The auction house called the “Beau Sancy” diamond “one of the most important historic diamonds ever to come to auction”, reflecting its role in the fluctuating fortunes of Europe’s royal families for more than 400 years.

“The legendary Beau Sancy is a truly magical stone that has entranced generations of royal owners and continues to exert a powerful influence over all who see it,” said David Bennett, Sotheby’s chairman of jewellery in Europe and the Middle East, in a statement.

“Its supreme historical importance was reflected tonight in the strength of the bidding and the remarkable result realised.”

No fewer than five bidders competed for the stone, driving the price to nearly five times above its pre-sale low estimate of 1.85 million Swiss francs in an eight-minute battle before it was bought by an anonymous bidder, Sotheby’s said.

The stone, a 35-carat modified “pear double rose cut” diamond belonging to Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia and head of the former ruling dynasty of the German empire, had been expected to fetch US$2 million to US$4 million.

“It’s a stone that appeals to me greatly as a survivor of all those tumultuous events,” Bennett said in a telephone interview in February.

“Stones from royal collections hardly ever appear at auction. In my career this is an absolute one-off.”

Bennett, who sold a pink diamond for US$46.2 million in 2010 in what was a record for any jewel at auction, said estimating the value of a stone like the Beau Sancy was difficult given its rarity.

The diamond originated from the mines in India near Golconda and was acquired by Nicolas de Harlay, Lord of Sancy, in Constantinople in the 1500s.

In 1604 it was bought for 75,000 livres by French king Henry IV as a gift for his wife, Marie de Medici.

According to Sotheby’s, the queen had long coveted the stone, especially after learning that de Harlay had sold a larger diamond called the Sancy, and now part of the Louvre Collection, to King James I of England.

Henry IV was assassinated in 1610, and after years of rivalry between Marie and her son King Louis XIII, she was eventually exiled in disgrace.

She escaped to the Netherlands, and to settle her debts her possessions were sold. This included the Beau Sancy, which was acquired by Prince Frederick Henry of Orange-Nassau for 80,000 florins, the largest expenditure in the state budget of 1641.

In the same year, the diamond was used as a sweetener to help seal the wedding of Frederick’s son William to Mary Stuart, daughter of King Charles I of England.

Following Mary’s death in 1660, the Beau Sancy was pawned to settle her debts. But in 1677 the stone re-entered the Treasure of the House of Orange-Nassau following the wedding of William III to Mary II Stuart.

The couple ascended the throne of England in 1689, meaning the Beau Sancy entered the collection of the Queen of England. But since the couple had no children, the diamond returned to the Netherlands.

From there it moved to the Prussian monarchy in 1702, becoming the principal ornament of the new royal crown of Prussia.

The diamond remained in Berlin after the last king of Prussia fled to exile at the end of World War I November 1918. At the end of World War II, it was transferred to a bricked-up crypt for safe-keeping.

British troops found the stone and returned it to the estate of the House of Prussia, where it remained until Tuesday’s auction.—Reuters

The US director’s teen elopement fantasy “Moonrise Kingdom”, the first of 22 films vying for the Palme d’Or, delighted audiences at a preview ahead of the gala premiere that officially opens the 12-day French Riviera festival.

But the jury headed by Italian film-maker Nanni Moretti also came in for a grilling over the lack of women directors, with none in the main competition, and just two in Cannes’ new talent section “Un Certain Regard”.

British film-maker and juror Andrea Arnold (picture) told a press conference she herself would “hate” to be invited on grounds of gender.

“I would only want my film to be selected for the right reasons—not out of charity because I’m female or anything,” said Arnold, whose first two feature films—“Red Road” and “Fish Tank”—both won the Cannes jury prize.

She argued that Cannes simply “represents how it really is out there in the world,” saying it was “a pity and a great disappointment” that so few women went into film-making.

Arnold’s fellow juror Diane Kruger dismissed the notion that Cannes was sexist in its choices: “On the contrary, my impression is that women are welcome here. It just so happens that there aren’t any this year.”

New Zealand director Jane Campion is the only woman ever to have won the Palme d’Or, for “The Piano” in 1993, and last year’s festival had raised hopes of a breakthrough, with an unprecedented four women in competition.

Directors running for the top award at the film fest’s 65th edition include such grandees as David Cronenberg, Ken Loach and Michael Haneke.

Star-wise, the line-up promises to dazzle with Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Jessica Chastain, Kylie Minogue, Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Brad Pitt just a few of the A-listers expected in town.

First heavy hitter

Tomorrow will see Jacques Audiard, France’s master of the edgy thriller genre, wade in as the first heavy-hitter in competition with “Rust and Bone”, starring Cotillard as a killer-whale trainer hit by tragedy.

Politics will also be charging into Cannes with “After the Battle” by Egypt’s Yousry Nasrallah, about the Arab Spring.

This year’s selection is heavy in American storylines, with Australians John Hillcoat and Andrew Dominik bringing two star-studded US-set works: the bootlegging drama “Lawless” and the mobster flick “Killing Them Softly”.

Brazil’s Walter Salles has adapted Jack Kerouac’s cult novel “On the Road”, one of Cannes 2012’s most keenly-awaited entries starring Sam Riley, Kristen Stewart and Kirsten Dunst.

And Canada’s Cronenberg brings Manhattan thriller “Cosmopolis”, adapted from Don DeLillo’s novel and starring Pattinson as a billionaire asset manager journeying through the city in a stretch limo.

Two US mavericks are also running for Cannes gold: Lee Daniels with “The Paperboy” about a reporter investigating a death row case, and Jeff Nichols, whose “Mud”, about two teenage boys and a fugitive, was a surprise entry.

Among the European giants, Austria’s Haneke will show “Amour” (Love), starring Isabelle Huppert as the daughter of a woman hit by a stroke.

Britain’s Loach returns for the 17th time with the comedy “The Angel’s Share”, about ex-offenders who turn to whisky-making.

Romania’s Cristian Mungiu, who scooped the 2007 Palme for a Communist-era abortion drama, is back with “Beyond the Hills”—inspired by the story of two orphans and an exorcism, while Italian Matteo Garrone takes on TV culture with “Reality”.

Asia gets a look-in with two South Koreans: Im Sang-soo with erotic thriller “Taste of Money” and Hong Sang-soo with “In Another Country”.

And Palme-winning Iranian Abbas Kiarostami returns at 71 with “Like Someone in Love”, a Japan-set tale about a student who works as a prostitute.

Last year’s jury chaired by Robert De Niro crowned Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” starring Pitt and Sean Penn.

Cannes will also play host to the usual champagne-fuelled parties, deal-making and publicity pranks—starting  today with a seafront stunt by British comic Sacha Baron Cohen, in character on camel back as his zany alter ego Admiral General Aladeen, star of his new film “The Dictator”.—AFP

However, he told FMT that setting up the stall outside his house in Ampang would not be a suitable choice.

“I live in a terrace house, so setting up a stall outside my house will disrupt traffic flow and pose an inconvenience to my neighbours.

“Furthermore, the house is located on a slope, so the pots with the curry and dhal may tilt and spill the contents all over the place,” he joked.

Instead, Khalid, who confessed to being a thosai lover, suggested that the NGO, WargaAMAN, erect the stall at an open field located near his house, which would attract more people.

“I can invite my neighbours and I will also ask my officers to join in as well. We can have a ‘thosai carnival’. But the organiser must ensure that the thosai is delicious,” he said.

Making a personal request, the deputy police chief said he preferred the “thosai telur”, which is made with eggs, and hoped that the organiser would be able to serve this on Sunday.

This afternoon, WargaAMAN secretary S Barathidasan invited the public to participate in the event where piping hot free thosai would be available.

However, he said this was not in reaction to the infamous burger protest held outside Bersih co-chairperson S Ambiga’s house last week.

Culinary lessons

The burger protest was organised by a NGO called Malaysia Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Alliance (Ikhlas) who claimed to have incurred massive losses as a result of the Bersih 3.0 rally on April 28.

Meanwhile, Khalid also pointed out that he previously explained that no action was taken against the burger protesters because they did not commit any “criminal offence.”

WargaAMAN had said that it chose the deputy police chief’s house because of his statement regarding the protest outside Ambiga’s house.

“Since Khalid said what he said, we chose his house. This is the assurance he gave. Moreover he is the number two cop in the country… it would be safe outside his house,” quipped Barathidasan.

He also stressed that it would not be a protest but more of a thosai promotional event since the dish had been declared a heritage food by the Malaysian Heritage Department.

Apart from free thosai, those attending the event would also receive culinary lessons on how to make the popular Indian dish.

Also read:

Free thosai outside DIG’s house

Bersih steering committee member Hishamuddin Rais said this when asked if the coalition had plans to hold a fourth gathering.

“As far as the steering committee is concerned, at this stage, Bersih [the coalition] has no plans for Bersih 4.0.”

“At this stage, the committee and also the endorsee of the 84 NGOs [within the coalition] have no plans whatsoever for Bersih 4.0, and that is very clear,” he told reporters at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

Hishamuddin, however, did not give a reason as to why Bersih was not keen on another rally.

Even so, it is clear that the group is not satisfied with the government’s or the Election Commission’s (EC) actions over electoral reforms.

On April 28, two weeks ago, the group took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur, intending to gather in Dataran Merdeka.

Supported by members of the opposition, the 80,000-strong crowd had gathered to demand that the government fulfil Bersih’s eight demands to clean up the allegedly tainted polls system.

They were rebuffed by a heavy police presence, who cordoned off Dataran Merdeka with razor-wire and barricades.

After protesters breached the barricades, police fired tear gas and water cannons into the crowd.

Both police and a number of protesters clashed for over four hours in a series of street battles, which saw dozens on both sides injured and 512 people arrested.

‘Despicable harassment’

Before and after the rally, both the police and the ruling BN-led government have accused Bersih of trying to overthrow Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s administration.

This irked Bersih co-chairperson A Samad Said, who asked why the government was taking such a route.

“We have said on countless occasions that this [Bersih] is to clean the electoral system,” he said.

He added that it was also pointless to meet with the government, given its constant vilification of the coalition.

“What do we need to meet with them [government] for? They are the ones who are slandering us, saying so many times that this [Bersih] is to overthrow the government,” he added.

Samad (popularly known as Pak Samad) also condemned the recent anti-Bersih protests held in front of the house of his fellow co-chairperson S Ambiga.

Yesterday, army veterans protested against her by pointing their buttocks at her house.

A few days ago, some protesters claiming to be traders upset over the Bersih rally, also set up a burger stall in front of her house.

The police have not taken action against these individuals so far.

“By staying silent and not taking action, the government has condoned this dirty and low behaviour,” Pak Samad said, terming it as “despicable harassment”.

He said Tunku Aziz, who is a man of high-principles, would never “suit” a party like the DAP although he stopped short of saying why.

“I thought from the start he is not suited to be in DAP, I don’t know why he joined,” said Mahathir of the ex-DAP vice-president’s exit from the predominantly Chinese party.

The ex-Bank Negara advisor quit on Monday after a fallout with the party’s central leadership over his remark on the Bersih 3.0 poll reform rally on April 28

The founder of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International criticised Berish 3.0′s plan to take the streets to demand for free and fair elections.

He said this was in violation of the law and he could not endorse it although he maintained that Bersih’s demand for poll reform was valid.

The statements resulted in a sharp reprimand from party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng himself for placing the party in an “embarrassing position”.

Tunku Aziz chose not to be re-nominated as a senator for Penang when his term expired at the end of this month despite speculation that he was dropped for breaking party ranks.

Offer an insult

On Monday, he announced his resignation from the party after his suggestion that he be subjected to the “same disciplinary procedure as any party member” was not taken up.

Lim, however, said that he didn’t agree for disciplinary action to be taken against Tunku over the matter.

“Indeed there was general unhappiness at all levels in the party that he openly went against the party official position on Bersih before and after rally,” said Lim.

“However just as Tunku has the right to openly voice his dissent, the party’s right to state its position on such a fundamental policy position as Bersih must also be respected.”

The Penang CM now wants Tunku Aziz to reconsider his decision but the latter put paid to any chances of reconciliation when he described Lim’s offer of a position in a party think-tank with a RM50,000 stipend as “biadap” (rude).

The Kedah royalty also said the offer showed Lim’s utter disrespect for him, adding that he was insulted by the offer.

Political rivals were quick to capitalise on the fray and accused Lim of attempted bribery by offering Tunku Aziz position and a high salary to return to the party.

Also read:

Ripples of shock across DAP

MCA leaders criticised DAP for not putting its foot down against its Islamic-based coalition partner PAS with regard to the implementation of hudud law.

Training his guns on DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, MCA central committee member Loh Seng Kok said the former “should stop indulging in fake illusions and oppose PAS.”

“I urge DAP to muster the courage and oppose PAS’ idea of a theocratic Islamic state in order to fight for the rights of our Chinese and the future generation.

“It is sad that Guan Eng chooses to grin and go along with PAS and continues to indulge himself in a false sense of security by neglecting the welfare of the people,” he added.

The MCA leader quoted Guan Eng as saying that Pakatan Rakyat parties agreed to protect respective party interests and any party which did not uphold this was akin to backstabbing the other two.

“But little does Guan Eng know that he and DAP will be the ones to be ‘stabbed in the back’ by PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and PAS,” said Loh.

He claimed that DAP was constantly being “suppressed by its brothers” and the Pakatan pact was born out of the three parties’ “selfish agendas.”

“It is a tool for them to use each other for their political gain. Whenever a situation arises that threatens one of the party’s interests, the agreement will no longer be intact,” he said.

On Pakatan’s manifesto dubbed the Orange Book, Loh said 80% of it contained “impractical and delusional fantasies” to deceive the people.

He also warned of suffering should Pakatan capture the administrative capital of Putrajaya in the next general election.

Furthermore, he noted that DAP national chairman Karpal Singh’s call to Pakatan to address PAS’ stand on hudud showed that PAS contradicted the so-called consensus reached in the Orange Book.

He likened this to PAS “stabbing Lim and Pakatan in the heart” whereas PAS’ promise to amend the Federal Constitution to change Islam to Addin was like “rubbing salt into that wound.”

Loh said PAS’ insistence on amending the Federal Constitution proved that DAP would be further oppressed by the Islamic party through religious-based laws.

“Whenever the hudud or amendment of the Constitution are raised, DAP always takes up an indifferent stand in an attempt to cloud the issue by diverting the people’s attention,” he added.

The Chinese-predominated DAP had always found itself in a bind with regard to its ties with PAS; and leaders from both parties often crossed swords over their diametrically opposed ideologies.

This provided fodder for MCA to shell DAP and drum up the fear of an Islamic state among the Chinese electorate. Similarly, PAS was often criticised by Umno for relaxing its theocratic ideals due the party’s association with DAP.

On the other hand, DAP leaders always accused MCA of bowing to Umno at the expense of the Chinese community.

Kit Siang lacks the courage

Meanwhile, MCA senator Chiew Lian Keng was sad that DAP said nothing about the religious extremism remarks by PAS on hudud during Monday’s Pakatan senior leadership meeting.

“The meeting failed to reach a consensus as Pakatan leaders tried to avoid the issue by giving unclear and token answers which did nothing to clear the people’s doubts,” he said.

Lian said DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang, who represented his party at the meeting, told a press conference later that hudud was not part of the Orange Book.

“This proves that he failed to strongly express his objections or even Karpal’s views and the views of other non-Muslim leaders in Pakatan at the meeting,” he added.

The MCA Federal Territory Youth chairman said if Kit Siang lacked the courage to express the party’s stand then he should have sent Karpal to the meeting instead of wasting the opportunity.

On the same note, he was disappointed with Guan Eng for supporting the PAS president as if dismissing Karpal’s stand as a personal view.

“In defending his own interest, Guan Eng chose to support Hadi over his own party chairman, showing that DAP leaders cannot be trusted as they will continue to allow PAS to dominate them and thus forsaking the rights of non-Muslims.

