Isnin, 18 November 2013

Suara Sri Andalas

Suara Sri Andalas


Belanjawan 2014: Selangor Belanja RM2.28 bilion Rizab Simpanan

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 10:52 PM PST

SHAH ALAM 19 NOV: Kerajaan Selangor akan membelanjakan RM2.28 bilion rizab simpanan bagi perbelanjaan pembangunan dan pengurusan pada 2014, kata Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim.

Daripada jumlah itu, katanya, sejumlah RM1.225 bilion diperuntuk kepada perbelanjaan mengurus yang meliputi 53.7 peratus manakala bakinya RM1.055 bilion untuk perbelanjaan pembangunan.

Membentang Belanjawan Berimbang Negeri Selangor 2014 , beliau berkata, sebanyak RM430 juta dibelanja bagi membiayai pembangunan enam inisitif melibatkan kepentingan rakyat. "Antaranya ialah RM150 juta bagi pembinaan Jambatan Ketiga Klang, pembinaan rumah mampu milik (RM100 juta) dan pembinaan beberapa bangunan sekolah (RM50 juta).

"Selain itu, sejumlah RM50 juta dari rizab simpnanan digunakan untuk pembangunan usahawan dan pemerkasaan belia, pembangunan desa (RM50 juta dan pemberdayaan wanita (RM30 juta)," katanya.

Beliau berkata demikian pada sidang Dewan Negeri Selangor 2013 bertema Belanjawan Berhemat dan Berimpak Tinggi, Maslahat Rakyat di Bangunan Annex di sini, hari ini.

Setakat 31 Oktober 2013, Abdul Khalid berkata, Kumpulan Wang Disatukan Selangor dalam bentuk tunai dan pelaburan ialah RM2,712.85 juta, sekaligus menandakan rizab negeri berada pada paras tertinggi sejak 1998.

"Mungkin kerana kurang arif mengenai selok-belok pengurusan kewangan dan fiskal, wujud suara-suara yang mengecam atau paling tidak, merungut tentang kecenderungan kerajaan mengumpul rizab.

"Saya tegaskan pembinaan rizab beserta perbelanjaan berhemah mengikut konsep keutamaan yang betul merupakan paksi disiplin fiskal dan sebahagian rangka pengurusan kewangan dan fiskal jangka panjang," katanya.

Sumber: SelangorKini

Kejohanan Badminton Terbuka Remaja dan Terbuka Negeri Selangor 2013

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 07:39 PM PST

Pada 16 dan 17 Novemer yang lepas, Kejohanan Badminton Terbuka Remaja dan Terbuka Negeri Selangor 2013 Piala YB Dr Xavier Jayakumar Kali Ke-4 telah diadakan di Dewan Sukan Seri Andalas, Taman Seri Andalas, Klang.

Kejohanan tersebut adalah atas anjuran bersama Seri Andalas Badminton Training Centre, Ahli Majlis dan PeBT Zon N49(A) Majlis Perbandaran Klang.

Hadir merasmikan majlis perasmian dan penutup adalah YB Dr Xavier Jayakumar, ADUN Seri Andalas. Turut mengiringi beliau adalah Encik PS Rajoo, Ahli Majlis MPK.

YB Dr Xavier berkata adalah penting untuk golongan belia terus aktif dalam aktiviti sukan bagi memupuk cara hidup yang sihat dan dapat menghindari gejala-gejala negatif. 










Lawatan Sambil Belajar Tadika Rakyat Ke Kuala Selangor

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 07:14 PM PST

Pada 16 November 2013 yang lepas, seramai 44 orang murid dari Tadika Rakyat di Taman Sentosa, Klang telah dibawa untuk satu lawatan sambil belajar ke Kuala Selangor. Kos perjalanan telah diperuntukkan oleh Ahli Majlis MPK iaitu Encik PS Rajoo manakala makanan dan minuman telah diperuntukkan oleh ADUN Seri Andalas, YB Dr Xavier Jayakumar.




Setelah Gagal Tunai Janji Turun Harga, Hadkan Pula Jangka Hayat Hereta, Dakwa Rafizi

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 01:45 AM PST

Setelah memungkiri janji untuk menurunkan harga kereta, kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) menaikkan pula harga minyak dan kini  akan menghadkan jangka hayat kereta kepada 12 tahun sahaja.

"Ini akan menindas keluarga berpendapatan sederhana dan rendah serta menutup banyak perniagaan kereta terpakai," dakwa Rafizi Ramli, ahli Parlimen Pandan.

Beliau terkejut dengan kenyataan yang dibuat oleh Timbalan Menteri Pengangkutan, Datuk Abdul Aziz Kaprawi bahawa kerajaan akan menimbangkan untuk melaksanakan had jangka hayat kenderaan berikutan saranan oleh Ketua Pengarah Institut Keselamatan Jalan Raya Malaysia (MIROS) bahawa kereta berusia 12 tahun ke atas adalah tidak selamat.

Lebih membimbangkan, kata Rafizi, apabila Abdul Aziz turut dilaporkan sebagai berkata bahawa keputusan menetapkan had jangka hayat kenderaan "perlu dibuat segera demi keselamatan rakyat".

Bagi beliau, pelaksanaan had jangka hayat kenderaan kepada 12 tahun akan memangsakan beratus ribu rakyat Malaysia.

