Malaysia needs more heroes like Tony Pua to help expose scandals like this!

Najib's greatest Scandal that will bankrupt Malaysia!??

JB highway the most expensive, says MP

The Eastern Dispersal Link (EDL) is the most expensive highway in Malaysia, both in terms of construction cost and toll collection, a DAP MP said today.

Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching said that EDL had cost RM148.15 million per kilometre, and will also end up making most profit at the end of its concession term when compared with other highways.

The EDL, built by Malaysian Resources Corporation Bhd (MRCB) will reap RM4.3 billion in toll collection against the cost of RM1.2 billion to build it.

However, Teo said, the Ampang-KL Elevated Highway will only collect RM949 million in toll against a RM751 million cost.

The Guthrie Corridor Expressway will collect RM1.012 billion against a RM501 million cost, she added.

“Highway construction is not a charity and we acknowledge that concessionaire companies are not non-profit organisations. However, there must be a limit to profit reaping,” she said.

“Why does it seem that MRCB is allowed to collect more toll than other concessionaire companies?” she asked.

She said that MRCB will be making the most profit compared to the other highways, without taking into account future traffic volume and toll hikes.

“What was the mechanism used to calculate toll rate and profit for the concessionaire companies? The government must be transparent in handling toll hike and all concession agreements should be made public,” she said.

Najib abusing his position to save Utusan!

Recently Najib gave Utusan Malaysia his endorsement when he urged government departments, government-linked companies (GLCs) and Bumiputera firms to advertise more in the Umno-owned Bahasa Malaysia daily to ensure the newspaper's capability to compete in the long term. This is an outright abuse of his position and wrong! Utusan is a private company spewing out racist lies and slander. On top of that to name a street road after this UMNO own company is a shiok sendiri exercise that is abusing his power! 

I like the response from the article below taken from Malaysian Insiders.

How far does one go to support fiction? In Utusan Malaysia's case, it goes as far as getting government departments and state companies to advertise in the Umno-owned newspaper to ensure its survival.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's push for his party paper today to get such advertisements has to be seen in that light - an endorsement for fiction writing which the daily indulges in from time to time.

After all, no other Malaysian newspaper has lost as many defamation cases as Utusan Malaysia in the last few years.

In opening the 75-year-old newspaper's new office today, Najib said Utusan cannot rely solely on circulation to stay in business and that advertising is needed to keep the news company afloat.Despite its fiction writing putting Malaysians at loggerheads with each other, here comes the prime minister asking Malaysian taxpayers to fund this party newsletter to ensure it can compete in the future.

And this is where money from the GLCs and government departments come in. After all, most of the private sector have ditched advertising in the daily over its racial slant in recent years.

But make no mistake, the advertising ringgit from GLCs comes from taxpayers, many of them educated Malaysians who live in urban areas - the same voters who rejected the politics of racism and chauvinism espoused by Utusan Malaysia.

What would they think of this latest move then, to use their hard-earned money to support a paper prone to fiction? Wouldn't that money be better used to mitigate the effects of rising costs?

Is keeping Utusan afloat a priority for this government over the livelihood of most Malaysians?

And renaming the Jalan Enam road where the Utusan Malaysia office is to Jalan Utusan is a priority and pride for this government?

“Jalan Enam has no meaning. It will be renamed Jalan Utusan,” Najib announced at the opening of the newspaper's new building.

What really has no meaning is supporting such fiction that causes racism and makes people argue with each other. That is what Utusan and its editors have done and were found guilty and fined in a court of law.

This government has a country to run and an economy to grow, not put priority on helping a newspaper survive because it belongs to the ruling party. - September 13, 2013.

The VINDICATION of Lim Kit Siang!

Finally Tanda Putera admitted to their slander. But the damage is done! How do they fix this? What is more sickening is that this film cost the govt RM4.8million.

Tanda Putera producer finally apologises to Lim

11:45AM Sep 13, 2013

More than a year after the film 'Tanda Putera' was embroiled in controversy with its Facebook page accusing DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang of urinating on a flagpole, the film's producer has finally issued an official apology.

