MACC told: Probe Shafie's projects

MACC told: Probe Shafie's projects Daily Express:Published on: Sunday, November 13, 2011 Kota Kinabalu: The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has been urged to investigate alleged irregularities in the rural development projects in Sabah awarded through the Federal Ministry of Rural and Regional Development. DAP Member of Parliament Dr Hiew King Cheu claimed the irregularities involved 49 projects, which were part of the 209 rural development projects awarded by the Ministry for implementation between the period of 2011 and 2012. The lowest contract sum was RM7.7 million and the highest sum was RM41.7 million. Speaking to reporters, Saturday, Hiew said a bulk of these contracts involved rural water and power supply projects covering various parts of Sabah, from Pulau Banggi to Sipitang. Hiew claimed that all the 49 rural development projects totaling RM1.3 billion were 1,500 per cent or 15 times higher than the normal contract price. "It is ridiculously overpriced," he exclaimed. Only 129 of the 209 rural development projects awarded had been announced. On top of that, most of these projects, which were either invited tenders, negotiated tenders, or directly awarded, which he claimed were not properly done through the Tender Board. "Most of the companies awarded these projects are RM2 companies and some of the contractors involved are found to be directly linked to certain senior BN/Umno politicians from Sabah," he alleged. Hiew said a careful study of the detailed tender documents provided by an insider indicated that the lowest tender did not get the job, but someone with a higher tender price of almost 1,500 per cent from the lowest bidder gets the job. For example, he said the "Rural Power Supply Project for the Connection of Power Grid No.1" (for 2011 - 2012) was awarded with a price of RM41,736,809.77 and the lowest tender price was only RM7,775,000.00, with a difference of RM33,961,809.77. While the "Hybrid Solar Power System" for the Semporna islands was awarded at a tender price of RM95,282,322 which many deemed too high a price. "With that amount of money, I can always get someone to build a power station," he said. Similar project was awarded to another company for a whopping sum of RM81,475,281.42 to supply power to Pulau Banggi, off Kudat. Another project involved the installation of a 4km long undersea power cable to generate power supply for Pulau Gaya at the cost of RM42 million. "A random survey conducted with several qualified local contractors revealed that this can be done at just RM5 million," he said. He said what the Pulau Gaya folks urgently needed was clean water supply, and not power supply, citing that there's already a "power station" on the island. He said it may cost another RM100 million if the water supply project is to be implemented by the Ministry after this. To substantiate his claims, Hiew also distributed copies of the detailed tender documents containing the list of projects and names of contractors to the reporters. He said the documents were earlier sent to the DAP Member of Parliament for Beruas, Ngeh Koo Han, who later extended some copies to him since they also involved projects implemented in Sabah. Hiew also noted that when queried by Ngeh during the Budget debate session at the Committee Stage in the Parliament last week, the Minister concerned Datuk Shafie Apdal, refused to answer him. Describing what transpired as blatant corrupt practice by those in power, Hiew urged the MACC to immediately swing into action to conduct a thorough investigation into the matter. "We call on the MACC to immediately step in to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter as we cannot tolerate the manner the taxpayers' money being misused. We strongly believe there is a strong element of corrupt practice and abuse of power," he said. Also at the press conference were Sabah DAP deputy chairman Frederick Fung, vice chairman Edward Mujie, Medical Bureau Chief Dr Felix Chong and Publicity Chief Chan Fong Hing.

Living A Life With No Regrets

Hantu Laut

The man that I have always admired.No world leaders of this century can match this man's love for his country and sheer determination to build up a tiny island nation into one of the most modern and prosperous nations in the world.

The article below is a tribute from his daughter.

Living a life with no regrets - Lee Wei Ling

When all is said and done, my father has led a meaningful and purposeful life

About 20 years ago, when I was still of marriageable age, my father Lee Kuan Yew had a serious conversation with me one day. He told me that he and my mother would benefit if I remained single and took care of them in their old age. But I would be lonely if I remained unmarried.

