Will Batu Sapi Be Yong's Waterloo ?

Hantu Laut

Yong Teck Lee's candidacy for the Batu Sapi by-election defy description.It's a big surprise for everyone that he would stake his political career on a whim.

Yong is no different from other politicians that the people might want to throw out.He has been in PBS and stayed while the going was good.In 1994 at the behest of former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim he with other PBS leaders deserted the party and formed their own parties to topple the duly elected PBS government.

Soon after, his party joined the BN where he was given position and later made the chief minister on Mahathir's rotation system.He is no different from other shameful politicians that betrayed the people's trust whenever it suits them.

This is the same man who wooed the illegals voters when he was in the BN and did absolutely nothing when he was the CM but wailed and hailed about the presence of illegal immigrants the moment he is out of the BN.

For the same reason what he did to Joseph Pairin he did again with Pak Lah when he couldn't get what he wanted.Sabahans are fools if they think he cares for them.

His stratergy is to start a spat with Pak Lah making Pak Lah looked bad in the eyes of Sabahans and him a hero, leave BN, and contest the 13th General Elections under his own flag and win a few seats.He would than keep his option open, to join whoever the victor is, BN or PR.

Sabahans, are simple folks, they keep believing in the same old politicians and keep recycling them when new and younger faces should be given the chance to change the politics of this country irrespective which party he or she represents.

In the fore front with Yong are other political has-beens, ex-Berjaya Deputy CM Mohd Noor Mansoor of the famous I borrowed my mother's RM5 million for political funds when he sold the Berjaya building and the X-Man, ex-USNO,ex-PBS,ex-UMNO Nahalan Damsal.

Batu Sapi has significant number of immigrants voters and Yong would close his eyes once again and canvass for votes from the very same people he wanted to kick out of the state.Are these the kind of politicians worthy of the people's trust? The hypocrisy of 'do as I say, not as what I do' and yet Sabahans are fooled to vote for them.

One of the most controversial deals during his tenure as chief minister was the exchange of blue chip MISC shares with junk NBT and Sugarbun shares of his closed friend, a lawyer turned businessman Joseph Ambrose Lee.

Today, MISC shares are still in blue chip category and paying dividends while NBT and Sugarbuns shares are worthless, a fate worse than a toilet paper.His excuse that the collapse was due to the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 is constructively untrue.MISC shares have recovered and are still trading on the KLSE while NBT and Sugarbun shares have been relegated to the rubbish bins.Both companies have been de-listed from the KLSE.

Yong denied he has anything to do with it and the collapse of the Saham Amanah Sabah which happened during his tenure.

It is common knowledge that he is a buddy of Ambrose Lee which used the relationship to transact business with the government, from exchange of shares to the award of FMU (Forest Management Unit).

Most of Ambrose Lee's businesses failed.Today, his assets are under receiving order (RO) but he is still a very rich man and free to travel overseas, courtesy of banks and financial institutions who care not about their fiduciary duties.After few years of RO the banks should know whether they can recover those assets or not and should adjudicate the process whereby a public examination of the debtor could be carried out to determine that there were no fraudulent transactions.

The share swaps incurred the state government agency to lose huge sums which shortfalls were supposedly guaranteed by Ambrose's company.Being insolvent the company was unable to make good the guarantee.Ambrose offered the state government another losing concern of his to take care of the shortfall.

Borneo Marble was offered with highly inflated price which was said to have been accepted by the idiot savants at Warisan but eventually rejected by Chief Minister Musa Aman who has better business sense than his boys at Warisan.

Sometimes, in making decision, dishonesty precedes logic. I have done and seen umpteen valuation of properties during my business days and most, more often than not, were overstated in value and valuers cannot be taken to court for their opinion.It's up to the interested parties to attache their own value.

Here, to confuse the audience, Mr Lee feigned not to know the reason of Musa's refusal. The state has the right to refuse not withstanding whatever the valuation is.

The Chinese voters in Sandakan may want to show they are kingmakers but I hope they vote sensibly.