"We, Messrs Pesona Pictures Sdn Bhd, unreservedly apologise to Lim Kit Siang for the embarrassment caused by the abovementioned publication which is devoid of truth," it said in a statement uploaded on Facebook this afternoon.

In an earlier posting yesterday, theFacebook site of the film based on the May 13, 1969 race riots attributed the faulty allegation it made July last year to a junior social media administrator.

"The administrator at that time, who was also our friend, received a link from a visitor who sent a picture of Lim Kit Siang with the wrong caption.

"Our junior administrator did not do it on purpose, but he thought it was correct, so he uploaded it," the posting reads.

The caption had said Lim urinated on the flagpole outside the house of the then Selangor menteri besar Harun Idris.

Yesterday's 'Tanda Putera' Facebook statement said the mistake was promptly rectified and claimed that the administrator and film producer have since apologised, though it did not specify to whom.

However, it noted that there were demands for an apology onFacebook where the posting originally appeared: "No problem, we will do it (apologise on Facebook)," the posting says.

"The picture and caption were not our creations but were sent to us," it adds.

Elaborating on the faux pas in the latest official apology today, the film's producer said Lim's photograph and erroneous caption was posted on theirFacebook page by a subscriber and was spotted by the page's administrator.

"Innocently believing the same to be in some manner relevant to the movie Tanda Putera, he proceeded to copy and save them onto theFacebook's photo album.

"The publication thereof was purely an inadvertence, without any malice or bad faith intended," it said.

However, the company said it stood by the content of the 'Tanda Putera' film.

Apology missing
This is the first public apology made. It was absent in the prominent public rebuttal by film director Shuhaimi Baba on Aug 15, 2012, almost a month after the controversy first erupted.

Shuhaimi (right) had merely said that the erroneous posting was removed and that at no point did Lim appear in the film.

However, she insisted that the urination incident was real, though not by Lim himself.

'Tanda Putera' chronicles the relationship between former prime minister Abdul Razak Hussein and his deputy Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman in the midst of the 1969 race riots, which continues to be a divisive topic, and more so today as a result of the controversial film.

Lim has repeatedly denied the urination incident, seen as a provocation for the 1969 race riots, pointing out that he was in Sabah when the May 13 tragedy broke out in Kuala Lumpur.

He had also urged the filmmakers to apologise over the allegation.

On Monday, Lim, who is also DAP national adviser, commenced legal action against Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia and former information minister Zainuddin Maidin for repeating the 'urination' allegation against him.


AND even through Tanda Putera has completely bomb in the box-office, the film director Datin Paduka Shuhaimi Baba has already begun work on her next movie for which she is expecting another government grant!!!! WTF!

WE NEED TO VOTE BN GOVT OUT TO SAVE MONEY ON USELESS FILMS!

Janji di tepati!! TNB increase tariff!

FROM MALAYSIAKINI

Kua Kia Soong 10:37AM Jul 27, 2013

COMMENT In my recent article ‘Damned Dams & Noxious Nukes: Questioning Malaysia's Energy Policy' (Suaram 2013, p 2), I had warned that the government would surely raise electricity tariffs after the 13th general election.

Right on cue, Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has just announced that there will be an upward review of the electricity tariff. TNB is justifying this increase by claiming that domestic consumers have been subsidised long enough.

However, who have been the main beneficiaries of the government subsidies?

The energy industry in Malaysia has become a mega business and the government has been subsidising private businesses handsomely for at least two decades, even as it announces attempts to remove subsidies for domestic consumers.

In the mid-Nineties when the IPPs first came into the energy production scene, the industrial sector was TNB's largest consumer, with 60 percent of electricity consumption, but it was paying the lowest rates averaging 15.98 sen per kilowatt hour. On the other hand, the domestic and commercial sectors were paying 21.5 sen per unit and 23.3 sen per unit respectively. (New Straits Times, Jan 17, 1996)

But any privatisation exercise can only be called a success if the businessmen who bid for the projects succeed in raising financing from the banks through their own credentials. What is evident in the privatisation contracts in the energy industry of Malaysia is that many of the crony capitalists (who are, strictly speaking, failed businessmen) rely on the Malaysian workers' pension fund, the EPF, through their links with the government.

