Friday 14 February 2014
‘Honour’ crime: 20 arrested for declaring nine-year-old vani
MULTAN: Police registered cases against 36 people for declaring a nine-year-old girl vani in Mithanwali, Muzaffargarh district on Wednesday. Of these, 20 men were arrested.Police said 30-year-old Shabbo Mandoos* was accused of having an illicit relationship with a 26-year-old woman, also from the Mandoos tribe and daughter of the local tribal chief.
They said the woman’s family had called a panchayat and demanded that Shabbo be killed and his property be transferred to the woman’s father.
However, Yaar Muhammad, Shabbo’s father, had begged for mercy before a panchayat of 50 men and asked for another punishment instead.
The panchayat, headed by Ghulam Akbar Mandoos and Rajhay Khan, had then declared Shabbo’s nine-year-old niece vani and told her father to marry her to the Mandoos woman’s 10-year-old brother.
The girl was handed over to the Mandoos family along with 15 acres of land.
Someone from the village had informed the police, who had raided Mandoos’s house and recovered the girl. She was handed over to her family.
Seetpur Sub Inspector Abdul Shakoor, who had led the raid, also deputed policemen in the captured land. The SI said police had also ensured protection to Shabbo.
Some of the men were detained for interrogation and later released.
Police said an FIR was registered under Sections 342, 506 B, 148 and 149 of the Child Marriage Act against 36 men nominated by the girl’s father.
Station House Officer Abid Shareef told The Express Tribune that 20 men had been arrested. Those arrested did not include the panchayat heads. He said the police were looking for them.
Another injustice
Separately, in Bhakkar’s Darya Khan tehsil, a seven-year-old girl was declared vani to ‘punish’ her brother for marrying of freewill. Police arrived on the spot on time and rescued the child.
Police said Muhammad Imran of Mehrabad Colony had married Razia Bibi of the same locality a few months ago without the consent of her parents.
Police said her parents had called a panchayat which declared Imran’ sister vani and ordered her parents to marry her to a man in Razia Bibi’s family. The panchayat also called a prayer leader of the neighbourhood mosque on the spot to solemnise the nikah.
However, police arrived at the scene on a tip off and arrested the prayer leader and two other men, who are yet to be identified.
Police said cases were registered against 17 people, including the panchayat members.
*ALL NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT IDENTITIES
Published in The Express Tribune, February 13th, 2014.
ISIL Stones Syrian Girl to Death for Facebook Membership
The ISIL militants took the Syrian girl, Fatoum Al-Jassem, to Al-Reqqa religious court and the judge ruled that membership in Facebook is tantamount to adultery and sentenced her to death by stoning, the Arabic-language Al-Rai Al-Youm reported.Also in the past 24 hours, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) announced that all foreign-backed militants who were stationed in Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Damascus have withdrawn from the camp.
“The terrorists groups of Al-Nusra Front and Ibn Timieh and Al-Sahaba Battalion have withdrawn from Al-Salasin Street which was their last bastion in Yarmouk camp,” PFLP-GC’s Politbureau Chief Hessam Arafat said.
He noted that a team comprising 50 renowned political figures will enter Yarmouk camp on Wednesday to force the Palestinian armed forces who have occupied the military bases and centers that the foreign-backed terrorists have withdrawn from in a bid to pave the way for implementation of other clauses of the Yarmouk agreement.
Meantime, the foreign-backed militants also withdrew to Al-Rijjeh square in Damascus after the implementation of the national reconciliation agreement in Yarmouk camp.
Elsewhere in the country, the Islamic Front terrorist group held 30 ISIL militants in Deir Ezzur in Eastern Syria. Now the Islamic Front has found an upper-hand in the combat against the rival group, ISIL.
Elsewhere, the ISIL besieged the gathering centers of the Al-Nusra Front and two terrorist groups of Ahrar Al-Sham and Katibeh Al-Qaqa in Eastern Syria. The besieged militants of the Al-Nusra Front have been left with only two options of death or surrendering to the ISIL.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed terrorists and militants against the Syrian army and civilians across the country.
Thousands of people have been killed since terrorist and armed groups turned protest rallies into armed clashes.
The government blames outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups for the deaths, stressing that the unrest is being orchestrated from abroad.
In October 2011, calm was almost restored in most parts of the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies brought the country into chaos through every possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of increasing unrests in Syria.
The US daily, Washington Post, reported in May, 2012 that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups battling Assad's government have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.
The newspaper, quoting opposition activists and US and foreign officials, reported that Obama administration officials emphasized the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the Persian Gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.
According to the report, material was being stockpiled in Damascus, in Idlib near the Turkish border and in Zabadani on the Lebanese border.
Opposition activists who several months ago said the rebels were running out of ammunition said in May that the flow of weapons - most bought on the black market in neighboring countries or from elements of the Syrian military in the past - has significantly increased after a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf states to provide millions of dollars in funding each month.
Waytha, a hero Indians never needed - Malaysiakini
COMMENT Something changed about the movement called Hindraf on April 18, 2013.
Shortly after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak, P Waythamoorthy, leading the splinter, albeit recognised group Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia (PHM), rallied his supporters to return BN’s two-thirds majority in the elections.
However,
right after the event, as Waythamoorthy attempted to leave the venue,
an anxious member of the public insisted on asking a question to be
directed at both Waythamoorthy and Najib. The young man was hell bent on
asking some uncomfortable questions - including prodding how
Waythamoorthy’s MOU will solve the woe of the Indian poor.
However, the greater surprise for many in the crowd there, including journalists, was the manner in which Waythamoorthy walked off the stage without fielding the question, leaving the then acting Prime Minister’s officers and several Hindraf staffers to ask the young man and his father, rather abruptly, to leave the venue.
He was initially told there would be a question-and-answer session after the event, something which never materialised.
