If Malaysians counting on Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia concept to usher in a new era for race relations are being unrealistic, those counting on the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) to do the same are not very much less so, Lee Kuan Yew has written in his latest book.
The former Singapore prime minister said the 1Malaysia slogan had not lived up to the initial excitement it created, adding that the Malay ground had not moved with Najib’s ambitious plans to unite the different races in Malaysia.
“Prime Minister Najib proposed 1Malaysia because he wanted to win back some of the Chinese and Indian votes...But has the ground moved with him? Has there been thunderous applause from the Malays at 1Malaysia?,” Lee wrote in his book One Man’s View of the World, which was launched in the island republic last night.
Lee suggested that while Najib was ambitious in pushing for racial harmony, “but it appears political realities have conscribed his subsequent actions.” Continue Reading..
A Singaporean policeman, who turned fugitive after he allegedly killed a businessman and his son, has been arrested in Johor Baru.
After the alleged crimes on Wednesday, senior staff sergeant Iskandar Rahmat escaped to Johor Baru by scooter through the Woodlands checkpoint at 11.17pm.
He was spotted at a restaurant at Danga Bay at around 11.30pm on Friday before his arrest by the Johor Baru police.
“We have handed the man over to Singapore Police,” CID director Comm Datuk Hadi Ho Abdullah told The Star yesterday.
The gruesome murders grabbed attention in the Singapore media as the suspect was an experienced policeman and a manhunt ensued for 54 hours until he was arrested in Johor Baru on Friday.
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A SINGAPORE-based Christian church rocked by a massive financial scandal has stood by its founder and four aides who could face life imprisonment for allegedly misusing the congregation's funds.
Pastor Kong Hee, 47, founder of the City Harvest Church, and four officers were charged on Wednesday with varying degrees of involvement in a scheme to siphon off Sg$24 million (RM59.94 million) to finance his wife's singing career.
In addition, more than Sg$26 million in church money was allegedly misappropriated to cover up the original diversion.
In a statement posted on its website late Thursday, the church denied any wrongdoing by the five, who are out on bail while on trial.
"It has been suggested that the church has been cheated of Sg$50 million. This is not accurate," executive pastor Aries Zulkarnain said in the statement.
ABOUT 75% of teenagers in Singapore do not know how to use a condom.
That was the finding of a survey carried out by the National University of Singapore involving 900 sexually active teens in the republic, reported China Press.
The survey found that more than three-quarter of the teens who took part in the exercise did not know how to use the form of protection.
Last year, there were 1,737 pregnancies involving girls under 20 in the republic.
Angry commuters frustrated and stranded in human traffic for hours in Singapore’s rail line’s third major disruption in four days, are now lobbying for Singapore MRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa’s resignation.
Singapore’s Straits Times reported today that the Kuala Lumpur-born Saw, who built her career in the retail and marketing sector, has now found herself “very much the villain”, and is taking most of the heat for the breakdowns, said to be Singapore’s worst to date.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) today suspended two flights inbound and outbound London as the the United Kingdom's public sector employees are planning strike action.
In a news flash on its website, the airline said its flight SQ308 (Singapore-London) and SQ319 (London-Singapore) have been cancelled.
SIA will contact the affected passengers for alternative travel arrangements.
"At this point, we expect to operate all other flights between Singapore and UK as scheduled," SIA said.
However, it said, the situation was fluid and "we seek our customers' understanding and offer our apologies in advance should there be further flight disruptions."
SIA said UK public sector employees' unions are planning strike action today. -
Singapore denied yesterday claims that it had illegally encroached Malaysian airspace 2,508 times since 2008.
The Singapore Straits Times quoted Colonel Desmond Tan, a spokesman for the Singapore Ministry of Defence, as saying that Singapore has refuted Malaysia’s allegations via diplomatic notes.
“Either there was no Singapore government aircraft flying in the area at the time of the alleged violations, or they were Singapore government aircraft operating either within Singapore airspace or exercising the right of transit passage in the Singapore Strait,” he said.