Ini kerana, kebanyakan pembeli kereta daripada keluarga berpendapatan sederhana dan rendah membuat pinjaman selama sembilan tahun untuk melangsaikan hutang.

"Dengan pelaksanaan had jangka hayat kenderaan ini, selepas tiga tahun keluarga-keluarga di Malaysia terpaksa membuat hutang baru untuk membeli kereta.

"Keadaannya lebih parah bagi pembeli daripada keluarga berpendapatan rendah. Kebanyakan mereka hanya mampu membeli kereta terpakai yang sudah pun berusia," kata Rafizi, Pengarah Strategi PKR dalam kenyataannya.

Bagi mereka yang meminjam untuk membeli kereta katanya, pelaksanaan had jangka hayat kenderaan bermakna kereta mereka dikira haram di sisi undang-undang dan tidak boleh digunakan sedangkan hutang masih belum dilangsaikan.

Bagi beliau, cadangan pelaksanaan had jangka hayat kenderaan adalah rentetan daripada tindakan-tindakan yang menekan rakyat sejak BN menang (dengan tipu helah) dalam PRU13.

Menurut Rafizi, pakar strategi daripada PKR itu, masalah utama bersabit pemilikan kereta di Malaysia pernah dilaporkan sebagai kedua termahal di dunia ialah struktur cukai dan pasaran domestik yang menyebabkan harga naik melambung.

"Wujudnya cukai eksais yang melebihi 100% ke atas kereta-kereta yang digunakan oleh keluarga berpendapatan sederhana dan rendah menyebabkan harga kereta terlalu mahal dan menenggelamkan keluarga dengan hutang kereta yang terlalu tinggi.

"Cukai eksais yang terlalu tinggi ini juga memberi ruang kepada syarikat-syarikat pengeluar dan pengedar kereta untuk bersembunyi di sebalik struktur cukai ini untuk mengambil keuntungan yang lebih tinggi berbanding di negara lain.

"Oleh kerana pelaksanaan cukai eksais dan pemberian rebat cukai eksais adalah tidak telus, maka struktur margin keuntungan di atas setiap kereta yang dibeli juga tidak telus,"katanya.

Akibatnya, dakwa beliau,  harga kereta di Malaysia terus kekal menjadi antara yang tertinggi di dunia.

Oleh itu kata beliau lagi, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim semasa menggariskan dasar-dasar automotif PKR telah menegaskan bahawa langkah pertama merombak struktur harga kereta yang mahal di Malaysia perlulah bermula dengan menghapuskan cukai eksais yang melampaui batas itu.

\Apabila cukai eksais sudah tiada, barulah rakyat tahu bahawa jika harga tetap kekal tinggi bila dibandingkan dengan model yang sama di negara-negara lain, perbezaan harga itu berpunca daripada tindakan mengambil untung yang berlebihan oleh pengeluar dan pengedar kereta.

Hanya dalam keadaan pasaran kereta seperti ini barulah wujud persaingan sihat di antara pengeluar dan pengedar kereta yang boleh menurunkan harga kereta supaya setanding dengan negara lain bagi model yang sama, katanya.

"Maka, sebarang usaha untuk memperkenalkan had jangka hayat kereta sebelum cukai eksais dihapuskan akan ditentang habis-habisan.

"Dasar had jangka hayat kereta hanya boleh dilaksanakan setelah harga kereta di Malaysia turun setanding dengan model yang sama di negara lain," tegas beliau.

Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Dakwaan Intipan - Najib Tak Cukup Berani Kritik Amerika, Kata Anwar

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 01:40 AM PST

Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim mendakwa Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak tidak cukup berani untuk mengkritik Amerika Syarikat ekoran dakwaan kegiatan intipannya di negara ini.

"Sehingga kini tidak ada kenyataan daripada perdana menteri. Dia tidak berani mengkritik tindakan kasar dan tidak boleh diterima Amerika itu," kata Anwar dalam sidang Dewan Rakyat hari ini ketika membahas Bajet 2014 dalam peringkat jawatankuasa.

Baru-baru ini, Edward Snowden mendedahkan kegiatan pengintipan global yang dibuat oleh Amerika dan Australia di seluruh dunia termasuk Malaysia.

Snowden mendakwa, Amerika menjalankan kegiatan pengintipan itu melalui stasen pengintipannya yang terletak di dalam bangunan kedutaan Amerika di Kuala Lumpur dengan mengintip perbualan telefon dan rangkaian komunikasi.

Bulan lalu, sumber perisikan Australia mengesahkan alat perisikan rahsia XKeyscore yang didedahkan Snowden telah digunakan untuk mengintip Malaysia di samping negara Asia Pasifik yang lain.

Berdasarkan laporan terakhir yang didedahkan Snowden yang kini mendapat perlindungan sementara di Moscow, Russia, terdapat 90 alat intipan yang dipasang di seluruh dunia termasuk di kedutaan Amerika di Jakarta, Bangkok, Phnom Penh dan Yangon.

Ekoran pendedahan itu, Menteri Luar Datuk Seri Musa Aman memberitahu rakan sejawatnya dari Australia, Julie Bishop,

"Intipan tidak sepatutnya dilakukan di kalangan rakan-rakan rapat yang boleh merosakkan hubungan."

Anwar juga melahirkan rasa hairannya kenapa  tidak ada seorang pun pemimpin Umno khasnya di kalangan anggota Parlimen membangkitan isu dakwaan bekas perdana menteri Tun Dr Mahathir bahawa terdapat ejen CIA di pejabat Peguam Negara.