10 months of elegant silence
The manner in which Waythamoorthy walked off that day during the MOU signing event riled up quite a number of ardent Hindraf supporters who didn’t mince their words in calling the pledge of support to BN a “betrayal”.
The
fact that only four out of the 18 demands originally made by Hindraf
was signed on by Najib in the Hindraf-BN five-year blueprint, and that
the MOU was not even made as a publicly available document to their own
supporters, thereafter turned away a part of the crowd from being
Hindraf loyalists.
What followed was 10 months of nothing but elegant silence from Waythamoorthy. BN, of course, did not win the two-thirds majority. While there seemed to be a slight increase in the number of Indians who voted for BN compared to the 2008 elections, the community was still not voting strongly in any one direction.
Nevertheless, Najib wanted to honour his promise and gave Waythamoorthy a deputy minister’s post in his own Prime Minister’s Department (PMD). According to the MOU, Hindraf should have been given an allocation to run a unit under the PMD on their own to address the socio-economic problems of Indians.
However, the allocation never came. It was ominous in its absence from Budget 2014. Waythamoorthy started his tenure issuing statements on matters that concern Indians, but whether he did that from his office in the PMD or from the comfort of the Hindraf office was anyone’s guess.
Waytha not in his colleagues’ good books
It was not long before he ran into the bad books of Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for being vocal about the gunning down of five alleged criminals in Penang by the police. Zahid had then told Waythamoorthy to resign if he wanted to run an NGO.
While Zahid’s (right)
staunch defence of the police’s actions was blinded, he was somehow
right in his riposte to Waythamoorthy. You would expect a member of the
government to at least use his hotlines to talk to his colleagues on
matters that concern him.
Did Waythamoorthy ever pick up the phone and bother to engage Zahid and express his concerns before issuing public statements denouncing the police? We would never know.
When Najib himself admitted publicly that a member of the government should toe the line, it was obvious that Waythamoorthy was not in the good books of many of his colleagues in the government.
Soon after being told off by his superiors, Waythamoorthy acted like he was never a part of the PMD. His statements were undersigned as the Hindraf chairperson. He was never seen on the ground and in Parliament answering a single question about the programs that the government has done for the Indian poor.
It
was a complete, elegant silence. But what we would never know is
whether he left the PMD with his head held high, or low- because he
personally never announced his resignation.
He “elucidated” the reasons behind his resignation to Najib, but never to the Malaysian public, or the Indian masses who helped propel him to being a part of the government in the first place.
Despite his NGO claiming that he had quit by noon on Tuesday (Feb 10), Waythamoorthy in reality did not hand in the letter until 5.05pm, five minutes after most civil servants left their offices in Putrajaya. It was almost done in an incognito manner.
Raised more questions than solutions
Virtually uncontactable by the press throughout his tenure, Waythamoorthy had only raised more questions instead of giving definite solutions to the Indian socio-economic dilemmas.
Why did he accept the appointment if he was not prepared to politically lobby his superiors to see his side of the argument?
Maybe Waythamoorthy genuinely believed that good things come to those who wait.
Like how he waited in his hunger strike for either BN and Pakatan Rakyat to sign the Hindraf blueprint.
Like how economically deprived Indians had been taught to wait for a downfall of handouts from those in power instead of empowering themselves.
And that’s how Waythamoorthy waited for an allocation while there was desk with his name on it in the PMD, virtually used for no great reason for seven months.
And
he (or the Hindraf central committee) got tired of waiting.
Waythamoorthy may be a ‘hero’ to some for his sacrifices, his exile and
his hunger strike, but he did nothing to inspire the Indian poor, who,
generation after generation, are still waiting for greater recognition.
My verdict, however damning, is this: a complete waste of one year of political space.
While the might was shown in November 2007 on the streets, nothing but meekness prevailed when given an opportunity to be as firm, if not stronger, within the halls of the political potpourri.
A hero he may be. But one we never needed.
Maybe it’s time for Indians to stop looking for a hero to uplift them.
RAM ANAND is a member of the Malaysiakini team.
Shortly after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak, P Waythamoorthy, leading the splinter, albeit recognised group Persatuan Hindraf Malaysia (PHM), rallied his supporters to return BN’s two-thirds majority in the elections.
However,
right after the event, as Waythamoorthy attempted to leave the venue,
an anxious member of the public insisted on asking a question to be
directed at both Waythamoorthy and Najib. The young man was hell bent on
asking some uncomfortable questions - including prodding how
Waythamoorthy’s MOU will solve the woe of the Indian poor.However, the greater surprise for many in the crowd there, including journalists, was the manner in which Waythamoorthy walked off the stage without fielding the question, leaving the then acting Prime Minister’s officers and several Hindraf staffers to ask the young man and his father, rather abruptly, to leave the venue.
He was initially told there would be a question-and-answer session after the event, something which never materialised.
10 months of elegant silence
The manner in which Waythamoorthy walked off that day during the MOU signing event riled up quite a number of ardent Hindraf supporters who didn’t mince their words in calling the pledge of support to BN a “betrayal”.
The
fact that only four out of the 18 demands originally made by Hindraf
was signed on by Najib in the Hindraf-BN five-year blueprint, and that
the MOU was not even made as a publicly available document to their own
supporters, thereafter turned away a part of the crowd from being
Hindraf loyalists.What followed was 10 months of nothing but elegant silence from Waythamoorthy. BN, of course, did not win the two-thirds majority. While there seemed to be a slight increase in the number of Indians who voted for BN compared to the 2008 elections, the community was still not voting strongly in any one direction.
Nevertheless, Najib wanted to honour his promise and gave Waythamoorthy a deputy minister’s post in his own Prime Minister’s Department (PMD). According to the MOU, Hindraf should have been given an allocation to run a unit under the PMD on their own to address the socio-economic problems of Indians.
