Petronas money

Petronas money - by Jeffrey Kittingan IT'S HIGH TIME TO REVIEW THE PETRONAS OIL ROYALTY AGREEMENTS! In view of the shocking developments from inevitable results of the sudden oil price hike, I would like to raise several issues with regards to the situation in Petronas which I believe most people are NOT aware of. This is especially pertinent in the face of several revelations, such as the fact that the oil wells in Sabah will dry up six years from now. The issue has also been raised that Petronas "could go bust in 2018", forcing us to ask: Where have all the huge amounts of Petronas money gone to? Had Petronas been managed so badly that despite it being the nation's biggest money earner, it is now facing the possibility of going bust (bankrupt)? The first problem with Petronas is the fact that it was designed to be a SECRETIVE organisation worse that a "kongsi gelap". The Petronas agreements have been classified secret. WHY? What clauses are in the agreement are so sensitive that nobody should know? This secrecy also includes the secrecy of Petronas detailed Annual Report which is shielded from public eyes and scrutiny, making it an organization without public accountability. Petronas is therefore more a sole proprietorship completely and secretively owned by the Prime Minister then a public government owned company! What is so secretive that it cannot be revealed and only the Prime Minister has total complete knowledge? Are we suppose to TRUST the Prime Minister and have FAITH in him after all the scandals, "curi duit rakyat" cases and fiascos continuing to hit us? The other shocking revelation that has come to my knowledge is that 80% of the oil produced by Petronas is not sold directly to the world market but is channelled through 6 OPTION HOLDERS who obtain the supply from Petronas at well below market prices (1974 prices to be exact). These option holders or agents are the ones reaping the benefits and huge profits in the oil price hikes. Who are these people - the lucky 6 Option Holders? Why are they there in the first place? Who chose them? Why are they so lucky over the other 28 million Malaysians? Why am I not chosen? Why and Who created such a STUPID system for PETRONAS? Are these people in fact cronies representing certain people with private interests and personal private pockets? It is also understood that this supply through the option holders is sold by contracts with a binding agreement for 20 or 30 years, causing huge losses for Petronas when and every time oil price increases. Petronas would have to continue selling at the agreed old price without gaining any benefits from any increase in the world oil prices. At the same time, Petronas has to buy back the oil for local consumption from the world market at market prices. See how Petronas is losing our rakyat's money faster than BINGO? And do you now understand why the BN government keeps CRYING and WAILING about being unable to SUBSIDISE the petrol prices any longer and why Idris Jala is WEEPING that the country is going bankrupt in a couple of years? Any IDIOT can tell you that no business can sustain like this - sell cheap because Petronas is tied to the age old low price for 20-30 years and buy back at absolute SKY HIGH market price - without going BANKRUPT faster than BINGO! By business logic, Petronas should be highly profitable if they sell our high grade Malaysian crude at market price (higher than Arabian crude because our crude is high quality with low sulphur), and buy back Arabian crude at market price (lower than our selling price). Why and how we got ourselves into this dire straits deserve a White Paper or a Royal Commission of Inquiry... and worse why the IDIOTS responsible are not letting go after raking BILLIONS in profits since 1974? Why so greedy? Do they want to continue milking the poor rakyat until the end of the world? Only 20% of Petronas's supply is sold through direct open bidding. Thus, Petronas is sadly not maximising its revenue and profits by dealing directly with the open world market. Instead it has been incurring incalculable losses for the nation and for the people. How much this monstrous loss is, we will never know... until we get an honest Prime Minister or until we topple the BN government. The Members of Parliament and the state governments should boldly raise this very important issue in Parliament or directly with the federal government for the benefit of the oil-producing states and the people. The BN MPs seem to be quite hopeless in this respect, cowering in fear, whimpering in their little corners and not even daring to utter the word "oil" or "Petronas"... such useless people should be removed and voted out of office. They are supposed to be representatives of the people or rakyat, and are supposed to keep the government in check to ensure the interests of the people are taken care of. Instead, these useless MPs are supporting the plundering or are part of the plundering and robbing, on top of demands for contracts and more contracts! They take care of their own pockets as FIRST priority, and the pockets of their cronies as SECOND priority. The people and rakyat???? They won't even bat an eyelid! There is a window of opportunity for all of us to DEMAND a REVIEW of the Petronas agreements and to make Petronas OPEN and TRANSPARENT. We should also demand that the system of having the 6 option holders be abolished. A new system should be created in which the three oil-producing states are in control of the marketing arm of Petronas, to make Petronas trade directly in the world market with the aim of maximising revenue for the benefit of the nation. Obviously, Petronas is a huge business organisation which is not accountable, secretive, and open to a lot of abuses by the Prime Minister himself, including the decision to use its revenue to bail out various individuals who faced bankruptcy in the midst of the Asian economic crisis 13 years ago. If the federal government truly wants to be RESPONSIBLE and ACCOUNTABLE to the people as it claims it wants to be, they should have long time ago proved their SINCERITY for excellent governance by opening up FULL PUBLIC TRANSPARENCY ACCOUNTING into Petronas's revenue and expenses!!! DATUK DR. JEFFREY KITINGAN