“DAP has no status in Pakatan and is only a ‘yes-man’ to PAS. DAP will take various measures such as disciplinary action or dismissing contradicting statements as personal views or even not re-appointing those (dissenting) members for any position,” he said.

‘They cannot be trusted’

Weighing in, MCA organising secretary Tee Siew Kiong said the claim by Pakatan leaders that hudud was not part of their common policy framework was an attempt to mislead voters.

If an agreement was indeed reached, he questioned the need for a meeting to discuss Karpal’s statement.

Tee alleged that the opposition pact was deliberately churning out vague responses regarding the thorny issue in order to safeguard its electoral prospects.

The Pulai Batang state assemblyman also dismissed the Orange Book as a pretentious tool to hoodwink the public.

He pointed out that despite the claim that Pakatan reached an agreement over hudud, the PAS-led state governments acted to the contrary.

“We see them banning lotteries and restricting the sale of liquor and the amendment by the Kedah state assembly that any fatwas (edicts) issued by the state mufti or fatwa council cannot be challenged in court. So what is the consensus reached by Pakatan parties?” he asked.

Tee also noted that while the PAS president stressed that hudud was subjected to the Orange Book and common policy framework, Hadi however continued to raise the subject.

“This proves that Hadi is merely spouting words and does not agree with Pakatan’s stand on the matter,” he said.

“Besides that, why is there no public condemnation of PAS ulama chief Harun Taib who claimed that PAS can work together with other non-Pakatan parties to implement hudud?” he asked.

The MCA leader said while Kit Siang claimed that hudud was not in the common policy framework and therefore it would not be implemented, Pakatan leaders always adopted the belief that a leader’s statement did not represent the party’s position.

“Thus even if opposition parties claim to be certain, such a declaration cannot be trusted,” he added.

And this was not the only government contract given to companies linked to the minister, he said in a posting titled “Is this whom you want as MP?” on his Malaysia Today website.

He posted documents to back his allegation that the Youth and Sports Ministry awarded the RM30 million contract to Istijuara Sdn Bhd through direct negotiations on Aug 24, 2010.

Under the contract, Istijuara was to provide maintenance works for the National Youth Skills Institute’s facilities in Bandar Penawar, Johor.

Raja Petra alleged that one of Istijuara’s two directors was Raja Nong Chik’s 26-year old daughter, Raja Farhana.

“She owns 399,999 of the 400,000 shares in the company, which makes her the sole owner of the company,” he wrote.

Claiming that he had known Raja Nong Chik since the 1980s, Raja Petra said that he was a successful government contractor and it would be easy for him to finance his bid for the Lembah Pantai parliamentary seat in the coming general election.

“There is also the RM1.5 billion EPF funds at his disposal to build the low cost houses that he is going to offer to Kuala Lumpur residents, particularly to those in Lembah Pantai. With all that, how is he going to lose in his bid?”

Last January, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak announced that RM1.5 billion from EPF funds would be used to provide housing loans to those who could not get them from banks.

The programme comes under the National Economic Action Council’s People Housing Programme as well as the Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s public housing scheme.

Al Capone

Raja Petra posed a question to his readers: whether Raja Nong Chik would be the right candidate to represent the people of Lembah Pantai, claiming the latter got rich at the expense of taxpayers.

“You are better off with Al Capone,” he said, referring to the infamous Chicago mobster of the Roaring 20s.

Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar told FMT it was shameful that EPF funds were abused to buy votes.

“At the same time, the poor house buyers will be charged the exorbitant interest rate of 6.5%, which will put them in debt for decades,” she said.

She declined to comment on the allegations against Istijuara.

FMT made several unsuccessful attempts to reach Raja Nong Chik for his comments.

Also read:

Is this whom you want as your MP?

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) ended 25.03 points or 1.6% lower at 1,536.04 – the lowest since end-February – after moving between 1,535.05 and 1,558.25 throughout the day.

Technically, the FBM KLCI index has hit the immediate support level of 1,555, as external vibes continued to be dragged down by Greece, HwangDBS Vickers said.

“Worries over the European debt crisis, particularly that of Greece, continued to weigh on market sentiment,” said Mercury Securities head of research Edmund Tham.

He said the prolonged political crisis had pushed the country to the verge of bankruptcy and Greece could exit from the euro-zone.

The country’s move to hold a fresh election has given investors another reason to be cautious despite several days of equity losses, he told Bernama.

The Finance Index erased 151.15 points to 13,760.01, the Plantation Index fell 207.89 points to 8,156.61 and the Industrial Index shed 56.46 points to 2,686.9.

The FBM Emas Index dwindled 180.09 points to 10,493.48, the FBM Mid 70 Index plunged 215.1 points to 11,434.28 and the FBM Ace Index dipped 109.62 points to 4,287.56.

Losers outpaced gainers 822 to 97 while 215 counters were unchanged.

Turnover rose to 1.33 billion shares, valued at RM2.06 billion, from 1.12 billion shares, worth RM1.64 billion, recorded yesterday.

Volume on the Main Market rose to 885.61 million shares, worth RM1.99 billion, from 797.18 million shares, valued at RM1.59 billion, registered yesterday.

Turnover on the ACE Market increased to 299.3 million shares, worth RM45.09 million, from 190.71 million shares, valued at RM35.05 million, recorded yesterday.

Warrants increased to 123.59 million units, valued at RM13.31 million, from 129.17 million units, worth RM14.96 million, transacted yesterday.

Among top losers, AEON fell 78 sen to RM10.14, BLD Plantation declined 65 sen to RM8.18 and KLK shed 64 sen to RM22.26.

Among active counters, Ariantec Global fell 2.5 sen to 20 sen, Focus Dynamics lost half-a-sen to 13.5 sen but Luster Industries gained 12.5 sen to 16 sen.

As for heavyweights, Maybank fell seven sen to RM8.56, Sime Darby shed 19 sen to RM9.54 and CIMB eased 14 sen to RM7.18.

Consumer products accounted for 60.3 million shares traded on the Main Market, industrial products 216.11 million, construction 36.55 million, trade and services 337.88 million, technology 30.67 million, infrastructure 30.24 million, finance 62.07 million, hotels 1.66 million , properties 65 million, plantations 32.26 million, mining 15,500, REITs 9.17 million and closed/fund 31,000.

- Bernama

Desas-desus PRU 13

PETALING JAYA: Menjelang pilihanraya umum 13, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak memimpin ramai senarai menteri serta ahli parlimen yang sudah empat penggal atau hampir 20 tahun memegang jawatan.

Jika Najib mengekalkan mereka, tranformasi parti sebagaimana dilaung-luangkannya hanya menjadi sia-sia.

Mendahului senarai tersebut tidak lain tidak bukan ialah Najib sendiri yang menjadi Menteri Besar Pahang pada usia 32 tahun pada 1982 hingga 1986. Beliau sudah tujuh penggal menajdi wakil rakyat Umno.

Manakala Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin sudah lapan penggal sejak  ahli Parlimen Pagoh pada 1978.

Tetapi wakil rakyat Umno paling lama yang masih berkhidmat ialah Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah sejak tahun 1969 lagi.

Pemimpin kedua paling lama Umno ialah Ketua Menteri Sarawak, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud yang mula menjadi ahli Parlimen Samarahan pada 1970.

Beberapa menteri sekarang  juga boleh dianggap cukup lama terutama Datuk Seri Rais Yatim yang menjadi menjadi kabinet semasa Tun Razak Hussein menjadi Perdana Menteri.

Selain beliau, termasuk dalam senarai tersebut ialah Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Aziz (Menteri Jabatan Perdana Menteri), Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed (Menteri Perdagangan Antarabangsa dan Perindustrian),  dan Datuk Seri Noh Omar (Menteri Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani.

Tidak terkecuali dengan Menteri Besar Pahang, Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakub dan Datuk Ghani Othman, Menteri Besar Johor.

`Kereta Mercedes’

Manakala bekas menteri yang masing menjadi ahli parlimen Umno ialah Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar (Kota Tinggi), Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad (Kangar), Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (Gua Musang) dan Datuk Seri Shahrir Samad (Johor Baru).

Ini tidak termasuk senarai Adun di seluruh negara yang lebih 20 tahun memegang jawatan itu.

Mengulas perkara tersebut, tokoh politik veteran politik Umno, Datuk Tengku Mahmud Mansor berkata, Umno memerlukan 60 hingga 70 muka baru yang berumur bawah 50 tahun bertanding dalam PRU 13.

“Tidak boleh meletakkan orang muda seratus peratus, biar 30 peratus orang lama. Ini gandingan terbaik Umno,” katanya yang menjadi wakil rakyat Umno selama tujuh penggal atau 30 tahun.

Mengenai perlukah Umno terus mencalonkan pemimpin veteran, Tengku Mahmud yang pernah menjadi Timbalan Menteri Perusahaan Utama berkata,  pertimbangan perlu dibuat mengikut pertimbangan semasa.

“Jika rakyat masih memerlukan mereka, beliau perlu bertanding. Dalam politik usia tidak menjadi ukuran sebaliknya prestasi dan kemampuan.

“Orang lama itu seperti kereta Mercedes. Walaupun sudah antik tetapi tetap disukai orang,” katanya.

He never speaks to the media and only rarely appears in public with his wife. He skipped her inauguration in 2005, drawing media wrath for watching the event on TV at his Berlin university. A German newspaper once said he was as “invisible as a molecule.” His surname means “angry” or “sour.”

He has made headlines for his frugality, too. In April, he flew alone on a budget airline to Italy, where he and Merkel were to holiday, instead of paying a token fee to accompany her on a government jet, according to German media reports.

As his wife stands in the international klieg lights amid her long-running battle to tame the euro-zone’s economic crisis, Sauer, 63, seems happy to remain unknown outside his field. “Thanks for your interest,” he e-mailed, declining an interview request. The government and Merkel’s spokesman also declined to comment.

Friends and associates say the German media have Sauer all wrong. They describe not a grump, but rather a down-to-earth man with a dry sense of humor. They say his roots in a small mining town behind the Iron Curtain in the former East Germany underpin a grounded attitude that makes him a valuable sounding board for a spouse with one of Europe’s toughest jobs.

“The clichés that circulate in the German media about Joachim Sauer are a total fallacy,” says Reinhold Messner, a renowned mountain climber who has hiked with Sauer and Merkel in the Alps. “The fact is that he’s his own man. He’s witty, he’s profound, he can be incredibly funny, and he’s an extremely bright guy. He’s an ideal counterpart to the Chancellor.”

A zeal for zeolites

Sauer was born on April 19, 1949, in the small town of Hosena, in what just a few months later would become Communist East Germany. He met Merkel in 1981. She was 27, a graduate physics student. He was 32, teaching at the Academy of Sciences in Berlin.

Both were married. Merkel’s marriage to Ulrich Merkel, also a physicist, ended in divorce in 1985. Sauer’s to a fellow chemist ended in 1983 when he moved out of their flat; they divorced in 1985, after 16 years’ marriage. They had two sons together.

Merkel has not commented on the origins of her relationship with Sauer, but it did catch the attention of the Stasi, the East German security police. According to biographies of Merkel, the Stasi noted frequent lunchtime meetings between the two when both were married to others.

In a foreword to her 1986 physics dissertation, Merkel thanked Sauer for his “critical insight.” Her future husband was a prodigious student. He got his doctorate in chemistry with the highest honour – summa cum laude – from Humboldt University at 25 in 1974, and taught there before moving to the Academy of Sciences in Berlin in 1977. His work won acclaim in the West.

But he was not a member of the Communist Party, which meant he was not allowed to leave the Soviet bloc until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Reinhart Ahlrichs, who led a research group at Karlsruhe University where Sauer briefly worked, described him as one of the top 30 theoretical chemists worldwide but just below the rank of those who tend to win Nobel prizes.

“He’s a major player in the category just beneath that level,” Ahlrichs told Stern magazine in 2005.

After the fall of the Wall in 1989, Merkel moved into politics and Sauer spent a year in San Diego, where he worked at a biochemical institute called BIOSYM Technologies, a company that developed software to help test the molecular structure of drugs. He returned to Humboldt in 1992, and specializes in zeolites – porous minerals that can be used in everything from nuclear reprocessing to medicines.

Though he does not talk about life with Merkel, Sauer gave an interview to a university newsletter in 2010 reflecting on life as a scientist behind the Iron Curtain. He once was invited to the United States to give a lecture, he said, but his superiors said he couldn’t accept, “because I wasn’t a scientist allowed to travel to the West, and someone else would have to go in my place. That was frustrating.”

It was always a challenge to strike the right balance between standing up to the Communist party and staying out of trouble. “The trick was to be able to look yourself in the eye in the mirror each morning but without getting thrown out of university,” he told the newsletter.

‘Phantom of the Opera’

Sauer and Merkel lived together for more than a decade before marrying in 1998, after pressure from the church and some of her allies in Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union. Many thought it was inappropriate for a conservative political leader to be living with someone out of wedlock.

Germany’s first husband is an opera devotee, and shares his wife’s affinity for Richard Wagner and long hikes. Messner says both are surprisingly fit considering their busy schedules.

Merkel is the pre-eminent leader of Europe, but on the international stage she usually stands alone. Sauer only accompanies her when protocol makes it unavoidable, and he rarely lets slip a public word.

When they do appear together, Merkel can sometimes seem to forget Sauer is with her. In 2011, when she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House, she emerged from her limousine and started walking up some steps before stopping, as if she had just realised she had forgotten Sauer, who was rushing to catch up.

While other “first spouses” such as Michelle Obama sometimes speak out on the issues of the day or support favorite causes, Sauer has no public opinions. His determination to stay out of the public eye can sometimes appear hostile.

“I am not going to say anything into your microphone,” he growled into a camera on the red carpet with Merkel at the Bayreuth opera festival in 2005, when she was still opposition leader.

Within a year or two of Merkel’s taking power, German journalists had already given up trying to report on the unapproachable man they call the “Phantom of the Opera.”

‘Important corrective’

Sauer’s low profile means he can live free from bodyguards and journalists, both at his office and at home in the couple’s modest flat, just a few blocks east of where the Wall stood.

He has earned the respect of some in the German press for consistently refusing to open up.

“We had an expectation that if we kept at it, he would, sooner or later,” said political columnist Hugo Mueller-Vogg of mass-circulation German daily Bild. “But he stuck to his principles throughout, and there’s something about that you have to admire.”

After Mueller-Vogg attacked Sauer for missing Merkel’s inauguration, the Chancellor responded in person. “She told me that I shouldn’t worry about her husband, because he would accompany her to all events when his absence might cause a diplomatic incident,” said Mueller-Vogg. “And he has.”

For a transparent society like Germany, “it’s really quite remarkable” that Sauer has managed to pull this off for so long, said a former CDU minister who has spent time with both Merkel and Sauer at their weekend dacha north of Berlin.

Merkel has in the past described her conversations with her husband as “almost vital” and called him “a very good giver of advice.”

“Each of us goes about their job,” Merkel once told Bunte, a German celebrity magazine. “I’m not a housewife and he’s not a house-husband.”

When Sauer sits down to breakfast with her and reads the newspapers at their weekend retreat, he presses her on political issues like any ordinary citizen would, says a German official who worked closely with Merkel in her first term.

“He isn’t involved or interested in the latest political intrigue or machinations in Berlin,” said the official. “She has come into work a number of times and said, ‘My husband doesn’t understand what we’re doing here’. And then there’s a discussion. But I don’t see him as someone who actively influences policy. He is more of a ‘reality check’ for her.”

A close aide said Sauer is “most definitely an important ‘corrective’ for Merkel,” someone she can talk to about other things than politics in the evenings. “He’s someone who’ll openly tell her what he thinks.”

‘Noise nuisance’

And he does speak up when he feels like it. In August 2001, he caused a stir in Berlin when he filed a formal complaint about the noise of an open-air theatre group’s performances across the street from the couple’s central Berlin apartment.