However, the allocation never came. It was ominous in its absence from Budget 2014. Waythamoorthy started his tenure issuing statements on matters that concern Indians, but whether he did that from his office in the PMD or from the comfort of the Hindraf office was anyone’s guess.
Waytha not in his colleagues’ good books
It was not long before he ran into the bad books of Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi for being vocal about the gunning down of five alleged criminals in Penang by the police. Zahid had then told Waythamoorthy to resign if he wanted to run an NGO.
While Zahid’s (right)
staunch defence of the police’s actions was blinded, he was somehow
right in his riposte to Waythamoorthy. You would expect a member of the
government to at least use his hotlines to talk to his colleagues on
matters that concern him.Did Waythamoorthy ever pick up the phone and bother to engage Zahid and express his concerns before issuing public statements denouncing the police? We would never know.
When Najib himself admitted publicly that a member of the government should toe the line, it was obvious that Waythamoorthy was not in the good books of many of his colleagues in the government.
Soon after being told off by his superiors, Waythamoorthy acted like he was never a part of the PMD. His statements were undersigned as the Hindraf chairperson. He was never seen on the ground and in Parliament answering a single question about the programs that the government has done for the Indian poor.
It
was a complete, elegant silence. But what we would never know is
whether he left the PMD with his head held high, or low- because he
personally never announced his resignation.He “elucidated” the reasons behind his resignation to Najib, but never to the Malaysian public, or the Indian masses who helped propel him to being a part of the government in the first place.
Despite his NGO claiming that he had quit by noon on Tuesday (Feb 10), Waythamoorthy in reality did not hand in the letter until 5.05pm, five minutes after most civil servants left their offices in Putrajaya. It was almost done in an incognito manner.
Raised more questions than solutions
Virtually uncontactable by the press throughout his tenure, Waythamoorthy had only raised more questions instead of giving definite solutions to the Indian socio-economic dilemmas.
Why did he accept the appointment if he was not prepared to politically lobby his superiors to see his side of the argument?
Maybe Waythamoorthy genuinely believed that good things come to those who wait.
Like how he waited in his hunger strike for either BN and Pakatan Rakyat to sign the Hindraf blueprint.
Like how economically deprived Indians had been taught to wait for a downfall of handouts from those in power instead of empowering themselves.
And that’s how Waythamoorthy waited for an allocation while there was desk with his name on it in the PMD, virtually used for no great reason for seven months.
And
he (or the Hindraf central committee) got tired of waiting.
Waythamoorthy may be a ‘hero’ to some for his sacrifices, his exile and
his hunger strike, but he did nothing to inspire the Indian poor, who,
generation after generation, are still waiting for greater recognition.My verdict, however damning, is this: a complete waste of one year of political space.
While the might was shown in November 2007 on the streets, nothing but meekness prevailed when given an opportunity to be as firm, if not stronger, within the halls of the political potpourri.
A hero he may be. But one we never needed.
Maybe it’s time for Indians to stop looking for a hero to uplift them.
RAM ANAND is a member of the Malaysiakini team.
Ibu dakwa bayi kembar meninggal kerana hospital cuai
Suaminya juga telah membuat laporan polis di Balai Polis Melang.
KUALA PILAH: Seorang ibu muda mendakwa bayi kembar beliau meninggal dunia selepas kecuaian pihak Hospital Tuanku Ampuan Najihah (HTAN), Kuala Pilah bulan lepas.Sharifah Kalsum Syed Abu Bakar, 22, mendakwa pada 14 Januari lepas, lebih kurang pukul 2.30 petang, beliau ke HTAN kerana sakit hendak bersalin.
“Saya rasa sakit di pinggang dan berlaku kontraksi. Dalam bilik bersalin tiada doktor pakar tetapi hanya ada doktor pelatih sahaja.
“Saya merayu kepada jururawat bertugas agar mempercepatkan proses kelahiran tetapi doktor memberitahu saya, pembukaan di pangkal rahim saya ketika itu hanya dua sentimeter. Ini menyebabkan saya dimasukkan ke wad biasa.
“Selepas itu saya diberikan ubat tahan sakit dan saya terlena.
“Keesokkan harinya sekali lagi saya memanggil jururawat kerana berasa seperti hendak bersalin.
“Saya sudah tidak larat untuk menahan sakit tetapi jururawat menjawab dengan kurang sopan malah seperti memerli saya, “ kata Sharifah Kalsum.
Sharifah Kalsum turut mendakwa pada 16 Januari antara jam 6.30 petang hingga 7.00 malam, dia dikejutkan oleh seorang jururawat untuk melakukan pemeriksaan cardiotopograph atau CTG untuk mengesan kadar degupan jantung bayi.
`Degupan jantung’
“Ketika pemeriksaan CTG, saya mendengar degupan jantung sebelah kanan, manakala sebelah kiri pula tiada.
“Jururawat tersebut tidak memaklumkan apa-apa sehingga seorang doktor memeriksa saya pada pukul 7.30 pagi.
“Apabila doktor periksa sekali lagi selepas kira-kira 15 minit kemudian, degupan jantung bayi kiri tiada dan menyebabkan doktor meminta saya ke bilik bersalin lebih kurang pukul 8.30 pagi.
“Dalam keadaan panik, seorang doktor meminta pembedahan kecemasan dilakukan segera bagi menyelamatkan bayi saya,” katanya lagi.
Sharifah Kalsom menjelaskan lebih kurang pukul 10.05 pagi, bayi pertama dikeluarkan dan masih hidup tetapi bayi kedua yang dikeluarkan seminit kemudian sudah meninggal dunia.
“Bayi pertama seberat 2.33 kilogram dan bayi kedua 2.07 kilogram.
“Saya ingatkan bayi pertama saya berjaya diselamatkan, tetapi sekitar pukul 12 tengahari, suami memaklumkan kepada saya, bayi itu juga telah meninggal dunia,” kata Sharifah Kalsum dengan sebak.
