SAPP: Tell us what’s our worth, Anwar

The capability of local Sabah party SAPP, which has
been in seat negotiations with Pakatan Rakyat Sabah
since 2009, has suddenly come under question.

KOTA KINABALU: Opposition Sabah Progressive People’s Party (SAPP) has thrown the ball back at Pakatan Rakyat over its demand for seats and wants to know what the coalition thinks the party is worth.

“If [Opposition Leader] Anwar Ibrahim said SAPP is contesting too many seats, and questions its strength, it is very simple: just tell me how many we should contest in state and or parliament?

“If they [Pakatan] think it is not agreeable to them… tell us how many they think we should contest in state and Parliament.

“I believe people expect Anwar [to give an answer],” said SAPP president Yong Teck Lee.

Govt had records of illegals in Sabah

Former Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh who denied
knowledge of Project IC added that "even if the
identity cards were given out speedily, it was
done according to the federal constitution."

KOTA KINABALU: The Royal Commissison of Inquiry (RCI) to investigate the problem of illegal immigrants in Sabah was told that 446,173 refugees and illegal immigrants were deported from 1990 to date.

Sabah and Labuan Federal Special Task Force Team director Suhaimi Mohd Salleh said those deported had no documents.

Asked how he came up with the number by RCI chairman, ex-chief judge of Sabah and Sarawak Steve Shim Lip Kiong, Suhaimi said there were records.

The fifth witness, who joined the Special Task Force on Jan 15, 2012, also said the team, which was set up on April 4, 1989, also managed and tackled problems of illegal immigrants in Sabah.

We gave Muslim foreigners IDs to vote

Sabah NRD director tells the RCI that he was
personally instructed by Megat Junid Megat
Ayub to recruit new voters.

KOTA KINABALU: A former National Registration Department (NRD) officer told an inquiry here that he took part in a project to give foreigners here identity cards so that they could vote in an election in the 1990s.

Mohd Nasir Sugip, who was detained under the now repealed Internal Security Act (ISA), told the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) he was part of a top secret operation dubbed ‘Ops Durian Buruk’ (Operation Rotten Durian) on the instruction of his bosses in the department.

He claimed the operation ran from 1992 to 1995 and said the instruction to furnish the foreigners with identity cards so that they could vote came from the state Election Commission (EC).

‘Jeffrey desperate because STAR falling apart’

By Joseph Bingkasan 

Angkatan Perubahan Sabah chief Wilfred Bumburing
has reminded STAR's Jeffrey Kitingan of his own
"cari makan politics" past.

KOTA KINABALU: Tuaran MP Wilfred Bumburing believes that State Reform Party (STAR) chief Jeffrey Kitingan’s incessant attacks on him is because of Angkatan Perubahan Sabah’s (APS) increasing presence in KadazanDusunMurut areas.

Bumburing said it was now obvious that Jeffrey, who’s been claiming absolute strength in KDM areas, was “desperate” because “STAR is falling apart since the formation of APS”.

He said the dissolution of the STAR Papar division last month with the exit of well-known activist Patrick Sindu and more than 1,000 members was an indication of the beginning. All of them joined PKR.

Bomb scare disrupts Sabah RCI hearings

The A-G's Chambers said ex-detainees under the Internal
Security Act 1960 would also be called on matters
related to the issuance of identification documents.

KOTA KINABALU: A rumoured bomb scare brought to an abrupt halt the first day of the much- awaited Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) public hearing on illegal immigrants in Sabah.

On the advice of the police, RCI chief Steve Shim suspended the inquiry held at the High Court here at 2.45pm.

Commission secretary Saripuddin Kassim had conveyed to the panel the police advice.

Shim told everyone present that the hearing had to be stopped “due to some emergency”.

At that time the third witness was giving evidence. At 3.05pm, the police bomb disposal unit arrived. The court complex was cordoned off and traffic was halted along part of Jalan Pantai running in front of the court complex.

Neowell saved while hunt continues for O+ R1R1 JKA

14 January 2013, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah—Neowell Vann Houtton, the 12 year old boy suffering from major thalassemia who needed urgent blood transfusion of the very rare blood type O+ R1R1 JKA has received two blood transfusions Saturday and Monday bringing his HB level up to 10.4. Normal levels are around 13 to 14 and last week Neowell’s level dropped to 6.7.

“He is now immediately out of danger thanks to hundreds of donors who responded to our appeal as we managed to retrieve the correct blood type and I thank the donors and the media and bloggers for saving his life,” said Selly Onong, the boy’s mother.

Story by a veteran navy who was at KL Rally

"Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred." - Martin Luther King Jr.

COMMENT Before I begin, I make no claims of speaking for "the majority". This should be read as a personal anecdote of an opposition supporter who was there to make the numbers, but more importantly - as I have done for all these ‘pro-opposition' rallies - to mix with my fellow travellers and listen to their stories. As always, people were willing to talk.

Parents hope culprit will be penalised

The parents of a teenager who was found dead,
are distraught as they have been kept in the
dark over the outcome of police investigations.

KOTA KINABALU: The parents of Norikoh Saliwah, the teenaged girl who was found dead by the side of the road on Nov 25 last year, are eager to know what happened to their daughter on that fateful day when she had merely gone to help a cousin find a job.

Farmer Saliwah Madaya, 57, and his wife Raimas Makanal, 56 of Kg Bombong 1, Kota Marudu, have seldom come to the state capital. This was one of those special occasions when he and his wife had no option but to make one of those very rare trips here, but unlike before this time it was an extremely poignant one.

Huge opposition rally in KL signasl new political shift in Malaysia

By Julia Zappei of AFP

KUALA LUMPUR : Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim urged voters to oust the country's long-ruling government as tens of thousands of supporters gathered Saturday in a show of force ahead of coming elections.

At least 50,000 people crowded into an iconic stadium in the capital Kuala Lumpur where independence was declared in 1957 and tens of thousands more thronged surrounding areas as the opposition effectively kicked off its campaign.

"We plead for you to give us a chance so that the people's voices will become the voices of the leaders of this nation," Anwar told the crowds as he denounced what he called the government's misrule and corruption.

France jet fighters flew to Mali's rescue and bombed Islamist rebels

BAMAKO/PARIS (Reuters) - French aircraft pounded Islamist rebels in Mali for a second day on Saturday and neighboring West African states sped up their plans to deploy troops in an international campaign to prevent groups linked to al Qaeda expanding their power base.

France, warning that the control of northern Mali by the militants posed a security threat to Europe, intervened dramatically on Friday as heavily armed Islamist fighters swept southwards towards Mali's capital Bamako.

Under cover from French fighter planes and attack helicopters, Malian troops routed a rebel convoy and drove the Islamists out of the strategic central town of Konna, which they had seized on Thursday. A senior army officer in the capital Bamako said more than 100 rebel fighters had been killed.