Negara, not negeri, status for Sabah

Luke Rintod of FMT

KUALA LUMPUR: Sabah was supposed to retain its “negara” or national status in a series of arrangements to ensure that the rights of Sabahans would forever be protected during the formation of Malaysia.

This little known fact was revealed at a national conference on marginalised communities, which arrested the attention of the participants.

They were told that the ideals that gave rise to the birth of a new nation in 1963 have, however, been eroded until those rights have all but disappeared.

“Sabah was given the understanding that it was to remain a national entity within the Malaysian Federation, which was to be a partnership of four national units – Sabah, Sarawak,  Singapore  and Malaya,” deputy president of CigMa or Common Interest Group Malaysia, Daniel John Jambun, said in his presentation titled “Lest We Forget”.

Hindraf shocks Sabah, S’wak reps

Luke Rintod of FMT

Participants at an inaugural conference on the future of marginalised and minority communities get a shocking insight into the Indian community.

KUALA LUMPUR: Indigenous delegates from Sabah and Sarawak attending the National Human Rights Conference on the Future of Marginalised and Minority Communities in Malaysia were stunned when told of the conditions of the majority of Indians in Peninsular Malaysia.

Reacting to a paper presented by Hindraf national coordinator, W Sambulingam, one delegate from Sabah who declined to be named, told FMT: “I almost forget about my our own crippling conditions in Sabah.”

In his presentation, Sambulingam had described in detail, along with facts and figures, the striking conditions of the Indians in Malaysia.

He revealed that so depressed were their lives that suicide rates among the Indians were the highest at 21.1 suicides in every 100,000 Indians.

He also said that more than 30% of Indians do not own a house, compared to 25% Malays and 18% Chinese.

Persidangan masyarakat terpinggir di KL

Oleh Ezra Haganez
KUALA LUMPUR: Esok (Ahad - 24 Januari, 2011), buat pertama kalinya beberapa kumpulan etnik yang dianggap sentiasa terpinggir di Malaysia bersatu mengadakan Persidangan Hak Asasi Manusia Mengenai Masa Depan Masyarakat Terpinggir dan Minoriti Malaysia di ibu negara.

Persidangan sehari itu dianjurkan bersama oleh CigMa atau Common Interest Group Malaysia yang diketuai Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, dan HINDRAF, Persatuan Kebangsaan Dayak Sarawak (SDNU), Persatuan Dayak Iban Sarawak (SADIA), Borneo Resources Institute, dan Yayasan Hak Asasi Manusia yang berpejabat di London.

Sebanyak enam kertas persidangan akan dibentangkan mulai jam 9 pagi yang diadakan di Dewan Persidangan Cina Selangor. Enam kertas itu ialah satu dari Sabah, tiga dari Sarawak, dan masing-masing satu dari masyarakat India dan Orang Asli.

Menurut sekretariat persidangan, dianggarkan 200 peserta dijadual hadir. Penyertaan adalah percuma.

Malaysia is fifth in illegal money chart

Source

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 20 — Illicit money outflows from Malaysia tripled to US$68.2 billion (RM208.1 billion) in 2008, from US$22.2 billion in 2000, according to a report by US-based financial watchdog Global Financial integrity (GFI) released this month.

The country also had the fifth largest amount of illegal money outflows between 2000 and 2008, among developing countries. GFI defines illicit financial flows as generally involving the transfer of money earned through illegal activities such as corruption, transactions involving contraband goods, criminal activities, and efforts to shelter wealth from a country's tax authorities, said the programme’s website.

The report titled Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2000-2009 said that illicit financial outflows from Malaysia totalled US$291 billion (RM888 billion) in that period.

It said that the increase was “at a scale seen in few Asian countries.”

“The volume of illegal capital flight from Malaysia has come to dwarf legitimate capital inflows into the country in recent years,” said the report.

Nine arrested at 'Interlok' demo at Batu Caves

(Malaysiakini) A protest by the Human Rights Party (HRP) urging the government to ban the controversial Malay literature textbook Interlok, turned rowdy after nine were arrested, including the party's information chief S Jayathas.

Some 20 HRP members demonstrated outside the Batu Caves Temple complex just as an announcement on the arrival of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak for the Thaipusam festivities was made.

