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former Tanah Merah Estate workers to get land and house

September 13th, 2011
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After waiting for 20 over years, hopefully their dream will come true. If we can provide so much for the proposed refugees from Australia, surely we can do at least equally or better for our own citizens.

 

For the 150 former Tanah Merah Estate workers and their families, news that the state government is to acquire land to build houses promised to them two decades ago is definitely a cause for celebration.

Many of the former workers, who are now renting houses in low-cost schemes outside the estate, had almost given up hope that the pledge made to them years ago would be honoured.

M. Mariamah, 72, a rubber tapper, is looking forward to moving into one of the houses the state plans to build on the 6ha site in Tanah Merah near here.

“After years of waiting and hoping, the homes promised to us will finally be built.

“Many of us were born there and it is where we raised our children, too … but once we retired, there was no choice but to leave the estate,” she said at her son’s house in Taman Jimah Jaya.

MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan gave him the good news during a meeting at the MB’s office in Wisma Negeri in Seremban last week.

Dr Chua said the pledge to help the estate workers own houses had been made by a former Barisan Nasional representative, but could not be fulfilled due to several factors.

It was learnt that the state government would spend some RM2.7mil to acquire the land from Sime Darby.

R. Govindasamy, 55, said he was glad the long wait was over.

“Almost 80% of the residents of the low-cost houses in Taman Jimah Jaya were former Tanah Merah Estate workers.

“Many of us could not afford to buy our own homes and had no choice but to rent low-cost houses nearby,” he said.

G. Malliga, 52, who was a general worker at the estate, said she had been renting a three-bedroom low-cost home for RM200 a month since leaving her job due to health problems.

Port Dickson local council member Datuk King C.F. Lim, who met with some of the former estate workers and their families yesterday to share the good news, said he was grateful to Dr Chua and Mohamad for making good on the promise.

source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/9/13/nation/9463330&sec=nation

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SJKT Effingham land issue crops up again

September 9th, 2011
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This issue was first raised in September 2008, and 3 years down the lane, it pops up. Interestingly, this time its being raised by a member from the offending party itself.

From what I understand, the land taken by MIC has been developed as a commercial plot, so I’m not sure how this will turnout. Maybe like the Bakun dam case – “the land under question is already under water, so how to return it back” answer given by the court. Delay long enough and your case becomes invalid.

Anyway, this guy says got “solid proof” but didn’t show it. Hope the proof can stay “solid” after this.

 

A local MIC leader today asked the party to return a piece of land that he said was originally alienated for a Tamil school.

V Thiagarajan, who heads the Taman Mujur MIC branch, said party president G Palanivel should “do the right thing” by ensuring that the Effingham Tamil School get back the three acres of prime land.

The school is located in Bandar Utama, Damansara. The accusation about the land grab first surfaced in 2009, with former students and residents of the area claiming that the developer of Bandar Utama had set aside six acres for the school in 1999.

They said the late K Sivalingam, an MIC leader and an executive councillor in the then BN-led state government, decided that only three acres should be given to the school and the rest to the party.

There was also an allegation of mismanagement of RM300,000 in developer contributions to the school. MIC was accused of trying to channel the money to its Maju Institute of Education Development (MIED) although the developer disagreed.

MIC has claimed that there was an error in the description of the proprietor in the land title and that the party is the rightful owner of the three acres.

Currently, the school has 600 pupils, but the number is expected to increase steadily.

Thiagarajan told FMT he had “solid evidence” that all six acres belonged to the school.

“I plead with Palanivel to use his veto power to give back the land to the school,” he said.

“I have all the evidence to show clearly that the land MIC claims as its own should be part of school.”

source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/09/08/give-back-school%E2%80%99s-land-mic-told/

 

 

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Malaysia ranked 21 in WEF’s Global Competitiveness Report 2011-2012

September 7th, 2011
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Malaysia has improved on its ranking from 26 (out of 139 countries) in the 2010-2011 report to 21 (out of 142 countries) in the latest report. We did very well in financial market development (3rd in the world).  This is a definite boost to the current government as many areas has seen improvement compared to last year’s report and in fact the ranking has improved from the last 3 years. Not sure how the recent economic downturn will affect next year’s rankings.

Summary provided by WEF:

Malaysia gains five ranks to reach 21st position, registering improvements across the board. The country’s progress is particularly noteworthy in the institutions and macroeconomic environment pillars, as well as in several measures of market efficiency. Among the prominent advantages of this strong and consistent performance are its efficient and sound financial sector— which places among the world’s most developed, just behind Singapore and Hong Kong—and its highly efficient goods market, ranked 15th. In addition, its macroeconomic situation has improved markedly over the past year to reach 29th place, even though the country continues to run a budget deficit of about 5 percent of GDP. As it moves toward becoming more innovation driven, Malaysia will need to improve its performance in education and technological readiness. In the latter dimension, the country places a low 44th, with room for improvement in technological adoption by both businesses and the population at large. In terms of higher education and training (38th), improving access remains a priority in light of low enrollment rates of 69 percent (101st) and 36 percent (66th) for secondary and tertiary education, respectively.

