PKR planned to announce by-election this week: Anwar

Source : M'Kini



PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, who took refuge at the Turkish embassy amid threats and sodomy accusations, said his party had planned to announce a by-election in which he would be contesting.

Anwar said the sodomy allegations were aimed at derailing his political comeback, and came just as he was about to re-enter parliament through a by-election.

"This is their intention. You know we will announce a by-election this week. I will contest in the by-election, the police knew that," he said.

To force a by-election, PKR will need to ask one of its 31 parliamentarian to resign.

Alternatively, the party could be hoping that the court would this Friday declared the victory of Wanita Umno chief Rafidah Aziz in Kuala Kangsar invalid.

Businessman Ahmad Jamaluddin Abd Majid has filed an election petition challenging the results in the Kuala Kangsar parliamentary seat as Rafidah had failed to sign two out of three sets of her nomination papers in the March 8 general election.

He told AFP earlier today that he would not leave his sanctuary in the Turkish embassy until the government guarantees his safety.

"I need categorical assurance on my safety. You know I have previously been assaulted to near death," Anwar said, referring to a beating he received after being sacked as deputy premier and hit with sex and corruption charges in 1998.

"Sure, if they give me an assurance for my safety today I will leave the embassy today," he said in a phone interview from the mission in Kuala Lumpur.

Anwar fled there on Sunday at the invitation of the ambassador, saying he had been threatened and feared a government assassination plot after facing "fabricated" accusations that he sodomised a male aide.

"There's two reasons why I decided to come to the embassy. It's not just for my personal safety, it's also for the stability of the nation," he said, referring to expectations of major protests if he is arrested.

"I urge my supporters to be calm but firm. Enough is enough, we will fight it out."

After his sacking, a watershed event in Malaysian politics, Anwar was convicted on sodomy and corruption charges which landed him in jail for six years.

He was released in 2004 when the sex charge was overturned but the corruption conviction still stands, and prevented him from holding public office until mid-April.

He is now eligible to run for parliament and one of the parliamentarians in his PKR is expected to stand aside for him.

Still on track to seize power

Anwar, who has said since the March elections that he has the numbers to form a new government with the help of defecting lawmakers from the ruling coalition, said he was still on track to seize power.

"The momentum is still on, I will continue to monitor the progress. It has never been so good, they know that," he said of the government which is led by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's Umno party.

"Umno members and MPs have promised to come out and campaign for me so they come out with these sexual allegations to stop me from securing power," he said.

Anwar said that after his experiences a decade ago, he had no faith in the "due process" of the law in Malaysia, and reiterated allegations that elements in the government had orchestrated the new charges.

"Certain people in the hierarchy are involved in these allegations. Evidence from photos shows this," he said, referring to images of his accuser posing with ministers and government aides which his party has aired.

"They have made fabrications in the court, do they want me to believe in due process?" he asked.

Anwar said that elements in the police who were involved in the original investigation against him were now acting to sideline him because they feared revenge if he becomes prime minister.

"If you want to fight a political battle, do it cleanly," he said.

Photos: Anwar with PKR leaders on hearing about the police report lodged by his aide, Saiful. (Source: Anwar's blog).

My Blogger Friend Met a Serious Accident - Need Help (New Posts are Below This Message)

Updated on 11th July 2008, 2.00pm. Please find the revised donation details. Satish is still short of an approximately RM 3,460 to pay off the existing hospital bills. The details of those donated so far are as follows :-

Click to Enlarge the Image

Those who pledged to help, please do so. Thank you for your support to help our fellow blogger. Will keep you posted....


