Weekly News Monitor: 4 August, 2008
Penang Govt Loses RM124 Million In Shady Land Deals
Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng (DAP-Air Putih) reported to the assembly about their findings into several land transactions that went awry because of “negligence” and poor decision making, costing total estimated losses of RM124 million to the state.
According to Lim, one particular case may bring losses worth RM40 million while losses from the other cases involving questionable land acquisitions (collectively investigated as they involved the same government officer) amounted to RM84 million.
Lim said investigations are underway before appropriate action, including reports to the police and Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), are made.
Datuk Jahara Hamid (BN-Telok Ayer Tawar) stood up to ask how such cases could be prevented.
With a broad smile, Lim simply replied: “Gunakan CAT (use CAT)! Competency, accountability, transparency!”
4 Muslim men jailed and fined for cross-dressing
An official says an Islamic court in Kelantan has jailed four Muslim men for taking part in a transvestite beauty pageant.
Mohamad Abdul Aziz Mohamad Noor, a senior official in the Islamic department in Kelantan state, says the men were sentenced to seven days in jail and given a 1,000 ringgit (US$310) fine Sunday after they pleaded guilty to cross-dressing.
He says the men were arrested together with 11 others on Friday for participating in the beauty pageant at a resort.
Mohamad Abdul Aziz said Monday that the others are expected to be charged next month.
Zaid pressured to resign by both sides
At a dinner function, the the minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Zaid Ibrahim, said that he has been asked to resign by both his own party as well as the opposition.
“I have been a minister for just about three months and in that time I have talked about various issues - the need to review legislation such as the Internal Security Act, judicial reform, granting wider public access to justice through legal aid, tackling the backlog of cases, the case for greater press freedoms,” he said. “Such talk has caused consternation to some elements within my own party, to the point that I am accused of espousing opposition policies, and thus I should resign.”
The minister lamented that he was caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place as the criticism did not only come from those in Umno. “The opposition has also called for my resignation on grounds that I have not done enough to bring about the promised changes.”
However, Zaid told the delegates at the Asia-Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur that he would not be deterred by calls for him to quit as “these are issues that the people want.”
Penang Overcome By Haze Due To Open Burning In Indonesia
Penang was overcome by haze Thursday, with three areas experiencing poor visibility for between two and six kilometres.
The haze is believed to have originated from open burning in Sumatra, Indonesia.
According to a spokesman of the Penang Meteorological Department, the situation was worsened with suspended materials in the atmosphere.
“We believe the haze is caused by open burning in Sumatra as satellite images have indicated 150 hot spots there.
“Due to the dry weather, the haze is expected to last for several days in the northern part of the peninsula.
The API for unhealthy level is more than 100.
11% adult Malaysians suffering mental ailments
The latest National Health and Morbidity Study has revealed a marginal increase in the number of Malaysians suffering from mental ailments. The study, conducted in 2006 and released earlier this year, showed 11.2% of adults and 20.3% of children and teenagers suffering some form of mental ailment, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad said.
About 11% of those between the ages of 16 and 24 had suicidal yearnings, while 47.7% of adults suffered insomnia.
Both ailments are related to stress, Dr Abdul Latiff said when opening the state-level Health Carnival, emphasising the need to overcome stress at all levels including in schools, workplaces, public institutions and government offices.
More civil service posts for non-Malays
In an effort to improve the racial balance in the civil service, the Government has decided to give more opportunity to non-Malays to join. Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Senator T. Murugiah said that there were 15,887 vacancies in the civil service.
“Among them are the posts of pharmacy officers and dental officers,” he said adding that the Public Service Commission (PSC) would conduct interviews at Putrajaya, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu.
He added that those interested can apply online at www.spa.gov.my or get the application forms at the PSC office.
Foreigners already the single largest group in Sabah
NON-citizens already account for the single largest group in Sabah, representing about 24.8 per cent (or 747,800) out of the State’s total population of 3,015,000, in 2005.
Malaysians outnumber them in Sabah only if all the various ethnic groups are looked at collectively, instead of singly.
This information is based on the Statistics Department’s (State/District Data Bank 2005; General Report of the Population Census, Volume 1, 1980) breakdown showing the Kadazandusun as the second largest at 17.5 per cent, followed by Other Bumiputera (14.6 per cent), Bajau (13 per cent) and Malays (12.2 per cent).
The rest were Chinese who accounted for 9.7 per cent, Others (4.8 per cent) and Murut (3.2 per cent).
The Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah (FCAS), which distributed this data, also stated that only 230,000 of the 747,800 non-citizens in Sabah were legal workers while the rest were either illegal immigrants, illegal workers or legal workers.
Most of these non-citizens were Filipinos and Indonesians, it said.
FCAS stated that the department’s Yearbook of Statistics - Sabah 2007 also revealed in year 2000 there were 2,603,485 people in Sabah. Of this 1,988,661 (76.38 per cent) were Malaysian citizens and the remaining 614,824 (23.61 per cent) were non-Malaysians.
Sabah’s population is estimated to be 3,600,000 in 2008, of which 1,500,000 are foreigners, thus making 58 per cent Malaysians and 42 per cent non-Malaysians.
FCAS also mentioned that the Employment and Unemployment Statistics in Sabah in 2006 showed the labour force in Sabah numbered 1,264,100 people of whom were 1,190,700 and 73,500 unemployed.
The same statistics also revealed that the total number of employable people in Sabah in 2006 stood at 2,528,300.
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