SELANGOR FOLKS CONNED BY FALSE WATER CRISIS

SELANGOR FOLKS CONNED BY FALSE WATER CRISIS A well written article on the conspiracy to create a false water shortage crisis, so as to justify the RM8.65 billion Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant mega project. The technical term for the amount of raw water that is wasted due to inefficiencies in the water treatment plant is called “non-revenue water” or NRW. Under Rozali Ismail's SYABAS/PUNCAK NIAGA, Malaysia's NRW is 32%. A third of the water that enters SYABAS's plant goes to waste. This has been happening for years, meaning nothing whatsoever has been done to mitigate the problem. Why? Well I think its down right to the fact there is no competition as this is a monopoly created by the inept UMNO/BN-led government to encourage this at the Rakyat's expense and loss. Furthermore, there is this debt accumulation to the tune of RM2 billion but that certainly has not hampered Rozali Ismail from drawing a monthly salary of almost RM500,000.00, but some put it as high as RM800,000.00. Are the people of Selangor in their right sense of thinking, going to return UMNO/BN to power in this state? UMNO/BN and its allies runs an organisation by maintaining high operating cost with not just low returns, but in this case 'NO RETURNS'. Water crisis? Or crisis of corruption? Nathaniel Tan 10:33AM Jul 21, 2012 Water, water, every where, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge COMMENT Have you ever been made to buy something you didn’t need? Or worse, have you been deceived, intimidated and bullied into making an entirely unnecessary, overpriced purchase? It would appear that this is what we are facing with Syabas, this “water crisis” it keeps getting excited about. However, if we examine the hard facts closely, we will see that the only crisis we are facing is an all too familiar crisis of corruption and cronyism - centred tightly around the RM8.65 billion Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant. Do we really need the Langat 2 plant? We all know politicians use taxpayer-funded megaprojects to make money. The bigger the megaproject, the bigger the kickbacks - and RM8.65 billion is plenty big. With that much money at stake, the last thing ‘well-connected’ individuals care about is whether the project is actually needed, or whether it truly benefits the rakyat or not. The Selangor government is all for preventing this RM8.65 billion gravy train from riding out, and its position is simple: there is plenty of water in Selangor, and if there is any shortage at all, it is due to failure, or worse, on the part of Syabas.azlanHere’s what Syabas doesn’t want you to know about this water “crisis”: It’s not about how much raw water there is (since the dams in Selangor are all clearly full); it’s about how Syabas is failing dramatically to efficiently convert enough of that raw water into potable water. (Technically speaking, the main company responsible for treatment of water is Puncak Niaga, which in turn owns 70 percent of Syabas. Both companies are in essence run by the same people. For the purpose of this article, “Syabas” refers to both Puncak Niaga and Syabas.) Not all the raw water that goes into a water treatment plant becomes potable water - that is, water deemed fit to run in our taps at home. The technical term for the amount of raw water that is wasted due to inefficiencies in the water treatment plant is called “non-revenue water” or NRW. 32pct of water produced by Syabas is wasted Syabas’ level of NRW is 32 percent. This means that a whopping one-third of the raw water that enters a Syabas water treatment plant goes entirely to waste. Syabas must be congratulated here, for succeeding in wasting more water than Dhaka, Bangladesh, where the NRW is only 29 percent. Eastern Manila managed to bring down its NRW from 63 percent in 1997 to 11 percent in 2010. More developed nations have even lower levels of NRW -Germany’s NRW is only seven percent, while the Netherlands and Denmark have achieved NRW levels of six percent. Perhaps this can be attributed to the fact that they are advanced, developed Western democracies? Oh, wait a minute, Singapore’s NRW is five percent. It looks like under Syabas’ brilliant management, we have managed to waste six times more water than our neighbour to the south whom we like so much to make fun of. Thank you, Syabas! There is also talk that Syabas is not given enough money to improve its services. However, the question is, would you give more money to a company that demonstrates zero ability to put that money to good use, and in fact wasted away all the money that has already been given to it? Quite simply put, all we need to do to ensure a sufficient water supply for the Klang Valley is to drastically reduce the amount of NRW. For that, we don’t need a RM8.65 billion water treatment plant, or to throw money at the problem - we just need cleaner, better managers. Is Syabas turning off the taps? It’s little wonder that Syabas has never had much incentive to improve its efficiency or quality of its service - for it does not have any competition. This simple fact has rendered many an industry in Malaysia completely