Suami kepada Sharifah Kalsum iaitu Muhd Azmi Hashim, 30, berkata beliau kecewa dengan sikap kakitangan hospital HTAN sehingga nyawa dua anaknya (kembar) tidak dapat diselamatkan.
“Saya juga kesal kerana pihak HTAN masih belum menjelaskan punca kematian anak kembar saya.
“Saya hanya mahu tahu punca sebenar kematian bayi kembar saya. Saya juga telah membuat laporan polis di Balai Polis Melang,” katanya.
Subra: Preventive healthcare vital
Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam, who has been in office for about eight months, gives his views, insights and goals of the healthcare system and the way it is managed.
PETALING JAYA: The preservation of society in the long run is much better than to treat a society which is frequently sick and ill, said Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam.
In an interview with FMT, Subramaniam, explaining one of his ministry’s directions wants to place emphasis on preventive medicine.
However, Subramaniam said the allocation for preventive healthcare is small, less than 5% of the total budget allocated for the healthcare.
In last year’s budget the government allocated RM22 billion for the healthcare industry.
“We have said that a big investment in preventive healthcare is vital. If you look at the indexes, we have serious health issues to tackle.
“For example, obesity affects nearly 15% of our population which is a fairly high number, and for diabetes and hypertension, the figure is around 30%.
“This tells us that there is a need for the government to promote healthy living and at least combat the major diseases which is a burden on healthcare cost,” said Subramaniam.
He also made a call to Malaysians to lead a healthy lifestyle by eating the right food, exercise regularly and quit smoking.
Any national health policy?
When asked if his ministry will introduce a National Health Policy to streamline the industry, Subramaniam said that at present the delivery of healthcare in this country was divided into primary, secondary and tertiary medical care which have been implemented through two parallel systems.
“One is the government health system and the other is the private health system. Both function independently of each other.
“Before independence, the government was the main player, after post independence about 20-30 years ago the private sector sector has been complementing the public health sector.
“There have been attempts before to formulate policies to complement each other but none has been officially accepted,” said Subramaniam.
He also added that before 2013, an idea was mooted to create better co-operation in the form of the 1Care policy but it was politicised and resulted in objections from many parties.
Subramaniam also wants to strengthen the primary care delivery to be effective, efficient and produce the desired results.
“For example a person with diabetes, he should have access to primary care facilities and optimal treatment. It should be such that he will be able to avoid the risk of developing complications in years to come,” he said.
Management of medical infrastructure
Subramaniam also touched on the issues for major hospitals in the big towns that are overcrowded, while the smaller ones are still manageable.
He said that a dedicated master plan with specific goals in the management of medical infrastructure was required to address this issue.
“I have announced that we are making an attempt to increase the hospital bed strength ratio to 2.5 beds per 1,000 population, which at the present is 1.81 to 1,000.
“To achieve this, we will require another 15,000 beds throughout the country.
“When you increase the number of bed spaces, it also has to be associated with the other infrastructure, we need equipments, facilities and the required manpower to complement each other,” added Subramaniam.
PETALING JAYA: The preservation of society in the long run is much better than to treat a society which is frequently sick and ill, said Health Minister Dr S Subramaniam.In an interview with FMT, Subramaniam, explaining one of his ministry’s directions wants to place emphasis on preventive medicine.
However, Subramaniam said the allocation for preventive healthcare is small, less than 5% of the total budget allocated for the healthcare.
In last year’s budget the government allocated RM22 billion for the healthcare industry.
“We have said that a big investment in preventive healthcare is vital. If you look at the indexes, we have serious health issues to tackle.
“For example, obesity affects nearly 15% of our population which is a fairly high number, and for diabetes and hypertension, the figure is around 30%.
“This tells us that there is a need for the government to promote healthy living and at least combat the major diseases which is a burden on healthcare cost,” said Subramaniam.
He also made a call to Malaysians to lead a healthy lifestyle by eating the right food, exercise regularly and quit smoking.
Any national health policy?
When asked if his ministry will introduce a National Health Policy to streamline the industry, Subramaniam said that at present the delivery of healthcare in this country was divided into primary, secondary and tertiary medical care which have been implemented through two parallel systems.
“One is the government health system and the other is the private health system. Both function independently of each other.
“Before independence, the government was the main player, after post independence about 20-30 years ago the private sector sector has been complementing the public health sector.
“There have been attempts before to formulate policies to complement each other but none has been officially accepted,” said Subramaniam.
He also added that before 2013, an idea was mooted to create better co-operation in the form of the 1Care policy but it was politicised and resulted in objections from many parties.
Subramaniam also wants to strengthen the primary care delivery to be effective, efficient and produce the desired results.
“For example a person with diabetes, he should have access to primary care facilities and optimal treatment. It should be such that he will be able to avoid the risk of developing complications in years to come,” he said.
Management of medical infrastructure
Subramaniam also touched on the issues for major hospitals in the big towns that are overcrowded, while the smaller ones are still manageable.
He said that a dedicated master plan with specific goals in the management of medical infrastructure was required to address this issue.
“I have announced that we are making an attempt to increase the hospital bed strength ratio to 2.5 beds per 1,000 population, which at the present is 1.81 to 1,000.
“To achieve this, we will require another 15,000 beds throughout the country.
“When you increase the number of bed spaces, it also has to be associated with the other infrastructure, we need equipments, facilities and the required manpower to complement each other,” added Subramaniam.
Flat buyers told to pay RM82,000 extra
Flat buyers are shocked when the developer told them to pay an extra RM28,000 for a parking lot and RM54,000 to install kitchen cabinets, apart from the RM72,000 in the affordable housing scheme in Penang.
GEORGE TOWN : Buyers of low-medium cost flats under the affordable home scheme in Penang are feeling cheated by the state government for imposing extra charges for parking lots and kitchen cabinets.