Thus, then-energy minister S Samy Vellu justified the EPF as the single biggest source of financing for the Bakun Dam project:

"Bakun, you see, they need some government help... They need government help to borrow money. About RM15 billion to generate 2,400MW of electricity, which means Ekran needs to borrow from the EPF," Samy Vellu said. (Business Times, Feb 23, 1995)

Well-connected IPPs

TNB used to be the sole electricity provider in the country but after the blackouts and brownouts in 1992, independent power producers (IPPs) were allowed into the industry.

They were politically well-connected but devoid of any electric power engineering or generating experience, and the power purchase agreements they signed with TNB allowed them highly favourable terms with take-or-pay arrangements for power generation, i.e. if there was no uptake, the IPPs were paid a capacity charge to offset this.

Furthermore, they could pass their cost increases, such as any fuel price increases, to TNB. But TNB itself does not enjoy such a cost-pass-through formula to help it recover any increases in costs.

In 1995, a single IPP made RM800 million in profits - about half of what Tenaga made with all its national plants! Furthermore, the IPPs do not have to invest in transmission or distribution - the expensive parts of the business. (Sunday Star, Sept 1, 1996)

If we compare the generation costs of TNB and the IPPs, we will have an idea of TNB's problems. In 1997, TNB was paying between 11.8 sen and 15.5 sen per unit of electricity to the five IPPs while its cost of generating electricity was less than 10 sen per unit. (The Star, April 20, 1997)

To solve these contradictions, TNB saw the only way out as raising electricity tariffs and to urge consumers to use more electricity, including drying their clothes with electrical appliances! Either way, Malaysian consumers lost out and the need for energy conservation was put off once again despite the pious declarations at the Rio conference.

Apart from the dice being loaded in favour of the IPPs, they also built power stations at sites of their own choice, not where they were needed. Thus, YTL built a station at Paka, Terengganu, (where the gas supply comes in) although electric power was desperately needed in the north and central regions.

The admission of the IPPs into the energy industry and subsequent flip-flopping policies reflect the total lack of planning and well-thought out energy policy.

The costs of excess capacity

TNB has been keeping a reserve margin in excess of 30 percent over the nation's total demand. In fact, this reserve margin was boosted to 42 percent after the commissioning of two new power plants in 2003. With rising operational costs, including that of excess capacity maintenance, TNB was forced to cut its reserve margin to just below 25 percent. This move was estimated to save the corporation RM1 billion in maintenance cost a year:

"Tenaga has to bear the cost of managing excess capacity on its own. It pays independent power producers about RM500,000 for every megawatt a year and normally draws less than four-fifths of that power... Imagine how much Tenaga spends to manage about 1,500MW of excess capacity from the IPPs!" (New Straits Times, Aug 30, 2003)

There is thus no justification for the Bakun Dam which harnesses 2,400MW electricity when the demand for energy in the whole of Sarawak state was only around 400MW in 1997. The original intention was for the electricity produced to be transmitted 665km to the west coast of Sarawak and a further 670km to Peninsular Malaysia, through high-voltage undersea cables that have never been tested through this distance anywhere in the world!

The current total energy demand in the whole of Sarawak is only 1,000MW, so the government has been trying to attract the biggest energy guzzlers, such as aluminium smelters that happen to be the most toxic as well. These environmentally polluting industries are then touted as part of the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score).

In fact, hydro-electric power dams and toxic aluminium smelters are all industries rejected by developed countries. None of these countries, especially Australia, wants to have toxic industries in their own backyard. Lynas is but the most recent example.

But the Sarawak state government is willing to have these mega projects for rather dubious purposes. The desperate chase for investments to take up the excess Bakun energy after the dam has been built shows a total lack of economic feasibility studies which should have been done long before the dam was built. Is it surprising therefore that many Score contracts have been given to companies owned by members of Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud's family?

As long as the full eight-turbine capacity of the Bakun dam is not being fully utilised, it will not be economical as the same amount of water is required to run one or all the turbines. It is comical to see the same vacillating suggestion being made every time the government is faced with this conundrum, namely, to resurrect the submarine cables to transmit the surplus power to the peninsula!

The recent blackout throughout Sarawak has been attributed to a glitch at the Bakun dam which triggered the state-wide blackout. Has the cost of the blackout been worked out yet?