defunct. Automobiles, airlines, telecommunications and power generation are all industries where cronies get rich, and Malaysians pay high prices for crap quality. A monopoly like Syabas is able to take this game one step further. When you have complete monopoly over the water industry, you don’t have to wait for an actual water crisis to justify an RM8.65 billion white elephant megaproject. Even in the midst of heavy rain every single day, all you need to do is turn off the taps, and voila - “water crisis”. I think we’ve all noticed the increased frequency of water cuts in the Klang Valley recently. A simple question remains: are the taps turned off because of a water shortage? Or because some people want you to think there’s a water shortage? Is this all to justify a RM8.65 billion water treatment plant that no one needs - a plant that might make a few lucky people extremely rich, while impoverishing the rest of the nation? Is Syabas threatening us? One of the ‘best’ quotes I have read throughout this saga comes from Syabas technical services executive director V Subramaniam, perhaps a minor pawn sent forth to spew such brilliant statements as: “The water crisis at present is the result of a shortfall in treated water for distribution caused by the refusal of the state government to issue the development order for construction of the Langat 2 treatment plant.” Does Syabas take us for dummies? According to this logic, if the Selangor government approves the construction of Langat 2 today (a project that will take years to complete), then the water crisis will disappear tomorrow. Sounds a little suspicious? Perhaps Subramaniam’s statement is technically correct, in that the state government’s refusal has indeed precipitated a ‘water shortage’ - except that he is silent on whether the said water shortage is natural - or manufactured by unscrupulous people to achieve even more unscrupulous ends. Who is politicising the water problem? There should be a law against this sort of thing. Oh, wait. There is this thing called the Water Services Industry Act (WSIA), which was passed by the BN-dominated Parliament in 2006. This law provided for the de-privatisation of the water industry and its return to the respective state governments, for privatisation had clearly proven to be a disastrous failure across the board. The water industries of BN-led (for now) Malacca and Johor were successfully deprivatised following the gazetting of the WSIA. But what happened to Selangor post-2008? Both sides like to accuse each other of ‘politicising’ the water problem, but when the facts show that the federal government allowed deprivatisation in BN-held states while preventing it in Selangor, the truth becomes clear to all. Let’s not forget that Syabas is run by Rozali Ismail, the ready-to-run-for-Parliament Selangor Umno treasurer who, despite creating a spectacular failure of Syabas and being accused of using millions of Syabas’ funds to buy pipes from his own company in Indonesia, is still paid a salary of RM425,000 a month as CEO. The Selangor state government has openly stated that it plans to slash the monthly salary for this post by 90 percent. While Syabas is dead set on exponential increases of up to 75 percent on water tariffs, Selangor has pledged to cap any tariff increases to 12 percent. So, who is looking out for the rakyat, and who is looking out for themselves? BN plundering before an inevitable defeat? Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim is the man most keen on the de-privatisation of the Selangor water industry and the takeover of Syabas by the state government. This is the man who increased the cash reserves of the Selangor government five-fold from RM400 million in 2008 to RM2.1 billion in 2012. Under Umno and Najib Abdul Razak, the federal debt - a debt our children and grandchildren will have to pay - has since the year 2007 nearly doubled to RM421 billion this year. Who do you think is better suited to run our water industry? Are we going to allow people who are bringing the nation to the edge of a real - not manufactured - economic crisis to bully us into footing the bill for a RM8.65 billion megaproject that nobody needs? Are these high jinks the latest attempt - along with FVG, George Kent and the innumerable new spending initiatives the prime minister has recently announced - to bleed the nation’s coffers completely dry for personal gain before finishing a full term in office in 2013? It seems the BN has serious fears of losing power, and is trying to take out as much as it can before having to face an angry electorate next year. If the BN was confident of a victory, surely the general election would have been held by now. In any case, the unscrupulous among us are welcome to play their games. Turning off the taps and replacing the flow of water with the flow of painfully illogical arguments is less likely to pressure the state government to forsake the interests of the rakyat, and more likely to point the finger back at those truly responsible for scaremongering and criminal mismanagement. NATHANIEL TAN works as a consultant to the Selangor state government. http://jtpotshots.blogspot.com/2012/07/selangor-folks-conned-by-false-water.html