...Between a surgeon and a mechanic

 Marvellous answer

 A mechanic was removing the cylinder heads from the motor of a car when he spotted the famous heart surgeon in his shop, who was standing off to the side, waiting for the service manager to come to take a look at his car.

The mechanic shouted across the garage,"Hello Doctor!! Please come over here for a minute."

The famous surgeon, a bit surprised, walked over to the mechanic.

The mechanic straightened up, wiped his hands on a rag and asked argumentatively, "So doctor, look at this. I also open hearts, take valves out, grind 'em, put in new parts, and when I finish this will work as a new one. So how come you get the big money, when you and me is doing basically the same work? "

The doctor leaned over and whispered to the mechanic.....

He said: "Try to do it when the engine is running ".

Citizens to Pendatangs

JAN 10 — I am no buff of science but remember reading about putting frogs in cold water and then slowly putting the water to boil. The frogs (unlike the Perak species) will die as they will be unaware of the change in temperature that will ultimately prove fatal. Dear Malaysian brethren of whatever ilk, we will suffer the same fate as the innocent frogs if we let the country spiral to another Iran or Pakistan.

I am in today’s parlance a 3rd generation pendatang. Lets call it GENPENTIGA — Generasi Pendatang Tiga. I suppose it can’t be that bad when a GENPENDUA became PM for 22 years. But then he metamorphed into a Malay and cut his Indian roots, only to go back to Kerala recently to see if there were any offshoots I suppose or perhaps some trait of mortality dictated that he visit his roots in his autumn.

I look at my children GENPEMPAT — Generasi Pendatang Empat — and wonder what place they have left under our sun. Should I leave them in the water where they are comfortable or kick them out of their “comfort water”? Old frogs like me might as well die in the Malaysian water anyway — we are fast reaching our “sell by” date.

Demolishing of Kg. Kapulu homes 'inhumane'

Source
TENOM : “No consideration for humanity” – that was the ironic expression of Village Head of Kg. Kapulu, Mohd Sabli B. Shaffie,58, on the action taken by the staff of the Tenom Forestry Department to demolish their homes on the grounds of encroachment into the forest reserve. The incident occurred on Januarry 13, when most of the residents were resting, while others were tending to their garden.

The village head, who was accompanied by the village JKKK Chairman, Ansarap bin Korong,46, to report the incident to The New Sabah Times said, “The action by the Forestry Department staff is an affront to the the people of the village.”

“We were treated as if we are animals,” said Sabli,who appealed to Chief Minister, Datuk Seri Musa Hj. Aman to take a serious view of the actions of the Forestry Department staff.

RM3b Crocker Range tunnel awaits nod

Source
Keningau: The district will be developed into a leading tourist destination in Malaysia with the construction of a RM3 billion tunnel penetrating the Crocker Range in the near future, if approved.

Assistant Rural Development Minister, Datuk Hj Sairin Karno, said the proposed 54km tunnel will begin in Apin-Apin, Keningau and end in Kinarut, Papar.

Proposal for construction of the tunnel has been forwarded to Deputy Chief Minister, Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan and the Public Works Department, he said.

"Three months ago the Government approved construction of a bridge built over 78km from Kedah and Perak to the added cost of RM1.3 billion, while a recent project as far as 68km in Negeri Sembilan, costing RM700 million were also approved.

Sabah bleeds under Umno hegemony

The happiest political entity in Sabah is destroying the socio-political fabric of the multi-ethnic state.

by Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Can a local Sabah party candidate actually win an election without Umno’s help?

Umno’s one-time formidable partner PBS (along with its spin-offs Upko and PBRS) is no-longer significant on the political front.

In fact, the trio of Umno proxies – PBS, Upko and PBRS – now share the humiliation of being further sidelined by their domineering and condescending peninsular-based master.

Umno is now quite simply the happiest political entity in Sabah.

Such has been the dominance of Umno that for many years not a single Christian Kadazan-Dusun-Murut (KDM) has been appointed to the top seven posts in the Sabah hierarchy.

So much for the “fair” power-sharing formula of the Barisan Nasional (BN). It is a topic that has dominated PBS and Upko’s coffee table conversations of late following the elevation of the State Legislative Assembly Speaker to the post of governor and another Umno member to his former position to replace him in quick succession.