 

refer 2010-2011 report here (Malaysia’s stats is on page 228-229):

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GlobalCompetitivenessReport_2010-11.pdf

refer 2011-2012 report here  (Malaysia’s stats is on page 248-249):

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GCR_Report_2011-12.pdf

You can also view the report in interactive HTML format here:

http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-2011-2012/

 

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Kedah Exco says have helped Malaysian Indian community

September 6th, 2011
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Same excuse: “cleaning up the mess of 50 years can’t be done in 3 years”. I think some of the mess can be cleared in short time, provided got willpower. It will be good for the state government to come out with its report card to show what difference has been made. Mere RM229k for 58 school is nothing to shout about as it works out to barely RM4k per school. No difference from RMK plans which allocate pittance to Tamil schools. You can say that this is something new and previous government hadn’t gave anything but “giving something is better than nothing” won’t work anymore because the other party can give something more than the “something” you are giving.  You have to move fast and come out with better plans and execution.

Wonder what is the status of the land allocation for schools. Last 3 years, don’t tell me can’t even get land for any of the 49 partially-aided schools? Hope can enlighten us on this matter.

Noticed it covers the standard stuff: school, temple, cemetery, NGOs.

A Pakatan Rakyat state assemblyman has dismissed allegations by certain quarters, including a few Indian-based NGOs, that the Kedah state government had not done much for the Indians there.

According to Bukit Selambau assemblyman S Manikumar, the state government had done its best to help the community bearing in mind its ‘limited resources’

“It’s unfair to expect Pakatan to clean up all the mess left by the Barisan Nasional in more than 50 years within three years.

“But we are trying our best to help the Indian community in the state with the limited state resources (that we have).

“We are not getting the amount of allocation that other BN ruled states get from the federal government,” said Manikumar who also heads the state’s tourism, Indians affairs and human resources portfolio.

Citing Tamil schools and temples as examples, he said the Pakatan-led state government had done far more for the state’s Indian community than MIC.

“Talking on Tamil schools, there are 58 Tamil schools in Kedah and only nine are under the fully-aided category (which means they receive full financial grants from the federal government).

“The rest 49 Tamil schools are partially-aided schools where the money given by the Education Ministry is only for the purposes of school activities and not for the upgrading of the school infrastructures.

“This year the state government allocated RM229, 000 to be disbursed to all of the 58 Tamil schools.

“The amount each school received varied depending on the needs of the particular schools,” he said.

Tamil schools and NGOs

Manikumar claimed that such disbursements to all Tamil schools had never occured during BN’s rule in the state.

According to him, in the past money came only during election campaigns when MIC will request ad-hoc allocations for certain Tamil schools and that there was no proper structure to the disbursements.

“But under Pakatan government, the allocation for Tamil schools are included officially under the state yearly budget,” he said.

He also slammed Indian-based NGOs who complained of receiving nothing from the state government.

He said unlike the BN regime which cared less for proper allocation strucure, the Pakatan state government insisted on paperworks and proper documentations.

“We had given RM7, 000 last year and RM20, 000 this year to Kedah branch of Malaysia Hindu Sangam (MHS) to carry out activities that are related to the community. The activities were to weed out social ills among Indians.

“We can’t entertain every single NGO that come without proper paperworks or documentations to back their claims.

“I proposed to the state government to approve the request by MHS based on the documentation evidence of their programmes and activities.

“MHS itself is an established NGO and was founded in 1928,” explained Manikumar, who is also the PKR’s central leadership council member.

Temple and cemetry

He also pointed out that the Kedah state government had granted a land title to the 100-year-old Sri Mahamariamman Temple at Jalan Bakar Bata in Alor Setar.

“The temple was granted a land title last year and the temple land has been gazetted under National Land Code.

“Also this year the state government approved and allocated five acres of land for a cemetry for the Hindu community in Langkawi.

“During BN’s ruling for more than 50 years MIC never took the initiative to get the land title for the temple or a Hindu cemetery in Langkawi.

“But we have done it in less than three years,” Manikumar told FMT.

source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/09/06/weve-done-more-than-mic-and-bn/

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estate folks get clean water 100 years later

September 5th, 2011
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I’m at loss at what’s to be proud here. Maybe the state exco can highlight it. 100 years (ok, make it 54 years, since before Merdeka it was under colonial rule), last raised in February, settled in September. One wonders what all the previous excos and authorities were doing all this while.  Should have hauled up the estate owner, slap a hefty fine or even jailed some of them. Oh wait, does our law protect such citizens?

Families in an estate here waited a century for clean water supply. And now their dream has come true.

Previously, residents of the Leong Hin San estate had to depend on a small well and an unhygienic pond for water.

However, state exco VS Mogan, who oversees the estate affairs, human resources and environment portfolio, negotiated with Syarikat Air Negeri Sembilan (SAINS) to connect water supply for the residents’ houses.

“The residents received the water supply about a month ago and the cost of the installation for the houses was around RM120,000,” he said.

According to Mogan, this was another example of how MIC and the Barisan Nasional government were concerned about the welfare of estate workers.

“If there are any other residents in the estate who still do not have water supply, please come forward in order for us to help you,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mogan also directed the estate management to carry out maintenance work on the workers’ houses as well as to ensure hygienic living conditions.

FMT highlighted the plight of the estate workers in February.

The estate’s union leader S Murugan told FMT then that residents found snake skin, dead frogs and goats in the pond from which they collected water.

The union had raised the issue with the estate management for years, but the problem was not fixed.

source: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/09/05/100-year-wait-for-water-supply-over/

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