Tag: Members of Parliament

Malaysia to Face Lawsuit if TPPA is Signed

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KUALA LUMPUR, 7 Nov: The Malaysian Government will face the risk of lawsuits from giant firms if they insist on implementing the investment dispute settlement (ISDS) by signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai, Nurul Izzah, said that although many believe that the ISDS is important because it has been adopted in many countries, but the mechanism would only benefit foreign investors and cause local investors to fall into the second class.

She said that the government has been urged to create a special fund in case Malaysia is sued by giant companies at a high cost, in addition to advising them to accept the TPPA post-signing risk.

“This is a serious problem if the agreement is signed without knowing the burden to be shouldered by the country and it would affect future generations as well as the Malaysian economy.

“Leaders of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) have met with ISDS experts and we think that we cannot accept it without carefully looking at the black and white of every chapter of the TPPA to be signed by Malaysia,” she said in a press conference at Parliament today.

She said that PR has never rejected any trade dealings; however the implementation of the law may entrap many parties and should not be adopted.

She said that the TPPA should be stopped, especially since the United States have been found to be spying on Malaysia by using their embassy and high commission in Kuala Lumpur.

“We must stop this, especially after finding out what is being done by the US to Malaysia, and the government should seek clarification.

“Malaysia should emulate the European Union and stop US banking access after knowing that they were conducting surveillance on the country,” she said.

Residents Representative Committee has Political Aims and to Seize Power from Local Authorities

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KUALA LUMPUR, 7 Nov: The Residents Representative Committee (JPP) which was established by the federal government to support community development programmes is deemed to have political aims and attempts a coup from the state government and local authorities.

Member of Parliament for Bayan Baru, Sim Tze Tzin, said that the function of the JPP which is proposed by the central government is similar to the duties of council members and may be in violation of the Constitution.

He said that the JPP which is concentrated in urban areas will target local authorities in Pakatan Rakyat (PR) state and may be aimed at competing with council members appointed by the state government.

“The establishment of the JPP was decided after Barisan Nasional (BN) failed to win the majority vote from the population of urban areas during the 13th General Election.

“We suspect that the federal government wants to centralise power by establishing the JPP as ‘Appointed Council Members of the Federal Government’ which is clearly in contradiction with the Constitution because local authorities are under the jurisdiction of the state government.

“I urge for the local government and state government to take not on this initiative,” he said in a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

He said that it would be better is the government allows for the implementation of local government elections to be held to give a larger mandate to the administration of local authorities.

He said that the election will be guaranteed to make existing council members more effective in administration and municipality.

“The establishment of the JPP is just a waste of time and provisions because it would limit the power of local authorities, which are actually under the jurisdiction of the state government. The federal government should take heed that the power of local authorities lies under the state government and avoid from breach of power,” he said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced a budget allocation of RM63 million to set up 24 JPP zones in every local authority on 2 October.

The JPP will act as a single entity consisting of representatives of the local community to support community development programmes, while addressing urban issues in local authority areas, and the latest initiative is the result of feedback indicating that most of the urban population do not clearly understand government funded programmes during the GE-13.

Cost of Fuel and Maintenance of 7 Executive Jets Reach RM182 million a Year

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KUALA LUMPUR, 7 Nov: The Central Government is allegedly continuing to be wasteful when spending RM182 million a year on the cost of fuel and maintenance of seven executive planes (VVIP) in all official government business.

Member of Parliament for Seremban, Anthony Loke, said that the cost is allocated for 372 international and domestic flights to 339 different destinations for the use of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Deputy Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, in 2012.

He said that the average for each flight is estimated to reach RM489,000 a day if the amount is divided with the period of one year.

“Why is it that everytime Najib and Muhyiddin has affairs abroad, they use executive jets that cost so high compared to first class commercial air-crafts which are more economical.

“Government leaders ask the people to be prudent in spending when they themselves fail to set a good example in cutting costs,” he said in a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

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Anthony also does not rule out the possibility that the planes are used by Barisan Nasional (BN) for the previous election campaign.

It is understood that the executive planes include a Boeing Business Jet (BBJ), Global Express (1), Falcon (1), Blackhawk (1), Agusta (2) and Fokker F28 (1) which has been retired and presented to the Royal Malaysian Airforce Museum (RMAF).

Earlier, Anthony revealed Najib and Muhyiddin’s spendthrift attitude when the electricity bills for the Seri Perdana Complex reached over RM2.2 million, while RM300,000 was spent on water in 2012.

