Mukhriz quits Umno?

Dato' Mukhriz Mahathir will hold a Press Conference at 5.30pm today at Bilik Meranti, Pan Pac, Kuala Lumpur.

What after Dr M quits?

Mass resignation at branches?

"With the first UMNO Branch or Cawangan meetings less than a month away, it would only take a few to begin a trend of mass resignation of members and closure UMNO branches such as to leave the party in disarray.
"These mass resignations are also a much more doable act than the recent feeble attempt to call an EGM at the Bahagian level. The Cawangan are still controlled by the grassroots, with a large majority still angry at Pak Lah and are easily stoked by the memory of Che Det."

-- Taken from an early observation by A Malay Mind, whose dad resigned from Umno 24 hours before Dr Mahathir or Che Det did! Read on h e r e.

A related development: I heard a meeting in JB last Saturday, between Dr M and some Umno leaders, ended with over 200 branches in Johor pledging to disband before the start of the Umno cawangan meetings.

Dr M quits Umno

Umno member No 0000001, pic taken from Apanama

update, 5.45pm: Sanusi Junid, the former MB of Kedah, has also resigned from Umno. He did it yesterday, even before Dr M said he was resigning!

Vesak Day bombshell. Dr Mahathir Mohamad has quit the party he led for 22 years. The announcement, made about noon, caught even his closest aides by surprise.

Malaysiakini has the story:-

Mahathir quits Umno

Ahti Veeranggan | May 19, 08 12:45pm

Former Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad today announced that he was quitting Umno with immediate effect and urged other members to emulate him. MCPX He said he was quitting the party, which he led for almost 22 years until handing over the reins to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2003, as a sign of no confidence in his successor's leadership. "I will only come back to the party when there is a change in leadership," the ex-premier told a crowd at a forum in his home state of Kedah this morning. He also called on all Umno ministers, deputy ministers and all levels of party leaders to join him in leaving the party. However he asked these members not to join any other party. "Wait till Abdullah to quit as the prime minister and party president and then we can return to Umno," he said. Mahathir joined Umno at its inception in 1946 and in recent years has been Abdullah's most vocal critic. He entered active politics as a member of Parliament for Kubang Pasu in 1964. He lost his seat in 1969 and was expelled from the party after attacking then president and prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Anti-Mahathir, Anti-Crossover Haris Ibrahim

Shahanaaz Habib, the first Malaysian journo to enter Baghdad during the US invasion of Iraq, came face-to-face with lawyer Haris Ibrahim in today's The Star.

Haris, the man behind The People's Parliament blog, is a hardcore anti-Mahathir and anti-crossover (he does not think Anwar Ibrahim should try to form a Pakatan Rakyat government by getting Barisan MPs to cross over, as the act of crossing is tantamount to "fraud"). He lists Info Minister Shabery Cheek as one of the few Barisan Nasional MPs he has (some) regards for.

In the interview, Haris did not forget to say thank you to the New Straits Times, for making him start People's Parliament.

"When they sued Rocky and Jeff Ooi*, it forced me to look into blogs and I reaslied this was a powerful opportunity for me to share the little messages that I have with fellow Malaysians."

Read the full interview online, H E R E.

*Haris Ibrahim is defending Jeff Ooi in a defamation suit filed by NSTP & 3 Others in January 2007. Jeff is now a Member of Parliament.

Dr M: No to Merchants of Death in IDR

War Profiteering Halliburton should not be allowed to operate in Malaysia

"The Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO) strongly condemns the recent opening of Halliburton's manufacturing centre in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor. The American oil and gas company which is linked to the current United States Vice President, Dick Cheney, has been raking in billions of dollars in profit from the American invasion of Iraq which has entered its fifth bloody year.
It is appalling that we have allowed this war-profiteering company to invest in Malaysia. Iskandar Malaysia Chief Executive Officer Datuk Ikmal Hijaz Hashim (see story below) has been quoted defending Haliburton and even expressed his happiness at the willingness of the company to invest in Johor.
Are we so void of our humanity that we have to allow these war criminals to come in and thrive in our economy? Do we really need the blood money of a neo conservative entity that has played a role in the murder of innocent Iraqis to fund our development?
Cheney and George Bush are oil men and war criminals who have profited tremendously from the war in Iraq. Cheney is a major stockholder in Halliburton whose stocks have increased from USD 10 before the war to around USD 46 today. The phenomenal increase in value of its stocks is due to Halliburton continuously winning no-bid contracts in Iraq amounting to almost 20 billion dollars.
As a nation that has firmly opposed the invasion and colonisation of Iraq right from the beginning, it is a painful change in direction to allow Halliburton to operate in Malaysia. As a nation that has played a lead role in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference since its conception, it is deplorable that we have opened our doors to these war criminals that have plundered and destroyed Iraq, a sovereign nation that was invaded on false pretexts.
Today, more than a million Iraqis have died in the war that has been supported by firms such as Halliburton; which have benefited from the U.S being able to control the flow of oil in West Asia.
Surely in our endeavor to progress, we can still afford to be humane and conscientious. We must be sensitive to the sufferings of our brother humans elsewhere before we agree to accept even a single cent from these murderers.
The dead in Iraq need their justice. These warmongers who made the decision to destroy Iraq must be condemned and brought to justice for their crimes against humanity. Bush and Cheney must be put on trial for the blood on their hands as well as for all the money they have made from Iraq in the past five years.
We at PGPO reiterate our fervent objection and strongly denounce the setting up of Halliburton's 200 million ringgit manufacturing centre at Iskandar Malaysia in Johor. The Malaysian government must not allow these war profiteers to put their ill-gotten profits to operate in any way in our beloved country.
On another note, we wish to express our utter disappointment with the decision of the Dewan Rakyat to dismiss the motion by Dato' Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the tragedy of Nakba.
The action of the Dewan Rakyat does not reflect the aspirations and the sentiments of the Malaysian people who share in the suffering of their Palestinian brothers and sisters. To reject this motion on the basis that it is not urgent is a negation of the very ideals that we hold sacred such as peace and the sanctity of life.
It is bad enough that countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia are celebrating Israel's 60 years of statehood, the least we can do is for our parliamentary sitting to show empathy and solidarity with the Palestinian people. "

