Malaysia Backsliding on Rights,says Human Rights Watch World Report

By Ezra Haganez
BANGKOK : Prime Minister Najib Razak’s promised reforms did not significantly improve legal protections for basic liberties in Malaysia, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2013. Press restrictions, the use of excessive force against peaceful demonstrators, and intimidation of rights groups exposed the limits of government adherence to internationally recognized human rights.

In its 665-page report, Human Rights Watch assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including an analysis of the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

BMF: Aussie conservationists accused of greenwashing Taib family's timber business

Australian groups under fire over misguided trade mission to Japan

(TOKYO, JAPAN / HOBART, AUSTRALIA) Australia’s Wilderness Society and the venerable Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) have come under fire over a clumsy move in support of Ta Ann, a Malaysian logging conglomerate with close ties to the family of Sarawak Chief Minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud („Taib“).

Last week, representatives of the two Australian groups travelled to Japan for a trade mission organized by Ta Ann. Apparently, the conservationists hoped to gain the Malaysian group’s support for a Tasmania forestry deal in exchange for promoting their timber sales in Japan. Having lost two Japanese customers over environmental concerns, Ta Ann are desparately trying to rescue their international reputation.
 

Message to Malaysians for "Clean & Fair Elections" from Stephan Durham (US Presidential Candidate of Socialist Party)

Event : Occupy Wall Street Global Solidarity Protest

Location : New York City (Times Square)

Date : 15th May 2012

Contents : Free Palestine Demo, Occupy Wall Street Protest & Bersih2.0 meets Stephan Durham

Duration : 8.54 minutes 

Type : Amateur Video

Hosting : Youtube / BersihKK

Cholera outbreak in Kota Belud kampung

The cases of cholera has
been linked to villagers
using untreated water.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA BELUD: A t least 3 cases of cholera have been confirmed in  Kg Pantai Mas in Tempasuk near here.

Suspicion of cases of cholera at the seaside kampung started a week ago when signs of it were detected by the district hospital.

FMT learned that the  villagers in Pantai Mas were furious because the outbreak partly stemmed from lack of supply of treated water. Most of them still used untreated water from traditional wells as well as deep-bored holes .

A man who only wanted to be known as Sabli told FMT that the kampung has been waiting for water supply for ages and that pipes actually had already been laid in the kampung areas for quite some time but that there is no water until now.

STAR eyes at least 20 parliamentary seats

Local opposition Sabah State Reform Party is set to field
teachers, civil servants, pensioners and pastors in
the coming 13th general elections.

By Luke Rintod of FMT

KOTA BELUD: Some 80% of the Sabah State Reform Party (Star) candidates in the 13th general elections will be “fresh faces”. And according to its secretary Guande Kohoi these candidates although first timers are “highly qualified.”

“Expect between 80 to 90 percent of our candidates to be fresh faces. They are educated, professionals and though many are first-timers, they are highly qualified and very passionate about our Borneo Agenda and visions for Sabah,” he told FMT yesterday. .

Kohoi said STAR is looking at contesting more than half of the 60 state assembly seats and about 15 to 20 of the 25 parliamentary seats where the party believes it has strength or advantage over other opposition parties.

In whose hands lies Sabah’s destiny?

It is time to end decades of grinding uncertainty
which has harmed the economic growth of Sabah.

For more than three and a half decades, the people of Sabah have always been aware of the huge number of foreigners arriving here and given fast-track citizenships to become voters.

We now hear directly from the horses’ mouth in the Royal Commission of Inquiry, confirming the clandestine modus operandi employed by Umno and carried out by the Election Commission and National Registration Department in rigging every Sabah election to sabotage the Sabahans’ choice of governments.

Unless the Barisan Nasional federal government now swiftly abolish the death penalty like it did the Internal Security Act, all the conspirators from both sides of the political divide might be sent to the gallows for high treason when their immunity from prosecution is revoked and removed once a change of government takes place.

Mahathir behind Project IC, says Anwar

The opposition leader points his fingers at former
prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamed instead.

PETALING JAYA: Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today reiterated his stance that he had nothing to do with the citizenship-for-votes granted to Sabah immigrants in the 1990s.

Instead, he accused former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad of being responsible for the task force allegedly responsible for the citizenships granted to the immigrants.

He also claimed that the exercise was ongoing and suggested that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) haul up Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as well.

‘Listen, she raised her middle finger’

KUALA LUMPUR: Suara Wanita 1Malaysia (SW1M) chief Sharifah Zohra Jabeen Syed Shah Miskin, who shot to notoriety last month over her verbal brawl with student KS Bawani, claims the latter made a rude gesture and this was videotaped.

“Bawani showed me the middle finger and walked out of the hall alone,” she told FMT last night.

“The students applauded me. What does this say?”

She said SW1M videotaped the entire session of the Dec 8 forum at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) and was planning to release the recording soon.

Blood Donation and Medical Camp on 03 Feb 2013

STAR Sabah will be holding a blood donation drive at Megalong Shopping Complex on Sunday, 03 February 2013 from 10.00 am. to 5.00 pm. to help the blood bank of Likas Hospital” announced STAR Sabah DUN N.19 Kapayan Chief Coordinator, Phillip Among, in a press statement released today.

Medical staff of Likas Hospital will be in attendance to assist in the blood donation drive organized by STAR DUN N.19 Kapayan and Parliament P.174 Penampang with the theme 

"SETITIK DARAH SEIKHLAS HATI, SEDETIK HARAPAN KEPADA YANG MEMERLUKAN"
 

Housewife gunned down by cops, hubby seeks justice

A lorry driver has accused the police of firing mercilessly, and without cause, at a car in Klang, killing his wife and leaving his two children without a mother.

Foo Voon Kong, 26, said the Jan 18 incident took place about 7.45pm near Taman Sentosa, when his wife Pua Bee Chun, 22, was in the passenger seat of the car driven by a male friend.

Foo said shots were fired at the car, at the side where his wife had been sitting.