How the government victimises vernacular schools

By Boo Cheng Hau

It looks like the government’s game plan is to have Chinese primary schools implode from overcrowding.  Funds allocated for vernacular schools remain at the same level under the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011-2015) as previously under the 9th Malaysia Plan even though the number of pupils have increased tremendously over the past five years.

The 10th Plan does not disclose the ratio of government appropriation to national schools relative to vernacular schools. Nonetheless, if we were to examine the 9th Malaysia Plan (2005-2010), the figures are revealing.

Rebellion looms in SUPP branch

By Joseph Tawie

Rebellion is brewing in the Engkilili branch of the Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP).

Its chairman, Toh Heng San, has warned of “severe consequences” if the party nominates maverick Johnichal Rayong to contest the Engkilili seat in the coming state election.

He said the consequences would include his resignation from the party.

He was responding to an announcement by SUPP president George Chan that the party’s central working committee (CWC) had accepted Rayong and would nominate him for Engkilili. Chan’s statement, reported today in a local daily, confirmed speculation that had been circulating for two years and causing unease among branch members.

No way home for Bakun natives

By MalaysiaKini

Many among the 10,000 Orang Ulu who were resettled by the government to Sungai Asap 12 years ago because of the Bakun hydroelectric dam project, are still nostalgic about their old life in the upstream areas of Sungai Balui, which are full of natural resources and good things to eat.

However, following the completion of the RM7.3 billion project and the commencement of the water catchment process by year’s end, there will be no return to their native customary rights (NCR) land as most of it will be under water.

The remaining highlands will become islands in a lake as big as Singapore, which might then be developed by the government to become new tourist spots for nature-lovers or those who enjoy fishing.

IBANS DO GET RAW DEAL – ADMITS BORNEO POST

By Sarawak Report

Even the Borneo Post, Taib’s favourite propaganda sheet, has found itself unable to spin away the dire distress of  the Iban population, which it alleges is so supportive of Taib Mahmud and BN.

In an article last week, the paper loyally insisted that Iban communities have “expressed their strong support” for the elderly Chief Minister to remain in charge, with one local leader citing his “vast experience” as being “greatly needed”.

The Iban paramount chief in Miri, Temenggong Wilson Atong Limping, was duly quoted making the required statement that ”only the BN government can continue to bring more development”.  This is the message that Taib Mahmud likes to promote at every opportunity and it has been his mantra for his past 30 years in government.

A pittance for your rights, please

By FMT

How would you like RM250 in exchange for the inheritance that has been the source of your livelihood? That is how much the Sarawak state government is offering Iban villagers in rural Sebangan so that timber companies can have free rein of the rainforest.

Sebangan is a small range of rainforest in which there are 16 Iban villages. The Ibans have lived there for generations and depend on the forest for their livelihood.

Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Abdul Mahmud now has his eye on the area, according to Sarawak Report, a website dedicated to exposing alleged corrupt practices by Taib and his family.

Can SUPP’s George Chan save a ‘sinking ship’?

By Chris Reubens

Dr George Chan is known among his close associates as a flamboyant man. In private, he likes to bring friends to his posh residence at Petra Jaya for a few rounds of wine.

The Deputy Chief Minister of Sarawak has a good selection as any close friend can testify. But alas, he is not that lucky when it comes to politics. Many agree that he’s left with little choice now. As a matter of fact, most would say that he’s in a Catch-22 situation.

Undeniably, there is a faction within SUPP who see quitting BN as the only solution to regain their support in the Chinese constituencies. However that idea was brushed aside by the top leaders, including Dr Chan himself.

Hornbill case: Whistleblowers on the line

By Hafiz Yatim

Case of allegedly unlawful dismissal, which usually does not attract much attention, has caught the eye not only of the media, but the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) as well.

All eyes are now now focused on questions of possibly inappropriate practices in a Sarawak government-owned firm, Hornbill Skyways Sdn Bhd, over its purchase of an aircraft.

The MACC is now monitoring closely the legal battle between Horbill Skyways and its former GM.