Dear Reader, i got this email from a fellow blogger. He needs help and hope you all can assist....For any info pls contact Ms. Saras at 012-7162884


June 4, 2008 By DS. GOPHEKAR RAAJ

Dear Reader,

I’ve just came to know that our friend Satish who blogs in Olaichuvadi has met with a serious accident on recent Monday in Kluang, Johor and he’s badly injured. Immediately upon receiving the message, I called up Saras and inquired. It seems he just undergo an operation today. The operation cost is around 7K. He’s from a very poor family background. I also called up his fiancee to find out how is his condition. According to her, he’s still unconscious and get ups time to time out of a sudden while screaming. He’s still in the accident trauma maybe. I’m putting this on MakalVoice is for the purpose of getting some financial support for my friend Satish from generous hearted people like you. Please donate according at your own mean and please pray to the almighty for his fast recovery. I’m going to bank in my pledge now and if can….I’ll keep you guys updated on how much have been collected from time to time by getting infos from his fiancee. Thanks in advance and please read the below message for more detail.

BLOGGER WHO WAS AMONG THE 7 ARRESTED IN PENANG INVOLVED IN A ACCIDENT AND NEEDS HELP !!!!

Dear friends,

Mr. Satish Kumar a blogger from Olaichuvadi was involved in an bad accident on the 2/6/08. He was one of the 7 who were arrested during the anti ISA campaign last month in Penang Gurney Drive when he was covering the event for his blog. He is also a Tamil school primary teacher.

Mr. Satish has no any supports and lives all by his own. He was hit and run by a vechicle in Kluang Johor while he was riding on his motorbike. He has serious injuries including multiple broken bones, Shoulder dislocated and a broken thigh bone. He was first admitted to the General Hospital, Kluang but the nurse there informed that he would only go through a check up next Monday and did not take it seriously. His condition was neglected by Kluang General hospital. Fearing on this, our team decided to transfer him to the Kluang Utama Specialist Centre. The operation has been completed at 3am this morning based on humanitarian grounds but need to pay. As for now the bill has been amounted to RM 7000. He badly needs financial support to carry on with the treatment and save his legs.

Kindly support by donating any amount that you are able to give. Below is the bank in no:-

Name : Satish Kumar
Account No : 108114004851
Bank : Maybank

For any info pls contact Ms. Saras at 012-7162884

Your help is much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Leave Petronas goose alone, ask who ate golden eggs

By Syed Mohamed via M'kini

Petronas has been posting on the Internet since 2002 not only its profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow accounts, but also financial highlights and other details of how it performed in the oil and gas business. For the last couple of years, in view of rising oil prices and hence its profits, Petronas has also detailed out how its profits were distributed.

I have been in the oil and gas business since the early 80's, and I find its website a goldmine of information, beyond what is expected to be revealed even by public-listed companies. However, it may be difficult for those who have no prior working knowledge of the complexity and challenges of the oil and gas industry, to decipher from the information given as to how well Petronas is being run.

This in comparison to not only the other government-owned oil companies, but also the other oil majors of the world, and how much it has contributed (and will continue to do) to the national economy, provided its immense contributions are efficiently and prudently utilised by the government.

The revelations on the website show that so far, Petronas has given back to the nation more than any other GLC has ever done, leaving itself with just sufficient funds to continue to invest large sums every year to search for oil and gas globally (to add to the nation's oil and gas reserves), as well as to add value to its existing highly-integrated businesses in 33 countries.

So far, Petronas has managed to replenish more than it extracts in terms of its oil and gas reserves, both domestically and overseas, increasing its overseas reserves (in Africa, Central Asia, the Middle-east and South East Asia) to one-third of its total global reserves.

This means that it can continue to produce oil and gas for many years ahead, although it is expected that, by about 2014 or earlier, Malaysia itself, as a country, will be able to export less oil than it imports, due to increased domestic demands.

It is certainly not true that our oil wells will be dry by then, as some reports have erroneously suggested, as the current Malaysian oil reserves are equivalent to 22 years of the current extraction rate of 670,000 barrels per day.

For the 2007 financial year, Petronas declared dividends to the government totalling a staggering RM32 billion (half to be actually paid in the following financial year). For the two previous years, it paid RM13.1 billion and RM9.1 billion respectively.

