Dompok, Bumburing Retain UPKO Top Posts

Dompok, Bumburing Retain UPKO Top Posts

KOTA KINABALU, Sept 30 (Bernama) -- Tan Sri Bernard Giluk Dompok and Datuk Seri Wilfred Mojilip Bumburing today retained their posts unopposed, in the United Pasokmomogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) as president and deputy president, respectively.

The results which were announced after the party's pre-council meeting here, also saw Arthur Sen and Datin Dr Jaina Sintian become the new youth and wanita chiefs unopposed, from their current positions as deputies.

Senator Maijol Mahap, Datuk Dr Ewon Ebin, Datuk Wences Angang and Datuk Tan Yong Gee also retained their posts unapposed as vice-presidents.

Datuk Christine Tibok Vanhouten, who did not defend her position as wanitachief, also secured a vice-president's post unopposed.

Earlier, Datuk Dr Marcus Mojigoh was also nominated for vice-president but he decided not to defend his post by pulling out.

The Upko president is set to announce the appointments for two more posts of vice-president.

Dr Marcus, and Donald Mojuntin -- who did not defend his youth chief position -- are among those rumoured to be appointed.

Upko will hold its delegates conference from Oct 10 to 12.

The results for the remaining positions in youth and wanita movements are expected on Oct 10, while those for the remaining supreme council positions are expected on Oct 12.

When September Ends

It has been an eventful September. When I first started this blog, September 8, the BN was forced to vacate its Pensiangan (Sabah) parliamentary seat by the Election Court. The appeal was lodged by PKR. So now there will be a by-election.

Then we have, Ahmad Ismail, an Umno member, who stoked racial flame by his racist remarks.This was followed by an outburst from a member of his entourage, at a press conference who took down the former Penang Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon's portrait and ripped it to half. Later after that, Ahmad Ismail's Umno membership was suspended for 3 years.

Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) was arrested by the Internal Security Act (ISA) and still is in Kamunting Prison. He will be there, indefinitely, for 2 years. According to his wife, Marina Lee Abdullah, he is being held on 4 grounds;

1. 2 articles on Islam
2. The article on 'Let's Send the Altantuya Murderers to Hell'
3. Articles on the Leaders
4. Comments posted on the Blog, one of the commentator he mentioned was Anti Anti-Hadith who he has his own blog.

Almost immediately after RPK's arrest, 3 more arrests followed;

1. Tan Hoon Cheng, a reporter for the Sin Chew Daily News 
2. Teresa Kok, Member of Parliament for Seputeh who is also Assemblyman for Kinrara
3. Syed Azidi Syed Aziz, a blogger also known as Kickdefella

Eventually the 3 individuals were therefore released since then, leaving RPK to serve out his indefinite 2 years sentence.

Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, attempted a political coup to wrest power from Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. He even set the date at September 16 as the day that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would govern the country. The date's significance was to commemorate the merger of Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak which formed the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. That particular issue is still in debate as we speak; 51 years or 45 years?

Anyway, Anwar was eventually dealt with a setback. The reason given was that Pak Lah refused to meet up and discuss the transition of power. Anwar then went for a September 23 deadline, where PR would demand for a motion of no confidence against the leadership of the prime minister at parliament. That too was to no avail. I guess nobody wanted to open the doors for that day... By then the momentum of March 8 Election and August 26 By-election slowed nearly to a stand-still.

Before the setback of September 16 was settling in, SAPP announced its walk-out from the BN coalition on September 17. The decision of majority of its members met was with disagreement with the minority members of the party. This led to the resignations of senior leaders like Raymond Tan, Tham Nyip Shen and others from SAPP. Currently, Raymond Tan is still Deputy Chief Minister while Tham Nyip Shen resigned as Technology Advisor to the Chief Minister. There were more but I didn't care to keep track (Hey, it's my blog! I'm entitled not to keep track on matters that are of little interest to me...) 

Most of the members of the party participated in mass resignations from all government related position. And now SAPP waits. The actions of this political party has won many admirers. Their future in politics is secured as they now have the support of the rakyat.