The buyers said they were shocked when the developer told them to pay an extra RM28,000 for a parking lot and RM54,000 to install kitchen cabinets, apart from the RM72,000 for a flat in Bukit Gegulor.
A group of 10 buyers, holding placards and banners, protested outside the state government’s office in Komtar this morning urging state housing committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo to look into the matter.
One buyer even knelt outside the office pleading for chief minister Lim Guan Eng to intervene to solve the matter.
The group’s spokesman, Muhd Amir Abdul Kadir, handed a letter to the state government’s officer-in-charge during the two-hour demonstration.
The 31-storey apartments, comprising 780 units, is located near SK Bukit Gelugor.
Norlida Masturo, 44, who was close to tears, said she could not afford the extra charges.
“How can we afford these extra charges for a RM72,500 unit? ” she asked.
She said the developer told the buyers that the RM28,500 was for a parking lot while another RM54,000 was for an “upgrade package” which included the installation of kitchen cabinets and tiling.
Jagdeep said he would meet the developer soon to get a clearer picture.
“If it is true then the developer will be taken to task.
“I don’t want the buyers to feel that they had been taken for a ride and start blaming the state government,” he added.
Last December, Jagdeep told the press that the land office would monitor, control and enforce the state government’s latest regulations to restrict sale of properties, including low-medium cost flats.
Jagdeep, who is in charge of housing, town and country portfolios, said the state government would also explore ways and means to improve the regulations from time to time.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced recently that the new housing regulations on land and property sales and purchase agreements would take effect on Feb 1.
The rules were intended to curb the property bubble, price speculation and ensure affordable homes to Penangites, especially first-time buyers.
The new rules include a five-year moratorium for affordable homes bought below RM400,000 on the island and RM250,000 on the mainland, and a 10-year moratorium for low and low-medium cost housing units priced up to RM72,500.
GEORGE TOWN : Buyers of low-medium cost flats under the affordable home scheme in Penang are feeling cheated by the state government for imposing extra charges for parking lots and kitchen cabinets.The buyers said they were shocked when the developer told them to pay an extra RM28,000 for a parking lot and RM54,000 to install kitchen cabinets, apart from the RM72,000 for a flat in Bukit Gegulor.
A group of 10 buyers, holding placards and banners, protested outside the state government’s office in Komtar this morning urging state housing committee chairman Jagdeep Singh Deo to look into the matter.
One buyer even knelt outside the office pleading for chief minister Lim Guan Eng to intervene to solve the matter.
The group’s spokesman, Muhd Amir Abdul Kadir, handed a letter to the state government’s officer-in-charge during the two-hour demonstration.
The 31-storey apartments, comprising 780 units, is located near SK Bukit Gelugor.
Norlida Masturo, 44, who was close to tears, said she could not afford the extra charges.
“How can we afford these extra charges for a RM72,500 unit? ” she asked.
She said the developer told the buyers that the RM28,500 was for a parking lot while another RM54,000 was for an “upgrade package” which included the installation of kitchen cabinets and tiling.Jagdeep said he would meet the developer soon to get a clearer picture.
“If it is true then the developer will be taken to task.
“I don’t want the buyers to feel that they had been taken for a ride and start blaming the state government,” he added.
Last December, Jagdeep told the press that the land office would monitor, control and enforce the state government’s latest regulations to restrict sale of properties, including low-medium cost flats.
Jagdeep, who is in charge of housing, town and country portfolios, said the state government would also explore ways and means to improve the regulations from time to time.
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng announced recently that the new housing regulations on land and property sales and purchase agreements would take effect on Feb 1.
The rules were intended to curb the property bubble, price speculation and ensure affordable homes to Penangites, especially first-time buyers.
The new rules include a five-year moratorium for affordable homes bought below RM400,000 on the island and RM250,000 on the mainland, and a 10-year moratorium for low and low-medium cost housing units priced up to RM72,500.
Fight back against threats with aggression, Muslims told
(MM) - Islamist group Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) today urged Muslims nationwide to be aggressive in defending Islam, which it claimed is under attack from certain bands of non-Muslims.In a video posted on its YouTube page, the group urged Muslims to emulate the prophet Muhammad in all his aspects, including waging war, instead of just offering the prophet’s message of peace.
“When faced with an issue, Islam will use the appropriate wasilah (vehicle) to tackle the problem,” said Isma vice-president Muhammad Fauzi Asmuni in the 16-minute video titled “Islam diancam, kita perlu agresif” (Islam is under threat, we must be aggressive).
“If people try to bring down Islam using poetry, Islam will fight back with poetry. But if people try to bring down Islam using swords, Islam will not fight back with poetry anymore. Islam will use swords as well.”
Fauzi said unnamed anti-Muslim groups were baiting the country’s Muslim majority and causing the current racial and religious tensions in the country.
He also slammed Muslims who tried to deal with anti-Muslim groups through diplomacy and dialogue, saying the former had misinterpreted Islam by only reading stories about the Prophet Muhammad’s kindness.
“Let us try to combine all the sirah (biographies). The prophet forgave and pardoned people, but at the same time he ordered the Battles of Badr, Uhud and Khandaq,” he said, listing down three key battles led by Muhammad.
“The prophet undertook aggressive action. After the Khandaq war, he was no longer attacked, instead it was him who attacked others.”
According to Fauzi, when faced with a massive enemy, like the Coalition of Human Rights NGOs (Comango), it is not enough to rely on just Friday sermons and articles printed in Malay dailies Utusan Malaysia and Berita Harian.
Comango is made up of 54 local NGOs and had worked with Putrajaya on human rights issues for over 5 years before being declared “illegal” by the Home Ministry last month.
“If we see the reality in Malaysia, even if Muslims tolerate with utmost tolerance, there will still be people who want to harm Islam,” Fauzi added.
