the part of several government officials, including a former minister.</div><div><br /></div><div>The breaches led to billions of dollars in losses at a tottering state-owned transhipment hub, the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ).</div><div><br /></div><div>The yet-to-be-released report, which will be discussed at the weekly Cabinet meeting tomorrow, singles out former transport minister Chan Kong Choy; Madam O.C. Phang, the former general manager of the Port Klang Authority; and board directors of the port agency, for not carrying out their duties with adequate care.</div><div><br /></div><div>The findings of the special task force, which were read by The Straits Times, also finger Barisan Nasional MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, the main shareholder of private company Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd which carried out the construction of PKFZ.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tiong has been named as one of the “possible conspirators” in a scheme that exposed the government to huge financial losses stemming from the failed PKFZ development venture.</div><div><br /></div><div>The report by the special task force, headed by senior Malaysian lawyer Vinayak Pradhan, will add to the long list of disclosures of alleged criminal wrongdoings and mismanagement that has forced the government to bail out the project. The government also had to stand by debts estimated to be in excess of RM10 billion.</div><div><br /></div><div>Already, the police have frozen the accounts held by Kuala Dimensi with funds of roughly RM140 million as a result of their own investigation into the scandal.</div><div><br /></div><div>Government politicians who reviewed the findings said the report will pile pressure on Prime Minister Najib Razak’s administration to act against those responsible for the huge losses.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that route could prove tricky for the Premier because it will force the government to come down hard on political warlords within its own ruling coalition, such as Tiong. He is an MP from Sarawak and head of the Barisan Nasional’s backbenchers club.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Depending on how deep you want to probe, this scandal goes to the heart of government because payments for the project came from state agencies and had to be approved by the Transport and Finance ministries,” said a senior government official familiar with developments around PKFZ.</div><div><br /></div><div>The free trade zone project began as a joint-venture between Port Klang Authority (PKA) and the promoters of the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone (Jafza) in 1999, to attract foreign investment and promote the main Malaysian port of Port Klang.</div><div><br /></div><div>The land from the project belonged to Kuala Dimensi, which had acquired it in the 1990s for RM96 million or roughly RM3 per sq ft.</div><div><br /></div><div>But under mysterious circumstances, the PKA, led by then general manager O.C. Phang, moved to buy the land from Kuala Dimensi in 2002 for RM1 billion, or roughly RM25 per sq ft.</div><div><br /></div><div>Equally mysterious was the PKA’s decision to award Kuala Dimensi sole rights to develop the free trade zone without an open tender.</div><div><br /></div><div>To fund the development, Kuala Dimensi raised funds through the issue of bonds that were backed by so-called “letters of comfort” from Malaysia’s Transport Ministry.</div><div><br /></div><div>The PKFZ project has since been saddled by cost overruns and mismanagement, leaving it to the government to stand guarantee on its loans and bonds issued to fund the project. – The Straits Times</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-90145801778485783492009-09-08T05:31:00.001+08:002009-09-08T05:31:53.400+08:00> McDonalds vs McCurry: Court wants questions rephrased<div>The Federal Court adjourned to tomorrow the hearing of an application by McDonald's Corporation for leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal's findings over the usage of the prefix "Mc" to enable McDonald's to rephrase the questions on the point of law.</div><div><br /></div><div>Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Arifin Zakaria, who led the panel with Federal Court judges Datuk Wira Mohd Ghazali Mohd Yusoff and Datuk James Foong, today ordered counsel S.F. Wong, representing McDonald's, to rephrase the questions based on the findings of the Court of Appeal.</div><div><br /></div><div>Arifin said the court was not clear on the questions raised by Wong, and this was supported by counsel Sri Dev Nair, who appeared for McCurry Restaurant (KL) Sdn Bhd, a local Indian food outlet, that some of the questions posed in Wong's submission yesterday had not been raised in the Court of Appeal judgment.</div><div><br /></div><div>McDonald's filed an application for leave to appeal after it lost its exclusivity to the usage of the prefix "Mc" when the Court of Appeal allowed McCurry Restaurant, whose outlet is located off Jalan Ipoh in Kuala Lumpur, to use "Mc" in its business signage on April 29.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Court of Appeal ruled that it was wrong to assume that McDonald's had a monopoly in the use of the prefix "Mc" on a signage or in the conduct of business, and the irresistible inference to be drawn from the totality of the evidence is that McCurry's Restaurant signboard would not result in reasonable persons associating McCurry Restaurant with the McDonald's mark.