Tambatuonites, learn it from us the victims of Baram Dam

By Keruah Usit

The beautiful Baram region in northeastern Sarawak is one of the poorest regions in the country.

Now, thanks to the Baram Dam, one of 12 gigantic hydro-electric dams spread across the state, 20,000 inhabitants face the prospect of being resettled, without participating in the decision that will change their life and that of their descendants.

US$ 5mil FBC website is making a monkey out of Taib Mahmud

Oops! - wrong monkey. The website Sarawak Report(s) used a
Sumatran Orang Utan to illustrate the Chief Minister's
conservation credentials!

Taib’s PR people have pictured a foreign animal in their attempts to show how fond the Chief Minister is of saving Sarawak’s wildlife!

Malaysian procurement system riddled with corruption, says US cable

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — The seedy and allegedly corrupt side of Malaysia’s defence procurement has been laid bare in a US embassy cable, with startling revelations on how Umno politicians, agents, civil servants and military officials receive 30 per cent “commission” on deals.

In a note on the opaque procurement system here revealed by whistleblower site Wikileaks, the US embassy noted that American companies operating here had three main complaints about the system: the lack of transparency, outright corruption, and Bumiputera requirements.

The undated cable sent during the Abdullah administration between 2004 and 2009 also noted that many government tenders do not follow procurement rules.

A US aerospace executive told the US embassy here defence deals were done through shadowy agreements with no tendering process. For example, the then-Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s (picture) sister-in-law arranged a US$400 million (RM1.2 billion) contract to buy military cargo aircraft from Airbus.
The deal was announced following Abdullah’s return from a trip to France.

BLOOD SUCKING PREPAID TELEPHONE CARD

By : DAP MEDIA

DISPLAY….. Hiew displaying the prepaid card.

THE NEWLY implemented to start on the 15th of September the 6% service tax charged by the telephone companies is unfair and a burden to every telephone prepaid reload card users. The general respond to this increase by adding on a 6% service tax on the prepaid amount is not welcome by the consumers and they said it is a way for the full benefit of the telephone.

6 % TELCOS INCREASE, A DAY LIGHT ROBBERY?

By : PKR MEDIA

PKR Supreme Council member cum PKR Sabah Secretary, Dr Roland Chia Ming Shen questioned the need for prepaid mobile phone users to have to fork out 6% more as of Sept 15 despite telcos say they will no longer absorb the service tax which was introduced in 1998.

The 6% should be by way of TELCOS way of corporate social responsibility to the rakyat especially prepaid users make up the majority of customers in all telcos in Malaysia.

911 is here once more... Tribute to the three Malaysians who perished

911

By Emmanuel Surendra

9/11 is here. Much has been said about it. And I don’t think we’d need another post telling us the logic of it or a comparative post on post 9/11 thoughts and the Malaysian situation or a delusional one that still lingers in conspiracy. Here’s an interesting testimony found here via yangsquare.com. It goes something like this:

PSM kecam sistem kehakiman Malaysia gagal bela HAK TANAH ORANG ASAL

Oleh S. Arutchelvan, S/usaha Agung PSM

Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) kesal dengan tindakan Mahkamah Persekutuan yang tidak berani membuat keputusan mengiktiraf hak tanah adat masyarakat Orang Asal di dalam kes yang difailkan oleh Bato Bagi dan lima lagi. Keputusan yang dibuat oleh Ketua Hakim Negara Tun Zaki Azmi, Hakim Mahkamah Besar Sabah dan Sarawak Tan Sri Richard Malanjum dan Hakim Mahkamah Persekutuan, Datuk Seri Md Raus Shariff membuktikan sekali lagi sistem kehakiman negara ini gagal memberi keadilan kepada masyarakat tertindas.

‘Sabah is on the right track to success’

Former Sabah Chief Minister Salleh Said Keruak believes that the
state has progressed by leaps and bounds since Independence.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah State Assembly Speaker, Salleh Said Keruak, firmly believes that Sabah and Malaysia are on the right track to achieving state and national targets.

To him both state and nation have already seen tremendous developments.

But he was just as quick to point out that there was still much more that could be done to meet the desires of Sabahans in general.

Borneo Alliance to be formalized with SAPP – Jeffrey

KOTA KINABALU: The Borneo Alliance of parties and NGOs is set to be formalized soon with Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) and forthcoming political in which UBF’s Chairman, Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan will be a member.

Demands for seats increase not as rational as they sound

By Daniel John Jambun
We have noticed that for a while now there has been a lot of proposal to increase the number of parliamentary and state seats, with most of the opposition as well as the ruling coalition members supporting the move. Only Datuk Lajim Ukin has so far expressed disagreement with his colleagues’ proposal. He said this doesn’t make sense because the number of voters in some seats are too small, e.g. his Beaufort parliamentary constituency is only about 28,000 while the Sipitang and Kimanis parliamentary constituencies have only about 22,000 each.