"Saya tidak faham kenapa tidak ada seorang pun, khasnya MP Umno yang membangkitkan isu ini. Oleh kerana Dr Mahathir telah bercakap mengenainya, sepatutnya ada penjelasan. Jika bukan ejen CIA, jadi apa kerjanya di pejabat Peguam Negara?" kata Anwar.

Sebelum ini, Anwar berkata, Gani patut digantung tugasnya segera berikutan dakwaan ejen CIA itu dan juga apa yang terkandung dalam akuan berkanun bekas Ketua Siasatan Jenayah Kuala Lumpur, Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim.

Bulan lalu, Dr Mahathir mengakui beliau pernah mendengar adanya dakwaan tentang dua ejen CIA yang bekerja di pejabat Peguam Negara.

"Saya dengar. Saya tiada bukti, dua ejen CIA ada pejabat di Pejabat AG. Mungkin ada mungkin tidak. Saya tak tahu. AG pun belum sahkan lagi," kata Dr Mahathir dalam satu sidang medianya.

Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Jenayah dan Rasuah Berleluasa Kerana Kerakusan BN Kejar Kuasa, Kata Kit Siang

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 01:30 AM PST

Lim Kit Siang menyalahkan pemerintah Barisan Nasional (BN) yang rakus mengejar kuasa sehingga terlupa tanggungjawab terhadap rakyat Malaysia.

Ahli Parlimen Gelang Patah dan juga penasihat DAP tersebut mengecam pengabaian tanggungjawab yang diberikan rakyat sehingga menyebabkan nyawa mereka tidak berdosa menjadi mangsa.

"Pertama sekali, saya ingin merakamkan ucapan takziah kepada keluarga Allahyarham Mohd Raffli Abdul Malik yang mati ditembak di Kuantan, Pahang; keluarga Allahyarham Norazita Abu Talib, yang menjadi mangsa rompakan Ambank tempoh hari; serta Allahyarham Hussain Ahmad Najadi, yang turut menjadi mangsa tembakan tidak berapa lama dahulu.

"Kesemua mangsa jenayah ini adalah korban-korban tidak berdosa akibat kelalaian dan kerakusan pihak berkenaaan mengejar kuasa dan jawatan, sehingga mengabaikan persoalan integriti, tanggungjawab kepada negara dan impian besar rakyat Malaysia," kata Lim semasa dalam ucapan perbahasan Bajet 2014 peringkat Jawatankuasa hari ini.

Lim membidas Menteri Dalam Negeri Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi dan Ketua Polis Negara (KPN) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar yang gagal menjalankan tanggungjawab sehingga menyebabkan rakyat Malaysia hilang kepercayaan.

"Walaupun Ketua Polis Negara dan Menteri Dalam Negeri menyifatkan ini sebagai kejadian terpencil, nyawa yang hilang pasti tidak dapat diganti.

"Keyakinan rakyat terhadap kesungguhan pihak berkuasa dalam melaksanakan tugas menjaga keselamatan negara dan rakyat jelata sekali lagi berkecai," katanya lagi.

Menurut Lim, sikap tidak bertanggungjawab tersebut juga menyebabkan rakyat Malaysia ketika ini hidup dalam ketakutan.

"Namun hakikatnya hari ini kita dapat lihat bahawa rakyat ramai hidup dalam ketakutan.

"Ketakutan ini tidak boleh dinafi dan disembunyikan sepertimana grafiti dan seni mural yang menampilkan kritik sosial yang benar, boleh disorok dengan selapis cat putih seperti yang dibuat pihak berkuasa tempatan di Johor," kata Lim yang merujuk kepada grafiti hasil karya  Ernest Zacharevic yang menjadi kontroversi minggu ini.

Lim juga mendakwa tuduhan Pakatan Rakyat (PR) selama ini tentang kewujudan kad pengenalan palsu yang digunakan dalam pilihan raya lalu adalah benar. Ia dibuktikan lagi dengan kes tembakan membabitkan warga Indonesia yang memegang kad pengenalan biru kononnya identiti palsu.

"Bagaimana orang ini boleh mendapat MyKad, dan kalaupun MyKad itu palsu, bagaimana orang ini boleh membuka akaun bank, menerima gaji setiap bulan, malah boleh diberikan lesen senjata api oleh pihak Kementerian Dalam Negeri?

"Adakah orang ini turut mengundi dalam PRU 13 yang lalu? Adakah kerana tuan punya syarikat keselamatan itu merupakan kroni parti pemerintah maka kementerian boleh pejam sebelah mata?" kecamnya lagi.

Lim mendakwa kes-kes pemalsuan IC sama ada palsu ataupun diberikan secara sah oleh pemerintah seperti yang berlaku di Sabah dan Sarawak seperti didedahkan dalam Suruhanjaya Inkuiri lalu menunjukkan kedaulatan negara telah dicabul oleh Umno dan juga BN selama ini.

"Sistem yang ada inilah yang membuatkan negeri berdaulat seperti Sabah dan Sarawak semakin hilang kedaulatannya, apabila warga asing senang-senang mendapat MyKad dan mengambil alih ekonomi rakyat serta secara langsung menggugat kestabilan dan keselamatan negara.

"Sistem ini lah yang mencabuli hak rakyat Sabah, yang hidup dalam negeri yang sangat kaya, tetapi warganya sangat miskin; malah dilayan dengan amat berbeza sekali oleh kerajaan persekutuan," katanya lagi.