CCTV Di Percayai Polis Memukul Pekerja Hotel Di Seremban

CCTV Di Percayai Polis Memukul Pekerja Hotel Di Seremban http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTvzHs1UyUs&feature=youtu.be Police inspector arrested after running amok By Maizatul Ranai Seremban: A 32-year-old police inspector was arrested after he ran amok at a two-star hotel here, injuring two hotel employees and damaging several cars in Seremban 2. In the 2.50am incident on Monday night, the officer was said to had gone to the hotel and booked a room before running amok hours later. It was learnt that he had attacked the hotel staff due to an argument. He allegedly dashed outside and vandalised several parked cars along the road. The two hotel employees were admitted to Tunku Jaafar hospital. One of the victims suffered injuries to the back of his ears while the other suffered minor injuries to his face. The two, however, had since returned home. The scene was captured by closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras installed at the hotel. It was learnt that the officer is attached to the Commercial Crime Division in Seremban district police headquarters. He was believed to had returned his own gun to the station early this month. Meanwhile, Seremban police chief Assistant Commission er Saiful Azly Kamaruddin, when contacted, denied a report by a newspaper saying that the officer was believed to be under the influence of drugs. He said urine tests revealed that the officer was neither under the influence of drugs or alcohol. "We are still probing the cause of the argument and if there was a weapon used during the incident," he said. Saiful said the officer was off-duty during the incident.

How Should We Inculcate The Reading Habit Among Malaysians?

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 How Should We Inculcate The Reading Habit Among Malaysians? Reading habit should start from young itself. There for parents should play a main role in convincing and telling their children on how important it is for a person to read no matter what type of reading material it is but it must be beneficial. Nowadays it is understood that parents are busy with their work, but they must make sure their children reads daily. Other than that, parents should bring their kids to the national library at least once a week and they have to read together with their kids, so that the kids will be encouraged to read. Parents also can set up a mini library at home with the materials available and suitable for reading. Parents also should advise their adult children to read newspaper on a daily basis and not only reading story book or novels. This is to make sure that they are aware about the current issues. For adults, it will takes time to change their habit when they realize reading is very important. Government also must carry out campaign regarding reading habits. There are some ways to inculcate the reading habit among Malaysians. Firstly, set times. You should have a few set times during everyday when you’ll read for at least 5-10 minutes. For example, you can read during your breakfast and lunch or in time when you’re free like when you go to bed or waiting for someone. You also have to set a reading goal. Your goal might be a book a month or one per week. Second, always carry a book. Wherever you go, you must take a book with you. For example, when you want to go to class or work. Before you waiting for someone like your lecture or friends, you can read the book that you caring. So, you don’t waste your time. It also a great way to pass the time. You also must make a list. Keep a list of all the books you read and the books that you want to read in future. You can keep the list in your journal, diary or pocket notebook. Then, you can add any title of good book that your hear, online or ask your friends and colleagues what they are reading. It will make easy for you to find the book when you go to library or book store. When you are reading, make it pleasurable and fine a quite place. Make your reading time your favorite time of day like have some good tea or coffee. Find a quite place that will your comfortable and be easy to understand what you read. A quite place will make you peace. If you fine yourself stressful while reading the book, don’t continue reading under pressure like that. Reading is for pleasure, so don’t push yourself too hard that you can quit reading forever, or even if you can read, the outcome won’t be so good either. If you find that you cannot complete the task in the first place, don’t give up. Remember, winners never quit. You just have to try again until you achieve it. http://superread3rs.blogspot.com/

