Is it true Kinabalu Park and Poring Hot Spring now under Singapore company?

By Ezra Haganez
RANAU : The Star Reform Party (star) head for Ranau division, Jalibin Paidi, had asked the Barisan Nasional state government if it is true that management of the two popular tourist attractions in Ranau had been "surrendered" to Singapore !

Jalibin said it has been a hot topic among people in Ranau that the Kinabalu Park, whole or part of it, and the popular Poring Hot Spring near here had its management "transferred" or "surrendered" from Malaysian authority to Singapore companies.

Star upset with Sapp ‘dirty tactics’ mulls options

By Joe Fernandez 

It appears that ties between the Sabah chapter of the Borneo-based State Reform Party (Star) and the Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) could be “much better” if not for the latter’s insistence on contesting in 40 state seats and almost a third, about five to seven, of the parliamentary seats in Sabah. The party reiterated this stand at its meet on Sun in Kota Kinabalu.

Before the 40/5-7 Sun announcement by Sapp, Star had been publicly toying with the “goodwill gesture” of conceding two state seats -- Likas and Luyang -- and one (Tawau) of the two parliamentary seats it (Sapp) won in 2008 as a member of the ruling BN. Star itself had announced in mid-April that it would go for all 60 state seats at stake in Sabah and 26 parliamentary seats including Labuan.

The Last Colony: On The Moroccan Occupation Of Western Sahara

By Malainin Lakhal

The West often portrays itself as the champion of democracy, rule of law and human rights. Yet, when we look at Western Sahara, the hypocrisy and dishonesty in such portrayals are laid bare. The story of Western Sahara – the plight of its people and their struggle for freedom – is willingly and deliberately ignored by Western powers and mainstream international media despite the fact that it is the last colony standing in the African continent.

Western Sahara – bordered by Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and the Atlantic Ocean – first fell under Spanish rule in 1884, becoming a Spanish province in 1934. In 1975, the colonial master signed an illegal pact – known as the Madrid Agreement – with Morocco and Mauritania abandoning the North African territory to invasions. Following the pact, Morocco and Mauritania moved to annex the territory while Spain ensured its interests in the exploitation of natural resources in the region.

Haramkan DPPIMS Untuk Jayakan RCI!

Oleh : JAYANTHI GEETHA SUKUMARAN

KERAJAAN Persekutuan digesa mengharamkan Dewan Perniagaan dan Perindustrian India Muslim Sabah (DPPIMS) yang selama ini menjadi pelindung kepada pendatang haram India yang mendapat kerakyatan songsang di Sabah.

Aktivis Masyarakat dan Hak Asasi Manusia, Datuk Patrick Sindu membuat gesaan demikian sebagai mengulas keputusan Perdana Menteri untuk melaksanakan penubuhan Suruhanjaya Siasatan DiRaja (RCI) bagi mengatasi isu PATI dan kerakyatan songsang di Sabah setelah terma rujukan (TOR) diselesaikan dalam masa yang terdekat.

Menurut Patrick, 99 peratus ahli DPPIMS adalah pendatang asing India yang mendapat atau membeli Mykad Projek daripada Sindiket Kad Pengenalan; termasuk daripada pegawai dan kakitangan Jabatan Pendaftaran Sabah.

Sebagai contoh kata Patrick, Setiausaha Agung DPPIMS, Mohd Ansar Bin Maidin telah dikenalpasti sebagai PATI daripada India yang memalsukan dokumen pengenalan diri untuk mendapatkan kad pengenalan merah bernombor H6033634 sebelum mendapatkan Mykad 620617-12-5063 menggunakan dokumen orang mati tanpa proses Warganegara.

Ghost of 666 yet to be buried

By Philip Golingai

Peter Mojuntin, the then Sabah Local and Housing Minister, was a living legend. Even today, 36 years after his death, his name is spoken with reverence.

HERE’S my recollection of the “Triple Six” tragedy which struck Sabah on June 6, 1976. That year, I was nine years old. It was a Sunday and I was at a wooden house that was my family’s weekend getaway in Kampung Pogunon, Penampang.

News – probably from the radio – trickled through that a Nomad aircraft had crashed in Sembulan, about 16km from my village, as it was about to land at Kota Kinabalu airport at around 3.30pm.

There was talk that some Sabah ministers were onboard the aircraft and they had been rushed to hospital.

Prayer answered

A man worked in a post office. His job was to process all mail that had illegible addresses.
One day a letter came to his desk, addressed in a shaky handwriting to God. He thought,
"I better open this one and see what it's all about." 

So he opened it and it read:

"Dear God, I am an 83 year old widow living on a very small pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse.
It had a hundred dollars in it which was all the money I had until my next pension check." "Next Sunday is Easter,

Star: Opposition manifestos must match expectations

KOTA KINABALU: The manifesto revealed by the Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) on Sun in the Sabah capital, to cite an example, leaves a lot to be desired since its conveys the impression that “the party leaders continue to be in a state of denial and are sitting on another planet and making plans for the state”.

This is the dismissive note, albeit reluctantly, from the State Reform Party (Star) on the Sapp Manifesto unveiled amidst much fanfare. The party hopes that others in the opposition will take heed of the lessons and do a better job on their respective manifestos “while Sapp goes back to the drawing board”.

" Bah! Tunggu apa lagi!" Slogan SAPP PRU-13

Oleh: GONOD SUNDA
KONGRESS SAPP 2012 yang dihadiri perwakilan dan pemerhati hampir 3,000 bertempat di Star City pada Ahad telah merintis jalan baru parti itu apabila 17 Perkara Manifesto yang diumumkan parti itu sebagai janjinya kepada rakyat untuk ditunaikan sekiranya SAPP membentuk kerajaan selepas PRU-13, menandakan keseriusan kepimpinan SAPP merubah wajah kesuraman Sabah ke era baru.

Antara perkara yang diberi tumpuan terkandung didalam Manifesto itu ialah pengwujudan Kad Pengenalan Sabah (Sabah IC) sebagai usahanya membasmi keraguan kerakyatan dan pemberian Kad Pengenalan secara songsang yang meletakkan jumlah kependudukkan Sabah mencecah kepadatan penduduk yang luar biasa berbanding negeri negeri lain yang tidak ada PTI seperti Sarawak.

Selain itu, Manifesto tersebut turut meletakkan pembangunan sosial sebagai agenda terpenting kerajaan baru SAPP , terutamanya masa depan belia beliawanis dan keperluan tenaga kerja untuk diperkasakan dan diperbetulkan supaya tidak akan berlaku penghijrahan belia belia Sabah ke Semenanjong untuk mencari pekerjaan.

Britain stops to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's diamond jubilee with river pageant

Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip watch the flotilla fromthe royal barge during the Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the
River Thames in London. Source: AP

THE BOATS appeared, scores of them stretched across the river from bank to bank, and as they did a monochrome world turned into a blaze of colour.

A Thames murky and brown, a sky drab and grey, all transformed in the space of a few moments into a Canaletto for the 21st century.

Pope criticizes profit-seeking, says his image of heaven is his childhood in Bavaria

By Colleen Barry of Associated Press

MILAN - Pope Benedict XVI celebrated an open-air Mass on Sunday for a million followers, capping three days of activities in Milan aimed at showing support for the family.

Fitting his theme of strengthening the institution, the pope recalled the night before his own childhood in Germany in a house filled with music, big Sunday lunches and shared liturgical readings to strengthen the family faith.

"To tell the truth," the pope said, responding to a question about his youth from a young Vietnamese girl during a meeting with families Saturday night, "if I try to imagine a little how it will be in heaven, it seems to be the time of my youth, of my childhood."