For the Sri Satria Complex, RM865,000 was spent on electricity bills while water bills amounted to RM99,264.

More ‘Special Branch’ Members in Najib’s Time Compared to the Era of Emergency

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KUALA LUMPUR, 6 Nov: The number of members in the Special Branch (SB) of the Police is more in Najib’s time compared to the Emergency in the 1950s, said Member of Parliament for Bukit Mertajam, Steven Sim.

Steven revealed that in 1954, when a state of emergency was declared, there were only 459 members of the SB, about two percent from the entire police force.

“But in 2012, under the administration of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, there are 8,200 SB members compared to only 5,000 members in 2005 under Tun Abdullah Badawi.

“Does this mean that Malaysia, under Najib, is worse than the era of emergency?” asked Steven during the House of Representative’s session when debating on the Budget 2014.

Steven said that last year, SB completed 380,000 intelligence reports, equivalent to 1,000 reports per day, while the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) only successfully completed 60,000 cases in the same year.

“The number of cases solved by the CID was only 15 percent of the crimes reported.

“Wouldn’t it be better if the SB’s excellence in intelligence, including political intelligence, is used to fight crime,” said Steven.

US Spying on Malaysia, Immediately Stop TPPA Negotiations

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KUALA LUMPUR, 6 Nov: The Federal Government has been urged to halt talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) with the United States and Australia following the surveillance activities conducted on Malaysia.

Member of Parliament for Klang, Charles Santiago, said that the action was necessary to show Malaysia’s dissatisfaction on surveillance as a violation of human rights of the citizens of this country.

“Instead, the government merely sent a protest note which was embarrassing and shows that the Malaysian government is weak.

“Even Najib merely responded that he will wait for response from the US about what is happening in Malaysia,” said Charles.

He said this in a press conference here at the Parliament lobby, which was also participated by the Member of Parliament for Bayan Baru, Sim Tze Tzin.

Last week, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a memo of protest after news of spying by the two countries on Malaysia was exposed by the media.

Tze Tzin, in a statement, urged for Najib and the Foreign Affairs Minister, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, to urge the American and Australian embassies to explain the real situation to the Federal Government.

“We hope that the government will seek an explanation from both the embassies this week and that they will give us an answer in Parliament next week.

“This matter cannot be regarded as petty because it involves national sovereignty,” said Tze Tzin.

The two parliamentarians urged Najib, ad the Prime Minister, to rise up and protest strongly on the spying done.

Healthcare Costs to Increase due to the GST

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KUALA LUMPUR, 6 Nov: The cost of healthcare will increase with the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) despite the Minister of Health issuing a statement that says otherwise.

Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara, Tony Pua, said that the GST will still have an impact on consumers when the hospitals have to pay the GST for all their services and products purchased from suppliers.

“Without the GST, hospitals, for example, pay RM50 to suppliers and resell it to patients at RM55 for a profit of ten percent. With the GST, hospitals would need to pay suppliers an additional of 6 percent, thus making the cost RM53.

“It is impossible for hospitals to maintain the sale cost to consumers with a profit of only 3.8 percent, if it is sold for the same price of RM53,” said Tony Pua.

On Monday, Datuk Seri S.Subramaniam claimed that the implementation of the GST in 2015 will not increase the cost of healthcare because it is exempt from the GST.

“Suppose the hospital wants to maintain the ten percent profit in the previous example. Then the price would be RM58.30 (RM53 + RM5.40), which still causes consumers to pay the GST.

“Looks like BN should stop misleading the public and begin to come clean about the impact of the GST,” he added.

Therefore, he said, Pakatan Rakyat will continue to oppose the implementation of the GST, even more so in the country’s administration which is filled with leakages, corruption and cronyism.

“What’s even worse is that the GST is to be implemented when 80 percent of the people do not have enough income to pay the income tax,” said Tony Pua.

Fishermen Protest Federal Government’s Reduction in Subsidised Diesel

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KUALA LUMPUR, 6 Nov: This morning, about 50 fishermen held a peaceful protest outside the Parliament House to protest against the move by the Central Government to reduce diesel subsidies.

They also urged the government to review the use of the 38 millimetre (mm) hole size of trawl nets.

A representative of the fishermen, Cheah Swee Teck, said that boats in Zone C2, waters up to 30 nautical miles from the mainland, is now charged RM2.00, while for Zone A, B and C, the price has increased from RM1.25 to RM1.45.

“The action to reduce the subsidy burdens fishermen nationwide.