Ng Chong Hiang pointing to the pump house roof, which has now been replaced, where Chong Ee Fang is believed to have fallen through.
People living in a block of flats here unknowingly consumed water tainted by the decomposing body of an Indonesian maid before police made the gruesome discovery, a report said on Tuesday.
The Straits Times said some residents complained to authorities after they discovered the tap water on Monday was slightly yellowish and unnaturally foamy.
The Singapore Malay National Organisation (PKMS) has called for Lee Kuan Yew to be detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for stating in his book that Muslims there should be “less strict” about observing their religion.
The Singapore minister mentor courted controversy lately with his book, “Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going”, as well as stating in an interview that Singapore’s heavy defence spending was to deter neighbours Malaysia and Indonesia from “besieging” the island republic.
“Is Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s (picture) statement not distorting and inciting racial and religious disharmony?” said PKMS secretary-general Mohamed Nazem Suki in a statement.
Mahathir: If we want to build our own ports with our own resources, why can’t we?
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed has denied claims that his administration campaigned to harm Singapore’s economy by boycotting the island-state’s shipping port.
“What Malaysia and Indonesia did was not sabotage but competition. In the past both countries’ goods were marketed through Singapore because its port could be used for big ships.
A Malaysian-registered tanker, MT Bunga Kelana 3, collided with a bulk carrier in the Singapore Strait about 13km southeast of Changi East this morning.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said the tanker collided with a St Vincents and The Grenadines-registered bulk carrier, MV Waily, in the traffic separation scheme (TSS) in the strait at about 6.10am.
In a statement, the MPA said there was no report of injury to crew members but the tanker suffered damage to one of its cargo tanks, resulting in an oil spill.
Singapore and Malaysia said today they have resolved long-standing disputes over land and water that have plagued ties between the two neighbours for the past 20 years.
Malaysia will relocate its railway station near Singapore's central business district to an area close to one of the two bridges linking the two countries, freeing up land in the city-state for redevelopment.
Malaysia has sovereignty over the site on which the Tanjong Pagar station is located, as well as land on both sides of the railway tracks that run through Singapore, under agreements dating back to British colonial rule.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong agreed today to relocate to Woodlands the 78-year-old Tanjong Pagar railway station operated by Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad (KTMB).
The relocation, to take place on July 1 next year, marks a major step in resolving a number of outstanding bilateral issues between the two countries, as first reported by The Malaysian Insider last September 29.
Private Investigor to Razak Baginda alleged believed to be hiding in Thailand ,Madras or Singapore.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) is seeking a formal request from private investigator P. Balasubramaniam to enable the graft busters to probe allegations he has made about the circumstances surrounding the death of Altantuya Shaariibuu.
The missing private detective has made a series of sensational claims that Najib knew murdered Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu and his brother Nazim and a businessman linked to the prime minister’s wife made him retract a statutory declaration on the case.
Earlier this month, Balasubramaniam (picture), who is now overseas, had said he was prepared to give a statement to MACC.
The MACC had, in a letter dated Dec 17 to the private detective's lawyer Americk Sidhu, asked Balasubramaniam to deal formally with the agency.
"The MACC have contacted me by sending a letter to my office in KL requesting that I correspond with them on a formal basis before they respond to my original offer of arranging an appointment for them to interview Bala.
"Their letter to my office was dated 17th Dec and arrived on the 21st," Americk said in an email response to The Malaysian Insider.
Balasubramaniam had expressed his intention to cooperate with MACC in an email to the agency earlier this month. On Dec 4, PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin lodged a police report over Balasubramaniam's allegations and handed over a recording of an interview with the private investigator to the authorities.
After a number of blogs and news portals published the interview conducted with Balasubramaniam and his lawyers in Singapore, a number of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders had lodged reports with the MACC.