The Bakun dam project cost has ballooned to well over RM8 billion. At the end of the day, the project will be a yoke around Malaysian consumers' necks and we will have to pay high tariffs to cover the losses incurred by the developer and/or TNB.

More mega-dams for us to subsidise

But the monstrous Bakun dam is not all that has been dreamed up by the Sarawak state government. The 944MW Murum dam is soon to be impounded. Like Bakun, this latter dam project is in violation of international standards on indigenous rights as guaranteed in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), of which Malaysia is a signatory.

As with the Bakun dam, none of the studies related to the projects have been transparent. The affected Penan and Kenyah have stated that they have never been asked for their consent, as demanded by the UNDRIP.

The project developer, Sarawak's state-owned electricity generating company, Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB) has not provided indigenous communities with an opportunity to grant or withhold their "free, prior and informed consent" for the project as required by UNDRIP. Even in cases where there was agreement, the resettlement plan was not made known to the indigenous peoples prior to the start of the construction, and they were not informed about the project's impacts.

The social and environmental impact assessment (SEIA) for the Murum project is seriously flawed. International standards - including the World Bank IFC Performance Standards - universally require that the SEIA must be completed during the design phase, before the government approves the project and before construction begins.

This was not the case with the Murum Dam Project. The SEIA process only began after construction of the project was already under way.

When the 944MW Murum Dam costing RM3.5 billion comes on stream, the total installed capacity of the two dams will be 3,344MW. The combined cost of the two dams is RM10.8 billion. There are also plans to build more dams - 1,400MW in Balleh, 1,000MW in Baram, 150MW in Limbang and 300MW in Metjawah, among others.

Sarawak's existing capacity to generate electricity (viz. 1,300MW) without the Bakun dam already exceeds the peak demand of 1,100MW. Electricity generated cannot be stored. Unused power will be wasted. The government hopes that energy guzzling industries such as aluminium smelters will come and take up this surplus of energy...

In such a state of affairs, who is subsidising whom? Don't even mention building noxious nuclear plants!

---

KUA KIA SOONG, a former MP, is adviser to human rights NGO Suaram.

Rais: OK to use govt machinery for campaigns

Misused Govt things ah?? No problem lah! We are still the govt mah! And we are use to it lah!

From Malaysiakini

Rais: Okay to use gov't machinery for campaigns

Ahmad Fadli KC 8:04PM Apr 9, 2013

Information, Communication and Culture Minister Rais Yatim today defended BN's actions of using the Information Department's machinery for campaigning purposes.

He said that there is nothing wrong with the usage of government's machinery because BN is still considered the caretaker government from now until the nomination day.

"Now we are in an environment of carrying out duties as a temporary government. The government still exists under Article 43 of the federal constitution and all things that involve executive powers - such as Article 38 and Article 43 - on the powers of appointing ministers, also falls under the ministry's function, all ministries are to function as per normal procedures," he added.

"However, starting from nomination day, no government agency can take part in any programme that helps the election campaign of any one party," he stressed.

"It is wrong for them to assume that the Information Department or the Science Department can't come out with explanations in behalf of the government," he said.

He said that even though the nation is in an "interim government" environment, the powers of the government remains.

Malaysiakini had earlier reported that three vehicles belonging to the Information Department were used to facilitate the opening of BN's election command centre for the Batu parliamentary constituency on Sunday.

'Airtime offer was to broadcast only once'

Meanwhile, Rais said that the government's offer of 10-minute airtime for Pakatan Rakyat to present their manifesto in the state channel, Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM), would be broadcast only once, and not repeatedly over the campaign period.

"We (would) give 10 minutes only once, not on every campaign day. This is not about campaigning, it is only about explaining the gist of the respective manifestos," he stressed.
  
According to the minister, Pakatan can explain five full pages of their manifesto if they utilise the 10 minutes completely.

"I have conducted tests and in 10 minutes, we could read at least five pages of A4 papers with a one-line space between sentences," he said.

He added that the opposition's refusal to accept the offer was only an attempt to "mock" RTM.

However, Election Commission (EC) chairperson Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof had previously said that the government's airtime offer to the opposition was to have been part of an ongoing series and not a one-time deal.