Umno 'rapist' in Cabinet: In the name of justice, form a public probe

Source

I did not name him but others did. ‘He’ is Malaysia’s Cabinet minister who allegedly raped his Indonesian maid 3 years ago. He is a lawyer by profession and obtained his PhD from King’s College London.

In 2007 Malaysia nominated its Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage to replace the outgoing Commonwealth secretary-general, Don McKinnon, whose term would have expired in March 2008.

This minister was a strong contender for the post having once served as Foreign Minister. There had never been a secretary–general from Asia before and a Malaysian ‘victory’ was imminent. Countries in the region – Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand, also supported Malaysia’s bid.

Malaysia’s High Commission in London where the Commonwealth secretariat is based was geared up to lobby support for its candidate. Visiting Commonwealth heads of state were ready to meet this man. As part of Malaysian’s campaign, the candidate even planned a visit to London to rally support.

Then out of the blue, the nominee dropped his bombshell.

The strange thing was that hours earlier, he had been discussing the Malaysian campaign strategy with Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar at a Cabinet meeting.

Colleagues pay tribute to Jeffrey

Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Several PKR stalwarts here have credited the party’s growth in Sabah to their former colleague Jeffrey Kitingan.

Jeffrey quit PKR on Dec 31 putting an end to months of speculation as to whether he will follow in the footsteps of Kuala Lumpur based ex-PKR supreme council member Zaid Ibrahim.

Yesterday, lawyer Ansari Abdullah, who had mostly had an uneasy political relationship with Jeffrey, surprisingly paid tribute to Jeffrey.

“Jeffrey contributed tremendously to the growth of PKR in Sabah and in the incorporation of specific agendas for Sabah and Sarawak which were sealed by Pakatan Rakyat during its first convention in December, 2010.

“These include the setting up of a Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants, increase of royalties on gas and petroleum, Borneonisation of the civil service and the abolition of the cabotage policy,” he said when asked to comment on Jeffrey’s resignation.

Pope calls Egypt church attack vile gesture

– Sun Jan 2, 8:00 am ET

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Benedict on Sunday condemned a bomb blast outside a church in Egypt which killed at least 21 people, the latest in a series of attacks on Christians in the Middle East and Africa.

"This vile gesture of death, like that of putting bombs near to the houses of Christians in Iraq to force them to leave, offends God and all of humanity," the pope said after his weekly angelus blessing.

The car bomb explosion outside a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria on Saturday wounded dozens of people as worshippers gathered to mark the new year and Egypt's Interior Ministry said a foreign-backed suicide bomber might have been responsible.

Reuters – A woman grieves for a relative who died in Saturday's bomb attack at the Coptic Orthodox church in …

It prompted Christians to protest on the streets, and some Christians and Muslims threw stones at each other. Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population of 79 million.

The pope urged Christian communities to persevere in a non-violent manner in the face of what he described as "a strategy of violence that has Christians as a target".

Two people were killed and at least 16 wounded in a series of bomb attacks on Thursday on the homes of minority Christians in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, security sources said.

Over Christmas, six people were killed in attacks on two Christian churches in northeastern Nigeria and six were wounded by a bomb in aRoman Catholic Church on the island of Jolo in the Philippines.

The Vatican fears that the attacks, combined with severe restrictions on Christians in countries such as Saudi Arabia, are fuelling a Christian exodus from the region.

In his New Year's homily, the pope said "words were not enough" to bring about peace, particularly in the Middle East.

He called for "concrete and constant commitment" from national leaders and said everyone on a local level should strive for peace in their relations with their neighbours.

(Reporting by Catherine Hornby; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

Dr Jeffrey's quit letter

31 December 2010.

Ybg. Dato Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail,

President,

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR),

Kuala Lumpur.

Re: RESIGNATION AS PKR MEMBER

Yang Berbahagia Datuk,

I wish to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a very happy Christmas and new year 2011. May the New Year bring us the desired opportunity for change!

I also wish to thank you for the support and trust in appointing me as Vice President of the Party. But the time has come for me to say good bye after 4 years with the party. We have learned from the 47 years of our so called independence and our partnership with Sarawak and Malaya in the federation of Malaysia that we cannot trust others to defend our rights and to do things for us; the consequences of which is indicated in our political, economic and social condition today (i.e. we become the poorest State in Malaysia. We have also lost our special rights and privileges, our oil resources, our political autonomy and our pride). We have to take responsibility for ourselves and our future.

PKR's agenda is not our agenda; PKR's priority is not our priority. Anwar's obsession is to capture Putrajaya without listening to us and our Borneo Agenda. Therefore, after a deep soul searching I have decided to resign from PKR with immediate effect. My resignation from PKR does not mean that I do not support your ideals nor does it mean that we will become enemies. We can still work together to achieve the desired change for a better Malaysia. In fact it will be better for us to work together as partners and to complement each other to achieve our shared goal and mission for a just, democratic and progressive Malaysia.

Once again, thank you and happy new year!.

Yours truly,

JEFFREY KITINGAN.

Ketua Cabang Pensiangan

Cc Setiausaha Perhubungan Negeri

In the spirit of 1Malaysia, yet Christians were ridiculed and riled

Source

Does Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak expect people to 'respect' his ‘1Malaysia’ slogan if Malaysian Christians are ridiculed when they are prevented from observing their full Christian beliefs?