Balasubramaniam, in his original email to MACC, had listed down conditions for his questioning by the authorities, including a requirement that it be conducted either in Singapore or London.
Asked today if he thought the MACC's response was positive, Americk said:
"I am not sure whether we can consider the MACC's response as positive as all they have asked is for me to reiterate what I have stated earlier in a formal format.
"In this day and age I am not sure why the MACC consider an email not 'formal'."
Datuk Seri Najib Razak has frostily ignored Balasubramaniam’s claims that his architect brother was allegedly involved in the private investigator’s disappearance and payoff for his silence in the Altantuya murder case.
The Umno president has previously denied knowing Altantuya, who was killed in October 2006, despite claims by Bala and popularised by fugitive blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin. Najib’s close friend, political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda, was acquitted of charges of plotting her murder while two elite policemen are to hang for the offence. They are appealing the sentence.
In an interview with Bala carried in Raja Petra’s Malaysia-Today.net news portal, the private investigator claimed he met architect Nazim, a younger brother of Najib, last year.
Bala claimed the meeting had been arranged by a carpet businessman identified as Deepak Jaikishan, whom the investigator claimed was a close associate of Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, the PM’s wife.
He also alleged that he was offered RM5 million to retract his first statutory declaration and that his family was threatened if he did not do it.
The former Special Branch policeman further claimed he was forced to sign a second pre-prepared statutory declaration which he claims to have never read and was paid RM750,000 after he disappeared.
So far, no one knows the whereabouts of the private investigator but he claimed he returned three times to Malaysia this year since fleeing in July 2008 after issuing contradictory statutory declarations. Police are seeking him although he claimed to have given them his statement in Bangkok before travelling to India.
Pakatan Rakyat has used the Altantuya case in some of its campaigns in the nine by-elections since Election 2008, winning seven in most opposition-held constituencies. The only Barisan Nasional seat it wrested effectively was the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary seat.
As the MACC is investigating the case, Americk Singh has sent investigating officer Abdul Rahman Bachok two emails, the contents of which were published yesterday on Raja Petra's website.
In an email dated Dec 4, Americk Singh (right) told Abdul Rahman that Bala is prepared to assist the MACC in its investigations and to be interviewed by its officers.
However, several terms were stipulated:
1) That the interview should be conducted in either Singapore or London
2) That the time and date of the interview should be mutually agreed to suit all parties involved
3) That the MACC should bear the cost of all airfares, including those of the lawyers involved
4) That the MACC should also bear all hotel expenses, subsistence, transportation and meals in respect of Bala and his lawyers
5) That any statement recorded from Bala should be in the English language, a copy of which should be given to the PI
6) That the lawyers should be allowed to make audio-visual recordings of the interview
Americk Singh explained that Bala is "concerned about his safety and welfare if this interview were to be conducted in Malaysia and will not entertain any assurances given by the MACC or any other party".
No comment from MACC
The lawyer also urged Abdul Rahman to respond promptly to the email so that he could relay the proposals to Bala.
"As you (Abdul Rahman) obviously have my mobile number, please feel free to contact me at any time to make the necessary arrangements," he wrote.
He further revealed that Abdul Rahman had contacted him on Dec 8 to verify the matter.
When contacted for comments, however, a MACC spokesperson said: "Due to ongoing investigations, we cannot reveal anything."
Bala, a former Special Branch detective, had made public a statutory declaration last year linking then deputy premier (now prime minister) Najib Abdul Razak to Altantuya.
However, the document was retracted within 24 hours under questionable circumstances and Bala fled abroad with his family.
Americk has since claimed that Bala's disappearance is linked to Najib's younger brother, Nazim. When the premier finally broke his silence, it was only to dismiss the claim as “frivolous”.
PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskander Mohd Akin lodged a report with the MACC over Nazim's alleged involvement in bribery.
He was called for questioning at the MACC headquarters in Putrajaya two days later. Shamsul also said that Abdul Rahman Bachok told him locate Bala.