Meanwhile another Sabah BN component party, UPKO, showed its displeasure of the treatment rendered by the National Registration Department (NRD) to 78-year-old Yong Hua @ Piang Lin, a Sino-Kadazan, by transforming her from a Sabahan Bumiputra into a Permanent Resident (PR). This means that she holds a red IC and she is visitor in her own home. 

Yong said; 

"I asked the officer why it was red and she replied that for senior citizens who lost their IC, the department would normally replace them with red ICs,"26 September 2008, Daily Express

When he was approached to comment, UPKO Deputy President Wilfred Bumburing had this to say;

"If the NRD or government has no satisfactory answer, I strongly urge UPKO to seriously to review its position in the BN because an identification document is a very important matter as it shows their sense of belonging" 27 September 2008, Daily Express.

The NRD later issued a statement that said it detected some flaws in the blue Identity Card of Yong. Its public relations officer Janisah Mohd Noor stated that the flaw was found out after studying the document of the holder. She however never elaborated any further.

Around this time, on September 26, the UMNO Supreme Council decided that its AGM will be put off to March 2009 while their division meetings are to proceed as scheduled on October 9. It was widely speculated that Pak Lah might not defend his position as UMNO President in the wake of the party's uprising against his leadership. Pak Lah had since then swapped his Ministry of Finance portfolio for Najib's Ministry of Defence portfolio. Over at Kickdefella, the blogger has a theory that Pak Lah wanted the Defence Ministry so that his son, Kamaluddin would profit from the Eurocopter deal. Kamaluddin would stand to make RM250 Million per annum for the next 30 years.

As I go through the posts that I have placed here, I can't help noticing that the nation is undergoing a lot of political discontent, confusion and instability. I hope that most of these many many issues will be resolved in the coming days. I feel as though the country has lost its direction. I remember during the Mahathir Era, everybody had dreams and purposes to fulfill and were encouraged to see them through. We were always looking forward for the future. Whether you liked him or not, Tun M while he was pro-Malay he never once neglected the other races. He couldn't please everybody (who could have?) but he tried his best to be fair. He had his moments and he may had been autocratic but he never treated power as casually as the current PM is doing. Especially when it comes to family members. I tend to shiver every time I imagine a certain future 40-year-old power crazy politician finally becomes Prime Minister...

And the story... 

...pauses for the moment. 

Tomorrow is Hari Raya Aidil Fitri and I like to wish you all Selamat Hari Raya! Happy holidays everybody and please drive safely! 

Get Hari Raya Graphics Here

Bernama SMS 30/09/08 (5)

Maybank completed acquisition of Bank Internasional Indonesia with RM 758.9mln rebate from Fullerton and Kookmin.

Bernama SMS 30/09/08 (4)

Govt will monitor decisions of financial institutions carefully in wake of the financial turmoil in US and Europe, says DPM Najib

Bernama SMS 30/09/08 (3)

BNM governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz appointed by Bank for International Settlement as chair of its Asian Consultative Council

Bernama SMS 30/09/08 (2)

Interest rates are good enough for the property market but demand not there because fears of recession, says tax expert

MalaysiaKini SMS 30/09/08 (2)

Lawyers for ISA detainee Raja Petra Kamarudin are not giving up. They filed a second habeas corpus application at KL High Court today.

Daily Express, 30th September 2008

State Govt to discuss plea for Sabahans to head these depts

Kota Kinabalu: The State Government will discuss the call by Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) and other quarters for the State National Registration Department (NRD) and Immigration Department to be headed by Sabahans. "We will discuss it," Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Haji Aman said when met after inspecting the preparation of the venue of the Hari Raya open house to be hosted by him and State Cabinet Minister at the Kota Kinabalu Sports Complex, Monday. Musa also disclosed he had requested the NRD to look into the plight of the woman from Penampang whose citizenship was downgraded to that of a Permanent Resident after she received a replacement for her lost MyKad last year. Asked whether grouses by component parties like the United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko) - which threatened to review its position in the BN if issues like those affecting the Penampang woman continued to be unresolved - showed that there is disunity in the Sabah Barisan Nasional (BN), he said: "No, Upko is very much still with us (BN) É only SAPP". Musa, who is Sabah BN chairman, said he had been saying all this while that many of the leaders and members of SAPP like Datuk Raymond Tan disagreed with the party's leadership move to leave the BN. "You can see lately many SAPP branches are now joining Raymond Tan. Not all SAPP members are leaving BN," he said. Meanwhile, Umno Sabah secretary Datuk Yahya Hussin said it was up to the BN component parties to decide their position in the national coalition. "That is up to them," he said when asked about the report stating that UPKO might review their position in the BN. However, he said it should not be seen as though the BN in Sabah was cracking. "We need BN component parties (which) whenever we face difficulties they should be firmly with us (and) that is the spirit of BN. But, if members are behaving like that then its up to them I cannot comment on that." "Its like a friend É you should not be a friend (only) during happier times," he said.

