Signages of Pride1 and Shame2

Continuing from where I hinted yesterday about the Billboards, our Pride has again gone down the drain when...

The CEO of the Only Developed Nation state in NegaraKu, Selangor, openly declared that he's clueless about what his underlings had signed in the name of the State administration!



SHAME1

From the ghostbusting Sun Exco team cometh the frontpage headline today:

MB blames officers

KHIR: BILLBOARDS
MONOPOLY DEAL
WAS NOT WHAT
EXCO APPROVED

SHAH ALANM: Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk
Seri Khir Toyo yesterday indicated
heads will roll after admitting there were
material differences between what the State
Executive Council (Exco) approved and what
his officers committed the government to on
the issue of billboards.

Promising an investigation into
who and what caused the mess
the sate government has been
caught in, he said: "I was not
aware of this (the discrepancy)
until I received the agreement."
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DESIDERATA: I already can see many of my ER shaking their heads,
-- including Sabrina hiden among the misty LOTR terrortry because
I hear Inya's haunting lyrical tale -- so I shall stop here.

In case some of you should PUKE, and I don't have water to clean up the mess (on my computer screen-lah, not in the sate of Nine States where I reside with a policy of
Ignorance is Bliss/Iblis.

SHAME2

Not so long ago, I had asked Sabahans to demand accountability from their State CEO, maybe take a leaf from the brave Sarawakians to pursue TWO important issues --
* Rape of Sipadan and the CM Musa Aman doing a "Semuanya Okay" on esteemed federal CEO Pak Lah;
** also the rampant reported cases of foreigners given Identity Cards in double quick time, leading to a state of "public insecurity" and WWW (wild wild west, not world wide web, which is to be proud of!) crime.

I'll let the Opposition do an update, and Desi was NOT even well informed about many more (reprised in full here with Desi's highlights (BOLDED THUS) from on a press statement by the DAP S-G) of the "wrongs" going on in a neighbouring state. Wonder if AirAsia will give this freelan'' journolist a free-range ride into the WWW!? It's a half rhetorical question, so I can't say I'd be uunhappy if I heard from Datuk Tony Fernandez!

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A copy of the press statement I sighted at malaysia-today.net but the attriobution is to the DAP Secretary-General, alright!

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

DAP challenges Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman

Press Conference Statement Speech By DAP Secretary-General Lim Guan Eng In Gaya Street, Kota Kinabalu


"DAP challenges Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman to state when BN will resolve the 8 major issues to save Sabah from being the most undeveloped state, the worst place to live and the most dangerous state in Malaysia. The following 8 facts based on the 9MP, are reasons why Sabah is the living nightmare for 3 million Sabahans in Malaysia as follows:-

1. Sabah has the largest number of illegal immigrants and those with ICs fraudulently given ICs granted under “Project M” estimated at nearly 1 million. The extraordinary growth of the Sabah illegal immigrant population can be shown that in 1960, the Kadazandusun population was 168,000 and equaled the number of other Bumiputeras. In 2000, while the Kadazandusun population increased to 560,000, the population of other Bumiputeras had grown to 1.1 million;

2. A high crime rate and one of the most dangerous place(s) to live in Malaysia where police officers can not even protect themselves from criminals much less protect the public;

3. Sabah is the least developed state in Malaysia, ranking last on the Development Composite Index (DCI) scoring 90 as compared to the highest of 109.6 of Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. Even Kelantan is ahead of Sabah with a DCI of 93.1.

4. Sabah is the poorest state with the worst incidence of poverty at 23% in 2004 as compared to Sarawak’s 7.5% and Kelantan’s 10.6%. The incidence of poverty in Peninsular Malaysia is 3.6% and for the entire country 5.7%;

5. Sabah has the highest income inequality between the rich and poor with a mean monthly household income of RM 2,487 ranking eight out of 14 states in Malaysia but the worst poverty levels at 23 %

6. Sabah has also the highest population growth rate in the country at 3.1% as compared to the national average of 2.3%. Its population jumped by 530,000 or more than 20% in the space of 5 years from 2.6 million in 2000 to 3.13 million in 2005, mostly due to illegal immigrant from neighbouring countries fraudulently given identity cards. Malthusian theory has made it clear too big a population would result in greater scarcity of resources and less developme.;

7. Sabah has the most frequent power supply breakdowns in the country with the System Average Interruption Duration Index(SAIDI) of 4,109 minutes per customer per year. In other words 4,109 minutes is lost from power interruptions in Sabah each year by every customer. Each user will face almost 3 days out of 365 days without power supply in Sabah earning SESB the description Sabah Energy Supply Breakdown company. 3 days is probably an underestimation as many Sabahans are so fed up as to have given up on reporting power breakdowns. This compares unfavourably with TNB’s 147 SAIDI or only 147 minutes lost per year in Peninsular Malaysia.