I say its staggering because throughout the 70s, 80s, 90s and early 2000's, its dividends to the government had reportedly been only about RM2 billion every year.

On top of that, for the same 2007 financial year, Petronas also paid to the government another total of RM32.3 billion in the form of taxes (RM21.8 b), royalties (RM8.5 b) and export duty (RM 2 b).

So what is the real issue? The real issue is, therefore, whether the BN government has been prudent and efficient in spending the many billions contributed by Petronas.

Please, people. Petronas cannot be faulted if its contribution is spent elsewhere instead of on petrol and diesel subsidies. Boycotting Petronas products would be like trying to kill Malaysia's one and only golden goose. Let's quarrel about the ‘golden eggs’ which are in the BN government hands, but leave the ‘goose’ to continue to lay more for years and years to come.

There may come a time - like during the 1997-1998 Southeast Asian financial meltdown - when Petronas financial muscle may once again be needed to come to our rescue.

The ball is in the BN government's court - to stop the alleged major leakages and wastage and then use the savings to subsidise fuel prices. This is what Anwar Ibrahim might be thinking of when he promised to reduce the petrol price if Pakatan Rakyat ever manages to take over the federal government.

Is Petronas efficiently run? You bet. Petronas is listed in Fortune 500 as amongst the world's 500 biggest companies. In terms of profitability, using the ‘profit before tax margin’ ratio, Petronas (at 41.4%) is at No1 position, by a long way, compared to all the oil majors and other government-owned oil companies of the world.

It is also in the No 1 position if the Return on Average Capital Employed (Roace) ratio is used. The figure achieved is an astounding 40.9%. Even when the Return on Total Assets ratio is used, at 25.9% it ranks at the top half amongst the government-owned oil companies and the oil majors of the world.

These three criteria show that Petronas is one of the most, if not the most (in certain aspects), efficiently managed of the large oil and gas companies of the world. Do we really want to know how many expensive banquets Petronas held in comparison with Esso, Shell, BP, Chevron, Caltex, Conoco, Gulf, Aramco, Statoil, Petrobras, Pertamina, etc?

Can Petronas reduce Malaysian petrol prices on its own? The answer is negative. Petronas' current total refining capacity is only 314,000 barrels of crude per day. From this amount, only about 150,000 barrels per day of petrol and diesel can be produced, the rest being LPG, petrochemical naphtha, kerosene/jet fuel and waxy residues.

The 150,000 barrels per day account for only 40% of the amount of petrol and diesel sold in Malaysia. The other 60% is supplied by foreign oil companies like Esso, Shell and Caltex. Esso and Shell have refineries in Port Dickson, whilst Caltex may be importing the products from its Singapore refinery and/or purchasing them from the Conoco share of the Melaka refinery outputs.

From the above, one can begin to understand why the petrol price control has to be through the subsidy route rather than through Petronas having to take an 'opportunity loss'. Unless Shell, Esso and Caltex are also willing to take 'opportunity losses', and by how much.

SAPP MPs to move no-confidence vote...

Source : M'Kini



Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) today announced that it would move a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when Parliament resumes on Monday.

It is the first time in the history of the nation that a vote of no-confidence is to be moved against a prime minister.

"In the coming sitting of the Parliament session starting Monday, June 23, our MPs will support a vote of no confidence on the PM.

"Whether the motion will be tabled by our party MP or another MP will be decided in due course," said a press statement released today.Sapp has two parliamentarians - Dr Chua Soon Bui (Tawau) and Eric Enchin Majimbun (Sepanggar) - and four state assemblypersons.

Majimbun, who is currently overseas, has expressed his support for the party's decision by signing the press statement click here for full press statements from both MPs.

Four reasons

Chua, who was present at the party's 90-minute press conference in Kota Kinabalu, gave four reasons for backing the no-confidence vote.

They are:

No concrete actions have been taken on the issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah. "Our sovereignty is threatened," said Chua.

Sabah, being the poorest state, is greatly burdened by the sharp hike in petrol prices. The government has failed to provide "holistic economic solutions".

