Categories
Environment

[709] Of logging in Hulu Langat, Khir Toyo and Fungsi Mewah Sdn Bhd

I’ve been following news on Hulu Langat logging with great interest for the past few days. Locals there allege that logging activity is occuring within the boundary of a nature reserve. State government however insists otherwise and goes as far as saying that the trees fell there are on private property.

One reason for my interest is Selangor’s ugly reputation in environmental care . I still remember what happened to a nature reserve in near Shah Alam with the state government’s consent. This case in Hulu Langat might strike an awful resemblance with that of the reserve near Shah Alam.

The question that needs an answering right now is obviously the status of the area. Who is right – the locals or the state government?

If it is the locals, the state government would be hard pressed to find a scapegoat or two all over again. In the case of the reserve near Shah Alam, if I recall correctly, the developers were charged of several offences but the government officials that approved the development essentially got away. If the logging in Hulu Langat occured within the boundary of another reserve, like what had occured at the reserve near Shah Alam, then, who approved it?

If it is the state government is right, then there is no case at all and the loggers should be allowed to continue their work.

But if the logging activity is done within the reserve, when the approval was given out?

A Google search reveals that an approval for logging activity in Hulu Langat was given on April 2001 to a firm named Fungsi Mewah Sdn Bhd. I however am not sure if the 2001 approval is related to the area in question currently but according to Bernama, the reserve itself was declared as a “Heritage Park” on August 27, 2005.

Through TV3, we know that the loggers are Fungsi Mewah Sdn Bhd – the same company that received the logging permit in 2001. This connection might suggest that the alleged logging within the reserve was approved in 2001. If all assumptions stand, it’s odd how nobody within the government remember about the concession when they declared the area as a reserve. A sign of incompetency perhaps?

Of interest, Google seach reveals that Fungsi Mewah has several interesting connections with Selangor Chief Minister Khir Toyo.

Whatever the answer is, the state government has ordered a stop to the loggers. But according to TV3, the loggers are ignoring the order. Bernama confirms this. Fungsi Mewah alleged connections with Khir Toyo might have contributed to the firm’s audacity to ignore the Chief Minister’s order.

But then, if the logging is done on private property as the Chief Minister has mentioned, why issue stop order in the first place? Odd, isn’t it?

Categories
Humor Sports

[708] Of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar

Ajax’s first league game for 2006 is currently on. It’s Ajax versus NEC and it should be an easy fight unless something bad happens. Despite facing a weak opponent, this game is important because this is Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s first game for Ajax. Huntelaar is currently the Eredivisie’s top scoer. This game will see how Huntelaar fit in Ajax’s system.

Ajax, despite its ability to play beautiful game, severely lack fire power. Many strikers have come and gone but most of them fail to fit into Ajax’s system. The last reliable striker Ajax had was Ibrahimovic, now at Juventus. In fact, Ibrahimovic says Juventus may be bigger than Ajax, but the pressure on a striker is much heavier in Amsterdam.

There’s high hope that Huntelaar won’t disappoint as how Sonck was and how Charisteas, the Greek hero during Euro 2004 is. This is especially so when Steven Pienaar, Hatem Trabelsi and Nigel de Jong are leaving Ajax at the end of the season. Apart from that, this season has somewhat been a borderline disaster for Ajax. Currently sixth and a game in hand, if Huntelaar performs and Ajax ride on its recovery momentum, things might brighten a bit.

With a little bit of lucky, Ajax might even claw back into the top three. And since Huntelaar is eligible for Ajax’s Champions League campaign, if he is as good as a lot of Ajacied are hoping he is, a semifinal for Ajax might not be too much to ask.

p/s – well, something bad is happening. Score ties at one all, 20 minutes into the second half and Huntelaar has yet to shine.

pp/s – What. The. F-… (via)

Categories
Environment Personal Politics & government Sports

[707] Of all hail to the devils slayer

A post dedicated to Manchester City. All hail to the devils slayer.

This must be one of those better weeks. Just several days ago, the “devils held“.

p/s – half of total 300 tonnes of toxic waste has been removed. But there are some indications that part of the waste might have reached Muar River. Muar River is a major river and the town of Muar is a major town by the river. How major? Wikipedia says the town itself has more than 200,000 people. That’s larger than the pretentious city of Shah Alam. Is this our little China? Perhaps? Not as serious, true but still…

According to Bernama:

27,000 Sea Perch Die, Breeder Loses RM250,000

MUAR, Jan 13 (Bernama) — A company rearing sea perch fish in cages in Sungai Muar here Friday lost RM250,000 following the sudden death of 27,000 fish weighing between 500 gram to 3kg each…

… “Probably the change in the water quality as a result of the flood at Hulu Sungai Muar and toxic waste pollution from a factory nearby could have caused the death of the fish,” said the Jailani who had been breeding sea perch for the last 15 years…

This makes me wonder, how many legit dumpsite does Malaysia have and how many recorded illegal dumping are there in 2005?

pp/s – TMnet is truly impossible.

ppp/s – Did I mention that Manchester City beat Manchester United 3 to 1?

p4/s – Did I mention that Cristiano Ronaldo’s middle name is red?

p5/s – Did I mention that… bah. Read all about it at Soccernet.

p6/s – RealClimate explains the drought in the Brazilian Amazon. I get the statistics part but I can’t pretend that I fully comprehend the atmospeheric/climatology jargons though without further reading.

p7/s – holy shit. Jill Carroll is from Ann Arbor! Jill Carroll is a freelance journalist that reported for the Christian Science Monitor in Iraq before she was kidnapped. She’s still missing but I hope she’s alright.