Isma warned last month that Muslims in Malaysia are facing real conspiracies coming from Christians and “chauvinists”.
“Muslims are facing threats from evangelist Christians and chauvinists who are becoming more aggressive and rude by insulting the faith, practices and tradition of Muslims,” Isma president Abdullah Zaik Abd Rahman said in a statement.
“Nobody can deny that the agenda of liberalism, religious pluralism, total equality and Christianisation were brought to this country through various approaches, through proxies and certain networks linked to international Jews, Freemasons and evangelist Christians.”
Isma has also been at the forefront of attempts to discredit Comango, which has also come under fire from other Muslim activists who claim the group’s human rights recommendations to the United Nations ran counter to the “true” teachings of Islam and the Federal Constitution.
Wanita hina Sultan Selangor di FB ditahan
Wanita berusia 27 tahun itu ditahan di rumahnya di Kajang pada kira-kira pukul 1 pagi tadi.
Dia kemudiannya dibawa ke Ibu Pejabat Polis Daerah Shah Alam untuk diambil keterangan, lapor Utusan.
The Saga of the Big Slap
By Kee Thuan Chye
It all started with a slap threat.
A Muslim group took exception to a satirical video produced by an Opposition MP who also appeared as a talk show host interviewing panelists played by actors, so they held a street protest and offered a RM1,200 reward to anyone who would slap the MP and show proof of having done it.
The group alleged that through the video, the MP and her fellow party leaders had insulted the Government, the King, Islam and Malay dignity, but those who had seen the video swore there was nothing of that in it.
Political observers said the group was mad for inciting violence. They called on the police to take action against the extremists.
The home minister, however, said there was no need for that. He said offering money to slap someone was not a threat. He said, “If they had issued a death threat, then it would be a threat. Slapping is not.”
Political observers believed that he responded this way because he was probably abused a lot as a child, and likely by his mother. So he was now getting his own back at society, and especially women.
One observer said the minister needed to have his IQ tested, because any person with just an average IQ could have seen that the threat on the MP was indeed a threat.
The next day, when the minister was walking out of a five-star hotel after having been treated to a sumptuous meal there, a burly citizen with biceps bigger than Popeye’s came up to him and slapped him hard on the cheek. It made the minister do a dozen pirouettes like a ballet dancer before he swayed about like a halal drunkard and eventually slumped onto the floor like a character from Looney Tunes.
The citizen later declared to the media that he was the one responsible for slapping the minister. But he said it was not an assault and that he was not a threat to anyone. Slapping a person, he asserted, was not killing them.
He said he slapped the minister because of these reasons. First, for not respecting a woman. Second, for not respecting a fellow human being. Third, for not respecting the law against violence. Fourth, for discrediting his own office. Fifth, for discrediting the prime minister for having appointed him minister.
When asked how he managed to develop such big biceps, he said it was because he ate kangkung.
The public speculated that the minister must have suffered severely from getting such a whopping slap, but no one could verify the extent of the injury because the minister was whisked away immediately after the incident. One of his aides who declined to be identified said the minister lost consciousness for at least an entire day, and after he regained consciousness, he was scared shit of going out.
Inside sources from the dental clinic that attended to him revealed that at the moment of impact, all but one of his teeth receded totally into the gum – and the one that didn’t, flew out of his mouth. That tooth was now being preserved for when he became prime minister whereupon a memorial could be built for it, somewhat similar to the one for the Buddha’s tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
It was said that the minister had aspirations of becoming PM, which explained why he had been saying numerous stupid things of late. As the people had now come to realise, saying stupid things was a requisite for becoming PM.
One of the things he said was telling the police to “shoot to kill” gangsters. He also said there was no need to ask questions first. On numerous occasions, because of his appearance and his tough-talking stance, he came across like a gangster himself. No wonder he did not consider the threat on the MP a threat. After all, gangsters are used to punching people and fracturing their noses, among other things.
Speaking of the police, they did not hesitate to initiate investigations into the video produced by the MP. They said it might have contributed to public mischief. They even called in for questioning the actors who had participated in the video. Political observers called it an attempt at intimidation.
At the same time the actors were being interrogated, the Inspector-General of Police was giving a public talk on the integrity of the police force. He assured everyone present that the police were professionals, that they were not beholden to the ruling party, and that they were fair and colour-blind in carrying out their duties.
When he had finished, a portly, stocky woman with a huge and high hairdo carrying a Hermes bag went up to him. He smiled in recognition and with great delight, as if thoroughly pleased to see the woman. She reached out her hand and he thought she was going to shake his, but instead the woman landed a tight slap on his face that turned his smile into a permanent twist. Not only did his cheek turn red, it sustained a deep dent caused by the impact of the diamond ring the woman was wearing on her middle finger, tilted downwards to deliberately scar the IGP’s face.
The IGP sank to the floor and passed out. His twisted lip, though grotesque in appearance, seemed to fit his face perfectly. The audience in the room were too shocked to react. The woman coolly walked out.
Mouths wagged afterwards that she was an artiste who did impersonations of famous people, but no one could guess whom she was impersonating when she slapped the IGP. They also wondered if black magic had been employed in rearranging the IGP’s lip.
A note was found stapled to the IGP’s neck. The note asked why the police were so quick to investigate the MP’s video when it had done nothing on other, more serious cases, like the video in which a ruling party-backed Muslim MP had insulted Hindus. It also asked why the police had not even taken any action against the extremist group that started the idea of slapping.
The note explained that for the double standards practised by the police, their head honcho deserved to be slapped. It warned that the IGP would get slapped again and again till kingdom come if the police continued to be unfair. Its last words were: “Don’t play play. This is a real threat.”
After this incident, fear gripped the nation’s decision-makers and officers of the law. Everyone looked to the prime minister to make a statement that would help bring back sanity. But the PM said nothing.