9,700 foreigners jailed in Malaysia

Monday July 9, 2012 9,700 foreigners jailed in Malaysia KUALA LUMPUR: Some 9,757 foreigners are serving sentences in Malaysian prisons. Home Ministry secretary-general Datuk Abdul Rahim Mohd Radzi said they formed 27% of the 36,728 prisoners nationwide. “This figure is not alarming but I must admit that there are more foreign prisoners than locals in Sabah. “Of the total 1,300 prisoners in Sabah, 1,020 are foreigners,” he told reporters after closing the 1KDN Family Carnival at the Kajang Prison Complex yesterday. Rahim said that to alleviate overcrowding in prisons, prisoners would be relocated to other prisons to ensure that their numbers were balanced. “As for foreign prisoners, we don’t want the issue of overcrowding in prisons to burden the country and ministry,” he said. Some 3,600 of 4,100 prisoners under the parole system had completed their parole period and were released, he added. — Bernama http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/7/9/nation/11628276&sec=nation

CAP: Only the rich can afford Penang homes

Wednesday June 6, 2012 CAP: Only the rich can afford Penang homes

GEORGE TOWN: Many housing projects in Penang are beyond the reach of locals, said the Consumers Association of Penang (CAP). claimed that the upper class and foreigners were being set as a priority for development projects. “As foreigners and expatriates are able to afford homes at higher prices, this disrupts the market and raises land prices beyond what is affordable for locals,” Mohideen said yesterday. Citing the example of the Singapore Housing Development Board, he said Penang’s first priority should be creating good homes for Penangites. Raising his concer n: CAP education field officer N. V. Subbarao protesting against hillslope development projects in Penang. CAP research officer S. Mageswari said the safety of housing projects on hillslopes was not only questionable, but forest clearing was also rampant. “This not only causes erosion but also flash floods and pollution as sediment flows down to the rivers and seas,” she said, claiming that the threat to marine life was also causing an adverse effect on the traditional fishing villages in Permatang Damar Laut, Bayan Lepas, Gertak Sanggul and other places in the south of the island. However, the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association (Rehda) cautioned that property prices in the island would escalate if there was a ban on housing projects on hillslopes. Such a ban would result in a shortage of supply, said Rehda Penang chairman Datuk Jerry Chan. He was commenting on a call by two non-governmmental organisations to halt hillslope projects. On Monday, a group of CAP and Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) members staged a peaceful protest outside the construction site of a hillslope housing project in Bukit Gambier ahead of World Environment Day yesterday. Chan said it was not true that only foreign investors bought hillslope property as they comprised less than 3% of the buyers in Penang last year. “It is also not true that all hillslope property development projects are high-end schemes. “There are quite a number of affordable projects in Paya Terubong, Relau, Batu Maung and Tanjung Bunga,” he said. Penang Master Builders’ and Building Materials Dealers Association immediate past president Datuk Finn Choong said there were now a variety of new environmentally friendly technologies available to enable development on hillslopes to be carried out safely. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/6/6/nation/11426214&sec=nation