Sapp MPs would fail in their role as elected representatives as issues raised such as poor delivery systems, corruption, wastage of resources, lack of transparency and no sense of accountability are ignored.

People have lost confidence in the leadership of Abdullah. Sapp is of the opinion that if the top leadership can't perform, then Abdullah should make way for other able leader to take over.

Party president Yong Teck Lee said Sapp would not immediately quit the coalition led by Abdullah, but that its status would be reviewed at the end of the week.

He attacked BN's record in the impoverished state, saying that it had been subjected to unfair laws and excessive taxes.

"That is why we need an immediate declaration of no confidence in the PM and the government, to tell the BN government that we can no longer tolerate their insensitive attitude towards the Sabah issues that are real and serious," he said at the press conference held at the party headquarters at 2pm.In an immediate reaction, Abdullah said: "I have not been able to satisfy his (Yong's) personal greed."

According to Bernama, the embattled prime minister did not elaborate on the matter.

Decision on Friday?

Today's annoncement appeared to be the opening move by the BN component member which may see the Sabah-based party eventually leaving the coalition.

“Today is just the first step. There might not be any defections for now,” said a source.

A poll placed in Sapp's blog also indicated the general feelings on the ground at the moment. The poll asked members of the public whether the party should stay on in BN, leave the coalition but remain independent, or join Pakatan.At press time, there were 2,052 votes tallied, with 85 percent (1,749 votes) asking Sapp to join Pakatan. Another 242 (11 percent) want the party to leave BN and remain independent. Only 2 percent (61 votes) urged it to stay on with BN.

To a question of whether the party would be pulling out of BN, Yong said that he could only answer that question after the party's Supreme Council meeting this Friday."We will have a press conference on Friday June 20 to announce this matter of Sapp's membership in BN after our supreme council meeting," he said. Anwar needs 30 MPs

In recent weeks Sapp has been identified as the most likely party to leave BN and join forces with Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Rakyat.

Sapp is led by outspoken former chief minister Yong, who in recent months has questioned Abdullah's policies towards Sabah and the federal government's inability to solve the illegal migrants' problem in the state.

The party has two members of parliament and four representatives in the state assembly.

Political commentators point out that even if the party pulled out of BN to join Pakatan, the defection of the two MPs would not be sufficient to threaten Abdullah's BN.

Anwar needs 30 MPs to derail Abdullah and BN from power.

However, Sabah sources claim that other BN coalition partners would follow Sapp out of BN if the party sparks the exodus.

A big lie told repeatedly

By Dean Johns via M'Kini

I’ve mentioned this saying before, and no doubt will again, as it has become one of my favourite mantras against the mind-boggling barrage of mendacity we face every day from people bent on messing with our minds.

I first heard it said about advertising, a business notorious for its cynical not to say shameless disregard for veracity.

But as irritating as it may be to long-suffering consumers, stretching the truth about brands is nothing compared with filling citizens’ heads with nonsense about issues that affect their lives, livelihoods and liberties.

When employed by leaders to mislead their people, ‘bull**** baffles brains’ techniques chillingly recall Nazi ‘information’ chief Josef Goebbels’ secret of successful state propaganda, “a big lie, told repeatedly”.

And I’m repeatedly reminded of this by politicians who emulate Goebbels’ methods, from George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard with their now long-debunked ‘Iraq weapons of mass destruction’ story to Robert Mugabe and his ridiculous claims that in contesting elections against the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, he’s “fighting a war against the would-be re-colonisers of Zimbabwe”.

Currently the world’s most successful practitioners of the ‘bull**** baffles brains’ approach to government must surely be the paranoid, power-mad mandarins who have been bending the minds and dominating the existences of more than a billion citizens for almost 60 years in a totalitarian dictatorship posing as the ‘People’s’ Republic of China.

For almost as long, if on a comparatively minor scale, the Castro brothers of Cuba and the Kim dynasty in North Korea have also managed to imprison their people behind virtually impenetrable walls of ignorance, misinformation and flat-out lies.