Tun Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad
Chairman
Perdana Global Peace Organisation

Blogger Tehsin Mukhtar did a posting earlier in the week on Halliburton and the Iskandar CEO's statement:

Monday, May 5, 2008

Whose ethics are you referring to? CERTAINLY NOT MINE.

CEO: Halliburton will bring benefits to Iskandar

"If they bring in investment and create jobs, I don’t see any ethical questions on that. I am not too sure which yardstick you are using... DATUK IKMAL HIJAZ HASHIM"

Read the rest of her piece, h e r e.

wayang kulit or what?

4th Floor lodges police report against Kalimullah? LOL.

16/5 PM's Dept has lodged police reports against several newspapers for publishing Royal Commission of Inquiry Report before it was made public/STAR

Lingam, Adnan and Tan

Malaysia's de facto Judicial Appointment Commission?
If the reports by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam video clip were to be believed, then we actually already had a Judicial Appointment Commission! The questionable members of this de factor commission in question are: VK Lingam, Tengku Adnan and Vincent Tan.

What they allegedly did was to advise the Prime Minister then, Dr Mahathir, on the appointment of the Chief of Justice. (read HERE)

Mahathir, however, has gone on record to ssay that he got the views of people (not just the CJ) on the appointment of Superior judges. For this, I suppose, the Commission found the former PM had a "narrow interpretation" to the meaning of the word "consultation" in the appointment and promotion of judges. See Article 122 of the Constitution, excerpts below:

The Lord President of the Supreme Court, the Chief Justice of the High Courts and ... the other judges of the supreme court and of the High Courts shall be appointed by the Yang di pertuan Agong, acting on the advice of the PM, after the consulting the conference of Rulers.

I expect the journalists to ask Pak Lah if he's going to retain Ku Nan as Umno sec-gen now that he's been found guilty by the Commission.

Terengganu's missing (RM) billions

Big scandal in poor Terengganu.
Idris Jusoh, the former MB, says his government got only RM1.3 billion a year between 2004 and 2007 only.
How come?

Just the other day, Parliament was told that RM7.34 billion oil royalty had been paid to Terengganu between 2004 and 2007, when Deris was MB.

That works out to about RM2.4 billion a year, not RM1.3 billion.

Deris told Sinar Harian yesterday he didn't know it was that much cos all the State got was RM1.3 billion a year. Really?

Do your math: 2.4 minus 1.3 is ...?

RM1.1 billion.

So into whose pockets did the RM1.1 billion a year of Terenggnu people's money go?

1.1 times three years is RM3.3 billion. So who got that RM3.3 billion, Pak Lah?

Visit Lawyer Kampung to read more!

Speaker quits Umno post

breaking story !!!

Dewan Rakyat Speaker to quit Umno position. Veteran Sabahan politician Pandikar Amin Mulia, the Dewan Rakyat Speaker, is said to have tendered his resignation as the Umno division chief for Kota Marudu. Pandikar Amin is said to have told some people from his Bahagian that in order to serve as the Speaker for the Dewan Rakyat, and NOT the Speaker for Umno, he would have to resign from holding any post in Umno.

His action will obviously be linked to Anwar Ibrahim's relentless efforts to get 30 or so Umno MPs from Sabah to cross over to Pakatan Rakyat in order to for the Opposition to form a Government with a simple majority in Parliament, and in order to fullfil his dream of becoming the Prime Minister.

Pandikar Amin was sworn in as the 12th Parliament Speaker on April 28. His name was proposed by Prime Minsiter Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Malaysia's halal connection, Badawi and Temasek

Is there conflict of interest in halal corporation?
Malaysia's plan to develop internation Halal certification and halal food industrial parks, is raising a web of sinister conflicts. The newly-formed Halal Industry Development Corp or HDC is under the auspices of the Prime Minister's office, although ownership of the company is unclear. HDC even processes foreign direct investment (FDI) for the halal sector, a role designed for the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti).

HDC, and its links to Badawi's family, got a lot closer when HDC signed up with Tamadam Bonded Warehouse, a company which is being taken over by the PM's brother Ibrahim to develop halal parks.

Tamadam had recently signed an agreement with Temasek, Singapore's investment arm, to source for various projects here. It is unclear if Temasek has a hand in this project, but the Badawi lineage is clear, and it open sa lot more trails with questions such as Why is the HDC tasked with halal certification using Jakim logo? (Jakim was doing the certification previously) and What is the role of son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin?

I am not saying that all this is haram or that there is wrong doing here, but the PM - HDC - PM's dear brother Ibrahim - Temasek link will have a lot of people edgy and will have great serious repercussions on Malaysia's Islamic finance aspirations.