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Lim Kit Siang

Posted: 28 Feb 2011 11:35 PM PST

Lim Kit Siang


Is CSL going to apologise for producing a MCA President and MCA Deputy President who betrayed the trust of the people and country as Transport Minister in the RM12.5b PKFZ “grand corruption”?

Posted: 28 Feb 2011 11:48 PM PST

MCA President Datuk Dr. Chua Soi Lek astounded Malaysians and the world with his smug reaction to the corruption charges against a second MCA Minister yesterday – former MCA Deputy President and former Transport Minister Tan Sri Chong Kong Choy – in connection with the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) "scandal of scandals". [...]

London protesters want Taib’s assets frozen

Posted: 28 Feb 2011 08:56 PM PST

Mar 1, 11 Malaysiakini Some 20 protesters comprising Malaysians and foreigners have staged a ‘Stop Timber Corruption’ demonstration in the British capital to highlight alleged abuses of long-serving Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud. The demonstration, organised yesterday by NGO Bruno Manser Fund (BMF), was held outside a property company controlled by the Taib family, [...]

History’s shifting sands

Posted: 28 Feb 2011 03:05 AM PST

The revolutions sweeping the Arab world indicate a tectonic shift in the global balance of people power by Mark LeVine Aljazeera 26 Feb 2011 For decades, even centuries, the peoples of the Arab world have been told by Europeans and, later, Americans that their societies were stagnant and backward. According to Lord Cromer, author of [...]

Charles Santiago

Posted: 28 Feb 2011 11:32 PM PST

Charles Santiago


FTA with EU will kill HIV patients’

Posted: 28 Feb 2011 05:57 PM PST

Source: Free Malaysia Today

Prices of medicine will be beyond reach to many once talks are concluded and they are likely to die as a result.

KUALA LUMPUR: A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) will significantly raise prices of much-needed anti-HIV medicine, according an advocacy group.

Positive Malaysian Treatment Access and Advocacy Group director Edward Low said that cheaper, generic HIV medicine cannot be sold in Malaysia after EU-FTA talks conclude.

"The FTA would stop locally-made generic medicine, or even from India, to be imported here," said Low during an anti-FTA protest in front of the Prince Hotel here today.

About 50 Oppressed People's Network (Jerit) and Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) members also joined in the protest.

PSM officials said that EU representatives and government officials were going to engage in FTA negotiations at the hotel, but they were told the meeting would only be held tomorrow.

The group later presented a memorandum to the EU office along Jalan Tun Razak. More than 10 police officers were present at the protest, though they did not interfere.

Acoording to a Jerit brochure, medicine prices would increase in the face of an FTA because of tightened Intellectual Property protections.

The brochure added that medicine prices in Guatemala had upped multi-fold after it entered into a FTA with the United States.

Low said that more than 93,000 out of an estimated 150,000 HIV patients depended on cheap anti-retroviral drugs to keep them alive.

"If we stop using these drugs, we'll die," he said, adding that the drugs were currently subsidised by the government, allowing patients to collect them for free.

He said that an FTA would force generic drug-companies out of the market, and penalise the Malaysian government for dealing with them.

This, he said, would make HIV medicine too expensive for most patients to buy.

SMEs also threatened

DAP economist Charles Santiago said that an FTA would enable a foreign company to take the Malaysian government to court in the event of a business infringement.

He also said that a FTA would end government procurement, and spell the death knell of the country's Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

"When an FTA is signed, both workers and SMEs will lose their jobs… because it destroys their livelihood," he said.

"After a FTA, government procurement will be opened to foreign companies to come in to compete for tenders."

"The government would also have to follow the dictates of the EU when it comes to policies," added the Klang MP.

PSM-Sungai Siput MP Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj said that it was better for Malaysia to enter into a FTA with less powerful regions such as Africa and Asean.

"We can't play with rich nations," he said. "If they wanted to lower their tariff, we would have to lower our tariffs."

Devaraj also said that a FTA would be more favourable to large corporations, and would sideline low-income workers such as farmers.

According to the Jerit-drafted memorandum, a EU-FTA would insist that Malaysia cut its agricultural tariffs.