And a close runner-up in long-running rule of the ruthless over the truthless has been Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional (BN). Only now, after 50 years in power, has BN finally begun to be exposed as the clique of kleptocrats and incompetents it has long since become.

No thanks to the nation’s mainstream media for this long-overdue revelation, however, as they’re as busy baffling Malaysians’ minds with bull**** as ever they were. Even more so, in fact, considering some of their contributions to opposition and citizen calls for media freedom.

Wong Chun Wai, the chief group editor of Star has, as I pointed out in a previous column, made some shining statements in his blog, like “The freedom of expression is an essential part of democracy. A healthy democracy means a meaningful participation of Malaysians in the political process.”

Not a favour

But there’s little evidence of his newspaper practising what he preaches. Quite the opposite, to judge by the recent ‘Stray thoughts’ column in Star, in which New Media Editor A Asohan had the effrontery to accuse the Malaysian people of colluding in their brain-washing by the media.

“The media, the government..who else can we point a finger at here? How about you, the people of Malaysia? There is some truth to the saying that the media acts as a mirror on society, and that it can only reflect the ideals and aspirations of the society it serves.

“For 50 years, you folks kept returning to power, and almost always with a two-thirds majority, the parties that have enacted these laws (the Printing Presses and Publications Act, Official Secrets Act, Internal Security Act, Sedition Act and Communications and Multimedia Act). By doing so, you gave your tacit approval.”

Blaming the readers like this strikes me as a bit rich, considering that Star was one of the major movers in keeping the electors ignorant enough to keep voting for BN and its miserable media-repressive laws.

And as if his assault on the unwitting victims of his newspaper’s dereliction of its duty to the truth wasn’t sufficient, Asohan also heaped praise on Minster in the Prime Minister’s Department Zaid Ibrahim, for the latter’s “courageous” speech to journalists, bloggers and activists who gathered for the “walk for press freedom” two weeks ago.

Zaid had said: “Don’t blame the government for everything. What have you done to push for reforms? How many of you are willing to risk jail or unemployment for your principles?”

Another piece of arrant bull****, blaming journalists for “failing” to defy laws specifically designed to force them to prostitute their profession or pay the price.

Press freedom, let me remind Zaid - as if as an eminent or at least affluent lawyer he wasn’t already aware - is a right enshrined in the constitution, not a favour to be fought for. Nor, despite what he was so snidely implying, is there any shortage of people or organisations who’ve fought very hard indeed for the restoration of this right.

Malaysiakini, Malaysia Today, the Centre for Independent Journalism and countless journalists - and more recently bloggers - have fought tooth and nail for years for press freedom. They have received nothing but vilification, intimidation, persecution and prosecution for their pains, from the government of which Zaid is now part.

As for his assertion that if press-suppressing laws were to be reviewed or repealed, the media had better have something to replace these or else there would be “anarchy”, even Asohan thought it was a load of crap.

Where is the anarchy in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and all the other nations whose citizens enjoy press freedom?

And don’t anyone try telling me the old BN fairy-tale that Malaysia’s a “special case” due to its “unique” need to maintain unity and harmony between its races and religions. There are lots of other nations whose populations are as diverse, and there’s no evidence that press freedom poses a threat to peaceful co-existence.

On the contrary, a free press is more likely to be a force for cohesion and tolerance, as people who are intelligently informed and enlightened are less prone to be racist and sectarian.

BN not only promotes such evils the better to ensure its own survival, but also contrives to combine them with cronyism and corruption.

But thanks to the free virtual media, BN’s bull**** isn’t baffling nearly so many brains these days, and, thanks to petrol and other price rises, there are even hopeful signs that it’s no longer altogether baffling the brainless.

Just a Friendly Reminder....

TODAY IS FRIDAY THE 13TH....HE...HE...HE....ARE YOU SUPERSTITIOUS....!!!!