He faxed the authorities to complain about ‘a noise nuisance’ one evening, says Adrienne Goehler, who was then a city government official, recalling how she intervened on behalf of the summer production of “Amphitryon”, a tragicomedy by Heinrich von Kleist.

The production was violating a 60-decibel noise limit by eight decibels. Goehler spent days calling various city agencies to find a way for the show to complete its run.

“He lives in the middle of the biggest city in Germany and was complaining about a bit of noise at 8.30 pm,” said Goehler. “That almost caused the whole production to be shut down. It was grotesque. If he wants the peace and quiet of a forest he should move to a forest.”

The dispute made headlines in Berlin, amid suggestions that political clout might have been used to try to silence the show. Merkel has made no comment.

At the chemistry department in Berlin’s Humboldt University, colleagues and students have been instructed to keep mum about Sauer. “He’s a guy who just wants to be recognized as a scientist but not as Merkel’s husband,” said Sven, a 29-year-old student who says he has known Sauer for about five years.

Others describe Sauer as a strict professor from the old school who forbids conversation, drinks, food or reading in his lectures. Sven said he once heard Sauer crack a joke, but it was so subtle and high-brow that only a few people got it. “It wasn’t even that funny. But a few people did laugh, more out of politeness than anything else.”

- Reuters

State education director Ahmad Tarmizi Kamaruddin told FMT that two officers have been sent to gather more information from the school, students, parents and police on the matter.

“We knew about it since last Friday and our officers are investigating. We’re gathering evidence for our internal inquiry and we’ll also see what the police have to say, as we don’t want to jeopardise their case,” he said.

Ahmad Tarmizi also said that his department was also concerned about allegations of attempts to cover up the case by his department and the school.

“That’s what is being alleged. I want to know who is the officer who is talking about covering up or trying to hide information about this case. Is this person from the department or what? For now it’s just hearsay.

“I want to know. Who is the one who hid this information? How did this happen? The issue is what she actually uttered. Did she actually say those words? If it is true, she should admit it, if she did not, we also need witnesses to prove it. If the school is hiding information from us, why was that done? I was informed that our information was different from what reporters received,” he added.

Ahmad Tarmizi said aside from the police case, the department could take various actions against the teacher if she was found guilty.

“If we look at this case, if it’s true, the teacher can be punished for breaching discipline. We can give her a warning or deduct her pay, depending on what we find. If she really did such a thing, we can suggest to the upper management, the ministry, to take stern action,” he added.

Independent probe

Ahmad Tarmizi assured that the department, as “third party observers”, would follow up on the matter, and added that he had even advised his investigating officers to conduct the probe independent from each other.

Responding to a question, he said the teacher had no prior disciplinary problems.

Earlier today, FMT reported that a teacher at SMK George Town had allegedly used racial slurs to scold a group of Indian Form Five students.

The teacher, Sabariah Ramli, had allegedly uttered the words “Hindu Pariah” and was also accused of deliberately giving high demerit points to the students during the incident on May 9.

She also allegedly ticked off two other Indian Muslim boys for befriending the Indian students.

There were also claims of an attempt by the state education department and the school’s headmistress to cover up the incident.

Meanwhile, National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) president Hashim Adnan declined to comment on the matter.

“It’s only reported online? No hard copy? I only comment on things that have been published and printed in national newspapers and which is already out in the public. Please call my secretary-general for comments,” he told FMT.

Also read:

‘Teacher called students Hindu Pariah’

Instead, China has deployed patrol vessels from its expanding fleet of paramilitary ships to Scarborough Shoal, known in Chinese as Huangyan Island. Naval experts say the intent is to minimize the risk of conflict and contain any regional backlash.

After alarming some of its neighbors in recent years with assertive behavior in the South China Sea, China has turned to “small stick” diplomacy, using unarmed or lightly armed patrol boats from fisheries, marine surveillance and other civilian agencies rather than warships.

Shen Dingli, a security expert at Shanghai’s Fudan University, said the role of these vessels was to demonstrate “soft power” and avoid the impression that China was engaged in gunboat diplomacy.

“Therefore, it is more peaceful and moral,” he said.

Beijing, however, has shown no sign of compromise in a standoff that began when Chinese civilian patrol vessels last month intervened to stop the Philippines from arresting Chinese fisherman working in the disputed area. More such incidents are likely unless the Philippines can provide a counterweight to the challenge, either on its own or with allies, security analysts say.

China’s tough stance comes at a time of spectacular political scandal and swirling rumors of high-level infighting over the sacking of the once high-flying Chongqing Party boss, Bo Xilai.

Political analysts say the ruling Communist Party will be anxious to show that it is has the unity and strength to defend any challenge to the country’s territory ahead of the once-in-a-decade leadership later this year.

Senior leaders vying for top positions will also be keen to shore up their nationalist credentials with the politically powerful military.

Rocks, reefs and resources

Both nations claim sovereignty over the group of rocks, reefs and small islands about 220 km (132 miles) from the Philippines with patrol vessels and fishing boats from each side deployed to the area in an increasingly acrimonious confrontation.

China’s defense ministry last week took the unusual step of denying reports it was preparing for war, but the People’s Liberation Army Daily, the military’s mouthpiece, warned the Philippines was making “serious mistakes” in maintaining its claim.

“We want to say that anyone’s attempt to take away China’s sovereignty over Huangyan Island will not be allowed by the Chinese government, people and armed forces,” it said.

Manila has called for the United Nation’s International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) to rule on the dispute in the strategically important and resource-rich sea. Half the world’s merchant fleet tonnage sails across the sea and around these islets each year, carrying $5 trillion worth of trade.

While Beijing has thus far kept its navy at a distance, the Philippines, like most regional nations, is well aware it would be overwhelmingly outgunned by China’s powerful military if it came to a fight.

After more than two decades of double digit increases in defense spending, China has an expanding fleet of advanced warships, submarines – now the largest in Asia – and long-range strike aircraft.

However, if Beijing resorts to force, it would almost certainly drive other claimants to territory in the South China Sea – including Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia – closer together. Those three countries, along with the Philippines, are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which is creating an EU style-community that also envisions joint security.

Regional nations also have begun to cement closer military ties with the United States. Starting with a trip late last year, US President Barack Obama has touted a “pivot” toward the economically dynamic Asia-Pacific region in an effort to reassure nervous allies of the US commitment as China flexes its economic and military muscle.

‘Containable events’

That means China will likely continue to send a strong message with its civilian patrol boats while keeping its real firepower in reserve, according to security experts.

“It is much easier for paramilitary vessels to assert sovereignty claims with less probability of escalation to armed violence,” said Christian Le Miere, a maritime security researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

“It allows for more containable events and incidents.”

Other Asian nations have also been expanding their paramilitary fleets in recent years, particularly Japan which has a powerful coastguard. China’s use of these vessels, however, is drawing the most attention.

An early indication of the effectiveness of this strategy was China’s sustained harassment in early 2009 of the US spy ship Impeccable in the South China Sea off Hainan Island.

Chinese patrol boats and surveillance ships buzzed and tormented the Impeccable for days, at one point even attempting to grapple its underwater sonar array used to identify and track submarines.

“If China had deployed naval ships, the response of the US might have been more aggressive,” says Le Miere who has studied the use of paramilitary ships in Asia.

For China, devoting more resources to these forces fills an important gap in its maritime power between its massive merchant fleet and its expanding, blue water navy.

Disjointed coordination

Chinese maritime specialists have called on Beijing to devote more attention to the civilian agencies responsible for enforcing domestic law and maintaining order in its territorial waters

The main Chinese government agencies that deploy patrol vessels in the South China Sea and other coastal waters are the Maritime Safety Administration, the Maritime Police of the Border Control Department, the Fisheries Law Enforcement Command, the General Administration of Customs and the State Oceanographic Administration

Other, smaller agencies including provincial governments and local police and customs also send patrol boats and surveillance vessels to sea.

The paramilitaries that China has sent to Scarborough Shoals include the 1,300-tonne Haijian 75 and 1,740-tonne Haijian 84, advanced surveillance vessels from the State Oceanographic Administration.

Beijing also stationed the 2,580-tonne Yuzheng-310, it’s most advanced fisheries law enforcement vessel, off the disputed shoal.

Some Chinese and foreign experts have criticized the disjointed coordination of these forces.

Outspoken People’s Liberation Army Strategist, Major General Luo Yuan, in March called for China to establish a unified coast guard, similar to those of Japan, the United States and Russia.

In interviews with state-controlled media, Luo said up to nine agencies were now responsible for enforcing maritime law which sometimes led to waste and inefficiency.

“If China integrated these forces, it could act more flexibly when maritime incidents occur,” he said.

As tension mounted at Scarborough Shoal, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group warned in a report late last month that China’s poorly coordinated and sometimes competing civilian agencies were inflaming frictions over disputed territory.

“Any future solution to the South China Sea dispute needs to address the problem of China’s mix of diverse actors and construct a coherent and centralized maritime policy and law enforcement strategy,” it said.

- Reuters

The article, Ibuku Isteriku, Bapaku Suamiku (my mother my wife, my father my husband) in popular Malay tabloid Harian Metro on Sunday united Sarawakians in their outrage.

The People’s Association for Development and Education of Penan (PADE) is seeking legal advice on the next course of action.

PADE president Ezra Uda said the tabloid’s “small apology” on page nine of yesterday’s paper was humiliating and not sincere.

In the apology, the paper said it had interviewed certain individuals on the issue (incest) and that its intention to publish the article was to learn from the problems affecting the Penan community and not to embarrass anyone.

Uda said that the apology was not sincere as it was published in a small corner of the paper.

“It should have been published in the front page in bold letters as the article was also splashed in the front page of the paper.

“We are very upset with the wild accusation made by the reporter because it labelled us as an ‘incestuous race’,” Uda said.

He pointed out that the article had a traumatic impact on the community, especially students because they might be ostracised by their peers who might believe the report.

“The article will affect students at universities, colleges and schools and also when they are looking for jobs in the private and public sectors,” he said.

‘Article insulting’

Uda said PADE had approached senior lawyer Baru Bian, who is also Ba Kelalan assemblyman, for advice.

Bian told FMT his firm was ready to take up the case.

“We find the article, if true, to be very demeaning and defamatory to the community. We are prepared to assist them,” said Bian who is also Sarawak PKR chief.

Meanwhile, Penan chief Hasan Sui described the apology as an insult to the community, saying that the publishers did not admit the report was wrong.

“I condemn the report and I wish to state here that on behalf of the Penan community, we want the report to be corrected as it is an insult to our community,” he said.

Echoing his view was Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How, who said the tabloid must retract the article and apologise to all Sarawakians.

“The content of the article is derogatory towards the Penan community and an insult to all Sarawakians,” See said.

He added that the writer of the article, who is from Peninsular Malaysia, appeared to be unfamiliar with Sarawak, and had little knowledge of the Penans’ way of life and “obviously was not reporting facts”.

Both Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu and Senior Minister James Masing also criticised the article.

Describing it as “sensationalised” reporting, Jabu called for a full investigation into the report to determine if there was any element of criminality.

Untrue reporting

Masing said the article was both outrageous and slanderous.

“As far as literature on the Penans is concerned, there has never been any mention of incest in their society. I think the writer who made the claim has very vivid imagination,” he said.

Meanwhile, local woman lawyer Voon Shiak Ni said irrespective of race, it is unjustifiable for anyone to make allegations against any community about their culture and practices.

He added that the report is as factually wrong.

“I may be a Chinese, but I have met Penans and have Penan friends. There is no such practice in the community that incestuous marriage is either condoned or allowed.

“A Penan friend told me that they are not allowed to marry first, second or third cousins, so what more to say about their mother or father.

“We also do not think it is right and fair for any editors to market their papers at the expense of others,” Voon said.

Sekitar Dun Sarawak

KUCHING: Enam usul yang dibentangkan oleh barisan pembangkang hari ini ditolak kerana berdasarkan fakta undang-undang tanpa boleh membuat rayuan, kata Speaker Dewan Undangan Negeri (Dun) Sarawak, Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nassar.

Menurutnya, usul pertama iaitu penyalahgunaan kuasa oleh Menteri Muda Pertanian (Penyelidikan dan Pemasaran) Mong Dagang yang dibawa Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Maradong Ting Tze Fui memandangkan isu ini di bawah bidang kuasa Kerajaan Pusat.

“Selepas laporan dilakukan kepada SPRM (Suruhanjaya Pencegahan Rasuah Malaysia) dan juga pihak polis serta laporan kes diberikan kepada pendakwa raya awam, maka secara tidak langsung pada hari itu juga, kes berkenaan terletak di bawah bidang kuasa Kerajaan Pusat,” jelasnya.

Beliau berkata demikian semasa sidang media selepas persidangan pertama, Persidangan Penggal Kedua Dun Sarawak Ke-17.

Katanya, apa jua kes yang melibatkan rasuah dan jenayah bukan lagi di bawah bidang kuasa kerajaan negeri dan undang-undang Dewan.

Usul kedua pula mengenai kebocoran diesel di Sungai Liku, Miri baru-baru in yang dibentang Adun Piasau Ling Sie Kiong, tela diuruskan oleh Jabatan Pengairan dan Saliran (JPS).

“Kes itu di bawah bidang kuasa Kerajaan Pusat kerana JPS di bawah seliaan Kementerian Sumber Asli dan Alam Sekitar,” tegasnya.

Asfia turut menolak usul ketiga, iaitu kegagalan memberi jawapan bertulis daripada menteri yang dibawa Adun Bukit Assek Wong Ho Leng kerana semua jawapan yang dipohon itu telah dijawab.

“Saya telah memeriksa perkara ini dengan setiausaha kabinet negeri dan semua jawapan itu telah dihantar menerusi faks, panggilan telefon serta pos laju dan semua penerima telah dimaklumkan mengenainya bahawa mereka ada menerima jawapan itu,” jelasnya.

Usul keempat pula mengenai mesyuarat Majlis Perbandaran Sibu, kata Asfia, Datuk Bandar yang dipilih mempunyai kuasa untuk mentadbir kawasan mengikut Akta Kerajaan Tempatan.

“Datuk Bandar atau pengerusi pihak berkuasa tempatan boleh menggubal sesuatu undang-undang berkaitan dengan bidang kuasa mereka atau memanggil sesiapa sahaja untuk menghadiri mesyuarat, sama seperti di Dun,” ujarnya.

Pengangkutan awam

Manakala, usul kelima membabit kesesakan lalu lintas dan pengangkutan awam di Bandaraya Kuching oleh Adun Padungan, Wong King
Wei pula melibatkan Kerajaan Pusat iaitu di bawah bidang kuasa Kementerian Kewangan.

“Kerajaan negeri hanya boleh membuat permohonan, bukannya mengeluarkan peruntukan kerana jumlah kewangan yang diperlukan sangat tinggi,” kata Asfia.

Usul yang terakhir adalah cadangan pindaan pembangunan perumahan (kawalan perlesenan) oleh Adun Pelawan, David Wong Kee Woan ditolak kerana usul itu perlu dibawa menerusi cadangan rang undang-undang pribadi (Private Bill).

“Cadangan pindaan ini mesti dibincangkan dengan teliti dan tajuknya mesti dibentangkan kerana jika cadangan pindaan pembangunan perumahan dibentangkan di persidangan Dun, ia melangkaui bidang kuasa undang-undang yang ditetapkan,” ujarnya.

Dalam pada itu katanya, jika mereka (pembangkang) hendak mencabar keputusan tersebut mereka hendaklah memfailkan usul substantial terhadap setiap satu keputusan bukannya membantah.

“Setiap penolakan usul yang dicadangkan itu berdasarkan kepada fakta undang-undang dan bukannya berdasarkan emosi,” tegasnya.

Menurut Pengarah Strateginya, Rafizi Ramli kaji selidik yang melibatkan 30 ahli pengurusan tertinggi Felda itu menunjukkan lebih separuh (55 peratus) ahli pengurusan Felda tidak bersedia manakala 20 peratus sahaja menyokong penyenaraian tersebut.

