Chinese Internet Con

Mass arrests across Asia over phone scam network

PHNOM PENH - HUNDREDS of Chinese and Taiwanese nationals have been arrested across Asia in an international operation targeting telephone scam artists, officials in several countries said on Friday.

Most of the arrests were in Indonesia and Cambodia where 177 and 166 people respectively were held in a cross-border crackdown on criminals using Internet phone services to trick thousands of victims across the region out of money.

In Malaysia, police on Borneo island arrested 27 Chinese and 10 Taiwanese nationals for allegedly duping people into paying fake traffic fines, the official news agency Bernama and New Straits Times daily reported.

And Thai police said they had arrested four suspects, one Taiwanese woman and three Thai nationals, in raids on seven locations in Bangkok based on information provided by Taiwanese police. They said a representative of the Taiwanese police was present during the arrests.

The massive police operation appeared to be a co-ordinated response to tip-offs from authorities in China and Taiwan, though neither country confirmed or denied their involvement when contacted by AFP.Read more.

(37 Chinese and Taiwan nationals arrested in Kota Kinabalu)

Is Malaysia Already A Welfare State?

Hantu Laut

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin deriding PAS by saying that the BN had not only achieved but exceeded its benevolence as a welfare state is false and pure histrionic.

Either the DPM do not understand the definition of welfare state or he is trying to bluff his way thinking Malaysians would swallow his unfounded claim hook, line and sinker.

Giving across the board subsidies to the general population does not make you a welfare state if that what the DPM think welfare state is all about.You can't call your country a welfare state if there still exists abject poverty.Malaysia has pockets of abject poverty scattered all over the country.You read about them in the news quite regularly.Maybe, the DPM only read political news and missed this social scourge that still afflict the nation.

A welfare state has the responsibility for the well being of its citizens by ensuring minimum standard of living for everyone.Most Western nations are welfare states because they provide the minimum comfort and standard of living for its citizens.

A welfare state would make available universal free education and medical care, insurance against sickness, disability and unemployment, income supplement and old age pension.Malaysia, by any definition is not a welfare state.Its housing programme for the poor is pathetic resulting in squatter's colonies sprouting all over the country.

PAS proposal is good but can they actually implement it when they took power.It needs a lot of financial resources.The only way is to remove all subsidies for the general population and use part of the savings for welfare purposes.

The present system of subsidies practised by the current government is an unfair system.Its benefits the wealthy and the middle class much more than the lower income and the poor, particularly and food and fuel subsidy which should be scrapped all together and spent the money on providing welfare benefits for the poor, old age citizens and good public transportation system in every major cities.

The lower income do not wish to own a car but some are forced to buy one because of the poor public transport.The government's policy of putting a car in every household is wrong, it's a burden on the poor and lower income group, when they have to pay through their noses for a car that could have cost much less if the protectionist policy is removed.

Owning a car eats major part of your income if you are in the lower income bracket.Even some middle income living in the city find it hard to make ends meet.

It is common in Malaysia for someone earning RM700-800 a month to buy a car.After paying the monthly instalment and fuel they have no money left to maintain the car which is one of the reasons for the high road fatalities in this country.

Let's hear what Muhyiddin means by saying Malaysia is already a welfare state.I hope he can explain in details.

For PAS I hope it is not a political gimmick to fish for votes.

Nik Aziz here.

Crowded Waters

BY ABRAHAM M. DENMARK

For the last two years, a quiet showdown has played out over the South China Sea, the body of water bordered by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Taiwan. This little-known body of water is of vast strategic importance: Fully one-third of the world's maritime trade traverses the South China Sea, and some optimistic estimates of its untapped stores of oil and natural gas would make it a second Persian Gulf. The South China Sea is also a major highway linking the oil fields of the Middle East and the factories of East Asia, with more than 80 percent of China's oil imports (and large percentages for Japan and South Korea as well) flowing over its waters. As influential Asia-watcher Robert D. Kaplan has put it, the South China Sea's importance to the region makes it the "Asian Mediterranean."

Due to these waters' importance, several countries -- Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam -- claim sovereignty over part of these waters. Yet China claims rights of sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, as detailed in the "9-dash line" included in its submission to the United Nations. While tension in these waters has waxed and waned for several decades, recent years have seen an uptick in tensions. Starting in 2009, two discernable rounds of geopolitical intrigue can be identified, and last week likely marked the beginning of round three.

The first round began in March 2009, when Chinese fishing vessels harassed the U.S. surveillance ship Impeccable in international waters, 75 miles off the coast of China's Hainan Island. Three months later, a Chinese submarine collided (apparently accidentally) with the towed sonar array of the USS John S. McCain near Subic Bay off the coast of the Philippines. Other aggressive moves followed, including reports that Beijing had declared the South China Sea to be a "core interest," putting it on par with Taiwan and Xinjiang as fundamental strategic priorities. China's assertiveness was noted around the world and caused a strong reaction.

Round two. In July 2010, the United States and much of Southeast Asia pushed back. At a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in Hanoi, 12 Southeast Asian countries complained of Chinese assertiveness in the South China Sea, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared freedom of navigation within the South China Sea to be a national interest of the United States. China initially reacted harshly to this pushback, with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi reportedly declaring Clinton's remarks in Hanoi to be "an attack on China" and not so subtly reminding his Singaporean counterpart that "China is a big country and other countries are small countries and that is just a fact." A subsequent statement by the Chinese military reiterated China's "indisputable sovereignty" over 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea -- which much of Southeast Asia naturally disputed.Read more.

Would You Want Them To Lead The Nation?

Hantu Laut

Would you want the party and its leaders to lead the nation? They can't even get their act together and try to hide their failure to pay rents on the premises they rented.

Something so trivial and yet too big to handle.They don't even know who is the actual landlord.

Read!

PETALING JAYA: In the latest twist to the PKR headquarters saga, the building located in Tropicana here will not go under the hammer tomorrow.

FMT learnt that on June 6, the building’s “real” landlord and beneficial owner Butiran Nyata Sdn Bhd obtained an ex-parte injunction against Ainb Tech Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Affin Bank from carrying out the auction until the inter-parte hearing is disposed of on June 27.

Previously, party leaders named Ainb-Tech as the building’s landlord, who they said failed to service the bank loan.

“PKR leaders, including treasurer William Leong, secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail and vice-president Tian Chua, got their facts wrong,” said a source.

“The lease agreement is between Butiran Nyata and PKR. The bank is taking action against Ainb-Tech and not Butiran Nyata,” he added.

Ainb Tech was the original owner of the building and sold it to Butiran Nyata in 2008.

The latest information confirmed an earlier FMT report where a party insider claimed that PKR leaders named a different landlord from the one on the lease agreement.

“They don’t seem to have a clue about the lease details of the premises they are occupying. I don’t think they know who they are renting the building from and even how much money they have to pay for rental,” he had said.

The party’s five-storey headquarters in Merchant Square was scheduled to be auctioned off at the auctioneer’s office in Brickfields tomorrow afternoon.

PKR entered into a five-year lease with the landlord beginning July 2008 for RM20,000 per month. However, the party only paid rental until November 2008 resulting in arrears of RM600,000. Read more.