You can’t make poverty disappear by saying it isn’t there

By Sindin Ranggangon

Sindin Ranggangon,
Tuaran PKR Information Chief

The announcement by the Prime Minister that Sabah is no longer the poorest state gives us no comfort at all. It doesn’t make sense that all of a sudden poverty has been reduced after the situation has been around for decades. In a single visit by the PM, which was supposed to be “the last visit to Sabah before the general election,” poor households have gone down from 30,000 to 7,000. And we are not told when this reduction happened, and what has caused it to happen. If there was a sudden economic miracle to make poverty disappear in 23,000 households, how come we never heard about it?

I guess we can’t really blame the PM for having to come up with this kind of stunt. If the state Umno/BN couldn’t solve the poverty problem then the only way to go about is to deny the poverty and at least give some comfort to the people. At least the BN leaders will now have some capital to use to deny the opposition’s propaganda that Sabah, according to the World Bank, is the poorest state, and that 40 percent of all poor people in Malaysia are in Sabah!

Puisi Perjuangan

Sukungo Tokou Awasi Ralan

STAR: Sukungo Tokou Awasi Ralan

Perjalanan beribu batu bermula dari langkah pertama.
Langkah yang kita lakukan menuju destinasi yang jelas.
Destinasi yang kita tuju adalah kerajaan baru.
Kerajaan baru hanya akan dapat dibentuk jika kita bersatu
Kesatuan kita bermula dari permuafakatan dan kerjasama yang padu
Perpaduan yang kita seru adalah ABU
ABU berjaya di Malaya
UBA akan menang di Sabah
Kerajaan rakyat yang berberkat pasti membawa nikmat
Untuk kesejahteraan rakyat

Sukungo Tokou Awasi Ralan

Daniel Jebon Janaun

Insulting the people by denying poverty

By Daniel John Jambun

Of all the many current issues being debated in the media, Najib’s ‘assurance’ during his recent visit to Sabah that the state is no longer the poorest in Malaysia is the one that currently hitting the most sensitive nerves among Sabahans.

While the statement was supported by local BN leaders, the opposition leaders have expressed shock at the Najib’s statement. People on the ground are scornful and believe it is all a desperate political spin to give a positive impact for Najib’s visit to Sabah prior to the general election.

Puisi Perjuangan

Resah Bimbang

Kini resah bimbangku telah mencapai tahap merah
Ini bukan mainan atau lelucon sejarah
Tikam-menikam dan sepak terajang bergegar di rumahku
Walau rumah itu dibina di atas nama perjuangan
Pakatan bersama

RCI or no RCI? Asks STAR on conflicting PM and Dompok statements

Najib trying to find excuses to avoid RCI on
illegal immigrants and fake ICs in Sabah?

KENINGAU : The State Reform Party (STAR) has questioned the sudden turn-around by Prime Minister Najib Razak's stand on whether or not to agree to the setting up of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on the large presence of illegal immigrants in Sabah and the rampant issuance of Malaysian documents to these people.

Deputy chairman of the party's Sabah chapter, Dr Nicholas James Guntobon, in a statement here said Najib's non-committal answer to the issue of setting up the RCI reflected UMNO's second thought on it after a presumed strong objection from Sabah UMNO during his recent visit to Sabah.

Penipuan Penciptaan Bendera Malaysia?

Oleh : THE SPIRIT OF MALAYSIA

DI SINI, saya terpanggil untuk menghasilkan satu entri yang bertajuk 'Penipuan dalam Penciptaan Bendera Malaysia?'. Saya mungkin akan mendapat bantahan yang ramai terutama daripada orang Semenanjung. 

Tetapi, sebelum anda membantah atau menunjukkan ketidakpuashatian anda, sila fikir-fikir kembali menggunakan akal dan logik. Sila jawab persoalan ini.

1. Adakah benar Penghasilan Bendera ini sememangnya ASLI dicipta oleh orang Malaya?

2. Apakah penciptaan Bendera ini memang ditujukan khas untuk Malaysia atau Persekutuan Malaya sahaja?

Puisi Perjuangan

Baju Sehelai

Bertahun lamanya kupakai baju ini
Warnanya pudar dan lusuh
Koyak dan rabik
Di sana sini

PKR moots mandatory civil service wage reviews every 5 years

The gap is 19.5:1 between top and bottom paid civil servants.

PETALING JAYA, Feb 23 — Putrajaya should make wage reviews within the civil service compulsory once every five years, PKR said today.

“Keadilan urges that wage reviews be made mandatory every five years, so that (wage) increases in line with inflation rates can be done fairly,” PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar told reporters here.

She said that according to a 2006 United Nations Public Administration Network Public Service report, Malaysia had the biggest income gap between the highest and lowest paid civil servants compared to neighbouring countries.

SBPA: PKR gesa kerajaan terima syor Cuepacs

PETALING JAYA, 23 Feb – Lanjutan daripada syor yang dikemukakan Cuepacs supaya kerajaan memberi kenaikan gaji antara RM700 hingga RM2,500 untuk Gred 1 hingga Gred 54, PKR hari ini menggesa kerajaan menerima syor berkenaan yang turut dilihat selari dengan matlamat Pakatan Rakyat (PR) sebagaimana yang terkandung di dalam Buku Jingga.

Naib Presiden PKR, Nurul Izzah Anwar (gambar) dalam sidang media di ibu pejabat parti itu di sini berkata, pihaknya terbuka dengan cadangan Ceupacs itu yang dilihat mampu membela nasib penjawat awam.

Gov’t fails to learn from Bkt Merah tragedy

By Charles Santiago

Severe birth defects, eight leukemia cases over five years in a community of 11,000, tears and anguish of the poor people from a largely shoe-making community – these are not news headlines. Neither is it the plot of a movie.

These are the consequences of carelessly allowing the Asian Rare Earth factory to be built in Bukit Merah, Perak in 1982. When Mitsubishi Chemical started operating its rare earth factory, the villagers complained of choking sensation, pungent smell, coughs and colds.