Rafizi mendakwa 65 peratus daripada pengurusan tertinggi Felda percaya bahawa proses penyenaraian ini akan menemui kegagalan memandangkan Felda masih belum bersedia.

Ujar beliau, adalah menjadi tanggungjawab Perdana Menteri (Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak) dan Pengerusi Felda (Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad) memberi penjelasan mengapa pandangan dan bantahan pengurusan tertinggi Felda ini tidak diambil kira.

Pada 18 Oktober 2011 pengurusan FGVHB telah mengadakan Mesyuarat Jawatankuasa Penyenaraian Ketiga yang dipengerusikan Isa.

Antara lainnya, mesyuarat tersebut membincangkan kesediaan pengurusan Felda dan pandangan mereka mengenai penyenaraian FGVHB dan penstrukturan semula organisasi yang akan berlaku berikutan penyenaraian tersebut.

“Pendedahan ini mengesahkan bahawa proses penyenaraian yang cuba dilakukan Barisan Nasional (BN) mendapat tentangan hebat daripada kalangan pimpinan tertinggi Felda sendiri.

“Ini memberi gambaran bahawa mereka yang lebih arif dan mengikuti proses dalaman sepanjang keputusan menyenaraikan Felda berpandangan penyenaraian ini lebih membawa keburukan daripada kebaikan kepada Felda dan peneroka.

“Bantahan daripada pengurusan tertinggi Felda ini akan menyulitkan proses penyenaraian dan membawa risiko bahawa ia akan gagal kerana tidak mendapat kerjasama kakitangan Felda,” katanya dalam sidang media di Ibu Pejabat PKR di sini hari ini.

Najib, Isa ketepikan bantahan

BCG adalah salah satu daripada juru runding yang dilantik untuk menerajui proses penyenaraian ini.

Selain menyediakan pelan dan langkah-langkah penyenaraian, BCG juga bertanggungjawab menilai kesediaan dan pandangan pihak pengurusan Felda mengenai tindakan BN menyenaraikan FGVHB dan aset-aset milik Felda.

“Adalah menjadi tanggungjawab Najib dan Isa untuk memberikan penjelasan kenapa pandangan dan bantahan pengurusan tertinggi Felda ini tidak diambil kira dan penyenaraian Felda diteruskan juga.

“Mereka juga perlu memberi jaminan bahawa pengurusan Felda sedia ada tidak diketepikan dan tidak melantik muka-muka baru yang

lebih cenderung untuk mengikut kehendak BN bagi mengisi sebahagian besar jawatan baru di dalam Felda,” jelasnya.

Tags:

Details were unclear but campaigners said the teenager was shot as hundreds of villagers involved in a long-running conflict with a private firm squared off against military officers and police in the eastern province of Kratie.

The Cambodian government has faced mounting criticism from the UN and rights groups over a string of increasingly violent land conflicts, with security forces accused of using live rounds against activists in at least four cases.

Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, who spoke to a villager who was with the victim before she passed away, said: “The bullet hit the girl in the pelvic area and she was dead before reaching hospital.”

According to locals in Kompong Domrey, security forces fired warning shots during the protest but it was not known who had fired the fatal bullet, Ou Virak added.

Cambodia is reeling from the killing of high-profile environmental activist Chhut Vuthy, who was gunned down by a military policeman last month as he tried to document illegal logging, according to a government investigation.

The United Nations human rights office in Phnom Penh confirmed the death of the teenage girl, whose name and exact age were not specified, and said it had sent a team to the Kratie area to gather information.

National police spokesman Kirt Chantharith said he had no information about the fatality but said armed forces had been deployed to the area to prevent villagers “trying to control the land illegally”.

The Kompong Domrey residents have long been embroiled in a disagreement with the Casotim company, which owns a concession to produce rubber in the area, with both sides laying claim to the forest land.

Prime Minister Hun Sen last week announced a temporary suspension of land grants to companies for private development in an attempt to rein in forced evictions and rampant deforestation.

Land titles are a murky issue in Cambodia where land ownership was abolished during the 1975-1979 rule of the communist Khmer Rouge and many legal documents were lost.

- AFP

The developments came as France’s new pro-growth President Francois Hollande held his first talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the main proponent of austerity, to find common ground on tackling the crisis.

Tokyo closed down 1.12%, or 99.57 points, at 8,801.17 while Sydney was 2.36% lower, or 100.8 points, at 4,165.5.

Seoul closed 3.08% lower, easing 58.43 points to 1,840.53.

In afternoon trade Hong Kong was 3.28% lower and Shanghai was down 1.00%.

Greece must hold fresh elections after talks on forming a new government broke up without agreement yesterday, prolonging a tortuous crisis.

The new polls, expected on June 17, follow an inconclusive election on May 6 when a majority of Greeks voted against harsh austerity measures Athens took on in return for a huge European Union-International Monetary Fund bailout.

“We are going again towards elections… under very bad conditions,” Pasok party leader Evangelos Venizelos said after the last-ditch talks failed.

“The Greek people must now make the right decisions for the good of the country,” stressed Venizelos, who supported the EU-IMF deal in a technocrat government formed last November.

In the meantime the country will be run by a caretaker administration.

Most polls indicate a new vote – expected in the middle of June – will see anti-austerity parties improve on their surprising performance in this month’s polls, when 70% of the electorate voted against the swingeing cuts.

Such an outcome would likely see the bailout deal ripped up and Greece default on its debt obligations before eventually exiting the eurozone.

The precarious financial situation was also highlighted when President Carolos Papoulias said about 700 million euros (US$894 million) had been withdrawn from Greek banks on Monday and warned the situation could worsen in coming days.

Despite the global market pessimism Merkel and Hollande, who flew to Berlin hours after his inauguration yesterday, stressed their desire to keep the eurozone together.

Eyes were on the first meeting between the heads of the eurozone’s biggest economies after Hollande defeated Nicolas Sarkozy in last week’s election.

Merkel was a Sarkozy ally and the architect of the European Union’s fiscal austerity drive. Hollande opposed the speed and depth of the cutbacks demanded by Berlin, and wants to renegotiate the region’s fiscal pact.

Germany is committed to budgetary discipline, and Merkel has repeatedly insisted since Hollande’s election that the pact, signed by 25 of the 27 EU countries and already ratified in some, is not open to renegotiation.

On currency markets the euro fell in afternoon Asian trade to US$1.2686, its lowest since mid-January, compared with US$1.2728 in New York late yesterday.

The common currency fetched 102.00 yen against 102.12 yen, while the dollar was changing hands at 80.40 yen, from 80.37 yen.

The Dow closed down 0.50%, the S&P 500 fell 0.57% and the Nasdaq lost 0.30%.

In Europe London’s benchmark FTSE 100 eased 0.51%, the Frankfurt DAX 30 dropped 0.79% and the CAC 40 in Paris fell 0.61% while Milan’s FTSE Mib slumped 2.56% and the IBEX 35 in Madrid slid 1.6%.

On oil markets New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in June was down US$1.33 to US$92.65 per barrel while Brent North Sea crude for June shed US$1.15 to US$111.09 in afternoon trade.

Gold was at US$1,530.02 an ounce at 0635 GMT, compared with US$1,558.71 late yesterday.

- AFP

Malaysians living overseas either for work or study have high hopes that as citizens, they be given equal chance to exercise their voting rights now that their wish has been looked into, including the formation of the Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) on Electoral Reform.

“It’s a good move so that every citizen can exercise their rights. The EC should be more transparent and the move should not invite any sort of dissatisfaction among voters and political parties involved,” said Hanif Mohamed Talha, 40, a Malaysian who has been living in Newcastle for four years now.

The photographer, whose wife Norfadzlinda Ishak is pursuing her PhD studies there, told Bernama via e-mail that the EC must ensure that the voting mechanism be totally secure to avoid fraud and other irregularities.

Akmar Ismail, 38, a PhD student at Victoria University of Wellington, said the opportunity for Malaysians abroad to vote would instil patriotism in them and be a good reminder of their roots, apart from encouraging them to be alert on developments back home.

“When you vote, surely you want something good; benefits for the people, from the party you choose. Although you are not physically present, there are your parents, sisters, brothers, aunts and uncles back home who may benefit from the one vote you give. You look at what the ruling government offers,” she added.

EC chairman Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof was quoted as saying that he did not suggest that only Malaysians overseas who pay taxes be allowed to do postal voting, but there might be some regulations that needed to be fine-tuned.

One could be that they must register as postal voters to be eligible to vote, he said, adding that other conditions could be the length of time they stayed overseas and whether they had come back for a visit.

‘My 1Vote is for 1Malaysia’

However, PSC chairman Maximus Ongkili said it was not possible for Malaysians staying abroad to do postal voting in this coming general election as there must first be changes in the law and regulations.

A US-based bank corporate action specialist, Khairil Azhar Junos, said the Malaysian government should encourage Malaysians abroad to vote in the coming election.

“There’s a disconnection between the government and individuals once they crossed the border to live abroad,” said Khairil Azhar, who has been in the US for almost 15 years.

“I am currently a permanent resident of the US. However, I am still a proud Malaysian citizen and I always read Malaysian online newspapers to keep abreast of the current situation back home,” he said.

He also suggested that the government keep Malaysians abroad informed on the current voting process and how to participate either via secure e-mail or other online interactive methods.

“The government should enable each citizen to register for online or mail voting system with proof of passport, MyKad or birth certificate once they are eligible to vote.

“I hope my vote will secure a spot for my future in the coming election. My 1Vote is for 1Malaysia,” he said through an e-mail response to Bernama.

Faizul Amin Othman, 41, a food and beverage assistant director at Khaildiya Palace Rayhaan Hotel in Abu Dhabi and who has been in the United Arab Emirates for five years, said it would be a welcomed move to allow Malaysians abroad to vote.

“It would be the first time for me to vote since I have been away from my hometown, Selama, in Perak since I started working. I don’t have any problem of voting at the Malaysian embassy or do it online,” he said when met in Abu Dhabi recently.

Clear-cut regulation

Meanwhile, Hulu Selangor MP P Kamalanathan, who is one of the PSC members, said there had been a lengthy discussion on the possibility for Malaysians abroad to vote and on postal voters.

“There should be a clear-cut regulation. One of our neighbouring countries has been implementing a regulation that requires its citizens to be back home every five years and for 30 days to make them eligible to vote.

“We agreed to allow postal voting for Malaysians but the opposition representative was against it,” he said.

Kamalanathan said the opposition was not sincere enough about postal voting for Malaysians, such as for Sabahans and Sarawakians working in the peninsula and vice versa, so that they could exercise their voting rights.

He said the opposition representative in the PSC pushed for and wanted Malaysians abroad to vote, but disagreed to let these people vote by post.

“These people who live, work and pay taxes in Malaysia should be given this right too, and not just Malaysians abroad,” he said.

Bernama

Villagers found the carcass, missing its tusks, in a river in Aceh Jaya district yesterday, said local forestry official Armidi.

The elephants are usually either killed by villagers, who regard the beasts as pests that destroy their plantations, or by poachers for their tusks.

“We went to the site on yesterday evening and found the male elephant in a river located a kilometre away from a village,” he said.

It was thought to have been killed around four days earlier because it was beginning to decompose, he added.

“According to villagers, the elephant had entered a plantation and was lumbering unsteadily. We suspected it might have been poisoned,” Armidi said, adding that investigations to determine the cause of death were ongoing.

“Villagers did not know who took its tusks,” he added.

Environmental organisation WWF earlier this month called on the government to investigate the death of an 18-year-old female Sumatran elephant allegedly poisoned at an Indonesian oil palm plantation in the same district.

WWF changed the Sumatran elephant’s status from “endangered” to “critically endangered” in January, largely due to severe habitat loss driven by oil palm and paper plantations.

There are fewer than 3,000 Sumatran elephants remaining in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, marking a 50 percent drop in numbers since 1985.

Conflicts between humans and animals are increasing as people encroach on wildlife habitats in Indonesia, an archipelago with some of the world’s largest remaining tropical forests.

- AFP

The influential Umno veteran said the Bar’s impartiality was questionable, saying it was now more of a “political party” for its continuous attack on the government when it should focus on aspects of the legal profession.

“A professional organisation should concentrate more on the profession but it is quite obvious that the Bar Council has become a political party,” he told reporters here.

“When it has something to do with law, then you should comment but when you go about campaigning for political parties, then you should become a political party,” he added.

He said the only viable solution to this was to set up a new Bar which would focus on the profession, adding that any other lawyers disinterested in the partisan politics of the current council could leave and join the new one.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Nazri Abdul Aziz on Saturday said the Cabinet and the attorney-general would soon study the idea of an alternative body such as a law academy be formed to represent the interests, welfare and profession of lawyers.

The idea came after many lawyers expressed disappointment in the council’s leadership under Lim Chee Wee at the Bar’s extraordinary general meeting last Saturday.

The meeting was critical of Putrajaya’s handling of the April 28 polls reform rally but many lawyers felt that this reflected partisanship of Lim’s presidency.

Although they were dissatisfied with Lim’s tenure, many said they had no other choice but to be members of the Malaysian Bar. Similar accusation of bias against the Bar Council leadership had been leveled against them in the past.

Nazri had pointed out that those who voted in support of the pro-Bersih 3.0 motion during last week’s EGM were not representative of the over 14,000-members of the Malaysian Bar.

Spokesman for the native landowners Augustine Bagat said the community won’t budge until their problem is solved.

“We will continue to protest even until Gawai Dayak on June 1 as long as the Director of Lands and Surveys does not make any decision on our native customary rights (NCR) land which the department leased to three companies.

“We want to show we are very serious,” Bagat said.

Their protest by camping at the car park has attracted the attention of both the Opposition and the Barisan leaders.

A concerned Balai Ringin assemblyman Snowdan Lawan said the campers were his voters and he was “very concerned with their welfare.”

“I am prepared to mediate between the native landowners and the Land and Survey Department,” he said.

Meanwhile Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen who met with the protesters said that he would raise the matter in the current sitting of the Dewan Undangan Negeri.

“The delaying tactics by the Land and Survey is not helping the natives.

“This is the time when the people are standing up for their rights that the government has taken away their land. They are going to stay here until the problem is resolved.

“We call on all those who face similar problems to come and visit them in order to show solidarity with them,” said Chong, who is also Sarawak DAP secretary.

‘Policy change needed’

He said that this is not the only group that has suffered. Throughout Sarawak there are hundreds of thousands of natives whose lands have been taken away from them.

“This is very unfair on the part of the state government which only turns a blind eye to their problem.

“Actually the government is working in cohorts to take away NCR lands from the natives,’ he said, pointing out that the problems are created by the system.

Chong said only through a change of policy could the problem be resolved.

The natives first brought their case to the Director of Lands and Surveys in January this year asking him to cancel the provisional leases on their land.

On March 17, the same group again tried to meet the director. The director refused to talk to them. Instead he sent a junior officer to deal with them.

Earlier on May 14, the group had tried (for the third time) to see the director. Again the director refused to meet them. A junior officer was sent to talk to them saying that their problems are yet to be solved.

Unhappy and angry the 65 natives – men and women – refused to go home and made their camps in the car park in front of the Land and Survey headquarters to show their protest.

But in the evening, only 30 protesters camped at the car park while the rest went home.

They were, however, relieved by another group in the morning.

“While one group of 30 people goes home, another group of 30 comes in to replace them. We will eat and sleep in the camps.

“We will do it (the protest) for the next few days or even until Gawai Dayak on June 1. This is to show how serious we are,” said Bagat.

Lands bulldozed, farms destroyed

According to Bagat, three companies – Memaju Jaya, United team trade and Tetangga Arkab – were given the PLs to plant oil palm in their NCR land.

One of the companies is allegedly owned by the former Kedup assemblyman, Frederick Bayoi Manggie.

His company is said to have been awarded 5,500 acres of land, the bulk of it is NCR land. The native landowners alleged that their land was part of a deal for Manggie to step down as elected representative.

His place was taken over by Martin Ben.