SUPP faces possible decimation in Sarawak polls

By MalaysiaKini

The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), the largest Chinese-based party in the state, faces grim prospects of not having any representatives in the state cabinet if Chinese support for them falters in the next state election.

The party is certainly concerned about this likely scenario if all its candidates do not succeed in the polls, scheduled to be held anytime between now and July next year.

The predominantly Chinese constituencies – Pending, Batu Lintang, Padungan (Kuching), Bukit Assek and Bawang Assan (Sibu), Piasau and Senadin (Miri) and Repok (Sarikei) – are part of the 19 seats allocated to SUPP.

MoCS: Thank you, Taib for being ‘THE’ issue

By MoCS

The Movement For Change, Sarawak (MoCS) has expressed its ‘gratitude’ to Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud for wanting to stay put and to lead the Sarawak BN into the coming state election.

“Taib’s decision is expected. As usual, he has all sorts of reasons and excuses for not stepping down. But MoCS welcomes his decision. Now our battle cry for ‘Regime Change’ in Sarawak will reverberate louder throughout the state come the state election.

“With Taib’s decision, he will become the main issue for us to urge Sarawakians to wake up and help dismantle 30 years of the same, old, corrupt regime which seems to border on senility now,” the movement’s leader, Francis Paul Siah, said in Kuching on Monday.

Election mood descends on Sarawak, all eyes on Taib

By Malaysia Chronicle

Election talk and by as early as in October/November this year is all over Sarawak, which has until July 2011 at the latest to hold its 10th state election.

“Yes, the signs have grown very hot of late. Everywhere you go, people are talking about and it does look very soon – possibly by November,” Sarawak PKR chief Baru Bian told Malaysia Chronicle.

The latest ‘evidence’ came from Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud, who on Saturday confirmed that he was willing to lead the state Barisan Nasional and government for another term.

Return NCR land to owners? ‘Nonsense’

By Joseph Tawie

Assistant Minister of Planning and Resource Management Naroden Majais today dismissed as “nonsensical” a statement by an opposition leader that Pakatan Rakyat will return the native customary rights (NCR) land to the owners if Pakatan forms the next state government.

“It is a nonsensical statement just to please the ears of the people to achieve Pakatan political agenda,” Naroden said.

“In the first place, there is no question of returning NCR land to the people of Sarawak as the current government never takes away NCR land from the natives,” he added.

Sarawak offers RM6bil to buy over Bakun hydro project

By Malaysian Mirror

Sarawak is offering RM6bil to buy over the Bakun hydroelectric project from the federal government, said Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

“We have made our bid (RM6bil), the bid is flexible in the sense that if the method of payment can be made lighter we can increase a bit more, but there is limit to what we can pay,” he told reporters after attending an Aidifitri open house at Kem Penrissen Batu 8 here Sunday.

Taib said the negotiations on the matter (the state buying over the project) were still ongoing and that a final decision had yet to be reached.

‘Blatant liar’ Naroden under fire

By Joseph Tawie

Naroden Majais, assistant minister of planning and resource management, who denied that the government has taken native customary rights land, has now been identified as the biggest taker of NCR land leased by the government in Simunjan.

“Naroden is a blatant liar to say that the government has never taken NCR land because he himself through eight companies is the biggest taker of NCR land,” said Nicholas Mujah, secretary- general of the Sarawak Dayak Iban Association.

“In fact Naroden himself is among Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud’s cronies who have been given large areas of NCR land in and around Gedong and Simunjan for the planting of oil palm.

Getting Along in Malaysia

By Bunga Pakma

The path of my thoughts is leading me to higher regions. I only hope the trail doesn’t at last toss me off a cliff.

Along with hunger, sex, pain, death and the eternal struggle for a living, the uncertainty of whether human beings get along together or don’t get along together is a basic fact of our troubled existence. All these decades I have been watching how races, religions and classes have fought one another throughout the world and in our own country. It seemed to be a good time to step back and ponder the nature of intolerance and tolerance.