Beliau turut menggesa satu Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja dibentuk sempena ulang tahun ke-50 pertubuhan Malaysia, untuk mengkaji dan menyiasat sama ada janji-janji yang tertera dalam Perjanjian 20 Perkara dengan Sabah dan Perjanjian 18 Perkara dengan Sarawak telah ditunaikan ataupun telah dikhianati oleh kerajaan BN.

Dalam isu integriti, Lim mempersoalkan kredibiliti pemerintah BN yang disifatkannya tidak serius dalam menangani isu rasuah, beberapa isu seperti Zon Bebas Pelabuhan Klang (PKFZ) dan kes balak di Sarawak.

"Lihat sahaja bagaimana Jabatan Peguam Negara langsung tidak merayu keputusan mahkamah yang membebaskan Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik daripada tuduhan rasuah skandal PKFZ.

"Sehingga kini pihak SPRM tidak berani menyentuh Ketua Menteri Sarawak, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud walaupun banyak aduan telah dibuat dan bukti telah didedahkan," katanya lagi.

Lim semasa menutup ucapannya berkata, "Masanya sudah tiba untuk kita berusaha bersama demi merealisasikan impian Malaysia, dan menyelamatkan rakyat daripada 'mimpi ngeri Malaysia' yang panjang ini."

Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Perkauman Alat Selindung Aktiviti Rasuah Pemimpin, Kata Bekas Naib Canselor UM

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 01:25 AM PST

Isu perkauman digunakan oleh sesetengah ahli politik di Malaysia bagi melindungi kegiatan rasuah yang dilakukan pemimpin terbabit, kata bekas Naib Canselor Universiti Malaya Tan Sri Dr Ghauth Jasmon.

Beliau berkata isu perkauman juga dimainkan bagi melindungi salah laku selain mengelak mereka yang terlibat daripada dituduh atas aktiviti tidak bermoral itu.

"Jika negara dipenuhi dengan pemimpin rasuah, mereka akan menggunakan isu perkauman untuk melindungi kesalahan bagi menarik perhatian.

"Adalah penting kita memisahkan manusia dengan politik. Di Malaysia, kita selalu diingatkan oleh ahli politik tentang masalah perkauman malah terdapat juga kumpulan tertentu yang menyokong isu tersebut," katanya semasa ucaptama Persidangan Asia Barat dan Afrika 2013 di Kuala Lumpur hari ini.

Beliau berkata kerajaan harus menyisihkan pemimpin yang mengamalkan rasuah agar agenda pembangunan negara tidak tergendala selain mengakibatkan kerugian perbendaharaan negara.

Katanya, jika negara dipenuhi ahli politik yang rasuah, ia adalah resipi kehancuran.

"Saya fikir kita perlu mengenal pasti pemimpin darpadai parti, kumpulan mahu pun latar belakang agama supaya mereka tidak menggunakan isu lain bagi melindungi kegiatan mereka.

"Namun apa yang unik di Malaysia adalah orang Melayu mempunyai kuasa politik manakala kaum Cina memiliki kuasa ekonomi. Saya melihat ada keseimbangan di sini kerana jika ada sesuatu kaum memiliki kuasa ekonomi dan politik secara serentak maka tidak berlaku keseimbangan di situ," katanya.

Ghauth turut melihat kaum Cina merupakan kumpulan yang ‎akan mencipta kemewahan di mana sahaja mereka berada seperti di Sri Lanka, Sudan dan kebanyakan tempat di dunia.

Katanya, orang Cina semasa datang ke Malaysia dalam keadaan miskin dan sehelai pinggang tetapi hari ini mampu menguasai ekonomi Malaysia.

Sumber: The Malaysian Insider

Anwar - Kepentingan Ratusan Ribu Petani Dikhianati Demi Syed Mokhtar

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 01:20 AM PST

KUALA LUMPUR 18 NOV : Kepentingan ratusan ribu pesawah padi dikhianati ekoran pengambilalihan Syarikat Padiberas Nasional Berhad (BERNAS) oleh Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhrary.

Ketua Pembangkang, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, berkata nasib 173,000 petani Melayu seluruh negara kini jelas terancam hanya kerana kerajaan pusat didakwa ingin mengayakan jutawan itu.
 
"Kita bicara berkenaan seorang yang bernama Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar atau 173,000 pesawah padi Melayu, 95 peratus Melayu dan bumiputera, dan kalau ikut rangka Pertubuhan Peladang, jumlah ini meningkat sehingga 240,000 orang.

"Kepentingan mereka dikhianati kerana kerajaan pusat menggadai kepentingan mereka dan menyerahkan kepada Syed Mokhtar yang mencatat keuntungan lebih RM800 juta mengikut unjuran yang dibuat Maybank Investment," katanya ketika sesi perbahasan di Dewan Rakyat, di sini, hari ini.

Anwar yang juga Ahli Parlimen Permatang Pauh berkata, 45 peratus pegangan BERNAS yang dahulunya menjadi milik petani dan kakitangan syarikat itu, kini hanya dikuasai Syed Mokhtar.

Pada 1995, syarat dikenakan kepada pegangan saham BERNAS iaitu 10 peratus pegangan saham diberikan kepada Petubuhan Peladang Kebangsaan (NAFAS) dan Persatuan Nelayan Kebangsaan (NEKMAT), manakala lima peratus kepada Lembaga Kemajuan Pertanian Kemubu (KADA), Lembaga Kemajuan Pertanian Muda (MADA) dan kakitangan syarikat itu.

