Was I Wrong About This Man?

Hantu Laut

"Dompok is drumming up supports for himself and his party and may leave the BN just before the next GE because he thinks the BN will lose the next general elections.He is keeping his option open.On the same wagon is LDP, walking the political tightrope." Read in full what I wrote here.

Read this than read the one below.

Kota Kinabalu: Upko President Tan Sri Bernard Dompok preferred not to be drawn into the controversy surrounding the remarks by Liberal Democratic Party Deputy President Datuk Chin Su Phin that LDP could no longer work with Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman.

"I wouldn't want to assess that (statement) É (it is) not proper for a (BN) component party to pass judgement on the action of another component party.

"That will not help the Barisan Nasional," the Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister told reporters after presenting 2,000 Bible Knowledge textbooks to 31 schools at a hotel, here, Saturday.

However, he noted there has to be space for some criticism.

"There has to be a leeway and there are times that we have to agree to disagree on some issues É this is our position," Dompok said.

Chin said in a statement following the second Sabah BN meeting that the LDP would, nevertheless, remain loyal to the BN national leadership and continue to work with Umno.

On the Sabah BN meeting, he said many issues from illegal immigrants to land and even the way relationships between BN component parties in the State and divisions should go about were discussed.

"I suggested that if you wanted to be better able to go further into these issues, the (Sabah) BN should set up committees to look into all the individual issues É it would be more meaningful.

"This is what the BN is going to do and I think that saved the BN a longer meeting," Dompok said.

Through these committees, the ruling coalition could examine the issues in-depth and come up with better solutions, he said, adding it would start at the State level before being extended to the respective divisions.

"The committees can go further into the issues and (then) present it in the BN meeting É I think that's the way it should be."

Meanwhile, the Bible Knowledge textbooks are part of efforts to encourage students to take up the subject in their Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination.

Dompok, who handed over the books to representatives from the schools, said the party hoped to help and spur students to take up the subject through such programmes.

"This is a continuation of what we had done. We want to see the problems of how teaching Bible Knowledge and enrolling for this subject can be minimised," he said, after the ceremony which was followed by a training programme for Bible Knowledge teachers.

Dompok said the number of students taking up Bible Knowledge as an elective subject in schools throughout Sabah, let alone nationwide, were too few and that Upko hoped to change this.

"A lot of Mission schools are offering this subject (but only) small numbers of students (are taking it). We're helping those in Sabah who are taking up the subject to be prepared," Dompok said.

He said among the reasons why the subject was unpopular was because the schools might have thought it could bring down the overall passing grades in the respective institutions.

"I don't think this should be a worry. The study of Bible Knowledge, it's actually killing two birds with one stone É you master Bible Knowledge and also master English," he said, pointing out the subject was taught in the language.

"My party is interested in hearing about education in Malaysia É we shouldn't shy from this subject."

Dompok understood there was a big challenge for schools to hire the right type of educators for this subject since it is not part of the daily lessons.

But this should not be a stumbling block with the Government's decision to allow 12 SPM subjects, including two elective subjects, as opposed to 10 previously.

According to him, Bible Knowledge promoted universal values and was also an ingredient for success.

He was happy to note that interest in the subject was growing, as evidenced by the attendance during the Bible Knowledge training programme at the hotel, and hoped future programmes would encourage the schools, students and parents to embrace the subject.

The 2,000 textbooks comprised 1,000 "The Gospel according to Luke" books with the rest being the "Acts of the Apostles".

There are about 200 Mission schools nationwide while there are 250 examination centres where students could sit for Bible Knowledge papers.

Out of the 250, 28 centres are located throughout Sabah.

'Serial Liar' Anwar Slammed.

Action against Jeffrey's 12: 'Serial liar' Anwar slammed

By FMT Staff

PETALING JAYA: Several PKR leaders, from both peninsula and Sabah, have slammed party supremo Anwar Ibrahim over his role in the one-year suspension recommended to 12 Sabah leaders aligned to vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan.