“Our lands have been bulldozed and fruit trees, rubber gardens and farms destroyed,” said Bagat, adding that the government had refused to talk with them.

Sehubungan itu, beliau menyarankan agar segelintir orang Melayu yang masih menganggotai DAP agar menyusul jejak langkah Tunku Abdul Aziz.

“Saya menyeru orang Melayu yang satu dua kerat masih menjadi anggota DAP supaya keluar daripada parti itu yang jelas merupakan sebuah parti yang tidak menghormati kaum lain,” katanya kepada pemberita, di sini hari ini.

Ahmad yang juga Timbalan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, berkata tindakan Tunku Abdul Aziz itu turut mendedahkan sikap sebenar DAP yang hanya bersandiwara apabila mengambil orang Melayu sebagai anggota dan pemimpin parti, konon terbuka untuk semua kaum.

Beliau diminta mengulas tindakan Tunku Abdul Aziz keluar DAP selepas menerima kecaman daripada pemimpin parti tersebut susulan kenyataannya mengenai perhimpunan yang bertukar ganas di ibu kota pada 28 April lepas.

Mengulas lanjut, Ahmad berkata DAP yang merupakan akronim kepada “Democratic Action Party” tidak mengamalkan prinsip demokrasi apabila mengecam anggota parti yang mempunyai pandangan berbeza dengan mereka.

Malah katanya, ramai anggota dan penyokong keturunan Cina telah meninggalkan DAP kerana tertarik dengan gagasan 1Malaysia yang diperkenalkan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

Ini katanya dibuktikan menerusi kehadiran kira-kira 2,000 masyarakat Cina pada majlis makan malam anjuran Barisan Nasional (BN) di Bakri, Muar semalam.

“Ia suatu yang memeranjatkan bagi saya secara peribadi, di mana kehadiran (orang Cina) yang begitu ramai, itu (Bakri) adalah kubu mereka (DAP),” katanya.

Ahmad yang juga Anggota Parlimen Pontian itu ditemui selepas majlis menyambut keberangkatan Sultan Johor Sultan Ibrahim ibni Almarhum Sultan Iskandar ke Kampung Parit Puteri Menangis sempena Kembara Mahkota Johor 2012.

- Bernama

According to lawyer K Shanmuga, the protesters violated the Licensing of Hawkers and Stalls (Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur) 1989 which was enacted under the Local Government Act.

He said the by-laws stipulated that hawkers are allowed to operate only at certain locations

“DBKL does not issue roving license. The business must operate at a fixed location,” he added, citing by-laws 11(1) and 22(2).

Bylaw 11(1) states that a stall licence should be in respect of a specified site whereas by-law 22(2) states that itinerant hawkers cannot remain stationary in any place except when selling food.

The by-laws are enforced by the DBKL and those found guilty can be fined RM1,000.

FMT had sent an email to DBKL regarding this matter, but had yet to receive a response.

Last Thursday, a group of burger stall operators from an NGO called Malaysia Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Alliance (Ikhlas) set up their stalls in front of Ambiga’s home and distributed free burgers.

They claimed to have suffered losses amounting to RM200,000 due to the Bersih 3.0 rally led by Ambiga on April 28.

Following this, Deputy Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar said that the burger stall operators did not commit an offence since they did not breach the Peaceful Assembly Act.

“What offence? If you want to sit in front of her house without disrupting other people, there is no offence. As long as they don’t commit any offence such as trespassing on private property, we will not take action,” he had said.

Demos had Putrajaya’s okay

In another development Human rights watchdog Proham criticised the two protests held in front of Ambiga’s house as “an insensitive act [that] had unfortunately received the endorsement of some individuals in the federal administration.”

“What is more worrying is the insensitivity of selling beef burgers in front of an individual who is a vegetarian and a Hindu,” the NGO said in a statement.

It likened the demonstration to the notorious August 2009 incident in which a group of Muslims used the severed head of a cow to protest against the relocation of a Hindu temple in Shah Alam.

The statement carried the signatures of former Suhakam commissioners Simon Sipaun, Ramon Navaratnam, Hamdan Adnan and Denison Jayasooria.

The burger protest, carried out by a NGO called Malaysia Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Alliance (Ikhlas), happened on Thursday.  Yesterday, retired soldiers followed suit when they assembled in front of Ambiga’s house and did mock physical exercises, bending so that their buttocks faced the house.

Proham said the two protests were “improper, inappropriate and in bad taste” and that they invaded the privacy of the Bersih leader.

Proham also took the police and local council to task, noting that policemen were present during the buttock show.

“The  authorities, including the local council and police, seemed to have turned a blind eye,  especially towards the  threat issued by army veterans,” the statement said.

“Proham also calls on both the police and local authorities to ensure that the perception of  apparent selective enforcement and justice is not created in the public mind. On the contrary, the authorities concerned should be careful to take proper action to enhance responsible policing and local government enforcement.”

Also read:

Free thosai outside DIG’s house

Now Kabul’s only female driving instructor, she teaches women a rare skill that confronts harsh opposition in ultra-conservative, Muslim Afghanistan.

“It bothers men when women drive,” Naderi, 45 (picture, left), said from behind her desk in her four-room driving school near Kabul’s city centre, decorated with traffic signs and instructions in her native Dari.

“But I wasn’t scared of them then and I am not scared of them now,” she said, adjusting her green headscarf.

Naderi opened the school four years ago with her husband Iqbal Khan, who as a taxi driver took pity on women he saw struggling to find transportation in a country where many will not speak to men other than relatives.

Women have regained rights such as education, voting and work since the removal of the Taliban and their austere rule a decade ago, but they enjoy far less freedom than men.

Women complain of unwanted gazes and physical harassment on the cramped, crowded minibuses that are often the only method of urban public transport.

When Naderi Driving School opened, Naderi received verbal threats from the more conservative sectors of society, who decry driving as un-Islamic for women. Those have died down, she says, but male drivers often taunt her and try to chase her car off the road, sometimes causing her to swerve dangerously.

Families also bar daughters from driving, fearing it could lead them astray. Naderi’s own two daughters have been prohibited by their husbands’ families from learning to drive.

Taking control of one’s life

A white headscarf wrapped around her wrinkled face, student Khanum Gul Obedi, 46, says she wants to take control of her life.

The mother of two teen daughters has a disabled husband and cannot afford to take taxis with fares of 300 Afghani ($5.50) per ride. She walks for hours around Kabul every day dropping her kids off at school and buying food.

“I never opened a book in my life besides the holy Koran, I never entered through the doors of a school,” said Obedi, who is illiterate like most Afghan women.

“I got married and felt imprisoned, but now I can control things and I feel like I’ve been set free.”

The school once mustered only one to five students for a 36-day course, a precursor to applying for a license.

Classes now number up to 80, and some students travel from nearby provinces. In a room filled with car parts and smeared with grease, Naderi also teaches women how to deal with breakdowns.

Naderi and her husband must read out driving manuals to students in a country where more than 80 percent of women cannot read or write, an illiteracy rate double that of men.

Their work has paid off.

Kabul issued a record 312 driving licenses to women last year, the traffic department said. Herat in the west and Mazar-e-Sharif in the north gave out 64 and 48 respectively to women taught mainly by other women but also by some men.

The government backs Naderi’s school and has encouraged female employees to attend. But the couple’s ads on billboards are often defaced or torn down.

“Boys tease me because I want to drive,” said college graduate Mersal Nawabi, 21. “But I am encouraged by my brothers and father.”

Student Obedi says she would never take driving lessons from a man. “This is Afghanistan. People talk and by having a woman instructor gossip is kept to a minimum”.

As Naderi leaves her school and walks towards her car, a group of men nearby scream: “Hey you! We can drive too”.

“I react to them as men would,” she says with a grimace.

“Once I got out of my car, yelled back and slapped one so hard he bled. Then I got back into the car to teach the girls”.

- Reuters

This was a query raised by Bersih’s leaders after Mohd Safuan Mamat, 24, a Bersih supporter, was allegedly hit by police on Monday with a metal pipe.

Bersih steering committee member Maria Chin Abdullah said: “He [Safuan] went to the police station on a voluntary basis, but was detained and beaten up.”

“What is the message the police are giving? You want the people to cooperate, and when they come, you beat them up,” she told reporters at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall.

FMT reported yesterday that Safuan went to the Dang Wangi police station on May 14 to give a statement over his involvement in the April 28 Bersih 3.0 rally.

After giving his statement, he was taken to the lock-up behind the station, handcuffed and detained for the night.

Safuan claimed that a police officer tried to get him to confess that he had smashed a police car during the disturbance.

He claimed that when he denied the allegation, the police officer beat him up with the metal pipe.

Abdullah asked what kind of message the police were trying to convey through this incident.

She also asked about the purported 100-plus list that the police had on Bersih participants involved in the chaos of the April 28 rally.

“If they know the people [involved], they should issue them a letter to ask them [from this list] to come to the police station instead of hunting them,” she said.

She said that nobody except the police seemed to know the identities of the 100-plus participants.

Meanwhile, Bersih leader Hishamuddin Rais said that the group had invited more than 100 people who were attacked by police on April 28 to talk about their experience at the Chinese Assembly Hall here at 11am this Saturday.

Also read:

Police tortured me, claims Bersih participant

“Hanya berapa ribu yang datang dari anggaran penganjur iaitu 10, 000. Banyak banya meja jamuan yang kosong kerana belia meninggalkan lebih awal.

“Najib pun tidak menjamah makanan itu,” kata seorang remaja yang menghadiri karnival tersebut.

Katanya, meja makan di dalam dewan serta di luar juga kosong kerana belia tidak mahu makan hidangan yang disediakan.

Ketua PKR Pekan, Mohd Jafri Abdul Rashid memberitahu, “Itu program politik Najib.”

“Beliau yang datang itu diangkut dari tempat lain.”

PAS pula mendakwa, Najib meninggalkan majlis sebelum sempat menjamah hidangan jamuan petang yang diadakan di dewan Majlis Daerah Pekan.

The Socialist Hollande jetted to Berlin only hours after being sworn in to meet Merkel, a conservative, for the first time, arriving over an hour late after his plane was hit by lightning and he was forced to return briefly to Paris.

The meeting was being closely watched for signs the leaders of Europe’s biggest economies will be able to move beyond a war of words over how to resolve the debt crisis that now threatens to tear apart the 13-year-old currency bloc.

Hollande sharply criticised Merkel during his election campaign for insisting on tough austerity to bring down suffocating debt levels across the euro zone. She in turn had backed Hollande’s rival, conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

Supported by others in southern Europe, Hollande has vowed to shift the focus to growth and reopen a tough new set of budget rules that Merkel and other EU leaders agreed to adopt earlier this year – a step considered taboo in Berlin.

“I said it during my election campaign and I say it again now as president that I want to renegotiate what has been agreed to include a growth dimension,” Hollande told a joint news conference with Merkel at the Chancellery in the German capital.

Merkel’s five-year double act with Sarkozy earned the duo the moniker “Merkozy” for their close cooperation during Europe’s debt crisis. The new Franco-German couple – referred to by some as “Merkollande” – took care to play down their differences yesterday, hoping to send a signal of unity at a time when speculation is growing that Greece may have to exit the euro zone and return to the drachma.

“Growth has to feed through to the people. And that’s why I’m happy that we’ll discuss different ideas on how to achieve growth,” Merkel said.

They said the goal was to present joint proposals at a European Union summit in late June.

Growth pact

Instead of reopening Merkel’s “fiscal compact”, they are expected to complement it with a new “growth pact”.

Berlin has already signaled it is open to several ideas favoured by Hollande, including more flexible use of EU structural aid, a bigger role for the European Investment Bank and the introduction of “project bonds” to foster investments in infrastructure like transportation and energy networks.

But most economists agree that these steps will make little difference to countries like Greece, which is in its fifth year of recession and has seen unemployment surge to 22%.

That means Germany is likely to come under pressure to take additional steps, like giving struggling euro countries more time to reduce their deficits, a step it has so far resisted for fear of spooking jittery financial markets.

Although the reserved Merkel learned over time to work with the impulsive Sarkozy, her advisers often complained about his erratic behaviour and some believe she will ultimately form a closer bond with the more outwardly cautious Hollande.

The two were born less than a month apart, grew up in religious households and both scorn the flashy styles of their more charismatic predecessors, Sarkozy and Gerhard Schroeder.

Hollande noted that French and German leaders of different political stripes had a long history of working well together to promote the common European project, referring to Schroeder and Jacques Chirac, as well as to Helmut Kohl and Francois Mitterrand, and Helmut Schmidt and Valery Giscard d’Estaing.

After the news conference, the two leaders dined on lamb schnitzel and asparagus on the eighth floor of the Chancellery, overlooking the Tiergarten park and the Reichstag parliament building. Aides said they had a broad conversation on topics ranging from economic and foreign policy to bilateral issues.

Hollande later flew back to Paris. He is due in Washington later in the week to meet US President Barack Obama ahead of G8 and NATO summits at Camp David and Chicago.

Hollande finds himself in the hot seat from day one. Earlier on Tuesday, Greece abandoned a nine-day hunt for a government and called a new election that could hand victory next month to leftists opposed to the terms of the country’s EU/IMF bailout.

A growing number of policymakers in Europe have warned over the past week that if Greece does not stick to the budget cuts and structural reforms agreed with its international lenders, it may have no future in the currency bloc.

Both Merkel and Hollande said they wanted Athens to remain a part of the euro project and stood ready to explore ways to support the Greek economy so it could return to growth: “Like Mrs Merkel, I want Greece to remain in the euro zone,” Hollande said.

- Reuters

If you do, then head down to Ampang as a coalition of 20 Indian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are planning to set up a thosai stall in front of the Deputy Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar’s residence on May 20.

Urging the public to attend the event, the movement dubbed WargaAMAN, said the stall would provide free thosai to all this Sunday, starting 10am, at Jalan 2/7G, Taman Bukit Teratai, Ampang.

WargaAMAN secretary S Barathidasan claimed that the event had “no connection” with the burger stall set up by some traders in front of Bersih co-chairperson S Ambiga’s house last week.

Last Thursday, a group of burger sellers staged a protest in front of Ambiga’s house by distributing 200 burgers.

Organised by an NGO called Malaysia Small and Medium Entrepreneurs Alliance (Ikhlas), they set up the stall to show their displeasure over the April 28 Bersih rally, which Ikhlas claimed had disrupted their livelihood.

The NGO alleged that burger stall owners had suffered losses amounting to RM200,000 due to the rally, concentrated in certain parts of the federal capital.

Subsequently, Khalid, when asked why the police did not act against the burger stall owners, had replied that it was not wrong to sit in front of anyone’s house provided they did not disturb the occupants of the dwelling.

The DIG had said that there was nothing wrong with protesting outside a person’s house as long as the occupants are not disturbed.

“What offence? If you want to sit in front of her (Ambiga’s) house without disrupting other people, there is no offence.

“As long as they don’t commit any offence such as trespassing on private property, we will not take action,” Khalid had told a press conference in reference to the “burger protest.”

WargaAMAN, however, is firm that the event in front of Khalid’s house this Sunday would not be a protest but more of a thosai promotional event.

“We plan to promote thosai… Malaysians seems to have forgotten about the dish which had been classified as a heritage food by the Malaysian Heritage Department

“So, the event will be more of an awareness campaign… it is more to introduce the dish than a protest,” added Barathidasan.

Apart from a free thosai meal, the public would also be taught how to make good thosai.

“Since Khalid had said what he said, we chose his house. This is the assurance he gave. Moreover he is the number two cop in the country… it would be very safe outside his house,” he quipped.

‘Licence to grill’

In a related development, another NGO condemned the vulgar aerobic exercise staged outside Ambiga’s house.

Persatuan Kebajikan, Sosial Gemilang Puchong president V Rameshwaran said he was apalled that ex-servicemen could stoop so low.

“This is disgraceful, these men are supposed to be role models for the younger generation. It is a shame that they chose to behave in such a crude manner.

