Bersih 4 upstages official Merdeka celebrations?

This picture from Malaysiakini says it all. How would the official Merdeka celebration programme look when juxtaposed with such an officially unwelcome mass of people?

URGENT PRESS STATEMENT -- 30th August 2015 -- Bersih4 stays in the vicinity of Dataran Merdeka

The decision to move Merdeka Eve celebrations to Stadium Bukit Jalil was relayed to me by OCPD Zainol Samah of IPD Dang Wangi.

I then passed this information on to the press.

BERSIH 2.0 had no part in making this decision. We were in fact prepared to share the Dataran Merdeka space with all peace loving Malaysians.

The decision to move the location of the Merdeka Eve celebrations was made entirely by the authorities.

The Bersih 4 peaceful assembly will continue as planned in the vicinity of Dataran Merdeka tonight, there is no change in plans.

As we approach the Grand Finale of Bersih 4, we reiterate our commitment to a peaceful gathering of Malaysians united for a better Malaysia. There will be no breaking of barriers and we will also disperse before 12.00am.

Maria Chin Abdullah

Chairperson, BERSIH 2.0 Steering Committee

Another out of thousands of related pictures found in the internet...

Pic courtesy of Pahlawan Bersih

On second day, on the way: Tun Dr Mahathir and wife in LRT train

I don't care about Bersih's demands, I am here for Najib's resignations," says Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

More:

http://peopleinsider.blogspot.com/2015/08/breaking-live-update-for-dr-mahathir.html#.VePpniVViko

The Straits Times reported:

'Malaysia's ruling party Umno said on Sunday that former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has "crossed the line" by attending the Bersih 4 rally, Bernama reported.

Dr Mahathir's attendance in the rally ran counter to a statement he made in 1998 that street demonstrations should not be supported, Umno vice-president Hishammuddin Hussein said on Sunday.

"His action has gone against the values he had promulgated when he was prime minister," Mr Hishammuddin was quoted by Bernama as saying.'

"During his administration, he had clearly stated that street demonstrations were not the approach to voice dissatisfaction," Mr Hishammuddin, who is also Defence Minister, added.

Mr Hishammuddin said Dr Mahathir's freedom of expression had not been curtailed after his retirement, but his presence at an opposition rally was unacceptable.

Mr Hishammuddin's comments came after Dr Mahathir made his second appearance at the rally on Sunday, following his surprise visit one day ago.

He was accompanied by his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, former Umno minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and four bodyguards at about 4.10pm Sunday, The Star said.

He was wearing a checkered blue shirt with a hat and headed towards Central Market, where he gave an impromptu press conference.

"I am here to support the people. This is not about the Chinese or Indians or Malays. This is not about Umno, BN, PAS, DAP or whatever. This is about the feelings of the people." he said.

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Enforced absence from blogging

During last few weeks, there were two funerals (close family members) within 2 weeks, and my notebook crashed and could not be restarted.

Tried using wife's iPad to post something in this blog, but could not get past the heading: just could not get the keyboard activated at the content section. This could be a security feature to prevent unauthorised intrusion, as I was informed by email about the use of iPad to gain access. I just left it at that.

The stock market crashed too, a prolonged one, for one reason or other, and almost all shares lost substantially in market capitalization, and for those who held shares, would have lost at least in book values. Surprisingly, I have yet to read about anyone complaining about the effects on their personal finances. I am pretty sure there are those who speculate, trading on margins as well as contras. These speculators are likely to have their fingers burnt, despite their years of experience. As my friend would have put it: we cannot get past the 'greed factor'. Many people talked about selling their shares prior to the expected downturn, but most of them just loved their shares too much to sell, even for taking advantage of further drop in prices so that they could easily buy back at much lower prices. For those with extra cash waiting to buy, they hope for buying at the lowest, and would have either missed or glad that they did not buy as some prices dropped even further.

Forex exchange rates also worked against our Malaysian Ringgit (dubbed Shringgit) when it dropped to over Rm4.20 against the US Dollar, the lowest in 17 years as well as the worst performer among Asian currencies. Even against Singapore Dollar, it is now over Rm3.00, as compared with their parity in 1967.

Those with children studying in the USA, UK and Australia, are feeling the pinch because the fees and costs of food and lodging would have gone up substantially. While those who are working in such countries and Singapore are laughing because their savings can be translated into more Ringgits.

For the past few days, we cannot miss news about the forthcoming Bersih 4 rally. As usual, the government and police will try their best to frighten the people from participating, so that a lower turnout would mean less support for the opposition, activists and members of the public who are upset with the government. But based on feedback within families and friends, this rally is going to be the biggest and expected to be carnival-like. Let us hope there would not be saboteurs to blame any stupid acts on the organizers and participants, and that the police would not spoil the peaceful event by antagonizing them.


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GLCs: Sink or swim together?

