KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — The DAP wants the police to investigate Utusan Malaysia over its report of a Christian plot to usurp Islam's position, which the party has labelled as "seditious" and "defamatory."
DAP MP Lim Lip Eng said the "defamatory lies" created by Utusan in claiming the party was conspiring with Christian leaders to take over Putrajya and abolish Islam as the country's official religion prompted him to lodge a police report today. "Either the DAP and Christian leaders are trying to create a Malaysian Christian state, or Utusan editors and bloggers are lying, the Attorney-General has to decide," he told The Malaysian Insider, reading out the contents of the police report lodged at the Sentul police station this morning. "I want the matter investigated under the Sedition Act, Penal Code, and Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA).
"The DAP has denied the allegations. They are lies," the Segambut MP added. When asked whether the DAP would take legal action against the Umno-owned daily or the bloggers, Lim said he would leave the matter for the party to decide.
Utusan carried a front-page article yesterday titled "Malaysia, a Christian country?" (Malaysia, negara Kristian?) based entirely on blog postings by several pro-Umno bloggers. The bloggers had charged the DAP with sedition for allegedly trying to change the country's laws to allow a Christian prime minister, pointing to a grainy photograph showing what they described as a secret pact between the opposition party and pastors at a hotel in Penang on Wednesday. In a posting headlined "Agong under threat? DAP wants to make Christianity the official religion of Malaysia?" blogger Marahku (marahku.blogspot.com) accused the DAP of trying to amend the Federal Constitution so that a Christian could assume the post of prime minister. "The whole point of changing the official religion is to allow a Christian to become prime minister of this country," the blogger said. On bigdogdotcom.wordpress.com, another blogger claimed to have received a message that DAP's Jeff Ooi had organised a dinner for pastors from both Sarawak and abroad at Red Rock Hotel on Jalan Macalister, Penang. "Among the activities that night included the 35 pastors taking a group oath. They formed a circle and touched each other's shoulders and vowed in English to make Christianity the official religion of Malaysia and put a Christian prime minister in office," the anonymous writer said in his blog under the headline "Making Christianity the official religion?" He also pointed to the same grainy picture he posted at the top of his blog page, which he had captioned "Partying pastors or pastors doing the party do and vowing to have a Christian as Malaysian prime minister". The blogger further alleged that the DAP had labelled the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition as an "anti-Christ agent" in the run-up to polls in Sarawak, showing the opposition party was "openly against BN on religious grounds and they are now making it their clarion call, their rabble rousing horn". He said it was a seditious and religiously divisive statement that was never investigated by the police "or at least they did not tell us about any investigations into the matter". The blogger called on the authorities to investigate the allegations of sedition, warning that if the authorities failed in their duty the country may be "shattered again".
The National Evangelical Christian Fellowship (NECF), together with partners Global Day of Prayer, Marketplace Penang and Penang Pastors Fellowship, said the claims against their community were lies, and refuted the bloggers' allegations last night.
Similarly, Ooi said the dinner had been organised by the Christian pastors in recognition of the DAP team who had visited them while in Sarawak for the state election and that the prayer sessions — one before dinner and one at the end — were a usual part of their worship, and not a pledge as alleged.
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By Debra Chong The Malaysian Insider May 08, 2011 GEORGE TOWN, May 8 — Bishop Antony Selvanayagam (left) said Utusan Malaysia lied about the Penang Catholic Church's role in an alleged plot to make Malaysia Christian, adding he will consult a lawyer to discuss legal options against the Umno newspaper. The cleric said neither he [...]
The Sun Sun, 08 May 2011 BESUT (May 7, 2011): Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has described as serious a purported meeting of pastors in Penang allegedly to discuss making Christianity the official religion of the federation. He said any action by followers of a religion would invite reactions from followers of others. “The [...]
By Chitra Rajaram | Posted: 08 May 2011 0401 hrs www.channelnewsasia.com SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong says the voters have decided and he is “humbled” that they voted the PAP government back to power. Speaking at a post-victory news conference after the General Election results were announced on Sunday, Mr Lee said voters had [...]
Kuek Ser Kuang Keng | May 6, 11 5:32pm Malaysiakini With more than half a million Malaysians working in Singapore, the apparent political shift in the Singapore election campaign is set to shake Malaysia’s political landscape, especially in the southern state of Johor – deemed to be Umno last bastion in the peninsula. In this [...]
Bridget Welsh | May 6, 11 1:54pm Malaysiakini COMMENT Singapore’s 2011 general election campaign has been historic, and signals a major transformation in the country’s political landscape. The intensity and tone of this campaign has been unprecedented as the ruling PAP’s (People’s Action Party) record has come under attack. Given the impressive management of the [...]
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By Susan Loone May 7, 2011 Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has expressed outrage over a front-page report today headlined ‘Malaysia Negara Kristian?’ (Malaysia a Christian state?) in Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia. Lim turned his guns on the Malay daily for the false report which was based on a couple of pro-Umno blogs and accused [...]
The MRT, which is estimated to cost in excess of RM53 billion by CIMB Research is by far the country's largest ever infrastructure project.
The Government Transformation Programme (GTP) launched by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak himself, and promoted by Pemandu, quoted PEMUDAH which estimated that corruption could cost Malaysia as much as RM10 billion a year, "when business decisions are made for the wrong reasons."
As one of the key measures to tackle corruption, the GTP specifically sought to "reduce leakages of funds allocated for national development and operational expenditure and ensure transparency in the award of contracts."