Then one day, when he was at a function handing out envelopes containing goodness-knows-what to retired civil servants, an 88-year-old man who looked more Indian than Malay accosted him with a smirk and gave him a slap so hard that it detached his ruby-red lips from his face.
The assailant scolded the PM loudly in front of everyone for being weak, for keeping quiet all the time, for not stopping the extremist groups at home although he promoted moderation in the world whenever he spoke overseas.
All the PM could do was gape, especially now that there was nothing but a void where his lips used to be.
People wondered how the old-timer could have had so much strength to inflict so much damage on the PM’s face. Then a newspaper published an exclusive report disclosing that the man received regular injections of sheep placenta extract at a clinic in Switzerland. This was the secret to his regular rejuvenation.
When news of what had happened to the PM broke out, people in high office panicked. None of them was safe any more. They took out insurance on their facial parts, regardless of the high premiums they had to pay. The prime minister’s wife took out a policy insuring her hair.
Cabinet ministers argued over what needed to be done to stop the slapping mania. The poor PM merely sat and listened, because he had no lips and could not speak.
One minister proposed creating a law that would define slapping someone as a matter of life and death. By that token, a call to slap someone would now be legally considered a threat.
The first one to support the proposal was none other than the home minister. Who of course was now totally toothless. And, said his aides, totally gutless.
* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the book The Elections Bullshit, available in bookstores.
It all started with a slap threat.
A Muslim group took exception to a satirical video produced by an Opposition MP who also appeared as a talk show host interviewing panelists played by actors, so they held a street protest and offered a RM1,200 reward to anyone who would slap the MP and show proof of having done it.
The group alleged that through the video, the MP and her fellow party leaders had insulted the Government, the King, Islam and Malay dignity, but those who had seen the video swore there was nothing of that in it.
Political observers said the group was mad for inciting violence. They called on the police to take action against the extremists.
The home minister, however, said there was no need for that. He said offering money to slap someone was not a threat. He said, “If they had issued a death threat, then it would be a threat. Slapping is not.”
Political observers believed that he responded this way because he was probably abused a lot as a child, and likely by his mother. So he was now getting his own back at society, and especially women.
One observer said the minister needed to have his IQ tested, because any person with just an average IQ could have seen that the threat on the MP was indeed a threat.
The next day, when the minister was walking out of a five-star hotel after having been treated to a sumptuous meal there, a burly citizen with biceps bigger than Popeye’s came up to him and slapped him hard on the cheek. It made the minister do a dozen pirouettes like a ballet dancer before he swayed about like a halal drunkard and eventually slumped onto the floor like a character from Looney Tunes.
The citizen later declared to the media that he was the one responsible for slapping the minister. But he said it was not an assault and that he was not a threat to anyone. Slapping a person, he asserted, was not killing them.
He said he slapped the minister because of these reasons. First, for not respecting a woman. Second, for not respecting a fellow human being. Third, for not respecting the law against violence. Fourth, for discrediting his own office. Fifth, for discrediting the prime minister for having appointed him minister.
When asked how he managed to develop such big biceps, he said it was because he ate kangkung.
The public speculated that the minister must have suffered severely from getting such a whopping slap, but no one could verify the extent of the injury because the minister was whisked away immediately after the incident. One of his aides who declined to be identified said the minister lost consciousness for at least an entire day, and after he regained consciousness, he was scared shit of going out.
Inside sources from the dental clinic that attended to him revealed that at the moment of impact, all but one of his teeth receded totally into the gum – and the one that didn’t, flew out of his mouth. That tooth was now being preserved for when he became prime minister whereupon a memorial could be built for it, somewhat similar to the one for the Buddha’s tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
It was said that the minister had aspirations of becoming PM, which explained why he had been saying numerous stupid things of late. As the people had now come to realise, saying stupid things was a requisite for becoming PM.
One of the things he said was telling the police to “shoot to kill” gangsters. He also said there was no need to ask questions first. On numerous occasions, because of his appearance and his tough-talking stance, he came across like a gangster himself. No wonder he did not consider the threat on the MP a threat. After all, gangsters are used to punching people and fracturing their noses, among other things.
Speaking of the police, they did not hesitate to initiate investigations into the video produced by the MP. They said it might have contributed to public mischief. They even called in for questioning the actors who had participated in the video. Political observers called it an attempt at intimidation.
At the same time the actors were being interrogated, the Inspector-General of Police was giving a public talk on the integrity of the police force. He assured everyone present that the police were professionals, that they were not beholden to the ruling party, and that they were fair and colour-blind in carrying out their duties.
When he had finished, a portly, stocky woman with a huge and high hairdo carrying a Hermes bag went up to him. He smiled in recognition and with great delight, as if thoroughly pleased to see the woman. She reached out her hand and he thought she was going to shake his, but instead the woman landed a tight slap on his face that turned his smile into a permanent twist. Not only did his cheek turn red, it sustained a deep dent caused by the impact of the diamond ring the woman was wearing on her middle finger, tilted downwards to deliberately scar the IGP’s face.
The IGP sank to the floor and passed out. His twisted lip, though grotesque in appearance, seemed to fit his face perfectly. The audience in the room were too shocked to react. The woman coolly walked out.
Mouths wagged afterwards that she was an artiste who did impersonations of famous people, but no one could guess whom she was impersonating when she slapped the IGP. They also wondered if black magic had been employed in rearranging the IGP’s lip.
A note was found stapled to the IGP’s neck. The note asked why the police were so quick to investigate the MP’s video when it had done nothing on other, more serious cases, like the video in which a ruling party-backed Muslim MP had insulted Hindus. It also asked why the police had not even taken any action against the extremist group that started the idea of slapping.
The note explained that for the double standards practised by the police, their head honcho deserved to be slapped. It warned that the IGP would get slapped again and again till kingdom come if the police continued to be unfair. Its last words were: “Don’t play play. This is a real threat.”