Anwar berkata, dasar penswastaan yang diumumkan kerajaan pusat untuk menjadikan industri berkenaan lebih efisyen ternyata sudah menyimpang jauh daripada matlamat asalnya.

Sumber: SelangorKini

BERNAS Diswasta, Harga Beras Bakal Naik

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 01:15 AM PST

SHAH ALAM 18 NOV : Tindakan kerajaan pusat menswastakan syarikat Padiberas Nasional Berhad (BERNAS) mengancam kitaran sumber makanan utama negara dan menyebabkan harga beras pada kawalan syarikat yang memonopoli komoditi itu.

Presiden Teras Pengupayaan Melayu (TERAS), Mohd Azmi Abdul Hamid, berkata tindakan penswastaan industri beras pada monopoli individu hanya mendedahkan harga beras kepada spekulasi yang boleh menjejaskan kehidupan rakyat.

Mohd Azmi Abdul HamidKatanya, kerajaan pusat perlu mempunyai kuasa dan kepentingan dalam industri utama negara khususnya makanan kerana ia adalahperkara asas rakyat Malaysia.

"Penswastaan ini satu perkara yang tidak patut berlaku dan kerajaan pusat perlu campur tangan serta memperbetulkan keadaan supaya tidak dibolot satu syarikat sahaja," katanya ketika dihubungi Selangor Kini, di sini, hari ini.

Sebelum ini, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim mengecam tindakan Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Bukhari yang didakwa mengambil alih sepenuhnya syarikat BERNAS untuk keuntungan peribadinya.

Anwar berkata, niat asal penubuhan BERNAS adalah untuk melindungi kepentingan petani dan pengedar Bumiputera sudah tersasar apabila kerajaan pusat membenarkan syarikat itu dimonopoli pihak tertentu.

Azmi berkata, beliau tidak menolak kemungkinan harga beras akan meningkat seperti yang berlaku terhadap kenaikan harga gula sebelum ini.

"Apabila satu barangan komoditi dibolot sesebuah kartel atau syarikat besar, maka ia akan terdedah kepada kenaikan kos kerana hanya mementingkan keuntungan.

"Kita tidak terkejut jika harga beras akan dipulangkan kepada pasaran untuk ditentukan harganya," katanya.

Sumber: SelangorKini

Kesesakan Bandar Klang, MB Minta Ahli Majlis Turun Padang

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 12:45 AM PST

PELABUHAN KLANG 18 NOV : Ahli Majlis Perbandaran Klang (MPK) diminta turun padang untuk menerangkan kepada rakyat bahawa bandar Klang akan menghadapi kesesakan sementara bagi tujuan pembinaan jambatan ketiga di Bandar DiRaja itu.
 
Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, berkata Ahli Majlis MPK diharap membantu dan menjelaskan kesesakan yang bakal dialami adalah bagi tujuan penambahbaikan untuk seluruh rakyat di bandar berkenaan.

"Saya ingin beritahu bahawa terdapat program besar iaitu membina jambatan bagi menyelesaikan kesesakan akan mula dibuat.

"Saya berharap MPK akan memberi penerangan berkenaan apa yang kita lakukan supaya masalah kesesakan sementara ini dapat diatasi akibat beberapa kesesakan disebabkan peningkatan jambatan di Klang," katanya.

Abdul Khalid berkata demikian ketika merasmikan sambutan Deepavali peringkat Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) Pelabuhan Klang di Flat Bukit Tinggi Dua, dekat sini, malam tadi.

Turut hadir, Ahli Parlimen Klang, Charles Santiago; Ahli Parlimen Kapar, Manivanan Gowin, Ahli Majlis MPK dan lebih 300 penduduk flat berkenaan.

Abdul Khalid berkata, proses pembinaan jambatan berkenaan mula dilaksanakan dan beliau sudah meminta Dewan Negeri Selangor untuk bersetuju meluluskan pembinaan jambatan itu.

Kerajaan negeri bercadang menggunakan peruntukan RM300 juta daripada rizab negeri berjumlah RM3 bilion bagi melaksanakan projek berkenaan.

Sebelum ini, Kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) berjanji untuk membina jambatan ketiga itu pada tahun 2008 tetapi tidak menunaikannya walaupun majlis pecah tanah sudah dilakukan.

Pembinaan jambatan sepanjang dua kilometer itu dijangka membantu lebih 200,000 kenderaan supaya tidak perlu meredah kesesakan di tengah bandar Klang untuk ke Kuala Lumpur atau ke Pelabuhan Klang.

Sumber: SelangorKini

Graduan Perubatan Menganggur, Kerajaan Pusat Perlu Bertindak

Posted: 18 Nov 2013 12:30 AM PST

SHAH ALAM 18 NOV : Kerajaan Pusat perlu mengambil tindakan segera terhadap dakwaan Persatuan Perubatan Malaysia (MMA), sektor kesihatan bakal gagal menyediakan peluang pekerjaan kepada lepasan graduan perubatan tahun hadapan.

Kekurangan peluang pekerjaan itu menurut MMA, disebabkan kegagalan kerajaan membina hospital secukupnya bagi keperluan rakyat dan juga bilangan kolej perubatan swasta yang terlalu banyak sekaligus melahirkan ramai graduan perubatan.
 