Categories
ASEAN Economics Liberty

[706] Of Cambodian dictatorship and ASEAN

Malaysia and several other ASEAN members have been criticizing Myanmar for the latter’s lack of meaningful democratic progress. To the southeast beyond Thailand, lies Cambodia with a dictator is in the making. Despite Cambodia’s alarming progress towards dictatorship, ASEAN leaders are yet to say a word about it.

For the past few days, Cambodian government have been arresting Cambodians critical of the government on the ground of defamation. The arrest has sparked condemnation from several organization, including Amnesty International. AI in its press release accuses the Cambodian government of manipulating Cambodian courts. The New York Times in one of its articles says that this is not an isolated incident. Opposition leaders and others have been arrested by the government. This makes these arrests as a part of a larger erosion of freedom in Cambodia:

Cambodian Leader Cracks Down in Bid to Solidify Power
By SETH MYDANS
Published: January 9, 2006

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Jan. 8 – The harshest political crackdown in years is under way here in what some analysts are calling the final stage in Prime Minister Hun Sen’s drive to consolidate unchallenged power.

Over the past year, he has choked off the last effective political opposition while continuing to marginalize the monarchy, manipulate the courts and intimidate labor unions and other civic groups. In December, the leader of the only significant opposition party, Sam Rainsy, who had already fled the country, was sentenced in absentia to 18 months in prison for criminal defamation.

Now, with a series of arrests and lawsuits on defamation and related charges, Mr. Hun Sen is for the first time directly attacking the human rights groups that, by default, serve as a de facto democratic opposition…

ASEAN has a unique role to apply pressure against Cambodia. The 10-member confederation could admonish the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and perhaps, put a check on current Cambodian political atmosphere. But it is not doing so and I think I know why they are silent on the matter.

ASEAN takes pride of its non-interference policy but it makes an exception for Myanmar thanks to US and EU initiative. Unlike Myanmar, the European Union and United States are not pushing ASEAN to deal with Cambodia accordingly. With no outside push, ASEAN seems happy to stay away from making a comment on its members. Well, I think it’s just wrong and ASEAN needs to make a statement on Cambodia.

The reason for such need is simple – it’s the ASEAN Charter which guarantees human rights. Though the Charter has yet to be drafted, this is a chance for ASEAN to prove to the world and more importantly, to its own citizens that the charter will not be just another piece of paper. If ASEAN fails to speak up against Cambodia, it will be harder to deal with such case in the future even when the Charter is in place.

Then, of course, besides the lack of outside pressure, another reason why ASEAN is not doing anything about the issue is because its more prosperous members, particularly Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, are not quite saints when it comes to human rights.

p/s – Volkswagen ends partnership with Proton. So, Proton is going to keep Lotus after all.

Categories
Activism

[705] Of reviving ReMag

At ReCom.org, it’s usually a style to add Re- in front of everything. It’s all about ReCom, ReCommend, ReMag. And now, it’s about reviving ReMag. If I may be lame, which I am most of the time, it’s ReMag: ReVival.

ReMag was a little project by ReCom.org. An online magazine with articles written by Malaysians. It started two years ago but five editions later, it suffered a slow death. ReMag 6 was supposed to go out on December 2005 but it didn’t. It was because for ReMag 6, we tried to run the project on a new model but the model collapsed under its own weight – contributions started to dry up as prospective authors accused ReMag editors as a bunch of elitists. The project’s theme itself was considered of being too serious by many outside of ReMag editorial board. Hackers’ attack on ReCom.org killed off everything that was left, including the archives. For more than six months now, ReMag has been a mere blank page.

A few days ago, effort to revive the project started to pick up. For some reasons, people became excited about it all over again. One of the people is me – I found myself in the project once again. The aim right now is to gather old editors that worked for us and find new ones. More importantly, it’s time to solicit Malaysians to write for ReMag yet again.

When ReMag was up and running, it was healthy. Surpisingly too, it was popular. I didn’t know that until the project died out. At the same time, there was no competitor. Currently however, I could think of two competitors out there – one is theCicak and the other is inkyhands. The best thing is, some people at ReCom recognize most people at theCicak and inkyhands due to previous networking. So, fun.

Now. If you are interested in contributing to ReMag, please mail me at mnoorsha [at] umich [dot] edu. There’s no preset topic and you are free to send anything worthy of read. If you are interested in being an editor or are able to findle with technical details and able to write in HTML, PHP or mess around with CMS, mail me too. For more information, visit ReCom.org.

So, ReMag. Coming soon at www.ReMag.org.