Taib family's CMS to benefit from dam

Taib family's CMS to benefit from dam: 

An excerpt from MalaysiaKini

"''For energy needs in Sarawak, we don't need the Murum, because Bakun is more than enough to supply the state's needs,'' says Raymond Abin of the Borneo Resource Institute (Brimas). ''Of course, (much of) this will not go to the really rural areas but will supply industry's needs.'

'The impression among many sceptics is that these are all self-serving projects,' said another senior academic in a Sarawak-based university, carefully weighing his words while requesting anonymity.

All these funds are not helping the most affected communities like the Penan.

''This is not development for the Penan. This is not assisting the Penan,'' says Weng, a Penan whose home will be submerged. ''This is killing the Penan. As our old headman said before, better bomb us now than 'kill' us slowly!''"

Najib: We will be able to withstand global economic crisis

Najib: We will be able to withstand global economic crisis: "By Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider

PUTRAJAYA, Sept 30 - Datuk Seri Najib Razak today moved to arrest economic jitters caused by the massive plunge in financial markets sparked by Washington's failure to get Congress to pass the US$700 billion bailout package.

He said economic buffers were in place to withstand external shocks from the global economy.

Najib, who is also Finanace Minister, said the country’s international reserves stood at US$119 billion.

'The national surplus is large and FDI was significant at US$31 billion in the first half of the year,' he said.

The meltdown on Wall Street yesterday saw the Dow Jones industrials index plummet 777 points - the worst share plunge in history."

Bernama SMS 30/09/08

M'sia's economy has the capacity to weather the destablising consequences of the US subprime crisis, says DPM Najib.

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH

GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin 

I was perturbed when I read YB Teresa Kok’s statement that the food under ISA detention is equivalent or slightly better than dog food.  It costs RM8 to feed a dog, according to the Malay Mail survey and only RM4.50 to feed on ISA detainees. 

I feed my cats and fish premium food such as science diet and would never dream of feeding my pets the food that we are fed here.  I actually stopped eating the food here after the first couple of days because it gave me diarrhea. 

A couple of nights ago I vomited after eating the food and now I cannot even stand the sight or smell of the trays that they send to our cell twice a day. 

I now survive on dates and plain water and I suppose if that is good enough for camels to survive in the Arabian Desert, it should be good enough for me. 

I was told camels have a healthy sex drive and I would like to believe it because of the date that is my staple food.  Of cause, there is no way I can test this theory until I come safely out of this place. 

Actually, food is the least of my worries at this point of time.  I am presently in three months solitary confinement and the only pussy I get to see is this mangy cat that somehow has found its way into my cellblock to sleep outside my locked door. 

It has not rained since I arrived here a week ago and I was told Kamunting has not seen any rain for the last few weeks. 

The heat in the cell is unbearable and the air is very stuffy. 

The uncomfortable environment does help to put your mind off your growling stomach. 

I am what they call under orientation.  This three months' orientation I suppose is to get me used to the 2 years I am going to spend here. 

One of my favorite classics that I used to read in Standard 1 is the Tale of Two Cities, which is about the French Revolution.  I can now better appreciate the battle cry “give me liberty or give me death”.  They say you appreciate something only after it has been taken away from you.  Today, my liberty is at the top of my priority list.  But I know it shall not come soon and it shall not come easy and it shall only come if there is a change of government and if the new government fulfills its promise to abolish the ISA. 

MalaysiaKini SMS 30/09/08

Spore's celebrated former opposition leader JB Jeyaretnam died this morning of heart failure. The ex-Workers' Party leader was 82.