ADUN Meru, Dr Abdul Rani bin Osman, berkata keadaan ini menyumbang kepada ketidakseimbangan antara kewujudan bilangan peluang perkerjaan dan jumlah graduan perubatan yang dikeluarkan.

"Kalau MMA sendiri keluarkan kenyataan, ini memang serius dan satu perkara yang mengerunkan. Saya harap Kementerian Kesihatan cepat respon perkara ini, kena teliti kerana graduan kita di luar sana pun ramai lagi.

"Kita juga tidak boleh jangka graduan kita di luar negara akan bekerja di luar negara seperti Arab dan United Kingdom misalnya sebab biasanya kalau bekerja di sana sekalipun mereka akan balik untuk kerja di tanah air," kata Dr Rani kepada Selangor Kini.

Abdul Rani berkata, walaupun membina hospital merupakan tanggungjawab Kerajaan Persekutuan, Kerajaan Negeri sebelum ini bersetuju membina bangunan tambahan di Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah bagi menampung jumlah pesakit di Klang.

Sebelum ini Presiden MMA, Datuk N.K.S Tharmaseelan, dalam satu kenyataan dilaporkan berkata negara ini melahirkan sehingga 5,000 graduan perubatan setiap tahun sehingga mampu menyebabkan kekurangan hospital bagi tujuan latihan seterusnya peluang perkerjaan kepada golongan ini.

Antara faktor penyumbang kepada keadaan ini menurut beliau adalah bilangan kolej perubatan swasta sehingga mencecah 40 buah bagi 28 juta populasi, suatu jumlah yang tinggi pada masa ini sedangkan pada masa sama kurang pembangunan hospital baru.

Sumber: SelangorKini

Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar Ibrahim


They spawned the 1 percent: How Washington and Lincoln explain inequality today

Posted: 17 Nov 2013 10:24 PM PST

Salon

They spawned the 1 percent: How Washington and Lincoln explain inequality today

George Washington, our first president, and Abraham Lincoln, our 16th, are the twin icons of that office. Their portraits are side by side in our wallets, in our change purses and on classroom walls during Presidents' Day observances. Yet they represent different visions of an American economic order, differences that persist to this day. Washington stood for a system in which one man enriches himself by skimming off the excess value of his underlings' work. Lincoln stood for the principle that every worker is entitled to the full value of his own labor. Call it the battle between Washingtonomics and Lincolnomics. From the founding of this country up until the Civil War, Washington's order was dominant. It's been dominant in our era, too, ever since Washington's native South regained control of the federal government in the 1970s.

If you want to understand why the United States has never achieved the same level of economic equality as other industrialized nations, you have to look back at Washington's life and career. And then you have to look back even further, to Washington's ancestors, who settled Virginia. You'll find that inequality was one of this nation's founding principles.

In his socio-historical study "Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America," David Hackett Fischer argued that American slavery did not result in a stratified society, but was established in order to create one. The early Virginia settlers were the second and third sons of aristocratic families in the south and west of England, and they intended to enjoy in the New World the lifestyle that primogeniture had denied them on their fathers' manors in the Old. At first, they tried to enslave the Natives. When that failed, they imported Africans.

"Virginia's ruling elite … required an underclass that would remain firmly fixed in its condition of subordination," Fischer wrote. "The culture of the English countryside could not be reproduced in the New World without this rural proletariat."

From its origins in America's first colony, this aristocratic system spread throughout the entire South. Its success could be found "in the small and very powerful class of landed gentry, in the large majority of landless tenants and laborers, in the minority status of its middle class, in the general level of wealth inequality (Gini ratios of .60 to .75), in the magnitude of poverty and in the degradation of the poor."

As a result of the Virginians' social engineering, the United States became a colonial nation in which a European elite has traditionally dominated a combination of indigenous people and descendants of Africans imported to work as slaves. We're a first-world country and a third-world country, coexisting within the same borders.

In Denmark — the quintessential European social democracy, whose 5 million ethnically homogenous citizens consider themselves members of a single tribe — the Gini ratio is 24. (TheGini ratio is a measurement of a nation's wealth distribution, with 0 being perfect equality and 100 being all the money in one man's hands.) The U.S.'s Gini ratio is 45, putting us in the same league as Mexico (48.3), Venezuela (44.8), and Jamaica (45.5) — other colonial nations where white settlers and planters have lorded it over a darker-skinned workforce.

No one benefited from the top-heavy economic structure of colonial Virginia more than George Washington. Washington was a country squire who rode to hounds, danced at cotillions and ordered china and fashionable breeches from London. By the end of his life, he was master of 277 slaves, on whose backs he built the fortune that enabled him to serve as commander in chief of the Continental Army, and then president. Washington was one of the wealthiest men in the United States, and is still the wealthiest man ever to hold the presidency.

Washington envisioned an end to slavery, and an industrial future for America, but a man with his feudal, agrarian outlook would never have prospered in such a nation.

Abraham Lincoln's entire life was shaped by disagreements with the Southern planter class, to which Washington and most of our early presidents belonged. When Lincoln was 7 years old, his family moved from Kentucky to Indiana to escape the fate of the small farmer squeezed between planter and slave. Lincoln's father eventually settled on a 120-acre farm near Charleston, Ill., where he raised corn and chickens. Despite his popular image as the Railsplitter, Lincoln hated the rustic life, and moved to Springfield, where he became a respectable, but not wealthy, lawyer. His two-story house on Eighth Street would not look out of place in a modern suburb.