According to E.S. Shankar, just the following GLCs/Statutory bodies having invested in FGV have suffered huge book losses as a result of the recent stock market downturn totaling almost Rm8 billions:

GLC/STATUTORY BODY FGV SHARE #1 LOSSES 
  

	%	No. of Shares	@4.55	@1.56	BOOK LOSS
			RM	RM	RM
Felda Land	20.00%	729,629,800	3,319,815,590	1,138,222,488	2,181,593,102
Felda Asset	13.66%	498,321,192	2,267,361,424	777,381,060	1,489,980,364
Tabung Haji	7.78%	283,710,100	1,290,880,955	442,587,756	848,293,199
Felda Co-operative	5.80%	211,758,908	963,503,031	330,343,896	633,159,135
KWP	5.63%	205,763,500	936,223,925	320,991,060	615,232,865
EPF	5.28%	192,587,200	876,271,760	300,436,032	575,835,728
Pahang State Govt	5.00%	182,407,575	829,954,466	284,555,817	545,398,649
Amanah Saham Bumiputra	4.13%	89,010,989	405,000,000	138,857,143	266,142,857
Sabah State	1.81%	65,934,066	300,000,000	102,857,143	197,142,857
PNB	1.58%	57,803,700	263,006,835	90,173,772	172,833,063
Amanah Saham 2020	1.22%	44,601,400	202,936,370	69,578,184	133,358,186
LTAT	0.97%	35,535,900	161,688,345	55,436,004	106,252,341
Yayasan Islam Terengganu	0.45%	16,455,100	74,870,705	25,669,956	49,200,749
Socso	0.33%	12,200,000	55,510,000	19,032,000	36,478,000
Lembaga Air Perak	0.27%	10,000,000	45,500,000	15,600,000	29,900,000
	73.91%	2,635,719,430	11,992,523,407	4,111,722,311	7,880,801,096

But of course, like in any investments, it could have been bountiful book profits too, during economic boom.

The question arises as to why those GLCs invested in FGV in the first place, especially despite fierce criticisms against the listing of FGV because at the time, it appears to be at the expense of the Felda settlers. Were they under pressure to make up the numbers?  Events since have also shown how the management have invested overseas, buying properties at above market prices and so on.

The recent fall in share prices at Bursa Saham was mainly because of withdrawal of foreign investment funds from it. Was it because of our questionable political situation where the rule of law seems topsy turvy?
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Lim Kit Siang questions the abuse of power under Section 124B of the Penal Code

Police arrests and investigations under Section 124B in the current crackdown against the Ministerial assurances when the law was passed in Parliament that this section will only be used against those who used “violent and unconstitutional means”

Until a month ago, nobody has heard of Section 124B but in the past few weeks, Section 124B of the Penal Code has forced itself into public consciousness as the new monstrous weapon which the Najib administration is using to launch a major crackdown and usher a new Dark Age in Malaysia.

How many people have been arrested or investigated under Section 124B of the Penal Code.

I do not know, but it is safe to say that never have so many people been arrested or investigated under Section 124B of the Penal Code on “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” which can send a person to jail for a maximum of 20 years – and all these police arrests and investigations are against the ministerial assurances given to Parliament in 2012 when the new law was enacted that it would only be used against those who carry out “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” by “violent and unconstitutional means”.

When pressed in Parliament on why Section 124B had not spelt out clearly that Section 124B only referred to “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” by “violent and unconstitutional means”, the then de facto Law Minister, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz claimed that this is understood and even referred to Oxford Dictionary that “activities detrimental to Parliamentary Democracy” means “by violent and unconstitutional means”.

When Nazri presented the Penal Code amendment of the new Section 124B, Parliament was in fact given to understand that it was meant to tackle terrorism previously covered by the already repealed Internal Security Act.

Unfortunatley, what was clear and obvious to the Law Minister in 2012 at the time of the passage of Section 124B in Parlaiment is no more “clear and obvious” whether to the new Attorney-General or the Inspector-General of Police as I dare say that all the police arrests and investigations under Section 124B in the past month do not have the element of “violent or unconstitutional means”.

It would appear that we have reached a stage where anyone who wants to have a change of Prime Minister or government is liable to be investigated, arrested and charged under Section 124B for “activities detrimental to Parliamentary Democracy” which is a total betrayal of both the Parliamentary and Ministerial intention in enacting Section 124B of the Penal Code.

The majority of Malaysians (as the Umno/BN government is a minority government winning only 47 per cent of the popular vote in the 13th General Election) would want to see Datuk Seri Najib Razak toppled as Prime Minister and the UMNO/BN Government replaced as well.

But this cannot bring them under the ambit of Section 124B of the Penal Code for “activities detrimental to parliamentary democracy” which can send those guilty under this section to 20 years in jail because they reject any violent or unconstitutional means of change and are only committed to peaceful, democratic and constitutional means of change or toppling of the Prime Minsiter or government.

If a law which is meant to deal with the advocates of violent and unconstitutional means of political change could be used on those advocating peaceful, democratic and constitutional means of political change, it would even mean the death of democracy itself!

More:

http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2015/08/14/police-arrests-and-investigations-under-section-124b-in-the-current-crackdown-against-the-ministerial-assurances-when-the-law-was-passed-in-parliament-that-this-section-will-only-be-used-against-thos/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+limkitsiang%2Frss+%28Lim+Kit+Siang%29

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To give an idea of Rm2.6 billion (British not American)

To put in figures: 2,600,000,000 in British billions, and not in terms of American billions: 260,000,000. 1 American billion is only 100 million, unlike British 1000 million.

In Chinese terms, 'yat yik' or 1 'yik' means 100 million, or 1 American billion. So Rm2.6 billion is actually 26 'yik' or 26 American billions.

I can still remember Nurul Izzah posting a picture of a container truck with notes at the side to try and give a perspective of how much if the amount were in Rm1 notes. Not sure if it is actually accurate when put to the test. But this is another perspective...

Pic courtesy of Zunar Kartonis Fan Club

Abacus users might need this for calculating the 2.6 billions.

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