Malaysian public life is a spectacle of squabbling as unending and invasive as the roar of Malaysian traffic. We ignore the constant noise as best we can, but today I woke up to just how loud and irritating it is. I have come, metaphorically, out to the quiet back of the garden to think.

RAZIAH GRABS MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR FOREST FOR JUST RM 250!

By Sarawak Report

In an act of breathtaking meanness and greed the multi-billionaire Taib family are seeking to deprive impoverished Ibans of one of Sarawak’s last remaining hardwood forests, for a paltry compensation of just RM250 per family.

Meanwhile, Sarawak Report has received exclusive new leaks which indicate that the Chief Minister himself stands to personally profit by a million times that amount (an estimated RM250,000,00) in corrupt backhanders from the deal.

Raziah Mahmud and Quality Concrete Holdings

An insider’s view of foreign investment in Malaysia

By Pak Bui

Kumar, a soft-spoken Indian man in his late forties, is a senior manager with a large American manufacturing firm. He has spent eight years trying to set up a multimillion dollar plant in Malaysia.

Kumar was at an airport, in the middle of a long wait for a taxi to get to the city. As Americans do, he began chatting. He explained his frustration with doing business with one of Malaysia’s top multinational corporations.

“When we hold meetings in the States,” he mused, “we go through things as fast as we can. Here, the meetings drag on all day.

Native Land Rights and the Sarawak BN

By Apang

Court records put the number of native land grabs by the Sarawak Government and companies at over 200. This is increasing monthly, with new cases being filed at the Sarawak High Court at different venues – Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri. These do not include cases in which community people are charged when defending their land rights.

The number of villages involved is at least double the 200 court cases, as each case involves several communities suing the Sarawak Government and companies. Let us use a conservative number: say there are only 400 villages. Take an average of four voters per family, and another conservative average of 10 families per village, we get 16,000 voters. Let’s leave these figures aside for now.

Federal gov’t to sell Bakun dam to Sarawak

The federal government has agreed to sell the Bakun hydroelectric dam in Belaga to the Sarawak government, said Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Peter Chin Fah Kui.

Chin told Bernama the federal government and the Sarawak government had started negotiations to determine the price.

“Sarawak has offered to buy. The federal government said okay.

“Since they want the electricity to remain in Sarawak, we will not continue with the undersea cable project.

Sarawak Chinese unbowed by Taib’s threat

By Joe Fernandez

The Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP), in trouble with Chinese voters in particular since 2006, is being told that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) will be able to form the next state government even without a single seat contribution from it. This is the message going out to the party from Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud who has to call state polls by the middle of next year.

Taib’s message is based on the fact that SUPP will be allocated as usual only 19 of the 71 state seats at stake. The party lost eight seats at the last outing in 2006. The Bumiputera-based Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) will take the lion’s share at 35, Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) nine and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) eight.

Witness: Taib not involved in sacking GM ?

By Hafiz Yatim

The executive chairperson of the Hornbill Skyways Sdn Bhd, told the Industrial Court today that Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud was not involved in the termination of its former general manager’s services.

Aidan Wing, 66, the company’s executive director at that time, said the firm was run by an independent board of directors and its officers.

“The chief minister is not involved in the affairs of the company or in the decision making process as the company is run by an independent board of directors,” he told the court.

Foreign investors avoiding Malaysia because of Umno

Viktor Wong, Malaysia Chronicle

Malaysia is now the “least favoured market” in Asia Pacific for investors after nearly doubling its underweight rating from last month, according to a recent Bank of America Merrill Lynch report.

The country slipped two spots from 10th place to dead last — in the investment bank’s latest Fund Managers Survey, even as the Najib administration prepares to unveil ambitious economic reforms meant to boost investor confidence. This report appears to be the latest indictment of Malaysia’s inability to compete with rival regional markets.

Pakatan: Wealth of Selangor is for all its citizens

By Khalid Samad

The social policies of any government are obviously coloured by its political philosophy and what it understands as its role as a government in relation to its citizenry.