To make things worse, they say, Anwar continues to remain silent in public, and allow his loyalists to manipulate the situation by not revealing the truth.

“So many conversations and incidents that took place about a year ago involving the 12 and the Sabah situation are now being given a new spin by Anwar's people. This is not good for the party,” the leaders said.

Several senior party leaders were also disappointed with Anwar for “pretending” that he was not fully aware of the peace deal that was struck on Dec 13 last year, which included not going on a witch-hunt against Jeffrey's boys.

“However behind the scenes, we know that Anwar is fully aware of what's being done to curtail the influence of the Sabah 12, and by extention, the influence of Jeffrey.

“We can only come to a conclusion that Anwar is lying. He has done this before. First it was the Sept 16 takeover, and then the alleged RM2 million offer for PKR reps to defect and now this Sabah 12 case. These just make him seem like a serial liar,” one senior leader told FMT.

The party leaders opted to remain anonymous fearing repercussion from the party, especially with the party polls to come in November.

The unfair game

Party leaders also expressed disappointment with last-minute rescheduling of the party's powerful political bureau meeting from 8pm to 2.30pm last Wednesday, the same day when the party's disciplinary committee was hearing the case against the 12 in Penampang, Sabah.

At the political bureau meeting held at the party headquarters here, it was decided that the final decision on the 12 would be made by the supreme council this Sunday. This decision was made even before the disciplinary committee had completed its hearing (which ended at 4pm on Wednesday).

The change in time also prevented Jeffrey from presenting the case for the 12 as his flight ticket was booked for the 8pm meeting.

“This is a clear sign of Anwar's boys putting up a show to ensure things are done according to the party constitution but in reality, a decision has been made to suspend the 12,” said the party leaders.

The fear among these leaders now is that the supreme council, which is controlled by Anwar, would let him take a final decision on the suspension.

“Ultimately, Anwar might once again want to have a deal with Jeffery over the future of the 12 but we are confident that any such deals will only favour Azmin and his loyalists in Sabah, not the Jeffrey group,” they added.

Anwar knew all

FMT learnt that at the political bureau meeting, party leaders such as Tian Chua, Chua Jui Meng and Fuziah Salleh had urged Anwar to stick to the peace deal and not to take action against the 12.

However, their arguments were shot down by vice-president Azmin Ali and Anwar himself, by stating that the party had agreed to the peace deal last December without knowing that the 12 had applied to form a new breakaway party.

Anwar and Azmin had argued that if they had known the 12 had gone as far as filing an application to set up a new party, they would not have agreed to the peace deal.

“This is a total lie. Anwar was fully aware of every detail of the peace deal, including the fact that these 12 would be withdrawing their application to form a new party under the peace deal.

“Chua (Jui Meng) was among those who were present when the peace deal was being ironed out at the Eastin Hotel in Petaling Jaya. He knows the truth, and so does a handful of other senior leaders. They all know that Anwar is lying,” said a party leader.

These leaders were also miffed by the reason given by Azmin to take action against the 12 when he had labelled the Sabah rebels as being without “integrity and principles” at the political bureau meeting.

“This is really funny. He calling these 12 as leaders without integrity and principles. He should ask that to himself and Anwar first,” added the party leader.

The grand plan

The 12 leaders have been subjected to disciplinary proceedings due to their role in setting up Parti Cinta Sabah last year.

The idea of the new party was mooted by some Sabah PKR leaders following a massive fallout between Jeffrey and fellow vice-president Azmin, which resulted in Jeffrey being replaced as the state chief.

However, under a peace plan inked on Dec 13 here, Jeffrey was made responsible for both Sabah and Sarawak and another person was put in charge of the state. Azmin was totally removed from the state line-up.

The peace deal also ensured that there will be no witchhunt against those who had allegedly plotted against the party at that time by aligning themselves with Jeffrey.

The sacking, or even suspension, of the 12 would result in them playing no part in the coming party polls. Their backers have seen this development as an elaborate plan hatched by Azmin and his Sabah loyalists to cut off rivals from the party.