8. Sabah has the second lowest water supply coverage of 75% throughout the state just ahead of the 70% water supply coverage in Kelantan.

The power struggle between Prime Minster Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi and his predecessor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has resulted in the people’s problems being neglected when each is fighting for political survival. In this battle for survival the people’s problems such as those in Sabah are forgotten. The people should know that only DAP is serious and committed in their problems and gaining their mandate not for power but to benefit the people.

LIM GUAN ENG


~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ends DAP S-G's press statement ~~~~~~~~~~~


Proud3 to follow while I go for a break, can? Meanwhile, please DO NOT INSERT ANYTHING INTO MY POST, okay! It's an "offence" punishable by a shoot-out at the OK Korral nigh Ipoh if I catch any cowpricks hawking into my terrortry!:(~~

Proud3 because yesterday Desi offered two p(b)rides.
This could also qualify as Shame3 on the part of the corporate involved!

From page 21 of theSun, also available @www.theedgedaily.com fom where I just C&P-lah!: Thanks!


Business as usual at
Top Glove despite
Immigration probe


Top Glove Corporation Bhd's operations have
not been disrupted although the company
was found to have allegedly run foul of
laws for having 2,500 foreign
workers without valid work permits, its
executive director K M Lee said on yesterday (Aug 16).

He said the world's largest glove maker
faces “a few million ringgit” compound for
immigration law infringements arising from
an administrative oversight and not a RM121
million fine as reported by a local daily.

"Our foreign workers have not been
detained and production is on as usual.

“Our workers were all brought in with proper
papers and the failure to renew their work
permits was an oversight and without fraudulent
intent,” he told Financial Daily on Aug 16.

Lee said it was him and the company's legal
manager who were questioned by the immigration
officials and not its managing director Datuk
Seri Lim Wee Chai, who is currently in China.

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He added that Top Glove had been employing
foreign workers since the past nine years and
that this was the first time it had failed
to renew the permits on time.

“This was due to our rapid expansion and the fact
that only one person was handling matters
pertaining to our foreign workers.
have since identified the problem and de-centralised
human resource tasks to individual factories,” he said.

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Meanwhile, Immigration enforcement chief Datuk Ishak Mohamed said the two senior executives of Top Glove had been released on bail on Tuesday night after being detained for allegedly employing illegal foreign workers.

However, he said the duo have to report to the department daily to assist further investigations.

On Tuesday, Ishak was reported as saying that 2,500 foreign workers in the company did not have valid work permits. The authorities found that the permits of 2,071 workers had expired, 353 did not have permits and 72 were without passports.

Ishak said it was unacceptable for the company to claim that the resignation of its human resource manager last month had caused the delay of the renewal.

"Some of the working permits had expired for almost one year. It's alright if you have only 20-30 workers' permits expire. But more than 2,000 permits were expired.

"To me, its not acceptable to give that excuse," he said, adding that the investigating team will complete its probe "as soon as possible" and action will be taken, with the minimum punishment being a compound.

The employer of the illegal workers may also be liable to a fine of up to RM25 million and even imprisonment. He believes the case is the biggest of its kind so far.


DESIDERATA: I've highlighted (BOLDED THUS) the excellent follow-up report, and wish to remind my ER that under the present PM's administration, there have been a lot more "measures" to promote transparency and corporate respo0nsibility in the corporate world, especially on corporance by Bursa Malaysia Listed Companies. (FYI, I monitor this segment of Malaysian Business quite closely as part of my Cari-cari Makan -- NOT PLAYING THE STOCK MARKET, but doing some press writing and editing!

I want to put on record to say "SYABAS" to Ishak and his men. Keep up the good work!

Again, look at what this Top Glove guy dared to say:

“This was due to our rapid expansion and the fact
that only one person was handling matters
pertaining to our foreign workers.

Does that sound like some Selangor Exxco speaking?
No wonder the one and only Human Resource man ran away!
He must have been working himself to nigh-death!