4 charged over Taiping church attacks

UPDATED 4.40PM No plea was recorded as the cases are to be mentioned in the Taiping Sessions Court on Feb 8.
The four are: Abdul Sattah Shaharuddin, , Mohd Abdul Wahab, Mohamad Azreen Rosli and Andidi Rosdi - all aged 29, 20, 18, and 22 respectively.

Abdul Sattah and Abdul Wahab were charged with intent to cause arson between 12.01am and 3.30am on Jan 10 , on the All Saints Church in Jalan Taming Sari while Azreen Rosli was charged with attempting to cause arson on the Taiping Catholic Church, formerly known as St Louis Church, in Jalan Convent on the same date. Andidi Rosdi, facing a similar charge as Azreen Rosli on the same date on the guard house of SMK Convent Taiping located next to the Taiping Catholic Church.

Anwar seeks to subpoena Najib and Rosmah - If Najib and the government have managed to cover up the Altantuya murder trial, what more sodomy II trial?

Anwar Ibrahim, who stands accused of sodomy in a long-delayed trial due to start this afternoon, intends to subpoena Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor as witnesses.

Anwar, 62, claimed to have evidence that the complainant, Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, had met the duo two days before lodging a police report.

"We want to know Rosmah and Najib's involvement in this," Anwar told supporters at the Kuala Lumpur High Court complex this morning.

"They had initially denied the meeting. Now Najib has admitted he had met (with Mohd Saiful) and we want to know (more).

“If Najib and the government have managed to cover up the Altantuya (Shaariibuu) murder trial, what more this? This is a desperate attempt to implicate me."

In July 2008, Najib, who was then deputy premier, admitted Mohd Saiful (right) had paid him a visit at his home a few days before lodging the police report against Anwar.

Najib claimed he had advised Mohd Saiful to lodge the report but denied involvement in an alleged conspiracy against Anwar.

Prior to this, Najib had admitted that he met Mohd Saiful on another occasion at his Putrajaya office.

Mohd Saiful, a Universiti Tenaga dropout, was said to have been seeking Najib's help in obtaining a government scholarship.
(Source: Mkini - Support Mkini - Subscribe to Mkini!)

1Malaysia vs Jakim: PM vs Prime Minister's Dept! Please stop the talk if you cannot walk the talk!

Just read YB LKS's blog post entitled:

Cabinet must condemn and take action against Jakim’s insubordination and open insurrection against Najib’s 1Malaysia concept

Of course, the above posting is related to speakers in a forum organized by Jakim of the Prime Minister's Department who blamed Christians for 'Allah' row (Click here to read @ The Malaysian Insider).

Kartika's wish to be whipped is delayed by 'the powers that be'

It has been almost half a year since the deferment of Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno’s caning sentence. [VIDEO INSIDE]

Behind the media frenzy and religious debates, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno is a heartbroken woman who just wants a second chance at a normal life. Kartika, a 33-year-old part-time model, made international news last July after she became the first woman in the country to be sentenced six strokes of the rotan for consuming alcohol.In an exclusive interview with Malaysiakini , Kartika said the entire ordeal had destroyed her marriage, strained her family and two children.

A few factors for the delay:
1. The authorities don't have people trained to carry out such punishment
2. There is pressure from the Sultan (of Pahang) as he does not approve of the sentence
3. The prime minister wanting to use his power to stop the punishment (Kartika's dad objects to it)

(Image source: The Star Online)

Bid to cite MACC man for contempt denied

UPDATE 7.38PM Attempts to initiate contempt proceedings against an MACC officer have been denied.

The MACC officer is Raub Ghani who lodged a police report on New Year's day alleging Pornthip leaked her post mortem report to PKR party organ Suara Keadilan. Following the police report, Pornthip who was only allowed to observe the second post mortem, had informed the Selangor government that she was afraid to return to Malaysia over fears of being arrested.

After the inquest proceedings, both Karpal and Ipoh Timur MP Lim Kit Siang issued scathing statements at newly appointed MACC chief Abu Kassim Mohamed - Karpal wanted Abu Kassim to initiate disciplinary actions against Raub for causing delays to the inquest while Lim questioned if MACC had sanctioned Raub in lodging the police report.

Selcat fireworks: Teng switches off Ronnie - DURIAN RUNTUH!

UPDATED 7PM State watchdog committee chairperson kept trading verbal punches with his DAP colleague Ronnie Liu during the morning session over the latter’s style of disbursing constituency allocations. The verbal punches even reached the stage where Teng decided to switch off Liu's microphone to stop him from speaking.

The biggest controversy surrounding Liu's testimony was over the RM16,583 spent on organising three 'durian festivals' - one of them costing a whopping RM10,000. Liu did not provide the number of durians served when quizzed by Selcat member Saari Sungip with the former replying to the latter that he was out to serve "quality durian" to the people.

Wah! This must be 'durian runtuh' for the rakyat or is it 'durian runtuh' for the durian supplier(s) and Liu? ;)

70 percent of state government contracts in 2009 awarded to bumiputera

A major portion of state government contracts in 2009 were handed to bumiputras reveals the chief minister.

Again, why must be bumiputras? Does not CAT stand for Competency, Accountability and Transparency? If these contracts were given based on CAT, well and good!

If the majority of the contractors were non-bumiputeras, I am sure that would again be an issue!

You have to read RPK's 'Guan Eng dictator? Good for him!' in Malaysia-Today to understand MP Zahrain's barrage against Guan Eng:

When the Umno Malays attack the Chinese from the opposition, they would normally use the word ‘Communist’. To the Umno Malays, any Chinese who opposes Umno is a Communist.

And this is what MP Zahrain Mohd Hashim from PKR called Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng from DAP -- ‘Communist-minded’.

But then, Zahrain is Umno. Okay, maybe now he is in PKR. But that was only very recently. For decades he was in Umno and, furthermore, he was one of the key people in Umno Penang who headed various very important government agencies in the state.

In short, in true Umno fashion, Zahrain was one of the Penang warlords -- and he was so for a great number of years. But Umno warlords, even ex-Umno warlords now in the opposition, no longer carry any weight in Penang. And this must be extremely unsettling for someone like Zahrain, who practically had the power of ‘life and death’ over Penang -- and now has no power to even change the curtains in his office without the approval of ‘dictator’ Lim Guan Eng.

Another thing that is even more upsetting for Umno, even ex-Umno people now in PKR, is that, during the days of the Gerakan state government, it was Umno that called the shots while the Gerakan Chief Minister was merely an Umno running dog and in office merely to serve Umno’s interest.

But Lim Guan Eng is nobody’s running dog. He is not in office to serve Umno’s interest, or the interest of ex-Umno people who no longer have any future in Umno and are now trying to build a new future in PKR.