Anwar In Desperate Mode.

Hantu Laut

Anwar's unprecedented action to bring in three foreign lawyers to brief parlimentarians on the Scorpene submarine issue shows his total disregard for the inviolability of parliament and insult to the intelligence of our parlimentarians, the people and the nation.

One can only interpret it as an act of desperation. 

The presence of these three lawyers in parliament is no doghouse matter but an insult to the whole nation. The fishing expedition of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat and its lackey Suaram's on the Scorpene submarine deal to try connect Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak with the grisly murder of Altantuya, which they have every now and then failed to provide any substantive evidence that connects Najib with complicity to murder or receiving any money from the Scorpene deal.

Has the matter become ignotum per ignotious that those Pakatan MPs with legal background are too stupid to explain the findings of the investigation in Parliament.

Who pays for the three lawyers? 

As a businessman who had the experience of engaging foreign lawyers before, I can safely say they are not cheap and even more so if they have to go on a fishing expedition and a long and winding investigative journey. Unless, they are half-past-six lawyers, the legal fees would run into million of ringgits.

Where did Suaram, who always claimed poverty, get so much money to pay these lawyers, or is Anwar paying them out of his own pocket, or are these Frogs doing it pro-bono, out of their love for Malaysia?

Someone must have a huge slush fund stacked somewhere to finance the opposition's political campaign against the government that have been going strong since March 2008. 

Going by Anwar's American style political campaigning, travelling in absolute luxury in personal coach and plane, one can imagine the magnitude of the cost of his politicial campaigning. 

The Young Journalists Club had taken upon themselves to denounce this wicked act of Anwar by lodging a police report against him.

Story here.

Posted in Kathmandu, Nepal

Are Pilgrims To Mecca At Risk From A New Virus?

By Aditya Bhattacharji, Daniil Davydoff, and Scott Rosenstein

Attacks on U.S. interests in the Middle East are not the only security threats to have emerged from the region in recent weeks. In epidemiological circles, concern has been mounting over the discovery of a novel coronavirus in Saudi Arabia, just as Muslims from all over the world begin the annual hajj pilgrimage to Mecca at the end of October.

In the coming weeks, much-needed surveillance and scientific analysis will likely yield important details regarding this virus's threat to human health. But healthcare system shortfalls in some of the countries that dispatch the most pilgrims present obstacles to disease monitoring. And regardless of the microbe's eventual health, economic, and political impact, these deficits are a vivid reminder of institutional challenges to global disease prevention and control.

Little is known about the novel pathogen, but it does belong to the same family as the virus behind the 2003 SARS outbreak, a previously unknown microbe that killed nearly 800 people and sickened more than 8,000. SARS revealed the political and economic  risks attendant to emerging infectious diseases. But attention to these dangers has increased considerably since SARS, and this novel virus has thus far been confirmed in only two patients, one of whom is under intensive care at a hospital in London.

Whether it's a heretofore unknown virus, polio, or a host of other pathogens, the upcoming Hajj presents significant public health risks. The annual event attracts millions of pilgrims every year and is therefore an "ideal environment for spreading infectious diseases," according to the U.S. CDC. Although the Saudi government has mandated several vaccinations and dedicated considerable resources to lower infectious disease risks, its personnel cannot track pilgrims once they have left the country. And while the WHO has already issued basic case definitions for identifying infected patients, healthcare system deficiencies abroad could allow potential cases to slip through the cracks and go underreported.

Home to roughly 200 million Muslims, Indonesia is sending the world's largest contingent of hajj pilgrims (approximately 200,000). At home, the vast majority relies upon a decentralized healthcare system that suffers from poor information sharing and one of the most inadequately staffed healthcare workforces of any ASEAN nation. Those with means increasingly seek medical treatment abroad. The trend has become pronounced enough for Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to implore the public, in August 2012, to utilize domestic medical facilities, despite having availed of foreign medical care himself. Indonesia is ill-equipped to track diseases over a territory that spans 17,500 islands even under normal circumstances. There's been speculation that an individual returning home from the Hajj was responsible for thereintroduction of polio into Indonesia in 2004 (via a strain of the disease traceable back to northern Nigeria).Read more.

Eating your way around KL’s street food scene

By Chris Wotton

STREET food across Southeast Asia is well renowned for its quality, variety and low cost – and Malaysia is no exception to the rule. In the capital city of Kuala Lumpur, tasty street food abounds and eating on the street guarantees experiences – and flavours – you will struggle to get in the best of the more expensive indoor restaurants. There might be no air con, but the sights, sounds and smells and the hustle and bustle of the city’s streets more than compensate.

A variety of cuisines and tastes are catered for at the city’s vast number of makeshift roadside eateries. From satay chicken to deep fried bananas, expect top quality examples of the different dishes that make up Malaysia’s vast food culture. Year round you are spoilt for choice in terms of the food you can be chowing down in the comfort of local Malaysians. By following their lead and eating at stalls which have a crowd of hungry customers, you can be sure not only of better standards of cleanliness (if the locals are eating there, chances are they are not getting sick) but also top notch nosh!

There is an excellent selection of Malaysian street food in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown area on Jalan Petalling, as well as in the Bukit Bintang area – a favourite for backpackers in particular – and on the streets around the city’s many shopping malls and nearby the infamous Petronas Towers. Drop by around festivals like Ramadan for reams of extra choice – at dusk during the Muslim fasting period, when the day’s period of abstinence comes to an end, the streets are packed with throngs of stalls that are not there normally, each with even more choice of delicious snacks to tuck into.

Freshly grilled satay. Pic: Chris Wotton.

Satay is a must eat on the Malaysian street food circuit. This unbeatable favourite, popular around the world and hailing from the Indonesian island of Java but adopted by the Malaysians and made their own, consists of skewers of chicken, pork or beef marinated in a rich curry based paste with coconut milk, then grilled and served with an equally rich peanut sauce on the side for dipping, again with lashings and lashings and coconut milk. The grill is often as simple as a metal tray on the street with a pot of smoking embers beneath – sometimes, though, simplicity is best.

Read more.

Bloody Shameless Sabah Politicians !

Hantu Laut

There are a dime a dozen of this type of Sabah politicians who couldn't care less what people think of their shameless behaviour....... dishonest, lack of integrity, no self-respect and no sense of shame.

Today, I read with great consternation a statement that appeared in the Daily Express made by former Sabah Finance Minister Mohd Noor Mansor saying he regretted joining Harris Salleh, whom he now accused of not having compassion at the time to those who died in the tragic plane crash.

Mansor said "If I had only known then, I would not have joined Berjaya..... the signing of the oil agreement with Petronas  seemed to show no respect to the passing of State leaders in the air-crash.

This man is a pathetic clown and need to see a shrink!

Wasn't he the one who sold the Berjaya building?

Berjaya and Harris ruled the state for almost nine years and he was Finance Minister. What happened then, did he lock up his conscience in the drawer for nine solid years and show no remorse then that he had actually and joyfully participated in such unconscionable act and only found his conscience almost three decades later and blamed Harris for water under the bridge.

Appallingly shameless!

Obviously, shame is not in his vocabulary.