“It is acts like these that upset the public and turn Malaysia into a laughing stock. It will also make the people angrier with Barisan Nasional,” he told FMT.

Rameshwaran said Ambiga was defending the constitutional rights of Malaysians, including that of the ex-servicemen who staged the lewd protest.

As for the police’s justification for not acting against the “burger” protest, he suggested that stall owners whose premises were demolished by DBKL should set up stalls outside the houses of the mayor and Khalid.

“This is wonderful news. Now everyone has the ‘licence to grill’ outside anyone’s house, including that of the mayor, police chief, prime minister and ministers,” he said.

Also read:

Khalid orders ‘thosai telur’

With international market prices for metals high, informal “wildcat” mining has been on the rise in recent years in countries like Bolivia, Colombia and Peru, itself one of the largest producers of silver, copper and gold.

Mining investments in those countries are expected to reach some $300 billion in 2020, according to the Inter-American Mining Society.

But over 160 mining conflicts have erupted across the region amid growing opposition from locals against projects they consider a threat to the environment, the Observatory of Mining Conflicts in Latin America says.

During the past decade, the price of gold went from US$270 to between US$1,600-1,800 per ounce, as people rushed to convert their cash into the precious metal seen as a safe investment during the global economic crisis.

And the price of copper is at an all-time high thanks to China’s insatiable appetite for it.

Unlicensed mining, especially for gold, has already killed hundreds of people and devastated thousands of hectares (acres) in the Amazon forest, where miners have set up camps that destroy everything in their path.

To extract each ounce of gold, it takes two or three ounces of mercury, which fouls waterways after being poured into rivers from the mining sites. In their search for water, the miners raze tropical forests using bulldozers.

The phenomenon has also sown disaster among the local population, with thousands of men, women and children exploited and living in squalid camps with no schools or health centers.

Fortune hunters

In Peru, an estimated 110,000 to 150,000 people work in illegal mines, while a thousand children are sexually exploited in brothels known locally as “prostibars” in the southeastern province of Madre de Dios, according to Save The Children.

The practice is particularly widespread in the improvised mining camps, where fortune-hunter try to make a living from the illegal exploitation of precious metals.

“There are dozens of prostibars, filled with hundreds of girls who were told they would make a lot of money,” said Teresa Carpio, director of Save the Children in Peru.

“It’s total exploitation of a human being. Living conditions are appalling and all human values are perverted.”

Indigenous and black communities have long used child workers for gold mining. And an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 children currently work in small-scale mining in Colombia, according to Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM) data.

In Madre de Dios, one of the poorest regions of Peru, about 18 tonnes of gold are produced per year, while some 20,000 hectares of tropical forest are destroyed.

Thousands of people in Colombia have started exploiting abandoned mines in the northwestern department of Antioquia and Choco. In Bolivia, about 10,000 people make a living off the illegal mining of gold in extreme conditions, ARM says.

The growing thirst for mineral resources makes Latin America one of the most attractive regions for investment, set to dominate world production of precious metals by 2020.

Today, Latin America accounts for 45% of global copper production, 50% of silver and 20% of gold.

But several commercial mining projects have been put on hold in Chile, Peru and Argentina, as local communities have fought for their rights to prior consultation under the International Labor Organization’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention.

The Peruvian government is finalizing a deal with US mining giant Newmont about a proposed US$4.8 billion gold mine that has sparked violent protests.

The Conga project was suspended last year after a worker strike over adverse environmental impacts that many in the region fear will result from the planned mining project in the Cajamarca area of northern Peru.

In the northern Argentine town of Famatina, Canada’s Osisko Mining Corp had to put its open pit gold mining project on hold after protests due to concerns over water consumption and pollution.

Canadian mining group Goldcorp had to stop work at Chile’s northern El Morro mine, which holds promising gold and copper reserves, for not having consulted indigenous populations.

“It is necessary that the economic model and productive activities comply with current legislation, that development is sustainable and consistent with the rights of the people who inhabit the areas they want to exploit,” said Consuelo Labra of the Citizen Observatory in Chile.

- AFP

Set up by Komas (Popular Communications for Human Rights in Malaysia), ‘JOM Pantau PRU13′ (www.pru13.info) is a website dedicated to getting Malaysians to report on suspicious polls-related incidents.

According to Komas coordinator A Prakkash, incidents include the putting-up of political party flags before elections, and even vote-buying.

After these reports were made, a team of volunteers would then verify to see if they are genuine.

Following this, verified reports would then be forwarded to relevant government agencies, such as the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

“We have about 116 volunteers all over the country helping us in this. They will look into it before the election and help us on nomination day as well as during the election campaign,” Prakkash said.

He added that since the website was launched on Feb 10 this year, a total of 193 reports had been filed.

The site currently has a list of filed reports, with an accompanying Google Map pinpointing them for perspective.

People can also send reports via SMS at  013-7711071 , or call  03-22824105 . Tweets can also be linked with the #jom_pantau hashtag.

The government has set a growth target of 7.5% for 2012, fearing that anything below that level could trigger mass unemployment and cause widespread unrest in the world’s second-largest economy.

Analysts had been predicting the economy would bottom out in the second quarter of 2012, before rebounding in the last six months, but data released last week indicate that the slowdown may be more intense and lasting.

“It’s quite worrisome, and worse than before. It increasingly looks like we’re seeing a very broad-based slowdown,” said Zhou Hao, an analyst with ANZ Bank in Shanghai.

“We will definitely see more reserve ratio cuts in the coming months, and there may also be more spending.”

Last Saturday, China’s central bank stepped in to reduce amount of cash banks are required to keep in reserve for the third time since last year.

The move came after data last Friday showed the output from the country’s millions of factories and workshops hit a near three-year low in April, with imports virtually flat, showing a stagnant local economy.

Yesterday’s news that investment from crisis-battered Europe tumbled nearly 30% this year from the same period a year ago added to the gloom.

Economists expect the central bank to cut the reserve ratio further, freeing up the money that banks can lend to their clients to try to kickstart the economy, but they questioned whether that would be enough.

“There is not much the government can do,” said Andy Xie, an independent economist based in Shanghai.

“Even if they reduce the required reserve ratio again, who are the banks going to lend the money to? Banks use land as collateral, and when the price of land goes down the way it does now, the amount of loans goes down too.”

Muddled signals

Growth in China fell to 8.1% in the first quarter from 9.7% a year earlier as domestic demand drops and Europe’s debt woes curb business activity.

Economists say growth could be even ease further in the second quarter, and there have been accusations China has been too slow to react to the cooling.

“A more assertive monetary policy is now needed,” research firm IHS Global Insight said in a recent note.

“We believe the government will step up efforts to stimulate the economy, even as genuine concerns remain regarding the very real possibility of over-stimulating.”

The government got its fingers burned with fiscal expansion from late 2008 onwards, as it loosened the purse strings to try to mitigate the impact of the global crisis on its export-dependent economy.

Beijing launched a spending package of four trillion yuan (US$630 million based on current exchange rates), kickstarting higher growth – but also fuelling higher prices.

“The government will be more cautious than in 2008, because of the problems it created then, especially in the form of inflation,” said ANZ’s Zhou.

Another problem is that policy-makers in Beijing largely have to act on the same economic statistics available to everyone else, and these data often provide muddled signals about the real state of the economy.

Beyond the immediate crisis, China needs bolder and more comprehensive reform of an economy still stuck somewhat in its socialist past, according to Xie.

“What China needs is structural reforms. The government needs to improve efficiency by reducing the state sector. The state sector is too big, and it is wasting tremendous amounts of money,” he said.

“A lot of the growth right now is just waste. The government needs to have another attitude. It needs to change. Otherwise the problems will just mushroom.”

- AFP

Sony Pictures Entertainment yesterday unveiled plans to put Sorkin, who wrote Facebook film “The Social Network”, behind the screenplay of what will be a major release for the movie studio.

“There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin. In his hands, we’re confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining, and polarising,” Amy Pascal, co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, said in a statement.

Sorkin will adapt Isaacson’s best-selling biography that topped book charts and became the top-seller of 2011 following Jobs’ death last October after a long battle with cancer.

Sorkin won a best adapted screenplay Oscar for his work on “Social Network” in 2011, and was nominated for a best writing Oscar in 2012 for “Moneyball”.

He also penned TV political drama “The West Wing” and is the creator of HBO’s upcoming “The Newsroom”, a behind-the-scenes look at a fictional cable news channel.—Reuters

Noor Azman Azemi yang pernah berkhidmat sebagai pemandu peribadi Zahida selama tiga tahun mendakwa menteri berkenaan mendeposit wang sejumlah itu ke dalam akaun artis terbabit.

Angka itu merupakan jumlah yang tertinggi sepanjang beliau berkhidmat dengan Zahida, katanya dalam sidang media PKR di sini hari ini berhubung dakwaan skandal yang hangat diperkatakan dewasa ini.

Katanya, purata sebulan empat kali Datuk Seri (Shafie) akan masukkan duit secara tunai ke dalam akaun Zahida. Ia untuk menjelaskan bayaran kereta, rumah dan kad kredit milik artis terbabit.

“Baki wang itu akan diguna untuk belanja Zahida. Paling rendah Datuk Seri akan masukkan sebanyak RM100,000 sehingga RM200,000.

“Namun pada tahun lepas saya tersedar saya telah masukkan wang bernilai RM1 juta ke dalam bank,” katanya.

Hubungan Zahida dengan seorang pemuda

Noor Azman menjelaskan beliau cukup tertekan selama berkhidmat dengan Zahida dan mengakui berlaku pergaduhan kecil sebelum beliau membuat keputusan meletakkan jawatan sebagai pemandu peribadi artis terbabit.

Beliau turut mendakwa Zahida mempunyai hubungan dengan seorang pemuda dan memaklumkan perkara itu kepada Mohd Shafie.

“Saya cukup tertekan sepanjang tiga tahun bekerja dengan Zahida. Dah tiga tahun saya berlakon dan simpan segala rahsia dan keburukan. Ini juga salah satu sebab saya letak jawatan.

“Sebulan sebelum letak jawatan saya ada bergaduh dengan Zahida. Saya bagi tahu pada Datuk Seri Shafie, Zahida ada kaitan atau hubungan dengan seorang pemuda,” dakwa beliau.

Ujarnya, Mohd Shafie dan Zahida kerap bertemu di sebuah hotel berasingan di ibu negara.

Turut hadir dalam sidang media itu Ahli Parlimen Ampang, Zuraida Kamarudin; ahli keluarga Noor Azman, Tengku Intan Tengku Abdul Hamid yang dikenali sebagai Dayangku Intan (ibu saudara); Rosman Yahil (bapa saudara) dan peguam yang mewakilinya, Lateefa Koya.

Beliau tampil memberi kenyataan hari ini untuk membersihkan nama dan keluarganya ekoran satu laporan polis yang menuduh beliau melarikan wang bernilai RM200,000 milik bekas majikan.

Keluarga diganggu

Sementara itu, ibu saudara Noor Azman yang juga seorang artis terkenal suatu ketika dulu, mendakwa keluarganya mengalami gangguan daripada individu tidak dikenali sejak anak saudaranya bebas dari tahanan reman.

Polis menahan reman Noor Azman pada 13 hingga 16 Mac tahun ini untuk siasatan lanjut berhubung laporan polis yang dibuat ke atas bekas majikannya.

“Rumah kami diganggu kerana alamat kad pengenalan Noor Azman adalah alamat rumah saya. Saya tidak kenal individu yang buat gangguan itu, tapi sedar di antara jam 2.00 – 4.00 pagi mereka ada depan rumah. Tak tahu polis atau siapa,” kata Dayangku Intan.

Menurut Dayangku Intan, mereka sekeluarga tampil untuk membersihkan nama dan maruah bagi pihak kerabat DiRaja Kedah.

Zuraida ketika sesi parlimen bulan lalu mempersoalkan pemberian wang tunai sebanyak RM1.5 juta oleh Mohd Shafie kepada artis yang dikenali melalui filem Anak Mami, Zahida hanya dalam tempoh empat bulan sahaja.

“Why Greece must now leave the euro,” the front page was subtitled, with a picture of a euro coin broken in two having fallen off a crumbled Acropolis pillar.

For EU paymaster Germany, as well as top European officials – even at the European Central Bank, the most ardent defender of keeping the bloc together – the prospects of a break-up appear less catastrophic than before.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble last week said that while Germany wants to keep Greece in the euro, it “can’t force anyone” and stressed that “Europe won’t sink that easily” if the eurozone were to split.

In another interview with Sunday’s edition of Die Welt, he said that it would be a “funny sort of government” if Berlin did not at least “prepare for all possible eventualities.”

Rather than sticking rigidly to keeping Greece in the euro, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday it would be “better” for it to remain in the group, adding she did not think Athens would stop living up to its commitments.

And even members of the ECB – the guardian of the euro – appear to be more relaxed about Greece leaving, with Belgian central bank chief Luc Coene talking of an “amicable divorce” in the Financial Times.

Irish central bank governor Patrick Honohan has already said that a Greek departure from the eurozone “isn’t necessarily fatal” and could “technically” be managed.

Nevertheless Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker, presiding at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Brussels Monday, lashed out at “propaganda” suggesting that Greece would now exit the troubled currency.

“I don’t envisage, not even for one second, Greece leaving,” the head of the Eurogroup said after the Monday night talks.

As chaos reigns in Athens, with squabbling politicians unable to form a government following inconclusive elections, Germany is beginning to count the cost of a potential Greek exit.

Economists at Deka Bank have put the bill to the German taxpayer at some 86 billion euros (US$110 billion), assuming that Greece does not pay back EU loans of which Berlin stumps up the lion’s share.

When Germany’s contribution to the International Monetary Fund’s section of the Greek bailout package is taken into account, the tab rises to more than 100 billion euros – not to mention losses at German regional banks.

Private German banks could probably cope with a Greek exit, said Claudia Buch, one of the economists that advise the German government.

Most of the private German lenders “will certainly have written off a portion of the risks linked to Greece,” Buch told Monday’s edition of business daily Handelsblatt.

“Of course, there are other risks that are difficult to put a figure on. But on the flip side, this should not mean that we always need to help out every country every time,” she added.

According to the well-informed Spiegel, Germany – Europe’s biggest economy – feels strong enough even after a potential “Grexit” to continue paying bailout funds to the country.

As for the European Commission, its president Jose Manuel Barroso said he still “hopes and wishes” that Greece can remain in the eurozone but stressed that Athens must live up to its commitments.

Behind the scenes, the tone is tougher in Brussels.

“Brutal messages are being sent to Greece. We’ll see if that knocks some sense into the leaders of the Greek political parties,” one senior diplomat said.

- AFP

The bogus ears were discovered in a market in Ganzhou city in the eastern province of Jiangxi in late March after a customer complained of a strange smell when cooking them, the state-run China Daily newspaper reported.

Food safety officials tested the “ears” and found they had been made from gelatin and the chemical sodium oleate, commonly used in the production of soap.

China’s government has repeatedly vowed to improve food safety as people grow increasingly alarmed about the quality of what they eat, but scandals still occur due to weak enforcement and unscrupulous business practices.

Photos circulating online showed local officials examining a box of the fake ears, which appeared light-brown in colour with a plastic-like texture.

The China Daily quoted an expert as giving a sure-fire method for telling real ears – a popular delicacy – from fake, saying the genuine article should have hair and small blood vessels.

The Jiangxi provincial health department could not be reached for comment on the latest case.

Pigs’ ears are a common ingredient in China. One recipe from the northern province of Shanxi containing them is called “cengcengcui”, which literally means “layer upon layer of crunch.”

The investigation into the fake ears comes as authorities launched a probe into vegetable sellers in the eastern province of Shandong for spraying cabbages with harmful formaldehyde to keep them fresh.

Last year authorities arrested more than 30 people over the sale of cooking oil made from leftovers scooped out of gutters.

And in 2008, milk was at the centre of one of China’s biggest food safety scandals when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products to give the appearance of higher protein content.