Jeffrey yesterday warned Anwar to expect a backlash if the peace plan was torn up.

Also read:

PKR crisis deepens, Jeffrey advises Anwar to scrap visit

Kuala Lumpur A Dismal 48th And The Poorest City.

Hantu Laut

I would think, at least, in the top 20, what a disappointment, to be ranked 48th out of 65 global cities and worst, the poorest city by GDP.

Even Jakarta and the horrible Lagos are ahead of KL in term of GDP ???

Betul kah ini survey?

Well, Mr Prime Minister Najib, put on your thinking cap.

We are not only the poorest capital city but the poorest global city.You see I have always say we need minimum wage and here is a survey that confirmed my fear that KL is a dysfunctional city and our GDP sucks.

Read the article here and the ranking here.

Maybe, I should ask my friend Valentine Willie to set up more art galleries and bring more Cats, Dogs and Broadway to sophisticate the city dwellers.

Did I hear someone said "I (not me, the speaker) came from a cultured background" the other night?

Sarawak Chieftain's US$1 Dollar Mansion

Written by The Sarawak Report

Thursday, 26 August 2010

We've heard of falling housing markets, but this seems extreme The Sarawak Report, (http://sarawakreport.org/) an NGO based in the east Malaysian state, has uncovered exhaustive evidence that the chief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud, has looted Sarawak of hundreds of millions of US dollars and hidden the wealth in Canada, the UK, Australia and the United States. It now has found indications that Taib may have received a US$7 million home from a timber company which depended on Taib for a license to harvest timber. Asia Sentinel is pleased to print the latest of the Sarawak Report's examinations of the Taib family's wealth. Abdul Taib Mahmud, the chief minister of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, appears to have acquired a Seattle, Washington, mansion valued at nearly US$7 million from one of his state's biggest timber barons for just US$1, records in the United States say, according to the NGO, Sarawak Report. Taib has controlled the issuance of timber licenses in Sarawak for the past 30 years. The Seattle property, which covers 26,000 square feet in one of the most prestigious areas of the northwestern US city, was passed to a company owned by Taib in 1991 by a California corporation called CSY Investments, set up in 1988. CSY acquired the property in 1991 and then registered it under subsidiary company called WA Boylston Inc. CSY are the initials of Chee S Yaw, who signs himself as the company's president in documents publicly available at the King County Land Registry. Yaw is one of the younger sons of Yaw Teck Seng, founder of the massive logging conglomerate Samling Global. Yaw Teck Seng is regularly featured in Forbes Asia's Rich List of Malaysia's top 40 richest individuals, as does his eldest son, Yaw Chee Ming, establishing them one of the richest families in Asia. Details of a very nice property Described as a "Top Grade Mansion" in 'very good' condition by the King County Department of Assessments, the property was valued at more than US$6.8 million in 2008. It has 6 bedrooms and 5 main bathrooms and an enormous living space of 9,020 square feet, plus a basement of 2,120 square feet. The house is surrounded by a large open porch and there is a big basement garage for the car-loving Taib family, plus a second, attached garage. The mansion is surrounded by gardens kept in manicured condition on grounds totaling 26,172 square feet. Mysterious acquisition The property, registered under the company W A Boylston Inc (California), has been in the possession of the Taib family since the early to mid-1990s. Family portraits of the chief minister, his deceased wife and four sons and daughters as small children adorn the elaborate rooms. They have all spent time in the mansion, which is not occupied by anyone else. The property forms part of the family's Sakti International Corporation, incorporated in California and managed by Hisham (Sean) Murray, Taib's son-in-law, out of his offices at 333 Preston Street, Ontario, Canada. However, there is confusion in the Seattle public records as to how the property passed to the Taibs. Sarawak Report has been unable to obtain any clear record of the transfer from one owner to another or, importantly, the register of any payment that would normally be eligible for taxation. We have requested a statement from the Taibs to explain the situation. 