In Lincoln's home territory of Central Illinois, many voters hated slavery and African-Americans for the same reason: because both plantation owners and free African-Americans undercut the price of white labor. Lincoln belonged to a middle class of independent professionals and tradesmen that was growing in the North, but was incompatible with the plantation society in the South, and he knew how to appeal to its anxieties.

During his campaigns for the Senate and the presidency, Lincoln argued that African-Americans deserved economic, but not social, equality. In his debates with Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, Lincoln declared that he did not believe African-Americans should be allowed to vote, or serve on juries, or hold office, or marry whites. He did believe that African-Americans had as much right to the fruits of their own labor as whites, that slavery was "a form of theft," and that a society divided into permanent classes of masters and servants was doomed to medieval stagnation, because workers would have no motivation to better themselves. At the bottom of Lincoln's moralizing was this message to white voters: If the black man can be made to work for nothing, so can you.

In an 1859 speech to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Lincoln went beyond condemning masters' exploitation of their slaves, and criticized the very concept of purchasing another's labor. To Lincoln, the idea that one man should be in the permanent employ of another — even for wages — was at the root of the justification for slavery. He said:

By some it is assumed that labor is available only in connection with capital–that nobody labors, unless somebody else owning capital, somehow, by the use of it, induces him to do it. Having assumed this, they proceed to consider whether it is best that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by their own consent, or buy them, and drive them to it, without their consent. Having proceeded so far, they naturally conclude that all laborers are necessarily either hired laborers, or slaves.

They further assume that whoever is once a hired laborer, is fatally fixed in that condition for life; and thence again, that his condition is as bad as, or worse, than that of a slave. This is the 'mud-sill' theory. But another class of reasoners hold the opinion that there is no such relation between capital and labor, as assumed; and that there is no such thing as a freeman being fatally fixed for life, on the condition of a hired laborer, that both these assumptions are false, and all inferences from them groundless. They hold that labor is prior to, and independent of, capital; that, in fact, capital is the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed–that labor can exist without capital, but that capital could never have existed without labor. Hence they hold that labor is the superior–greatly the superior of capital.

As president, Lincoln oversaw a war that destroyed the power of the Southern plantation owners with whom he had so long quarreled. His victory lasted just over 100 years, until the Southern states regained control of the federal government, and began reimposing Washington's aristocratic way of life on the nation. To understand the difference between Lincolnomics and Washingtonomics, let's consider two of the most successful businessmen of the 20th century: Henry Ford and Sam Walton. Ford falls into the Lincolnian tradition, Walton into the Washingtonian.

Born in what is now Detroit during the Civil War, Ford understood the value of an economically empowered workforce. He turned traditional economic assumptions upside down by treating laborers not as commodities, but potential customers. Before Ford, planters and industrialists had profited by paying the lowest possible wages and charging the highest possible prices. Ford doubled his employees' wages, to $5 a day, and used assembly-line efficiencies to produce cars they could afford to buy. His philosophy, which came to be known as Fordism, was fundamental to the development of the modern middle class. And although Ford resisted labor unions, once the United Auto Workers was forced on him by two Lincolnian politicians — President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Michigan Gov. Murray Van Wagoner — he granted it the most generous contract of any automaker, even allowing dues check-offs and the closed shop.

Sam Walton built his business on a plantation model with which Washington would have been familiar. The merchant opened his first Wal-Marts in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, paying wages that were low even for a region accustomed to extremes of wealth. He started his cashiers at 50 cents an hour — half the minimum wage — on the grounds that the law applied only to businesses with 50 employees or more, and each of his stores was more lightly staffed than that. Wal-Mart cashiers got raises only when the Labor Department stepped in. Like Washington's tobacco plantation, Walton's stores were labor-intensive operations that could only turn a profit if workers were bargained down to the lowest possible nickel. Walton's product was low prices, which were possible only if his workers earned low wages. Undistracted by war or politics, Walton did Washington better, becoming the wealthiest man in America, with a fortune of $20 billion — the surplus he skimmed off the labor of 1.1 million employees. Wal-Mart also became the largest employer in the U.S., displacing General Motors, which practiced Fordism on an even larger scale than Ford.

"It is doubtful Wal-Mart would have met similar success in an earlier period of American economic history, or in a different social and political environment," wrote Jeff Madrick in "Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present." "Labor laws were increasingly poorly enforced in this era, starting with the Reagan administration. The number of government labor inspectors was not increased even as the nation's workforce grew vastly in number … Across the nation, a rapidly growing number of workers were illegally fired when they tried to organize fellow workers into unions. Congress also deliberately kept the minimum wage down, raising it rarely, so it fell compared to inflation."

Actually, the economic deregulation that would help make Sam Walton a multibillionaire began one president earlier, under Jimmy Carter. Carter, the son of a moderately prosperous peanut farmer whose land was worked by sharecroppers, was the first Southerner to win the presidency in his own right since Zachary Taylor. His election began a three-decade period during which every president either hailed from a Southern state or, in Ronald Reagan's case, was elected with strong Southern support. George Washington's region had returned to power, and that return brought political support for the stratified society that has existed in the South since the Father of Our Country's day. As Michael Lind wrote here on Salon, "for generations Southern economic policymakers have sought to secure a lucrative second-tier role for the South in the national and world economies, as a supplier of commodities like cotton and oil and gas and a source of cheap labor for footloose corporations. This strategy of specializing in commodities and cheap labor is intended to enrich the Southern oligarchy. It doesn't enrich the majority of Southerners, white, black or brown, but it is not intended to. Contrary to what is often said, the 'original sin' of the South is not slavery, or even racism. It is cheap, powerless labor."