- AFP

While it is best left to our imagination as to why the cartoon, roughly as old as the Indian republic itself, created the controversy now, the government’s reaction to the row is alarming and sets a dangerous precedent.

The cartoon shows India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, holding a whip as the father of the Indian constitution, B R Ambedkar, is seated on a snail. It was first published in 1949, and was reprinted in a textbook a few years ago – without anyone batting an eyelid. The cartoonist’s intent was to caricature the slow pace at which the constitution was being finalised.

The government’s decision now to withdraw the cartoon and subsequently review all textbooks could be perceived as an attempt to pacify a certain section of society. Ambedkar is an icon for the cause of the Dalits – India’s former “untouchables” – and is deeply revered by millions in the country today.

But has the Indian state gone too far to regulate the freedom of expression? A few instances in the past are a case in point. In 2011, the government passed a law to regulate content on the Internet.

In June, New Delhi police sparked an outcry with a heavy-handed crackdown on anti-corruption protesters camped out overnight.

Last August, Gandhian activist Anna Hazare was arrested ahead of his fast against corruption – drawing thousands of protesters onto the streets of the capital. And most recently, the government asked a TV network to move the premiere of the National Award winning ‘The Dirty Picture’ to the late night slot.

It looks like the government is taking a leaf out of Mamata Banerjee’s book. The chief minister of West Bengal sparked an outcry after a university professor was arrested for sharing a cartoon which poked fun at her.

It’s strange to see such apparently mild cartoons causing a ripple in a country’s establishment. It is even more curious as to why the Nehru/Ambedkar cartoon ended up being the sole target of the current row, especially when the textbook contained cartoons depicting other leaders as well.

Cartoons offer an interesting mode of academic engagement in classrooms. But thanks to the intolerance demonstrated by some of India’s politicians, students may be deprived of interesting ways of learning about their own past.

So what is the government’s next move? Ban all cartoons from being published in the press? Or ban all newspapers and magazines?

- Reuters

Sekitar Dun Pahang

KUANTAN: Kerajaan negeri Pahang akan meneruskan dasar pembangunan ekonomi yang seimbang untuk menjadi negeri maju pada tahun 2020, kata Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob.

Beliau berkata bagi tujuan itu, sektor sedia ada seperti pembuatan, pertanian dan perkhidmatan akan diperkukuh dan pada masa yang sama penerokaan sektor pembangunan ekonomi baru seperti bioteknologi dilakukan.

Katanya penubuhan Lembaga Kemajuan Perusahaan Pertanian Negeri Pahang (LKPP) mendokong satu daripada dasar yang digariskan oleh kerajaan negeri iaitu memajukan sektor pertanian.

Kegiatan utama LKPP adalah membangun dan menguruskan ladang kelapa sawit secara komersial dan sosial sekitar negeri Pahang.

“Keluasan tanah yang telah dibangun dan diusahakan sehingga Disember 2011 adalah seluas 28,692 hektar,” katanya ketika menjawab soalan Syed Ibrahim Syed Ahmad (BN-Kerdau) pada persidangan Dewan Undangan Negeri hari ini.

Syed Ibrahim ingin tahu apakah dasar pembangunan ekonomi negeri bagi memacu dan mencapai hala tuju ekonomi negeri Pahang.

Adnan berkata LKPP juga menguruskan sejumlah 1,700 hektar ladang kelapa sawit yang dikenali sebagai Ladang Warisan dan pendapatan yang diperoleh disalurkan kepada kerajaan negeri bagi membasmi kemiskinan penduduk negeri Pahang.

Di samping itu katanya LKPP turut terlibat dalam bidang akuakultur dengan kerjasama Jabatan Perikanan Malaysia sejak tahun 2008 dalam projek ternakan udang di Nenasi, Rompin.

“LKPP juga sedang membangunkan projek ikan air payau di Pulau Permatang Pauh, Pekan yang boleh dijadikan pemangkin kepada LKPP dalam industri hiliran akuakultur berasaskan ikan seperti bebola ikan, surimi dan sebagainya,” katanya.

Selain itu, Adnan berkata LKPP turut terlibat dalam kegiatan penanaman padi di daerah Rompin sejak tahun 1997 dan kini jumlah kawasan penanaman padi di daerah itu adalah seluas 618 hektar, iaitu 303 hektar di Paya Kerpai dan 315 hektar di Paya Laka dengan musim penanaman dua kali setahun.

Katanya menyedari keperluan dan peluang perniagaan yang tinggi terhadap industri berasaskan kelapa, LKPP kini merancang menambah kawasan penanaman kelapa seluas 1,000 ekar di Kampung Tanam, Rompin.

Penambahan kawasan itu daripada 62 hektar sebelum ini bertujuan mendirikan kilang memproses untuk menghasilkan produk-produk berasaskan kelapa yang berdaya maju, katanya.

- Bernama

The long-standing debacle resurfaced last week after PAS ulama council chief, Harun Taib, said that the implementation of the hudud and amendment to the Federal Constitution remain PAS’ priorities.

DAP raised the anticipated objections but the issue was swiftly settled on Monday after the Pakatan Rakyat leadership affirmed that hudud would not be implemented as the Islamic penal law is not part of its common policy framework.

But aside from the obvious discord within Pakatan Rakyat, a political observer believes that this is as far as the issue will go.

Azmi Sharom of University Malaya underlined the gap between PAS’ aspiration and the reality of the country’s political landscape.

He pointed out that PAS’ stand on the matter is hardly surprising for a party whose raison d’etat is Islamic principals but also emphasised that to date, hudud has remained an aspiration and not an impending reality.

“PAS has always haboured this aspiration and it is perfectly legitimate to have one,” said Azmi. “But the realpolitik is whether that PAS can turn this aspiration into reality which I think is highly unlikely.”

“Whatever PAS has said is merely a restatement of its core beliefs. It has been repeating itself for a long time and has to remain consistent.”

Azmi added that even if Pakatan Rakyat takes power and doesn’t implement the hudud, PAS wouldn’t suffer a backlash as people would be more concerned about day-to-day issues than an Islamic penal law.

“PAS’s challenge would then be to live up to its other promises like poverty eradication and work to see those through first,” he said.

Political motives

A prominent PAS blogger, Abdul Rahman Talib, meanwhile, emphasised that while hudud is important to Muslims it would be best if the issue was left on the backburner for now.

Rahman, better known as Tulang Besi, explained that hudud was a complex issue which can only be discussed at the right time and he believed that that time isn’t now.

According to him, non-Muslims still don’t understand the religious aspect of hudud as discussions pertaining to it have always been tinged with political motives.

“And even this time the issue began with a misunderstanding of (PAS president) Hadi Awang’s statement,” Rahman said.

“Hadi was misquoted by an online portal as saying that Pakatan would implement hudud for Muslims if it came into federal power and everyone reacted to this non-statement.”

Hadi’s political-secretary earlier this week insisted that Hadi had never made such a statement and demanded that the online portal issue a correction.

Rahman, however, lit into Harun for “stepping out of line and showing disrespect to the party leaders”.

He stressed that Harun didn’t represent PAS and added that his statement was unsurprising considering that Harun was a supporter of the unity talks between PAS and Umno.

“The very people who are questioning PAS’ stand on hudud are the same ones who call themselves Muslims yet reject hudud which is part of Islam,” Rahman said. “And this is the hypocritical Umno.”

Fuentes wrote more than 20 novels and several collections of short stories. His most famous novels include “The Death of Artemio Cruz”, “The Old Gringo” and “The Crystal Frontier”.

“The Old Gringo” was the first US bestseller by a Mexican author and was made into a 1989 movie starring Gregory Peck and Jane Fonda.

Dividing his time mainly between Mexico City and London, Fuentes dovetailed literature and social and political commentary. He remained active and energetic to the end, and was working on a new book. He was 83.

Along with compatriot Octavio Paz, Colombia’s Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Peru’s Mario Vargas Llosa, Fuentes brought Latin American literature to a global audience in the second half of the 20th century. His work was translated into two dozen languages.

“He left an enormous body of work which is an eloquent testimony to all of the big political problems and cultural realities of our time,” Vargas Llosa said of Fuentes in a message posted on his daughter’s Twitter account.

Local media said Fuentes died in a Mexico City hospital after suffering a haemorrhage at home, although some originally reported heart problems.

Nobel candidate

He won major literary prizes, including Spain’s coveted Cervantes award. He was often seen as a strong candidate for a Nobel Prize, but it eluded him. Paz, a close friend until the two fell out in 1988, is the only Mexican to have won the Nobel Prize for literature.

Born in Panama in 1928, Fuentes spent much of his early years in the United States, Chile and Argentina, following his father’s diplomatic postings. He went on to study law and published his first novel at the age of 30.

A dapper dresser and elegant public speaker, Fuentes was an open critic of Mexico’s entrenched political system under the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled the country for 71 years before it was ousted in 2000 elections.

He was also a frequent critic of the US role in the civil wars of Central America in the 1980s and lambasted the effects of US immigration policy on Mexican migrant workers in his mid-1990s novel “La Frontera de Cristal” (The Crystal Frontier).

“They know they need migrant Mexican labour, without which their harvests, services and many aspects of life would go to ruin,” Fuentes once said, calling US policy a farce.

Last respects

Mexican President Felipe Calderon and other political and cultural leaders, including British author Salman Rushdie and new French President Francois Hollande, also paid tribute to Fuentes. His remains will lie in Mexico City’s Palace of Fine Arts today to allow people to pay their last respects.

“I profoundly regret the death of our beloved and admired Carlos Fuentes, writer and universal Mexican,” Calderon wrote on his Twitter account.

“Carlos Fuentes was one of the most brilliant writers of the 20th century in Mexico,” Mexican writer and essayist Enrique Krauze said.

The prolific Fuentes said he never suffered from writer’s block. He told Spain’s El Pais newspaper during a recent visit to Buenos Aires that he had just finished one book and was already starting another.

“My system for staying young is to work a lot, to always have a project on the go,” he said in the interview, published on Monday. “Here among my books, my wife, my friends and my loves, I have plenty of reasons to keep living.”

Fuentes also wrote plays and essays and spent some years as a Mexican diplomat, mainly in Europe.

His critical eye was at work from the start of his career.

Impoverished masses

His first novel in 1958, “La region mas transparente” (Where the Air is Clear), was not only a look at life in Mexico City, now ironically one of the most polluted cities in the world. It also examined how the Mexican Revolution of 1910 to1917 had created a new and wealthy elite but did nothing for the impoverished and indigenous masses.

Fuentes said he always wanted to be a writer, inspired by the tales of Mexico told to him by his grandmothers.

“I think that I became a writer because I heard those stories—all the stories that I didn’t know about Mexico, about my own land,” he said in a 2006 interview with The Academy of Achievement, a US group that highlights the work of leaders in various fields.

“They were the storehouse of these great tales of migrants, revolution, highway robberies, bandits, love affairs, ways of dressing, eating—they had the whole storehouse of the past in their heads and their hearts.”

Fuentes is survived by his wife, journalist and television presenter Silvia Lemus, and a daughter. His other two children died before him.—Reuters

The leader of some 150 affected families, Jaipin Mohigal, said the villagers were warned by two forestry officials who came to their settlement at Kg Koiboton Darat, Tangkarason on May 3 to leave the place as it is forest reserve land.

“I was not there at the time but those who were there tending to their kebun (orchard) told me they (the two forestry officers) came armed with a shotgun and one named Pius Primus warned them ‘Kalau kamu tidak lari dari kawasan ini, besok kami datang tangkap kamu’ (if you don’t leave this place, tomorrow we will arrest you),” he told FMT.

Jaipin, 62, lodged a police report in Beluran the next day on May 4 against the two, fearing that something similar to what happened to them in 2006 and 2007 would take place again.

In the first incident on Oct 3, 2006, forestry officers came to the kampung while most of the villagers were in Kota Marudu buying food stocks, torched 33 houses and poisoned their young rubber trees.

In 2007, the officers allegedly used chainsaws and then again last year their houses were again razed by the same method.

Following a hue and cry after the first incident, Sabah Conservator of Forest, Sam Mannan, claimed the no houses were set on fire by his officers, only huts and this was despite evidence to the contrary by the villagers.

Though no further action was taken by the authorities after the incident, no compensation was ever made or an apology tended to the villagers.

Chief Minister Musa Aman at the time also praised the forestry department officers for decisive action to protect the state’s forest reserves and refused to address accusations that the state government and the authorities were merely posturing having granted large tracts of forested land to timber companies.

Mohigal questioned why the department was suddenly again making a move to take over their land six year’s later.

“We are constantly under threat of extinction here on our forefathers’ NCR lands. I don’t understand why the authorities do not have a heart for our predicament. It seems our culture and tradition is meaningless to them,” he said today.

Helpless Ongkili

The village elder also said that one of the officers was part of the last raiding team that burnt down their houses and should pay “sogit” (compensation) for torching down the 33 houses.

“Under a Dusun tradition it is a serious offence to even make a small mark on someone’s house pillar. What more to torch down a whole house,” said Mohigal.

The status of the land in dispute, like all rural land in Sabah, is contentious given the unique position of natives and their natural rights to the land.

The villagers claim that apart from their native customary rights, there was never a forest reserve established when they started farming in the area 20 years ago.

They claim that the Paitan Forest Reserve issue only surfaced after a huge tract of land encompassing Beluran, Pitas and Kota Marudu districts was parcelled out as a forestry management unit (FMU) to a company by the name of Begaraya Sdn Bhd.

Barisan Nasional leaders were drawn into the controversy when it was found that dozens of kampungs in this area had suddenly been included within and trapped within the company’s land area.

Kota Marudu MP, federal minister Maximus Ongkili has been unable to untangle the thorny issue.

The villagers, mostly from Kota Marudu, opened up the land for farming in the Tangkarason in 1989 and in Koiboton soon after and later applied for land titles.

But with the massive backlog in land title registration and the demand for land by large plantation companies operating out of Peninsular Malaysia, their applications were recorded but never approved.

“We went there in 1989, but around 2000 an FMU was said to have been approved for a large area that included where we are. But who came first? Us or the company?” asked Mohigal, who claimed he heard land surveying, sometimes by helicopter, is still being carried out in the area.

“Our grown rubber trees should have helped many families out of poverty by now. Is this not what the government wants?

“What has happened now is that some of the rubber trees we planted are now being tapped by foreigners backed by powerful people,” said Mohigal who blames his MP for failing them.

Waiting for court hearing

The father of nine said that soon after the first incident the villagers rebuilt their houses and during the 2008 general election Ongkili promised to make their case was his utmost priority.

“In fact he said please vote for me, your problem is my goal to resolve. But after he won, he never cared to meet and hear us anymore until early this year when he promised to resolve our problem after the last Chinese New Year.

“Nothing came out of that except the assurance that our kampungs and NCR lands would be protected and excluded from company land or forest reserve. In fact before that the people around him were telling us not to bother their boss as our case was not under Ongkili’s jurisdiction.

As the incident happened in nearby Beluran district and the MP is Ronald Kiandee, Ongkili should not be blamed, they argued, but according to Mohigal, after the 2007 chainsaw incident the villagers went to Ongkili for help and he told them to make sure he won in 2008 and he would help them.

Last year when the forestry officers came with the chainsaws “even the house of a son of the state assemblywoman of Tandek, Anita Baranting, who is a strong supporter of Maximus (Ongkili), was among destroyed,” said Mohigal who fears a repeat of last year’s incident.

What irks him most is the duality of the status of the land. While the villagers have been told that the land in Koiboton is forest reserve, the Beluran district office on the other hand marks it as state land for agriculture purpose.

The villagers took the matter to the High Court last year and they are now waiting for a hearing to be fixed.

“I am astonished at how things are happening… it seems we the villagers are fighting to move a mountain, but for the big companies they have smooth-sailing. No government leaders dare to stand for us in this fight. I will not give up and we shall see how our appeal fare,” Mohigal said.