I replied: 'Better lonely than be trapped in a loveless marriage.'

I have never regretted my decision.

Twenty years later, I am still single. I still live with my father in my family home. But my priorities in life have changed somewhat.

Instead of frequent trips overseas by myself, to attend medical conferences or to go on hikes, I only travel with my father nowadays.

Like my mother did when she was alive, I accompany him so that I can keep an eye on him and also keep him company. After my mother became too ill to travel, he missed having a family member with whom he could speak frankly after a long tiring day of meetings.

At the age of 88, and recently widowed, he is less vigorous now than he was before May 2008 when my mother suffered a stroke. Since then I have watched him getting more frail as he watched my mother suffer. After my mother passed away, his health deteriorated further before recovering about three months ago.

He is aware that he can no longer function at the pace he could just four years ago. But he still insists on travelling to all corners of the Earth if he thinks his trips might benefit Singapore.

We are at present on a 16-day trip around the world. The first stop was Istanbul for the JPMorgan International Advisory Council meeting. We then spent two days in the countryside near Paris to relax. Then it was on to Washington DC, where, in addition to meetings at the White House, he received the Ford's Theatre Lincoln Medal.

As I am writing this on Thursday, we are in New York City where he has a dinner and a dialogue session with the Capital Group tonight, and Government of Singapore Investment Corporation meetings tomorrow. After that, we will spend the weekend at former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger's country home in Connecticut. Influential Americans will be driving or flying in to meet my father over dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday.

Even for a healthy and fit man of 88, the above would be a formidable programme. For a recently widowed man who is still adjusting to the loss of his wife, and whose level of energy has been lowered, it is even more challenging.

But my father believes that we must carry on with life despite whatever personal setbacks we might suffer. If he can do something that might benefit Singapore, he will do so no matter what his age or the state of his health. For my part, I keep him company when he is not preoccupied with work, and I make sure he has enough rest.

Though I encourage him to exercise, I also dissuade him from over exerting himself. I remind him how he felt in May last year when, after returning from Tokyo, he delivered the eulogy at Dr Goh Keng Swee's funeral the next day.

He had exercised too much in the two days preceding the funeral, against my advice. So naturally, he felt tired, and certainly looked tired on stage, as he delivered his tribute to an old and treasured comrade-in-arms. A few of my friends were worried by how he looked and messaged me to ask if my father was OK. Now when I advise him not to push himself too hard, he listens.

The irony is I did not take my own advice at one time and it was he who stopped me from over-exercising. Once, in 2001, while I was recovering from a fracture of my femur, he limited my swimming. He went as far as to ask a security officer to time how long I swam. If I exceeded the time my physician had prescribed, even if it was just by a minute, he would give me a ticking off that evening.

Now the situation is reversed. But rather than finding it humorous, I feel sad about it.

Whether or not I am in the pink of health is of no consequence. I have no dependants, and Singapore will not suffer if I am gone. Perhaps my patients may miss me, but my fellow doctors at the National Neuroscience Institute can take over their care. But no one can fill my father's role for Singapore.

We have an extremely competent Cabinet headed by an exceptionally intelligent and able prime minister who also happens to be my brother. But the life experience that my father has accumulated enables him to analyse and offer solutions to Singapore's problems that no one else can.

But I am getting maudlin. Both my father and I have had our fair share of luck, and fate has not been unfair to us. My father found a lifelong partner who was his best friend and his wife. Together with a small group of like-minded comrades, he created a Singapore that by any standards would be considered a miracle. He has led a rich, meaningful and purposeful life.

Growing old and dying occurs to all mortals, even those who once seemed like titanium. When all is said and done, my father - and I too, despite my bouts of ill health - have lived lives that we can look back on with no regrets. As he faces whatever remains of his life, my father's attitude can be summed up by these lines in Robert Frost's poem Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening:

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

This article appeared in the Sunday Times on 23 Oct 2011.