"This will expose local chicken and other farmers to subsidised imports from the EU and sold at prices below Malaysia's cost of production, discouraging them from farming," said the memo.

It added that Ghana's chicken farmers ended up with a mere 11% domestic market share as opposed to the previous 95% market share when country's chicken tariffs were cut and was flooded with subsidised EU chicken.

"If this happened in Malaysia, it would leave it more dependent on imported food and made vulnerable when such imports dry up in times of shortage," it said.

 


Let's move Penang Forward

Posted: 28 Feb 2011 03:11 PM PST

Let's move Penang Forward


许子根把民政党带到荷兰去!

Posted: 27 Feb 2011 07:40 PM PST

Philosophy Politics Economics

Posted: 28 Feb 2011 09:10 AM PST

Philosophy Politics Economics


RM6 billion OPVs: The Navy Can Sue Me

Posted: 28 Feb 2011 06:12 AM PST

Utusan Malaysia proves to be the master of "putar-belit" with its article published on the 24 February entitled "TLDM akan saman Tony Pua" when the only comment made by the Navy Admiral Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Jaafar was that he does not rule out the possibility of filing a defamation suit against me. To quote Utusan itself, "Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia (TLDM) tidak menolak kemungkinan akan memfailkan saman fitnah terhadap Setiausaha Publisiti Kebangsaan DAP, Tony Pua."

But then again, we are already used to the lies spun by Utusan Malaysia.

Nevertheless, given the possibility that I may be sued for alleged defamation by the Navy, I'll make the open declaration that I'm ready to face any suit filed against me, in the line of my duty as a Member of Parliament.

When Defence Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi announced the order for 6 units of offshore patrol vessels (OPVs) for the amount of RM6 billion from Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd, he did so without any accompanying details. Given the size and scale of the expenditure with the tax-payers' money, it is imperative for an MP to be demand for the details of such an acquisition. This is especially so in the light of the fact that there are different types of "patrol vessels" priced between RM100 million to RM1 billion or more.

Malaysian citizens have a right to know what exactly we are getting for our money's worth especially given the less than stellar track record of our Ministry of Defence which is engulfed in scandals after scandals over the past decade, including the purchase of 6 offshore patrol vessels for RM5.35 billion in 2000 which was not only delayed for nearly 2 years, but had a major cost overrun of 26.2% or RM1.4 billion, costing the people a total of RM6.75 billion.

Tan Sri Abdul Aziz who subsequently clarified that the new patrol vessels purchased were very powerful and heavily equipped vessels which could take part in surface-to-air, surface-to-surface and anti-submarine warfare in the class of "littoral combat ships (LCS)".

Assuming that Boustead is indeed supplying 6 LCS for the Malaysian Navy which is worth an average of RM1 billion each, the Minister of Defence will still have to answer as to the rationale behind such extravagant purchases for our security needs.

In fact, there are only 2 Littoral Combat Ships in operation today in the world, the USS Independence and USS Freedom in the United States (US). Due to budget constraints, the US Navy had to undergo months of negotiations with the US Congress in the House of Representatives and Senate which voted against various plans before finally securing approval to place an order of 2 ships in 2010, another 2 in 2011 and more subsequently with 2 world-class military defence companies, Lockheed Martin and Austal.

While the United States which faces threats and fights wars in all parts of the world is cutting back on defence spending, owns only 2 LCS, Malaysia has chosen to spending RM6 billion to build 6 LCS in a region not anticipated to be facing threats or confrontation for a foreseeable future.

Worse, the proposed spending comes at a time when the Government is fighting to reign in the budget deficit, control the country's ballooning RM406 billion debt and has imposed austerity measures by cutting subsidies and increasing taxes of basic goods and services.

The Government needs to practice what it preach in the Government Transfrmation Programme (GTP) and New Economic Model (NEM) which called for accountable and transparent procurement practices. The threat of a lawsuit is not a first, for I have been similarly sued by SYABAS for calling upon the company to return its water concession to the Selangor state government to protect the interest of the rakyat, and I will continue to ask pertinent and uncomfortable questions to our Ministers to check on the excesses of the BN Government.

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