BAM appeals for shuttler to be the flag bearer at Olympics

BAM appeals for shuttler to be the flag bearer at Olympics Friday, 06 Jul 2012 THE Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) will make a final decision today on whether Lee Chong Wei will be Malaysia's flag bearer at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics on July 27. The BA of Malaysia (BAM) had sent an appeal letter to the OCM on Monday for Chong Wei to be considered as the nation's flag bearer due to his impressive credentials and the fact he would be making his final appearance in the Olympics. Last Friday, Malaysia's chef-de-mission Tan Sri Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid announced that diver Pandelela Rinong was chosen as the nation's flagbearer in the presence of National Sports Council (NSC) director general Datuk Seri Zolkples Embong during a visit to the national shuttlers' training at Juara Stadium. However, the matter is far from settled with OCM secretary Datuk Sieh Kok Chi reiterating that Chong Wei and Pandelela were the candidates in contention, and the final selection will be done today. OCM president Tunku Imran Tuanku Ja'afar will make the announcement after chairing the executive board meeting. "Chong Wei and Pandelela are the candidates in contention and we have until noon tomorrow (today) to finalise the selection. The flag bearer will be announced by Tunku Imran, said Kok Chi. "OCM has the right to make the final selection but we are also in partership with NSC. Zolkples has clarified that Pandelela was only mentioned as a candidate last week but it was misconstrued as the final decision." The fact that OCM is reconsidering, though Pandelela, was the initial choice, is a clear indication that Chong Wei is strongly tipped to be named as the flag bearer today. BAM general manager Kenny Goh said the association felt that Chong Wei deserves the honour of becoming the flagbearer based on his track record compared to any other Malaysian athletes competing in the London Games. "BAM sent in an appeal to OCM on Monday to reconsider the selection as the nation's flag bearer as Chong Wei deserves it. His achievements speak for itself and this will be his final appearance in the Olympics," said Kenny. "BAM is hopeful that the request will be considered by OCM." Kenny added that Chong Wei has given an assurance to BAM that he, regardless of the OCM's decision today, will attend the opening ceremony on July 27. The men's singles begins at Wembley Stadium on July 28 but Chong Wei, as the top seed, will open his campaign in the group stage only a day later. Courtesy of New Straits Times http://www.bam.org.my/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3317:bam-appeals-for-shuttler-to-be-the-flag-bearer-at-olympics&catid=46:latest-news&Itemid=181

Ways Of Opening A Durian

Know your Malaysian Durians.......



How to Choose a Good Durian / 6 Steps to Choosing A Good Durian
First of all, what is a good durian? For us, a good durian is one that is ripe, fresh and free from larvae/worms. However, a durian with worm doesn't mean it is not good because it can still be delicious.

So how do you know if a durian is good or fresh? Here are some steps you can try when looking for a good durian:
1.        Look at the tip, if it is too dry means it is no longer fresh. A little dry is okay.
2.        Look at the bottom, if it is crack it may be over-ripe or not so fresh. But it still can be delicious.
3.        Smell the durian, if there is a strong smell, it is most likely good. If there is no smell, it is probably not ripe.
4.        Use your fingernails to scratch the durian, if it sounds hollow it is likely to be a good one.
5.        Put the durian close to your ear, shake it and listen carefully, if there is a 'moving' sound, it is likely to be good.
6.        Look for holes around the durian, if there is tiny hole somewhere, there is likely to be a worm (larva of an insect) that has burrow into it.
7.        Yes, there is actually a 7th step, but it's not going to be useful. If you have the chance to open the durian, open it and taste it.
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Ways Of Opening A Durian
There are few ways to open the durian. Some might find opening a durian just too difficult, so I'll list other methods in case you want to try another way.
1.        Use a short knife, one that is slightly bigger than the standard swiss army knife- most durian farmers use this.
2.        Use a big knife, the one for chopping meat - ladies love to use this.
3.        Use bare hands - works well for some over-ripe durians.
4.        Use a special durian opener, which is made of wood. Not exactly sure where you can find this tool.
5.        Use a chainsaw - works very well, but not encouraged. If you're gonna open one this way, shoot a video and send it to me afterwards, yeah? Thanks.