Pakatan Rakyat emerged as the ruling coalition in Selangor on the back of rising discontent towards the BN state government which was seen as increasingly arrogant and burdened by cases of blatant and open corruption.

Intolerant policies towards religious places of worship with obvious racial undertones were another important factor.

With that as the backdrop it is logical to assume that the mandate given to Pakatan was to establish a clean and responsible government for the state of Selangor which would act fairly towards all races and religions. And such was the promise made during the campaign period.

Sarawak-owned firm wants reporters barred from case

By Hafiz Yatim

A lawyer representing a Sarawak government-owned helicopter services company which is faced with an unlawful dismissal suit by a former general manager has applied to the Industrial Court in Kuala Lumpur to bar reporters from covering the case.

Prakash Menon, who is representing Hornbill Skyways Sdn Bhd, made the oral application to court chairperson Ahmad Rosle Mohd Sham, citing fears that the media may “sensationalise” the case.

Menon made the application today on the first day of hearing during which the first witness representing the company was to be cross-examined.

Vision 2020 likely to fail, say economists

By Malaysia Chronicle

Malaysia will likely fail to achieve Vision 2020 as political indecision and global economic uncertainty looks set to hamper economic growth over the next five years, according to economists.

With average GDP growth in the next five years projected to be just shy of the 6 per cent target set by the prime minister, the Najib Administration’s 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) looks set to go the way of the last two Malaysia Plans, which also failed to achieve their GDP targets.

Under the 7th and 8th Malaysia Plans, the economy expanded by 5 per cent and 4.7 per cent respectively, well below the 8.6 per cent and 6 per cent targets set.

1Malaysia not about racial equality, insists Umno sec-gen

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

Not only has Prime Minister Najib Razak made a complete U-turn from an earlier attempt to distance his Umno party from ultra-Malay rights group Perkasa, his trusted lieutenants now even say Najib’s prized 1Malaysia plan is not about racial equality.

The latest comments from Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan were immediately denounced by Pakatan Rakyat leaders.

“This must surely be the biggest joke. Najib. Tengku Adnan and Nazri Aziz are now the 3 Malay stooges while MCA, MIC and Gerakan are the 3 non-Malay stooges. This is BN – forever racially divided and dominated by Umno to the extent that it can anytime slap Soi Lek, Tsu Koon and Samy in the face and yet the three will still bow and say ‘thank you, one more time please’,” PKR strategic director Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Penan rapes: Complaint to UN rapporteur

By Susan Loone

A regional human rights organisation has expressed concern about the ‘significant delay’ in response by Malaysia to sexual violence against Penan women and girls by workers attached to a private logging company in Sarawak.

Pooja Patel, the Forum-Asia representative in Geneva, acknowledged that Malaysia had set up a national task force.

However, the NGO remains deeply concerned that “no concrete measures have been taken so far to act upon its findings and recommendations or bring perpetrators to justice”.

Tough going for Sarawak BN in four Bidayuh seats

By Joe Fernandez

If the Sarawak state election were held today, it would be extremely tough going for the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) in four of the six Bidayuh majority seats, namely Kedup, Bengoh, Tasik Biru and Opar. This is the growing consensus on both sides of the political divide in the state. The tough verdict also follows the announcement by the opposition alliance, Pakatan Rakyat, that it will “take on the BN one-to-one in the Bidayuh seats”, if not all seats.

The two other Bidayuh seats, seen as safe BN seats at the moment, are Tarat and Tebedu which are both held by Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB).

Why we chose Chinese school for our children

By Boo Cheng Hau

(CPI) – Foon Yew High School is the one singled out by name by Kulaijaya principal Siti Inshah Mansor who implicated it as a school with Chinese students who do not speak or read Bahasa Malaysia.

It is the only Chinese independent secondary school (ISS) in Johor Bahru. It is also where my two children are studying.

My wife and I had discussed this choice at great length before we decided to send our kids to Foon Yew, which incidentally is my alma mater.