</div><div><br /></div><div>In reversing the High Court's decision, it also held that the McCurry Restaurant signboard was different from McDonald's and none of the food items on the menu card served at McCurry Restaurant carried the prefix "Mc", unlike the items of food available at McDonald's.</div><div><br /></div><div>On Sept 7, 2006, the Kuala Lumpur High Court held that McDonald's had the exclusive right to the prefix "Mc" and ordered McCurry Restaurant to pay damages to McDonald's Corporation, the proprietor of the McDonald's chain of restaurants.</div><div><br /></div><div>McDonald's, in its statement of claim, said it created the prefix "Mc" as a trademark and that with the usage of the prefix, together with the word "Curry", McCurry Restaurant, formerly known as Restoran Penang Curry House (KL) Sdn Bhd, had misrepresented itself as being associated with McDonald's business.</div><div><br /></div><div>McCurry Restaurant, in its defence, contended that McDonald's could not claim monopoly or exclusive rights to the use of the prefix "Mc", as that prefix was extensively used around the world as surnames, particularly by people of Scottish origin -- Bernama.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-81348105361061909062009-09-07T08:29:00.000+08:002009-09-07T08:31:13.778+08:00> Kit Siang wants former ministers probed over PKFZ<div>DAP's Lim Kit Siang urged the government today to investigate Cabinet-level abuses of power in relation to the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ).</div><div><br /></div><div>Calling it the mother of all scandals, he expressed concern that a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) probe appeared to be leaning towards putting the blame for cost overruns on poor management, with former Port Klang Authority chairman Datin Paduka OC Phang being singled out.</div><div><br /></div><div>"It (PAC) is not prepared to probe to a higher level to ascertain the extent of ministerial or Cabinet responsibility," he said in a statement today.</div><div><br /></div><div>The current Cabinet, he said, should establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to conduct a "no-holds barred" probe into the scandal.</div><div><br /></div><div>"This is to unearth all the abuses of power and criminal breach of trust even at ministerial level, right from the beginning of the project."</div><div><br /></div><div>Lim's remarks come as the PKFZ project has taken centre stage in the ongoing factional fighting within MCA.</div><div><br /></div><div>MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, who is also transport minister, has been facing accusations levelled at him by the PKFZ contractor Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd (KDSB) after the company was blamed for the cost overruns by a special task force.</div><div><br /></div><div>KDSB boss Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, who is also BN backbenchers' club chairman, has alleged Ong took RM10 million in cash from him, which Ong has disputed but the allegation is being used against him in his party battle with rival Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek.</div><div><br /></div><div>While KDSB was under probe, Ong also took free rides on the company's private jets, suggesting he had cozy ties with the company that was facing a probe from his ministry.</div><div><br /></div><div>But Ong is now trying to portray himself as a man who is determined to expose all wrongdoings in the PKFZ project.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lim appeared to suggest today, however, that Ong should push harder to investigate the previous Cabinets and his predecessors in the Transport Ministry.</div><div><br /></div><div>A previous BN Cabinet, Lim said, had taken the decision in July 2007 on a RM4.6 billion bail-out of PKFZ by giving retrospective approval for the four illegal Letters of Support issued by the two former Transport Ministers, Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik and Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy.</div><div><br /></div><div>"What is needed is a no-holds-barred inquiry into the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal to unearth all the abuses of power and criminal breach of trust not just at the PKA and PKFZ levels, but all the way to ministerial and Cabinet stages right from the beginning of the sorry saga of the PKFZ scandal a decade ago when the PKFZ proposal was first mooted with Liong Sik as the Transport Minister under the premiership of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad," Lim said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ong briefed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak last week on the PKFZ probe. During the same meeting it was also announced that KDSB's bank accounts had been frozen.</div><div><br /></div><div>Najib said the Cabinet would discuss the PKFZ scandal this Wednesday and decide on the next course of action - The Malaysian Insider.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-35421870837207406142009-09-05T09:06:00.000+08:002009-09-05T09:07:12.877+08:00> Malaysiakini: Don't be cowed by it.<div>The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), now parked under Rais Yatim's Ministry of Information, Communications & Culture, has asked independent news portal Malaysiakini to remove two 'provocative' videos, including the footage of the controversial cow-head protest, from its website.