Insulting The Police, I Can Only Blame Anwar And Pakatan Leaders

Hantu Laut

Now Malaysians "sudah naik kepala" can threaten policeman with bodily harm or mock at them when you are caught breaking the law.

Even if he is auxiliary policeman he is the long arm of the law and have the same rights as regular policeman.In most jurisdictions they are empowered to make arrests for crimes that occur in their presence.

Watch the two videos and judge for yourself how rude and insulting Malaysians have become toward our police since Anwar Ibrahim and leaders of Pakatan Rakyat keep demonising the police force and other enforcement agencies of the government.

See how patient our policemen were. If they had been in America or even Britain, they would have been handcuffed, bundled into the police car and dragged to the police station and charge for hampering the police from discharging their duties.

If I were a policeman, I would do exactly that, arrest the girl and take her to the police station and charge her.

For that Hindraf arsehole (sorry if it sounds racist), he is an arsehole of the highest order, the policemen should have arrested him, beat him up if they had to, because he is violent and that's the only way to restrain him, handcuffed him, take him to the police station and charge him for insulting a police officer and attempted assault on a police officer.

The policeman should not have argued with the arsehole, they should just have arrested him.

Now you see why the police have to beat up this kind of thug.

From The Gutter Press: The Trash Talker

Toxic Advice From A Dying Dinosaur aka DrMould decide what the majority wanted.

Dinosaurs, to my great regret as a child, have been extinct for 65 million years. Clearly a lot of us wish they were still around which would explain the popularity of movies like Jurassic Park and Ice Age. Unfortunately the dinosaurs that we do still have around are neither cute nor funny.

I am speaking of the wrinkled old bag of leftovers that is former premier Mahathir Mohammed, who at 85, realizing perhaps that his time is almost up, appears to be engaged in an attempt to spread as much hatred around in as short a time as possible. And so this poisonous geriatric, this slithering serpent in verdant Malaysian Eden, still drags himself around the country spreading discord and spitting venom.

Strange thing for a dictator to say

He appears to have four big objectives, one to spread racial hatred and keep Malaysians divided, the second to decide who will lead the country, the third to ensure that his three mediocre sons somehow continue to prosper without him and lastly that Anwar Ibrahim is finally and totally destroyed. In all of his objectives he will fail.

He then proceeded to systematically destroy the country’s institutions and to reduce them to the miserable state that they are in today, enrich his cronies like Daim Zainuddin, Tajuddin Ramli, Francis Yeoh, Ananda Krishnan and Vincent Tan among others, and allow corruption to become the rampant, all-consuming force that it is in Malaysia today.

One of the problems with Mahathir was that it didn’t matter to him whether you were corrupt or not, it only mattered whether you supported him or not.

Mathematical impossibility

The rights of the individual are sacrosanct and cannot be tampered with by vicious old dictators. What are majorities but collections of individuals. We could present Mahathir with a copy of John Stuart Mills but it would be wasted on so self-serving and hypocritical an individual. The only individual’s rights that Mahathir would be concerned with is his own.

Mahathir then suggested, as he often does, that Malays are in danger of becoming a minority in Malaysia. This is, of course, a mathematical impossibility. But then Mahathir is not a mathematician, he is a demagogue, and they are not dealers in neither facts nor figures.

By Mahathir’s reasoning the Malays, who form 60% of the Malaysian population, will be divided into three groups. In the first place there are only two groups, BN supporters and Pakatan supporters. There is also the fact that BN supporters are decreasing on a daily basis.

Therefore Mahathir’s argument that the Malays, who form 60% of Malaysians, have the highest birthrates and the lowest potential to migrate; will become a minority; is simply preposterous.

That's right, you should be ashamed of yourself

Mahathir also preached that Malaysians should feel shame if they do not give 100% to any job that is handed to them. Mahathir should take this advice himself, unless he feels it too bitter a pill to swallow.Read more trash.