For a long time, that was a regional economic strategy, but once the South recaptured the federal government, it attempted to spread that ethos throughout the entire nation — with great success, as evidenced by today's weak labor laws and lagging minimum wages. Wal-Mart could not have broken out of its cradle in Dixie and become the nation's dominant retailer without those policies. Even Indiana and Michigan, once-reliable redoubts of free labor, recently became right-to-work states, putting themselves on the same page as every member of the old Confederacy.

The core principle of Lincoln's political career (as opposed to his presidency) was preventing the spread of slavery into the territories and the Northern states, where it would undermine free labor. If we accept Lind's argument about low-wage economic policies, we should be as determined as Lincoln to confine them to their native region. Or better yet, stamp them out altogether, as we did slavery. Because they are threatening the existence of a middle class.

The time may be right, too. Barack Obama is the first president elected from a Northern, industrial state since John F. Kennedy. From Lincoln's own Illinois, in fact. Much has been made of that fact that Obama fulfilled the advances in racial equality that Lincoln began. But Lincoln didn't free the slaves with the idea that one of them would become president. He gave them their freedom to prevent their unpaid labor from undercutting the middle class. That's another aspect of Lincoln's legacy Obama can fulfill.

Anwar slams gov’t for letting AG off on Batu Puteh

Posted: 17 Nov 2013 10:05 PM PST

Malaysiakini

Anwar Ibrahim has lashed out at the government for failing to hold Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail accountable over the loss of Batu Puteh in a territorial dispute at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)

During the budget debate at the committee stage in Parliament today, the opposition leader said he was puzzled that the government did not even seek clarification over the defeat in the high stakes case.

“We lost an island but the attorney-general was never questioned. It was as if there was already an understanding (between the attorney-general and government) or were they both afraid of something, I do not understand.

“Why were they afraid to ask questions so that a proper explanation could be given by the attorney-general?” he asked.

Abdul Gani had led the case for Malaysia at the ICJ in 2008.

It was reported on Nov 7 that former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Mat Zain Ibrahim had made a statutory declaration claiming that the Malaysian team had submitted fabricated evidence to the ICJ in the Batu Puteh case.

According to him, this was discovered by the ICJ which damaged Malaysia’s credibility and contributed to the country's defeat in the dispute.

Anwar flays Najib for continued silence over US spy network

Posted: 17 Nov 2013 10:05 PM PST

TMI

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim accused Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak of “not being brave” enough to reprimand the United States after whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed a global espionage network by the US and Australia that affected Malaysia as well.

He said unlike other countries which had taken drastic action to protest against the alleged spying, Malaysia has been slow to react, sending only a protest note from the Foreign Ministry.

“To date, there is no statement from the prime minister. He is not brave to reprimand the rudeness and unacceptable conduct of the United States,” he said when debating the Budget 2014 which is currently at the committee stage.

Snowden had alleged that the US was running a monitoring station in its Kuala Lumpur embassy to tap telephones and monitor communication networks.

Last month, Australian intelligence sources confirmed that XKeyscore, a top secret intelligence tool revealed by Snowden, had been used to spy on Malaysia and other Asia-Pacific countries.

The latest report on top secret documents leaked by Snowden, who currently has been granted by Russia, revealed that there are 90 electronic surveillance facilities worldwide, including in the US embassies in Jakarta, Bangkok, Phnom Penh and Yangon.

Following the revelations, Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman told Australian counterpart Julie Bishop that spying should not take place among “close friends as it could severely damage existing relations”.

Anwar also raised his concerns over the recent revelation by former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad over the presence of CIA agents in the Attorney General's Chambers.

“I don’t understand why no one, especially Umno MPs, raised this matter. Since Dr Mahathir had spoken about this, there should be a clear explanation, if they are not CIA agents, then what are they doing in the AG's Chambers,” he said.

He then trained his guns on the Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, saying that the country lost its case on Pulau Batu Puteh in the International Court of Justice because Gani prepared a photo which showed a wrong location of the island.

The International Court of Justice awarded the island off Johor to Singapore after a legal dispute in 2008.

“He was never questioned about this. I don’t understand, either there seemed to be an understanding or they are afraid to ask him to explain,” Anwar said, adding that the public was entitled to an explanation from Gani on the allegations surrounding him and his office.

Earlier this month, Anwar had said Gani should be suspended immediately in the wake of the allegations which were contained in a statutory declaration by former Kuala Lumpur CID chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim.

It was reported that three months ago, Dr Mahathir, Mat Zain, prominent lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and Federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department director Datuk Ramli Yusoff held a meeting at the former prime minister’s residence to discuss Gani’s alleged misdeeds.

The meeting was held on August 10, three days after Hari Raya Aidilfitri, and among the topics discussed was the highly publicised case of Pulau Batu Puteh.

MEDIA Rakyat MALAYSIA

MEDIA Rakyat MALAYSIA


SALAH SIAPA? BARU 17 TAHUN UDAH 3 KALI HAMIL LUAR NIKAH...

Posted: 17 Nov 2013 05:03 AM PST