If the previous incidents are any indication, Mohigal, who ironically is Ongkili’s neighbour in Kg Bunsadan, Kota Marudu, and the other farmers in Koiboton will rebuild their houses on the disputed land as they have done in the past.

“Something is wrong with the project which is supposed to bring Sarawak’s economy to a higher level,” said Kota Sentosa assemblyman Chong Chieng Jen.

Debating the amendments to the Regional Corridors Development Authorities (Recoda) Ordinance, 2006, Chong said that the project has failed based on three sets of different figures concerning the projection of manpower requirements.

According to the official website of Score, the demand for skilled labour was 200,000 jobs by the year 2012 and 397,000 by 2015. The other figures on labour needs were 570,000 by 2020, 719,000 by 2025 and 836,000 by 2030.

“The year has passed. Have we achieved the level set-up in the official website of Score? No, we are far from it..,” said Chong.

According to Chong the latest statistics on manpower needs were different from those posted on Score website.

“I received an answer from the chief minister to my questions I asked in the last sitting of the state assembly.

“According to the study of Score manpower requirement for skilled and technical workforce conducted by UNIMAS in the year 2009, the projected creation of jobs for the year 2015 is 145,445.

(While) for the year 2000 there will be 301,033 jobs and for the year 2025 there would be 478,228 jobs. In the 2030, the number of jobs is (to be) 667, 238.

“These answers obviously differ a lot from the projections published in the official website of Score,” he said.

Differing figures

Pointing out the difference in the statistics posted on the Score website and the numbers sent to him, Chong questioned the drop in numbers and the government’s brazeness in declaring that Score will create 2.5 million jobs by 2030.

Citing an example, he said the Score website in 2009 stated that the projected demand for manpower by 2015 is 397,000.

But now a few years later, the projected numbers had reduced to 145,455.

“This is a 50% discount. Now if you drive along roads in Kuching, you notice billboards saying about Score creating 2.5 million jobs by the year 2030. How on earth can we create 2.5 million jobs by 2030?

“So which is the figure? 667,238 new jobs by the year 2030 as stated in the answer or 836, 000 jobs stated in the official website of the Score or 2.5 million jobs as stated in the billboards.

“We want to know which is which? (How) can the figures initially projected in the inception of Score differ so much by 50%?

“One can only conclude that these figures are plugged from the air and have no basis.

“Are we in for a failing project?” he asked and wondered about the purpose of tabling the amendments to Recoda Bill.

Cheap electricity

He noted that since the launching of Score in February 2008, three companies with a total investment of RM2.7 billion are already in operation.

But the number of people employed by these companies was only 780. They compromised 393 Malaysians and 387 foreigners in both engineering and non-engineering works.

He said that these companies are heavy industries which have little job opportunities unlike manual manufacturing industries.

“And the reason why these industries are coming to Sarawak is not because of their confidence in the Sarawak BN Government, but more on the supply of cheap electricity which is subsidised by the people.

“We Sarawakians pay for these electricity. Electricity is the soul of Score. No electricity, no Score,” he said, pointing out that the Bakun dam is selling electricity to these companies at 0.625 sen per KW per hour, while it is selling to Sarawakians at 0.30 sen per KW per hour.

The production of rough diamonds worldwide has depleted by about 20% at 120 million carats last year compared to 150 million carats in 2007, New Ziana quoted the report as saying.

Production at many of the world’s biggest mines was falling as supplies of more accessible diamonds near the surface are depleted.

The fall in reserves has been particularly noted in large diamond producing nations like Botswana where mining began in 1971.

Sanjay Kothari, vice-chairman of Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) of India, said diminishing diamond output was worrisome.

“Depleting diamond production in the world is a cause for concern. But we have Zimbabwe and other African countries where the rough diamonds reserve is quite high and remain largely unexplored. We have to tap these countries in order to satisfy the needs of the diamond industry,” he said.

India is the world’s largest consumer of rough diamonds, having imported at least US$11 billion worth of unpolished diamonds.

A recent research by US consultancy firm Bain and Co stated that the use of diamonds may grow at double the pace of supply through 2020 due to an expanding middle class in India and China.

An estimated 65% of the world’s diamonds come from African countries.

Currently, Botswana is the top diamond producing nation in the world by value followed by Russia and Canada.

Zimbabwe is the world’s seventh largest diamond producer and is tipped to become the world’s third largest producer by the end of this decade.

- Bernama

The devices, to be priced Rs8450 (RM478) and Rs9990 (RM565) respectively, will come with free maps of Singapore and Malaysia, two of the most visited places by Indian vacationers.

Unlike the other products, the Garmin devices for the Indian market would have broadcast in Hindi and Indian English.

“Different from traditional navigation devices, which make it difficult to understand the street name or area because of in-built American accent, Garmin has self-developed the technology and was the first to implement Indian accent into devices,” Garmin Asia marketing director Tony An said in a statement.

“We believe Indian English sounds much more familiar and can be well-recognised by Indian people. Furthermore, voice guidance in Hindi will further help in popularising the devices,” he said.

The step was also taken to provide easier solution to the users and direct them to their final destination, said An.

- Bernama

The legislation, which passed 33-3 in the state Senate on Friday and 120-0 previously in the House, is widely known in Kansas as the “Sharia bill,” because the perceived goal of supporters is to keep Islamic code from being recognised in Kansas.

The bill was sent to Republican Governor Sam Brownback, who has not indicated whether he will sign it.

In interviews on Saturday, a supporter of the bill said it reassured foreigners in Kansas that state laws and the US Constitution will protect them. But an opponent said the bill’s real purpose is to hold Islam out for ridicule.

Kansas Representative Peggy Mast, a lead sponsor of the bill for the past two years, said the goal was to make sure there was no confusion that American laws prevailed on American soil.

Mast said research showed more than 50 cases around the United States where courts or government agencies took laws from Sharia or other legal systems into account in decision-making.

Commonly, they involved divorce, child custody, property division or other cases where the woman was treated unfairly, Mast said.

“I want people of other cultures, when they come to the United States, to know the freedoms they have in regard to women’s and children’s rights,” said Mast, a Republican. “An important part of this bill would be to educate them.”

State Senator Tim Owens, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said there was no need for legislation reaffirming American laws that already exist. All the proposed legislation does, he said, was target one particular group – Muslims – for discrimination.

‘Utter nonsense’

“It’s based on fear, it’s based on intolerance and it is not based on understanding of the Constitution,” said Owens, a Republican, who said the measure is an embarrassment to Kansas.

“People will ask, ‘How narrow has that state become?’” Owens said. “How unwelcoming is this state?”

He said non-US companies may be unwilling to do business in a state whose residents object to “anything different than what they think is appropriate.”

Roughly 20 states have considered legislation similar to what has passed in Kansas, said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington. Some state legislatures, including Kansas, have passed laws that do not mention Sharia by name, he said.

Hooper said there was a movement by conservative-leaning state legislatures to introduce anti-Islam bills that have no legal foundation.

“Really, the goal seems to be (to demonise) Islam and (to marginalise) American Muslims,” Hooper said. “Some (states) have passed these watered-down bills and declared a great victory. It’s utter nonsense, but if your goal is to promote intolerance, I guess you won.”

After Oklahoma voters approved a law in 2010 barring state judges from considering Sharia law specifically in making decisions, federal courts granted an injunction preventing the law from taking effect.

A three-judge panel of the US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld the injunction, ruling the law unfairly discriminated against a particular religion.

Sharia, or Islamic law, covers all aspects of Muslim life including religious obligations and financial dealings, and opponents of state bans say they could nullify wills or legal contracts between Muslims.

A report earlier this year showed that nearly a third of Americans believed American Muslims want to establish Sharia law in the United States.

The same report, by the Brookings Institution and the Public Religion Research Institute, showed 88% of Americans acknowledged knowing little about Muslim beliefs.

- Reuters

The consortium, including the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant Tokyo Electric Power and state-backed Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp (JOGMEC), is to invest US$4.4 billion in the Wheatstone liquefied natural gas project in the state of Western Australia, a JOGMEC spokeswoman told AFP.

Japan is heavily involved in Australia’s burgeoning LNG sector and a major customer for its gas as it searches for alternatives to nuclear power following last year’s crisis at the plant, operated by Tokyo Electric Power, or TEPCO.

The Asian nation is the world’s biggest LNG importer.

All 50 of Japan’s atomic reactors remain switched off amid a wave of anti-nuclear sentiment after last year’s tsunami swamped reactors at Fukushima, sending them into meltdown.

The consortium, which will pay about 350 billion yen (US$4.4 billion) for the investment in a project led by US-based Chevron, also includes Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp and shipping company Nippon Yusen, the spokeswoman said.

TEPCO said in 2009 that it would acquire 15.0% of the gas field development rights and an 11.25% interest in the business, which is expected to produce 8.9 million tons annually from 2016.

The utility’s negotiations were put on hold after the March 11 quake-tsunami disaster last year, which sparked the worst atomic crisis in a generation.

But as Chinese and other foreign rivals eyed the gas field project, “the government decided to support the deal through JOGMEC,” the company spokeswoman said.

The move comes as Australian foreign minister Bob Carr arrives in Japan today for talks with his Japanese counterpart.

The deal also comes amid expected customer price hikes at TEPCO, in which Tokyo is buying a controlling stake as the firm faces a huge clean-up and compensation bill over the disaster.

The troubled company has said it will hike electricity rates under a 10-year restructuring due to surging fuel costs for thermal power generation, which had to be ramped up following the nuclear plant shutdowns.

In January, Tokyo-based energy firm Inpex and France’s Total unveiled a huge US$34 billion LNG project in western Australia with annual output of 8.4 million tonnes, serving Japanese and Taiwanese clients.
- AFP

The Obama campaign’s political dexterity was evident on Monday, as it released a blistering video ad recounting how Romney’s Bain Capital laid off 750 workers from a steel mill in Missouri. Hours later, the campaign raked in about US$2 million at a Manhattan fundraiser held by Tony James, president of the Blackstone Group, a huge private equity firm.

The Blackstone Group had been on the Obama campaign’s radar before – as a target for criticism. Last month, the campaign identified a Blackstone partner, Paul Schorr, as one of “eight wealthy individuals” who donated to Romney’s campaign after “betting against America” in “less-than-reputable” deals that led to outsourcing and layoffs.

So yesterday at the White House, Obama spokesman Jay Carney faced several questions about whether the president’s campaign was setting a double standard in dealing with Wall Street, where some executives see Obama as anti-business.

Carney rejected the notion that Obama’s team, in criticising Romney and Republican donors in private equity, had been critical only of executives who had not contributed to Obama’s campaign and that only those who support the president were “totally kosher,” in the words of ABC’s Jake Tapper.

Carney said that Obama’s campaign was being critical of individuals, not an industry.

“There is absolutely a place for a vibrant and successful financial sector … that includes private equity,” Carney said.

Not ‘against private equity’

Carney’s words were echoed by Bill Burton, who heads Priorities USA Action, a pro-Obama “Super PAC” that is spending US$4 million to put out its own version of the anti-Romney ad released by Obama’s campaign.

“The president isn’t running against the private equity industry, he is running against Mitt Romney,” Burton said. “Our ads ask whether the decisions Mitt Romney made creating incredible wealth for himself and his partners would make him a good president of the United States.”

Not surprisingly, conservatives do not see it that way.

The Wall Street Journal published an editorial yesterday that chided Obama for attacking Romney’s private equity work and then fundraising on Wall Street the same day.

The newspaper, an influential voice in conservative politics, said that those at the fundraiser, “many from the private equity world, paid US$35,800 a head for the privilege of dining with the president who purports to loathe Wall Street when he isn’t asking its greedy denizens to redistribute their wealth to his campaign.”

First impressions

Analysts said the attacks by Obama’s campaign – and the counter-punching by Romney’s team, which released a video ad showing workers from another Bain-owned steel plant praising Romney – were not surprising.

Although the election is more than five months away, the analysts said, this is a critical time in the campaign – especially for Romney.

Voters who were not focused on the Republican primaries may now be getting their first long look at Romney. So both campaigns are eager to create a lasting first impression of the Republican challenger to Obama.

“Some voters are just taking a first look at Romney, so the Obama campaign wants to shape the narrative,” said Greg Valliere of Potomac Research group, which tracks political developments for investors. “Negative ads work. Romney should know, since he eviscerated (Republican rivals) Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum with withering attack ads in the primaries.”

Valliere questions whether accusations that Obama is being hypocritical toward the private equity industry were unlikely to gain much traction with voters, who he said already are deeply distrustful of politics – and politicians.

“I think the irony is lost on the public,” Valliere said. “Besides, he’s a politician – what would you expect?”

Romney’s campaign, which wants to focus the conversation on Obama’s handling of the sluggish economy, said the president is trying to distract voters from his own record.

In a speech in Iowa yesterday, Romney blasted Obama as an overspending, “old-school liberal” whose economic policies are damaging the country and delaying critical decisions about government spending and debt.

“What President Obama is doing is not bold,” Romney said. “It’s old.”

There were new signs yesterday of the challenge Obama could face at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate is hovering at just above 8% and the economy is growing, but growing slowly.

A new USA Today/Gallup poll found that 55% of Americans expect the economy to get better during the next four years if Romney wins the election, while only 46% said it would improve if Obama is re-elected.

And 27% expect the economy to get worse under a President Romney, compared with 37% who expect things would become more sour if Obama wins a second term.

- Reuters

New York police arrested Strauss-Kahn a year ago when hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo accused him of forcible oral sex and trying to rape her in his luxury suite at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan.

Strauss-Kahn denied the allegations, saying the sexual encounter with Diallo was consensual. Prosecutors later dropped the charges after losing confidence in Diallo’s credibility.

Diallo nonetheless sued Strauss-Kahn for unspecified damages in Supreme Court in the New York City borough of the Bronx, where she lived at the time.

The countersuit was filed on Monday on the anniversary of the incident and a day before Francois Hollande – the Socialist who took the nomination that Strauss-Kahn was once favoUred to win – was sworn in as president of France.

Strauss-Kahn denies all wrongdoing in the countersuit and accuses Diallo of “knowingly and intentionally making a false report to law enforcement authorities.”

“Soon after she entered the room, Ms Diallo and Mr Strauss-Kahn engaged in mutually consensual acts,” the claim states. “No violence, force or coercion attended their sexual encounter, and Ms Diallo suffered no injuries whatsoever.”

The former international financier seeks damages for his arrest, which included jail time at New York’s Rikers Island and house arrest in an upscale Manhattan neighboUrhood; for losing his job as managing director of the International Monetary Fund; and for harm to his reputation.

No basis in fact

The countersuit seeks at least US$1 million in damages plus an undetermined amount of punitive damages. Diallo, a single mother who immigrated from Guinea, has not worked since the incident due to a shoulder injury she claims she sustained during the encounter with Strauss-Kahn, said one of her lawyers, Douglas Wigdor.

“The counterclaims have no basis in fact and were done solely for public relations,” he said.

Strauss-Kahn’s court filing comes two weeks after Bronx Supreme Court Justice Douglas McKeon rejected his motion to throw out Diallo’s civil lawsuit on the grounds he had diplomatic immunity at the time of the incident.

The countersuit cites claims by prosecutors that Diallo proved to be an unreliable witness, after they concluded she had lied about her past and offered varying accounts of her behavior in the moments that followed the incident.

“It should come as no surprise that Mr Strauss-Kahn is asserting claims against Ms Diallo for her false allegations against him,” one of Strauss-Kahn’s lawyers, William Taylor, said in a statement. “She is directly responsible for his being arrested, imprisoned, and subjected to extraordinary pain, anguish and expense.”

Strauss-Kahn’s legal troubles have persisted since his return to France after the dismissal of the criminal case. In March, French authorities announced he was under formal investigation in connection with a prostitution ring in the northern city of Lille.

His French lawyers have accused authorities of harassing Strauss-Kahn for his “libertine ways” and denied he committed any criminal acts.

- Reuters