After this incident, fear gripped the nation’s decision-makers and officers of the law. Everyone looked to the prime minister to make a statement that would help bring back sanity. But the PM said nothing.
Then one day, when he was at a function handing out envelopes containing goodness-knows-what to retired civil servants, an 88-year-old man who looked more Indian than Malay accosted him with a smirk and gave him a slap so hard that it detached his ruby-red lips from his face.
The assailant scolded the PM loudly in front of everyone for being weak, for keeping quiet all the time, for not stopping the extremist groups at home although he promoted moderation in the world whenever he spoke overseas.
All the PM could do was gape, especially now that there was nothing but a void where his lips used to be.
People wondered how the old-timer could have had so much strength to inflict so much damage on the PM’s face. Then a newspaper published an exclusive report disclosing that the man received regular injections of sheep placenta extract at a clinic in Switzerland. This was the secret to his regular rejuvenation.
When news of what had happened to the PM broke out, people in high office panicked. None of them was safe any more. They took out insurance on their facial parts, regardless of the high premiums they had to pay. The prime minister’s wife took out a policy insuring her hair.
Cabinet ministers argued over what needed to be done to stop the slapping mania. The poor PM merely sat and listened, because he had no lips and could not speak.
One minister proposed creating a law that would define slapping someone as a matter of life and death. By that token, a call to slap someone would now be legally considered a threat.
The first one to support the proposal was none other than the home minister. Who of course was now totally toothless. And, said his aides, totally gutless.
* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the book The Elections Bullshit, available in bookstores.
Father wins suit over son's death in prison
The Star
KUALA
LUMPUR: A father of an inmate who died at the Sungai Buloh Prison after
he was attacked by a group of inmates won his suit against the Home
Ministry secretary-general, the prison director and four others.
High
Court judge Justice Nik Hasmat Nik Mohamad ruled that M. Ghaur
Chandram, 57, had succeeded in proving his claim against the defendants.
She
said there was a breach of care on the part of the defendants and the
deceased, Uthayachandran, who indisputably died in the custody of prison
authorities. He was 23.
Justice
Nik Hasmat said it was not a normal practice for an inmate to be
brought down when a food rationing exercise was carried out and “Pintu
B” at the ground floor was not closed, allowing a group of prisoners to
attack Uthayachandran.
She said there were six or seven wardens who were not equipped to look after more than 700 inmates in the prison.
“The
deceased died as a direct result of the attack on him by fellow
inmates. The court merely rules that there was breach of care and degree
of negligence on the part of the defendants which resulted in his
death.
“Accordingly,
I allow the plaintiff’s claim of special damages for funeral expenses
and loss of dependency, exemplary and general damages to be assessed
later,” she said in her judgment yesterday.
The court fixed March 20 for the hearing on the quantum of damages.
In
his suit filed on June 1, 2009, Ghaur Chandram named the Home Ministry
secretary-general, the Sungai Buloh Prison director, the prison
hospital’s medical officer, wardens Mohd Rosaizi and Tuan Azhar Mohd and
the Government as defendants.
Ghaur
Chandram, who was a taxi driver, sought RM3.6mil in general and
exemplary damages and interest on the general and special damages.
In
his statement of claim, Chandram alleged that the Sungai Buloh Prison
director, the prison hospital’s medical officer, the wardens and the
Government who were responsible at the prison were negligent and his son
was beaten to death by a group of prisoners.
He
claimed that the defendants failed or refused to inform his family on
his son’s death when Uthayachandran’s welfare was their responsibility.
Uthayachandran was detained for a drug-related case and died on May 18, 2008.
PBB's Capability Rules Out Umno Spreading Wings To Sarawak - Muhyiddin
KUCHING,
Feb 13 (Bernama) -- The structure of administration established by
Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) in Sarawak rules out the need for
Umno to set foot in the state, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin
Yassin said here Thursday.He said the PBB in Sarawak, similar to Umno in peninsular Malaysia and Sabah, had become a parent body for the other Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties which gave their support to bring about political stability.
"The role played by the PBB is similar to that of Umno in the peninsula and Sabah, which can continue," the Umno deputy president told a news conference after attending a closed-door dialogue with representatives from the Sarawak associations of consumers, hawkers and suppliers, here.
Muhyiddin said the Sarawak BN, helmed by the PBB and with the other component parties, had achieved the objective shared by Umno.
"I feel it is unnecessary to duplicate what has been achieved. What is important is not the party but the objective. It (PBB) has achieved what we (Umno) want to achieve ... unity, progress, prosperity and stability. This is what's happening in Sarawak," he said.
On Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, who has announced that he would retire as the Sarawak chief minister on Feb 28, Muhyiddin said the veteran leader had made a huge contribution to the state and nation, especially in fostering unity among the people of various races and religions.
He said that during the 33-year tenure of Abdul Taib as the chief minister, Sarawak did not face any racial issue in spite of the state having a large number of ethnic groups which subscribed to various cultures and religions.
He also said that Abdul Taib had successfully brought much development to Sarawak as the leader of the state government administration.
"Thirty-three years of service is a long period, and he has fulfilled this with excellence. In fact, that period will become a treasured legacy, particularly for Sarawak," he said.
Muhyiddin said he hoped that the next chief minister, Tan Sri Adenan Satem, would be able to continue with the excellent example that Abdul Taib had set.
On the closed-door meeting he had last night with the leaders of the Sarawak BN component parties here, Muhyiddin said it also touched on the preparations for the next state elections, due in June 2016.
"What is important are the steps that we have to take to ensure that Sarawak remains the stronghold, and not just the fixed deposit, of the BN," he said.
Muhyiddin said he was confident that based on Abdul Taib's leadership and the new leadership under Adenan, the people's support for the BN in the state would grow stronger.
"It is vital for Sarawak to remain a BN stronghold," he said.
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