'Unethical' Earlier this week Samling made international headlines when the Norwegian Government Pension Fund withdrew all investments after condemning the company as 'unethical', owing to illegal logging and environmental devastation in Sarawak. Taib's control over the issuance of Sarawak's timber licenses leaves clear questions over his incentives for favoring such a company. It is no secret that Samling has based its business success on achieving numerous logging concessions in Sarawak. Over the period of the chief minister's rule, companies operating under his licenses have razed virtually all Sarawak's virgin forest, much of it taken without compensation from the indigenous peoples who had been granted these territories under Native Customary Land Rights. Samling is one of the main companies involved in this destruction and it has used its base in Sarawak to launch similar logging operations in the Congo, Amazon, Russia and elsewhere, many of which have been heavily criticized by concerned NGOs across the world. The US $1 Sale How and why did the chief minister come by a mansion formerly owned by Samling? The only official record available of a transfer of the property in the King County Land Registry from CSY is the granting of a so-called Quit Claim Deed for just US$1. The transaction on 19th September 1991 placed the property into the subsidiary company W A Boylston Inc, incorporated a few days earlier on September 5th by CSY at its registered address, 2260 Douglas Boulevard, Roseville, California, which was the headquarters of CSY. CSY and Boylston then immediately filed a joint letter to the King County Real Estate and Excise Tax Department declaring 'under penalty of perjury' that W A Boylston was a wholly-owned subsidiary of CSY Investments, thereby making the Quit Claim transaction exempt from excise tax. However, our investigations have shown that there is no subsequent record in the Land Registry of the later transfer of ownership of W A Boylston from CSY (Samling) to the Taibs. According to rules published by King County such a transfer would normally require the payment of thousands of dollars of excise tax. Proof of Taib ownership Despite the lack of open records, Sarawak Report is able to confirm that there is definitive proof that the Taibs did take over the property from Samling's CSY. In fact they took up residence as the effective owners not long after the property was placed in the hands of the CSY subsidiary W. A. Boylston. Rahman Taib had an insurance assessment drawn up in 1996 (see above). Furthermore, a significant alteration was made to the company's official address and official representative in 2000. In that year W A Boylston's annual Statement by a Domestic Stock Corporation to the State of California noted a change of address to that of the headquarters of Sakti International (the property company, which Sarawak Report has recently proved to be majority owned by the chief minister). Likewise, the company representative was altered from a CSY official to Rahman Taib, the Chief Minister's younger son. How much did it cost? Taib's salary as chief minister of the state of Sarawak is about RM50,000 (US$15,900) per month. If he had bought the Seattle home, the cost would have been about US$3 million at the time to purchase it from Samling. If he acquired it for US$1, there could well be tax implications for Samling and Taib in the states of California and Washington as well as the federal government. There is a second Seattle Mansion! If the Boylston mansion was indeed a 'gift' from Samling to the Chief Minister, then one cannot expect such a thing to be done by halves. Indeed, a second, equally gracious and prestigious mansion has also found its way from the Yaws to the Taibs in Seattle, by what would appear to be exactly the same route. W. A. Everett Inc 2222 Everett Avenue East, worth $2,854,000 at its peak value in 2008, was also originally purchased by the Yaws. It was then registered under another California corporation, W A Everett Inc, set up on the same day as W A Boylston (5th September 1991). W. A. Everett Inc is likewise listed as a subsidiary of CSY in the King County Land Registry. This mansion also ended up in the hands of the Taibs. The property is smaller, with four bedrooms and bathrooms, but has famously sought after views over the City. Sarawak Report understands that the Taibs have mainly rented it out over the past two decades, but as with Boylston, the only information about a transfer of ownership of the company from Samling to the Taibs comes with an identical change of address and officers in 2000, from the CSY address in Roseville to Rahman Taib, at Sakti International's Headquarters in San Francisco. This leaves many questions about how the Taibs have acquired their wealth and property. Asia Sentinel