Samling keeps mum about its ties with Malaysian top politician

By Bruno Manser Fund

Logging giant avoids to mention Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s name on its website

MIRI, MALAYSIA. Samling Global (HKEX 3938), the Malaysian timber group that has been excluded from the Norwegian Government Pension Fund for grossly unethical conduct, has failed to respond on corruption allegations linking the group to Abdul Taib Mahmud, Chief Minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

According to research published last month by Sarawak Report, Taib Mahmud had been given two multi-million-dollar mansions in Seattle, USA, for the price of just one US dollar by a company owned by Samling founder, Yaw Teck Seng, one of Malaysia’s richest men. The US property deal is likely to be linked to political favours granted by Taib to Samling in Sarawak.

SOLID SUCCESS – BAKUN DELIVERS ON REQUIREMENTS

By Sarawak Report

News publications have been chewing over the figures as Bakun waits to be flooded and have come to some inevitable, long-predicted conclusions.

Firstly, the Dam has no genuine economic purpose.  Sarawak already has more electricity than its impoverished population can afford to use and the plans to send it to Malaysia by undersea cable was a fantasy by technology-illiterate ministers.

Secondly, the dam will actually make electricity more, not less expensive for ordinary Sarawakians, as existing power plants will be shut and Sarawak Hidro are desperate to claw back some of the RM 7.3 billion costs.

Penan power and a press conference that wasn’t

By Sim Kwang Yang

Trouble was brewing in 1990 in the jungle of Sebatu near Long Ajeng, Ulu Baram in Sarawak. Penans from 15 villages had put up a long-standing blockade in their attempt to stop loggers from entering their area. A blockade is a simple collection of branches laid across the path of a jungle road to prevent timber trucks from entering.

Eventually, the state police decided to take action. They sent in 300 members of the much-feared Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) and tore down the blockade by force, while arresting the people on site.

What if

By Bunga Pakma

I flew back to KL after a week’s leave in my dear little town of Pasar Pakma, and boy, lemme tell you, are my arms tired. (This joke never fails to get a groan out of my son.)

Sarawak was as beautiful and fresh as when I left it last. Simply to stroll about our kebun in the chill air at sunrise filled me with joy. We non-Muslims hardly noticed Hari Raya this year, and that struck me as different. Most of the shops in town stayed open and the vegetable market was also open for business, and stocked with jolly red capsicums and other goodies we see only on occasions when people are doing a lot of festive eating.

False prophets preach racial politics

By Pak Bui

“Race and ethnicity are cultural constructs; they exist in our language and our mind only. They do not exist objectively like the sun and the moon, or like the living species called homo sapiens,” Sim Kwang Yang has written in this blog.

Yet false prophets in Sarawak continue to pretend they are champions or leaders of individual races. They urge us to worship the idol of racial politics.

Consider the hideous spectacle of George Chan, boasting that he can speak for the Chinese (though surely we must realise that the Chinese have never been a pure Han race, but are a mixture of different bloodlines, even in mainland China itself).

MoCS wants Taib to step down by next August

By MoCS

The Movement for Change, Sarawak (MoCS) has set a date for Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud to step down. It wants him out as chief minister by August next year, eleven months away.

“Today, MoCS respectfully sends this request to the chief minister. It is the general consensus of the people of Sarawak that Taib has served long enough as CM. He should step down as soon as possible but we will give him till next August to do so,” its leader Francis Paul Siah said at a NGO-sponsored event in Penang Thursday night.

Malaysia “top-down” reforms set to disappoint

By David Chance

Malaysia’s plans to revitalise investment by backing national champions and ending race-based policies may sound ambitious, but the details are hazy and real economic reform will face formidable obstacles.

The government starts public consultations this month on a new round of reforms, but there is growing resistance from voters and disappointment from investors over measures taken so far.

A government think tank has identified a dozen growth industries such as oil and gas, biotechnology and Islamic finance to focus on in a drive to double Malaysia’s income per capita and propel it into the ranks of “developed nations” by 2020.