Officials at Archbiship Murphy Pakiam’s premises were told to remove crucifixes, to avoid hymns being sung and prayers or Scriptures to be quoted, when Najib attended the Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur’s Christmas tea party on Christmas day.

The PM’s aides had issued a list of instructions to the Archbishop’s office to facilitate Najib’s attendance. Then before the PM arrived, they made a circuit of the party grounds at Bukit Nanas.

This level of mistrust is astounding. It is totally unacceptable and very unreasonable to hold a people’s faith to ransom.

PM's aides orders crucifixes in St John's Cathdral to be removed

Source

PM's aides orders St John's Cathedral to remove crucifixes and banning of singing hymns at St John's Cathedral constitute a violation of religious freedom guaranteed under Article 3(1) of the Federal Constitution

 

By Dr. Chen Man Hin (DAP Life Advisor)

The excuse given by the PM's aides that the cruciffixes would be offensive to the Prime Minister while visiting the church and grounds borders on the ridiculous.

 

Malaysia has diplomatic relations with many Christian countries in the West, South America and the Phillipines. Crucifixes decorate many public buildings in these countries. Would the aides issue orders to Christian countries in the West and South America to take down or remove the crucifixes when the Prime Minister of Malaysia visits the said countries?

 

Church buildings and grounds are sacred areas to Christians especially Catholics. Crucifixes are sacred. So are the religious rites and singing of hymns. Forcible removal of crucifixes in churches would constitute an act of sacriliege. The orders by the PM's aides are therefore sacrilegious.

 

Disappointed Jeffrey quits PKR

KUALA LUMPUR: It’s official. Sabah politician Jeffrey Kitingan has resigned from PKR. FMT has acquired a copy of his resignation letter dated Dec 31 sent via e-mail to party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and copied to the state liaison secretary.

The letter ends Jeffrey’s denial today that he had not “yet” quit from the party after his close aides tipped off FMT earlier that the former PKR vice-president had sent in his resignation to Wan Azizah and copied the mail to some of his inner circle members.

Not amused by his latest theatrics, a source in his inner circle said that Jeffrey’s fickle-minded “stunt” was to enable him “to do some last-minute bargaining with Anwar (Ibrahim, PKR adviser)”.

But Jeffrey’s resignation letter, however, sounded otherwise.

Jeffrey resigns from PKR

Luke Rintod

 of FMT

KOTA KINABALU: Former PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan has resigned from PKR today. He submitted his resignation letter via e-mail to party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution.

He resignation ended weeks of speculation about his position in the party. Jeffrey has indicated his intention to leave the party to pursue his passion – autonomy for Sabah and Sarawak – outside of PKR.

He is also the leader of the rights movement United Borneo Front, which aims to unite Sabahans to regain their position in the country.

MORE TO FOLLOW………..

I bet Dr Jeffrey will quit PKR not later than January 6, 2011 !

By Ezra Haganez
KOTA KINABALU: Former PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan denied he has quit PKR Sunday. He instructed one of his aides, Guandee Kohoi, to tell friends that he has not "yet" quit the party as reported by some online news portals.

"Dr Jeffrey denied sending in a resignation letter. Wait for the right time. He just called me and want FMT to clarify, as he is still a member of PKR as he did not submit any letter of resignation "yet"," Guandee said through a mobile- phone text.

The wording of the text however clearly indicated there was already this "will" to quit. Only a matter of timing.

Jeffrey's deputy in the Kadazan-Dusun-Murut Task Force in Sabah PKR, Daniel John Jambun, quietly told close suportrs that he and the rest of the task force committee members would quit PKR en bloc January 6, 2011 (leaving Dr Jeffrey isolated).

Earlier, it was reliably learnt that even Tian Chua, a PKR vice president, who joined Jeffrey at his Christmas party in Tambunan Thursday (December 30) must have gotten the "signal" that Jeffrey's leaving PKR was imminent.

Insiders said Tian Chua must have pre-empted that when he quietly asked some of his friends at the party to persuade Jeffrey and his group not to leave PKR.

Dr Jeffrey teragak-agak tinggalkan PKR tetapi KDM Task Force akan keluar parti 6 Januari, 2011

Oleh Razlan Danial
KOTA KINABALU: Ketika Dr Jeffrey Kitingan teragak-agak sama ada mahu meninggalkan PKR atau tidak, KDM Task Force PKR Sabah sudah pun membuat keputusan akan keluar beramai-ramai dari parti pembangkang itu pada 6 Januari, 2011 ini.

Timbalan Pengerusi KDM Task Force PKR, Daniel John Jambun, memberitahu Borneo Herald beliau dan hampir semua AJK KDM Task Force yang diketuai Dr Jeffrey akan tetap keluar PKR 6 Januari ini.

"KDM tetap keluar PKR, tiada apa yang ditunggu dalam parti ini lagi," katanya sambil menambah mereka akan mempunyai jalan sendiri untuk meneruskan agenda politik mereka selepas itu.
 
Jeffrey, bekas naib presiden PKR, dikatakan sudah menulis surat peletakan jawatannya dari PKR Sabtu (Januari 1, 2011) bagaimanapun masih mahu bermain teka-teki dengan penyokong dan pihak media mengenainya.

"Sepatutnya beliau berterus terang sahaja dan jangan buat kita tertunggu-tunggu dan tertanya-tanya..." kata salah seorang penyokong beliau sendiri.