“And the use of 38mm hole trawl nets affect the catch of fishermen, for example, the fishermen in Hilir Perak are affected badly because the 38mm nets are not suitable to catch shrimp in the area,” said Swee Teck.

According to him, attempts to negotiate with the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries, Datuk Ismai Sabri, have been ignored until now.

“So is the proposal for the hole size of trawl nets; the government did not respond.

“So we decided to send a memorandum of protest today to be submitted to Ismail Sabri,” he said.

The peaceful assembly was attended by fishermen from Selangor, Johor, Perak and Pahang, and lasted about 30 minutes.

Also participating in the demonstration was the Member of Parliament for Gelang Patah, Lim Kit Siang, and Member of Parliament for Ipoh Barat, M.Kulasegaran.

Anwar Ibrahim: Democracy in Indonesia is better than in Malaysia

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SHAH ALAM, 6 Nov: Indonesia has a better democracy system than in Malaysia, stressed Opposition Leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar said that in Indonesia, the right to an opinion and views are more open compared to Malaysia.

“In Malaysia, you cannot speak like this, this is an advantage that does not exist in my country,” said Anwar.

Anwar added that Indonesia has a huge chance of becoming a leader of Muslim nations because it has the advantage of a large Muslim population and a stable democracy to become a strong platform to realise it.

“Indonesia has a great opportunity to lead Muslim countries in the world after Arab faces a crisis, so the expansion of Islam will point to Southeast Asia.

“Indonesia, as a country with the biggest Muslim populated country, with good economic growth, has an opportunity in this regard,” Anwar said at the National Museum in Jakarta on Tuesday.

In a quote from Tribunnews.com, Anwar said that the Indonesian government is still being 50/50 when fighting for the Muslims when the American Government is involved too much in the conflict in Syria and Egypt; the Indonesian Government is not being assertive.

“While the US Government is doing that, Indonesia is not being stern with them, not like Brazil or even Germany, when this is the way to establish attachment to Muslim unity,” Anwar said.

Currently, Indonesia has a population of 250 million people (July 2013 statistics), with 88.2 percent, or 202.9 million people, being Muslims (2009 statistics).

Najib’s Monarchy Strategy to Dominate the Country’s Finances

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SHAH ALAM, 5 Nov: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s move to add up to 43 times in provisions under the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is seen as a full monarchy style strategy in efforts to dominate the country’s finances.

The Member of Parliament for Shah Alam, Khalid Samad, said that the strategy enables Najib to have an advantage of using taxpayers’ money as he wished without clear details and is is probably being used for the political survival of Barisan Nasional (BN).

“This way, the PMO would be like kings and sultans, with full control of everything and cannot be questioned. With this too, the country’s finances can be used to either enhance the image of the Prime Minister or ‘instant noodle’ projects of buying votes during the elections for BN’s victory,” he said when contacted by the Selangor Kini portal today.

He said said this when asked to comment on the exposure by the Member of Parliament for Kluang, Liew Chin Tong, regarding the allocation for the PMO which increased by 43 times since Najib led the country’s administration 2009.

In 2010, the total allocation for the PMO was only RM158 million, 0.3 percent of the total RM54 billion allocation for development, but it increased to RM6.8 billion, 15 percent of RM53 billion of the total allocation development for the year 2014.

Khalid, who is also the Selangor PAS Commissioner, said that Najib’s actions hide monetary expenditures under the PMO name, which is seen as being not transparent and irresponsible.

“It evidence that this is a desperate move by Najib in attempt to strengthen BN, which is seen as losing the people’s faith day by day, because this is seen as easier compared to placing it under other ministries that need to go through audits, compared to placing it under the PMO,” he said.

SERIES 1 EXCLUSIVE – Malaysia has the Most ‘Semi-Professional’ Killers

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SHAH ALAM, Nov: Murder using firearms is seen as an increasing trend and the current choice of the people, either as a career or to simply gain personal satisfaction.

Almost every day, the country is shocked by various shooting incidents causing concern among the community about their state of security.

Criminal analyst, Datuk Akhbar Satar, said that there are three types of hired killers identified in this country which are not mature (discord cases, jealousy, semi-professionals (resentment, envy) and professionals (murder without consequences).

He said that most of the hired killers in Malaysia are among the semi-professionals and is carried out in public places such a traffic lights and eateries.

“These assassins can usually be detected by the police. If the authorities do not take drastic action, they (semi-professional assassins) can turn into professional shooters who murder victims without being detected, and this is what we are concerned about,” he told the Selangor Kini portal today.