</div><div><br /></div><div>The affected videos are:</div><div><br /></div><div>Temple demo: Residents march with cow’s head</div><div><br /></div><div>Hisham: Don’t blame cow head protesters</div><div><br /></div><div>"These videos contain offensive contents with the intent to annoy any person, especially Indians," said Abdul Halim Ahmad, MCMC's monitoring and enforcement division senior acting director, in a letter dated Sept 3.</div><div><br /></div><div>"This is an offence under Section 211/233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998," added MCMC.</div><div><br /></div><div>Under the communication and multimedia law, any individual found guilty of publishing content "which is indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person" is liable to a fine of up to RM50,000 or a jail sentence.</div><div><br /></div><div>Editor: Our intention was not to offend</div><div><br /></div><div>Commenting on MCMC's request, Malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan said both the videos are news events which are of public interest.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Our intent in putting up the videos was not to 'annoy' anyone, but to do our job as journalists to draw attention to the protest and to ensure action is taken so that incidents like this will not happen again in Malaysia."</div><div><br /></div><div>Gan said that there was no plan for Malaysiakini to take down the videos and the news website was seeking legal advice on the matter.</div><div><br /></div><div>Late this afternoon, MCMC made an appointment with Gan for his statement to be recorded at the Malaysiakini office in Bangsar Utama tomorrow.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>FAMOUS LAST WORDS... Through the lens that tells no lies, we came to know the message of this cow-head lesson. To Malaysiakini, just don't be cowed by it - Screenshots.</b></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7566780655879782269.post-75037643393301251852009-09-02T09:16:00.001+08:002009-09-02T09:18:00.828+08:00> Cowhead: What the rakyat say ...<div><b>'If 1Malaysia is our end goal, then the intolerant racists who are trying to divide the very multicultural foundations our nation is built upon should be punished and shamed.'</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Hisham to meet Section 23 residents.</div><div><br /></div><div>Lucia: The protestors were already clearly in the wrong and ought to be arrested immediately by police but police kept delaying and now they want to meet the home minister?</div><div><br /></div><div>What kind of double standard is this from the police and the home minister? It is 2malaysia, not 1Malaysia - one standard for the opposition and another for the ruling coalition</div><div><br /></div><div>Dr Jacob George: It would be foolish for a minister to meet the residents when police investigations are continuing!</div><div><br /></div><div>This incident was telecast around the world and we are being watched by others to see if we have several sets of laws operating in the country - one for the opposition, another for the ruling party.</div><div><br /></div><div>The home minister being a lawyer knows no one is above the law just as well as he knows that laws have been broken in this case. There are to date over 52 police reports. It is his call whether our nation's laws are ridiculed by others for alleged selective prosecution or bartered for political expediency!</div><div><br /></div><div>Changeagent: This is the time for S Samy Vellu to stand up and show leadership on behalf of all Indians in this country. Go on Samy, stand up to your Umno contemporaries and tell them that their hypocrisy and double standards will not be tolerated.</div><div><br /></div><div>If 1Malaysia is our end goal, then the intolerant racists who are trying to divide the very multicultural foundations our nation is built upon should be punished and shamed.</div><div><br /></div><div>Samy, if you remain quiet on this, then we would hypothesise that you are not man enough to confront Umno and don't really care about the Indian race as much as you would like us to believe.</div><div><br /></div><div>Kenny: If the police take no action against the cow head protesters, the public can infer who is behind the protest. Which party is above sedition laws in this country?</div><div><br /></div><div>Tmf: Dear Minister, entertain those perpetrators of racial and religious provocations as long as you like. The world is watching and our reputation as a tolerant multi-racial and multi-cultural country is fast going down the drain. 'Once the leaders do not behave as they preach, the people are not going to believe them anymore.' - Yasmin Ahmad</div><div><br /></div><div>Habib Rak: What a shame. Despite black-and-white proof and inflammatory statements caught on tape and broadcast, the police are 'still investigating'. And to top it all, the home minister is prepared to meet the culprits!</div><div><br /></div><div>Azaman bin Abu Bakar: The question is: should the minister meet them when police investigations are ongoing? Would it not compromise the situation, and set a precedent?</div><div><br /></div><div>Selvendera: As a Hindu, I'm not offended by the cow head but I'm very offended by the home minister's double standard - Malaysiakini.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer">My Journal</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com