It's time to kick out all these political donkeys and put new faces that can serve the people better.

Botak Yong Going For Batu Sapi

Hantu Laut

Yong Teck Lee just announced his candidacy for Batu Sapi. Yong is going for broke and will put up a good fight against the BN if it is a straight fight.

PKR, will nominate its candidate but is likely to withdraw the last minute to give Yong better chance of winning.

BN may still have the edge, depending on the candidate they choose.

More to come.

Is PAS Running Out Of Political Capital?

Hantu Laut

Small minds are much distressed by little things. Great minds see them all but are not upset by them. Francois de La Rochefoucauld
(French author & moralist)




By Rahmah Ghazali

FMT ALERT KUALA LUMPUR: PAS' protest against Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's wife Rosmah Mansor took place in several states, except Kuala Lumpur, where it was called off at the eleventh hour.

This morning, a statement by Federal Territory PAS Youth information chief Fadhil Osman had given the impression that the nationwide protest was scrapped.

However, the protest took place after Friday prayers in Seremban, Malacca and Terengganu. The protest here was supposed to be held outside the Kampung Baru mosque.

Fadhil had said that PAS would use "another approach" to express its dissatisfaction against the premier's wife.

According to him, a meeting would be arranged with the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) and a memorandum would be submitted to the King soon.

The self-proclaimed First Lady of Malaysia had come under fire for promoting the recently held Islamic Fashion Festival (IFF), which Muslim groups said was an insult to Islam and the Prophet Muhammad.

The event also drew flak from social-networking site Facebook users, where the photo of one of the models wearing a revealing outfit which depicted a reverse image of the Prophet's name in Arabic across the chest was widely circulated.

Also read:

PAS chides Rosmah over Islamic fashion fest

How Ministers Should Behave

Hantu Laut

Every time a blogger wrote something that made someone in authority unhappy the police or other enforcement agency are called upon to investigate.

Investigation would come with harassment and confiscation of the blogger's computer and in some cases charges brought against the blogger concerned.

The recent case of Datuk Ahiruddin Atan or popularly known as Rocky Bru, who fell foul of Minister of Information,Communication and Culture Datuk Seri Rais Yatim where the minister lodged reports to the MCMC and the Police over an article that insinuated nepotism in his Ministry in the giving away of contracts reeks of nothing less than abuse of power to intimidate bloggers.

There are other channels to deal with such matters as far as defamation or libel is concerned.Our constitutional rights should not be trampled upon merely because a minister has the power to do so.

Such action of the minister makes Malaysia look like a police state where one can't speak out against wrongdoings in government.The minister made no distinction between the law and the use of political power where our state of freedom came under siege because he is allowed to use arbitrary power to cow his victim.Such use of absolutist power by ministers should not be allowed unless it is of national security.

There are proper procedures to deal with cases of libel.

The minister should have first warned Rocky Bru by giving him notice to retract his article and apologise failing which he would institute legal action against him.If Rocky refused and the minister is certain he has done no wrong he can than proceed with legal action.

Ministers should not be afraid, unless they have guilty conscience, to go to court to clear their names.They should take a leaf from the book of former Sabah Chief Minister Harris Salleh.

Rocky being a seasoned journalist and blogger would know what in store for him if the story he published is not true.The danger of using third party source is always there.Responsibility is on the blogger to check his facts before exposing himself to the dangers of stories of libelous intent.

The Prime Minister should take note of this and that he would lose more of the pro-government bloggers to the other side as what had happened to former Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi when he took the blogosphere lightly, dismissing them as nuisance and bunch of crackpots.

It is true there are bloggers who write nonsense and could not care less about facts,fictions and factoids, simply writing to attract attention and traffic to their blogs.Such bloggers should be ignored and they would eventually self destruct. There are also many bloggers who write responsibly and contribute good ideas for the government to consider.

With the high penetration of Internet in this country do not underestimate the power and influence of the blogging fraternity.............as the proverbial 'pen mightier than the sword'...... they can sway opinion.