The GTP even quoted a 2007 Survey by Merdeka Centre which revealed that 71% and 54% of corporates and public respectively perceives "no transparency and openness" in "the current procurement process or system used for awarding major government projects".
Hence the GTP called to "disclose details of government procurement contracts" and recognises the role of public scrutiny to increase accountability and reduce corruption and wastage.
It is well established that transparency is crucial for a fair and efficient government procurement process. This is because transparency increases public scrutiny on the procurement process and helps ensure that accountability and well-defined policies, regulations and procedures have been put in place and followed closely…
People in both public and private sectors are particularly sceptical of unnecessary projects, award decisions that are not made public or sufficiently justified, project delays, contract variations and concealment of substandard work. (GTP pp133-135)
However, the opaque and obtuse management of the RM53 billion MRT project has proven beyond doubt that Najib's administration is "all talk, and no action".
In the written parliamentary reply to me for my oral question on the Gamuda-MMC "project delivery partner (PDP) contract" on 6 April 2011, the Prime Minister confirmed that the contract has been awarded with no price fixed despite claims that the PDP will bear all cost-overruns on the MRT project. It is an oxymoron for Najib to argue that the PDP will bear all cost-overruns when its own project contract value has yet to be finalised, and may be increasing as we speak, as the cost of the MRT project has already ballooned from a budgeted RM36 billion to now, an estimated RM53 billion.
And as first exposed by The Malaysian Insider, initially denied but now admitted by Syarikat Prasarana Negara Bhd (SPNB), the Government's wholly-owned vehicle to own the MRT project, an "Independent Check Engineer" (ICE) role has been awarded to a consortium led by HSS Integrated Sdn Bhd (HSSI) in a cloak and dagger fashion.
When The Malaysian Insider first exposed the award on 15th April, SPNB Group Managing Director, Shahril Mokhtar immediately refuted the report, claiming that "the appointment of the KVMRT ICE is not finalised. Speculation of the ICE fee quantum at this point will only jeopardise our ability to negotiate competitive fees from the ICE candidates.
However, Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (SPNB) group director for project development Zulkifli Yusoff admitted that an engineering consortium led by HSSI has been on board as an independent check engineer (ICE) since February, clearly contradicting SPNB's initial response.
What is perhaps of greatest concern to Malaysian tax-payers is the fact that while an ICE should not have an existing relationship with the parties managing the project to ensure independence, HSSI has been the contracting engineers for Gamuda's double-tracking projects. Furthermore, the speculated 2% consultancy fee on the cost of the entire project, which has yet to be finalised, is substantially above market rates, understood to be in the region of 0.8%.
Based on the above, assuming a RM50 billion project cost, the HSSI consortium will pocket RM1 billion in fees, RM600 million more than the estimated market rate of RM400 million. It also appears that while the Gamuda-MMC joint-venture is meant only to be a "PDP" and all projects are to be awarded by SPNB, the PDP gets to dictate who gets the contracts for the project, signalling the commencement of crony contract awards for the MRT project.
The above clearly makes a complete mockery of Najib's so-called reforms via the GTP, and raises the question of how much the Malaysian tax-payers will be over-paying for the MRT project. Given the nature and size of the project, PEMUDAH will need to come up with new and higher estimates on how much corruption and government wastage is costing our economy.
KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) today demanded the government explain why public funds were spent to buy newspaper advertorials defending the 1 Malaysia email project when it was a private initiative.
A two-page advertorial headlined "Truths and Lies about MyEmail" by the Performance Management & Delivery Unit (Pemandu) on the controversial project was published in major newspapers today.
[...]
DAP publicity chief Tony Pua similarly denounced Pemandu's advertorial. "I think it has come to a really silly stage where the government is spending tens of thousands in advertorials to defend a so-called private initiative because 'Pemandu believes in integrity and transparency'," said Pua.
"If that's really the case, then just disclose the request for proposal (RFP) documents from the government as well as the full contract terms and letter of award given to Tricubes. Publish them online and save the tens of thousands of tax-payers' money," the Petaling Jaya Utara MP added.
Pemandu refused to divulge the cost of the advertorial when questioned by The Malaysian Insider today. "We have answered your question... I have nothing to add," Pemandu corporate communication chief Ku Kok Peng told The Malaysian Insider on the phone.
Pemandu also emailed a statement to The Malaysian Insider and said it commissioned the advertorials to "make sure that the general public is not misinformed by people who distort the truth."
In the advertorial, Pemandu CEO Senator Datuk Seri Idris Jala said Tricubes Bhd would invest 100 per cent of the RM50 million MyEmail project that was conceptualised as an Entry Point Project (EPP) under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP). Jala also stressed that the government "will not spend a single sen" in the project's investment and operating costs.
"On the other hand, it is estimated that the government stands to save at least RM200 million over 10 years," he said.
He explained that government agencies would make savings of almost 50 per cent by paying 50 sen per email to myemail.my accounts, as government agencies currently paid up to RM1 per mail and RM2 for each returned hardcopy correspondence.
Pua pointed out government agencies should instead encourage the public to register their own email accounts. "Now you're paying 50 sen to someone else to send it [electronically]. Why not send it to (email) addresses provided by people and save the entire RM1?" asked Pua.
[...]
Pua also questioned why the government conducted a selection process if the project was merely a private initiative. "If it's completely private, [they] don't need to go through Pemandu or Mampu (Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit). Just go to the government department and sell their services," said Pua.
Jala said today that the selection process was an assessment to find out which company would likely succeed in rolling out the email service. "Other parties who are not selected or did not submit a proposal earlier can still pursue the opportunity if they see a viable business case for it," said Jala.
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