He said that the use of firearms for killing is believed to be rampant due to a power struggle between triads to control an area, and it is not just driven by revenge.

He said that the existing laws are not guaranteed effectiveness if government enforcement is not tightened.

“Every law is good, but enforcement and cooperation from the public is needed to combat such crimes. The public needs to help the police by reporting incidents or those suspected to be involved in criminal cases,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for Kelana Jaya, Wong Chen, said that the problem of crime should be addressed holistically and not to just be focused on the enforcement of law alone.

Wong Chen said, the economic aspect should also be given serious attention, like the enforcement of law, in curbing criminal activity in the country.

“Suppose one criminal commits armed robbery every day, the country will witness 365 criminal cases throughout the year. Imagine if we have 10,000 criminals with the same commitment, how many police officers would be needed then to handle this problem,” she said.

Wong Chen said that he urges the central government to be more concerned with administrative management in providing a better economic environment for the people by taking into account the worrying economic pressure.

“Criminals in this country seem to be committed in making crime a permanent career so much so that they are willing to smuggle firearms from neighbouring countries,” he said.

* Series 2 will follow tomorrow, 6 November 2013 *

MOHA Urged to Issue a Cause Letter to Security Companies

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SHAH ALAM, 5 Nov: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) has been urged to immediately issue a cause letter and revoke the licences of security companies involved in the robbery of a gold shop in Setapak last week.

The call was made because prior to this, the MOHA took drastic measures to revoke the licence of Kawalan Prima Sdn Bhd when a security guard of the company shot a banker dead at the Ambank in USJ2 last month.

Member of Parliament for Padang Serai, N.Surendran, said that the MOHA and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) should be responsible regarding the matter seeing that the authority to approve firearms is issued by them to security companies.

“The failure and responsibility lies with the MOHA and the IGP because the approval for firearms comes from the ministry concerned.

“This means that the problem is the MOHA’s failure to ensure that security companies given the licence have the ability and aptitude to perform their duty without committing crime,” he told the Selangor Kini portal today.

Surendran said that the inconsistent attitude in cancelling licences of security companies involved in any crime should be addressed because it involved the life of the public.

On 30 October, a security guard pointed a gun at his employer before starting business at the gold shop, prior to bringing a tray containing 100 necklaces, of which the value if uncertain, to the premises which is located at KL Festive City Mall.

Commenting on the alleged involvement of a former IGP in the security company, Surendran said that the MOHA needs to explain the matter in more detail.

According to the MStar portal, a search on the Security Services Association of Malaysia (PPKKM) shows that one of the member of the board of directors of the firm that hired the suspect is a former IGP.

The Astro Awani portal reported that the Filipino security guard has been arrested, together with his friend, at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) airport and is being remanded for seven days starting from yesterday till 10 November.

The arrest has also been confirmed by the Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigation Department Deputy Chief, Assistant Commissioner (ACP) Khairi Ahrasa and is being investigated under Section 117 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Replica of Amputated Leg: Mahfuz Advises Muhyiddin to not Overact

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SHAH ALAM, 4 Nov: Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has been advised to not rush to release a statement regarding the case of hanging replicas of amputated legs which is now under police investigation.

The Committee Director of the Sungai Limau State Legislative Assembly By-Election, Datuk Mahfuz Omar, said that Muhyiddin’s move to deny the involvement of Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters in the incident, as reported by the media, only raises bad perception towards the party.

He said, previously he had never mention the act of hanging the replica was done by the BN machinery.

“There is no need to overact and he is so defensive. This can give a bad perception towards BN in this case, seeing that previously said that this is a shameful deed without mentioning any party.

“In fact, let the police investigate, but the actions makes it seem that he (Muhyiddin) is ahead of the police investigation,” he said when contacted by TVSelangor today

Meanwhile, commenting on today’s development of the Sungai Limau By-Election polling day, Mahfuz said that until now, he does not know of the incident where a woman in the BN camp was allegedly boxed as reported by the media.

He also stressed that the Sungai Limau By-Election voting process was running smoothly without any unwanted incidents taking place.

“Insya-Allah, PAS will be able to defend the Sungai Limau seat in this By-Election. The opportunity looks very promising,” he said.

The Sungai Limau State Legislative Assembly By-Election was held after the death of the incumbent, who was also the former Chief Minister of Kedah, Tan Sri Azizan Abdul Razak, on 26 September.

In this by-election has 27,222 registered voters and the seat is being contested by PAS candidate, Mohd Azam Abd Samat, and BN candidate, Dr Ahmad Sohaimi Lazim.